The Legends of Alsace

Welcome to the world of legends! I am this mage who has come from the limbo of eternity to reveal to you everything about the beliefs that the landscapes of France once inspired. Together, we will straddle time and space, to finally unravel the mystery of popular tales from a thousand-year-old history... These legends call us today from Alsace! As if wrapped in its cloak of mist, the Germanic imagination slumbers in the heart of the Alsatian forests that the nebulous winter likes to cover... Coming from the other side of the Rhine, the Alemanni conquerors brought their language, their gods and their beliefs. Each valley, mountain, village, or town of this “land on the other shore” still seems to praise this mythology populated by cursed princes and wild or enchanted beasts. A palpable paganism that the Church of the Holy Roman Empire, then of the Kingdom of France, endeavored to moderate by proposing in turn other legendary myths, very freely adapted from biblical stories... It is all these popular fables which sought to explore the mysterious beauty of this Rhineland, which we are going to tell you about today! I would say, the fundamental principle of the legend is that we believe in it: the little gnomes, the devil, the witches, the ghosts, the giants, well we believed in it, we were convinced that they exist! In the tales and legends of Alsace, reason is never in its raw state, feelings are never in its raw state, there is wisdom! And a wisdom which, in my opinion, is totally conveyed by the mystical Rhine! I think this is the particularity: like Rhineland mysticism there is certainly a Rhineland legend... ...And history with a capital H is very present in the Alsatian imagination. Before 1870 we were French, from 1870 to 1918 we were German. Then we became French after the First World War. From 1939 to 1945 we became German again and after 45 we became French again, knowing that our ties are: we are French, we are French! They are French and want to claim it, even if their compatriots sometimes have a little difficulty understanding their language, (laughs) when they proclaim loud and clear “that their Alsace is beautiful” (laughs) “That our Alsace is beautiful, with its fresh valleys! Summer ripens here, wheat, vines and hops. Yuhe! Wheat, vines and hops! » YOPLA! Yes, let's not forget that before 1648 the Alsatians were not French but belonged to the Holy Roman Empire ! It is only 370 years ago – if I may say so – that Alsace was forcibly attached to the kingdom of France by Louis XIV who took the opportunity to try to reintroduce the Catholic faith there. His holy grail: Strasbourg and its sublime cathedral! Far from the Gothic mansions whose ruins fall apart in the icy wind, beyond the forests, the spire of the cathedral which watches over Strasbourg made it the tallest building in Christendom until the 19th century at the same time as the Alsatian expression of a medieval society where the concern for salvation held an essential place. An innocent victim of its success, the cathedral has nourished numerous legends anchored in the memory of its flock. Enthroned on the Rhine plain and visible as far as the Vosges, it has, for ages, enveloped the Alsatian imagination of its history. But the foundations of Notre Dame de Strasbourg were only laid just over a millennium ago. Three centuries before the birth of Christ, when Strasbourg was still only a hill on the banks of the Rhine and surrounded by forests, a Celtic people called Argentorates had taken up residence in this strategic place that the Romans would not go to. soon to delight them and officially baptize Argentoratum, the first name of Strasbourg. And the cathedral square was one of the central points of the Roman camp, the center of the Roman camp in fact. And that's where we gradually built several churches for the different gods, the deities in whom we believed at different times. Then the Christians arrived and the church was too small, people were forced to stay outside to pray, it was not practical. So, we decided to build a bigger stone church, rather than wood, and we realized that the ground was not stable, so we put in stilts because the water table is very, very close to the soil in Alsace. We put up piles, we drained the ground, we drained the swamps, we did what we could to consolidate the foundations and we built this magnificent cathedral. And so it is said that under this cathedral, there is an enormous lake, an absolutely gigantic lake and this lake, we can sometimes certain nights when it is very, very silent, when there is a lot of silence around the cathedral , we can hear the light lapping of the small waves which circulate on this lake and enliven its surface. And it is said that on this lake, there is a boat going around, in this boat there is a little gnome – we call it in Alsatian Svarigele… …And in his boat, he throws nets of gold and these nets are used to collect the souls of the children who will be born, which he will bring to the stork. And then there he takes his boat, he arrives at the end of the lake and at the end of the lake there is a ladder like that, a staircase that goes up and which arrived at the edge of Place Gutenberg, there was a well there which was called "The Fishermen's Well" which unfortunately no longer exists and so he climbed the ladder or the small staircase, he arrived at the edge of the well and at the edge of the well there was a stork waiting! And so he put the baby back in the beak with a little bundle to welcome the little baby nicely and tenderly and now the stork flew away to bring the little baby to his parents! Responding or not to a sudden local craze for chastity, the myth of the stork carrying babies dates back to the mid-19th century. In fact, the Alsatians make the stork the messenger of a certain Germanic goddess! And so the stork is the bird of Frau Holle who is the patroness of the underworld and the guardian of unborn children, and who, this stork has been since the years roughly 1840 but we are not sure, but let's say in 1840 she is known in Alsace for bringing babies! That's why we have, we say in Alsatian a "navele" because she holds us by the umbilical cord, that's why we have a little hole in the stomach, it's because of the stork: if you didn't know it, now you do! She comes to bring the children, so for a while, there were few storks in Alsace, but now there are a lot of them again, so I think the birth rate will pick up again! But you still have to know how, don’t you! I think, I think! but you don't want to reveal the secret! (shakes head) The secret in Alsace to having children is neither roses nor cabbages, it is storks, but so that the storks know that you want a child, that you are ready to welcome it, you have to attract them with sugar and milk. Place them on the windowsill. And so the storks will know that you are ready to have a lot of happiness. In exchange for the free sugar and milk, they will drop off a wonderful toddler for you! While the Alsatian babies emerge from the bowels of Notre Dame de Strasbourg, the Devil himself appears shamelessly on its facade, in the guise of a rather lively tempter! This is what inspired the legend of the Cathedral Devil! Above one of the portals of the cathedral, there is a handsome young man, a very handsome young man with magnificent features, who is holding out an apple of temptation to one of the young virgins of the cathedral. He has a crown of flowers on his head, he wears a magnificent coat, he is smiling, he is very attractive, he addresses the so-called “crazy” Virgins, but in the opening of his coat there are toads and snakes! And that's how we recognize the devil, by the snakes and toads on his back! But what the hell is this devil doing with his toads behind his back on the gate of the house of God? This is what the people of Strasbourg have been asking themselves since the Middle Ages. From there, tempers began to heat up and then tongues began to loosen: an explanation had to be found! And here is essentially what we were saying behind the windows of Strasbourg homes. The devil likes to walk in the streets of Strasbourg, he likes to fly over the Vosges plain, the Alsace plain and one day he is going to see his grandmother! One of the devil's grandmothers was Alsatian and from time to time the devil made visits to his grandmother's country, Alsace. We must also add to this, because it is important to know, that the devil is also a banker: he was the owner of all the treasures contained in the earth. It used to be said that anything deeper than 90cm, that is to say about three feet, according to the measurements of the old regime, belonged to the devil! And so he is the owner of the treasures of the underworld and therefore he is a banker! But he is worried, our Devil! With all the new churches starting to spring up all over Europe, he has to worry because his capital of damned souls is seriously threatened! It was after seeing the damage in the surrounding countries that he began to panic at the prospect of losing his grandmother's Alsace, because a rumor was spreading on both sides of the Rhine: a new and enormous cathedral would be under construction in Strasbourg! He must get there as quickly as possible! He jumps on his horse the wind, pfft and they go away. They arrive above Strasbourg, they see the enormous construction site of the cathedral. He said to himself that I had to go see what the competition was doing and he tied his horse to a post on the construction site as there were many of them and then he said to him: “Rest, I will be back by midnight at the latest.” ", and the wind said to him: "Compare the Devil, I remind you that at midnight sharp our contract ends, I regain my freedom of wind. I'm back ! He begins to tour the cathedral, falls in ecstasy in front of this statue which represents him in his most beautiful