Швейцарский фольклор: история и легенды страны

Swiss folklore describes a collection of local stories, celebrations, and customs of the alpine and sub alpine peoples that occupy Switzerland. The country of Switzerland is made up of several distinct cultures including German, French, Italian, as well as the Romansh speaking population of Graubünden. 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, the Swiss as a culture and people existed well before this time. Before the Swiss, the region was occupied by Pagan and later Christian Germanic tribes, which would become the Swiss. Before the Germanic peoples, the region was occupied by Roman and Gallo Roman populations. Finally, before the Romans the Celtic Helvetii lived in what would become Switzerland. In addition to conquest, Switzerland has been a crossroads of Europe since at least the Roman Empire. Constant movement of cultures and ideas into Switzerland has created a rich and varied folklore tradition. The study of folklore (Folkloristics) is known as Volkskunde in German. The study of Swiss folklore originates in the 19th century. The central figure of its academic development is Eduard Hoffmann Krayer, who founded the Swiss Society for Volkskunde in 1896.

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

Saint Gall, an Irish monk who in the early 7th century helped introduce Christianity to eastern Switzerland. The Abbey of St. Gall is believed to have been built on the site of his hermitage. Magnus of Füssen, a missionary saint in southern Germany. He was active in the 7th or 8th century and is considered the founder of St. Mang's Abbey, Füssen. Saint Fridolin, patron of Glarus. He is traditionally believed to be an Irish saint who founded Säckingen 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.

Teufelsbrücke is a bridge which was supposedly erected by the Devil. William Tell is a Swiss folk hero who was forced to shoot an apple off his son's head by the tyrannical reeve of Habsburg Austria. After successfully shooting the apple and escaping the reeve's men, he assassinated the reeve and started a revolution. He became a central figure in Swiss patriotism as it was constructed during the Restoration of the Confederacy after the Napoleonic era. Rütlischwur, a legendary oath of the Old Swiss Confederacy, taken on the Rütli, a meadow above Lake Lucerne, by three men representing Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden. It became connected to the legend of William Tell. Arnold Winkelried was a possibly legendary hero of the Swiss Battle of Sempach against the Habsburg Duke Leopold 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 Klaus was a Swiss monk and ascetic who is considered the patron saint of Switzerland. In 1481 the leaders of the Old Swiss Confederacy began quarreling over treasure from the Burgundian Wars and 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 the Stanser Verkommnis which expanded the Confederation.

The Alpine Hunter and His Fairy Guardian – tells of a hunter and his lover, a fairy named Silver Wreath who agrees to marry him. The Avalanche That Was Peacemaker – an avalanche goes against its own destructive nature and becomes a settler of disputes among mortals, much to the annoyance of its frost giant kinsmen. The Dwarf and His Confectionery – a dairy farmer is punished for trying to steal the secrets of making candy from the Dwarf King. The Dwarfs' Secret – describes how hunters were taught by the dwarfs to improve their smoothbore firearms through the innovation of rifling. The Fairies and Their Playground – the fairies gather together for a meeting to remember a golden age of Switzerland before the encroachment of human technology and the tourism trade. The Fairy in the Cuckoo Clock – tells how humans were inspired by the fairies to build the first cuckoo clock. The Fairy of the Edelweiss – tells of the first edelweiss flower that was a fairy transformed by the Fairy Queen to fight the Frost King. 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 the Sun, transformed the land into a paradise where mortals could live. Many of the fairies chose to become flowers, trees, and meadow grasses such as the Arolla pine, the edelweiss, and the Alpine poa before marching up the mountainsides to make war against the giants. The Palace Under the Waves – the king of the undines brings a human princess down to his crystal palace beneath a lake to make her his bride. The Wonderful Alpine Horn – describes how the Swiss people first received the Alpine horn as a gift from the fairies.

The Totemügerli 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. text="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."

The Singing Fir Tree – a woodcarver discovers a singing fir tree in the forest near his village.