After taking his regime of terror too far on a stormy winter night, Bailiff Brunegg committed a sin so sedate while hunting that it sent him into a haunted afterlife.
High in the Canton of Aargau, where the shadow of Brunegg Castle falls over the land, a legend as frigid as an Alpine wind has endured for generations. The castle was built on a hill on the edge of the Jura Mountains in the 13th century, probably as part of the Habsburg border fortifications.
As shadowy clouds gather and the holy season approaches, residents near the castle in the village of Brunegg at the foot of Mount Chäschtebärg swear they hear distant thunder, like hooves on frozen ground, echoing from above. This is not a storm. It is Bailiff Brunegg, rising again for his eternal, cursed hunt.
This grim tale, written in the 19th century by folklorist Ernst L. Rochholz in “Swiss Legends from Aargau”, presents a chilling portrait of cruelty, hubris and supernatural justice. Even today, the locals will tell you: when winter comes and the land falls into a massive silence, listen to the shouts of “Hop-Hop!” they can slide down slopes.
The tyrant of Brunegg Castle
The story begins at Brunegg Castle, an impressive fortress in the Swiss countryside. The castle, although now serene, was once the residence of the bailiff, called Landvogt in German. In Switzerland during the Middle Ages, the bailiff, called “Vogt” in German, played a significant administrative and judicial role. A bailiff was usually a nobleman appointed by a higher authority, such as a king, prince or lord.
He was a man of power, authority and, according to legend, unrepentant cruelty. One memorable winter, when the ground was covered with snow and the piercing frigid pierced even the stone walls of his fortress, the bailiff decided to go hunting.
With a black horse, a pack of growling dogs and an entourage of servants, he set off into the deepening snowdrifts. The frigid was so fierce that the breath of people and animals froze in the air. As the storm intensified, their feet froze and their limbs became stiff from frostbite.
But the bailiff, obsessed with hunting and blinded by ego, did not want to turn back.
Murder for warmth
As his followers collapsed around him, the bailiff came across a lone woodcutter working in the forest, perhaps hoping to survive the winter with the little firewood he had collected. Instead of asking for support or showing mercy, the bailiff immediately murdered the man, cutting him open and warming his frozen feet in the steaming belly of the corpse.
This gruesome act was the last straw.
As if in divine revenge, the sky darkened and a furious snowstorm broke out over Brunegg. A blinding wind blew through the forest and fields. The bailiff, his dogs and the remaining servants were never seen again. They were all buried in the snow, swallowed whole by the mountain's wrath. The castle, high on the hill, was quiet.
Every winter, residents at the foot of Brunegg Castle claim to hear galloping ghostly hooves. Dogs are barking. The bailiff's voice resounds with an ominous “Hop-Hop!” — urging his hidden dogs to keep going. But always at the place of the woodcutter's death the sound stops.
It is said that the bailiff's ghost is cursed to hunt forever and can never pass this place, doomed to repeat the sins of his last journey through blizzard and blood.
A tyrant reborn: Gessler or a ghost?
Interestingly, well-read Swiss citizens have long noticed similarities between Bailiff Brunegg and another infamous tyrant from legends, Albrecht Gessler, the ruthless official from the story of William Tell, the hero of Swiss independence. Albrecht Gessler, also known as Hermann, was a legendary 14th-century Habsburg bailiff in Altdorf whose brutal rule led to the Revolt of William Tell and the eventual independence of the Old Swiss Confederacy.
Gessler is the man who became celebrated for forcing Tell to shoot an apple off his own son's head – it is a story of oppression, rebellion and ultimate revenge.
No sources prior to the earliest mentions of the Tell legend in the behind schedule 15th century mention the bailiff Gessler of central Switzerland, and it is assumed that no such person existed. Some believe that the bailiff of Brunegg is Gessler, and at least the folkloric echo is another example of how abuse of power and cruelty bring not only rebellion, but eternal punishment according to Swiss legend.
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Bailiff Brunegg: a spooky hunt through Swiss snow and sin
After taking his regime of terror too far on a stormy winter night, Bailiff Brunegg committed a sin so sedate while hunting that it sent him into a haunted afterlife.
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E. Nesbit's shadow mark
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A story of disappearance and reappearance by Mr. James
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Jerry Bundler by W. W. Jacobs
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Dead Sexton by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
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Bailiff Brunnegg: a Swiss legend
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