In Ernzen, so the folk legend tells, there once lived a man who was highly skilled in the magic arts. He took delight in using his knowledge and powers to tease and frighten the people of Echternach.

He had especially set his sights on the abbot of the Abbey of Echternach. Now he would roll along as a black ball, now he would run as a little hare over the bridge and along the castle wall, taking roundabout ways to reach the abbey. There he would nibble off the finest flowers in the garden, to the great annoyance of the abbot, or he would roll noisily up and down the stairs to disturb the abbot at his prayers. Not content with that, he would leap, trembling, onto the large double window where the abbot sat reading in a great book, then reach his forepaw through the half-open window and slam the book shut on him; if the abbot was absent, he would toss all his parchments into confusion and then vanish into thin air.

Weary of these mischiefs, the abbot devised a ruse to rid himself of the troublemaker. One evening he took up his place at the half-open window, apparently in prayer, but armed with a long, sharp knife, and waited for the hare. Just as the abbey clock struck midnight from the tower, he saw him coming in the moonlight. As was his habit, the hare jumped onto the window to play one more trick on the abbot. But no sooner had he stretched his paw through the window than the abbot cut it off with his knife. Whining and screaming, the hare fled from the abbey and ran toward Ernzen.

Since losing his paw, he must remain a hare forever, and every year on the 31st of December, on New Year’s Eve, he comes back to the abbey to search for his lost paw. Some old folks claim to have seen the three-legged hare on that day in the abbey gardens or along the castle walls.