Part 3 (1/2)

[54] In _Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon_, Munchen, 1914, p. 271. It is significant that Kruger makes this statement, for the subt.i.tle of his book Is ”Biographisches und bibliographisches Handbuch mit Motivubersichten und Quellennachweisen.” And it is, on the whole, an extremely useful book.

[55] It is impossible to see how Brandes can lay great stress on the fact that this rhyme occurs in both poems. The following rhymes are found on the following pages of the Elster edition, Vol. I, of Heine's works: ”Spitze-Blitze” (36), ”sitzen-nutzen” (116), ”Witzen-nutzen” (124), ”sitzen-blitzen” (216), ”erhitzet-bespitzet” (242), ”Blitz-Sitz” (257), ”blitzt-gestutzt”

(276), ”blitze-besitze” (319), ”blitzet-gespitzet” (464). And in Loeben's poems the rhyme is equally common. The first strophe of his _Ferdusi_ runs as follows:

h.e.l.l erglanzt an Persiens Throne Wo der grosse Mahmud sitzt; Welch Juwel ist's, das die Krone So vor allen schon umblitzt.

And in Schreiber's saga we have in juxtaposition, the words. ”Blitze” and ”Spitze.” The rhyme ”Sitze-Blitze” occurs in Immanuel's ”Lorelei,” quoted by Seeliger, p. 31.

[56] There are, to be sure, only 114 words in Loeben's ballad if we count ”um's,” ”dir's,” and ”glaub's” as three words and not six.

[57] These numbers are in the Columbia Library.

[58] During these years Heine's letters are dated from Gottingen, Berlin, Gnesen, Berlin, Munster, Berlin, Luneburg, Hamtburg, Ritzenb.u.t.tel, and Luneburg. During these same years Loeben was in Dresden and he was ill.

[59] We need only to mention such a strophe as the following from _Atta Troll_:

Klang das nicht wie Jugendtraume.

Die ich traumte mit Chamisso Und Brentano und Fouque In den blauen Mondscheinnachten?

See Elster edition, II, 421. The lines were written in 1843.

[60] The first edition of Karl Simrock's _Rheinsagen_ came out in 1836. This was not accessible. The edition of 1837, ”zweite, vermehrte Auflage,” contains 168 poems, 572 pages; this contains Simrock's ”Ballade von der Lorelei.” The edition of 1841 also contains Simrock's ”Der Teufel und die Lorelei.” The book contains 455 pages, 218 poems. The sixth edition (1809) contains 231 poems.

In all editions the poems are arranged in geographical order from Sudersee to Graubunden. Alexander Kaufmann's _Quellenangaben und Bemerkungen zu Kart Simrocks Rheinsagen_ throws no new light on the Lorelei-legend.

[61] Cf. _Heinrich Heines samtliche Werke_, edited by Walzel, Frankel, Krahe, Leitzmann, and Peterson. Leipzig. 1911, II, 408. So far as I have looked into the matter, Walzel stands alone in this belief, though Mucke, as has been pointed out above, antic.i.p.ated him in the statement that Heine drew on Schreiber in this case. But Mucke thinks that Heine also knew Loeben.

[62] The reference in question reads as follows: ”Ich will kein Wort verlieren uber den Wert dieses unverdaulichen Machwerkes [_Les Burgraves_], das mit allen moglichen Pratensionen auftritt, namentlich mit historischen, obgleich alles Wissen Victor Hugos uber Zeit und Ort, wo sein Stuck spielt, lediglich aus der franzosischen Uebersetzung von Schreibers _Handbuch fur Rheinreisende_ geschopft, ist.” This was written March 20, 1843 (see Elster edition, VI. 344).

[63] Aloys Wilhelm Schreiber (1763-1840) was a teacher in the Lyceum at Baden-Baden (1800-1802), professor of aesthetics at Heidelberg (1802-13) where he was intimate with the Voss family, historiographer at Karlsruhe (1813-26), and in 1826 he retired and became a most prolific writer. He interested himself in guidebooks for travelers. His manuals contain maps, distances, expense accounts, historical sketches, in short, about what the modern _Baedeker_ contains with fewer statistics and more popular description. His books appeared in German, French, and English. In 1812 he published his _Handbuch fur Reisende am Rhein von Schaffhausen bis Holland_, to give only a small part of the wordy t.i.tle, and in 1818 he brought out a second, enlarged edition of the same work with an appendix containing 17 _Volkssagen aus den Gegenden am Rhein und am Taunus_, the sixteenth of which is ent.i.tled ”Die Jungfrau auf dem Lurley.” His books were exceedingly popular in their day and are still obtainable. Of the one here in question, Von Weech (_Allgem. deut. Biog._, x.x.xII, 471) says: ”Sein _Handbuch fur Reisende am Rhein_, dessen Anhang eine wertvolle Sammlung rheinischer Volkssagen enthalt, war lange der beliebteste Fuhrer auf Rheinreisen.” There are 7 volumes of his manuals in the New York Public Library, and one, _Traditions populaires du Rhin,_ Heidelberg, 1830 (2d ed.), is in the Columbia Library. It contains 144 legends and beautiful engravings. (The writer has just [October 15, 1915] secured the four Volumes of Schreiber's _Rheinische Geschichten und Sagen_. The fourth volume, published in 1830. is now a very rare book.)

