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The legend of the border
According to legend, a rooster decided the course of the border between Glarus and Uri – and the border between the two cantons is indeed curious. The Urnerboden belongs to the canton of Uri, even though it lies geographically on the Glarus side and can only be reached easily from Uri in snow-free high summer. This legend tells how the border came about:
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Once upon a time, the people of Uri and Glarus quarrelled bitterly over their border, insulting and harming each other every day. Then the elders decided: at the equinox, each side should send out a strong and sure-footed mountaineer early in the morning, as soon as the rooster crowed, and each should run towards the other side. Wherever the two men met, the border would be fixed, regardless of which side ended up with the smaller share.
The runners were chosen, and great care was taken to keep a rooster that would not oversleep and would announce the morning as early as possible. The people of Uri took a rooster, put it in a basket and gave it little to eat and drink, believing hunger and thirst would wake it earlier. The people of Glarus, on the other hand, fed and fattened their rooster so that it could greet the morning happily and proudly, thinking this the best plan.
When the appointed autumn day came, the Altdorf rooster crowed as soon as dawn broke. The Uri runner set off happily towards the border. In Linthal, however, the sky was already glowing red, the stars had faded, but the rooster was still sleeping peacefully. The whole village stood sadly around the rooster, but they did not want to give up hope and did not dare to wake it. At last it flapped its wings and crowed. But it would be hard for the Glarus runner to make up the Uri runner's lead! He ran anxiously, looking up towards the ridge. There he saw the other man striding along the crest and already coming down the mountain; but the Glarus runner ran as fast as he could to save as much land as possible for his people.
Soon the men met, and the man from Uri called out: «Here is the border!» – «Neighbour,» said the man from Glarus sadly, «be fair and give me a little more of the pasture you have won!»
The man from Uri refused, but the man from Glarus would not let up until he took pity and said: «I will give you as much as you can carry me uphill on your neck.» So the honest herdsman from Glarus took him on his back and climbed a little further up the rocks. He managed a few more steps, but suddenly his breath gave out and he fell dead to the ground.
In Uri there was great joy at the victory. The people of Glarus honoured their herdsman and kept his loyalty in lasting memory. Today, at the spot to which the Glarus man carried the victorious Uri man, you will find the border stream with the boundary stone.
