Necessity is the mother of invention

Snowmen
Snowmen

A new fairy tale from the Siebengebirge about dragon Jupp at the Nonnenstromberg. This dragon with the classic Rhenish name lives in a cozy barn at the Nonnenstromberg. Unfortunately, you can’t see this barn most of the time.

Dragon Jupp

Jupp is a good brewer and also likes to drink his own beer, maybe that’s why he has his red nose. He likes to tell stories, and sometimes you don’t know what is true and where his imagination runs away with him. But one thing is for sure: they all come from the heart.

In the 1920s in the Siebengebirge. The people had gone through a lot. Many things did not work and one often had to improvise, but finally, there were wine festivals again and people were looking forward to Christmas. But even before the feast there was an unpleasant surprise. But let’s let the hero of our story tell it himself – Dragon Jupp from Nonnenstromberg.

Fog hanging over the valley

Back then, there was thick fog hanging over the valley. It was so thick that you could hardly make out anything. The children didn’t find their way to school, the adults didn’t find their way to work, and soon nobody dared to go out anymore, not even the road service. A little later, the streetlights went out – and with that, nothing went anymore.

I stood in front of my barn on Mount Nonnenstromberg, looked down on the valley and thought about it over and over. Without streetlights, people could not see anything, and because they could not see anything, they would not go out, and because they would not go out, the streetlights would not be repaired. No … that did not get me anywhere. But then it dawned on me: I had to break this vicious circle and provide some emergency lighting. I already had an idea, it was a bit crazy, but it might work, and as said above, we were used to improvising. At any rate, “Jupp the red-nosed dragon” would not allow the fog to engulf the valley!

Emergency lighting

Thought so, done so. My bright red nose helped me find my way down to the valley, it even shined through the thick fog. Down there, I walked down a main road and some children dared to go out and met me. I briefly explained my idea to them, and then we got to work.

Although it was difficult under these conditions, with only my bright red nose for light, we made a row of snowmen along the road, and each of them got an especially big carrot for nose. Needless to say that, with that fog, it all looked gray on gray. Then I took a deep breath and spit fire upon the first carrot. There was hissing and smoke … but then the carrot burst into a bright orange! My fire had defeated the fog. Encouraged by that success I took another deep breath and spit fire upon the second carrot, and then on the third … and soon there were orange red lights all along the road, my emergency lighting, the snowmen!

Support

With that, the spell was broken. Soon I got help … my namesake Jupp from the car repair shop came with his roaring and fuming car and fixed the streetlights. In his haste he had completely forgotten that his car was still decorated from the recent wine festival, but that was even better: you could see and hear him already from far, as he was driving.

Jupp is a Rhenish short form of the given name Josef (Wikipedia).

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