Grimm's Saga No. 527
The Origin of the Zaehringer People
The Saga reveals that in days of old the Dukes of Zaehringen
had been charcoal burners. They lived in the mountains where they erected their
dwellings and in the forests they built their castles. These buildings still
stand today and it is here they burned charcoal. Now it happened that whilst the
charcoal burners were burning their charcoal, they seized an area of ground and
established a pile of charcoal with the intent of burning it all down to the very
last bit. But as one of the men was removing the charcoal he discovered in the
ground a heavy, molten object, and as he examined it he saw it was heavy
silver. So in the future he always burned charcoal at the very same spot,
covered it with the same ground and earth but always found silver as before. He
soon noticed it was the mountain itself that produced the silver, but kept this
secret. Each day he burned charcoal there and finally accumulated a large
treasure of silver.
Now it happened that a King had been driven from his own
kingdom and fled with his wife, children and servants into the mountains of
Breisgau to a place called Kaiserstuhl. There he and his clan suffered the
greatest poverty. He issued a proclamation that whoever would offer help to
regain his kingdom would become a duke and would marry a daughter of the king.
When the charcoal burner heard this, he went before the king heavily laden with
silver and desired to become his son and marry the king’s daughter, also to
acquire the land and region – now where Zaehringen, the castle and the city of
Freiburg can be found. In return he would give the king such treasure of silver
that he would be able to recover his entire kingdom.
When the king heard this he agreed. He took the enormous
load of silver and gave the charcoal burner his daughter in marriage, and he now
looked upon him as his own son; also he gave him as much of the land as he
desired. The son began his enterprise and allowed the ore to be melted. In return
he received a large property and built the town of Zaehringen including the
castle. The Roman King therefore made him Duke of Zaehringen. The Duke then
went on to build Freiburg and even more towns and castles. And now that he had
become powerful, his property, power and honor had grown and so he became proud and wicked. One day he called
to his own cook and ordered that he roast a young child for dinner because he
longed to discover the taste of human flesh. The cook followed his master’s
orders and will and when the child had been roasted and presented to the king
at the table and the king saw what he had done, he was seized with terror and
fright and he felt only remorse and sorrow at the sin he had committed. To atone
for this sin he had two monasteries built in the Black Forest; the first St.
Ruprecht, the second St. Peter. He did this so that God would be merciful and
forgive him for his terrible deed.
Translation copyright FairyTaleChannel.org
