Wuotis army
In the mythology of Germanic was Wuotis Army (or Muotis Army) from the father of the gods, war and Totengott Odin (or Wotan above), which in Walhall perched, the resting place of the fallen in a battle fighter.
According to the legend, the wild Germanic horsemen of the Wuotis army have been storming through the air since time immemorial when the weather changes, nightly thunderstorms, on stormy nights and at new moon with noise, roaring, horns, sword clinking, dull hoofbeats and savage war cries.
In any case, in earlier centuries people wisely stayed in the house and locked the doors when the wild Wuotis army could be heard in the area again.
The legend of the Wuotis army in Veringen
One autumn night in 1550 the Wuoti army had been heard after 10 o'clock in Messkirch and that same night they moved to Veringenstadt an der Lauchert . There, to the great horror of the residents, it moved down from the old castle stables through the town.
At midnight, the night watchman, Hans Dröscher, wanted to call out the hours when a noisy crowd began and pulled down from the old castle. Something yelled at the night watchman on the market square: “Mano, mano!” The good man probably noticed that this was not the right thing to do and he was therefore very afraid. So he didn't want to answer or go straight away. The other one screamed until the guard finally went to him.
There he found a dreadful man who was dressed like a warrior and whose head was split in two except for the neck, so that one half was on his armpit. The wounded man or the ghost asked the guard to tie his head back so that he could follow the army. Then he took a towel out of his sleeve and gave it to the trembling guard to bandage him. The good man is very frightened and has apologized that he could not bandage him, it was not his trade, but he wanted to get a clipper or barber. He said this so that he could get away. But the other did not want to allow this and insisted that the guard had to bandage him. Meanwhile he told the guard that he was a native of Veringen as his head had been split in a war and that he was now going with the Wuoti army. Then he thanked the guard and added that he should not look after him, otherwise he would not be happy. So they parted from each other.
The narrator does not know whether the guard was looking after him or not. The guard went home, got sick, and lay down. He lay in bed for a full 16 weeks, talking little or nothing during that time. But afterwards he lived for a long time. "So that is certainly true."
The wild army (Wuotisheer) to Veringen
The night is cool, the moon shines pale,
There come shadows without numbers
The valley draws up.
It roars like an agitated sea,
Before Veringen the wild army has turned
around the corner.
At the lower tower on the Bruck,
the strange spook builds up,
you can hear knocking at the city gate.
The watchman awakes from his sleep,
who still wants in at midnight?
He spoke grumpily.
But no sooner did he become aware of the people, then
the shock on his beard and hair, his
voice has blown him away.
He runs up the dark doorway,
In a breathless, quick run
This time it's his collar!
While the gate unlocks itself
And in the quiet place the
crowd pours on ghost wings.
Around midnight time,
all citizens sleep deeply;
They jump up to the castle.
There they whirl into the gate,
And by the magic
glow of the moon they dance around the walls.
In addition, a
muffled drum sound, and gloomy, horrible singing makes
heart and courage shudder.
Huh! Huh! We are the Wuoti army,
we come from French-speaking countries,
moved out before moons.
As a good German
troop of soldiers
, We served the Kaiser many a year,
In loyalty, no lie.
In a hot, bloody men's battle .
Have we brought the enemy down,
The Frundsberg leads the crowd.
Before one blew to the retreat ,
Some of us let some of our lives,
Forget forever to breathe!
They put us in the mass grave,
Den Bayr, Frank, Sachs, Schwab,
we rested from the arguments.
And for years we lay together
until the news came back to us,
Of German hardship and suffering!
Since nothing kept us in the hole,
each one crawled out of the ground,
just as he was lying.
And northward went the wild procession,
As if with a ghostly flight,
On quiet paths at night.
Only when the Roman-German Empire
becomes peace, then immediately, peace will be restored to
us too.
Then we go back to the grave,
the Bavarian, the Frank, the Sachs, the Schwab,
in the distant south of France!
So they sing, so they roar,
In a gloomy Landsknecht melody
And turn wild rounds .
Flie'n owls screeching and frightened when woken
up from the walls
.
There is a deep silence in the valley.
The one above the head swings
his right leg and hops and jumps
quite bravely on the left.
