Mutter Gauerken Brings the Plague
In Rankendorf and Grevenstein near Dassow there was once an outbreak of the plague. This outbreak was triggered by events at the mill of Grevenstein. One evening, the journeyman miller and an apprentice were busy grinding flour which they were supposed to bring to the village of Pohnsdorf the next day. During the night, the apprentice stuck his head out of the door and heard a noise like the wailing of dogs. “Listen,” he told the journeyman, “here comes Mutter Gauerken with her dogs!” The journeyman jumped to the door and saw a pitch-black cloud slowly forming above Pohnsdorf and heard a shout out of the cloud: “Oh Pohnsdorf, how will you suffer!” The journeyman considered that the people of Pohnsdorf milled their grain at his mill and he didn’t want them to experience anything bad. Thus, he called to the cloud: “Hey, turn towards Rankendorf and Grevenstein!” Now the cloud burst asunder and one piece settled over Rankendorf while the other one came to rest above Grevenstein. The very next day the plague broke out over both villages. However, the apprentice told others what he had witnessed, and thus the journeyman was captured and intended to be burned at the stake. But Mutter Gauerken had mercy on him — as he was led to the pyre, the plague suddenly ended and out of joy at this turn of events the journeyman was allowed to live.
Source: Bartsch - Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg Band 1, p. 25f
 Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles: Commentaries on German folklore. Get the book for further context and explanatory commentary! |