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The Finest Legends of the Rhine
The author, a true son of the Rhineland, draws on the wealth of legend and fable to produce in a masterly manner and in the most beautiful poetic language now the more gentle old stories, now the more tragically stirring events of the ancient past. These collected Germanic stories drawn from popular and classic tales and operas include such well-known ancient tales from the Rhine region includes The Nibelungen Song, The Mouse Tower, The Blind Archer, The Templars, The Legend of the Dragon, and many others.
128 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 12, 2016
This book was written to sell to tourists taking cruises up the Rhine through Germany. These are German legends and many were unfamiliar but made me think of Fairy Tales. Others were the great legends of Siegfried and Lohengrin.
The legends were interesting to read. The writing was another thing.
Remember your most boring lecturing teacher droning on and on. This is the author's writing.
The book is short. The legends are interesting. A better writer could have breathed life into them.
The legends were interesting to read. The writing was another thing.
Remember your most boring lecturing teacher droning on and on. This is the author's writing.
The book is short. The legends are interesting. A better writer could have breathed life into them.
November 29, 2024
A collection of various Germanic legends related to the Rhine river or locations along it. If (like me) you find it interesting, rather than off-putting, to read brief stories that are distinctly non-modern in their outlook on life and somewhat unpolished in their form (again, compared to modern stories), then this is your book. I'm not saying that pre-modern values are in any sense superior to modern ones (in many ways they are the opposite), but it is interesting to read stories from a different time and place.
I can say it no better than C.S.Lewis:
"Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.
All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook—even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. Nothing strikes me more when I read the controversies of past ages than the fact that both sides were usually assuming without question a good deal which we should now absolutely deny. They thought that they were as completely opposed as two sides could be, but in fact they were all the time secretly united—united with each other and against earlier and later ages—by a great mass of common assumptions.
We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the twentieth century—the blindness about which posterity will ask, “But how could they have thought that?”—lies where we have never suspected it, and concerns something about which there is untroubled agreement between Hitler and President Roosevelt or between Mr. H. G. Wells and Karl Barth. None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill.
The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them."
Also, nice illustrations.
I can say it no better than C.S.Lewis:
"Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.
All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook—even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. Nothing strikes me more when I read the controversies of past ages than the fact that both sides were usually assuming without question a good deal which we should now absolutely deny. They thought that they were as completely opposed as two sides could be, but in fact they were all the time secretly united—united with each other and against earlier and later ages—by a great mass of common assumptions.
We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the twentieth century—the blindness about which posterity will ask, “But how could they have thought that?”—lies where we have never suspected it, and concerns something about which there is untroubled agreement between Hitler and President Roosevelt or between Mr. H. G. Wells and Karl Barth. None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill.
The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them."
Also, nice illustrations.
March 18, 2017
If you're not interested in German folklore then I doubt this would be of much interest.
It's really, really short (~120 ages and the book is maybe 3"x5", booklet may be a better term) and the writing is very dry. Like if I was relating a half-forgotten story where I only remembered the people's names towards the end of the story.
That being said, as I am interested in Germanic folklore I found this interesting to read (once I powered through the tone). For example, the story of Sigurd and Fafnir and Sigurd and the Nibelungs are both adapted. I'm mainly familiar with Tolkien's version of the tale so it was interesting to see the difference between the folk versions and his reconstructed version.
It's really, really short (~120 ages and the book is maybe 3"x5", booklet may be a better term) and the writing is very dry. Like if I was relating a half-forgotten story where I only remembered the people's names towards the end of the story.
That being said, as I am interested in Germanic folklore I found this interesting to read (once I powered through the tone). For example, the story of Sigurd and Fafnir and Sigurd and the Nibelungs are both adapted. I'm mainly familiar with Tolkien's version of the tale so it was interesting to see the difference between the folk versions and his reconstructed version.
August 18, 2017
Lovely little vintage red book with gilt titles that wound up in my private collection because it wasn't worth enough to sell. The line drawings are lovely; the tales written in the rather dry style of the late 19th century. It was a pleasant read because the tales are short and I was familiar with some of the legends, although not all of them.
October 4, 2020
Okay, so I actually have fun reading melodramatic medieval lore. Definitely want this pocket-sized book with me if I ever visit the sites of these German legends. It felt a little badly-translated at some parts, but overall readable.
August 3, 2017
A very interesting take on tales not often read. Much more Christian myth leaning than others I've read. A strange balance between pedantic and chatty.
July 9, 2018
A very enjoyable little work - although at times 'odd' in the same way as all fairy tales, with unclear motivations or morality, these make surprisingly good bedtime stories.
August 28, 2018
Nette Bilder, entsetzlicher Stil.
September 15, 2020
An interesting collection of legends from the Rheinland-Pfalz region of Germany.
December 25, 2022
I enjoy these books on old legends, they are a fun read
February 10, 2024
I bought this tiny hardback on a trip to South Carolina back in 2012.
I read a few back then, pretty nice.
I read a few back then, pretty nice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2025
Brief but mostly enjoyable collection of tales from the castles and towns along the Rhine. My interest mostly came from having visited these places.
March 26, 2025
A charming collection of stories. It was quite entertaining and I am so glad I finally took it off my bookshelf to read. Read it all in two sittings!
July 3, 2012
Re-read this little gem. My uncle recommended it to me when we were both stationed in Germany in 1963. After 50 years it is still entertaining. Lohengrin reminded me of Moses striking his rod the second time - both Moses and Elsa of Brabant failed to follow their instructions. While to Monk of Heisterbach preceeded Rip van Winkle. It was a fun read matching up the legeneds with the towns and villages I had visited while treaveling along the Rhine, in our bug, from Amsterdam to Frankfurt.
October 11, 2015
Wanted this to be great. But, it wasn't. Stories were told in a cold, detached way not typical of my experience of reading myths/fables. The content was interesting (some stories more than others), but it was in the writing that I feel this book failed. Perhaps, there are better tellings of German tales somewhere out there.
January 12, 2011
My edition is one from years ago translated as the first English edition by two Scots. Really cute little book and about what you'd expect from writers collecting tales of that time. Not really fairy tales but not really legends either. Sort of a mix.
January 17, 2015
Die Nibelungen, Der Mäuseturm, Drachenfels, Loreley, und 14 andere Sagen vom Rhein werden hier kurz erzählt.
Das Buch ist sehr hübsch illustriert, allerdings war ich der Sprache nicht sonderlich zugetan.
Das Buch ist sehr hübsch illustriert, allerdings war ich der Sprache nicht sonderlich zugetan.
January 21, 2010
meh . . . my copy is a fun, little vintage book, though. Not terribly interesting, or informative. I do like the black and white line drawings throughout, though.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews