NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY,
COMPRISING THE PRINCIPAL
POPULAR TRADITIONS AND SUPERSTITIONS
OF
SCANDINAVIA, NORTH GERMANY,
AND
THE NETHERLANDS.
COMPILED FROM ORIGLNAL AND OTHER SOURCES,
BY
BENJAMIN THORPE,
MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AT 5ICNICH.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. III.
NORTH GERMAN AND NETHERLANDISH POPULAR TRADITIONS AND SUPERSTITIONS
LONDON : EDWARD LUMLEY,
SOUTHAMPTON STREET, BLOOMSBURY SQUARE. MDCCCLII.
PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
ALERE FLAMMAM.
CONTENTS.
SCHLESWIG, HOLSTEIN, LAUENBURG.
Page.
The Creation of Adam 1
The Ehrengang (Walk of Honour) ib.
The Lime-Tree in Nortorf ^
Our Lady on Horseback ib.
The Dancer 3
The Devil and the Card-players 4
The Beacon-burning
No Spinning on Saturday Evening
Nor in the twelve days of Christmas 7
New Year's Eve ib.
Divine Service of the Dead 8
The Spectre at Gramm ^
The Gongers 10
The Staven-Wiifke 11
The Land-divider ib.
The Black School 12
Fast-reading 14
Fast-writing ib.
Turning the Sieve 15
A Murderer cited 17
The Magic Kettle ib.
A 2
IV CONTENTS.
Page
The Devil's Cat 18
Monoloke 19
Witches in Friesland ib.
Witches 21
The Witches' Present 23
Wind-Knots ib.
The St. John's Blood 24
The Waxen Image ib.
The Witches stuff in Dissension ib.
/ Witches take Butter 25
The Severed Hand 26
A Witch as a Hare ib.
Werwolves 27
The Long Horse ib.
The Mannigfual or Giant Ship 28
The Basilisk 2.9
The Nightmare ib.
The Hel-Horse 30
Flames in the Water ib.
Of the Underground Folk ib.
The Onnerbankissen in Fogedshoog 32
The Subterranean Potters 33
The Underground Smith ib.
Kettles borrowed ib.
The Dragedukke 34
The Gossips, ib.
Drum-Music 35
The Mill-Stone suspended by a Silken Thread ib.
Pingel is dead ! 37
The Builder Zi 38
Father Finn 39
The House with Ninety-nine Windows ib.
Ekke Nekkepenn 40
The Carved Image 41
A Subterranean Child caught 42
CONTENTS. V
Page
Changelings 43
The Kielkropp 46
The Underground Folk emigrate 47
The Wolterkens — Niss-Puk — Biisemann — Niske 48
The Subterraneans lick up Milk 49
The Klabautermann ib.
Of the Ranzaus 50
Josias Ranzau's Magic Sword 54
We are removing ! 55
The Snake-King 56
Thunder 57
The Stars ib.
The Man in the Moon ib.
Hans Diimkt 58
The Wandering Jew 59
The Wode ib.
The Man without a Shadow 62
Devil against Devil 64
Witches take away Butter 68
Calves bewitched 69
Foreseeing ib.
The Communion-Cup at Viol 70
White Women 71
MEKLENBURG, THE MARK, SAXONY, THURINGIA, BRUNSWICK, HANOVER, OLDENBURG, WEST PHALIA.
FruGode 73
The Klabautersmanneken or Pukse 75
The Horse-Mare ib.
A Woman Werwolf 76
The Heckethaler ib.
Milk abstracted 77
Witches discovered , 78
Huuensteine (Giant-Stones) 79
VI CONTENTS.
Page
A Horse conies out of the Water 80
Old Frick ib.
The Witches' Ride 81
Kobolds, or Goblins 83
Jack o' Lanterns with Long Legs 85
Jack o' Lanterns driven away by cursing ib.
A Jack o' Lantern caught ib.
Frau Harke 87
The Nickelmann, or Nick ib.
The Princess Use 88
Hans von Hackelnberg 91
Witches in Gittelde 95
The Monk of the Mines 96
The Demons of the Mine 97
The Night-Raven, or Eternal Wagoner ib.
Frau Hulle (Holda, Hulde) 98
Traditions of the Kyffhauser 101
The Smith of Jiiterbogk 103
The Wunderblume (Miracle Flower) 106
The Werwolf's Girdle 107
Traditions of Dwarfs ib.
Traditions of the Hiibichenstein :
I. The Dwarf King 109
II. The Ascent of the Hiibichenstein 110
III. The Silver Fir-cone 115
The Bell-Pond 118
The Bell at Coenhausen ib.
The Children of Hameln 119
The White Ghosts in the Liiningsberg 120
The Rose of Hildesheim 122
The Smith in the Hiiggel 123
The Deer-stealer 126
The Freischiitz 127
The Oldenburg Horn 128
The Cuckoo.— The Pleiades .... .131
CONTENTS. Vll
NORTH GERMAN CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS.
Page
Shrovetide 133
Candlemas 134
Easter ib.
The First of April 136
May-day ib.
Whitsuntide 138
St. John's, or Midsummer, Day 139
Harvest Customs 141
St. Michael's Day 142
St. Martin's Day ib.
St. Andrew's Eve ib.
Christmas 145
The New Year 149
Twelfthtide 151
Supernatural Beings of Twelfthtide 1 53
The Mart— Marte— Marten— Nachtmart (The Nightmare) ... 154
Drak — Kobold — Fire-drake 1 55
Dwarfs 157
Jack o' Lanterns 158
The Nix , ib.
The Wild Huntsman ib.
The Devil 159
Marriage ib.
Birth and Baptism 160
Death and Burial 161
Wounds, Diseases, etc 162
House, Field, etc 174
Birds, etc 180
The Elder 182
The Elements and Natural Phenomena 183
Miscellaneous 184
NETHERLANDISH POPULAR TRADITIONS. Kaboutermannekens 187
Vlll CONTENTS.
Page
Kludde 193
Osschaert 195
The Necker 198
The Three Nixen of Jupille 199
Flerus 200
The Werwolf 201
The Maere 202
Dwarf- Smithies 205
Lodder ib.
Witchery 208
The Long Wapper of Antwerp 209
The Wild Hunt 218
The Wild Huntsman's Present 219
The Eternal Huntsman of Wynandael ib.
Jack o' Lanterns baptized 220
Malegy's Palfrey ib.
The Fiddlestick 228
The Fiddler tricked 230
The Fiddler in the Gallows-Field at Antwerp 231
The Wedding-Feast at Carron-St.-Martin 232
Riding on Calves 235
The Woman transformed to a Horse ib.
The Cats of Stockhem 236
A Witch burnt 238
The Red Cloth 239
The Tormented Witch 240
The Ace of Hearts pierced ib.
The Lost Chain 241
The Landmark removed 242
The Bold Soldier of Antwerp 243
Mariken of Nyinwegen 247
The Devil of Nederbraekel 256
The Devil outwitted 258
The Freischiitz , 259
The Bam of Montecouvez 261
CONTENTS. IX
Page
The Devil's Barn at Gallemaerde 263
How to become Invisible 264
The Travelling Mother ib.
The Lying-in Woman , ib.
Wanne Thekla 265
The Everlasting Jew ib.
Elves ib.
Flabbaert , 266
Why the Jews do not eat Swine's Flesh ib.
The Spectres' Mass 267
Alvina 268
Roodselken ib.
The Burning Land-measurer ib.
Cowls hung on Sunbeams 269
White Maidens and White Women in Friesland ib.
The Three Sisters 270
St. Gertmd's Minne ib.
The Lily 271
The Feather Heart ib.
Love- Magic 2/2
Thief's Foot— Thief's Hand— Thief s Finger 2/4
The Magic Sword 275
Witches' Ointment 2/6
Milk-taking — Milk beaten ib.
Corn-stealing 277
A Sorceress caught 278
Witchery expelled ..... 279
The Gravedigger 280
The Coffin 281
Zevenbergen 282
How Count Baldwin of Flanders married a Devil 283
The Poacher of Wetter en- Overbeke 289
The Bloody Coach at Antwerp 290
The Sand-Gate at Mechlin ib.
Chess with the Devil ., ,. 291
X CONTENTS.
Page Falkenberg 294
The Monk of Afflighem 29?
St. Julian the Ferryman ib.
Lohengrin and Elsa. — Lohengrin and Belaye 302
The Knight and the Swan 30/
Godfrey of Bouillon and the Swan 309
The Knight with the Swan «'£.
Netherlandish Popular Belief. , , 328
NORTH GERMAN POPULAR TRADITIONS,
i.
SCHLESWIG, HOLSTEIN, LAUENBURG1.
THE CREATION OF ADAM. From the Old Frisic.
GrOD created the first man, which was Adam, from eight things; the bones from stone, the flesh from earth, the blood from water, the heart from wind, the thoughts from clouds, the sweat from dew, the hair from grass, the eyes from the sun, and then blew in the holy spirit ; and then from his rib he created Eve, Adam's companion,
See Wodana, p. xix. (from Richthofen, p. 211), and remarks of Grimm from Haupt's Zeitschrift. Compare also the account of man's creation in the " Dialogue between Saturn and Solomon." Analecta Anglo-Saxonica, p. 110, and "Anglo-Saxon Dialogues" (/Elfric Soc. edit, by Kemble), p. 178.
THE EHRENGANG (WALK OF HONOUR). In many places in the north of Germany, chiefly on
1 From Miillenhoff, Sagen, Marchen und Lieder der Herzogthiimer Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg. Kiel 1845, unless otherwise expressed.
B
2 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
eminences or elevated plains, there is found a species of monument, consisting of a large number of granite stones, placed in an oblong square. Four stones stand near to each other, one of which is always much larger than the rest. Such monuments are now known by the name of 1 Ehrengang/ or Walk of honour, because, in ancient times, princes and chieftains, after a victory, here, it is said, made their solemn processions, accompanied with many cere monies. Near Nehmten, between Bornhoved and Stock- see, and on the Kremsfeld near Segeberg, these monu ments are in the best preservation.
Near Raubierg, in the bailiwick of Apenrade, there is a spot set round with stones, called Kongens Heststald (the King's stable), where there was once a great battle.
THE LIME-TREE IN NORTORF.
On the south-west side of the churchyard in Nortorf 1 there stands a venerable three-branched lime-tree, beneath whose boughs courts of justice, festivals, marriages, con tracts, etc. were anciently held and made. All contracts were there made orally, and were sealed, as it was called, with a ( doppen/ This doppen consisted in simply pressing the thumb against the trunk of the tree.
Between Blumenthal and Sprenge, to the south of Kiel, there stood formerly the sacred Schwerk- or Dreieiche (triple oak). In its vicinity lay an enormously huge stone, of which a portion of from 30 to 40 feet long and 20 feet wide was to be seen in the last century. A hill hard by is called the Heiligenberg (Sacred hill). Westphal. Monum. Ined. iv. pref. 216, and the representation No. 21. Schroder Topographie von Holstein, i. 60.
OUR LADY ON HORSEBACK.
When the church of Delve in North Ditmarschen was to be built, the people, being unable to decide on a site for it, caused an image of the Virgin to be tied on a pied
1 A town not far from Rendsburg.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. ,5
mare,, which they let run whithersoever it would, and whcre- evcr it was found on the following morning, there should their church be erected. Next morning the mare was found in a marshy spot thickly overgrown with thorns and underwood. After having cut down and cleared all this, they transferred their village thither, and named the church ' Unse leve Fru up dem Perde/ or, Our Lady on horseback.
THE DANCER.
At a splendid wedding in the old noble mansion of Hoierswort in Eidcrstedt l, there was among the company a young girl who was the most enthusiastic dancer far and near ; she was, in fact, during the evening constantly engaged in dancing. When her mother warned her against it, she said petulantly : " If the devil himself were to call me out, I would not refuse him ! " At the same instant a stranger entered and invited her to dance. It was the devil, to whom she had given her word. He whirled her about so long that the blood at length issued from her mouth, and she fell down dead. The traces are still visible in the saloon, and are indelible. But the girl her self has no rest. Every night as the clock strikes twelve she must rise from her grave and enter the saloon, an in fernal music then strikes up, and the whole mansion is in an uproar. Every person, who may happen to pass a night in the saloon, she calls up to dance ; but hitherto no one has ventured to dance with her. Yet if any Christian man would venture, she would be released. She once so terrified a young dissipated fellow, that he lost all inclina tion for merry-making, and whenever he heard a violin, fancied that the spectre had again broken loose.
1 A bailiwick on the west coast of Sleswig.
B 2
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
Two young damsels went together to take the sacra ment, having partaken of which, and while still by the altar, one said to the other : " Do you go to the wedding this evening ? " " Don't speak of it," said her companion ; but she continued : " I shall go, and dance till I am tired : I could dance myself dead to-day." In the evening, while at the wedding-party and in the height of the dancing, a tall, comely young gentleman entered, whom no one knew, who invited her to dance. At first they danced quite soberly, but by degrees more and more madly, and even when the musicians made a pause they continued without intermission. To the rest of the company this seemed mysterious, and they caused a song to be struck up, in the hope of bringing them to a stand, But the stranger danced with the damsel out at the door and vanished. The girl was found in a dung-pit, into which she sank in the sight of all. It was believed that her mother had, while she was a child, sold her to the devil.
THE DEVIL AND THE CARD-PLAYERS. In the village of Hellewadt, close on the high road lead ing from Apenrade to Liigumkloster, there is an inn called the Kloveres (Ace of clubs), which name it derives from the following incident. At this house, which did not stand in the best repute, there was formerly much card- playing. One winter evening a company was assembled there, among whom there was no lack of cursing and swearing and un seemly conversation ; the devil of course being repeatedly invoked ; when quite unexpected and observed by no one, a journeyman mechanic entered the room and seated him self among the players. In a short time all the luck turned to the side of the stranger, whereby the others found themselves not in the best possible humour. A card fell under the table, it was the ace of clubs, and when one of the party stooped to pick it up, he observed that
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. ij
the stranger had a horse's foot. On this, laying down his cards, he left the room without uttering a syllable. His conduct attracted the notice of the others,, and a second person now designedly let a card fall on the floor, when, stooping to pick it up, he saw what the other had seen, and like him silently left the place. Their example was followed by the rest of the company, so that at length the devil was left sitting by himself. The host was in the greatest embarrassment ; in his perplexity he sent for the clergyman to exorcise the evil one. The holy man came with three books under his arm, two of which the devil immediately kicked out of his hand, but the third he luckily held fast. The clergyman then requested the people of the house to give him a needle, with which he made a hole in the lead of the casement, through which, by dint of reading out of his book, he forced the fiend to pass and seek the boundless space.
According to one version of the story, the priest, in stead of a needle, used a stick.
THE BEACON-BURNING.
On the day of St. Peter in Cathedra (Feb. 22) a great festival was formerly held in North Friesland. It was a spring festival ; for then the mariners left the shore and put out to sea. On the eve of the above-mentioned day great fires (biiken) were lighted on certain hills, and all then, with their wives and sweethearts, danced round the flames, every dancer holding in his hand a wisp of burn ing straw, which he swung about, crying all the time : " Wedke teare ! " or " Vike tare ! " (Wedke, i. e. Woden, consume I)1.
As late as the preceding century this festival was uni versally celebrated in North Friesland ; on the second day
1 That is, consume (accept) the offerings, as in the days of heathenism.
0 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
there were great feastings. The clergy had long declaimed against it, though without effect ; but one night,, before St. Peter's day, the people of Rantum, having according to custom called on ' Wede/ the fires being extinguished, and all gone to rest, were awakened at midnight, and to their astonishment saw an immense fire again burning on the Biikenberg. On hurrying towards it for the purpose of quenching it, they perceived a black monster resembling a large poodle slinking down the hill. The dread was now general that they would for ever have to harbour the devil, or that at least he would be a frequent visitor among them ; they consequently made a vow from that day never to repeat the beacon-burning. Nevertheless on Wester- landfohr and Osterlandsilt the children still kindle bon fires on the 22nd February.
On the island of Silt the Spring- or Petrithing (court) was anciently held on the Thing-hill on the 22nd February. The Summer- or Petri-Paulithing took place on the 29th June, and the Autumn-thing on the 26th October. In Ditmarschen, on Walpurgis eve (April 30th) they kindle great fires on the hills and crossways, which they call ' baken ' (beacons). The boys and young people bring straw and dry boughs from all parts, and the night is passed amid rejoicing and dancing about the flames. Some of the larger youths take bundles of burning straw on a fork, and run about swinging them until they are burnt out. On the island of Femern (which was peopled from Ditmarschen) they in like manner celebrate the 30th April with the lighting of beacons (bakenbrennen). In the Wilstermarsch the boys and youths, on Easter eve, earn- large bundles of lighted straw about the fields ; and in East Holstein, both on Easter eve and St. John's eve, they light fires on the hills and roads.
NO SPINNING ON SATURDAY EVENING.
That there should be no spinning on a Saturday evening is a wide-spread belief, as it brings only detriment and punishment. There were two old women, good friends, and the most indefatigable spinners in the village; so that in fact their wheels, even on a Saturday evening, never stood still. At length one of them died ; but on the
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. /
Saturday evening following she appeared to the other, who as usual was busy at her wheel, and showed her her burn ing hand, saying : —
Sieh, was ichin der Holle gewann, See what I in hell have won. Weil ich am Sonnabendabend Because on Saturday eve I spann ! spun !
NOR IN THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS.
In these twelve days there should be no spinning, nor any flax left on the distaff, else ' Wode ' will gallop through it.
A woman, nevertheless, resolved on making the experi ment, and sat down and spun, but immediately sank into a profound sleep, from which she woke only by some out opening the door and entering. The intruder demanded the spinning-wheel to be given him, and began to spin. The woman could do nothing but continually keep throw ing to him what flax she had, but which was all immediately spun, wound and rolled up. The devil then demanded more, and the woman brought him all the tow she had in the house, and then all her wool ; but he still called for more, and it was yet only four o' clock in the morning and the day far distant. In her tribulation the woman ran to a neighbour, a cunning old crone, who was already aware of what was going forward in the house ; for she came out to meet her, and fortunately soon relieved her from her troublesome visitor. Had the devil spun up all, and the woman been unable to supply him till daybreak, it would have cost her her life.
NEW YEAR'S EVE.
On New Year's eve the cows and horses speak with one another. A peasant who was sceptical on this point laid himself in the rack and listened. At midnight he heard one horse say to another : " This year we shall get rid of
8 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
our master." This so terrified him that he fell sick and soon after died. The same horses drew him to the church yard.
On the same night, or on the eve of some other festival, at twelve o' clock all water is turned into wine. A woman was so foolhardy as to go one night to a well. While bending over it for the purpose of drawing from it, there came one and said,
All Water is Wyn, All water is wine,
unn dyn beiden Ogen siint myn ; and thy two eyes are mine ;
at the same time depriving her of both her eyes. Others relate of another woman that it was said to her,
All Water is Wyn, All water is wine,
unn wat dar by is myn, and what thereby is mine,
and instantly the woman disappeared.
DIVINE SERVICE OF THE DEAD.
One night an old woman in Kiel awoke and thought it was time to go to morning service ; for it seemed to her that she heard the bells and the organ. She rose accord ingly, took cloak and lantern — for it was winter — and went to the church of St. Nicholas. But when there she could not find the psalms, as the whole congregation sang quite differently from what stood in her psalm-book ; the people also appeared unknown to her, but among them she perceived one woman who exactly resembled a neighbour that had been dead for many years. A woman then ap proached her, who had also been long in her grave ; it was her gossip. This woman told her that she must go out ; for the church at that time was not for her; but that she must not look round, else evil might befall her. The woman went out as quickly as she could, and as the church- door was slammed after her, her cloak was caught. At this
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
moment the clock struck twelve. She unclasped her cloak from her shoulders, with the intention of fetching it away in the morning ; but when she returned for that purpose, she found it torn into little fragments, the dead having tripped over it.
