GERMANY

BY TORSTEN SCHWANKE

I

Lady Holla‘s Pond

On the Meißner mountain range in Hesse, 

Many things already indicate antiquity 

By their mere names, 

Such as the Devil's Holes, 

The Battle Lawn and especially 

Lady Holla‘s Pond. 

This, situated at the corner of a moorland meadow, 

Is at present only forty to fifty feet in diameter;

The whole meadow is bordered 

With a half-submerged stone dam, 

And not infrequently horses have sunk on it.

The people tell many tales of this Lady Holla, 

Both good and bad. 

She makes women who go down to her well 

Healthy and fertile; 

Newborn children come from her well, 

And she carries them out of it. 

Flowers, fruit, cakes, which she has down in the pond, 

And what grows in her incomparable garden,

She distributes to those who meet her 

And know how to please. 

She is very tidy and keeps a good house; 

When it snows, she knocks out her beds 

So that the flakes fly in the air. 

She punishes lazy spinners 

By sullying their skirts, 

Twisting their yarns 

Or setting fire to their flax; 

But to maidens who spin diligently 

She gives spindles 

And spins for them overnight 

So that the bobbins are full in the morning. 

She pulls the covers off lazy women 

And lays them naked on the stone pavement; 

Diligent women who carry water 

To the kitchen early in the morning 

In buckets that have been scrubbed clean 

Find silver coins in them. 

She likes to draw children into her pond; 

She makes the good ones lucky, 

The bad ones changelings. 

Every year she goes around the country 

And gives fertility to the fields, 

But she also frightens people 

When she drives through the forest 

At the head of the angry host. 

Sometimes she shows herself 

As a beautiful white woman 

In or on the middle of the pond, 

Sometimes she is invisible, 

And one merely hears from the depths 

A ringing of bells and sinister murmuring.

II

Lady Holla roams about

At Christmas Lady Holla 

Begins to wander about, 

So the maids put on her distaff again, 

Wind a lot of tow or flax around it 

And leave it standing overnight. 

When Lady Holla sees this, 

She is pleased and says,

"Many a hair,

Many a good year."

She keeps this company 

Until the great New Year, that is, 

The holy Epiphany, 

When she must turn back again 

To her Horselberg; 

If she then meets flax 

On the skirt on the way, 

She is angry and says,

"Many a hair,

Many a bad year."

That's why all the maids 

Carefully tear off 

What they haven't spun off 

From their skirts 

Before the feast 

So that nothing remains on it 

And turns out badly for them. 

But it is even better 

If they manage to bring down 

All the spun tow beforehand.

III

Lady Holla‘s Bath

On the Meißner in Hesse 

Lies a large pool or lake, 

Mostly murky with water, 

Which is called Lady Holla‘s Bath. 

According to old folk tales, 

Lady Holla is sometimes seen 

Bathing in it at midday 

And disappears afterwards. 

The mountains and moors 

In the whole area are full of ghosts 

And travellers or hunters have often 

Been seduced or damaged by them.

IV

Lady Holla and the faithful Eckart

In Thuringia there is a village 

Called Schwarza, where Lady Holla 

Passed by at Christmas, 

Aand in the front of the crowd 

Walked the faithful Eckart 

And warned the people he met 

To get out of the way 

So that no harm would come to them. 

A couple of peasant boys 

Had just gone to the tavern 

To fetch some beer to take home, 

When the troop appeared, 

Which they were watching. 

But the ghosts took up 

The whole wide street, 

So the village boys with their tankards 

Moved away into a corner; 

Soon different women 

From the crowd approached, 

Took the tankards and drank. 

The boys kept silent out of fear, 

Not knowing what to do at home 

If they came with empty jugs. 

At last the faithful Eckart came up 

And said, God told you 

Not to speak a word, 

Or your necks would have been twisted; 

Now go home quickly 

And tell no one anything about the story, 

And your jugs will always be full of beer 

And will never be broken. 

This the boys did, and so it was, 

The jugs were never empty, 

And for three days they took heed of the word. 

At last, however, they could not keep it any longer, 

But told their parents about the matter, 

And then it was over, 

And the jugs ran dry. 

