In the first place, Heine never knew Brentano personally, and never
mentions him in his letters previous to 1824, nor in his letters[35]
that have thus far been published after 1824. _Godwi_ was repudiated
soon after its publicatipn by Brentano himself, who said[36] there was
only one good thing about it, the title, for, after people had said
"Godwi," they could just keep on talking and say, "Godwi, dumm." On
its account, Caroline called him Demens Brentano, while Dorothea
dubbed him "Angebrenntano." The novel became a rare and unread book
until Anselm Ruest brought out a new edition[37] with a critical and
appreciative introduction in 1906. Diel and Kreiten say "es ging fast
spurlos vorüber." It was not included in his _Gesammelte Schriften_
(1852-55), though the ballad[38] was. Heine does not mention it in his
_Romantische Schule_, which was, however, written ten years after he
had finished his "Die Lorelei." And as to the contents of Brentano's
ballad, there is precious little in it that resembles Heine's ballad,
aside from the name of the heroine, and even here the similarity is
far from striking.

And yet, despite all this, commentators continue to say that Heine
drew the initial inspiration for his "Lorelei" from Brentano. They may
be right, but no one of them has thus far produced any tenable
argument, to say nothing of positive proof. The most recent supporter
of Brentano's claim is Eduard Thorn[39] (1913), who reasons as
follows:

Heine knew Brentano's works in 1824, for in that year he borrowed
_Wunderhorn_ and _Trösteinsamkeit_ from the library at Göttingen.
These have, however, nothing to do with Brentano's ballad, and it is
one year too late for Heine's ballad. All of Thorn's references to
Heine's _Romantische Schule_, wherein _Godwi_, incidentally, is not