It is a popular explanation of the optical phenomenon of Alpenglow (Ladin: Enrosadira), by which the summit of the mountains change their color to shades of red and purple during and after sunset.
King Laurin's legend is also considered to be the source of the German name of the Rosengarten group (Italian: Catinaccio) between South Tyrol and the Trentino.
King Laurin was the ruler of a thriving race of dwarves who lived up here and mined the mountains for precious jewels and valuable ores.
But his special pride and joy was the great garden located in front of the entranceway to his underground crystal castle.
He exacted the same punishment from anyone who tore the silken thread which surrounded his entire rose garden instead of a fence.
Similde was the beautiful daughter of the “King on the River Etsch.” One day, he felt that the time had come to marry off the girl.
For seven long days, the noblemen from the neighboring lands fought their contests to determine who should wed the beautiful Similde.
In order to rescue the king’s daughter, Similde, Hartwig and Wittich turned to the great and famous Prince Dietrich of Bern for help.
The prince promised to aid them, although his wise old captain of the armory Hildebrand warned him of the strange magical powers of the Dwarf King Laurin.
A short time later, the maid found the knife, and the man promised her and her friends a whole parade of dolls.
On her way home, Mènega met a woman who taught her a spell so that the man would give her his dolls with golden crowns.
These chirping birds loved listening to the water nymph, but as soon as they heard some strange noise, they would twitter nervously and fly around in fear.
She advised him to stretch a rainbow from the Rose Garden to the Latemar, to disguise himself as a jewelry merchant, and so to entice the nymph away.
Years later, as the girl – who had now grown into a young farmer woman – inherited the farmstead, she enlarged it and had seven children of her own.
Starting then, she cooked for the dwarf and placed the food into the attic whenever she heard the knock at the door.
Tschei had been cruelly driven away by the villagers, and so he and his friend Jocher decided to climb up into the Rose Garden.
One day, a farmer was desperately searching for his sheep, and he discovered a green meadow which was covered with neither snow nor ice.
A short time later, a hunter found a hatchet, and everyone said that it must belong to Tschei, and that he had forgotten it when he moved up to the Rose Garden.
One day, the wild men found a chest full of gold coins, to which they paid no particular attention.
A few years later, the sole survivor among the wild men, the Glacier Man, searched for his allies, but in vain.
But the rich broke their promise, and so one of the poor Dirlingers journeyed to the “Witch’s Cauldron” to call upon the Devil for help in spreading the Plague.
She and all her followers wanted to hurry to the aid of the wild men for the last and greatest battle against the Dirlingers.
But as she came to a mountain ridge and saw the terrible defeat of the wild men, she was so shocked that she turned into stone.
One day, she ordered her servant girl to sweep out the attic with a bundle of wheat stalks.
But the servant girl used some pine twigs instead, and a short time later, a storm started brewing.
When Lomberda went to see whether the servant girl had done a proper job, she found that the entire attic was full of pine needles.
The witch punished the maid, because if she had used a bundle of wheat stalks, as she had been told to do, everything would have been full of grain, instead.