The Bell of Dambeck in Röbel

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The church of Dambeck, whose walls still stand, is ancient and predates the Deluge. The tower with its bells, however, has sunk into the lake, and in old times people frequently saw the bells coming out of the lake on St. John’s Day and lounge in the sun. At one time, several children went out to bring the lunch bread to their parents working in the fields, and, as they arrived, they sat down on the shore and washed their cloths. There they also saw the bells standing around, and one of the small girls put its cloth on one of them so that the cloth would dry faster. After a short while, two of the bells started to move and climbed back into the lake, but the third one was unable to move from the spot. Thus, the children hurriedly ran into the city and told what they had seen. Now all of Röbel came out to the lake, and the rich people who wanted to have the bells for themselves tied eight, sixteen, and even more horses to the bell, but they couldn’t move it from the spot. Then a poor man traveled past with two oxen and saw what happened. Thus, he tied his two animals to the bell and said:

“Whether rich or poor, God made us all the same!”

and led the bell to Röbel without any trouble. There the bell was hung up in the Neustadt church. Every time a poor person died whose next of kin were unable to pay for the ringing of the other bells, this bell was rung, and its ringing sounded like “Dambeck, Dambeck”.

Source: Bartsch - Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg Band 1, p. 368f

caption Note: This story was published in the book Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles: Commentaries on German folklore. Get the book for further context and explanatory commentary!