Lady of Stavoren

The lady of Stavoren is a legend from the 16th century, which took on its current form around 1800.

The legend tells of a wealthy merchant widow in Stavoren who lived in a house with golden floors and silver walls. She owned more ships than all the merchants in the city combined and grew richer by the day.

Despite her enormous wealth, she was not satisfied; she wanted the most precious possession that could be found and sent a skipper out to fetch it. After a long search, he came home with a cargo of grain from Danzig, which seemed more valuable to him than gold. The lady did not see it as the most valuable thing that existed. Furious, she asked, "On which side did you receive the grain?", "On the starboard side.", "Then throw it overboard on the port side!" A passerby who heard this advised her not to do it; if she ever fell into poverty herself, the grain would certainly seem like gold to her. In response, she took off the golden ring from her finger and threw it into the sea with a wide arc. She added, "Just as little as I will ever see this golden ring again, will I fall into poverty." One day, one of her servants came to her with a caught fish, which had her own golden ring in its stomach. From that moment on, her fate turned. Ultimately, she ended up in great poverty.

The story was also used in the Suske and Wiske album 'De Elfstedenstunt.'

Dromos