King Laurin’s Rose Garden
The first book I wrote for Ars Magica was Sanctuary of Ice which was based heavily on Karl Felix Wolff’s The Pale Mountains. As a matter of personal joy, that book entered the public domain in 2024 and KirksVoice at Librivox recorded a small excerpt. Thanks to the reader and production team.
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To the east of Bozen rises a strange uneven mass of mountains, called the Rosengarten because on clear evenings the Alpine glow is reflected there so vividly that you might think a rose-red flood had poured down over the barren rocks. But the people who live within sight of the Rosengarten tell the following legend.-
In ancient times there grew on the high mountains east of Bozen a real rose garden, so filled with flowers that in the sunlight it seemed a soft rose-colored mass. This garden kingdom belonged to the dwarf king, Laurin, who lived there with his people.
Deep within the mountains Laurin had many secret rooms and storehouses full of glittering jewels and gold, and to protect his kingdom and this treasure he had, instead of a wall or a moat, a silken thread. This was drawn around the rose garden. And whoever crossed it must fight the king. He was only a dwarf, but he was skilful in the use of magic arms.
Laurin, returning one day from a distant country, brought back with him to the rose garden the lovely Princess Similde. He wished to make her his queen, but Similde, who had come against her will, would listen neither to entreaties nor threats, and in a short time her brother, discovering where she was, came to set her free, bringing with him Dietrich of Bern and several other warriors.
When they suddenly beheld the Rosengarten, they halted, overcome by its beauty. All but one, the ferocious Witege, who rushed forward and, cutting the silken barrier, opened the battle. The warriors had counted on an easy victory, but Laurin exerted all the power of his magic weapons and combined with it the aid of five giants. Nevertheless, the warriors conquered. Laurin was taken captive and carried to Bozen, where they planned to make him court buffoon.
Laurin was silent and uncomplaining. At last a day came when he was left unguarded. He fled from the court, quickly reached the outskirts of Bozen, and began the perilous journey back to his mountains. As his eyes clung to the vivid light of the distant Rosengarten, he suddenly realized that the glow was a curse to him, for its light could be seen from the depths of the lowest valleys; everyone marvelled at it, and everyone sought, and often found, the source .
The dwarf king determined to make his kingdom invisible . It should no longer be observed from the valleys . When people could not see it, they would lose their desire to visit it. So he laid a magic spell on the Rosengarten , a spell making it invisible in daytime and at night . But Laurin had forgotten the twilight, which is neither day nor night .
And in the twilight of every clear evening , the flowers of the Rosengarten spread their soft rosy curtain over the mysterious high spires of rock, and their warm radiance dominates the mountains and valleys , as it did in the old days before dwarfs and men were enemies . Today we call this light the Alpine glow, and when it spreads over the peaks of the Rosengarten, the people in the valley come out to gaze in wonder . But they know nothing of that older time when men were kinder and the world more beautiful .
