Graf Von Loeben and the Legend of Lorelei: From "modern Philology" Vol. 13 (1915)

The Lorelei rock on the Rhine has captivated German imagination for two centuries, its siren legend woven into the very fabric of Romantic literature. This 1915 philological study recovers the forgotten figure who helped cement that myth: Graf von Loeben, a poet whose work bridged the golden age of German Romanticism and the modern era. Allen Wilson Porterfield traces Loeben's intricate relationships with the era's literary giants, Goethe, Eichendorff, Brentano, Heine, unraveling how the Lorelei legend evolved through their competing interpretations and poetic reimagining. The text operates as both literary archaeology and cultural detective work, examining what Loeben's partial authorship of the legend meant for his own reputation and why he faded into obscurity while his contemporaries achieved immortality. Porterfield doesn't merely catalog facts; he grapples with the slippery nature of literary legacy itself, asking why some poets become shorthand for an entire national imagination while others, despite prodigious output, vanish from the canon. For scholars of German Romanticism, this remains a fascinating window into how literary reputations are made, contested, and lost.