Book: Graf von Loeben and the Legend of Lorelei
A >>
Allen Wilson Porterfield >> Graf von Loeben and the Legend of Lorelei
And therefore, though it is fashionable to say that Heine knew
Loeben's ballad in 1823, and though the contention is plausible, it is
impossible to prove it. Impossible also for this reason: Karl Simrock,
Heine's intimate friend, included in his _Rheinsagen_ (1836, 1837,
1841)[60] the ballads on the Lorelei by Brentano, Eichendorff, Heine,
and himself. Why did he exclude the one by Loeben? He made an ardent
appeal in his preface to his colleagues to inform him of any other
ballads that had been written on these themes. The question must be
referred to those who like to skate on flabby ice in things literary.
The most plausible theory in regard to the source of Heine's ballad is
the one proposed by Oscar F. Walzel, who says: "Heine hat den Stoff
wahrscheinlich aus dem ihm wohlbekannten _Handbuch fUer Reisende am
Rhein_ von Aloys Schreiber Uebernommen."[61] The only proof that Walzel
gives that Heine knew Schreiber's manual is a reference[62] to it in
_Lutetia_. But this was written in 1843, and proves nothing as to
1823. His contention, however, that Heine borrowed from Schreiber[63]
has everything in its favor, from the point of view of both external
and internal evidence and deserves, therefore, detailed elaboration.
As to internal evidence, there is only one slight difference between
Heine's ballad and Schreiber's saga: where Heine's Lorelei combs her
hair with a golden comb and has golden jewelry, Schreiber's "bindet
einen Kranz fUer ihre goldenen Locken" and "hat eine Schnur von
Bernstein in der Hand." Even here the color scheme is the same;
otherwise there is no difference: time, place, and events are
precisely the same in both. The mood and style are especially similar.
The only words in Heine not found in Schreiber are "Kamm" and
"bedeuten." Schreiber goes, to be sure, farther than does Heine: he
continues the story after the death of the hero.[64] This, however, is
of no significance, for Heine was simply interested in his favorite
theme of unrequited or hindered love.
Now Heine must have derived his plot from somewhere, else this would
be an uncanny case of coincidence. And the two expressions, "Aus alten
Zeiten," and "Mit ihrem Singen," the latter of which is so important,
Heine could have derived only from Schreiber. Heine was not jesting
when he said it was a fairy tale from the days of old; he was
following, it seems, Schreiber's saga, the first sentence of which
reads as follows: "In alten Zeiten liess sich manchmal auf dem Lureloy
um die AbenddAemmerung und beym Mondschein eine Jungfrau sehen, die mit
so anmuthiger Stimme sang, dass alle, die es hOerten, davon bezaubert
wurden." But Brentano's Lorelei does not sing at all, and Loeben's
just a little, "Sie singt dir hold zum Ohre," while Heine, like
Schreiber, puts his heroine in the prima donna class, and has her work
her charms through her singing. And it seems that Heine was following
Schreiber when the latter wrote as follows: "Viele, die
vorUeberschifften, gingen am Felsenriff oder im Strudel zu Grunde, weil
sie nicht mehr auf den Lauf des Fahrzeugs achteten, sondern von den
himmlischen TOenen der wunderbaren Jungfrau gleichsam vom Leben
abgelOest wurden, wie das zarte Leben der Blume sich im sUessen Duft
verhaucht."
And as to her personal appearance, Brentano and Loeben simply tell us
that she was beautiful, Brentano employing the Homeric method of
proving her beauty by its effects. Heine and Schreiber not only
comment upon her physical beauty, they also tell us how she enhanced
her natural charms by zealously attending to her hair and her jewelry
and religiously guarding the color scheme in so doing. In brief, the
similarity is so striking that, if we can prove that Heine knew
Schreiber in 1823, we can definitely assert that Schreiber[65] was his
main, if not his unique, source.