Others said that this had not happened 

At Christmas, but at another time.

V

Lady Holla and the farmer

Once when Lady Holla was going out, 

She met a farmer with an axe. 

She said to him that he should wedge 

The wagon for her, 

Or that he should beat it up. 

The day labourer did as she told him, 

And when the work was done, she said, 

"Pick up the shavings 

And take them with you for a tip," 

And she went on her way. 

The man felt that the shavings 

Were in vain and useless, 

So he left them lying 

About for the most part, 

Taking only one or three 

For his boredom. 

When he got home 

And reached into the sack, 

The shavings were pure gold. 

Immediately he turned back 

To fetch the others 

He had left behind; 

However much he searched, 

It was too late 

And there was nothing left.

VI

The castle maiden

It is said that sometimes a maiden 

Can be seen on the castle hill 

Near Ohrdruf in Thuringia, 

Who has a large bunch of keys 

Attached to her. 

She comes down from the mountain 

At noon and goes to the Hierlingsbrunn

In the valley and bathes in it, 

After which she climbs up 

The mountain again. 

Some people claim to have seen 

And looked at her closely.

VII

The Snake Maiden

About the year 1520 

There was a man in Basel, Switzerland, 

Named Leonhard, otherwise 

Commonly called Lienimann, 

The son of a tailor, 

A silly and simple-minded man, 

And who also had a bad time talking 

Because he stammered. 

He had entered the vault 

Or passageway that extends 

Under the earth above Basel in Augst, 

And had gone and entered it 

Much further than was ever possible 

For a human being, 

And knew how to talk about 

Wonderful trades and stories. 

For he says, and there are still people 

Who have heard it from his mouth, 

That he took a consecrated wax light 

Ad lit it and entered the cave with it. 

There he would first have had to pass 

Through an iron gate 

And then from one vault into another, 

And finally also through a number 

Of very beautiful 

And cheerful green gardens. 

In the middle, however, there was 

A magnificent and well-built castle 

Or princely house, 

In it there was a beautiful virgin 

With a human body up to her navel, 

Who wore a crown of gold on her head, 

And she had beaten her hair into a field; 

But from the navel downwards 

She was a horrible serpent. 

By the same virgin he would have been led 

By the hand to an iron box, 

On which two black barking dogs lay, 

So that no one was allowed 

To approach the box, 

But she would have quieted 

The dogs for him 

And kept them in check, 

So that he could go there 

Without any hindrance. 

Then she would have taken off 

A bunch of keys 

Which she wore on her neck, 

Unlocked the box, 

And taken out silver and other coins. 

The virgin then gave him not a few 

Of these out of special kindness, 

Which he brought with him out of the crypt; 

As he then also showed them 

And let them be seen. 

The virgin also said to him 

That she was born 

Of a royal lineage and race, 

But was thus cursed into a monster 

And could not be redeemed by anything 

Except being kissed three times 

By a young man whose chastity 

Was pure and unharmed; 

Then she would regain her former form. 

In return, she would give 

And hand over to her saviour 

All the treasure 

That was hidden in that place. 

He went on to say that he had already 

Kissed the virgin twice, 

For both times, in the great joy 

Of her unexpected redemption, 

She showed herself 

With such horrible gestures 

That he was afraid and thought 

She would tear him alive; 

Therefore he did not dare 

To kiss her the third time, 

But went away. 

Then it happened that some 

Took him to a house of shame, 

Where he sinned with a reckless woman. 

Thus tainted by vice, 

He has never again been able 

To find the entrance to the cave of shame; 

Wich he often laments with weeping.

VIII

Mermaid Well

Not far from Kirchhain in Hesse 

Lies a very deep lake, 

Which is called the Nixenbronn, 

And mermaids often appear 

At its shore. 

The mill at the lake 

Is also called Nixenmühle. 

In Marburg, too, a mermaid 

Is said to have been seen 

In the Lahn 

Near Elisabeth‘s Mill 

In 1615.

IX

Magdeburg Mermaids

In Magdeburg, at a point on the Elbe, 

The mermaid often let herself be seen, 

Dragged down the people 

Who were swimming across 

And drowned them. 

