LEGENDS AND TALES OF THE HARZ MOUNTAINS.

TOOFIE LAUDER, (Maria Elise Turner Lauder)

AUTHOR OF "EVERGREEN LEAVES."

London: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW, MDCCCLXXXI.

UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHILWORTM AND LONDON.

Dedicated (BY SPECIAL PERMISSION) TO HER MAJESTY MARGHERITA, QUEEN OF ITALY.

CONTENTS.

LEGEND OF THE ROSSTRAPPE THE GOLDEN CROWN IN THE BODE KESSEL THE SEVEN SPRINGS OF THALE LEGENDS OF THE TEUFELSMAUER THE WUNDERSTEIN CHARLOTTE OF BLANKENBURG, PRINCESS OF WOLFENBÜTTEL THE GRAVE UNDER THE LINDENS NEAR BLANKENBURG LEGENDS OF THE REGENSTEIN THE LOST SKETCH-BOOK OF THE REGENSTEIN CHAPEL THE FLOWER OF THE LAUENBURG THE WHITE STAG THE FISHERMAN OF TRESEBURG LEGEND OF VOLKMARSKELLER REINHILDE OF THE KÖNIGSBURG THE TWELVE KNIGHTS IN THE SCHÖNEBURG THE GEGENSTEINE THE THREE CRYSTAL GOBLETS AND THREE GOLDEN BALLS OF SCHLOSS FALKENSTEIN TIDIAN'S HÖHLE, OR CAVE THE MÄGDESPRUNG AND MÄGDETRAPPE SAGE OF SCHLOSS QUESTENBERG BARBAROSSA AND THE KYFFHÄUSER THE BURGFRÄULEIN OF OSTERODE THE KEY-FAIRY OF THE GÜNTERSBURG LEGEND OF THE DEVIL'S MILL THE ORIGIN OF THE RAMMELSBERG MINE, NEAR GOSLAR LEGEND OF THE HOPPELBERG THE WHITE LADY THE CHAPEL OF ROSES PRINCESS ILSE PRINCESS ILSE AND THE DELUGE THE ILSENSTEIN A DREAM UNDER PRINCESS ILSE'S FIRS THE RED-HAIRED TRUDE THE WILD HUNTSMAN THE ORIGIN OF THE PHILIPPINE GRAF ARNO'S CAPTURE THE PEBBLE THE MONK AND THE SPRING

HILDEGARD AND THE HAINERBURG THE THREE STONE PARTRIDGES THE FORESTER AND THE ENCHANTED CASTLE THE STEINKIRCHE AND THE HERMIT THE NYMPH RUMA AND THE WEINGARTEN HÖHLE LEGEND OF THE SCHILDBERG LEGEND OF SILBERHOHL LAUTENTHAL EVA VON TROTTA THE WEINGARTEN HÖHLE AND THE THREE MEN THE BELL-FOUNDER OF STOLBERG THE COLT'S CAVE LEGEND OF ST. CHRISTOPHER THE MAIDEN'S CAVE IN THE SPATENBERG THE THREE BROTHERS OF ZELLERFELD THE RAVEN OF CLAUSTHAL THE BERGMÖNCH AND WILDER MANN THE NIMROD OF THE REHBERGERKLIPPE THE TANZTEICH BEI ZORGE THE DWARFS OF THE SACHSENTEIN THE BURGGEIST OF THE HAARBURG THE THREE WOOD-FAIRIES THE SHEPHERDS' TOWERS THE TREASURE-HUNTERS OF THE SIEBERTHAL THE ENCHANTED MAIDEN OF THE ZORGE THE ACCURSED MAIDEN OF LICHTENSTEIN THE GREAT HALL IN THE PETERSBERG SPAR-DIE-MÜH THE DWARF-KING HIBICH THE KING OF TIPPLERS THE NEEDLE'S EYE LEGEND OF ST. HUBERTUS BATHILDE VON BALLENSTEDT

LEGENDS AND TALES.