THE SPECTRE AT GRAMM.
The countess Anna Sophia Schack became a widow at an early age. At Gramm she passed a life of dissipation and licentiousness,, and finally sold her soul to the devil. After a certain number of years the fiend was to fetch her away on an appointed evening, as soon as the wax light on the table should be burnt out. At Gramm things now went on more madly than ever. The appointed evening at length came, and the wax light was standing before the countess, who was now seized with unutterable anguish. She sent for the clergyman and to him commu nicated her secret. He advised her to extinguish the light and cause the little piece remaining to be enclosed within the east wall of the church. This was done, and the evil one had no power over her. Shortly after a fire broke out in the church. It was early in the morning, and the countess was still in bed when the intelligence reached her. On hearing it she instantly sprang up, and in her light morning attire and without shoes hurried to the church, which stood about a mile and a quarter distant from her dwelling. By her earnest entreaties and pro mises she encouraged the people to extinguish the fire, so that at least the east wall might be preserved. From that time the countess became an altered person ; her cheer fulness and good humour had fied and given place to a gnawing sorrow7 which brought her to the grave. But at midnight a beautiful female form in snow-white attire is seen in the castle, wringing her hands, with downcast, anxious countenance, pacing incessantly from one apart-
B 5
10 NOKTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
ment to another, and at last stopping in the upper saloon of the centre building, where, standing for some minutes before the fire-place, she gazes motionless on some blood- spots, and then vanishes.
A young countess, who in later times was on a visit to Gramm, was, while sitting at the harpsichord, so terrified by the apparition that she shortly after died. No one enters the old mansion without shuddering.
THE GONGERS.
In Keitum on the island of Silt a woman died before her delivery, and appeared several times to the servant of the clergyman, and had no rest in the grave, until her scissors, needle and thread were placed by her side. This is a common usage in North Friesland.
There are many apparitions there, or ( Gongers ' ; for whoever is unjustly slain, or has removed land-marks, or fraudulently ploughed off land, finds no rest in the grave. Blasphemers, and those that have cursed themselves, and suicides must in like manner appear again. To such a Gonger let no one hold out his hand ; it will be burnt, become black, and fall off.
When any one is drowned at sea, he announces it to his relations. Though the Gonger does not announce himself to his nearest of kin, but to those in the third or fourth degree. In the evening twilight or at night he appears in the clothes in which he was drowned. He then looks in at the house door, and leans with his arm against it, or else wanders about the house, but soon disappears and returns on the following evening at the same hour. By night — usually in heavy, drawn-up boots that are filled with water — he will open the chamber door, extinguish the light, and lie down on the coverlet by the side of the sleeper. In the morning there is a stream of sea-water in the room, that has trickled from his clothes. If the relations are
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
11
not convinced by these signs, the Gonger will continue to appear until they believe that he has perished. He also gives other notices : it is related that
A mariner with his two sons once sailed from Amrum with seed bound for Holland. The younger son had no inclination for the voyage, and implored his mother to let him remain at home ; but she told him it was his father's will, and that go he must. When on their way to the harbour at Bosk, in passing over the dam, he said to his mother and the others with him : " Think of me when you pass over these stones." In the same night they perished. The mariner's sister dwelt in the same house with him ; at night she had laid her white neck-kerchief by her bed, and in the morning found on it three drops of blood. She then knew that her relations had perished and had been with her during the night.
THE STAVEN-WUFKE1.
This is a spectre resembling a mourning woman, who appears on old pasture grounds, hills and void places, where houses once had stood, but which now, naked and desolate, are either washed by the sea or surrounded by the sand of the downs. Sometimes she wanders about these melancholy places, and sometimes is seen sitting and weeping on the spot where once had been the domestic hearth2.
THE LAND-DIVIDER.
At the time of the partition and fencing of the land, there arose between the villages of Alversdorf and Host, in South Ditmarschen, great disputes about their boundaries. The partition could not be determined until a man of
1 From Staven, the place on which a house stands or has once stood, and Wiifke, lit. wifeMn, Ger. Weibchen. She is likewise called the Stadem- Wiifke.
2 Kohl, Marschen und Inseln, ii. 289.
12 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
Alversdorf declared that he knew it accurately and would settle it on oath. For this purpose he went to the boun dary of the Alversdorf land, by the ford at Tensbiittel, where it passes through the Gieselau, filled his shoes with sand,, then appeared near Host, and made oath that he was standing on Alversdorf ground. By this fraud he believed he had avoided perjury. But after death he was doomed to wander on the boundary-line as a fire-sprite. A flame, the height of a man, was there long to be seen dancing about, until the moor was dried up. Whenever it flared up higher than usual, the people would cry out : " Dat is de Scheelvaegt ! " (That is the land-divider !) At the spot where he put the sand into his shoes, every one, who passes at night and has not a pure conscience, must for a considerable distance bear the devil on his back like a burthen of a hundred pounds weight.
Between the lordship of Roest and the village of Raben- kirchen in Angeln there was once a dispute about a wood. The lord one morning filled his shoes with earth from his garden, stuck twigs from the trees in his court-yard in his hat, and made oath in the wood, which lawfully belonged to the village of Rabenkirchen, that he was standing on his own ground, arid that the boughs above his head were his.
THE BLACK SCHOOL.
Of the Black School there is much to tell both in North Friesland and in the Danish territories. The devil in person is the teacher, and preachers just entering on their career are there instructed. Almost every pastor knows something of the black art, while others are perfect adepts in it ; but have therefore assigned their souls to the devil, though under certain conditions. One, for instance, must during his whole life wear one and the same woollen under- waistcoat ; another may shave himself only on Saturdays ;
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 13
a third may wear only one garter ; a fourth has bound himself never to enter a church, or never to stay in one longer than an hour or half an hour. If from inadver tence they once only transgress the condition, their soul is for ever lost. Every one who has been in the Black School has power over spirits, and is specially skilled in exorcising the ghosts of the departed and other spectres. With one word they can ivish themselves from one place to another, and know all that passes at home in their absence.
A certain Pastor Fabricius in Medelbye was particularly skilful, Once, while at a christening in Holt, he com pelled a youngster, who was in the act of robbing an apple-tree in the parsonage garden, to sit in it till he re turned home and released him. At another time, while in the middle of a sermon, he struck the cushion of the pulpit and cried : " Stop ! " and as the people were leaving the church, there stood a man, as fixed as a statue, with a sack full of fresh-cut grass that he had stolen from the churchyard during the service. He had many magical books. One day during church-time his maid-servant was cleaning his study, and through curiosity began to read in a little book she found there. On a sudden all seemed alive in the room, and a multitude of the most hideous forms and spectres made their appearance, approaching nearer and nearer to the girl, who was almost dead with fright. The priest, who in the church was instantly aware of what was going on at home, suddenly in the middle of his ser mon said "Amen," hurried to his house, and laid the spirits, who would else have destroyed the girl.
But the devil is always laying traps for those that have made a contract with him, and if the above-mentioned Pastor Fabricius had put on more than one garter, the fiend would have carried him off. But the devil was no match for Pastor Fabricius, who was always on his guard,
14 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
when in the morning he saw two garters lying by his bed. The devil would also frequently, in the shape of a flea, torment the maid-servant while knitting stockings for her master, and cause her to err in the number of stitches. The stocking would then generally be too wide and hang loose about the parson's heels, though he cared but little for that. In fact, the devil could never get an advantage over him.
Pastor Ziegler, the author of a Holstein Idiotikon, never wore more than one garter. People said that he had entered into a contract with the devil, and that when it wras expired the devil came to fetch him. The pastor would first dress himself decently and was very dilatory, put on his stockings inside out, etc. When tying his second garter, the devil, burst ing with vexation, said to him that he would wait only till he had finished tying his garter. " In that case then," said Ziegler, " I will never tie it as long as I live ;" and again laid himself down to sleep. The devil was obliged to depart.
FAST-READING.
A man went one day into one of the churches of Ham burg, and found at the back of the altar a book, in which he began to read, and went on reading and reading, till he at length read himself fast . He strove to release him self and to give his thoughts another direction, but in vain ; he was obliged to stand reading on and on, while a cold sweat stood on his forehead and he trembled in every limb ; he would have died, had he not been observed by an old man, who, it is said, was a Catholic priest, who guessing what had befallen him, advised him to read the whole backwards; for that only by so doing he could release himself. The man did so and escaped without further inconvenience.
FAST-WRITING.
In Wilster many persons are masters of what is termed fast-writing. Two thieves having one night broken into the house of a rich man, and violently demanded his keys,
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 15
he intimated to them that if they would only abstain from violence, he would deliver to them everything, which they might peaceably divide between them ; he wished merely that all might be done quietly and regularly. When the thieves had got possession of the money, they sat down at the table and began to divide it ; but when they had finished their work and were about to rise, they could neither move their hands from the money nor the money from the table. In the mean while the household was assembled. " Oho/' said the master, " we may now go quietly to bed again, they can very comfortably remain sitting." On the following morning, having sent for the police, he loosed the thieves.
Another, whose cabbages were constantly stolen from his garden, ivrote the thief fast from Saturday night till Sunday, when he was just in the act of passing over the fence with a full load on his back. There he was com pelled to sit riding on the fence while all the people were going to and returning from church, so that all might see him. He was then released and allowed to depart.
TURNING THE SIEVE.
During a time of war a butcher of Amrum, having more business than he could well manage alone, took the son of a neighbour to assist him. In this youth he placed so much confidence that he even showed him the place in which he had laid by a few hundred dollars. This the son communicated to his mother, and both were seized with an irresistible desire to get possession of the money ; so that on the following morning, when the mother came for a pound or two of meat, the son contrived to place the bag containing the money in the bottom of her basket. When the butcher some days after discovered his loss, his suspicion immediately fell on his assistant ; but the other protested his innocence, swearing by all that is holy.
16 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
There was at this time in Morsum on Silt a celebrated sorcerer, who could discover thieves and compel them to restore the stolen property. The butcher sent his wife thither, and the sorcerer immediately took his measures. He ordered a flour-sieve to be brought, placed in it a key and a pair of scissors, and set it on a large vessel filled with water. He then uttered some magical sentences, and the woman pronounced several times the names of all sus pected persons. As often as she mentioned the name of her neighbour, the key and scissors danced about; and when the sorcerer desired her to look into the water, she plainly saw her husband's assistant in the act of handing the money to his mother. But the sorcerer informed her that it would not be possible to recover the money, be cause the thieves had already crossed the water with it.
In Ditmarschen, for this process with the sieve, they use a family bible and family key. The latter is laid for a few minutes in the former, for the sake of sanctifying it ; the cunning man then takes the key, causes the sieve to turn round upon it, pronouncing at the same time the several names, when that person is the thief at the mention of whose name the sieve falls.
In Meklenburg the process is somewhat different. They there take a sieve, that has been inherited from relations, lay it on the rim, open a pair of inherited scissors, and stick the points so deep into the rim of the sieve that it may be supported by them. Two then, of opposite sexes, go with the sieve into a perfectly dark place, hold the middle finger of the right hand under the ring of the scissors, and so raise up the sieve. It is very clear that the ring will slide from the finger on the slightest motion, and the sieve fall down, it being hardly possible to hold it level in the dark. One then asks the other: " In the name, etc. I ask of thee ; tell me truly and lie not : who has stolen this or that ? Has Hans, Fritz, Peter, done it ? " On naming the guilty one, the ring slides off, the sieve falls to the ground, and the thief is detected.
According to other accounts the operation is performed in the light, and the sieve does not fall, but turns. Grimm, D. M. p. 1062.
In England, " the vulgar, in many parts, have an abominable practice of using a riddle and a pair of scissors in divination. If they have had any thing stolen from them, the riddle and shears are sure to be resorted to. A similar mode of discovering thieves or others suspected of any crime prevailed among the Greeks." Vide Potter's Gr. Antiq. i. p. 352, Brocket,
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 17
voce Riddle. Grimm, D. M. p. 1062, also vol. ii. p. 269, No. 8. Kuhn und Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, p. 523.
A MURDERER CITED.
In a public-house in Tondern some profane persons were sitting at cards during divine service. The game became more and more exciting, and in the dispute which followed, one stabbed the other with his knife. The murderer fled. When the dead was to be buried,, the coffin was borne to the market-place and there set down ; it was then struck on the lid with a hammer, and the murderer was cited. He was at the time in Riga, and afterwards discovered himself to a friend who came thither, to whom he told the hour in which those hammer strokes struck into his heart.
THE MAGIC KETTLE.
There was once in Oppendorp a young serving-man, who was a very strong, useful fellow. This was at the time when all the talk was about giving the serfs their freedom. The young fellows were overjoyed at the pro spect, but could not await the day of their emancipation. Among the rest, to our serving-man also the time seemed too long, so one morning, when he ought to have been at the plough, he was far away over the hills. His master was vexed at thus losing his best man, and did all he could to get him back, but not a trace of him could be obtained.
After some time there came a Jew up to the farm, to whom they related the story. The Jew said : " We can very well get him again." This the people told to their master, who let the Jew come to him and asked him if what he had said were true ? The Jew said, " Yes," pro vided he had what was requisite for the purpose and also good payment. The payment was soon agreed on, and the Jew undertook to get the man back, if he had a piece of any stuff that he had worn for a year. The master
18 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
ordered search to be made, and an old urider-jacket was found. The Jew then ordered a black cock and a black he-cat to be caught ; these he killed, and then took some other things, but which he kept quite secret. At night he set a large kettle on the fire, into which, at midnight, he put the jacket, the black cat, the black cock, and the other things, and began boiling them. And he boiled and boiled all night and the following day, so that he boiled twice twenty-four hours. When it was evening there came a man running up the yard, covered with mud from head to foot and breathless, who on reaching the house- door fell down senseless from exhaustion. It was the runaway servant. On coming to himself, his first words were: "Heaven be praised that I am again in Oppendorp!" He said that he had been in Amsterdam, that he woke one night and was so excited as he had never been in his life. He felt obliged to dress himself, he knew not why ; and then he was forced to run without cessation both by night and by day. How he crossed the water he knew not ; tired and hungry as he was it mattered not, he was forced to run on and on, being unable to stand for a moment still.
THE DEVIL'S CAT.
A peasant had three beautiful, large cats. A neighbour begged to have one of them, and obtained it. To accus tom it to the place, he shut it up in the loft. At night the cat, popping its head through the window, said : "What shall I bring to-night?" "Thou shalt bring mice," answered the man. The cat then set to work, and cast all it caught on the floor. Next morning the place was so full of dead mice that it was hardly possible to open the door, and the man was employed the whole day in throwing them away by bushels. At night the cat again put its head through the aperture and asked: "What
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 19
shall I bring to-night ? " " Thou shalt bring rye," an swered the peasant. The cat was now busily employed in shooting down rye,, so that in the morning the door could not be opened. The man then saw that the cat was a witch, and carried it back to his neighbour, in which he acted prudently ; for had he given it work a third time, he could never have got rid of it. In one respect, how ever, he did not act prudently, to wit, in not saying the second time: "Thou shalt bring gold;" for then he would have got as much gold as he did rye.
MONOLOKE.
There was in former times a spirit known among the people under the name of Monoloke ; so that when any one became unexpectedly rich, it was said of him : " The Monoloke peeps out of his pocket." The Monoloke was a puppet made in the devil's name of white wax, and was clad in a petticoat of blue taffety, with a vest of black vel vet ; the legs and feet were bare. Those who would derive aid from it must preserve it carefully and keep it clean.
WITCHES IN FRIESLAND.
The people of Donsum, in the island of Fohr, are ac counted sorcerers ; the women in particular are all said to be witches. On this account no one cares to hold any intercourse with them, and no one marries out of the vil lage. On a Friday no woman is to be found at home ; because on that day they hold their meetings and have dances on a barren heath. In the evening they ride thither on horses, though usually they have wings on their shoulders and fly. In their flight they are often unable to stop at the right time, so that if a church steeple is in their way, they fly against it. From hurts received in their fall, on the following day they lie sick. Where their dances have been held, there may be found on the next
20 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
day rags and tatters of all kinds and colours, pieces of riband, needles with which in bewitched wax they have pierced many a one's heart, blood and matter. They can transform themselves into cats and horses, swans and eagles. A young man once went to visit his betrothed ; when about to enter the house, there lay a white horse in the door- way. This was just on a Friday evening. A man, who had been much annoyed by witches, going once out a shooting, saw a bird with a plumage of surprising beauty. He aimed at and shot it, when the bird became a woman. As a bridal pair were passing by a lake near Donsum, there were some swans sailing on the water, seeing which the bride said : " I will just go to the swans for a moment." She went, and the swans proved to be her sisters. She also became a swan, and they all fluttered and beat with their wings. The bridegroom had to go home alone. The witches often change themselves into seals, and follow the mariners and fishermen. They fre quently enter houses in the shape of toads. Children are to be carefully protected from their look. If a riband or a small cord with a knot in it is found lying in the way, let no one touch it, for the witches have placed it there. No one may lend to the witches any sharp instrument, as scissors, a knife, and, least of all, needles. A man's cow died : he set the heart with the other entrails on the fire and boiled them, when the witch (who had killed the cow) was obliged to come. When no butter will come, it is usual to stick knives round the cover of the churn ; the first woman that then enters is the witch. Houses and stables may be protected from witches by nailing a horse's foot over the door, or burying a lizard alive under the threshold. Asa-foetida is also used for the same purpose1. The foregoing holds good not only of the women in Donsum, but also of
1 See vol. ii. p. 75.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 21
those of Silt, Amrum, and the other islands. On the 1st May they all ride to the Blocksberg.
WITCHES.
Whoever desires to become a witch yields herself to the devil and abjures God in these words :
Hier trete ich in dieses Nest, Here enter I in this one's nest, Und verlasse unsern Herrn And forsake our Lord Jesus Jesu Christ ! Christ !
Then will the sorcery succeed, in which they instruct one another, and which they learn from the devil, who comes to them. On St. John's eve and on the 1st May they have their meetings and dances. From these assemblies they return home sick almost to death. Of all witches it is related, that on Wolber's (Walburg's) eve they ride to the Blocksberg. On that evening no one may hinder them, and whoever makes a cross over the door through which they must pass, will afterwards feel their vengeance, and get a severe beating. They pass through chimneys and holes, and ride on brooms, he-goats, cats, cocks, old sows, asses and spotted dogs, which the devil frequently sends them.
Of their merry-making on the Ilugenberg it is related, that as soon as the witches, each in her own fashion, are all arrived, they prepare a repast, either of geese or fresh (i. e. unsalted, unsmoked) beef sprinkled with mustard, with which they eat bread baked in an iron pot, and drink beer out of wooden or tin cups. The devil brings the kettle with him from Liitjenbrode. Then the dancing- begins, when each witch dances with a devil, while an old woman sings and two kettles are beaten. On the sur rounding mountains fires shine forth. Whoever approaches is drawn into the circle and whirled about till he sinks clown breathless. When day dawns they all vanish. On the following morning are to be seen on the mountain
22 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
traces of fowls and of horses' and goats' feet, and in the middle lies a heap of ashes.
If an old woman is suspected of being a witch, it is the custom to throw a handful of salt after her, when, if she really is a witch, she will look round. When any one who is thought to be a witch will enter a house, it is merely necessary to place a broom inverted in the door-way : if she is a witch, she cannot enter. Some young men once adopted the following plan. On St. John's eve they went to a meadow, where they rolled themselves naked in the dew. On the Sunday following they went to the church, and saw that every woman who was a witch carried a milk- pail on her head l ; and the number of these was very great, both women and girls.
