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Winterfeld

Passage Grave

Folklore

taken from the information board:

When Christianity finally found its way into the area of ??Salzwedel and took root, churches were to be built in the two villages of Jeggeleben and Winterfeld. When the two communities had agreed with a competent and busy church architect on the costs, he gave the construction of the church of Jeggeleben his journeyman and the church to Winterfeld his apprentice. Both the journeyman and the apprentice understood their craft and immediately began to build in sacred competition, according to their master's commission, each of them animated by the desire to do their best and most beautifully execute their church. The apprentice had a clever mind and far exceeded the journeyman in the construction. So it could not fail that the Winterfeld church received a much more beautiful appearance than that of Jeggeleben, and the church tower to Winterfeld soon surpassed that of Jeggeleben by a considerable amount.
When the journeyman saw to Jeggeleben at his work the beautiful church tower of Winterfeld, and he had to hear how people could not sufficiently praise the apprentice because of his church architecture, the envy stirred in him, and he threw a grim hatred on him young master builder to Winterfeld. The evil thoughts were halfway to action: When one morning the journeyman again saw the towering Winterfeld church tower, he could no longer restrain himself, but he reached for the large blocks of granite which he still wanted to obstruct, and hurled them furiously high in the air in the direction of the church of Winterfeld, in order to smash it and, if possible, to crush the apprentice whom he hated. The journeyman possessed enormous physical strength, and so it was not difficult for him to throw away the big stones.
When the apprentice saw the first stone from Jeggeleben approaching the church he had built, he could easily imagine by whose hand and in what way he had thrown it. For his part, he was not lazy either, and at once began to throw stones, as those of his structure were left, and selected the little ones he could lift and throw. Thus a fierce stone battle arose between the journeyman and the apprentice, and large and small granite stones rushed, hurled with force and fury, meeting each other through the air. If the apprentice was also considerably overrun to the journeyman in the art of church construction, the journeyman was far superior to the apprentice in terms of physical strength and thus also in the skid of the stones. The apprentice's stones flew well in the direction of the Jeggeleber church, but they fell down a long way before the village.
On the other hand, the large stones thrown by the journeyman's massive fists flew all the way to Winterfeld; but fortunately they did not meet the church and the apprentice, but rather did not fall far from the church, in the garden of the local parish. In the parish garden of Winterfeld, the large granite blocks are still united to the Hunebed today as a beautiful monument from ancient times. Many parishioners have already played on the Hunebed stones and will still play there; because that ever a pastor will destroy the monument, is probably not to be feared.
Nucleus Posted by Nucleus
17th March 2019ce

Comments (1)

A very similar story is related about the Apprentice's Pillar in Rosslyn Chapel but it being Medieval Scotland the apprentice was killed outright. However, both stories are clear warnings regarding natural talent and the jealousy it can engender.

https://freemasonrymatters.co.uk/latest-news-freemasonry/rosslyn-chapel-the-apprentice-pillar/
Howburn Digger Posted by Howburn Digger
8th April 2019ce
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