A long time ago underground people who used to frequent Stedding's house once brought a beehive full of horse manure as an expression of thanks for the hospitality shown to them. The host thought to himself, however, "What good is this crap?!" and went out to the river and emptied it all out into the water. When he returned to his house and set down the hive, something clinked. Looking inside, he found that the bits of manure which he had failed to dump out and lodged in the crevices of the hive were actually pieces of gold. Stedding immediately rushed out with his family to the river, retrieving all the manure he had initially discarded. The manure, however, remained unchanged.
At a later time the underground people moved away over the sea, for the people here had become too clever. A shipman who ferried them to the other side did not see anyone, but rather saw only how low his ship lay in the water, attesting to the great weight it held. It is also said that no calves could grow strong and healthy in any house where underground people have stayed, for they were a jealous and ill-mannered people.
In times past, dwarves used to dwell here. They were so small that in a baker's oven eight bushels deep they could thresh a full seven bushels without hitting their heads.
A woman who finally wanted to be rid of her long-time guests prepared food for them in an acorn over a fire. When one of them saw this, he said, "Three times I have seen the Dämmer forest cut down and two times burned down, but never once such cooking!"
Now, in times past there once was a count living in the Schaum castle who would visit a female dwarf on the sly, as was want in these parts. He would always see her in the Mömken Cave. The count's wife was not slow to catch on, noticing the frequency of her husband's absences. As a result, she directed the servant who always accompanied her husband to the mouth of the cave to scatter peas along the way to mark the trail of their path. Following the trail of peas, the countess finally had occasion to surprise the lovers in their tryst, and she subsequently compelled the count to promise not to visit the female dwarf anymore. From that time on, however, the dwarves committed all sorts of evil against the count, even once robbing the castle.
However, finally the dwarves moved on and it is even said that a voice was heard to call, "Up, up! Prince, little Prince, Prince is dead!" Soon thereafter a dwarf came to the ferryman in Großwieden during the night and directed him to get the ferry ready for passengers. This he then did and had to traverse the river four times. Though not seeing a soul, the ferryman saw his craft riding so low as if it were heavily laden. When he finally crossed the river the fourth time his one visible passenger told him to look to a meadow where, to his amazement, he saw a great host of little people, whom he had actually ferried across. The little man bade farewell and added that the ferryman's payment lay in the ferry. Thereupon finding only horse manure, the ferryman was greatly angered and he emptied it all with a push of his foot into the water. The little bit that found its way into his shoe he found the next day transformed into pure gold pistoles.
In Little Bremen near Bückeburg a story is also told how, in earlier days, there were many underground people or dwarves and that they were to have stayed especially in Dienhagen or Kienhagen. However, even these finally moved away after one of their number was viciously mauled by a dog.
In olden days the dwarves lived in the Mönchen Mountains, near Knesebeck. At that time there was once one of the dwarves who went to the miller at Frek's or Friedrich's Mill, asking whether they might cross to the far side by way of the mill. Since the miller was not averse, the little man went away, returning after a time: However, he was still alone. Nevertheless, the miller heard a loud buzzing of many voices, even though he saw no one but the one dwarf. Noticing that the miller was visibly perplexed about this, the dwarf placed his hat on the head of the miller, who then was able to see long lines of dwarves walking away. The shepherd who told this story said: "When he then put on the hat and looked, everything seemed to be alive and moving." The dwarves then moved on to the hollow of the Mönchen Mountains.
There once was a woman, unskilled in spinning, whose husband often complained at her lack of productivity. Now, one day she was very sad about this and just as she was turning this over in her mind, a dwarf suddenly stood before her. The dwarf asked of what she had need and whether he might be of service. When she explained everything to him, the dwarf assured her that he would help her, provided that she would give him what she had under her apron. However, if she could guess his name, she would not be required to give him anything. The woman thought--and not long, at that--and said Yes, since she believed that she did not have anything under her apron.
From that time on she always had enough yarn and every Saturday when her husband came to look, there was always a full supply. At last she was satisfied and pleased. However, it did not take long for things to change, for she was pregnant and then understood what the dwarf had meant. Thus full of despair, she told her husband everything.
Now, later on her husband, while traversing a mountain one day, heard the whirring of a turning wheel in the mountain and a dwarf singing to it:
"Ain't it great that that thar dame
Ain't got a clue, Tsirk-Tsirk's my name!"
