ABSTRACT
The story of the Lorelei has long been a source of fascination. From a gender studies perspective, on first encountering the tale of a supernatural creature who lures sailors on the River Rhine towards the imposing Lurley Rock and ultimately to their deaths, several features strike us particularly: the woman’s isolation, the song she sings (thus the voice she expresses), and her enormous power over the forces of nature. The legend evolved from centuries-old myths of voices howling from the famous rock on the eastern bank of the Rhine that marks the narrowest part of the river between Switzerland and the North Sea. A nearby waterfall and the impressive echo made by the large cliff rock created a mysterious murmur that inspired a variety of stories over the centuries. It was at the turn of the nineteenth century that the tale of a beautiful woman with supernatural powers was woven into this scene. In his novel Godwi oder Das steinerne Bild der Mutter, Clemens Brentano (1778–1842) included a ballad about Lore Lay, a woman whose beauty is her undoing. 1 In this version the bishop recommends that Lore Lay seek refuge and redemption in a convent. On the way Lore Lay climbs the high cliff for a final look out at the Rhine, and on seeing a sailor whom she identifies as her beloved she flings herself off the rock and into the river to her demise. Brentano drew on ancient mythology to construct a tale that soon took on folklore status in the Rhineland; in doing so he inspired a whole series of poems modelled after his ballad, featuring the newly introduced Lorelei character. One of the most famous of these is by Heinrich Heine, published in his Buch der Lieder of 1827.
