Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Ghostly Boatman of the Rhine Falls
Category: Ghost
The Myth
A young fisherman once lived near Schaffhausen, the beautiful city beside the Rhine Falls. One evening, after a successful day of fishing, he rowed out into the middle of the river with his fishbox full. As twilight settled over the water, mist maidens drifted among the willows and alders along the banks. The fisherman lay down in his boat, allowing the gentle current to carry him home toward his hut above the great waterfall. Before long, he fell asleep.
His dreams began pleasantly, filled with thoughts of his beloved, but soon changed into a nightmare of roaring thunder, violent winds, and torrential rain. Suddenly, he awoke in terror and realized that his boat had been seized by the mighty current of the Rhine Falls. He cried out to God for help as the raging water dragged him toward the depths. The boat tossed wildly amid the spray and thunder, and he eventually lost consciousness. When he awoke, he found himself on the riverbank, his boat miraculously thrown ashore by the waves. Shaken but alive, he hurried home. The next day, he told the other fishermen about his terrifying journey. At first, they refused to believe him, but when he drunkenly boasted that he could survive the falls a second time, a sinister stranger sitting nearby offered him one hundred guilders if he dared to try.
The young fisherman accepted the challenge, dismissing an old man’s warning that he should thank God for his miraculous escape. He believed that what he had survived in his sleep would be easy to accomplish while awake, when he could control the boat himself. The fishermen followed him to the riverbank, where he climbed into his little boat and rowed toward the roaring falls. At first, he tried to propel the boat faster, but soon the current seized it and carried it forward with uncontrollable speed. He rushed to the steering oar, struggling desperately to turn the boat away from the waterfall, but the steering failed him. The raging water swept away his oars, and the great Rhine Rock rose before him in the middle of the river. With a terrible cry, the boat plunged into the swirling waters and disappeared over the falls.
The fishermen searched the foaming river, but neither the young man nor his boat ever emerged. When they turned to confront the sinister stranger who had encouraged the reckless voyage, he had vanished. They searched the surrounding land, but nobody else claimed ever to have seen him. Crossing themselves, the fishermen suspected that the stranger had been no ordinary man, but an evil supernatural being who had lured the young fisherman to his death. Since that time, on moonlit nights, people have sometimes seen a misty little boat carrying a phantom boatman glide between the two rocky reefs of the Rhine Falls before vanishing into the milky-white torrents below.
Sources
“Der Fischer am Rheinfall.” SAGEN.at – Traditionelle Sagen aus der Schweiz. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/allgemein/fischer_rheinfall.html