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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The Devil's Sleigh Ride

On January 26th, 1667 it was proclaimed in Vienna that it was strictly forbidden to drive a sleigh after ten o’clock at night. This should keep the town safety and should assure that the inhabitants weren’t disturbed in their sleeping hours.

But still - there moved a sleigh with loud ringing and rattling through the streets between eleven and twelve o’clock every night. That sleigh made as much noise as a hundred sleighs would have made. And soon people knew – the coachman of that sleigh was the devil himself.

Winter in Vienna, Rudolf von Alt

People who had seen it reported that the devil in his bodily shape had a big head of a boar and that he spit out fire as if he had twelve storm lamps inside.

They also told that he had a woman at his side. On her head she wore a diadem which glowed red and was covered with golden lice and fleas. Instead of curly hair, ribbons and feather ornaments snakes and lizards crawled on the head of the devil’s companion. An ugly toad sat on her chest where a medallion is usually placed. And two big snakes gnawed at the upper part of her body.

Once a dutiful night-watchman dared to stop that sleigh and asked the devil to obey the law.

The satanic figure answered with a devilish laughter. Then the bogey blew at the poor man till the one dropped dead.

Copyright © 2011 Ingrid Prohaska

Special thanks to JRD Skinner and the Flash Pulp Crew for including this curiosity in their 'FlashCast47 - Spielbergian Whimsy' !

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