Maiden trap

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Maiden trap
Rock of the Maidenhead

The Mägdetrappe is a legendary rock depression on the right-hand side above the Selketal not far from the district of Mägdesprung in the Harz in Saxony-Anhalt, which belongs to the town of Harzgerode .

It is located directly on the steep slope of the slope towards Selke . A little further to the southeast is the Alexius Cross . The Selketalstieg leads directly past the Mägdetrappe .

The depression of the maiden triplet has roughly the shape of a deep footprint and, according to legends, goes back to the jump of a woman. The name of the neighboring village Mägdesprung is said to go back to the Mägdetrappe. The imprint corresponds to a shoe size 64. From the Mägdetrappe there is a wide view of the Selketal. A bench is set up in front of the rock.

Say

Common to the legends about the maiden trap is the leap of a woman across the Selke valley.

According to a legend, a giant maiden was waiting for her friend, who came to visit from the Thuringian Forest, at the place of the maiden trap . When the friend arrived on the other side of the valley, she said that she was tired and that the woman who was waiting should jump over. She hesitated at first until a peasant driving past on a wagon loaded with wood mocked her. Then she packs the farmer with his cart and horses in her apron and jumped across the valley. There she put the shocked farmer down and laughed and went on with her friend. The footprint remained. In another version, the jumping woman came from Petersberg (near Halle) and the farmer was plowing an adjacent field.

Another legend reports that a young maid saw her lover, a shepherd, standing on the other side. Since he could not be reached otherwise, she jumped over with great force so that her footprint was left behind.

According to another legend, there were two large castles on both sides of the valley in which giants lived. On one side a knight Luitpold and on the other an old Harz king with his daughter Amala. Luitpold was in love with Amala. However, an Icelander asked for Amalia's hand . He had the resin king in his hand, because the king had lost all his treasures and also the crown and kingdom while playing to him. Amala asked her father to be allowed to marry Luitpold. However, the king refused to do so because he feared that he would then have to cede the playful land to the Icelanders. The Icelander then had to go to his homeland because of a war. The king promised him that the wedding would take place on his return. After the departure of the Icelander, Luitpold asked the king for Amala's hand. The king rejected him, however, and said: “As little as the princess can jump across the valley from here, so little can I break my word to the Icelander!” Luitpold also went to war. Years later he returned to his castle. He called to the princess who was waiting for him: "Come to me Amala!" Then she jumped with a mighty leap to him over the valley, where she left the footprints. The king was seething with rage, but after the Icelander didn't come back for many years, they were reconciled. Luitpold became ruler of the Harz region.

Another legend tells that a forester lived with his beautiful daughter Adele in the Selke Valley. Since a bear was up to mischief in the area, the forester set out on a stormy evening to hunt the bear. Adele stayed home. However, she was afraid of a scowling monk from the nearby monastery, who had fallen in love with Adele and knocked on the window. During the storm, a minstrel from Falkenstein Castle sought protection in the forester's house. As a thank you he played Adele, they both fell in love. The monk watched them and jealously entered the house. He strangled the minstrel, during which Adele fled. Chased by the monk, she jumped in fear of death from the rock into the depths of the Selke valley. The monk sat by her footprint at the point where she jumped off and scratched the stone there.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rosengard and Egar Presia: A little chat about Harzgerode and its surroundings. In: Stadtverwaltung Harzgerode (ed.): Harzgerode - individual contributions to local history. (= Harzgeroder booklets. 2). 1993, p. 37.
  2. ↑ Mägdetrappe. on www.harzgerode.de
  3. ↑ Ilse Korf: Mägdesprung. In: State Museum Burg Falkenstein (Hrsg.): Sagen vom Selketal. no year, p. 35.
  4. ↑ Ilse Korf: Mägdesprung. In: State Museum Burg Falkenstein (Hrsg.): Sagen vom Selketal. no year, p. 35.
  5. ↑ Ilse Korf: Mägdesprung. In: State Museum Burg Falkenstein (Hrsg.): Sagen vom Selketal. no year, p. 36.
  6. ↑ Rosengard and Egar Presia: A little chat about Harzgerode and its surroundings. In: Stadtverwaltung Harzgerode (ed.): Harzgerode - individual contributions to local history. (= Harzgeroder booklets. 2). 1993, p. 37.

Coordinates: 51 ° 40 ′ 0.5 ″  N , 11 ° 7 ′ 57.4 ″  E