Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Beautiful Milanese Woman
Category: Ghost
The Myth
In the mountains of Valais, the dead are said to wander among the peaks, while the distant sound of a death drum echoes across the valleys. The mighty Aletsch Glacier is considered especially eerie, and a pious priest once claimed to have seen countless heads of suffering souls emerging from its crevasses. It was in this desolate mountain wilderness, near the Törbjeralp and the Grimsel Pass, that a solitary shepherd encountered a mysterious woman while searching for a lost cow. Beneath a gloomy sky, amid jagged rocks and deep glacier crevasses, he saw a beautiful young woman walking slowly toward the ice. She moved with noble grace despite being barefoot and bareheaded in the cold, rainy weather. Her long black hair shone with a bluish sheen, and she wore a necklace of gold and precious stones, golden bracelets, a jeweled belt, and diamonds on her small hands. Her face was pale and streaked with tears, and heavy sighs escaped her lips.
The shepherd approached her, astonished that someone so elegantly dressed could be wandering alone through such a dangerous place. He asked whether she had lost her way or been separated from her servants and horses. The woman answered that she was neither lost nor accompanied by anyone. She had come from a great city and a magnificent palace, and her body still lay warm upon its deathbed in Milan, where her grieving parents mourned their only daughter. God had condemned her to atone upon the glacier for the pampered life she had led. In life, she had rarely touched the bare ground, always traveled by carriage, and been sheltered from rain, cold winds, and physical hardship. She had denied herself no pleasure and avoided every exertion. Now, after death, she was forced to walk barefoot through the freezing wilderness, enduring the harsh weather as penance for her former luxury.
As the woman spoke, a thick black fog rolled over the glacier, and her graceful figure disappeared. When the mist lifted moments later, she was nowhere to be seen. The shepherd suddenly realized that he might have been given an opportunity to help redeem her soul, but he had failed to offer his assistance while she was still before him. Desperate to learn how he could free her, he cried out into the mountains, asking the beautiful woman to tell him what he must do. Only the faint echo of his voice answered. The streams murmured, the glacier thundered and crashed, and pale, misty figures rose and fell among its crevasses. Deeply saddened, the shepherd returned home, but he repeatedly climbed back into the wilderness to search for her. Each time, he called out asking whether he could release her from her punishment. Black mists swept across the ice, strange shapes appeared in the crevasses, and the glacier roared, yet the elegant Milanese woman never appeared again.
Sources
“Die Mailänderin.” SAGEN.at – Traditionelle Sagen aus der Schweiz. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/allgemein/mailaenderin.html