Above the little town of Waldenburg once lived a knight who was feared far and wide. He made the poor people toil day and night, while he himself held lavish feasts in his castle.

Not far from the castle, a day labourer lived in a small hut. Despite all the hard work, he, his wife and their many children went hungry.

It was autumn when they were all sitting at the table, with nothing before them but a thin soup, when there was a knock at the door.

Outside stood a messenger from the knight, who said: ‘You are to come to the castle and carry stones.’

Then the poor man was seized with anger. He pointed to the empty bowl and said: ‘If the lord of the castle fills this bowl with food so that my children may be fed, then I will come.’

The messenger hurried away, and soon afterwards the servants arrived, fetched the man and locked him in the castle dungeon.

Every day, the day labourer’s wife went to the castle and begged for her husband’s freedom. But nothing helped.

Winter came, the snow lay deep. One day, the knight was on his way into the forest with his hunting party. Then the poor woman stepped into his path and pleaded: ‘Please, set my husband free and give us bread, or we shall all die this winter.’

Angrily, the knight took a stone from the castle wall, threw it at the woman and said: ‘Here is your bread. Eat it – and when you are done, I shall set your husband free!’

The woman looked at the stone in her hands and then cried out: ‘Your heart is as hard as stone; I wish you would turn to stone yourself!’

The knight wanted to laugh and ride away, but suddenly his face turned grey, his hand dropped, his legs stiffened, and only a faint groan could still be heard; there he stood, turned to stone, before his own castle.

Horrified, the nobles rode away and abandoned the castle. The people of Waldenburg, however, freed the prisoners and shared the knight’s treasures with the poorest in the town.

The knight still stands today, barely recognisable, beside the ruins of his castle. Wind and weather have worn him down; only sometimes, when the storm rages around the castle on winter nights, one can hear a strange groan coming from the enchanted stone. 

Fassung Djamila Jaenike, nach: Meinrad Lienert, Schweizer Sagen und Heldengeschichten, Stuttgart 1915, Übersetzung Lysander Jaenike ©Mutabor