The Wild Woman
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| Geographic Coordinates: 49° 36' 29.20" N, 7° 26' 25.54" E 49° 35' 52.95" N, 7° 27' 30.52" E 49° 34' 26.97" N, 7° 23' 10.42" E |
A lovely forested hill range rises up about two hours north of Kusel. This is the “Steinalb”, a continuation of the hill lands of the northwestern Palatinate. Within the part of the Steinalb that lies close direction of the Glantal valley, there is a rock formation with a cave which is called the “Wildfrauenhöhle” (“Wild Women’s Cave”) by the locals.
When, after the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, the Huns moved eastward over the Rhine again, the Wild Woman was left behind here. She dwelled in the cave, far away from the humans. Her food was roots, herbs, and raw meat of animals, and even of small children which she robbed at night from their parents.
Her shape was of an unusual size, and terrible to behold. Her clothing was fashioned out of raw animal hides, and long, disheveled raven-black hair fell on her neck, shoulders, and face. Her eyes glittered in an uncanny manner. She carried a long knife, and always carried a heavy club with her. Whenever she was in the cave, she closed it with a massive rock which even several strong men working jointly were unable to move from the spot.
She constantly fought with wolves and other predators, and caught stags and many other wild animals with snares. But at night, she roamed through the villages of the Glantal valley, climbed over the roofs of the houses, and stole food and children. Her terrible cry caused many people to shudder: “Ho! Ho! The Wild Woman is here!”
In this manner, she made a raid on the nearby Rathsweiler in the Glantal one night and abducted a small child through the chimney. The distraught parents followed the tracks of the thief the next morning, and, in a state of terror, reached the front of the Wildfrauenhöhle where they heard their child wailing pitifully. Under tears, they begged for the return of their darling. But the Wild Woman tore the child apart, and threw it in front of the parents’ feet. With trembling and despair, they took the little corpse, and then hurried home with it so that they would not be pursued by the terrible woman.
The following night, she once again rushed to Rathsweiler with the speed of the wind. She climbed on the roof of the same house, and reached the interior via the chimney. Without much ado, she pulled up the father of the child from his bed, threw him over her shoulders, and carried him out of the hut. No matter how he struggled to defend himself, she hurried towards the nearby mountains without saying a word. At daybreak, the horrible woman reached her rock cave and put down her load with the words: “I shall not harm you, but you shall be my prisoner for the rest of your life.”
Gradually the man got used to his sad fate and the lifestyle of the Wild Woman, but he was never allowed to leave the cave. Whenever his mistress left for a raid, she always pushed the rock in front of the entrance of her home.
In this manner, a year had passed, and nobody knew what fate had befallen the man. He pretended to have accepted his lot, and, step by step, gained the trust of the Wild Women. Then one day, when she had left for a raid once again, she forgot to close the cave, and when she returned, the prisoner had fled. Immediately she picked up her child, which was only a few weeks old, from its moss bedding and picked up the trail of the fugitive. But he was already far away, and as she was unable to catch up to him, she tore the child apart without pity, and hurled the bloody body parts far away from herself. Then, while screaming in terrible rage, she hurried back to her cave.
Soon after, the Count of these lands visited this region with his servants during a hunt, as many boars still dwelled there. The Wild Woman stepped in front of them with fiery eyes, and used her club to point towards the game which she had just slain.
“Who are you?” shouted the stout Count towards her, while his servants slowly backed away. “Who I am? Ho! Ho! — Have you heard of the Wild Woman who dwells in these lonely lands? She thirsts for the blood of her enemies, and her enemies are humans and animals. Thus you should flee from this place!”
At the same time she swung her club, and hit several of the servants so that they dropped dead to the ground. Then the Count took his spear and struck the frightening woman down. With the cry: “Justice was done to me!” she sank to the ground. She desired to die in her cave, and was carried there by the count’s men.
Before she drew her last breath, she spoke these final words to her judge: “I have been a terror to the locals for long enough. If they had been of my people, I could have been their benefactor. For know this, there are three things that contain all the fortune of earthly life: The cry of the cockerel, the fluttering of the quail, and the white lily! Whoever recognizes the wisdom in these words will have a golden blade in their plow!”
Even today, the ghost of the Wild Woman has supposedly not found rest and roams the forests and the fields in all sorts of shapes. Sometimes it appears as small shining flames which rise up during the night, jolt back and forth, and lead wanderers astray. At other times, the barking of hounds and a raging hunt rushes past through the air, and wakes the startled inhabitants. And occasionally, when the prayer bells of the evening ring, it is possible to hear a terrible scream of pain from a voice which does not sound like those of either humans or animals.
Once, the inhabitants of the Frohnerbacherhof estate lost a young bull when they drove their cattle from the meadow in the evening. The next morning they searched for it, and found the animal in the Herrnwald forest as it continually charged a tree trunk and dug around next to it with its horns. When they approached, they found a large, dead wolf which the bull had overcome. Many claimed that the Wild Woman had also been involved in this incident.