THE STORY OF THE LEGEND OF WILLIAM TELL

This link will focus on the legend of Wilhelm Tell in Swiss. And what do we see and hear of Wilhelm Tell nowadays?

Traces, stories, plays, opera, theater, paintings, old books, National trademark, locations, monument, museum and merchandise.

A brief resume

A Swiss legend about the apple of William Tell. The legendary Swiss crossbowman William Tell refused in 1307 to greet the hat that governor Gessler put on a stake in the village

square, as a symbol for the ruling Austria. Gessler then orders him to shoot an apple from the head of his son with his bow. He succeeds. However, when Tell is asked what the

purpose of his second arrow was, he replies that it was intended for the governor if he touched his son. He is captured on this. While Tell is taken to prison in a boat across

Lake Lucerne, a storm breaks out and he manages to escape. William Tell quickly returns to Küssnacht and shoots the governor with his crossbow.

The Swiss story

Long ago I read two books about Tell. There are some slightly different versions of the story.

On an autumn night in 1307 they came back to the Four Days Marches with a plaster to defend the celebration of the Austrian invaders. Men from three Swiss cantons on the Rütli meadow in

Unterwalden on the Vierwaldstättersee and promised to defend their country against the Austrian invaders with a solemn oath. The people of Switzerland were not always free and happy as they are today.

Many years ago a proud tyrant, whose name was Gessler, ruled over them, and made their lot a bitter one indeed. The cruel governor, Gessler, suspected trouble, and in order to gauge the plebiscite,

he set up a tall pole in the public square  in Altdorf (in Crossbow Clermont), the capital of the canton of Uri, and put his own cap on the top of it; and then he gave orders that every man who came into the

town should bow down before it. They had to  salute as if he were standing before the Habsburg Emperor himself. The Swiss swallowed their annoyance and obeyed. Until Wilhelm Tell, one of the 33 men

from Rütli, passed without showing any respect for the hat.  He was seized by Gessler's men and taken to the governor. In Crossbow 1987 Tell avoid the square and his tempered son Matthew takes the hat

off the pole. (By the way: The son in the Swiss story is called Walter and  Tell's wife is called in Crossbow Katrina and in the Swiss story his wife's name is Hedwig).  He was afraid that other men

would disobey, and that soon the whole country would rebel against him. So he made up his mind to punish the bold man.

Then he ordered Tell to go to a castle on the other side of the Vierwaldstättersee. Hardly had the boat been put on shore, or a great storm broke loose. The ship was near the downfall. All on board cried

that Wilhelm Tell was the only one who could save them. Gessler released his fetters. As soon as Tell held the helm, he stopped right on the bank. When the boat slipped along a low plateau in the rock wall,

he took advantage of the opportunity, grabbed his bow and jumped on the rock, which is still called 'the Tellsplatte'. Before they understood what had happened on board, Tell had already disappeared

into the mountains. And there is an old story, that, not long after this, Tell did shoot the tyrant with one of his arrows; and thus he set his country free.  Tell's leap (Tellensprung) from the boat of his

captors at the Axen cliffs; study by Ernst Stückelberg (1879) for his fresco at the Tellskapelle. Then Gessler drove to his palace the next day and he came to a hollow road between forest-covered heights,

an arrow whizzed on him and struck him in the chest.  "That's Tells arrow," he said, "I know that." And then he died.

The traces of Wilhelm Tell in Switserland

The monument since 1895 (in Altdorf). Sculpted by Richard Kissling.

Tell's Chapel near Sisikon

Local tradition says that a first chapel had been constructed in 1388 at the place where William Tell is said to have escaped from boat of the bailiff Gessler. The oldest documents mentioning a chapel

there date back to 1516/1530, however.  The Tell chapel was built between 1879 and 1880. The chapel is located on the Tellsplatte on the right bank of the Lake Lucerne. Tell's chapel became a place of

pilgrimage from the 16^th century on. The current chapel was constructed in 1879.

Four frescos by Ernst Stückelberger of Basle show the scenes of the legend: 1. The bailiff Gessler forces William Tell to shoot an apple off his son's head with his crossbow. 2.William Tell escapes from the

boat of the bailiff Gessler during a storm on Lake Lucerne. 3.William Tell shooting the tyrant Gessler. 4.The oath of the Swiss confederates on the Rütli. Below you can see the picture of the chapel at the lake.

How to find Tell's Chapel: GPS coordinates lat=46.932719 lon=8.611801 Map by search.ch

The Hohle Gasse, (The hollow alley, Tell shot Gessler)

In the 'Holle Gasse.' Gessler's dead

The legend of William Tell in pictures

Painting of Tell's story in the chapel. An old postcard with all the paintings on it.

-First painting in tell's Chapelle The Rütlischwur 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, traditionally dated to 1291. It is named after the site of the oath taking, the Rütli, a meadow above Lake Uri near Seelisberg.

Recorded in  Swiss historiography from the 15th century, the oath is notably featured in the play William Tell (Wilhelm Tell) by Friedrich Schiller (1804).