Let us take up the various arguments in favor of the contention that
Heine knew Schreiber's Handbuch in 1823, beginning with the least
convincing. If Heine read Loeben's ballad and saga in "_Urania_ fUer
1821," he could thereby have learned also of Schreiber's _Rheinsagen_,
for, by a peculiar coincidence for our purpose, Brockhaus
discusses[66] these in the introduction in connection with a tragedy
by W. Usener, entitled Die BrUeder, and based upon one of Schreiber's
_Sagen_. Proof, then, that Heine knew Loeben in 1823 is almost proof
that he also knew Schreiber.
But there is better proof than this. In Elementargeister[67], we find
this sentence: "Ganz genau habe ich die Geschichte nicht im Kopfe;
wenn ich nicht irre, wird sie in Schreibers _Rheinischen Sagen_ aufs
umstAendlichste erzAehlt. Es ist die Sage vom Wisperthal, welches unweit
Lorch am Rheine gelegen ist." And then Heine tells the same story that
is told by Schreiber. It is the eighth of the seventeen _Sagen_ in
question. This, then, is proof that Heine knew Schreiber so long
before 1835 that he was no longer sure he could depend upon his
memory. But it is impossible to say whether Heine's memory was good
for twelve years, or more, or less.
But there is better evidence than this. Heine's _Der Rabbi von
Bacharach_ reaches far back into his life. That he intended to write
this sort of work before 1823 has been proved;[68] just when he
actually began to write this particular work is not so clear, but we
know that he did much preliminary reading by way of preparing himself
for its composition. And the region around and above and below
Bacharach comes in for detailed discussion and elaborate description
in Schreiber's _Rheinsagen_. The crusades, the _Sankt-Wernerskirchen_,
Lorch, the _Fischfang_, Hatto's _MAeuseturm_, the maelstrom at Bingen,
the _Kedrich_, the story of the _Kecker Reuter_ who liberated the maid
that had been abducted by dwarfs, and again, and this is irrefutable,
the story "von dem wunderlicheft Wisperthale drUeben, wo die VOegel ganz
vernUenftig sprechen," all of these and others play a large role in
Schreiber's sagas and in Heine's _Rabbi_. No one can read Schreiber's
_Handbuch_ and Heine's _Rabbi_ without being convinced that the former
stood sponsor for the latter.
And lastly, Heine wrote before 1821 his poem entitled "Die zwei
BrUeder."[69] It is the tenth of the seventeen _Volkssagen_ by
Schreiber, the same theme as the one treated by W. Usener already
referrred to. It is an old story,[70] and Heine could have derived his
material from a number of places, but not from Grimm's _Deutsche_
_Sagen_, indeed from no place so convenient as Schreiber. Heine knew
Schreiber's _Handbuch_[71] in 1823.
The situation, then, is as follows: Heine had to have a source or
sources, There are three candidates for Heine honors; Brentano,
Loeben, Schreiber. Brentano has a number of supporters, though the
evidence, external and internal, is wholly lacking. It would seem that
lack of attention to chronology has misled investigators. Brentano's
ballad can now be read in many places, but between about 1815 and 1823
it was safely concealed in the pages of an unread and unknown novel.
Loeben[72] has many supporters, though the external evidence, except
for the fact that Heine corresponded with Brockhaus, is wholly
lacking, and the internal weakens on careful study. It would seem that
the striking similarity in form has misled investigators. Schreiber
has only one supporter, despite the fact that the evidence, external
and internal, is as strong as it can be without Heine's ever having
made some such remark as the following: "Yes, in 1823 I knew _only_
Schreiber's saga and borrowed from it." But Heine never made any such
statement. It would seem that the strong assertions of so many
investigators in favor of Brentano and Loeben have made careful study
of the matter appear not worth while; the problem was apparently
solved. And since Heine never committed himself in this connection,
the matter will, in all probability, remain forever conjectural. This
much, however, is irrefutable: even if Heine knew in 1823 the five
_Loreleidichtungen_, that had then been written, those by Brentano,
Niklas Vogt, Eichendorff, Schreiber, and Loeben, and if he borrowed
what he needed from all of them, he borrowed more from Schreiber[73]
than from the other four combined.[74]
