Tradition / Region: Liechtenstein Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Dog
The Myth
The St. Mamerten Hound appears as a dog with fiery eyes that sits upon a chest of gold inside the church of St. Mamerten, preventing it from being taken.
One evening, a young man from Triesen went into the church of St. Mamerten to pray. Suddenly, a spirit appeared to him and said that if he wanted to become rich, he should return at midnight with two other young men. He would see a chest full of gold, and on it would sit a dog. If they threw the dog down, all the gold would belong to them.
The next evening, the young man returned with two friends, and they knelt one behind the other in the pews. When the church bell struck midnight, the chest with the dog appeared. The young man in the front pew stood up and tried to throw the animal down, but it leaped up, stared at him with fiery eyes, barked and howled, and jumped from one side of the chest to the other. He called for help, and the second came, but he also failed. They then called the third, but he said in a trembling voice that he was afraid.
At that moment, they heard a piercing scream, and the dog and the chest disappeared. The spirit that had first appeared returned, wept, and cried out that he must now wait another hundred years before he could ask someone for help again.
It became completely dark in the church, and the friends could not move and had to remain inside until the sexton came to ring the morning bell.
Gallery
Sources
Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Beaked Dog. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1069207156.html
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