Dutch folklore

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 41. Chapters: Martin of Tours, Piet Pieterszoon Hein, Gawain, Brendan, Sinterklaas, Folklore of the Low Countries, Pier Gerlofs Donia, Reynard cycle, Ludger, Heer Halewijn, Zwarte Piet, Dorus Rijkers, Lady of Stavoren, Elegast, Witte Wieven, Wijerd Jelckama, Klozum, Kabouter, Beatrijs, Deogen, Radboud of Utrecht, Gnome King Kyrië, Saeftinghe legend, Oude Rode Ogen, Bernard Fokke, Kobus van der Schlossen, Dull Gret, Ellert and Brammert. Excerpt: Martin of Tours (Latin: ; 316 ¿ November 8, 397) was a Bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. Around his name much legendary material accrued and he has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints. He is considered a spiritual bridge across Europe, given his association with both France and Hungary. His life was recorded by a contemporary, the hagiographer Sulpicius Severus. Some of the accounts of his travels may have been interpolated into his vita to validate early sites of his cult. He is a patron saint of soldiers and horses. Martin was born at Savaria, Pannonia (now Szombathely, Hungary). His father was a senior officer (tribune) in the Imperial Horse Guard, a unit of the Roman army, and was later stationed at Ticinum, Cisalpine Gaul (now Pavia, Italy), where Martin grew up. At the age of ten, he went to the Christian church against the wishes of his parents and became a catechumen or candidate for baptism. At this time, Christianity had been made a legal religion (in 316), but it was by no means the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. It had many more adherents in the Eastern Empire, whence it had sprung, and was concentrated in cities, brought along the trade routes by converted Jews and Greeks (the term 'pagan' literally means 'country-dweller'). Christianity was still far from accepted amongst the higher echelons of society, and in the army the cult of Mithras would have been stronger. Although the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, and the subsequent programme of church-building, gave a greater impetus to the spread of the religion, it was still a minority faith. When Martin was fifteen, as the son of a veteran officer, he was required to join a cavalry ala himself and thus, around 334, was stationed at Ambianensium civitas or Samarobriva in Gaul (now Amiens, France). It is therefore likely that he joined the Equites catafractarii Ambianenses, a heavy cav