II


But it is not so much the purpose of this paper to evaluate Loeben's
creations as to locate him in the development of the Lorelei-legend,
and to prove, or disprove, Heine's indebtedness to him in the case of
his own poem of like name. The facts are these:

In 1801 Clemens Brentano published at Bremen the first volume of his
__Godwi_ and in 1802 the second volume at the same place.[29] He had
finished the novel early in 1799--he was then twenty-one years old.
Wieland was instrumental in securing a publisher.[30] Near the close
of the second volume, Violette sings the song beginning:

Zu Bacharach am Rheine
Wohnt eine Zauberin.

That this now well-known ballad of the Lorelei was invented by
Brentano is proved, not so much by his own statement to that effect as
by the fact that the erudite and diligent Grimm brothers, the friends
of Brentano, did not include the Lorelei-legend in their collection of
_579 Deutsche Sagen_, 1816. The name of his heroine Brentano took from
the famous echo-rock near St. Goar, with which locality he became
thoroughly familiar during the years 1780-89. No romanticist knew the
Rhine better or loved it more than Brentano. "Lore" means[31] a small,
squinting elf; and is connected with the verb "lauern." The oldest