Zigzag Journeys in Northern Lands, Hezekiah Butterworth [best short novels .txt] 📗

Siegfried's body is rowed across the water

CARRYING SIEGFRIED’S BODY.

PREFACE.

This fifth volume of the Zigzag books, in which history is taught by a supposed tour of interesting places, might be called a German story-book.

It was the aim of “Zigzag Journeys in Europe” and “Zigzag Journeys in Classic Lands” to make history interesting by stories and pictures of places. It was the purpose of “Zigzag Journeys in the Orient” to explain the Eastern Question, and of “Zigzag Journeys in the Occident” to explain Homesteading in the West.

The purpose of this volume is the same as in “Europe” and “Classic Lands.” A light narrative of travel takes the reader to the places most conspicuously associated with German history, tradition, literature, and art, and in a disconnected way gives a view of the most interesting events of those Northern countries that once constituted a great part of the empire of Charlemagne.

It is the aim of these books to stimulate a love of history, and to suggest the best historical reading. To this end popular stories and pictures are freely used to adapt useful information to the tastes of the young. But in every page, story, and picture, right education and right influence are kept in view.

In this volume many German legends and fairy stories have been used, but they are so introduced and guarded as not to leave a wrong impression upon the minds of the young and immature.

H. B.

CONTENTS. Chapter Page I. The River of Story and Song 15 II. Ghost Stories 21 III. A Story-telling Journey 40 IV. German Stories 60 V. The Second Meeting of the Club 76 VI. Night Second 92 VII. Evening the Third 104 VIII. Evening the Fourth 122 IX. Fifth Meeting for Rhine Stories 145 X. Night the Sixth 165 XI. Cologne 184 XII. Hamburg 206 XIII. The Bells of the Rhine 221 XIV. The Songs of the Rhine 253 XV. Copenhagen 277 XVI. Norway 288 XVII. The Greater Rhine 309

ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Carrying Siegfried’s Body Frontispiece. Introducing Christianity into the North 16 Castle in Rhine Land 17 Tower of Rüdesheim on the Rhine 19 Mountain Scenery in Southern Germany 23 “I’ve seen de Debble” 26 Cat and Rat 27 Grandmother Golden 29 The Frightened Irishman 30 Duncan Asleep 34 Witches 35 The Grand-Ducal Castle, Schwerin 41 Ancient German Houses 43 Ancient Religious Rites of the Peasants 45 Old Fortress on the Rhine 50 St. Dunstan and the Devil 53 The Murder of Edward 58 The Emperor William and Napoleon III 63 William before his Father 64 King William’s Helmet 65 Jamie at the Strange-looking House 67 Mountain Scene in Germany 69 Jamie rushing towards his Mother 71 The Dwarf and the Goose 72 Eberhard 74 Bridge in the Via Mala 77 John Huss 79 Bismarck 81 Peter in the Forest 86 Peter and the Manikin 88 Peter surpassed the King of Dancers 89 Peter and the Giant 90 A Village in the Black Forest 93 Peasant’s House in the Black Forest 95 Von Moltke 97 Fountain at Schaffhausen 99 The Old Woman’s Directions 101 The Hen and the Trench 102 Strasburg Cathedral 103 Platform of Strasburg Cathedral 107 Thus didst thou to the Vase of Soissons 109 Street in Strasburg 111 Clovis 113 Monsieur Lacombe and the Organ 115 “Here is an Odd Treasure” 120 Palace at Heidelberg 123 German Student 126 Castle at Heidelberg 127 German Students 131 Entrance to Heidelberg Castle 135 Little Mook 137 Amputation 139 The Queer Old Lady who went to College 140 “And it told to her the Truth” 141 “Not very, very plain” 141 “They you straightway in invite” 141 “He of the Philosophie” 143 A Battle between Franks and Saxons 146 Luther’s House 147 A tribe of Germans on an Expedition 149 The Murder of Siegfried 151 Mayence 153 Bishop Hatto and the Rats 155 View on the Rhine 158 The Lorelei 159 Herman’s Eyes were fixed on the Rock 163 Ehrenbreitstein 166 Goethe’s Promenade 167 Faust Signing 171 Faust and Mephistopheles 172 A Cleft in the Mountains 175 Voltaire 179 The Unnerved Hussar 182 Cathedral of Cologne 185 The Mysterious Architect 189 St. Martin’s Church, Cologne 193 Charlemagne in the School of the Palace 197 Charlemagne inflicting Baptism upon the Saxons 201 The Germans on an Expedition 203 Canal in Hamburg 207 The Palace in Berlin 209 Grotto 211 Sans-Souci 213 Peter the Wild Boy 217 The Silent Castles 223 Hotel de Ville, Ghent 225 Bell-Tower, Ghent 228 Bell Tower of Heidelberg 229 Breslau 233 Finishing the Bell 236 At the Inn 237 The Day of Execution 238 Above the Town 241 Old Peasant Costume 244 The Old City 245 Old Peasant Costume 247 Old Peasant Costumes 248 City Gate 249 The Neckar 250 An Old German Town 255 The Rhinefels 257 Mayence in the Olden Time 262 Beethoven’s Home at Bonn 268 A City of the Rhine 271 The River of Song 274 The Palace of Rosenborg 278 View of Copenhagen 279 Palace of Fredericksborg 283 The King in the Bag 286 Gustavus Adolphus 289 Death of Gustavus and his Page 293 Cascade in Norway 297 Lazaretto 299 The Naero Fiord 300 Lake in Norway 303 The Coast 307 Niagara Falls 311 A New England in the West 315 Near Quebec 317

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS
IN
NORTHERN LANDS. CHAPTER I. THE RIVER OF STORY AND SONG.

THE Rhine! River of what histories, tragedies, comedies, legends, stories, and songs! Associated with the greatest events of the history of Germany, France, and Northern Europe; with the Rome of Cæsar and Aurelian; with the Rome of the Popes; with the Reformation; with the shadowy goblin lore and beautiful fairy tales of the twilight of Celtic civilization that have been evolved through centuries and have become the household stories of all enlightened lands!

A journey down the Rhine is like passing through wonderland; wild stories, quaint stories, legendary and historic stories, are associated with every rood of ground from the Alps to the ocean. It is a region of the stories of two thousand years. The Rhine is the river of the poet; its banks are the battle-fields of heroes; its forests and villages the fairy lands of old.

When Rome was queen of the world, Cæsar carried his eagles over the Rhine; Titus sent a part of his army which had conquered Jerusalem to the Rhine; Julian erected a fortress on the Rhine; and Valentinian began the castle-building that was to go on for a thousand years.