III
Whore Brentano sowed, many have reaped. Since the publication of his
_Godwi_, about sixty-five _Loreleidichtungen_[75] have been written in
German, the most important being those by Brentano (1810-16), Niklas
Vogt[76] (1811), Eichendorff (_ca._ 1812), Loeben (1821), Heine
(1823), Simrock (1837, 1840), Otto Ludwig (1838), Geibel (1834, 1846),
W. MUeller von KOenigswinter (1851), Carmen Sylva, (_ca._ 1885), A.
L'Arronge (1886), Julius Wolff (1886), and Otto Roquette (1889). In
addition[77] to these, the story has been retold[78] many times, with
slight alterations of the "original" versions, by compilers of
chrestomathies, and parodies have been written on it. There is hardly
a conceivable interpretation that has not been placed upon the
legend.[79] The Lorelei has been made by some the evil spirit that
entices men into hazardous games of chance, by others, she is the
lofty incarnation of a desire to live and be blessed with the love
that knows no turning away. The story has also wandered to Italy,
France, England, Scotland, Scandinavia, and the United States,[80] and
the heroine has proved a grateful theme for painters and sculptors. Of
the epic works, that by Julius Wolff is of interest because of the
popularity it has enjoyed. First published in 1886, it had reached the
forty-sixth thousand in 1898. Of the dramas that by L'Arronge should
be valuable, but it has apparently never been published; nor has Otto
Ludwig's operatic fragment,[81] unless recently. Aside from Geibel,
Otto Roquette is the most interesting librettist. Of the forty-odd
(there were forty-two in 1898) composers of Heine's ballad, the
greatest are Schumann, Raff, and Liszt, and in this case Friedrich
Sucher,[82] who married the ballad to its now undivorceable melody.
Though Brentano created[83] the story of his ballad, he located it in
a region rich in legendary material, and it was the echo-motif of
which he made especial use, and traces of this can be found in German
literature as early as the thirteenth century.[84] The first real poet
to borrow from Brentano was Eichendorff,[85] in whose _Ahnung und
Gegenwart_ we have the poem since published separately under the title
of "WaldgesprAech," and familiar to many through Schumann's
composition.[86] That Eichendorff's Lorelei operates the forest is
only to be expected of the author of so many _Waldlieder_. Even if
Heine had known it he could have borrowed nothing from it except the
name of his heroine.[87]
As to Loeben's saga, there can be but little doubt that he derived his
initial inspiration from Schreiber, with whom he became intimately
acquainted[88] at Heidelberg during the winter of 1807-8. This, of
course, is not to say that Heine borrowed from Loeben. Indeed, one of
the strongest proofs that Heine borrowed from Schreiber rather than
from Loeben is the clarity and brevity, ease and poetry of Schreiber's
saga as over against the obscurity and diffuseness, clumsiness and
woodenness of Loeben's saga,[89] the plot of which, so far as the
action is concerned, is as follows: Hugbert von Stahleck, the son of
the Palsgrave, falls in love with the Lorelei and rows out in the
night to her seat by the Rhine. In landing, he falls into the stream,
the Lorelei dives after him and brings him to the surface. The old
Palsgrave has, in the meanwhile, sent a knight and two servants to
capture the Lorelei. They climb the lofty rock and hang a stone around
the enchantress' neck, when she voluntarily leaps from the cliff into
the Rhine below and is drowned.
The one episode in Loeben not found in any of Schreiber's _Rheinsagen_
is the story of the castaway ring miraculously restored from the
stomach of the fish. This Loeben could have taken from "Magelone" by
Tieck, or "Polykrates" by Schiller, both of whom he revered as men and
with whose works he was thoroughly familiar. But there is nothing in
Loeben that Heine could not have derived in more inspiring form from
Schreiber; and Schreiber contains essentials not in Loeben at all.
Indeed, a general study of Schreiber's manuals leads one to believe
that the influence of them, as a whole, on Heine would be a most
grateful theme: there is not one Germanic legend referred to in Heine
that is not contained in Schreiber. And as a prose writer, Heine's
fame rests largely on his travel pictures.[90]
The points of similarity between Loeben's ballad and saga and the
ballads and MAerchen of Brentano, all of which Loeben knew in 1821, are
wholly negligible. It remains,[91] therefore, simply to point out some
of the peculiarities of Brentano's "Loreley" as protrayed in the
_RheinmAerchen_--peculiarities that are interesting in themselves and
that may have played a part in the development of the legend since
1846.