Legend of the Rosstrappe.[1]

[1] Ross, a steed; Trappe, a footprint.

Ages ago there ruled a king in Bohemia whose castle stood on a lofty mountain, where the thunder and the eagle found a home.

This king had a daughter, the golden-haired Brunhilda, the fame of whose marvellous beauty was spread far and wide.

Mighty rulers and the sons of kings sought the hand of the lovely royal maiden, and among the numerous wooers came the son of the king of the Harz, who won her heart; and after the lovers had sworn everlasting fidelity, the Harz Prince returned to his father to announce his betrothal and make arrangements for the nuptials.

After his departure, there arrived a new suitor for Brunhilda's hand, whom her father feared to reject. This was one of those terrible giants who inhabited North Europe. They were invincible, and wherever they appeared, all yielded with terror to their might.

This dreadful lover brought the Princess costly gifts of gold, amber, and precious stones. The father, after three days' Bedenkzeit, promises the Giant his daughter. Brunhilda throws herself horrified on her knees before her father, weeping and tearing her hair; but the king, though moved with pity, assures her the Giant has power to destroy him and his kingdom.

From this hour Brunhilda appeared composed. She neither wept nor complained, but met her destined bridegroom with a solemn dignity. Of a truly kingly character, she constrained her agony to silence, but hoped ever for deliverance through the return of her Harz lover; still he came not.

Now the Giant had two steeds—giant steeds—one white as the snows of the Northland, his eyes shining like stars; the other, the Giant's body-horse, black as the night, with eyes like the lightning, at whose running his hoofs resounded like thunder, and the earth trembled and shook. Both these steeds seemed in the chase to overtake the storm, and keep time with the lightning.

Brunhilda saw these giant steeds, and the thought of flight occurred to her.

Was success possible? She had never mounted the snowy steed.

Great was the Giant's joy when Brunhilda begged to ride with him. She mounted daily the terrible animal, and soon could ride a race with the Giant on the mountains.

At last the evening before the nuptials arrived, and Brunhilda, having arrayed herself in white robes, a golden crown, and a long white veil floating behind her, and the amber and diamonds, the Giant's gifts, welcomed the numerous guests who thronged the royal palace, and looked lovingly upon the Giant Bräutigam,[2] who was overwhelmed with an unheard of bliss at the lovely vision.

[2] Bräutigam, bridegroom. Used only during the engagement.

At length the Princess rose and retired, the Giant remained to drink of the costly wines. Suddenly he heard the snorting and stamping of his war-steeds! He sprang up and looked down into the courtyard.

There sat Brunhilda in her glittering robes, the golden crown still upon her head, her white veil and golden hair fluttering in the wind, in her fearless courage and queenly beauty, upon the snowy steed before the open gates.

At sight of him she let loose her reins, and the mighty steed shot forth, swift as the storm-wind, like a streak of light, into the darkness of the night.

The Giant uttered a cry of fury that shook the castle to its foundations, seized his battle-axe, and mounted his war-horse, crying: "If she flee to the Nidhöggar[3] in the Schlangengrund[4] I will bring her hence!"

[3] Nidhöggar, the dragon in the old German water-hell.

[4] Schlangengrund, valley of serpents.

And now begins the fearful race. Through meadow and forest, over mountain and ravine, flee the pursuer and pursued, the white steed always in advance, fleeing swift as a meteor through the heavens; behind, the black steed, like a spirit from the eternal darkness.

All through the night lasted the terrible ride. The earth groaned and thundered, the forests trembled, the birds and beasts fled in terror, long streaks of fire swept through the grim darkness, and the snorting of the steeds was like the roar of the Northwind.

At length dawn reflects her rosy blush over mountain and wood. Brunhilda utters a cry of joy and triumph! There before her lies the Harz, her lover's mountain home and future kingdom! That distant peak is the Brocken!

