Just one look at their pale peaks at dusk, one glance from their steep crags and over their countless bizarrely shaped silhouettes, or one stretch of hand across their raw, white rock will tell you why the Natural World Heritage Site of the Dolomites is the stuff of endless legends. There are indeed a lot of stories full of magic and mystery woven around these magnificent peaks and corners of the Dolomites.

The origin of all legends

Once upon a time, when the mountains of his Dolomite kingdom were still all dark, a young prince took the daughter of the moon to be his bride. She was a girl of delicate beauty and sensitive nature and she soon became homesick, pining after her silvery home. The prince didn’t know what to do. Then the Salvans, wise natives and guardians of all nature’s secrets, offered him their help to thank him for the protection and refuge that he had given their kind in the mountains and forests of his kingdom. At the next full moon the Salvans wove silver threads out of moonlight and made a tight web, which they threw over the dark horizon, thereby creating the pale mountains.

The bitter shame of the king of legends

Pointy battlements, rough ridges and steep rock faces glow deep red in the evening sun, before gradually turning shades of orange and violet as night draws in. This effect seen on the Rosengarten mountains is the work of the dwarf king Laurin, who, feeling betrayed and hurt by unrequited love and furious about his defeat in battle, wished to destroy his wonderful Rosengarten mountains once and for all with a magic spell: neither broad daylight nor darkest night should get to see them in their rose-tinted splendour ever again. Yet the dwarf king had forgotten to include dusk in his spell, with the result that Laurin’s former rose garden may be seen to ‘bloom’ at sunset. Ladin people call this wonder of nature ‘Enrosadira’: the unique composition of Dolomite stone makes it possible.

Legends full of magical mystery

Ladin Dolomite legend remains somewhat of a mystery amongst South Tyrolean myth.“These are stories going back to the time before time and to places that existed at the places they name. They tell of things that stories usually tell of: creation and passing away, of earth, water, wind and fire.“ (Anita Pichler, The Women of Fanis). Tanna, Moltina, Dindia, Somwinda, Dolasilla, Sorejina … together 13 beautiful, brilliant, armed, fantastic women make the Fanes legends stand out against the other Dolomite legends.

Legendary mountain kingdom …

The number of legends woven around the Dolomites is impressive! Before science began to explain the world, daily life in the Dolomite valleys of South Tyrol was governed by mysterious powers, by witches, Salvans and Vivanas. They gave a name to the inexplicable, brought logic to strokes of fate and preserved the old experiences of the Dolomites folk. These experiences would be told, expanded on, and embellished by generation to generation on long winter nights, until the earliest records were made in the 17th century. The ‘Legends of the Dolomites’ by Karl Felix Wolff are the most famous, where the preface reads: “I will take you to the enchanted mountains, to the pale, pink-glowing rocks that stand high above the earth, intangible as honour.“

… and genuine legends

We will never really know how much truth there is in Dolomite legend. It is a fact that these legends are much more than a poetic attempt to capture the unconquered beauty of these bizarre rocks and turrets, huge blocks and reefs. Man is just a passing guest. This world still belongs to the unexplained, the miracles, the unique occurrences. Why not try viewing the Dolomites from a mystical perspective? The Dolomite High Altitude Path number 2 from Brixen to Feltre, with the meaningful name of ‘Path of Myths and Legends’, will lead you through valleys and across mountains to many a scene of ancient legend.