The Nixie of the Mummel-lake

The legend of the nixie of Seebach is one of gloom and tragedy, albeit as charming as most of the Rhine tales.

It was the custom among the young people of Seebach to assemble of an evening in the spinning-room, which on the occasion about to be dealt with was in the house of the richest and most distinguished family in the country.  The girls spun and laughed and chatted, while the youths hung about their chairs and cracked jokes with them.  One evening while they were thus employed there came among them a stranger, a young lady beautifully clad and carrying an ivory spinning-wheel.  With becoming modesty she asked to be allowed to join the company, which permission the simple youths and maidens readily accorded.  None was more eager to do honour to the new-comer than the son of their host.  While the others were still gaping in awestruck fashion, he quietly fetched her a chair and performed various little services for her.  She received his attentions so graciously that a warmer feeling than courtesy sprang up in his heart for the fair spinner.

He was in truth a handsome lad, whose attentions any maid might have been proud to receive.  Well-built and slender, he bore himself with a proud carriage, and the expression on his delicate features was grave and thoughtful beyond his years.  When at length the fair visitor departed, he loitered disconsolate and restless, listening to the idle surmises of the peasant youths concerning the identity of the lady, but offering no opinion himself.  On the following day at the same hour she again appeared and, seeing her cavalier of the previous day, smiled and bowed to him.  The young man glowed with pleasure, and diffidently renewed his attentions.  Day after day the lady of the spinning-wheel joined the company, and it was noted that the girls were brighter and more diligent, and the young men more gentle and courteous, for her coming.  It was whispered among them that she was a nixie from the Mummel-lake far under the mountains, for never mortal was so richly endowed with beauty and grace.  As time went on the son of the house grew more and more melancholy as his love for the fair unknown became deeper.  Only during the brief hour of her visit would he show any cheerfulness.  All the rest of the day he would mope in silent wretchedness.  His friends saw with distress the change which had come over him, but they were powerless to alter matters.  The lady could not be persuaded to remain beyond her usual hour, nor to give any hint of her identity.

One day, thinking to prolong her visit, the young man put back the hands of the clock.  When the hour drew near for her to depart, he slipped out of the house so that he might follow her and find out where she lived.  When the hour struck, the lady, who seemed to have feared that she was late, walked hastily from the house in the direction of the lake.  So quickly did she walk that the youth following in her path could scarcely keep pace with her.  She did not pause when she reached the shore, but plunged directly into the water.  A low, moaning sound rose from the waves, which boiled and bubbled furiously, and the young man, fearing that some evil had befallen the maid, sprang in after her, but the cruel currents dragged him down, and he sank out of sight.