Writer and expert of the mountains’ folk traditions from South Tyrol, Bruna Dal Lago Veneri illustrates the characteristics connecting local childfree women. Whether they are saints, traditional figures or women with a name and surname, they all own exceptional gifts, willing to grow spiritually but careful to safeguard their phisicality.
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BRUNA DAL LAGO VENERI: «First of all, I am grateful you called me for a film where I don’t really seem to fit in, since, being a mother of four, I won’t make a good impression for your things… Anyway, my work, a work that I have been doing for over 60 years, almost 70, not far from it, is focussed on researching unique female figures.
In folk tradition, especially for my last research about saints, which I have published not long ago, I came across some very interesting women, women who have somehow rejected, because they had to, their female condition.
Or rather what traditionally is considered the logical female role, which is being bearers of new lives, to dedicate themselves to something higher in this case I talk about the saints. There are these saints who, in order not to be chosen as wives, for people who they did not consider worthy of themselves and furthermore, not worthy enough to make them renounce to a higher call, such as being married to the heavenly father. They try to transform their physical appearance and look dreadful, trying to pass as men, and as such of course, they would not be not only desired, but clearly not married.
There are many of these saints in our folk tradition. One very popular also here in Bozen, where there is a beautiful statue, is this Kummerniss, the saint with a beard, who grows a long beard in order to look like a man. The story then is much more complex, but she is one of them. But there are many more, who, to avoid marriage, they go as far as becoming martyrs, to avoid having children, more than marriage. They go as far as martyrdom.
And we have some very nice folk songs, all very amusing. I could even sing you one, where Saint Catherine says; “Saint Catherine was the daughter of a king, her father was pagan, her mother was not, one day he found her praying…” Eventually he has her killed, this is the secular version of Saint Catherine’s story.
Saint Catherine can also be Saint Margareth, or any other name of these saints, like Saint Giuliana, of any age, the story is always the same: they get betrothed to a king who was thought to be pagan, also the father is pagan. They, in order to protect their Catholic faith who has been transmitted by the mother, through a nurturer, through… there are so many sotries, but in the end they all prefer to die therefore becoming martyrs and then saints. These are the saints of our folk tradition.
And there are so many beautiful, amusing songs, because these names, like Margareta or Gretel, they are traditional names in our population. And tell someone she is a “Gretel”, means she is a girl with the braids, who is very committed, who doesn’t let her parents rule her life. In short, they are women with very strong characters. And then the various Catherines, here known also as Kate, Katrinchen, and so on… They are martyred just like Saint Catherine, on a spiked wheel. And this continuous rotating is very interesting, giving a new meaning to this wheel, in the sense of life’s opportunities and the search for not-so common opportunities, not-so common women.
They didn’t want children because, for them the very act of bearing children, that is one of the theories, this act would diminish their strength, their ability to influence, mainly, strangely enough, to have an impact on the forces of nature. They are, deep down, somehow linked to ancient tradition, they are sibyls, they are creatures of a different kind, very maternal towards the whole humankind, but not willing to share their lives with their own children.
This is roughly the theory behind these saints, there are more than one.
I have already talked about Saint Catherine, Saint Giuliana is also a very unique saint, who is very popular and common in our ladin valleys. This is Saint Giuliana then there is Margareta, and many others, like Barbara and the tower. The story of Barbara, locked up in the tower… She is also a figure present in the Tarots, with the same denomination, the destruction of one’s self through this multiplying, somehow, which must be a kind of multiplying considered valid, but in a different way: in a spiritual rather than in a carnal way. Roughly this is how it is.
These unique figures who want to dedicate their integrity to other things, in this case they are saints and they devote themselves to religion.
But in our region this happens also in different ways, for example there are great sportswomen who, in order to protect their strength and power in sports, decide they can indeed marry and live wth someone, but won’t have children. One of these women, if I can mention her, is Paula Wisinger, married to a great mountain climber, who has indeed a truly interesting life.
