The Black Spider

by Jeremias Gotthelf

  He had already got down to the Kilchstalden and the shrine was in sight, when there was a sudden gleaming before him in the middle of the road, there was movement in the bushes, the spider sat in the road, a feather was waving red from behind a bush, and the spider reared up high as if to spring. Then Christen called with a loud voice to God in Three Persons, and a wild shout sounded from the bushes, the red feather disappeared, he placed the infant in the boy’s arms and after commending his soul to the Lord he seized with a strong hand the spider which, as if transfixed by the holy words, remained motionless in the same spot. Fire streamed through his limbs, but he held fast; the road was free, and the boy with understanding mind hastened to the priest with the child. But Christen, with fire in his strong hand, hurried with winged course towards his own house. The burning in his hand was terrible, the spider’s poison penetrated through all his limbs. His blood became fire. His strength was on the verge of being benumbed, and his breathing almost stopped, but he prayed on and on, kept God firmly before his mind’s eye and held out in the fire of hell. Already now he could see his house; as the pain grew, so did his hope, and there at the door was the woman. When the latter saw him coming without her child, she rushed at him like a tigress that has been robbed of her young, believing him responsible for the most shameful betrayal. She took no notice of his gesticulations, did not hear the words coming from his heaving breast, rushed into his outstretched hands and clung on to them; in deathly fear he was compelled to drag the raging woman into the house with him. He has to fight his arms free before he succeeds in forcing the spider back into the old house and securing the peg with dying hands. With God’s help he is able to do it. He throws his dying glance at his children as they lie sweetly smiling in their sleep. Then he feels at rest, a higher hand seems to extinguish the fire within him, and praying aloud he closes his eyes in readiness for death. Those who ventured in, cautiously and fearfully, to see what had happened to the woman, found serenity and joy on his face. They were astonished to see the hole closed up, but they found the woman lying burnt and distorted in death; she had found fiery death from Christen’s hand. While they were standing by without knowing what had happened, the boy came back carrying the child, and with him was the priest who had quickly christened the child according to the custom of the time and was ready to go, well­ armed and courageously, to the same struggle in which his predecessor had given up his life in victory. But God did not require such a sacrifice from this priest, for another man had already fought the fight.

  For a long time people did not understand what a great deed Christen had accomplished. When at last faith and insight came to them, they prayed joyfully with the priest and thanked God for the life given to them anew and for me strength which He had given to Christen. They begged Christen’s forgiveness for their injustice towards him, although he was now dead, and resolved to bury him with high honours, and his memory became gloriously enshrined in their souls like that of a saint. They hardly knew how they felt when this so fearful terror which had been coursing through their limbs suddenly disappeared and they could look joyously up again into the blue sky without fear that the spider was meanwhile crawling on their feet. They decided to have many masses sung and to hold a general procession to the church; above all they wanted to perform the funeral obsequies for the two bodies of Christen and the woman who had pressed upon him, and after that the other corpses were also to find a resting ground, as far as possible.

  It was a solemn day when the whole valley walked to the church, and there were solemn feelings in many hearts, many sins were confessed, many vows were sworn, and from that day on much of the old pretentiousness disappeared from people’s faces and clothes.

  After many tears had been shed in the church and in the churchyard, and after many prayers had been offered, all the people from the valley community who had come to the funeral—and all had come who had the use of their limbs—went to the inn for the customary refreshment. It now happened there that, as usual, women and children sat at their own table, while all the grown men could be seated round the famous round table which may still now be seen at the ‘Bear’ Inn at Sumiswald. This table was preserved in remembrance of the fact that once there were only a couple of dozen men in a community where now nearly two thousand live, in remembrance of the fact that the lives of the two thousand are also kept in the hand of Him Who saved the two dozen. On that occasion people did not linger at the funeral meal; hearts were too full for there to be room for much food and drink. When they came out of the village onto the open height, they saw a glow in the sky, and when they reached home they found the new house burned to the ground. How it happened they never knew. But people did not forget what Christen had done for them, and they repaid his deed to his children. They brought these children up piously and sturdily in the most God-fearing househould; nobody took any liberties with the children’s property, although no legal account was to be seen. Their property was increased and well looked after, and when the children had grown up, they had been cheated neither of their worldly goods nor of their souls. They became righteous, God-fearing persons who enjoyed both the grace of God and the favour of men, and who found blessing in this life and even more in the sight of heaven. And so it remained in the family, and there was no fear of the spider, since there was fear of God, and as it was, so may it remain, if God wills it, as long as there is a house standing here and as long as children follow their parents in action and in thought.”

  Here the grandfather was silent, and for a long time all were silent, and some were pondering over what they had heard, and the others thought he must be taking breath and then be going to continue further. At last the elder godfather said: “I have often sat at the round table and have heard of the plague, and how after this all the men in the parish could find room to sit round it. But just how it all happened, nobody could tell me. Some talked one sort of nonsense and others another sort. But tell me, where did you hear all this?”

