Loreley
I do not know what
haunts me,
What saddened my mind all day;
An age-old tale confounds me,
A spell I cannot allay.
The air is cool and
in twilight
The Rhine's dark waters flow;
The peak of the mountain in highlight
Reflects the evening glow.
There sits a lovely
maiden
Above so wondrous fair,
With shining jewels laden,
She combs her golden hair.
It falls through her
comb in a shower,
And over the valley rings
A song of mysterious power
That lovely maiden sings.
The boatman in his
small skiff is
Seized by a turbulent love,
No longer he marks where the cliff is,
He looks to the mountain above.
I think the waves
must fling him
Against the reefs nearby,
And that did with her singing
The lovely Loreley.
- Heinrich Heine
A frequent feature
of the popular epic romances and natural history books, the mermaid
gradually established herself as a distinct entity in the early
Christian era. For Pliny the Elder, the fish-tailed women were
a reality, living proof of nature's splendid diversity. There
are several mermaid sightings in his Historia Naturalis.
- Beatrice Phillpotts,
from Mermaids by Elizabeth Ratisseau.
In seventeenth century
England...the existence of mermaids was as firmly established
as the existence of shrimps. They were regularly see off the
coast of Britain, and travelers brought back tales of encounters
with them from every corner of the seven seas.
- Richard Carrington, from Mermaids by
Elizabeth Ratisseau. |