Shortly before the destruction of the city 

By Tilly, a swift swimmer swam across 

For a piece of money; 

But when he wanted to cross over 

And got to the spot, 

He was held and swept down. 

No one could save him, 

And at last his body swam to the shore. 

Sometimes the miracle of the sea 

Is said to appear in broad daylight 

And when the sun is shining, 

Sitting down on the shore 

Or on the branches of the trees 

And combing long golden hair 

Like beautiful maidens. 

But when people approach, 

It jumps into the water. 

Once, because the water from the well 

Is hard to boil 

And the water from the Elbe 

Has to be carried far 

And laboriously into the town, 

The townspeople wanted to have 

A water pipe built. 

They began to drive large piles into the river, 

But were soon unable to advance far. 

For a naked man was seen standing in the flood, 

Who tore out and scattered all the piles 

With force, so that the construction 

Had to be stopped again.

X

The mermaid and the millwright

Two millers are walking along a river; 

When one of them looks across the water, 

He sees a mermaid sitting on it 

And combing her hair. 

He takes hold of his rifle 

And starts to shoot her, 

But the mermaid jumps into the river, 

Waves her fingers and disappears. 

All this had happened so quickly 

And unnoticed that the other squire, 

Who was walking ahead, 

Saw and heard nothing of it 

Until his companion soon told him. 

Then it happened that this companion drowned 

An the third day as he was bathing.

XI

The Two Underground Women

Praetorius heard the following incident 

From a student whose mother said 

It had happened in Dessau.

After a woman had given birth to a child, 

She laid it down in her room 

And fell into a deep sleep 

Before it was baptised. 

At midnight two underground women came, 

Built a fire on the hearth, 

Poured a kettle full of water over it, 

Bathed the child 

They had brought with them in it 

And washed it off, 

Then carried it into the parlour 

And exchanged it 

With the other sleeping child. 

Then they went away with it, 

But at the next mountain they got 

Into a quarrel about the child, 

And one of them threw it to the other 

And, as it were, balled with it 

Until the child cried out about it 

And the maid woke up in the house. 

When she looked at the women's child 

And noticed the confusion, 

She ran to the front of the house 

And found the women still handling 

The stolen child, whereupon she stepped in 

And helped to catch it, 

But as soon as she got the child in her arms, 

She hurried home 

And laid the changeling in front of the door, 

Which the mountain women 

Then took back to her.

XII

The Bog Maidens

There is a swamp in the Rhön 

Called the red moor. 

According to folk legend, 

A village called Poppenrode once stood there, 

But it has now sunk. 

Little lights float on the moor at night, 

They are moorland maidens. 

In another place there is also the black moor, 

Already called so in old documents, 

And the legend also knows 

Of a sunken village, 

Of which a pavement is still left, 

Called the stone bridge.

XIII

The white woman

The castle-white woman appears 

In forests and on meadows, 

Sometimes she comes into horse stables 

With burning wax candles, 

Combs and cleans the horses, 

And drops of wax fall on the horses' manes. 

She is said to see brightly 

When she goes out, 

But to be blind in her dwelling.

XIV

Tannhäuser

The noble Tannhäuser, 

A German knight, 

Had travelled through many countries 

And had also ended up 

In Lady Venus' mountain 

With the beautiful women, 

To see the great wonder. 

And when he had dwelt there for a while, 

Happy and in good spirits, 

At last his conscience drove him

To go out into the world again, 

And he desired a holiday. 

Venus, however, offered everything 

To make him waver: 

She would give him one 

Of her playmates as a wife, 

And he might remember her red mouth, 

Which laughed at all hours. 

Tannhäuser replied that he would 

Not marry any other woman 

Than the one he had in mind, 

That he did not want to burn in hell forever, 

And that he was indifferent 

To her red mouth, 

That he could not stay any longer, 

For his life had become ill. 

And then the she-devil wanted to lure him 

IKnto her chamber 

To attend to her love, 

But the noble knight scolded her loudly 

And called on the heavenly maiden 

To let him go. 

Repentant, he went on the road 

To Rome to Pope Urban, 

To whom he wanted to confess all his sins, 

So that penance would be imposed on him 

And his soul would be saved. 

