🧚 Legends and Tales., part 10

He used the formula employed to open the gates of the spirit-world, and instantly, white as a swan, rose the virgin beautiful to behold.1

"What dost thou desire?" she asked.2

The monk approached her too boldly, begging for the jewels of the depths, and she gave him such a blow with her keys that he fled in terror, and never dared to visit the place again.3

Soon after, as a shepherd was feeding his sheep on a meadow near, a blooming, quiet maiden came and gathered flowers, which she bound in a garland; approaching him, and looking kindly at him, she let a flower fall.4 He picked it up and put it in his hat-band.5

The maiden departed smiling, but beckoned him to follow her.6

Soon they reached the summit of the Güntersburg.7

They entered a subterranean passage, a door opened, and the youth beheld the wonders of the fairy-world.8 Gold and precious stones glittered in the soft starlight that illuminated the vaulted chambers.9

"Take what thou wilt," said the fairy; "but choose wisely."10

He filled his pockets with gold and costly jewels, but in his rapid movements the flower fell from his hat.11 He looked around seeking the door and rushed out, hearing only the words, "Forget not the most beautiful treasure," and never stopped till he had reached the meadow and his sheep.12 He emptied his pockets of the precious treasures, when lo! they were worthless stones.13

Legend of the Devil's Mill.14

The summit of the Ramberg, or Victor's Höhe, is strewed with gigantic ruins of the primeval rocks, and is called the Brocken of the Unterharz.15

Two huge granite boulders, lying as if they had been placed there by hands, are the remains of the Teufelsmühle.16

At the base of the mountain, in the ages long ago, a miller possessed a windmill.17

But the mill, an inheritance from his great-great-grandfather, was in a tumble-down condition, and when the wind blew from the north or west the sweeps stood motionless, for mountain and forest intercepted the "breath of God."18

Often the miller had sat on the summit of the mountain, and thought how nice it would be if the mill only stood there in the free, full breeze, with a strong tower, built from the materials that lay scattered around in superfluous abundance.19

Once, as he thus sat and mused in the twilight, the bats and owls just beginning their nocturnal rounds, a huge, swarthy labourer suddenly appeared before him, greeted him with a _Gott-sei-bei-uns!20 _ and told him he would build him a mill, so soon as the miller signed a promise with blood to be his in thirty years.21

Want, avarice, and vanity won the day with their unholy counsel, and the bond was signed.22

Suddenly scores of little black figures issued forth from the darkness of the night, and began to work among the rocks; trees were cut down with a stroke, chisel and hammer rang on the granite, and the work went forward with a rapidity of enchantment.23

The fear of the miller rose to despair, and as he saw the roof and the huge sweeps set up and finished, and the last millstone rolled to its place, he seized it with the power of a deadly terror, threw it from the rollers with such force, that it rolled down the mountain.24

Then the black wings of the arch-fiend unfolded and spread themselves, he soared high in the air, let fall the millstone on the miller, who was buried beneath it and the ruins of the mill, broken to atoms.25

The Origin of the Rammelsberg Mine, near Goslar.26

The rich treasures of the Rammelsberg were discovered in 970, according to tradition, by accident.27

Otto the Great hunted in the forest.28 His squire Ramm dismounted, tied his horse to a tree, and went after some game that had been shot.29 The impatient animal pawed and stamped, and his rider returning, found a glittering piece of silver ore laid bare.30

Another story is, that the discovery was made by a servant girl in the mill at the base of the mountain.31

She rose one morning before daybreak, and went out to gather wood, when she saw a fire burning on the mountain.32 She hurried to the spot, and found several men with white beards sitting around it.33

Approaching them, she asked permission to take some of the burning coals to kindle her fire.34

They gave no answer, but sat motionless and gazed upon the ground.35

At last she took some coals, saying to herself, "No answer means yes," carried them home and laid them on the hearth, but they would not burn.36 This she repeated several times, but the coals, once thrown on the hearth refused to burn.37

At last it became broad day, and a great heap of gold lay on the hearth, and on the spot where she had seen the fire, lay only pebbles.38 Search was made, and the wealth of the mountain discovered.39

A similar tradition, with slight variations, is told of the _Burgmühle_, or castle mill, near Aschersleben, on the Wolfsberg.40

The tradition is quite as probable that Askanas, grandson of Noah, died on the Wolfsberg in 1964 after the Creation, having left the East a few centuries previously to escape idolatry.41

Legend of the Hoppelberg42

Many and mighty tribes, as the Wenden, Katten, and Sassen, once dwelt in the Harz.43 Bloody battles have been fought for the possession of this district, whose dense forests and impassable valleys afforded not only defence, but the pleasures of the chase.44

We find proofs of their existence here in huge mounds filled with human skulls and bones, and in the names of some of her villages, as, for example, Dorf Kattenstedt.45

These primeval mountaineers were most disturbed by a wild and powerful monastic tribe of giant size and strength, who frequently broke into the mountains, plundered their huts, murdered children, women, and old men, and led away the strong men into slavery.46

Sometimes they only came in small numbers, but the terror of their name went before them, and caused the inhabitants, despite their peculiar bravery, without opposition, to flee into the ravines and caves, while the enemy took possession of all they could lay hands on.47

One called these giant people the Huns.48 No other race possessed such immense size and terrible strength.49 They were held to be unconquerable, and mighty magicians.50 Nevertheless, it happened that once when a body of these giants broke into these mountains, the bravest of the inhabitants united in defence against them; clad in steel, with shield and spear, they marched to meet the advancing foe.51

The Huns, surprised at opposition, and the sight of the huge weapons of the mountaineers, hesitated to begin the attack.52

Then the king of the Huns came forward and cried in scorn, "Do you fear these dwarf figures?53 Tarry here; I alone will fight their whole army, which extends itself beyond our view.54 As the storm-wind breaks in pieces the trees of the mountains, so shall these fall before my strong arm."55

He seized his lance and battle-axe, hurled his javelin into the thickest ranks of the enemy, his arrow to that point where their leader stood, and stormed after them down the hill like a rock suddenly broken from the mountain's side, crushing and destroying all on his way, defending himself against the cloud of arrows that met his advance with his huge shield.56

His followers remained on the summit of the hill, and followed with flashing eyes their hero king, that they might be ready to hasten to his aid if in danger.57