Old Larske of Drydere

A short walk away from Burzyn down the road to Onden lays the village of Drydere. Halfway between the village and the town, you see beside the road a small standing stone its inscription saying it being erected in 682 TR in memorial of a Larske of Drydere.

Larske of Drydere was an old peasants widow, which although seeming poor and living in a cottars hovel, liked to go once per month to Burzyn for drinking one or two pints of ale in one of the inns. But she was very quiet and a little bit shy, so she always sat apart from the other guests drinking her beer in silence.

One day several mercenaries from Kaldor employed by the traitorous Lord of Geda were also in the inn, roistering, gambling and singing dirty songs, when old Larske entered. As she as usual sat apart in silence, the soldiers took no notice of her. Not until she wanted to go and rummaged around in her purse for some money, for the purse was brimming and she had to search for a long time before she gave the inn-keeper the demanded silver. This saw the soldiers and they decided to waylay her.

They sneaked out of the inn and hid in the dark beside the road until the peasant woman passed this way. They lunged at the helpless woman, knocked her down and robbed her purse. But as they opened it to divide the loot between them, they found instead of the suspected money just rusty nails with some few farthing inbetween.  Old Larske didn’t survive the blow delivered by the robbers and soon her fleeing murderers were hunted and later hanged on Burzyn Square.

The villagers of Drydere erected in memorial of this cruel deed a small stone at the place old Larske lost her live and everyone coming along should speak a short prayer to Peoni for her soul.

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