Egbert encouraged his braves to climb it; but when half way up, the giant rocks fell upon them and crushed every daring knight to atoms.
This wall the devil had built to prevent the spread of the new faith.
The other legend says the devil wished to divide with Christ the empire of the world, and therefore began this wall as the border between the two kingdoms; but the work was not finished at the time agreed upon by the contracting parties, and the contract was broken. The devil, in wrath at having laboured so much for nought, broke in pieces his partly built defence.
There is a tradition that the holy Vehm,[[1]] or Fehm, formerly held her court also in the Teufelsmauer, not far from the majestic Reinstein.
[[1]] Vehm, or Fehm, old German for punishment.
This celebrated tribunal had its origin in Westphalia, the land of the Red Earth, and was one of the most remarkable institutions of the middle ages.
The Fehm is said to have been instituted by Charlemagne to prevent Saxony, which had been forced by his arms to embrace Christianity, from returning to Paganism. Others claim for it a much greater antiquity.[[2]]
[[2]] See "History of the Fehm Tribunal; or, Secret History of Westphalia." By Fr. P. Usener. Frankfort, 1832.