Tellenlied

Last updated

The Bundeslied ("Song of the Confederacy") or Tellenlied ("Song of Tell") is a patriotic song of the Old Swiss Confederacy. Its original composition dates to the Burgundian Wars period (1470s). The oldest extant manuscript text was written in 1501, the first publication in print dates to 1545. It consists of stanzas of six lines each, with a rhyming scheme of A-A-B-C-C-B. It is one of the oldest existing records of the legend of Swiss national hero William Tell.

Contents

It is also known as Altes Tellenlied "Old Song of Tell", in order to distinguish it from later compositions known as Tellenlied, such as that by Hieronymus Muheim (1613) or that by Johann Caspar Lavater (1767), and as Lied von der Entstehung der Eidgenossenschaft "Song of the Origin of the Confederacy".

Composition

The song in its extant form was composed in several stages during the later 15th century. Since it ends with the death of Charles the Bold, it cannot have been completed before 1477. But since stanza 21 names the duchy of Milan as in league with the Confederacy, that portion was likely written earlier, in 1474 or 1475, as duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza also entered a pact with Burgundy in 1475, lending it military support against the Swiss, much to the discontent of the Confederacy, so that a Swiss poet writing in 1477 would probably not have mentioned Milan as an ally. The earliest part of the poem was probably just stanzas 1 to 13 (the Tell legend), to which the remaining text was added as the Burgundy War unfolded. [1]

The earliest record of the poem is in a manuscript written by Ludwig Sterner in 1501, where it has the title von der eidgenossen pundt "of the pact of the confederates". The text was printed for the first time in 1545 by Augustin Fries under the title of Ein hüpsch lied vom ursprung der Eydgnoschaft und dem ersten Eydgnossen Wilhelm Thell genannt, ouch von dem bundt mit sampt einer Eydgnoschafft wider hertzog Karle von Burgund, und wie er erschlagen ist worden. [2] A later edition was printed by Johann Schröter in 1623.

Although Max Wehrli, the last editor of the text supposes that this song was composed in the canton of Uri (Uri being mentioned explicitly in stanza 2 as the site of Tell's apple-shot and the place of origin of the Confederacy), the geographical origin of this early William Tell song is still a matter of debate. [3]

Structure and synopsis

The standard version of the Song of the Founding of the Confederation comprises 35 stanzas, each containing six lines. Another version omits five verses of the Tell narrative. [3]

The first 14 stanzas explore the foundation and growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy, the expulsion of the foreign bailiffs as well as the story of William Tell. The account includes Tell's apple-shot, his admission that he had reserved an additional arrow to shoot the bailiff in the event of his killing his son, and his escape, but not his eventual assassination of Gessler. [3]

Stanzas 15 to 23 describe the merits of the Swiss Confederacy. Stanzas 15 and 16 enumerate the eight cantons (Acht Ort) that formed the Confederacy up to 1480, viz. Zürich, Bern, Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus and Zug. Stanza 17 adds Fribourg (1481), Solothurn (1481), Biel (1496), Appenzell (1513), Schaffhausen (1501) and St. Gall (1454) as recent accessions to the Confederacy. Stanzas 19 to 23 mention pacts made by the Confederacy between 1481 and 1529, listing Sigmund of Austria (referring to pacts of 1477 and of 1511), the duchy of Milan (1474), the duchy of Lorraine (1476), and the five cities of Strasbourg, Colmar, Sélestat, Basel and Mulhouse (1529).

The final 12 stanzas focus on the Burgundian Wars. [3] The poem records the defeats of Charles the Bold at the Battle of Grandson, where he lost "silver gold and jewels", at the Battle of Murten where Charles lost 24,000 men, and finally at the Battle of Nancy where Charles himself are slain. The final stanza is a pious invocation of God asking for the future protection of the Confederacy and the salvation of the poet.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Switzerland</span>

Since 1848 the Swiss Confederation has been a federal republic of relatively autonomous cantons, some of which have a history of federation that goes back more than 700 years, putting them among the world's oldest surviving republics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unterwalden</span> Historical canton of Switzerland

Unterwalden, translated from the Latin inter silvas(between the forests), is the old name of a forest-canton of the Old Swiss Confederacy in central Switzerland, south of Lake Lucerne, consisting of two valleys or Talschaften, now two separate Swiss cantons, Obwalden and Nidwalden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Charter of 1291</span> Constitutional document of Switzerland

The Federal Charter or Letter of Alliance is one of the earliest constitutional documents of Switzerland. A treaty of alliance from 1291 between the cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, the Charter is one of a series of alliances from which the Old Swiss Confederacy emerged. In the 19th and 20th century, after the establishment of the Swiss federal state, the Charter became the central founding document of Switzerland in the popular imagination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Tell</span> Folk hero of Switzerland

William Tell is a folk hero of Switzerland. According to the legend, Tell was an expert mountain climber and marksman with a crossbow who assassinated Albrecht Gessler, a tyrannical reeve of the Austrian dukes of the House of Habsburg positioned in Altdorf, in the canton of Uri. Tell's defiance and tyrannicide encouraged the population to open rebellion and a pact against the foreign rulers with neighbouring Schwyz and Unterwalden, marking the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy. Tell was considered the father of the Swiss Confederacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy</span> Aspect of Swiss history in the late Middle Ages

The Old Swiss Confederacy began as a late medieval alliance between the communities of the valleys in the Central Alps, at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire, to facilitate the management of common interests such as free trade and to ensure the peace along the important trade routes through the mountains. The Hohenstaufen emperors had granted these valleys reichsfrei status in the early 13th century. As reichsfrei regions, the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden were under the direct authority of the emperor without any intermediate liege lords and thus were largely autonomous.

