It's my favorite time of the year! (Or it would be if I wasn't dreading the endless darkness of European winter.)
So does anyone have any close encounters of the paranormal kind from your trips to Europe? Or just learned of any fascinating ghostly tales? I have a few, but I'll share my favorite one, retold in my own words (no nitpicking, please. It's a legend!)
In the late 15th century, there was an honest and humble postman in Stuttgart by the name of Michel. One of his routes was from Stuttgart to Esslingen, 10 miles away along the banks of the Neckar river. One day on his route, Michel stopped to water his horse and saw something sparkling on the ground. It was a glorious ring, gold, with rubies and emeralds - quite possibly worth his salary for a decade.
Michel decided he'd try to find the owner of this ring, but first he had to complete his route, so he rode on to Esslingen, dismounting at the old Fischmarkt, blowing his horn so the citizens would come collect their mail. He then retired to a cozy Weinstube where he started showing the ring, hoping one of the citizens would help him locate the owner.
Of course, in a medieval city like Esslingen, a tale like this spreads like wildfire. Soon dozens of onlookers were passing the ring around when a man burst through the door. "Let me see that ring!" he demanded.
Sure enough, the initials in the ring were that of his uncle, a wealthy Stuttgart patrician who'd been found murdered 2 years prior.
"Murderer!" shouted the nephew. "You thought you could murder my uncle and lie low until the time was right, but we haven't forgotten his grisly death! Arrest that man!"
And so poor Michel was taken to the Wolfstor (Wolf's Tower, still exists) and imprisoned. Then tortured. In the middle ages, there was no presumption of innocence. They believed an innocent person could withstand torture to prove their innocence, but we know today that anyone will confess under such barbaric treatments, whether they committed the crime or not.
After days of agony, Michel falsely confessed to the murder of the wealthy Stuttgarter and was sentenced to the relatively honorable and painless execution by the sword. Sounds bad, but there were worse ways to go.
Because Michel was well-known and loved in his community, many protested his death sentence, and even the Esslingen executioner suddenly found himself ill, so the Stuttgart executioner was called in to do the deed. But on account of Michel's status, he was allowed a last request. He requested to ride his horse from the Marktplatz in Stuttgart to the execution site in Esslingen, and before he walked up the scaffold, he blew his round postman's horn one more time and declared, "I am innocent of his crime. In fact, the guilty person is here in this crowd, and neither he, nor I, will have any rest until he confesses his grievous sin."
And then he laid his head on the chopping block and it was promptly separated from his body by the sword.
As soon as this happened, an unworldly sound, not unlike that of the postman's horn, was heard by the assembled crowd. Then all was silent.
One year late, on the 29th of September, the Stuttgart executioner was roused from bed by the sound of a strange horn. He saw a ghostly figure on the Marktplatz. Rubbing his eyes in disbelief, he could see the postman blowing his horn - from a head cradled in his arm. The headless horseman then took off, riding towards Esslingen, blowing his horn all the way.
The nephew of the murdered patrician heard it too, that year, and the next, and the year after that. He left Esslingen, because he dreaded that midnight rider, traveling all over Europe in a vain attempt to escape that horn. It was no use - it followed him, every year, no matter where he was, although it also tormented the citizens of Esslingen and Stuttgart who all witnessed an innocent man being put to death.