Her husband went home pleased, telling his wife all he had heard. Finally, when the wife's time had come to give birth and the dwarf came to be given that which he was promised, she immediately told him his name. Since that time that dwarf has never returned.
About five hundred paces southward from Hasel is the Dwarves' Cavern, a worthy counterpart to the famous Builder's Cavern in the Harz Mountains and the destination of many outings by foreign tourists and the inhabitants of the surrounding area. Whoever wishes to see it must be shown it by the school teacher of the location who is privileged to possess its key. He provides visitors with proper over clothing, since one can otherwise easily come to harm by dangerously catching cold.
The site in its entirety is comprised of several main halls, grottoes and side passages, full of a jumbled field of fallen masses of rock. The walls and ceilings are made of stalactites which display the adventuresome fantasy plays of nature. One of these stalactites, called "The Coat," is said to weigh a full six hundred-weights. Others form the so-called "Organ" on one side wall; on the other wall the stalactites are grouped so as to give the appearance of a pulpit. A strong stream flows through the main passages in the deep recesses of the cavern. A more distant cavern leads to a small underground lake which prevents any further forward progress. The most interesting cavern holds the stalactite formations called the "Prince's Crypt" and the "Sarcophagus."
In earlier times the Dwarves' Cavern was not well known. It was only more closely explored and made more accessible at the beginning of this century. Thus, in the year 1811 the Grand Duchess Stephanie apparently was able to inspect it closely. The whole area of Hasel appears to be undercut by many underground caverns. For example, there is a broad roomy cavern located under the Hasel Brook, extending from beneath the pastor's house to the church. Sunken ground at various locations in the area indicate the presence of many such caverns, such as the brooks between the Wehra and Wiese from Hasel to the Rhein, where an underground connection appears to exist. Also the brook which flows through the Dwarves' Cavern has no visible outlet, rather appearing to continue onward under the earth until the Rhein. In this manner the Eichener Lake and the Rhein River may also be somehow interconnected. A description of the Dwarves' Cavern, also including illustrations from six copper plates, was published in Basel in 1803 by the Land Commissioner, Lembke.
The imagination of the inhabitants is everywhere excited by such fantastic natural wonders to inhabit the same with creatures, namely with the dwarfish dwarf peoples. These dwarves are associated with mountains such as the Riesengebirge and the Harz Mountains, and play such an important role in their identity.
The cavern in Hasel was once home to a large number of male and female dwarves, from whom the cavern's name derives. These otherwise well-meaning and harmless creatures became shy due to the universal inroads of the expanding illumination our enlightening new era: They retreated back into the most far-removed underground locations, allowing themselves, at most, only to be seen by innocent eyes or by a Sunday's child.
However, many hundreds of years ago things were different: At that time these dwarves kept up lively neighborly communication with the inhabitants of the surface world. They were also more pious and naturally reverent than in our likewise religious, though shallower days. In those times they often came out from their grotesque rocky palaces, seeking out people in house and field, in kitchen and spinning room, willing and ready to lend a helping hand in all sorts of household activities. Sometimes they helped the very poor with gold and precious stones, raising them up from their poverty; sometimes they provided helpful advice and told entertaining tales to the boys and girls, relating poetic mysteries, such as those of Paris. Further, the harmless creatures asked of the farmers and mountain inhabitants no other payment for their services than permission to come into the little corner of an inhabitant's living room: Here, next to the warm stove, they could spend the night on a little bundle of straw or on their own mountain jar of Asbetis when the winter cold would push into the deepest palace halls of the underworld and turn the springs and brooks to ice.
These guests--so we are told by many an old mother in Wiesenthal--were most beloved little creatures, hardly a span or two high, but still mostly of pleasantly-adorned form and tenderly-pleasant facial features. They only possessed one unique characteristic: that no one could ever notice feet on them.
Once, several clever fellows from Hasel, wanting to prove to themselves whether the dwarves possessed feet or not, came upon the plan to strew ashes on the entire way from the Dwarves' Caverns up to the village. In this manner they hoped to see whether the dwarves would make any tracks. The otherwise good-natured dwarves, however, going on their way to visit the village, as they were want, discovered the plan and changed as a result. They responded with such disgruntlement that they did not allow themselves to be seen again by the inhabitants of Hasel. A long time thereafter, deep beneath the ground, a muffled roaring, rumbling and murmuring was heard, the only way in which the poor creatures tried to express their annoyance.