In "Das MAerchen von dem Rhein und dem MUeller Radlauf,"[92] Loreley is
portrayed in a sevenfold capacity, as it were: seven archways lead to
seven doors that open onto seven stairways that lead to a large hall
in which Frau Lureley sits on a sevenfold throne with seven crowns
upon her head and her seven daughters around her. This makes
interesting reading for children, but Brentano did not lose sight of
adults, including those who like to speculate as to the origin of the
legend. He says: "Sie [Lorelei] ist eine Tochter der Phantasie,
welches eine berUehmte Eigenschaft ist, die bei Erschaffung der Welt
mitarbeitete und das Allerbeste dabei that; als sie unter der Arbeit
ein schOenes Lied sang, hOerte sie es immer wiederholen und fand endlich
den Wiederhall, einen schOenen JUengling in einem Felsen sitzen, mit dem
sie sich verheiratete und mit ihm die Frau Lureley erzeugte; sie
hatten auch noch viele andere Kinder, zum Beispiel: die Echo, den
Akkord, den Reim, deren Nachkommen sich noch auf der Welt
herumtreiben."
Just as Frau Lureley closes the first _MAerchen_, so does she begin the
second: "Von dem Hause Staarenberg und den Ahnen des MUellers
Radlauf."[93] Here she creates, or motivates, the other characters.
Her seven daughters appear with her, as follows: Herzeleid,
Liebesleid, Liebeseid, Liebesneid, Liebesfreud, Reu und Leid, and
Mildigkeit. She reappears then with her seven daughters at the close
of the _MAerchen_, and each sings a beautiful song, while Frau Lureley,
the mother of Radlauf, proves to be a most beneficent creature.
Imaginative as Brentano was, he rarely rose to such heights as in this
and the next, "MAerchen vom Murmelthier,"[94] in which Frau Lureley
continues her great work of love and kindness. She rights all wrongs,
rewards the just, corrects the unjust, and leads a most remarkable
life whether among the poor on land or in her element in the water.
All of which is poles removed from Loeben's saga, though he knew these
_MAerchen_,[95] for they were written when Brentano was his intimate
friend.
As to the importance of Loeben's saga, Wilhelm Hertz says: "Fast alle
jUengeren Dichter knUepfen an seinen Erfindungen an, so besonders die
zahlreichen musikdramatischen Bearbeitungen."[96] It is extremely
doubtful that this statement is correct. It is plain that many of the
lyric writers leaned on Schreiber, and the librettists could have done
the same; or they could have derived their initial suggestion in more
attractive form than that offered by Loeben. It seems, however, that
Geibel[97] knew Loeben's saga. Though his individual poems on the
Lorelei betray the influence of Heine, and though his drama resembles
Brentano's ballad in mood and in unimportant details, it contains the
same proper names of persons and places that are found in Loeben. And
what is more significant, it contains two important events that are
not found in any of the other versions of the saga: the scene with the
wine-growers and the story of the castaway ring. The latter is an old
theme, but that they both occur in Loeben and in Geibel would argue
that the latter took them from the former. It is largely a question as
to whether a poet like Geibel has to have a source for everything that
is not absolutely abstract. The entire matter is complicated.[98] The
paths of the Lorelei have crossed each other many times since Brentano
started her on her wanderings. To draw up a map of her complete
course, showing just who influenced whom, would be a task more
difficult than grateful.[99]
As to Brentano's original ballad,[100] try as we may to depreciate the
value of his creation by tracing it back to echo-poetry and by
coupling it with older legends, such as that of Frau Holla, we are
forced to give him credit for having not simply revived but for having
created a legend that is beautiful in itself and that has found a host
of imitators, direct and indirect, the world over, including one of
the world's greatest lyric writers. This then is just one of the many
things that the German romanticists started; it is just one of their
many contributions to the literature that lasts. And for the
perpetuation of this one, students of German literature have, it
seems, given the obscure Graf von Loeben entirely too much credit. But
