Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Gauliweibchen, Gauliwibli, The Curse of Blümlisalp
Category: Ghost
The Myth
The Downfall of a Midshead, His Kathrin and His Little Dog is a Swiss alpine legend explaining the destruction of once-fertile mountain pastures beneath the glaciers of the Bernese Oberland and Valais. The stories tell of wealthy herdsmen and dairymaids whose prosperity and abundance were destroyed by divine punishment for their wickedness. Their pastures, once covered in flowers and rich grass, were swallowed by advancing ice, burying dwellings, cattle, and people beneath glaciers and rock debris. The legends also describe restless spirits that continue to haunt these desolate mountain landscapes, accompanied by the sounds of invisible cattle bells and mournful voices.
One version concerns the beautiful Blümlisalp, which once occupied the valley now covered by the Gauligletscher. The pasture belonged to a wealthy dairymaid whose wicked deeds brought heavenly punishment upon her household. The alpine meadow was cursed and buried beneath the glacier, killing the dairymaid, her little dog, a stranger, and her entire herd. The dairymaid’s ghost became known as the Gauliweibchen or Gauliwibli. She and her dog are said to appear occasionally to shepherds in the Gauli region. During one encounter, a man heard her lament that she, Kathrin, her cow Brün, and her dog Rhin must remain forever on Blümlisalp. Shepherds also sometimes hear the bells of cattle that cannot be seen. In the nearby Aaralp, another haunting is attributed to a headless woman from Valais, who has reportedly approached shepherds while they were milking goats.
A related version comes from the Turtmann Glacier in Valais. Before the glacier covered the valley, a magnificent alpine pasture called Blümlisalp flourished there. Its herdsman lived a dissolute life with a young woman named Kathrin and kept a black dog, while treating his elderly, blind father cruelly. One night, during a terrible thunderstorm, the son ordered his father to bring in cattle grazing at a distance. Afraid to disobey, the blind man ventured into the storm. Strangely compelled to continue onward, he wandered farther from the pasture, followed by the entire herd. At that moment, the glacier broke loose from the heights and swept over the pasture, burying the dwelling and its inhabitants beneath an immense mass of ice and rubble. The herdsman, Kathrin, and the little dog perished, and their former home could never again be seen. Before devastating floods, valley dwellers are sometimes said to glimpse the little black dog and hear a voice lamenting that Kathrin and the speaker must remain forever beneath the ice.
Another similar tale concerns the Oberplegi Alp on Mount Glärnisch. A herdsman who lived there had sinned with a young woman named Kathrin, built a staircase out of cheese, and served dung to his elderly mother. One day, he and Kathrin plunged into a crevasse. The herdsman is occasionally said to appear engulfed in flames, crying that he, Kathrin, and his dog Pari must remain forever beneath the ice. A comparable legend is also associated with the Clariden mountains. Across these stories, the destruction of fertile alpine pastures becomes a punishment for cruelty, arrogance, sexual misconduct, and the violation of obligations toward one’s parents. The surviving apparitions preserve the memory of the lost households, condemned to remain in the mountains that buried them.
Sources
“Der Untergang.” SAGEN.at – Sagen aus Vernaleken. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/vernaleken/untergang.html