Why is Bern, Switzerland, named such?
My daughter (who lives in Bern) told me that Duke Berthold V, Duke of Zahringen, wanted to establish a township along the
river Aure on a level ground, allowing for transportation and commerce.
Duke Berthold V declared during a hunt that the city would be
named after the first animal he shot (with an arrow, of course). Drew the string, let fly the arrow, and hit a
rabbit. His fellow huntsmen retrieved
it, Duke told them to get rid of it.
He drew his bow again, let fly the arrow, and he hit a
bear. Much better, so the town was named
“Bern or Berne” which means something like bear.
Let's expand
the story with much more elaboration and some plot changes:
1) Duke Jim was married to a lovely woman, Adele, whom Jim’s
brother Bob dearly adored. Duke Jim and
fellows of ruling class ventured out on a hunt, ready to kill just about
anything. Jim’s brother Bob attended,
apparently with great reluctance since he really wanted to attend to Adele’s
needs.
Duke Jim had also declared that first animal killed would be the name of the new city.
Legend worth reading
Through the rustling shrubs charged a huge boar, and,
alas, Duke Jim was gored horribly, dying on the spot.
Bob became so excited that he also declared the animal thing, and actually happened to kill a rabbit, but new-Duke Bob declared they should wait a while, before the naming the town Tote kaninchen or Dead rabbit.
Bob became new Duke Bob and married Jim's sobbing widow, Adele, and became step-father to her son,
Tom.
What if we expanded some more with a whole lot of elaboration and plot changes:
2) Before heading out to kill animals with Duke Bob, his brother Kevin swore to his now lover Adele that he would take care of this any problems Adele had with Duke Bob, who turned out to be a lousy person all around.
Jim’s
son Tom was spying on them both, and realized bad things were going to happen.
Which they did, bad things did happen to Duke Bob, something perhaps involving poisoning or maybe a big falling cornice from the castle. Tom, being a minor, was passed over, and Kevin became Duke Kevin.
This and that happened, a few years passed, and Duke Kevin led his troupe of hunters ventured out into the woods to hunt, Tom joining them.
Kevin pronounced that the first animal he
hit would be the name of his new town.
Unfortunately, Kevin felt a bit wheezy and fell to the ground dead, stone
dead.
All wept, the death declared to be a heart attack. All were ready to go home.
BUT Tom strode to his uncle’s body. “We must honor my uncle Duke Kevin's final
desire! And, I, as the new Duke, will
do so.”
Tom was never good at archery, but he drew back the
arrow, and zip-zap, off it went, getting lost in woodland. While all were searching for the arrow, Tom's squire, Richard, picked up the bow and followed after.
Richard heard growling in the shrubs, took aim, and hit something.
Richard ran to the sound, finding a bear, dead as dead
could be. “Here, my Lord! Here is your arrow!”
Thus, a new city was founded and named Bern (or bear).
Expanding this anymore could grow beyond anyone’s
attention span.
My apologies for length of this post.
