The miserable existence of Mrs. Hitt

14 October 2024

Post originally written in: Deutsch

The form: Horse and rider. The material: pure rock, whose needle-like tip bears a name. The place: Innsbruck's Nordkette at 2,267 meters above sea level. While other mountain needles in this country are not usually specifically named, this rock spike has become truly famous: it depicts Frau Hitt on horseback. This is what it looks like when greed and avarice are punished by the heavenly powers. So the good woman has been leading a miserable existence on the ridge of the Nordkette high above Innsbruck since time immemorial. In this article, I want to find out more about the reason for this.

There are actually three legends that explain the 'fate' of Frau Hitt. The Brothers Grimm included one of them in the collection of "German Legends" under the name 'Frau Hütt'. According to this legend, a giant queen of this name once lived in the mountains around Innsbruck. One day, when her little son came home covered in mud, wailing and crying, his mother promised him a beautiful little skirt. A servant was then told to bring soft crumbs immediately to clean the little boy's face and hands. Then, suddenly, a heavy thunderstorm broke out over the queen's rich cornfields, green meadows and forests and terrible lightning flashed to the ground. When it was over, everything that belonged to this lady had disappeared. Everywhere was a desert of rocks and stones, not a blade of grass could grow. In the middle of the chaos stood the petrified Frau Hütt, "and will stand like this until doomsday", according to the Brothers Grimm.

The second explanation of the 'petrification': One day, according to this story, Mrs. Hitt met a poor woman and her hungry child who asked her for a little food. Instead of helping them, the giantess took a stone and handed it to the child as if it were bread. The poor woman begged again for help, but Mrs. Hitt only mocked her and rode on haughtily. This act of arrogance and hard-heartedness did not go unpunished. The divine punishment followed immediately: the mountains began to tremble, a strong storm came up and a mighty bolt of lightning struck Mrs. Hitt. The giantess and her horse were turned to stone. Since then, she has sat as a stone figure high up on the rock, gazing fixedly into the distance.

Joseph Kyselak contributed a third version. In 1825, the Viennese court official began a four-month mountain tour through Austria, which also took him to Tyrol. On foot, of course. He passed the Gerlos Pass into the Zillertal valley, crossed the main Alpine ridge to Sterzing and then hiked over the Jaufen Pass, the Passeiertal valley and over the Timmelsjoch pass into the Ötztal valley. He reached Innsbruck via the Wildspitze and the Stubaital - and probably heard the third version of the Frau Hitt legend here. In any case, he presents a completely new version of the legend in his travelogue.

A queen beloved by all was called Mrs. Hütt. Her son Ol, whom she had fathered with Tyr, a mountain giant, was to lead the government in the future. (Talented linguists will recognize the word Tyr-ol in the combination of the two names) However, the son was a good-for-nothing. He rebelled against his mother Hütt, who was invulnerable insofar as she only had to fear the water. The son knew this, tore a mountain of rock from the Solstein, creating the smooth Martinswand, and hurled it down the valley, where the Isel mountain is still a piece of it today. The Inn was dammed up and a lake engulfed people and animals. Mrs. Hütt fled to the Alpe and begged for revenge, which the 'higher power' rejected. She had spoiled her son, now every bolt of lightning should shake her head. Whereupon she froze, as did her son, who was devoured and torn apart by his own misdeed.

The Nordkette was formed by huge fractures in post-glacial times. There were already people in the area around Innsbruck in prehistoric times who experienced massive rockfalls and rock avalanches. This can almost certainly be assumed based on the prehistoric finds in Hötting. Such memories were then passed down through the centuries in the form of stories, as the Innsbruck geology professor Josef Blaas suspected. Tales that eventually led to the Frau Hitt legend of 'just retribution'. Johann Kyselak's version is a good example of this.

The origin of the name 'Frau Hitt' remains shrouded in history

A 'forerunner' of the name is mentioned in the hunting book of Emperor Maximilian in 1500: "The game is hunted from the Freyhaitannger", it is noted. The area of Frau Hit is referred to as "Frawhuet", "Frawhut" and "Frawhuettenspitz". How the name 'Hitt' came about is still shrouded in the thick fog of prehistoric times. When Peter Anich and Blasius Hueber drew up the first map of Great Tyrol, the 'Frau Hütt' was also virtually fixed.

The Frau Hitt as a climbing tower

It wouldn't be Innsbruck if this towering rock needle hadn't already been appreciated by the first mountaineers. It is said that the rock needle was first climbed in the 1840s. People have been trampling on the head of Frau Hitt ever since. A story has been handed down from this time, according to which a large wooden statue of Andreas Hofer was erected on the summit. It was then destroyed by shepherds because the grazing cattle were frightened by the sight of the Sandwirt (!). That's what some say. Others suspected the Bavarians of having smashed the Tyrolean hero out of anger.

Many attempts to emphasize the peak in one way or another failed. For example, wind and weather destroyed an 'iron rotating mirror' that the academic gymnastics teacher Josef Haselsberger had mounted on the summit in 1885. A similar fate befell a flag and flagpole, which also failed to withstand the wind and weather. An iron flag, which was mounted on a six-meter-high iron pole, lasted longer. According to reports, there was 'not much left of it' in 1927. Today, a small summit cross adorns the top of the Frau Hitt.