The Unholdenhof

In the days of Maximilian the First, Emperor of Germany, there was a

forester attached to the Court, who was a real “Unhold” (or monster),

of almost supernatural bodily strength, and so much so that he was

generally regarded as a giant. After the Emperor’s death, the forester

left the Court with his only son, who was in every degree the image of

his father, and went into the parish of Kreith, in which, since that

time, fourteen peasants have built their farms, which, for the most

part, are all situated on the Middle Mountain, above the rivers Sill

and Rutz, between meadows, uplands, and forests. At the bottom of the

valley the whirr of a “Säge,” _i.e._ a saw-mill, is constantly to be

heard, which stands on the bridge over the Klausbach, over which the

roads lead on into the Stubeithal.

There a beautiful spring, well protected by a statue of the holy

Nepomuk, offers refreshment and rest to the tired traveller, and about

half a mile further on, the road divides into two, and the left-hand

branch leads off into a charming mountain-path, on each side of which

lies a magnificent forest of Alpine firs and pines, and after a quarter

of an hour’s ascent, one arrives at a rich and thriving farm, which

comprises in its possessions an ancient chapel; but with all this it

bears a very bad name, and is called the “Unholdenhof” (or monster

farm).

It was on this self-same spot that the forester and his son took up

their abode, and they became the dread and abomination of the whole

surrounding country, for they practised, partly openly and partly in

secret, the most manifold iniquities, so that their nature and bearing

grew into something demoniacal. As quarrellers very strong, and as

enemies dreadfully revengeful, they showed their diabolical nature by

the most inhuman deeds, which brought down injury, not only on those

against whom their wrath was directed, but also upon their families for

centuries. In the heights of the mountains they turned the beds of the

torrents, and devastated by this means the most flourishing tracts of

land; on other places, the Unholde set on fire whole mountain-forests,

to allow free room for the avalanches to rush down and overwhelm the

farms. Through certain means they cut holes and fissures in the rocks,

in which, during the summer, quantities of water collected, which froze

in the winter, and then in the spring the thawing ice split the rocks,

which then rolled down into the valleys, destroying everything before

them. Some of these terrific rock-falls prepared by them ensued only

some forty or fifty years afterwards.

Through these iniquitous deeds, they gained the dreaded name of

Unholde, which has descended to their abode to the present day; but

at last Heaven’s vengeance reached them. An earthquake threw the

forester’s house into ruins, wild mountain torrents tore over it, and

thunderbolts set all around it in a blaze; and by fire and water, with

which they had sinned, father and son perished, and were condemned to

everlasting torments. Up to the present day, they are to be seen at

nightfall on the mountain, in the form of two fiery boars.

A better generation has built a new farm upon the same spot on which

the old Unholdenhof used to stand; but, against their wish and will,

the new house has kept up the old name, which sometimes changes into

that of Starkenhof, because the wicked foresters were also called “die

Starken” (the strong ones).

The old peasant Hohlenbauer, who still is living in the village

of Mutters, can recount to the traveller a great deal about the

Unholdenhof; and, among other things, he would tell him how one day the

forester, in his stupidity, sold valuable parchments to a child’s-drum

maker of Innsbruck, who, as stupid as he of whom he had bought them,

erased the writing with a stone, and covered little drums with the

priceless documents.