..The Myth..
In ancient times, a virgin could sometimes be seen on the Loreley at dusk and by moonlight.
She sang in such a sweet voice that all who heard it were charmed. Many who passed by were swept down the rocky reef in the stream because they no longer paid attention to their vehicle. No one had seen the virgin up close, than some young fishermen.
Sometimes she would join them in the last twilight and show them the places where they were to cast their nets.
Every time they followed the Virgin's advice, they made a plentiful catch. The youths related what had happened to them, and the story soon spread throughout the country.
The son of the Count Palatine, who at that time had his court camp nearby, also heard the wonderful tale; he longed to see the Virgin. He pretended to go hunting, took the road to Oberwesel; There he sat down in a boat and let himself be driven downstream.
The sun had just set, and the first stars appeared in the sky, when the craft approached the Lorelei. "Do you see her there, the accursed sorceress?" cried the sailors. But the young man had already caught sight of her. She sat on the slope of the rock, not far from the stream, and tied a wreath round her golden locks.
Now he heard the sound of her voice, and soon lost his senses. He ordered the sailors to sail at the rock. But when he wanted to jump ashore, he took the leap too short and sank into the stream; the waves crashed horribly over him.
The news quickly reached the ears of the Count Palatine. Full of pain and anger, he ordered his servants to bring him the fiend, dead or alive.
One of his captains promised to carry out the will of the Count Palatine. But he begged to be allowed to throw the witch into the Rhine at once, so that she might not free herself from dungeons and bonds by magic arts. The Count Palatine was satisfied.
Towards evening the captain set out and surrounded the mountain with his brushwood. He himself took three of the bravest men from his troop and climbed the Loreley.
The maiden sat on top, holding a string of amber in her hand. She saw the men coming and called out to them what they were looking for. "You, sorceress," answered the captain, "and I command you to throw yourself down into the waters at once." - "Ah," said the maiden, laughing, "the Rhine may take me!" At these words she threw the amber cord down into the stream, and sang in a horrible tone, "Father, father, quick, quick, send the white horses to your child, she wants to ride with waves and wind!"
All of a sudden, the stream roared along. The Rhine roared so that the banks and heights were covered with white spray. Two waves, almost in the shape of two white horses, rose with lightning speed to the top of the rock, and carried the maiden down into the stream, where she disappeared.
..The Facts..
For shipping, the Loreley Passage used to be one of the most dangerous sections of the Rhine.
The riverbed, which is still 300 metres wide above the Kammereck, is narrowed to 145 metres by the rock barriers just before the Loreley, at the Betteck. At the Loreley itself, the Rhine is 160 meters wide and was up to 25 meters deep.
This is the narrowest and deepest point of the Rhine on its entire navigable section between Basel and Rotterdam. Only the St.-Anna-Loch between the Swiss town of Rheinfelden and the German town of Rheinfelden is deeper at 32 metres.
On the other hand, the two banks of the river diverge directly downstream, at the Loreley harbour, for a short distance like a trough again up to 400 metres. At Sankt Goar and Sankt Goarshausen, the stream is usually 250 metres wide.
The Rhine winds its way through the rock massif in tight curves.
For this reason, and due to strong currents, navigation on the Rhine from Bankeck in Sankt Goar to Oberwesel is regulated by traffic lights. However, some rocks on the Loreley were blasted in the 1930s, so the passage has lost much of its former dangerousness.
Nevertheless, until the 1980s, pilots were active on the St. Goar to Bingen am Rhein route.
Major shipping accidents happened in the Loreley bend as recent as 2003 when a cruise ship ran aground and caused injury to several passengers and 2011, a tanker, loaded with 2400 tonnes of concentrated sulphuric acid, capsized and stopped any shipping traffic for over one months which caused a significant backlog of ships either side of the Loreley bend.
Campervans and caravans parked along the river bank for about 300m, waiting to see if they can hear the sweet voice of the Virgin on the Loreley...
Listen to the Loreley German folk song here.....https://youtu.be/d8_QotuhPSk
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