[70] It is the same story as the one told by Bulwer-Lytton in his Pilgrims of the Rhine. chap. xxiv.

[71] All through the body of Schreiber's Handbuch, there are references to the places and legends mentioned in Heine's Rabbi. On Bacharach there is the following: "Der Reisende, wenn er auch nur eine Stunde in Bacharach verweilt, unterlasse nicht, die Ruinen von Staleck zu besteigen, wo eine der schönsten Rheinlandschaften sich von seinen Blicken aufrollt. Die Burg von sehr beträchtlichem Umfang scheint, auf den Trümmern eines Römerkastells erbaut. Die, welche die Entstehung derselben den Hunnen zuschreiben, well sie in Urkunden den Namen Stalekum hat, sind in einem Irrtum befangen, denn Stalekum oder Stalek heisst eben so viel als Stalbühl, oder ein Ort, wo ein Gericht gehegt wurde. Pfalzgraf Hermann von Staleck, starb im 12ten Jahrhundert; er war der letzte seines Stammes, und von ihm kam die Burg, als Kölnisches Lehen, an Konrad Von Staufen."

[72] To come back to Heine and Loeben, Herm. Anders Krüger says (p., 147) in his Pseudoromantik: "Heinrich Heine, der überhaupt Loeben studiert zu haben scheint," etc. He offers no proof. If one wished to make out a case for Loeben, it could bo done with his narrative poem "Ferdusi" (1817) and Heine's "Der Dichter Ferdusi." Both tell about the same story; but each tells a story that was familiar in romantic circles.

[73] In reply to a letter addressed to Professor Elster on October 4, 1914, the writer received the following most kind reply on November 23: "Die Frage, die Sie an mich richten ist leicht beantwortet: Heine hat Loeben in seinen Schriften nicht erwähnt, aber das besagt nicht viel; er hat manchen benutzt, den er nicht nennt. Und es kann gar keinem Zweifel unterliegen, dass Loeben für die Lorelei Heines unmittelbares Vorbild ist; darauf habe ich öfter hingewiesen, aber wohl auch andere. Das Taschenbuch Urania für das Jahr 1821, wo Loebens Gedicht u. Novelle zuerst erschienen, ist unserem Dichter zweifellos zu Gesicht gekommen." No one can view Professor Elster in any other light than as an eminent authority on Heine, but his certainty here must be accepted with reserve, and his "wohl auch andere" is, in view of the fact that, he was by no means the first, and certainly not the last, to make this assertion, a trifle disconcerting.

[74] The ultimate determining of sources is an ungrateful theme. Some excellent suggestions on this subject are offered by Hans Rohl in his Die ältere Romantik und die Kunst des jungen Goethe, Berlin, 1909, pp. 70-72. This work was written under the general leadership of Professor Elster. The disciple would, in this case, hardly agree with the master. Pissin likewise speaks wisely in discussing the influence of Novalis on Loeben in his monograph on the latter, pp. 97-98. and 129-30. And Heine himself (Elster edition, V. 294) says in regard to the question whether Hegel did borrow so much from Schelling: "Nichts ist lächerlicher als das reklamierte Eigentumsrecht an Ideen." He then shows how the ideas were not original with Schelling either; he had them from Spinoza. And it is just so here. Brentano started the legend; Heine goes back to him indirectly. Eichenidorff and Vogt directly; Schreiber borrowed from Vogt, Loeben from Schreiber, and Heine from Schreiber—and thereafter it would be impossible to say who borrowed from whom.

[75] The majority of the Loreleidichtungen can be found in: Opern-Handbuch, by Hugo Riemann, Leipzig, 1886: Zur Geschichte der Märchenoper, by Leopold Schmidt, Halle, 1895; Die Loreleysage in Dichtung und Musik, by Hermann Seeliger, Leipzig, 1898. Seeliger took the majority of his titles from Nassau in seinen Sagen, Geschichten und Liedern, by Henniger, Wiesbaden, 1845. At least he says so, but one is inclined to doubt the statement, for "die meisten Balladen" have been written since 1845. Seeliger's book is on the whole unsatisfactory. He has, for example, Schreiber improving on, and remodeling Loeben's saga; but Schreiber was twenty-three years older than Loeben, and wrote his saga at least three years before Loeben wrote his.

[76] In F. Gräter's Idunna und Hermode, eine Alterthumszeitung, Breslau, 1812, pp. 191-92, Gräter gives under the heading, "Die Bildergallerie des Rheins." thirty well-known German sagas. The twenty-seventh is "Der Lureley: Ein Gegenstück zu der Fabel von der Echo." It is the version of Vogt.

[77] Aside from the above, some of the less important authors of lyrics, ballads, dramas, novels, etc., on the Lorelei-theme are: J. Bartholdi, H. Bender, H. Berg, J. P. Berger, A. H. Bernard, G. Conrad, C. Doll, L. Elchrodt, O. Fiebach, Fr. Förster, W. Fournier, G. Freudenberg, W. Freudenberg, W. Genth, K. Geib, H. Grieben, H. Grüneberg, G. Gurski, Henriette Heinze-Berg, A. Henniger, H. Hersch, Mary Koch, Wilhelmine Lorenz, I. Mappes, W. Molitor, Fr. Mücke, O. W. Notzsch, Luise Otto, E. Rüffer, Max Schaffroth, Luise Frelin von Sell, E. A. W. Siboni, H. Steinheuer, Adelheid von Stolterfoth, A. Storm, W. von Waldbrühl, L. Werft, and others even more obscure than these.

[78] In Menco Stern's Geschichten vom Rhein, the story is told so as to connect the legend of the Lorelei with the treasures of the Nibelungenlied. In this way we have gold in the mountain, wine around it, a beautiful woman on it—what more could mortal wish? Sympathy! And this the Lorelei gives him in the echo. In reply to an inquiry, Mr. Stern very kindly wrote as follows: "The facts given in my Geschichten vom Rhein are all well known to German students; and especially those mentioned in my chapter 'Lorelay' can bo verified in the book: Der Rhein von Philipp F. W. Oertel (W. O. v. Horn) who was, I think, the greatest authority on the subject of the Rhine." Oertel is not an authority. In Eduard-Prokosch's German for Beginners, the version of Schreiber was used, as is evident from the lines spoken by the Lorelei to her Father:

Vater, Vater, geschwind, geschwind.
Die weissen Rosse schick' deinem Kind,
Es will reiten auf Wogen und Wind.