The Valleys of Tirol: Their traditions and customs and how to visit them

40

P. 12.

41

Among these not the least remarkable were some specimens of the unbrimmed beaver hat, somewhat resembling the Grenadier’s bear-skin, only shorter, which is worn by the women in various parts of Tirol and Styria.

42

The bell called in other countries the Elevation bell, is in Germany called the Wandlung, or change-of-the-elements bell. The idiom was worth preserving here, as it depicts more perfectly the solemnity of the moment indicated.

43

The threefold invocation, supposed to be supremely efficacious.

44

In Tirol the roofs are frequently made of narrow overlapping planks, weighed down by large stones. Hence the origin of the German proverb, ‘If a stone fall from the roof, ten to one but it lights on a poor widow;’ – equivalent to our ‘Trouble never comes alone.’

45

‘May God reward it.’

46

The frontispiece to this volume (very much improved by the artist who has drawn it on the wood).

47

Of the Brixenthal and the Gebiet der grossen Ache we shall have to speak in a later chapter, in our excursion ‘from Wörgl to Vienna.’

48

The comparative mythologist can perhaps tell us why this story crops up everywhere. I have had occasion to report it from Spain in Patrañas. Curious instances in Stöber Sagen des Elsasses.

49

S. Leonard is reckoned the patron of herds. See Pilger durch Tirol, p. 247.

50

Anna Maria Taigi, lately beatified in Rome, was also a maid-servant.

51

I have throughout the story reconciled, as well as I could, the various versions of every episode in which local tradition indulges. One favourite account of Ottilia’s end, however, is so different from the one I have selected above, that I cannot forbear giving it also. It represents Ottilia rushing in despair from her bed and wallowing in the enclosure of the pigs, whence, with all Henry’s care, she could not be withdrawn alive. All the strength of his retainers was powerless to restrain the beasts’ fury, and she was devoured, without leaving a trace behind; only that now and then, on stormy nights, when the pigs are grunting over their evening meal, some memory of their strange repast seems to possess them, and the wail of Ottilia is heard resounding hopelessly through the valley.

52

Grimm has collected (Deutsche Sagen, Nos. 349 and 350) other versions of the tradition of oxen deciding the sites of shrines which, like the story of the steeple, meets us everywhere. A similar one concerning a camel is given in Stöber’s Legends of Alsace.

53

It is perhaps to be reckoned among the tokens of Etruscan residence among the Rhætian Alps, for Mr. Isaac Taylor finds that the word belongs to their language. (Etruscan Researches, pp. 333, 380.)

54

‘Hulda was supposed to delight in the neighbourhood of lakes and streams; her glittering mansion was under the blue waters, and at the hour of mid-day she might be seen in the form of a beautiful woman bathing and then disappearing.’ – Wolf, Deutsche Götterlehre. See also Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 164–8.

55

One version of the legend says, the Frozen Wall was formed out of the quantities of butter the people had wasted.

56

This excursion was made on occasion of a different journey from that mentioned in Chapter i. Of course, if taken on the way from Kufstein to Innsbruck, you would take the Wildschönau before the Zillerthal.

57

Whoever comes into the Zillerthal is sure to visit it a second time.

58

In the Vintschgau (see infra) the leading cow has the title of Proglerin, from the dialectic word proglen, to carry one’s head high. She wears also the most resounding bell.

59

‘Kaspar my name: from the East I came: I came thence with great speed: five thousand miles in fourteen days: Melchior, step in.’ Zingerle gives a version of the whole set of rimes.

60

See Sitten Bräuche u. Meinungen des Tiroler Volks, p. 81.

61

Its origin may be traced further back than this, perhaps. The cat was held to be the sacred animal of Freia (Schrader, Germ. Myth.), and the word freien, to woo, to court, is derived from her name. (Nork.)