She spurs on her noble steed till she reaches the Hexentanzplatz,[5] when suddenly he Stops, rears, and plunges, and refuses to advance. Before her yawns the terrible rocky abyss of the Bode Valley, behind she hears the deadly foe advancing, uttering the most dreadful curses!

[5] Hexentanzplatz, witches' dancing-floor.

What shall she do? Forward over the wild abyss? Backward is to fall into the arms of the enemy.

The choice is not difficult. She turns his head to the fearful chasm, and spurs him on.

Like an eagle, the noble animal leaps the yawning abyss, lands safely on the other side, and impressing its giant hoof-print in the granite, sinks exhausted, but the Princess loses her goldene Krone in the gulf beneath the Bode Kessel!

The Giant in rage and fury spurs on his dusky steed to leap after her, but falls and is broken on the rocks, and ever since, transformed into a hell-hound, he guards the golden crown in the Bode Kessel.

The Princess, saved, dances for joy, and her footprints are still to be seen in the solid granite.

The mountain has ever since been called the Rosstrappe, and the Giant Bodo[6] gave his name to the valley and river.

[6] Bodo—the final o has been corrupted into e, Bode.

The Golden Crown in the Bode Kessel.

"Seht ihr die alte Lauenberg Hoch auf dem Harze schimmern? Durch Wildniss geht der Weg hindurch Zu ihren wüsten Trümmern."

The legend of the Gold-Krone in the Bode Kessel is connected with a Countess of the Lauenburg.

In the days of the Crusades there dwelt here a fair maiden, the daughter of the Earl von Lauenburg, whose lover, Conrad von Regenstein, was a Crusader.

Instead of his speedy return, came tidings of his fall in the bloody combat. The broken-hearted Braut refused all other lovers, and to secure peace and freedom declared she would bestow her hand only on the knight who could rescue Brunhilda's crown from the fearful gulf, the Bode Kessel.

The news spread through all the plains of Germany, from the North Sea to the Alps, and knights and princes flocked to the banks of the Bodethal to learn the extent of the danger in such an attempt, but no man was even able to approach the brink of the fearful chasm.[1]

[1] It must be remembered that the Bodethal was unapproachable, no path whatever existing, until von Bülow caused the path to be constructed in 1818, past the Rosstrappe to the Devil's Bridge overlooking the Bode Kessel.

The object of the maiden seemed gained, but, alas! she knew not what anguish destiny had assigned her.

Years had fled, and the Graf von Lauenburg held a fête in his castle.

Suddenly the notes of the warder's horn resound proclaiming the arrival of a guest.

The young Countess looks out of a Gothic window into the court, turns pale and trembles, as her straining eyes gaze upon the entering knight.

Yes! She is not deceived; that is the figure, the noble bearing of her lost Crusader!

"Conrad! my Conrad!" she cries, and rushes, frantic with joy, into the arms of her returned lover. "Thou dost yet live! Thou liest not in the cold arms of death!"

"I live, am in thy arms!"

No word more—a long embrace.

The aged Earl has followed his daughter, and amid their astonishment and joy, Conrad explains how he was severely wounded and taken prisoner, and had not for long years been able to escape.

The father leads the happy pair into the great hall, and announces to the assembled guests the betrothal of his daughter, and an early wedding-day.

Many crowd forward to offer their congratulations, but, in the background of the hall one sees a group of knights with frowning brows.

At last one of the group approaches the Earl in the centre of the hall, and cries: "You are in haste to announce the betrothal and wedding-day. Has the Regensteiner then brought up the Gold-Krone? or are you playing with so many nobles? You are surrounded by many who will demand that the bridegroom fulfil the conditions you yourself have named, or they will accuse you of treachery, and renounce your allegiance."

Applause followed this stern address. The Earl, surprised, glanced around the circle and met grim looks and frowning faces.

