The NOXX Legend

It was early in the morning, long, long ago.

The Zugerberg mountain was shrouded in mist. Wisps of fog played on the surface of the Zugersee Lake, and a chilling wind whistled eerily from the Horbach. The setting full moon reflected golden yellow in the water.

The fisherman and his helper were drawing in their drag lines.

A day like any other.

But suddenly darkness fell. The rising sun was obscured. The wind from the Horbach fell silent, yet the water surface became increasingly agitated. It took all the strength of the fishermen to hold their boat steady. The waves began to break and then came the noise. It was a noise that the fishermen only knew from hearsay and legend.

First from the depths of the Zugersee, gradually it spread to the forests on the slopes of the Zugerberg until finally the sounds could be clearly discerned.

A faint ‘ogg’, ‘ogg’, ogg’, then a hissing ‘oggss’ ‘oggss’, culminating in a sonorous ‘noxx’, ‘noxx’, ‚noxx’.

The only hope for the fishermen was to utter the words, words that had been passed down the generations, the words engraved in the stone in the depths of the Lorzen-Tobel gorge.

Oh, powers of the tides, on land and in the air!
I promise from now on to drink only beer with high flavour and good savour.
Give us strength in this hour!
Only ale of quality will now wet our gorges!

The storm of wind, forest and air, so it is said, only lasted briefly. It disappeared as quickly as it came. The rising sun sparkled over the Wildspitz mountain in the east and the lake surface became as smooth as a mirror once again.
The fishermen set off towards Hechtländi. After receiving such bounty from nature, they kept their promise from that day on.

Even today, it is said that these monsters appear from the lake to remind man that beer is a gift of nature.