Minnewater, a love story

One of Bruges most famous landmarks is the Minnewater nearby the Beguinage. Often wrongly translated as "Love Lake" or "lac d'Amour", it simply means Minne's water, as the lake was a former property of the Minne family. The somewhat archaic verb "minnen" (to love), caused a bit of confusion.
This may all seem  very unromantic, but there is a love story!
I heard it long ago and will try to write it down as I recall it.
In those days, when Rome started to loose its grip on the Northern part of its empire, there was a small hamlet nearby the river Ruya. More or less where you have the actual Town Hall.
When the farmers went to their fields in the morning, they had to pass the hut of a Saxon settler who dwelled nearby the lake. He never got a kind greeting from them, nor did he got one in the evening.
His name was father Minna, and he disliked the locals just the same way they disliked him.
Father Minna had a daughter, a very pretty lass, who used to go every morning to the lake, with some laundry to wash.
On the one hand, the men of the little township were maybe very decided in denying father Minna's existence,on the other hand, they loved the presence of his daughter.
They exchanged friendly greetings with her, and she smiled and waved back to them, cheering them up for the rest of the day.  One particular young lad  got all her attention. She blew him kisses, followed him with her eyes until he disappeared in the distance and forgot  all about her laundry.
It doesn't need to be said that the boy was very pleased to be the subject of all her attention, and after a few weeks they had their daily chat in the morning, and in the evening.
Then came the hugs and the sweet words...and they fell in love.
Unfortunately they were not very discreet and, in no time, the whole neighbourhood knew about their feelings for each other.
The young boy was ordered by the shocked villagers to stay home when the others went to work, and a furious father Minna forbade his daughter to be outside the hut when there was people around. The poor girl was completely heartbroken but didn't dare to ignore her father's order. She had to wait until sunset to go out in the dark, and then she sat there by the water, whole alone and silently weeping.
In those days, every lake, spring or river had a spirit. Those spirits guarded the waters and made sure they stayed clean and healthy. As healthy water was very important, the locals often prayed to those spirits and threw coins in the lakes and rivers as an offering for good luck and happiness.
Minnewater has its local spirit too, and luckily it's a good-hearted one. He overheard the girl's lamentations and felt very sorry for her. He also knew about the settler and the villagers, and their mutual dislike for each other, and he decided to help the young girl who was so deeply unhappy.
Those ancient spirits had a fair knowledge of magic and the lake spirit had no problem in transforming himself into a little spider. He climbed in a small tree beside the girl and found a good place in the foliage above her head. Then he started to weave a web, a special magic web.
The threads formed characters and a message could be read, saying that the youngsters' love was appreciated and approved by all the celestial powers.
When the girl saw the spider's creation, she couldn't believe her eyes. Two seconds later she ran to the village, overwhelmed with happiness, to tell her boyfriend and everyone else about the miracle.
The people of the hamlet came to see the wonderful web and even father Minna was alerted by the commotion they all made.
He gazed in amazement to the web and then  looked at his daughter and the boy, and the villagers. 
And he started to laugh, and because he did so, the villagers too started to laugh.
And it all ended with people being happy, a beautiful wedding and a satisfied spirit, sitting on the bottom of his lake.
If you pass Minnewater,do throw a coin into the lake. I don't know if the spirit is going to fulfill your wishes, but maybe he still loves to make a bit of extra cash.

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