These rocks were inhabited in olden days by small mountain dwarves who quietly went about their business there. They did no one ill, rather they helped their neighbors in need and distress.
Now, for a long time these dwarves were ruled by a violent ghost. On one occasion, however, just as they wanted to celebrate a wedding and had gone out to their church, their ruler was filled with great fury and transformed the dwarves into stone--and what was worse, since they were immortal spirits, he banned them alive therein. The series of cliffs, here, are still called "the enchanted dwarf wedding" and one can see the various shapes standing on the tops of the mountains. In the middle of one rock one may see the figure of a dwarf who remained too long in the hall while the others tried to flee the spell. When he looked out the window for help he was turned into stone.
One can also still see on the city hall in Elnbogen the cursed conscienceless and gold-greedy castle Count in a clump of clinging metal. According to the legend, no one who is bespecked with a cardinal sin can lift this clump into the air.
Between the two abovementioned locations there is a cave opening in the forest, which is called the Dwarf Cave, since formerly more than a hundred years ago dwarves are said to have lived under the earth. In their time of need they were delivered food by certain inhabitants in Naila.
Albert Steffel, seventy years old at the time of his death in 1680 and Hans Kohmann, sixty-three years old at the time of his death in 1679, two honorable, believable men told the story many times about Kohmann's grandfather. This man is to have once been plowing his field located near the cavern when his wife came to bring him freshly-baked bread for breakfast in the field. She had brought it in a little towel and lay it on the edge of the field.
Soon thereafter a little dwarf woman came and is to have asked the farmer for his bread: "Her bread was also then in the oven, but her hungry children could not wait for it and she wanted to replace the farmer's borrowed bread with her own baked bread at midday." The grandfather is said to have agreed and the little woman indeed came again at midday and spread out a very white sheet and set on it a loaf of bread that was still warm, adding many a thanks and beckoning the man to eat freely of the bread. She wished to retrieve her sheet later that day. This is also said to have occurred.
She then added that since so many hammer mills were being constructed she, being disturbed by that, had to move away and leave this dear place. Also the swearing and great cursing of people, as well as the disregard for Sunday, where farmers went to their fields before church, a great sin, drives her away.
Shortly thereafter on a Sunday several farm hands went into the cavern with lit torches, finding inside a collapsed low-lying passage. They finally found a broad industriously-constructed place, four-cornered, higher than a man's height, with many doors on each side. Then a great fear came over them and they left without looking in the little rooms behind the doors.
On one occasion, however, some ill-meaning people came and at night sawed through the bough so that it was only barely held to the trunk. When the unexpecting creatures sat down on it the next morning the bough suddenly broke away from the trunk with a crack, sending the dwarves tumbling to the ground. Laughed at by all those around, the dwarves were greatly offended and cried out:
"O as high as the heavens are above
does faithlessness abound!
Today, away! and never to return!"
They kept their word and were never seen again in the land.
vowing revenge and disappearing forever.
In those days, when the people of the land would go by in the early
morning with wagon and
tools, expressing amazement at the work done in secret, the dwarves hid
themselves in the bushes
and laughed lightheartedly out loud among themselves.
Sometimes the
farmers would get angry
when they would find their half-grown grain lying already cut in their
fields; but when subsequent
hail and thunderstorms would roll in, they saw very well that perhaps not
even a single stalk could
have escaped such violent weather intact. Then they inwardly thanked the
foresight of the
dwarves.
Finally, however, men forfeited the good nature and favor of the
dwarves by their
crimes, prompting the dwarves to flee away. Since then no eye has seen
them again.
The cause
was this: A shepherd had an impressive cherry tree planted up on the side
of a mountain. As the
summer fruit would ripen, it turned out that three nights in a row the
tree was picked clean and all
of the cherries placed onto benches and into storage areas where the
shepherd was usually in the
habit of keeping them.
The people in the village said: "No one else
except the upright dwarves is
doing this, coming out at night in their long coats with their concealed
feet, tip-toeing here, quiet
as birds, and industriously completing the day's work for men. Already
many times they have
been seen at work, but never should they be disturbed, but rather should
be allowed to come and
go as they please."