A couple of young peasants once resolved to watch the witches on St. John's eve, and for this purpose put the horses to a pair of patrimonial harrows, with which they drove out on one side of the village, one going to the right, the other to the left. They went round the village till they met on the opposite side. The circle which they thus drew round the place the witches could not trans gress. They left one small opening where they awaited the witches, and placed the two harrows aslant against each other, beneath which they laid themselves. At mid night all the witches flew out from their several chimneys on pitchforks and broomsticks. They all had to pass by the two, and among them one of them recognised his own wife. " Are you there too, my old woman ?" cried he, and thus betrayed himself; and the witches all rushing upon him, drove the sharp spikes of the harrow into his body; for he had. been so thoughtless as to turn them inwards. He did not escape with life.
1 See vol. ii. p. 275, No. 54.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 2o
Whoever desires to see the witches dance, must take an old plank from a coffin lid,, from which a knot has been thrust, and peep through the hole.
THE WITCHES' PRESENT.
Late one night as a musician was on the road from Todendorf to Puttgarden, he was met by a number of witches, who immediately surrounded him, and said : " Play us some tune." Fright prevented him from speak ing, but at length he contrived to tell them that he had no violin. "That makes no difference," answered the witches, " for we have one." When he began playing, they danced wildly around him, springing as high as a house. At last they were tired, and gave the man for reward an apronful of 'krobels' (a sort of apple-cake). On reaching home, he laid the violin and the krobels on a shelf and went to bed. On the following morning, when he went to look at his presents, the violin proved to be an old cat, the bow a cat's tail, and the krobels nothing but horse-dung.
WIND-KNOTS.
At Siseby on the Slei there dwelt a woman who was a sorceress and could change the wind. The Sleswig herring- fishers used frequently to land there. Once when they would return to Sleswig, the wind being west, they re quested the woman to change it. She agreed to do so for a dish of fish. She then gave them a cloth with three knots, telling them they might undo the first and the second, but not the third until they had reached land. The men spread their sails, although the wind was west ; but no sooner had the oldest of the party undone the first knot, than there came a beautiful fair wind from the east. On undoing the second knot they had storm, and arrived at the city with the utmost speed. They were now curious to know what would follow if they undid the third knot ;
24 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
but no sooner had they done so than a violent hurri cane assailed them from the west, so that they were obliged to leap into the water, in order to draw their vessel on shore.
THE ST. JOHN'S-BLOOD.
At Klostersand near Elmshorn there was formerly, be tween the Pilgerberg and the Kuppelberg, the so-called Hexenkuhle. Here on certain days, particularly on St. John's day, between twelve arid one o'clock, old women may be seen wandering about in search of a plant which grows only on the Pilgerberg. This plant has in its root grains containing a purple-red juice, which they call St. John's blood. This the old women collect in tin boxes and carefully preserve it. But it is only when gathered at noon that it can perform miracles1; when the clock strikes one, its virtue is passed.
THE WAXEN IMAGE.
A man in Amrum lay for a long time sick, and nothing afforded him relief. While he so lay, a miller observed from his mill that a woman was in the daily habit of going to the 'Donk'am/ He one day followed her footsteps, dug, and found in the sand a little waxen image of a man with a pin stuck through the heart. He drew the pin out, took the image home, and burnt it. From that hour the man became well.
THE WITCHES STUFF IN DISSENSION.
When a bridal bed is to be stuffed, great caution is
necessary ; for the witches can stuff into it either harmony
or dissension, according as they may be affected to the
bridal pair. For a young couple, who fondly loved each
other, but against whom certain old women bore a grudge,
they stuffed in dissension. Both bride and bridegroom
1 " These flowers were cull'd at noon." — Moore.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 25
had passed a happy wedding-day, but scarcely were they in bed when they began to quarrel, till at length they came to blows. The parents of the bridegroom,, who lay in a bed near, heard the noise, but could not restore peace between them. They then advised the young couple to transfer themselves to their bed, which they did and passed the night amicably. But no sooner had the old folks laid themselves in the other bed than they began quarreling, though they had never before had a difference between them ; and this lasted till morning. They then examined the bed, when, on taking out the feathers, they found them all twisted together in wreaths and rings with silken threads of all colours. Now it \vas manifest that the old women who had stuffed the bed were witches, and had twisted dissension into it.
In Amrum a man lay sick and bewitched to death. While placing hinv in the coffin one of his legs fell off. On opening his pillow, a bewitched wreath of feathers of all sorts and colours was found in it.
WITCHES TAKE BUTTER.
There was a time when the witches were particularly mischievous. It was then indispensable for every house wife to have a handle made of the wood of the service (quicken) tree to her churn ; else she could never be sure of getting butter. A man one morning early, on his way from Jagerup to Hadersleben, heard, as he passed by Woiensgaard, that they were churning in the yard ; but at the same time he observed that a woman whom he knew was standing by the side of a running brook and churning with a stick in the water. On that same day he again saw her selling a large lump of butter in Hadersleben. In the evening as he again passed by Woiens, they were still churning ; whereupon he went to the house and assured them that their labour was all in vain, for the butter was already sold at Hadersleben.
26 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
THE SEVERED HAND1.
In Eiderstedt there was a miller who had the misfortune to have his mill burnt every Christmas eve. He had, how ever, a courageous servant who undertook to keep watch in the mill on that portentous night. He kindled a blazing tire and made himself a good kettleful of porridge, which he stirred about with a large ladle. He had an old sabre lying by him. Ere long there came a whole regiment of cats into the mill, and he heard one say in a low tone to another : " Mousekin ! go and sit by Hanskin ! " and a beautiful milk-white cat came creeping softly to him and would place herself by his side. At this, taking a ladleful of the scalding porridge, he dashed it in her face, then seizing the sabre, he cut off one of her paws. The cats now all disappeared. On looking at the paw more atten tively, he found, instead of a paw, that it was a woman's delicate hand, with a gold ring on one of the fingers, whereon was his master's cypher. Next morning the miller's wife lay in bed and would not rise. " Give me thy hand, wife ! " said the miller. At first she refused, but was obliged at length to hold out her mutilated limb. When the authorities got intelligence of this event, the woman was burnt for a witch.
A WITCH AS A HARE.
In Bodelsdorf there dwelt, and perhaps still dwells, a very old woman, in whose service no one would ever con tinue ; for when the servants were employed in the fields she always knew exactly what they had done and said, as she was ever present among them. Sometimes she would be a duck and swim on the water ; then, if the men and girls pelted her with stones, she would merely dive down and rise immediately afterwards. At other times she would be a hare and run through the corn when it was 1 See vol. ii. p. 32.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 27
cut, and never received a hurt, however often the men shot at her. But once, when they were going out to mow, one of the men provided himself with a silver button, with which he loaded his piece and shot the hare. On his re turn in the evening he found the old woman with a wound in her arm which would never heal. With inherited silver a person may hit whatever has been rendered invulnerable by sorcery. Both muskets and rifles can be bewitched, and there are persons who can cause bullets to glide off from them in another direction. When a gun is bewitched, the best remedy is to put a living snake into the barrel and shoot it off; then will the sorcery be neutralized. In herited silver is, moreover, useful in numerous other cases. If a little be scraped off and given to a sick person, the paroxysms will abate. If any one has an inherited ear-ring, and wears it, it will relieve the most violent tooth-ache.
When a witch is wounded with such a silver button or bullet, she must resume her natural form.
WERWOLVES.
On a hot harvest day some reapers lay down in the field to take their noontide sleep, when one who could not sleep observed that the one next to him rose softly and girded himself with a strap, whereupon he became a wolf.
By addressing a werwolf thrice by his baptismal name, he resumes his human form.
A young man belonging to Jagerup returning late one night from Billund, was attacked, when near Jagerup, by three werwolves, and would probably have been torn to pieces, had he not saved himself by leaping into a rye-field ; for then they had no more power over him.
THE LONG HORSE. Some young persons belonging to Kassoe, a village near
28 NOETH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
Apenrade, being one Sunday evening on their way to a dance at Hiidewad, when they came to a brook that runs between the two villages, found themselves unable to cross it, in consequence of the recent rains that had greatly swelled it. While looking about them, they perceived an old horse standing close by, and resolved on mounting him and riding through the rivulet. But when one pair had mounted, they saw there was still room for another; and when another mounted, there was place for a fourth ; till that at length the whole party seated themselves on his back. When in the middle of the rivulet, one who sat foremost happening to look round, and seeing so many persons sitting on the horse's back, cried out in astonish ment : " Cross of Jesus, what a long jade ! " But scarcely had he uttered the words, when the goblin horse/ s back snapped asunder, the riders all fell into the water, and the horse vanished with an appalling howl.
THE MANNIGFUAL OR GIANT SHIP.
The North Frisic mariners tell of a gigantic ship, the ' Mannigfual.' This ship is so vast that the captain always rides about the deck on horseback, for the purpose of giving his orders. The sailors, who climb up the rigging when young, come down again stricken in years with grey beards and hair. While so employed they keep themselves alive by frequent visits to the blocks of the cordage, which contain rooms for refection.
This monstrous vessel once steered its course from the Atlantic ocean into the British channel ; but being unable, on account of the narrowness of the strait, to pass between Dover and Calais, the captain had the lucky thought of having the whole larboard side smeared over with white soap. This operation proved effectual; the Mannigfual passed through safely and entered the North sea. From that time the cliffs of Dover got their white, soapy appear-
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 29
s,nce} from the soap that was rubbed off, and the foam raised by the motion of the vessel.
Once the giant ship (we are not told how) found itself in the Baltic ; but the crew soon discovered that the water was too shallow. To get afloat again, they found it neces sary to throw the ballast together with the dirt and ashes of the galley overboard. From the ballast the isle of Born- holm derives its origin, and from the rubbish the little neighbouring isle of Christianso.
THE BASILISK.
When a cock is seven (according to others twenty) years old, it lays an egg, out of which comes an animal, which is the basilisk. All living things, on which it directs its look, must instantly die, and even stones burst asunder. There have been people who have kept such an animal for many years in a dark cellar ; but durst not open the cellar, lest the light should enter. If a mirror be held before a basilisk, and it thus gets a sight of itself, it must die like another being1.
THE NIGHTMARE.
When seven boys or seven girls are born in succession, one among them is a nightmare, that visits those sleeping, sets itself on their breast, oppresses and torments them.
A man had got such a nightmare for his wife without knowing it ; but he was soon sensible that many nights she had disappeared from his bed. One night, therefore, he kept himself awake in order to watch her, and saw how she rose from the bed and, as the door was fast bolted, slipt through the hole for the strap by which the latch was lifted up. After some time she returned by the way she went. Next morning the man stopt up the opening in the door, and now always found his wife by his side.
1 See vol. ii. p. 212.
30 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
When a considerable time had passed, the man thinking she had cast off and forgotten her bad habit, drew out the peg, in order to use the latch again ; but in the following night, the woman was missing and never came back ] ; though every Sunday morning the man found clean linen laid out for him.
The mistletoe is recommended as a remedy for the nightmare ; it is, therefore, sometimes called marentakken (mare-branches), or alfranken (elf-tendrils). Thunder-stones are likewise considered a remedy.
THE HEL-HORSE.
At Jordkirch, in the neighbourhood of Apenrade, this creature frequented a lonely way called Langfort, making a noise like that of a horse, well shod on all its four hoofs, on a stone pavement2. He is said to be headless. In Tondern an old, three-legged, grey (or white), blind horse goes clattering through the streets every night. In every house before which he stands, or into which he looks, somebody must die. Old people have often witnessed this, and thus been enabled to foretell a death. This horse is called Hel, and is said to have no master, though some assert that an old woman in black rides on him.
FLAMES IN THE WATER.
Fishermen relate that by a bridge in Rendsburg a whim pering is often heard in the water like that of a young child; sometimes, too, small flames dart up, which are always a sign that some one will perish. The Eyder is, generally speaking, a bad river ; every year it requires a sacrifice. The same may be said of the bay of Kiel and the lake of Ploen.
OF THE UNDERGROUND FOLK.
When our Lord was on earth, he came one day to the house of a woman who had five comely and five ugly chil-
1 See vol. ii. p. 169.
2 The Danish Hel-horse has only three legs. See vol. ii. p. 209.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 31
dren. On his entering the house she concealed the five ugly children in the cellar. The Lord then desired the children to be brought before him, and when he saw the five comely ones, he inquired of the woman where her other children were. She answered : " I have no other children." The Lord then blessed the five comely chil dren and cursed the ugly ones, saying : " What is beneath shall remain beneath, and what is above shall remain above." When the woman went again into the cellar, the five children had disappeared. From them spring the Underground Folk1.
Under the earth, particularly in barrows of the dead, there dwell little people called by the Holsteiners Dwarge (Dwarfs) or Unnererske (Subterraneans).
They have been in the country from time immemorial. At Heinkenborstel, in the bailiwick of Rendsburg, there once dwelt such people. These asserted that they had lived there before the invention of beer-brewing2.
It is quite certain that there are such underground people. An old woman in Angeln had been told by her grandfather, that once when ploughing in his field, in which there was a giant's mount (Riesenberg), he saw a little underground woman in a white sark come out of it, but who, on seeing him, instantly fled.
In the district of Pinncberg, whenever there is a wed ding feast, it may be observed that the undergound people sit among the guests at table and help to eat the dinner ; for on the side of the table at which they sit, double the quantity vanishes of what is consumed on the opposite side 3.
1 See vol. ii. p. 115.
2 This is very characteristic. What an idea such people must entertain of remote antiquity ! 3 See vol. ii. p. 134.
32 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
They are said to wear many golden chains, and to have many golden vessels, which they hang out on the bushes, on which they also spread their linen to dry.
They can be very mischievous. From a man in Suder- stapel they took a horse, and only returned it when it became lame.
When a child falls and cries, it is told that it could not help it ; that the underground folk had caught it by the leg.
A man and his wife passing one night by a mount near Krumesse in Lauenburg, saw a long procession of under ground folk, none of them higher than the leg of a chair. One who rode foremost on a little horse, wore an enor mously high peaked cap. At this sight both cried out : " All good spirits praise God the Lord 1t" when instantly the foremost rider began to grow higher and higher, and at last became a giant. The whole procession then turned about and entered the mount.
THE ONNERBANKISSEN IN FOGEDSHOOG.
The Onnerbankissen (Subterraneans) in Amrum live chiefly in the Fogedshoog by the Downs (Diinen). They have been seen at night dancing round it in the moon light, and spreading their linen out on it by day. In the winter they have been known to skate on the water of Merum. A wanton fellow once resolved on destroying their habitation. He dug far into the hill, and fancied he had found the dwellings of the Onnerbankissen, when to his astonishment and horror he saw his own dwelling standing in a blaze2. Throwing aside his spade and mattock, he ran with all speed to the village, on reaching
1 Alle guten Geister loben Gott den Herrn.
2 See vol. ii. pp. 119, 152, et passim.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 33
which he found the fire was a delusion. The fright, how ever, taught him a lesson, and from that time no one has disturbed the Onnerbankissen in Fogedshoog.
THE SUBTERRANEAN POTTERS.
On the Morsumkliff in Silt are found a great quantity of all kinds of smith's and potter's ware, in the shape of pipes, boxes, balls, pots, etc. On Silt they call them Onnererskpottjiig (subterranean crockery ware), on Airi- rum, Traaldaasker (Troll-boxes), because they are made by the Underground folk.
In Holstein it is believed that the corn found in the urns from the old graves, thrives, when sown in the fields and gardens, better than any other. Milk also becomes richer and yields more butter when it has stood in such pots. If the poultry drink out of them, they will not be come ill.
THE UNDERGROUND SMITH.
A man riding one morning past the Dreiberge, on the road between Apenrade and Jordkirch, heard smiths there at work, and cried out that he wished they would make him a chaff-knife. In the evening, when he was return ing, he actually found lying on the hill a spick-span new knife. He laid down as much money as was equivalent to the usual cost of such a knife, and took it with him. It proved to be of excellent temper and keenness ; but wounds caused by it were incurable.
KETTLES BORROWED.
Close to Geltorf near Sleswig there is a hill called the Hochberg, and hard by is another, the Brehochberg. These were inhabited by underground people. In former times the country folks were on quite friendly terms with
c 5
34 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
the subterraneans. When there was to be a wedding in the village, and kettles, pans, pots and the like were wanted, they would go to the door and knock. " What do you want ? " the underground people would then ask. " We want to borrow a kettle of you ; for Hans and Trina are to be married to-morrow." " How big must the kettle be ? " And the peasants could then get a kettle and pottery ware of just the size they required, which they must fetch away on the following morning before sunrise. In return for this accommodation, they needed only to give the fragments remaining of the viands that had been cooked in the vessels, which they left before the hill.
THE DRAGEDUKKE.
As a man was once ploughing, he observed a broken bread-peel and a broken oven-rake lying on the ground. He took them home, mended them, and again laid them in the same place. For this service he was rewarded with a ( Dragedukke/ which is a box, in which there is always only a little money, but out of which a person may take as much as he will.
THE GOSSIPS.
A man went to a mount and called to the dwarf that dwelt in it, praying him to give him a son, and then he would invite him to stand godfather. The dwarf pro mised to grant his request, if he would keep his word. But when the man's wife had given birth to a son, he was loth to invite the dwarf, yet was, nevertheless, obliged to go to him for that purpose. The dwarf considered himself highly honoured and promised to come ; but as the man was going out, he called after him : " What company are you to have besides ? " " Our Lord, Mary and St. Peter are the other gossips," answered the man. " You must
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 35
excuse me then/' said the dwarf, " if I don't come." He gave, however, a handsome christening present.
In the Jutish version of the story (Molbech, Eventyr, p. 359), instead of Christ, etc. Tordenveir (Thunder-storm) is named ; and in the Swedish, Thor himself.
DRUM-MUSIC.
In the field of Mellerup, on the high road to Apenrade, there is a barrow. As a man, who was to give a wedding entertainment on the following day, and had been to the town to buy all things necessary, was passing by, a little man sprang from the mount and invited himself to the wedding, promising to bring with him, for a present, a lump of gold as large as a man's head. " Then you shall come," said the man. The little man then asked what music they were to have? "Drums and kettle-drums," answered the man. The dwarf thereupon begged leave to recall his words, as he could not endure drum-music ] .
THE MILL-STONE SUSPENDED BY A SILKEN THREAD.
