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Krampus Tales · free · 5:55
The Bells of the High Pass
The Bells of the High Pass is a 6-minute Krampus Tale, a fireside Christmas story told by an Alpine innkeeper and introduced by Krampus himself. Press play to hear it free, right here.
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The story
On Krampusnacht the innkeeper warns his travellers to keep to the valley road and never answer the sleigh bells in the high pass. A mule-driver ignores him, hears bells answering his own, and rides up to find a rusted sleigh full of wrapped boxes.
How it begins
Let me tell you about the inn where I was born, which is also the inn where I still pour the wine, and which sits at the bottom of the valley road where the mountain begins to lean over you like a curious old uncle. On the far side of the valley there is a pass, and above the pass there is a road that nobody uses, because nobody who has used it has come back to talk about the view. My grandmother kept a bell on the front door of the inn for exactly this reason. Every Krampusnacht she would hang it on its hook, and every Krampusnacht she…
The folklore behind it
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Krampus Kristmas, free 24/7
The Krampus Tales play between the songs on Krampus Kristmas, the world's first 24/7 Krampus radio station, and all 30 are a free podcast too.