Becoming curious at such talk, the shepherd really
would have liked to know
why the dwarves so carefully concealed their feet and whether these were
of a different form than
human feet. So the next year when the summer came and the dwarves again
secretly came,
harvesting the cherries and carrying them to storage, the shepherd took a
sack full of ashes and
spread it round about the cherry tree.
The next morning at the break of
dawn he hurried there to
the place: The tree was truly picked bare, but on the ground below he saw
footprints in the ashes,
the tracks of many little goose feet.
Then the shepherd laughed and
mocked the dwarves, for he
had discovered their secret.
For the dwarves' part, however, thereafter
they soon destroyed and
laid waste their houses and fled deeper up into the mountains, holding a
bitter grudge against
humans and refusing them their help anymore.
That shepherd who betrayed
the dwarves became
chronically ill and mentally unstable from then on until his life's end.
The cavern was once inhabited by small
dwarves who were to
have been ruled by a prince, an otherwise unknown old man by the name of
Heiling.
On one
occasion in times gone by a woman born in Taschwitz went out of the
village on the evening
before Peter's and Paul's Day, making her way into the forest in search
of
berries. Night overtook her
and, seeing a cozy house standing next to the cliff, she opened the
door and went inside.
Ther she saw an old man sitting at a table, writing busily and
anxiously. The woman asked for a
place to stay and was willingly taken in. Aside from the old man there
was no other living thing in
the whole room. However, there was a great rumbling in all corners of it.
At this, the woman was
dreadfully afraid and she asked the old man: "Where am I then, actually?"
The old man replied:
"That his name was Heiling; soon, however, would travel away, for
'two-thirds of my dwarves
have already fled away.'" This remarkable answer disconcerted the woman
even more and she
would have continued her questioning had he not bidden her to remain
silent, adding: "Had you
not come precisely during this unique hour you never would have found
shelter for the night."
The frightened woman crawled obediently into a corner and slept
sweetly.
When she awoke in
the morning, she was lying at the very base of the cliff and thought
herself to have dreamed, for
there was no building to be seen.
Happy and relieved that no ill had
befallen her in that dangerous
place, she hurried back to her village.
However, everything there was all
so changed and strange.
In the village the houses were new and differently built, she did not know
the people who
confronted her nor did they recognize her.
With much effort she finally
found the hut where she
had lived, and even it was built better. Only the same oak tree planted
there by her grandfather
still lent it shade. However, as she attempted to walk inside she was
shown again to the door as a
stranger.
She ran about the village, crying in great distress. The
people thought she was out of
her mind. They brought her to the authorities who heard her case and made
investigation into it.
Behold, they found in the community annals and church records that
precisely a hundred years
ago on this very day a woman of her name had gone into the forest in
search of berries, never
having come home and never having been found. It became clear that she
had slept for a full
hundred years at the cliff and, during that time, had not grown any older.
Thereafter she lived her
remaining years quietly and without worry and was properly cared for by
the whole community as
restitution for the magic which she had endured.
Between Walkenried and Neuhof in the region of Hohenstein the
dwarves used to have
two kingdoms.
One inhabitant of that area once noted that his fields were
being pilfered each
night, but he could not discover who the culprits were. Finally, he acted
on the advice of a wise
woman: Going out to his pea field when night had fallen, he swept his
thin staff about, over the
field in the air.
It did not take long before several dwarves stood
tangibly before him, for he had
knocked off their invisible-making hats. Trembling, the dwarves fell at
his feet and confessed:
That it was their people which had been stealing from the fields of the
inhabitants, but this
they were forced to do out of great need.
The news of the accosted dwarves spread like wildfire and the whole
community was in
an uproar.
The dwarf people finally sent representatives and offered to pay
ransom for themselves
and their accosted brothers, intending then to leave the land forever.
However, the manner in
which the departure was to take place became a new bone of contention.
The local inhabitants
did not want to allow the dwarves to leave with all their stored and
hidden treasures and the
dwarves themselves did not want to be seen as they left.
Finally, it was
agreed upon that the
dwarves should depart by way of a narrow bridge at Neuhof and that each of
them, unobserved by
the inhabitants, should toss a certain quantity of their wealth as a
departure toll into a container
which was to be placed there.
However, several curious individuals
concealed themselves beneath
the bridge, at least to hear the procession of the dwarves. Thus, for
many hours they heard the
footsteps of the little people, as if a large herd of sheep were passing
over the bridge.