<i>Eidgenossenschaft</i> German word specific to the political history of Switzerland

Eidgenossenschaft is a German word specific to the political history of Switzerland. It means "oath commonwealth" or "oath alliance" in reference to the "eternal pacts" formed between the Eight Cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy of the late medieval period, most notably in Swiss historiography being the Rütlischwur between the three founding cantons Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, traditionally dated to 1307. In modern usage, it is the German term used as equivalent with "Confederation" in the official name of Switzerland, Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, rendered Confédération and Confederazione in French and Italian, respectively. The related adjective, eidgenössisch, officially translated as Swiss federal, is used in the name of organisations, for example the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The term Eidgenosse refers to the individual members of the Eidgenossenschaft. It is attested as early as 1315, in the Pact of Brunnen, referring to the cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. The abstract noun Eidgenossenschaft is attested in the 15th century. In modern usage, Eidgenosse is sometimes used for "Swiss citizen", especially for those citizens of purely Swiss origin, not immigrated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burgundian Wars</span> 1474–1477 Western European conflict

The Burgundian Wars (1474–1477) were a conflict between the Burgundian State and the Old Swiss Confederacy and its allies. Open war broke out in 1474, and the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was defeated three times on the battlefield in the following years and was killed at the Battle of Nancy in 1477. The Duchy of Burgundy and several other Burgundian lands then became part of France, and the Burgundian Netherlands and Franche-Comté were inherited by Charles's daughter, Mary of Burgundy, and eventually passed to the House of Habsburg upon her death because of her marriage to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swabian War</span> Swiss conflict against the Habsburgs

The Swabian War of 1499 (Alemannic German: Schwoobechrieg, called Schwabenkrieg or Schweizerkrieg in Germany and Engadiner Krieg was the last major armed conflict between the Old Swiss Confederacy and the House of Habsburg. What had begun as a local conflict over the control of the Val Müstair and the Umbrail Pass in the Grisons soon got out of hand when both parties called upon their allies for help; the Habsburgs demanding the support of the Swabian League, while the Federation of the Three Leagues of the Grisons turning to the Swiss Eidgenossenschaft. Hostilities quickly spread from the Grisons through the Rhine valley to Lake Constance and even to the Sundgau in southern Alsace, the westernmost part of the Habsburg region of Further Austria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albrecht Gessler</span> Legendary 14th century Habsburg bailiff

Albrecht Gessler, also known as Hermann, was a legendary 14th-century Habsburg bailiff at Altdorf, whose brutal rule led to the William Tell rebellion and the eventual independence of the Old Swiss Confederacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Héricourt</span> Part of the Burgundian Wars

The Battle of Héricourt was fought on 13 November 1474 near Héricourt, Burgundy, as part of the Burgundian Wars. It resulted in victory for the Swiss Confederacy and its allies over the Burgundian State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melchior Russ</span>

Melchior Russ was born of an old noble family in Lucerne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rütli Oath</span> Legendary oath taken at the foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy

The Rütli Oath is the legendary oath taken at the foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy by the representatives of the three founding cantons, Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, It is named after the site of the oath taking, the RüWilliam Tell by Friedrich Schiller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Swiss Confederacy</span> 1291–1798 confederation of Swiss cantons

The Old Swiss Confederacy, also known as Switzerland, or the Swiss Confederacy was a loose confederation of independent small states, initially within the Holy Roman Empire. It is the precursor of the modern state of Switzerland.

The Chronicle of the City of Lucerne is the oldest existing chronological account of the history of the city of Lucerne.

The Urner Tellspiel is the earliest surviving written version of a William Tell play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shooting an apple off one's child's head</span> Folklore

Shooting an apple off one's child's head, also known as apple-shot is a feat of marksmanship with a bow that occurs as a motif in a number of legends in Germanic folklore. In the Stith Thompson Motif Index it is F661.3, described as "Skillful marksman shoots apple from man's head" or "apple shot from man's head", though it always occurs in the form of the marksman being ordered to shoot an apple off his own son's head. It is best known as William Tell's feat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tellskapelle</span>

The Tellskapelle is located on the Tellsplatte or Tellenplatte on the shore of Lake Lucerne at the foot of the Axenberg cliffs, in the Sisikon municipality, canton of Uri, Switzerland. It is across the Bay of Uri (Urnersee) from the Rütli, some 4.3 km away.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transalpine campaigns of the Old Swiss Confederacy</span> 15/16th-century military campaigns by the Old Swiss Confederacy to expand south of the Alps

The transalpine campaigns of the Old Swiss Confederacy were military expeditions which resulted in the conquest of territories south of the Alps, corresponding more or less to the modern canton of Ticino, on the part of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the 15th and 16th centuries. These territories were known as ennetbirgische Vogteien or "transmontane bailiwicks".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Territories of the Holy Roman Empire outside the Imperial Circles</span>

When the Imperial Circles — comprising a regional grouping of territories of the Holy Roman Empire — were created as part of the Imperial Reform at the 1500 Diet of Augsburg, many Imperial territories remained unencircled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stauffacherin</span> Swiss legendary figure

The Stauffacherin is a Swiss legendary figure. According to Swiss folklore, she was the wife of Werner Stauffacher, the Landammann of the Canton of Schwyz and a founding father of the Old Swiss Confederacy. She was depicted in Friedrich Schiller's 1804 play William Tell as an advisor to her husband, advocating for Swiss independence from Habsburg rule. The image of the Stauffacherin, often viewed as the feminine counterpart to Wilhelm Tell, has become a symbol for Swiss national pride, democracy, and women's suffrage.

References

  1. ↑ Rochus von Liliencron, Historische Volkslieder der Deutschen, vol. 2 (1866), no. 147, cited by Rochholz (1877).
  2. ↑ Bergier, p. 70.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Bergier, p. 71.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.