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ArchivesRe: History of Lorelei?
in reply to a message by Chrisell
The rock was known, before Heinrich Heine, for the "echo" the wind made as it passed the rock - it was where he took his inspiration from. So it makes sense that he used the name of the rock for the woman in his story, especially considering the time he lived in - 1797-1856. Certainly the rock would have been named before then?
On a side note, it is also possible that the name means "wind rock", as lorren/lurren refers to the sound wind makes. This doesn't seem as likely, though.
On a side note, it is also possible that the name means "wind rock", as lorren/lurren refers to the sound wind makes. This doesn't seem as likely, though.
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Here is some info on the Loreley / Lorelei:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loreley
Obviously it wasn't Heine, but rather Clemens Brentano who made a woman out of the rock. The legend of the Loreley is much older though.
For the "lore" part I also found the meaning "elf", but I cannot confirm this. (LORELEY in Der Große Brockhaus, 1935, says: "from Middle High German lur = elf". I don't have a dictionary of MHG and it's not in Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch, so I don't really know
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loreley
Obviously it wasn't Heine, but rather Clemens Brentano who made a woman out of the rock. The legend of the Loreley is much older though.
For the "lore" part I also found the meaning "elf", but I cannot confirm this. (LORELEY in Der Große Brockhaus, 1935, says: "from Middle High German lur = elf". I don't have a dictionary of MHG and it's not in Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch, so I don't really know
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Ok, that makes more sense - I was under the impression that the Lorelei legend predated Heine, but if it doesn't then certainly the rock might have been named earlier. This isn't my field of expertise, after all :-D
♦ Chrisell ♦
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
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The tale of the Lorelei does predate Heine by at least a bit, since the first sure reference is in the work of the early 19th-century German poet Clemens Brentano. Experts seem to disagree on whether Brentano completely invented his story or whether he based it on a medieval tale.
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Thanks for clearing that up, Cleveland. Heine is the one I'm most familiar with, and the one who showed up most in my research, so I overlooked Clemens Brentano. :)
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