The cow with the seven heifers
The cow with the seven heifers is a fairy tale . It is contained in the Irish fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm at position 25, which they translated in 1825 from Fairy legends and traditions of the South of Ireland by Thomas Crofton Croker .
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Lorenz Cotter's meadow on Lake Gur is devastated every year, with no trace of intruders. On the advice of neighbor Thomas Welch, he and his sons keep watch at night. In the full moon you see a fat cow with seven white heifers (calves) walking over the water. The cow escapes into the lake, he keeps the calves. They thrive, but one morning they are gone. They went safely into the lake, because of them Lorenz never got grass from the meadow, and probably died of grief of drunkenness.
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According to Grimm: In the lake of the cow (Lough na Bo) near Callir there is said to be a cow whose horn tips can sometimes be seen. Two cows were seen climbing out of Lake Blarney and causing damage to the field. Every seven years the Count of Clancarthy comes out for an hour and hopes that someone will speak to him so that he can show his silver box, which has been hidden in the lake from enemies. In Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia and Germany there are legends about the elf bull .
literature
- Irish fairy tales. In the broadcast by the Brothers Grimm. Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig, first edition 1987. pp. 240–242, 275. (Insel Verlag; ISBN 978-3-458-32688-5 ; the text follows the edition: Irish fairy tales. Translated by the Brothers Grimm. Friedrich Fleischer , Leipzig 1826. Orthography and punctuation were slightly normalized.)