| Slate rock | |
 View from the left bank of theRhine atSankt Goar | |
| Coordinates | 50°08′22″N7°43′44″E / 50.13944°N 7.72889°E /50.13944; 7.72889 |
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TheLorelei (/ˈlɒrəlaɪ/ ⓘLORR-ə-ly;German:Loreley orLorelei,pronounced[loːʁəˈlaɪ̯]ⓘor[ˈloːʁəlaɪ̯]; also found asLoreleï,Lore Lay,Lore-Ley,Lurley,Lurelei andLurlei throughout history) is a 132-metre-high (433 ft), steepslate rock on the right bank of the RiverRhine in theRhine Gorge (orMiddle Rhine) atSankt Goarshausen in Germany, part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCOWorld Heritage Site.[1] The 1930sLoreley Amphitheatre is on top of the rock.
It has been an infamousmaritime disaster site since its first records during the 10th century, with a varied mythos, ranging fromdwarfs to asiren trying to explain the high number of ship wrecks and the loud echo inside the passage.[2]
The name comes from the old German wordslureln,Rhine dialect for "murmuring", and theOld German termley "rock". The translation of the name would therefore be "murmur rock" or "murmuring rock". The heavy currents, and a smallwaterfall in the area (still visible in the early 19th century) created a murmuring sound, and this combined with the special echo the rock produces to act as a sort of amplifier, giving the rock its name.[3] The murmuring is hard to hear today owing to the urbanization of the area. Other theories attribute the name to the many boating accidents on the rock, by combining the German verblauern ('to lurk, lie in wait') with the same "ley" ending, with the translation "lurking rock".
After theGerman spelling reform of 1901, in almost all German terms, the letter "y" was changed to the letter "i".[citation needed]
The rock and the murmur it creates have inspired various tales. An old legend envisioned dwarfs living in caves in the rock.
In 1801, German authorClemens Brentano composed his balladZuBacharach am Rheine as part of a fragmentary continuation of his novelGodwi oder Das steinerne Bild der Mutter. It first told the story of an enchanting woman associated with the rock. In the poem, the beautiful Lore Lay, betrayed by her sweetheart, is accused of bewitching men and causing their death. Rather than sentence her to death, the bishop consigns her to a nunnery. On the way thereto, accompanied by three knights, she comes to the Lorelei rock. She asks permission to climb it and view the Rhine once again. She does so, and, thinking that she sees her love in the Rhine, falls to her death; the rock ever afterward retaining an echo of her name. Brentano had taken inspiration fromOvid and theEcho myth.
In 1824,Heinrich Heine seized on and adapted Brentano's theme in one of his most famous poems, "Die Lorelei". It describes the eponymous female as a sort ofsiren who, sitting on the cliff above the Rhine and combing her golden hair, unwittingly distracted shipmen with her beauty and song, causing them to crash on the rocks. In 1837 Heine's lyrics were set to music byFriedrich Silcher in theart song "Lorelei"[4] that became well known inGerman-speaking lands. Asetting byFranz Liszt was also favored and dozens of other musicians have set the poem to music.[5] During the Nazi regime and World War II, Heinrich Heine (born as a Jew) became discredited as author of the lyrics, in an effort to dismiss and hide Jewish contribution to German art. Loreley also appears in the poem "Waldesgespräch" which appears as a dialog inJoseph von Eichendorff's first novel,Ahnung und Gegenwart [de] (1812); that poem was set by Robert Schumann in hisLiederkreis, Op. 39.
The Lorelei character, although originally imagined by Brentano, passed into German popular culture in the form described in the Heine–Silcher song and is commonly but mistakenly believed to have originated in an oldfolk tale. The French writerGuillaume Apollinaire took up the theme again in his poem "La Loreley", from the collectionAlcools which is later cited inSymphony No. 14 (3rd movement) ofDmitri Shostakovich. The character continues to be referenced in pop culture, such as the 1969Townes Van Zandt title track for “Our Mother The Mountain” and the 1998Eagle-Eye Cherry single "When Mermaids Cry."[6]
A barge carrying 2,400 tons ofsulphuric acid capsized on 13 January 2011, near the Lorelei rock, blocking traffic on one of Europe's busiest waterways.[7]
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