The Viking Origins of the William Tell Tale
The Swiss got seriously salty when it was first reported that one of their greatest national hero stories might have been cribbed from an old Viking tale. One day in 1307, William Tell strode through Altdorf, Switzerland, with his son. There, an agent of the ruling Hapsburgs, Albrecht Gessler, demanded that all passersby remove their hats as a show of respect. Tell kept his hat on, and was dragged before Gessler. He ordered an apple placed above the head of Tell’s child, and decreed that he’d let both live if dad shot the apple with a single bolt from 120 paces. Tell shot off the apple and Gessler freed him, but asked why, despite the challenge specifying a single bolt, he had placed a second bolt in his jacket. Tell replied: “If my first bolt had missed, I would have shot the second at you and I would not have missed“.
The incensed agent ordered Tell locked up in a dungeon. He freed himself, killed Gessler, and triggered a rebellion that overthrew the Hapsburgs and led to Swiss independence. Awesome story. Unfortunately, as seen below, it never happened. Today, William Tell is a Swiss national hero. Most non-Swiss know of him either as the guy who shot an apple off a kid’s head, or from the upbeat William Tell Overture finale from Loony Tunes cartoons or the Lone Ranger. In Switzerland, there is hardly a town that does not have a statue or monument that commemorates him.