Thursday 30 August 2012

Of Brunhilde and her stallion

My holiday story is slowing heading towards its end. Sad, right? Makes me feel a bit nostalgic. But also makes me wanna plan another thing. Have I already mentioned I'm a planner? Yeah...

We're staying in Thale yet again, but this time we're not going to talk about witches. Sad, I know. But there's a legend here, too! So lets start.

After we got back to Thale from Hexentanzplatz, we took the chair lift (the entrance to which is located right next to the gondola lift to "the witches") that took us up to another peak - Rosstrappe. It's not high either, just 403 metres.

The great local attraction for our kiddo - the Sessellift, the chair lift. He was so excited to take a ride in it, not being surrounded by anything but fresh air. That's the lift he talks about most of all (all three types that we managed to take a ride in during this trip). It moved really slow, so we had a chance to take a look around - first on the mountains, and on the way down on Thale.


Up there, we took a walk to cherish our eyes with wonderful views. We had a chance to look once again at Hexentanzplatz hill. We had a chance to look at Bode River. We also had a chance to fell that we're in the mountains once again. Hard to call them high mountains, even medium ones. Still, these were mountains. The paths weren't steep (well, just in some places and only a bit), but were slippery and uneven. Sometimes it was hard to keep walking. But the views! I love the views in the mountains! That feeling of accomplishment and of overcoming one's own fears as well. But it's hard to talk about these two in Harz Mountains. What they had, though, were the views. Rock formations sticking out of green forests. And that river deep down below us... Marvellous!
We could see the house down there from Hexen-hill as well
And now I owe you the legend. So here it (roughly) goes:

There was a king who had a beautiful daughter named Brunhilde (so not a name I would associate with a pretty princess). There was also a giant named Bodo, who wanted to marry poor little Brunhilde against her will. Brunhilde managed to escape the giant on a white stallion (in German 'Ross'), but suddenly she encountered a deep ravine. She could hear the giant chasing her, getting closer and closer. She didn't know what to do. She decided to put all her eggs into one basket. Her horse leapt.... in one bound... to the rocks on the other side. She was saved. Her pursuer fell into the depths below. The giant gave his name to a small river, the Bode. And the impression of the horse's hoof can still be seen today (and people throw coins into it - I'll never understand this stupid habit of throwing coins into various things...).
 That's the legend in German (I hope my version IS roughly the same... or at least similar)
That's supposed to be the impression of the horse's hoof. Takes a great dose of my imagination to see a hoof in this hole...

No comments:

Post a Comment