This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: History of Lorelei?
I would tend to disagree on the relationship of the rock's name to the myth - it seems logical to me that the rock was named after the myth, rather than the other way around.

ChrisellAll we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.

vote up1vote down

Replies

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.
vote up1vote down
Here is some info on the Loreley / Lorelei:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoreleyObviously 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
vote up1vote down
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
ChrisellAll we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.

vote up1vote down
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.
vote up1vote down
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. :)
vote up1vote down