Alp Johann Nepomuk Ritter von Alpenburg: Mythen und Sagen Tirols, Zürich, 1857
And Roy Chapman Andrews: Auf der Fährte des Urmenschen, Leipzig, 1927, pp. 93-94
BN Blätter für Naturkunde und Naturschutz, Wien, 21.Jhg. 1934, pp. 22-23, 40-41
Bre1 Prof.Dr.Otto zur Strassen (Editor): Brehms Tierleben, Vierte Auflage
Band 5, Lurche und Kriechtiere - Band 2, Leipzig und Wien, 1913
Bre2 Dr.Theo Jahn (Editor): Brehms Neue Tierenzyklopädie,
Band 9, Reptilien, Amphibien, Freiburg-Basel-Wien, 1976
Bre3 Dr. Vincenz Brehm: Der Tazzelwurm, in: Natur und Land, 1949/1950, pp. 174-75
Dal Prof.Dr.K.W.von Dalla Torre: Die Drachensage im Alpengebiet, in: Zeitschrift
des Deutschen und Österreichischen Alpenvereins, München 1887, pp. 208-226
DH (DH): Lebt der geheimnisvolle "Tatzelwurm"?,
in: Blickpunkt, Ausgabe Imst, Nr. 32, 5 August 1987, p. 38
Dob Josef Frh.von Doblhoff: Altes und Neues vom Tatzelwurm,
in: Zeitschrift für Österreichische Volkskunde, Wien, 1895 (1896), pp.142-163
Eck Stephan Ecker: Sagen aus der Umgegend von Lofer, in: Mittheilungen der Ges.
für Salzburger Landeskunde, XXXVII. Vereinsjahr, Salzburg 1897, p. 178
Egg Erich Egg: Die Riesenschlange vom Pillersee,
in: Tiroler Heimatblätter, Innsbruck, pp. 56-57
Fil1 Hans Filzer: Der Tatzeldrache am Reicherhof,
in: Tiroler Heimatblätter, Innsbruck 1925, pp. 6-7
Fil2 H.Filzer: Der Höckwurm am Hinterhorn bei Kitzbühel,
in: Tiroler Heimatblätter, Innsbruck 1926, pp. 107-109
Fin1 Hans Fink: Basilisk und fliegende Schlangen,
in: Dolomiten, Tagblatt d. Südtiroler, 3. März 1965, Nr.51,p.5
Fin2 Hans Fink: Der Haselwurm als Menschenschenkel,
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1987, p. 431
Fin3 Hans Fink: Gibt es einen Tatzelwurm?,
in: Südtiroler Bauernkalender 1973, pp. 130-137
Flu1 Ing. agr. H. Flucher: Zur Frage: Gibt es einen Tatzelwurm?,
in: Kosmos, Stuttgart 1931, pp. 118-121
Flu2 Ing. Hans Flucher: Noch einmal die Tatzelwurmfrage (I),
in: Kosmos, Stuttgart 1932, pp. 66-68
Flu3 Ing. Hans Flucher: Noch einmal die Tatzelwurmfrage (II),
in: Kosmos, Stuttgart 1932, pp. 100-102
Flu4 Ing.Hans Flucher,Saalfelden: Und abermals vom Tatzelwurm,
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1932, pp. 497-508
Fuchs Josef Fuchs (Dr. Jos. Faistenberger, editor): Aus der guten, alten Zeit,
Hall in Tirol, 1927, p. 80
Gra Ella Grander: Der St.=Silvest=Tag in Reith bei Kitzbühel,
in: Tiroler Heimatblätter, Innsbruck, 1926, pp. 365-369
Gru Alfred Gruber: Ein Tatzelwurm in Eppan, in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1971, p. 77
Heu Bernard Heuvelmans: In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents, New York, 1968.
Heyl Johann Adolf Heyl: Volkssagen, Bräuche u. Meinungen aus Tirol, Brixen, 1897.
Hof Dr. Wilhelm Hoffer: Über die wahre Natur der "Bergstutzeln",
in: Blätter für Heimatkunde, Graz 1929, pp. 60-63
Hub Dr. Heinz Huber: "Milchsaugende Schlangen",
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1930, pp. 371-372
Hüb L. Hübner: Beschreibung des Erzstiftes und Reichsfürstenthums Salzburg,
3. Band, Salzburg 1796, pp. 868-869, 958
Kae Dr. Alfred Kaestner: Lehrbuch der Speziellen Zoologie,
Teil I: Wirbellose, 1. Halbband, Stuttgart 1954/55
Klee Andreas Klee: Zur Beisswürmerfrage,
in: Tiroler Heimatblätter, Innsbruck, 1932, pp. 444-445
Klei B.M. Klein: Tatzelwürmer u.a., in: Natur und Land, 1950/1951, pp. 63-65
Kob Franz von Kobell: Wildanger. Skizzen aus dem Gebiete der Jagd,
Stuttgart, 1859,p.464-470
Kohl J.G. Kohl: Alpenreisen. Dritter Theil, Leipzig 1854, p. 324
Kos Editorial: Noch einmal die Tatzelwurmfrage,
in: Kosmos, Stuttgart, 1982, p. 10/90, (partial reprint of Flu2).
Ley Willi Ley: Drachen, Riesen, Rätseltiere,
Stuttgart, 1956, Orig: The Lungfish, the Dodo and the Unicorn, New York.
Mag Ulrich Magin: European Dragons: The Tatzelwurm,
in: PURSUIT, Vol.19, No.1, First Quarter 1986, pp. 16-22
May Wilfried Mayrus, producer: Der Fonknotwurm von Tarsch,
telecast by ORF (Austrian TV), 18 Jan 1982 and 5 May 1983.
Mer Robert Mertens: Die Warn- und Droh-Reaktionen der Reptilien,
in: Abhandlungen der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft,
Abhandlung 471, Frankfurt A.M., 1946, pp. 1-108
Meu1 Dr. Karl Meusburger: Etwas vom Tatzelwurm,
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1928, pp. 189-190
Meu2 Dr. Karl Meusburger: Etwas vom Tatzelwurm,
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1931, pp. 458-479
Meu3 Dr. Karl Meusburger: Neue Beiträge zur Tatzelwurmfrage,
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1934, pp. 64-85
Meu4 Dr. Karl Meusburger: Was mir die Leute von den Schlangen erzählten,
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1929, pp. 390-398
Nic Jakob Nicolussi: Der Tatzelwurm und seine Verwandschaft,
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1933, pp. 119-127
Obe Dr. Sepp Oberkofler: Der Tatzelwurm im Presanellagebiet,
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1948, pp. 311-312
Pau Prof. Karl Paulmichl: Zur Beisswürmerfrage,
in: Tiroler Heimatblätter, Innsbruck, 1932, p. 446
Pla Ada von der Planitz: Zum "Tatzelwurm", in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1928, p. 288
Ran Vance Randolph: Ozark Magic and Folklore, New York, 1964
Ren Gustav Renker: Gibt es den Tatzelwurm?,
in: Alpenland mit Schutzhüttenrundschau, März 1976, p. 2
Roc1 E.L.Rochholz: Schweizersagen aus dem Aargau,
Zürich 1980, Zweiter Band. Reprint of the Aarau 1856 edition.
Roc2 E.L.Rochholz: Naturmythen, Leipzig 1862, p. 188
Scha P.Klemens Schatz, Kapuziner: Der Tatzelwurm, in:Der Schlern, Bozen 1964, p.62
Schu Wilhelm von Schulenburg: Der Beisswurm,
in: Zeitschrift für österreichische Volkskunde, Wien 1910, p.222
Sch.A. Joseph August Schultes: Reisen durch Oberösterreich in den Jahren 1794, 1795,
1802, 1803, 1804 und 1808, I. Theil, Tübingen 1809, p. 108-109
Sch.G. G.von Schultes: Etwas über den Bergstutz oder Stollwurm in den Alpen,
in: Neues Taschenbuch für Natur-, Forst- und Jagdfreunde auf das Jahr 1836,
Weimar, pp. 28-36
Sie August Sieghardt: Drachen und Tatzelwürmer in den Alpen,
in: Der Bergsteiger, München, Sept.1963, pp. 889-892
Sim Karl Simrock: Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie, 3.Aufl., Bonn, 1869, p. 480
Sin1 Rudolf Sinwel: Von den "Beisswürmern",
in: Tiroler Heimatblätter, Innsbruck, 1927, pp. 266-268
Sin2 Rudolf Sinwel: Neues von den "Beisswürmern",
in: Tiroler Heimatblätter, Innsbruck, 1932, pp. 183-185
Sta. Karl Staudacher: Der Haselwurm, in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1930, p. 338
Ste Dr.Otto Steinböck: Der Tatzelwurm und die Wissenschaft.
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1934, pp. 453-468
Stu Studer, Prof.: Über die Insecten dieser Gegend und etwas vom Stollenwurm.
(Cannellee), in: F.N.König, Reise in die Alpen, Bern 1814, pp. 127-139
TH1 Tiroler Heimatblätter, Innsbruck 1932, Zur Beisswürmerfrage, pp. 282, 444-446
TH2 Tiroler Heimatblätter, Innsbruck 1933, Zur Beisswürmerfrage, pp. 36-37, 124
Tra1 P.A.Trafojer: Der Tatzelwurm auf dem Tschöggelberg,
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1948, pp. 250-252
Tra2 P.A.Trafojer: Man weiss jetzt auch, was er frisst - der Tatzelwurm,
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1953, p. 132
Tra3 P.Ambros Trafojer: Noch ein Augenzeuge für die Existenz des Tatzelwurms,
in: Der Schlern, Bozen 1969, pp. 235-236
Tsch Friedrich von Tschudi: Das Thierleben der Alpenwelt,
Dritte verbesserte Auflage, Leipzig, 1856, p.170
Tscha R. Tschalener: "Neues von den Beisswürmern", in: Mitteilungen des Deutschen
und Österreichischen Alpenvereins, Stuttgart-Wien, 1932, p. 298
Ven Dr.med.Gerhard Venzmer: Ein Tier, von dem man nicht weiss, ob es existiert.
in: Kosmos, Stuttgart 1930, pp. 424-427
Vie Fr.M.Vierthaler: Meine Wanderungen durch Salzburg, Berchtesgaden und
Österreich, Erster Theil, Wien, 1816, p. 91
Wys1 J. Rud. Wyss Prof.: Reise in das Berner Oberland,
Zweite Abtheilung, Bern 1817, pp. 421-424
Wys2 Joh. Rud. Wyss jünger, Prof.: Geographisch-statistische Darstellung
des Cantons Bern, I. Theil, Zürich 1819-1822, pp.120-121
Zin Ignaz Vinzenz Zingerle: Sagen aus Tirol, Graz 1976
ZÖV1 Zeitschrift für Österreichische Volkskunde, Wien 1895,
Zur Sage vom Tatzelwurm, pp. 261-265, Vereinsnachrichten, pp. 381-382
ZÖV2 Zeitschrift für Österreichische Volkskunde, Wien 1896,(1897)
Sprechsaal - Antworten. pp. 95-96
Mittwoch, 13. Juni 2007
Tatzelwurm, Notes
Note, that the layout irregularities are due to a not translated format of the original file!
1) See PURSUIT, Vol. 19, No. 1, First Quarter 1986, page 16-22
2) I'm using the term Tatzelwurm hypothesis (TWH) for the supposi- tion of the existence in the Alps of an animal species or variety of reptilian or worm-like appearance, that is either unknown to science or not considered indigenous to the Alps.
3) There is no reference to the Tatzelwurm in the works of Charles Fort. I am the very last to criticize this. Until I began writing this article I was unaware of most of the existing material although I am born and have lived for six decades in Austria, in a Tatzelwurm 'infested' country so to say.
4) Charles Fort certainly would be delighted to learn that modern psychology considers the inability to suspend judgement, the all-or-nothing attidude, a pathological trait.
5) On the history of such fakings see Ley/91-94.
6) Franz Eberhöfer, the informant in this case is the son of witness Eberhöfer in case (1849.06.?).
7) Native people then explained the presence of a crocodile by the assumption that the Möls lake must have an underground connection with the sea.
8) A 'Fatschenkind' wasn't exactly a baby in swaddling clothes as the term is understood today. It was a baby wrapped up in a sort of bandages so that it had to lie still, unable to move feet or arms. Today in toy museums, dolls of that time can still be seen. They were often nothing more than turned cones made from wood, with the bandages painted on.
9) Case (1883.). Apparently the girl was found dead. There is no information whether she was actually bitten.
10) According to Hüb/967 in Salzburg every big worm is called Höckwurm, as for example the adder, the blind worm and, specifically the ring-snake.
11) A belief once held in the Tyrol states the weasel attacks poisonous snakes by means of a lozenge, which it keeps concealed in the jaws (Kob/346).
12) Fore legs are not explicitly mentioned. The wording of the report however suggests their presence.
13) The Slovenic name for lizard is 'kuscar'. Maria Rain is 12 kilometers from the Austrian-Yugoslavian border.
14) This sounds a bit suspicious. How many people are able to distinguish the sexes of reptiles?
15) Roy Chapman Andrews (1884-1960) was paleontologist and director of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He lead expeditions to China and Mongolia and became known for the discovery of many dinosaur fossils.
16) The investigator thinks this idiomatic term is derived 'from the shaking movements of the mill' and would mean, that the worm started, i.e. that a tremble went through the worm's body.
17) Although this spot is only one kilometer from the center of the famous winter sports resort of Igls, it is even today a rarely walked on place.
18) This is the only known case where somebody has tried to catch the animal by means of a trap etc.
19) This term was coined by Steinböck (Ste/457/462/464), but the same reductionalism can be observed with other authors (Nic/124-126, Meu3/71, Flu4/507).
20) The physiologist Hj. Öhrvall in Upsala used to say that if some strange phenomenon was put before a scientist his first task was to assure himself of the falseness of the assertions! (Quotation in: Carl Benedicks, Theory of the lightning-balls and its application to the atmospheric phenomenon called "flying saucers" in: Arkiv für Geofysik, Stockholm, 1958, Band 2, nr.1, p. 1).
21) Those latter terms could suggest a slight paranoid trait on the part of some witnesses but this would, of course, not necessarily invalidate the observations as such. It may also be of some interest that the greek word 'drakon' means 'one who looks sharply'.
22) Snakes are usually overestimated in size by more than one third (Bre/329).
23) See: Helen E. Ross, Behaviour and Perception in Strange Environments, London, 1974.
24) Hobarth M.Smith and Edward H.Taylor: Annotated Checklist and Key to the Reptiles of Mexico Exclusive of the Snakes, United States National Museum, Bulletin 199, Washington, 1950, pp.37-38.
25) Heu/99'1 quotes Schmidt and Inger (1957) saying that Amphisbaenidae are 'a group of animals we are not positive they are reptiles, let alone lizards' and M. Bogert (1964) calling them 'a taxonomic riddle'. Bre2/226 regards them as a family in the suborder of the Sauria, remarking however, that their systematic position is not clear.
26) Weasels can be incredibly impudent and aggressive. Once I was standing in a meadow in the middle of a country lane. Suddenly a fuzzy something ran towards me, stopped short at my feet and began to climb up my trousers. It was the big weasel (Mustela erminea). When it reached my chest it craned its neck and sniffed at my chin. I stood there, motionless and dumbfounded but nevertheless amused because it was so lovely. But suddenly the weasel bared its teeth and the saucer-like eyes narrowed to slits. Now it looked really nasty and to say I was concerned would have been an understatement. Fortunately it turned around, climbed down and ran back into the direction from where it had come.
27) The German word 'Schnecke' means snail. 'Schneckender Wurm' could mean a worm producing droppings shaped like a snail or, simply behaving like such one.
28) In case (1951.s. St.Georgen), a Tatzelwurm was seen with a lizard in the mouth, in case (1914.06. Braien) it was seen 'fighting' with snakes.
29) This reminds me of a report from the USA years ago, about a sewerman bitten by an alligator, when such pets were fashionable for a while but dropped in the gullies by some so- called 'lovers of animals' when they got tired of them or when the animals had grown to big!
30) Such things do not necessarily invalidate a report as a whole. At the time in question still many a farmer in the Tyrol now and then used certain spells against illness, thunderstorms, hail and parasites.
31) See the daily newspapers 'Tiroler Tageszeitung', Innsbruck and 'Kurier', Vienna, 14 July 1988.
32) Inzing, a village 13 kilometers west of Innsbruck, has a history of catastrophic floods and land-slips. The last of them occurred in 1969.
33) This occurrence is somewhat reminiscent of a phenomenon observed during an UFO sighting on August 22, 1955 in California. Several children perceived various shapes continually vanishing and re- appearing. A boy, saw an arm, suspended in the air beckoning to him. (See: Gordon Creighton, The Extraordinary Happenings at Casa Blanca, Flying Saucer Review, London, Vol. 13, No. 5, Sept./Oct. 1967, p. 16.)
34) Male snakes have duplicate genitals, a fact, even in our time not widely known.
35) Robert Mertens (1894-1975) prominent German herpetologist and director of the Senckenberg Museum at Frankfurt. Publications on amphibeans and reptiles.
36) The snakes mentioned are: Eryx johnii, Charina bottae, Micrurus lemniscatus, Maticora intestinalis, Cylindrophis rufus, Cylindrophis opisthorhodus, Typhlops, Leptotyphlops, Apostolepis ambinigra, Chilorhinophis and Calamaria septentrionalis.
37) Doblhoff confirms this inadvertently when he writes that 'the farmers feared to be treated as uneducated by the tourists who would not accept their delusions' or that a game-tenant when asking one of his hunters why he wouldn't tell him about the 'Bergstutzen' was answered: 'after all you won't believe it' (Dob/162).
38) This is the more astonishing as scientists usually carefully avoid making statements interfering with the competence of disciplines other than their own. In many of the more recent cases, witnesses could have been examined and scientists at a university would have had more likely the means to do this than amateur researchers.
39) Just consider the bad traffic conditions and the undeveloped communications of the time.
40) Joseph August Schultes was professor of natural history at the Innsbruck University.
41) Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672-1733), naturalist and medical officer at Zürich and founder of paleobotanics. He received publicity for his 'Homo diluvii testis' (Andrias scheuchzeri), an incomplete skeleton regarded by him as the 'deplorable bones of an old sinner drown in the flood'. Cuvier (1769-1832) recognized it as a giant salamander, i.e. one of Scheuchzer's beloved dragons.
42) Franz Michael Vierthaler (1785-1827), an Austrian educationalist was an early advocate of advanced training for teachers and of the Socratic method.
43) Johann Rudolf Wyss (1781-1830), Professor of philosophy at Berne wrote about folk tales, and Swiss country life.
44) The popular Austrian Archduke Johann (1782-1859) is also said to have offered a price of 30 ducats but the money was never claimed (Dob/152, Sin1/267).
45) Johann Georg Kohl (1808-1878), director of the public library in Bremen, travelled extensively through Europe and Northamerica and wrote many travel books.
46) A queer logic indeed when in every court identical testimonies by independent persons substantiate rather the truth and not the opposite.
47) Wolfgang Franz Xaver von Kobell (1803-1882) was a prominent figure in the Munich society. Already at 23 he was associate professor of mineralogy. In April 1839, with C.A.Steinheil, he published a photograhic process, four months before Arago announced Daguerre's method. He invented an electrotyping process and the stauroskop, a device utilizing polarized light in the analysis of crytals.
48) An early predecessor of the Goro monster? See PURSUIT Vol.9, No.3, Whole No. 35, Summer 1976, p. 62.
49) Karl Wilhelm von Dalla Torre (1850-1928) was full professor of zoology at the Innsbruck University and author of 150 botanic and 200 zoological publications, and an excellent bibliographer and author of catalogues.
50) In Mühlen, situated between Tiefencastel and Bivio, Switzerland, Dalla Torre had found a buzzard nailed alive to a stable door, with cropped wings and the eyes bored out. Only after continuous pleas he was permitted to kill it! (Dal/208-210 and 224'3).
51) Even if some personal experiences have infuriated this great scientist, it is hardly conceivable that such a harsh, generalizing criticism is or was ever warranted.
52) Franz Leydig (1821-1908). Professor of Zoology at Tübingen and Bonn.
53) Later Dalla Torre informed Doblhoff that he had not pursued the matter further since 1887 (Dob/144'4).
54) Josef Freiherr von Doblhoff-Dier (1844-1928) was an Austrian diplomat and an author. Being a well-to-do man he travelled all over the world. He was an early advocate of a law for the protection of monuments in Austria
55) For a folklorist and a periodical specializing in folklore another policy would hardly have been tenable. Yet one must ask whether it was really necessary to print the heavy-handed letter of a hunter with all its numerous orthographic errors without any editing? (ZÖV1/263).
56) It isn't always clear whether the opinions mentioned are those of Doblhoff or of his informants.
57) In Styria woodchucks were released in 1875. It is however possible that they were already indigenous to this region before, but not recognized as such and perhaps taken for Tatzelwurms (Hof/60).
