mentioned, though other works are, collapse, for this was written ten
years too late. And then, to quote Thorn: "Loeben's Gedicht lieferte
das direkte Vorbild für Heine." He offers no proof except the
statements of Strodtmann, Hessel, and Elster to this effect.

And again: "Der Name Lorelay findet sich bei Loeben nicht als
Eigenname, wenn er auch das Gedicht, 'Der Lurleifels' überschreibt."
But the name Loreley does occur[40] twice on the same page on which
the last strophe of the ballad is published in _Urania_, and here the
ballad is not entitled "Der Lurleifels," but simply "Loreley." Now,
even granting that Loeben entitled his ballad one way in the MS and
Brockhaus published it in another way in _Urania_, it is wholly
improbable that Heine saw Loeben's MS previous to 1823.

And then, after contending that Brentano's _Rheinmärchen_,[41] which,
though written before 1823, were not published until 1846, must have
given Heine the hair-combing motif, Thorn says: "Also kann nur
Brentano das Vorbild geliefert haben." This cannot be correct. What
is, on the contrary, at least possible is that Heine influenced
Brentano.[42] The _Rheinmärchen_ were finished, in first form, in
1816. And Guido Görres, to whom Brentano willed them, and who first
published them, tells us how Brentano carried them around with him in
his satchel and changed them and polished them as opportunity was
offered and inspiration came. It is therefore reasonable to believe
that Heine helped Brentano to metamorphose his Lorelei of the ballad,
where she is wholly human, into the superhuman Lorelei of the
_Rheinmärchen_ where she does, as a matter of fact, comb her hair with
a golden comb.[43]

And now as to Loeben: Did Heine know and borrow from his ballad? Aside