The Story of Koidu
Lüllemäe and Karula neighbourhood is so wonderful, simple and uniquely
picturesque. This is a place where Forest the great master of this area sings
its eternal song and Man tests his strength against land and natural phenomena,
the two things he fears and respects. Yet, we have some bloody legends here as
well.
Eduard Prants has written a story of a girl immured into the wall of Lüllemäe
Church. This is a story of fierce fight between the pastor-innkeeper Lüller,
his sons, who had conquered Lüllemäe, and local peasants of Karula – Jaak, Jüri
and Jakob, the Matsu brothers.
The brothers did not stand the conquerors and built Matsla (Madsa?) wooden fort
deep in the forest on the steep hillside and continued their fight. The
conquerors built a church during the day and the brothers tore it down during
the night. But Lüller found out that Anu, a daughter of his servant was Jaak's
fiancee. He immured the girl into the church wall with a vengeance. The
brothers summoned the people of the parish, forced their way to Lüllemäe, saved
Anu, killed Lüller and torched the church and all other buildings in Lüllemäe.
Lüller's sons, however, fled, brought bigger reinforcements and re-conquered
Lüllemäe. They built a nice burial mound for their father onto the slope in
front of the present school. Two very old trees are still standing there. Then
they promised to find Matsla fort, wipe it out, take Anu back dead or alive and
immure her again into the church wall.
The Matsu brothers found out about the burial mound, razed it and hanged the dead Lüller.
The fight was a long one. One of the Lüller's sons got wounded in his leg and
was not able to raid forests. He sat in the church house and saw how Anu
sneaked to see her mother. He had her captured and immured into the church
wall. Anu's mother managed to kill the limper but they could not save Anu. She
staid there and a cross was put on that place in the wall.
The revenge raid of Matsla did not succeed because Lüller's sons followed Anu's
mother, found Matsla fort and attacked it. They fought long. The Lüller's sons
managed to get into a fight between themselves as well. One of them went down
the hill of Lüllemäe and build a house on the shore of Köstrejärve. He
conquered new lands from there to Rebasemõisa and warred with Masla people who
did not want to surrender or pay taxes.
His son, too, didn't get on with Matsla people and one day, when he was riding
through the forest, he was caught and drowned in Raudjärv. This caused a new
war, a war which was too much for Matsla fort. The fort was conquered, burnt to
the ground and the brothers were killed. Only their old mother escaped, ran
into the forest but found no protection and drowned herself into the same lake.
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