Frau Gaur
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| Geographic Coordinates: 53° 16' 45.00" N, 11° 33' 48.00" E 53° 24' 0.00" N, 11° 43' 0.00" E |
In the regions surrounding Grabow, many people tell tales of “Frau Gaur”. She is believed to be a woman who travels through the air on a wooden sleigh of the kind that is still found among country people from time to time. This sleigh is pulled by dogs (wolves)[sic], and a large number of wolves circle the vehicle while barking constantly, making noises similar to the calls of night birds. Nobody has seen them, and thus nobody can say anything about her countenance and clothing. In the Twelve Nights of Christmas she drives through the air while accompanied by the barks of her dogs, distributing blessings and punishments alike. At this time, the farmers lock their doors at nightfall, and the farmhands and maids carry water, tools and whatever else they need in the evenings into the houses so that nobody has to go outside after dusk, for Frau Gaur punishes the negligence and laziness of the servants. During the Twelve Nights she forbids the girls and women to spin flax, and indeed only gives them time to do so until Shrove Tuesday. If the flax hasn’t been spun until Shrove Tuesday night, Frau Gaur appears and rips their distaffs apart. If a farmer’s wife asks her neighbor during Shrove Tuesday night if she has started to weave, and gets the reply that she hasn’t because she has not spun all her flax, then this is seen as a sign of laziness even today.
One evening Frau Gaur visited a farmer in Spornitz, climbed up to his attic, and threw down all the bread that had been baked for the feast. The dogs quickly devoured the loaves. The farmer nervously observed the scene and did not dare stop the woman’s undertaking. Once the dogs had eaten all the bread, Frau Gaur told the farmer to show her his largest plot of farmland. The farmer thought to himself: “That old woman is daft, what does she want to know about my farmland?” However, since he was afraid and wished that she left as quickly as possible, he led her into his garden and showed her his smallest plot. After that, Frau Gaur and her dogs drove up and down this plot so that no place was untouched. And when the time of the harvest arrived, this plot yielded ten times as much rye as usual. The farmer became upset at the realization that he had encountered Frau Gaur, and that he should have led her to his largest plot.
Source: Bartsch - Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg Band 1, 23f