sudden death from apoplexy in July, 1866, brought on by his over-exertion in climbing the hill. A little further on, to the right, some wooden steps lead to a sanctuary of the Madonna, where the devout spend a few moments in rest and prayer. The good people of the neighbourhood firmly believe in the old proverb, current in the Ammer valley, that "the way to the representation of the Passion Play should be a way of penance." There is another old proverb, that points to the same truth, that toil must go before pleasure: "Die Götter haben vor alles Schöne den Schweiss gesetzt." In reality it is only the adage of Horace in a new costume: "Nil sine magno vita labore dedit mortalibus." But the toil once surmounted, and the summit reached, the pilgrim stands in full view of a surprising scene of beauty, which marks the entrance to the Ammerthal. Here the ancient Benedictine Monastery of Ettal nestles beneath the Ettaler-Mandl, whose peak is discernible even at Murnau. Ettal is the guardian of the valley through which Ober-Ammergau is reached. The monastery, as such, is no more, and the monks who once inhabited it have long since departed to their eternal rest. Ettal is one of the many wonderful sites noted for incomparable beauty, which the sons of Saint Benedict were wont to select for their abode. Devrient was one of the first to assert that the Ammergau Passion Play came originally from Ettal. But the aged priest of Ober-Ammergau, Geistlicher Rath Daisenberger, editor of the Passion Play in its present form, is of a contrary opinion. His arguments, however, do not seem conclusive. He says, truly, that at the time of the great pestilence (1633) Ober-Ammergau stood under the pastoral charge of the monastery of Rothenbuch, five or six leagues distant from the place, but not in the same direction as Ettal. The prelates of that monastery were feudal lords of the valley, and exercised secular jurisdiction in the neighbourhood, but at first they had no influence in spiritual matters. Even Daisenberger admits, however, that the monks of Ettal may have aided the villagers in carrying out their vow. Dr. Holland is of the opinion that the Passion Play was introduced into Ammergau simultaneously with the craft of woodcarving. For both acquisitions, he thinks, they were indebted to the monks of Rothenbuch. The date which he gives is the twelfth century. And, indeed, as to the supposition that the Passion Play dates from the pestilence of 1633, we have already hinted that it is totally unfounded. Leaving, however, to Rothenbuch the credit of having first prepared the text and introduced the religious drama into Ober-Ammergau, it is probable that as soon as the monastery of Ettal was established, the latter took the immediate guidanceof any existing dramatic elements into their own hands. That both the monks of Rothenbuch and of Ettal had religious plays cannot be controverted; for in 1803, when the property of the suppressed Bavarian monasteries was put up at auction, costumes used in the religious plays were sold, and the community of Ober-Ammergau purchased from Ettal a number of dresses, some of which they still turn to use. Ever since its foundation Ettal has been, like Alt Oetting and Berg Andechs in Bavaria, and like Maria Einsiedeln in Switzerland, a noted place of pilgrimage, to which thousands upon thousands repair, not only from the surrounding country, but even from more remote districts, in order to perform their devotions before the shrine of the Madonna of miraculous fame. This statue was guarded by the monks from the infancy of their institute, and all along during the time of their prosperity; and it is still faithfully preserved by the curates, who have succeeded to their functions. Ettal is, indeed, so closely connected with Ammergau in life and religion, that a glimpse of its history belongs to any account of the Passion Play. Besides their principal drama, the villagers of Ober-Ammergau have a secular play, which they frequently perform, entitled "The Founding of the Monastery of Ettal," written by the Geistlicher Rath Daisenberger. The German Emperor, Ludwig the Bavarian, after having been crowned in Rome, found himself suddenly attacked near Milan. While in the monastery of Saint Victor, imploring aid in his distress, a monk appeared, and placing in his hands a beautiful image of the Virgin, promised him the divine blessing if he would pledge himself, on arriving in the valley of the Ammer, to found a Benedictine monastery, and place in it the image for public veneration. This he promised, and fulfilled after he had escaped from his enemies. Tradition says that the emperor rode his horse up the same steep Ettaler Berg, which the pilgrim now ascends with so much toil: but no sooner had he gained the upper part, than the animal fell three times in succession upon its knees, unable to carry the imperial weight which it bore any further. The emperor interpreted this incident as a sign from heaven, which it was not permitted to neglect, and here, at the entrance of the valley where he had received such a marked intimation of the divine will, he determined that his vow should be put into execution. Accordingly he ordered a small chapel to be hastily constructed; and, in the year 1330, he made the journey from Munich in order to lay the foundation stone of the monastery of Ettal. Having once laid the foundation stone, Ludwig continued to take great interest in the prosperity of his own creation. And, indeed, "under the protection of the Queen of Heaven," whom he regarded as the principal foundress, it soon began to flourish. But the edifice which the emperor erected was not to be a mere dwelling-place for