The White Maiden

Once upon a time, there was a castle in a valley near the Rhine River. Now, it lay desolate and in ruins. One summer afternoon, a young nobleman was out hunting and he chased a fox all the way up into the valley. But he lost the fox along the way and decided to go up to the castle and rest a bit because it was very hot. By the time he reached the ruins and flung himself down on the grass in the shadow of a tower, he was exhausted. ‘I wish someone would give me some cool wine to drink!’ he said aloud to himself. Suddenly, he found a beautiful maiden, dressed all in white, with flaxen hair and white skin, coming towards him with a goblet of wine in one hand and a bunch of keys in the other! “Here you are!” she said, offering him the goblet of wine.

The Search

The White Maiden who offered him the wine looked at the nobleman so lovingly that he fell in love with her. He took the goblet and gulped down the wine, peeping up at her again and again as she smiled at him. She drifted away after he had finished, vanishing into the ruins through a broken doorway. He followed her as if he had been enchanted. But going in through the doorway he ran into cobwebs and bats, and owls fluttered in a mad frenzy over his head and that flew out, disturbed by him. No one had been inside the ruined castle and there was no sign of the White Maiden anywhere. He forgot about everything, including hunting. He used to come to the ruined castle every day, searching for the White Maiden. He fell ill and delirious wandering there. A woodsman who sometimes gave him food, found him one morning, lying dead outside the ruins!

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