Legends
There is a legend associated with Balthasar Oomkens von Esens which still finds expression in the city's coat of arms. One year, the city was besieged by Bremen, and amongst the people trapped behind the city walls there was an itinerant musician and his performing bear. As the siege dragged on, provisions ran out and the famished bear escaped. Breaking free of his chains, the bear climbed up one of the defensive towers, where his enraged roars attracted the attention of the besiegers. In his confusion, the bear broke some of the stones from the ancient walls and hurled them at the enemy. The besiegers concluded that if the people of Esens had enough food to feed a bear, they must have plenty to feed themselves and as the spectacle of the roaring bear unsettled them, they called off the siege and returned to Bremen. In gratitude, the people of Esens immortalised the bear in their city's coat of arms (later also incorporated into the arms of East Frisia and of Wittmund (district).
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Famous quotes containing the word legends:
“a child’s
Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother
Through the parables
Of sunlight
And the legends of the green chapels
And the twice-told fields of infancy”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“Therefore our legends always come around to seeming legendary,
A path decorated with our comings and goings. Or so I’ve been told.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Sometimes legends make reality, and become more useful than the facts.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1947)