The Loreley on the Rhine river

According to the legend, the Loreley was a a mermaid living in a rock on the right bank of the Rhine river near Sankt Goarshausen. Many boats went allegedly lost, when the song of the Loreley did distract the attention of the sailors.

Indeed the sailors got in troubles because of eddy currents, this part of the Rhine being rather dangerous for the unexperienced. Heavy currents and a small waterfall associated with the echo the rock produced did create a murmuring sound.

The height of the rock of the Loreley is 132 m. Sankt Goarshausen and the Loreley are situated between Mayence (Mainz) and Coblence (Koblenz) on the medium Rhine (Mittelrhein) in Germany.

Depending on the etymology theory retained the name Loreley may mean murmuring rock or lurking rock.

The most often encountered spelling is Loreley. A variant that is a little less common is Lorelei. Rather rare are the 2 words versions Lore-Ley and Lore Lay. In some older stories, 2 centuries ago, it is spelled Lureley, Lurelei and Lurlei. Some mispellings, probably stemming from unknowing people, can be found: Loreli, Laureli, Laurelli, laureli river rhine and laurelli river rhine (!).

An approaching pronunciation could be described as following: 3 syllables, the 1st one "lo" is pronounced like in "lost" or "plot", the 2nd one "re" is pronouced like in "rest" or "red", the 3rd one "ley" is pronounced like in "lie". In international phonetics it would be written "lorelai".