But when he confessed 

That he had also been a whole year 

With Venus in the mountain, 

The pope said, When the dry stick 

Which I hold in my hand shall green, 

Thy sins shall be forgiven thee, 

And no other. 

Tannhäuser said, And if I had lived 

But one year more on earth, 

I would have done such penitence 

And contrition that God 

Would have had mercy on me. 

And from grief and sorrow 

That the pope condemned him, 

He departed again from the city, 

And again into the devilish mountain, 

To dwell therein for ever and ever. 

But Venus welcomed him 

As one welcomes a long absent bridegroom; 

Then on the third day 

The vine began to grow green, 

And the pope sent word to all lands 

To inquire where the noble 

Tannhäuser had come. 

But it was now too late, 

He sat in the mountain 

And had chosen his love, 

There he must now sit until the Last Day, 

When God will perhaps direct him elsewhere. 

And no priest shall give comfort 

To a sinful man, 

But pardon him when he offers 

Himself for repentance.

XV

The Queen of the Serpents

A shepherd girl found a sick snake 

Lying on the top of a rock, 

And it wanted to pine away. 

So she compassionately handed it her milk jug, 

The snake licked eagerly 

And visibly regained its strength. 

The girl went away, 

And soon afterwards her lover wooed her, 

But was too poor for her rich, proud father, 

And was mockingly rejected 

Until he too would one day own 

As many herds as the old shepherd. 

From that time on, the old shepherd 

Had no more luck, but only accidents; 

At night a fiery dragon was seen 

Over his fields, 

And his property was ruined. 

The poor young man was now just as rich 

And once again courted his beloved, 

Who was now granted to him. 

On the wedding day a serpent 

Entered the room, 

On whose coiled tail sat a beautiful maiden, 

Who said that it was she 

To whom the good shepherdess 

Had once given her milk in the famine, 

And out of gratitude she took off 

Her shining crown from her head 

And threw it into the bride's lap. 

Then she disappeared, 

But the young people had great blessings 

In their economy 

And soon became prosperous.

XVI

The Virgin in the Oselberg

Between Dinkelsbühl and Hahnkamm 

There was a castle on the Oselberg, 

Where a certain maiden lived, 

Who was her father's widow 

And held the key to all the chambers. 

At last she perished with the walls and perished, 

And there were cries 

That her spirit hovered around the walls 

And appeared at night 

At the four Quatembern 

In the form of a damsel 

Carrying a bunch of keys at her side. 

On the other hand, old peasants 

Of these places say 

That they have heard from their fathers 

That this maiden was the daughter 

Of an old heathen 

And was cursed into an abominable snake; 

She is also said to have been seen 

At that time in the form of a snake, 

With a woman's head and breast, 

And a bunch of keys at her neck.

XVII

The meadow virgin

A boy from Auerbach on the Bergstraße 

Was herding his father's cows 

On the narrow valley meadow 

From which the old castle can be seen. 

Suddenly a soft hand slapped him 

Gently on the cheek from behind, 

So that he turned round, and behold, 

A beautiful maiden stood before him, 

Dressed in white from head to foot, 

And was about to open her mouth 

To speak to him. 

But the boy was frightened, 

As if by the devil himself, 

And took to his heels 

And went into the village. 

Because his father only had one meadow, 

He had to drive the cows 

To the same pasture again and again, 

Whether he wanted to or not. 

It lasted a long time, 

And the boy had soon forgotten the apparition, 

When something rustled in the leaves 

On a sultry summer's day, 

And he saw a little snake crawling, 

Carrying a blue flower in its mouth, 

And suddenly began to speak,

Listen, good boy, you could redeem me 

If you took this flower that I carry 

And which is a key to my chamber 

Up in the castle, 

There you would find the abundance of money. 

But the shepherd boy was frightened 

When he heard her speak, 

And ran home again. 

And on one of the last days of autumn 

He was herding in the meadow again, 

When she appeared for the third time 

In the form of the first white maiden 

And again gave him a cheek swipe, 

Also pleading that he should redeem her, 

For which she told him all the ways and means. 