62

The merry mocking laugh was a distinguishing characteristic of Robin Goodfellow. ‘Mr. Launcelot Mirehouse, Rector of Pestwood, Wilts, did aver to me, super verbum sacerdotis, that he did once heare such a lowd laugh on the other side of a hedge, and was sure that no human lungs could afford such a laugh.’ – John Aubrey, in Thoms’ Anecdotes and Traditions, Camb. Camden Society, 1839.

63

O woe! the plough like fire glows,And no one how to help me knows.

64

Released am I now, God be praised,And the bound-stone again rightly placed.

65

The haunting cobbler – a popular name for ‘the wandering Jew’; in Switzerland they call him ‘Der Umgehende Jud.’

66

(The souls of all unbaptized children.) Börner, Volkssagen, p. 133.

67

A precisely similar superstition is mentioned in Mrs. Whitcomb’s recently published volume as existing in Devonshire. We shall meet Berchtl again in the neighbouring ‘Gebiet der Grossen Ache’ on our excursion from ‘Wörgl to Vienna.’

68

Procula is the name given her in the Apocryphal Gospels.

69

‘It is now known that such tales are not the invention of individual writers, but that they are the last remnants – the detritus, if we may say so – of an ancient mythology; that some of the principal heroes bear the nicknames of old heathen gods; and that in spite of the powerful dilution produced by the admixture of Christian ideas, the old leaven of heathendom can still be discovered in many stories now innocently told by German nurses, of saints, apostles, and the Virgin Mary.’ – Max Müller, Chips from a German Workshop.

70

Compare Cox’s Mythology of the Aryan Nations, vol. ii. p. 364, and passim.

71

Max Müller. Review of Dasent’s Works.

72

Max Müller. Comparative Mythology.

73

A tradition still held of the Berchtl in many parts of Tirol.

74

Nork. Mythologie der Volkssagen.

75

Abbé Banier. Mythology Explained from History. Vol. ii. Book 3, p. 564, note a.

76

Nork, Banier, &c. Cox’s Mythology of the Aryan Nations, vol. i. pp. 317–8 and note, gives other connexions of the Legend; and at vol. ii. p. 306, and note to p. 365.

77

M. Müller. Review of Kelley’s Indo-European Traditions.

78

Weber says the only accusation was grounded on a pasquinade against Claudia found among his papers, but that he should calumniate her seems inconsistent with his general character. Though his unsparing lampoons on his adversaries had excited them more than anything else against him.

79

Compare Gebhart, vol. ii. p. 240.

80

Near Innsbruck.

81

Staffler, Das Deutsche Tirol, vol. i. p. 751; and Thaler, Geschichte Tirols v. der Urzeit, p. 279.

82

Ball’s Central Alps.

83

Pasture-ground lying at the base of a mountain.

84

Alpine herdsman.

85

Respecting the curious idea of the kalte Pein, consult Alpenburg, Mythen Tirols; Vernalken, Alpensagen; Beckstein, Thuringer Sagenbuch. See also Dr. Dasent’s remarks about Hel in Popular Tales from the Norse; and Dante (notably Inferno, cantos vi. xxii. xxiv.) introduces cold among the pains of even the Christian idea of future punishment.

86

Here we have quite the Etruscan idea of providing against after-death needs with appliances connected with the mortal state. Dennis (Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. i. p. 34) mentions more material traces of Etruscan beliefs at Matrei, on the north side of the Brenner. Somewhat further south more important remains still have of late years been unearthed, as we shall have occasion to note by-and-by.

The story in the text, in its depiction of self-devotion, has much analogy with a Chinese legend told to me by Dr. Samuel Birch, of the British Museum, concerning a man who sacrifices his own life in order to put himself on fighting terms with a cruel spirit which torments that of his dead companion. In its details it is like the story I have pointed out in Folklore of Rome (the ‘Tale of the Pilgrim Husband,’ pp. 361–3 and xvii), as the most devious from Christian teaching of any of the legends I have met with in Rome; and it is particularly noteworthy in connexion with Mr. Isaac Taylor’s summary of the Etruscan creed (Etruscan Researches, p. 270). ‘The Turanian creed was Animistic. The gods needed no gifts, but the wants of the ancestral spirits had to be supplied: the spirits of the departed were served in the ghost-world by the spirits of the utensils and ornaments which they had used in life.’) And in effect we find in every collection of the contents preserved at the opening of Etruscan tombs, not only gems and jewellery and household utensils, but remains also of every kind of food.