58) It has been argued that inhabitants of higher alpine regions would probably be unable to correctly identify a rare otter appearing there (Tscha/298).
59) Karl Meusburger (1870-1940) was a Catholic priest and a teacher in Brixen, South Tirol. He had studied theology, physics, geology and mineralogy. A dedicated naturalist, he was specifically interested in glaciology and in all sorts of unusual natural phenomena.
60) Once a hunter had called Meusburger in order to identify a dead animal nobody knew. It was an emaciated, hairless badger who had just finished hibernation. With its cornered,protruding shoulder- blades, the teeth of a predaceous animal not covered by lip hairs and the comb-like projections of the vertebrae on its back it looked like a little dragon (Meu2/464).
61) Meusburger has, for instance, apparently never interviewed the witnesses in case (1920.f. Atterkar). Yet he rejects it as a hoax although the innkeeper who kept the carcass in his house, was at the time of reporting mayor of Sölden, i.e. a person of some standing in this community. Professor Paulmichl in turn, who brought the case to the attention of the 'Tiroler Heimatblätter', was then a prominent architect in the Tyrol. Unfortunately both informants are long deceased and the original correspondence is lost.
62) Dr. Otto Steinböck (1893-1969), full professor of zoology at the Innsbruck University was a widely known specialist for the morphology of the Turbellaria, a class of the flatworms. Another of his activities was limnology, specifically the exploration of the waters in the high mountain regions. He was on expeditions in Greenland and Iceland and traveled all over the world. Half a dozen of species have been named after him, as for instance, the mite Mesoteneriffia steinböcki Irk.
63) This is rather a social scale than one based on observational capability. Besides that, those cases are discarded in the same way as the others.
64) This amounts practically to the claim, that from the standpoint of the zoologist who must regard the legendary material in the reports as noise, the existence of such noise justifies the assumption that there is no signal, no new zoological data.
1) See PURSUIT, Vol. 19, No. 1, First Quarter 1986, page 16-22
2) I'm using the term Tatzelwurm hypothesis (TWH) for the supposi- tion of the existence in the Alps of an animal species or variety of reptilian or worm-like appearance, that is either unknown to science or not considered indigenous to the Alps.
3) There is no reference to the Tatzelwurm in the works of Charles Fort. I am the very last to criticize this. Until I began writing this article I was unaware of most of the existing material although I am born and have lived for six decades in Austria, in a Tatzelwurm 'infested' country so to say.
4) Charles Fort certainly would be delighted to learn that modern psychology considers the inability to suspend judgement, the all-or-nothing attidude, a pathological trait.
5) On the history of such fakings see Ley/91-94.
6) Franz Eberhöfer, the informant in this case is the son of witness Eberhöfer in case (1849.06.?).
7) Native people then explained the presence of a crocodile by the assumption that the Möls lake must have an underground connection with the sea.
8) A 'Fatschenkind' wasn't exactly a baby in swaddling clothes as the term is understood today. It was a baby wrapped up in a sort of bandages so that it had to lie still, unable to move feet or arms. Today in toy museums, dolls of that time can still be seen. They were often nothing more than turned cones made from wood, with the bandages painted on.
9) Case (1883.). Apparently the girl was found dead. There is no information whether she was actually bitten.
10) According to Hüb/967 in Salzburg every big worm is called Höckwurm, as for example the adder, the blind worm and, specifically the ring-snake.
11) A belief once held in the Tyrol states the weasel attacks poisonous snakes by means of a lozenge, which it keeps concealed in the jaws (Kob/346).
12) Fore legs are not explicitly mentioned. The wording of the report however suggests their presence.
13) The Slovenic name for lizard is 'kuscar'. Maria Rain is 12 kilometers from the Austrian-Yugoslavian border.
14) This sounds a bit suspicious. How many people are able to distinguish the sexes of reptiles?
15) Roy Chapman Andrews (1884-1960) was paleontologist and director of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He lead expeditions to China and Mongolia and became known for the discovery of many dinosaur fossils.
16) The investigator thinks this idiomatic term is derived 'from the shaking movements of the mill' and would mean, that the worm started, i.e. that a tremble went through the worm's body.
17) Although this spot is only one kilometer from the center of the famous winter sports resort of Igls, it is even today a rarely walked on place.
18) This is the only known case where somebody has tried to catch the animal by means of a trap etc.
19) This term was coined by Steinböck (Ste/457/462/464), but the same reductionalism can be observed with other authors (Nic/124-126, Meu3/71, Flu4/507).
20) The physiologist Hj. Öhrvall in Upsala used to say that if some strange phenomenon was put before a scientist his first task was to assure himself of the falseness of the assertions! (Quotation in: Carl Benedicks, Theory of the lightning-balls and its application to the atmospheric phenomenon called "flying saucers" in: Arkiv für Geofysik, Stockholm, 1958, Band 2, nr.1, p. 1).
21) Those latter terms could suggest a slight paranoid trait on the part of some witnesses but this would, of course, not necessarily invalidate the observations as such. It may also be of some interest that the greek word 'drakon' means 'one who looks sharply'.
22) Snakes are usually overestimated in size by more than one third (Bre/329).
23) See: Helen E. Ross, Behaviour and Perception in Strange Environments, London, 1974.
24) Hobarth M.Smith and Edward H.Taylor: Annotated Checklist and Key to the Reptiles of Mexico Exclusive of the Snakes, United States National Museum, Bulletin 199, Washington, 1950, pp.37-38.
25) Heu/99'1 quotes Schmidt and Inger (1957) saying that Amphisbaenidae are 'a group of animals we are not positive they are reptiles, let alone lizards' and M. Bogert (1964) calling them 'a taxonomic riddle'. Bre2/226 regards them as a family in the suborder of the Sauria, remarking however, that their systematic position is not clear.
26) Weasels can be incredibly impudent and aggressive. Once I was standing in a meadow in the middle of a country lane. Suddenly a fuzzy something ran towards me, stopped short at my feet and began to climb up my trousers. It was the big weasel (Mustela erminea). When it reached my chest it craned its neck and sniffed at my chin. I stood there, motionless and dumbfounded but nevertheless amused because it was so lovely. But suddenly the weasel bared its teeth and the saucer-like eyes narrowed to slits. Now it looked really nasty and to say I was concerned would have been an understatement. Fortunately it turned around, climbed down and ran back into the direction from where it had come.
27) The German word 'Schnecke' means snail. 'Schneckender Wurm' could mean a worm producing droppings shaped like a snail or, simply behaving like such one.
28) In case (1951.s. St.Georgen), a Tatzelwurm was seen with a lizard in the mouth, in case (1914.06. Braien) it was seen 'fighting' with snakes.
29) This reminds me of a report from the USA years ago, about a sewerman bitten by an alligator, when such pets were fashionable for a while but dropped in the gullies by some so- called 'lovers of animals' when they got tired of them or when the animals had grown to big!
30) Such things do not necessarily invalidate a report as a whole. At the time in question still many a farmer in the Tyrol now and then used certain spells against illness, thunderstorms, hail and parasites.
31) See the daily newspapers 'Tiroler Tageszeitung', Innsbruck and 'Kurier', Vienna, 14 July 1988.
32) Inzing, a village 13 kilometers west of Innsbruck, has a history of catastrophic floods and land-slips. The last of them occurred in 1969.
33) This occurrence is somewhat reminiscent of a phenomenon observed during an UFO sighting on August 22, 1955 in California. Several children perceived various shapes continually vanishing and re- appearing. A boy, saw an arm, suspended in the air beckoning to him. (See: Gordon Creighton, The Extraordinary Happenings at Casa Blanca, Flying Saucer Review, London, Vol. 13, No. 5, Sept./Oct. 1967, p. 16.)
34) Male snakes have duplicate genitals, a fact, even in our time not widely known.
35) Robert Mertens (1894-1975) prominent German herpetologist and director of the Senckenberg Museum at Frankfurt. Publications on amphibeans and reptiles.
36) The snakes mentioned are: Eryx johnii, Charina bottae, Micrurus lemniscatus, Maticora intestinalis, Cylindrophis rufus, Cylindrophis opisthorhodus, Typhlops, Leptotyphlops, Apostolepis ambinigra, Chilorhinophis and Calamaria septentrionalis.
37) Doblhoff confirms this inadvertently when he writes that 'the farmers feared to be treated as uneducated by the tourists who would not accept their delusions' or that a game-tenant when asking one of his hunters why he wouldn't tell him about the 'Bergstutzen' was answered: 'after all you won't believe it' (Dob/162).
38) This is the more astonishing as scientists usually carefully avoid making statements interfering with the competence of disciplines other than their own. In many of the more recent cases, witnesses could have been examined and scientists at a university would have had more likely the means to do this than amateur researchers.
39) Just consider the bad traffic conditions and the undeveloped communications of the time.
40) Joseph August Schultes was professor of natural history at the Innsbruck University.
41) Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672-1733), naturalist and medical officer at Zürich and founder of paleobotanics. He received publicity for his 'Homo diluvii testis' (Andrias scheuchzeri), an incomplete skeleton regarded by him as the 'deplorable bones of an old sinner drown in the flood'. Cuvier (1769-1832) recognized it as a giant salamander, i.e. one of Scheuchzer's beloved dragons.
42) Franz Michael Vierthaler (1785-1827), an Austrian educationalist was an early advocate of advanced training for teachers and of the Socratic method.
43) Johann Rudolf Wyss (1781-1830), Professor of philosophy at Berne wrote about folk tales, and Swiss country life.
44) The popular Austrian Archduke Johann (1782-1859) is also said to have offered a price of 30 ducats but the money was never claimed (Dob/152, Sin1/267).
45) Johann Georg Kohl (1808-1878), director of the public library in Bremen, travelled extensively through Europe and Northamerica and wrote many travel books.
46) A queer logic indeed when in every court identical testimonies by independent persons substantiate rather the truth and not the opposite.
47) Wolfgang Franz Xaver von Kobell (1803-1882) was a prominent figure in the Munich society. Already at 23 he was associate professor of mineralogy. In April 1839, with C.A.Steinheil, he published a photograhic process, four months before Arago announced Daguerre's method. He invented an electrotyping process and the stauroskop, a device utilizing polarized light in the analysis of crytals.
48) An early predecessor of the Goro monster? See PURSUIT Vol.9, No.3, Whole No. 35, Summer 1976, p. 62.
49) Karl Wilhelm von Dalla Torre (1850-1928) was full professor of zoology at the Innsbruck University and author of 150 botanic and 200 zoological publications, and an excellent bibliographer and author of catalogues.
50) In Mühlen, situated between Tiefencastel and Bivio, Switzerland, Dalla Torre had found a buzzard nailed alive to a stable door, with cropped wings and the eyes bored out. Only after continuous pleas he was permitted to kill it! (Dal/208-210 and 224'3).
51) Even if some personal experiences have infuriated this great scientist, it is hardly conceivable that such a harsh, generalizing criticism is or was ever warranted.
52) Franz Leydig (1821-1908). Professor of Zoology at Tübingen and Bonn.
53) Later Dalla Torre informed Doblhoff that he had not pursued the matter further since 1887 (Dob/144'4).
54) Josef Freiherr von Doblhoff-Dier (1844-1928) was an Austrian diplomat and an author. Being a well-to-do man he travelled all over the world. He was an early advocate of a law for the protection of monuments in Austria
55) For a folklorist and a periodical specializing in folklore another policy would hardly have been tenable. Yet one must ask whether it was really necessary to print the heavy-handed letter of a hunter with all its numerous orthographic errors without any editing? (ZÖV1/263).
56) It isn't always clear whether the opinions mentioned are those of Doblhoff or of his informants.
57) In Styria woodchucks were released in 1875. It is however possible that they were already indigenous to this region before, but not recognized as such and perhaps taken for Tatzelwurms (Hof/60).
58) It has been argued that inhabitants of higher alpine regions would probably be unable to correctly identify a rare otter appearing there (Tscha/298).
59) Karl Meusburger (1870-1940) was a Catholic priest and a teacher in Brixen, South Tirol. He had studied theology, physics, geology and mineralogy. A dedicated naturalist, he was specifically interested in glaciology and in all sorts of unusual natural phenomena.
60) Once a hunter had called Meusburger in order to identify a dead animal nobody knew. It was an emaciated, hairless badger who had just finished hibernation. With its cornered,protruding shoulder- blades, the teeth of a predaceous animal not covered by lip hairs and the comb-like projections of the vertebrae on its back it looked like a little dragon (Meu2/464).
61) Meusburger has, for instance, apparently never interviewed the witnesses in case (1920.f. Atterkar). Yet he rejects it as a hoax although the innkeeper who kept the carcass in his house, was at the time of reporting mayor of Sölden, i.e. a person of some standing in this community. Professor Paulmichl in turn, who brought the case to the attention of the 'Tiroler Heimatblätter', was then a prominent architect in the Tyrol. Unfortunately both informants are long deceased and the original correspondence is lost.
62) Dr. Otto Steinböck (1893-1969), full professor of zoology at the Innsbruck University was a widely known specialist for the morphology of the Turbellaria, a class of the flatworms. Another of his activities was limnology, specifically the exploration of the waters in the high mountain regions. He was on expeditions in Greenland and Iceland and traveled all over the world. Half a dozen of species have been named after him, as for instance, the mite Mesoteneriffia steinböcki Irk.
63) This is rather a social scale than one based on observational capability. Besides that, those cases are discarded in the same way as the others.
64) This amounts practically to the claim, that from the standpoint of the zoologist who must regard the legendary material in the reports as noise, the existence of such noise justifies the assumption that there is no signal, no new zoological data.
Tatzelwurm, Illustrations
1) Case 1779. According to the caption, the allegedly oldest, faith-ful representation of the Unken Tatzelwurm votive picture. (Courtesy "Der Schlern",Brixen). There is, however, at least one other version, older than this.
2) Case 1779. A still newer version of the Unken Tatzelwurm votive picture. (Courtesy "Der Schlern", Brixen).
3) Case 1894 Italy/TS: near Meran. Apparently a drawing made by paintress Ada von der Planitz according to the description by one of he witnesses given long after the event. (Courtesy "Der Schlern", Brixen).
This animal was found in the coldness of the morning in bedewed grass. It was 60 to 70 centimeters long, had the thickness of man's arm and a loathsome appearance. The head was large and blunt. It had no feet. The color was grey, perhaps a bit greenish. The people called it a "Haselwurm". It was slain with a hammer and buried.
4) Case 1916.s. Austria/St: Soboth. Drawing by the witness, Erna Pötsch, wife of a forest ranger. (Courtesy "Der Schlern",Brixen).
This animal was observed in a meadow, at a distance of 2 meters and 50 paces from the edge of a forest. It was breathing int-ensively and it had an extraordinary evil gaze. The head was big and broad with prominent, frog-like eyes, the skin hairless with warts and of a grey-green color with a reddish glimmer on the back. Only fore legs were seen, similarly to those of a dachshund. It was approximately 50 centimeters long and as thick as an upper arm.
5) Case 1927-8. Drawing by witness Josef Reiterer, made 20 years after the event.(Courtesy "Der Schlern", Brixen).
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Permission to reproduce these 5 illustrations has been granted by:
DR. HANS G R I E S S M A I R
EDITOR OF THE PERIODICAL
"D E R S C H L E R N"
2) Case 1779. A still newer version of the Unken Tatzelwurm votive picture. (Courtesy "Der Schlern", Brixen).
3) Case 1894 Italy/TS: near Meran. Apparently a drawing made by paintress Ada von der Planitz according to the description by one of he witnesses given long after the event. (Courtesy "Der Schlern", Brixen).
This animal was found in the coldness of the morning in bedewed grass. It was 60 to 70 centimeters long, had the thickness of man's arm and a loathsome appearance. The head was large and blunt. It had no feet. The color was grey, perhaps a bit greenish. The people called it a "Haselwurm". It was slain with a hammer and buried.
4) Case 1916.s. Austria/St: Soboth. Drawing by the witness, Erna Pötsch, wife of a forest ranger. (Courtesy "Der Schlern",Brixen).
This animal was observed in a meadow, at a distance of 2 meters and 50 paces from the edge of a forest. It was breathing int-ensively and it had an extraordinary evil gaze. The head was big and broad with prominent, frog-like eyes, the skin hairless with warts and of a grey-green color with a reddish glimmer on the back. Only fore legs were seen, similarly to those of a dachshund. It was approximately 50 centimeters long and as thick as an upper arm.
5) Case 1927-8. Drawing by witness Josef Reiterer, made 20 years after the event.(Courtesy "Der Schlern", Brixen).
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Permission to reproduce these 5 illustrations has been granted by:
DR. HANS G R I E S S M A I R
EDITOR OF THE PERIODICAL
"D E R S C H L E R N"
Tatzelwurm - Part II, Catalogue
A C A T A L O G U E O F O B S E R V A T I O N S
In order to obtain a general view of the distribution and the phenomenal characteristics of alleged Tatzelwurm observations I have compiled them in a catalogue arranged by date and time. Unfortunately this attempt was hampered by the fact that neither the witnesses nor the proponents of the TWH have paid much attention to exact dates.
As opinions are often in conflict a suffix in the source codes indicates explanations proposed by the source. This will also compensate for any arbitrariness of mine in the selection of reports. In the outermost right columns phenomenal characteristics of each case are listed in coded form. In the case histories some of the occurrences are described in detail as they have been reported.
C A S E H I S T O R I E S
1673.b. Italy/TS:Lago Nambino/Madonna d.Camp.
A dragon living in the Nambino Lake two kilometers west of Santa Madonna di Campiglio, used to devour sheep, goat and once even a herdsman. A bear hunter who managed to shoot the animal, but went mad. Around 1850 the carcass or the head and an alleged egg of the dragon were still displayed in the church of Santa Madonna di Campiglio. Later, at a reconstruction, they were thrown away.
According to a more recent version herdsmen at Lake Nambino noticed that cows returning to the sheds in the evening had already been milked. They observed an animal coming out of a crevice and, clinging to the foot of a cow sucking the milk from the udder. The animal was shot and exhibited in the church of Campiglio. Meusburger considers this second version a modern explanatory myth and suggests the carcass might have been an artificially reshaped animal, a Jenny Haniver 5) so to say.
1750.x. Italy/TS:Sonnenberg/Bad Salt/Martell,
The animal in this case was repeatedly seen. Its size and form was that of a cat but the snout was a bit elongated, the tail flat and pointed. Apparently it was hairless because the informant is inclined to consider it as a lizard or perhaps a snake. In front it had two paws and imprints in wet soil showed they must have had clutches. When moving slowly it used the two paws, dragging the hind quarters. Pursuing prey it moved in jerks, arching its back. Going downhill it retracted its paws, dashing along like an arrow, scarcely touching the ground. Once it was observed catching a rabbit. In spite of repeated and careful observations always only two paws were seen. 6)
1779. Austria/S:Mösener Leitstube/ Unken
According to oral tradition and a short text on a painted wayside shrine or votive tablet on the way to the Schwarzbach gorge near Unken a farmer was attacked by two Tatzelwurms while picking berries in the so called Möserer Leitstube. He fled in panic and died at the Thalbruck pass leading into the Heuthal (hay-valley). I have found three different reproductions of this votive tablet. In the allegedly oldest and 'most faithful' one, (now in the museum 'Haus der Natur' at Salzburg) the farmer lies half on his belly with his face visible in profile. With the left hand he holds his nose apparently in an attempt to protect himself from the (presumably poisonous) breath of the Tatzelwurms which can be seen in the background crawling on a rock. (see also MAg/16). The Tatzelwurms have tails, two pairs of feet, speckled skin and forked tongues (or is it fire?) coming out of their mouths. If the perspective is rendered correctly (in this type of artwork this is often not the case) the size of the Tatzelwurms must have been in the order of meters. On a newer version of the tablet the text reads: 'In sudden terror died here, pursued by jumping worms, Hans Fuchs from Unken 1779'. According to Eck/178 a few years before 1898, a votiv-tablet in memory of a similar occurrence could still be seen at the entrance to the Schidergraben, Salzburg.
The original votive tablet of the Fuchs-case is either lost or has been painted over. Flucher thinks the existing versions of the tablet cannot be relied on and considers even the victim's name questionable. It is also doubtful that an artist relying on hearsay and tradition was at all able to paint the Tatzelwurms true to nature (FLu4/497).
1800.x. Austria/T: Möls See/Wattental
The Möls See is a small alpine lake at 2.200 meters above sea level, 17 kilometers SE of Innsbruck. While hunting, a gunsmith from the town of Hall came here across a 'crocodile' and shot it. Before it died it bit the hunter in the arm, which remained partially paralysed. 7)
1811.05. Switzerland: Im Boden/Haslital
One a very hot morning a teacher was checking sheep near a barn. The sun was shining brightly through the door onto the inner wall and there under the crib he perceived an ugly animal, nearly 1,80 meters long and thicker than a man's tigh. On its two stud-like feet, five inches long, 50 centimeters apart, it rose to a height of 30 centimeters and looked at the teacher. The eyes were as big as those of a large hen and it let its forked tongue dart around. Its head was like a snake's head, but broader, more flat and it had no turned up nose. On its back the worm had short, thin hair but no comb. "For the time of two Lord's Prayers", as the teacher said, they looked at each
other. Then the observer fled as fast as he could, horror-stricken.
