Book: Graf von Loeben and the Legend of Lorelei
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Allen Wilson Porterfield >> Graf von Loeben and the Legend of Lorelei
Vater, Vater, geschwind, geschwind.
Die weissen Rosse schick' deinem Kind,
Es will reiten auf Wogen und Wind.
These verses are worked into a large number of the ballads, and
since they are Schreiber's own material, his saga must have had
great general influence.
[79] There would be no point in listing all of the books on the
legends of the Rhine that treat the story of the Lorelei. Three,
however, are important, since it is interesting to see how their
compilers were not satisfied with one version of the story, but
included, as becomes evident on reading them, the versions of
Brentano, Schreiber, Loeben, and Heine: _Der Rhein: Geschichten
und Sagen_, by W. O. von Horn, Stuttgart, 1866, pp. 207-11;
_Legends of the Rhine_, by H. A. Guerber, New York, 1907, pp:
199-206; _Eine Sammlung von Rhein-Sagen_, by A. Hermann
Bernard, Wiesbaden, no year, pp. 225-37.
[80] Mrs. Caroline M. Sawyer wrote a poem entitled "The Lady of
Lorlei. A Legend of the Rhine." It is published in _The female
Poets of America_, by Rufus Wilmot Griswold, New York, 1873,
p. 221. This is not the first edition of this work, nor is it the
original edition of Mrs. Sawyer's ballad. It is an excellent
poem. Fr. Hoebel set it to music, and Adolf Strodtmann translated
it into German, because of its excellence, and included it in his
_Amerikanische Anthologie_. It was impossible to determine
just when Mrs. Sawyer wrote her poem. The writer is deeply
indebted to Professor W. B. Cairns, of the department of English
in the University of Wisconsin, who located the poem for him.
[81] Cf. _Otto Ludwigs gesammelte Schriften_, edited by Adolf
Stern, Leipzig, 1801, I. 69, 107, 114.
[82] It has been impossible to determine just when Sucher (1789-1860)
set Heine's ballad to music, but since he was professor of music
at the University of TUebingen from 1817 on, and since he became
interested in music while quite young, it is safe to assume that
he wrote his music for "Die Lorelei" soon after its
publication. The question is of some importance by way of finding
out just when the ballad began to be popular. Strangely enough,
there is nothing on Silcher in Hobert Eitner's compendious
_Quellen-Lexicon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten der christlichen
Zeitrechnung_, Leipzig, 1900-1904. Heine's ballad is included
in the _Allgemeines deutsches Commersbuch unter musikalischer
Redaktion von Fr. Silcher und Fr. Erck_, Strassburg, 1858 (17th
ed.), but the date of composition is not given.
[83] In _Pauls Grundriss der germanischen Philologie_, I, 1039,
Mogk says: "Die Weiblichen Nixen bezaubern durch ihren Gesang, die
Loreley und Aehnliche Sagen mOegen hierin ihre Wurzel haben." The
only trouble is, no one has thus far unearthed this saga.
[84] Wilhelm Hertz gives (pp.229-30) instances of this so that
uncertainty as to its accuracy is removed. The passages are
striking in that they concern the "Lorberg" and the "Lorleberg."
[85] In chap, XV Eichendorff introduces the ballad as follows:
"Leontin, der wenig darauf achtgab, begann folgendes Lied Ueber ein
am Rheine bekanntes MAerchen." The reference can be only to
Brentano, despite the fact that the first two lines are so
strongly reminiscent of Goethe's "Erlkonig." Eichendorff and
Brentano became acquainted in Heidelberg and then in Berlin they
were intimate. There is every reason to believe that Eichendorff
knew Bretano's "RheinmAerchen" in manuscript form. For the relation
of the two, see the Kosch edition of Eichendorff's
works. _Briefe_ and _TagebUecher,_ Vols. XI-XIII.
[86] Niklas Vogt included, to be sure, in his _Jugendphantasien Ueher
die Sagen des Rheins_ (_ca._ 1811) an amplified
recapitulation in prose of Brentano's ballad. Schreiber knew this
work, for in his _Handbuch_ there is a bibliography of no
fewer than ten pages of "Schriften, welche auf die Rheingegend
Bezug haben." So far as one can determine such a matter from mere
titles, the only one of these that could have helped him in the
composition of his Lorelei-saga is: _Rheinische Geschichten und
Sagen_, von Niklas Vogt. Frankfurt am Main, 1817, 6 BAende.
[87] Eduard Thorn says (p. 89): "Man darf annehmen, dass Heine die
Ballade Brentano's kennen gelernt hat, dass er aus ihr den Namen
entlehnte, wobei ihm Eichendorff die Fassung 'Lorelei' lieferte,
und das ihm erst Loebens Auffassung der Sage zur Gestaltung
verhelfen hat." It sounds like a case of _ceterum censeo_,
but Thorn's argument as to Brentano and Heine is so thin that this
statement too can be looked upon only as a weakly supported
hypothesis.