87

There is something like this in Dean Milman’s Annals of St. Paul’s Cathedral: – ‘“Others,” adds Bishop Braybroke, “by the instigation of the devil, do not scruple to play at ball, and other unseemly games, within the church (he is speaking of St. Paul’s), breaking the costly painted windows, to the amazement of the spectators.”’ Speaking of the post-Reformation period, the Dean adds: ‘If, when the cathedral was more or less occupied by sacred subjects, the invasion of the sanctuary by worldly sinners resisted all attempts at suppression; now, that the daily service had shrunk into mere forms of prayer, at best into a mere ‘Cathedral Service,’ … it cannot be wondered at that the reverence, which all the splendour of the old ritual could not maintain, died away altogether as Puritanism rose in the ascendant.’ Mr. Longman, however (The Three Cathedrals, p. 54–6), quotes the very stringent regulations which were issued for the repression of such practices: perhaps the legend constructor would say, these afford the reason why, though St. Paul’s was profaned like the church of Achensee, it did not ‘likewise perish.’

88

Nork (Mythologie der Volksagen, vol. ix. p. 83) gives other significations to horse-shoes found in the walls of old churches, but does not mention this instance. Concerning the origin of the superstition about vampires, see Cox’s Mythology of the Aryan Nations, vol. i. p. 363; also p. 63 and p. 429.

89

Gebhart.

90

‘Probably early in the ninth century.’ —Scherer.

91

Burglechner. Pilger durch Tirol. Panzer. Mülhenhof.

92

Lit. a ‘cattle-breeding-farm.’

93

It follows that (when mountain scenery is not the special object with the tourist) it is better to visit Viecht when staying at Schwatz (Chapters vi. and vii.) than from Jenbach, at least it is a much less toilsome ascent on this side from Viecht to S. Georgenberg, the most interesting point of the pilgrimage. At S. Georgenberg there is a good mountain inn.

94

In his reign, 1440–90, it was that the silver-mines of Tirol were discovered; and the abundant influx, to the extent of 500 cwt. annually, of the precious metal into his treasury, led him to treat its stores as exhaustless; though the richest monarch of his time, his easy open-handed disposition continually led him into debt, and made his subjects finally induce him in his old age to resign in favour of his cousin, the Emperor Maximilian I. It is a token of the simplicity of the times, that one of the gravest reproaches against him was that he indulged in the luxury of silk stockings! He married Eleanor, daughter of James II. of Scotland.

95

See infra in the Stubayerthal.

96

In battle impetuous, yet merciful; in time of peace tranquil, and faithful to his country’s laws; whether as a warrior, a subject, or an individual, worthy of honour as of love.

97

Steward of the salt-mines.

98

Johanniswürmchen, fire-flies.

99

Peasants’ war.

100

Burglechner.

101

Colin de Plancy, Légendes des sept pechés capitaux, Appendice; and Nork, Mythologie der Volkssagen, point out that the dragon, sacred to Wodin, was placed on houses, town gates, and belfries, as a talisman against evil influences. See also some remarks on the two-fold character of dragons in mythology in Cox’s Mythology of the Aryan Nations, i. 428.

102

Compare Leoprechting, Aus dem Lechrain, page 78. Müllenhof Sagen der Herzogthümer Schleswig Holstein u. Lauenburg, page 237.

103

Mother of mercy.

104

A touching story has been made out of his history in Alpen Blumen Tirols.

