Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-11-05
The Legend of KyGhauser.

1t is amusing sometimes to see how
fiction mixes itself up with history, and
how the legends of remote ages can be
made to play an active part in the events
of the present day. This is the case with
the legend of Frederick the First EN-
peror of Germany, surnamed "Barbaros-
sa, or Red Beard. This most famous of
all the Emperors of medieval Germany,
havingl become involved in serious
quarrel with the Church, sought to avert
its anathemas and conciliate its favor by
Joining in the third crusade against the
Turks for the expulsion of those follow
ers of "Mahomed and Termagaunt" from
Asia Minor and the Holy Land. But
his fortune was not commensurate with
his zeal, for in bathing in the icy waters
of the river Cydnus, he was drowned
doth of June, ll9G), fate which Alex
ander the Great had very narrowly
escaped from in the same stream, fifteen
hundred years previously.
In those days, good Germans, when
they died, did not go to Paris, but such
fate was kept in reserve for Frederick
Barbarossa; for he was transported bod
lily to the mountain Of Kyf fhauser, in
Thuringia, in state of semi-conscious-
ness, and in his habit as he lived" by
whom is not exactly known, but most
probably by the tutelary angels of Ger
many One side of the mountain was
opened by the same mysterious hands,
and tolerably large apartment was
excavated, wherein the monarch was
deposited in comatose state, with his
attendants, and page, who plays an
important part in the affair. There,
seated before stone table, nodding
drowsily in a chair the drowned En-
peror was condemned to nod and
wink and dream until the crows, which
by thousands had built their nests
in the old ruined tower on the top of the
mountain, should disappear. But it was
at the same time decreed that they should
not do so until all discord had ceased in
Germany; and when that remarkable
state of things should come about, no
matter from what cause, then the Empe-
ror, weary with long sleeping and waiting,
should come forth from his cavernous
prison, and hire peasant to carry his
sword and shield before him, with the
view of terrifying all those who fancied
they bad better blood in them than the
peasant had In this manner the Empe-
ror was to go forth and reclaim his en-
pire. Once, at tho expiration of each
century, he was allowed TO wake up and
send his page up to the tower to see i
the crows had left it; and this favor he
has hitherto carefully availed himself of.
Six times has the page done his err
rand, only 10 return with the an
swer "the crows apo still there,
and six times has the disappointed
monarch fallen asleep for another han
dred years. But, on the 18th of July
last, he was awakened in an unusual
;nanner, and he sent his page up to the
tower in haste, to look after the crows.
What then was his delight when the page
returned with the tidings that the crows
were preparing ~ leave, as war had been
declared by France, afld qll discord has
ceased in Germany, BECAUSE the nation
was united under one flag TO fepei tke
invaderl Yes, the hour Of awakening
had come, aud the spirit of Barbarossa
stepped forth to animate the new Empe-
ror (that is to bel, william the First,
while his sword and shield were borne
before him (metaphorically), not BY ele
peasant but by every man in the land
no one, not even duke os eQpnt, consid-
ering his blood any better than thet of
peasant in the cause of the Fatherland !
Such is the wild, yet beautiful, legend
which has suddenly resumed tts .popu-
larity in the German heart, as significant
of the approaching unifcstion of its ma
tive land. Barbarossa is the type OF this
oneness of soul, and the circumstance
of his waking up the moment his beard
had grown so long that it touched the
ground, is symbolical Of that will having
taken root in German soil. There are,
however, Two modes Of interpreting the
legend: one. which may BE- called Bis
the other, Homes. The Bis
marck theory is that the Hsd, Bearded
Emperor will unite all Germany beneath
his sway, after the manner of feudal
times, and repress the revolutionary ten
denotes Of modern times, The Heine
theory is that he will, on the contrary,
cause these theories to germinate aud
expand. and that this is what is intended
by the legend when it says that the En-
peror shall baag his sword and shield on
a withered tree, which tres shall, there
upon, begin 10 blossom. THIS lsst view
is the most popular