Rübezahl, the Spirit of the Mountains – a Karkonosze legend

High in the Karkonosze, above the forests and meadows, there has reigned since time out of mind the Spirit of the Mountains – the capricious lord of the peaks whom the Poles called Liczyrzepa, the Germans Rübezahl, and the Czechs Krakonoš. He can take any shape: a monk, a charcoal-burner, an old huntsman with a staff – and when angered, he can raise a storm, send down fog and hail. To honest folk he is kind; the proud and the mocking he punishes. Most of all he cannot bear to be laughed at over his name – and that name has a story.

They say that long ago the Spirit of the Mountains saw a princess of Świdnica bathing in a mountain pool and fell hopelessly in love. He carried her off to his underground, enchanted garden deep in the mountains, where flowers bloomed in every season and treasures gleamed. He gave her all she desired – but the princess pined for home and for human company.

To cheer her, the Spirit gave her an enchanted wand with which she could turn ordinary turnips from the field into living companions. But each of them withered and wilted like a vegetable pulled from the soil. Then the cunning princess hit upon a plan.

„Go to the field," she asked him, „and count for me every single turnip, so I may know how many companions I can still have."

The Spirit, eager to please her, dutifully went out and began to count: one turnip, a second, a third... And as the turnips were beyond number and some kept slipping from his reckoning, he began again and again from the start. Meanwhile the princess turned one of the turnips into a swift horse and galloped from the mountains towards home. When the Spirit at last finished his count and returned – the chambers were empty.

He flew into a rage that shook the peaks. And the people in the valleys, hearing how the mighty lord of the mountains had stood counting turnips in a field, gave him a mocking nickname: Rübezahl – „the one who counts turnips". From it, many centuries later, the writer Stanisław Bełza coined the Polish name Liczyrzepa. And that is why, to this day, the Spirit of the Mountains cannot abide being called so – whoever wants his favour should speak of him with respect: the Lord of the Mountains.