One hot summer's day a lad and a lass were at work in a hay-field near the Stellerberg. They were betrothed to each other, and would have been married, but were wretchedly poor. While thus employed, they saw a large toad stealing by them. The young man was on the point of killing the ugly animal with his hay -fork, but the girl seizing his arm prayed him to spare the poor creature's life. The young man, however, enjoyed his sport for a while, by appearing as if bent on killing the toad, until it had disappeared. On their return home in the evening, their employer told them they were invited to be gossips at a christening on the following day, a voice to that effect having been heard, though no person was visible at the
1 See vol. ii. p. 152.
36 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
time. The pair knew not what to think of the matter, but early 011 the following morning, when rising, the young man found grits or sawdust strewed by his bed side ; at the entrance, too, and before the house he also found grains of corn, and, proceeding in their track, he came at last to the Stellerberg. There he heard a voice from the hill, desiring him to come again at noon and bring his betrothed with him ; for they should stand gossips. The young man having given his lass due notice, they made themselves ready, and at twelve o' clock went together to the hill. They found it standing open, and were received by a little man in a grey coat, who conducted them in through a long passage. Within all was magni ficent and costly : the walls, flooring and roof glittered with gold and precious stones ; a sumptuous table, with gold and silver plate and the most delicious viands, stood in the centre; but the whole apartment swarmed with little grim-looking beings, all pressing round the bed of the lying-in woman. When the young man and his be trothed entered, they brought to the former the child he should hold at the font, and conducted him to the spot where the sacred ceremony was to take place. During the performance of the holy rite, happening to cast a look upwards, he saw exactly over him a mill-stone suspended from the roof by a silken thread. He endeavoured to move from the spot, but could not stir a step. In agony he awaited the end of the ceremony, and then drew back in haste. The little man in grey then approached and thanked him. With respect to the mill-stone, he told him that he might now perfectly well imagine what his wife must have suf fered in mind, when on the preceding day he was about to stab her with his fork ; for she was the toad. The pair were then well entertained by the little folks, and after they had eaten, the grey mannikin conducted them out of the hill, but previously gave the girl an apronful of
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 37
shavings. These she was inclined to throw away instantly, but her sweetheart desired her to keep them, as they would serve to light the fire. On their way home the burthen became so heavy that she threw away the half of it, and when they reached the house the remainder proved to be all bright ducats. Thereupon the young man ran back for the purpose of gathering up all that had been thrown away, but it had disappeared. They, however, got enough to enable them to build a farm-house and be married, and lived happily together for many years J.
PINGEL IS DEAD !
In Jagel, near Sleswig, there was once a host who ob served with vexation that his beer always ran out too fast, without his knowing how. But one day, when on his way from the city, where he had been to fetch a fresh supply, he heard, on passing the Jagelberg, where there is a giant-grave, a voice crying in a tone of lamentation : " Pingel is dead ! Pingel is dead ! " On his return home he related what he had heard to his wife, and had scarcely uttered the words when a little underground man came rushing out of the cellar, and crying : —
Ach, is Pingel tot, is Pingel Ah, if Pingel 's dead, if Pingel 's
tot, dead,
So hab ich hier Bier genug Then have I fetched beer enough,
geholt,
and then ran off. A jug was afterwards found in the cellar standing by the beer-cask, which the little man had left behind; for it was for the sick Pingel that he had stolen the beer.
One version of the story has the name of Pippe instead of Pingel ; ac-
1 The above version of the story is given in preference to one from Swinemiinde (Kuhn and Schwartz, p. 321), the latter containing some de tails more characteristic of the good old times than delicate and edifying. See also vol ii. p. 132.
38 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
cording to another the jug is of silver, and the dwarf runs away crying, "Is King Pippe dead? Is King Pippe dead?" Another has : "As Pilatje duad?"
THE BUILDER ZI.
A man had undertaken to build the church at Eckwadt by a certain day, but was soon sensible that it was not in his power to fulfil his contract. One night, while wan dering about out of humour and pondering as to the course he should pursue, a little hill-man accosted him, and offered him his services. The builder at first listened contemptuously to the little man's magniloquent speech, but at length it was settled between them, that the dwarf should erect the church within the given space, and that the builder should by that time ascertain his name ; if he failed in so doing, he should, body and soul, belong to the little man. Rejoiced at heart the builder went home ; for he thought : (e If he himself will not tell me his name, I can, at all events, extract it from his work-people." But it fell out quite contrary to his expectations ; for the little man used neither workmen nor labourers, but finished every thing himself with incredible rapidity; so that the builder clearly saw that all would be complete by the time agreed on. Sadder than the first time, he was again wandering about the fields, when, in passing by a mount, he heard a crying within it, and on listening more attentively, distin guished the following words : —
Vys ! vaer still Baen mint, Hush ! be still, my child, Maaen kommer Faer Zi To-morrow comes thy father Zi
Mae Christen Bloi te dae. With Christian blood for thee.
Now was the builder overjoyed, for he well knew to whom the words alluded, and hastened home. It was just the morning of the day on which the church should be ready, and the dwarf was busied on placing the last stone, — for
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 39
he worked only during the night — when the builder called to him from a distance :
God Maaen, Zi ! God Maaen, Good morning, Zi ! Good morn-
Zi ! ing, Zi !
Ssetter du nu den sidste Are you now placing the last
Steen i ? stone ?
When the goblin heard himself addressed by name he was furious,, and hurling away the stone that he was in the act of placing, retired within his cave. The hole which was thus left could never be filled up. In the night everything was cast out. A mason, that once endeavoured to build it up, was attacked by a wasting malady. At a later period, a window was placed there, which the goblin, suffered to remain l.
The church at Munkbrarup, in Angeln, was built in like manner. The miserable builder hears a child crying under the earth, and the mother saying to it : " Hush, thou little creature ! This evening thy father Sipp will come, and give thee Christian blood to drink."
FATHER FINN.
In very old times the dwarfs had long wars with men, and also with one another. When they were absent in the wars, their wives at home sang by the cradle a particular kind of song. North of Braderup, on the heath, there is a giant-mount, from which was once heard the following :
Heia, hei, dit Jungen es min. Heigh ho, the child is mine. Mearen kumt din Vaader Finn To-morrow conies thy father Finn Me di Man sin Haud. With a man's head,
THE HOUSE WITH NINETY-NINE WINDOWS.
The house of a peasant in Eiderstedt was burnt to the ground. The man sorely afflicted was walking about his field, when he was accosted by a little man in a grey coat and with a horse's foot, who inquired the cause of his
1 See vol. ii. pp. 39, 101, 248.
40 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
sadness. The man told him of his misfortune and that he was without the means of rebuilding his house ; where upon the little man promised to build him one with a hundred windows, and to have it ready in one night, before the first cock-crowing, if the man would promise him his soul. The peasant agreed to the condition, and in the night the devil began to build. The house was soon all but finished, the windows alone remaining to be put in. While the devil was busy about the last window, the man began to crow and clap with his hands, at which the devil laughed. But the cock in the stable had heard the crowing, and answered it just as the devil was fitting in the last pane. Finding himself thus outwitted, the arch-fiend took his departure, though not till he had wrung the neck of the cock. No one has ever been able to put in the pane, nor will any furniture remain in the apartment where it is wanting ; all flies out. The room requires no cleaning, being always as neat as broom could make it.
EKKE NEKKEPENN.
The dwarfs are particularly fond of human females. One was once in love with a young girl of Rantum, and was even betrothed to her. After some time, however, she changed her mind and would break off the engage ment. The dwarf said to her : " I will teach you to keep your word ; and only if you can tell me how I am called, shall you be free/' The girl now made inquiries in all quarters after the name of the dwarf; but no one could inform her. Vexed and sad she wandered about and sought the loneliest places, the nearer the time drew nigh when the dwarf should fetch her away. But as she one day was passing by a mount, she heard within it the fol lowing lines sung : —
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 41
Belling skell ik bruw, To-day I shall brew,
Mearen skell ik baak, To-morrow I shall bake,
Aurmearn skell ik Brollep haa : After to-morrow I shall be married :
Ik jit Ekke Nekkepenn, I am called Ekke Nekkepenn,
Min Brid es Inge fan Raantem ; My bride is Inge of Rantum ;
En dit weet nemmen iis ik alliin- And this no one knows but I ing. alone.
When the dwarf came on the third day to fetch her and said : " What am I called ? " she answered : " You are called Ekke Nekkepenn." He then disappeared, and never returned.
So, in the story of the Dwarf in the Schweckhauserberge(nearG6ttingen), he is overheard repeating the lines :
Hier sitz ich, Gold schnitz ich, Here I sit, gold I carve,
Ich heisse Holzriihrlem, Bonnefiihr- I am call'd Holzriihrlein, Bonne-
lein. fiihrlein.
Wenn das die Mutter wiisst, If the mother knew that,
So behielt' sie ihr Magdlein. She would retain her daughter l.
Of the same class with the foregoing are the stories of Kumpelstilzchen (Grimm, K. and H. M. 55) and Fru Rumpentrumpen (Miillenhoff, p. 409).
THE CARVED IMAGE.
A peasant^ who a hundred years since dwelt on a plot of land at the foot of the Biigberg, near Felsted, on his way to the mill, while his wife was lying in child-bed, heard, when not far from the mill, a voice from the hill, saying : " Carve Liese with her long nose." He thought : " That can be no other than my wife; but their project shall not succeed." So as soon as he returned home, he placed two women to watch by his wife, and went to bed, being extremely drowsy, yet, nevertheless, wras by anxiety pre vented from sleeping. At midnight the women, who ought to have watched, had fallen asleep ; but the man heard a noise, and saw how the underground people came in at the window, lifted wife and child out of bed and laid
1 From Harrys, Sagen, Marchen u. Legenden Niedersachsens, i. p. 16.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
a wooden figure in their place. He instantly started up, was just in time to catch his wife by the leg, and cried : " Stop ! leave me mine and take your own ! " The sub terraneans were then obliged to retreat with their wooden Liese, and the man retained his own.
A SUBTERRANEAN CHILD CAUGHT.
Some young peasants once resolved on catching one of the subterraneans. These people never appear by day, and but seldom by night ; to catch one was, therefore, no easy task. They waited till St. John's eve, and then some of the boldest lay in wait, for the purpose of kid napping one. But these creatures are nimble and their places of retreat small. They would all have escaped had not the most active of the young men caught a young girl by the apron. Full of joy he conveyed the little damsel home with him to his wife, who placed her in her lap, caressed her, gave her sugar and all sorts of nice things, asked her her name, age and so on. But the little creature neither cried nor laughed, nor ate nor drank. And thus she continued from day to day ; neither by promises nor threats could a sound be extracted from her lips. At length there came an old woman who advised them to set about everything wrong; for that the underground folk could not endure, and she would immediately begin to speak. Thereupon the young woman took the little one with her into the kitchen and desired her to wash the turf nicely for soup, while she cut up the meat to light the lire. The little one did not move. The woman then took the turf herself and washed it three times. The little one stared, but did not move. But when the woman had cut up the meat, and appeared as if about to make a fire with it, she said : ' ' Woman, you surely will not sin against God ? " ' ' No," said the woman, " if thou wilt speak, I will do right ; but else, wrong." From that time the little one
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 43
spoke ; but shortly after found means to escape. Some time after, when the woman had given birth to a daughter, there lay one morning a changeling in the cradle.
CHANGELINGS.
Before the custom was introduced of having new-born children immediately blessed by the midwife, the dwarfs were in the constant practice of changing them for their own, in doing which they showed much cunning. When a child was born they wrould pinch the ear of a cow that was near, and when the people, hearing the animal's bel lowing, ran out to learn the cause of it, the dwarf would slip in and change the child. It happened once that a father sawr how his infant was being dragged out of the apartment. He grasped it just at the right moment and drew it to him. He, moreover, kept possession of the changeling, which was found in the bed by the side of the lying-in woman, in spite of all the attempts of the subter raneans at least to recover their own child. By placing on his head the hat of the subterranean infant, he could see the dwarfs sitting round the table among the women, and regaling themselves with coffee.
The dwarf child continued long in the house, but would never speak. But some one having advised the foster- parents to make a brewing in a hen's egg, and then pour the beer into a goose's egg, the dwarf, after making all sorts of manifestations of astonishment, at length cried out :
Ik him so oelt I am as old
As de Behmer Woelt, As the Behmer wold,
Unn heff in myn L'aebri And have in my life
So'n Bro nich seen. Such a brewing not seen.
The ' Wichtelmanner ' had stolen a child out of its
44 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
cradle, and left a changeling, with a huge head and staring eyes, in its stead, which ate and drank voraciously. In her distress the mother applied to a neighbour, who ad vised her to carry the changeling into the kitchen, set it on the hearth, kindle a fire, and boil water in two egg shells : that would cause the changeling to laugh, and as soon as he laughed it would be all over with him. The woman did as her neighbour advised. As she was placing the egg-shells on the fire, the clodpate exclaimed : " I now am as old as the Westerwald, and have never till this moment seen anything boiled in an egg-shell ! " and then began to laugh. While he was laughing there came in a multitude of Wichtelmannikins, bringing with them the woman's own child, which they placed on the hearth, and took the changeling away with them l.
A person once saw a female dwarf going across a field with a stolen child. The sight was a singular one ; for she could not hold the babe sufficiently high, on account of its length, and therefore kept constantly calling to it : —
Baer op dyn Gewant, Hold up thy robe,
Dat du nich haekst That thou be not hook'd
In den galen Grant. In the bitter orant.
Grant or dorant (antirrhinum or marrubium) scares away Dwarfs (Wichtel) and Nikkers. See Grimm, D. M. p. 1164.
In Eiderstedt a woman one night kindled a huge fire in the middle of the barn, and placed upon it an exceed ingly diminutive pot. When a Kielkropf (changeling) that she had was fetched, it clapped its hands in full astonishment, and cried in a shrill voice : " I am now
1 Grimm, K. and H. Marchen, No. 39. Wichtel (Wichtelmann) is the Prankish name for elf.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 45
fifty years old, and have never seen the like ! " The woman would have thrown the kielkropf into the fire, but it was snatched from her, and her own genuine child stood there before her.
Similar stories are almost innumerable in Germany, but the foregoing, together with the two following, will amply suffice to show the resemblance between the German traditions of changelings and those of Scandinavia.
Before going to bed, a pair of open scissors must be laid in the cradle of a new-born child, until it is baptized. If it sleeps by its mother, at the last swathing a cross must be made on its breast and forehead ; else the sub terraneans will change it.
There was once in Amrum a woman whose youngest son was stolen by these beings ; but the child they left in place of the stolen one so closely resembled it, that the mother at first was not aware of the deception. But after wards their own child came back, and the parents were wholly unable to determine which was theirs, until an accident settled the difficulty. It was in the harvest, and the woman going one day to the thrashing-floor, took tip a shovel and began casting aside the thrashed-out corn ; both boys being present. One of them fell a laughing, and in answer to the woman's question, why he laughed ? said : " My father just came in and fetched half a ton of rye, and in going out fell and broke his leg." Thereupon said the woman : " Thou art the one ; go therefore to the place thou earnest from." She then seized the boy and flung him through the window of the thrashing-house, and never again set eyes on him.
It is to be observed that a thrashing-floor should always be swept with the sun, and never in the opposite direction ; otherwise the subterraneans will steal the corn. The woman, it evidently appeared, had taken this precaution.
46 NOETH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
THE KIELKROPP.
Not far from the town of Lauenburg there is a village called Boken, in which, many hundred years ago, there stood a chapel, where there was an image of the holy mother, made of wood. This image was at that time held in the highest veneration ; for if any persons were sick, the people would carry them to the image and let them lie before it for some time, when they would be cured.
Not far from the above-mentioned village there lived a peasant, who, although he had been married for many years, was childless. This afflicted him sorely : he stormed and raved, maltreated and maledicted his wife the whole livelong day, until she at length unexpectedly said to him : f( You may cease your ill-usage, you will soon have your wish ; for I feel that I shall be a mother/' At this intelli gence the peasant was overjoyed, and thenceforward treated his wife more kindly. But that which gave him so much delight was to be his greatest affliction. When the child was born it was all right and proper as to its body and limbs, but its head was larger than that of the largest man. Such children the people at that time called Kiel- kropps, and believed that the devil himself, or one of his associates, was their father, and that they brought only misfortune into a house. But be all that as it may, our peasant had got his Kielkropp and must keep it. During a space of three years the child's head grew larger arid larger, and looked like a great basket, while its other members continued as diminutive as they had been from the first, so that it could neither go nor stand ; nor could it utter a word, but only moaned and screamed both by day and night.
One evening as the woman was sitting with the Kiel kropp on her lap, and was lamenting over it, she said to her husband : " A thought just strikes me which may
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS, 47
probably be of good to us. To-morrow is Sunday : put then the child into a basket and take it to the holy mother Mary of Boken, lay the basket before her, and rock the child in it for some time : that will, perhaps, be of ser vice." The peasant willingly followed her advice, on the following morning put his basket in order, laid fresh hay in it together with some bedding, placed his Kielkropp in it, and went his way. When on the bridge that crosses a water near Boken, he heard, just as he reached the middle, a voice behind him, crying : " Where now, Kielkropp ? " which the child in the panier answered by : " I 'm going to be rocked, that I may thrive1." On hearing the child begin to speak the man was greatly terrified, but instantly recovering himself, he dashed the basket, Kielkropp and all, into the water, saying : " If thou canst speak, thou monster, then go to where thou hast learned." At once a loud cry was heard from under the bridge, as when many people call out together, at which the man wras not a little frightened, and made all possible haste home, without once looking behind him, where he told his wife in what manner he had got rid of the Kielkropp.
THE UNDERGROUND FOLK EMIGRATE.
The grandfather of a watchmaker still living in Holm, was when a boy one day tending cows in a neighbouring field, and to protect himself from the rain, had thrown his father's large coat over his shoulders. While standing under a tree, he found himself on a sudden surrounded by a multitude of underground folk, holding each other's hand, and thus forming a circle about him. They told him they were about leaving the neighbourhood, and that he should go with them. To his question : Why they were going ? they answered, that they could not endure the ringing of the bells in the village 2. But the young 1 See vol. ii. p. 151. 2 See vol. ii. pp. 154, 155.
48 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
man not liking to be detained by them, broke through the circle, leaving the coat behind, which they stript from his shoulders. On the following day, however, he found it in the same place hanging on a bush.
THE WOLTERKENS NISS-PUK BUSEMANN NISKE.
The Wolterkens appear to be identical with the Scan dinavian Nisser. In Meldorf the school-children have a festival, when the girls decorate the school-room with flowers. In the afternoon and evening they dance, and then say : " We have Nesskuk," or " We celebrate Ness- kuk."
The Nisken always frequent dark, concealed places in the house or stable, and even in the pile of wood. They disappear before every one that approaches them. At night the people of the house must clear the hearth, and place a kettle of pure water for the use of the little offi cious people. The Niss-Puk, moreover, always requires a mess of sweet porridge with butter to be set for him in a certain place.
Persons from the district of Stapelholm, who have seen the Niss-Puk, describe him as not larger than an infant of a year or a year and a half old. Others say that he is as large as one of three years. He has a large head and long arms, and small but bright, cunning eyes 1. He wears red stockings and a long grey or green tick coat, on the head a red, peaked cap. He delights in a pair of soft, easy slippers, and when he gets such he may be heard at night slipping about the floor in them.
These beings sometimes appear in a hideous form, to the great terror of the inmates, at which they testify their delight by a loud laugh.
1 The people of Silt say he has very large eyes ; whence of inquisitive persons it is said : " He stares like a Puk."
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 49
People frighten children with the Biisemann, who dwells in the stable ; in Fohr they are kept in awe by the blind Jug; in Ditmarschen by Pulterklaes. And who knows not the formidable Roppert (Ruprecht) ? The domestic goblin was formerly known under the name of Chimken.
Jn some respects the Niss-Puk resembles the Galgenmannlein or Alraun of South Germany, who is enclosed in a bottle, can be sold by his owner, but always for a price less than the sum he paid for him. The soul of the last owner belongs to the Galgenmannlein. See the tale of ' Das Galgenmannlein ' in Binder's Schwabische Volkssagen.
THE SUBTERRANEANS LICK UP MILK.
About seventy years ago little underground beings were seen in many farms in the Wilstermarsch, who did little more than accompany the maids and men home in the morning after they had been milking, and sedulously lick up the drops of milk that had been spilt. But when in measuring out nothing was spilt, they would overturn all the vessels and run away. These people were about a foot and a half high, wore black clothes and a peaked, red cap. Wherever they came, people thought they brought a special blessing on the house.
In the Frisic islands the housewives have frequently observed, when brewing, that the little people usually came in the shape of toads, and licked from off the floor the new beer that had been spilt. No one does them any harm, and the beer so spilt must be left for them, as well as the crumbs of bread that fall from the table.
