The legend tells that once the giant Haffo came to the banks of the Vistula from distant lands. He was handsome and stately, but he had the name of a bold robber — his very name struck fear into people. Haffo settled on one of the islands in the mouth of the Vistula. And his neighbour turned out to be a prince, the chieftain of a tribe. Many people had sworn allegiance to him: fishermen, hunters, tillers of the soil. The prince was both noble and rich. But his greatest treasure was his beautiful daughter named Tiege. Swenta — the Bright One — people called her. Many suitors sought her hand, but her father refused them all, jealously guarding his bright Tiege from everyone.
When Haffo first saw her fair hair and her huge blue eyes, his new homeland blossomed for him in all the colours of the rainbow. What did he care about her father’s petty, selfish love? He wanted this woman!
One day Tiege went to the spring for water. She filled her clay jug to the brim, lifted it with an effort onto her shoulder and hurried back. Just then Haffo, returning from the hunt, caught sight of her. Without thinking twice, he rushed with giant strides to cut the girl off, trying to catch her.
When Tiege saw the giant pursuing her, she ran in terror wherever her feet would carry her. In despair she ran through the forest, heedless of the way and quite forgetting the jug, from which the water was splashing out. Tiege ran out onto the shore of the lagoon, and there the terrible giant caught up with her.
Without hesitating, the maiden threw herself from the cliff into the water, preferring death to dishonour. The furious giant leapt in after her — and met his inglorious end in the depths of the sea. And Tiege was pulled out of the waves by a fisherman who happened to be nearby in his boat.
Where the maiden ran in terror through the forest thicket, spilling water from her jug, a small river has flowed ever since. People gave it the name Tiege. And the waters that closed for ever over the giant Haffo are called the Frisches Haff, or the Vistula Lagoon. And to this day it takes into itself the bright river Tiege.
And so they were united for ever, Tiege and Haffo!
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES
1. Tiege (German: Tiege) — the Tuja, a river in northern Poland. Formerly only the lower course of the river, as far as the settlement of Nowy Dwór Gdański /Nowy Dwor Gdanski (German Tiegenhof)/, bore this name. The upper course of the river was called the Święta (Swieta).
● Editor’s note: Read on VisitPrussia.com an interview with the translator of German and, in particular, Prussian fairy tales, our regular contributor Tatyana Kolivay, who runs her own blog, where countless other parables, legends and fairy tales in her translations have been published.
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