Another one, the vain drip,
carries his own head under his arm
and gives him something to drink.
Another one lets God have mercy,
His
loose arm
dangling around his shoulders on a string .
It sounds and rattles pale bones, In
addition the calfskin hits friend Hein,
Until they stagger with dizziness.
This is how they dance, this is how they jump,
After a heavy mercenary melody
The ugly figures.
While the watchman of the gate,
From afar listens with a fearful ear
And you see gruesome rulings.
Then a shadow separates itself from the heap
And has jumped
down to the market in a rushed run .
“Hoi, Mano! Hoi, the wretch roars,
Mano! Hans Droscher, don't you hear me? ”It
sounded through the night.
Terror and horror
seize the watchman, And pray to St. Nicholas
with great fervor.
But before he was right,
the ghost man is already there.
He can see it clearly.
The one standing in front of him is, Pardauz,
an extremely curious owl ,
almost laughable .
A wild crack separates the skull,
made with a sharp instrument,
from the vertebra to the throat.
I am, he moans, "Sepp Häberlein"
from Veringen, I was
requisitioned as a soldier in May .
In the south, such a French thief, cut
my
skull in half in a fight with one blow .
But since there is no field sergeant in the crowd,
I have had to
hike with my head halved for a day and a year .
So take this handkerchief, I ask you to
connect the halves around and around
one with the other.
Hans Dröscher takes courage again.
He is surprised and says: Well!
I want to try it once!
He turns the cloth into a rope,
“Well, let's try the luck
to cure the damage!”
Together he works out what
divides , Then he immediately wraps around
the skull of this Swabian.
Finally, he puts a firm button
on his countryman's head.
So now let yourself be buried!
Thank you forever! The other speaks.
Unfortunately I have to go
on with the others, poor wretch .
Give my
regards to my cousin Veit, Bas, the honest maiden Anastas!
Unfortunately I have to continue hiking.
Let
me tell you one thing,
that your curiosity does not dare
to look at the train.
So I advise you, godfather, look
backwards now and turn around nicely,
your broad back!
Said, done
, the Dröscher makes the turn that the ghost man has
just recommended to him.
The other clears his throat and says:
So now goodbye , my good friend!
I'm on my feet!
Then he scurries away to the crowd of ghosts who were
already at the upper gate
and just want to disappear.
The guard yells: Hey, compatriot, you!
The Lord give you eternal rest that
you could not find!
The booby shouts and turns around,
He's getting very stupid in his head,
It's like being hit in the brain.
Although he wanted to go home, he
stayed in the same place,
The feet fail.
But when the bright morning came,
He had sunk to the ground
with sadness and grief
.
And
he
waved cousin Michel Stauß to him from the nearest house .
Hans Dröscher, brought to his home,
didn't cry, didn't laugh,
crawled into his bed.
Pondered quietly and stared dimly,
In a corner and lay there,
He sixteen long weeks.
What happened next to the man,
The Historia
has now remained silent.
Century rushed across the country,
What once lived here 'and suffered, disappeared,
Has long since sunk into the grave.
Even today, a hint of prehistoric times hovers
around the town, as light as smoke from the hills, the
castle and the walls.
From dark rock holes blows
And through the silent fir trees
mysterious mourning goes .
Wolfrat 1928. ( Based on the Zimmer Chronicle )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Count Christoph von Zimmer: Zimmer'schen Chronik
- ↑ Thomas Fink: Materials on the history of the city of Veringen. Volume 16: 1500-1599. Veringenstadt 2012.
- ↑ The experience of the night watchman has made the rounds so far that the story of the Wuotis army in Veringen has reached Meßkirch, where it was written down 14 years later by Count Christoph von Zimmer. The night watchman, by the way - as the chronicler emphasizes - was still living in Veringenstadt when his experience was written down. The inaugurated locals doubt whether it was the last visit of the Wotansheer in Veringen to this day, because there have been many storm nights on the Lauchert since 1550 when the strange noises could be heard ...
- ^ Religious-political struggles in Germany.
- ^ Church patron of Veringenstadt.
- ↑ http://www.hohenzollerischer-geschichtsverein.de/userfiles/files/HZ-Heimat/HH_015_1965_ocr.pdf