THE KLABAUTERMANN.
The Klabautermann sits under the ship's capstan, and is a little fellow with yellow breeches, horseman's boots, a large, fiery-red head, green teeth, and a steeple-crowned hat. If a ship is doomed to perish, the Klabautermann
50 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
may be heard running up and down the shrouds in a state of disquietude, and making a noise among the rigging and in the hold ; so that the crew leave the ship, and the sooner the better1.
When such a goblin is on board of a ship, and on friendly terms with the crew, the vessel will not sink and every voyage will be prosperous ; if he abandons it, things will go ill. Every thing that is broken during the day in the ship he sets to rights in the night, and is therefore often called the Klutermann (joiner)2. He also prepares many things for the sailors, and even performs them. If he is in a bad humour, he makes an awful noise, throws about the fire-wood, spars, and other things, knocks on the ship's sides, destroys many things, hinders those at work, and unseen gives the sailors violent cuffs on the head. From all this uproar it is supposed that he derives his name3.
OF THE KANZAUS. I.
Of the very old arid ducal- Sleswig family of Ranzau it is recorded, that to an ancestress of their house there came one night, as she lay in bed by her husband's side, a little man bearing a lantern, who having waked her, prayed her to follow him. She did so (every door and gate opening spontaneously as they passed) and arrived at length in a hollow mount, in which there lay a little woman in the pains of labour. When the said noble dame Von Ranzau, at the earnest entreaty of the little woman, had laid her hand upon her head, she was instantly delivered. The lady, who had been standing in great fear, now hastened
1 Kuhn and Schwartz, p. 423.
" From klutern, to make or mend small delicate works, particularly of wood.
3 From klappen, to make a noise, clabauder (clabauderie) ?
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 51
back, and was attended home by her said diminutive com panion. At parting she received from the little man, in recompense for her service, a large piece of gold, of which, at his suggestion, she caused to be made fifty counters, a herring, and two spindles for her daughter. At the same time he gave her also this notice : That her posterity must carefully preserve those articles, if, from being affluent, they would not in time become needy persons ; for that as long as none of them were lost, they would increase in honour and repute. I think that the person who related to me this remarkable anecdote, at the same time informed me, that either the herring or one of the golden counters had disappeared from among these treasures.
According to an oral tradition in Thiele (i. 134), the little man con ducts the countess into the cellar of the castle of Breitenburg. She re ceives from him a golden spinning-wheel for her daughter and a golden sabre for her son, together with the prediction, that as long as those things were preserved in the family, it should flourish in wealth and con sideration. Both presents are, it is said, still preserved in the mansion.
According to another account, the gifts consisted in a table-cloth, a spool, and gold, of which a chain was made, and some coined into money. Dame Sophia Ranzau of Seeholm related this of her grandfather Henry Ranzau's wife.
The tradition of a Frau von Hahn, who was fetched by a water-nix, agrees (as I have heard it related) with the Ranzau tradition. The coun tess is conducted into a cellar, receives a present of shavings, which turn to gold, a large beaker made from which is still shown at Neuhaus. Other things made from the same are lost.
II.
The newly married countess, who was of a Danish family, was sleeping by her husband's side, when a noise was heard, the bed-curtains were drawn aside, and she saw a little woman of extraordinary beauty, not more than a cubit high, standing before her holding a light. " Fear not," she said, " I will do you no harm, but bring you good luck, if you afford the assistance which I require. Kise up and follow me ; but take heed to eat nothing that
52 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
may be offered you, nor accept any other gift than what I shall present to you, and which you may safely receive."
The countess accompanied her, and the way led under the earth. They came into an apartment that was re splendent with gold and precious stones, and full of little men and women. Before long their king appeared, and conducted the countess to a bed, in which lay the queen in the pains of child-birth, beseeching her to give her assistance. The countess did her best, and the queen was safely delivered of a son. At this there was great rejoicing among the guests ; the countess was led to a table covered with the choicest viands, and pressed to partake of them ; but she touched nothing, neither would she accept any of the precious stones, which lay in golden dishes. At length she was led forth by her first conductress, and brought back to her bed.
The little woman then said : " You have rendered a great service to our realm, for which you shall be re warded. Here are three wooden staves ; lay them under your pillow, and to-morrow morning they will be changed to gold. From the first of these let there be made a herring; from the second, counters; from the third, a spindle ; and reveal this whole affair to no one in the world, except your husband. You will have three chil dren, who will form the three branches of a house. The one that gets the herring will be very successful in war, both himself and his posterity; the one that gets the counters will, together with his children, fill high offices of state ; the one that gets the spindle will be blessed with a numerous offspring/'
After these words the little hill- woman departed, and the countess fell asleep. When she woke she related to her husband the events of the night. The count laughed at her, regarding the whole as a dream ; but when she put her hand under the pillow, there lay three gold bars.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 53
Both were astonished, and employed them precisely in the manner prescribed.
The prediction was accurately fulfilled : those branches of the house which carefully preserved the treasures, still exist, while others, who were less careful, are extinct. Of the branch that got the coined money it is related, that a king of Denmark once desired to have one of the pieces \ but at the moment the king received it, the individual who gave it to him was seized with a violent stomach ache.
In 'L'Amant oisif,' Bruxelles, 1711, 405-411, the foregoing tradition is told under the title of ' La Comtesse de Falinsperk.'
III.
A benevolent countess (Ranzau) at Breitenburg, who was frequently herself the bearer of her household medi cines to the sick, was one stormy evening called to the house of an old woman, who dwelt at the other extremity of the village. She was in the act of going, but was pre vented by her husband. While sitting alone in the twi light, she heard a noise, and before her stood the house- goblin with herbs and potions, who bade her take them and carry them to the sick, and rather to obey the voice of her own heart than the prohibition of her husband. The countess followed the goblin's bidding, and through her care and the medicaments the sick woman speedily re covered. On the following evening, as the countess was again sitting alone in the twilight, she saw the goblin standing by the hearth and stirring the fire. When the fire had blazed up, he threw into it an apronful of shavings, and said to the countess : " When the fire is burnt out, look among the ashes, and what you find there preserve carefully. As long as those things continue in your family, so long will fortune favour the counts of Ranzau.'7 When the fire was out the countess made a search, and
54 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
found a golden spindle, a golden beaker, and something besides. The last-mentioned fell to a younger branch, who lost it, and is now without property ; but the spindle is still at Breitenburg, and the beaker at Rastorf.
At Breitenburg fifty golden pennings are carefully preserved in a silver box, on which are the arms of John Ranzau and Dame Anna Walstorf, his wife. The inscription on these pennings is engraved and filled in with black.
As Anna Walstorf was one night in pious prayer making mention of her absent husband, she was humbly besought by a subterranean mount-man to give aid to his wife who was in the pains of child-birth. She fol lowed the little man through many cellars and vaults of her castle of Breitenburg that wrere quite unknown to her, until she came to a bright crystal rock. On a touch from her companion it flew open, and in a spacious hall she saw an innumerable multitude of similarly little men col lected round an elevated spot. She advanced and found the queen in the pangs of labour and at the point of death. Dame Anna, who was well skilled in the preparation of me dicines, mixed a potion for the patient, through the virtue of which she was soon delivered of a son. Their joy was beyond expression, and the grateful husband presented their benefactress with some gold, which appeared like shavings, enjoining her to preserve it as the greatest treasure ; that the fortunes of her house depended on it. At a subse quent period she caused to be made from it three things, viz. some small pieces of money, a distaff and a herring, which were afterwards divided among the several branches of the family.
The herring at a later period fell to the share of Josias Ranzau, who, full of military ardour, caused it to be made into a sword-hilt. He entered the French service, in which he shared in many battles, and at length attained
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 55
to the rank of field-marshal. He was one of the most desperate duellists, and even when he had arrived at an advanced age, and was possessed of the highest dignity, he would go disguised among the soldiers and pick quar rels with them. He once fought with an esteemed friend, because he had written his name incorrectly. But so long as he carried his magic sword, he was never, in any battle, either struck by a bullet or wounded by a stroke. No one had for a long time placed any confidence in him, it being evident to every one that there was some sorcery in the matter, so that when Caspar von Bockwold, a Hoi- stein nobleman, had divulged the story of the goblin, in a company at Strasburg, many persons denied him the praise of valour, and ascribed all his feats to the herring. At this, maddened with rage, Josias, in the presence of all, cast his sword into the Rhine. Still victory did not forsake him, though he had to pay dear for it ; so that at last, of all those members of which a man has two, he had lost one, and had besides sixty severe wounds on his body.
WE ARE REMOVING!
Cases have been known of houses in which whole fami lies and swarms of Puks or Nisser have taken their abode, and have thereby been rendered uninhabitable. In Husum there once lived two families of these beings, one at a baker's, the other at a brewer's. At night they turned everything topsy-turvy, made the most horrible noises, ran up and down the stairs ; sometimes they were in the cellar, sometimes in the chambers ; from the baker they stole his flour, from the brewer his beer. They were so little, that when pursued, like spiders and worms, they would creep into the smallest crevices, where they would make an incessant outcry. The people at length could endure them no longer, and resolved to remove. Their moveables had all been carried out, and the maid-servants
56 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
from both houses came the last, carrying the brooms on their shoulders. They met together, when Ann inquired of Susan where they were going ? But before she could answer, many little voices cried from one of the brooms : " We are removing I " The girls at first were frightened, but soon recovered their presence of mind. There was a pond close at hand ; into this both plunged their brooms, and left them in the water. They then betook themselves to their new habitations, and were no more annoyed by these noxious beings. But it was soon remarked that all the fish in the pond grew sick, and by degrees died ; and women, who late in the evening fetched water from the pond, declared by all that was holy that they had re peatedly heard small voices in the water crying out : " We have removed ! We have gone away 1 "
In Neumiinster a man had offended a Niss, because he had put no butter in his porridge. In revenge the Niss played such pranks and caused so much annoyance that the people were obliged to remove. When the last person with the broom was crossing the threshold, the Niss, who was sitting in the broom, called out : " I too am here," and removed with them.
At a place also in Angeln, some people left their house, on account of a Niss. When the last cartload was just ready to go, he was sitting behind, and laughing said : " We move to-day."
The reader will have already seen in the Danish Popular Traditions stories nearly identical with the three foregoing, which are here selected from many others as striking examples of the close resemblance existing between the superstitions of North Germany and those of Scandinavia.
THE SNAKE-KING. A girl working in the field once found a bunch of four-
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 57
teen or fifteen snakes, all hissing together ; one of which had a golden crown. The girl untied her white apron and laid it on the ground near the group, when the largest of the snakes, the one that had the crown, came and laid his crown on the apron. It was of pure gold and set with many precious stones of a green colour. The girl in stantly sprang forwards and snatched it up ; seeing which the snake-king cried so horribly that the girl was deafened by the noise. She afterwards sold the crown for a con siderable sum1.
In the ruins of the old Duborg, near Flensborg, there lives a bluish snake that wears on its head a small crown of the finest gold. It appears but once a day, at the hour of noon, and then for a moment only. Whoever can catch it, or get its crown, is fortunate. The king would instantly give twenty thousand dollars current for the crown ; for whoever wears it is immortal.
THUNDER.
In Silt, if any one finds a thunderstone, he carefully preserves it ; because thunder will never cause any injury in a house where there is such a stone2.
THE STARS.
Old maids and bachelors, according to the North Fri sians, are curiously employed after death. As soon as the sun is sunk below the horizon, the old maids must cut stars out of it, which the old bachelors, during the night, must blow up in the east, going all the time up or down a ladder.
THE MAN IN THE MOON.
At the time when wishing was of avail, a man, one Christmas eve, stole cabbages from his neighbour's garden.
1 See vol. ii. p. 217. 2 See vol. i. p. 54, note.
D 5
58 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS,
When just in the act of walking off with his load, he was perceived by the people, who conjured (wished) him up in the moon. There he stands in the full moon to be seen by everybody, bearing his load of cabbages to all eternity. Every Christmas eve he is said to turn round once. Others say that he stole willow boughs, which he must bear for ever.
In Silt the story goes that he was a sheep-stealer, that enticed sheep to him with a bundle of cabbages, until, as an everlasting warning to others, he was placed in the moon, where he constantly holds in his hand a bundle of cabbages.
The people of Rantum say that he is a giant, who at the time of the flow stands in a stooping posture, because he is then taking up water, which he pours out on the earth, and thereby causes the flow ; but at the time of the ebb he stands erect and rests from his labour, when the water can subside again.
HANS DUMKT.
Of Charles's Wain, or, as it is more usually called, the Great Bear, it is said, that it is the wagon, in which Elias, our Lord, and other saints journeyed to heaven. But the very small star above the centre one in the pole is the wagoner, Hans Diimkt. He was in the service of our Lord, and had a very comfortable place ; but by degrees he did his work more and more negligently. Our Lord often warned and chided him ; but Hans cared very little for that. He was particularly careless in cutting chaff; none that he cut could be used, being cut much too long. At this our Lord was at last so angry that he set him on the pole of the celestial wain, where he may be seen every evening, as a warning to all serving-men that cut chaff too long. According to one tradition, Hans Dumken (or Durakt) was a carrier,
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 59
who conveyed our Lord, who in remuneration promised him the kingdom of heaven ; but the man said he would rather drive to all eternity, from sunset to sunrise. Grimm, D. M. p. 688.
THE WANDERING JEW.
For many years the Wandering Jew has been a wan derer from city to city. He is never hungry nor thirsty, and never grows old. He takes rest always out of doors,, and may not sleep under a roof. It is said that he was some years ago in Liineburg, where he slept on a stone just without the city.
A few years since he was seen in Sundewith, not far from Beuschau. He carried a basket, out of which there grew moss. He rests only on Christmas eve, when he finds a plough in the field ; for on that alone may he sit.
THE WODE.
Many persons have, in the twelve nights of Christmas and particularly on Christmas eve, seen the Wode on his progress. He rides a large white horse, a huntsman on foot and four-and-twenty fierce dogs follow him. In every place through which he passes, the hedges fall with a crash, and a road opens itself before him ; but towards morning they are all erect again. Some assert that his horse has only three legs. He always rides on certain ways, past the doors of the houses, and with such speed that his dogs are not always able to keep pace with him : they may be heard panting and howling, and sometimes one has been left on the road. One of them was once found in a house at Wulfsdorf, another at Fuhlenhagen, lying on the hearth, incessantly howling and panting, until the next Christmas eve, when the Wode again took it with him. At Christmas eve no linen ought to be left out, as the dogs tear it to tatters. There should also be no baking, as it would cause a Wild-hunt. Everything in
60 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
the house must be quiet. If the door is left open, the Wode and his dogs will pass through and consume all that is in the house, but particularly the dough, if baking be going forwards l.
The Wode once entered the house of a poor peasant, and his dogs devoured everything. The poor man made great lamentation, and asked the Wode what compensa tion he was to have for the damage he had sustained. The Wode told him that he should be paid. Shortly after he came dragging along a dead dog, which he told the peasant to throw into his chimney; when he had done so, the skin burst, and there fell from it many bright gold pieces.
The Wode has a certain road, through which he rides every night during the twelve days of Christmas. At his approach the subterraneans must flee before him, as he is bent on extirpating them from the earth. An old peasant one night late saw the subterraneans running along : they did not appear terrified and cried out : " He can 't catch us to-day, he must let us go, he has not washed himself this morning." On proceeding a little further, he met the Wode, who asked him what they had been saying. " They said/' answered the old man, " that you have not washed yourself this morning, and must therefore let them go." When the Wode heard this he stopped his horse, let it stale, dismounted and washed himself there with; then remounted and continued his chase after the subterraneans. After a little while the peasant saw him returning, having with him many bound together by their yellow hair 2, besides a number hanging down on each side
1 Woden here appears as sadly fallen from his former high estate. This and the following story might not inaptly, in a twofold sense, be also titled ' The Descent of Odin.'
2 The subterranean folk have not yellow hair. Those alluded to above must be the moss-folk and wood-wives, who resemble children of three years> and are friendly to mankind. See Grimm, D. M. p. 881 note.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 61
of his horse. Thus did he pursue the subterraneans until they all have disappeared : he therefore hunts no longer on the earth, but only in the air above. The Wode is known throughout Lauenburg, and people everywhere close their doors against him at Christmas time.
A Meklenburg tradition places the connection between Odin and the Wild Hunt beyond a doubt.
When, as it often happens, the dogs bark on the heaths, in the woods and cross-ways, the countryman knows it to be Wod that is leading them, and pities the wanderer that has not reached his home.
A drunken peasant passing one night through a forest on his way from the town, heard the Wild Hunt, and the noise of the dogs and the cry of the huntsmen in the air. " In the middle of the road ! In the middle of the road1 \" cried a voice, but to which he gave no heed. On a sudden a tall man on a white horse precipitated himself from the clouds before him. " Art thou strong ? " said he. " Let us try which can pull the strongest. Here take hold of this chain." The countryman took hold of the heavy chain, and the wild hunter soared aloft. The countryman wound the chain round an oak, and the huntsman tugged in vain. " Thou hast surely wound the chain round the oak," said Wod, descending from the clouds. " No," said the countryman, who had hastily loosed it, "see I am holding it in my hands." " Then thou shalt be mine up in the clouds," cried the huntsman, again mounting. The countryman now quickly fastened the chain again
1 The reason of this warning appears from the same superstition as current in the isle of Usedom. When the Wild Hunt passes by, the cry is frequently heard of
Ho ho ! bliw innen Middelwech, Hallo hallo ! keep in the middle way, Denn biten di de Hunne nich. Then will the dogs not bite thee.
Kuhn und Schwartz, p. 427.
62 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
round the oak, and Wod was as unsuccessful as before. " But hast thou not fastened the chain round the oak ? " said Wod, again descending. " No," said the country man, " see I am holding it in my hands." " If thou wert heavier than lead, thou must up with me in the clouds, notwithstanding." Saying this he darted up like light ning, but the countryman had recourse to his old process. The dogs barked, the carriages rolled, the horses neighed up aloft, the oak cracked at its roots and seemed to turn ; the countryman felt far from easy, but the tree stood its ground. "Thou hast pulled capitally," said the hunts man ; " many men have I made mine : thou art the first that has withstood me. I will reward thee." Now loud was the uproar of the hunt, " hallo, holla ! wol, wol ! " The countryman sneaked away towards home, when from an unseen height, a deer fell dying before him, and there stood Wod, who, springing from his white horse, cut up the game. " The blood shalt thou have and a haunch besides," said Wod. " Sir," said the countryman, " thy servant has neither pail nor pitcher." " Take thy boot off," cried Wod. He did so. " Now march home with blood and flesh to wife and brat." Fear at first caused his bur then to seem light, but by degrees it grew heavier and heavier, so that he could scarcely walk under it. Bent almost double, and dripping with sweat, he at length reached his hut, and behold ! the boot was full of gold, and the haunch turned out to be a leather bag filled with silver1.
THE MAN WITHOUT A SHADOW.
Many preachers and sacristans in former times visited (and still visit) the Black School, and are there instructed by the devil in the black art, by means of which they can exorcise spectres, spirits of the dead, and even the devil himself. The devil gives the instruction, though not
1 Lisch, Meklenb. Jahrb., quoted by Grimm, D.M. pp. 876, 877.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 63
gratis. The condition is, that whosoever, at the termina tion of the lecture, when the course is ended, of all the pupils that frequent the school, goes last out by the door, shall belong to him. By many, who proved more cunning than their master, he has been outwitted, among others, by the sacristan of Brons, in the west part of the bailiwick of Hadersleben. He was the last of all that left the school, but he knew how to help himself, when the devil would lay hold on him. The school-door was to the south, and it happened that the lecture was finished in bright sunshine, exactly at noon ; so the sacristan very justly said, that not he, but his shadow wTas the last to go out ; that, if he liked, the devil was welcome to keep. The devil could object nothing to this reasoning, and let the man go, but detained his shadow. From that time the sacristan has been shadowless ; and many who have seen and known him can testify, that even in the brightest sunshine not the faintest appearance of a shadow accompanies him.
