History Literature / Sennentuntschi

"Sennentuntschi"[[note]]"Sennen" are herdsmen that spend the entire summer on the Alps. The meaning of "tuntschi" has been suggested to be "doll" or to relate to the toggel, an Alpine nightmare spirit.[[/note]] is one of many names for a family of Alpine folktales regarding a maltreated doll that [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters takes revenge on her creators]]. The specific home territory ranges from Germany's Bavaria down to the border area of Switzerland, Liechenstein, and Austria, and ends in Italy's South Tyrol. The oldest known written version is the 1839 poem "Die Drei Melker", squarely associating "Sennentuntschi" with {{Romanticism}}. Among the tale's signature components is the flayed sinner, which is a rare FairyTale motif. Stories other than "Sennentuntschi" that utilize it have the [[{{Satan}} Devil]] be the one to either flay or otherwise be promised the skin of a sinner.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/liechensteintourismwebsite_sennenpuppe.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[Literature/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer She knows what they did this summer.]]]]

''"Den Ersten find' i,[[note]]The first I'll find,[[/note]]\\

!!Tropes included

* ReligiousHorror: It's woven into the groundwork of the tale what with the un-Christian-like behavior of the herdsmen, but some versions call special attention to it. In "Die Unze", a priest needs to get involved to banish the doll. In "Die Schintemunt-Alm", it's the fact that the men don't respect food as God's gift by play-feeding a doll that causes it to come to life. In "Die Puppe auf Klariden", the leader likens his creation of the doll to God's creation of humans and declares it not that big a deal.

"Sennentuntschi"[[note]]"Sennen" are herdsmen that spend the entire summer on the Alps. The meaning of "tuntschi" has been suggested to be "doll" or to relate to the toggel, an Alpine nightmare spirit.[[/note]] is one of many names for a family of Alpine folktales regarding a maltreated doll that [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters takes revenge on her creators]]. The specific home territory ranges from Germany's Bavaria down to the border area of Switzerland, Liechenstein, and Austria, and ends in Italy's South Tyrol. The oldest known written version is the 1839 poem "Die Drei Melker", squarely associating "Sennentuntschi" with {{Romanticism}}.

The key elements of the tale are the maltreatment of a doll, the doll coming to life, and the doll taking revenge. Everything else varies. For instance, the herdsmen may feed the doll sincerely, but they may also gleefully smear food in her face challenging her to eat. And that's only one form of violence the doll is subjected to. Variants may omit the sexual element and make the other abuse and/or abandonment the source of the doll's anger. Among these are tales that feature a male doll instead. The murder of the chosen herdsman may be decribed, in which case it's mentioned that the doll flayed him alive. It's also sometimes so that she injures but not kills another herdsman that treated her badly. Lastly, while by far most stories identify the men as herdsmen or similar livestock-related workers, they may also be hunters.

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: The doll is made to represent a human. However, the doll is occasionally associated with human-like mountain spirits such as the toggel and the almputz. So rather than a regular human simulacrum, she's sometimes a mountain spirit simulacrum.

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The sexual abuse the doll undergoes is a specific element among all the other (potential) maltreatment. It may occur before she comes alive and it's "only" retroactively rape, but the rape is portrayed as a factor in her coming to life in the first place. Also, in "Die Unze", the doll is made because, due to previous bad experiences, no woman wanted to go up there with the men again.

The key elements of the tale are the maltreatment of a doll, the doll coming to life, and the doll taking revenge. Everything else varies. For instance, the herdsmen may feed the doll sincerely, but they may also gleefully smear food in her face challenging her to eat. Sometimes, the doll is explicitly beaten. Variants may omit the sexual element and make the aforementioned abuse alone or the fact the herdsmen were to leave her behind the source of the doll's anger. Among these are tales that feature a male doll instead. The murder of the chosen herdsman may be decribed, in which case it's mentioned that the doll flayed him alive. It's also sometimes so that she injures but not kills another herdsman that treated her badly. Lastly, while by far most stories identify the men as herdsmen or similar livestock-related workers, they may also be hunters.

