The King of the Wends Meets his End
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| Geographic Coordinates: 51° 34' 21.10" N, 14° 28' 26.33" E |
Close to the village of Graustein the Luschky Mountain rises up, and old walls are still visible on it today. These are the remains of a castle in which the King of the Wends resided a long time ago. In the beginning the King of the Wends lived here happily amidst his people and his kin, but, as the Germans conquered these lands and his strong castle fell, he fell into the hands of his enemies as well. The Germans carried him away to imprisonment and forced him to accept the Christian faith.
As well treated as the king was among the Germans, he always pined for his people and his kin. The Devil knew this, and thus he visited him one day and promised to bring him back to his kin if he signed over his soul to him. The imprisoned king agreed to this, and indeed the Devil brought him back to his home during the night so that he was near his castle on the following morning. Now he spent joyful days with his kin, but soon he was harried by the thought that his soul should belong to the Devil. In his distress he went to a hermit to lament his peril. The hermit heard his report and said: “Only if you dedicate your entire life to God will the Devil be unable to harm you after your death.”
The king decided to heed the words of the hermit and endowed the founding of a monastery which he planned to join. However, he found a terrible end on the day on which he had planned to pledge his monastic vows. For as soon as he had stepped out of his castle, a terrible storm broke loose, and the Devil roared to him under lightning and thunder, grabbed him, and disappeared with the king into the clouds. As soon as this had occurred, a gigantic glowing rock hammered into the ground next to the church. The ground began to smoke and the buildings in the area — the monastery and the castle of the King of the Wends — began to burn down. Only the church was preserved, but the rock sank ever deeper into the ground until it gradually cooled off, and there it remained in peace.
The impression of the Devil’s hand on the rock remains visible to this day.
Of the King of the Wends, nobody has heard anything since. His descendants lived in the village of Graustein, which derives its name from the grey stone hurled by the Devil, and only recently became extinct. This tale was reported by the village headman, the last of their line, and it was passed down within his family.
Source: Veckenstedt - Wendische Sagen, Märchen und abergläubige Gebräuche, p. 19f
 Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles: Commentaries on German folklore. Get the book for further context and explanatory commentary! |