South Tyrolean legends

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There are numerous South Tyrolean legends , some of which are known beyond South Tyrol . The first of these were recorded in the 17th century, the heyday of the collection is in the 19th century. An important subgroup of the South Tyrolean legends are the "Dolomite legends", which exerted a considerable influence on Ladin literature .

Say

The Haderburg near Salurn

Some bigger sagas:

Collections

Karl Felix Wolff

The classic collection of sagas comes from Karl Felix Wolff “Dolomite sagas”. The first edition dates from 1911. However, his collection would be “in the tradition of the late romantic Grimm School, ie the original narrative core was revised according to externally controlled patterns” - according to today's science (cf. Ulrike Kindl, epilogue to “ Fairy tales from the Dolomites ”). Wolff endeavored to combine the different parts of the saga, as he found them in the different areas, especially in the Empire of the Fanes, into uniform narratives that were as consistent as possible. But in doing so he changed the legends he had found, some of which had developed independently of one another and could therefore only be put back together into a narrative with "poetic freedom".

Ulrike Kindl

In contrast to Wolff, Ulrike Kindl's “Fairy Tales from the Dolomites” are more oriented towards current scientific knowledge.

Willi Mai

The collection of Willi Mai (1911–1945) came into being under macabre circumstances in 1940/41, in the middle of the Second World War . It happened on behalf of the " Forschungsgemeinschaft Deutsches Ahnenerbe e. V. “of the SS . This SS organization wanted to secure the people's property again before the South Tyroleans were to be resettled ( option in South Tyrol ). Mai went from farm to farm and from village to village with a tape recorder to record legends , swashbuckles , purrs and jokes (some of which were already contemporary) in the local dialect and directly, i.e. practically unchanged, from local narrators. So here is a unique and special collection. Mai himself died in 1945 as a soldier in the Waffen SS in Székesfehérvár (Stuhlweissenburg) in Hungary .

The Mais Collection was only published a few years ago. A first volume covers the areas Wipptal , Pustertal and Gadertal (to Enneberg ). A second volume deals with Bozen , Vinschgau and Adige Valley .

South Tyrolean sagas in other collections

South Tyrolean legends have also been included in other works. For example, the collection of the Brothers Grimm German sagas is worth mentioning , which contains the legend The old wine cellar near Salurn , which is said to be in the Haderburg (see section on the legend ) above Salurn .

Some legends

The Castle on the Abyss (Val Gardena)

In Val Gardena there was an old trade route high on the mountain, the “Heidenweg” (lad. Troi payan). This path was dominated by a castle. The lord of the castle forced high taxes on the merchants for transit or threw them into the castle dungeon until a ransom was paid for them. All attempts to conquer this castle failed. There was a rumor that the building of the castle could not have been right, because the castle was exposed and so impregnable on a ledge above the abyss "Pinkan". Strangely enough, wind and weather and landslides could not harm the castle.

Gardis, the granddaughter of the lord of the castle, also lived in the castle, and the lord of the castle was always very concerned about her health. Gardis gradually made a series of strange observations. Always on full moon nights, a word moved from the foundation stone down through the castle to the topmost battlements. Then there was a terrible sigh, also from the foundation stone, and at the same time a polyphonic scream, as if people were trying to drown out this terrible sigh. This is how Gardis discovered that her father was holding people prisoner in the dungeon above the foundation stone. When trying to free these men, she falls into the dungeon herself. There the prisoners explain the terrible castle secret to her. The words of the full moon nights, placed one behind the other, result in a saying: "A virgin is walled in under the foundation stone of this castle, and if a virgin dies in the castle again, the whole castle must collapse!"

Gardis' grandfather gets his granddaughter back out of the dungeon, but at the cost of having to pull the prisoners up first. In the subsequent scuffle, the freed prisoners throw the lords of the castle into the dungeon. Gardis, who wants to help her grandfather, falls back into the dungeon and suffers serious internal injuries. The freed prisoners both pull out of the dungeon, because the grandfather down in the dungeon threatens to kill his granddaughter Gardis, a virgin, and the freed men know about the castle secret.

