The Rauschenbach Valley
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| Geographic Coordinates: 51° 44' 53.36" N, 10° 33' 9.33" E |
I. There is a cave in the Rauschenbach valley, which lies about half an hour away from the Oderteich reservoir. A princess lives there together with seven dwarves. Once, a young man wanted to release her from her curse. She told him that he would have to kiss her three times — first as princess, then as a poodle, and finally as a snake. She revealed this to him in snake form, by slithering up a table and putting the snake head on top of it. When he promised to release her, she first stood before him as a maiden. Then he kissed her, and he also subsequently kissed her as a dog. But he did not dare kiss her as a snake, and thus the princess remained unliberated.
Most people call the princess only the Key Maiden in the Rauschenbach, and say that she particularly calls out to girls who are called Karoline. She also needs to be released by a girl named Karoline, and if one such girl follows her, she would get the treasure which is hidden in the Rauschenbach valley. But no such girl has followed her so far.
II. Once, a supervisor was planting fir trees in the Rauschenbach valley. A man approached him who might have been a Venetian. This man took him deep beneath a fir tree. They dug there, and found a type of yellow clay beneath a root. The stranger filled his entire backpack with it, and pressed the supervisor to take at least three balls of the clay. Later on, an employee of a merchant from Hamburg gave him 55 thalers for this, and it had been a type of gold. But when they went beneath the fir tree again and dug further, they no longer found anything.