Summer Salon: Tales from the Sarganserland

For centuries the folklore of the Swiss Alps has captured the imagination: cautionary tales and legends of castles and deep forests where giants roam freely and sinister black hounds lurk in wait for unsuspecting villagers walking home. Explore this otherworldly era with us in the Athenaeum garden on July 2 at 6pm.

As part of their U.S. book launch, Rachel TonThat and Tobias Bärtsch will read from Die Alp an sich, their bilingual collection that translates folklore from the Sarganserland region in eastern Switzerland into English and high German for the first time. The book dwells on these stories and how they have evolved over time, pairing their retellings with historical source texts and contextual explanations.

Following their reading, Aida Feng, Visiting Assistant Professor of German at the College of the Holy Cross, will moderate a discussion with TonThat and Bärtsch about the reframing of these tales and the evolution of the project from a simple translation into a feminist and environmentally conscious engagement with the source materials.

Read more about the presenters at salemathenaeum.net.

Tickets: Free to Members | $20 Non-members | Card to Culture