The Stolzemberg, every eve again

In the wood of Grevenmacher, at the place called Stolzemberg, the following haunting takes place on every eve of a great church feast.

Towards midnight a huntsman appears on the path at the foot of the hill, in old-fashioned dress, now standing still to listen, now walking slowly on as if lost in thought.

Then a young girl creeps up to the huntsman in secret, and the two fall into each other’s arms.

Now a horn sounds from the summit of the hill. Trembling, the lovers flee into the wood, in the middle of a fearful din rising on all sides, in which cries for help and the wailing of dying men can nevertheless be clearly heard.

So it rages on until, at the first cock crow from the Buchholzer Hof, everything falls silent.

Once the castle of a mighty count stood on the Stolzemberg. His only child, a lovable daughter, felt an unconquerable inclination towards a handsome huntsman of low station, and visited him in the wood by night.

This was reported to the count at a moment when a fresh meeting was just under way.

In fury the proud lord rushed upon the lovers with his retinue, soon reached them, and in blind rage drove his own sword into the heart of the huntsman and of his daughter as well.

But hardly had the two sunk down dead at the count’s feet than he already felt the bitterest remorse. His conscience, however, gave him no more peace: he joined a crusade and never returned.

In atonement for this double murder the count’s spirit, forfeit to the Evil One, must now repeat the wicked deed periodically at the foot of the castle hill until the day of judgement, the hill that the people have called the Stolzemberg ever since.