* RuleOfThree: It's usually a group of three men who create and live with the doll.

den Zweiten schind' i,[[note]]The second I'll harm,[[/note]]\\

See also the story "Harold", published in ''Literature/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones'', which is a modern take on the folktale.

* PerversePuppet: Sympathetic or not, the doll is .

und den Dritten wirf' i übers Hüttendach hinaus!"''[[note]]And the third I'll spread across the cabin's roof![[/note]]

"Sennentuntschi"[[note]]"Sennen" are herdsmen that spend the entire summer on the Alps. The meaning of "tuntschi" has been suggested to be "doll" or to refer to the toggel, an Alpine demon.[[/note]] is one of many names for a family of Alpine folktales regarding a maltreated doll that [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters takes revenge on her creators]]. The specific home territory ranges from Germany's Bavaria down to the border area of Switzerland, Liechenstein, and Austria, and ends in Italy's South Tyrol. The oldest known written version is the 1839 poem "Die Drei Melker", squarely associating "Sennentuntschi" with {{Romanticism}}.

A group of herdsmen, usually three in numbers, spend the summer tending the cattle on the mountain. Wishing for female company, they make a doll of wood, straw, cloth, and other such materials to be their mountain wife. They feed her, talk to her, keep her groomed, and they have sex with her. One day, the doll comes to life in response to their treatment of her. For the rest of summer, she continues to perform the tasks she was made for and helps out with herding the cattle. When it becomes time for the herdsmen to return home, it is no question the doll won't come with them and so she makes one demand, namely that one of the men stays with her. Depending on the version, she picks the one who made her or abused her most, or someone seemingly at random, or the herdsmen draw straws. The other herdsmen leave their comrade with a heavy heart the next day. When they look back, they witness the doll spreading the freshly flayed man's skin over their hut's roof and laugh.

The key elements of the tale are the maltreatment of a doll, the doll coming to life, and the doll taking revenge. Everything else varies. For instance, the herdsmen may feed the doll sincerely, but they may also gleefully smear food in her face as if they were forcefeeding a captive. Sometimes, the doll is explicitly beaten. Variants may omit the sexual element and make the aforementioned abuse alone or the fact the herdsmen were to leave her behind the source of the doll's anger. Among these are tales that feature a male doll instead. The murder of the chosen herdsman may be decribed, in which case it's mentioned that the doll flayed him alive. It's also sometimes so that she injures but not kills another herdsman that treated her badly. Lastly, while by far most stories identify the men as herdsmen or similar livestock-related workers, they may also be hunters.

* "Der Hölzerne Almputz" ("The Wooden Alpine figure")
* "Die Schintemunt-Alm"

* AssholeVictim: The herdsmen that abuse the doll and/or make it work for them without a peep of gratitude aren't victims one feels very sorry for.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: The herdsmen wanted a mountain wife, so they made themselves one of straw and cloth and treated it as they'd apparently treat a woman if she were alone up in the mountains with them. Then the doll comes to life and plays her assigned part. What the herdsmen failed to take into account is that they might be held responsible for their actions.

* DarkSecret: The herdsmen intended for the doll, who'd come alive due to their horrible actions, to be their dark secret left on the mountain. Depending how they handled reporting the murder on one of them, she may or may not have been kept a secret.
* DirtyCoward: Occasionally, a source of the doll's wrath is that she served the herdsmen well all summer and yet when autumn is near they "thank" her by abandoning her to avoid all the [[DarkSecret trouble]] she may bring about down in the town.
* DontLookBack: The herdsmen that may leave are instructed not to look back. There doesn't seem to be a reason for this other than to buy the doll time. Equally so, there aren't any consequences to the herdsmen when they do look back other than that they might wish they hadn't.
* FlayingAlive: This happens to one of the herdsmen. Then his skin is draped over the roof to dry... and to be seen.
* ForceFeeding: Present in most versions is a scene in which the herdsmen play-feed the doll. They may taunt her for not eating and smear her face with the unconsumed food. Sometimes, it's during this scene that the dolls comes to life and starts eating, much to the herdsmen's horror.

* PerversePuppet: The doll is one, although of a kind that'll get the audience's sympathy sooner than her victims do.

