Raetian Tales 1: A Wind from the South (47 page)

Time has also been tampered with, toward the end of the book, for purposes of dramatic presentation. The meeting in the Rutli meadow happened sometime between 1290 and 1291: the Battle of Morgarten, as mentioned above, happened on 21 November 1315. I hope my readers will forgive me the elision. What I have
not
tampered with are the details of the battle itself. Readers astonished by the apparent imbecility of the Austrians in their management of the situation should be advised that the author (along with many military historians)  is as bemused by it as they are. The pre-cantonal Swiss, at any rate, were pioneers in demonstrating to mounted chivalry that it was no longer to consider itself invulnerable. What remains astonishing is that it took the chivalry nearly another hundred years to get the message.

Some readers will recognize Duonna Vrene as an early version of the Venus of the Venusberg myth, her name somewhat changed by time and shifting dialects. Her tradition in the Romansch-speaking part of the world is less Bacchanalian and more deadly, alternately vampiric and destructive. She is yet another of the large group of Roman and Etrurian goddesses now demoted, in Swiss legend, to
diala
or “faery” status. I have run her enchanted valley together with the Churer tale of the
Wunschhohle,
the Wish-Hole near Arosa, where a bold man might venture to get his wishes granted.

Other matters of legend and history are more problematical. Certainly a family called either Tel or Tell are recorded as having settled at Bürglen in the Schachental around 1050. Wilhelm or Willem—or, as he would be in Romansch, “Gugliem”—remains a matter for violent disagreement among scholars and historians, some claiming him (like Robin Hood) to be a concatenation of several men or hero-figures, some claiming he never existed at all.  

His story, though, has become involved in the general clouding of the issues surrounding the beginning of Swiss independence. The birthday of Switzerland is 1 August 1291, the date of the signing of the document now known as the
Bundesbrief
. (At least, we
think
that was the date of its signing. There is some speculation that the
Brief
was “back-dated”. What is certain is that it was
not
signed, as some have claimed, at the secret midnight meeting in the Rutli meadow: the Oath-Confederates at that point would not have been so foolish as to leave written evidence of what they were up to.)  The participants—Walter Furst, Werner Stauffacher, Arnold von Melchtal, and Werner II, the Knight of Attinghausen—are all verifiable historical personages whose signatures appear on the
Bundesbrief
. The first three men are sometimes known as “the three Tells”: one legend maintains that Furst, Stauffacher and von Melchtal sleep in a cave under the mountain near the Rutli meadow, waiting for their nations’ great need to awaken them.

The events following the swearing of the Oath of Confederacy—Tell’s feats, and the destruction of the castles of Zwing-Uri and Sarnen, etc.—are all first recorded in the “Federal Chronicle” of Obwalden: a document felt to have sound historical sources, though the only version of it we now have is much revised and dated 1470. Schiller’s romanticized version of the Tell story (based on the error-ridden account of Ägidius Schudi, circa 1570) has reduced the signing of the
Bundesbrief
to a poor secondary position in popular culture. The myth being more dramatic than the reality, the two main versions of the story now only share one common image, the shape of a hunter striding down from the valleys into history at Aultvitg/Altdorf. Whether Tell ever even saw Gessler, much less met him, is hard to say. And the story of the hat on the pole sounds like an anti-Austrian propaganda. Not that it couldn’t have happened: but did it happen there, or then? 

Even if it didn’t, Schiller’s retelling of the story has become indelible—and in his defense it has to be said that it was a wonderful evocation of the archetypal Swiss traits: stubborn desire for freedom, action only reluctantly taken...but taken swiftly, and (usually) with carefully premeditated violence, when no other choice was possible. The Swiss themselves fell in love with the story, and for that reason more than any other, it seems wise not to meddle with it too much. Tell himself has been invoked again and again as a revolutionary figure since the 1500’s, being denounced as “subversive” by various Imperial-descended governments of later times—all of which fell within years of the denunciation. Perhaps there really
are
some ghosts more powerful than the living... At any rate, I have followed the version of the Tell story found in the “Federal Chronicle”, which agrees closely enough with the Schiller for my purposes. (As a side issue, those interested in Tell’s musical connections—most famously, the Overture to Rossini’s opera
William Tell
—will find an excellent [and dreadfully accurate] musical description of the
föhn
sweeping down in storm and lightning on the Urnersee in the second part of the Overture.)

