William Tell
By Vincent Goodwin and Janis Stoffel
A legend, by definition, is "an unverified story handed down from earlier times, especially one believed to be historical."(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/legend). Upon researching the Swiss legend of William Tell, we have concluded that there is no reliable evidence to support this legend, and all sources are based off another, and the only thing you can conclude is that there is little information on the story of William Tell that isn't almost exactly the same as the last account. The modern versions all give reference to Gessler, the hat in the square, Tell refusing to bow, the apple shot, Tell being taken across the lake in a boat, being allowed to steer in a storm, and escaping and killing Gessler, and then inciting the rebellion.
From our research, we have found this to be the basis for every version, with hardly any embellishment or change from version to version.
We have also discovered and concluded that a legend such as William Tell, will always be very difficult to research, as all the available sources are unreliable and based of each other.
However, we have discovered that many many other tales very similar to this were recorded much earlier in countries like Norwegian, Sweden and Scotland. In fact, we have discovered another tale that supposedly occurred about 200 years earlier that William tell that followed the exact story line. We are concluding that the Legend of William Tell is based on other previous tales, only to be later reworded and edited to become the famous Legend Of William Tell.
We have decided to think further about this problem, and how it might have started as well as why our information is unreliable.
Over the past 7 weeks we have done a lot of research on the legend of William tell. As stated earlier, we came to a conclusion that it is very hard to prove wether the legend is true or not. This is due to:
1. The legend of William Tell originated in a small country and is not very widely known.
2. With the advent of the World Wide Web, sharing of information is easier, but this has resulted in a unification of ideas, and homogenisation of sources through copy-paste creation, which means that the story has become universal, and has little or no variation.
3. Legends were stories, tales going from parent to child, so one's version of the legend might be different from another. The internet however, has resulted in a homogenisation of accounts, which means that finding out how the legend is differently known to different people in different areas and how they were taught.
4.Older accounts referencing William Tell are written in Old German, and have very few digitalisations, so deciphering them is almost impossible, even for a German speaker.
The general story of William Tell's deeds has changed over the years, but as of today, the general story goes as follows:
At the time the district was under the control of the Austrian Empire, an was ruled by the tyrannical leader Gessler.
Gessler was so arrogant he wished to be saluted even when he was not present, so he put his hat on a pole in the square, and ordered that every man who came to the town was to salute the hat.
One day, William Tell went to town with his son, and refused to salute the pole. Gessler soon turned up and surprisingly didn't arrest William, Instead he challenged that he should shoot an apple from his sons head. Tell accepted, the boy stood in front of a tree. Tell succeeded, and was free, however Gessler noticed that tell took two arrows out of his quiver. Gessler asked what the second arrow was for. Tell answered with honesty: “if i would've missed the apple i would have shot you with the second arrow”.
Surprised with Tell’s honesty Gessler felt disgusted, and as a result arrested him anyway.
Gessler transported tell in a boat over the Lake of Lucerne. A storm broke out. William Tell was untied to steer with his famed strength, and had now the control. William tell successfully steered towards land, jumped off the boat while pushing the boat back onto the sea where they later died. Tell later assassinated Gessler and started the successful rebellion against the Austrians.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
William Tell
Using our research, we have made a short personal biography of William Tell according to the extremely vague and improbable recourses.
Date of Birth: Unknown 14-15th century
Date of Death: Unknown 14-15th century
Hair colour: Unknown/probably dark brown
Eye colour: Unknown
Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Parents: Unknown
Kids: One son
Spouse: Unknown
Residence: Altdorf, Uri, (Today center of switzerland)
Profession: Was very good with handling a bow as well as hiking
Religion: Unknown
Nationality: Swiss
From our research, we have found this to be the basis for every version, with hardly any embellishment or change from version to version.
We have also discovered and concluded that a legend such as William Tell, will always be very difficult to research, as all the available sources are unreliable and based of each other.
However, we have discovered that many many other tales very similar to this were recorded much earlier in countries like Norwegian, Sweden and Scotland. In fact, we have discovered another tale that supposedly occurred about 200 years earlier that William tell that followed the exact story line. We are concluding that the Legend of William Tell is based on other previous tales, only to be later reworded and edited to become the famous Legend Of William Tell.
We have decided to think further about this problem, and how it might have started as well as why our information is unreliable.
Over the past 7 weeks we have done a lot of research on the legend of William tell. As stated earlier, we came to a conclusion that it is very hard to prove wether the legend is true or not. This is due to:
1. The legend of William Tell originated in a small country and is not very widely known.
2. With the advent of the World Wide Web, sharing of information is easier, but this has resulted in a unification of ideas, and homogenisation of sources through copy-paste creation, which means that the story has become universal, and has little or no variation.
3. Legends were stories, tales going from parent to child, so one's version of the legend might be different from another. The internet however, has resulted in a homogenisation of accounts, which means that finding out how the legend is differently known to different people in different areas and how they were taught.
4.Older accounts referencing William Tell are written in Old German, and have very few digitalisations, so deciphering them is almost impossible, even for a German speaker.
The general story of William Tell's deeds has changed over the years, but as of today, the general story goes as follows:
At the time the district was under the control of the Austrian Empire, an was ruled by the tyrannical leader Gessler.
Gessler was so arrogant he wished to be saluted even when he was not present, so he put his hat on a pole in the square, and ordered that every man who came to the town was to salute the hat.
One day, William Tell went to town with his son, and refused to salute the pole. Gessler soon turned up and surprisingly didn't arrest William, Instead he challenged that he should shoot an apple from his sons head. Tell accepted, the boy stood in front of a tree. Tell succeeded, and was free, however Gessler noticed that tell took two arrows out of his quiver. Gessler asked what the second arrow was for. Tell answered with honesty: “if i would've missed the apple i would have shot you with the second arrow”.
Surprised with Tell’s honesty Gessler felt disgusted, and as a result arrested him anyway.
Gessler transported tell in a boat over the Lake of Lucerne. A storm broke out. William Tell was untied to steer with his famed strength, and had now the control. William tell successfully steered towards land, jumped off the boat while pushing the boat back onto the sea where they later died. Tell later assassinated Gessler and started the successful rebellion against the Austrians.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
William Tell
Using our research, we have made a short personal biography of William Tell according to the extremely vague and improbable recourses.
Date of Birth: Unknown 14-15th century
Date of Death: Unknown 14-15th century
Hair colour: Unknown/probably dark brown
Eye colour: Unknown
Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Parents: Unknown
Kids: One son
Spouse: Unknown
Residence: Altdorf, Uri, (Today center of switzerland)
Profession: Was very good with handling a bow as well as hiking
Religion: Unknown
Nationality: Swiss