ken and there putting her down, being careful
not to look round the while; for, happen what would, he could take no
harm, even if it were threatened to tear his head off. He undertook the
task, and had nearly accomplished it without troubling in the least
about the troops of spirits which followed him, when suddenly, as he
drew near the churchyard, a hurricane arose and took his cap off.
Forgetful of his promise, he looked round; and the maiden rose into the
air, weeping and crying out that she could never be delivered now. A
story told in Mecklenburg is more picturesque. It concerns the daughter
of a lake-king, who leagued himself with other knights against a robber,
the owner of a castle called the Glamburg, which was a place of some
strength, being entirely surrounded by the water of the Lake of Glam.
The confederates were defeated; and nine large round barrows were raised
the next day over the slain, among whom was the lake-king. His daughter
wept upon her father's grave, and her tears, as they touched the earth,
became lovely blue flowers. These flowers still grow upon the loftiest
of the nine barrows, while the others are quite destitute of them. The
princess threw herself that night--it was St. John's night--into the
lake; and now every year on St. John's night, between twelve and one
o'clock, a bridge of copper rises out of the lake, and the princess
appears upon it, sighing for her deliverance.[173]

The typical form of the tale is as follows: In the Buchenberg by Doberan
dwells an enchanted princess, who can only be released once in a hundred
years, on St. John's Day between twelve and one. In the year 1818 a
servant boy was watching sheep on the eastern side of the Buchenberg the
day before St. John's day. About noon a white lady appeared to him and
told him that he could deliver her, if he would, the next day at the
same hour, kiss her. She would then come to him in the form of a toad
with a red band round its neck. The shepherd promised; but the next day
when he saw the toad he was so horrified that he ran away. A variant
records the hour as between twelve and one at night, and the form of the
lady as a snake which sought to twine round the shepherd's neck. A
great treasure buried in the hill would have been his had he stood the
proof; but now the lady will have to wait until a beech tree shall have
grown up on the spot and been cut down, and of its timber a cradle made:
the child that is rocked in that crad