But Conrad raised high his proud form, struck his sword upon the floor, so that the hall rang with the clans;, and cried in a voice of thunder: "Who dares speak of treachery to Graf Lauenburg? Those conditions were not made in jest or scorn; his knightly word is irreproachable. I will undergo the test, and will not lead my beloved home until I have redeemed it."

Silence and astonishment filled the hall. But the maiden, pale with terror, exclaimed: "What! thou will'st face the Terrible? plunge thyself into certain destruction, and me into fresh despair?"

Conrad assures her the danger is not so great as it appears; that he is protected by an amulet, a cross made from the true cross of the Saviour, that has defended him from ocean perils, and rescued him from the swords and dungeons of the Saracens, and immediately prepares for the perilous rescue.

The day arrived, the Bode was bridged with ice, hundreds of anxious spectators lined the rocks above, the black flag floated from the Lauenburg and the Regenstein.

Extreme unction had been administered in Kloster Wenthusen, and armed with a dagger for the combat with the transformed Giant Bodo, and an iron chain to bind him, with a look toward heaven, Conrad plunged into the yawning gulf.

The waves closed over him and drew him down into their shimmering bosom.

A long and anxious stillness—then a horrible howl burst forth from the gulf, drowning the roar and hiss of the waterfall, growing every minute louder and more terrible, as if a thousand wolves were engaged in a death-grapple; and the waters rose in mighty billows, as if a storm-wind raged beneath.

Then a ray of sunshine bursts forth, making the colossal rocks glitter like silver towers, and the waterfall like dropping diamonds, and through the pearly foam appeared a hand holding the Golden Crown; the howlings became weaker, and the whisper went round, "He has conquered!" And a loud voice rose above the raging waves, "The Hell-dog lies in chains! The Crown and the Beloved are mine!"

Hark! What is that?

The terrible howlings begin afresh, the hand trembles and vanishes with the Gold-Krone, soon all grows fearfully still, drops of blood rise to the surface, then a whole stream—the brave Crusader never returns.

They found the amulet thrown up from the unfathomable deeps, and carried it to the unhappy maiden, who without a tear turned her steps to the holy retreat of Kloster Wenthusen, and was never seen again.

The Seven Springs of Thale.

Between the red-roofed Thale and Dorf Neinstedt, one sees several low, round hills, here and there overgrown with thorns and thickets, sometimes bare of all vegetation save short grass.

These mounds are graves of primeval days, in which urns and bones have been found.

At the foot of these hills, in a semicircle, are seven small springs, which unite themselves in one tiny brooklet, over which the train passes.

On the summit of one of these hills once stood seven trees called the Seven Brothers, of which now no trace remains.

Seven royal brothers came from England to woo the seven daughters of the king of the Harz mountains, the fame of whose beauty had penetrated even to the English court. These princesses were called the Sunbeams of the mountains; and when the English princes arrived in the Felsenburg of their royal father, they found assembled there princes and nobles from Saxony and Thuringia, Franconia and Bohemia, from the banks of the Danube and the amber coasts of the sea.

But the Sunbeams loved the English princes, and promised to go with them to their father's court.

Then the German wooers were enraged, and said, "Not without combat will we permit these strangers to rob us of the glory of our land."

The brothers seized sword and shield, but the princesses rushed into their arms and hindered the combat. At midnight, when the full moon shone, each brother, with his affianced bride behind him on his fleet steed, fled toward the rocky shores of England.

Suddenly the affrighted maidens see the glitter of arms in the faint moonlight.

"What is that that glitters below on the plain?" they cry.

"Fear not," said the youths, "'tis the waves of the Bode."

"What is that whistling in the forest?"

"The thrushes sing in the shadows of the foliage."

"Do you hear the rustling in the thicket?"

"'Tis but the frightened deer."

"What is that murmur?"

"The spring gushing out of the rocks."

"And that whispering?"

"The wind!"

"You deceive us. Your eyes burn like the lightning, you have seized both sword and shield!"

