Bearsmill.

Country of Origin: Austria
Original Language: German
Published in: Sagen aus Österreich
Published by: Ueberreuter

Bearsmill. In former times, as the population of Wieden, one of the districts of Vienna that lay nearby the city moat, was still very sparse – only few single houses stood among the many wide vineyards – it happened pretty often that around wintertime hungry wolves, yes, sometimes even bears were sighted near the city wall. And it wasn’t uncommon at all that those beasts came quite close which caused a great deal of anxiety amongst the citizens of Vienna.
As the legend would have it, a mighty black bear once came to a mill at the River Wien called “Heiligengeistmuhle” on a freezing winter night and attacked the miller who’d just come out the door. The miller was a sturdy man and defended himself ferociously against the shaggy attacker but in the end Master Bruin got the better of him and knocked the miller down with a mighty blow from one of his paws. Filled with fear, the miller started screaming for help.
One of his helpers, who’d been in a room at the top floor of the mill, heard the miller’s screams, opened the window and saw the raging beast that had wrestled down his master. Instant help was needed – he had no time to run down the stairs. So he didn’t lose a second and foolhardily jumped out of the window, landing on the bear’s back in a sitting position – just like a rider on his horse.
With all his might he wrapped his strong arms around the bear’s throat and started throttling it until the bear abandoned his victim to get rid of that annoying guy riding on its back. The miller crawled out under the bear and with the help of some other strong blokes that had come running after hearing the miller’s cries for help, he managed killing the beast.
Of course the miller thanked his helper and offered him a respectable reward but the lad wouldn’t hear of it because in his opinion he’d only been doing his duty. So he didn’t take any money but only asked for the bear’s skin. Naturally he was granted that wish and the lad had a peltmonger make a coat out of it which he wore for the rest of his life. That way, according to the legend, he got the name “Bearskinner”.
The miller who’d been rescued, however, had a picture of the bear painted which he hung up above the front door of his mill and so the mill soon was commonly known as “Bearsmill”.