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On other matters: The statue of Diun/Diana found by Mariarta can be seen in the Rätische Museum in Chur. It was a household votive statue, found during excavations of Curia Raetia, the Roman settlement built about 20 BC and now buried beneath the neighborhood of modern Chur called Welschdörfli, near the banks of the Plessur. Other such statues have been found in the area, though few so well preserved. At least one “roadside” shrine left by a passing Roman legionary has been found near the spot in the neighborhood of Vaz where Mariarta was distracted from the skinning of her chamois.

Romansch, the language spoken in Tschamut in this story, is with its cousin-tongue Romanian the most direct lineal descendant of Latin still being colloquially spoken on earth, and (by enactment of law) is the fourth official language of Switzerland. Those interested in Romansch should try to find a copy of the excellent
Bien Di, Bien Onn
by the poet and scholar S. M. Nay:  this book is one of those used to teach the language in Switzerland. Romansch (in its five variant forms—Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Engadinish/Ladin, and Vallader) is now under threat, being spoken by only about 50,000 people: but this small number is a result of the steady departure of Romansch-speaking populations from the alpine areas to the large cities, and not some politically-motivated or sectarian “linguicide” such as was attempted with other European “minority” languages like Basque and Irish.

Of all the Romansch dialects, Sursilvan is the form spoken by the largest group, and is most influential in terms of prose and poetic output. It is the form of Romansch used in this book, though, not for these reasons, but because it’s the form predominant between Tschamut, Disentis/Mustér (still home to the great abbey which gave it its name, a notable center of Romansch learning and scholarship), and Chur.

An interested reader will have little trouble finding various online sources for more information by using search engines such as Google – always bearing in mind that spellings of the language’s name vary: it can be found under Rumantsch, Romansch and Romanche, as well as the author’s preferred spelling “Romantsch”. Also, useful information on the language itself, as well as books and other Romantsch-related items, can be found at the website of the Lia Rumantscha / Romansch League, at
http://www.liarumantscha.ch/
.

Readers interested in hearing the music of the language for themselves can easily do so over the World Wide Web. Broadcasts of music (modern Romansch popular and rock music as well as traditional: you haven’t lived until you’ve heard someone rapping in Sutsilvan…), and news and current affairs in the Sursilvan Romansch dialect, can be heard 24 hours a day via live streaming audio from Radio e Televisiun Rumantscha’s service, Radio Rumantsch, at
http://www.rtr.ch
. Click on “Novitads” in the menu at the top of the page to hear headlines and the most recent news broadcast in Romantsch from RTR’s broadcast center in Chur.

A last note: The word
föhn
has become the official “family” name for all winds of its kind—hot, dry winds caused by low barometric pressure on one side or the other of a mountain chain. (The Chinook wind of the Rocky Mountains is a
föhn:
so, to a lesser degree, is the Santa Ana wind of southern California.)  The
föhn
proper is caused by low barometric pressure on the north side of the Alps, and the presence of storm or other unsettled weather on the south side. The clouds dump their rain on the southern side, and the airmass associated with the southern occluded front is either sucked up and over by the low pressure system north of the mountains, or pushed over the peaks by the storm system to the south.

In either case, the air moves so quickly that it is able to discharge very little energy, and because of the increase in kinetic energy caused by its plunge down the northern slope, it rapidly becomes a hot, dry, positively ionized wind of devastating speed and power. The
föhn
melts the snow on the upper pastures early in the year, and extends or creates a growing season for plants that could otherwise not be grown on the near north side of the Alps (grapes, most fruit, most grains). Its massive positive ionization, though, makes it an uncomfortable wind for human beings to live with...conducive to avalanches, forest fires, short tempers, migraines, and murders. In the upper Reuss valley, from about Tschamut to Disentis/Mustér, smoking is often completely forbidden when the
föhn
is blowing, for the same reasons it’s forbidden in forest country in southern California in the summer. With all this taken into account, the relationship of Alpine people with the
föhn
is, at best, ambivalent. One Swiss writer claims the
föhn
has (at least, in the southern parts) become the national excuse not to do something you don’t want to.

Some drugstores in Switzerland now stock an anti-
föhn
preparation. It is uncertain how well it sells, or works.... Meanwhile, in most German-speaking countries,
föhn
is best known as a word for a portable hair dryer.

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