LEGENDS OF RUBEZAHL.
Rubezahl belongs to that class of demons to whom fancy has assigned the forests and solitary places as a fit abode. He is, however, distinguished from all the other members of the family by certain very peculiar traits; those spirits who haunt Shakspeare’s lonely forests, in the twilight of the world of dreams—in the Midsummer’s Night’s Dream for example, and As you like it—are little, spiritful fays, who indulge in every species of gleesome revelry,—but Rubezahl, the lord of the mountain, delights to exhibit himself in gigantic forms, the sole monarch of a large, wild tract of mountainous country. As all the tales of the Giant Mountains are founded on the existence of this capricious sprite, they do not exhibit that depth of feeling which we occasionally meet with in the traditions of other mountainous regions; yet they possess some very remarkable features, which are to be ascribed, as in the case of the latter, to the native and external characteristics of the district, to which they belong. In most large mountain-systems, the highest point is surrounded by inaccessible rocks, deep valleys, and wild ravines; and few of the peasantry dare to visit those lonely regions, imprinted with the stamp of mystery, whence Nature looks down, wild, enigmatical, and threatening upon the distant plains. Very different in this respect are the Giant Mountains; a vast, mild, inhabited plain stretches close to