* ReligiousHorror: Downplayed, but woven into the groundwork of the tale. The doll comes to life due to the un-Christian-like behavior of the herdsman. Rarely, the direct cause is that they baptize her.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: In most versions the herdsmen all fail this test during their time isolated from society. In a few, there's one among them who does not abuse the doll, but who lacks the strength to stop the others from doing so.

* ReligiousHorror, Downplayed, but woven into the groundwork of the tale. The doll comes to life due to the un-Christian-like behavior of the herdsman. Rarely, the direct cause is that they baptize her.

* DirtyCoward: Occasionally, a source of the doll's wrath is that she served the herdsmen well all summer and yet when autumn is near they "thank" her by abandoning her to avoid all the trouble she may bring about down in the town.

* ReligiousHorror, Downplayed, but present. The doll comes to life due to the un-Christian-like behavior of the herdsman. Rarely, the direct cause is that they baptize her.

'''Sennentuntschi'''[[note]]"Sennen" are herdsmen that spend the entire summer on the Alps. The meaning of "tuntschi" has been suggested to be "doll" or to refer to the toggel, an Alpine demon.[[/note]] is one of the many names for a family of Alpine folktales regarding a maltreated doll that takes revenge on her creators. The oldest known written version is the 1839 poem "Die Drei Melker", squarely associating the tale with {{Romanticism}}. The tale is told in Switzerland, Liechenstein, Austria, and Italy.

* "Der Geschundene Senn" (

CuriosityKilledTheCat: The herdsman that gets murdered in "Die Unze" chose to stay alone in the cabin to investigate who was making a mess of the interior every time the group was out tending the cattle. The others, in hindsight rightfully, believed something supernatural was the cause and thus were glad he was offering to keep in wait.

A group of herdsmen, usually three in numbers, spend the summer tending the cattle on the mountain. Wishing for female company, they make a doll of wood, straw, cloth, and other such material to be their mountain wife. They feed her, talk to her, keep her groomed, and they have sex with her. One day, the doll comes to life in response to their treatment of her. For the rest of summer, she continues to perform the tasks she was made for and helps out with herding the cattle. When it becomes time for the herdsmen to return home, it is no question the doll won't come with them and so she makes one demand, namely that one of the men stays with her. Depending on the version, she picks the one who made her or abused her most, or someone seemingly at random, or the herdsmen draw straws. The other herdsmen leave their comrade with a heavy heart the next day. When they look back, they witness the doll spreading the freshly flayed man's skin over their hut's roof and laugh.

The key elements of the tale are the maltreatment of a doll, the doll coming to life, and the doll taking revenge. Everything else varies. For instance, the herdsmen may feed the doll respectfully, but they may also sadistically shove food in her face as if they were forcefeeding a captive. Sometimes, the doll is explicitly beaten. Variants may omit the sexual element and make the aforementioned abuse alone the source of the doll's anger. Among these are tales that feature a male doll instead. The murder of the chosen herdsman may be included, in which case it's mentioned that the doll flayed him alive. It's also sometimes so that she injures but not kills another herdsman that treated her badly.

* "Der Geschundene Senn"

* AssholeVictim: The herdsmen that abuse the doll and/or make it work for them without a peep of gratitude aren't victims anyone will easily feel sorry for.

* BestServedCold: Sometimes, the doll lives and works with the herdsmen until their descent, which is when she makes her thinly veiled demand for a victim. The strength she's suggested to possess implies that she could've offed the lot of them long ago, but wanted a specific scenario to make her revenge all the sweeter.

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Many versions include the doll being raped. It may occur before she comes alive and it's "only" retroactively rape, but the rape is portrayed as a factor in her coming to life in the first place. Also, in "Die Unze", the doll is made because, due to previous bad experiences, no woman wanted to go up there with the men again. A given story may not portray the herdsmens' fates as justified, but there's always the notion they made their own bed.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: In most versions the herdsmen all fail this test during their time isolated from society. In a few, there's one among them who does not abuse the doll, but who does not have the strength to stop the others from doing so.
* WouldHitAGirl: In the herdsmen's defense, violence against a doll representing a woman isn't the same as violence against a woman. But it raises red flags, certainly the more they treat the doll as a person.