who will give the oft-scolded Clemens Brentano too little credit? Only
those who dislike romanticism on general principles and who will not
be convinced that the romanticists could be original.[101]
ALLEN WILSON PORTERFIELD
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK CITY
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Ferdinand August Otto Heinrich Graf von Loeben, the scion of an
old, aristocratic, Protestant family, was born at Dresden, August
18, 1786. He received his first instruction from private
tutors. For three years from 1804 on, he unsuccessfully, because
unwillingly, studied law at the University of Wittenberg. In 1807
he entered, to his profound delight, the University of Heidelberg,
where, in association with Arnim, Brentano, and GOerres, he
satisfied his longing for literature and art. Beginning with 1808
he lived alternately at Wien, Dresden, and Berlin and with Fouque
at Nennhausen. He took an active part in the campaign of 1813-14,
marched to Paris, and returned after his company had been
disbanded, to Dresden, where, in 1817, he married Johanna Victoria
Gottliebe _geb._ von Bressler and established there his
permanent abode. In 1822 he suffered a stroke of apoplexy from
which he never recovered: even the magnetic treatment given him by
Justinus Kerner proved of no avail. He died at Dresden, April 3,
1825. See _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_, XIX, 40-45. The
article is by Professor Muncker. Wilhelm MUeller also wrote an
article full of lavish praise of Loeben in _Neuer Nekrolog der
Deutschen_, III, Jahrg. 1824, Ilmenau, 1827.
[2] Meyer (6th ed.) does not mention Loeben even in the articles on
Fouque and Malsburg, two of Loeben's best friends; Brockhaus
(Jubilee ed.) mentions him as one of Eichendorff's friends in the
article on Eichendorff, but neither has an independent note on
Loeben. Nor is he mentioned in such compendious works on the
nineteenth century as those by Gottschall, R.M. Meyer
(_Grundriss_ and _Geschichte_), and Fr. Kummer. Biese
says (_Deutsche Literaturgeschichte_, II. 436) of him: "Auch
ein so ausgesprochenes Talent, wie es Graf von Loeben war, entging
nicht der Gefahr, die Romantik in ihre Karikatur zu verzerren."
[3] Cf. _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_, XIX, 42.
[4] Partial lists of his works are given in: Goedeke,
_Grundriss_, VI, 108-10 (2nd ed.): _Allgemeine deutsche
Biographie_, XIX. 40-45; the sole monograph on Loeben by
Raimund Pissin. _Otto Heinrich Graf von Loeben, sein Leben und
seine Werke_, Berlin, 1905, 326 pages. By piecing these lists
together--for they vary--it seems that Loeben wrote, aside from
the works mentioned above, the following: 1 conventional drama, 1
musical-romantic drama, 2 narrative poems, one of which is on
Ferdusi, 3 collections of poems, between 30 and 40 novelettes,
fairy tales and so on. and_ "einige tausend" aphorisms and
detached thoughts. It is in Pissin's monograph that Loeben's
position in the Heidelberg circle of 1807-8 is worked out. as
follows: Loeben and Eichendorff constituted one branch, Arnim and
Brentano the other, GOerres stood loosely between the two, and the
others sided now with one group, now with the other.
[5] The verses are from _GestAendnisse_, No. 125 in Pissin's
collection of Loeben's poems.
[6] _GestAendnisse_. No. 125.
[7] Aside from the reviews, letters, and individual poems reprinted
here and there, the following works were accessible to the writer:
(1) _Das weisse Ross, eine altdeutsche Familienchronik; (2) Die
Sonnenkinder, eine ErzAehlung; (3) Die Perle und die Maiblume, eine
Novelle; (4) Cephalus und Procris, ein Drama; (5) Ferdusi; (6)
Persiens Ritter, eine ErzAehlung; (7) Die ZaubernAechte am Bosporus,
ein romantisches Gedicht; (8) Prinz Floridio, ein MAerchen; (9)
Leda; eine ErzAehlung; (10) WeinmAerchen; (11) GesAenge._
[8] Eichendorff's relation to Loeben can be studied in the edition of
Eichendorff's works by Wilhelm Kusch, Regensburg. Vols. III,
X-XIII have already appeared. For a poetization of Loeben, see
_Ahnung und Gegenwart_, chap. xii, pp. 144 ff. For a
historical account of Loeben, see _Erlebtes_, chap. x,
pp. 425 ff. It is here that Eichendorff makes Goethe praise Loeben
in the foregoing fashion.
