A German Tale from the Rhineland
This story is rooted in ancient Nordic myth and grows from those roots through Medieval legend and finally into a Romantic folktale that could have been collected by the Brothers Grimm or shaped into an opera by Richard Wagner.
It is a story grows through the centuries in the storyteller's imagination. And yet it is as firmly rooted in its place as an acorn that has grown into an great and ancient oak.
This tale is a mystery play about the passage of time. Every event in it takes place at the moment of balance in our life's journey -- the moment of the mid-life crisis between youth and age. It is a tale that again and again returns to the symbolic 40th year that marks the mid-point between life and death.
The story begins with a decision made by a Knight to hoard his treasure in the middle of his life journey. And then the tale passes to others over the centuries who also make fateful decesions in their fortieth year: a wealthy merchant, a dishonest judge, a poor woodcutter. And finally the tale comes to a rest with the decision made by a simple peasant woman -- neither young nor old, neither beautiful nor ugly, neither wise nor foolish.
She acts with simple grace, and redeems the story. Here is a tale that takes us on a journey down the Rhine, past the ruins of ancient castles, and to the moment of our own midlife journey -- whether it has already come, or whether we still await it.