Elodie Moos

Sculpture path

The witch of Isérables

The legend of The witch of Isérables

In the last century lived a very mysterious and quite mischievous woman. The 'witch', as she was known, was accused by the villagers of all kinds of wrongdoings - avalanches, landslides, animal illnesses and epidemics were all blamed on her evil spells. But the rumours went further still - it was said that the wretched soul turned into a wolf to attack sheep, roaming all the way into the mountains of Isérables, Nendaz, Bagnes, and Hérens.

One autumn day, the wolf ventured into an alpine pasture at Bagnes and was shot by a hunter, resulting in a wound that the hunter assumed would be fatal - but in fact the wolf was only wounded on the right flank and somehow managed to get onto the easy and winding pathways back to the valley of Isérables.

Winter came along. The hunter was also a tailor, and as tailors were rare at Isérables he was in the habit of staying there for quite a long time until he had clothed the entire village. As It happened, one day a woman that he had seen before and who had appeared to be lame since the previous autumn came along to see him. As was customary, he lodged at her house and then they gradually fell in love and got married.

The woman complained of extreme pain in the right leg right from the first night and held the husband responsible for it, while he protested his innocence in vain. One morning though, the tailor found upon waking up that instead of a woman laying his arms there was a wolf - with a badly scarred wound on the right flank. Only then did he realise that he had married the witch of Isérables!

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