105

This was designed so as to coincide with the time when the faithful throughout the world were saying the De Profundis.

106

A similar fact for the comparative mythologist is recorded p. 123–4, in the case of the Bienerweible. While these sheets were preparing for the press, a singular one nearer home was brought under my notice. A little girl being asked at a national school examination, ‘What David was before he was made king?’ answered, ‘Jack the Giant-killer.’ This is a noteworthy instance of the hold of myths on the popular mind; it did not proceed from defective instruction, for the school is one of the very first in its reports, and the child not at all backward.

107

Concerning der feurige Mann, and the mark of his burning hand, see Stöber Sagen des Elsasses, p. 222–3.

108

At page 145.

109

‘Feigen-Kaffee,’ made of figs roasted and ground to powder, is sold throughout Austria.

110

Aubrey de Vere’s Greece and Turkey.

111

Burglechner. A.D. 1409.

112

Mineral wealth —lit. Mountain-blessing.

113

I was told there that it had been reckoned that 500,000 cigars are smoked per diem in Tirol.

114

The date of death on the tombstone of Lukas Hirtzfogel, whom tradition calls the architect of this church, is 1475.

115

Brush for sprinkling holy-water.

116

See note to p. 140.

117

See p. 95.

118

See note to p. 48.

119

‘The most precious good,’ or ‘possession;’ a Tirolean expression for the Blessed Sacrament.

120

George of Freundsberg; a man of great strength; a worthy hero; master of the field in combat and war; in every battle the enemy fell before him. The honour and power he ascribed to God.

121

Maundy Thursday.

122

Stöber Sagen des Elsasses records a legend of a similar judgment befalling a man who, in fury at a long drought, shot off three arrows against heaven.

123

Leichtsinnig.

124

God prosper and bless you!

125

Supra, pp. 80–2.

126

Rout of the Bavarians.

127

See pp. 151–2.

128

Grimm (Deutsche Sagen, No. 492) gives an interesting legend of the Hasslacherbrunnlein (half way between Kolsass and Wattens) and of the resistance offered by the inhabitants of Tirol to the Roman invasion of their country.

129

The suppression of this and several other convents, in 1783, was a measure sufficiently unpopular to almost neutralize the popularity Joseph II. enjoyed as son of Maria Theresa. The suppression was not, however, accompanied by spoliation; the funds were devoted to provide a moderate stipend to a number of women of reduced circumstances belonging to noble families.

130

Stone of Obedience.

131

I have met with another sprout of this banyan at the Monastery of the Sacro Speco in the Papal State, where a huge fragment of rock, so nicely balanced that it looks as if a breath might send it over the cliff, is pointed out as having stood still for centuries at the word of S. Benedict, who bid it ‘non dannegiare i sudditi miei.’

132

Wolf, Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie, vol. ii. pp. 17–21. Müller, Niedersächsische Sagen, p. 51. Müllenhoff, Sagen der Herzogthümer Schleswig-Holstein u. Lanenburg, p. 184.

133

So strong is the prejudice in Tirol against Jews, that it is said to be most difficult to find any one who will consent to act the part of Judas in the Passion plays.

There is a very strong personal dislike to Judas throughout Tirol, and I have also heard that the custom of burning him in effigy occurs in various places. Karl Blind, in the article quoted above, (p. 3,) accounts for this custom in the following way: ‘After the appearance of fermenting matter it was said’ (in what he calls the germanic mythology) ‘that there rose in course of time – even as in Greek mythology – first a half-human, half-divine race of giants, and then a race of Gods; the Gods had to wage war against the giants and finally vanquished them. Evidently the giants represent a torpid barren state of things in nature, whilst the Gods signify the sap and fulness of life which struggles into distinct and beautiful form. There was a custom among the Germanic tribes of celebrating this victory over the uncouth Titans by a festival, when a gigantic doll was carried round in Guy Fawkes manner and at last burnt. To this day there are traces of the heathen practice. In some parts of Europe, so-called Judas-fires, which have their origin in the burning of the doll which represented the giants or jötun. In some places, owing to another perversion of things and words, people run about on that fête-day shouting ‘burn the old Jew!’ The jötun was in fact, when Christianity came in, first converted into Judas and then into a Jew, a transition to which the similarity of the sound of the words easily lent itself.’ No doubt jötun sounds very like Juden but not all coincidences are consequences, and it is quite possible that the old heathen custom had quite died out before that of burning Judas in effigy began, as it certainly had before Guy Fawkes began to be so treated. The same treatment of Judas’ memory occurs, too, in Spain on the day before Good Friday.