1826.x. Austria/T:Mt. Hinterhorn/Kitzbühel
One day a boy who had regularly been sent to the Lämmerbühel alp for butter and curd didn't return. The next day he was found beside the path leading to the alp. He had gotten rid of his 'Kraxl' (a wooden bracket), his body showed several bites and he was dead. Bears and wolfs were already considered exterminated in the region but some people had allegedly seen a big lizard. The most dashing hunters began a search for the monster which they called 'Höckwurm' and allegedly succeeded in killing it. Around 1870 a faded votiv tablet could still be seen at the place, showing a picture of the monster ('rather according to the painter's imagination' as the informant remarks).
1833.b. Austria/U:Gambsfeld/Gosau
A young man was climbing through rocks when suddenly from under his hands a wild animal emerged. It was of a fair silver-grey color with three dark elongated spots on its back. Its head was snake-like, the body as thick as a man's arm. It was more than two feet long and blunt at the rear. The animal had four short, hardly noticeable feet but it moved rather agile. When it fled, the man struck with his alpenstock after it whereupon it bounded up along the stock and bit him in the hand. He was able to kill the thing but then he felt a burning pain and his arm swelled up. Back at home a surgeon declared the bit poisonous and advised him to have the arm amputated. The man however did not agree to this and recovered after several months.
1845.x. Germany/B: Mt. Watzmann
Two boys of twelve intending to observe woodchucks as they had already often done earlier were climbing around in the rubble, when they saw, on a stone, an animal they had never seen before. It had a flat-pressed head and a blunt tail and was nearly as long and as thick as a man's arm. The color was reddish, 'shimmering in the sun as if studded with nothing but little starlets'. The boys didn't remember whether there were feet. When they began to throw stones at the animal it rose 'straight as an arrow' and pursued them spitting and in jumps three meters and a half wide as they fled, running at right angles to the slope. A hunter later told them that they were lucky to have reacted so and admonished them 'never again to hurt' a 'Bergstutzen'.
1845.09. Austria/T:Pillersee/S.Ulrich/S.Adolari
For a period of more than a month, a snake, measuring four meters and a half, five inches thick and moving in 'perpendicular' undulations was repeatedly seen by several people near the brook between St.Ulrich and St.Adalari, 17 kilometers NE of Kitzbühel, Tyrol. Allegedly it had killed two sheep. It was twice shot at but not hit or only wounded.
1857.b. Austria/T: Wurmbachtal/Innsbruck
The Wurmbach, a small brook, originates in the mountain range of the Nordkette, four kilometers north of Innsbruck, at 1.100 meters. In the middle of the past century several people (1827.x., 1853.x.) claimed to have observed in this region the 'Murbl', a peculiar animal, 45 centimeters long and as thick as a 'Fatschenkind' 8) or as a man's thigh, reddish and spotted, like 'Turkish Pers', (a textile then fashionable with women). Others confused it with a 'Fatschenkind' because the roundness of its head was similar to that of a child.
1881.s. Austria/St:Mitterndorf
Two men were climbing up a rocky slope when suddenly one of them perceived on a rock and at the same level as his head, only half a meter from him, a grey animal. At the same moment the animal unrolled and crawled slowly into a little cave nearby. It was 60 centimeters long, as thick as a forearm and had a blunt tail. The skin was grey with fine scales 'like a ring-snake'. In front a short, strong pair of paws, 2,5 centimeters long, could be seen distinctly. Besides that the animal seemed to have had two or three pair of hind legs. Remarkable were also the broad nose and the big eyes with prominent eyebrows.
1883-4.07. Austria/T:Mt. Spielberg
An animal like a large lizard with a short tail, 30 centimeters long and as thick as a forearm was seen 20 minutes from a mountain restaurant. The witness gave the animal a wide berth as it adopted a threatening position, but could observe it for some time. He was positive that it had no hind legs. The skin was green-brown, nude or delicately scaled, the gaze sharp and terrifying. The witness was sure that he hadn't confused the thing with any other known alpine animal.
1884.08.e. Austria/St: Gollingraben/Irning
A 13 year old lad was making vacancies together with his father on an alp, where the keeper warned them of the 'Bergstutz' who had, allegedly, bitten to death a dairy maid the year before 9). One day, when the boy, after searching for Edelweiss had reached the bottom of a wall, an abominable animal crawled towards him only two meters distant. It was 50 to 60 centimeters long, as thick as an upper arm and tapered towards the tail. In front it had two 'dachshund legs' turned outward. No hind legs were seen although the boy didn't deny that such could have been present but hidden by the body. The skin was nude, the color a brown-reddish-grey. Specifically striking were the fixed gaze, the aggressiveness and the spitting and snorting of the animal. No odor was noticed although the keeper claimed the animal had a penetrating, foul exhalation. The boy ran away as fast as he could
leaving back shoes and jacket, which the keeper had to collect later.
1893.s. Austria/U:Stodertal/Totes Gebirge
On a hot summer day a 17 year old girl was walking her dog who suddenly attacked an ugly, unknown animal that defended itself by striking around its tail and spitting. The girl fearing for her dog threw a stone at the animal killing it at once. Now she was able to examine the thing calmly. It was 30 to 35 centimeters long and in the middle of the body four to five centimeters thick. The head was triangular and of a repulsive ugliness with protruding, dark gleaming eyes. It had a long throat, very large nostrils and feet like a lizard but more plump. The skin was like crocodile skin, with the color of dry earth, rough with sporadic bristly hairs on the back. The animal was not emaciated but yet it looked shabby. The girl left the cadaver where it was. Her former teacher suspected a 'Bergstutz' when she narrated the occurrence to him.
1894.b. Austria/S:Ennstal,H.Lackner;
Count Platz, owner of a property near Radstadt, Salzburg, was told the following by a professional hunter in his service. The hunter was approaching a narrow footbridge over the Enns river, when he became aware of a weasel on the other bank, also going towards the bridge. Suddenly the weasel stopped short and now the hunter noticed the cause for this. In the middle of the footbridge a 'Heckwurm' 10) lay coiled up. Now the weasel ran to a meadow nearby, where the hunter observed it making jumps now and then. It then returned with a root in the mouth and threw it upon the Heckwurm, which disintegrated into pieces.The count admonished the hunter to tell the truth, but he assured him upon his word and salvation that he had not lied.
1895.b. Austria/St:Donnersbachwald?,carter;
Similar case as above. Draught-horses refused to proceed on bridge. 'Worm-like animal' (Bergstutz or snake) lies on one of the bridge-beams. While the carter was still undecided a weasel came by, with a leaf in the mouth. Putting it on the 'Wurm', the weasel gave a loud whistle whereupon the 'Wurm' broke asunder in the middle. 11)
1901.x. Austria/S: Upper Murtal
A farmer searching for lost sheep observed a 'Bergstutz' basking in the sun 15 paces distant. It was at least one meter long with a head like a cat but with a broad mouth, the color like that of a toad or lizard, no hair but larger scales or something like 'plates' and, most certainly no hind legs. 12) The animal produced a whistle similar to that of a woodchuck getting ready to attack the witness who fled.
1907-8.s. Austria/St:Murau
On a hot summer afternoon a hunter had to pass a rocky place known for its abundance of snakes at 1700 meters. Suddenly he heard subdued lingual sounds and he perceived beside him in the talus a 'worm-like' animal, 40 to 50 centimeters long and black with yellow spots. The animal qickly put front and hind legs together, jumping at the hunter. Drawing his huntig knife he stepped back in order to get out of the direction of the attack at the same time stabbing the animal four or five times. Apparently severely wounded it fell or fled into a crevice and several attempts to get it out were as unsuccesful as lurking for the thing several times later. The animal was five to six centimeters thick and due to the speed of its movement head and tail were hard to distinguish. The head was large and in the mouth teeth could be seen, 'larger than those of a snake'. The four feet were short, the skin smooth and very tough. The length of its jumps was two to three meters. The hunter supposed it must have had its young nearby, otherwise it won't have attacked him that quickly.
1908.s. Austria/T:Kufstein
The witnesses in this case are a Dr.Ing. Hermann Frauenfelder and his father, a professor of natural sciences. The men were in a pathless area west of Kufstein, Tyrol, climbing up a crevice. Suddenly the son broke in and in the hollow thus created they perceived on one side a hole approximately 25 centimeters in diameter, from which a reptile's tail, 60 to 70 centimeters long was protruding. The tail was 10 to 12 centimeters thick with a circular cross-section. Both men seized the animal and tried to get it out of the hole. But the thing dragged them towards the hole. Now they began to feel uncanny, as they realized it had to be a rather large animal when it could develop such a force. Yet the son tried to provoke it by beating its tail, but without success. After ten minutes the animal had disappeared in the hole. The tail was cool to the touch, stiff like a cable and hard like a well inflated tire. The witnesses felt, the animal must have been 160 to 180 centimeters long. It didn't crawl like a snake, i.e. by muscular contractions, but rendered the impression it moved with the help of feet, although they could see none. 'It was no winding movement, but a dragging one' the witnesses said (Flu4/502-503).
1908.06.10 Austria/St: Mt. Strickberg/Preuneggtal
The informant remembers, that as a boy he and his father arrived in good time to see an alleged 'Bergstutzen' that had bitten a lumberjack, who then had slain it. The lumberjack died in spite of medical treatment. The animal was 30 to 35 centimeters long and had the shape of a large lizard with a broad head and mouth. It had only one pair of legs, five centimeters behind the head and 'turned outward like those of a dachshund'. The animal was not hairy, but smooth and of a dark, copper-red color. According to another source, which doesn't mention a fatal result, the animal was black, and 'the fore legs were a bit longer than those at the rear' (from which one must infer that it had four legs) (Flu4/504.62).
1914.05. Yugoslavia/S:Dobrowa/Postojna=Adelsberg
On a hot day a soldier noticed a peculiar animal shaped like a crocodile beside a stone. Threatening it rose on its hind legs, rolled the eyes and bared its teeth. It was 25 to 35 centimeters long and eight centimeters thick. The head was round with large reddish eyes. It had strong legs, with long clutches. The tail had a length of 20 centimeters (It is not clear whether this 20 centimeters have to be counted extra or not). The body was grey and green, very scaly and had a peculiar odor.
The soldier threw his battle jacket over it, wrapped it in and quickly tied up the sleeves. At the same time the animal cawed and cried horribly. Immediately a larger animal of the same kind appeared in the vicinity. The soldier, fearing an attack dropped his bundle and threw stones at the animal which then disappeared growling between the rugged rocks. When the soldier showed the catch, to his commander the latter remarked: 'Oh brother, fortune favors fools, that's the Tatzelwurm, most dangerous and venomous because of the surface of its skin'. For a while the the animal was kept in a box. It ate mice, toads and ring snakes. Many of the native inhabitants regarded it as a 'genuine Tatzelwurm'. Then the soldier was ordered to hand it over to the Bezirkshauptmannschaft Adelsberg (then an Austrian administrative district) where it was, allegedly, also considered a Tatzelwurm and, as the witness thinks, probably killed and prepared. Two months later, war broke out and thereafter it was apparently no longer possible to trace the whereabouts of this specimen.
1914.s. Italy/TS:Marlinger Berg
While plowing a farmer roused an animal which then jumped to and fro in front of his oxen. The farm hand leading them tried to slay it with the inverted whip-stick. At this moment the animal performed and incredibly wide leap, disappearing behind a wall of stones, 15 meters distant without having touched the ground in between. The animal was 30 centimeters long, 5 centimeters thick and had a short tail. The head was round and frog-like. It had only two front legs which were always moved simultaneously. The color was black with larger yellow spots. Neither before nor thereafter, the farmer had ever seen such an animal.
1914.07. Italy/TS:Braien/Tiersertal/Ritztal
A boy of nine and his younger brother and sister came across an unknown animal they had never seen before nor after. It had a large head with protruding eyes, the rear of the body was short and it was perhaps 50 centimeters long. 'It looked like a head with a pointed body' the boy later said. At both sides of the animal the children perceived one 90 centimeters long green snake respectively, which were apparently fighting with the animal. The whole group moved across a field disappearing at the edge.
1920.f. Austria/T: Atterkar/Ötztal
At the Atter glacier five kilometers NE of Sölden some hunters found a peculiar animal, partly frozen in the ice. They cut off a hind leg intending to use it as carrion for foxes. Back at Sölden they told of their discovery. After some days an innkeeper and a hunter climbed up to the place and digged the animal out. It was one meter long with a skin 'like a stockfish'. The head, as long as a hand had no ears. The set of teeth consisted of incisors and molars, with a gap in between. Behind the head there were a sort of fins or gills as long as a finger and broad as a hand. They seemed to replace the fore legs which were missing. The remaining hind leg showed no development of a foot. The carcass felt and smelled like a dried salt-water fish. The innkeeper took the carcass home where it was allegedly seen by many natives and foreign guests. Although he had the intention to bring it to Innsbruck for an expert examination he forgot this several times. On 31 July 1921 his house was damaged by a land slip. In the confusion or during the clearing work the carcass was lost.
1921. Austria/C: Maria Rain
A railway official claimed to have repeatedly seen animals with a head like a crocodile, but with six feet instead of four. The natives in the region called them 'Kuschka' 13). One day such an animal, a male, 14) was run over by a train and could be examined. The thing was 40 centimeters long and 35 millimeters thick. Head and back were blue, the belly grey, the skin snake-like. In the mouth it had many pointed teeth, two larger ones in the upper and lower jaw respectively. The eyes were big and yellow, the pupils like that of a cat. From this the informant concluded that the animal would hunt for prey in the night.
1921.s. Austria/S:Hochfilzenalm/Rauris
A poacher and an alpine herdsman were still hunting at an altidude above 2000 meters, when they perceived, on a rock an animal looking at them 'with a terrifying, sharp, hypnotizing gaze'. The poacher, pulling up his rifle shot at once. At the same moment the animal jumped in a giant arch, three meters high and 8 meters long towards the men who fled. It was grey in color, 60 to 80 centimeters long, as thick as an arm, head like a cat and as big as a fist, no visible neck, the tail thick but abruptly tapering off 'like a turnip'. The witnesses were sure that the animal had only two front legs standing out from the body, as could be seen specifically during the jump.
1922.a. Italy/TS:St.Pankraz/Ultental
A girl of twelve was playing in a wood. Suddenly her sister began to cry terribly. When she ran towards her she saw, in a distance of two or three meters an animal she had never seen before crawling between the stones. It looked like a giant worm, at least 30 centimeters long, with two paws behind the head and of a grey color. The skin was not scaly but had cross grooves like an earthworm. At first the children were so terrified that they didn't think of runnig away, but then they fled because they feared 'the animal would jump at them'.
1924.x. Austria/S: Weisspriacher Lantschfeld/Murtal
An incomplete skeleton, consisting of the occiput, and the dorsal vertebrae with four to five centimeter long ribs, measuring 1,2 meters in length, was found. A large part of it still hung together but the front head, the coccygeal vertebrae and bones of extremities were missing. A student of veterinary medicine considered it the skeleton of a roe. The informant however refused this explanation because of the small ribs and the fact that neither pelvic nor humeral bones or bones of extremities were found. At the exact place where the skeleton was discovered, two years later a shepherd boy of 12 allegedly encountered a 'monster, at least two meters long' (1926.). The boy was so frightened that he wouldn't return to the alp again that summer.
1927.b. Mongolia: Gobi desert
When the American paleontologist Andrews 15) applied for permission to conduct an expedition through the Gobi desert in the twenties the Mongolian prime minister asked him to catch, if possible, an 'Allergorhai-Horhai'. Andrews, had heard about this animal, described as a sort of sausage, 60 centimeters long, without a head or legs. It was considered so poisonous that one would die at a mere touch. Andrews, eager for his dinosaurs agreed, should he accidentally come across it. He suggested (with tongue in cheek perhaps) that he would use long metal prongs and dark goggles so that the sight of such a poisonous creature won't harm him (And/93-95). Unfortunately Andrews never had an opportunity to encounter the extraordinary animal.
1927.s. Austria/S: Leoganger Steinberge
Three lumberjacks observed an unknown animal over a distance of six meters. Interviewed individually they gave the following description: The animal was 50 to 60 centimeters long, at least as thick as an arm with a cat-like head and small delicate teeth, but without visible ears. The body had neither hair nor scales but on the head there were some bristles. Hind legs were not seen, neither when the animal was between the dwarf pines nor when it jumped away. It seemed to be very aggressive and its appearance was terrifiying, specifically the gaze. It produced spitting-whistling sounds like an irritated cat.
1927-8. Italy/TS:L”berhof/Flaas/Tsch”gglberg
Father Trafojer, the investigator in this case, interviewed the witness, Josef Reiterer, first in 1937. On an evening late in fall, 1927 or 1928, when the sun had already set Reiterer was just coming up from the mill with a flour bag on his back when he nearly stepped upon a 'worm' lying on a stone amidst the path. Reiterer, shrinking back one pace, thought the worm was sleeping but suddenly the thing performed a 'Wappler' 16) and rose like a snake to a threatening position, sitting 'like a cat on its tail' in a manner that less than half of its lenght remained on the ground. At the same time it turned towards the farmer, and now Reiterer saw distinctly a number of paws on its belly. The front legs were the largest, the others were diminishing in size towards the tail, the last being 'just as big as the teeth of a pit-saw'. The paws were equipped with a number of toes. Reiterer, with his flour bag, stepped back slowly, pace by pace, keeping a watchful eye on the worm. The latter was only 40 centimeters long, as thick as a boy's arm and it had the shape of a wedge, with a small, thin tail at the end. The strange, square head was on a thin, thumb-thick and very movable neck 8-9 centimeters in length. In the open mouth a pointed tongue was seen darting. Reiterer couldn't tell whether it was forked or not. He also couldn't see ears, the body was hairless but rough like a big snail. The colour of the body was a dark grey, the belly a bit lighter. Reiterer could observe the worm for a while until it went aside and disappeared in the bushes. The movement was 'winding like a salamander, simultaneously with all feet on one side and then with all feet on the other'.
Father Trafojer visited Reiterer again in 1944 and a third time in summer 1947. At his request Reiterer produced two sketches, one showing the animal in plan view, the other from the side. In the first seven or eight pairs of paws are shown but in the second only five. Reiterer has, however, not counted the paws, but he was positive, that the whole underside of the animal had been equipped with them.
1929.04.l. Austria/U: Tempelmauer/Mt.Landsberg
A teacher searching for the entrance to a cave observed in wet, moldy leaves a snake-like animal 40 to 45 centimeters long and 2,5 centimeters thick. It had two stub-like feet on the chest. The head was flat-pressed, the skin nearly white, without scales but smooth. The animal didn't move and stared at the witness with conspicuously large eyes. When he tried to seize it, the animal disappeared quickly in a nearby hole. The witness suggested it could have been a rare species of a newt (or salamander?).
1929.05.l. Austria/T: Igls/Innsbruck
While searching for lilies of the valley a merchant observed, in a scarcely frequented place 17), what he called a 'Lindwurm'. The animal had a flat-pressed head, the snout being rather broad than pointed. Its eyes were like those of humans, lined black and the gaze was uncanny 'as if that of a devil'. The neck was recognizable, the fore legs distinctly visible, five centimeters long and turned inwards. No hind legs were seen and there could hardly have been such. The total length was 70 to 80 centimeters and behind the legs the thing was approximately five centimeters thick. Its tail was blunt, the body of a fair grey with a brown underside. When the observer approached, the animal first remained in its position looking at the observer. Then it turned around and crawled slowly into the underbrush two meters distant. The observer repeatedly laid in wait for it at different times of the day, but it was never seen again.
1931.b. Austria/St: Gesäuse-Mts.
A poacher observed an animal at a distance of 10 meters and described as follows: The 'Bergstutzen' is 50 to 55 centimeters long and has a round head with short ears. The color is a dark grey, lined very dark on its back. It has only two fore legs, broad paws like a dachshund and its appearance is frightening. At the rear 'it walks on the Stutzen', i.e. on the tail, which is very thick, at the end pointed and nude. The animal is already nearly extinct, 'but maybe somebody gets a glimpse of it in the most horrible rock walls, as I met one in a wall so difficult, it was inconceivable that such an animal could get off'.