It hardly need be mentioned that Chamisso's ' Peter Schlemihl ' is founded on a similar tradition. According to a Spanish tradition, there was a cave at Salamanca in which the devil always maintained seven pupils, under the condition that when they were fully instructed, the last must pay the reckoning. One day when he was dismissing his scholars, and had ordered the last to remain, the scholar pointed to his shadow, saying: "That is the last." The devil was obliged to be con tent with the shadow, and the pupil continued for the rest of his life shadowless.
Jamieson, speaking of the Scottish superstition, says : " Losing one's shadow arrives to such as are studying the art of necromancy. When a class of students have made a certain progress in their mystic studies, they are obliged to run through a subterraneous hall, where the devil literally catches the hindmost in the race, unless he crosses the hall so speedily, that the arch- enemy can only apprehend his shadow. In the latter case the person of the sage never after throws any shade, and those who have thus lost their shadow always prove the best magicians.'' See Grimm, D. M. p. 976. Most readers will recollect Walter Scott's lines, in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, when speaking of the lady of Buccleuch's father, who had studied in " Padua, far beyond the sea" : —
64 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
For when in studious mood he paced
St. Andrew's cloister'd hall, His form no darkening shadow traced
Upon the sunny wall.
DEVIL AGAINST DEVIL.
A cross painted on the principal door of the house is a safeguard against witches ; it is also good to have in the house a wafer that has been purloined at the communion. If cattle is bewitched and no butter can be produced,, the cows, churns and pails must in the evening be silently smoked. The witch will then usually come and ask ad mission, but no one may be let in, however hard they may knock at the door.
At a house in Wilster a child was sick. A cunning woman said there was some sorcery in the case, and that the child must be smoked at twelve o'clock at night, every door being closed. The person that had bewitched it would then come, when blood must be drawn from him or her on a cloth, and the cloth burnt. At the hour spe cified every door was carefully closed ; before the windows, and reaching almost to the top, sheets were hung, all precisely as the cunning woman had directed. But the house had window- shutters after the old fashion, made to turn up, so that under every window they hung like a sort of flap, on which, when not turned up, a person might contrive to stand and look through the window. And so it was here ; for while they were smoking the child, and before it had struck twelve, the witch suddenly peeped over the sheet into the room. On seeing her, the man rushed out, struck her in the face, and received the blood on a cloth, which being burnt, the child recovered.
In the neighbourhood of Biisum there dwelt a wealthy peasant, who had an only daughter whom he tenderly
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 65
loved. But his old mother-in-law was a witch. People knew that she had on several occasions transformed herself to a cat or other animal ; in companies, too, she has caused the whole room to be filled with ravens, so that the guests were forced to withdraw. She did harm to both man and beast. If any one passed a night in her house, and his slippers stood the wrong way, she would, when she thought that every one was asleep, enter the chamber and turn the slippers1. This is a certain proof that she was a witch; for so they constantly do ; otherwise they would have no power over the sleeper. But witches must always have one person in their family on whom to exercise their malice. The old mother-in-law grudged the peasant his good for tune, arid at length bewitched his daughter most wickedly. She presented the young maiden with a beautiful new dress, which she, suspecting no guile, put on on the following Sunday, intending to appear in it at church. But it was hardly on her back before her hair stood on end, her eyes rolled wildly, and for internal burning she could not con tain herself. She dashed herself against the windows and doors like a savage cat, raved and raged at everybody, but without knowing any one, and it was not without much difficulty that she could be undressed and placed in bed. The raving fit then passed, but was succeeded by the greatest debility and exhaustion. And thus she lay for a length of time, and was daily dwindling away. No phy sician could afford her relief, for they all confessed that they were ignorant of her malady. Her parents were in consolable. Some sagacious persons, to whom they had recourse, told them at last that an old woman had be witched their daughter, but that they were powerless against her. Only in Hamburg there lived a man who could probably relieve her ; if he failed, all attempts would
1 See in vol. ii. Sw. Pop. Belief, p. 111. No. 50, and Dan. Pop. Belief, p. 272, No. 34.
66 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
be vain. Her father, resolved on leaving nothing untried, instantly set out for Hamburg, and spoke with the man, who, after he had heard a full state of the case, opened a large book, written in characters which nobody but him self understood. At the expiration of a quarter of an hour, the man told the peasant that his daughter was certainly under the influence of witchcraft, but that he would give him a pot of medicine, that would most probably afford her relief, if only he could carry it home whole ; as the evil spirit would use every endeavour to break it. On the following day the peasant received the pot from the doctor, and soon arrived without impediment at Biisum. But now all must go wrong. The ship's boy was ordered to carry the basket containing the pot on shore and to the house of the peasant ; but hardly had he set foot on dry land, when the sand rose like a water-spout, threw the youngster down, and dashed the basket out of his hand, so that the pot was broken in a thousand fragments. Thus was the journey in vain. After a very short delay, the man was again on his way to the wonderful doctor, when, having related his mishap, he was informed by the sage that the task was now much more difficult, but that he must come again in two days. The doctor had in the interim made everything ready, and packed up the pot, and now enjoined the peasant to keep the strictest watch over it; adding that there was still one other method of saving his daughter, but one that he should very reluctantly have recourse to, even if her father would consent. This time the peasant returned home by land, having the basket with the pot under the seat of his vehicle, and arrived within sight of his house in safety, and was even on his own ground, when, on the level earth, the vehicle was suddenly upset, and although the peasant himself sustained no in jury, the pot was broken in pieces. The man, who had his daughter's recovery much at heart, allowed himself no
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 67
rest, although his wife, and more especially his mother-in- law, would retain him, telling him he ought to take some repose after his great toil ; but all was to no purpose ; he mounted his horse, and in twelve hours was again in Ham burg. The doctor now informed him that one course
o
alone remained, which was to boil the old witch in oil ; but before commencing this process, he w^ould show him the person who had bewitched his daughter. He then went into an adjacent apartment, muttered, with all kinds of hocus-pocus, some unintelligible spells, and in a quarter of an hour came back with a large mirror under his arm. This he placed on the table, and desired the peasant to look into it. The man did so, and instantly recognised in it his old mother-in-law. He was deeply grieved at the sight, yet on calling to mind what his daughter had suf fered, and that if her malady continued, it must soon terminate her existence, he formed his resolution, and said to the doctor that he might do what he thought proper, let whatever might come afterwards. The doctor appointed him to come again at noon on the following day. At the time fixed the peasant was in attendance, when the doctor led him into a detached apartment, and then withdrew. At the expiration of an hour he called him into the kitchen, where he had a large kettle on the fire, into which he poured oil and other things, under all sorts of spells and ceremonies, and then shut it close with a heavy lid. What was in the kettle now began to work and boil, the noise in it grew louder and louder, and the peasant thought he could distinguish the moans of a human being. Whatever it was, it seemed resolved to remain no longer, but to get air, and strove with all its might to raise the lid. " Now is the time," said the doctor, springing forwards and hold ing down the lid with all his strength ; and shortly after called to the peasant for his assistance ; and only with the utmost difficulty could they succeed in preventing it from
68 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
running over. When the boiling ceased, all gradually grew more quiet, and was at length quite still. " Now," said the doctor, "your daughter is saved, and the old woman is no more." The peasant felt ill at ease, and although pleased at the intelligence, the doctor appeared to him as something unearthly. He instantly paid him his due, hastened back to his inn., and on the following day, as early as possible, mounted his horse and rode home. On entering his dwelling, his daughter, quite healthy and cheerful, came to meet him, and related to him that her old grandmother had died a horrible death on the pre vious day. At noon she was attacked by an internal burning, which from one minute to another became more intense. In bed she could not remain, had torn open the doors and windows, thrown off her clothes, rolled and writhed about the floor, crying and moaning the whole time so that she might be heard at a considerable distance. Not till the day was far advanced did she become gra dually more calm, and at length uttered not a sound. Until then no one could remain with her, but now on entering, they found on the spot where she had lain a small heap of ashes and some burnt bones. From that hour the daughter recovered her health, and lived several years after.
WITCHES TAKE AWAY BUTTER.
When the dew falls on May morning it will be a good butter year. On such a morning a witch, before sunrise, went into her neighbours' fields, took up the dew with large linen cloths, then wrung them out, and so collected the dew in a vessel. Of this, every time she wished to make butter, she took a spoonful, and poured it into the churn, saying at the same time : " From every house a spoonful l." By this process she took every time so much
1 Uet elk hues en Lapel vull.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 69
butter from those neighbours to whom the fields belonged. On one occasion her man had to churn, but, not rightly understanding the matter, said when taking the dew: "From every house a bushelful1." He then began to churn, when there came so much butter, that it ran over the whole house, and the people were at a loss what to do with it.
The appellation of Daustriker (Thaustreicher), dew-striker or scraper, for a witch, is no doubt derived from the above superstition. See more on the subject in Grimm, D.M. p. 1026.
CALVES BEWITCHED.
A farmer could never rear a calf; as often as he at tempted it, the animal fell sick, and seemed unable either to live or to die, so that he was obliged to kill it. In his trouble he had recourse to a cunning man, who advised him, when the like happened again, to take the sick animal into his yard and shoot at it. " You will not be able to kill it," added he, " but continue to load and fire ; somebody will then soon come, and the matter will be settled." After a time another calf fell ill, when he did as the man had recommended. After he had fired several shots without killing the calf, a female neighbour came in running and crying out, " Stop your shooting ; you will shoot all my oxen dead in the meadow." Every shot had killed an ox. The man ceased from shooting, and from that day could rear his calves.
FORESEEING.
In Owschlag, near Sleswig, there were formerly some remarkable men. Among them there was one who could foresee and foretell funerals, weddings, etc. He must, when anything passed by his house in the night, rise from his bed and look at it ; and if he lay too long and the 1 Uet elk hues en Schapel vull.
70 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
thing was passed, he must run after it until he got sight of it. The cause of this was, that he had once trodden on the tail of a howling dog and looked between his ears. At first this wonderful faculty afforded him much amuse ment, and to many persons he foretold a variety of inci dents most accurately ; though as he grew old it became burthensome to him. But he could not get rid of it or sleep in quiet, until he had worn his shirt turned for a whole year.
THE COMMUNION-CUP AT VIOL.
As an inhabitant of Viol was one night riding from Flensborg, he passed by a grave-mound where the under ground folk were celebrating a great festival, and just in the act of sending round a large golden beaker, in which was a beverage in appearance resembling buttermilk. The peasant drew up his horse and knavishly entreated them to let him have a draught from the beaker. In the most cordial manner they handed it to him ; but he, having got possession of it, cast the liquor behind him and galloped away. He soon heard a subterranean cry : " Dreibein (Three-legs) come out V and on looking back, saw a mon ster close behind him; but his horse was swifter than Dreibein. He then heard many voices at once crying : " Zweibein (Two-legs) come out ! " and saw another mon ster much more frightful and much swifter than Dreibein ; yet was unable to overtake him. Then he heard them with one voice crying : " Einbein (One-leg) come out ! " On turning again, he saw a third monster far far more hideous and larger than the preceding one, which came after him with gigantic springs, head over heels ; and would have caught him, had not the door of his house luckily stood open ; for scarcely had he slammed it to, when there stood Einbein banging against it ; but was, nevertheless, forced to remain outside. On the following morning the
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 71
peasant found that the drink had singed off half of his horse's tail. The beaker he presented to the church,, in fulfilment of a vow he made in his fright on seeing Ein- bein1.
WHITE WOMEN.
Beneath the village of Sahrensdorf, in Femern, there dwelt in former times White-women, who gladly stole unbaptized children. As a protection against them,, a light was burnt immediately after the birth of a child, which must constantly burn in the chamber until the child was christened.
1 See vol. ii. pp. 140, 144, sqq.
NORTH GERMAN POPULAR TRADITIONS
ii.
MEKLENBURG, THE MARK, SAXONY,
THURINGIA, BRUNSWICK, HANOVER,
OLDENBURG, WESTPHALIA1.
FRU CODE.
IN the twelve days of Christmas Fru Gode makes her tour, and has been met by many a one. As a man was once busy with his horses in the stable, Fru Gode came, and handing him a stake, requested him to make a point to it. At first he refused, but, on her promising him a good reward, did what she required. When it was finished, she told him to gather up the chips that had fallen, which he did, and found them all pure gold.
Formerly much was related of Fru Gode, how she rode through the air with her dogs. When she had one day passed over a farm-yard, the farmer happening to go out,
1 From Kuhn and Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, Marchen u. Gebrauche. Leipsig, 1848, unless otherwise expressed.
E
74 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
found a little dog lying before his door. He took it in, and together with his wife fed and cherished it. But in the following year, and exactly at the same time, the dog suddenly disappeared, and in his bed there lay a large lump of gold. That must have been intended by Fru Gode for the farmer, who until then was a poor man, but now at once became rich.
The name of Fru Gode, though applied in the middle age to a female being, Grimm (D. M. p. 231) considers a corruption from Fro Woden (Dominus Woden). In her annual tour and transformation of the shavings into gold, she resembles Berhta. Fru Gauden was, as we are told (D. M. p. 877), a lady of consideration and wealth, who was so enthusiastically fond of the chase that she uttered the sinful words : "If I might always hunt, I would never wish to enter heaven." She had twenty -four daughters, all as mad as herself. One day, when mother and daughters were dashing in full gallop through field and forest, and in their wild joy uttered the profane words : " The chase is better than heaven!" behold! before the eyes of the mother the daughters' clothes are turned to hair, their arms to legs, and four-and-twenty hounds bark round the hunting car of the mother ; four of which take the duty of the horses, the rest accompany the carriage, and away goes the wild group up into the clouds, there, be tween heaven and earth, to hunt, as they had wished, without cessation, from day to day, from year to year. Long have they been weary of their wild amusement, and deplore the sinful wish ; but they must bear the consequences of their crime, until the hour comes for their release. Come it one day will, but when? no one can say. In the twelve days of Christmas (for at other times we mortals are not aware of her presence), Fru Gauden directs her course to the habitations of men ; on Christmas night, or the last night of the year, she likes to traverse the streets of the village, and wrhere she finds a house-door open, she sends in a little dog. In the morning a little dog comes wagging its tail to the inhabitant ; it does no harm beyond disturbing the nocturnal quiet by its whining. It will be neither appeased nor driven away. If any one kills it, it will by day be changed into a stone, which, if thrown away, will return to the house and again become a dog. This dog will whine and moan during the whole year, bring disease and death to man and beast, and peril of fire on the house ; and not till the return of the twelve days will the house regain its quiet. Hence every one takes especial care, both morning and evening, to keep the house-door well-closed. Some people were once foolish enough to kill the dog, but from that day they never prospered, and at length their house was burnt to the ground. More fortunate are they who render a service to Fru Gauden, who, in the darkness of the night,
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 75
sometimes misses her road, and finds herself in a crossway. Now a cross- way is a stumbling-block to the good lady, and whenever she finds herself in one, she contrives to break some part of her chariot which she is unable to repair. On such an occasion she once came, clad like a stately dame, to the bedside of a serving-man, waked him and implored his aid. The man complied with her desire, followed her to the crossway, and found that one of the wheels of her vehicle had flown off. Having set her con veyance to rights, she desired him, by way of remuneration, to put into his pocket what appeared like ordure. The man was indignant at such a proposal, but allowed himself to be somewhat pacified on her assuring him that worthless as the present appeared, it would not prove so. On the strength of this assurance he was induced to take some with him, when lo ! to his no small astonishment, by daybreak it began to glitter like burnished gold, and was in fact the purest gold !
THE KLABAUTERSMANNEKEN OR PtJKSE. These beings take up their abode in houses, but par ticularly in mills and ships, where they live on the milk that is placed for them, in return for which they render all kinds of services : they milk the cows, curry the horses, work in the kitchen, wash the ship, help to weigh the anchor, and do a variety of other jobs. There is nothing to be more feared than the Klabautersmanneken leaving the ship. On which account great care must be taken not to leave a coat for them, or a pair of shoes, for then they would instantly leave the vessel. They wear a short red jacket, not in the best condition, and not always quite covering their nakedness, so that the heart sometimes melts at the sight of them. In houses they like to live in the timber-work, on which account, when pulling down a house, the beams ought not to be thrown away, but em ployed, as far as possible, in building the new house.
THE HORSE-MARE.
In Usedom there once lived a man, who had a horse that had always been vigorous and in good condition, but at once became meagre and lost strength; and notwith standing that it was well fed, never could recover. This
76 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
appeared very singular to the owner, and he thought the matter over and over, but could not satisfy himself. At length he sent for a cunning man, who, on seeing the horse, said that he would soon find a remedy. He re mained there that night, and at midnight went to the stable, stopt a knot-hole in the door, then fetched the owner of the horse, and they both entered the stable. To his great astonishment he there saw a woman of his ac quaintance sitting on the horse, and, although she strove with all her might, unable to descend from it. It was the Horse-mare that was so caught. She besought them most earnestly to set her free, which they did, but only after she had promised never to repeat her visits1.
A WOMAN-WERWOLF.
At Caseburg, on the isle of Usedom, a man and his wife were busy in the field making hay, when after some time the woman said to the man that she had no more peace, she could no longer stay, and went away. But she had previously desired her husband to promise, that if perchance a wild beast should come, he would throw his hat at it and then run away, that it might not hurt him. She had been gone only a little while, when a wolf came swimming across the Swine, and ran directly towards the haymakers. The man threw his hat at it, which the animal instantly tore to rags. But in the mean time a boy had run up with a pitchfork, and stabbed the wolf from behind, which in the same moment became changed ; and all were not a little astonished, when they saw that it was the man's wife, whom the boy had killed.
THE HECKETHALER2.
In Swinemunde there lived many years ago a man who 1 See vol. ii. p. 170. 2 frora hecken, to produce, hatch.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 7/
had a ' Heckethaler/ which he obtained in the following manner. On New Year's night he went to the church door, having with him in a bag an entirely black he- cat, without even a single white hair. Taking the cat on his back, he walked backwards from the church door round the church, and his round being completed, knocked thrice. A man then came forth and inquired whether he would sell the cat?— "Yes" — " For how much?"— "For a dollar " — " That 's too much ; I '11 give eight groschen " — " He is not to be had for that." Thereupon he went a second time in the same manner round the church, knocked again, the same man stept out, he repeated his question, and the man now offered sixteen groschen — " He is not to be had for that." — And now he went a third time backwards round the church, knocked again, the man again came forth; he demanded, and now received his dollar. Then throwing the bag with the cat in it on the ground, he ran as fast as he could back to his house. From that time let him pay out the dollar as often as he might, the moment the last groschen was spent, he had the entire dollar again in his pocket.
According to another account from Cottbus, we are informed that, if any one desires to have a Heckethaler, he must in the longest night put a black he-cat into a bag, which must be bound fast with ninety-nine knots. He must then go thrice round the church, and every time he comes to the door, call to the sacristan through the keyhole. At the third time the sacristan (and he is the devil) comes, when the man asks him whether he will buy a hare ? and for the cat in the bag receives a dollar. He must then hasten to get into a house ; for if the devil looses the knots and overtakes the seller, he is a lost man. The dollar so ob tained is the Heckethaler, and is to be got rid of only by placing it in salt. From this superstition is evidently derived the proverb to buy a cat in a bag. The act of walking thrice round the church, in religious and super stitious ceremonies, is of remote antiquity.