All her pleading was for nothing, 

For fear overwhelmed the boy, 

So that he crossed himself 

And blessed himself, 

And wanted nothing to do with the ghost. 

Then the maiden heaved a deep sigh and said,

Alas that I have put my trust in thee; 

Bow I must wait again and wait 

Until a cherry tree grows in the meadow 

And a cradle is made of the cherry tree's wood. 

Only the child who is first cradled in the cradle 

Can one day deliver me. 

Then she disappeared, 

And the boy, it is said, did not grow old at all; 

What he died of is not known.

XVIII

The Jungfernstein

In Meissen, not far from the fortress 

Of Königstein, lies a rock 

Called the Jungfernstein, or Pfaffenstein. 

Once a mother cursed her daughter 

Who did not go to church on Sundays, 

But to the blueberries. 

The daughter turned to stone 

And her image can still be seen at noon.

During the Thirty Years' War, 

People fled there 

To escape from the soldiers.

XIX

Lady Berta or the white woman

The white woman appears 

In the castles of several princely houses, 

Namely in Neuhaus in Bohemia, 

In Berlin, Bayreuth, Darmstadt and Karlsruhe 

And in all those whose families 

Have gradually become related 

To hers by marriage. 

She does no harm to anyone, 

Bows her head before whom she meets, 

Speaks nothing, 

And her visit signifies a near death, 

Sometimes also something cheerful, 

Namely when she has no black glove on. 

She wears a bunch of keys 

And a white veil bonnet. 

According to some, her name in life 

Was Perchta von Rosenberg, 

She lived in Neuhaus in Bohemia 

And was married to Johann von Lichtenstein, 

A wicked, stubborn man. 

After her husband's death, 

She lived in widowhood at Neuhaus 

And began to build a castle, 

To the great complaint of her subjects, 

Who had to indulge her. 

While they were working, 

She called out to them to be industrious,

When the castle is finished, 

I will serve you and your people 

A sweet porridge! 

For this was the expression 

Used by the old people 

When they invited someone as a guest. 

In the autumn after the building was completed, 

She not only kept her word, 

But also made sure that all Rosenbergs 

Would give their people 

Such a meal for all eternity. 

This has been done so far, 

And if it is not done, 

She appears with an angry face. 

Sometimes she is said 

To come into princely nurseries at night, 

When the nurses are asleep, 

To cradle the children 

And carry them in confidence. 

Once, when an ignorant nanny asked in fright,

What have you to do with that child? 

And scolded her with words, 

She is said to have said,

I am not a stranger in this house like you, 

But belong to it; 

This child comes from my children's children. 

But because you have not done me honour, 

I will not return.

XX

Wild Berta is coming

In Swabia, Franconia and Thuringia, 

People call out to stiff-necked children, 

Silence, or wild Berta is coming! 

Others call her Bildaberta, Hildaberta, 

Also probably: the iron Berta. 

She appears as a wild woman 

With shaggy hair 

And sullies the skirt of the girl 

Who does not spin her flax 

On the last day of the year. 

Many people eat dumplings 

And herring on this day. 

Otherwise, they say, 

The Perchta or Prechta would come, 

Cut open their bellies, 

Take out the first thing they ate 

And put in straw. 

Then she sews the cut up again 

With a ploughshare instead of a needle 

And with a Röhm chain instead of twine.

XXI

The three maidens from the lake

In Epfenbach near Sinsheim, 

Three beautiful maidens 

Dressed in white 

Have entered the spinning room of the village 

Every evening since the people remembered. 

They always brought new songs and tunes, 

Knew pretty fairy tales and games, 

Even their skirts and spindles 

Had something of their own, 

And no spinner could spin the thread 

So finely and nimbly. 

But at the stroke of eleven 

They got up, packed up their skirts 

And did not let themselves be held back 

A moment longer by any plea. 

They didn't know where they came from 

Or where they were going; 

They were only called 

The maidens from the lake 

Or the sisters from the lake. 

The boys liked to see them 

And fell in love with them,

Mostly the schoolmaster's son. 

He couldn't get enough of hearing them 

And talking to them, 

And nothing hurt him more 

Than that they left so early every evening. 