1933. Austria/C:Spittal/Drau
Workers removing a stone wall found, in a hollow space, a peculiar living animal accompanied by a number of snakes. It was 60 centimeters long, five to six centimeters thick, shaped like a roll with a blunt rear end. Its head was as round as that of a cat, with big eyes. The gaze was described as frightening, angry, looking daggers and as evil. In front it had two little, bowed legs, whether there were hind legs the observers couldn't tell for sure. (Meu3/82 speaks of four little legs). The skin was dirty white with a yellow taint. Pushing a shovel underneath the animal and the snakes, the workers threw them in the nearby Lieser river. The animal swam across the river with remarkable velocity and was lost to sight at the other bank. A roadmender who came by, claimed to have seen, exactly at the same place such an animal while mowing grass. It was as thick as a man's arm with an estimated weight of five to seven kilograms. He was so terrified that he flung it into the river with the scythe-cradle (1924.06.).
1969.08. Italy/TS:Lengstein
In summer 1969 a native man of the region reported the observation of an animal 'baby-thick, 70 centimeters long with two hind legs'. While looking at the observer the animal had blown up its neck. It would have been easy for the witness to grab it but he didn't dare to do so, 'for fear it could squirt out a poison'. An unnamed lady from Hannover, Germany, allegedly an academic and a zoologist, claimed to have seen the tracks of the animal and was apparently keen to catch it alive or to get at least a photo. Although she had set up professional snares 18), the animal was always successful in avoiding them. She had also set up a camera, but lost interest in the matter when it was stolen.
In order to obtain a general view of the distribution and the phenomenal characteristics of alleged Tatzelwurm observations I have compiled them in a catalogue arranged by date and time. Unfortunately this attempt was hampered by the fact that neither the witnesses nor the proponents of the TWH have paid much attention to exact dates.
As opinions are often in conflict a suffix in the source codes indicates explanations proposed by the source. This will also compensate for any arbitrariness of mine in the selection of reports. In the outermost right columns phenomenal characteristics of each case are listed in coded form. In the case histories some of the occurrences are described in detail as they have been reported.
C A S E H I S T O R I E S
1673.b. Italy/TS:Lago Nambino/Madonna d.Camp.
A dragon living in the Nambino Lake two kilometers west of Santa Madonna di Campiglio, used to devour sheep, goat and once even a herdsman. A bear hunter who managed to shoot the animal, but went mad. Around 1850 the carcass or the head and an alleged egg of the dragon were still displayed in the church of Santa Madonna di Campiglio. Later, at a reconstruction, they were thrown away.
According to a more recent version herdsmen at Lake Nambino noticed that cows returning to the sheds in the evening had already been milked. They observed an animal coming out of a crevice and, clinging to the foot of a cow sucking the milk from the udder. The animal was shot and exhibited in the church of Campiglio. Meusburger considers this second version a modern explanatory myth and suggests the carcass might have been an artificially reshaped animal, a Jenny Haniver 5) so to say.
1750.x. Italy/TS:Sonnenberg/Bad Salt/Martell,
The animal in this case was repeatedly seen. Its size and form was that of a cat but the snout was a bit elongated, the tail flat and pointed. Apparently it was hairless because the informant is inclined to consider it as a lizard or perhaps a snake. In front it had two paws and imprints in wet soil showed they must have had clutches. When moving slowly it used the two paws, dragging the hind quarters. Pursuing prey it moved in jerks, arching its back. Going downhill it retracted its paws, dashing along like an arrow, scarcely touching the ground. Once it was observed catching a rabbit. In spite of repeated and careful observations always only two paws were seen. 6)
1779. Austria/S:Mösener Leitstube/ Unken
According to oral tradition and a short text on a painted wayside shrine or votive tablet on the way to the Schwarzbach gorge near Unken a farmer was attacked by two Tatzelwurms while picking berries in the so called Möserer Leitstube. He fled in panic and died at the Thalbruck pass leading into the Heuthal (hay-valley). I have found three different reproductions of this votive tablet. In the allegedly oldest and 'most faithful' one, (now in the museum 'Haus der Natur' at Salzburg) the farmer lies half on his belly with his face visible in profile. With the left hand he holds his nose apparently in an attempt to protect himself from the (presumably poisonous) breath of the Tatzelwurms which can be seen in the background crawling on a rock. (see also MAg/16). The Tatzelwurms have tails, two pairs of feet, speckled skin and forked tongues (or is it fire?) coming out of their mouths. If the perspective is rendered correctly (in this type of artwork this is often not the case) the size of the Tatzelwurms must have been in the order of meters. On a newer version of the tablet the text reads: 'In sudden terror died here, pursued by jumping worms, Hans Fuchs from Unken 1779'. According to Eck/178 a few years before 1898, a votiv-tablet in memory of a similar occurrence could still be seen at the entrance to the Schidergraben, Salzburg.
The original votive tablet of the Fuchs-case is either lost or has been painted over. Flucher thinks the existing versions of the tablet cannot be relied on and considers even the victim's name questionable. It is also doubtful that an artist relying on hearsay and tradition was at all able to paint the Tatzelwurms true to nature (FLu4/497).
1800.x. Austria/T: Möls See/Wattental
The Möls See is a small alpine lake at 2.200 meters above sea level, 17 kilometers SE of Innsbruck. While hunting, a gunsmith from the town of Hall came here across a 'crocodile' and shot it. Before it died it bit the hunter in the arm, which remained partially paralysed. 7)
1811.05. Switzerland: Im Boden/Haslital
One a very hot morning a teacher was checking sheep near a barn. The sun was shining brightly through the door onto the inner wall and there under the crib he perceived an ugly animal, nearly 1,80 meters long and thicker than a man's tigh. On its two stud-like feet, five inches long, 50 centimeters apart, it rose to a height of 30 centimeters and looked at the teacher. The eyes were as big as those of a large hen and it let its forked tongue dart around. Its head was like a snake's head, but broader, more flat and it had no turned up nose. On its back the worm had short, thin hair but no comb. "For the time of two Lord's Prayers", as the teacher said, they looked at each
other. Then the observer fled as fast as he could, horror-stricken.
1826.x. Austria/T:Mt. Hinterhorn/Kitzbühel
One day a boy who had regularly been sent to the Lämmerbühel alp for butter and curd didn't return. The next day he was found beside the path leading to the alp. He had gotten rid of his 'Kraxl' (a wooden bracket), his body showed several bites and he was dead. Bears and wolfs were already considered exterminated in the region but some people had allegedly seen a big lizard. The most dashing hunters began a search for the monster which they called 'Höckwurm' and allegedly succeeded in killing it. Around 1870 a faded votiv tablet could still be seen at the place, showing a picture of the monster ('rather according to the painter's imagination' as the informant remarks).
1833.b. Austria/U:Gambsfeld/Gosau
A young man was climbing through rocks when suddenly from under his hands a wild animal emerged. It was of a fair silver-grey color with three dark elongated spots on its back. Its head was snake-like, the body as thick as a man's arm. It was more than two feet long and blunt at the rear. The animal had four short, hardly noticeable feet but it moved rather agile. When it fled, the man struck with his alpenstock after it whereupon it bounded up along the stock and bit him in the hand. He was able to kill the thing but then he felt a burning pain and his arm swelled up. Back at home a surgeon declared the bit poisonous and advised him to have the arm amputated. The man however did not agree to this and recovered after several months.
1845.x. Germany/B: Mt. Watzmann
Two boys of twelve intending to observe woodchucks as they had already often done earlier were climbing around in the rubble, when they saw, on a stone, an animal they had never seen before. It had a flat-pressed head and a blunt tail and was nearly as long and as thick as a man's arm. The color was reddish, 'shimmering in the sun as if studded with nothing but little starlets'. The boys didn't remember whether there were feet. When they began to throw stones at the animal it rose 'straight as an arrow' and pursued them spitting and in jumps three meters and a half wide as they fled, running at right angles to the slope. A hunter later told them that they were lucky to have reacted so and admonished them 'never again to hurt' a 'Bergstutzen'.
1845.09. Austria/T:Pillersee/S.Ulrich/S.Adolari
For a period of more than a month, a snake, measuring four meters and a half, five inches thick and moving in 'perpendicular' undulations was repeatedly seen by several people near the brook between St.Ulrich and St.Adalari, 17 kilometers NE of Kitzbühel, Tyrol. Allegedly it had killed two sheep. It was twice shot at but not hit or only wounded.
1857.b. Austria/T: Wurmbachtal/Innsbruck
The Wurmbach, a small brook, originates in the mountain range of the Nordkette, four kilometers north of Innsbruck, at 1.100 meters. In the middle of the past century several people (1827.x., 1853.x.) claimed to have observed in this region the 'Murbl', a peculiar animal, 45 centimeters long and as thick as a 'Fatschenkind' 8) or as a man's thigh, reddish and spotted, like 'Turkish Pers', (a textile then fashionable with women). Others confused it with a 'Fatschenkind' because the roundness of its head was similar to that of a child.
1881.s. Austria/St:Mitterndorf
Two men were climbing up a rocky slope when suddenly one of them perceived on a rock and at the same level as his head, only half a meter from him, a grey animal. At the same moment the animal unrolled and crawled slowly into a little cave nearby. It was 60 centimeters long, as thick as a forearm and had a blunt tail. The skin was grey with fine scales 'like a ring-snake'. In front a short, strong pair of paws, 2,5 centimeters long, could be seen distinctly. Besides that the animal seemed to have had two or three pair of hind legs. Remarkable were also the broad nose and the big eyes with prominent eyebrows.
1883-4.07. Austria/T:Mt. Spielberg
An animal like a large lizard with a short tail, 30 centimeters long and as thick as a forearm was seen 20 minutes from a mountain restaurant. The witness gave the animal a wide berth as it adopted a threatening position, but could observe it for some time. He was positive that it had no hind legs. The skin was green-brown, nude or delicately scaled, the gaze sharp and terrifying. The witness was sure that he hadn't confused the thing with any other known alpine animal.
1884.08.e. Austria/St: Gollingraben/Irning
A 13 year old lad was making vacancies together with his father on an alp, where the keeper warned them of the 'Bergstutz' who had, allegedly, bitten to death a dairy maid the year before 9). One day, when the boy, after searching for Edelweiss had reached the bottom of a wall, an abominable animal crawled towards him only two meters distant. It was 50 to 60 centimeters long, as thick as an upper arm and tapered towards the tail. In front it had two 'dachshund legs' turned outward. No hind legs were seen although the boy didn't deny that such could have been present but hidden by the body. The skin was nude, the color a brown-reddish-grey. Specifically striking were the fixed gaze, the aggressiveness and the spitting and snorting of the animal. No odor was noticed although the keeper claimed the animal had a penetrating, foul exhalation. The boy ran away as fast as he could
leaving back shoes and jacket, which the keeper had to collect later.
1893.s. Austria/U:Stodertal/Totes Gebirge
On a hot summer day a 17 year old girl was walking her dog who suddenly attacked an ugly, unknown animal that defended itself by striking around its tail and spitting. The girl fearing for her dog threw a stone at the animal killing it at once. Now she was able to examine the thing calmly. It was 30 to 35 centimeters long and in the middle of the body four to five centimeters thick. The head was triangular and of a repulsive ugliness with protruding, dark gleaming eyes. It had a long throat, very large nostrils and feet like a lizard but more plump. The skin was like crocodile skin, with the color of dry earth, rough with sporadic bristly hairs on the back. The animal was not emaciated but yet it looked shabby. The girl left the cadaver where it was. Her former teacher suspected a 'Bergstutz' when she narrated the occurrence to him.
1894.b. Austria/S:Ennstal,H.Lackner;
Count Platz, owner of a property near Radstadt, Salzburg, was told the following by a professional hunter in his service. The hunter was approaching a narrow footbridge over the Enns river, when he became aware of a weasel on the other bank, also going towards the bridge. Suddenly the weasel stopped short and now the hunter noticed the cause for this. In the middle of the footbridge a 'Heckwurm' 10) lay coiled up. Now the weasel ran to a meadow nearby, where the hunter observed it making jumps now and then. It then returned with a root in the mouth and threw it upon the Heckwurm, which disintegrated into pieces.The count admonished the hunter to tell the truth, but he assured him upon his word and salvation that he had not lied.
1895.b. Austria/St:Donnersbachwald?,carter;
Similar case as above. Draught-horses refused to proceed on bridge. 'Worm-like animal' (Bergstutz or snake) lies on one of the bridge-beams. While the carter was still undecided a weasel came by, with a leaf in the mouth. Putting it on the 'Wurm', the weasel gave a loud whistle whereupon the 'Wurm' broke asunder in the middle. 11)
1901.x. Austria/S: Upper Murtal
A farmer searching for lost sheep observed a 'Bergstutz' basking in the sun 15 paces distant. It was at least one meter long with a head like a cat but with a broad mouth, the color like that of a toad or lizard, no hair but larger scales or something like 'plates' and, most certainly no hind legs. 12) The animal produced a whistle similar to that of a woodchuck getting ready to attack the witness who fled.
1907-8.s. Austria/St:Murau
On a hot summer afternoon a hunter had to pass a rocky place known for its abundance of snakes at 1700 meters. Suddenly he heard subdued lingual sounds and he perceived beside him in the talus a 'worm-like' animal, 40 to 50 centimeters long and black with yellow spots. The animal qickly put front and hind legs together, jumping at the hunter. Drawing his huntig knife he stepped back in order to get out of the direction of the attack at the same time stabbing the animal four or five times. Apparently severely wounded it fell or fled into a crevice and several attempts to get it out were as unsuccesful as lurking for the thing several times later. The animal was five to six centimeters thick and due to the speed of its movement head and tail were hard to distinguish. The head was large and in the mouth teeth could be seen, 'larger than those of a snake'. The four feet were short, the skin smooth and very tough. The length of its jumps was two to three meters. The hunter supposed it must have had its young nearby, otherwise it won't have attacked him that quickly.
1908.s. Austria/T:Kufstein
The witnesses in this case are a Dr.Ing. Hermann Frauenfelder and his father, a professor of natural sciences. The men were in a pathless area west of Kufstein, Tyrol, climbing up a crevice. Suddenly the son broke in and in the hollow thus created they perceived on one side a hole approximately 25 centimeters in diameter, from which a reptile's tail, 60 to 70 centimeters long was protruding. The tail was 10 to 12 centimeters thick with a circular cross-section. Both men seized the animal and tried to get it out of the hole. But the thing dragged them towards the hole. Now they began to feel uncanny, as they realized it had to be a rather large animal when it could develop such a force. Yet the son tried to provoke it by beating its tail, but without success. After ten minutes the animal had disappeared in the hole. The tail was cool to the touch, stiff like a cable and hard like a well inflated tire. The witnesses felt, the animal must have been 160 to 180 centimeters long. It didn't crawl like a snake, i.e. by muscular contractions, but rendered the impression it moved with the help of feet, although they could see none. 'It was no winding movement, but a dragging one' the witnesses said (Flu4/502-503).
1908.06.10 Austria/St: Mt. Strickberg/Preuneggtal
The informant remembers, that as a boy he and his father arrived in good time to see an alleged 'Bergstutzen' that had bitten a lumberjack, who then had slain it. The lumberjack died in spite of medical treatment. The animal was 30 to 35 centimeters long and had the shape of a large lizard with a broad head and mouth. It had only one pair of legs, five centimeters behind the head and 'turned outward like those of a dachshund'. The animal was not hairy, but smooth and of a dark, copper-red color. According to another source, which doesn't mention a fatal result, the animal was black, and 'the fore legs were a bit longer than those at the rear' (from which one must infer that it had four legs) (Flu4/504.62).
1914.05. Yugoslavia/S:Dobrowa/Postojna=Adelsberg
On a hot day a soldier noticed a peculiar animal shaped like a crocodile beside a stone. Threatening it rose on its hind legs, rolled the eyes and bared its teeth. It was 25 to 35 centimeters long and eight centimeters thick. The head was round with large reddish eyes. It had strong legs, with long clutches. The tail had a length of 20 centimeters (It is not clear whether this 20 centimeters have to be counted extra or not). The body was grey and green, very scaly and had a peculiar odor.
The soldier threw his battle jacket over it, wrapped it in and quickly tied up the sleeves. At the same time the animal cawed and cried horribly. Immediately a larger animal of the same kind appeared in the vicinity. The soldier, fearing an attack dropped his bundle and threw stones at the animal which then disappeared growling between the rugged rocks. When the soldier showed the catch, to his commander the latter remarked: 'Oh brother, fortune favors fools, that's the Tatzelwurm, most dangerous and venomous because of the surface of its skin'. For a while the the animal was kept in a box. It ate mice, toads and ring snakes. Many of the native inhabitants regarded it as a 'genuine Tatzelwurm'. Then the soldier was ordered to hand it over to the Bezirkshauptmannschaft Adelsberg (then an Austrian administrative district) where it was, allegedly, also considered a Tatzelwurm and, as the witness thinks, probably killed and prepared. Two months later, war broke out and thereafter it was apparently no longer possible to trace the whereabouts of this specimen.
1914.s. Italy/TS:Marlinger Berg
While plowing a farmer roused an animal which then jumped to and fro in front of his oxen. The farm hand leading them tried to slay it with the inverted whip-stick. At this moment the animal performed and incredibly wide leap, disappearing behind a wall of stones, 15 meters distant without having touched the ground in between. The animal was 30 centimeters long, 5 centimeters thick and had a short tail. The head was round and frog-like. It had only two front legs which were always moved simultaneously. The color was black with larger yellow spots. Neither before nor thereafter, the farmer had ever seen such an animal.
1914.07. Italy/TS:Braien/Tiersertal/Ritztal
A boy of nine and his younger brother and sister came across an unknown animal they had never seen before nor after. It had a large head with protruding eyes, the rear of the body was short and it was perhaps 50 centimeters long. 'It looked like a head with a pointed body' the boy later said. At both sides of the animal the children perceived one 90 centimeters long green snake respectively, which were apparently fighting with the animal. The whole group moved across a field disappearing at the edge.
1920.f. Austria/T: Atterkar/Ötztal
At the Atter glacier five kilometers NE of Sölden some hunters found a peculiar animal, partly frozen in the ice. They cut off a hind leg intending to use it as carrion for foxes. Back at Sölden they told of their discovery. After some days an innkeeper and a hunter climbed up to the place and digged the animal out. It was one meter long with a skin 'like a stockfish'. The head, as long as a hand had no ears. The set of teeth consisted of incisors and molars, with a gap in between. Behind the head there were a sort of fins or gills as long as a finger and broad as a hand. They seemed to replace the fore legs which were missing. The remaining hind leg showed no development of a foot. The carcass felt and smelled like a dried salt-water fish. The innkeeper took the carcass home where it was allegedly seen by many natives and foreign guests. Although he had the intention to bring it to Innsbruck for an expert examination he forgot this several times. On 31 July 1921 his house was damaged by a land slip. In the confusion or during the clearing work the carcass was lost.
1921. Austria/C: Maria Rain
A railway official claimed to have repeatedly seen animals with a head like a crocodile, but with six feet instead of four. The natives in the region called them 'Kuschka' 13). One day such an animal, a male, 14) was run over by a train and could be examined. The thing was 40 centimeters long and 35 millimeters thick. Head and back were blue, the belly grey, the skin snake-like. In the mouth it had many pointed teeth, two larger ones in the upper and lower jaw respectively. The eyes were big and yellow, the pupils like that of a cat. From this the informant concluded that the animal would hunt for prey in the night.
1921.s. Austria/S:Hochfilzenalm/Rauris
A poacher and an alpine herdsman were still hunting at an altidude above 2000 meters, when they perceived, on a rock an animal looking at them 'with a terrifying, sharp, hypnotizing gaze'. The poacher, pulling up his rifle shot at once. At the same moment the animal jumped in a giant arch, three meters high and 8 meters long towards the men who fled. It was grey in color, 60 to 80 centimeters long, as thick as an arm, head like a cat and as big as a fist, no visible neck, the tail thick but abruptly tapering off 'like a turnip'. The witnesses were sure that the animal had only two front legs standing out from the body, as could be seen specifically during the jump.
1922.a. Italy/TS:St.Pankraz/Ultental
A girl of twelve was playing in a wood. Suddenly her sister began to cry terribly. When she ran towards her she saw, in a distance of two or three meters an animal she had never seen before crawling between the stones. It looked like a giant worm, at least 30 centimeters long, with two paws behind the head and of a grey color. The skin was not scaly but had cross grooves like an earthworm. At first the children were so terrified that they didn't think of runnig away, but then they fled because they feared 'the animal would jump at them'.
1924.x. Austria/S: Weisspriacher Lantschfeld/Murtal
An incomplete skeleton, consisting of the occiput, and the dorsal vertebrae with four to five centimeter long ribs, measuring 1,2 meters in length, was found. A large part of it still hung together but the front head, the coccygeal vertebrae and bones of extremities were missing. A student of veterinary medicine considered it the skeleton of a roe. The informant however refused this explanation because of the small ribs and the fact that neither pelvic nor humeral bones or bones of extremities were found. At the exact place where the skeleton was discovered, two years later a shepherd boy of 12 allegedly encountered a 'monster, at least two meters long' (1926.). The boy was so frightened that he wouldn't return to the alp again that summer.
