Zammer Lochputz

An old blacksmith once lived in the Zammerloch gorge. His wife had died many years ago and being alone made him a stubborn, hard-hearted old man. One day, however, near the great waterfall, he saw a beautiful light figure who sang heartrendingly - a nymph. The stubborn old man began to talk to the beautiful young lady and told her about his loneliness. The kind-hearted water nymph then went to live with the old man in the forge. And so they lived together for many years in the Zammer Klamm.

Of course, the girl's beauty did not go unnoticed by the young boys of the area and many suitors courted her. The shepherd of the Lochalm had also fallen in love with her and asked the blacksmith for the hand of his adopted daughter. The blacksmith, of course, did not want to let the nymph go, so he set the shepherd three tasks. The first was:

"When milk drives my water wheel
shepherd - then it is the right time."

No sooner said than done, the shepherd ran to his cattle on the mountain pasture and milked them as hard as the cows and goats could stand. But he poured the milk into the Thaya springs, which flow above the Zammerlochbach. And indeed, the next day the milk flowed on the paddle wheels of the forge. The nymph rejoiced, but the blacksmith already knew the next task:

"I am not a hard-hearted man.
show the people of Zamm the opposite
let them have a look into my heart!"

The shepherd was at a loss. How could he prove something that did not correspond to the truth. But when one of his calves got stuck between the mountains Kleine Silberspitz and Große Silberspitz, he found very strange plates. He took some shining silver slabs and carried them in his basket into the cave of the Zammerloch gorge. But he told the blacksmith that he would now show him his true self, he should just follow him. Shaking his head, the blacksmith went with him into the cave where the shepherd had placed the plates of the Silberspitz on the walls. The shepherd lit a torch and let the blacksmith go in. How frightened he was when he saw himself reflected in the silver plates by the light of the torch - he recognised himself as a hard-hearted person.
Now the blacksmith set the last task:

"When the stars begin to bathe in the Lochbach,
you will get the nymph as your wife!"

The nymph was frightened because no human child could fulfil this task. The shepherd pondered for many weeks and time passed. He had long since driven his cattle down into the valley, and one evening he was sitting in the cold Zammer gorge and still did not want to leave, sadness had overtaken him. He took his flute and played for himself and for the nymph, he played for the stars and forgot the time. Night fell and the shepherd was still playing. Then the stars descended to the shepherd in the gorge and the next morning the blacksmith was amazed with his mouth open when he saw the stars flashing in the frozen waterfall. Now he had to release the nymph, in the spring they shall be allowed to hold a wedding.

The lovers had to endure this time of waiting, too, and when the first rays of the spring sun came out, the shepherd set off for his beloved. The blacksmith, however, did not want to keep his promise and had cut the suspension bridge in the gorge. The shepherd came along unsuspectingly and plunged deep into the gorge. The sky darkened, lightning flashed and the bull in the blacksmith's stall cried out. But it turned the shepherd into a bull's head made of stone, high up in the Zammer Klamm. The forge burnt to the ground and the nymph also retreated to the back of the gorge.

There they are now together, the shepherd and the nymph. And some think they have seen the bull's head and a beautiful girl's head in the rock face where it is narrowest and steepest.