Bavarian Legends and Tales - A little bit of History of this BEAUTIFUL section of Germany!

There are so many legends and stories from all over the world, but where do they come from? Ever wonder how the clichés and sayings came to be? Germany has been around for quite some time, so history turns into stories, and then into legends.

Here are some interesting stories from Bavaria!

The Wood Girls

In Bayreuth, out in the woods there lived some friendly female elfs that appeared to humans as old small women. They were called "Holzfrala" or "wood girls" in english, and they always tried to help the humans. A poor maid was on her way to her soon to be husband but was worried about her status as a poor citizen and because he was much more wealthy, she placed some stones in her bag so it would look like she had something to bring into the marriage. On the way, she met one of these "old women" not knowing it was really an elf. The older female asked her about the heavy bag and the young maid told her the truth about her dilema. The elf said: "Because you told me the truth, don't worry any more, all of those stones are now gold coins". Upon, entering into the house of her husband, she had no more stones in her bag, they were all gold coins.

The enemy of the elfs was the wild hunter, but his story is a little different. He hunted the elfs because they helped the humans. The woodcutters in these times knew about the elfs enemy so while a cut tree was falling, they would press three crosses in the stump. That was a safe point for the elfs, if they could reach a crossed tree, the wild hunter was powerless against them.

In recent times, the woodcutters have forgetten to do this, and the wild hunter has caught them all, the last one bounded by him near Mengersreuth.

The Angels Lake

Snow was thick and heavy in the valley and snowflakes continued to fall all over the city. Dark clouds brought new snow and the ice of the lake was nearly invisible by the screaming blizzard. In this weather a young lady was walking along over the lake carrying a child of four years on her back in a basket.

The child was freezing and crying "mother, I am so freezing, I can no longer suffer, please, when we will be at home?". The mother was afraid of death and exhausted but with the heart of a loving mother she said "Please love, hold on for only fifteen more minutes. Do you not see our small house with the smoking chimney?" She was of course lying because it was impossible to see through the thunderstorm.

The woman fought through the wind and through the snow but suddenly a very angry wolf appeared coming out of the bushes. She feared for their lives but was brave like any mother. She put the basket with the child on the floor and ran after the animal, but the wolf uninjured, easily pulled her down.

The small boy, at first screaming, filled with a sudden braveness, took his mothers stick and hit with an unhuman strength that wolf till he escaped with only a bloody back. Then the child went to his fallen mother whispering "mother, the wolf is away, I beat him, mother please, do you hear me?". The exhausted mother looked to her boy then to the sky because her child seemed her like an angel now. She got the strength get up on her feet and soon they both finally reached their home.

In the next few weeks she told everybody about the miracle and the bravery of her small child. The town folk named that lake the "angels lake" since then.

The Mill at Frammersbach

In a valley near Frammersbach, there was a copper mill. The owner, widowed after his wifes passing, was alone with his son. Business was running well, the son was a good worker, but he had but one mistake. He loved to hunt, really to poach, rather than to work in the business.

His father did not like this illegal hunting, especially since he knew the owners of the hunting fields, the dukes of Rieneck. But the miller could say whatever he wanted, his son did not listen and was still poaching.

One day a strong stag crossed his path. One good shot, and then he started to cut the good pieces out of the animal to bring back home. He was interupted by a young hunter on his horse. This guy had hunted the stag and found him dead and the miller's son with a knife working on his kill. They began to a fight, and the son of the miller killed the young horse-rider with his knife.

He did not know that his dead "enemy" was one of the sons of the Duke from Rieneck. This strong knight came soon after hearing about the death of his son with all his men to the mill, pulled the murderer out and hanged him in front of his house. The miller faded away and for a long time everybody in the village saw the ghost of the young miller's son on the farm.

After centuries a stranger came in the area, bought that ruined mill and installed a waterdriven mechanical hammer, what you still can see now.

The Treasure in the "Buchet"

The "Buchet" is a forrest area near the Bohemian Forest near Waldmunich. In that forest, one general named Campbell left all the army money in order to make a quick escape from the enemy general Wallenstein in 1632. Alot of people were searching for all that gold afterwords, but nobody could find it even though one guy had seen the hiding place, But he had given an oath he would not say. The only thing he said was that the treasure was under a stone marked by a haircomb symbol. As death was taking the man away, he confessed that he tired several times to dig out that money by himself, but he was always interupted by a big black dog with eyes on fire.

Years later a young farmer's maid working in those woods found a large stone with a weird mark on it that resembled a haircomb. She was curious about it but did not know anything about this story. Working further into the woods she suddenly felt the earth begin to shake. Looking back she saw the stone had sunken down and into the earth. In the stones place was now three pieces of gold. She put them in her pocket and walked towards home.

After walking a few feet, a big black dog appeared and blocked her way. The dog was angry and was ready to attack. She heard in the distance someone cry to her "Throw the gold away". She did so, and then the dog barked with joy, took the gold pieces with his teeth and ran away. The maid could walk home after her fear had disappeared. This happened on a Good Friday.

At home she told the story to her friends, most of them walked out in the "Bucket" and tried their luck, but all were unsucessful. Old people explained the senseless search: the treasure could be seen only one hour in the year and only on the Good Friday and only to people born on sundays.

Although one lady said she was born on a sunday, her whole life every Good Friday was searching in that forest, she never found the treasure. So, maybe he is still there. If you are in the area, born on a sunday, test your luck.

The Donkey Egg

In olden times in a Bavarian town called Weilheim a local judge resided. This Judge was always a little jealous about the traders and their helpful donkeys. He wanted one for himself but the cost was always too high. One day another Tyrolian trader was crossing though town and the judge asked him again how much a donkey would cost. The trader wanted 50 Gold coins but the judge thought that was still way too expensive. He did see however multiple large yellow orbs hanging from the traders wagon he'd never seen before. So he asked the trader "what's this, my friend?"

The trader wanted to make a joke and said "these are eggs my donkey laid last night". The judge suddenly got an idea, maybe this would be the way to get cheaper a donkey and he asked for price and how to get them to hatch. The Tyrolian laughed to himself, but still sold him one "egg" for 12 Gulden and told him the instructions. "You must carry it up to the nearby hill, sit down on it and keep it warm till the young donkey hatches".

The judge did what the trader told him to and after a while he reached the peak of that hill and warmed the "egg" with his bottom while sitting on it. But the path was far, he was sweating and tired and his butt was sore after a while of sitting on the "egg". So he wanted to change his seating arrangement but the "egg" slipped out and rolled down the hill where it was lost in some bushes. In the bushes a rabbit was fast asleep, now woken by the unwanted visitor and jumped out. The judge saw the rabbit coming out of the woods and he cried "donkey, come here! Donkey here !" But the "donkey", our rabbit, ran away into the fields and was never seen again.

The foolish man looked for a long time after it till he realized that the Tyrolian had made a big idiot out of him. So he went back in town to punish him, but the pumpkin trader was a long ways away.

Source: http://www.airport-shuttle-munich.com/tales.htm