Paula Wisinger was born on 27 January 1907 and dies at 93 or 94 years old in 2001. Her physical competence as a climber stands out even among the greatest women climbers. Many things have been dedicated to her, she runs a hotel with her husband, there are so many stories, but the most interesting trait which somehow brings us back to what I was saying about the saints. In 1935, there is a very important competition, the Mezzalama, an important ski competition. She is a divine skier, not just a good one, and wants to participate. Women are not allowed to compete, so what does our smart Paola do? She dresses up as a man, competes and wins, but when she wins, they realize that she is a woman and disqualify her. After all, I find all this pretty funny. Even if it is a modern thing, not so recent, but modern. Look, I couldn’t say, I know some sportswomen who were really great despite having children even more so, they never lost their physical ability and other who haven’t.
She was like this, but you have to think about those years, she was born in 1907 therefore she grows and becomes important in the first 40-50 years of the 1900s. She dies in 2002, very old, her husband had already died.
Anyway, surely she is part of that group of women, who were feminists ahead of their time, if you like, but strongly believing of the “wholeness” of their physicality, not allowing any “cracks”, in Paola’s own words, not allowing any “cracks” whatsoever letting something in from outside that would affect her physical strength. It may sound strange, told in this way, but more or less that is what it is.
Here we have a small variation which I consider important: these women can be “salighe” can also be those called wilde Frauen, wild women, in a manner of speaking, because they live in the wilderness, not for any other reason.
These women have the capability to be very close to all the others that they consider as children, although they never gave birth. They are very much women of the old matriarchy, women who live their role as women, very deeply, as a Great Mother not mother in the physical sense of the word. They are the guardians of the Alps, the guardians of nature, guardians of children and so on. These figures are extremely interesting, and they are divided, at least in popular culture, they are divided in zones that they protect, favour, govern.
There are the “anguane” creatures of the waters, they are beautiful creatures who are not the forerunners but the followers of the mermaids, who are very beautiful, with long green hair. They are the creatures of the waters, and here there is a very interesting variation, about these “anguane” who save after all, from the waters, women who in the ancient judicial tradition the infanticides were drowned. And these “anguane” save these women, and turn them into “anguane” as well, keeping them in the circle. I find this dreadful but also incredibly interesting.
And then there are the “selvane” inhabiting the woods, or the “vivene” coming from the root word “Wasser”, they are kind of “anguane”. There are these creatures who somehow are the colonizers genes, they are the guardian of nature, they act as mediators between the world of nature and that of humankind. Their figure is very open, I have met one of the most important women of this kind.
It’s my friend Carlotta Berghena she considered herself a bregostana and she was the one who truly opened up my eyes over the most interesting and obscure traditions of the Mountain Kingdom. She was a wonderful woman, with eyes like fire, great mother, as she had adopted many children although she never had any of her own.
I believe that our culture, the mountain culture, is a culture that had… I use this word again… as a mother, culture as a mother, had many religious forms. One is a Christianity that killed, literally killed, and tried to efface previous cultures. The other is this escape towards Protestantism, just think of the peasants revolt and all, protestantism in our land has had a great impact, beceause after all, Martin Luther is round the corner, so through this…
Let’s say this diversity in faiths and religion, although all very committed, except Protestantism, not so much, more so Catholicism, to keep women out of these important discourses, considering them good only for procreation, clearly procreation itself puts them in an awkward position.
Meaning, talking about procreation makes them feel uneasy. I believe this might be possible, I can’t be sure, but I think it is. Among peasant women there has always been a bond, and also quite strong. I believe that… there has been there is also a proverb, “you don’t discuss this with men”, for example. But among women, I don’t think, I think there was somehow… The number of children in a farmstead means more arms good for work, that’s why a woman with no children is considered… Unless, like some who I have known personally they are not exceptional women able to do other things, such as herbs pickers, animals healers. In that case no, but, they are exceptional women, outside the normal group. Otherwise, certainly. So, women with no children is not viewed just as the other women, this is the way it is in peasant’s culture.»
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