light, smiling, seductive, no horn, no tail, a deformed and ugly being, magnificent! He calls himself great! And piqued by curiosity, which as the devil he should never have done, well he enters the cathedral! Upon entering, our devil is suddenly bewitched by the divine splendor of this enchanting place and literally falls in ecstasy in front of, guess what: the pillar of the angels! He is amazed! So when he sees this pillar of angels, he is delighted, he just has one regret, that they are not imps, but you can't have everything. But the devil had made a serious mistake, he had forgotten that in a cathedral which is a church by definition, mass is said and suddenly he hears the bells ringing which announce the start of mass, he is imprisoned. between one of these large sandstone columns which support the roof of the nave of the cathedral. It is said that this column cracked, that the Devil entered this column a little against his will. Since that day, Strasbourg Cathedral has had to be constantly restored. At midnight sharp, the wind that was waiting for the devil who had still not returned said: “Now that’s enough!” My contract has been respected, I am taking back my freedom.” But as he still wanted to know what had become of his friend the Devil who more than once had gotten himself into impossible situations, he started running around the cathedral and since that day there has been always wind around the cathedral because it is the wind which seeks its accomplice the Devil! Along with the devil, is also locked inside the Strasbourg cathedral, a strange character, stuck for ages on his balcony. But what could he possibly be doing up there, and who is he? He is a very curious man, a man who does not keep his tongue in his pocket and who spends his time asking questions and giving his opinion on everything that surrounds him: "Why, how, I think, to my opinion, me! » At that time, the cathedral was in full construction and Hermine de Steinbach the last architect, the one to whom this magnificent work is attributed - he is not the only one - well he works hard on the cathedral, he completes the Pillar of Angels, the thinnest and tallest pillar in the entire cathedral, and this little man comes and walks around the work of the great master-architect “And why? he says, Hum hum! Is something wrong sir? Your pillar: it is too thin, it is too high, it will never hold, what is it for? He is the one who holds the whole cathedral together, without him, the cathedral will collapse! It will never last! Wait a moment, come with me and here is our master architect taking the little man up there, to the stonemasons' lodge. " Do not move ! » and the master begins to cut the stone. The little guy tries to ask him what’s going on but “Shh!” » and amazed he sees his profile emerging from the block of stone: “But it is me that you sculpted Mr. Steinbach, is it really me? Yes, it's you and I'm going to place you there on this balustrade, facing the pillar of angels! So you will be here for eternity, until the cathedral collapses and you will see if my pillar is not strong enough! He has been watching ever since! In fact, he only observes, amazed that the cathedral is not only still standing, but that it has inspired the greatest authors, like Goethe for example! In fact, Strasbourg - which is the place where Gutenberg developed the tools that would allow him to invent printing - became, in the process, the stronghold of demons of all kinds, and the scene of an atrocious genocide feminine, instigated by Pope Innocent VIII. The question is: why Strasbourg? Well, it’s one of the places where the infamous “Malleus Maleficarium” was printed . It is the manual for perfect witch hunters which was written by two Dominican inquisitors, one of whom was from Sélestat. It was printed in the years between 1487 – 1488 and it is an absolutely terrible work. I had fun – if I may say so – reading it in its French version since it is in Latin, and I can tell you that it had the same effect on me as when I read the “Mein Kampf” by Adolph Hitler, that is to say something absolutely terrifying! How could we have created such a representation of the witch through all kinds of fears and beliefs that existed? And this book will serve as a manual during the trials which raged in Alsace between roughly 1550 and 1682 to identify, hunt, judge and, if necessary, torture and then execute them since witchcraft was also assimilated to heresy, that is to say doctrine not in conformity with the official faith, well it must be burned! Burning it also means completely getting rid of the presence of what is evil and harmful! … This Malleus Maleficarum would quickly become the people's bedside book! And you should know that it was one of the best-sellers of printing throughout the 16th century until I would say almost half of the 17th century, it's terrible! But what do you expect, sometimes the irrational prevails over common sense and that's where reason plays its part! Finally, alongside this witch hunt, a brand new cult would flourish in Strasbourg proposed by a certain Martin Luther, whose ideas first spread within the Protestant church of Saint-Pierre-Le- Young. And this is how the Reformed Church succeeded so well in establishing itself in Alsace. Historically there are two religions: there is the Christian religion and the Jewish religion. There are three Christian denominations and the Jewish religion alongside to be exact and there are actually four recognized religions: the Catholic cult, the Lutheran cult, the Reformed Calvinist cult, and the cult of the Alsatian Jewish community which is one can say almost as old as the Christian community in Alsace! This church, founded by Irish monks in the 11th century, will be a center of Protestant reform in Europe! And here in St Pierre-Le-Jeune, the Reformation was introduced, I was going to say before its time, because Strasbourg underwent reform in 1525 and here the parishioners went to the Städtmeister, if you like to the mayor to have a new priest, a new parish priest. And this first priest with reformist ideas was Wolfgang Capiton whose preaching, inspired by his friend Luther, was such a success that the town ended up becoming Lutheran! So if we wanted to stay in Strasbourg, well we had to become Lutheran, otherwise we had to leave Strasbourg! But after this last war of religion Louis XIV, who succeeded in annexing Alsace, tried to impose Catholic worship in Strasbourg. The problem was that everyone wanted to celebrate their worship at the same time and in the same churches, each on either side of the rood screen! What is the rood screen? : it is both a separation of the choir and the nave. There you go, this is the choir where the Catholics sat and on the other side of the rood screen which forms this sort of porch, here is the nave where the Lutherans prayed! But it is also the place where we preach, there is no pulpit yet, the pulpit will come later and the rood screen takes its name from the diaconal prayer which is still the prayer that the deacon addresses to the priest when he reads the gospel for him: “Jube dominates benedicere: please lord bless me”. Still, this rood screen has become a subject of contention! The Protestants insisted on listening to the word of God, singing it, the Catholics will insist: “You have to see the mass!” » So to see mass, we had to destroy the rood screens! Fortunately in this Protestant church, as in Germany, the rood screen was saved and therefore all the styles of its history preserved! …which gives it such a warm and special appearance. What is striking about this church is two contradictory things: the first thing when you enter you have the impression that nothing goes together, such different styles and the more you live there, the more you taste the harmony that get out of it! Yes, it is a sign that Saint-Pierre-Le-Jeune was able to welcome all the beliefs of all the peoples of Europe, including the pagan ones relayed by these Alsatian legends. Legendary traditions are stronger than religious beliefs, they transcend religious beliefs: instead of always fighting the legend, we tried to integrate it! These Protestants were clever, because it was a way of remaining in empathy with these Alsatian people who worked so hard and loved to tell each other the legends of this beautiful country after work in the fields. It was in the privacy of Alsatian homes like this one that, after the harvest, a whole bunch of spine-chilling legends were once concocted during long winter vigils! the traditional vigil took place roughly between November 1 and February 2, the period of dark nights. It's winter so there's no work outside, most of the activities are focused inside the house, we feed the livestock, we get together in the evening so often it was the neighbors who met in a place like this which is absolutely magnificent! In the reassuring hum of their stove called Stub, the Alsatians took pleasure in relaying the gossip of the moment but above all these distressing stories featuring all the artifices of the Germanic imagination which was theirs. The darkness of the forest, the cry of the wolves in the frozen night, the mysteries that hovered around the centuries-old buildings, fueled fears and unleashed all fantasies. Our next legend was born at the foot of a castle like this… From the height of its 757 meters, the Haut-Koenigsbourg fortress or “High castle of the king”, dominates the Alsace plain, the Vosges, the black forest and the town of Orschwiller. Passing through the Haut-Koenigsbourg gate means diving into the heart of the Germanic and medieval world of the legendary Alsatian. Perched since the 12th century on its rocky promontory of pink sandstone, this eagle's nest has for centuries witnessed conflicts and rivalries between lords, kings and emperors. Drawbridge, weapons room, keep and cannons are constant reminders