Chapter Teirtu's Harp to Tellus's Son of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

This story of William Tell is told of a host of persons. For example: Egil, the brother of Wayland, was commanded by king Nidung to shoot an apple from the head of his son. Egil, like Tell, took two arrows, and being asked why, replied, as Tell did to Gessler, “To shoot thee, tyrant, if I fail in my task.”

A similar story is told of Olaf and Eindridi, in Norway. King Olaf dared Eindridi to a trial of skill. An apple was placed on the head of Eindridi’s son, and the king shooting at it grazed the boy’s head, but the father carried off the apple clean. Eindridi had concealed an arrow to aim at the king, if the boy had been injured.

Another Norse tale is told of Hemingr and Harald son of Sigurd (1066). After various trials of skill, Harald told Hemingr to shoot a nut from the head of Bjorn, his young brother. In this he succeeded, not with an arrow, but with a spear.

A similar tale is related of Geyti, son of Aslak, and the same Harald. The place of trial was the Faroe Isles. In this case also it was a nut placed on the head of Bjorn.

Saxo Grammaticus tells nearly the same story of Toki, the Danish hero, and Harald; but in this trial of skill Toki killed Harald.—Danorum Regum Heroumque Historia (1514).

Reginald Scot says that Puncher shot a penny placed on his son’s head, but had another arrow ready to slay the duke Remgrave who had set him the task (1584).

N.B.—It is said of Domitian, the Roman emperor, that if a boy held up his hands with the fingers spread, he could shoot eight arrows in succession through the spaces without touching one of the fingers.

The story is told of Korroglu, the famous Persian bandit poet. When the lad Demurchy Oglou applied to be admitted into his band, Kurroglu commanded him to sit on the ground in the Persian manner. He then placed an apple on the lad’s head with a ring from his own finger on the top of it. The bandit shot sixty arrows through the ring. As the lad neither winced nor changed colour, he was instantly admitted into the band.

William of Cloudesley, to show the king his skill in shooting, bound his eldest son to a stake, put an apple on his head, and at the distance of 300 feet, cleft the apple in two without touching the boy.

I have a son is seven year old,
He is to me full dear.
I will hym tye to a stake …
And lay an apple upon his head,
And go six score paces hym fro,
And I myselfe with a broad arrow
Will cleve the apple in two.
   —Percy: Reliques.

(Similar feats of skill are told of Adam Bell and Clym of the Clough.)

Historic facts in confirmation of Tell’s exploit. In Altorf market-place, the spot is still pointed out where Tell shot the apple from his son’s head, and Kissling’s statue has four reliefs on the pedestal: (1) Tell shooting the apple; (2) Tell leaping from the boat; (3) Gessler’s death; and (4) the death of Tell at Schachenbach. Of course, there are no proofs of the historic fact, any more than the numerous traditions and monuments of Romulus are a proof that such a person ever existed, or Tennyson’s Idylls of king Arthur and his knights of the Table-Round.

See Roman fire in Hampden’s bosom swell,
And fate and freedom in the shaft of Tell.
   —Campbell: Pleasures of Hope, i. (1799).

(The legend of William Tell has furnished Florian with the subject of a novel in French (1788); A. M. Lemierre with his tragedy of Guillaume Tell (1766); Schiller with a tragedy in German, Wilhelm Tell (1804); Knowles with a tragedy in English, William Tell (1840); and Rossini with the opera of Guglielmo Tell, in Italian, 1829.)