* DemonicDummy: The doll is one, although of a kind that'll get the audience's sympathy sooner than her victims do.

The name "Sennentuntschi" gained precedence over the other names these stories are known by due to the 1972 play by Hansjörg Schneider. Notably, ''Sennentuntschi'' [[TheWorldIsNotReady caused a scandal]] in 1981 when it was broadcasted on TV in Switzerland, mainly for reasons of blasphemy but the sexual content didn't help. Then in the mid-1980s, the Rätischen Museum was donated what has been identified as a genuine mountain wife doll, which until then wasn't thought to have actually been a real thing. The doll was donated by Peter Egloff, who purchased it in 1978 in the Calanca Valley. The find helped the folktale gain cultural recognition and along with changing attitudes towards religion and sex, when another movie called ''Sennentuntschi'' came out in 2010, there were no scandals to be seen.

'''Sennentuntschi'''[[note]]"Sennen" are herdsmen that spend the entire summer on the Alps. The meaning of "tuntschi" has been suggested to be "doll" or to refer to the toggel, an Alpine demon.[[/note]] is one of the many names for a family of Alpine folktales regarding a maltreated doll that takes revenge on her creators. The oldest known written version is the 1839 poem "Die Drei Melker" ("The Three Milkers"), squarely associating the tale with {{Romanticism}}. The tale is told in Switzerland, Liechenstein, Austria, and Italy.

The name "Sennentuntschi" gained precedence over the other names these stories are known by due to the 1972 play by Hansjörg Schneider. Notably, ''Sennentuntschi'' caused a scandal in 1981 when it was broadcasted on TV in Switzerland, mainly for reasons of blasphemy but the sexual content didn't help. Then in the mid-1980s, the Rätischen Museum was donated what has been identified as a genuine mountain wife doll, which until then wasn't thought to have actually been a real thing. The doll was donated by Peter Egloff, who purchased it in 1978 in the Calanca Valley. The find helped the folktale gain cultural recognition and along with changing attitudes towards religion and sex, when another movie called ''Sennentuntschi'' came out in 2010, there were no scandals to be seen.

[[folder: Names the folktale is known by]]

* IHaveManyNames: The doll's name is different in each version that mentions it. (Sennen)Tuntschi itself is sometimes used as a name, there's Zurrimutzi, Hoazl or Hausäli, Unze, Hans in case of a male doll.

* "Die Unze"

* DemonicDummy: The doll is one, although of a kind that'll get the audience sympathy sooner than her victims do.

* WouldHitAGirl: In the herdsmen's defense, violence against a doll representing a woman isn't the same as violence against a woman. But it raises some red flags, certainly the more they treat the doll as a person.

[[caption-width-right:350:]]

'''Sennentuntschi'''[[note]]"Sennen" are herdsmen that spend the entire summer on the Alps. The meaning of "tuntschi" has been suggested to be "doll" or to refer to the toggel, an Alpine demon.[[/note]] is one of the many names for a family of Alpine legends regarding a maltreated doll that takes revenge on her creators. The oldest known written version is the 1839 poem "Die Drei Melker" ("The Three Milkers"), squarely associating the tale with {{Romanticism}}. The tale is told in Switzerland, Liechenstein, Austria, and Italy.

The name "Sennentuntschi" gained precedence over the other names these stories are known by due to the 1972 play by Hansjörg Schneider. Notably, ''Sennentuntschi'' caused a scandal in 1981 when it was broadcasted on TV in Switzerland, mainly for reasons of blasphemy but the sexual content didn't help. Then in the mid-1980s, the Rätischen Museum was donated what has been identified as a genuine mountain wife doll, which until then wasn't thought to have actually been a real thing. The doll was donated by Peter Egloff, who purchased it in 1978 in the Calanca Valley. The find helped the legend gain cultural recognition and along with changing attitudes towards religion and sex, when another movie called ''Sennentuntschi'' came out in 2010, there were no scandals to be seen.

[[folder: Names the legend is known by]]