Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Boot-Rider
Category: Ghost
The Myth
The Boot Rider is a terrifying ghost said to ride through the valleys and mountains around Muri Abbey in Aargau, Switzerland. On stormy spring nights, when the Reuss River roars with the melting snow, he appears mounted on a snow-white horse, sometimes riding with his head turned backward. His galloping hooves may seem to pass two places at once, making him an uncanny presence in the darkness. In life, he was a cruel and greedy bailiff who served the wealthy abbey. He had an enormous head, dreadful eyes, a thick red beard, and riding boots that reached far above his knees. While the abbot believed him to be an excellent steward, the local people knew him as a merciless tyrant.
The Boot Rider tormented the people living around the abbey, stealing their crops, hay, firewood, and fruit to increase the monastery’s wealth. Instead of taking only the tenth sheaf of grain owed to the abbey, he forcibly seized an eleventh and twelfth. He drove debtors from their homes during the bitter winter and even tore bedsheets away from the sick. The pleas of widows and orphans meant nothing to him, and he mocked those who held crosses out to seek his mercy. Children trembled at the sight of him and fled whenever they heard that the Boot Rider was coming.
His downfall began when a pious woman near Schongau bequeathed her estate to Muri Abbey, intending to ensure that her poor nephew, who lived in a humble straw hut on a small adjoining plot, would have the abbey as his neighbour. The Boot Rider demanded that the woman include her nephew’s property in the bequest. When she refused, he stole her will and forged its wording to claim the small plot for the abbey. After her death, he presented the altered document before a judge, while the terrified nephew protested the deception. The Boot Rider offered to swear that the disputed land belonged to the monastery, and the court accompanied him to the property.
There, the Boot Rider swore a solemn oath, calling upon his Creator and Judge to witness that he stood on the abbey’s land. Immediately, he let out a terrible scream and fell dead. When his clothing was opened, the witnesses discovered the dreadful truth: hidden in his thick red hair were a spoon and a comb representing his Creator and Judge, while his enormous riding boots were filled with soil from the monastery garden. His false oath had brought divine judgment upon him. Ever since, his ghost has ridden through the region on his white horse, and local grandmothers have frightened disobedient children by calling into the night for the Boot Rider to come and take them away.
Sources
“Der Stiefelreiter.” SAGEN.at – Traditionelle Sagen aus der Schweiz. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/allgemein/stiefelreiter.html