The Crusader went away to the wars again, and presently
fell in battle, fighting for the Cross. Tradition
says that during several centuries the spirit of the
unfortunate girl sang nightly from the cave at midnight,
but the music carried no curse with it; and although
many listened for the mysterious sounds, few were
favored, since only those could hear them who had
never failed in a trust. It is believed that
the singing still continues, but it is known that
nobody has heard it during the present century.
Chapter XVI
An Ancient Legend of the Rhine
[The Lorelei]
The last legend reminds one of the “Lorelei”—a
legend of the Rhine. There is a song called
“The Lorelei.”
Germany is rich in folk-songs, and the words and airs
of several of them are peculiarly beautiful—but
“The Lorelei” is the people’s favorite.
I could not endure it at first, but by and by it
began to take hold of me, and now there is no tune
which I like so well.
It is not possible that it is much known in America,
else I should have heard it there. The fact
that I never heard it there, is evidence that there
are others in my country who have fared likewise;
therefore, for the sake of these, I mean to print
the words and music in this chapter. And I will
refresh the reader’s memory by printing the legend
of the Lorelei, too. I have it by me in the legends
of the Rhine, done into English by
the wildly gifted Garnham, Bachelor of Arts.
I print the legend partly to refresh my own memory,
too, for I have never read it before.
Lore (two syllables) was a water nymph who used to
sit on a high rock called the Ley or Lei (pronounced
like our word lie) in the Rhine, and lure boatmen
to destruction in a furious rapid which marred the
channel at that spot. She so bewitched them with
her plaintive songs and her wonderful beauty that
they forgot everything else to gaze up at her, and
so they presently drifted among the broken reefs and
were lost.
In those old, old times, the Count Bruno lived in
a great castle near there with his son, the Count
Hermann, a youth of twenty. Hermann had heard
a great deal about the beautiful Lore, and had finally
fallen very deeply in love with her without having
seen her. So he used to wander to the neighborhood
of the Lei, evenings, with his Zither and “Express
his Longing in low Singing,” as Garnham says.
On one of these occasions, “suddenly there hovered
around the top of the rock a brightness of unequaled
clearness and color, which, in increasingly smaller
circles thickened, was the enchanting figure of the
beautiful Lore.
“An unintentional cry of Joy escaped the Youth,
he let his Zither fall, and with extended arms he
called out the name of the enigmatical Being, who
seemed to stoop lovingly to him and beckon to him
in a friendly manner; indeed, if his ear did not deceive
him, she called his name with unutterable sweet Whispers,
proper to love. Beside himself with delight the
youth lost his Senses and sank senseless to the earth.”
