𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘

And the winds would cry, and many men would die,
And all the waves would bow down to the Loreley.

𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘

Welcome back lovelies! Today, I have a new chapter to proudly present to you—a new column in fact. In Musical Musings, I take a special song every month and show you the deeper meaning behind it.

The beautiful song I have for you all is Loreley by Blackmore’s Night!

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Blackmore’s Night is a folk rock band primarily featuring Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night. They’re one of my favorite bands, and I highly recommend giving them a listen! Loreley is one of their most popular songs, from their 2003 album Ghost of a Rose. The lyrics of Loreley, as shown above, describe an urban legend—the tale of a siren named after the famous Lorelei Rock on the banks of the Rhine River, which is even mentioned in the song: “down the twisting river Rhine.”

While the song doesn’t state Loreley as a siren outright, we can infer this from numerous lyrics in the song. For instance, in the chorus: “And the winds would cry, and many men would die, and all the waves would bow down to the Loreley.” Sirens are famed to sing and cry amongst the waves before dragging sailors down to the watery depths and to their graves. The song explicitly states that the “winds” would cry, possibly referencing how the Loreley is a legend and therefore, it would only be the winds howling, rather than the mystical creature. The song then completes its next Siren reference with “...many men would die, and all the waves would bow down to the Loreley.” These lyrics further exemplify typical Siren behaviour—dragging sailors down into the ocean [“many men would die”]. The last part of the lyric could possibly suggest how sirens, with their mythical power, have some degree of control over the waves and how the ocean does not stop the sirens from killing the helpless men and dragging them below, effectively “bowing down” to the Loreley’s ambitions and goals.

The song also references the legend of the Loreley’s roots in two ways. First is the lyric “down the twisting river Rhine.” This is talking about the Rhine River, a European river lying across the Swiss-German border continuing down from the Swiss Alps. This river is the setting of the very real Lorelei Rock, which holds the old German legend as it was originally told by many: the female Loreley, betrayed by her lover, is to be banished to a nunnery. On the way there, she glimpses the rock on the Rhine and climbs up to try and see her sweetheart. She bends out too far and her three knight escorts follow her, leaving an echo of her name into the rock forever. The legend is very likely inspired by the Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus. The second subtle lyric referencing the legend is “laying on the silver stone, such a lonely sight, barnacles become a throne, my poor Loreley.” The silver stone here is to represent the real-life Loreley Rock. The other inferences are subtle. By saying “lonely sight” and “barnacles become a throne," Blackmore’s Night is referring to the original legend of Loreley being betrayed, hence her solitude, and that she will, for eternity, be waiting in the Rhine near the rock, which is why she shall grow barnacles to become an eternal throne for her to reside in.

Written by Sara Rowan.
Edited by Hazel Antler.
Proofread by Daphne Clarke.