Cihlar & Egeler - The Saint and her Fool

The carriage drives further along the fields, which are being ploughed, and delicate white filaments of discarded fragments are floating through the air. Rosemarie holds a shiny red maple leaf in her hand which has fallen into her lap. She holds it against the silky sky and wonders, why the leaf dresses in such a beautiful attire just to die. Now they pass some smallhouses, a huge walnut tree, drive down a sunken road where the vines of the silvery forest cluster together with the dark red rose hips. Suddenly, they come to a halt; behind the crown of two powerful linden trees, a dark tower looms up.

„Rosemarie, you may rejoice, this is Castle Schweigen!“

„How strange,“ says Mama. „It cannot be seen until you are directly there.“

„That is why it still exists. It had not even been discovered during the Thirty Years' War.”

„God, how quiet,“ exclaims the Duchess. „Is it therefore called the Castle of Silence?“

They step out of the carriage in front of the forester's house, which seems to welcome visitors at the entrance, next to the two linden trees. High and gloomy in its dense coat of ivy, the palace looms out of the surrounding ramparts; gloomy is also the dark black castle keep with its battlements. Under the linden trees murmurs and mumbles a small well and now, as the carriage is driven down to the stables, is the gentle sound of splashing water the only sound in the enchanted stillness. From the round ramparts of the linden tree, the colorful autumn forest hills can be seen. A majestic hawk circles the sky above the deep valley. The scent of mignonette gently drifts from the little garden, which is surrounded by the ivy-covered wall. The Duke takes his daughter by the hand and pulls a silver cup from a case. He dips it into the well and says:

„Drink this, Rosemarie, it is tradition.“

The child looks up to her father, drinks from the cup and apologizes silently to him from her heart, that she presumes he is not able to celebrate feasts.

„My father and I had also exercised this custom, when I was here with him for the first time. He said it is a necessity to drink from the well, if one wants to be a real Braunecker.”

The Duchess joins them; lifting her delicate lace dress to avoid the dampness around the well.

„Tell me, Fried, which of the two is it; simplistic family nonsense, as your sister Helen says, or plain superstition?“

„Helen is an impious woman and should restrain her chatter; it is rather a superstition, I would say. I once heard of a story of a Braunecker, something about a well and a fairy, unfortunately I do not know more. May I offer you some water, my dear?”

But the Duchess has no desire for cold water, she is hoping for a tea in the enchanted castle.

„If you two are finished reverencing this well, I would like to go in. Rosemarie seems quite enraptured, as if she was in church service.“

„Yes, we are done. Rosemarie, here, take this linden branch together with your maple leaf.”

„Is that also part of the ceremony? The child looks so solemn… what a blessing that she is not a boy; she would surely feel the need to become a priest.”

A staircase between ivy walls leads up to the inner courtyard. A high gate greets them, adorned with a massive coat of arms, carved in stone and bold numbers above it of the year 1534. A gloomy hall appears, the walls decorated with huge deer heads and protruding antlers. The Duchess shudders.

„Ugh, it smells like a graveyard! Fried, I am convinced that it is haunted here, even in broad daylight. You had not told me, that Castle Schweigen is such a spooky place ... you surely do not want to say that one could live in these surroundings.”

The Duke answers somewhat embarrassed, „Well, the stuffy smell is simply the scent of uninhabited rooms ... maybe the forester’s wife does not air the rooms enough or the ivy vines are too dense. Upstairs, the air is surely better.”

„These deer heads everywhere with their staring glassy eyes and the dark, spiral staircase,“ complains the Duchess. „It is like a haunted castle from an English novel.“

„You do not like these impressive antlers? They have all been hunted down in our own forest. This stag here; the antlers branched out seventeen times! And I am happy when I shoot a young buck! This one was shot by my father at the age of fifteen years... I am certain he was very proud! Nowadays, we have trouble finding a few roe bucks - our great-grandchildren, if they want to go hunting, they might have to hunt rats.”

The Duchess is already up the stairs, bends over the railing and shouts down: „You gentlemen are still to blame! If some farmers had come and spoiled my sport, I would have done something against it, but surely not appeased myself with rats!”

Upstairs, she finds old-fashioned, yet cozy rooms, furnished with beautiful Rococo and Empire furniture. The spindle-shaped Empire tables look a bit out of place, beside the old black furnaces. The wallpaper is covered with brown square patterns, which is a horrible contrast to the blue and white starched curtains at the windows. The hideous wallpaper, the monsters of furnaces, the rough old flooring! Even the little oriel windows, which are oriented exactly towards morning and evening light with the promising of a lovely play of colors through the ivy, cannot assuage her judgment. The armchair is uncomfortable and the tiny table with inlays is shaky.

Though, she feels the Duke expects to hear something positive from her. Some sort of admiration? His gaze is disconcerted, looking at her in a strange way. As she looks into the eyes of this odd, little child, she perceives the same expression, so that father and daughter suddenly resemble each other in a disturbing way.

The Duke speaks in a tone that sounds slightly uncomfortable.„Of course, I cannot expect that Castle Schweigen means anything to you... to us Brauneckers, Schweigen is not just a castle as the others. It has an aura which arises from all sorts of old legends. The name itself seems quite outlandish; it is said that the fortune of our family has derived from Castle Schweigen.”

The Duchess suppresses a yawn.

The child, though, seems fascinated and her eyes are shining brightly. „Have they been here, father, all the people who now live only in their paintings? The man with the sword and the beautiful woman with jewelry like falling drops of blood, and the pale little boy with the bird and the small sword attached to the silver necklace? Have they all been here, father, and have they brought over the good fortune ... and why is it called Schweigen, and do the blue dwarfs all press their fingers to their lips? Why must one be silent? Does it bring happiness and luck, if you are silent?”

„It is not appropriate for a little girl to ask so much!“ says the Duchess in such a sharp voice, that neither father nor daughter have heard from her before. Their expressions are quite startled, as they look at her ... her shrill voice sounds so peculiar in the untenanted rooms, reverberating against the old walls.

The Duchess frowns and feels to be excluded from these family idols. She had always lived in chalets and villas near main cities, because her father only belonged to the sideline of his descent. Everything here is alien and repugnant to her.

„How can you make such a fuss about these old rooms?“ She sees the dismissive glance from the eyes of both, which annoys her even more. And just look at the child now? It has turned white as snow…so pale and her eyes seem to be almost black. Her small body wavers, as if she is about to topple over any moment.

„Rosemarie, why do you look so frightened? God, the child seems nauseous, alone the stench of these musty rooms can make one feel ill!”

The Duke frowns. It was careless, not to take Frau von Hardenstein along; if anything happens to the child, no one knows how to help her. He pulls her into the room.