Two German heroines, both of them created as protagonists in fictitious narratives, gained world-wide recognition in literature, music, and the fine arts: Goethe’s Mignon in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre [Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, 1796] and Lorelei invented by Clemens Brentano in his novel Godwi (1801-1802). Whereas Mignon turned into the incarnation of romantic longing, in the wake of Heinrich Heine’s poem (1823), Lorelei became synonymous with a dangerous femme fatale. In his youth Brentano attended the Gymnasium at Koblenz (1787-89) and travelled along the Rhine, where he came across medieval echo-legends surrounding the rocky cliff on the right bank below St. Goarshausen, a hazardous passage even today with rocks under the surface threatening sailors. Legend had it that some dwarfs were responsible for the echo, dwarfs who protected the lost hoard of the Nibelungs. The etymology of...
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Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Heine’s Lorelei and Her Reception". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 December 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=17668, accessed 09 June 2026.]
