h them into the mountain,
which then closed upon them. Nor did he reach home until ten years had
passed away, though he thought it had only been as many days.[130]

We shall have occasion to return to Blanik and its knights. Parallel
traditions attach, as is well known, to the Kyffhaeuser, a mountain in
Thuringia, where Frederick Barbarossa sleeps. A peasant going with corn
to market at Nordhausen, drove by the Kyffhaeuser, where he was met by a
little grey man, who asked him whither he was going, and offered to
reward him if he would accompany him instead. The little grey man led
him through a great gateway into the mountain till they came at last to
a castle. There he took from the peasant his waggon and horses, and led
him into a hall gorgeously illuminated and filled with people, where he
was well entertained. At last the little grey man told him it was now
time he went home, and rewarding him bountifully he led him forth. His
waggon and horses were given to him again, and he trudged homeward well
pleased. Arrived there, however, his wife opened her eyes wide to see
him, for he had been absent a year, and she had long accounted him dead.
It fared not quite so well with a journeyman joiner from Nordhausen, by
name Thiele, who found the mountain open, as it is every seven years,
and went in. There he saw the Marquis John (whoever he may have been),
with his beard spreading over the table and his nails grown through it.
Around the walls lay great wine-vats, whose hoops and wood had alike
rolled away; but the wine had formed its own shell and was blood-red. A
little drop remained in the wine-glass which stood before the Marquis
John. The joiner made bold to drain it off, and thereupon fell asleep.
When he awoke again he had slept for seven years in the mountain.[131]

Curiosity and greed caused this man to lose seven years of his life.
This is a motive often met with in these stories. A young girl during
the midday rest left a hayfield in the Lavantthal, Carinthia, to climb
the Schoenofen, whence there is a fine view over the valley. As she
reached the top she became aware of an open door in the rock. She
entered, and found herself in a cellar-like room. Two fine black steeds
stood at the fodder-trough and fed off the finest oats. Marvelling how
they got there, she put a few handfuls of the oats into her pocket, and
passed on into a second chamber. A chest stood there, and on the chest
lay a black dog. Near him was a lo