of the vocation of this mountain fortress built by the Germanic imperial dynasty of Hohenstaufen. Besieged, pillaged, then destroyed when the famous Thirty Years War was going to offer it, with Alsace, to France, it was never inhabited again and had to wait to become German again, after the war of 70, to be restored. Indeed, William II, heir to the Hohenzollerns, endeavored to erect it from the beginning of the 20th century as a symbol of the reconquest of Alsace by the German Empire, as evidenced by this imperial eagle on the ceiling! The hero of the Wolfdietrich legend is perhaps one of the ancestors of William II... There have been many lords in Alsace, just look at the number of castles that surround us here and there , Haut-Königsbourg castle, all the castles that the devil would have brought back in his bag. In what was considered one of the most beautiful castles in the region, once lived a lord whose story would thrill the imagination of an entire people. And this lord has a daughter as beautiful as the day, she has long hair, she has big eyes like a summer sky, cheeks like flowers and he decides to protect her from all the lusts of all men . So to protect his daughter like in all the tales, this rich lord builds a high tower, and locks her at the top! Hildegonde, the beautiful one, is bored and one day some hunters come to pass through the forest and she sings at the window, and her voice attracts the handsome hunter who is there, his name is Hugues-Dietrich. When he sees the beautiful princess, he goes up to the tower and in the greatest secrecy, the two lovebirds love each other for more than a year! What had to happen happens: Hildegonde gives birth to a child. But her guilty loves do not allow her to keep him, so one evening, she regretfully decides to go to the foot of the castle, to abandon her son there, hoping that a charitable soul will be willing to take him in, but it is a she-wolf who discovers the child and takes him away to raise him with her other little ones! Fifteen years pass which allow the couple to marry and have other children and one fine day... Hugues-Dietrich the father goes into the forest to hunt, sees a pack of wolves and among them a wolf who is stands on two legs. He recognizes his son by his necklace that his mother had hung. He picks him up, brings him back to the castle, his fleece is sheared, his hair is cut, he is dressed, he is given beautiful clothes and good manners, the young boy learns to speak but he does not like the castle: his brothers nickname him “The Wolf” and when they fight it is with swords and it is to hurt each other. They do n't like this kid from the forest, they can't stand this bastard who has no legitimacy! So the one nicknamed Wolfdietrich leaves the castle forever to find his wolves in his beloved forest where he will die a hero after having slain the dragon! Since then, the Alsatians have assured that if we hear a great clash of arms in the plain of Alsace it is because a war is coming and that Wolfdietrich is arming himself to take part in the fight, and if we hears the wolves howling, they are calling for their hero. So the wolf is one of those scary animals and we will do everything to eradicate it! The last Wolves disappeared in Alsace – I don't have the exact reference in mind – but let's say at the very beginning of the 20th century! So the wolf has been present in Alsace for a very long time: we have documents of wolf hunts, and (Wolf cry)… What is happening? So ! So these wolves were very present in the history of Alsace, in people's imagination and therefore they completely disappeared! But rest assured, other myths have taken its place. At the foot of Haut-Koenigsbourg, nestles the very old little town of Sélestat, Alsatian capital of the Christmas tree... and Christmas in legendary Alsace has become like a religion in its own right! The St Georges de Sélestat church organizes an exhibition every year to attest that it was in their country that this cherished tradition of the fir tree in France was born! So the story of the Christmas tree takes us into the account registers of the town of Sélestat in 1521, just at the end of the Middle Ages, on December 21 precisely, and in this account register we learn precisely that you had to pay the municipal forest guards 4 shillings to go and monitor the Wihnachtemeyen in the purest Alsatian dialect, these are the festive trees of the festival, 3 days before Christmas. At the time it was St. Thomas' Day and my grandmother was the same: I could only see the tree on Christmas Day and go cut it down 3 days before Christmas. So that means that the Alsatians had gotten into the habit of going to cut down fir trees in the forest at that time! Of course before there were a few fir branches that appeared, fir trees on church squares then in churches, but in humble homes it was from that time on and to this day it is the oldest written mention known to the world! And so, the particularity is that at the end of the Middle Ages, it is an Alemannic version, we are in a large Rhine region where the tradition on both sides of the Rhine is the same: “…” this is what the text tells us and thanks to the historians that I am not, we actually learn that we had to watch these festival trees! But long before men celebrated Christmas, what they celebrated was quite simply the return of light, yes! At the time, imagine, the peasants did not understand what was happening to them: the days were getting shorter, the nights were getting longer, but what would become of their harvests and the fruit of their work on the land if the sun disappeared? And that's why we found a small green tree, always green in the heart of winter and why we decided to bring it into homes, certainly initially with small branches and that we 'put in homes with branches as in Roman times. Even on the Celts' side, where there is mistletoe, where we allude to these trees with evergreen foliage, and that's all the magic of this Christmas time: hope must remain, that light must come in! And that's why for practitioners, Christmas time was also set a few days after the winter solstice, December 25, because for practitioners, their light is the little one who will be born! Okay, that's good, I think we pretty much understand, but a riddle remains: why did you hang your trees from the ceiling? Well quite simply because we learn through the writings that we have discovered including notebooks , songs from the time at the end of the Middle Ages here in Sélestat but also elsewhere in Alsace, that on the tree we initially hung apples, the small red apple which reaches maturity around December. But in Alsace we also hung the famous “Wihnachts Bredele” the little Christmas cakes, the ones that the children loved to eat! So obviously food on the Christmas tree: you can imagine that at that time, well it's a truth of the Palice, the houses much less well insulated than today, therefore the small rodents from France and Navarre took great pleasure in entering homes and nibbling what was on the Christmas tree! Let's never forget that the gift for children at that time was what was on the tree: the famous Christmas cupcakes or apples! Another reason is that the rooms were much less spacious than today so it was hung from the ceiling so that the children could shake it and in 1601 the children in the town of Sélestat were invited to shake their Christmas tree and what fell into their little basket was their Christmas present! And traditionally, who brings gifts to Protestant children in Alsace? Saint Nicholas, aka Santa Claus? In Alsace, it is not Santa Claus who brings gifts but the Christkindel: literally the child Jesus! And this child Jesus, curiously enough, is a kind of female angel dressed in white with a crown, he is often accompanied by another character that the French would call the whipping father, but who here we call Hans Trapp! And Hans Trapp, can we know who he is? He is a character who existed, a historical character who was called Hans Von Trotta, a lord who lived in a castle called Berwartstein Castle, which is on the German side in the Palatinate, and this lord played very bad tricks on the town of Wissenbourg! He is bothered in every possible way and after his death, mothers when the children were not good would tell their children: “If you are not good, Hans Von Trotha will come and get you, which would have given Hans Trapp! In any case it is a character who often wears a fur coat, who sometimes has horns! In short, the prospect of being carried away by Hans Trapp into the forest was certainly a deterrent for the children of Alsace! It is so that the human being, the little one, has a backbone to enter life, to enter death and to enter the mystery of human existence with an attitude that is worthy of the human condition! Yes, yes, but you know in Alsace we like fairy tales, we are a bit romantic and Christkindel always wins over Hans Trapp! And we know precisely when this tradition of Christkindel in Alsace was born! Indeed, we know exactly in what context the Christkindel was born, it was in the Protestant Strasbourg of the 16th century: 1529 the city of Strasbourg underwent the Lutheran Reformation and children continued to be told that it was St Nicholas who brought the gifts since it is celebrated on December 6, and the day before December 6 it was St Nicholas himself who came to deliver the gifts! And here comes 1570, a pastor named Johan Fliener and he rails against Saint-Nicolas saying listen: "Saint-Nicolas is not noted anywhere in the gospels", it's true, it's a character who lived afterwards. He will say: “There you go, from now on we must no longer say that it is Saint Nicholas, Saint Niklaus who brings the gifts but das Kriskindle. Why because it is this child Christ who is the central message of Christmas, which is on the biblical level completely correct: you know that