DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62134#0077
THE ELECTRESS AND HER IRON CHEST.
69
the hearts of the people would he no such easy task •, it is
their Thermopyle. Not alone do peasants from the moun-
tains visit the grave of Sibaldus and his followers., repeat
prayers before it, sprinkle it with holy water, and then
with awe-struck looks regard the fresco; but Philip von
Zwackh instituted a mass for the souls of the slain,
and each autumn a pilgrimage visits it from the Au
suburb, “ to pray for the souls so suddenly departed from
among them.” And the Guild of Carpenters pilgrimage
each summer to the far-famed “ Maria Eich,” there to
pray for these patriot souls.
I was told another J^ttle incident, which, although of
an entirely different character, has also a touch of ballad
romance in it. It related to a certain old Electress, who,
all her life long, had been selling her soul for gold, and
strange rumours of whom yet cling around the Maxburg
and the old Residenz. Returning from Austria in a heavy
coach, attended by her gentlewomen, and bringing back
money in an iron chest,—her revenue, as an Austrian
Princess, which she had been to fetch,—the coach was upset,
and she crushed to death beneath the iron-chest containing
her treasure !
I have been seeking in vain for some work on Munich
which shall quench my thirst after the old histories and
legends haunting the older portions of the city. A little
book, the “ Munchener Hundert und Eins” (A Hundred
and One Things about Munich) is, as yet, the nearest ap-
proach to what I require : but, being bare of detail, it
does little more than strengthen my craving after these
old memories.
Still I have discovered that an effigy of a “Wurm,” a
dragon-like serpent to be seen upon the corner house of
the Wein-Strasse, as you enter the Schrannen-Platz, is
placed there in memory of a certain Wurm which dwelt,
69
the hearts of the people would he no such easy task •, it is
their Thermopyle. Not alone do peasants from the moun-
tains visit the grave of Sibaldus and his followers., repeat
prayers before it, sprinkle it with holy water, and then
with awe-struck looks regard the fresco; but Philip von
Zwackh instituted a mass for the souls of the slain,
and each autumn a pilgrimage visits it from the Au
suburb, “ to pray for the souls so suddenly departed from
among them.” And the Guild of Carpenters pilgrimage
each summer to the far-famed “ Maria Eich,” there to
pray for these patriot souls.
I was told another J^ttle incident, which, although of
an entirely different character, has also a touch of ballad
romance in it. It related to a certain old Electress, who,
all her life long, had been selling her soul for gold, and
strange rumours of whom yet cling around the Maxburg
and the old Residenz. Returning from Austria in a heavy
coach, attended by her gentlewomen, and bringing back
money in an iron chest,—her revenue, as an Austrian
Princess, which she had been to fetch,—the coach was upset,
and she crushed to death beneath the iron-chest containing
her treasure !
I have been seeking in vain for some work on Munich
which shall quench my thirst after the old histories and
legends haunting the older portions of the city. A little
book, the “ Munchener Hundert und Eins” (A Hundred
and One Things about Munich) is, as yet, the nearest ap-
proach to what I require : but, being bare of detail, it
does little more than strengthen my craving after these
old memories.
Still I have discovered that an effigy of a “Wurm,” a
dragon-like serpent to be seen upon the corner house of
the Wein-Strasse, as you enter the Schrannen-Platz, is
placed there in memory of a certain Wurm which dwelt,