2005
Inspiration
The artists which contribute to art- and nature walk The Legend were inspired by the old legend of Ellert and Brammert. You will find this story below. On the artists pages are the texts belonging to each work.Ellert Brammert: The Legend
In barbarian times, when injustice, murder and robbery were not restricted by any law and the victims vainly cried for help and revenge at the judge, two gigantic robbers, named Ellert en Brammert, lived in a wide extended field, now known by the name Ellertsveld, in a subterranean house.
When going from the village Zweeloo to the middle of the field, there where the postroad at the left turns to Schoonloo, there is east of this road and the road to Borger a valley, called the Murderhole.Deathly sand-hills on which a single scanty pine raises her withered top, make this place even more horrid and terrible. It seems that at this place, more than in the near surrounding, rests the curse of infertility. This place must have been the haunt of the two robbing giants. Ellert educated his son Brammert according the principles with which he was brought up too. The son competed with his father in wickedness and delinquency and it was hard to determine which of them stood out above the other.
Their trace was marked by blood; robbery and plundering were their aims and with a terrible audacity, they not only attacked helpless passengers, but they even ventured in the villages and the hamlets and committed their crimes there.
Many a time a hardworking farmer saw that his dear bought cattle, horses and sheep were carried away, without daring to venture to take back his possessions, because everywhere the undauntedness of the robbers filled the villagers with dread.
The giants had stretched a rope crossed over the street, that led up to inside their haunt. A bell had been fastened at the end of the rope and when it rang, it was a sign for the bandits, that passengers or heavy loaded wagons passed their hole.
They hurried outside then and they did not only take money and goods of the unfortunated passers-by, but they also took their lives They spared nothing and nobody and it could be regarded as a favour, when stripped to the skin and be exposed to cold and rain, the passers-by were not killed.
One unhappy day, when father and son wandered in the moorland, they perceived a beautiful young girl near Orvelterveen, which was working on the field of her parents. Immediately it crossed their minds to take this helpless beauty by surprise and to take her to their den as a delicious prey. As soon as this intention arose, it was carried out.
They attacked the helpless girl, which lifted her hands pleading to the brutes and cried to have mercy with her. The heart of the brutes was unrelenting. With a sardonic smile they dragged the unfortunate girl to their hole, where she got a room, that was inaccessible to daylight and fresh air.
In this way the poor creature spent seven years in the moorhole, as a wretched prisoner. Seven children were the result of the terrible intercourse with the robbers, but not one of them was kept alive. Immediately after their birth the baby’s were murdered by the criminals and thrown in the field as bait for raven and vulture.
However…………; One day Brammert had been charged to look out for loot by his father, while his father stayed in his hole. When his son had left, he commanded his concubine to coddle him in front of a big fire. Soon the sleep befogged his eyelids and while he terribly sneered in his wild dreams, the courageous woman grasped a sharply grinded axe and cut off the throat of the sleeping giant with this murderweapon. After that she fled in panic in search for her parental home.
Completely exhausted, she had just arrived at this more or less safe place, when Brammert found the body of his father. Shouting he ran outside, following the mortally afraid woman. He almost caught up with her and with full power, he threw a war-axe at her. Fortunately the axe got stuck in the doorpost with an enormous blow.
More is not known from the legend. It is however said, that the frightened inhabitants of the region, seeking protection against the thirst for revenge of Brammert, pulled down their houses to the ground, destroyed their fields and looked for a more restful place somewhere else.
Meanwhile it is said that you can see the pale shades of Ellert and Brammert dwelling around, when you walk in the moor at the Murderhole round midnight. Their transparent hands are besmeared with blood and with a frightening scream they dissolve the darkness of the night. The grave has refused them a resting-place.