the Reformers Martin Luther and also John Calvin and others had this concern to return to the original texts: the Bible, nothing but the Bible! However, far from the biblical texts, one legend among all would make the hearts of Alsatians beat in unison, that of a young girl so pious and generous, that the people would make her their heroine: this princess was called Odile ! Of course she is celebrated particularly in the Catholic religion, but I don't know many Protestants who have never been to Mont Sainte-Odile, who have never been to the Chapelle des Larmes, who have not been to her tomb, finally, there is something very popular and very legendary at the same time. He is a very important character since he is associated with a superb mountain which is Mont dit Sainte-Odile, from where we have an exceptional view of the Alsace plain. Since it is perched on the Vosges mountain range! In fact, it is the magical place of a story that is no less magical! Here then, dating back to the year 660, is our last legend! Once upon a time in these places, in the heart of the castle of Hohenburg, a terrible lord who had just had his first child: a daughter... And so Odile was probably born here right where Adalric her father had installed the heart of military power, of the political power of this emerging Alsace. Perched on a plateau culminating at almost 800 meters in height, Adalric Castle reigned over this ancient Celtic place of worship. According to legend, it was already set in this incredible 11km fortification wall and made up of 300,000 cyclopean blocks which immediately discouraged any invader from attacking the fortress! It is an enormous wall which is built with large stones which were held by wooden dovetails, the location of which can still be seen and it is a monument which fascinates because there are a whole bunch of interpretations that revolve around that and it really is an absolutely magnificent place, Mont Sainte-Odile, I understand that it has become, I would say, the sacred mountain of Alsace. And so Sainte-Odile, ultimately on a historical level we know relatively little , as is often the case, on the other hand the legend around Sainte-Odile is absolutely extraordinary! Well, let's return to our story straight from the mists of the Alsatian imagination! … Odile comes into the world, she is blind! Great curse for his father: first a daughter, also blind, he considers this birth as a curse and despite the intervention of Bereswinde, his wife therefore Odile's mother, well he demands either death or exfiltration and that's what's going to happen! The blind child is therefore entrusted to a nurse who takes her, even before she is baptized, to a monastery in Balma in Doubs. She grew up there, until the day God sent her her savior in the form of a certain Irish missionary bishop. Ehrhardt of Regensburg, the bishop has an inner expression which tells him: “You must go to Balme, it is there that you will meet a young blind girl, you will baptize her! ", this is what the bishop does and at the moment when the bishop with Holy Chrism marks Odile's forehead, her eyes open and sight is given to her! In Alsace, we always represent it with a book like that and two eyes on it, that's how we identify it. Becoming a clairvoyant, Odile grows up and one fine day and despite the ban from their terrible father Adalric, she convinces her young brother Hugo to bring her back to the family castle, but there... Aldalric flies into a mad rage and with a very muscular blow, he knocks out his son and this blow will lead him to death! He immediately regrets it, but it's too late! He allows Odile to live in Hohenburg, he will not speak to her and he entrusts her to a Scotti, to a nun. He was aware of his very bad character, but deep down, without admitting it, he was looking for to earn his salvation. As for Odile, she even began to impress him with her qualities of heart. One morning she crosses the courtyard – I don’t know if it was a better night than Adalric had spent – that day he says to her “But my daughter – miracle he speaks to her you imagine – what are you doing ? She said: Well, I'm going to take my pot of flour to a poor person! And Adalric is completely overwhelmed by the generosity of this girl who had nothing, who gives the little she has, and it is through this kindness that Odile converts the heart of Adalric, who decides to give her Hohenburg what would later become Mont Sainte-Odile, but also with all the properties: there were villages, it was not just a piece of land, but it was a whole whole! And so Odile takes the keys and management of all these properties. Her relationship with her father is peaceful and when he dies, she prays to free his soul, but she will not be alone, canonesses from Brittany and Scotland soon join her to help her take care of the invalids of the region. But at the time there were not these paths that we have now: you had to go through the forest, etc. and the crippled, the lame when they arrived here were completely exhausted. What does Odile decide? To build a lower monastery in Niedermunster, where waters abounded, where the climate was much better than here on the heights and therefore there will be a lower monastery! Which is unfortunately now in ruins. Finally, in the face of all the obvious proof of Odile's dedication, her admirers at the time, more and more numerous, will begin to build her legend, just as she worked to build refuge monasteries for them ! And this is essentially what we are saying... And so one day she will perform a miracle: she meets a man who is terribly thirsty and the sandstone rocks are there, there is no spring flowing and so out of compassion by charity, she goes with her abbess staff, hits the rock and there is a spring that will start to flow. This spring still flows, it is said that it is a miraculous spring which cures eye diseases. And we began to carefully collect this water so that later it could be brought up to this little chapel called “Tears”! Symbolically, it is in this place, in this cavity, that Odile would have cried with all her tears and her tears would have dug this cavity until she had the feeling that Adalric was freed. See the legend, it’s the meaning that is fundamental! These are not stories or nonsense, but they are what allows us to enter into Odile's life and grasp its meaning. So history, the big story, is made up of little stories, and the little stories are made up of legends, and the word “legend” is one could saying this is what needs to be said! And in the Middle Ages, well, truth did not necessarily merge with historical reality, but it went beyond it! To the point that it is said that Odile's spring also has the power of premonition! I'm just telling you an anecdote that happened to me, one day I was at this spring, I like it when I can go to Mont Sainte-Odile and I always go to this spring, and then there were two ladies who were filling bottles with water from the Sainte-Odile spring which is just at the foot of the monastery. And these ladies are discussing, I am there, I listen a little by chance then one says to the other: “You know that this source announces the future? And the other says Ah well, but what do you mean? Well listen, it is said that every time it dries up or almost stops flowing, it announces misfortune! And imagine that just before the First World War, it stopped flowing, and just before the start of the Second World War it also stopped flowing, so this source in its own way announces the future! ” But had Odile planned hers? Two centuries after his death, his admirers came from the Ruhr and then from all over Europe to celebrate his worship on this sublime mountain where pagans and pilgrims of all faiths now gather . Odile is a figure of a European woman and a "pontif" isn't she: she built bridges between peoples and even today in Russia or in Prague or elsewhere, the cult of Odile is extremely alive! So what is there to see? There are the forests, the trails, I believe that we must know how to absorb all this natural heritage which makes Mont Sainte-Odile a cosmic cathedral, where sky and earth communicate in a marvelous exchange. But there are also these beautiful villages, these cool valleys, don't you think, with the vineyards and everything that that entails, I believe that everything contributes to highlighting Mont Sainte-Odile. The sacred mountain of the patron saint of Alsace, the Germanic castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg, the medieval cathedral of Strasbourg, all these legendary places, by entering history, have captured the Alsatian imagination! All Alsatian tales are linked to places and historical events, many, often, this is why there is always a grain of truth in the stories and why in Alsace, they are very present: each legend , each story is linked to a place! I think that the particularity of Alsace is that its culture is nourished by both this Germanic aspect, I do not say German because Germany is a modern creation, but the imagination, the Germanic legends, the Germanic thought, Germanic romanticism, the Germanic way of being and there is also something of French influence in any case since the annexation of Strasbourg and then Alsace in 1681-1683! Alsace is the daughter of history and not of geography. This Alsace has a very complex, very eventful history! To be Alsatian for me is to be steeped in both cultures, to live in Alsace and to be a fervent believer in Europe and a supporter of peace! I believe that Alsace and the Alsatian soul reveal what human perfection should be! In all humility! You are right my father, you are never better served than by yourself! That’s what makes legends so special! And those of Alsace undeniably maintain a very special Rhineland mystique! In old France as they say, well we are white or black, but here, it's not quite like that, ultimately we like the fog!

