The Three Crystal Goblets and Three Golden — Balls of Schloss Falkenstein
The Lady von Falkenstein was once summoned by the Berggeist1 to attend the Queen of the Gnomes in her extremity. He conducted her through long dark subterranean passages to her fairy Majesty; and, after the birth of a son, the Queen presented her with three golden balls and three crystal goblets, with the warning to preserve them well, for the fate of the Asseburgs was closely connected with them.
The three golden balls have been unhappily lost, and only two goblets remain.
Two sons of the family, when visiting their widowed mother at Wallhausen, besought her to permit them to drink out of these mysterious goblets, which she imprudently allowed; and as they struck their glasses together with a merry prosit, one was shattered.
Deep melancholy seized the youths, and during their drive home the wild horses plunged with the carriage into a deep abyss, where the youths were found broken in pieces.
Since then the two remaining ghostly gifts have been sacredly preserved—one, of green-yellow glass, in Hinneburg; the other, of mountain crystal, in Falkenstein.
Notes
1 Berggeist—spirit of the mountains.