Litchfield enquirer., 1870-12-08
WHOLE NO 2a75
THE LEGEND OF KYFrHAUsER.

| 1t IS amusing sometimes to see how fic- tion 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 Frederic the First, emperor of 1 Germany, surnamed "Barbarossa." or Red Beard. This most famous of all the em- perors of medieval Germany. having be- come involved in serious quarrel with the Church, sought to avert the anathemas and conciliate it's favor by joining in the third crusade against the Turks for the expulsion of the followers of "Mahomed and Ter magaunt" from Asia Minor and the Holy Land. But his fortune was not couamen- surate with his Zeal, for in bathing in the icy waters of the river Cydnus be was drowned I 10th June 1190), fate which Alexander the Great had very narrowly escaped from { in the same stream fifteen hundred years previously.
 h those days, good Germans, when they died, did not go to Paris, but such a fate was kept iu reserve for Frederic Barba- rossa; for he was transported bodily to tho mountain of Myfhauser, in ThuriDgia, in state of ml-conscousness, and ''in his habit as he lived" by whom it is not ex- actly known, but most probably by the tu- ] telary angels of Germany. One side of the
 
 rions hands, and tolerabIy large apart menI was exravated, wherein the monarch Was deposited ln a comatose state, with his attendants, and page, who plays an im- portaht part in the affair. There, seated before il stone table. nodding drowsily in chair, the drowned Emperor was condemn cd to nod and wink aud dream until the crows. whloh by thousands had built their nests in the old ruined tower on the top of the mountain, should have disappeared. But 1t was at the same time decreed that they should not do so until all discord had ceased in Germany; and when that remark able state of things should come about, no matter from what cause, then the emperor, weary with long sleeping anu waiting, should come forth from his cavernous pris. on, and hire peasant to carry his sword and shield before him, with the view of terrifying all those who fancied they had better blood in them than the peasant had. ln this manner the emperor was to go forth and reclaim his empire. Once at the expiration of each century he was allowed l to wake up and seeif the crows had left it; and this favor he has hitherto carefully availed himself of. Six times has the page done his errand, only 10 return with the answar "the crows are still there, and six times has the disappointed monarch fallen asleep for another hundred years. But on the 10th of July last, he was awakened in an unusual manner, 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 to leave, as war had been declared by Trance, and all disoord had ceased in Germany, because the na- tlon was united under one flag to repel the i in kEoh oes lro. come, and the spirit of Barbarossa stepped forth to animate the New Emperor (that is to bel, William the First, while his sword and shield were borne before him (meta- phorically),s not by one peasant. but by every man In the land-no tone, not even duke or count, considering his blood any better than that of a peasant in the cause of the Fatherland!
 Such is the wild, yet beautiful legend which has suddenly resumed it's popularity in the German heart, as significant of the approaching unihcatio1 of it's native land. Barbarossa is the type of this oneness of will, and the circumstance of his waking at the moment his beard had grown, so long that 1t touched the ground, is sym. bolical of that will having taken root in German soil. There are, however, two modes of interpreting this legend; one, Wulcu may De Called DlSmafcKS, tn0 OCnef Heine's. The Bismarck theory is that the Red Bearded Emperor will unite all Ger many beneath hls sway, after the manner of feudal times. The Heine theory is that he will, on the contrary, cause these ten- dencies to germinate and expand, and that this IS what is intended by the legend, when it says that the Emperor shall hang his sword and shield upon 8 wlthered tree, which tree shall thereupon begin to bios- som. This last view is the most popular.