These dikes which extend for many miles along the banks of the river
were erected by the systematic herculean toil of generations of our
ancestors.
According to a popular tradition it was Rolof, the dwarf, a thrall of
Vulcan, who taught my forefathers the art of forging tools from iron
ore, enabling them to battle successfully against the might of
Neptune.
They blunted the angry sea-god's trident with their plows and shovels
and repulsed him at the very threshold of his element, stemming the
inroads of hungry seas with their stupendous handiwork which still
stands intact, an imposing monument to the memory of my forebears,
being their children's children's most precious inheritance.
On the soil which my ancestors reclaimed from the sea they founded
their homes and sowed grasses and cereals.
But ere long a dire calamity came over the land, for at the command
of the revengeful Neptune his mermaids spewed sea-foam into the
river's fresh water addling it with their fish-tails into a nasty
brine.
Luckily the good dwarf who in his youth had served his term of
apprenticeship at the court of King Gambrinus and was therefore
master of the noble craft of brewing kindly taught my forefathers to
brew a foaming draught from the malt of barleycorn, which thereafter
they drank instead of water.
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