Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Naughty Little Jug
Category: Object
The Myth
Saint Teutbert was a holy hermit who had travelled from Scotland to spread Christianity. In his old age, he settled among the ruins of the former Roman city of Vindonissa, near present-day Brugg in Aargau, Switzerland. There he built a small chapel and a humble hut beside the River Aare, where he spent thirty years living a life of prayer, humility, and renunciation. One evening, as the setting sun bathed his hut in golden light, Teutbert reflected on his long life of hardship and devotion. Believing that he had overcome his sins and could no longer be tempted into wrongdoing, he imagined that he was ready to enter Heaven peacefully.
His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a beautiful young maiden carrying a small earthenware jug. She confessed that her only fault was occasionally teasing people, and Teutbert gently advised her to abandon this mischief. Before leaving, she offered him the jug as a gift, explaining that it might make collecting water from the distant stream easier. Teutbert initially refused, saying that he had served others without payment and had drawn water with his bare hands for thirty years. After the maiden left, however, he found the jug outside his door and decided to accept it. He filled it with water and returned to his hut, delighted by the convenience of his new possession.
The jug soon began to misbehave. Whenever Teutbert placed it on the windowsill, it tipped over and spilled its water. He tried adjusting its position with stones, then hung it from a nail in the wall, but it still fell and flooded his hut during a violent thunderstorm. Frustrated and thirsty, he eventually forgot his morning prayers and Mass in his determination to make the jug stand upright. He gathered clay from the forest and moulded a firm base around it, but the jug shook itself loose and spilled its water once more. Enraged, Teutbert smashed it against the wall, shattering it into pieces.
At that moment, his hut blazed with heavenly light, and a voice rebuked him. Teutbert had believed that pride, anger, and every other vice had been banished from his heart, yet a troublesome little jug had been enough to make him abandon his religious duties and surrender to wrath. Overcome with remorse, the hermit fell to his knees and repented. After a long period of penance, he eventually died in blessed peace, having learned that even a lifetime of devotion cannot make a person immune to pride and anger. The legend teaches that humility must be maintained throughout life and that patience is a virtue tested most clearly by seemingly insignificant frustrations.
Sources
“Schlimme Krüglein” (Bad Little Jug). SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/allgemein/schlimme_krueglein.html