MILK ABSTRACTED. In Caseburg there was once a peasant whose cows would
78 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
yield no milk, however well he might feed them, so that he at last saw that they must be bewitched, and sent for a cunning man to aid him. The man came, went into the cowhouse, looked at the animals, and saw at once how matters stood — they were bewitched. He then took a walk about the village, in order to discover the witch, and in a neighbour's cowhouse, saw his wife standing close by the wall, which joined the aforesaid peasant's outhouses. Into the wall she had driven a broomstick, on which a pail was hung, and was milking the broomstick, which yielded milk like a natural udder. Thus was the witch discovered. He threatened to have her punished; and from that day the peasant's cows yielded milk.
Notwithstanding the burlesque character of the above, a superstition very near akin to it was known in Scotland, where witches were sup posed to have it in their power to supply themselves with milk, by pulling at a hair-rope, as dairy-maids tug the teats of cattle, and using the fol lowing conjuration : —
" Mear's milk, and deer's milk, And every beast that bears milk, Atween St. Johnston and Dundee, Come a' to me, come a' to me1."
WITCHES DISCOVERED.
At Neppermin, in Usedom, there lived two peasants, one of whom had been sick for three years and unable to rise from his bed ; for on placing his foot on the ground, he suffered the most excruciating pain. The servants of the two peasants had strong suspicions that the wives of their masters were witches. To ascertain the point, they hid themselves on Walburgis night in the stove of the woman whose husband was sick. They had not been long there when six witches came, one as a swine, another as a cat, another as a hare with three legs, and the others under various forms ; among whom were the two peasants' 1 Chambers's Pop. Rh. p. 34.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 79
wives. When they were all assembled, one said : " I am so hungry to-day, and know not how to satisfy my cra ving." Whereupon another answered : " Our neighbour opposite lies in childbed, let us fetch her infant and kill it ; " and at the instant one hurried away, and soon re turned with the babe. But now a knife was wanting. The sick man's wife then said : " For these three years past I have had a knife inserted in my husband's thigh, which I draw out every Walburgis night : I '11 fetch that. If he but knew it, he could rise up." She then went into an adjoining room, and immediately returned with a knife not much less than a foot long. This they were just in the act of applying to the breast of the infant, when one of the men in the stove exclaimed " Lord Jesus ! " at which the witches were scattered in all directions ; but the man hastened to his master and related to him all that had passed. At first he was incredulous, but on rising he found he could walk without pain. On entering the room, they there found both the child and the knife, which the witches had left behind. The man then went and de nounced his own wife, who confessed who the other witches were, and they were all condemned to the flames.
HUNENSTEINE (GIANT-STONES).
All over the Ukermark are these gigantic stones to be found ; but the neighbourhood of Prenzlau more particu larly abounds in them ; for it is there that the first church (the Marienkirche) was built in the country, for which reason the Hiinen l hurled immense blocks of stone in that direction. Such a block lies in the vicinity of Sternhagen and Buchholz, on the heath, in which there is the impres sion of the five fingers of a giant, who would cast it from
1 In these traditions a Hiine is identical with a Riese, Dan. Jsette, all signifying giant. The tradition of giants casting stones at churches is universal over all the North. See vol. ii. p. 158.
80 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
the Rhine to the above-named church. Many other similar stones lie about the fields of Wichmannsdorf and Berk- holz, all of which are fragments of a huge block that had been hurled at Prenzlau by a giant, but burst in shivers on its passage.
A HORSE COMES OUT OF THE WATER. In the neighbourhood of Jagow, as a peasant was ploughing late one Saturday, when the sun was already gone down, there came suddenly, out of a lake that lay close by his field, a horse with traces complete, which harnessed himself to the other horses, and then trotted off at such a rapid pace that one furrow after another was cut in the twinkling of an eye. The peasant followed breathless, the sweat running from his hair and face, and his horses were white with foam. In this way the horse continued for a full half hour, without a moment's rest, until he vanished by the same way that he came. The peasant then hastened home, and never again ploughed on a Saturday.
The above-mentioned being is evidently a German Nok. See vol. ii. pp. 20-22.
OLD FRICK.
Old Frick, or Fuik, is the deviPs grandmother, and has frequently been heard making a great noise in the night. Many also have seen, and at once recognised her by the large dogs, which she always has with her ; for when they barked, pure fire has issued from their mouths and nostrils.
In former times, when the Mill-laws1 were in force, the people of Naugarten were obliged to send their corn to be ground to the mill at Boitzenburg. A peasant had once
1 The thirlage of the Scottish law, by which every tenant was forced to take his grain to be ground at the lord's mill.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
driven his corn thither, but having staid till it was rather late, did not reach home with his wagon-load of flour before dark. On his way he heard on a sudden a tre mendous uproar, and immediately after, Old Friek with her dogs came thundering along. In his fright, the only way to save himself that occurred to him was to pour out the contents of his flour-sacks to the dogs, which in stantly set to work, and in a twinkling most ravenously devoured every atom of flour. Had he not so done, it would have gone hard with him. Frightened and sad he hastened home, with his empty sacks, and said to his wife : " Mother, it has gone ill with me ; I have met with Old Frick, and as quickly as I could have thrown out all the flour to her dogs, in order to get clear of them." " As the sacks are empty," said the wife, " they may be thrown aside." The man did accordingly, but what was his sur prise, when, on coming to the same place on the following morning, there stood his sacks well-filled, just as when, on the preceding evening, he brought them from Boitzen- burg !
THE WITCHES' RIDE.
There was once a peasant that had an old wife, who had a great partiality for her man Hans. One night, when the peasant was gone to bed, but the wife was alone in the kitchen, in came Hans, as usual, and saw how she was anointing first her grey he-cat and then her own feet with some ointment or salve. " What art thou doing there ? " said he (for in his master's absence he always thoued her). " I am going to the Blocksberg," answered she, " and if thou canst keep from babbling, thou mayest go with me, and be my servant." Thereupon she desired him to fetch the black cock, and when both animals had been smeared with the ointment, there in one instant stood before them u
E 5
82 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
grey horse and a black stallion. The woman then seating herself on the grey, said :
" Up und davon, Up and away,
nirgends an ! " nowhere run foul !
and away it went with her through the chimney. Hans now mounted his steed, and as she had told him he must do exactly as she did, he would also repeat her words, but had not well remembered them, and said :
" Up und davon, Up and away,
alle weg an ! " all the way run foul !
then away went he also through the chimney, but during the journey bounced now against a tree, then against a rock, till he was bruised and excoriated from head to foot ; but at length arrived at the Blocksberg. On their arrival the woman dismounted, and ordered Hans to hold the horses and remain with the other servants, of whom there was a considerable number. Hans did as he had been ordered, and after some time, was with all the others ad mitted to the feast, where he ate and drank to his heart's content ; but when their orgies were about to commence, he and the rest were obliged to quit the place. At last, when all was over, Hans and his mistress again mounted their horses and returned home.
Some time after, Hans quarreled with his mistress and went to live with another master. When the time came round again for visiting the Blocksberg, he thought he would play the old woman a trick, and said to his com panions : " If you would like to see how my old dame rides to the Blocksberg with the old alehouse-keeper, come with me." And saying this he led them to a cross- way, where a couple of harrows were standing, which they placed aslant against each other, and sat down under
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
them1. They had not been there long when a tramp of horses approached them. " See, see ! " cried Hans, " that ;s the old woman on the grey, and the one behind on the black horse is the old alehouse-man.'" All now saw her, as they sat under the harrows, and at the same time re marked that she rode at first directly to the crossway, but then took a direction along one of the ways, as she could not pass across them. On the following day Hans was in the field, and on a sudden remarked that the old woman was on the point of making an attack upon him. In vain did he look around for a place of refuge, but there was no escape for him. Just in time, however, a way occurred to him : he took a cord, which he had at hand, wound it round his body, drew it between his legs and up over his back and shoulders to his front, and then tied both ends in a strong cross-knot ; so that, both before and behind,, he was cross-bound, and the old woman could do him no harm. When she drew near, and saw how he was secured, she gave him fair words : That he might again enter her service, and all should be forgotten. Hans, however, manifested no desire to return ; and then she begged him at least to tell his companions that she did not ride on the grey horse the preceding night, and if he promised to do so, he should have twenty dollars. To this Hans consented, and received his money, and at night, while sitting with his companions over a jug of beer, he said : " Hear ! I told you yesterday that the old woman rode on a grey horse ; but that 's not true ; she rode only on her grey cat."
KOBOLDS, OR GOBLINS.
The Krampenbude, a fisher-house, about a German mile from Kopenick, on the Wendish Spree, is also called the
1 See p. 22.
84 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
Kobold's house, because a Kobold formerly played his pranks there. His chief amusement was, when the fisher men at night were lying asleep, to lay them even. For this purpose, he would first draw them up till their heads all lay in a straight line ; but then their legs would be out of the line, and he had to go to their feet, and pull them till the tips of their toes were all in a row. This game he would continue till broad daylight l.
In the neighbourhood of Kopenick a man had a Kobold that had become troublesome to him. To get rid of him, he had resolved on changing his abode and leaving his unwelcome guest behind. On the evening previous to his removal, in passing along by the gutter, he saw the Kobold sitting by it, and asked him what he was doing ? " Why/' answered the Kobold, " I am washing out my rags, as we move to-morrow." The man then seeing that he must still keep the Kobold, took him along with him.
Of the Kobolds it is related that they take their abode in the unfrequented parts of a building, or in wood-houses. Their method of communicating to the master of the house their wish to live in his family, and to serve him, is somewhat remarkable. At night they bring shavings into the house, and put dung of every kind of cattle into the vessels filled with milk. If, on seeing all this, the master of the house neither sweeps away the shavings nor casts the dung out of the milk -vessels, but, together with his family, partakes of the foul milk, then will the Kobolds appear to him and abide with him. The grateful, modest, well-fed Kobolds bring to those that feed and harbour
1 See vol. ii. p. 164.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 85
them, corn, which they steal from the barns of their neighbours ' .
JACK 0' LANTERNS WITH LONG LEGS. As a peasant of Hermsdorf was returning home one evening late, he saw a Jack o' lantern, and being of a courageous nature went up to it. The Jack o' lantern, without much deliberation, took to his heels with the peasant close after him, who observed that he had most wonderfully long legs, and from top to toe consisted of glowing fire; but in the same instant he vanished, and the man could hardly find his path again in the thick darkness.
JACK 0' LANTERNS DRIVEN AWAY BY CURSING. In the neighbourhood of Storkow, as a clergyman with his servant was driving home one night late, they saw, on reaching a certain spot, a Jack o} lantern coming towards them, which merrily danced along before the horses. Sometimes there were several of them, and at last there came so many, that the horses became quite shy and fear ful, and would not stir from the spot. The clergyman also felt uneasy, and began to pray aloud ; but the more he prayed the more Jack o' lanterns came, so that the servant at length said : " Just leave that off ; so they will never go ; but I '11 send them packing ; " at the same time roaring out : " Will ye be off in the devil's name ! " In a moment not a Jack o' lantern was to be seen.
A JACK 0' LANTERN CAUGHT.
A cowherd near Rathenow, who had been all day on the heath with his cattle, on his return home at dark was not aware that one of his cows was missing. On dis-
1 Dobeneck, vol. i. pp. 125 sqq.
86 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
covering his loss, he immediately went in search of her ; but after seeking her here and there and all over the forest, without finding her, he sat down, overcome with fatigue, on the stump of an old tree, and prepared to smoke his pipe. While he was thus sitting there came all at once a countless multitude of Jack o' lanterns dancing wildly around him, so that he would have been not a little terri fied, had he not been a courageous fellow. He remained, however, sitting quietly and filling his pipe, but just as he was about to light it, they began to fly about his head, so that he expected every moment they would singe his hair. He therefore seized his stick and began to strike about him ; but the more he struck the more Jack o* lanterns came. At last he made a grasp at one of them, and found that he held in his hand a bone. This seemed to have scared the others, as they instantly disappeared ; but the man put the bone into his pocket, lighted his pipe, and returned home. On the following morning he again drove out his herd, arid also found the missing cow ; but on his return in the evening, when it was already dark, he saw a couple of lights before his window, and supposing that a neighbour with a lantern was come to consult him about a sick cow, he opened the window and saw the entire village street full of Jack o* lanterns, which came in large bodies dancing and whirling about, and crying : " If you don't give us our comrade, we will burn your house ! " He now first recollected the bone, and said : " Don't make such a stupid hubbub ; surely the bone cannot be your comrade." But they cried yet more loudly : " If you don't give us our comrade, we will burn your house ! " Thinking then the matter serious, he took the bone, laid it on the palm of his hand, and held it out of the window, when it instantly became a bright, flickering Jack o' lantern, and danced away, all the others surrounding it as in joy, and then merrily hopping and springing out of the village.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 87
FRAU HARKE.
In former times Frau Harke had her abode on one of the highest of the Camern hills, which after her bears the name of the Frau Harkenberg, from whence she often descended, through the Frau Harkengrund (also named after her), to the lake of Schonfeld, for the purpose of fetching water. She was of immense stature and strength, and once took a ploughman, who was ploughing in a field near the mountain, together with his oxen and plough, up in her apron, to play with them. But when she showed them to her father, he ordered her to cariy them all back to the place where she found them : ' ' Because," said he, " if the little ones below yonder do not plough, the big ones up here cannot bake."
Once when carrying an apronful of earth, her apron- string gave way, and the earth fell on the ground, and that is now the Collenberg, the highest mountain in the neighbourhood, on which lay the huge block of granite, which she hurled at the church of Havelberg.
When the old oaks disappeared from the mountains, Frau Harke mi- grated to Thuringia. She is known also in Lower Saxony.
THE NICKELMANN, OR NICK.
Children should not go too near the water, because under its surface the black Nickelmann sits, who snaps at them. Above he is formed like a man, but below like a fish, and has very sharp teeth. His usual food is fishes, though he not unfrequcntly drags down human beings. In Thale they were formerly obliged annually to throw a black cock into the Bode ; for if they omitted to do so, some one would certainly die within the year. The little black figures, in wooden boxes, which spring up when the box is opened, are in Ilseburg called Nickelmannlein (Nickelmannikins) .
88 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
As the midwife in Westerhausen was sitting one eve ning in her room, some one tapped at her window, and requested her to come out. She wrent out, and there stood a Nick, who desired her to follow him. They both proceeded to the rivulet, where the Nick taking a rod, beat on the water, which immediately separated into two parts, and they went down dry-footed. Here she assisted the Nickel- wife in her hour of difficulty, who in gratitude told her, that if the Nick should ask her what remunera tion she wished, she must not ask for money, but for some of the sweepings. She then went and took the infant to the bath, and heard the Nickelmamr's children, five of whom were running about, ask their father : " Shall we break her neck1 ?" but their father forbade them. When the midwife had finished, the Nick asked her what remuneration she required, when she requested, as the wife had enjoined her, a little of the sweepings behind the door. " God has counselled thee to speak thus," said the Nickelmann, and gave her what she asked. He then con ducted her home. When in her own house, she looked at the sweepings, and they had all become pure gold2.
THE PRINCESS ILSE.
On the Ilsenstein there lived in ancient times a knight, who had a daughter of surpassing beauty named Use. She loved the knight that dwelt in the castle on the Westerberg opposite to them ; but at that time the two mountains were not separated from each other by the present intervening valley. The father of the princess Use would not consent to her union with the knight, and as they saw each other daily, in spite of his prohibition, he, who was a mighty giant, struck the rock through the middle, and thereby caused the valley. In her despair Use cast herself down into the raging flood beneath, and 1 See Grimm, D. M. p. 463. 2 See vol. ii. pp. 128, 130.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 89
gave it its name, and from that time she often appears in a long white robe, with a broad black hat, and is usually now known by the simple appellation of fthe Jungfer/ Formerly she was to be seen daily descending to a stone by the second Use-bridge, in which there was a deep hol low containing water, even in the driest seasons, in which she bathed. But the stone is no longer there, and she appears no more in the valley. Her last appearance is said to have been three hundred years ago, on Ascension day, in commemoration of which a festival was long held there on that day, to which people from all the neighbour hood flocked together, when a great fair was also held. There were also two bands of music, one on the Ilsenstein, the other on the Westerberg, in which the enchanted prince is confined ; but the festival has fallen more and more into desuetude, and there is now only a little music on that day in the hostel ycleped ' The Trouts ' (Zu den Forellen). But the general belief is, that the princess will mount to heaven on an Ascension day, and it is only a few years since that the peasants awaited the event from hour to hour. In Ilseburg Ascension day is held so sacred, that it is thought whoever sews or mends on it will be struck by lightning.
As a shepherd was once driving his flock over the Ilsen stein, and had stopt to rest for a while by a spring, leaning on his staff, the mountain suddenly opened — for in his staff, though without his knowledge, there was a Spring- wurzel, — and the princess stood before him. She com manded him to follow her, and when he was within, said to him that he might take as much gold as he desired. The shepherd crammed his pockets full, and when he had taken enough, was about to depart, when the princess called to him : " Do not forget the best !" But he, think-
90 NOETH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
ing she meant that he had not taken gold enough, filled his hat, while she alluded to his staff with the Spring- wurzel, which on entering he had placed against the wall. So that when he was going out, the rock suddenly closing, severed him in two.
A horse-boy lost a couple of his horses, and while he was out seeking them, and was sitting on the Ilsenstein crying, because he could not find them, the mountain suddenly opened, and before him stood the princess, who asked him why he was crying. He told her of his loss, and she ordered him to follow her. They then entered the mountain, and came into a vast stable, containing many horses, among others his own two. He was over joyed at seeing them, and was leading them out, but the princess told him that he could not have them again, though she would give him for them gold enough to buy a hundred others. Saying this she filled his wallet, at the same time enjoining him not to open it before he had passed over the third Use-bridge. But being an inquisi tive fellow, he was impatient to see how much she had given him, and on reaching the second bridge, could no longer withstand the temptation, opened the knapsack
and found in it nothing but horsedung. "What,"
thought he, "canst thou do with that ?" at the same time throwing it into the Use ; but hearing it go kling kling as it fell, he quickly looked into his knapsack, to see if any remained behind, and found some genuine pistoles.
Goethe, in Faust, makes one of the witches, on her way to the Blocks- berg, pass over the Ilsenstein :
1st W. Welchen Weg kommst du her ?
2nd W. Uebern Ilsenstein !
Da guckt' ich der Eule ins Nest hinein. Die raacht' ein Paar Augeri !
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 91
Which way comest thou hither ?
Over the Ilsenstein ! There I peep'd into the owl's nest. She made a pair of eyes !
" The Springwurzel is a plant, that may be procured in the following manner: The nest of a green or black woodpecker, when it has young, must be stopt with a wooden plug. The bird on seeing it flies away, knowing where to find a wonderful root, which men would seek for in vain. This the bird bears in its bill, and holds it against the plug, which, as if driven by the most violent blow, instantly springs out. If the party has concealed himself, and at the bird's approach makes a great noise, it will be frightened and let the root fall. Some spread a white or red cloth under the nest, on which the bird will cast the root, after having made use of it." This superstition was known to Pliny. — See H. N. x. 18 1.
HANS VON HACKELNBERG.
