Where the Sardona Glacier now spreads its immense masses of ice, the most magnificent alp once flourished and grew green. The alpine dairyman, the son of a widow from Elm, was proud of it, boasted of his wealth and built a new dairy hut.

He had a mistress, Kathrin, with whom he led a godless life. Once his old mother came up to visit her son. Previously, she had always been received kindly, and every time she returned home laden with butter and cheese, but now Kathrin had seduced her son, and his love for her mother had ceased.

After a meagre meal, he sent his mother home. When the dairyman saw his mistress coming from afar, he built her a staircase to the dairyman’s hut out of the most beautiful cheeses, so that she would not soil her shoes,

When the old mother arrived home, she saw how shamefully she had been deceived by her son. The alpine dairyman had filled his basket with dung and only topped it with a little butter and cheese.

Deeply outraged in her heart, she cursed that snow and ice would cover the alp and her son, together with the damsel, for eternity.

The curse came true. High thunderstorms broke out in the mountains. Kathrin and the alpine dairyman perished miserably, and the alp now lies under eternal snow and ice. From the glacier one often hears the cry:

“Me and my cows
and my dog Parvi
and my darling Kathri
must under the glacier forever be!”

N. Senn, Chronicle.

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Jakob Kuoni note: The legend occurs many times throughout the Alpine region. It illustrates the popular belief that no sin is punished as severely as a child’s ingratitude towards its mother. Whoever beats the mother, the sacrilegious hand will one day even grow out to the grave. The wickedness of the alpine dairyman on the Sardona Alps is compounded by the fact that he makes milk and butter even more contemptible by his gift. Buried alps are found in great numbers; the deterioration of the high mountain climate through thoughtless felling of trees may explain many things; rockfall and avalanches also help contribute. But folklore is inclined to attribute all damage to a specific moral fault and to a supernatural punishing power.

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Der Sardonagletscher

Wo jetzt der Sardonagletscher seine ungeheuren Eismassen ausbreitet, blühte und grünte einst die herrlichste Alp weit und breit. Der Senn, der Sohn einer Witwe von Elm, war stolz auf diese, pochte auf seinen Reichtum und baute eine neue Sennhütte.

Er hatte eine Geliebte, mit welcher er ein gottloses Leben führte, Einst kam das alte Mütterchen wieder herauf zu seinem Sohne. Sonst war es immer freundlich aufgenommen worden, und jedesmal kehrte es, beladen mit Butter und Käse, freudig nach Hause zurück; aber jetzt hatte Kathrin den Sohn verführt, und die Liebe zur Mutter hatte aufgehört.

Nach einem kärglichen Mahle schickte er die Mutter heim. Als der Senn seine Geliebte von weitem kommen sah, baute er ihr, damit sie die Schuhe nicht beschmutze, aus den schönsten Käsen eine Treppe bis zur Sennhütte,

Das alte Mütterchen, daheim angekommen, sah, wie schändlich es vom Sohne betrogen worden. Der Senn hatte ihm den Korb mit Mist gefüllt und diesen nur oben mit etwas Butter und Käse belegt.

Da sprach es, in seinem Herzen tief empört, den Fluch aus, dass Schnee und Eis die Alp und ihren Sohn samt der Dirne auf ewige Zeilen bedecken mögen.

Der Fluch ging in Erfüllung. Hochgewitter brachen in den Gebirgen los. Kathrin und der Senn kamen jämmerlich um, und die Alp liegt nun unter ewigem Schnee und Eis. Vom Gletscher her hört man oft den Ruf:

“Ich und mi Vieh
Und mi Hundli Parvi
Und mi Schätzli Kathri
Müssen ewig unterm Gletscher si!”

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The Sardona Glacier, among others in the Alps are under threat from climate change and concerns are that it will not be long before the smaller ones disappear completely.