The chain-rattling calf
Heidelberg, the beautiful city on the Neckar River, is known worldwide for its fascinating castle ruins and romantic old town, which attracts around one million tourists from all over the world every year. Heidelberg not only has the oldest university in Germany, but with its winding alleys, it is also the epitome of German romanticism. In this picturesque old town, a chain-rattling calf is said to have once wreaked havoc. According to legend, about 500 years ago, twelve canons lived in Pfaffengasse, not far from the Gothic Heiliggeistkirche. They met regularly in the evenings and then drank together in convivial company until late into the night. One evening, their drinking party was interrupted by a young man who promised them that it would be child’s play for him to free the canons from their intoxication at the stroke of midnight. The canons did not pay much attention to the man’s talk and were all the more astonished when, at midnight, a jet-black, saddled calf with glowing eyes stood before them. It snorted terribly, like ten bulls combined, and wore twelve rattling chains around its neck. Each of the twelve men grabbed one of the chains and one swung himself onto the saddle. The wild calf then ran through the winding, dark alleys with the canons. Eleven of the canons were suddenly sobered up, while the twelfth, who was sitting in the saddle, was cursed to ride the calf from midnight to 1 a.m. until Judgment Day if no one redeemed him. The alley where the chained calf raged has been called Kettengasse (Chain Alley) ever since. The story of the creepy chained calf comes from the lawyer and Palatinate dialect poet Karl Gottfried Nadler, who recounts it in his poem “s Keddekalb in Heidelberg” (The Chained Calf in Heidelberg), which has been passed down from generation to generation as cultural heritage to this day.
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