The legend of Lorelei (Loreley Passage)

Legend and History await every bend of the river Rhine.  One such poem, the Lorelei, tells the story of a beautiful siren, the Lorelei,, who would sit on the cliff top high above the river, combing her hair and singing seductively to passing boatmen.

Thus distracted from the lurking danger of the river, the boatmen would be lured to there watery grave.

“I cannot divine what it meant,
this haunting nameless pain;
a tale of the bygone ages
keeps brooding through my brain;

The faint air cools in the gloaming,
and peaceful flows the Rhine,
the thirsty summits are drinking
the sunset’s flooding wine;

The loveliest maiden is sitting
high-throne in yon blue air,
her golden jewels are shining,
she combs her golden hair;

She combs with a comb that is golden,
and sings a strange refrain
that steeps in a deadly enchantment
the listener’s ravished brain;

The doomed in his drifting scallop,
is traced with a sad sweet tone,
he sees not the yawning breakers,
he sees but the maid alone;

The pitiless billows engulf him,
so perish sailor and bark;
and this, with her baleful singing,
is the Loreley’s gruesome work.”