Editing Swiss folklore (section)

==Legends==
[[File:Convent of St Gall.jpg|thumb|upright|The Abbey of St. Gall, founded on the site of his hermitage]]
The legends of Switzerland include historic and semi-mythic people and places that shaped the history and culture of the nation.

===Christianization===
* [[Saint Gall]], an [[Irish monk]] who in the early 7th century helped introduce Christianity to eastern Switzerland.  The [[Abbey of St. Gall]] is believed to have been built on the site of his hermitage.<ref>{{Cite CE1913|wstitle=St. Gall}}</ref>
* [[Magnus of Füssen]], a missionary saint in southern Germany.  He was active in the 7th or 8th century and is considered the founder of [[St. Mang's Abbey, Füssen]].<ref>{{Cite CE1913|wstitle=St. Magnus}}</ref>
* [[Saint Fridolin]], patron of [[Glarus]].  He is traditionally believed to be an Irish saint who founded [[Säckingen Abbey]], [[Baden]], in the 6th or 7th century.  According to legend, he converted a landowner who left his estates, now the Canton of Glarus, to Fridolin.  When the landowner's brother took Fridolin to court over the gift, Fridolin raised the landowner from the dead to confirm its legitimacy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Leo |first=Hermann |title=Der heilige Fridolin |publisher=Herder |year=1886 |pages=163–167 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PI9FAAAAIAAJ}}</ref>

===Old Swiss Confederacy===
[[File:Apple shooting by tell.JPG|thumb|A fresco showing William Tell and his son after he shot an apple off his son's head]] 
* [[Teufelsbrücke]] is a bridge which was supposedly erected by the [[Devil]].
* [[William Tell]] is a Swiss folk hero who was forced to shoot an apple off his son's head by the tyrannical [[Vogt|reeve]] of [[Duchy of Austria|Habsburg Austria]].  After successfully shooting the apple and escaping the reeve's men, he assassinated the reeve and started a revolution.<ref name="meyers">[[Meyers Konversations-Lexikon]], Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, Leipzig und Wien, Fourth edition, 1885–1892, entry on "[http://www.retrobibliothek.de/retrobib/seite.html?id=115594#Tell Tell], [http://www.retrobibliothek.de/retrobib/seite.html?id=115595 Wilhelm]," pp. 576–77 in volume 15. In German.</ref> He became a central figure in [[Swiss patriotism]] as it was constructed during the [[Restoration (Switzerland)|Restoration]] of the Confederacy after the [[Napoleonic era]].
* [[Rütlischwur]], a legendary oath of the Old Swiss Confederacy, taken on the [[Rütli]], a meadow above [[Lake Lucerne]], by three men representing [[Schwyz]], [[Canton of Uri|Uri]] and [[Unterwalden]]. It became connected to the legend of William Tell.
* [[Arnold Winkelried]] was a possibly legendary hero of the Swiss [[Battle of Sempach]] against the [[House of Habsburg|Habsburg]] Duke [[Leopold III of Austria (Habsburg)|Leopold III of Austria]].  According to the story, when the Swiss army was unable to break through the Austrian pikes, Winkelried threw himself on the pikes and used his body to open a hole in the Austrian lines leading to the Swiss victory at Sempach.  Though the existence of Arnold Winkelried is disputed, the story was another central part of Swiss patriotism in the 19th century.
* [[Bruder Klaus]] was a Swiss monk and ascetic who is considered the patron saint of Switzerland.  In 1481 the leaders of the [[Old Swiss Confederacy]] began quarreling over treasure from the [[Burgundian Wars]] and civil war appeared likely.  Bruder Klaus was consulted and passed a secret message to the quarreling leaders.  The message, the contents of which are unknown, calmed the tempers and led to the drawing up of the [[Stanser Verkommnis]] which expanded the Confederation.<ref>{{HDS|9805|Stanser Verkommnis}}</ref>