Welcome to the world of legends! I am this mage who has come from the limbo of eternity to reveal to you everything about the beliefs that the landscapes of France once inspired. Together, we will straddle time and space, to finally unravel the mystery of popular tales from a thousand-year-old history... These legends call us today from Alsace! As if wrapped in its cloak of mist, the Germanic imagination slumbers in the heart of the Alsatian forests that the nebulous winter likes to cover... Coming from the other side of the Rhine, the Alemanni conquerors brought their language, their gods and their beliefs. Each valley, mountain, village, or town of this “land on the other shore” still seems to praise this mythology populated by cursed princes and wild or enchanted beasts. A palpable paganism that the Church of the Holy Roman Empire, then of the Kingdom of France, endeavored to moderate by proposing in turn other legendary myths, very freely adapted from biblical stories... It is all these popular fables which sought to explore the mysterious beauty of this Rhineland, which we are going to tell you about today! I would say, the fundamental principle of the legend is that we believe in it: the little gnomes, the devil, the witches, the ghosts, the giants, well we believed in it, we were convinced that they exist! In the tales and legends of Alsace, reason is never in its raw state, feelings are never in its raw state, there is wisdom! And a wisdom which, in my opinion, is totally conveyed by the mystical Rhine! I think this is the particularity: like Rhineland mysticism there is certainly a Rhineland legend... ...And history with a capital H is very present in the Alsatian imagination. Before 1870 we were French, from 1870 to 1918 we were German. Then we became French after the First World War. From 1939 to 1945 we became German again and after 45 we became French again, knowing that our ties are: we are French, we are French! They are French and want to claim it, even if their compatriots sometimes have a little difficulty understanding their language, (laughs) when they proclaim loud and clear “that their Alsace is beautiful” (laughs) “That our Alsace is beautiful, with its fresh valleys! Summer ripens here, wheat, vines and hops. Yuhe! Wheat, vines and hops! » YOPLA! Yes, let&#39;s not forget that before 1648 the Alsatians were not French but belonged to the Holy Roman Empire ! It is only 370 years ago – if I may say so – that Alsace was forcibly attached to the kingdom of France by Louis XIV who took the opportunity to try to reintroduce the Catholic faith there. His holy grail: Strasbourg and its sublime cathedral! Far from the Gothic mansions whose ruins fall apart in the icy wind, beyond the forests, the spire of the cathedral which watches over Strasbourg made it the tallest building in Christendom until the 19th century at the same time as the Alsatian expression of a medieval society where the concern for salvation held an essential place. An innocent victim of its success, the cathedral has nourished numerous legends anchored in the memory of its flock. Enthroned on the Rhine plain and visible as far as the Vosges, it has, for ages, enveloped the Alsatian imagination of its history. But the foundations of Notre Dame de Strasbourg were only laid just over a millennium ago. Three centuries before the birth of Christ, when Strasbourg was still only a hill on the banks of the Rhine and surrounded by forests, a Celtic people called Argentorates had taken up residence in this strategic place that the Romans would not go to. soon to delight them and officially baptize Argentoratum, the first name of Strasbourg. And the cathedral square was one of the central points of the Roman camp, the center of the Roman camp in fact. And that&#39;s where we gradually built several churches for the different gods, the deities in whom we believed at different times. Then the Christians arrived and the church was too small, people were forced to stay outside to pray, it was not practical. So, we decided to build a bigger stone church, rather than wood, and we realized that the ground was not stable, so we put in stilts because the water table is very, very close to the soil in Alsace. We put up piles, we drained the ground, we drained the swamps, we did what we could to consolidate the foundations and we built this magnificent cathedral. And so it is said that under this cathedral, there is an enormous lake, an absolutely gigantic lake and this lake, we can sometimes certain nights when it is very, very silent, when there is a lot of silence around the cathedral , we can hear the light lapping of the small waves which circulate on this lake and enliven its surface. And it is said that on this lake, there is a boat going around, in this boat there is a little gnome – we call it in Alsatian Svarigele… …And in his boat, he throws nets of gold and these nets are used to collect the souls of the children who will be born, which he will bring to the stork. And then there he takes his boat, he arrives at the end of the lake and at the end of the lake there is a ladder like that, a staircase that goes up and which arrived at the edge of Place Gutenberg, there was a well there which was called &quot;The Fishermen&#39;s Well&quot; which unfortunately no longer exists and so he climbed the ladder or the small staircase, he arrived at the edge of the well and at the edge of the well there was a stork waiting! And so he put the baby back in the beak with a little bundle to welcome the little baby nicely and tenderly and now the stork flew away to bring the little baby to his parents! Responding or not to a sudden local craze for chastity, the myth of the stork carrying babies dates back to the mid-19th century. In fact, the Alsatians make the stork the messenger of a certain Germanic goddess! And so the stork is the bird of Frau Holle who is the patroness of the underworld and the guardian of unborn children, and who, this stork has been since the years roughly 1840 but we are not sure, but let&#39;s say in 1840 she is known in Alsace for bringing babies! That&#39;s why we have, we say in Alsatian a &quot;navele&quot; because she holds us by the umbilical cord, that&#39;s why we have a little hole in the stomach, it&#39;s because of the stork: if you didn&#39;t know it, now you do! She comes to bring the children, so for a while, there were few storks in Alsace, but now there are a lot of them again, so I think the birth rate will pick up again! But you still have to know how, don’t you! I think, I think! but you don&#39;t want to reveal the secret! (shakes head) The secret in Alsace to having children is neither roses nor cabbages, it is storks, but so that the storks know that you want a child, that you are ready to welcome it, you have to attract them with sugar and milk. Place them on the windowsill. And so the storks will know that you are ready to have a lot of happiness. In exchange for the free sugar and milk, they will drop off a wonderful toddler for you! While the Alsatian babies emerge from the bowels of Notre Dame de Strasbourg, the Devil himself appears shamelessly on its facade, in the guise of a rather lively tempter! This is what inspired the legend of the Cathedral Devil! Above one of the portals of the cathedral, there is a handsome young man, a very handsome young man with magnificent features, who is holding out an apple of temptation to one of the young virgins of the cathedral. He has a crown of flowers on his head, he wears a magnificent coat, he is smiling, he is very attractive, he addresses the so-called “crazy” Virgins, but in the opening of his coat there are toads and snakes! And that&#39;s how we recognize the devil, by the snakes and toads on his back! But what the hell is this devil doing with his toads behind his back on the gate of the house of God? This is what the people of Strasbourg have been asking themselves since the Middle Ages. From there, tempers began to heat up and then tongues began to loosen: an explanation had to be found! And here is essentially what we were saying behind the windows of Strasbourg homes. The devil likes to walk in the streets of Strasbourg, he likes to fly over the Vosges plain, the Alsace plain and one day he is going to see his grandmother! One of the devil&#39;s grandmothers was Alsatian and from time to time the devil made visits to his grandmother&#39;s country, Alsace. We must also add to this, because it is important to know, that the devil is also a banker: he was the owner of all the treasures contained in the earth. It used to be said that anything deeper than 90cm, that is to say about three feet, according to the measurements of the old regime, belonged to the devil! And so he is the owner of the treasures of the underworld and therefore he is a banker! But he is worried, our Devil! With all the new churches starting to spring up all over Europe, he has to worry because his capital of damned souls is seriously threatened! It was after seeing the damage in the surrounding countries that he began to panic at the prospect of losing his grandmother&#39;s Alsace, because a rumor was spreading on both sides of the Rhine: a new and enormous cathedral would be under construction in Strasbourg! He must get there as quickly as possible! He jumps on his horse the wind, pfft and they go away. They arrive above Strasbourg, they see the enormous construction site of the cathedral. He said to himself that I had to go see what the competition was doing and he tied his horse to a post on the construction site as there were many of them and then he said to him: “Rest, I will be back by midnight at the latest.” &quot;, and the wind said to him: &quot;Compare the Devil, I remind you that at midnight sharp our contract ends, I regain my freedom of wind. I&#39;m back ! He begins to tour the cathedral, falls in ecstasy in front of this statue which represents him in his most beautiful light, smiling, seductive, no