134

S. Simeon of Trent is commemorated in the Roman Breviary (on the 25th March). S. Andreas of Rinn has not received this honour.

135

Keller, in his Volkslieder, p. 242, gives an analogous legend of a poor idiot boy, who lived alone in the forest and was never heard to say any words but ‘Ave Maria.’ After his death a lily sprang up on his grave, on whose petals ‘Ave Maria’ might be distinctly read. It is a not unusual form of legend; Bagatta, Admiranda orbis Christiani, gives fifteen such.

136

The ballad concerning the analogous English Legend of Hugh of Lincoln seems to demand to be remembered here: —

HUGH OF LINCOLN(SHOWING THE CRUELTY OF A JEW’S DAUGHTER)A’ the boys of merry Lincoln,Were playing at the ba’,And up it stands him, sweet Sir Hugh,The flower among them a’.He kicked the ba’ there wi’ his feet,And keppit it wi’ his knee,Till even in at the Jew’s window,He gart the bonny ba’ flee.‘Cast out the ba’ to me, fair maid,Cast out the ba’ to me;’‘Never a bit,’ says the Jew’s daughter,’Till ye come up to me.’‘Come up, sweet Hugh! come up, dear Hugh!Come up and get the ba’;’‘I winna come, I minna come,Without my bonny boys a’.’She’s ta’en her to the Jew’s garden,Where the grass grew long and green;She’s pu’d an apple red and white,To wyle the bonny boy in.When bells were rung and mass was sung,And every bairn went home;Then ilka lady had her young son,But Lady Helen had none.She row’d her mantle her about,And sair, sair, ’gan to weep:And she ran into the Jew’s houseWhen they were all asleep.‘The lead is wondrous heavy, mither,The well is wondrous deep;A keen penknife sticks in my heart,’Tis hard for me to speak.’‘Gae hame, gae hame, my mither dear,Fetch me my winding-sheet;And at the back of merry Lincoln,’Tis there we twa shall meet.’Now Lady Helen she’s gane hame,Made him a winding-sheet;And at the back o’ merry Lincoln,The dead corpse did her meet.And a’ the bells o’ merry LincolnWithout men’s hands were rung;And a’ the books o’ merry Lincoln,Were read without men’s tongue;Never was such a burialSince Adam’s days begun.

137

There is a carriage-road reaching nearly to the top of the Lanserkopf.

138

The best shops are in the Franziskanergruben.

139

Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, No. 139.

140

Under four pillars.

141

See p. 69.

142

Of the earlier history of Tirol we shall have to speak when we come to Schloss Tirol and Greifenstein.

143

Consult Zoller, Geschichte der Stadt Innsbruck; and Staffler, das Deutsche Tirol.

144

See p. 146.

