The Lorelei — the murmuring rock

OVERVIEW

The Lorelei is a 132 m steep slate rock on the right bank of the Rhine at Sankt Goarshausen, part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a 1930s amphitheatre on top. It has been a notorious site of river disasters since the first records in the 10th century. Its name is thought to come from 'lureln', Rhine dialect for murmuring, and 'ley', rock: strong currents and a small waterfall made a murmuring sound, amplified by the rock's echo.

HISTORY

An old legend placed dwarfs in caves in the rock. In 1801 Clemens Brentano wrote the ballad Zu Bacharach am Rheine, in which the beautiful Lore Lay, accused of bewitching men to their deaths, is sent to a nunnery, climbs the rock for a last look at the Rhine and falls to her death, the rock keeping an echo of her name. In 1824 Heinrich Heine made her a siren combing her golden hair on the cliff, whose song wrecked boatmen on the rocks; Friedrich Silcher set it to music in 1837. Under the Nazis, Heine's authorship was suppressed because he was born a Jew.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The siren is commonly, but mistakenly, believed to come from an old folk tale: she was Brentano's creation. What is real is the danger — the rock has explained shipwrecks and a loud echo for a thousand years, and on 13 January 2011 a barge carrying 2,400 tonnes of sulphuric acid capsized near it, blocking one of Europe's busiest waterways.

VISITING

The rock is at Sankt Goarshausen on the Rhine; the plateau and amphitheatre on top are reached from the town.