The mountain has ever since been called the Rosstrappe, and the Giant Bodo[[6]] gave his name to the valley and river.
[[6]] Bodo—the final o has been corrupted into e, Bode.
The Golden Crown in the Bode Kessel.
"Seht ihr die alte Lauenberg
Hoch auf dem Harze schimmern?
Durch Wildniss geht der Weg hindurch
Zu ihren wüsten Trümmern."
The legend of the Gold-Krone in the Bode Kessel is connected with a Countess of the Lauenburg.
In the days of the Crusades there dwelt here a fair maiden, the daughter of the Earl von Lauenburg, whose lover, Conrad von Regenstein, was a Crusader.
Instead of his speedy return, came tidings of his fall in the bloody combat. The broken-hearted Braut refused all other lovers, and to secure peace and freedom declared she would bestow her hand only on the knight who could rescue Brunhilda's crown from the fearful gulf, the Bode Kessel.
The news spread through all the plains of Germany, from the North Sea to the Alps, and knights and princes flocked to the banks of the Bodethal to learn the extent of the danger in such an attempt, but no man was even able to approach the brink of the fearful chasm.[[1]]
[[1]] It must be remembered that the Bodethal was unapproachable, no path whatever existing, until von Bülow caused the path to be constructed in 1818, past the Rosstrappe to the Devil's Bridge overlooking the Bode Kessel.