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Swiss folklore

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ModernFasnachtcostume fromBasel.Fasnacht, a mixture of Christian and pre-Christian beliefs, is a pre-LentenCarnival.

Swiss folkloredescribes a collection of local stories, celebrations, and customs of thealpineand sub-alpine peoples that occupySwitzerland.The country of Switzerland is made up of several distinct cultures including German, French, Italian, as well as theRomanshspeaking population ofGraubünden.Each group has its own unique folkloric tradition.

Switzerland has always occupied a crossroads of Europe. While Switzerland has existed as an alliance and country since 1291, theSwissas a culture and people existed well before this time. Before the Swiss, the region was occupied byPaganand laterChristianGermanic tribes,which would become the Swiss. Before the Germanic peoples, the region was occupied byRomanandGallo-Romanpopulations. Finally, before the Romans theCelticHelvetiilived in what would become Switzerland. In addition to conquest, Switzerland has been a crossroads of Europe since at least theRoman Empire.Constant movement of cultures and ideas into Switzerland has created a rich and varied folklore tradition.

The study of folklore (Folkloristics) is known asVolkskundein German. The study of Swiss folklore originates in the 19th century. The central figure of its academic development isEduard Hoffmann-Krayer,who founded the Swiss Society forVolkskundein 1896.

Part ofa serieson the
Culture of Switzerland
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AlmabtriebatMelsin 2019.

Festivals

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Tatzelwurm fountain inKobern-Gondorf

Customs

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  • BäregräubschiandChöderchessiare traditional wedding presents in theSimmental(Bernese Oberland). The former is a kind of fork symbolising the male element in the wedding, and the latter is a magical bucket representing the female aspect. Reported in an Italian anthology of Alpine culture in the 1860s, it is unknown whether this custom is still practiced.[3]
  • Rääbeliechtli ( "turnip lights" ) arelanternshand-carved fromturnips.The turnip is hollowed out and designs are carved into it, which are lit by a candle in the turnip. The children of the villages then walk through the streets of their town with the lanterns and sing traditional songs. The custom originates withthanksgivingtraditions at the end of harvest in November.[4]
  • Schwingen
  • Steinstossen

