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Zirkelstein und Kaiserkrone – legends
Legend Rübezahl’s teeth
The mountain spirit Rübezahl is said to have come over from the Giant Mountains once and run headfirst into a rock – which split into the Großer and the Kleiner Zschirnstein. In the process Rübezahl lost two teeth: his eye tooth is the Zirkelstein, his molar the Kaiserkrone. In the Zahngrund (Tooth Valley) near Schandau he is said to have cooled his aching jaw, and the reddish veins in the rock supposedly come from his blood. To be honest, though: Rübezahl really belongs in the Giant Mountains. As early as 1894 the legend collector Alfred Meiche wrote that a cobbler from Lohmen had tried to “smuggle” him into Saxon Switzerland in 1842 – and that the locals had rejected the hoax. It is a lovely story all the same.
Legend The plague and the Lobetänze
Below the Zirkelstein and the Kaiserkrone lies Reinhardtsdorf. Legend has it that the village was once called Fichtendorf – a name still recalled by the inn “Zu den drei Fichten” (The Three Spruces). Then the plague came and wiped it out entirely; Stolzenhain on the Fuchsbach near Cunnersdorf also perished at that time. When the dying was finally over, people in the upper part of Saxon Switzerland held a festival of thanksgiving, and that is said to be the origin of the old “Lobetänze” (dances of praise).
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