Lorelei

The Lorelei is a 132 m high, steep slate rock on the right bank of the river Rhine in the Rhine Gorge at Sankt Goarshausen in Germany.EtymologyThe name comes from the old German words lureln, Rhine dialect for "murmuring", and the Celtic term ley "rock". The translation of the name would therefore be: "murmur rock" or "murmuring rock". The heavy currents, and a small waterfall in the area (still visible in the early 19th century) created a murmuring sound, and this combined with the special echo the rock produces to act as a sort of amplifier, giving the rock its name. The murmuring is hard to hear today owing to the urbanization of the area. Other theories attribute the name to the many accidents, by combining the German verb "lauern" (to lurk, lie in wait) with the same "ley" ending, with the translation "lurking rock".In the German language orthographic reform of 1903, in almost all German terms the letter "y" was changed to the letter "i", but in some German names the letter "y" was kept, such as Bayern, Speyer, Spay, (Rheinberg-)Orsoy, and including Loreley, which is thus the correct spelling in German.Original folklore and the creation of the modern mythThe rock and the murmur it creates have inspired various tales. An old legend envisioned dwarfs living in caves in the rock.