330

TU 10 ÜPPBB UHIXE GOKGE.

clasp the »pectral nympli to his bosom as she sank for everin the flood.

From that time no mortal eye has ever looked upon theLurlei sprite, thongh she is still heard, they say, imitating thesounds of the voices on the opposite shore.*

* The above tradition must be added to the already long list of legends due toa mistake in the meaning of the names of the places with which they are associated.The title Lurlei, M. Eugene Guinot teils us, in his catalogue of the Rhinescenery, " has been derived from a variety of sources." It has been Said to sig-nify, he adds, " the rock which watches, the rock which mocks, or—better thanall—the rock of the Syren Laure," (pronounced Laura). But to derive Lur-leior Lore-i'ei from Laure is precisely the same as if we were to make titoo; comefrom Peter, rather than Peter from irtreas. Nor is there any etymological diffi-culty as to the origin of the name Lurlei itsclf. In the first place, the termina-tion Lei is a generic term for rock ; as, for instance, Erpeler Lei, which now sig-nifies the rock by Erpel, but which originally meant Wirbeler Lei, the rock by thewhirlpool—the village being named after the Whirlpool that formerly existed nearUnkelstein ; and not, as M. Guinot would say, the whirlpool called Wirbel, afterErpel, the name of the village. Now, the German Lei means literally, a coveringor shelter, (" decke, oder schirm," says the Wörterbuch, and hence the peasantscall a slate a LEI, from its being used to roof or cover in a house). This termLei is the cognate of our Lee, which means any warm-sheltered place (A. S.Hleow). Consequently we find the Word lei applied not only to rocks asaffording sheltered places, such as the salmon-fishery at Lurlei, but to anysuch warm-sheltered place as Eiusede-lei and Zieye-lei, which are the names ofvillages in the Rheingau, near Mayence. The meaning of Lur, or Lor, is equallysimple. This is the German Lauer, a lurking-place, an ambush ; for, as therehappened to be a remarkable echo in connexion with Lurlei, and one that reallyimpresses us with the belief of there being some person concealed on the summitof the rock, listening to and repeating the sounds from below, of course this, inless scientific times than the present, was supposed to proceed from some Lauerer,or lurker: that is to say, from some person lying in ambush on the mountain-top.Further, the word Laurer being similar, both in writing and pronunciation, tothe female name Laura, the title was superstitiously thought to refer to some younglady secreted at the Lei ,• so that, as the rock was often heard to resound by nightas the wind swept fitfully down the gorge, the unearthly singing at such times

naturally came to be regarded as the voice of the laueret -----the syren that the

simple people fancied to be chanting to the boatmen in Order to beguile them intothe snare of the neighbouring whirlpool. Thus, as the Catholic Idol, St. Goar(pronounced Gowar), was merely the Pagan Deity of the Gewirr, or, literally, ofthe rapids existing in this part of the Rhine, so the syren Lore (pronouncedLaura), was simply the imaginary Lauerer, or water-nymph, lurking upon thesummit of the rock.