Mythical beings

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  • Berchtold,a white-cloaked being and leader of theWild Hunt.
  • Böögg, orbogeyman,of theSechseläutenfestival.
  • Dragons,serpentine monsters often having wings and breathing fire. One such tale involved acooperwho drunkenly stumbled into a cave where he encountered a pair of these creatures. These dragons were unusual in that they were friendly and allowed the cooper to stay with them through the winter. However, when he returned home in the spring he found that he was so used to eating dragon food that he could no longer stomach human fare, and eventually starved to death.[5]Dragonet( "little dragon" ) tales originated in Switzerland during theMiddle Ages.
  • Dwarfsare little men associated with hills and the earth. Described as happy and helpful, they raise cattle and produce magical cheeses. This cheese has the property of replenishing itself as long as a piece is left over after eating.[6]They are sometimes portrayed as wearing green cloaks and red caps, and having long white beards.[7]They live in caves and mines[8]and they know where subterranean treasures may be found.[9]They are guardians of thechamois,a species of mountain goat.[10]They are expertblacksmithsandweaponsmiths,[8]and despite their good nature they will play vengeful pranks if they are insulted or mistreated.[7]
  • Fairies,a general class of magical beings. In Swissfairy taleliterature they are ruled by aFairy Queen,are associated with flowers and warmth, and have frequent battles with thefrost giants.[11]
  • Frost Giantsinhabit the high peaks of theAlpsand are ruled by a Frost King. Their children take the form ofavalanches,and the giants take great pride in the destruction caused by them.[12]They have the ability to freeze any living thing that gets near them.[13]They are sometimes portrayed as having long beards made of icicles and wearing wooden shoes hollowed out from the trunks offir trees.Frost giants may literally melt into puddles of cold water if the weather is too warm or if they are exposed to the charms of a particularly beautiful fairy.[14]
  • Gnomes,earth spirits orelementalsfrom the writings of the Swiss physicianParacelsus.[15]They are said to have caused thelandslidethat destroyed the Swiss village ofPlursin 1618. The villagers had become wealthy from a localgold minecreated by the gnomes who poured liquid gold down into aveinfor the benefit of humans. This newfound prosperity led to the corruption of the village which greatly offended the gnomes.[16]
  • Herwischis similar to thewill-o'-the-wisp.They inhabit marshy terrain and turn their lanterns on at night, leading travelers astray to flounder in the water. If they are mocked or angered, they will frighten the offender by chasing him and flapping their wings in his face.[17]The Herwisch is also part of the folklore of Germany where it displays the same characteristics.[18]
  • Huttefroueli (or Greth Schell), an old woman who carries her husband on her back in theUbersitzfestival.
  • Imps,evil spirits that ride on theFöhnor south wind.[19]
  • Jack-of-the-Bowl,ahouse spiritand the most well known Swisskobold,otherwise known as Jean de la Boliéta in French, or Napf-Hans in German. In return for a bowl of sweet cream left out for him each night, he would lead the cows to graze in places considered dangerous to humans, but none of the cows ever suffered injury. The path used by him was always clear of stones no matter how rocky the mountainside, and this came to be known as Boliéta's Path.[6]
  • Jack Frost,a personification of winter.[20]
  • Kobolds(or "Servants" ) are house spirits related to dwarfs but they inhabit remote dwellings andshielings(summer houses used by herdsmen on the mountains). The most well known Swiss kobold is Jean de la Boliéta (Jack-of-the-Bowl), or Napf-Hans in German.[6]
  • Mountain Giantsare primordial giants that live in caves and are big and strong but simpleminded compared to humans. Valleys were formed when they walked about on the earth, and rivers were formed from the weeping of their wives and daughters when they were mistreated by their male kinsmen. Gargantua ( "Old Gargy" ) is their king and Bertha is his daughter. Hotap was a giant who enjoyed eating humans, and his friend Schoppe was a personification of alcoholic beverages (similar toJohn Barleycorn), especially the destructive consequences of overconsumption. Hotap was unable to resist his partner's influence and eventually drank himself to death.[21]
  • Perchta(or Berchta, Bertha, "The Shining One" ), Germanic goddess and white-cloaked leader of thePerchtenwho drive bad spirits away, and female leader of the Wild Hunt. 6 January is her festival day.
  • Perchten,those followers who work with Perchta, and also the name of their wooden animal masks.
  • Samichlausleads a donkey laden with treats and toys for children.
  • Companions of Saint Nicholas
  • Schnabelgeiss,a tall goat with a beak in theUbersitzfestival.
  • Tatzelwurm(or Stollenwurm) combines the features of a cat and a serpent, allegedly photographed by a Swiss photographer named Balkin in 1934.
  • Türst,the Wild Hunter.
  • Undines,water spirits or elementals from the writings of Paracelsus.[24]They are usually portrayed in Swiss fairy tales as young maidens who love to sit or dance near brooks and rivers or in marshes among the reeds. They have wavy golden hair with a wreath of pond lilies, and are clothed in white mist, for which reason they are also known as mist maidens. They do not like to be seen but may be encountered on moonlit nights.[25]There are also male undines, though less frequent, and in one tale there is even a king of the undines who brings a human princess down to his crystal palace beneath a lake to make her his bride. Both male and female undines are able to disguise themselves as mortals, though their fairy nature may be revealed by their green clothing which will always feel wet.[26]
  • Vogel Gryff( "GriffinBird ")

Legends

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The Abbey of St. Gall, founded on the site of his hermitage

The legends of Switzerland include historic and semi-mythic people and places that shaped the history and culture of the nation.