[9] There is no positive evidence that Goethe made any such remark. In
his _GesprAeche_ (Biedermann. V, 270; VI, 198-99) there are
two references to Loeben by Goethe; they are favorable but
noncommittal as to his poetic ability.
[10] Cf. _Die TagebUecher des GrAefen von Platen_, Stuttgart, 1900.
Under date of August 14, 1824, Platen wrote: "Es enthAelt viele
gute Bemerkungen, wiewohl diese Art Prosa nicht nach meinem Sinne
ist." The reference is to Loeben's commentary to Madame de Staels
_De l'Allemayne._
[11] Cf. _Heinrick von Kleists Berliner KAempfe_, Berlin, 1901, pp.
490-96. The story in question is "Die furchtbare Einladung."
[12] Cf. _Herm. Anders KrUeger, _Pseudoromantik. Friedrich Kind und der
Dresdener Liederkreis._ Leipzig. 1904. pp. 144-48. KrUeger also
discusses Loeben in his _Der junge Eichendorff._ Leipzig. 1904.
pp. 88 and 128.
[13] Cf. Fouque, Apel. Miltitz. _BeitrAege zur Geschichte der deutschen
Romantik_, Leipzig,1908. In a letter to his brother. Fouque wrote
(January 6, 1813): "Ein Dichter, meine ich, ist er allerdings, ein
von Gott dazu bestimmter." Fouque, however, realized Loeben's many
weaknesses as a poet, though at Loeben's death he wrote a poem on
him praising him as the master of verse technique.
[14] Cf. Kosch's edition of Eichendorff. XIII. 65. Loeben says: "In
Weimar war ich im vorigen Winter bei Goethe; er war mir
freundlich." The "previous winter" was 1813.
[15] Cf. Kosch's edition, XI, 220. The remark was made in 1807.
[16] Cf. Pissin. p. 25. The incident occurred in 1803 and Herder died
in 1804.
[17] Cf. Kosch's edition, XI, 308. Lochen himself utterly condemned
this work later. See Pissin, pp. 238-39, 267-08. Pissin gives the
number of verse and strophe forms on p. 266.
[18] Cf. Pissin, p. 267. Uhland made the remark in 1812--his own most
fruitful year as a poet.
[19] The story was published in 1817. The full title is _Das weisse
Ross, eine altdeutsche Familienchronik in sechs und dreissig
Bildern._ It is 160 pages long.
[20] An idea as to the lack of action in this story can be derived
from the following statement by Otto (pp. 127-28), the brave hero:
"Was man Schicksale zu nennen pflegt, habe ich wenige gehabt, aber
erfahren habe ich dennoch viel und mehr als mancher durch seine
glAenzenden Schicksale erfahren mag: nAemlich die FUehrungen der
ewigen Liebe habe ich erfahren, die keinen verlAesst. und alles
herrlich hinausfuhrt." And then Siegenot, the other hero, says
that this is very true--whereupon they embrace each other.
[21] The story was first published In Urania: Taschenbuch fUer Damen
auf das Jahr 1818. pp. 305-37.
[22] Aside from the poems in Pissin's collection in the _D.L.D. des
18. u. 19. Jahr._, Ignaz Hub's _Deutschlands Balladen- und
Romanzen-Dichter_, Karlsruhe, 1845, contains: (1) "Romanze von der
weissen Rose," (2) "Der Tanz mit dem Tode," (3) "Der Bergknapp,"
(4) "Das Schwanenlied." "Loreley" is also reprinted here, with
modifications for the worse. "Schau', Schiffer, schau' nicht
hinauf," is certainly not an improvement on Loeben's "Lieb Knabe,
sieh' nicht hinauf,"
[23] The following are common forms: "Nez," "zwey," "versteken,"
"SfAeren," "Saffo," "Stralenboten," "Abendrothen." "Uebermuth,"
and so on, though the regular forms, except in the case of
"Saffo," also occur.