The Rider without a Head on the Ziegenberg hill near Zwönitz
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| Geographic Coordinates: 50° 37' 3.99" N, 12° 48' 55.37" E |
A rider without a head allegedly can be seen on the Ziegenberg, a cone-shaped hill with a height of almost 300 Ells. People tell the following legend about this apparition.
In the 17th century, there was said to be a miller in Zwönitz who had a very beautiful daughter. This daughter was secretly engaged to the forester of Grünhain. The forester knew almost none of her other relatives. The miller also had a son, but had renounced him because he married the headsman’s daughter without his permission and thus (according to the convictions of that time) dishonored his family. Nevertheless, the siblings continued to meet at various places, and when the beautiful miller’s daughter went dancing in the pub where she had intended to meet her beloved, she met her brother and his wife. And, of course, she couldn’t deny him a short dance.
But, in the meantime, the forester had arrived and he hurried from his horse into the dancing hall without changing stride. There, he beheld his bride in the arms of a stranger. When he saw her joking with this stranger in a friendly manner, he was gripped by raging jealousy. He thus lured her to the Ziegenberg hill with flattering words. He pretended that he had lost something in the forest during his gallop, and asked her to help him with the search. The girl accompanied him, suspecting no malice, but when they reached an overgrown spot on the hill, he accused her of infidelity and stabbed her without even listening to her defense. Unfortunately, his aim was only too true, and the unfortunate girl expired within a few minutes — in which she had only enough time to tell her murderer that the alleged seducer had been her brother, who had been unknown to him.
In wild despair, the forester threw himself over the dying woman, but he was unable to bring her back to life. He thus hurried to the dancing hall and cried out to her brother that he had murdered his sister, and wanted to turn himself over to the courts. And this indeed happened. As he sought death, the investigation did not take long, and after only three moons, his guilty head fell on the scaffold in Grünhain. On the spot where the bloody deed was done, a white rose bush was planted whose roses look like they are sprinkled with blood at night, and whose leaves seem to bow down to the ground in grief. But when bad times are approaching, a rider with his head beneath his arm rides forth at midnight from the high court of Grünhain towards the rose tree, stays there for a short time, and then rides back again.
Source: Grässe - Der Sagenschatz des Königreichs Sachsen Erster Band, p. 510f
 Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles Volume 01: Lurkers at the Threshold. Get the book for further context and explanatory commentary! |