PAGE 12
The Wonders In The Spessart
by
“Conrad and Emma had arisen. She clung timidly to her lover, and said softly: ‘It is a poor madman.’ But the old man said: ‘No, fair Emma, I am not mad. I have loved thee; my spell influenced thee, and thou mightest have been mine, had I been permitted to kiss thy rosy lips in God’s name–the only benediction by which fair love may be awakened. Instead of this, I was forced to go in quest of the yew-bough, and to keep the wind and weather out of the owl’s cave. All has happened of necessity. He has gained the bride, I have gained–death.’
“Conrad had been looking with fixed eyes at the countenance of the old man, to see if he could detect among the wrinkles one former lineament of the friend of his youth. At last he stammered forth: ‘I entreat thee, man, tell us how this transformation was brought about, lest our brains be turned, and we do something frightful.’
“‘Whoever tempts God and nature shall behold sights, the presence of which shall quickly wither him,’ replied the old man. ‘Therefore, man, even if he see the plants grow, and understand the discourse of birds, remains as simple as before, allows a foolish magpie to pass off upon him fables of a princess and a spider-king, and takes ladies’ veils for cobwebs. Nature is a curtain, no magical word can remove it–it will only make thyself an old fable.’
“He retired slowly into the depths of the wood, whither Conrad did not venture to follow him. He conducted his Emma from the shadow of the trees to the broad road, where the light played in all its colours around the tops of the trees.
“For some time did travellers in the Spessart hear a hollow and ghost-like voice, behind the rocks and thick groups of trees, utter rhymes, which to some sounded like nonsense, to others like perfect wisdom. If they followed the sound, they found the old man, whose years were yet so few, as with faded eyes, and hands resting on his knees, he looked fixedly in the distance, and uttered sentences, none of which have been preserved. Soon, however, they were heard no more, neither was the corpse of the old man discovered.
“Conrad married his Emma; she bore him fair children, and he lived happily with her to an advanced age.”
J. O.
[1] One of the most celebrated poets in the 12th and 13th centuries.
[2] The old word for “lore” Minne, from which “Minnesinger” is derived, is feminine.