Since this
last great departure of the dwarves only seldom does a dwarf or two allow
itself to be seen.
However, even in the older times of our forefathers, sometimes the dwarves
which remained
behind in the mountain heights would steal new-born infants from the homes
of the inhabitants,
replacing them with changelings.
Many of
these dwarves were good-natured and helpful to the inhabitants under many
circumstances. They
also lent out all sorts of tableware from their caverns when there were
weddings and child
baptisms. No one should ever prompt them to anger, though, for in such
cases they became
malicious and vicious and did all types of harm to those who offended
them.
In the valley
between Blankenburg and Quedlinburg a baker once noted that he was always
missing a quantity
of the loaves he had baked; however, he could never catch the thief. This
incessant thievery
eventually brought the man into serious financial straits. Finally, he
began to suspect that the
dwarves were the guilty ones behind his misfortune. He waved a woven
basket with loose hoops
in a sweeping motion until he had struck off the invisible hats of several
dwarves. When they had
lost their hats they could no longer remain concealed.
At this, all hell
broke loose. Other dwarves
were caught in the act of thievery, finally prompting the emigration of
the entire dwarf population.
In order to make restitution to the inhabitants for their thievery and to
facilitate the calculation of
their departing numbers, the dwarves were obligated to toss a piece of
gold into a large container
placed at the location known today as Kirchberg near the village of Thale,
where otherwise the
village of Wendhausen lies.
After the departure of the dwarves, their number was found to be so great
that this container was
entirely filled with old coins. The dwarves departed over Wahrnstedt
(near Quedlinburg),
continuing onward always toward Morgen. Since this time the dwarves have
disappeared from
the area, only seldom allowing themselves to be seen.
The dwarves felt themselves repaid afterwards if some of the festive food
was left for them at the
mountain.
Afterwards, conflicts totally disrupted the good relationship
between them and the
local inhabitants. At first, the dwarves departed for a short time; but
they finally left for good
because the cursing and mocking of many farmers, as well
as unthankful
responses to the dwarves' acts of good will, became unbearable. Since
that time no one hears
or sees anything of the
dwarves.
The Feet of the Dwarves
Wilhelm und Jacob Grimm, German Legends
In ancient days gone by men lived in the valley and round about in the
cliffs and heights lived the
dwarves. The dwarves were friendly and good to people, for whom they did
hard work at night.
The Heiling Dwarves
Wilhelm und Jacob Grimm, German Legends
On the river Eger between the farm Wildenau and the castle Aicha jut out
monstrously large cliffs
which, since ancient times, people have called the Heiling Cliffs. At the
foot of the same one may
find a cavern, inside arched, outside, however, only visible through a
small opening into which a
person, bending low, must crawl.
The Departure of the Dwarves Over the Bridge
Wilhelm und Jacob Grimm, German Legends
The small caverns in the cliffs which one may find on the south side of
the Harz mountains,
especially in several areas of the Hohenstein region were once inhabited
by dwarves. These
caverns, which are still called "dwarf caverns," are mostly so low at
their entrance that grown men
can only crawl inside. The interior, however, partially offers roomy
accomodation for larger
groups.
The Procession of the Dwarves Over the
Mountain
Wilhelm und Jacob Grimm, German Legends
On the north side of the Harz mountains there once lived many thousands of
dwarves or "Kröpel"
in the clefts of the cliffs and in the still-extant dwarf caves. Near
Seehausen, a little Magdeburg
town, one still may see such "Kröpel Caves." Only seldom, however,
do the dwarves appear to
the land's inhabitants in visible form. Rather, they usually wander
about, protected by their
invisible-making "fog hats." Thus they remain unseen and wholly unnoticed
by people.
The Dwarves Near Dardesheim
Wilhelm und Jacob Grimm, German Legends
Dardesheim is a small city between Halberstadt and Braunschweig. Near its
northeast side flows
the purest water from a spring which is called Smansborn (Letzmannsborn),
rising up out of the
mountain in which the dwarves used to live. When the previous inhabitants
of the area needed
festive dress or special items for a wedding, they would go to the Dwarf
Mountain, knock three
times, saying in a clear, proper voice what they needed and adding:
"In early morn', before sun's rays,
Behold! all 'fore the mountain's laid!"
Revised July 30, 1997.