monks: it was also to serve as a retreat for incapacitated knights and warriors, who would have no other duty but to guard the image of the Madonna, who had in a wonderful manner brought him aid in the time of distress. We see that a bright image, that of the Holy Grail, which in the history of Christian poetry has something of a universal character, had made a lively impression upon his mind. It was a Grail Temple—this foundation of Ludwig the Bavarian. His father, Ludwig the Austere, had manifested a disposition favourable to the ideal side of literature. It was at his command that the epic poem of "Titurel," which, however, remained in an imperfect state, had been composed by Wolfram of Eschenbach. Among the fine passages which this production contains, there is a grand description of the Holy Grail, and of the Castle of Monsalvat, the legendary home of Parcival and Lohengrin. What the latter had caused to spring up in the shape of fiction, the former determined to realize as one of the institutions of his kingdom. For this purpose he created, as we may interpret his notion, a clerical order of knighthood. Ettal was his Monsalvat, and the monks were the knights of the Grail. The palladium of which the monks became the depositaries, was not the Holy Grail, but the cherished statue, which had brought the emperor unexpected relief, in the Chapel of the Madonna, near Milan. Towards the end of his life, after his unhappy rupture with the occupant of the papal chair, the emperor, depressed in spirit by the anathema which he had incurred, seems to have taken a melancholy pleasure in spending much of his time in his barge on a neighbouring lake, called the Plansee. There, giving full scope to his romantic turn of mind, he might perchance imagine, that he was acting an episode out of Wolfram's "Parcival," that he was himself the benighted king whose wounds were incurable, that like another Anfortas on the waters of the Brumbane, while he could not live, he was nevertheless doomed not to die. Ettal, as it now stands, bears few traces of the original plan, both church and monastery having been subsequently destroyed by fire and lightning. Yet by comparing actual remains with descriptions of the original structure, as given by eye-witnesses, we gain sufficient evidence that there was a great resemblance between the stone architecture of Ludwig the Bavarian and the lofty rhyme built up by Wolfram, which served as a model. Substituting, as we have already done, the image of the Virgin for the vessel of the Holy Grail, we might almost believe that Wagner had the abbey of Ettal in view when he made the description of the legendary home of Lohengrin: In distant land, where ye can never enter, A precious vessel, of miraculous power, A shrine most holy, guarded well, doth stand; That none but mortals purest guard this dower, 'Twas brought to earth by an angelic hand! In 1744 the abbey, the church, and the library were laid in ashes by a single stroke of lightning; and nearly all the treasures were destroyed. The prior, however, succeeded in rescuing the statue at the risk of his own life. After 1744 the church was restored. In 1803 Ettal was involved in the common ruin of all monastic corporations in Bavaria, and its inmates wandered to other homes and distant lands. Ettal is now noted, besides its Madonna, for its beautiful organ and its beer. The fresco paintings on the roof of the church, by Jacob Zeiller, of Reutl, and those in the spaces above the altars, by Martin Knoller, an artist from the Tyrol, still attract the attention of the tourist. In association with the Madonna and the organ, they are the only relics which Ettal still preserves of its pristine splendour, and of the treasures which were gathered within its walls during the four hundred years of its prosperity. Attempts have been made at times to induce the government to rebuild the monastery as a college, and the late King Maximilian showed a willingness to enter into such a project. He even caused some preparations to be made towards its realization: but after his death they were suffered to fall. Leaving the portal and the precincts of the church at Ettal and the whole of this elevated region, and entering the lovely valley of the Ammer, the pilgrim can well appreciate the sentiments of good old Ethiko,—in the drama of the "Founding of Ettal," as he leaves his solitary cell in the early spring-time, and blesses God for all the goodness he has spent in such wealth in the valley, and can join with the players of Ober-Ammergau in singing the closing words thereof (by the Gerstlicher Rath Daisenberger): An hour's walk through the delightful valley, along the banks of the pellucid stream from which it derives its name, leads the tourist to the village of Ober-Ammergau. Two rows of mountain ash, hung with clusters of rich red berries, mark the line of the valley-road during its whole extent, until we come to the place of destination. Here our attention is forcibly drawn to the bold and curiously formed peak of the Kofel, crowned with a large cross. rises immediately in front of the village, and the latter lies nestling below it. The first object, which a turn in the road reveals to the eye of the pilgrim, is the village church with its peculiar dome, not unlike that of a Turkish mosque. Just before entering the village, on a prominent point of the valley, It Presented to the community of Ober-Ammergau, by King Ludwig II. of Bavaria, in commemoration of His Majesty's visit to Ober-Ammergau to witness the Passion Play in 1871, and his appreciation of the earnest labours of the villagers in the performance of the vow made by their forefathers in the year 1633. |