Germany has a number of interesting stories in their folklore and legends.
One of the best known is the legend of the Singing nymph.
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Lorelei of the Rhine is a beautiful nymph who as called Lore, who used to sit on a rock in the ocean and sing in an enchanted voice luring the sailors toward her....losing their live in the rapids. This rock was in the Rhine Gorge, Goarshaven, a deep dangerous point in the Rhine.
The legend goes that Lora Lay was betrayed by her beloved, and decided to become a nun, but before she was consigned to a convent, she visited the the Lorerei Rock. She fell to he death, but is still there, bewitching sailors, by luring them to their death.
Singing nymph of the Black Forest
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The Munmel See in the Black Forest is a glacial lake created during the last Ice Age over 10,000 years ago.
Munmelsee is situated amidst dark fir trees,and is named after water Fairies and sprites.
The King of Munmel See lives underwater with several nymphs. They only come out at night to bathe but stay in the water during the day in the form of water lilies.
If the water sprites are angry the water level seethes, the story goes that a peasant fell in love with a sprite. andonce tried to find out where the water sprites come from, angering the sprites.
(Some legends say that the nuns who lived in the Monastery are the nymphs who forever roam the area).
The Pied Piper of Hamlin is a legend that originated 184 in Lower Saxony Germany. Interesting that it is believed that it is not entirely fictional, and has some historical roots.
It is told that the Pied Pipers saved the town from a plaque of rats, by luring them away with his flute.
The townspeople did not pay him his full amount due, and he took revenge by returning on 26 June, playing his flute and lured 130 children, except for one lame boy away, never to be seen again!
The earliest recording of this event is depicted in a stained glass church window in Hamlin, dating 1300 AD.
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Another well known story is that of Rumpelstiltskin.
It is estimated that the legend goes back about 4,000 years.
It is the story who boasted that his daughter could spin anything into gold, hoping that the King would notice her. The King locked the daughter into a room full of straw, and commanded her to spin gold, by morning, or be punished. the young girl was helpless as she did not have this ability to spin anything into gold. During the time an imp-like creature, appeared in the room and Promised to help her in exchange for her bracelet. The next morning the king found the gold and promptly locked her in a bigger room, this time the imp asked for her ring her last valuable item. Once again she was ordered to spin even more gold, but she had nothing of value left to give him.
He then asked for her first born child. In due time he appeared to claim his reward, the girl had now become the Queen.
She begged him not to take the child, and he said if she could in 3 guesses guess his name she could keep her child.
During the first two days all her attempts failed, but on the third day she followed him into the forest,he was dancing and singing"Tonight ,tonight, my plans I make, Tomorrow,tomorrow the baby I take, The Queen will never win the game,
For Rumpelstiltskin is my name". obviously the Queen guessed the name correctly , and he left in a fit of rage.
The same story with a few variations, is part pf the English, Russian and Iceland among others part of their legends!
Legends of werewolves and vampires, and shapeshifters in Germany are part of Germany's many legends.
One such is a town called Wittlich in Morbach, with folklores about such creatures.
A soldier running way from the Russian army, with some soldiers, stopped at Wittlich, on his way home, and killed a farmer for food. The widow cursed the soldier that he would turn into a Werewolf every full moon. Eventually the townspeople killed the beast, and he was buried, and a candle placed on his grave, to remind the people of this evil.
1n 1988 the candle went out according to legend, and officers of the airbase at Morbach claimed to have seen a huge wolf. The =y organised a chase without success.....they re lit the candle and there was no more sightings. Myth or imaginations?)
There is also in the Black forest a Devil's Stone,(Der Teufelstein) at Bolsschwei...a red stone supplied by the devil himself for having to lay a foundation for a fountain, after He lost a bet.
Many legends of supernatural beings and evil are found in the German folklore, as in most cultures.
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