  “Oh,” the grandfather said, “it was passed down in our family from father to son, and when the memory of it was long among other people in the valley, it was kept very dark in the family and they were reluctant to let people know anything of it. It was only talked about inside the family, so that no member should forget what it is that builds a house and destroys it, that brings blessing and takes it away. You can tell from the way my old woman talks how she dislikes it being talked about so openly. But it seems to me that the longer time goes on, the more necessary it is to talk about it to show how far people can go in arrogance and pride. That is why I don’t make such a secret of the business any longer, and it isn’t the first time that I have told the story to good friends. I also think that what has preserved our family in happiness for so many years will not do harm to others either, and that it isn’t right to make a secret of what brings prosperity and God’s blessing.”

  “You are right, cousin,” the godfather answered. “But there is one thing I must ask you all the same: Was the house which you pulled down seven years ago the original one? I find it hard to believe that.”

  “No,” the grandfather said. “The old house had already become dilapidated almost three hundred years ago, and for a long time even then there had not been room in it for God’s blessings from the fields and meadows. And yet the family did not want to leave it, and they dared not build a new one, for they had not forgotten what had happened to the earlier one. Thus they came into a very embarrassing situation and finally asked the advice of a wise man who is said to have lived at Haslebach. He is said to have replied that they might certainly build a new house on the site of the old one and nowhere else, but that they must be certain to preserve two things, the old piece of wood in which the spider was kept, and the old strength of mind which had imprisoned the spider into the old piece of wood; then the old blessing would be present also in the new house.

  “They built the new house and with prayer and care inserted the old piece of wood into the structure, and
the spider did not move, and the spirit in the family and the blessing upon it did not change.

  “But the new house also became old and small in its turn, its woodwork became worm-eaten and rotten, and only the post here remained firm and hard as iron. My father already should have built anew, but he could avoid doing so, and so it came to my turn. After long hesitation I ventured to take this step. I did as people earlier had done and inserted the old piece of wood into the new house, and the spider did not move. But I am willing to admit that I never prayed so ardently in my whole life as when I was holding the fateful piece of wood in my hands; my hand, my whole body was burning, and unconsciously I had to look whether black marks might not be growing on my hand and body, and a mountainous weight fell from my mind when everything was at last in its place. Then my conviction grew even stronger that neither I nor my children and my children’s children would have to fear anything from the spider, so long as we fear God.”

  Then the grandfather was silent, and the others still felt the shudder that had run up their backs when they heard that the grandfather had had the piece of wood in his hands, and they thought how they would feel if they too had had to take it in their hands.

  At last the cousin said: “The only thing is that it’s a pity you can’t know how much of this sort of thing is true. You can hardly believe everything, and yet there must be some truth about the matter, or else the old piece of wood would not be there.”

  The younger godfather said that you could learn a lot from it, whether it was all true or not, and what was more, they had also been enthralled by the story; it seemed to him as if he had just come out of church.

  They shouldn’t say too much about it, the grandmother said, or else her old man would start on another story; now they should get on and have something to eat and drink, it was indeed a shame the way nobody was eating or drinking. After all it couldn’t all be bad, they had done as well as they knew how with the cooking.

  Now there was much eating and drinking, and in between many a sensible conversation took place, until the moon stood large and golden in the sky, the stars stepped our from their chambers to remind the men that it was time for them too to go to their rooms to sleep.

  Although they saw well enough the secret reminders in the sky, the people were sitting there so cosily and each of them felt his heart beating uncannily when he thought of the journey home, and even if nobody said so, it was true that none of them wanted to be the first to go.

  At last the godmother stood up and with trembling heart made preparations to leave, but she was not without reliable companions, and the whole company departed together from the hospitable house with many thanks and good wishes, in spite of all requests, made to individuals and to the whole party, that they could surely stay a bit longer, it wasn’t really dark yet.

  Soon it was still outside the house; soon too it was still inside. Peacefully the house lay there, gleaming the length of the valley, clean and beautiful in the light of the moon; with friendly care it concealed good people in sweet sleep, the sleep of those who have in their hearts fear of God and a good conscience, and who will never be awakened from their slumber by the black spider, but only by the friendly sun. For where such a serene spirit is present, the spider may not move, either by day or by night. But what power the spider has when men’s spirits change, is known only to Him Who knows everything and allots His strength to each and all, to spiders and to mankind.

  Translated by H. M. Waidson

  Daniel 3:20-27.

  Matthew 22:1-10.

  A forest in the Canton of Berne.The order of the Teutonic Knights held it from 1225 to 1698.

  A Hans Ulrich von Stoffeln was commander of the Teutonic Knights in Sumiswald from 1512 to 1527. He was not a tyrant, but in fact eased the burden of the peasants. In any case the fictional time of the first inner story must be sometime in the thirteenth century. A Peter von Stoffeln is know from the fourteenth century.

  A mountain ridge about an hour and a half from Sumiswald, where traces of pagan sacrifices have been found.

  A mountainous area near Sumiswald, difficult of access, so that in past times it served as a place of refuge.

  Exodus 32: 1-24.