The Priest's Devilish Curse A thousand years ago, a Slavic people called the Obotrites lived around here and in the forests of western Mecklenburg. One day, German warriors invaded their territory, and it wasn't the first time that happened. Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, had been lusting for their fertile land for a long time. The Saxons outnumbered the Obotrites and their king, who were no match for the Saxon army. Niklot, which was the name of their king, burned down his castle and fled across the lake with his followers. After their victory, the Saxon conquerers forbid everything that was not part of their own culture and life-style. So the Obotrites were forbidden to pray or make sacrifices to their ancients gods, under penalty of death. The Obotrites thought that was sacrilegious. Quite a few of them rather lost their life than betray their own gods. One day, the Obotrite king's son snuck to the temple, stealthily like a thief. Despite the ban, he wanted to find solace in prayer by worshipping his god. He heard a noise coming from the inside of the temple. It was the noise of splintering and breaking wood. The Obotrite prince, casting all caution aside, hurried inside. Horrified, he saw a Christian priest shatter to pieces a statue of the Obotrite god that was carved out of wood. Rage and despair overpowered the king's son. He tore his sword out of its sheath and struck away at the priest. The priest sank to the ground next to the shattered idol, covered with blood. But before he closed his eyes for all eternity, he raised both his hands into the air as if he wanted to conjure up the fiend. And he uttered a terrible curse. The priest cursed the king's son to take on the despicable figure of a dwarf. And he could only be freed from this ghostlike existence if the son of Christian wiped the priest's blood off his sword. At the very moment that the priest died, the prince turned into a dwarf. The blood stains on his sword turned to rust. For many hundreds of years, the cursed prince has been living as a ghost on the little island in the lake of Schwerin, which was the home of his ancestors. He is still waiting for an innocent Christian's son to deliver him from his curse. Many have tried and tried earnestly, but to this day no one has managed to redeem the little dwarf warrior known as the Petermännchen. Erika and Jürgen Borchardt. Das sagenhafte Schwerin. http://www.edition- digital.com/seiten/sagenhaftSN/leseprobe.htm; 26-11-11, 19:30. Translation: Dr. Björn Freitag.