Folklore

Düwelsteene Heiden
Passage Grave

Today, the name of the Düwelsteene is linked above all to the legend of a cunning cobbler, to whom a monument on the market place of Heiden is dedicated. According to this, the devil carried a sack full of heavy stones on his back and was on his way to Aachen to destroy the cathedral of Charlemagne. Near Heiden he met a cobbler carrying twelve pairs of worn-out shoes. Asked by the devil, how far was it to Aachen, the cobbler pointed to the shoes: It was far away that he had torn all these shoes on his way from Aachen to Heiden. He had recognized the devil at once by his horse's foot and had suspected evil, so that he gave this clever answer. His information led the Devil, already worn out by carrying the heavy stones, to pour them out of the sack in the act of rage and then pull them away. These stones were called from then on the Düwelsteene.

taken from Kerstin Schierhold/Bernhard Stapel, Die Düwelsteene bei Heiden, Kreis Borken. Megalithgräber in Westfalen 3 (Münster 2018)

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