Witches from Bald Mountain – Polish legends by @papi.mati

That's the 13th post from that series which in total will include 16 publications. If you want to read the previous legend published by me, check those links:

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It's the legend, so obviously it's not the story I created, but it may vary a bit from the versions that other people know. I wrote it on my own, with my words, in a way it was said to me when I was a child and how I remembered it.

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The legend about the witches from Bald Mountain

Among all the peaks of the Świętokrzyskie mountains, high above the clouds, only the peak of Bald Mountain reigns (Łysa Góra). This place was hated by the residents. No one dared to go there, especially on stormy nights. On that nights the witches who lived in nearby villages gathered on the top of it. The gathering of the local witches was called Sobotki (Saturdays).

Normally the witches pretended to be exemplary women who did not fear any work. Men wanted wives like that, but knowing the craft of witches, they also had to be careful around such women to not accidentally marry one of the devil's daughters.

When night came, clouds appeared in the sky from which terrible lightning flashed, the witches rode their brooms and sometimes even shovels. They flew over the house, casting spells on those houses that were not protected by holy images or holy devotional items. They could send disease and even death to people and their animals, they also often poisoned food and water however, the worst crime was charms, which stole the love of husbands for wives and children for their parents. When they finished mocking the people, they chanted a spell that would lead them directly to the top of Bald Mountain to celebrate Sobotki. The spell was: "The fence is not the fence anymore, the forest is not the forest, the village is not the village - it's a misery spillage".

Once upon a time, while the day was way bright and nobody expected thunders in the nearest days, the terrified people took advantage of the brief period of peace to build a monastery in a Bald Mountain. The works were fast, as everyone was feared that the witches could interrupt the construction. When the building was ready, prayers and the ringing of bells immediately began. However, to prevent people from having bad thoughts about the new holy place, Bald Mountain was renamed the Mountain of the Holy Cross. The daily prayers of monks and people, and the ringing of bells weakened the powers of the witches. The demons, frightened by the decrease in the number of witches with whom they were making the things that could make ashamed every decent person, decided to destroy the monastery.

They took a huge rock from hell and wanted to throw it into the monastery, but before they managed to do it, they noticed the ring bell announcing morning prayers and the first sunlight. As the demons can only perform during the storm, thunder, or at night, they immediately lost their strength and had to return to hell.

The huge rock is still in the place where the demons left it and are called the Devil's Stone. Enraged, Lucifer ordered to return to Bald Mountain and get rid of the dangerous monastery once and for all. This time the demons carried hundreds of stones. They almost reached the destination when the geese, frightened by a noise, alerted the monks. One of them, thinking that it was time for morning prayer, began to ring the bell, which again scared of the devils and pushed them back to hell.

Stones carried by demons rolled down the hill and broken into pieces. They lie there to this day. Monastic prayers once and for all defeated devils and local witches, who never again organized a Sobotki on the top of Bald Mountain.

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Disney's version on the legend - animation from Fantasia movie, produced in 1940