horn, no tail, a deformed and ugly being, magnificent! He calls himself great! And piqued by curiosity, which as the devil he should never have done, well he enters the cathedral! Upon entering, our devil is suddenly bewitched by the divine splendor of this enchanting place and literally falls in ecstasy in front of, guess what: the pillar of the angels! He is amazed! So when he sees this pillar of angels, he is delighted, he just has one regret, that they are not imps, but you can&#39;t have everything. But the devil had made a serious mistake, he had forgotten that in a cathedral which is a church by definition, mass is said and suddenly he hears the bells ringing which announce the start of mass, he is imprisoned. between one of these large sandstone columns which support the roof of the nave of the cathedral. It is said that this column cracked, that the Devil entered this column a little against his will. Since that day, Strasbourg Cathedral has had to be constantly restored. At midnight sharp, the wind that was waiting for the devil who had still not returned said: “Now that’s enough!” My contract has been respected, I am taking back my freedom.” But as he still wanted to know what had become of his friend the Devil who more than once had gotten himself into impossible situations, he started running around the cathedral and since that day there has been always wind around the cathedral because it is the wind which seeks its accomplice the Devil! Along with the devil, is also locked inside the Strasbourg cathedral, a strange character, stuck for ages on his balcony. But what could he possibly be doing up there, and who is he? He is a very curious man, a man who does not keep his tongue in his pocket and who spends his time asking questions and giving his opinion on everything that surrounds him: &quot;Why, how, I think, to my opinion, me! » At that time, the cathedral was in full construction and Hermine de Steinbach the last architect, the one to whom this magnificent work is attributed - he is not the only one - well he works hard on the cathedral, he completes the Pillar of Angels, the thinnest and tallest pillar in the entire cathedral, and this little man comes and walks around the work of the great master-architect “And why? he says, Hum hum! Is something wrong sir? Your pillar: it is too thin, it is too high, it will never hold, what is it for? He is the one who holds the whole cathedral together, without him, the cathedral will collapse! It will never last! Wait a moment, come with me and here is our master architect taking the little man up there, to the stonemasons&#39; lodge. &quot; Do not move ! » and the master begins to cut the stone. The little guy tries to ask him what’s going on but “Shh!” » and amazed he sees his profile emerging from the block of stone: “But it is me that you sculpted Mr. Steinbach, is it really me? Yes, it&#39;s you and I&#39;m going to place you there on this balustrade, facing the pillar of angels! So you will be here for eternity, until the cathedral collapses and you will see if my pillar is not strong enough! He has been watching ever since! In fact, he only observes, amazed that the cathedral is not only still standing, but that it has inspired the greatest authors, like Goethe for example! In fact, Strasbourg - which is the place where Gutenberg developed the tools that would allow him to invent printing - became, in the process, the stronghold of demons of all kinds, and the scene of an atrocious genocide feminine, instigated by Pope Innocent VIII. The question is: why Strasbourg? Well, it’s one of the places where the infamous “Malleus Maleficarium” was printed . It is the manual for perfect witch hunters which was written by two Dominican inquisitors, one of whom was from Sélestat. It was printed in the years between 1487 – 1488 and it is an absolutely terrible work. I had fun – if I may say so – reading it in its French version since it is in Latin, and I can tell you that it had the same effect on me as when I read the “Mein Kampf” by Adolph Hitler, that is to say something absolutely terrifying! How could we have created such a representation of the witch through all kinds of fears and beliefs that existed? And this book will serve as a manual during the trials which raged in Alsace between roughly 1550 and 1682 to identify, hunt, judge and, if necessary, torture and then execute them since witchcraft was also assimilated to heresy, that is to say doctrine not in conformity with the official faith, well it must be burned! Burning it also means completely getting rid of the presence of what is evil and harmful! … This Malleus Maleficarum would quickly become the people&#39;s bedside book! And you should know that it was one of the best-sellers of printing throughout the 16th century until I would say almost half of the 17th century, it&#39;s terrible! But what do you expect, sometimes the irrational prevails over common sense and that&#39;s where reason plays its part! Finally, alongside this witch hunt, a brand new cult would flourish in Strasbourg proposed by a certain Martin Luther, whose ideas first spread within the Protestant church of Saint-Pierre-Le- Young. And this is how the Reformed Church succeeded so well in establishing itself in Alsace. Historically there are two religions: there is the Christian religion and the Jewish religion. There are three Christian denominations and the Jewish religion alongside to be exact and there are actually four recognized religions: the Catholic cult, the Lutheran cult, the Reformed Calvinist cult, and the cult of the Alsatian Jewish community which is one can say almost as old as the Christian community in Alsace! This church, founded by Irish monks in the 11th century, will be a center of Protestant reform in Europe! And here in St Pierre-Le-Jeune, the Reformation was introduced, I was going to say before its time, because Strasbourg underwent reform in 1525 and here the parishioners went to the Städtmeister, if you like to the mayor to have a new priest, a new parish priest. And this first priest with reformist ideas was Wolfgang Capiton whose preaching, inspired by his friend Luther, was such a success that the town ended up becoming Lutheran! So if we wanted to stay in Strasbourg, well we had to become Lutheran, otherwise we had to leave Strasbourg! But after this last war of religion Louis XIV, who succeeded in annexing Alsace, tried to impose Catholic worship in Strasbourg. The problem was that everyone wanted to celebrate their worship at the same time and in the same churches, each on either side of the rood screen! What is the rood screen? : it is both a separation of the choir and the nave. There you go, this is the choir where the Catholics sat and on the other side of the rood screen which forms this sort of porch, here is the nave where the Lutherans prayed! But it is also the place where we preach, there is no pulpit yet, the pulpit will come later and the rood screen takes its name from the diaconal prayer which is still the prayer that the deacon addresses to the priest when he reads the gospel for him: “Jube dominates benedicere: please lord bless me”. Still, this rood screen has become a subject of contention! The Protestants insisted on listening to the word of God, singing it, the Catholics will insist: “You have to see the mass!” » So to see mass, we had to destroy the rood screens! Fortunately in this Protestant church, as in Germany, the rood screen was saved and therefore all the styles of its history preserved! …which gives it such a warm and special appearance. What is striking about this church is two contradictory things: the first thing when you enter you have the impression that nothing goes together, such different styles and the more you live there, the more you taste the harmony that get out of it! Yes, it is a sign that Saint-Pierre-Le-Jeune was able to welcome all the beliefs of all the peoples of Europe, including the pagan ones relayed by these Alsatian legends. Legendary traditions are stronger than religious beliefs, they transcend religious beliefs: instead of always fighting the legend, we tried to integrate it! These Protestants were clever, because it was a way of remaining in empathy with these Alsatian people who worked so hard and loved to tell each other the legends of this beautiful country after work in the fields. It was in the privacy of Alsatian homes like this one that, after the harvest, a whole bunch of spine-chilling legends were once concocted during long winter vigils! the traditional vigil took place roughly between November 1 and February 2, the period of dark nights. It&#39;s winter so there&#39;s no work outside, most of the activities are focused inside the house, we feed the livestock, we get together in the evening so often it was the neighbors who met in a place like this which is absolutely magnificent! In the reassuring hum of their stove called Stub, the Alsatians took pleasure in relaying the gossip of the moment but above all these distressing stories featuring all the artifices of the Germanic imagination which was theirs. The darkness of the forest, the cry of the wolves in the frozen night, the mysteries that hovered around the centuries-old buildings, fueled fears and unleashed all fantasies. Our next legend was born at the foot of a castle like this… From the height of its 757 meters, the Haut-Koenigsbourg fortress or “High castle of the king”, dominates the Alsace plain, the Vosges, the black forest and the town of Orschwiller. Passing through the Haut-Koenigsbourg gate means diving into the heart of the Germanic and medieval world of the legendary Alsatian. Perched since the 12th century on its rocky promontory of pink sandstone, this eagle&#39;s nest has for centuries witnessed conflicts and rivalries between lords, kings and emperors. Drawbridge, weapons room, keep and cannons are constant reminders of the vocation of this mountain fortress built by the