FOLK-LORE
AND
LEGENDS

GERMANY

W. W. GIBBINGS
18 BURY ST., LONDON, W.C.
1892

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PREFATORY NOTE

It is proposed that this shall be the first of aseries of little volumes in which shall be presentedin a handy form selections from theFolk-lore and legends of various countries. Ithas been well said that "the legendary historyof a nation is the recital of the elements thatformed the character of that nation; it containsthe first rude attempts to explain naturalphenomena, the traditions of its early history,and the moral principles popularly adopted asthe rules for reward and punishment; andgenerally the legends of a people may beregarded as embodying the popular habits ofthought and popular motives of action." Thefollowing legends of Germany cannot, we think,fail to interest those who read them. Some ofthe stories are invested with a charming simplicity[Pg vi]of thought which cannot but excite admiration.Others are of a weird, fantasticcharacter fitted to a land of romantic naturalfeatures, of broad river, mountain, and deepforest. The humorous, the pathetic, the terrible,all find place in the German folk-tales, and itwould be difficult to rise from their perusalwithout having received both amusement andinstruction. The general lesson they convey isthe sure punishment of vice and the rewardof virtue; some way or another the villainalways meets with his desert. In future volumeswe shall deal with the legends of other countries,hoping that the public will bear us companyin our excursions.

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CONTENTS