Tell

Tell, WILLIAM, a legendary Swiss patriot, whose story is thus given in the revised version (1734-36) of the Chronicle of AEgidius Tschudi (1505-72):- On November 7, 1307, representatives from the forest cantons of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden, exasperated by the Austrian tyranny, had met together on the Rutli Meadow and fixed a day for a general rising. Each leader was attended by ten companions, Tel1 being present among those from Uri. The most overbearing of Albert II.'s vogte, or bailiffs, was Gryssler or Gessler, who dwelt in the castle of Kussnacht, at the north extremity of the Lake of Lucerne. This official fixed the ducal hat of Austria on a pole in the market-place of Altorf, threatening punishment to all passers-by who failed to salute it. Tell and his little son disobeyed the mandate, and were condemned to death; but a hope of escape was held out to them if the father, a noted archer, could hit an apple placed on his boy's head. Having accomplished this feat (November 18), Tell had the boldness to confess to Gessler that if his son had been killed the bailiff would have perished also. Thereupon he was seized by Gessler and carried off in a boat to his castle; but on the way a terrible storm arose, and Tell, the strongest man of the party, was placed at the helm. He steered the boat to a ledge of rock known afterwards' as Telles Platte, and, springing ashore, slew the tyrant with his cross-bow. Hastening back to Uri, he stirred up his countrymen, and on the appointed day the rising toqk place, leading to a war which ended in the formation of the Swiss Confederation. The story of the apple is first found in a ballad, the earlier portion of which was probably written about 1470. The subsequent events were taken from the Chronicle of Melchior Russ, of Lucerne, written in 1482 and the following years. Ulrich Freudenberger (1712-70) was the first who detected the similarity of the story to a Danish myth, It is now known that the main incident is found both in Indo-Germanic and non-Aryan folk-lore. and antiquarian research has shown that there is no gronnd for believing that the chief actors in the drama are historical persons.