Germanic imperial dynasty of Hohenstaufen. Besieged, pillaged, then destroyed when the famous Thirty Years War was going to offer it, with Alsace, to France, it was never inhabited again and had to wait to become German again, after the war of 70, to be restored. Indeed, William II, heir to the Hohenzollerns, endeavored to erect it from the beginning of the 20th century as a symbol of the reconquest of Alsace by the German Empire, as evidenced by this imperial eagle on the ceiling! The hero of the Wolfdietrich legend is perhaps one of the ancestors of William II... There have been many lords in Alsace, just look at the number of castles that surround us here and there , Haut-Königsbourg castle, all the castles that the devil would have brought back in his bag. In what was considered one of the most beautiful castles in the region, once lived a lord whose story would thrill the imagination of an entire people. And this lord has a daughter as beautiful as the day, she has long hair, she has big eyes like a summer sky, cheeks like flowers and he decides to protect her from all the lusts of all men . So to protect his daughter like in all the tales, this rich lord builds a high tower, and locks her at the top! Hildegonde, the beautiful one, is bored and one day some hunters come to pass through the forest and she sings at the window, and her voice attracts the handsome hunter who is there, his name is Hugues-Dietrich. When he sees the beautiful princess, he goes up to the tower and in the greatest secrecy, the two lovebirds love each other for more than a year! What had to happen happens: Hildegonde gives birth to a child. But her guilty loves do not allow her to keep him, so one evening, she regretfully decides to go to the foot of the castle, to abandon her son there, hoping that a charitable soul will be willing to take him in, but it is a she-wolf who discovers the child and takes him away to raise him with her other little ones! Fifteen years pass which allow the couple to marry and have other children and one fine day... Hugues-Dietrich the father goes into the forest to hunt, sees a pack of wolves and among them a wolf who is stands on two legs. He recognizes his son by his necklace that his mother had hung. He picks him up, brings him back to the castle, his fleece is sheared, his hair is cut, he is dressed, he is given beautiful clothes and good manners, the young boy learns to speak but he does not like the castle: his brothers nickname him “The Wolf” and when they fight it is with swords and it is to hurt each other. They do n&#39;t like this kid from the forest, they can&#39;t stand this bastard who has no legitimacy! So the one nicknamed Wolfdietrich leaves the castle forever to find his wolves in his beloved forest where he will die a hero after having slain the dragon! Since then, the Alsatians have assured that if we hear a great clash of arms in the plain of Alsace it is because a war is coming and that Wolfdietrich is arming himself to take part in the fight, and if we hears the wolves howling, they are calling for their hero. So the wolf is one of those scary animals and we will do everything to eradicate it! The last Wolves disappeared in Alsace – I don&#39;t have the exact reference in mind – but let&#39;s say at the very beginning of the 20th century! So the wolf has been present in Alsace for a very long time: we have documents of wolf hunts, and (Wolf cry)… What is happening? So ! So these wolves were very present in the history of Alsace, in people&#39;s imagination and therefore they completely disappeared! But rest assured, other myths have taken its place. At the foot of Haut-Koenigsbourg, nestles the very old little town of Sélestat, Alsatian capital of the Christmas tree... and Christmas in legendary Alsace has become like a religion in its own right! The St Georges de Sélestat church organizes an exhibition every year to attest that it was in their country that this cherished tradition of the fir tree in France was born! So the story of the Christmas tree takes us into the account registers of the town of Sélestat in 1521, just at the end of the Middle Ages, on December 21 precisely, and in this account register we learn precisely that you had to pay the municipal forest guards 4 shillings to go and monitor the Wihnachtemeyen in the purest Alsatian dialect, these are the festive trees of the festival, 3 days before Christmas. At the time it was St. Thomas&#39; Day and my grandmother was the same: I could only see the tree on Christmas Day and go cut it down 3 days before Christmas. So that means that the Alsatians had gotten into the habit of going to cut down fir trees in the forest at that time! Of course before there were a few fir branches that appeared, fir trees on church squares then in churches, but in humble homes it was from that time on and to this day it is the oldest written mention known to the world! And so, the particularity is that at the end of the Middle Ages, it is an Alemannic version, we are in a large Rhine region where the tradition on both sides of the Rhine is the same: “…” this is what the text tells us and thanks to the historians that I am not, we actually learn that we had to watch these festival trees! But long before men celebrated Christmas, what they celebrated was quite simply the return of light, yes! At the time, imagine, the peasants did not understand what was happening to them: the days were getting shorter, the nights were getting longer, but what would become of their harvests and the fruit of their work on the land if the sun disappeared? And that&#39;s why we found a small green tree, always green in the heart of winter and why we decided to bring it into homes, certainly initially with small branches and that we &#39;put in homes with branches as in Roman times. Even on the Celts&#39; side, where there is mistletoe, where we allude to these trees with evergreen foliage, and that&#39;s all the magic of this Christmas time: hope must remain, that light must come in! And that&#39;s why for practitioners, Christmas time was also set a few days after the winter solstice, December 25, because for practitioners, their light is the little one who will be born! Okay, that&#39;s good, I think we pretty much understand, but a riddle remains: why did you hang your trees from the ceiling? Well quite simply because we learn through the writings that we have discovered including notebooks , songs from the time at the end of the Middle Ages here in Sélestat but also elsewhere in Alsace, that on the tree we initially hung apples, the small red apple which reaches maturity around December. But in Alsace we also hung the famous “Wihnachts Bredele” the little Christmas cakes, the ones that the children loved to eat! So obviously food on the Christmas tree: you can imagine that at that time, well it&#39;s a truth of the Palice, the houses much less well insulated than today, therefore the small rodents from France and Navarre took great pleasure in entering homes and nibbling what was on the Christmas tree! Let&#39;s never forget that the gift for children at that time was what was on the tree: the famous Christmas cupcakes or apples! Another reason is that the rooms were much less spacious than today so it was hung from the ceiling so that the children could shake it and in 1601 the children in the town of Sélestat were invited to shake their Christmas tree and what fell into their little basket was their Christmas present! And traditionally, who brings gifts to Protestant children in Alsace? Saint Nicholas, aka Santa Claus? In Alsace, it is not Santa Claus who brings gifts but the Christkindel: literally the child Jesus! And this child Jesus, curiously enough, is a kind of female angel dressed in white with a crown, he is often accompanied by another character that the French would call the whipping father, but who here we call Hans Trapp! And Hans Trapp, can we know who he is? He is a character who existed, a historical character who was called Hans Von Trotta, a lord who lived in a castle called Berwartstein Castle, which is on the German side in the Palatinate, and this lord played very bad tricks on the town of Wissenbourg! He is bothered in every possible way and after his death, mothers when the children were not good would tell their children: “If you are not good, Hans Von Trotha will come and get you, which would have given Hans Trapp! In any case it is a character who often wears a fur coat, who sometimes has horns! In short, the prospect of being carried away by Hans Trapp into the forest was certainly a deterrent for the children of Alsace! It is so that the human being, the little one, has a backbone to enter life, to enter death and to enter the mystery of human existence with an attitude that is worthy of the human condition! Yes, yes, but you know in Alsace we like fairy tales, we are a bit romantic and Christkindel always wins over Hans Trapp! And we know precisely when this tradition of Christkindel in Alsace was born! Indeed, we know exactly in what context the Christkindel was born, it was in the Protestant Strasbourg of the 16th century: 1529 the city of Strasbourg underwent the Lutheran Reformation and children continued to be told that it was St Nicholas who brought the gifts since it is celebrated on December 6, and the day before December 6 it was St Nicholas himself who came to deliver the gifts! And here comes 1570, a pastor named Johan Fliener and he rails against Saint-Nicolas saying listen: &quot;Saint-Nicolas is not noted anywhere in the gospels&quot;, it&#39;s true, it&#39;s a character who lived afterwards. He will say: “There you go, from now on we must no longer say that it is Saint Nicholas, Saint Niklaus who brings the gifts but das Kriskindle. Why because it is this child Christ who is the central message of Christmas, which is on the biblical level completely correct: you know that the Reformers Martin Luther and also John Calvin and others had this