1927.b. Mongolia: Gobi desert
When the American paleontologist Andrews 15) applied for permission to conduct an expedition through the Gobi desert in the twenties the Mongolian prime minister asked him to catch, if possible, an 'Allergorhai-Horhai'. Andrews, had heard about this animal, described as a sort of sausage, 60 centimeters long, without a head or legs. It was considered so poisonous that one would die at a mere touch. Andrews, eager for his dinosaurs agreed, should he accidentally come across it. He suggested (with tongue in cheek perhaps) that he would use long metal prongs and dark goggles so that the sight of such a poisonous creature won't harm him (And/93-95). Unfortunately Andrews never had an opportunity to encounter the extraordinary animal.
1927.s. Austria/S: Leoganger Steinberge
Three lumberjacks observed an unknown animal over a distance of six meters. Interviewed individually they gave the following description: The animal was 50 to 60 centimeters long, at least as thick as an arm with a cat-like head and small delicate teeth, but without visible ears. The body had neither hair nor scales but on the head there were some bristles. Hind legs were not seen, neither when the animal was between the dwarf pines nor when it jumped away. It seemed to be very aggressive and its appearance was terrifiying, specifically the gaze. It produced spitting-whistling sounds like an irritated cat.
1927-8. Italy/TS:L”berhof/Flaas/Tsch”gglberg
Father Trafojer, the investigator in this case, interviewed the witness, Josef Reiterer, first in 1937. On an evening late in fall, 1927 or 1928, when the sun had already set Reiterer was just coming up from the mill with a flour bag on his back when he nearly stepped upon a 'worm' lying on a stone amidst the path. Reiterer, shrinking back one pace, thought the worm was sleeping but suddenly the thing performed a 'Wappler' 16) and rose like a snake to a threatening position, sitting 'like a cat on its tail' in a manner that less than half of its lenght remained on the ground. At the same time it turned towards the farmer, and now Reiterer saw distinctly a number of paws on its belly. The front legs were the largest, the others were diminishing in size towards the tail, the last being 'just as big as the teeth of a pit-saw'. The paws were equipped with a number of toes. Reiterer, with his flour bag, stepped back slowly, pace by pace, keeping a watchful eye on the worm. The latter was only 40 centimeters long, as thick as a boy's arm and it had the shape of a wedge, with a small, thin tail at the end. The strange, square head was on a thin, thumb-thick and very movable neck 8-9 centimeters in length. In the open mouth a pointed tongue was seen darting. Reiterer couldn't tell whether it was forked or not. He also couldn't see ears, the body was hairless but rough like a big snail. The colour of the body was a dark grey, the belly a bit lighter. Reiterer could observe the worm for a while until it went aside and disappeared in the bushes. The movement was 'winding like a salamander, simultaneously with all feet on one side and then with all feet on the other'.
Father Trafojer visited Reiterer again in 1944 and a third time in summer 1947. At his request Reiterer produced two sketches, one showing the animal in plan view, the other from the side. In the first seven or eight pairs of paws are shown but in the second only five. Reiterer has, however, not counted the paws, but he was positive, that the whole underside of the animal had been equipped with them.
1929.04.l. Austria/U: Tempelmauer/Mt.Landsberg
A teacher searching for the entrance to a cave observed in wet, moldy leaves a snake-like animal 40 to 45 centimeters long and 2,5 centimeters thick. It had two stub-like feet on the chest. The head was flat-pressed, the skin nearly white, without scales but smooth. The animal didn't move and stared at the witness with conspicuously large eyes. When he tried to seize it, the animal disappeared quickly in a nearby hole. The witness suggested it could have been a rare species of a newt (or salamander?).
1929.05.l. Austria/T: Igls/Innsbruck
While searching for lilies of the valley a merchant observed, in a scarcely frequented place 17), what he called a 'Lindwurm'. The animal had a flat-pressed head, the snout being rather broad than pointed. Its eyes were like those of humans, lined black and the gaze was uncanny 'as if that of a devil'. The neck was recognizable, the fore legs distinctly visible, five centimeters long and turned inwards. No hind legs were seen and there could hardly have been such. The total length was 70 to 80 centimeters and behind the legs the thing was approximately five centimeters thick. Its tail was blunt, the body of a fair grey with a brown underside. When the observer approached, the animal first remained in its position looking at the observer. Then it turned around and crawled slowly into the underbrush two meters distant. The observer repeatedly laid in wait for it at different times of the day, but it was never seen again.
1931.b. Austria/St: Gesäuse-Mts.
A poacher observed an animal at a distance of 10 meters and described as follows: The 'Bergstutzen' is 50 to 55 centimeters long and has a round head with short ears. The color is a dark grey, lined very dark on its back. It has only two fore legs, broad paws like a dachshund and its appearance is frightening. At the rear 'it walks on the Stutzen', i.e. on the tail, which is very thick, at the end pointed and nude. The animal is already nearly extinct, 'but maybe somebody gets a glimpse of it in the most horrible rock walls, as I met one in a wall so difficult, it was inconceivable that such an animal could get off'.
1933. Austria/C:Spittal/Drau
Workers removing a stone wall found, in a hollow space, a peculiar living animal accompanied by a number of snakes. It was 60 centimeters long, five to six centimeters thick, shaped like a roll with a blunt rear end. Its head was as round as that of a cat, with big eyes. The gaze was described as frightening, angry, looking daggers and as evil. In front it had two little, bowed legs, whether there were hind legs the observers couldn't tell for sure. (Meu3/82 speaks of four little legs). The skin was dirty white with a yellow taint. Pushing a shovel underneath the animal and the snakes, the workers threw them in the nearby Lieser river. The animal swam across the river with remarkable velocity and was lost to sight at the other bank. A roadmender who came by, claimed to have seen, exactly at the same place such an animal while mowing grass. It was as thick as a man's arm with an estimated weight of five to seven kilograms. He was so terrified that he flung it into the river with the scythe-cradle (1924.06.).
1969.08. Italy/TS:Lengstein
In summer 1969 a native man of the region reported the observation of an animal 'baby-thick, 70 centimeters long with two hind legs'. While looking at the observer the animal had blown up its neck. It would have been easy for the witness to grab it but he didn't dare to do so, 'for fear it could squirt out a poison'. An unnamed lady from Hannover, Germany, allegedly an academic and a zoologist, claimed to have seen the tracks of the animal and was apparently keen to catch it alive or to get at least a photo. Although she had set up professional snares 18), the animal was always successful in avoiding them. She had also set up a camera, but lost interest in the matter when it was stolen.
Tatzelwurm - Part II, Names
Names by Appearance
Biscia zampata adder with paws Obe/312
Daazlwurm worm with paws Dal/213-214
*Krönlnatter crown-adder Dal/214
Lissa boa giant adder Meu3/73
*Mollwurm, Molwurm speckled worm, (sphynx euphorbiae) Flu4/497
*Murbl worm, snake Alp/379
Natterwurm adder-worm Sin/183
Praazlwurm worm with paws Dal/213-214
Pratzlwurm as above Flu4/497
Stollenwurm worm with short, thick feet Stu/128
Stollwurm as above Dal/214
*Stutz, Stutzn dock, bobtailed Dal/214
Tatzelwurm worm with paws Dal/213
Weisswurm white-worm Sin2/183
Names by Behavior and Appearance
Aspidosordo deaf snake Meu3/68
*Beisswurm biting worm Sin1/266
Bisamkatze musk-cat (because of its odor) Meu2/464
Bisamwurm musk-worm Meu2/464
*Lindwurm, Lintwurm treasure guarding worm, dragon Alp/377
Poskok Slavic for jumper Flu4/497
Schmeckn'der Wurm smelling (stinking) worm Dal/214
Springwurm jumping worm Dal/214
*Bergstutz mountain-dock Dal/214
Gartenkatze rock-cat, cliff-cat Tra2/132
*Haselwurm hazel-worm Dal/214
Heuwurm hay-worm Z™V/264
Legernwurm dwarf-pine- worm Flu4/497
Steinkatze stone-cat Meu2/465
Waldstutz forest-dock Flu4/497
Names of Unknown or Controversial Etymology
Allergorhai Horhai Mongolia Meu2/476
Büffel literally 'buffalo', Upper Austria Dal/214
*Höckwurm, Heckwurm sting-snake or snake living in hedges Fil2/107
Kuschka Slovenic 'kuscar' = lizard Meu3/65
Oarwurm South-Tyrol Scha/62
Schneckender Wurm snail worm, (mis-spell.of schmeckend?) Sin2/183
Smuch Banat,Romania Z™V/264
Stahlwurm steel-worm, (mis-spelling of Stollwurm?) Sim/480
Stork Upper Austria Sin2/183
Fonknotwurm South-Tyrol, Vintschgau May
Biscia zampata adder with paws Obe/312
Daazlwurm worm with paws Dal/213-214
*Krönlnatter crown-adder Dal/214
Lissa boa giant adder Meu3/73
*Mollwurm, Molwurm speckled worm, (sphynx euphorbiae) Flu4/497
*Murbl worm, snake Alp/379
Natterwurm adder-worm Sin/183
Praazlwurm worm with paws Dal/213-214
Pratzlwurm as above Flu4/497
Stollenwurm worm with short, thick feet Stu/128
Stollwurm as above Dal/214
*Stutz, Stutzn dock, bobtailed Dal/214
Tatzelwurm worm with paws Dal/213
Weisswurm white-worm Sin2/183
Names by Behavior and Appearance
Aspidosordo deaf snake Meu3/68
*Beisswurm biting worm Sin1/266
Bisamkatze musk-cat (because of its odor) Meu2/464
Bisamwurm musk-worm Meu2/464
*Lindwurm, Lintwurm treasure guarding worm, dragon Alp/377
Poskok Slavic for jumper Flu4/497
Schmeckn'der Wurm smelling (stinking) worm Dal/214
Springwurm jumping worm Dal/214
*Bergstutz mountain-dock Dal/214
Gartenkatze rock-cat, cliff-cat Tra2/132
*Haselwurm hazel-worm Dal/214
Heuwurm hay-worm Z™V/264
Legernwurm dwarf-pine- worm Flu4/497
Steinkatze stone-cat Meu2/465
Waldstutz forest-dock Flu4/497
Names of Unknown or Controversial Etymology
Allergorhai Horhai Mongolia Meu2/476
Büffel literally 'buffalo', Upper Austria Dal/214
*Höckwurm, Heckwurm sting-snake or snake living in hedges Fil2/107
Kuschka Slovenic 'kuscar' = lizard Meu3/65
Oarwurm South-Tyrol Scha/62
Schneckender Wurm snail worm, (mis-spell.of schmeckend?) Sin2/183
Smuch Banat,Romania Z™V/264
Stahlwurm steel-worm, (mis-spelling of Stollwurm?) Sim/480
Stork Upper Austria Sin2/183
Fonknotwurm South-Tyrol, Vintschgau May
Tatzelwurm - Part I
T H E P H E N O M E N A L C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S
T h e ' S t a n d a r d T a t z e l w u r m '
The inconsistencies in the descriptions of what is called 'Tatzelwurm' could suggest that this name and its synonyms are generic terms for several different, unknown and/or misperceived known animals. There have been attempts to reduce the differing descriptions to a so-called 'standard Tatzelwurm' 19). Specifically with Dalla Torre (Dal) and Steinböck (Ste) however, one cannot help getting the impression that the self-imposed obligation to distill one single animal from the differing descriptions leads to the rejection of reasonable reports and, if the basic outlook is an unrestrained scepticism 20), finally must result in the dismissal of the whole subject. Therefore I have contended myself with presenting the reports as they are, using them as tie ups in pointing out correlations, references and ideas.
A p p e a r a n c e
While snake, lizard, salamander or cat seem to be reasonable comparisons, size or appearance of the animal's head or even its whole body has also been compared with a baby, as has been noted by several authors (Alp/377, Sin1/266, Tra2/132, Dal/219/221, Mag/19). This is a strange comparison, for what could be farther from any known animal of the Alps than a baby? In the Tyrol the Tatzelwurm has been likened to a 'Fatschenkind' (1857.b. Wurmbachtal) 8) or it was described as pear- or wedge-shaped (1921.07.), (1927-8.), or simply as very thick compared with its length. This hardly fits a snake, not even one crammed with food and who would in this condition have difficulties to crawl, let alone jump or pursue men. Other, perhaps related comparisons are, 'like a multiply bonded sausage' (1934.b. W”rgl?), or simply 'like a sausage' (1927.b. Mongolia) or like 'a crayfish or a sausage' (1929.08. Palu). All this seems to point to a structured body composed of ring-like segments and could indicate that the animal was perhaps no vertebrate but something of the articulates as the term 'worm' taken literally could imply.
T h e E y e s
Reports describing the eyes of the animal in terms like 'prominent', 'sharp', 'gleaming', 'big', or 'hypnotic', 'devilish' and 'murderous' 21) argue strongly against the idea that known snakes or lizards etc. were observed. The eyes of the reptiles indigenous to the Alps, even if viewed at the relatively close distance of two to three meters, are really not an exciting affair.
L e n g t h a n d T h i c k n e s s
It is one of the standard objections by sceptics that fear leads to gross overestimations of size 22). By overemphasizing this argument it is easy to discard cases that otherwise had to be considered strange by the mere size of the reported animal. The influence of fear on size estimates, however, seems far from being proven. In a modern book on perceptual psychology I couldn't find a reference to this factor 23).
H o w M a n y P a w s ?
The Bipes
With respect to mere appearance the genus Bipes seems to be a comfortable explanation when Tatzelwurms with two fore legs only are reported. According to Smith and Taylor 24) the Bipes belongs to the family Bipedidae, suborder Amphisbaenia 25), the term 'amphisbaenia' literally meaning 'to go on both ends' i.e. an animal whose head and tail are hard to distinguish. A drawing of the Bipes Chirotes canaliculatus Bonnaterre (Bre1/150) shows a worm-like animal with only one pair of little paws immediately behind the head. The maximal length is given with 20 cms. At the turn of the century it was known to be indigenous to Mexico, California and the PlatteÊriver region (Bre1/149), the 1976 edition of the same book (Bre2/226) mentiones only Mexico as their habitat. Their way of life is preferably burrowing. The assumption of the existence in the Alps of a larger variety of, say, the Bipes Chirotes canaliculatus poses difficulties. There are cases that would not match regarding other characteristics: it cannot move fast, it doesn't jump, it is not aggressive and according to Ste/467 it is impossible that it could live in rocky ground or in alpine soil not so rich in food as tropical earth.
The Skink
In at least one case (1833.b.) the witness described a possibly snake-like animal with four short, scarcely noticeable feet. This could be suggestive of a skink (Scincidae), a family of the sauria, having sometimes very degenerated feet. Skinks are not considered indigenous to the Alps.
The Peripatus
Studer (1814) and Wyss (1817) spoke already of Stollenwurms with more than two pairs of legs without however quoting specific cases. Of the respective observations in my catalogue the last one (1927-8. Löberhof) is the best documented. It seems to argue against a vertebrate and among the invertebrates the species Peripatus of the phylum Onychophora comes nearest to what has been described. When smelling the Peripatus raises the front part of its body. Its movements are rather unhurried, therefore the name (Peripatus = stroller). What does not match however, is the size. Reported lengths in the catalogue are 40 and 60 cms, the largest species of the Onychophora, the Peripatus torquatus Kennel, measures maximal 15 centimeters. It also has no pronounced neck, i.e. the head doesn't contrast against the body. The Peripatus is mainly indigenous to the equator region. Only in the Himalaya it is found up to 28 degrees northern latitude. A Peripatus in South Tyrol (at 47 degrees) measuring 40 cms would be a minor sensation.
T h e S k i n
Skin texture (or structure of body) and hair etc. could be indications whether the animal observed could have been a vertebrate or an invertebrate, a mammal or a reptile. But even this characteristic is sometimes in conflict with other data as in case (1811.05. Im Boden), where the witness did observe hair, but also a snake-like head and a forked tongue.
A g g r e s s i v e n e s s
The reported aggressiveness of the animal in a substantial number of cases must be considered strange. The snakes and lizards of the Alps are usually rather fugitive beings. Snakes are deaf and their visual faculty is not good. It is hardly possible that such an animal attacks humans by itself or pursues (!) them as it has been alleged in some cases. The only possible animal in the Alps fitting this behavorial description could (perhaps) be the weasel 26).
H o w D o e s t h e T a t z e l w u r m M o v e ?
A Broad Jumper.
The alleged extraordinary width of the animal's jumps is considered impossible by critics (Ste/456/460/462). While jumps of two or three meters are still conceivable, especially if some allowance is made for errors in the estimates, widths of eight (1921.s. Hochfilzenalm) or fifteen meters (1914.s. Marlinger Berg) are hard to digest. But just in the latter case an error in the estimate is not likely because the animal had disappeared behind a reference point of known distance. As the animal apparently jumped downwards a slope, this could perhaps explain something.
It is one of the traditions that the Tatzelwurm can jump only straight on. Therefore you must run zig-zag in order to escape. According to one source Johann Fuchs (1779.) in his confusion forgot this rule and was overtaken by the thing 'im Vorhause des Fuchslehens', i.e. in the entrance to or in the hallway of his property (Eck/178). Another tradition maintains, that on a slope the Tatzelwurm can only jump straight upwards or downwards. So, if you run at right angles to the grade, the worm is 'thrown', i.e. it tends to roll down the incline (Dob/150, Z™V1/263, Flu1/120, Gra/366). This notion has been ridiculed (Ste/458), but actually it is the behavior to be expected from an animal moving by jerks, specifically if it should have two fore legs only, using the tail in producing the elastic force for the jumps.
Can it Fly?
In the cases (1834.x.), (1865.s.) and (1899.s.) the animal was allegedly seen flying, a description that could perhaps be just another (exaggerated) expression for the animal's ability to make wide jumps. Some tree snakes are able to flatten their body so that they can perform a sort of glide.
Vertical Undulations.
In a book on sea-serpents the author points out, that all fish, amphibeans and reptiles move by horizontal undulations, while mammals, birds, caterpillars and millipedes undulate vertically. An exception from this rule are the burrowing amphisbaenas which are able to undulate in all directions (Heu/96-100). According to Bre2/227 amphisbaenas move slowly straight on while slight vertical undulations go through the body. It is interesting that in case (1845.09. Pillersee) the snake was reported to have moved by 'perpendicular undulations'.
P h y s i c a l E v i d e n c e
Tracks and Droppings
One of the strongest arguments against the physical existence of the Tatzelwurm, is the scarcity of alleged tracks and traces in the vegetation, and if one prefers to consider the alleged Tatzelwurm connection an explanatory myth, very little if anything at all, can be objected. If however the Tatzelwurm is a hibernating animal the chances of detecting a track otherwise readily visible on snow-covered ground, are, of course, greatly reduced. The same would be true if the animal lives most of the time underground in crevices etc. or if its way of living is burrowing. There is only one reference to alleged droppings of the Tatzelwurm. An old hunter in the Tyrol claimed they look like a forest snail (Opp/445). Whether the name 'Schneckender Wurm' (see table of synonyms) has something to do with this, I could not find out. 27)
Skeletons and carcasses
Contrary to traces on the ground, in a larger number of the reports, carcasses or skeletons are either explicitly mentioned or their existence might be inferred from the statement that a Tatzelwurm has been killed. Unfortunately such evidence has seldom been preserved for scientific examination. In one case identification of the skeleton is questionable (1924.x. Weisspriacher Lantschfeld), in another one (1827-8. Solothurn) nothing more was heard of the carcass sent to Heidelberg University. Often the animal was left where it was killed or it was burrowed. Although scientists never fail to suspect fraud in such cases (Ste/466), I think this behavior can be explained by ignorance regarding the scientific value or by the disgust so many people feel at the sight of dead animals, specifically reptiles.
Green 'Blood'?
There are two cases of alleged Tatzelwurms shot (1894.b.ÊEnnstal)Ê or slain (1912.x. Mareit) where a green fluid (blood?) is said to have come out from the animal's body. If the reports are authentic and the fluid was indeed blood this could point towards a metabolism and biochemistry completely different from any other mammal or reptile.
What Does the Tatzelwurm Feed on?
It has been argued that if the Tatzelwurm was real, the need for food would more often have brought it in contact with man. This is only correct under the assumption that it feeds on animals or plants of economic interest to man. But if it lived on reptiles, insects etc. and/or it was really a species dying out existing only in small isolated populations, it won't often be noticed in this respect 28). Nevertheless, in some cases it was claimed that sheep, cattle and humans have been wounded or killed by Tatzelwurms, or that their disappearance was ascribed to it. But even if we take such reports as granted, who can know whether hunger was the motive?
