Where do we even begin? When recounting the legends and myths and strange stories that entwine themselves around the Alpe di Siusi, it's hard to find an end so quickly. There are simply too many. Perhaps we should start with the question of "why". Why is it so beautiful here? Why does it feel as if you have found a last piece of paradise on earth? And why the heck does a pleasant shiver of happiness sometimes unexpectedly run through your limbs up here on the Alpe di Siusi? Pragmatic contemporaries would perhaps talk about geographical peculiarities, about the effect of the fresh mountain air on our brain...
El tyémp impermetú
But maybe it also has something to do with this strange prophecy: "El tyémp impermetú" or "le tomp empormetü": This is how many old Ladin tales end about an auspicious time that is supposed to come soon or sometime here on the Alpe di Siusi. Many professors have cut their teeth on these words, which sound almost like a magic formula. The only thing that is clear so far is that it must have something to do with a pagan sanctuary. King Laurin and a knight in shining armour always have a hand in it. Some even think it is the minnesinger Oskar von Wolkenstein. For when he appears in full costume on the Alpe di Siusi, it is said to be the turn of the times. Or rather: King Laurin's kingdom, complete with rose garden, golden pheasants and fuss and bother, will rise again. To be honest, we don't know whether we really want that, because then the Alpe di Siusi would be unrecognisable. Instead of the rugged mountain peaks, there would be rose bushes and where the alpine pasture now stretches out, there would be nothing but dense forest.
Careful with the wishes.
A funny idea, isn't it? Perhaps that is the moral of this story: all that glitters is not gold. Not even knights' armour. And: be careful with your wishes. You never know how they will come true. Who knows: if King Laurin and his legendary entourage decide at some point to wander from the other world into the here and now and see the Alpe di Siusi and our Zallinger - perhaps they will simply stop casting spells on our homeland. Because even without rose vines and golden feathered animals, it is fabulously beautiful here.