One person only is reported to have seen the Lorelei close by, a young fisherman from Oberwesel, who met her every evening by riverside, and spent a few delightful hours with her, drinking in her beauty and listening to her entrancing song. Tradition further relates that ere they parted the Lorelei invariably pointed out the places where the youth must cast his nets on the morrow—instructions which he always obeyed, and which invariably brought him success.
One night the young fisherman was seen going towards the river, but as he never returned search was made for him. No clew to his whereabouts being found, the credulous Germans finally reported that the Lorelei had dragged him down to her coral caves that she might enjoy his companionship forever.
LORELEI AND THE FISHERMAN.—Paul Thumann.
According to another version, the Lorelei, perching on the rocks above, and luring the fishermen by her songs, caused so many deaths that an armed force was once sent out at nightfall to surround and seize her. But the water nymph used her magic to lay such a powerful spell upon the captain and his men that they could move neither hand nor foot. While they stood motionless around her, the Lorelei divested herself of all her ornaments, which she flung into the waves below; then, chanting a spell, she lured the waters up to the top of the rock, and the soldiers saw her spring into a sea-green chariot drawn by white-maned steeds, and drive rapidly away. A few moments later the Rhine had subsided to its usual level, the spell was broken, and the men recovered the power of motion, and retreated to announce how their efforts had been baffled. Since then, however, the Lorelei has never been seen, and the peasants declare that she still resents the insult offered her and will no longer leave her coral caves.
CHAPTER XXI.
BALDER.
Odin and Frigga, we are told, were parents of twin sons as dissimilar in character and physical appearance as it was possible to be; for while Hodur, god of darkness, was somber, taciturn, and blind, like the obscurity of sin, which he was supposed to symbolize, Balder, the beautiful, was the pure and radiant god of innocence and light. The snowy brow and golden locks of this Asa seemed to send out beams of sunshine to gladden the hearts of gods and men, by whom he was equally beloved.
“Of all the twelve round Odin’s throne,
Balder, the Beautiful, alone,
The Sun-god, good, and pure, and bright,