The Devil in the Mirror

In 1510 a pretty young lady lived in Vienna. Her name was Clara. She led a free and unbridled life. For hours she made up her face and couldn’t stop admiring herself in the mirror.

One day the girl became very sick and when she felt that bad that she was close to die she promised in her prayers to change her dissolute life if only she would recover.
The prayers helped and after a short time she was completely healthy again.

But the good resolutions were forgotten quickly and soon she was back in front of her mirror and looked at herself full of pride. She powdered her face white, dyed her eyebrows to black and painted her mouth red.

One day engrossed in painting her face Clara heard a soft crackling of glass. She held her ear close to the mirror surface. Clearly she could hear a faint crackling. She looked for cracks in the glass but – what she saw now scared her a lot - she noticed that her face was no longer visible.

The surface was completely empty.
Surprised she wiped her hand over the mirror. Suddenly she felt held by an overpowering force detaining her. At the same moment a distorted sardonic grinning devil’s face stared at Clara out of her mirror.

Anxiously and desperately she cried, “I will not be vain anymore and I promise to live modestly and piously!”

But it was too late for promises. The devil jumped out of the mirror, grabbed Clara by her hair, turned her head around till her face was black as coal and took her down to hell.

Copyright © 2012 Ingrid Prohaska

Special thanks to the Flash Pulp Crew for including this legend in their 'FlashCast 51 - Short People' !

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The Golden Well

In times of medieval Vienna when the town was surrounded by defensive walls there was a tavern outside but close to the town in an area which is still known as Leopoldstadt and part of the second district today. This tavern had the name “To the Golden Well”.

The inn was situated on an important road which led to Prague and Brno. Many merchants, coachmen and hikers had their rest there.
The innkeeper and his wife were happy with their doing and they could live in modest prosperity.

But one day war broke out, pestilences haunted the population and traders stayed away. Fewer and fewer people came to the inn and finally the owners had to borrow money to keep their house.

The situation was getting worse and so the faithful innkeeper’s wife decided to make a pilgrimage to the state of Mother Mary. She went to St. Stephen’s church and begged on her knees for Virgin Mary’s help.

Mother Mary heard the prayers and whispered to the faithful woman, “Don’t worry anymore my child, go home again and scoop water for the horses out of your house well and you’ll find a gold coin on the bottom of every bucket. But don’t take out more water than the animals need.”

The happy landlady thanked Mother Mary and hurried home. She told her husband about the prophecy. When it was time to water their horses they took two buckets of water from the well, and they really found the promised gold coins.

From now on the misery had an end. Step by step the couple could pay back their debts; and with the next gold coins they renovated their tavern.

But as it is in the nature of some people the landlord became greedy. He wanted more of those gold coins and so one night he sneaked off to the well and scooped a bucket of water.

He emptied the water carelessly on the floor and looked for the gold coin. But there was no gold coin. Once more he lowered the bucket into the well, but again – no piece of gold.

Sadly he realized that he had violated Mother Mary’s instructions and so it came that the wealth-generating source dried up.

Copyright © 2012 Ingrid Prohaska

Special thanks to JRD Skinner and the Flash Pulp Crew for including this legend in their 'FlashCast49 - The New Florida' !

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"Silent Night" - the legend about the origin of a Christmas carol

Since Christmas is coming soon I thought I’ll take you out of Vienna this time and we travel to the countryside to Oberndorf in Salzburg about three hundred kilometres west of Vienna.
And I’ll tell you

a legend about the origin of a Christmas carol – the carol “Silent Night”

We write the year 1818. Oberndorf which is located by the Salzach River was a small and insignificant village that time and home of shipbuilders and skippers.

It was the day of Christmas Eve in a cold winter; the village and the hills around were deeply covered with snow.

The local teacher Franz Gruber closed the school house. Slowly he trudged through the snow to meet his friend and priest of the village Father Joseph Mohr at the church Saint Nicholas.
The two young men had to make the final preparations for the Christmas Mass.

After a warm welcome Father Mohr told the teacher Franz Gruber who also served as organist and as the church’s choir master which hymns he had selected as part of the celebration.
Then the organist climbed up the stairs to the gallery where the organ was placed.
But he made a nasty discovery – mice had chewed through the bellows of the old organ. The instrument kept silent not even a sound was possible.

A Christmas Mass without music would be a very poor one.

Card on the occasion of 100th anniversary
of the carol Silent Night in 1918:
Joseph Mohr, Franz Gruber
and Oberndorf

The both went to the rectory, sat down in the warm parlour and considered what to do.

Suddenly the priest remembered that he had written a poem two years ago; a poem about the Christmas tale. He stood and went to his desk. He rummaged through the drawers of his writing table. Finally he grabbed a piece of paper and showed it to his friend Franz. Excited but in a low voice the priest asked Franz to set this six stanzas long poem to music. They removed their doubts that the words were in German and not in usual liturgical latin.
And soon it was clear. It would be a song for two voices, tenor and bass, and the accompanying instrument would be the priest’s guitar.

Highly inspired by the Christmas poem and influenced by the local folk music Franz Gruber wrote down a simple melody in a sprightly, dance-like rhythm within the following few hours. Already in the late afternoon he was able to practice the carol with the children’s choir.

So it came that on Christmas Eve in 1818 the carol “Silent Night” was sung the first time at Midnight Mass. Father Joseph Mohr sang the tenor voice and played the guitar; Franz Gruber sang the bass line and directed the choir.

The two young men saved the Christmas celebration for the people of Oberndorf not knowing that this carol would be known all over the world one day.

Copyright © 2011 Ingrid Prohaska


Special thanks to JRD Skinner and the Flash Pulp Crew for including this legend in their 'FlashCast48 - Sherlock' !

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