[34] An instance of this is seen in Selections from Heine's Poems, edited by H.S. White, D.C. Heath & Co., Boston, 1900, p. 182. Professor White does, to be sure, refer to Strodtmann for the details; but Strodtmann does not prove anything. And in Heines Werke in fünfzehn Teilen, edited by Hermann Friedeman, Helene Herrmann. Erwin Kaliseher. Raimund Pissin, and Veit Valentin, we have the comment by Helene Herrmann, who follows Pissin: "Die Loreleysage, erfunden von Clemens Brentano; vielfach von Romantikern gestaltet. Zwischen Brentanos Romanze und Heines Situationsbild steht die Behandlung durch den Grafen Loeben, einen unbedeutenden romantischen Dichter."
[35] The best finished collection of Heine's letters is the one by Hans Daffis, Berlin, 1907, 2 vols. This collection will, however, soon be superseded by Heinrich Heines Briefwechsel, edited by Friedrich Hirth, München and Berlin, 1914. The first volume covers Heine's life up to 1831. In neither of these collections is either Brentano or Loeben mentioned. There are 643 pages in Hirth's first volume.
[36] For a discussion of Godwi, see Clemens Brentano: Ein Lebensbild, by Johannes Baptista Diel and Wilhelm Kreiten, Freiburg i.B., 1877, two volumes in one, pp. 104-25. As to the obscurity of Brentano's work, one sentence (p. 116) is significant: "Godwi spukt heutzutage nur mehr in den Köpfen der liberalen Literaturgeschichtsschreiber, denen er einen willkommenen Vorwand an die Hand gibt, mit einigen stereotyp abgeschriebenen Phrasen den Stab über den phantastischen, verschwommenen, unsittlichen u.s.w., u.s.w. Dichter zu brechen."
[37] Clemens Brentano: Godwi oder das steinerne Bild der Mutter. Ein verwilderter. Roman. Herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Dr. Anselm Ruest, Berlin, 1906. Ruest edited the work because he thought it was worth reviving. In this edition, the ballad is on pages 507-10. Bartels (Handbuch, 2d ed., p. 400) lists a reprint in 1905, E.A. Regener, Berlin.
[38] II, 391-93.
[39] For the various references, see Thorn's Heinrich Heines Beziehungen zu Clemens Brentano. pp. 88-90. His study is especially unsatisfactory in view of the fact that he says (p. 88) in this connection: "Wirklich Neues zu bringen ist uns nicht vergönnt, denn selbstverständlich haben die Forscher dieses dankbare und interessante Objekt schon in der eingehendsten Weise untersucht." And Thorn's attempt to show that Heine knew Godwi early in life by pointing out similarities between poems in it and poems by Heine is about as untenable as argument could be, in view of the great number of poets who may have influenced Heine in these instances; Thorn himself lists (p. 63) Bürger, Fouqué, Arnim, E.T.A. Hoffmann.
[40] In Pissin's collection of Loeben's poems (D.L.D., No. 135) we have a peculiar note. After the ballad (Anmerk., p. 161), which Pissin entitles "Der Lurleifels," we read: "N.d. Hs." This would argue that Loeben did so entitle his ballad and that Pissin had access to the original MS. But then Pissin says: "Auch, die gleichnamige Novelle einleitend, in der Urania auf 1821." But in Urania the novelette is entitled "Eine Sage vom Rhein." and the ballad is entitled "Loreley." Bet him who can unravel this!
[41] For the entire story of the composition and publication of the Rheinmärchen, see Die Märchen von Clemens Brentano, edited by Guido Görres. 2 vols. in 1, Stuttgart, 1879 (2d ed.) This edition contains the preface to the original edition of 1840, pp. i-1.
[42] Thorn, who drew on M.R. Hewelcke's Die Loreleisage, Paderborn, 1908, makes (p. 90) this suggestion. It is impossible for the writer to see how Thorn can be so positive in regard to Brentano's influence on Heine. And one's faith is shaken by this sentence on the same page: "Brentano veröffentlichte sein Radlauf-Märchen erst 1827, Heine 'Die Lorelei' schon 1826." Both of these dates are incorrect. Guido Görres, who must be considered a final authority on this matter, says that, though Brentano tried to publish his Märchen as early as 1816, none of them were published until 1846, except extracts from "Das Myrtenfräulein," and a version of "Gockel," neither of which bears directly on the Lorelei-matter.
[43] Of Görres' second edition, I, 250: "Nachdem Murmelthier herzlich für diese Geschenke gedankt hatte, sagte Frau Else: 'Nun, mein Kind! kämme mir und Frau Lurley die Haare, wir wollen die deinigen dann auch kämmen'—dann gab sie ihr einen goldnen Kamm, und Murmelthier kämmte Beiden die Haare und flocht sie so schön, dass die Wasserfrauen sehr zufrieden mit ihr waren."