The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-02-16
THE TELL LEGEND.
Reasons for Believing That the Romantic
story is Myth.

was curious to see on what ground
the guide-books based their statement,
and to learn why we could class the tale
of Tell with such tales as that of Eneas
of Troy. King Arthur and the Round
Table, or Robin Hood in the green
woods of England. The facts l OBJ
tanned were scattered through various
volumes, and can only give briefly a
few of the principal points, mostly
taken from German book, Tell and
Gessler in Legend and History" by
Rochholz:
Chronicles most nearly contemporary
with the time of the supposed life of
Tell do not refer to him.
The earliest chronicles Of the legend
lived nearly two hundred years later.
In many ages and centuries are found
legends of famous marksmen shooting
at various small objects-rings tables,
nuts, fruits, etc.
Not few legends exist Of shooting
at objects placed on the heads of per-
sons:
A Persian poet in 1175 wrote a
legend of king who put an apple on
the head of favorite slave, shot at it,
and split the apple. The slave was
made i'll by the fright
Among European legends one is
found in Westphalia; father, named
Egel, was compelled by a Prince to
shoot an apple from his sons head. He
took three aarrows out of his culver,
afterward confessing that, if he had in
| jured his son, he meant to kill the
| Prince.
In Denmark, a writer in the year
1900 relates that in 912 man named
Toxic was compelled by King Harold,
the Blue-Toothed, to shoot an apple
from his sons head, and that he also,
had he harmed his child, meant to
shoot the king.
A King of Norway, Olaf the Pious,
obtained promise from heather
marksman that he would be baptized
into the Christian faith if the King
would contend with him in shooting
and win the match. The King shot at
a chess figure or tablet on the head of
a boy and hit between the tablet and
the head, but grazed the head. On the
entreaties of the boys mother and sis
ter, the marksman forbore to shoot
again and confessed himself conquered.
! Another Harold commanded q man to
shoot at nut on his brothers head.
Years after, the King was pointed out
in battle by this man to another marks
man, who shot him dead.
All these were before the time of tho
Swiss Tell.
Later, the legend appears in Holstein.
The leader of an insurrection against
Christian l. in 1872 fled and concealed
himself in swamp. The Barking of
his dog betrayed his hiding place. He
was taken prisoner, but promised his
freedom on condition that he shot an
apple from the head of his son. He put
one arrow on the bow-string and took
another between his teeth, confessing
afterward that if he failed in his first
shot he intended to shoot the King. An
old picture shows the marksman with
the bow ready to shoot and the arrow
between his teeth, the boy standing
and the dog between the father and the
boy.
The legend and name of Tell seems to
have originated in Sweden or the
| islands Whereabouts, and to have come
| into Switzerland with the earliest set
tiers of that country, who were wan
derers out of Sweden. Tollus or Tel
lus (TelD was a giant who lived on an
island, Osel, belonging to Sweden. He
used to amuse himself with throwing
stones about. When he died he told
his people to bury him in his garden.
and if war came he would raise and
help them. One day some children
who heard this tale stood ON his grave
and fought and then called:
"Tollus arise! War is on thy grave"
Tollus put his head out. but was so an
cry at seeing only children that he
never appeared again. A similar
legend is told of William Tell; that he
was once disturbed in his sleep under
the Axenberg by a herdsman who was
seeking for lost COW, and that he was
indignant at the disturbance. In the
legend of the Swedish Tollus there is
no mention of shooting at an apple, but
this part of the legend is current among
their Finnish neighbors. Sarah Lor-
ring Bailey, in Wide Awake.