The Court of the Kyffhäuser Mountains
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| Geographic Coordinates: 51° 24' 46.00" N, 11° 6' 30.00" E 51° 34' 23.00" N, 10° 57' 17.00" E |
What folk belief maintained in their soul about the enchantment of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, they transferred this to Emperor Frederick II as well, and then extended the tale further and further beyond those two. It was here where ancient, passed-down myth with its own views was melded with more modern legends.
The Germanic-Nordic legend of the Wode and his Raging Army was rejuvenated in the land of Braunschweig, and found a Wild Huntsman in the person of the forestry supervisor Hans von Hackelnberg. In the County of Stolberg, which is very close to the Kyffhäuser Mountain, there is much talk of the Wild Huntsman. Sometimes he is the Hackelnberg, and at other times he is mentioned with no specific name. He hunts, accompanied by many dachshunds. At various locations, he threw rotting horse hinds down from the air. In the Rübeland area, he hunts “women from the woods”(*) like he hunts the moss women in the Vogtland region, the “Rüttelweiber” in the Giant Mountains, or the Blessed Maidens in the high mountains of Bavaria and Austria. According to the legends of the Harz mountains, the bleating nun Tutosel is the companion of Hackelnberg, and she, too, is merely a rejuvenation of Frau Holle.
But in the County of Stolberg, the latter appears (if under an altered name) sometimes as the leader of the Wild Troop or its companion, and sometimes as demonic spinning woman. There, she is called the “Wulle”, “Fru Rolle”, “Fru Holle”, but near Ilsenburg “Fru Frièn” (an echo of Freya) and there she roams wild. She is called “Fru Frèe with the large thumb” in a children’s fairy tale from this region, and it would be amiss if she did not float above the Kyffhäuser mountains together with her entourage.
But there, the ever-rejuvenating legend has transformed her anew. There she is the beautiful daughter or niece of Barbarossa, a princess who was enchanted at the same time as he was. She floats above the mountains at night, accompanied by her courtiers and all of them riding on white horses.
However, even this interpretation was not left alone. Instead, there was an ongoing determination to reshape old oral traditions. Now it is said that robber knights lived on Kyffhäuser Castle, who abduct maidens and ride out to hunt with them. They can still be seen on bright nights, riding above the mountain on snow-white horses. But it is bad luck to encounter them.
(*) Compare with Dr. H. Pröhle’s very distinguished collection “Unterharzische Sagen”.
Source: Bechstein - Thüringer Sagenbuch Zweiter Band, p. 252f