Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: Lake Urden
Category: Ghost
The Myth
In a narrow, rugged valley descending from the Rothorn toward the Plessur River in Graubünden, Switzerland, lies Lake Urdensee. The lake was not always there. Once, the place was occupied by a beautiful alpine meadow surrounding a dairy hut, where a herdsman lived with his large red cow. The herdsman was wicked and refused to offer refreshments to poor travelers who passed through his pasture. One day, an elderly woman arrived after a long journey, exhausted and desperately thirsty. She begged him for a little milk, explaining that her knees were failing and her tongue burned with thirst. The herdsman insulted her and slammed the door in her face.
When he found the old woman still sitting outside, the herdsman mockingly promised to give her milk so that she could quench her thirst. He milked his red cow and handed her a drink, but secretly he had mixed rennet into the milk. The woman drank gratefully and blessed him, unaware of his cruelty. She had barely continued along the path when terrible pains seized her body. As she collapsed, dying, she cursed the herdsman and his alpine pasture. At that moment, thunder roared across the mountains and lightning struck the dairy hut. The hut, the herdsman, and the red cow sank into the earth, while water surged up to form a lake in their place.
The lake still bears signs of the vanished alpine pasture. The old path leading to the hut can supposedly be seen disappearing beneath the water and reappearing on the opposite shore, where it continues over the mountains toward Obervaz. A dark spot in the middle of the lake marks the place where the dairy hut sank. Once every seven years, during terrible thunderstorms, the cursed herdsman rises from the lake with his red cow. Above the storm-tossed waves, he milks the cow before sinking back beneath the water with a dreadful howl, wringing his hands in despair. Thus, the legend explains the origin of Lake Urdensee and preserves the memory of the herdsman’s cruelty toward a helpless traveler.
Sources
“Der Urdensee.” In Theodor Vernaleken, Kinder- und Hausmärchen in den Alpenländern. Vienna, 1863. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/vernaleken/urdensee.html