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(Photo: Baumann, Fry- berg & Tarelli)

The legend behind the bull’s head that appears on the coat of arms of the canton of Uri has more than a hint of the Hollywood blockbuster about it and features everything you would expect from a good Alpine myth: mountains, monsters, sinners, strangers, heroes, virgins, travelling scholars, and of course plenty of thunder and lightning. The story also has close links to Engelberg, as the events take place on a moun- tain pasture that used to belong to the Abbey. Hear now the shocking tale of the Bull of Uri: Once upon a time, high up on the Surenen- alp, there lived a young there. From time to time, the young shepherd would slaughter one of his sheep and carry the skin down into the valley, where he could ex- change a sheepskin for anything else he needed. On one of his visits, the shepherd boy came upon a group of strangers from Roman- die, who were herding the most beautiful sheep he had ever seen. He was so taken with a small, dove-white lamb that he could not bring himself to part from it. And so the young lad pleaded with the French-speaking foreigners to let him take it. At first they refused, but after a while their master told the boy he could have the creature if he agreed to kneel down and say the rosary. This he gladly did and was delighted when the men gave him the dear little lamb. The young shepherd hurried back up the Surenenalp, bursting with joy. He could not bear the lamb to be out of his sight, so it ate with him always and slept by his side. Then, one night, he went so far as to climb down to At- tinghausen, creep into the church, and scoop shepherd named Urs im Ried. The vast area of pastureland belonged to Engelberg Ab- bey, which benefitted richly from the golden butter and white whey cheese produced

up some holy water. This he brought back up the mountain and used it to baptise the lamb. But this was a step too far. As if herald- ing the end of the world, the sky over the moun- tains became black as pitch. Monstrous clouds raced through the air, thunder rolled, the earth shook, and lightning struck the shepherd’s hut, smashing it into a thousand pieces. Terrified, the young lad turned to save his beloved lamb. But there, among the Alpine roses where it should have been, stood instead a terrible black mon- ster. The shepherd tried to run, but the monster

charged after him and soon tore the poor boy to shreds. From that day forward, the pasture became a most dangerous place. The demonic beast, which the shepherds called the Greiss, chased away

The legend of the Uri coat of arms has more than a hint of the Hol- lywood blockbuster about it.

all who approached, man and livestock alike. And so the Abbey sold the Surenenalp to the inhab- itants of the canton of Uri for a song. But they too suffered under the wrath of the Greiss and came to believe they had made a very bad deal. One day, a travelling scholar arrived in Altdorf and told the people there that he could help them recover the pasture if they paid him handsomely and filled his cup seven times with deep-red wine. When the people had done this, he advised them to rear a silver-white bull calf and give it nothing but milk for nine years. The first year, they were to feed it milk from one cow, the second with milk from two cows, and so on up to nine. Then they were to find a pure virgin girl and have her lead the grown bull up to the pasture. The people followed the scholar’s advice to the letter and, when the nine years were up, the daughter of the Baron of Attinghausen declared that she was willing to complete the cycle and deliver the pasture from evil. A few days later, she made her way up the Surenenalp, all alone and

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