concern to return to the original texts: the Bible, nothing but the Bible! However, far from the biblical texts, one legend among all would make the hearts of Alsatians beat in unison, that of a young girl so pious and generous, that the people would make her their heroine: this princess was called Odile ! Of course she is celebrated particularly in the Catholic religion, but I don&#39;t know many Protestants who have never been to Mont Sainte-Odile, who have never been to the Chapelle des Larmes, who have not been to her tomb, finally, there is something very popular and very legendary at the same time. He is a very important character since he is associated with a superb mountain which is Mont dit Sainte-Odile, from where we have an exceptional view of the Alsace plain. Since it is perched on the Vosges mountain range! In fact, it is the magical place of a story that is no less magical! Here then, dating back to the year 660, is our last legend! Once upon a time in these places, in the heart of the castle of Hohenburg, a terrible lord who had just had his first child: a daughter... And so Odile was probably born here right where Adalric her father had installed the heart of military power, of the political power of this emerging Alsace. Perched on a plateau culminating at almost 800 meters in height, Adalric Castle reigned over this ancient Celtic place of worship. According to legend, it was already set in this incredible 11km fortification wall and made up of 300,000 cyclopean blocks which immediately discouraged any invader from attacking the fortress! It is an enormous wall which is built with large stones which were held by wooden dovetails, the location of which can still be seen and it is a monument which fascinates because there are a whole bunch of interpretations that revolve around that and it really is an absolutely magnificent place, Mont Sainte-Odile, I understand that it has become, I would say, the sacred mountain of Alsace. And so Sainte-Odile, ultimately on a historical level we know relatively little , as is often the case, on the other hand the legend around Sainte-Odile is absolutely extraordinary! Well, let&#39;s return to our story straight from the mists of the Alsatian imagination! … Odile comes into the world, she is blind! Great curse for his father: first a daughter, also blind, he considers this birth as a curse and despite the intervention of Bereswinde, his wife therefore Odile&#39;s mother, well he demands either death or exfiltration and that&#39;s what&#39;s going to happen! The blind child is therefore entrusted to a nurse who takes her, even before she is baptized, to a monastery in Balma in Doubs. She grew up there, until the day God sent her her savior in the form of a certain Irish missionary bishop. Ehrhardt of Regensburg, the bishop has an inner expression which tells him: “You must go to Balme, it is there that you will meet a young blind girl, you will baptize her! &quot;, this is what the bishop does and at the moment when the bishop with Holy Chrism marks Odile&#39;s forehead, her eyes open and sight is given to her! In Alsace, we always represent it with a book like that and two eyes on it, that&#39;s how we identify it. Becoming a clairvoyant, Odile grows up and one fine day and despite the ban from their terrible father Adalric, she convinces her young brother Hugo to bring her back to the family castle, but there... Aldalric flies into a mad rage and with a very muscular blow, he knocks out his son and this blow will lead him to death! He immediately regrets it, but it&#39;s too late! He allows Odile to live in Hohenburg, he will not speak to her and he entrusts her to a Scotti, to a nun. He was aware of his very bad character, but deep down, without admitting it, he was looking for to earn his salvation. As for Odile, she even began to impress him with her qualities of heart. One morning she crosses the courtyard – I don’t know if it was a better night than Adalric had spent – that day he says to her “But my daughter – miracle he speaks to her you imagine – what are you doing ? She said: Well, I&#39;m going to take my pot of flour to a poor person! And Adalric is completely overwhelmed by the generosity of this girl who had nothing, who gives the little she has, and it is through this kindness that Odile converts the heart of Adalric, who decides to give her Hohenburg what would later become Mont Sainte-Odile, but also with all the properties: there were villages, it was not just a piece of land, but it was a whole whole! And so Odile takes the keys and management of all these properties. Her relationship with her father is peaceful and when he dies, she prays to free his soul, but she will not be alone, canonesses from Brittany and Scotland soon join her to help her take care of the invalids of the region. But at the time there were not these paths that we have now: you had to go through the forest, etc. and the crippled, the lame when they arrived here were completely exhausted. What does Odile decide? To build a lower monastery in Niedermunster, where waters abounded, where the climate was much better than here on the heights and therefore there will be a lower monastery! Which is unfortunately now in ruins. Finally, in the face of all the obvious proof of Odile&#39;s dedication, her admirers at the time, more and more numerous, will begin to build her legend, just as she worked to build refuge monasteries for them ! And this is essentially what we are saying... And so one day she will perform a miracle: she meets a man who is terribly thirsty and the sandstone rocks are there, there is no spring flowing and so out of compassion by charity, she goes with her abbess staff, hits the rock and there is a spring that will start to flow. This spring still flows, it is said that it is a miraculous spring which cures eye diseases. And we began to carefully collect this water so that later it could be brought up to this little chapel called “Tears”! Symbolically, it is in this place, in this cavity, that Odile would have cried with all her tears and her tears would have dug this cavity until she had the feeling that Adalric was freed. See the legend, it’s the meaning that is fundamental! These are not stories or nonsense, but they are what allows us to enter into Odile&#39;s life and grasp its meaning. So history, the big story, is made up of little stories, and the little stories are made up of legends, and the word “legend” is one could saying this is what needs to be said! And in the Middle Ages, well, truth did not necessarily merge with historical reality, but it went beyond it! To the point that it is said that Odile&#39;s spring also has the power of premonition! I&#39;m just telling you an anecdote that happened to me, one day I was at this spring, I like it when I can go to Mont Sainte-Odile and I always go to this spring, and then there were two ladies who were filling bottles with water from the Sainte-Odile spring which is just at the foot of the monastery. And these ladies are discussing, I am there, I listen a little by chance then one says to the other: “You know that this source announces the future? And the other says Ah well, but what do you mean? Well listen, it is said that every time it dries up or almost stops flowing, it announces misfortune! And imagine that just before the First World War, it stopped flowing, and just before the start of the Second World War it also stopped flowing, so this source in its own way announces the future! ” But had Odile planned hers? Two centuries after his death, his admirers came from the Ruhr and then from all over Europe to celebrate his worship on this sublime mountain where pagans and pilgrims of all faiths now gather . Odile is a figure of a European woman and a &quot;pontif&quot; isn&#39;t she: she built bridges between peoples and even today in Russia or in Prague or elsewhere, the cult of Odile is extremely alive! So what is there to see? There are the forests, the trails, I believe that we must know how to absorb all this natural heritage which makes Mont Sainte-Odile a cosmic cathedral, where sky and earth communicate in a marvelous exchange. But there are also these beautiful villages, these cool valleys, don&#39;t you think, with the vineyards and everything that that entails, I believe that everything contributes to highlighting Mont Sainte-Odile. The sacred mountain of the patron saint of Alsace, the Germanic castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg, the medieval cathedral of Strasbourg, all these legendary places, by entering history, have captured the Alsatian imagination! All Alsatian tales are linked to places and historical events, many, often, this is why there is always a grain of truth in the stories and why in Alsace, they are very present: each legend , each story is linked to a place! I think that the particularity of Alsace is that its culture is nourished by both this Germanic aspect, I do not say German because Germany is a modern creation, but the imagination, the Germanic legends, the Germanic thought, Germanic romanticism, the Germanic way of being and there is also something of French influence in any case since the annexation of Strasbourg and then Alsace in 1681-1683! Alsace is the daughter of history and not of geography. This Alsace has a very complex, very eventful history! To be Alsatian for me is to be steeped in both cultures, to live in Alsace and to be a fervent believer in Europe and a supporter of peace! I believe that Alsace and the Alsatian soul reveal what human perfection should be! In all humility! You are right my father, you are never better served than by yourself! That’s what makes legends so special! And those of Alsace undeniably maintain a very special Rhineland mystique! In old France as they say, well we are white or black, but here, it&#39;s not quite like that, ultimately we like the fog!

Transcript for:The Legends of Alsace

Transcript for:
The Legends of Alsace