Once he got the idea 

And set the village clock back an hour, 

And in the evening, 

In constant conversation and joking, 

No one noticed that the hour was late. 

And when the bell struck eleven, 

But it was actually already twelve, 

The three maidens got up, 

Put their skirts together and went away. 

The next morning, 

Some people passed by the lake; 

They heard whimpering 

And saw three bloody spots on the surface. 

From that time on, 

The sisters never came to the parlour. 

The schoolmaster's son died shortly afterwards.

XXII

Maiden Ilse

The Ilsenstein is one of the largest rocks 

In the Harz mountains. 

It lies on the north side 

In the county of Wernigerode 

Not far from Ilsenburg 

At the foot of the Brocken 

And is washed by the Ilse. 

Opposite it is a similar rock, 

The layers of which match it 

And seem to have separated from it 

When the earth shook.

During the Flood, 

Two lovers fled towards the Brocken 

To escape the ever-increasing general flooding. 

Before they reached it 

And were standing together on another rock, 

The rock split and wanted to separate them. 

On the left side, facing the Brocken, 

Stood the maiden; 

On the right, the youth, 

And together they plunged into the flood. 

The maiden's name was Ilse. 

She still opens the Ilsenstein 

Every morning to bathe in the Ilse. 

Only a few are granted the privilege of seeing her, 

But those who know her praise her. 

Once a charcoal-burner found her 

Early in the morning, 

Greeted her kindly 

And followed her beckoning to the rock; 

In front of the rock she took 

His satchel from him, 

Went in with it and brought it back filled. 

But she told the charcoal-burner 

Not to open it until he was in his hut. 

The heaviness struck him, 

And when he was on the bridge 

Over the Ilse, he could no longer refrain, 

Opened the satchel 

And saw acorns and fir apples. 

Reluctantly, he shook them into the stream, 

But as soon as they touched the stones 

Of the Ilse, he heard a ringing 

And saw with horror that he had spilled gold. 

The remnant, which was now carefully stored 

In the corners of the sack, 

Made him rich enough. 

According to another legend, 

There was once a castle 

On the Ilsenstein that belonged 

To a king of the Harz 

Who had a very beautiful daughter named Ilse. 

Nearby lived a witch 

Whose daughter looked ugly beyond measure. 

A lot of suitors were courting Ilse, 

But no one wanted the witch's daughter; 

So the witch got angry 

And turned the castle into a rock by magic, 

At the foot of which she put up a door 

Visible only to the king's daughter. 

The enchanted Ilse still steps out 

Of this door every morning 

And bathes in the river named after her. 

If a person is so happy 

And sees her in the bath, 

She takes him to the castle, 

Treats him deliciously 

And leaves him richly endowed. 

But the envious witch makes her visible 

In the bath only on a few days of the year. 

Only he who bathes with her in the river 

At the same time and is like her 

In beauty and virtue can redeem her.

XXIII

The Heathen Maiden of Glatz

Old and young people in Glatz told stories: 

In the pagan times, 

A godless, enchanting maiden ruled the land, 

Who shot with her satchel bow 

From the castle down to the large 

Eisersdorf lime tree, 

When she made a bet 

With her brother 

As to who could shoot the arrow the furthest. 

Her brother's arrow barely reached half way, 

And the maiden won. 

The border stands on this lime tree, 

And it is said to be as old 

As the heathen tower at Glatz, 

And even if it withers once or twice, 

It has always grown up and is still standing. 

On the lime-tree once sat the fortune-teller 

And prophesied of the city 

Many things to come: 

The Turk would penetrate as far as Glatz, 

But when he crossed the stone bridge 

And entered the ring, 

He would suffer a heavy defeat 

At the hands of the Christians 

Descending on him from the castle; 

But this would not happen 

Until a bunch of cranes 

Flew through the bread banks. 

As a sign that the virgin 

Had shot her brother with the bow, 

Two pointed stones were set 

On the mile behind the ditch. 

But because she had made illicit love 

To her own brother, she was detested 

By the people, and they sought her life, 

But she always managed to escape 

By her magic and strength, 

Because she often tore a whole horseshoe 

For the fun of it. In the end, however, 

She remained trapped and walled up 

In a large hall near the gate 

Through which one enters the upper castle 

From the lower castle. 