S O M E R E L A T E D A S P E C T S
H o a x e s
I have found some April-fool hoaxes in various newspapers. They have, however, always been cleared up by the respective editors in one of the following issues. Around 1939 a Munich newspaper carried a story about an alleged Tatzelwurm workers had catched in one of the urban sewage canals. It was only a short-lived sensation because the thing was identified as a hellbender (Menopoma) that had escaped from the Hellabrunn zoological gardens two years previously 29). In 1930 an alleged Tatzelwurm was photographed near lake Übersee (Bavaria) and in Upper Austria two men presented the hide of a big lizard they had allegedly slain. Both cases turned out to be hoaxes (Meu3/64-65). In 1944 two young people submitted a stuffed specimen of what they claimed to be a Tatzelwurm to Austrian experts. It was an Australian Trachysaurus rugosus Gray (Klein/64).
F e e d b a c k f r o m t h e T r a d i t i o n
The influence of tradition and hearsay on perception and reporting by, or on the behavior of witnesses is obvious in some cases. Examples are case (1894.b. Ennstal) and (1895.b. Donnersbachwald). In case (1933.x. Bernhartstal) the witness talked to the animal using a sort of charm 30). The alleged ability of the animal to fly could also belong into this category as for instance, the South Tyrolean tradition of the 'Fliegete Viper' (flying viper), (Fin1).
S y n c h r o n i c i t i e s
In some cases of alleged physical evidence the Tatzelwurm connection might have been only an imaginary one. In case (1919. Eichelekar) a number of horses was found dead at the bottom of a wall of rocks. The occurrence was half forgotten, when one day lumberjacks from the region reported a giant snake that had threatened them. Now the dead horses were remembered and people believed they had been frightened by the snake and paniced. A case of 12 horses that had fallen to their death was reported in July 1988 from the Arz-valley, 12 kilometers south of Innsbruck 31). It was assumed they had stampeded because of a flash of lightning in their vicinity. Tatzelwurms are no longer fashionable today.
It seems that the appearance of the Tatzelwurm was sometimes also regarded as an omen. At Inzing in the past century the traces of a Tatzelwurm were allegedly seen in the years of great floods 32). They were two feet wide and looked as if a log had been dragged through the grass, while the imprints of the paws were visible on both sides (1804., 1856.). On August 9th, 1921 a flood disaster came upon the town of Klausen, 40 kilometers south of the Brenner-pass. Later there was a rumour that the day before an 'arm-thick, white worm' had been seen in the cellar of the parsonage (1921.08.08.).
M i l k i n g o f C o w s b y S n a k e s ?
This age old belief, already mentioned by Plini (23-79) in his Naturalis historia, is sometimes also ascribed to the Tatzelwurm. Quite naturally such things are used to ridicule the whole subject. Indeed, a more prosaic explanation would be, that such tales were an excuse for milk thefts (Dob/146). Meusburger is undecided but he relates some cases of snakes sucking milk from cows (Meu4/393-396). In a Brazilian case a farmer is said to have shot a snake directly from the udder (Hub/371). The same belief was held in the Ozark country, Missouri, where a certain serpent was even called 'milk snake' (Ran/257). In Yugoslavia the popular name for the Coluber quatorlineatus was 'Kravorsaz' which means 'cow milker' (Meu4/394). And in South Tyrol as well as in the Ozarks it has been hinted that cows apparently prefer snakes to being milked by man (Meu4/395, Ran/257).
According to Bre1/335-336 it can be 'entirely ruled out' that snakes are able to suck milk from a cow's udder. One might legitimately ask whether this should really be so absolutely impossible when snakes can fold back their poison fangs, expanding the mouth to such an extent that they swallow prey considerably thicker than the own body?
P a r a n o r m a l P h e n o m e n a ?
In case of the so called Loch Ness monster for example the difficulties in accounting for the continuous existence, the feeding and the propagation of a relatively large animal in an isolated lake, have led to various extraordinary assumptions. One of them is the idea that the animal is some sort of transient reality, a temporary existence originating in some parallel world, other dimension etc. if it is not a hallucination nourished by the age old traditions in the region. As far as the Tatzelwurm is concerned there is at least one observation (1909.) pointing in this direction. A women saw a nude man's tigh dangling from a walnut tree. When the watchdog barked up to the thing, the phenomenon disappeared 'as if dried up by the sun'. Four years erlier a farmer had seen the same apparition on a chestnut tree (1905.s.) 33). The observers claimed that the 'Haselwurm' may sometimes assume this form.
A T a t z e l w u r m E x p l a i n e d
In May 1944 the headmaster of an elementary school sent experts the carcass of a peculiar animal, asking for its identification. He suggested it could be either the long sought Tatzelwurm or a snake with the legs of a half digested animal projecting from its cloaca. On examination it turned out to be a male specimen of the black viper (Vipera berus L. var prester) with the two genitals 34) turned inside out and looking very much like paws (Klei/63). Case (1969.08.) could be an observation of this sort if there were not the statements that the animal was 'baby-thick'. On the other hand the blowing up of the neck looks very much like one of the typical warning reactions of snakes.
Mimicking the Head ?
Perhaps because the genitals at the rear could not account for the observation of fore legs, earlier authors have touched this matter only very cursory (Meu1/177, Flu1/120). Now I have found an interesting phenomenal detail, that could perhaps explain why people may confuse the tail of a snake with its head and consequently take the genitals at the rear as fore paws. Mertens 35) reports that some snakes imitate typical head movements with their tail in order to distract the attention of an enemy from their front partition (Mer/30-31 and plate 7). Together with the turned out genitals a surprised observer could then take the thing for a reptile with fore legs. Yet there are two drawbacks for this explanation. First, it is not known whether both phenomena may occur simultaneously and second, among the snakes mentioned there is none indigenous to the Alps 36).
T H E H I S T O R Y O F T H E D I S C U S S I O N
The origins of the Tatzelwurm tradition in the Austrian, the Swiss and the Bavarian Alps are unknown. Dalla Torre implies that it is a remnant of older dragon lore (Dal/213). It seems that the scientific discussion about the the Tatzelwurm as a possible animal species started at the begin of the 19. century, i.e. approximately at the time when the touristic exploitation of the Alps began.
Some Psychological Aspects
Could this mean that Tatzelwurm reports were only generated by an interaction between the native inhabitants and the tourists flowing into the country? Then such reports would have to be regarded as a sociopsychological phenomenon and not so much as a zoological problem. It is, however, very unlikely that this explanation could account for more than a negligible number of the reports. It seems that people were rather reluctant to narrate such things to strangers 37). Yet the rejection of Tatzelwurm reports is often based on the premise that the reporters cannot be trusted. Unfortunately none of the critics has enlisted the services of trained psychologists in order to evaluate the reliability of the witnesses 38). Instead they have, by sweeping statements concerning the rural population (Dal/208-210, Ste/453-455), rejected the reports of persons whom they had, with one exception (1929.05.l. Igls), not even interviewed.
Independent Development of Synonyms for the Tatzelwurm
While minor variations among the many synonyms for the Tatzelwurm are certainly the result of mere spelling errors, some of them have obviously developed in situ 39) in different regions of the Alps. In Switzerland for example the thing was always called 'Stollwurm' or 'Stollenwurm' while the term 'Tatzelwurm' was unknown there (Dob/142'3). This is in itself a strong indication that the inhabitants of different valleys have independently from each other seen something they considered extraordinary.
T h e F i r s t N e w s
H ü b n e r 1 7 9 6
The earliest reference I have looked up dates back to 1796 and it reads as follows: '... The green lizard (Lacerta agil.L. called 'Hadachsel' in the mountains), a sort of Lacerta seps L., which is, however, not yet described exactly, and in the mountains known and feared under the name of the Birgstutzen'. Footnote: 'The inhabitants of the Alps tell all kinds of stories about these animals, being presumably to a large part products of horror. The Birgstutzen have 4 short legs, and they have allegedly nearly the thickness of an arm and the length of an ell, if fear does not enlarge any measure. Considered to be very poisonous, they are a cross between lizard and snake, as far as can be inferred from the much differing descriptions' (Hüb/868-869).
S c h u l t e s J. A. 1 8 0 9
In the description of his six travels through Upper Austria Schultes 40) writes that in the region of the Gmündener See (today this lake is called 'Traunsee') there are lizards that are 'little alligators'. In a footnote he relates his talk with the surgeon Wattmann who is the informant in case (1781.s.), where a 'Lindwurm' was shot by a farmer. On the basis of Wattmann's description he considered the five foot animal a lizard (Sch.A./108-109).
S t u d e r 1 8 1 4
Studer relates the following about the Stollenwurm by people in the upland of the Canton Berne in the region from Unterseen to the Grimselpass and towards Gadmen (Switzerland): '....there is the nearly unanimous legend and the almost general belief, that after a hot weather, or when a change in weather is imminent, a sort of snakes with very short feet show themselves, which the inhabitants, who call a snake WÊuÊrÊm and a short, thick foot a SÊtÊoÊlÊlÊeÊn, therefore also call SÊtÊoÊl l e n w r m e r '. The animal is described as a sort of short, thick snake, with two, sometimes four or six feet. Some reported even quite a lot of teats or warts dangling down from the bellow and used for locomotion (Stu/127-129). Studer quotes Scheuchzer 41) saying in his natural history of 1746, vol.2, p. 237 that some tales of dragons might relate to real animals, whether 'they constitute a particular species or, as some claim, freaks of snakes a.s.o.'.
Studer himself, who criticizes Scheuchzer for his 'useless expenditure of scholarship' in collecting 'excessive fables' of dragons and Lindwurms, nevertheless admits that a thing like the Stollenwurm might actually exist in the Alps. He points out that the Mexican Bipes canaliculatus, 'seems to have - size excepted, because it is not longer than 8.5 inches - an unmistakable resemblance to our Stollenwurms, as they are described' (Stu/134-136).
V i e r t h a l e r 1 8 1 6
A similar reference like that by Hübner suggesting an extraordinary sort of snakes can be found in a book of travels by Vierthaler 42). In 1816 he wrote about the Tennengebirge (Tennen mountain range) between the Lammer and the Salzach rivers, Austria, that there lives 'a sort of vipers, called Bergstutzen by the natives of the Alps and much feared. Allegedly they have a length of 2 1/3 feet and the thickness of a strong man's arm. Their velocity as well as the horror of them, have put them out of examination by scientists' (Vie/91).
W y s s 1 8 1 7
A year later, Wyss 43) reported: 'While dragons in present day Switzerland are considered extinct or exterminated, the upland is still full of legends and testimonies about a snake-like monster, which is called by the local name of the S t o l l e n w u r m , seen here and there nearly every year, according to the unsuspicious testimony of many country folk. The being is described as a sort of snake, having very short little feet; and because the snakes on the whole are called Würmer, a short thick foot however is called Stollen, thus the name for this creature was formed. Nearly always the animal is ascribed a round cat head, now 2, then 4, sometimes more feet like caterpillars. Occasionally they are portrayed as hairy and usually as thick and short. I don't dare, however, to accept the pecularity of
this creature as established (Wys1/422-423).
W y s s 1 8 1 9
In 1819, Wyss added: " The conformity in the descriptions given by different persons not knowing each other, is certainly peculiar and could consist some evidence of the real existence of such a creature; yet, already since 10 and 12 years the 'Naturforschende Gesellschaft' at Bern has promised a considerable reward, renewing this promise from year to year, for that one, who would deliver such an animal alive or dead and this has not yet happened 44). For the time being, the real existence of it must therefore still be very doubtful" (Wys2/120-121).
S c h u l t e s G. 1 8 3 6
Forestry superintendent's G. von Schultes pocketbook (Sch.G.) is the first carrying a picture of the Bergstutz (see also Mag/17). After quoting his namesake J.A. Schultes with case (1871.s.) he presents case (1833.b.) related to him by the witness. Schultes makes the interesting suggestion that the Bergstutz may really be rare because 'it is known from experience that all beings whose habit shows the undecidedness of the transitions from a class, order, genus and species to another, propagate only extremely sparse'. He admits, however, that 'this is not scientific conviction but just a belief appearing readily, when knowledge is unable to go on' (Sch.G./35-36).
K o h l 1 8 5 4
An (unconscious?) desire to refute at any cost evidence favourable to the TWH is demonstrated by Kohl 45) when he writes: 'The most miraculous thing with this totally unfounded myth is its common incidence in the alpine valleys. You can travel hundred miles in the mountains and find in every valley people, giving of the Stollenwurm - in the various locations there are different names for it - completely corresponding descriptions' (Kohl/324) 46).
K o b e l l 1 8 5 9
The book 'Wildanger' by Kobell 47), published in 1859, drew the attention of many people to the TWH. Kobell, familiar with all aspects of hunting - its history, its techniques, its superstitions and its magic practices - did in no way ridicule the TWH. After quoting three cases (1779, 1781.s.,1833.b.) he mentiones a chamois-buck seen at Freising as well as a crocodile catched in the Po river 48) arguing that animals can get to places far from their original habitat. Thus the Tatzelwurm might be a creature living most of the time in inaccessible gorges and caves, appearing only now and then in places visited by man. In any case the existence of such an animal can neither be affirmed nor denied (Kob/464-470).
P r o p o n e n t s a n d O p p o n e n t s
D a l l a T o r r e 1 8 8 7
In 1887 a leading German alpinist periodical published an article about dragon lore in the Alps (Dal), by Professor Dalla Torre 49). who makes unmistakably clear that he has no high opinion of the native alpine inhabitant's zoological competence and his thruthfulness as a reporter. Besides that the inhabitant of the Alps is, according to Dalla Torre, superstitious, a tormentor of animals 50) and a braggart, who has a pronounced penchant to see bizarrely formed creatures 51).
With regard to dragons, Dalla Torre concludes they were only exaggerated descriptions of everyday snakes and lizards and he sets this explanation against Leydig's 52) suggestion, that not all saurians might have become extinct before the arrival of man and that the memory of them might 'have been conserved in the spirit of the myth until today'.
When it comes to the Tatzelwurm Dalla Torre cites a number of cases, scarcely actually discussing or evaluating one of them individually. He concludes that the Tatzelwurm must be a mythical construct assembled from the components of several animals. He suggests this question should be approached using all the literature and all myths from all valleys and countries. "Until then" he writes, "we can state only one thing for sure: 'Among the animals that are, there are many that are not'" (Dal/223-224) 53).
D o b l h o f f 1 8 9 5
In 1895, a Tatzelwurm article by Doblhoff 54), appeared in the first volume of a newly founded periodical for Austrian folklore (Dob1). Doblhoff refrains from any statements discriminating against the rural population 55). After referring to historic cases he quotes more recent ones but, like Dalla Torre he does not evaluate them individually. He quotes and partly discusses 56), known snakes, lizards, woodchucks, otters and weasels as explanations for Tatzelwurm sightings and he mentions also Studer's Bipes caniculatus (sic). Admitting that the 'thick, cat-like head' often described argues against the snake (Dob/155), he plays for a moment with the assumption that larger saurians may still have existed in historic times (Dob/156/160), that perhaps isolated specimens of the giant salamander (Megalobatrachus) could still be alive (Dob/156) or that there may be an animal 'like Bipes or Seps, but dying out' (Dob/160). On the other hand he thinks the cat-comparison as well as the name 'Büffel' may point toward a mammal. While he excludes the polecat as an explanation, the woodchuck is regarded a more likely candidate in some cases with the reservation that the woodchuck cannot jump and in Styria where a number of Tatzelwurm reports came from there were then no woodchucks (Dob/157) 57). The otter is also considered as it crawls like a snake (the otter comes 'like a black worm', Kob/341) and on snow and ice it glides. It can appear at considerable altitudes when passing from one water to another 58). Often it is seen standing upright for some time and if catched it spits and fights to the last gasp (Dob/157-158). The behavior of the weasel is similar but in addition it is considered very aggressive, attacking sometimes humans by itself (Dob/158-159).
Doblhoff finally concludes the cause for Tatzelwurm reports may be several, known animals which, under the conditions of high altitudes, hunger, thirst and after long marches, are transformed into mythical creatures by the percipient, when 'the fear of death, resting in the depths of the soul, breaks out with elementary force, like the electric current of an accumulator' (Dob/161). Although this explanation sounds awfully modern it is actually not very convincing as the majority of the observations were made below 2000 meters (see catalogue), i e hardly at levels, where people begin to see things, and exhaustion, hunger or thirst can scarcely be inferred from any of the reports.
Another of Doblhoff's psychological arguments holds that people are first shocked by the sight of, say, a simple snake. While running away shame comes up and in order to haveÊan excuse for his cowardice, "the reporter needs the exaggeration, transforming a little snake of 50 centimeters into a 'Wurm' as tall as a dog and as long as a room" (Dob/162). Unfortunately he does not explain why a witness should tell such an occurence at all. He himself is not consequent when he writes on the same page that if one had shot a supposed Tatzelwurm and then noticed his error he would have been careful not to tell of his delusion.
Doblhoff's most intimate thoughts are revealed by his final statement that the Tatzelwurm 'certainly belongs in the field of folkloristic research, like pathological phenomena in the body must be studied by the anthropologist' (Dob/163).
1 9 2 5 - 1 9 2 7
Aside from minor communications Doblhoff's article seems to have been the last word for quite a time. From 1925 to 1927 the 'Tiroler Heimatblätter', Innsbruck, a monthly on matters of local history and geography, published four articles on the topic (Fil1, Fil2, Gra, Sin1), but no debate ensued.
V e n z m e r and F l u c h e r 1930-1932
In 1930 Dr. Gerhard Venzmer, a regular contributor to the well-known German popular scientific periodical 'Kosmos' also took up the topic (Ven), with the result that the editors received an 'extremely large number of communications and manuscripts' (Flu1/118), which were turned over to the agricultural engineer Hans Flucher in Saalfelden, Austria. In 1931 and 1932 the 'Kosmos' published three short articles by Flucher (Flu1, Flu2, Flu3) who, after comparing the pros and cons thought it right 'to adhere to a true core in the Tatzelwurm question'.
T h e ' S c h l e r n' 1 9 3 1 - 1 9 3 4
At about the same time the discussion was also taken up by the 'Schlern', Bozen, a periodical of much the same kind as the 'Tiroler Heimatblätter' mentioned above. Actually the 'Schlern' must be considered the most extensive reference on Tatzelwurm matters.
M e u s b u r g e r 1 9 3 1
After some communications by readers an article by Dr. Karl Meusburger 59) was published in December 1931 (Meu2), discussing 45 cases. For 16 cases he proposes known mammals like weasels, ermines, martens and otters as an explanation. In order to reconcile the reported size and characteristics of mammals with the likewise observed reptilian skin structure, Meusburger resorts to the assumption, that hairless mammals suffering from ichthyosis and/or skin eruptions might sometimes have been taken for Tatzelwurms (Meu2/468/470). 60)
Meusburger finally concludes that 13 cases at least justify the assumption of the existence, in isolated places of the Alps, of an animal unknown to science, rare indeed and perhaps even dying out and belonging to the reptiles (Meu2/478). Obviously with regard to Doblhoff's psychological explanations and Dalla Torre's devastating criticism of the alpine inhabitant's mentality he rejects the attempt to debunk the whole topic as a product of fear and superstition. He remarks that mythical and superstitious traditions concerning the Tatzelwurm don't necessarily argue against its real existence, as 'nobody will deny the existence of the Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great, just because he became the center of a large cycle of legends as Theodoric of Verona' (Meu2/477).
F l u c h e r 1 9 3 2
A year later, in December 1932 the 'Schlern' carried an article by. Hans Flucher (Flu4). Flucher corrects some of Meusburger's errors, adding 10 cases already published in the 'Kosmos' and 10 completely new ones. He agrees with Meusburger's explanation that hairless mustelines may account for some reports, but he points out that if this was the explanation for all cases, this would long have been recognized by the ancestors (Flu4/507). Against the objection, that the Tatzelwurm couldn't have been overlooked so long by science if it was real, he argues as follows:
- the Tatzelwurm is an extremely rare animal, 'more extinct than dying out',
- it is very shy and lives preferably in caves,
- the rural people are either ignorant regarding the scientific value of such an animal and don't preserve its carcass or they don't chase it because they believe this would invoke misfortune and disaster,
- the methodics of Tatzelwurm research is inadequate. Significant reports are explained away by impossible arguments or ridiculed (Flu4/507-508).
N i c o l u s s i 1 9 3 3
The next to enter the Tatzelwurm scene was Jakob Nicolussi, a retired headmaster. He was the first and only researcher to attempt a sort of taxonomical or statistical analysis of the reported characteristics (Nic). Nicolussi considers 21 descriptors like size, shape, number of paws, tail, etc. and concludes that the Tatzelwurm could be a lizard of the family Helodermatidae (Nic/124), therefore proposing for it the name 'Heloderma europaeum' (Nic/126). Hairs and bristles observed in some cases are explained by him as vegetable fibres or hairs of mammals taken up by the lizard when crawling through underbrush etc. (Nic/121). It seems that Nicolussi was strongly biassed in favour of a quadruped, because his conclusion is not supported by his own statistics. Among the 65 cases presented by Meusburger and Flucher he lists 33 where two paws have been observed but only 14 with four paws. Admittedly however, Nicolussi presents a good case in favour of his hypothesis, provided that all observations of only two paws could be discarded as faulty.
