Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: Zurrimutzi, The Living Doll of Klaridenalp
Category: Object
The Myth
The Doll on Klariden is a supernatural creature from a legend set on Klaridenalp, a mountain pasture between the Swiss cantons of Glarus and Uri. Centuries ago, a dairyman and two farmhands spent the summer tending cattle on this exceptionally fertile alpine pasture. The cows produced so much milk that they could be milked three times a day, leaving the men with little work. Their comfortable life eventually led to boredom and mischief. Complaining that God had forgotten them, the dairyman decided to make a woman of his own. Using old rags, torn trousers, a worn felt hat, and patched socks, he constructed a life-sized female doll stuffed with hay. The men named her Zurrimutzi.
The three herdsmen treated Zurrimutzi as a companion, including her in their card games and meals. They placed her beneath the cows to milk into her mouth, propped playing cards between her stiff fingers, and jokingly offered her food. One day, while the dairyman smeared cream across her face, the doll suddenly came to life. Her eyes began to move, her mouth opened, and she started swallowing the cream. Although the men initially fled in terror, they returned when she appeared to remain peacefully seated at the table. Soon, however, Zurrimutzi developed an insatiable appetite, devouring enormous quantities of cheese, bread, butter, milk, cream, and rice pudding. She grew into a tall, strong, shapeless woman whom the three men eventually struggled to carry to a neighboring pasture for her customary Sunday sunbathing.
As Zurrimutzi grew, she began speaking and helping with household chores, although her work was clumsy and she prepared vast quantities of food primarily for herself. She also joined the men’s card games and invariably won against whoever played her. At night, she sometimes ran across the roof of the alpine hut, making it thunder as though a dozen horses were galloping overhead. When autumn arrived and the herdsmen prepared to descend into the valley, they were ashamed to take their monstrous companion with them. They decided to leave secretly while she slept, unwilling either to kill her or to abandon her openly.
Their plan failed when Zurrimutzi appeared at the doorway and ordered the dairyman, as the head of the alpine farm, to remain with her. The two farmhands were permitted to leave, provided they did not look back. They obeyed but spent the night in another hut, hoping their master would join them. When he failed to appear the following morning, they returned to investigate, praying the Lord’s Prayer at every bend in the path. Near the hut, they discovered Zurrimutzi dancing on the roof, where she had spread the dairyman’s flayed skin to dry. As blood dripped into the gutter, she hopped from one leg to the other. When she noticed the farmhands, she roared that their prayers had saved them: had they not prayed, she would have bitten their throats as she had done to their master. Horrified, the two men fled down the mountain and did not look back until they reached a chapel in the Uri lowlands.
Sources
“Puppe Klariden.” SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/uri/Puppe_Klariden.html