Tradition / Region: Luxembourg Mythology
Alternate Names: Reckingen Gnome, The Helper of Peter
Category: Gnome
The Myth
In a municipal forest near Mersch, between Reckingen and Hohlfels, there stands a rock grotto about twenty meters above the road from Mersch to Ansemburg. Long ago, gnomes were said to live there, and the rock is still called Wichtelcheslê, the Gnome’s Little Rock.
The people of the nearby villages regularly left food at the entrance to the grotto, though they never saw the gnomes during the day. At night, however, the little beings repaid the kindness. They worked the fields of those who fed them, and those without fields would find piles of firewood placed before their doors in the morning as a sign of gratitude.
At that same time, a hermit lived between Schönfels and Marienthal. He was beloved by the people, for he gave good advice and helped the sick whenever their illness could be cured. The gnomes supplied him with healing herbs, which he boiled in water drawn from the Hunnebur spring, a source believed to possess special healing powers, particularly for ailments of the eyes and skin.
Not far away, at Hohlfels Castle, lived a man named Steinhart. He had once been a servant to the lords of Hohlfels and had saved his master’s life at great risk. As a reward, he had been granted the castle and its lands for his lifetime. Yet he proved as hard as his name implied. Often drunk and violent, he made himself feared by all. He especially resented the hermit and the gnomes, because they were loved and respected throughout the region.
One day he struck the hermit with a stick, and the holy man barely escaped. Realizing he could no longer remain in his hermitage, the hermit fled to a rock grotto near Schönfels that connected by a hidden passage to the gnome cave at Wichtelcheslê. Though many knew he still lived nearby, people pretended he had vanished so Steinhart would not pursue him.
Unable to find the hermit, Steinhart decided instead to hunt the gnomes and drive them away. Although the entrance to their grotto was known, no one except the hermit could reach them, for a rock blocked the passage and could only be opened with a special device. The gnomes also had other secret exits unknown to anyone else.
One evening, Steinhart climbed onto a rock under which he had often seen small tracks. In the moonlight he finally saw the gnomes below, and among them, to his astonishment, the hermit himself. Hoping to crush them, he pushed down a heavy stone he had brought for the purpose. The stone missed its mark. The effort caused him to lose his balance, and he fell from the rock, shattering his body among the gnomes below.
Though mortally wounded, he still cursed them. The hermit urged him to reconcile himself with God, but Steinhart mocked him, declaring that he would rather become as hard as stone, true to his name. The hermit warned him to beware lest his wish be granted. As death approached, Steinhart begged that if he died there, they should carry him back to the rock from which he had fallen, where he would become stone if the hermit’s God truly had such power. After speaking these words, he died.
The gnomes carried his body back to the rock and seated him there with his back against the rise. When they returned the next day, they found only a stone in his place. From that time on, they avoided the spot. No one but the hermit and the gnomes knew what had happened to Steinhart. Years later, as the hermit lay dying, he revealed the story, but he died before he could name the exact place of the fall. In time, the gnomes themselves vanished from the region.
The narrator of the tale later claimed that in the area there still stands a solitary rock resembling a man, with a head, eyes, and a pointed hat. It is said to be Steinhart, turned to stone. Around the mountain, springs run down the slopes, and their waters petrify wood, grass, and moss.
Gallery
Sources
Bestiary.us contributors. (n.d.). Eterari. In Bestiary.us, from https://www.bestiary.us/eterari/
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive
Other
- How to Invite The Gnome of Wichtelcheslê