Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Wild Farmers’ Ride, Wild Peasant Procession
Category: Ghost
The Myth
Wild’ Bauerng’fahr, meaning “The Wild Farmers’ Ride,” is a terrifying supernatural procession said to haunt the road between Nauders and Ramis in the Engadine region. During its passage, violent storms disturb the air, while the dreadful bellowing of oxen echoes through the darkness. The procession is believed to consist of the ghost of a cruel lord, his oxen, and the evil spirits of his servants. Its appearance recalls a grim episode of tyranny, murder, and rebellion from long ago.
In former times, a fierce and miserly lord lived in the great castle at Ramis and another castle at Nauders. He held the farmers of Nauders and other Tyrolean communities in captivity, treating them worse than cattle. The farmers secretly planned to free themselves from his oppression. One day, a farmer borrowed the lord’s oxen in exchange for a sack of grain, intending to keep them until his fieldwork was finished. When the lord demanded their return, the farmer delayed him with promises of more grain. Two days later, the lord himself arrived to collect the oxen and payment.
The farmer led the lord into his barn and showed him a pile of rye. As the lord bent down to inspect the grain, the farmer struck him over the head, killing him. His blood spilled across the rye. The farmer then raised a flag, and the neighbouring farmers rushed to the lord’s castle, broke through its defences, defeated the garrison, and won their freedom. Yet the memory of the violent lord and his servants did not disappear. Their evil spirits continue to haunt the road in a stormy procession, accompanied by the bellowing of oxen—a supernatural reminder of the tyrant’s cruelty and the farmers’ bloody struggle for liberation.
Sources
“Bauerngfahr.” SAGEN.at – Tiroler Sagen. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/oesterreich/tirol/alpenburg/bauerngfahr.html