Famous german novel "The Rider on a white Horse (Schimmelreiter)" by Theodor Storm draws on a superstition and theme that appears in numerous folk tales from the region of the North and Baltic Sea: In order to build a durable and reliable dyke, a living being has to...
Vishnu, disguised as the fish Matsya, saves Manu from the flood. When the flood begins, Manu boards the boat and then prays to the fish Matsya for assistance. The fish then appears and ties the boat to a horn that has grown on its head. It uses the serpent Vasuki as...
Stories often mention that the behaviour of animals announces approaching floods. This is an exceprt from a text by the Roman writer and natural scientist Claudius Aelianus (c. 175 – c. 235 AD) about the flood that submerged Helice (nothern Pelepones, Greece). “Fünf...
A. C. 1300 am Tage Marcelli Pontificis (ist der 16. Jan.) hat sich die Westsee durch Sturmwinde erhoben, und das Wasser vier Ellen über die höchsten Deiche geführet, Städte und Dörfer umgekehret, und den Flecken Rungholt neben sieben Kirchspielkirchen in Edomsharde...
The sea, which had been beating against the shores, suddenly broke the boundary that was imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It coursed through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the city. I saw the beautiful...
Launched in 2005, the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank uses electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the stories and digital record of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. George Mason University’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media and the University of...
Ein einziger Schrei - die Stadt ist versunken,Und Hunderttausende sind ertrunken.Wo gestern noch Lärm und lustiger Tisch,Schwamm andern Tags der stumme Fisch.Heut bin ich über Rungholt gefahren,Die Stadt ging unter vor sechshundert Jahren.Trutz, Blanke Hans? (Excerpt)...
Apparently an anglo-american invention, this story about the boy who rescues a Dutch city by sticking his finger in a hole in the dyke, has been republished in various versions since the mid 1800s . This is the earliest published version of the story and it starts...
