The Salvation of a Restless Ghost between Wredenhagen and Hinrichshof near Röbel
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| Geographic Coordinates: 53° 17' 12.84" N, 12° 33' 19.44" E |
In earlier times, there were no mills in Wredenhagen, and the people there had to carry their grain to the nearby windmill in Hinrichshof. This mill stood on the small hill which lies next to Hinrichshof. However, this windmill is long gone, and only minor remains indicate the position where it once stood. On the other hand, there are currently two windmills at Wredenhagen.
But, at a time when the inhabitants of Wredenhagen still had to bring their grain to the mill of Hinrichshof, it occurred that a day laborer’s wife from the former village had to carry a sack of rye to that mill during the twilight hours of the evening so that it could be ground there. Since the woman had neither bread nor flour left in her house, she had to bake bread the next morning out of necessity, and thus immediately carry her grain back home after it had been turned into flour. But the miller was already grinding a lot of flour, and thus the woman had to wait for quite a long time until it was her turn to have her grain ground.
Thus, it was very late when the laborer’s wife was finally able to wander back home with her sack of flour on her back. She hadn’t yet gotten far when, suddenly, a man approached her from behind. The good woman was quite frightened, for the man didn’t speak a word. Furthermore, it was around midnight, and the Moon illuminated the scene so hauntingly that she was rather creeped out. Once she had reached the paddock (through which the footpath to Wredenhagen she had picked led), the strange man approached, and offered her to take her load and carry it for some time, as he saw that she was struggling under the weight.
The woman initially didn’t want this, staying that she could not ask this of someone else and so forth, but the stranger talked to her in such a friendly and welcoming manner that she was finally willing to accept his offer and now let him carry the sack with the flour.
When they had almost reached the village of Wredenhagen, the rooster suddenly started to crow. At the first crowing of the rooster, the strange man said: “You have no power over me yet.” He uttered the same after the rooster had crowed for the second time. But when he heard it for a third time, he said: “Now I must leave. But what will you give me in exchange for carrying the flour for such a long distance?”
“Oh”, replied the woman, “what could I possibly give you? I am a poor woman, and have nothing.”
“But you certainly give me something!” replied the stranger.
“Nothing more,” said the woman, “than my best thanks, and a thousandfold God’s reward!”
“God be praised and thanked! I have wandered this world for many years in vain, but now I am released and can finally sleep in peace!” the ghost — for the stranger was such — cried out in joy, and vanished.
Source: Niederhöffer - Mecklenburg's Volkssagen - Dritter Band, p. 169ff