William Tell: myth, symbol of freedom and historical source

William Tell is a legendary archer from the Swiss canton of Uri, said to have lived in the early 14th century, although no historical Tell has ever been found. [1] Even so, he became a central figure in Swiss national historiography and, across 18th- and 19th-century Europe, a symbol of resistance against aristocratic rule. [2]

In the tale, Tell was promised his freedom if he could split an apple on his son's head with a bolt from his crossbow, and he did so without harming the boy. [3] The bailiff Gessler then asked why Tell had tucked a second arrow into his jacket, and Tell answered that it would have been meant for Gessler had the first killed his son. [3] Enraged, Gessler ordered Tell bound and carried by boat to the dungeon at Küssnacht. [3]

In Tschudi's version, a storm broke on Lake Lucerne and the frightened guards begged Gessler to free Tell so that he could take the helm. [4] Tell steered the boat to a rocky place and leaped ashore at the spot known as the Tellsplatte, which has been marked by a memorial chapel since the 16th century. [4] He then killed Gessler with the second bolt along the Hohle Gasse, between Immensee and Küssnacht. [4] According to the legend, this act sparked a rebellion that led to the Old Swiss Confederacy. [5]

The first written records of the legend date to the latter part of the 15th century. [2] The Tellenlied, composed in the 1470s, calls Tell the 'first confederate' and presents his story as the origin of the Confederacy, but it does not mention Gessler's death. [6] Petermann Etterlin's chronicle of 1507 is the earliest printed version. [7] Aegidius Tschudi, writing c. 1570, habitually fleshed out his sources, so details found only in him may be his own invention. [8]

By the early 16th century Tell was widely venerated, and people made excursions to the scenes of his deeds. [9] Heinrich Brennwald mentions a chapel on the site of Tell's leap from the boat. [9] In a later peasant revolt, three men appeared as the 'Three Tells' at peasant conferences, symbolising continuity with the resistance against the Habsburg overlords at the origin of the Confederacy. [10]

Tschudi's version served as the model for Friedrich Schiller's play William Tell of 1804. [11] Gioachino Rossini used the play as the basis for his 1829 opera. [12] Around 1836, playing cards patterned on William Tell were produced in Pest, inspired by Schiller's play and made during tense relations with the ruling Habsburgs. [13] The cards became popular throughout the Austrian Empire during the Revolution of 1848. [13]

The Danish legend of Palnatoke is first attested in the twelfth-century Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus. [14] It is the earliest known parallel to the Tell legend. [15] King Harald Bluetooth forces Palnatoke to shoot an apple off his son's head. [15] Palnatoke says that had he hit his son, the remaining two arrows were for the king. [16] Haller and Freudenberger noted such parallels in 1760. [17] Their book offended Swiss citizens, and a copy was burnt publicly in Altdorf. [18]

In the 1840s Joseph Eutych Kopp published sceptical reviews of the foundational legends, which caused polemical debates inside and outside academia. [19] In 1891 the decision to make 1 August the Swiss National Day moved the emphasis away from Tell's deed and towards the documentary evidence of the Federal Charter of 1291. [20] Even so, a 2004 survey found that a majority of Swiss believed Tell had actually existed. [21]