Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: Sträggeln, Türst
Category: Ghost
The Myth
Sträggeln was a beautiful and wealthy maiden from Entlebuch in the Lucerne hinterland, but her wild and unruly ways made her unpopular among the people. Rather than tending to the household or attending church, she spent her days hunting in the mountain forests with her spear, horn, bow, and barking hound. She pursued stags and wolves with such enthusiasm that the animals fled before her, and she showed no respect for Sunday rest or religious observances. The people warned that her behavior would bring misfortune upon her, fearing that the devil would eventually claim her when he rode through the land in the storm winds.
On Christmas Eve, a slender young knight arrived at her family home and asked for lodging. He declared that he wished to join Sträggeln on a hunt the following morning, and the maiden was delighted to find such a handsome companion who shared her passion. Yet the stranger refused to reveal where he came from. When Christmas morning arrived and the church bells summoned the people to celebrate the holy day, the knight urged Sträggeln to ignore them and go hunting instead. Laughing, the pair rode into the forest with their weapons and her great hound, while the churchgoers watched them pass with apprehension.
Deep in the mountain woods, Sträggeln raised her spear to strike a doe and her fawns. The knight seized her arm and revealed his true identity: he was the wild Türst, a fearsome supernatural hunter who had come to claim her as his prey. He declared that because she had ignored her conscience and sinned against God, she would become like him and terrorize humankind. The knight grew into a towering giant, rising above the fir trees, while Sträggeln and her hound also grew into monstrous figures. An invisible force compelled the maiden to follow Türst as he charged across hills and valleys, with the enormous hound barking at his heels. Their passage swept through the land like a whirlwind, terrifying the wild animals and the people who witnessed them.
At the first crowing of the cock, the giant figures rushed toward Gadenmatt, where a flaming abyss opened and swallowed them without a trace. Sträggeln never returned home, and people came to believe that Türst had taken her into his Wild Hunt, condemning her to ride with him through the night until Judgment Day. Long afterward, on clear winter nights when fierce winds howled around houses, people claimed to see the gigantic hunter, the cursed maiden, and their monstrous hound charging over the rooftops. Whenever church bells rang, Sträggeln’s mournful cries could be heard, while Türst blew his horn ever more wildly. Terrified by the spectacle, those who heard them hid beneath their bedcovers.
Sources
“Der Türst.” SAGEN.at – Traditionelle Sagen aus der Schweiz. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/allgemein/tuerst.html