M e u s b u r g e r 1 9 3 4
In 1934 the 'Schlern' carried an article by Meusburger (Meu3), adding another 20 cases. He rejects some of the earlier ones - not always quite reasonably as it seems 61). As he has no doubts, that the Tatzelwurm ' if it exists at all' must be a vertebrate and among the known species (living or extinct) there is not a single one with more than four extremities, he specifically discards all reports of more than four paws (Meu3/65-66). Then he renews his conclusion that the 'genuine Tatzelwurm' is a reptile, 30 to 60 cms long, lizard-like, with two fore legs and 'perhaps hind legs too' (Meu3/71), closing with the words: 'I can only hardly, yes, very hardly indeed imagine that all testimonies submitted are to be discarded each and all' (Meu3/85).
S t e i n b ö c k 1 9 3 4
Contrary to Meusburger however, the zoologist Professor Steinböck 62), saw no difficulties in doing exactly this when his views were published in the 'Schlern' (Ste). Examining the 85 cases presented he concludes that 'there is neither the slightes direct evidence for the existence of the Tatzelwurm, nor a probable argument for it' (Ste/467) and he calls Nicolussi's Heloderma europeum a 'meaningless conception' (Ste/468).
Steinböck's methodics in dealing with the TWH rests largely on the premise that 'simple people' are unable to observe and report correctly. He points out that among the reporters of the 85 cases there are only 4 civil servants, 1 engineer and 3 teachers, while the "overwhelming majority are 'simple-minded natives of the Alps'" (Ste/453-454) 63). Thus 43% of the cases are explained as known snakes (Ste/454-458), 27% are considered inconclusive because of missing data or legendary details (Ste/461-463), and 7% are rejected as worthless, incredible or as fabrication (Ste/463-464). The rest is explained by known amphibeans, lizards and mammals (Ste/458-461). Not a single case the benefit of the doubt is granted.
Steinböck claims that 'horrible' snakes are easily overestimated in size, but the two experiences related by him to prove the point cannot be considered valid. Once he and his friend saw, while skiing, what they believed to be a woodchuck running across a snow-field. At close range they recognized it as a snow-mouse. In another case he and twoÊother mountaineers had thought they could see in the fog, at a distance of 30 paces a person atop a mountain but it was a root stock only 35 cms high (Ste/454-455). It is well known that size estimates are often erroneous when the object in question is observed against an uniformely colored, diffuse background. But Tatzelwurm observations have usually been made on sunny days against a background of plants, and rocks and at distances of a few meters so that false estimates of the above sort are hardly possible.
In other respects it is equally difficult to duplicate Steinböck's reasoning. Case (1893.s. Stodertal) for exampleÊis explained as a viper although the girl, who could view the dead animal calmly, spoke of feet like a that of a lizard. But this is simply brushed aside with the strange remark: 'Without hesitation I take upon myself the reproach of being undiscerning, as legs have also been observed, apparently even four' (Ste/456). The witnesses in case (1908.s. Kufstein) were apparently never interviewed by the critic. Yet he labels the case an 'impertinent fabrication', because the witnesses didn't make it public immediately and on the assumption a reptile of the alleged size couldn't live unseen near Kufstein (Ste/464). Only in case (1929.05.l) the witness was interviewed. Steinböck considered him very imaginative and suggested that he might have disturbed a snake while eating a toad or a frog, but the witness stuck to his assertion. The latter's original statement, that he had distinctly seen fore legs, was ignored.
Finally Flucher and Meusburger are criticized for having selected 'only those reports that can at least to some degree stand a scientific test'. Thus 'the outsider gets the impression, that there must be some truth in the matter'. If however, 'all cases, even the scientifically most impossible ones are considered, then you soon become aware that Tatzelwurm research is not primarily a task for the zoologist, but for the folklorist' (Ste/465) 64). Unfortunately Meusburger, Flucher and Nicolussi were never given an opportunity to reply. In a final clause the editor announced categorically that with Steinböck's article the 'Schlern' would definitely close the matter. Fourteen years later the topic was taken up again 'at the expressive request of the editor' (Tra1/250) and from 1948 to now about ten new reports were published. There was, however, never again such an extensive discussion as in the thirties.
L a t e s t N e w s
In its October 1982 issue the 'Kosmos' reprinted an one page excerpt of one of Flucher's articles, remarking that "the 'Kosmos' won't dare to repeat the question (concerning the Tatzelwurm) once more today. Who knows, what reports would still reach us even now!" (Kos). Two years ago a local Tyrolean paper carried a report about a teacher, who has apparently revived Studer's Bipes hypothesis (DH).
C L O S I N G
It is well possible that by the negative attidude of some scientists a chance was missed to verify in the eleventh hour the existence of a rare animal already dying out. Perhaps they cannot be reproached with this in view of their deeply rooted, insurmountable disregard for the testimonies of the country folk and their ever present fear of being taken in by some hoaxer and then being ridiculed by the colleagues. It seems, that the whole affair was very probably also a social and even a sort of ideological confrontation, the opponents of the TWH considering themselves as a sort of standard bearers of enlightenment, smelling antiquated superstitions or even damnable obscurantism behind matters not easily amenable to scientific methodics. The proponents, in turn, were largely educationalists and clerics, a category of persons always committed to the preservation of traditional beliefs. Considering this and the zeitgeist of the era, the development of the Tatzelwurm debate was at least to some degree preprogrammed.
T h e ' S t a n d a r d T a t z e l w u r m '
The inconsistencies in the descriptions of what is called 'Tatzelwurm' could suggest that this name and its synonyms are generic terms for several different, unknown and/or misperceived known animals. There have been attempts to reduce the differing descriptions to a so-called 'standard Tatzelwurm' 19). Specifically with Dalla Torre (Dal) and Steinböck (Ste) however, one cannot help getting the impression that the self-imposed obligation to distill one single animal from the differing descriptions leads to the rejection of reasonable reports and, if the basic outlook is an unrestrained scepticism 20), finally must result in the dismissal of the whole subject. Therefore I have contended myself with presenting the reports as they are, using them as tie ups in pointing out correlations, references and ideas.
A p p e a r a n c e
While snake, lizard, salamander or cat seem to be reasonable comparisons, size or appearance of the animal's head or even its whole body has also been compared with a baby, as has been noted by several authors (Alp/377, Sin1/266, Tra2/132, Dal/219/221, Mag/19). This is a strange comparison, for what could be farther from any known animal of the Alps than a baby? In the Tyrol the Tatzelwurm has been likened to a 'Fatschenkind' (1857.b. Wurmbachtal) 8) or it was described as pear- or wedge-shaped (1921.07.), (1927-8.), or simply as very thick compared with its length. This hardly fits a snake, not even one crammed with food and who would in this condition have difficulties to crawl, let alone jump or pursue men. Other, perhaps related comparisons are, 'like a multiply bonded sausage' (1934.b. W”rgl?), or simply 'like a sausage' (1927.b. Mongolia) or like 'a crayfish or a sausage' (1929.08. Palu). All this seems to point to a structured body composed of ring-like segments and could indicate that the animal was perhaps no vertebrate but something of the articulates as the term 'worm' taken literally could imply.
T h e E y e s
Reports describing the eyes of the animal in terms like 'prominent', 'sharp', 'gleaming', 'big', or 'hypnotic', 'devilish' and 'murderous' 21) argue strongly against the idea that known snakes or lizards etc. were observed. The eyes of the reptiles indigenous to the Alps, even if viewed at the relatively close distance of two to three meters, are really not an exciting affair.
L e n g t h a n d T h i c k n e s s
It is one of the standard objections by sceptics that fear leads to gross overestimations of size 22). By overemphasizing this argument it is easy to discard cases that otherwise had to be considered strange by the mere size of the reported animal. The influence of fear on size estimates, however, seems far from being proven. In a modern book on perceptual psychology I couldn't find a reference to this factor 23).
H o w M a n y P a w s ?
The Bipes
With respect to mere appearance the genus Bipes seems to be a comfortable explanation when Tatzelwurms with two fore legs only are reported. According to Smith and Taylor 24) the Bipes belongs to the family Bipedidae, suborder Amphisbaenia 25), the term 'amphisbaenia' literally meaning 'to go on both ends' i.e. an animal whose head and tail are hard to distinguish. A drawing of the Bipes Chirotes canaliculatus Bonnaterre (Bre1/150) shows a worm-like animal with only one pair of little paws immediately behind the head. The maximal length is given with 20 cms. At the turn of the century it was known to be indigenous to Mexico, California and the PlatteÊriver region (Bre1/149), the 1976 edition of the same book (Bre2/226) mentiones only Mexico as their habitat. Their way of life is preferably burrowing. The assumption of the existence in the Alps of a larger variety of, say, the Bipes Chirotes canaliculatus poses difficulties. There are cases that would not match regarding other characteristics: it cannot move fast, it doesn't jump, it is not aggressive and according to Ste/467 it is impossible that it could live in rocky ground or in alpine soil not so rich in food as tropical earth.
The Skink
In at least one case (1833.b.) the witness described a possibly snake-like animal with four short, scarcely noticeable feet. This could be suggestive of a skink (Scincidae), a family of the sauria, having sometimes very degenerated feet. Skinks are not considered indigenous to the Alps.
The Peripatus
Studer (1814) and Wyss (1817) spoke already of Stollenwurms with more than two pairs of legs without however quoting specific cases. Of the respective observations in my catalogue the last one (1927-8. Löberhof) is the best documented. It seems to argue against a vertebrate and among the invertebrates the species Peripatus of the phylum Onychophora comes nearest to what has been described. When smelling the Peripatus raises the front part of its body. Its movements are rather unhurried, therefore the name (Peripatus = stroller). What does not match however, is the size. Reported lengths in the catalogue are 40 and 60 cms, the largest species of the Onychophora, the Peripatus torquatus Kennel, measures maximal 15 centimeters. It also has no pronounced neck, i.e. the head doesn't contrast against the body. The Peripatus is mainly indigenous to the equator region. Only in the Himalaya it is found up to 28 degrees northern latitude. A Peripatus in South Tyrol (at 47 degrees) measuring 40 cms would be a minor sensation.
T h e S k i n
Skin texture (or structure of body) and hair etc. could be indications whether the animal observed could have been a vertebrate or an invertebrate, a mammal or a reptile. But even this characteristic is sometimes in conflict with other data as in case (1811.05. Im Boden), where the witness did observe hair, but also a snake-like head and a forked tongue.
A g g r e s s i v e n e s s
The reported aggressiveness of the animal in a substantial number of cases must be considered strange. The snakes and lizards of the Alps are usually rather fugitive beings. Snakes are deaf and their visual faculty is not good. It is hardly possible that such an animal attacks humans by itself or pursues (!) them as it has been alleged in some cases. The only possible animal in the Alps fitting this behavorial description could (perhaps) be the weasel 26).
H o w D o e s t h e T a t z e l w u r m M o v e ?
A Broad Jumper.
The alleged extraordinary width of the animal's jumps is considered impossible by critics (Ste/456/460/462). While jumps of two or three meters are still conceivable, especially if some allowance is made for errors in the estimates, widths of eight (1921.s. Hochfilzenalm) or fifteen meters (1914.s. Marlinger Berg) are hard to digest. But just in the latter case an error in the estimate is not likely because the animal had disappeared behind a reference point of known distance. As the animal apparently jumped downwards a slope, this could perhaps explain something.
It is one of the traditions that the Tatzelwurm can jump only straight on. Therefore you must run zig-zag in order to escape. According to one source Johann Fuchs (1779.) in his confusion forgot this rule and was overtaken by the thing 'im Vorhause des Fuchslehens', i.e. in the entrance to or in the hallway of his property (Eck/178). Another tradition maintains, that on a slope the Tatzelwurm can only jump straight upwards or downwards. So, if you run at right angles to the grade, the worm is 'thrown', i.e. it tends to roll down the incline (Dob/150, Z™V1/263, Flu1/120, Gra/366). This notion has been ridiculed (Ste/458), but actually it is the behavior to be expected from an animal moving by jerks, specifically if it should have two fore legs only, using the tail in producing the elastic force for the jumps.
Can it Fly?
In the cases (1834.x.), (1865.s.) and (1899.s.) the animal was allegedly seen flying, a description that could perhaps be just another (exaggerated) expression for the animal's ability to make wide jumps. Some tree snakes are able to flatten their body so that they can perform a sort of glide.
Vertical Undulations.
In a book on sea-serpents the author points out, that all fish, amphibeans and reptiles move by horizontal undulations, while mammals, birds, caterpillars and millipedes undulate vertically. An exception from this rule are the burrowing amphisbaenas which are able to undulate in all directions (Heu/96-100). According to Bre2/227 amphisbaenas move slowly straight on while slight vertical undulations go through the body. It is interesting that in case (1845.09. Pillersee) the snake was reported to have moved by 'perpendicular undulations'.
P h y s i c a l E v i d e n c e
Tracks and Droppings
One of the strongest arguments against the physical existence of the Tatzelwurm, is the scarcity of alleged tracks and traces in the vegetation, and if one prefers to consider the alleged Tatzelwurm connection an explanatory myth, very little if anything at all, can be objected. If however the Tatzelwurm is a hibernating animal the chances of detecting a track otherwise readily visible on snow-covered ground, are, of course, greatly reduced. The same would be true if the animal lives most of the time underground in crevices etc. or if its way of living is burrowing. There is only one reference to alleged droppings of the Tatzelwurm. An old hunter in the Tyrol claimed they look like a forest snail (Opp/445). Whether the name 'Schneckender Wurm' (see table of synonyms) has something to do with this, I could not find out. 27)
Skeletons and carcasses
Contrary to traces on the ground, in a larger number of the reports, carcasses or skeletons are either explicitly mentioned or their existence might be inferred from the statement that a Tatzelwurm has been killed. Unfortunately such evidence has seldom been preserved for scientific examination. In one case identification of the skeleton is questionable (1924.x. Weisspriacher Lantschfeld), in another one (1827-8. Solothurn) nothing more was heard of the carcass sent to Heidelberg University. Often the animal was left where it was killed or it was burrowed. Although scientists never fail to suspect fraud in such cases (Ste/466), I think this behavior can be explained by ignorance regarding the scientific value or by the disgust so many people feel at the sight of dead animals, specifically reptiles.
Green 'Blood'?
There are two cases of alleged Tatzelwurms shot (1894.b.ÊEnnstal)Ê or slain (1912.x. Mareit) where a green fluid (blood?) is said to have come out from the animal's body. If the reports are authentic and the fluid was indeed blood this could point towards a metabolism and biochemistry completely different from any other mammal or reptile.
What Does the Tatzelwurm Feed on?
It has been argued that if the Tatzelwurm was real, the need for food would more often have brought it in contact with man. This is only correct under the assumption that it feeds on animals or plants of economic interest to man. But if it lived on reptiles, insects etc. and/or it was really a species dying out existing only in small isolated populations, it won't often be noticed in this respect 28). Nevertheless, in some cases it was claimed that sheep, cattle and humans have been wounded or killed by Tatzelwurms, or that their disappearance was ascribed to it. But even if we take such reports as granted, who can know whether hunger was the motive?
S O M E R E L A T E D A S P E C T S
H o a x e s
I have found some April-fool hoaxes in various newspapers. They have, however, always been cleared up by the respective editors in one of the following issues. Around 1939 a Munich newspaper carried a story about an alleged Tatzelwurm workers had catched in one of the urban sewage canals. It was only a short-lived sensation because the thing was identified as a hellbender (Menopoma) that had escaped from the Hellabrunn zoological gardens two years previously 29). In 1930 an alleged Tatzelwurm was photographed near lake Übersee (Bavaria) and in Upper Austria two men presented the hide of a big lizard they had allegedly slain. Both cases turned out to be hoaxes (Meu3/64-65). In 1944 two young people submitted a stuffed specimen of what they claimed to be a Tatzelwurm to Austrian experts. It was an Australian Trachysaurus rugosus Gray (Klein/64).
F e e d b a c k f r o m t h e T r a d i t i o n
The influence of tradition and hearsay on perception and reporting by, or on the behavior of witnesses is obvious in some cases. Examples are case (1894.b. Ennstal) and (1895.b. Donnersbachwald). In case (1933.x. Bernhartstal) the witness talked to the animal using a sort of charm 30). The alleged ability of the animal to fly could also belong into this category as for instance, the South Tyrolean tradition of the 'Fliegete Viper' (flying viper), (Fin1).
S y n c h r o n i c i t i e s
In some cases of alleged physical evidence the Tatzelwurm connection might have been only an imaginary one. In case (1919. Eichelekar) a number of horses was found dead at the bottom of a wall of rocks. The occurrence was half forgotten, when one day lumberjacks from the region reported a giant snake that had threatened them. Now the dead horses were remembered and people believed they had been frightened by the snake and paniced. A case of 12 horses that had fallen to their death was reported in July 1988 from the Arz-valley, 12 kilometers south of Innsbruck 31). It was assumed they had stampeded because of a flash of lightning in their vicinity. Tatzelwurms are no longer fashionable today.
It seems that the appearance of the Tatzelwurm was sometimes also regarded as an omen. At Inzing in the past century the traces of a Tatzelwurm were allegedly seen in the years of great floods 32). They were two feet wide and looked as if a log had been dragged through the grass, while the imprints of the paws were visible on both sides (1804., 1856.). On August 9th, 1921 a flood disaster came upon the town of Klausen, 40 kilometers south of the Brenner-pass. Later there was a rumour that the day before an 'arm-thick, white worm' had been seen in the cellar of the parsonage (1921.08.08.).
M i l k i n g o f C o w s b y S n a k e s ?
This age old belief, already mentioned by Plini (23-79) in his Naturalis historia, is sometimes also ascribed to the Tatzelwurm. Quite naturally such things are used to ridicule the whole subject. Indeed, a more prosaic explanation would be, that such tales were an excuse for milk thefts (Dob/146). Meusburger is undecided but he relates some cases of snakes sucking milk from cows (Meu4/393-396). In a Brazilian case a farmer is said to have shot a snake directly from the udder (Hub/371). The same belief was held in the Ozark country, Missouri, where a certain serpent was even called 'milk snake' (Ran/257). In Yugoslavia the popular name for the Coluber quatorlineatus was 'Kravorsaz' which means 'cow milker' (Meu4/394). And in South Tyrol as well as in the Ozarks it has been hinted that cows apparently prefer snakes to being milked by man (Meu4/395, Ran/257).
According to Bre1/335-336 it can be 'entirely ruled out' that snakes are able to suck milk from a cow's udder. One might legitimately ask whether this should really be so absolutely impossible when snakes can fold back their poison fangs, expanding the mouth to such an extent that they swallow prey considerably thicker than the own body?
P a r a n o r m a l P h e n o m e n a ?
In case of the so called Loch Ness monster for example the difficulties in accounting for the continuous existence, the feeding and the propagation of a relatively large animal in an isolated lake, have led to various extraordinary assumptions. One of them is the idea that the animal is some sort of transient reality, a temporary existence originating in some parallel world, other dimension etc. if it is not a hallucination nourished by the age old traditions in the region. As far as the Tatzelwurm is concerned there is at least one observation (1909.) pointing in this direction. A women saw a nude man's tigh dangling from a walnut tree. When the watchdog barked up to the thing, the phenomenon disappeared 'as if dried up by the sun'. Four years erlier a farmer had seen the same apparition on a chestnut tree (1905.s.) 33). The observers claimed that the 'Haselwurm' may sometimes assume this form.
A T a t z e l w u r m E x p l a i n e d
In May 1944 the headmaster of an elementary school sent experts the carcass of a peculiar animal, asking for its identification. He suggested it could be either the long sought Tatzelwurm or a snake with the legs of a half digested animal projecting from its cloaca. On examination it turned out to be a male specimen of the black viper (Vipera berus L. var prester) with the two genitals 34) turned inside out and looking very much like paws (Klei/63). Case (1969.08.) could be an observation of this sort if there were not the statements that the animal was 'baby-thick'. On the other hand the blowing up of the neck looks very much like one of the typical warning reactions of snakes.
Mimicking the Head ?
Perhaps because the genitals at the rear could not account for the observation of fore legs, earlier authors have touched this matter only very cursory (Meu1/177, Flu1/120). Now I have found an interesting phenomenal detail, that could perhaps explain why people may confuse the tail of a snake with its head and consequently take the genitals at the rear as fore paws. Mertens 35) reports that some snakes imitate typical head movements with their tail in order to distract the attention of an enemy from their front partition (Mer/30-31 and plate 7). Together with the turned out genitals a surprised observer could then take the thing for a reptile with fore legs. Yet there are two drawbacks for this explanation. First, it is not known whether both phenomena may occur simultaneously and second, among the snakes mentioned there is none indigenous to the Alps 36).