"Fear not! We are with you; our arm will defend you!"

Out of the thicket rush the concealed rivals; a furious combat follows; the English princes are all slain, their bodies burnt and the ashes buried.

The princesses returned to their father's castle, but hated the murderers of their English lovers. Every day they went with the dawn to the spot where the brothers lay in their deep slumber, and night found them still there in tears.

Each princess planted a tree by her lover's grave, and when seven moons were passed away, one evening, as they sat by the graves, suddenly they felt a great joy spring up within them; they wiped away their tears, but from them seven springs bubbled up sparkling and clear. Smiling, they gave each other the hand, feeling the hour of reunion was come, and in the morning they were found dead, hand in hand.

Legends of the Teufelsmauer.

On the plain, stretching away westward from the once imperial Quedlinburg, is the Devil's Wall, which rises in ragged rocks in the most fantastic shapes and forms, sometimes a hundred feet in height, mostly bare, but nearer to Blankenburg adorned with foliage.

This is the backbone of a mountain chain once extending from Blankenburg to Ballenstedt, which has been mostly washed away by the tempests of untold ages.

These rocks are a firm sandstone with a vein of iron, containing impressions of fossils, shells, and plants, and are sometimes in such forms as to resemble the ruins of castles or human figures.

These rent and torn rocks could not fail to possess their legends.

In the time of Charlemagne there lived in Blanka a maiden called Thusnelda. The report of her charms attracted the attention of the brave Egbert, who had built on the Klus near Halberstadt a strong castle. He won her affections, of course.

Just at this period the doctrines of the Christian faith had penetrated into the Harz; Egbert had become a convert, and had won Thusnelda also for the new faith.

But the lovers were betrayed to Thusnelda's father, the wild and savage Luitprand, and he, in fury, having promised her to a companion in arms, shut her up in a gloomy room, deaf to all her entreaties, and laid in wait for Egbert; but Egbert assembled all the Christians of the neighbourhood, and set off in the night to storm Luitprand's castle.

Suddenly a wall of rock rose before them, and they were obliged to wait till morning, when lo! as far as they could see, only this formidable barrier that blocked up their way.

Egbert encouraged his braves to climb it; but when half way up, the giant rocks fell upon them and crushed every daring knight to atoms.

This wall the devil had built to prevent the spread of the new faith.

The other legend says the devil wished to divide with Christ the empire of the world, and therefore began this wall as the border between the two kingdoms; but the work was not finished at the time agreed upon by the contracting parties, and the contract was broken. The devil, in wrath at having laboured so much for nought, broke in pieces his partly built defence.

There is a tradition that the holy Vehm,[1] or Fehm, formerly held her court also in the Teufelsmauer, not far from the majestic Reinstein.

[1] Vehm, or Fehm, old German for punishment.

This celebrated tribunal had its origin in Westphalia, the land of the Red Earth, and was one of the most remarkable institutions of the middle ages.

The Fehm is said to have been instituted by Charlemagne to prevent Saxony, which had been forced by his arms to embrace Christianity, from returning to Paganism. Others claim for it a much greater antiquity.[2]

[2] See "History of the Fehm Tribunal; or, Secret History of Westphalia." By Fr. P. Usener. Frankfort, 1832.

The Wunderstein.

The vast plain north of the Harz mountains has been the scene of countless knightly feuds and battles.

In 1115 the battle of Welfsholz—not far from the village of Warnstedt, nestling in the shadow of the Devil's Wall—was fought between the Kaiser and the allied princes of Saxony, in which the imperial forces were routed. There is a legend that the battle was lost through the Count von Mannsfeld, who seeing his men flee, exclaimed, placing his hand on a rock at his side, "This rock shall turn into wax before I move from the spot!" when immediately the soft wax yielded to the pressure, and took the print of his hand, and he fled in terror and fell under the Saxon swords.

There is another version of the story.