Tradition: German Mythology
Alternative Names: Das weiße Reh
Category: Deer
The Myth
The White Roe is a milky-white deer that appears near a spring at the Hasensprung, a height near Baden in Baden. The spring emerges quietly from old masonry beneath an oak in a somewhat wild rocky woodland. It flows particularly strongly during the full moon and less strongly as the moon wanes.
One morning at first light, a young man came into the woodland and saw a milky-white roe grazing on a meadow filled with flowers. The strange animal greatly fascinated him.
“I must have it!” he thought. He quietly crept toward the White Roe and stretched out his trembling hand, overcome with desire to capture it. But the deer suddenly ran toward the spring. At the edge of the spring lay a maiden with extraordinarily beautiful features, resting her head beside the water.
The young man remained motionless, staring in astonishment at the lovely apparition. He did not know what to do. Fear urged him to flee, yet the beauty of the maiden held him spellbound.
“What am I doing?” he quietly asked himself.
The maiden then waved to him, turning backward as though looking around her. The young man looked again, but there was nothing there. When he turned around once more, both the milky-white roe and the beautiful maiden had disappeared.
Only the quiet spring remained to greet him.
Sources
Gottschalck, Friedrich. “Das weiße Reh.” In Die Sagen und Volksmährchen der Deutschen. Halle, 1814. Originally citing Schreiber, Beschreibung von Baden, Heidelberg, 1811, p. 188. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/deutschland/allgemein/gottschalck/dasweissereh.html