Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Snow-White Bull, The Bull of Sürenen
Category: Cow
The Myth
The Uri Bull is a legendary snow-white bull associated with the Sürenenalp above Engelberg in the Swiss Alps. According to the legend, it was created and raised for the purpose of confronting a monstrous creature that had brought a curse upon the mountain.
High in the Alps above Engelberg lay the Sürenenalp, once regarded as the richest pasture in the region. A shepherd living there committed a grave act of sacrilege. Out of misguided love, he baptized a silvery-white sheep using stolen holy water. The act transformed the sheep into a raging and apparently invulnerable monster that drove both people and cattle from the mountain.
No weapon could wound the creature, while prayers and exorcisms were unable to drive it away. The Sürenenalp consequently became cursed and dangerous ground.
Desperate to end the threat, the people of Uri sought the assistance of a wandering scholar who was versed in forbidden arts. He devised a strange remedy: a bull would be raised specifically to confront and destroy the monster.
A snow-white bull was chosen and raised with great ritual care. During its first year it was given the milk of one cow. In its second year it drank the milk of two cows, and this continued each year until its ninth year, when it consumed the milk produced by nine cows. Through this extraordinary nourishment, the bull grew to enormous size and acquired tremendous strength.
When the bull was finally ready, a virgin dressed entirely in bridal white led it up to the Sürenenalp. She held the bull by a ring attached to its nose. When the monstrous sheep charged, the maiden released it.
The white bull lowered its horns and thundered toward the creature. The two monsters met in a terrible battle. The struggle was so violent that the mountain shook and the sky darkened. Storm clouds gathered around the combat until the fighting disappeared from sight. Lightning split the heavens while thunder rolled through the valleys.
When the storm finally cleared, the cursed sheep had been destroyed. Nothing remained of the monster except a torn and bloody mound. The maiden who had led the bull to the mountain had vanished without a trace.
The bull, however, had also died. It was discovered near the icy source of the Aa River, where it had apparently drunk too deeply from the freezing water after the exhausting battle.
With the destruction of the monster, the pastures of the Sürenenalp were finally freed from the curse. In remembrance of the white bull that had sacrificed itself to save the mountain, the people of Uri named the stream where it died the Bull’s Brook and adopted the head of the bull as their enduring emblem.
The Uri Bull therefore became both the monster-slayer of the Sürenenalp and a sacred symbol of the canton of Uri.
Sources
Guerber, H. A. (1899). Legends of Switzerland. p. 224.