-The bailiff Gessler representing the count of Habsburg in central Switzerland requests that everybody greets his hat on a rod in Altdorf (Uri). William Tell refuses reverence to the hat. The bailiff

forces William Tell to shoot an apple off his sons head with his crossbow. William Tell hits the apple, but he has prepared a second arrow to shoot the bailiff in case he would have hurt the child.

The Jump of the boat

-William Tell is arrested and put in chains. The bailiff leaves with a boat on Lake Lucerne heading for his castle at Küssnacht. A storm due to warm fallwinds (not unusual in the region) brings the bailiff's team into

distress. They let William Tell, who is more familiar with the lake, control the boat. William Tell directs the boat towards a small flat rock, takes his crossbow and jumps off while pushing the boat back into the waves.

- Gessler's Tod/Gessler's death: William Tell shoots tyrant Gessler in the hollow way between Immensee and Küssnacht.

The tradition dates the heroic action of William Tell and the oath of the Swiss confederates against the counts of Habsburg on the Rütli back to 1307 (see above, date on monument). But one cannot find any document concerning a person named Wilhelm Tell nor the assassination of a bailiff in central Switzerland. Only in 1470, more than a century after the alledged events, a chronicle named the "White Book of Sarnen" reports the legend for the first time. A few years later, William Tell takes a prominent role in a ballad singing the praises of the beginnings of the Swiss Confederation. One generation later, a drama (Urner Tellspiel) is played in Central Switzerland. Centuries later, William Tell is mentioned in the standard history book Chronicon Helveticum (1734) by Aegidius Tschudi. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries the legend was severely questioned by historians.

William Tell and the Revolution

William Tell was very popular during the French Revolution (1789) and he became the official symbol on the seal of the revolutionary Helvetic Republic of Switzerland

 (1798 - 1803). Even the revolutionary Russians of the 19^th century and the Spanish republicans of the 20^th century referred to William Tell.

The drama "Wilhelm Tell" by Friedrich von Schiller

The classical drama Wilhelm Tell by the well-known German poet Friedrich von Schiller, put on the stage for the first time in 1804 at Weimar (home of Goethe and Schiller), is doubtless the most

elaborate and at the same time most popular version of the legend of William Tell. Schiller's drama is put on stage every year in Interlaken (www.tellspiele.ch) and even in New Glarus, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

 (www.wilhelmtell.org). Friedrich von Schiller was always very interested in the subject of liberty. His drama played an important role for the German moral in the wars against Napoleon.
 

William Tell during the second World War

Before and during the second World War, William Tell became an important symbol of the Swiss will to withstand the Nazis and to defend Switzerland's autonomy against Hitler's ideas

of "Großdeutschland" (Great Germany uniting all German speaking regions in one empire). The reactivation of the Swiss tradition of liberation was part of the phenomenon called Spiritual

National Defense. Several films showed scenes from the legends in a naive manner as if there had never been any critical historian in the 19^th century.

The crossbow as label for Swiss quality products

 The usage of William Tell's crossbow as a label for Swiss quality products was also born in these times of crisis. In the 1970's, when the Spiritual Defense, extended during the cold war,was definitely

abandonded, the crossbow-label also disappeared quietly. Tell-Museum Bürglen, Postfach 127, Postplatz, 6463 Bürglen UR  Gästebetreuung, Medien und Führungen, info@tellmuseum.ch  T +41 41 870 41 55

                      The William Tell Opera by F. Schiller and G. Rossini

Guillaume Tell, the Opera based on F. Schiller's play. Part of this recognizable composition is still to hear during the end titles of the Crossbow movie 1987.

Guillaume Tell (or, in Italian: Guglielmo Tell) is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini on a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell, which in turn

is based on the legend from Willem Tell. It was performed for the first time at the Théâtre de l'Academie Royale de Musique on August 3, 1829. This opera was Rossini's last, although the composer lived almost

forty years after composing it. The length of the opera, roughly four hours of music, and the requirements imposed on the role, partly because of the high notes in the tenor part, have contributed to the difficulty

of carrying out the work. When it is executed, it is often heavily docked. Performances are given in both French and Italian. Other - political - reservations have contributed to the changing fortunes of the work.

In Italy the opera encountered difficulties with Italian censorship, as the work glorifies a revolutionary figure struggling against authority. The number of performances in Italy was therefore limited. The Teatro

San Carlo produced the opera in 1833, but gave no other performance for the next 50 years. The first performance in Venice, at the Teatro La Fenice, was not earlier than in 1856. In contrast, despite the censorship

problems, the Wiener Hofoper gave 422 performances in the years 1830-1907.

There are so many performances of William Tell opera's and theater performances in all kind of styles. Here made a small collection of some. You can find a lot via google.

William Tell opera in Palermo

https://www.victorianopera.com.au/behind-the-scenes/william-tell-in-pictures

William Tell at the London opera House in 2015

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