T H E H I S T O R Y O F T H E D I S C U S S I O N
The origins of the Tatzelwurm tradition in the Austrian, the Swiss and the Bavarian Alps are unknown. Dalla Torre implies that it is a remnant of older dragon lore (Dal/213). It seems that the scientific discussion about the the Tatzelwurm as a possible animal species started at the begin of the 19. century, i.e. approximately at the time when the touristic exploitation of the Alps began.
Some Psychological Aspects
Could this mean that Tatzelwurm reports were only generated by an interaction between the native inhabitants and the tourists flowing into the country? Then such reports would have to be regarded as a sociopsychological phenomenon and not so much as a zoological problem. It is, however, very unlikely that this explanation could account for more than a negligible number of the reports. It seems that people were rather reluctant to narrate such things to strangers 37). Yet the rejection of Tatzelwurm reports is often based on the premise that the reporters cannot be trusted. Unfortunately none of the critics has enlisted the services of trained psychologists in order to evaluate the reliability of the witnesses 38). Instead they have, by sweeping statements concerning the rural population (Dal/208-210, Ste/453-455), rejected the reports of persons whom they had, with one exception (1929.05.l. Igls), not even interviewed.
Independent Development of Synonyms for the Tatzelwurm
While minor variations among the many synonyms for the Tatzelwurm are certainly the result of mere spelling errors, some of them have obviously developed in situ 39) in different regions of the Alps. In Switzerland for example the thing was always called 'Stollwurm' or 'Stollenwurm' while the term 'Tatzelwurm' was unknown there (Dob/142'3). This is in itself a strong indication that the inhabitants of different valleys have independently from each other seen something they considered extraordinary.
T h e F i r s t N e w s
H ü b n e r 1 7 9 6
The earliest reference I have looked up dates back to 1796 and it reads as follows: '... The green lizard (Lacerta agil.L. called 'Hadachsel' in the mountains), a sort of Lacerta seps L., which is, however, not yet described exactly, and in the mountains known and feared under the name of the Birgstutzen'. Footnote: 'The inhabitants of the Alps tell all kinds of stories about these animals, being presumably to a large part products of horror. The Birgstutzen have 4 short legs, and they have allegedly nearly the thickness of an arm and the length of an ell, if fear does not enlarge any measure. Considered to be very poisonous, they are a cross between lizard and snake, as far as can be inferred from the much differing descriptions' (Hüb/868-869).
S c h u l t e s J. A. 1 8 0 9
In the description of his six travels through Upper Austria Schultes 40) writes that in the region of the Gmündener See (today this lake is called 'Traunsee') there are lizards that are 'little alligators'. In a footnote he relates his talk with the surgeon Wattmann who is the informant in case (1781.s.), where a 'Lindwurm' was shot by a farmer. On the basis of Wattmann's description he considered the five foot animal a lizard (Sch.A./108-109).
S t u d e r 1 8 1 4
Studer relates the following about the Stollenwurm by people in the upland of the Canton Berne in the region from Unterseen to the Grimselpass and towards Gadmen (Switzerland): '....there is the nearly unanimous legend and the almost general belief, that after a hot weather, or when a change in weather is imminent, a sort of snakes with very short feet show themselves, which the inhabitants, who call a snake WÊuÊrÊm and a short, thick foot a SÊtÊoÊlÊlÊeÊn, therefore also call SÊtÊoÊl l e n w r m e r '. The animal is described as a sort of short, thick snake, with two, sometimes four or six feet. Some reported even quite a lot of teats or warts dangling down from the bellow and used for locomotion (Stu/127-129). Studer quotes Scheuchzer 41) saying in his natural history of 1746, vol.2, p. 237 that some tales of dragons might relate to real animals, whether 'they constitute a particular species or, as some claim, freaks of snakes a.s.o.'.
Studer himself, who criticizes Scheuchzer for his 'useless expenditure of scholarship' in collecting 'excessive fables' of dragons and Lindwurms, nevertheless admits that a thing like the Stollenwurm might actually exist in the Alps. He points out that the Mexican Bipes canaliculatus, 'seems to have - size excepted, because it is not longer than 8.5 inches - an unmistakable resemblance to our Stollenwurms, as they are described' (Stu/134-136).
V i e r t h a l e r 1 8 1 6
A similar reference like that by Hübner suggesting an extraordinary sort of snakes can be found in a book of travels by Vierthaler 42). In 1816 he wrote about the Tennengebirge (Tennen mountain range) between the Lammer and the Salzach rivers, Austria, that there lives 'a sort of vipers, called Bergstutzen by the natives of the Alps and much feared. Allegedly they have a length of 2 1/3 feet and the thickness of a strong man's arm. Their velocity as well as the horror of them, have put them out of examination by scientists' (Vie/91).
W y s s 1 8 1 7
A year later, Wyss 43) reported: 'While dragons in present day Switzerland are considered extinct or exterminated, the upland is still full of legends and testimonies about a snake-like monster, which is called by the local name of the S t o l l e n w u r m , seen here and there nearly every year, according to the unsuspicious testimony of many country folk. The being is described as a sort of snake, having very short little feet; and because the snakes on the whole are called Würmer, a short thick foot however is called Stollen, thus the name for this creature was formed. Nearly always the animal is ascribed a round cat head, now 2, then 4, sometimes more feet like caterpillars. Occasionally they are portrayed as hairy and usually as thick and short. I don't dare, however, to accept the pecularity of
this creature as established (Wys1/422-423).
W y s s 1 8 1 9
In 1819, Wyss added: " The conformity in the descriptions given by different persons not knowing each other, is certainly peculiar and could consist some evidence of the real existence of such a creature; yet, already since 10 and 12 years the 'Naturforschende Gesellschaft' at Bern has promised a considerable reward, renewing this promise from year to year, for that one, who would deliver such an animal alive or dead and this has not yet happened 44). For the time being, the real existence of it must therefore still be very doubtful" (Wys2/120-121).
S c h u l t e s G. 1 8 3 6
Forestry superintendent's G. von Schultes pocketbook (Sch.G.) is the first carrying a picture of the Bergstutz (see also Mag/17). After quoting his namesake J.A. Schultes with case (1871.s.) he presents case (1833.b.) related to him by the witness. Schultes makes the interesting suggestion that the Bergstutz may really be rare because 'it is known from experience that all beings whose habit shows the undecidedness of the transitions from a class, order, genus and species to another, propagate only extremely sparse'. He admits, however, that 'this is not scientific conviction but just a belief appearing readily, when knowledge is unable to go on' (Sch.G./35-36).
K o h l 1 8 5 4
An (unconscious?) desire to refute at any cost evidence favourable to the TWH is demonstrated by Kohl 45) when he writes: 'The most miraculous thing with this totally unfounded myth is its common incidence in the alpine valleys. You can travel hundred miles in the mountains and find in every valley people, giving of the Stollenwurm - in the various locations there are different names for it - completely corresponding descriptions' (Kohl/324) 46).
K o b e l l 1 8 5 9
The book 'Wildanger' by Kobell 47), published in 1859, drew the attention of many people to the TWH. Kobell, familiar with all aspects of hunting - its history, its techniques, its superstitions and its magic practices - did in no way ridicule the TWH. After quoting three cases (1779, 1781.s.,1833.b.) he mentiones a chamois-buck seen at Freising as well as a crocodile catched in the Po river 48) arguing that animals can get to places far from their original habitat. Thus the Tatzelwurm might be a creature living most of the time in inaccessible gorges and caves, appearing only now and then in places visited by man. In any case the existence of such an animal can neither be affirmed nor denied (Kob/464-470).
P r o p o n e n t s a n d O p p o n e n t s
D a l l a T o r r e 1 8 8 7
In 1887 a leading German alpinist periodical published an article about dragon lore in the Alps (Dal), by Professor Dalla Torre 49). who makes unmistakably clear that he has no high opinion of the native alpine inhabitant's zoological competence and his thruthfulness as a reporter. Besides that the inhabitant of the Alps is, according to Dalla Torre, superstitious, a tormentor of animals 50) and a braggart, who has a pronounced penchant to see bizarrely formed creatures 51).
With regard to dragons, Dalla Torre concludes they were only exaggerated descriptions of everyday snakes and lizards and he sets this explanation against Leydig's 52) suggestion, that not all saurians might have become extinct before the arrival of man and that the memory of them might 'have been conserved in the spirit of the myth until today'.
When it comes to the Tatzelwurm Dalla Torre cites a number of cases, scarcely actually discussing or evaluating one of them individually. He concludes that the Tatzelwurm must be a mythical construct assembled from the components of several animals. He suggests this question should be approached using all the literature and all myths from all valleys and countries. "Until then" he writes, "we can state only one thing for sure: 'Among the animals that are, there are many that are not'" (Dal/223-224) 53).
D o b l h o f f 1 8 9 5
In 1895, a Tatzelwurm article by Doblhoff 54), appeared in the first volume of a newly founded periodical for Austrian folklore (Dob1). Doblhoff refrains from any statements discriminating against the rural population 55). After referring to historic cases he quotes more recent ones but, like Dalla Torre he does not evaluate them individually. He quotes and partly discusses 56), known snakes, lizards, woodchucks, otters and weasels as explanations for Tatzelwurm sightings and he mentions also Studer's Bipes caniculatus (sic). Admitting that the 'thick, cat-like head' often described argues against the snake (Dob/155), he plays for a moment with the assumption that larger saurians may still have existed in historic times (Dob/156/160), that perhaps isolated specimens of the giant salamander (Megalobatrachus) could still be alive (Dob/156) or that there may be an animal 'like Bipes or Seps, but dying out' (Dob/160). On the other hand he thinks the cat-comparison as well as the name 'Büffel' may point toward a mammal. While he excludes the polecat as an explanation, the woodchuck is regarded a more likely candidate in some cases with the reservation that the woodchuck cannot jump and in Styria where a number of Tatzelwurm reports came from there were then no woodchucks (Dob/157) 57). The otter is also considered as it crawls like a snake (the otter comes 'like a black worm', Kob/341) and on snow and ice it glides. It can appear at considerable altitudes when passing from one water to another 58). Often it is seen standing upright for some time and if catched it spits and fights to the last gasp (Dob/157-158). The behavior of the weasel is similar but in addition it is considered very aggressive, attacking sometimes humans by itself (Dob/158-159).
Doblhoff finally concludes the cause for Tatzelwurm reports may be several, known animals which, under the conditions of high altitudes, hunger, thirst and after long marches, are transformed into mythical creatures by the percipient, when 'the fear of death, resting in the depths of the soul, breaks out with elementary force, like the electric current of an accumulator' (Dob/161). Although this explanation sounds awfully modern it is actually not very convincing as the majority of the observations were made below 2000 meters (see catalogue), i e hardly at levels, where people begin to see things, and exhaustion, hunger or thirst can scarcely be inferred from any of the reports.
Another of Doblhoff's psychological arguments holds that people are first shocked by the sight of, say, a simple snake. While running away shame comes up and in order to haveÊan excuse for his cowardice, "the reporter needs the exaggeration, transforming a little snake of 50 centimeters into a 'Wurm' as tall as a dog and as long as a room" (Dob/162). Unfortunately he does not explain why a witness should tell such an occurence at all. He himself is not consequent when he writes on the same page that if one had shot a supposed Tatzelwurm and then noticed his error he would have been careful not to tell of his delusion.
Doblhoff's most intimate thoughts are revealed by his final statement that the Tatzelwurm 'certainly belongs in the field of folkloristic research, like pathological phenomena in the body must be studied by the anthropologist' (Dob/163).
1 9 2 5 - 1 9 2 7
Aside from minor communications Doblhoff's article seems to have been the last word for quite a time. From 1925 to 1927 the 'Tiroler Heimatblätter', Innsbruck, a monthly on matters of local history and geography, published four articles on the topic (Fil1, Fil2, Gra, Sin1), but no debate ensued.
V e n z m e r and F l u c h e r 1930-1932
In 1930 Dr. Gerhard Venzmer, a regular contributor to the well-known German popular scientific periodical 'Kosmos' also took up the topic (Ven), with the result that the editors received an 'extremely large number of communications and manuscripts' (Flu1/118), which were turned over to the agricultural engineer Hans Flucher in Saalfelden, Austria. In 1931 and 1932 the 'Kosmos' published three short articles by Flucher (Flu1, Flu2, Flu3) who, after comparing the pros and cons thought it right 'to adhere to a true core in the Tatzelwurm question'.
T h e ' S c h l e r n' 1 9 3 1 - 1 9 3 4
At about the same time the discussion was also taken up by the 'Schlern', Bozen, a periodical of much the same kind as the 'Tiroler Heimatblätter' mentioned above. Actually the 'Schlern' must be considered the most extensive reference on Tatzelwurm matters.
M e u s b u r g e r 1 9 3 1
After some communications by readers an article by Dr. Karl Meusburger 59) was published in December 1931 (Meu2), discussing 45 cases. For 16 cases he proposes known mammals like weasels, ermines, martens and otters as an explanation. In order to reconcile the reported size and characteristics of mammals with the likewise observed reptilian skin structure, Meusburger resorts to the assumption, that hairless mammals suffering from ichthyosis and/or skin eruptions might sometimes have been taken for Tatzelwurms (Meu2/468/470). 60)
Meusburger finally concludes that 13 cases at least justify the assumption of the existence, in isolated places of the Alps, of an animal unknown to science, rare indeed and perhaps even dying out and belonging to the reptiles (Meu2/478). Obviously with regard to Doblhoff's psychological explanations and Dalla Torre's devastating criticism of the alpine inhabitant's mentality he rejects the attempt to debunk the whole topic as a product of fear and superstition. He remarks that mythical and superstitious traditions concerning the Tatzelwurm don't necessarily argue against its real existence, as 'nobody will deny the existence of the Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great, just because he became the center of a large cycle of legends as Theodoric of Verona' (Meu2/477).
F l u c h e r 1 9 3 2
A year later, in December 1932 the 'Schlern' carried an article by. Hans Flucher (Flu4). Flucher corrects some of Meusburger's errors, adding 10 cases already published in the 'Kosmos' and 10 completely new ones. He agrees with Meusburger's explanation that hairless mustelines may account for some reports, but he points out that if this was the explanation for all cases, this would long have been recognized by the ancestors (Flu4/507). Against the objection, that the Tatzelwurm couldn't have been overlooked so long by science if it was real, he argues as follows:
- the Tatzelwurm is an extremely rare animal, 'more extinct than dying out',
- it is very shy and lives preferably in caves,
- the rural people are either ignorant regarding the scientific value of such an animal and don't preserve its carcass or they don't chase it because they believe this would invoke misfortune and disaster,
- the methodics of Tatzelwurm research is inadequate. Significant reports are explained away by impossible arguments or ridiculed (Flu4/507-508).
N i c o l u s s i 1 9 3 3
The next to enter the Tatzelwurm scene was Jakob Nicolussi, a retired headmaster. He was the first and only researcher to attempt a sort of taxonomical or statistical analysis of the reported characteristics (Nic). Nicolussi considers 21 descriptors like size, shape, number of paws, tail, etc. and concludes that the Tatzelwurm could be a lizard of the family Helodermatidae (Nic/124), therefore proposing for it the name 'Heloderma europaeum' (Nic/126). Hairs and bristles observed in some cases are explained by him as vegetable fibres or hairs of mammals taken up by the lizard when crawling through underbrush etc. (Nic/121). It seems that Nicolussi was strongly biassed in favour of a quadruped, because his conclusion is not supported by his own statistics. Among the 65 cases presented by Meusburger and Flucher he lists 33 where two paws have been observed but only 14 with four paws. Admittedly however, Nicolussi presents a good case in favour of his hypothesis, provided that all observations of only two paws could be discarded as faulty.
M e u s b u r g e r 1 9 3 4
In 1934 the 'Schlern' carried an article by Meusburger (Meu3), adding another 20 cases. He rejects some of the earlier ones - not always quite reasonably as it seems 61). As he has no doubts, that the Tatzelwurm ' if it exists at all' must be a vertebrate and among the known species (living or extinct) there is not a single one with more than four extremities, he specifically discards all reports of more than four paws (Meu3/65-66). Then he renews his conclusion that the 'genuine Tatzelwurm' is a reptile, 30 to 60 cms long, lizard-like, with two fore legs and 'perhaps hind legs too' (Meu3/71), closing with the words: 'I can only hardly, yes, very hardly indeed imagine that all testimonies submitted are to be discarded each and all' (Meu3/85).
S t e i n b ö c k 1 9 3 4
Contrary to Meusburger however, the zoologist Professor Steinböck 62), saw no difficulties in doing exactly this when his views were published in the 'Schlern' (Ste). Examining the 85 cases presented he concludes that 'there is neither the slightes direct evidence for the existence of the Tatzelwurm, nor a probable argument for it' (Ste/467) and he calls Nicolussi's Heloderma europeum a 'meaningless conception' (Ste/468).
Steinböck's methodics in dealing with the TWH rests largely on the premise that 'simple people' are unable to observe and report correctly. He points out that among the reporters of the 85 cases there are only 4 civil servants, 1 engineer and 3 teachers, while the "overwhelming majority are 'simple-minded natives of the Alps'" (Ste/453-454) 63). Thus 43% of the cases are explained as known snakes (Ste/454-458), 27% are considered inconclusive because of missing data or legendary details (Ste/461-463), and 7% are rejected as worthless, incredible or as fabrication (Ste/463-464). The rest is explained by known amphibeans, lizards and mammals (Ste/458-461). Not a single case the benefit of the doubt is granted.
Steinböck claims that 'horrible' snakes are easily overestimated in size, but the two experiences related by him to prove the point cannot be considered valid. Once he and his friend saw, while skiing, what they believed to be a woodchuck running across a snow-field. At close range they recognized it as a snow-mouse. In another case he and twoÊother mountaineers had thought they could see in the fog, at a distance of 30 paces a person atop a mountain but it was a root stock only 35 cms high (Ste/454-455). It is well known that size estimates are often erroneous when the object in question is observed against an uniformely colored, diffuse background. But Tatzelwurm observations have usually been made on sunny days against a background of plants, and rocks and at distances of a few meters so that false estimates of the above sort are hardly possible.
In other respects it is equally difficult to duplicate Steinböck's reasoning. Case (1893.s. Stodertal) for exampleÊis explained as a viper although the girl, who could view the dead animal calmly, spoke of feet like a that of a lizard. But this is simply brushed aside with the strange remark: 'Without hesitation I take upon myself the reproach of being undiscerning, as legs have also been observed, apparently even four' (Ste/456). The witnesses in case (1908.s. Kufstein) were apparently never interviewed by the critic. Yet he labels the case an 'impertinent fabrication', because the witnesses didn't make it public immediately and on the assumption a reptile of the alleged size couldn't live unseen near Kufstein (Ste/464). Only in case (1929.05.l) the witness was interviewed. Steinböck considered him very imaginative and suggested that he might have disturbed a snake while eating a toad or a frog, but the witness stuck to his assertion. The latter's original statement, that he had distinctly seen fore legs, was ignored.
Finally Flucher and Meusburger are criticized for having selected 'only those reports that can at least to some degree stand a scientific test'. Thus 'the outsider gets the impression, that there must be some truth in the matter'. If however, 'all cases, even the scientifically most impossible ones are considered, then you soon become aware that Tatzelwurm research is not primarily a task for the zoologist, but for the folklorist' (Ste/465) 64). Unfortunately Meusburger, Flucher and Nicolussi were never given an opportunity to reply. In a final clause the editor announced categorically that with Steinböck's article the 'Schlern' would definitely close the matter. Fourteen years later the topic was taken up again 'at the expressive request of the editor' (Tra1/250) and from 1948 to now about ten new reports were published. There was, however, never again such an extensive discussion as in the thirties.
L a t e s t N e w s
In its October 1982 issue the 'Kosmos' reprinted an one page excerpt of one of Flucher's articles, remarking that "the 'Kosmos' won't dare to repeat the question (concerning the Tatzelwurm) once more today. Who knows, what reports would still reach us even now!" (Kos). Two years ago a local Tyrolean paper carried a report about a teacher, who has apparently revived Studer's Bipes hypothesis (DH).
C L O S I N G
It is well possible that by the negative attidude of some scientists a chance was missed to verify in the eleventh hour the existence of a rare animal already dying out. Perhaps they cannot be reproached with this in view of their deeply rooted, insurmountable disregard for the testimonies of the country folk and their ever present fear of being taken in by some hoaxer and then being ridiculed by the colleagues. It seems, that the whole affair was very probably also a social and even a sort of ideological confrontation, the opponents of the TWH considering themselves as a sort of standard bearers of enlightenment, smelling antiquated superstitions or even damnable obscurantism behind matters not easily amenable to scientific methodics. The proponents, in turn, were largely educationalists and clerics, a category of persons always committed to the preservation of traditional beliefs. Considering this and the zeitgeist of the era, the development of the Tatzelwurm debate was at least to some degree preprogrammed.
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