[64] The remainder of Schreiher's plot is as follows: The news of the infatuated hero's death so grieved the old Count that ho determined to have the Lorelei captured, dead or alive. One of his captains, aided by a number of brave followers, set out on the hazardous expedition. First, they surround the rock on which the Lorelei sits, and. then three of the most courageous ascend to her seat and determine to kill her, so that the danger of her repealing her former deed maybe forever averted. But when they reach her and she h.o.a.rs what they intend to do, she simply smiles and invokes the aid of her Father, who immediately sends two white horses--two white waves--up the Rhine, and. after leaping down to the Rhine, she is safely carried away by these. She was never again seen, but her voice was frequently heard as she mocked, in echo, the songs of the sailors on her paternal stream.

[65] It is not simply in the appendix of Schreiber's _Handbuch_ that he discusses the legend of Lorelei, but also in the scientific part of it. Concerning the Lorelei rock he says (pp. 174-75): ”Ein wunderbarer Fels schiebt sich jetzt dem Schiffer gleichsam in seine Bahn--es ist der Lurley (von Lure, Lauter, und Ley, Schiefer) aus welchem ein Echo den Zuruf der Vorbeifahrendem funfzehnmal wiederholt. Diesen Schieferfels bewohnte in grauen Zeiten eine Undine, welche die Schiffenden durch ihr Zurufen ins Verderben lockte.”

[66] Brockhaus says (p. xxiv): ”Die einfache Sage von den beiden feindlichen Brudern am Rhein, van denen die Trummer ihrer Burgen selbst noch _Die Bruder_ heissen ist in A. Schreiber's Auswahl von Sagen jener Gegenden zu lesen.” Usener's tragedy is published In full in this number of _Urania_, pp. 383-442.

[67] Cf. Elster edition, IV, 406-9. The circ.u.mstantial way in which Heine retells this story is almost sufficient to lead one to believe that he had Schreiber at hand when he wrote this part of Elementargeister; but he says that he did not.

[68] Discussion as to the first conception of Heine's _Rabbi_ are found in: _Heinrich Heines Fragment_; _Der Rabbi von Bacharach_, by Lion Feuchtw.a.n.ger, Munchen, 1907; _Heinrich Heine und Der Rabbi von Bacharach_, by Gustav Karpeles, Wien, 1895.

[69] The poem is one of the _Junge Leiden_, published in 1821, Elster (I, 490) says: ”Eine bekannte Sage, mit einzelnen vielfach wiederkehrenden uralten Zugen, dargestellt In Simrocks _Rheinsagen_.” Simrock had, of course, done nothing on the _Rheinsagen_ in 1821, being then only nineteen years old and an inconspicuous student at Bonn. Walzel says (I. 449.): ”Mit einem andern Ausgang ist die Sage in dem von Heine vielbenutzten _Handbuch fur Reisende am Rhein_ von Aloys Schreiber (Heidelberg, 1816) uberliefert.” The edition of this work in the New York Public Library has no printed date, but 1818 is written in. Walzel may be correct. The outcome of Heine's poem is, after all, not so different: In Schreiber, both brothers relinquish their clalms to the girl and remain unmarried; in Heine the one kills the other and in this way neither wins the girl.

[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, unterla.s.se nicht, die Ruinen von Staleck zu besteigen, wo eine der schonsten Rheinlandschaften sich von seinen Blicken aufrollt. Die Burg von sehr betrachtlichem Umfang scheint, auf den Trummern eines Romerkastells erbaut. Die, welche die Entstehung derselben den Hunnen zuschreiben, well sie in Urkunden den Namen Stalek.u.m hat, sind in einem Irrtum befangen, denn Stalek.u.m oder Stalek heisst eben so viel als Stalbuhl, 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 Kolnisches Lehen, an Konrad Von Staufen.”

[72] To come back to Heine and Loeben, Herm. Anders Kruger says (p., 147) in his _Pseudoromantik:_ ”Heinrich Heine, der uberhaupt 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.