By D. L. Ashliman **
Entombed
Germany
In the small village of Vestenberg, 2 1/2 hours from Ansbach, there is a large hill, surrounded by a deep moat. Traces of ancient towers are still visible there. Remnants of grave containers can be found just below the earth's surface. A beautiful oak forest lies adjacent to the hill. The names of some of the places in this forest are Himmelreich, Helgraben, and Gründlein.
By the beginning of the middle ages Vestenberg was already the seat of the noble family by the same name. The Vestenbergs were among the most widely spread and wealthiest families of Franconia....
The narration of an eighty-year-old woman:
When Vestenberg Castle was being built, the mason built a seat into the wall. A child was placed on the seat to be sealed into the wall. The child cried, so to pacify it, they gave it a beautiful red apple.
The unmarried woman, whose child it was, had given it up for a large sum of money.
After the mason had finished mortaring the child into the wall, he gave the mother a hard slap on the face, saying: "It would have been better if you had begged your way throughout the country with your child."
...A superstitious man claimed that the railroad bridge over the Göltsch Valley near Reichenbach in Saxony cannot be completed. They cannot find firm ground. Whatever they build during the day disappears the following night. The work will not succeed until they sacrifice seven humans to the Evil One for it. They have already entombed one child in it. People suspected this, and for this reason the schoolmasters were asked to count their children, and it turned out that one child was missing. The narrator heard this account in a tavern in Nürnberg.
In Hof a rumor was circulating among the superstitious that a man was seeking a child to entomb in the Göltsch Bridge. A gymnastics teacher, wearing his white gymnast's suit and carrying a rope in his hand, chanced to walk down the disreputable Fisher Street in Hof, where he so frightened the children that they all fled screaming into their houses.
Between Breitenbrunn and Wollmetshofen in Swabia lies the Hartenberg Forest. A hill there was being excavated for gravel for road construction. All sorts of things were found there: charcoal, bones, broken containers, etc. A human skeleton was also excavated, which was not lying, but rather standing upright. According to legend there was a castle at Hartenberg. A donkey carried water to this castle. Once when the animal had not been seen for several days the peasants suspected that something had happened at Hartenberg, and they went there. To their astonishment they could see nothing of the castle, for it had sunk into the earth. Three days later they heard a rooster crowing from the depths.
Source: Einmauern. In Friedrich Panzer, Bayerische Sagen und Bräuche: Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie (München: Christian Kaiser, 1855), vol. 2, pp. 254-56.
The Entombed Child
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Vilmnitz (Rügen)[/caption]Germany
When Christianity was introduced to Rügen, they wanted to build a church in Vilmnitz. However, the builders could not complete their task, because whatever they put up during day was torn down again by the Devil that night. Then they purchased a child, gave it a bread-roll in one hand, a light in the other, and set it in a cavity in the foundation, which they quickly mortared shut. Now the Devil could no longer disrupt the building's progress.
It is also said that a child was entombed in the church at Bergen under similar circumstances.
Source: A. Haas, "Das eingemauerte Kind," Rügensche Sagen und Märchen (Stettin: Johs. Burmeister's Buchhandlung, 1903), no. 195, p. 173.
The Ghost at Spyker
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Spyker Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker Collection[/caption]Germany
Uncanny things happen at Spyker, the ancient castle of the Wrangels. The tower there is haunted. It is said that while they were building it, every night it would collapse, until they entombed a human within its walls. He now wanders about.
Source: A. Haas, "Der Spuk in Spyker," Rügensche Sagen und Märchen (Stettin: Johs. Burmeister's Buchhandlung, 1903), no. 128, pp. 116-117.
Sacrificing Virgins to Lakes The Old Church at Kohlstädt
Germany
There is a lake where every year a virgin is sacrificed. If this does not happen then the water becomes unruly, the waves grow larger and larger, then rise higher and higher until they finally flood the entire land.
There is also a city whose citizens have a virgin entombed within a wall every year. But today no one knows exactly where this is or why it is done. Some claim that this girl is also a sacrifice to a large lake, which otherwise would swallow up the city.
Source: A. Haas, "Jungfrauenopfer an Seen," Rügensche Sagen und Märchen (Stettin: Johs. Burmeister's Buchhandlung, 1903), no. 93, p. 86.
The Old Church at Kohlstädt
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Ruine Kohlstädt[/caption]Germany
Next to the brook beneath Kohlstädt there is an old wall which is called the Old Church. It is said that during heathen times children were sacrificed there and that Weinberg Hill got its name from the children's crying mothers who watched the sacrifice from there.
Source: Adalbert Kuhn, "Alte Kirche zu Kohlstädt," Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen und einigen andern, besonders den angrenzenden Gegenden Norddeutschlands, vol. 1 (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1859), no. 253, pp. 223-24. Kuhn lists his source simply as "oral."
Translator's note: The suffix Wein- in the name Weinberg can either be translated as "wine," or -- as the legend claims -- it could derive from the verb weinen, "to cry."
Kohlstädt is midway between the North German cities of Detmold and Paderborn.
The Name Greene
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Bad Gandersheim[/caption]Germany
It is said that in ancient times they once sacrificed a child on the mountain above Greene. It is no longer known what the occasion was. The child grinned beneath the butcher-knife, and one of the executioners said: "It is still grinning!" (Es greint noch!) From that they named the place that was soon built at that location "Greine" or "Greene."
Source: A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, "Der Name von Greene," Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg [Mecklenburg], Pommern, der Mark, Sachsen, Thüringen, Braunschweig, Hannover, Oldenburg und Westfalen: Aus dem Munde des Volkes gesammelt (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1848), no. 276, p. 247.
Greene is a village on the Leine River, not far from Gandersheim.
An Infant Speaks
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Stargard Castle[/caption]Germany
Ages ago the cruel custom ruled of entombing infants in the foundations of castles and fortresses in order to provide protection against storms, weather, and the dangers of war. The infants were purchased from their mothers for large sums of money. Once a fortified castle was to be thusly built in the Stargard region. An infant had already been purchased. Before committing the cruel deed, the masons who had been engaged for the construction were talking with one another: "What is sweeter than a mother's nipple?"
The answer came to them from the infant's mouth: "The grace of God!"
Taken aback, the workmen laid down their tools and refused to proceed with the wicked building.
The castle was never completed.
Source: A. Haas, "Der Spuk in Spyker," Rügensche Sagen und Märchen (Stettin: Johs. Burmeister's Buchhandlung, 1903), no. 128, pp. 116-117.
** D. L. Ashliman (born 1 January 1938) is an American folklorist and writer. He is Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Pittsburgh, and is considered to be a leading expert on folklore and fairytales. He has published a number of works on the topic.
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