Giacun Hasper Muoth

Giacun Hasper Muoth around 1890

Giacun Hasper Muoth's childhood home in Breil with a memorial plaque

Giacun-Hasper-Muoth memorial in front of his parents' house in Breil

Cenotaph of the poet in the cemetery courtyard behind the Chur cathedral

Giacun Hasper Muoth (born September 29, 1844 in Breil / Brigels , † July 6, 1906 in Chur ) was a Swiss teacher and poet who wrote in the Rhaeto-Romanic idiom Sursilvan . His poetry made him one of the main representatives of the literature of the so-called Rhaeto-Romanic Renaissance in the 19th century.

Life

Giacun Hasper Muoth grew up in the Rhaeto-Romanic and Catholic village of Breil in Surselva . Both the linguistic and the denominational identity strongly influenced his later work as a writer. In his youth he attended schools in Feldkirch , Disentis / Mustér , Schwyz and Friborg one after the other . In 1867 he studied at the reformed embossed University of Lausanne , from 1868 to 1873 at the Catholic University of Munich . He took history , philosophy and general philology . In Munich he came into contact with the worldview and philosophy of language of German Romanticism , which shaped his work and his struggle to preserve Romansh. Until a year before his death, he then worked as a language and history teacher at the Cantonal School in Chur. After a long illness, Muoth died in 1906 in the Kreuzspital Chur .

Writing

Muoth's poetic work is strongly influenced by the struggle to preserve and renew the Romansh language and identity. He is one of the earliest poets who wrote in the idiom of Sursilvan. Apart from the struggle for language, his poetry is fed by everyday considerations and historical knowledge and moves between romanticism and realism . In addition to poems, he wrote idylls as well as historical and linguistic texts.

The romantic, combative style of Muoth's linguistic poetry is particularly evident in the poem Al pievel romontsch from 1887. It begins with the clear appeal Stai si! defenda, Romontsch, tiu vegl lungatg! (German for example: "Stand up! Defend, Rhaeto-Romanic, your old language!"). In the following, the advantages of the Romansh language are compared with the disadvantages of the threatened Germanization , which is perceived as uprooting.

Muoth's opus magnum is the verse epic Il Cumin d'Ursèra de 1425 from 1896, which is considered a kind of national epic of the Rhaeto-Romans. It is about a rural community in the Urserental , which according to the epic still belonged to the area of ​​influence of the Disentis Abbey and to the Rhaeto-Romanic-speaking area in the 15th century . Abbot Pieder de Pultengia is introduced as the heroic protagonist . He rides in a hurry over the Oberalp Pass in order to convince the Ürschner population of the Landsgemeinde to stay at the monastery and the Romansh language community. He was successful with his flaming plea, while the tempting speeches of the German-speaking people of Uri did not get caught. Therefore the people of Ürschner shout in chorus: O mumma romontscha! Ti mumma carina! Nus' lein tia tschontscha salvar per adina! (German for example: "O mother Rhaeto-Romanic! You dear mother! We want to keep your language forever!"). The resistance to Germanization and the preservation of one's own language culture are stylized into a myth in Muot's epic . Historically, however, the events described are not tenable.

Works (selection)

Individual works

Poems and ballads

• La vusch de San Gliezi (1872)
• La dertgira nauscha de Vallendau (1450) (1882)
• Igl hermit San Sigisbert (1885)
• Il tirann Victor (1887)
• Al Pievel Romontsch (1887)
• La vendetga dils Grischs (1893)

Idylls

• Las spatlunzas (1872)
• Il Gioder (1886)
• A mesiras (1896)

Verse epic

• Il Cumin d'Ursèra de 1425 (1896)

Philological texts

• Grammatica romontscha-tudestga, contenenta ils principals elements formals dil lungatg tudestg en lur relaziun cul lungatg romontsch dil Rein (1890)
• Romontsch u Tudesc (1893)

Work edition

From 1994 to 2000 Muot's works appeared in a six-volume edition , arranged by Iso Camartin and Peter Tuor :

• Ovras da Giacun Hasper Muoth, Ediziun da Breil en 6 toms .

literature

• Gion Deplazes : The Rhaeto-Romans. Your Identity in Literature. Chur 1991.
• Renata Coray: From Mumma Romontscha to test tube baby Rumantsch Grischun. Romansh language myths. Chur 2008.
• Rico Valär: Neither Italians nor Germans! The Rhaeto-Romanic Homeland Movement 1863–1938. Baden 2013.

Web links

• Ursina Guldemond-Netzer: Muoth, Giachen Caspar. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Muoth memorial cities in Breil