210 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Oct. 5, 1883. 



THE BIRTH AND GROWTH OF MYTH. 



By Edwabd Clodd. 



BEFORE bringing this series of papers to an end, it 

 may be well to give an illustration or two of the 

 survival of myth in historical narrative. 



For proofs of the emergence of the higher out of the 

 lower in philosophy and religion, to say nothing of less 

 exalted matters, whether the beast-fable or the nursery 

 rhyme as holding barbaric thought in solution, examples 

 have necessarily been drawn from the mythology of past 

 and present savage races. But these are too remote in 

 time or standpoint to stir other than a languid interest in 

 the reader's mind ; their purpose is served when they are 

 cited and classified as specimens. Not thus is it with 

 examples drawn nearer home from sources at which our 

 young thirst for the stirring and romantic was slaked. 

 When we learn that famous names and striking 

 episodes are in some instances only transformed and per- 

 sonified natural phenomena, or, as occurring everywhere, 

 possibly variants of a common legend, the far-reaching 

 influence of primitive thought comes to us in more vivid 

 and exciting form. And although one takes in hand this 

 work of disenchantment in no eager fashion, the loss is 

 more seeming than real. Whether the particular tale of 

 bravery, of selflessness, of faithfulness, has truth of detail, 

 matters little compared with the fact that its reception the 

 wide world over witnesses to human belief, even at low 

 levels, in the qualities which have given man empire over 

 himself and ever raised the moral standard of the race. 

 Moreover, in times like these, when criticism is testing 

 without fear or favour the trustworthiness of records of the 

 past, whether of Jew or Gentile, the knowledge of the 

 legendary origin of events woven into sober history pre- 

 pares us to recognise how the imagination has fed the 

 stream of tradition, itself no mean tributary of that larger 

 stream of history, the purity of which is now subject of 

 analysis. As a familiar and interesting example let us 

 take the story of William Tell. 



Everybody has heard how, in the year 1307 (or, as some 

 say, 1296) Gessler, Togt (or governor) of the Emperor 

 Albert of Hapsburg, set a hat on a pole as symbol of the 

 Imperial power, and ordered every one who passed by to 

 do obeisance to it ; and how a mountaineer named Wilhelm 

 Tell, who hated Gessler and the tyranny which the symbol 

 expressed, passed by without saluting the hat, and was at 

 once seized and brought before Gessler, who ordered that as 

 punishment, Tell should shoot an apple ofi" the head of his 

 own son. As resistance was vain, the apple was placed on 

 the boy's head, when Tell bent his bow, and the arrow, 

 piercing the apple, fell with it to the ground. Gessler saw 

 that Tell, before shooting, had stuck a second arrow in his 

 belt, and, asking the reason, received this for answer : " It 

 was for you ; had I shot my child, know that this would 

 have pierced your heart." 



Now, this story first occurs in the chronicle of !Melchior 

 Russ, who wrote at the end of the fifteenth century, i.e., 

 about one hundred and seventy years after its reputed 

 occurrence. The absence of any reference to it in con- 

 temporary records caused doubt to be thrown upon it three 

 centuries ago. Guillimann, the author of a work on Swiss 

 Antiquities, published in 1-598, calls it a fable, but 

 subscribes to the current belief in it, because the tale is 

 so popular ! The race to which he belonged is not yet 

 extinct A century and a half later, a more fearless 

 sceptic, who said that the story was of Danish origin, 

 was condemned by the Canton of Uri to be burnt alive, 



and in the well-timed absence of the oflender, his book 

 was ordered to be burnt by the common hangman. But 

 the truth is great, and prevails. G. von Wyss, the Swiss 

 historian, has pointed out that the name of Wilhelm Tell 

 does not occur even once in the history of the three cantons, 

 neither is there any trace that a " Vogt " named Gessler, 

 ever served the house of Hapsburg there. Moreover, the 

 legend does not correspond to any fact of a period of 

 oppression of the Swiss at the hands of their Austrian 

 rulers. 



" There exist in contemporary records no instances of 

 wanton outrage and insolence on the Hapsburg side. It 

 was the object of that power to obtain political ascendancy, 

 not to indulge its representatives in lust or wanton insidt," 

 and, where records of disputes between particular persons 

 occur, " the symptoms of violence, as is natural enough, 

 appear rather on the side of the Swiss than on that of the 

 aggrandising imperial house."* t^^ 



Candour, however, requires that the evidence in support 

 of the legend should be stated, although it may have 

 little weight with the readers of Knowledge. There is 

 the fountain on the supposed site of the lime-tree in the 

 market-place at Altdorf by which young Tell stood, as wel) 

 as the colossal plaster statue of the hero himself which 

 confronts us as we enter the quaint village. But more 

 than this, the veritable cross-bow itself is preserved ih the 

 arsenal at Zurich ! 



However, although the little Tell's chapel, as restored, 

 "was opened with a national /?<e, in the presence of two 

 members of the Federal Council, in June last,"t the Swiss 

 now admit in their school-teaching that the story of the 

 ApfelsclLUSz is legendary. 



Freudenberger, who earned his death-sentence for atfirm- 

 ing that the story came from Denmark, was on the right 

 track, for the following variant of it is given by Saxo- 

 Grammaticus, a Danish writer of the twelfth century, 

 who puts it as happening in the year 9.50 : — 



" Nor ought what follows to be enveloped in silence. 

 Palnatoki, for some time in the body-guard of King Harold 

 (Harold Gormson, or Bluetooth), had made his bravery odious 

 to many of his fellow-soldiers by the zeal with which he sur- 

 passed them. One day, when he had drunk too much, he 

 l)oasted that he was so skilled a bowman that he could hit 

 the smallest apple, set on the top of a stick some way off, 

 at the first shot, which boast reached the ears of the king. 

 This monarch's wickedness soon turned the confidence of 

 the father to the peril of the son, for he commanded that 

 this dearest pledge of his life should stand in place of the 

 stick, adding a threat that if Palnatoki did not at his first shot 

 strike otf the apple, he should with his head pay the penalty 

 of making an empty boast. This command forced him to 

 attempt more than he had promised, and what he liad said, 

 reported by slanderous tongues, bound him to accomplish 

 what he had not said. Yet did not his sterling courage, 

 though caught in the snare of slander, sulfer him to lay 

 aside his firmness of heart. As soon as the boy was led 

 forth, Palnatoki warned him to await the speeding of the 

 arrow with calm ears and unbent head, lest by any slight 

 movement of the body, he should frustrate the archer's 

 well-tried skill. He then made him stand with his back 

 toward him, lest he should be scared at the sight of the 

 arrow. Then he drew three arrows from his quiver, and 

 with the first that he fitted to the string he struck the 

 apple. W hen the king asked him why he had taken more 

 than one arrow from his quiver, when he was to be allowed 

 to make but one trial with his bow, he made answer, 



* £rfm6i(r£>)i Bei-iew, January, 1869, p. ] 3-1. Article on Rilliet's 

 " Origines de la Confederation Suisse : Histoire et Legende." 

 ■)• Times' telegram from Geneva, June 25. 