Not only the freed prisoners, all the squires and servants are now fleeing quickly from the castle, the young granddaughter is fatally injured. But the lord of the castle stubbornly endures his granddaughter, who is dying. At midnight with the full moon - it's the turn of the last word of the saying “collapse” - Gardis dies, and the whole castle with lord and granddaughter falls forever into the abyss “Pinkan”.

Addendum: Legends often have a true historical background. The Stetteneck Castle was in the specified area, but much lower than the troi payan.

Another addendum: The idea that people are walled in when building structures seem to be preserved even today. As a modern legend in Essen, for example, with regard to the motorway bridge over the Ruhr, there is the idea that people were concreted into the pillars.

The green mirror (Val Badia and Fanes)

The green lake on the Fanes, green from the green mirror

A magician proposes marriage to a lady of the castle. But she rejects him and marries someone else. Among the wedding guests is also the magician who gives the young bride a magic mirror, with the help of which the thoughts of other people can be read. The woman uses the mirror to read her husband's mind to see if he is loyal to her. For years she couldn’t notice anything suspicious, but finally she had to realize that her husband’s love was about to die out. Desperate and angry, she leaves her husband, who then throws himself into his sword. The woman now wants to get rid of the mirror and throws it into a lake on the Fanes , which then turns green to this day - the green lake on the Fanes. (So ​​there is an aetiological legend to explain the color of the green lake.)

The wizard now presses the lady of the castle again. This one deal can be difficult to negotiate. The magician locks them in a castle that is guarded by a dragon who also guards a valuable gem. Should a noble hero manage to free her from this dragon within a certain period of time, then the lady of the castle would be free. Otherwise she would be obliged to marry the wizard.

A Salvan has now observed how the lady of the castle threw the mirror into the lake on the Fanes, and takes it out again. He gives it to another young lady from Val Badia , who with the help of the mirror finds a man she knows he really loves. Still, she asks him to do a dangerous job. He should get a gem. It turns out that this is exactly the gem guarded by the dragon under the castle mistress' castle. Too late the noble lady is seized with remorse. When she tries to keep her husband from the adventure, he has already killed the dragon, but is fatally injured himself. The mistress of the castle is free, but the noble lady can only take his husband dead in her arms. So the magic mirror has brought bad luck to its owner again.

The child in the shade (Pustertal)

The Baroness von Schöneck in the Puster Valley gives birth to a son. You can not prevent that during their troubled dreams beside the child a Trude in form of a bird flies through the open window into the room and her son a "Teggen", a character, a sort of birthmark or mole missed. The son is bewitched with it, he is a "Trudenlecke" . Perhaps that is why Scharhart , as his mother calls him , is developing into a somewhat rude, violent person. But maybe also because he lacks a male educator, because his father had died in a war before he was born.

At night Scharhart is haunted again and again by restless dreams, he thinks he is almost suffocating. When he wakes up drenched in sweat, he still sees a bright shimmer that then pulls out of the room through a slit of light in the window. Scharhart seeks advice from an old woman. She explains to him that this happened to many people, that they were haunted at night by trests that lay on their chests so that they could hardly breathe. That is what trumps are like. It is surprising, however, that Scharhart could see Trude as a glimmer of light, normally they are invisible. Would he have a relationship with the shadow world? Scharhart explains that he is a "Trudenlecke".

The old woman explains to him that as a Trude lick he would have the opportunity to capture a Trude who would then have to obey him. The treasures came into the room through a slit of light at dusk and then out again at dawn through this slit of light. However, if it were possible to close the light slot, Trude would be trapped. When Scharhart is haunted again one night by a Trude who oppresses him, and he sees her glimmer in the room, he quickly moves the "slider" on the window, the light slot is closed and the next day he finds Trude in the shadow of the room in the room. She looks like a small, inconspicuous, weak girl, like a "G'schuichl", as Scharhart is disappointed to discover at first, but she has superhuman strength. As a prisoner, she must carry out all of Sharhart's orders.

