Several hundred years ago, the people of Solothurn were repeatedly struck by the plague. They did not know how to protect themselves from it. Some fled to remote places in the surrounding area, others prayed and hoped for the saints’ intercession. So the story goes that an old woman once went up a hill near Olten to seek safety from the disease there. She was already very weak and suddenly thought she saw a shepherd tending his sheep on top of the hill. It seemed to her that he was pointing at a tree standing nearby. The woman walked towards the tree, and there she saw a small bird sitting on a branch. It sang and chirped beautifully, and suddenly it seemed to the woman as though the bird was singing a message for her:

Tirili, tirilli
Drink agrimony
Then you’ll never die
Tirili, tirilli

The woman looked around and indeed, agrimony was growing beneath the tree. She picked some, placed the herb in her apron and looked for the bird. But it had flown away. And the shepherd with his sheep? He suddenly seemed to be walking towards the sky, and the sheep turned into clouds. 

“That was a sign from heaven,” thought the old woman. She took the agrimony to the sick, and sure enough, they recovered, and at last the dreadful time of the plague was over.

“It must have been an angel who appeared to the old woman,” said the people, and from that day on, the mountain was called Engelberg. 

Quelle: P. Keckeis, M. Kully, Sagen der Schweiz. Solothurn, Zürich 1987.Neu erzählt von D. Jaenike, nach: Die Pest in Olten, Übers. Lysander Jaenike© Mutabor