Der Lurley Felsen. / Le Rocher Lurley.

Title

Der Lurley Felsen. / Le Rocher Lurley.

Deacorative view of the Loreley at the right bank of the river Rehin. In the backgoung the castle Katz and Sankt Goarshausen, Rheinland-Pfalz. Aquatinta from Rudolf Bodmer, issued from F. C. Eisen in Cologne (ca. 1832 - 1837). The rock Loreley and the murmur it creates have inspired various tales. An old legend envisioned dwarfs living in caves in the rock. In 1801, German author Clemens Brentano composed his balladZu Bacharach am Rheine as part of a fragmentary continuation of his novel Godwi oder Das steinerne Bild der Mutter. It first told the story of an enchanting female 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 still retained an echo of her name afterwards.

ca. 1835

Artist

Bodmer