Tradition: Liechtenstein Mythology
Alternative Names: Delisrotsch, Deli, Fidel
Category: Giant

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The Myth

The Delisrutsch is a giant associated with a tragic legend from the Lawena Alp in Liechtenstein. According to the story, the events took place around three hundred years ago, when the herdsmen and dairyman who tended the alpine pastures were known for their godlessness. Before driving their cattle up to the alp, they declared that they would undertake the journey in the devil’s name rather than God’s. A poor widow, however, insisted that she would drive her own cow to the pasture in God’s name alone.

One day, the herdsmen drove their cattle from the Lawena barn towards the Rote Wand, or Red Wall. As the animals reached the pasture, a section of rock suddenly broke away from the mountainside and thundered down the slope. The enormous rockfall buried the cattle and their keepers, destroying the herds in a single catastrophe. Only the widow’s cow survived, spared from the disaster because its owner had entrusted its journey to God.

In another version of the legend, the herdsman who tended the alpine pasture was himself a giant. When the rockfall descended, it buried him along with his cows, while the poor widow’s cow remained unharmed. The giant was named Deli, a form of Fidel, and the place where the disaster occurred became known as Delisrotsch. The legend thus explains the local place-name through the giant’s death and presents the survival of the widow’s cow as a sign of divine protection.

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Sources

“Die Delisrutsch.” SAGEN.at – Liechtensteiner Sagen. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/liechtenstein/seger/delisrutsch.html

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