Scharhart is now only successful. If, for example, a game threatens to escape him while hunting, he simply calls Trude and the boar or deer falls dead to the ground. But once a deer escapes him. Trude explains to the angry Scharhart: she is powerless against female beings, the “stag” was a hind. Scharhart is also very successful in knightly duels. Some opponents turn out to be stronger at first, but then suddenly they die in the tournament against Scharhart. The rumor that Scharhart might be a witcher is slowly spreading.

Finally Scharhart meets a young woman whom he desires as a wife: Marhild von Haydeshausen. But she doesn't want to know anything from him, and she's already engaged. Since Scharhart remains intrusive, there is a duel between Marhild's father and him. The father remains dead on the battlefield. The same thing happens to the bridegroom and finally to the brother. Many in the region now believe that Scharhart is a witcher. They want to storm his castle "Schöneck". Other noblemen speak out in favor of a judicial duel. Scharhart and his friends cannot prevent that.

When Scharhart tells his captured Trude, she is very shocked. Somehow she has secretly grown in love with her rough men over the years. In vain did she warn him again and again and urge him to restrain, Scharhart had never wanted to hear. Now she can no longer help him, after all, as a woman, Marhild is a female being. Trude is leaving Scharhart forever.

The judicial duel, actually a custom that has long since ceased to be practiced, should take place under the supervision of two Skárjer (judges, cf. “Thugs”). Scharhart has to climb into a pit that reaches up to his shoulders. His right arm is tied behind his back. With his left arm he can defend himself with a short stick. Marhild receives a sack with a heavy stone in it. With that she beats the knight in the pit. The fight begins at sunrise. If Scharhart can hold out until sunset, he has won the fight.

At noon there is a break from fighting. The friends and relatives advise their protégés. Marhild's relatives advise her to hit Scharhart in such a way that he has to turn his face to the sun. This way he could no longer see her closely against the light and fend off her blows early on. But Scharhart can also hold up well in the afternoon. The sun is sinking ever lower. A friend calls out to him that he'll soon be there. Scharhart cannot resist the temptation to turn around briefly to see how deep the sun has already sunk. Marhild pulls all her strength together again and strikes with the heavy sack. It hits right on the head. The knight collapses dead.

The valley lies in the sun for a long time, but the pit with the dead knight has long been in deep shadow.

literature

  • Ulrike Kindl : Critical reading of the Dolomite sagas by Karl Felix Wolff. Volume I: Individual Legends. Istitut Ladin "Micurà de Rü" , San Martin de Tor 1983.
  • Ulrike Kindl: Critical reading of the Dolomite sagas by Karl Felix Wolff. Volume II: Legends Cycles - The stories from the empire of the Fanes. Institut Ladin Micurà de Rü, San Martin de Tor 1997, ISBN 88-8171-003-X .
  • Ulrike Kindl: fairy tales from the Dolomites. Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-424-01094-4 .
  • Auguste Lechner : Legends of the Dolomites. 1955.
  • Legends, fairy tales and tales from South Tyrol. Volume 1: Wipptal, Pustertal, Gadertal. Collected by Willi Mai . Edited with notes and comments by Leander Petzoldt on behalf of the Society for Tyrolean Folk Culture. Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck / Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-7022-2227-8 .
  • Legends, fairy tales and tales from South Tyrol. Volume 2: Bozen, Vinschgau and Etschtal. ISBN 3-7022-2228-6 .
  • Bruno Mahlknecht : South Tyrolean legends. Selected and retold by Bruno Mahlknecht. 6th edition. Athesia, Bozen 2016, ISBN 978-88-6839-182-9 .
  • Karl Felix Wolff : Dolomite legends. Legends and traditions, fairy tales and stories of the Ladin and German Dolomite inhabitants. With two excursions, Berner Klause and Lake Garda. Unchanged reprint of the sixteenth edition published in 1989 by the Tyrolia publishing house. Athesia-Tappeiner Verlag, Bozen 2019, ISBN 978-88-6839-399-1 .

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