Winter burger

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The Falkertalm in the Gurktal Alps

The Winterbrentlerin is a ghost figure on the alpine pastures in Upper Carinthia , in the Gurktal , the Hadnerhöhe, around the Eisenhut and in the Flattnitz . Brentler is a name for Senn , so the name means Wintersennerin .

Description and appearance

The winter burger is, depending on the tradition, described as a "big, strong woman " or a "dirty little witch". She is said to be wearing a gray robe and a hat with a wide brim, with a trunk like a pig and long ears on her face. In the summer months, when the alpine pastures are being cultivated, the winter burner stays in hiding. After the dairymen have left the mountain regions with the cattle drive , at the latest on St. Martin's Day , the Winterbrentler appears and moves into the alpine huts .

Say

Various legends and traditions entwine around the winter burger. Legend has it that the dairymen should leave behind a small supply of food such as cheese, milk and bread for the winter months when they descend from the hut; if they do so, the winter dairyman will ensure that the grazing cattle survive the way from the valley to the alpine pasture undamaged next spring.

Another legend tells of a dairymaid who secretly gave birth to a child on the mountain pasture during the summer months. When winter came and she had to go back to the valley, she left the baby in the alpine hut to hide it from the farmers in the valley. The winter burger is said to have taken care of the child as a precautionary measure with the food that was also left behind.

The Winterbrentler is said to have appeared to a hiker when he was forced to spend the night in an alpine hut in late autumn. The hiker was initially shocked at the sight of the figure, but the Winterbrentler provided him with good-tasting donuts. Before the hiker left the hut, he secretly pocketed one of the donuts. When he wanted to eat it outside the mountain pasture, it had turned into cobwebs.

Another legend, which also tells of the fact that the Winterbrentler prepares a meal, has been handed down as a horror story: according to this, the Brentler should prepare a hideous meal over a fire for everyone who enters the alpine hut during the winter months without being asked or calls the Winterbrentler for no reason and force those to eat it.

literature

  • Georg Graber: Legends and fairy tales from Carinthia . Leykam Verlag, Graz 1935, p. 198 ff .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Prentler, Brentler: Senner, Almhalter, Schwaiger. In: ostarrichi.org. Retrieved May 23, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c Reinhard Pohanka: Tatzelwurm and Donauweibchen - Austria's natural spirits and legendary figures . Amalthea Signum Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-902862-65-5 , pp. 82 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ a b The ghost of the Winterbrentler and the origin of the Almabtrieb. Nockberge Biosphere Reserve, archived from the original on January 23, 2015 ; Retrieved May 23, 2018 (archived version).
  4. ^ Society of Friends of Poetry in Carinthia (ed.): Carinthian Almanach . Verlag Martin Warneck, Berlin 1944, p. 127 .