Christianization

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  • Saint Gall,anIrish monkwho in the early 7th century helped introduce Christianity to eastern Switzerland. TheAbbey of St. Gallis believed to have been built on the site of his hermitage.[27]
  • Magnus of Füssen,a missionary saint in southern Germany. He was active in the 7th or 8th century and is considered the founder ofSt. Mang's Abbey, Füssen.[28]
  • Saint Fridolin,patron ofGlarus.He is traditionally believed to be an Irish saint who foundedSäckingen Abbey,Baden,in the 6th or 7th century. According to legend, he converted a landowner who left his estates, now the Canton of Glarus, to Fridolin. When the landowner's brother took Fridolin to court over the gift, Fridolin raised the landowner from the dead to confirm its legitimacy.[29]

Old Swiss Confederacy

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A fresco showing William Tell and his son after he shot an apple off his son's head.
  • Teufelsbrückeis a bridge which was supposedly erected by theDevil.
  • William Tellis a Swiss folk hero who was forced to shoot an apple off his son's head by the tyrannicalreeveofHabsburg Austria.After successfully shooting the apple and escaping the reeve's men, he assassinated the reeve and started a revolution.[30]He became a central figure inSwiss patriotismas it was constructed during theRestorationof the Confederacy after theNapoleonic era.
  • Rütlischwur,a legendary oath of the Old Swiss Confederacy, taken on theRütli,a meadow aboveLake Lucerne,by three men representingSchwyz,UriandUnterwalden.It became connected to the legend of William Tell.
  • Arnold Winkelriedwas a possibly legendary hero of the SwissBattle of Sempachagainst theHabsburgDukeLeopold III of Austria.According to the story, when the Swiss army was unable to break through the Austrian pikes, Winkelried threw himself on the pikes and used his body to open a hole in the Austrian lines leading to the Swiss victory at Sempach. Though the existence of Arnold Winkelried is disputed, the story was another central part of Swiss patriotism in the 19th century.
  • Bruder Klauswas a Swiss monk and ascetic who is considered the patron saint of Switzerland. In 1481 the leaders of theOld Swiss Confederacybegan quarreling over treasure from theBurgundian Warsand civil war appeared likely. Bruder Klaus was consulted and passed a secret message to the quarreling leaders. The message, the contents of which are unknown, calmed the tempers and led to the drawing up of theStanser Verkommniswhich expanded the Confederation.[31]

Fairy tales and folktales

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Griffis

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  • The Alpine Hunter and His Fairy Guardian – tells of a hunter and his lover, afairynamed Silver Wreath who agrees to marry him.[32]
  • The Avalanche That Was Peacemaker – anavalanchegoes against its own destructive nature and becomes a settler of disputes among mortals, much to the annoyance of itsfrost giantkinsmen.[33]
  • The Dwarf and His Confectionery – adairy farmeris punished for trying to steal the secrets of making candy from theDwarfKing.[34]
  • The Dwarfs' Secret – describes how hunters were taught by the dwarfs to improve theirsmoothborefirearms through the innovation ofrifling.[35]
  • The Fairies and Their Playground – the fairies gather together for a meeting to remember agolden ageofSwitzerlandbefore the encroachment of human technology and the tourism trade.[36]
  • The Fairy in the Cuckoo Clock – tells how humans were inspired by the fairies to build the firstcuckoo clock.[37]
  • The Fairy of the Edelweiss – tells of the firstedelweissflower that was a fairy transformed by theFairy Queento fight the Frost King.[38]
  • The Frost Giants and the Sunbeam Elves – tells how the frost giants once ruled Switzerland as a land of eternal ice and snow until the Fairy Queen and her army, with help from her friend theSun,transformed the land into a paradise where mortals could live. Many of the fairies chose to become flowers, trees, and meadow grasses such as theArolla pine,the edelweiss, and theAlpine poabefore marching up the mountainsides to make war against the giants.[39]
  • The Palace Under the Waves – the king of theundinesbrings a human princess down to his crystal palace beneath a lake to make her his bride.[26]
  • The Tailor and the Giant – tells of a giant named Kisher who served in the army ofCharlemagne.He was such a great warrior that Charlemagne gave him the name Einheer ( "One Man Army" ). When he was outsmarted by a tailor they became adventuring companions, fought adragon,and contested each other over the hand of a princess.[40]
  • The Wonderful Alpine Horn – describes how theSwiss peoplefirst received theAlpine hornas a gift from the fairies.[41]

Franz Hohler

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  • TheTotemügerli[42]- tells of a playing group of hill spirits/fairies (the eponymous Totemuegerli), to which one should never say 'no', asking two (human) men for help carrying something up a craggy hillside. The object-being-carried starts to speak to the two men, and one of the two men runs away. The one who continued on the task, wakes up the next morning safe but frightened; whereas the one who ran away is never seen again.

