The Laurin myth emerged in the South Tyrol and was written down by a minstrel during the middle ages. It belongs to the group of Dietrich myths that surrond the figure of the historical Ostrogoth king Dietrich von Bern/Theodoric the Great.
Once upon a time, high up in the rocky outcrops of the Catinaccio, was the kingdom of the dwarf king Laurin. He owned an underground palace made from mountain crystal and in front of the entrance was a magnificent garden full of scented roses.
Anybody who dared to pluck a rose or to break the silken thread that surrounded the garden Laurin would punish harshly. One day, Laurin kidnapped beautiful Similde, the daughter of the King of the Adige river, and brought her to his rocky kingdom to be his bride. However, Hartwig and Wittich, two brave suitors of beautiful Similde, want to bring her back and turn to the great Dietrich von Bern for help.
It came to a battle between Dietrich von Bern and Laurin, and even though the dwarf king had a magic hood that made him invisible and a magic belt that gave him the strength of twelve men, he was defeated and taken as a prisoner by Dietrich to Bern (Verona). However, Laurin cursed his rose garden, which had shown his enemies the entrance to his kingdom.
Nobody was to see the garden ever again, neither by day nor at night. But in his curse King Laurin had forgotten about the time of dusk and so the rose garden sometimes still shines out in its full glory at sunset.
