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See cowbell (instrument) for the percussion instrument.

A Simmentaler Fleckvieh wearing a Trychel

A cow bell is a bell worn by freely roaming livestock, so they don't run awry or wander off without being heard. While bells were used on various types of animals, they are typically referred to as "cowbells" due to their extensive use with cattle.¹

A trychel (Alemannic Trychle, also spelled Trichel, Treichel, Treichle) is a large cow bell traditionally in use in Switzerland. As opposed to regular cast metal bells, trychlen are made of hammered sheet metal. This results in a less clean, clanking sound, but at the same time results in a bell that is less heavy and thus easier to carry.

In Southern Germany, the term is Almglocke.

Trychel customs

Trychel processions play an important part in Swiss (Alemannic) folklore.

• Oberhasli: Ubersitz
• Küssnacht: Chlausenjagd, a custom related to the Wild Hunt with Saint Nicholas replacing Wotan.
• Urnäsch: Sylvesterkläuse
• Laupen: Archetringele
• Einsiedeln: Einsiedeln carnival has the characters «Trichler» and «Ustrichler» bearing Trycheln.

These customs are stronlgy associated with Perchta and the Wild Hunt taking place during winter, near solstice.

History

In the Early Middle Ages, bells were mostly reserved for religious purposes. In the High Middle Ages to the 14th century, they became popular also in secular pageantry such as knightly tournaments. The earliest attestation of bells used for livestock dates to the late 14th to early 15th century (Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch s.v. "Kuhschelle" points to a 1410 mention in a Frankfurt archive; the OED lists 1440 as the earliest attestation of bell-wether, the leading sheep of a flock, on whose neck a bell is hung, and attributes the phrase "to bear the bell" in the sense "to take the first place", originally referring to the leading cow or sheep of a drove or flock to Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, 1374). In the 15th century, a cow bell was worn only by the best and leading piece of livestock, and the wider distribution of the bell worn by livestock is a gradual process of the Early Modern period. Rabelais in the mid 16th century in his Gargantua and Pantagruel makes this explicit, stating that

"such was the custom, to appear on the field wearing jingling garment, as the high priest wears when entering the sacristy; since the tournaments, that is, the contest of nobility, have been abolished, carters have taken the bells and hung them on their hacks" (cited after Grimm, s.v. "Schelle").

Swiss folklore reflects a period when a great Trychel was a rare and much-coveted item. Thus, a legend of the Simmental tells how a young cowherd strays inside a mountain, and by a beautiful woman is offered the choice between a treasure of gold coins, a golden Trychel, and the fairy herself chooses the Trychel (Meinrad Lienert, Schweizer Sagen und Heldengeschichten, Stuttgart 1915. [1])

References

• Robert Schwaller, Treicheln, Schellen, Glocken (1996; 2005 addendum).

See also

• Fasnacht

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 27 November 2008, at 03:38.

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