"S git Luet, wo saege, dass sider am Schtotzgroten es Totemuegerli meh desumeschirggelet."
In translation: "There are those who say, that since that day, there is one more Totemuegerli playing on that hillside."

Müller-Guggenbühl

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See also

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Notes and references

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  1. ^abCustoms and Traditions in Switzerlandaccessed 20 May 2008
  2. ^Christian (14 January 2013)."Alter Silvester is a Swiss tradition that lives on".Newly Swissed Online Magazine.Retrieved28 December2020.
  3. ^POPOLI DEL MONDO USI E COSTUMI. Europa. MILANO VALLARDI S.D., 1913, p. 26.
  4. ^Plättner, Anya (15 November 2006)."Rääbeliechtli, wo gaasch hii?".Fricktal24.ch.Retrieved6 February2012.
  5. ^Griffis, William Elliot(1920).Swiss Fairy Tales.Thomas Y. Crowell Co.pp. 66–76.
  6. ^abc[1]Keightley, Thomas (1870).The Fairy Mythology Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries.
  7. ^abGriffis (1920), p. 57.
  8. ^abGriffis (1920), p. 132.
  9. ^Griffis (1920), p. 56.
  10. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 56, 134–135.
  11. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 77–90, 144–156.
  12. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 39–47.
  13. ^Griffis (1920), p. 78.
  14. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 198–199.
  15. ^Hall, Manly P.(1997, 1964).Paracelsus: His Mystical and Medical Philosophy.Philosophical Research Society.pp. 53, 69–72, 74, 77–78.ISBN0-89314-808-3.
  16. ^Guerber, H. A.(1899).Legends of Switzerland.Dodd, Mead & Co.pp. 289–290.
  17. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 195–196.
  18. ^Guerber, H. A. (1895).Legends of the Rhine.A. S. Barnes & Co.pp. 80–81.
  19. ^Griffis (1920), p. 88.
  20. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 81, 84.
  21. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 48–55.
  22. ^Bowler, Gerry (2000).The World Encyclopedia of Christmas.McClelland & Stewart.pp. 103, 201.ISBN0771015313.
  23. ^Klobuchar, Lisa (1995).Christmas in Switzerland.World Book, Inc.pp. 24, 37.ISBN0716608952.
  24. ^Hall (1997, 1964), pp. 53, 69.
  25. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 193–194.
  26. ^abGriffis (1920), pp. 201–208.
  27. ^Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913)."St. Gall".Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  28. ^Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913)."St. Magnus".Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  29. ^Leo, Hermann (1886).Der heilige Fridolin.Herder. pp. 163–167.
  30. ^Meyers Konversations-Lexikon,Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, Leipzig und Wien, Fourth edition, 1885–1892, entry on "Tell,Wilhelm,"pp. 576–77 in volume 15. In German.
  31. ^Stanser VerkommnisinGerman,FrenchandItalianin the onlineHistorical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  32. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 209–220.
  33. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 157–167.
  34. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 56–65.
  35. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 132–143.
  36. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 168–180.
  37. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 91–100.
  38. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 144–156.
  39. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 77–90.
  40. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 118–131.
  41. ^Griffis (1920), pp. 28–38.
  42. ^Ds Totemügerli. Zytglogge, Basel 2022, ISBN 978-3-7296-5083-1.
  43. ^Müller-Guggenbühl, Fritz (1958).Swiss-Alpine Folktales.Oxford University Press.pp. 210–212.
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