Tradition: Austrian Mythology
Alternative Names: Black Hare, Schwarzer Hase
Category: Rabbit
The Myth
The Black Rabbit is a demonic hare from legends around Linz and Kleinmünchen in Upper Austria. It appears as a coal-black rabbit with glowing red eyes and is believed to be the Devil in animal form, coming to claim the souls of the wicked.
One autumn, during threshing at the old Rauchbauernhäusl in Heilham, a neighbouring farmhand joked that he could hang himself using nothing more than a straw. A maid challenged him to prove it, insisting that the others cut him down immediately if he could no longer breathe. The reckless man found a particularly long, sturdy straw, tied it to a beam, and hanged himself.
At that very moment, the black hare raced through the threshing floor. The farmer, his wife, the farmhand, and the maid all chased after the strange animal, forgetting the man hanging from the beam. When they finally returned, exhausted and unsuccessful, they found the farmhand dead. The black hare had served as a distraction while the Devil claimed his victim. The old farmhouse, already partly ruined, was eventually destroyed by lightning, but the story of the black hare remained in local memory.
Sources
“Der schwarze Hase” (The Black Hare). SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/oesterreich/oberoesterreich/linz/derschwarzehase.html