145

For the convenience of the visitor to Innsbruck, but not to interrupt the text, I subjoin here a list of the subjects. (1.) The marriage of Maximilian (then aged eighteen) with Mary of Burgundy at Ghent. (2.) His victory over the French at Guinegate, when he was twenty. (3.) The taking of Arras thirteen years later; not only are the fighting folk and the fortifications in this worthy of special praise, but there is a bit of by-play, the careful finish of which must not be overlooked; and the figure of one woman in particular, who is bringing provisions to the camp, is a masterpiece in itself. (4.) Maximilian is crowned King of the Romans. The scene is the interior of the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle: the Prince is seated on a sort of throne before the altar; the Electors are busied with their hereditary part in the ceremony; the dresses of the courtiers in the crowd, and the ladies high above in their tribune, are a perfect record for the costumier, so minute are they in faithfulness. (5.) The battle of Castel della Pietra, or Stein am Calliano, the landscape background of which is excellent; the Tirolese are seen driving the Venetians with great fury before them over the Etsch (Adige). (6.) Maximilian’s entry into Vienna (1490), in course of the contest for the crown of Hungary after the death of Matthias Corvinus; the figure of Maximilian on his prancing horse is drawn with great spirit. (7.) The siege of Stuhlweissenburg, taken by Maximilian the same year; the horses in this tableau deserve particular notice. (8.) The eighth represents an episode which it must have required some courage to record among the acts of so glorious a reign; it shows Maximilian receiving back his daughter Margaret, when, in 1493, Charles VIII. preferred Anne of Brittany to her. The French envoys hand to the Emperor two keys, symbols of the suzerainty of Burgundy and Artois, the price of the double affront of sending back his daughter and depriving him of his bride, for Anne had been betrothed to him. [Margaret, though endowed with the high qualities of her race, was not destined to be fortunate in her married life: her hand was next sought by Ferdinand V. of Spain for his son Don Juan, who died very shortly after the marriage. She was again married, in 1508, to Philibert Duke of Savoy, who died without children three years later. As Governor of the Netherlands, however, her prudent administration made her very popular.] (9.) Maximilian’s campaign against the Turks in Croatia. (10.) The League of Maximilian with Alexander VI., the Doge of Venice, and the Duke of Milan, against Charles VIII. of France; the four potentates stand in a palatial hall joining hands, and the French are seen in the background fleeing in dismay. (11.) The investiture at Worms of Ludovico Sforza with the Duchy of Milan. The portraits of Maximilian are well preserved on each occasion that he is introduced, but in none better than in this one: Maria Bianca is seen seated to the left of the throne, Sforza kneels before them; on the waving standard, which is the token of investiture, the ducal arms are plainly discernible. (12.) The marriage at Brussels, in 1496, of Philip der Schöne, Maximilian’s son, with Juana of Spain; the Archbishop of Cambrai is officiating, Maximilian stands on the right side of his son: Charles Quint was born of this marriage. (13.) A victorious campaign in Bohemia in 1504. The 14th represents the episodes of the siege of Kufstein, recorded in the second chapter of these Traditions (1504). (15.) The submission of Charles d’Egmont to Maximilian, 1505. The Kaiser sits his horse majestically; the Duke of Gueldres stands with head uncovered; the battered battlements of the city are seen behind them. (16.) The League of Cambrai, 1508. The scene is a handsome tent in the camp near Cambray; Maximilian, Julius II., Charles VIII., and Ferdinand V., are supposed to meet, to unite in league against Venice. (17.) The Siege of Padua, 1509, the first result of this League; the view of Padua in the distance must have required the artist to have visited the place. (18.) The expulsion of the French from Milan, and reinstatement of Ludovico Sforza, 1512. (19.) The second battle of Guinegate: Maximilian fights on horseback; Henry VIII. leads the allied infantry, 1515. (20.) The conjunction of the Imperial and English forces before Terouenne: Maximilian and Henry are both on foot, 1513. (21.) The battle of Vicenza, 1513. (22.) The Siege of Marano, on the Venetian coast. The 23rd represents a noble hall at Vienna, such details as the pictures on the walls not being omitted: Maximilian is treating with Uladisaus, King of Hungary, for the double marriage of their offspring – Anna and Ludwig, children of the latter, with Ferdinand and Maria, grandchildren of the former – an alliance which had its consequence in the subsequent incorporation of Hungary with the Empire. (24.) The defence of Verona by the Imperial forces against the French and Venetians.