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He
received no answer. Instead
he saw a rose appear on the lake.
Curious, he tried to snare it.
That is how he drowned in Lake Wildsee’s cold water.
The
knight from Yborg. Burkart Keller
was a knight from Yborg who was employed in the service
of a great duke in the castle of Hohenbaden.
The knight loved a lady who lived far away.
Whenever he could, he traveled to see her.
Now every time he made the journey, he was distracted
by a nymph who lived near a pool. She always tried to lure
Burkart from his path.
The
knight was very tempted, but each time he managed to get
past this enchanted spot by thinking of his sweetheart.
The nymph’s seduction was a terrible deceit.
If Burkart ever succumbed to her temptation, she
would suck the very life from him.
Finally
the day came when he could no longer resist.
But at the moment of their first embrace he realized
that the nymph would steal his soul.
He battled the temptress.
It
is not known if Burkart was defeated or if he perished in
defiance. But it is said that “no human eyes saw his
virtue win over his desires.”
What is known is that the nymph had an altar or memorial,
literally a stone, erected in her honor in the bushes at
the side of the road. This memorial stone was
found crushed to pieces near the body of the knight. Both
she and the knight were lost forever. So it is believed
that Burkart destroyed the nymph but lost his own life in
the process.
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The
knight Wolf leaps from a cliff to escape Duke Eberhard.
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Wolf’s
jump. The sagas
take place at sites well known to the local people. These stories all offer some moral truth but have basis in fact.
Where history ends and the lesson begins is a matter for
your own conclusion.
In
the forest is a valley overlooked by a huge cliff. Here a great struggle between a knight called Wolf and Duke Eberhard
took place. Eberhard’s
knights were in disagreement with their duke.
He wouldn’t share power with them. “If you are not
a duke, you are a servant,” they grumbled.
So
the knights formed their own band and fought the duke. Eberhard was almost defeated, but Wolf, the
knights’ leader, became careless and was vanquished.
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