Grandfather’s story

The wonderful forests of the Leitha mountains are an attractive place to hike, in spring with their carpets of snow drops and wild garlic, in summer with their lush green and in autumn with their colourful leaves. The warmth-loving oak, hornbeam and beech forests are also home to innumerable animals. Many birds that lay their eggs in cavities, such as woodpeckers, as well as bats find shelter in the trees. But the forests have always been an important source of income as well for the people living near them. Today they are cooperative forests and are a source of firewood more than anything else. As in times gone by, people still tell stories of strange apparitions in the forest. Mathias Schmid, in his book “Die Marktgemeinde Hof im Wandel der Zeit” retells one of his grandfather’s stories:

My grandfather owned a pair of horses. My father always used to ride one to fetch wood from the forests, as he did one Ash Wednesday. On the way he met a small man in the woods, who urged him to turn back. But my father did not listen. He rode on into the forest and piled his cart as high as he could with firewood. Then, wishing to return home, he did not get far. No matter how hard the horse pulled, the burden was too heavy. So my father had to unload part of the wood and tried again. But after a few metres the horse stopped again. Once more he unloaded some of the wood and the same thing happened – the horse went a few metres, stopped and was unable to pull any further. Angrily he unloaded all the wood. But the horse could not even pull the empty cart home. It was already getting dark and my father could not even see his hand in front of his face. My grandfather had grown worried and harnessed the second horse to come to my father’s aid. Together they finally managed to bring the empty cart home.

Never again would the Schmid family harness a horse on Ash Wednesday.