There she died, and in memory of her, 

Her portrait is carved in stone on the wall 

To the left of the same gate 

Over the deep moat 

And is shown to all strangers to this day. 

In addition, her painting 

In the green castle hall 

And in the castle church 

Hung on an iron nail in the wall, 

Beautiful yellow hair, 

Braided several times according to length. 

People generally call it the hair 

Of the heathen virgin; 

It hangs so high 

That a tall man standing on the ground 

Can reach it with his hand, 

About three steps from the door. 

She is said to appear often in the castle 

In the form and dress as she is painted, 

But offends no one, except those 

Who sneer at her and mock her 

Or intend to take her hair braid away from the church. 

To a soldier who mocked her, 

She came to the sentry post 

And gave him a cold hand with her cheek. 

To another, who stole the hair, 

She appeared at night, 

Scratched and clawed him to near death, 

If he had not quickly had the hair carried back 

To the old place by his journeyman.

XXIV

The White Maiden at Schwanau

The free Swiss broke down the castle 

Of Schwanau on the Lowerzer See 

Because the evil and cruel bailiff 

Of the emperor lived there. 

Once a year, in the silence of the night, 

Thunder shook the ruins 

And cries of lamentation 

Rang out in the tower; 

All around the wall, 

The reeve was pursued 

By the white-robed girl he had dishonoured, 

Until he threw himself into the lake 

With a howl. 

Three sisters fled from the bailiff's lusts 

Into the gorges of the Rigi 

And never came out again. 

St. Michel's Chapel 

Is the name of the place.

XXV

The holy lake of Hertha

The Reudignians, Avions, Angles, 

Warinians, Eudoses, Suarthones and Nuithones, 

German peoples who dwell 

Between rivers and forests, 

All worship Hertha, 

That is Mother Earth, 

And believe that she mingles 

With human things 

And comes sailing to the peoples. 

On an island of the sea 

Lies an unconsecrated forest 

Sacred to her, 

There stands her chariot, 

Wrapped in blankets, 

Only one priest may approach it. 

He knows when the goddess appears 

In the sacred chariot; 

Two cows draw her away, 

And the priest reverently follows. 

Wherever she is worthy to come and stay, 

There is a happy day and a wedding; 

No war is fought, 

No weapon is seized, 

The iron is locked.

Only peace and tranquillity 

Are then known and desired; 

This lasts until the goddess 

Has dwelt enough among the people 

And the priest leads her back 

To the sanctuary. 

The chariot, the cover 

And the goddess herself 

Are washed in a remote lake; 

But the servants who serve 

Are soon swallowed up by the lake.

A secret terror and a holy ignorance 

Are therefore always spread 

Over what only those who die 

Immediately look upon.

XXVI

The image of Our Lady on the rock

In the Vispertal valley, 

On a rugged rock face of the Rätiberg 

Behind St. Niklas, 

A small image of the Virgin Mary 

Stands high up in the stone, 

Barely visible to the eye. 

It used to stand at the bottom of the path 

In a now empty chapel, 

So that people passing by 

Could pray in front of it. 

But once it happened that a godless man, 

Whose wishes had remained unheeded, 

Took excrement 

And threw it at the holy image; 

It wept tears, 

But when he repeated the sacrilege, 

It hurried away, 

High up on the wall, 

And would not come down again 

In response to the people's pleas. 

It was quite impossible 

To climb up the rock and bring it back; 

Rather, the people thought, 

They could approach it 

From the top of the mountain, 

Climbed the mountain 

And wanted to let a man float down 

With strong ropes around him 

Until he could get in front 

Of the picture and receive it. 

But as he was being lowered, 

The rope by which they held him at the top 

Became thinner and thinner at the bottom, 

And when he came close to the image, 

It became as thin as a hair, 

So that the man was terrified and cried out,

For God's sake, they should pull him back, 

Otherwise he would be lost. 

So they pulled him up again, 

And the ropes visibly regained 

Their former strength. 

Then the people had to get away 

From the image of grace 

And never got it back.