The Double Marriage of the Gleichens
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| Geographic Coordinates: 50° 52' 49.00" N, 10° 50' 20.00" E 32° 55' 40.00" N, 35° 4' 54.00" E 30° 2' 40.00" N, 31° 14' 9.00" E 41° 53' 36.00" N, 12° 28' 58.00" E 50° 58' 43.00" N, 11° 1' 14.00" E |
There is hardly any Thuringian legend which has become so widely spread as the one of the two-wifed Count of Gleichen. And there is hardly any which has ruffled so many scholarly feathers — only the “Püsterich” has exceeded it in prompting so many pointless treatises. There is a deplorable addiction to refusing to let a legend simply stand as a legend, but either forcefully stamp it as a historical truth, or, conversely, putting in an all-out effort to prove that which should be self-evident — that a legend is not history. This kind of effort spoils all poetry, and is completely wasted for this world.
The legend says: Ludwig (others call him Ernst), Count of Gleichen, participated in the crusade which Ludwig the Pious, Landgrave of Thuringia, had joined under the banner of Emperor Frederick II. Count Ludwig was educated in the knightly virtues in the court of the Thuringian Landgrave, and was allegedly married to a Countess of Orlamünde, who had given birth to two children to him.
After Landgrave Ludwig had paid for his devout zeal with his life, Count Ludwig followed the Emperor to Acre, and stayed behind to protect the city of Ptolemaïs after the Emperor had already embarked on his return journey by ship. During a sortie or a skirmish against the Saracens which were laying siege to Ptolemaïs, the German Count was captured by the Arabs, sold to the Sultan of Egypt, and brought to Alkair.
There, the Count had to perform many hard labors as a slave, and languished as a prisoner for nine years. Finally, the daughter of the Sultan, whose name was Melech-Sala (which means “King of Weal” or “King of Peace”) became smitten with him. During their first meeting in the gardens, she tried to lift up his spirits. Finally, due to her great love for him, she proposed to flee with him if he would take her as his wife. Count Ludwig was honest enough to tell the beautiful Saracen maiden of his station and his heritage, and to confess to her that he already had a wife and two children in his distant home. This did not disturb the Saracen maiden in the slightest, as the Mohammedan faith permits every man to take as many wives as he can support. And the love of the maiden, the hope for liberation, and perhaps his own feelings overcame the Count, and he finally promised the Sultan’s daughter to become united in marriage with her if she would help him find freedom and follow him.
The love of the maiden knew how to overcome all obstacles which stood in the way of their plan of escape, and, carrying her best treasures, they escaped on a ship and reached Venice after a six-week journey. In Venice, the Count found his dearest and most faithful servant, who had searched for him in all the three parts of the world which were known at the time. From him he learned that everything was still in order at home, and that his wife and his two children were still alive.
Upon learning this news, Count Ludwig traveled to Rome without delay, where Gregory IX — also known as “the Great” — sat upon the papal throne. There, he told the Pope of his fate and all that had happened to him. Then the Pope provided him with grand gifts, blessed the Saracen maiden with the sacrament of Baptism, and gave the Count strongly-worded letters of recommendation for the Emperor. The Count and his entourage them embarked on the fastest route back to Thuringia through Italy, over the Alps, and through Bavaria and Franconia. And when he was still two days distant from Gleichen Castle, he traveled ahead of the Saracen woman, reached his wife and children, and was most joyously recognized by his spouse and welcomed. The Count then related everything that had occurred to his spouse, and that he would never have seen his kin and country again without the help of the Saracen maiden from a royal lineage. Thus, he moved his wife to gratitude and affection towards the foreign woman.
When the latter now approached Gleichen Castle, the Count and his wife, and his numerous friends who had congregated to greet and congratulate him, approached her to meet her halfway in a grand procession. He then solemnly led her up to the castle as if in triumph. The site of the first meeting at the foot of the mountain, where the two women hugged and kissed each other in a sisterly manner, was soon called the “Freudenthal” (“Valley of Joys”) and the long-neglected and now quickly restored path into the castle was called the “Türkenweg” (“Turk’s Path”) from that moment on.
At all times, the Countess of Gleichen honored and loved the Saracen woman as the savior of her beloved husband, and the latter repaid this with humility and friendliness. There was never any indication that any kind of misunderstanding or complaint arose between the two wives of the Count. Instead, both of them were united in honoring their lord in love and friendship at all times. While the Saracene woman had been adorned with great beauty, children of her own were denied to her. Instead, she loved the children of the German countess, and was diligent to the utmost in caring for their well-being. She was an exemplar of devoutness, dignity, humility, charm, and friendliness. She died at a quite advanced age, and was interred within the Peterskirche church in Erfurt. Two months later, the German countess, who had given her husband three further children, likewise passed from her worldly life, and was laid to rest next to her sisterly friend. The Count himself passed in his 60th year, and his children — two sons and three daughters — had him interred between the two women. They furthermore commissioned a splendid gravestone for the three where their likeness can be seen. For this same stone was brought down from the Petersberg, and raised up in Erfurt Cathedral — an eloquent witness of the legend for all subsequent centuries.
Source: Bechstein - Thüringer Sagenbuch Zweiter Band, p. 303ff