Hans von Hackelnberg was chief huntsman in Bruns wick, and loved the chase above all other worldly things. He rode a grey horse, the wildest animal that was any where to be found. From the Harz he went to the Hakel, and while there dreamt that he would come to his death through a wild boar. On the following day there was to be a great hunt, when he related his dream to his compa nions, adding scornfully, that it would, indeed, be some thing strange, if he were to perish through a wild boar. He then proceeded to the hunt and found a boar exactly resembling the one he had seen in his dream. He eagerly pursued it, and at length slew it, and shortly after re turned home. While the boar was being cut up, Hack elnberg held the head aloft to contemplate that which was to occasion his death ; but the head slipped out of his hand, and one of the tusks wounded him so severely in the leg that it eventually cost him his life. From that time he hunts, with the cry of " hallo," and followed by his associates, up and down the Hakel.
1 Grimm, D. M. p. 925.
92 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
According to another version of the story, the hunt was in the Harz, and Hackelnberg, yielding to the persuasions of his friends, stayed at home. On receiving the wound, Hackelnberg is made to say : " If I am to die from such a scratch, I would rather hunt for ever." But the wound became worse and worse, and he hastened back to Brunswick, but came only as far as the inn called the Klipperkrug, near Wiilperode, where he laid himself down and died. His steel cap and the iron headpiece of his mule are still to be seen there. In the garden of the inn, which was formerly a churchyard, lies his gravestone, having on it the representation of a knight on a mule, with a short flowing mantle and high ruff, holding a riding-whip in his hand ; near him two little dogs appear in the act of running. On the edge of the long-quadrangular stone is an inscription
only partially legible, viz. Domini 1581 den 13 Martii . From that
time Hackelnberg hunts, followed by a number of little dogs, up and down the Harz. Some say he is seen with two large bloodhounds galloping away ; and it is further related that his love of the chase was so great, that he prayed that his portion of bliss might consist in being permitted to hunt for ever.
A man once mocked Hackelnberg, as he heard him riding through the air with his ' ' hoho ! " and was pursued by him to his own door, which he entered, and went rattling after him even into the hayloft, to which he had fled for security. There Hackelnberg threw a horse's leg to him. On the following morning the man died.
Another time some horse-boys, watching on the com mon by night, called after him as he came rushing by with his dogs ; when rending a horse in pieces, he took one piece for himself, threw another to his dogs, and also gave a part to each of the horse-boys, saying :
Hast du helfen jagen, If thou hast help'd to hunt,
sollst auch helfen knagen ! thou shalt also help to gnaw !
and then rode away. The boys who ate of the roast con tinued alive, but those who did not died shortly after.
Some others lying by a fire in the field one night as Hackelnberg passed by, called to him : " Half a horse ! " wrhereat he threw a horse's leg down into the fire. They
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 9<r
then called to him to bring them some salt, which he was unable to do, and the horse's leg vanished.
At Rocklum, not far from Wolfenbiittel, there are several earth-mounds on an eminence, of one of which it is related, that Hackelnberg with the Wild Hunt once passing by, felt a grain of sand in his shoe, which he shook out, and thus formed the hillock. According to one tradition, Hackelnberg returns every seventh year, and makes his tour.
The following are the Westphalian traditions of Hack elnberg1 :
Hackelbarend (as he is called) was a huntsman who hunted on Sundays, on account of which profanation he was, after his death, banished to the air, where, with his dogs, he must hunt both by day arid night without any rest. According to some, he hunts only in the twelve nights of Christmas ; according to others, always when the storm- wind howls ; for which reason some call him the Joljdger (from jolen, to howl, or Yuletide ?) . On one of his pro gresses, Hackelnberg left one of his dogs behind in a barn at Isenstadt (bishopric of Minden). There the animal lay a whole year, every attempt to remove him proving fruit less ; but when, in the following year, Hackelnberg with his Wild Hunt again passed by, the dog suddenly sprang up, and ran barking and yelling after the troop.
Two young fellows going one night from Bergkirchen, through the forest, to visit their sweethearts, heard in the air above them a wild noise of dogs and a voice at inter vals crying " hoto, hoto ! " This was Hackelblock, the wild huntsman, with his company. One of the young men was so rash as to call out, mocking him, "hotc% hoto!" at which Hackelblock approached, and with his
1 Grimm, D. M. p. 873, from Weddigens Westfal. Mag., Redekers Westfal. Sagen, etc.
94 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
whole pack rode over him. Of the unfortunate young man not a trace could be found.
Hackelnberg rides in rain and storm through the Thu- ringian forest, but in preference through the Hackel (a forest between Halberstadt, Groningen and Derenburg). On his deathbed he would hear nothing about heaven, and to the priest's exhortation said, that our Lord God might keep his heaven, provided only that he might continue to hunt. At which the priest exclaimed : " Then hunt until the last day ! " A malediction now in the course of ful filment. A faint barking or yelping in the air announces his approach ; a screechowl flies before him, called by the people the tutosel. Wanderers, who fall in his way, throw themselves on their faces, and let him ride over them. Tutosel, it is said, was a nun, who after her death associ ated herself with Hackelnberg, and mingled her "uhu!" with his "huhu!"
Hackelnberg (according to another tradition) hunted on Sundays, and compelled all the peasants dependent on him to accompany him. One day there came two horse* men galloping up beside him, who commanded him to go with them. One of them, on his right, was fierce and wild of aspect, and from his horse's mouth and nostrils there sprang forth fire ; while the rider on his left was of gentler and milder mien ; but Hackelnberg turned to the wild one, who galloped off with him, and in whose com pany he must hunt until the last day. Others say that Hackelnberg lived in Soiling, not far from Uslar ; that he led a pious life, but was so devoted to the chase, that on his deathbed he prayed to God that he would allow him, for his share of heaven, to hunt in Soiling till the day of judgement. His prayer was granted, and often in the forest is to be heard at night the baying of dogs and an appalling blast of horns. His grave is in Soiling; near him lie two black dogs.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 95
The inconsistent diversity of place evidently shows that Hackelnberg is a mythic being ; a name occurring in so many parts must be more than historic. The Westphalian form of the name, Hackelberend, I consider the oldest and most genuine. Hakolberand is unquestionably an Old Saxon denomination of Wodan, which has been gradually corrupted into Hakkelberg, Hakkenberg, Hakkelblok, etc. The Meklenburg tradition of " Wod" (see p. 61) places this connection of the Wild Huntsman with Woden beyond a doubt1.
WITCHES IN GITTELDE.
In Gittelde there were formerly many witches, and the houses which they inhabited might be known by fire often to be seen over the chimneys ; for then Urian was sitting above, and brought them whatever they required.
There was once a witch there, who had a serving-man named Hans, who was always driving in great loads of wood, but yet never observed that any was ever burnt, and that, nevertheless, eatables were always at hand. He re solved on knowing how this came to pass ; so while the others were gone to church, he feigned to go with them, but returned and entered the house by a back-door, and then hid himself under a tub in the kitchen. He had not been there long, when one came, and called : " Hei kucket, hei kucket." " They are all at church," said the mistress ; but the call was repeated : " Hei kucket, hei kucket, shall I wring his neck ?" " Ah, what is it you want ?" said the woman, " I tell you they are all in church." The voice now asked : " What will you eat ?" " Baked pears," answered the woman, and instantly they were hissing in the dish which she held out. She next requested to have dumplings, then sauerkraut, both of which were imme diately given to her. Hans was a witness of all this, but kept quite still, and at length stole out. When they were all at table he said : " I am so unwell, I am so unwell," and would eat nothing, but was afterwards forced to take something. When they had eaten, the woman drew him 1 Grimm, D. M. p. 875.
yo NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
aside and asked him why he had refused to eat, when he told her he had witnessed all that had passed, and would go and inform against her. But she prayed him not to do so, promised to give him a good sum of money, and also to instruct him in witchcraft. Hans accepted the money, and yielded to her persuasions. The woman then ordered him to go and buy a new pot. He did so, and on his return she told him to sit on it and say : " I believe in this pot," etc. But Hans, placing himself upon it, said : " I believe in God," etc. At which the pot burst into shivers and a large frog appeared sitting beneath it. Hans thereupon w^ent instantly and informed against the woman. An immense pile was then raised, whereon to burn the old witch, who, when placed upon it, cried out to Hans : " Thou hast eaten mice instead of baked pears, thou hast eaten spiders instead of dumplings, thou hast eaten worms instead of sauerkraut ! " The flames then closed upon her.
THE MONK OF THE MINES.
In the mines about Clausthal and Andreasberg a spectre was formerly seen, who was denominated the Bergmonch. He was clad as a monk, but was of gigantic stature, and always carried in his hand a large tallow candle, which never went out. When the miners entered in the morn ing, he would stand at the aperture with his light, letting them pass under it ; in the shafts, too, they often met him.
The Bergmonch was formerly a bergmaster or director, who took such delight in mining, that, when at the point of death, he prayed that, in stead of happy rest in heaven, he might wander about till the last day, over hill and dale, in pits and shafts, and superintend the mining. He appears to the men in the dress of a bergmaster, with a silver mining lamp. To those towards whom he is well-disposed he renders many kind services, and appears to them in a human form and of ordinary stature ; while to others he appears in his true form. His eyes sprout forth flames, and are like coach-wheels ; his legs are like spiders' webs1.
1 Harrys, ii. No. 2.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 97
THE DEMONS OF THE MINE.
As a miner was one day working in a shaft, there came to him a little man clad in white, with a light in his hand, who beckoned to him to follow him. He did so, and they came into a spacious hall, where a number of persons were sitting, all attired like the little man, and eating and drinking. A cup of wine was also handed to the miner, to whom, when he had been hospitably treated, the little man gave a gold pin, telling him, that if any one should take it from him, he had only to let him know, and he would wring the neck of him who had taken it, and get the pin for him again. He then conducted him out of the mountain and vanished. When the miner returned home, all appeared strange to him, he knew no one that he met, and no one knew him ; he then went to the clergyman, who looked through the church book, when it proved that he had been three ages of man down in the bowels of the earth with the spirits, though to him it seemed but a few hours. But the chief officer of the mines, when he heard the man's narrative, was seized with a longing after the gold pin, and when the man refused to give it him, had it taken from him by force. The miner then returned to the mine and made his complaint to the little white man, who went immediately, wrung the officer's neck, and restored to the man his pin, by which he be came so wealthy, that he had enough for his whole life.
THE NIGHT-RAVEN, OR ETERNAL WAGONER.
In the night the ' hor, hor/ or ' hrok, hrok ' of the night-raven is frequently to be heard. This bird is much larger than the common raven, and almost as large as a full-grown hen. By some he is called the Eternal Wagoner, who also say that he wished, for his share of heaven, to drive to all eternity ; and he accordingly drives without cessation, sitting on the middle horse of the celestial wain,
98 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
of which the four large stars behind are the four wheels, but the three foremost stars, which stand in a crooked line, the three horses ; and the little star over the middle most is the eternal wagoner. He guides the horses, and as the wagon always goes in a circle, they do not stand in a right line with one another, but in a curve, being always on the turn. Before midnight the wagon is said to be going out, when the pole inclines upwards; and after midnight it goes home, and then the pole inclines down wards1.
FRAU HULLE (HOLDA, HULDE).
In the popular traditions of Germany, Holda (Hulda, Holle) appears as a superior being, favourably disposed towards mankind, and angry only when she perceives any disorder or neglect in housewifery. The German tradi tions relative to Holda are current chiefly in Hesse arid Thuringia. She is believed to influence the atmospheric phenomena. When the sun shines, Holda is said to be combing her hair ; when it snows, she is making her bed2. She likes to dwell in lakes and fountains. At noon she is to be seen as a beautiful, fair woman, bathing in the stream and then vanishing. Mortals arrive at her dwell ing through a fountain. She rides in a chariot, which she once caused a countryman to repair for her, the chips from which, when collected, proved to be solid gold. Her annual visit, which takes place during the twelve days of Christmas, when spirits are said to wander, and animals, such as the wolf, are not to be mentioned by name3, brings fruitfulness to the land. Like Woden, Holda also tra verses the air, and, like him, belongs to the Wild Hunt. Hence the notion that the witches ride in company with Holda. According to the popular belief, the souls of unbaptized children are received into the Wild Hunt,
1 See p. 58. 2 Kinder und Hausmarchen, 24. 3 See vol. ii. p. 83.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 99
and fall to the share of the heathen deities, Woden or Holda.
To this idea of Holda it is, no doubt, to be attributed, that, instead of a divine form, she is made to assume that of an ugly, long-nosed, long-toothed crone, with matted, shaggy hair. " He has been riding with Holle " is said of a person whose hair is uncombed and bristling.
Holda is also described as an encourager of spinning. To industrious lasses she gives spindles, and in the night spins their spool full; while she burns or dirties the wheels of idle spinners. An industrious, good girl, whose spool fell into her fountain, she rewarded with a shower of gold. When she goes her round at Christmas all the spinning-wheels are plentifully furnished, and left stand ing for her ; but by Shrove-tide, when she returns home, all must be spun off: at which season the spinning-wheels are put out of sight; because flax spun at Shrove-tide turns out ill, it being a holy time of rest. If she finds everything as it should be, she gives her blessing : " So many hairs so many good years •" in the opposite case, her malediction : " So many hairs so many bad years."
According to another German tradition, no flax should remain on the distaff during the twelve days of Christmas, lest Frau Holla should come. This is akin to the Danish superstition, that, from Yule-day to New year's day, no thing that runs round may be put in motion, consequently neither reel nor spindle1.
Out of her fountain children come, and women who go down into it become healthy and fruitful. She appro priates to herself those that are drowned.
On account of these multifarious attributes, Holda was generally considered a divinity of much importance. Burc- hard, bishop of Worms, mentions it as the popular belief
1 See vol. ii. p. 270, No. 10.
F2
100 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
that on certain nights women rode with her on all kinds of animals, and were supposed to belong to her train1.
As a woman was once going up the Kyffhauser, in Thuringia, for the purpose of gathering brushwood, she saw, although it was only April, an old woman sitting and collecting cotton capsules, of which she had a large heap lying by her. But it being usual to collect these only in the height of summer, the woman was surprised, and asked the crone what she intended to do with them, as they were not yet fit for use. The old woman told her she might take with her as many as she wished, and that she would soon find a use for them ; but the other would not believe her. She then gave the woman a whole apron- ful, and also put some into her basket. The woman then went to gather hazel-twigs, but on opening her apron, found she had pure gold pieces in it, as well as in the basket. Thereupon she ran back to the spot where the old woman had been sitting, but both she and the heap of capsules had disappeared.
As a man was going over a mountain late in the eve ning, he saw Frau Hulle sitting, busily occupied in strip ping off flax capsules, of which she had a large heap lying before her. The man wished her a good evening ; she thanked him courteously and said, he might put some of the capsules into his pocket and take them home. The man thanked her for her good will, but said he had plenty already, and therefore would not encumber himself. He had proceeded only a little way further, when something in his shoe began to give him pain, and on examination, he found in it some large particles of gold. These were the capsules, a few of which had fallen into his shoe. 1 Grimm, D. M. p. 245. Miiller, Gesch. der Altd. Relig. p. 122.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 101
TRADITIONS OF THE KYFFHAUSER.
In the Kyffhauser the emperor Frederic Barbarossa exists in a state of enchantment. There he sits, with all his knights and squires, at a large table, through which his beard has grown. Beneath the mountain all is splendid and radiant with gold and precious stones ; and although it is a subterranean cavern, it is as light as in the sunniest day. There are the most magnificent trees and shrubs, and through the middle of this paradise there flows a brook, from which if a handful of mud be taken, it will instantly become pure gold. Here a horseman constantly rides up and down ; but others say he sits on a cock, and is very probably the evil one himself, who has effected all this enchantment. A shepherd one St. John's day entered the mountain when it was standing open, and beheld all its splendour with amazement. The horseman before-men tioned then made a sign to him to take some of the horse- meal, which he did, and which proved to be all gold.
Some musicians returning from a wedding, had to pass over the Kyffhauser, when one among them, a mad-brained fellow, said : " Listen, friends — as we have played so much, we will play up something to the old emperor Frederic." The others at first refused, saying they were tired, but he talked them over so humorously, that they at length all struck up. When they ceased a young damsel stept out from the Erfurt gate, who brought them the old emperor's thanks, and gave to each, as a remembrance, a horse's head. All stared with astonishment as the young damsel disappeared, and began to reproach their mad companion for having stopt them for the sake of such a paltry reward, and threw their horses' heads far away from them. But their companion was as merry as ever, and kept his head, saying : " If it 's good for nothing else, it will serve as a
102 NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS.
joke with my old dame." They then went home, and the merry one clandestinely laid the head under the bolster. On waking in the morning he said to his wife: "Just look what a handsome present I have brought you from old Redbeard." She raised the bolster, and the man thought, now she will be finely frightened, but to his unutterable astonishment she drew forth a lump of gold, so heavy that she could hardly lift it.
Some say that the emperor Otto sits in the Kyffhauser, and that a musician having one day met him near the mountain, the emperor ordered him to strike up a march, and gave him, when he had played it, three bones as a reward, which he was not to look at before he reached home, and then he found them turned to pure gold.
In the Kifhauser, in Thuringia, sleeps Frederic Red- beard. He sits at a round stone table, supporting his head on his hand and nodding. His beard grows round the table, and has already made the circuit twice ; when it shall have grown round a third time, the king will wake. On issuing from the mountain he will hang his shield on a withered tree, which will then become green, and a better time will ensue. Some have, however, seen him awake. Of a shepherd, who had played him a pleasing tune, he inquired : <( Do the ravens still fly round the mountain ?" and on the shepherd answering in the affir mative, he said : " Then must I sleep a hundred years longer/' This shepherd was taken into the king's armoury, and was presented with the foot of a hand-basin of pure gold1.
1 Grimm, D. M. p. 907. The original sleeper both here and in the Odenberg was, no doubt, Odin (Wuotan), as appears from the inquiry about the ravens, which could hardly be objects of interest to the em peror Frederic Barbarossa. — Ib. Vorrede, p. xvi.
NORTH GERMAN TRADITIONS. 103
In the little towD of Jiiterbogk there once dwelt a smith, of whom both young and old relate a wonderful story. This smith when a youth had a very strict father and faithfully observed God's commandments. He had tra velled much and passed through many adventures, and was, moreover, skilful and active in his art beyond all belief. He possessed a chalybeate tincture that made every harness or mail coat impenetrable that was washed with it. He had been with the army of the emperor Frederic II., in which he had borne the office of imperial armourer, and had made the campaign of Milan and Apulia. There he had captured the standard of the city ; and, after the death of the emperor, had returned home with a consider able treasure. He had seen good days, and afterwards evil ones, and was more than a hundred years old. Once, when sitting in his garden under an old pear-tree, there came a little grey man riding on an ass, who had pre viously often proved himself the smith's guardian spirit. The little man took up his quarters with the smith, and had his ass shod, which the smith willingly did with out requiring any remuneration. The little man then said to Peter (for so the smith was named) that he should wish three wishes, but in so doing not forget the best. So — because his pears had often been stolen by thieves — he wished that whoever climbed up into his pear-tree might not be able to come down without his permission ; and — because thefts had often been perpetrated in his apart ment — he wished that no one might enter it without his permission, unless it were through the keyhole. At each of these foolish wishes, the little man reminded him not to forget the best ; whereupon the smith uttered his third
1 From Bechstein's Deutsches Miirchenbuch. Leipzig, 1848, 'p. 44, and his Kiffhausersagen.
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wish, saying : " The best is a good schnapps (dram), and therefore I will wish that this flask may never be empty." " Thy wishes are granted," said the old man, then drew his hand over some bars of iron that were lying in the smithy, mounted his ass and rode away. The iron was found changed to bright silver. The smith, who had been so poor, was now rich again, and lived on and on in con siderable comfort ; for the never-failing cordial drops in the flask were, unknown to the smith, an elixir of life. At length, however, Death, who seemed to have forgotten him, knocked at his door. The smith, according to