Friday, January 11, 2008

The Wee Mossy Folk: Excerpt Grimm's Saga 48









Wee folk dwell on the heath, in the woods in dark places but also in underground holes. They make a soft bed on lichens and their clothing is green moss bound round about their bodies. This is so well known that wood carvers have made many images of them. This mossy folk are pursued by the wild huntsman, who often hunts on the heath. Many inhabitants have been heard to say: “The wild huntsman was on the chase again last night. Oh how it rumbled and rustled, creaked and groaned!” (Excerpt No. 48)


The Zeitel Moss

There is a deep wood on the Fichtel Mountain between Wunsiedel and Weissenstadt. It is called Zeitel Moss and there is a large pool in that place. Many dwarves and mountain ghosts live there. Once a man rode out in the evening through the woods and saw two children sitting close together. He warned them to go home and not to linger as night approached. But these two began to laugh quite loudly. The man rode on, and when he had gone some distance he met these same children, who were laughing again. (No. 46)



In this saga, a wee wife foretells war or peace.War and Peace
In the year 1644, on the 18th of August, the Prince Elector Johann Georg I moved his army past the city of Chemnitz. There, his men captured a wild little wife in the thicket of the area. She was only one ell high but otherwise had a human shape. Her face, hands and feet were smooth, but the rest of her body was rough. The wee wife began to speak: “I prophesy and bring peace to all the land.” The Prince Elector ordered that the wee wife be released, because twenty-five years earlier a wee husband had been found with the same shape. He foreboded unrest and war for all the land.

More fairy tales of the Wee Mossy Folk:

http://www.fairytalechannel.com/2008/01/farmer-tries-to-ignore-wee-wifes-gift.html

More fairy tales:

FairyTaleChannel.com