[88] Cf. Raimund Pissin's monograph, pp. 73-74.
[89] There are about two thousand words in Schreiber's saga, and about
five thousand in Loeben's.
[90] It must be remembered that Schreiber's manuals are written in an
attractive style: his purpose was not simply to instruct, but to
entertain. And it was not simply the legends of the Rhine and its
tributaries, but those of the whole of Western Germany that he
wrote up with this end in view.
[91] Some minor details that Loeben, or Heine, had he known the
_MAerchen_ in 1823, could have used are pointed out in Wilhelm
Hertz's article, pp. 220-21.
[92] Cf. GOerres' edition, pp. 94-108.
[93] Cf. _ibid_., pp. 128-40, and 228-44. It is in this
_MAerchen_ (p. 231) that Herzeleid sings Goethe's "Wer nie
sein Brod in ThrAenon asz."
[94] Cf. GOerres' edition, pp. 247-57. There are a number of details in
this _MAerchen_ that remind strongly of Fouque's _Undine_,
which Brentano knew.
[95] In his _Die MAerchen Clemens Brentanos_, KOeln, 1895,
H. Cardauns gives an admirable study of Brentano's _MAerchen_,
covering the entire ground concerning the question whether
Brentano's ballad was original and pointing out the sources and
the value of his, _RheinmAerchen_. Cardauns comes to the only
conclusion that can be reached: Brentano located his ballad in a
region replete with legends, but there is no positive evidence
that he did not wholly invent his own ballad. The story that
Hermann Bender tells about having found an old MS dating back to
the year 1650 and containing the essentials of Brentano's ballad
collapses, for this MS cannot be produced, not even by Bender who
claims to have found it. See Cardauns, pp. 60-67. Reinhold Steig
reviewed Cardauns' book in _Euphorion_ (1896, pp. 791-99)
without taking in the question as to the originality of Brentano's
ballad.
[96] P. 224.
[97] In Geibel's _Gesammelte Werke_, VI. 106-74, Geibel wrote the
libretto for Felix Mendelssohn in 1846. Mendelssohn died before
finishing it; Max Bruch completed the opera independently in
1863. It has also been set to music by two obscure composers. Karl
Goedeke gives a very unsatisfactory discussion of the matter in
_Emanuel Geibel_, Stuttgart, 1860. pp. 307 ff.
[98] Hermann Seeliger says (p. 73): "Zu den Bearbeitungen, die sich an
die Ballade von Brentano anlehnen, gehOeren die Dichtungen von
Geibel, Mohr, Roquette, Hillemacher, Fiebach und Sommer." Seeliger
wrote his study for musicians, and his statement may be correct.
[99] Aside from the treatises on the Lorelei already mentioned, there
are the following: _Zu Heines Balladen und Romanzen_, by
Oskar Netoliczka, Kronstadt, 1891; this study does not treat the
Lorelei; _Die Lurleisage_, by F. Rehorn, Frankfurt am Main,
1891; _Sagen und Geschichten des Rheinlandes_, by Karl Geib,
Mannheim, 1836; the work is naturally long since superseded;
_KOelnische Zeitung_ of July 12, 1867, by H. Grieben;
_KOelnische Zeitung_ of 1855, by H. DUentzer; _H. Heine, ein
Vortrag_, by H. Sintenis, pp. 21-26; _Die Lorelei: Die
Loreleidichtungen mit besonderer RUecksicht auf die Ballade von
Heinr. Heine_, by C. L. Leimbach, WolfenbUettel, 1879. The last
six of these works were not accessible, but, since they are quoted
by the accessible studies, it seems that they offer nothing
new. (The writer has since secured Leimbach's treatise of 50 small
pages. It offers nothing new.)
[100] Adolf Seybert in his _Die Loreleisage_, Wiesbaden, 1863 and
1872 (Programm), contends that Frau Holla and the Lorelei are
related. Fritz Strich in his _Die Mythologie in der deutschen
Literatur von Klopstock bis Wagner_, Halle, 1910, says
(pp. 307-9) that Brentano's ballad is "eine mythologische
Erfindung Brentanos, zu der ihn der echoreiche Felsen dieses
Namens bei Bacharach anregte." He also says: "Ob nicht Heines Lied
auf Brentanos Phantasie zurUeckgewirkt haben mag?" The reference is
to Brentano's _MAerchen_. Strich's book contains a detailed
account of the use of mythology in Heine, Loeben, and Brentano.
[101] Hermann Seeliger says (p. 8): "Ich meine, die ganze romantische
Schule hAette ohne den Stoff vom Volke zu bekommen, ein Gedicht von
solcher SchOenheit wie das von Brentano weder gemacht noch machen
kOennen." Vis-a-vis such a statement, sociability ceases.