German Myths & Legends

https://www.thelocal.de/galleries/culture/1475

The Morbach Monster
Legend has it that Morbach, Rhineland-Palatinate was the last place a werewolf was killed. A single candle still burns in the village as a reminder, and a warning. One night in 1988, this candle went out and a huge wolf figure was soon spotted, standing upright at a US airbase, having scaled a three-metre high fence. He stood, staring at the soldiers then returned to the forest. The candle was re-lit, and has never gone out since.

Rosstrappe: The Story of Princess Brunhilde
The Rosstrappe is a craggy hill in the Harz mountain range, central Germany. Those who make it to the very top can see a hoof print in the rock on cliff edge and legend has it that this is where princess Brunhilde escaped from a giant, Bodo, who wanted to marry her. He chased her to the cliff edge, where her white stallion jumped across and reached the other side, while Bodo jumped after her and plunged to his death.

King Watzmann
In deepest southern Bavaria, blood-thirsty King Watzmann once ruled with an iron fist. The story says that the king and his family enjoyed hunting local peasants, until one day when, after having slaughtered an entire family, a curse was set upon them. The whole family were turned to stone and are thought to be entombed in a range of seven mountains in Berchtesgaden, each hill a different member.

The Loreley
Sailors beware: There once was a beautiful young woman named Lorelei who threw herself into the Rhine and drowned after her heart was broken. She was transformed into a siren whose sad, haunting singing lures drooling sailors to come crashing onto the rocks. A statue of the vengeful Lorelei watches over the treacherous stretch of water near Sankt Goarshausen.

The Pied Piper of Hameln
The classic Pied Piper tale can be traced back to an unfortunate event in the Middle Ages, in a small town of Hameln, Lower Saxony, where masses of children disappeared at the same time. No one quite knows where they went, but legend has it that a rat catcher lured them all away after the mayor refused to pay him...

Barbarossa - A Hero Lies in Wait
Deep inside the Untersberg Mountain on the border of Austria and Germany, Barbarossa – one of Germany’s most celebrated kings – lies in wait. He sits, slumbering at a table in the middle of the hill. When his beard has grown around the table three times, and when ravens stop circling the Untersberg peak, he will awake, heralding a golden age free from evil. No-one knows how long his beard is, but rumour has it he’ll be arriving any day now.