Legends -- Rhine River; Legends -- Rhine River Valley
Early next morning as the bishop was going to mass, he noticed the
scoffers' malicious work. He stood silently looking at the wheels, the
chaplain by his side expecting every moment that the reverend prelate
would burst forth in a terrible rage. But a gay smile spread over the
bishop's features and, ordering a painter to be sent to him, he told
him to paint white wheels on a scarlet back-ground, visible to every
eye, just where the chalk wheels had been drawn, and underneath to
paint the words, "Willigis! Willigis! just think what you have risen
from." But he did not stop there. He ordered the wheelwright to make
him a plough-wheel, and caused it to be placed over his couch in
memory of his extraction.
Thereafter the scoffers were put to silence, and the people of Mayence
began to honour and esteem their worthy bishop, who, though he had
been so exalted, possessed such honest common-sense.
White wheels on a red ground have been the arms of the Bishops of
Mayence ever since.
JOHANNISBERG
Wherever the German tongue is heard, and even further still, the king
of all Rhine wines, "Johannisberger" is known and sought after. Every
friend of the grape which grows on the banks of this river is well
acquainted with it, but few perhaps know of its princely origin. It is
princely, not because princes' hands once kept the key to
Johannisberg, but rather because princely hands planted the vine in
the Rhine country, and this royal giver was no other than Charlemagne,
the all-powerful ruler of the kingdom of the Franks.
Once in early spring Charles the Great was standing on the balcony of
his castle at Ingelheim, his eyes straying over the beautiful stretch
of country at his feet. Snow had fallen during the night, and the
hills of Ruedesheim were clothed in white. As the imperial ruler was
looking thoughtfully over the landscape, he noticed that the snow on
one side of Johannisberg melted quicker in the sun's rays than on any
other part. Charles, who was a great and deep thinker, began to
reflect that on a spot where the rays of the sun shone so genially,
something better than grass would thrive.
Sending for Kunrat, his faithful servant, he bade him saddle his horse
the next day at dawn and ride to Orleans, a town famous for its good
wine. He was to inform the citizens that the emperor had not forgotten
the excellent wine they had given him there, and that he would like to
grow the same vines on the Rhine. He desired the citizens of Orleans
therefore to send him plants from their country.
The messenger set off to do the king's bidding and ere the moon had
again gone round her course, was back in the castle at Ingelheim.
Great satisfaction prevailed at court. Charles, mighty ruler as he
was, even went so far as to cross to Ruedesheim, where he planted with
his royal hand the French vine in German soil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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