Pretty much everyone has heard of Yodelling and the fact that it originated in Switzerland, but not many people actually know the history of Yodelling.
I am guessing that you don’t know the history of Yodelling either, otherwise why would you be here? So read on friend and you shall be enlightened.
Well, the history of Yodelling began back in the olden days, when a man was traveling through Switzerland. Nightfall was rapidly approaching and the man had nowhere to sleep.
Knowing how bitterly cold it can get up in the Swiss Alps at night, even in the summer, he knew that he had to seek shelter.
So he went up to a nearby farmhouse and asked the farmer if he could spend the night there.
The farmer told him that it would be alright and that he could sleep in the barn.
So the traveller went into the barn to bed down and the farmer went back into the house.
The farmer’s daughter came down from upstairs and asked the farmer, “Who was that man going into the barn?”
“That’s just some fellow traveling through”, answered the farmer. “He needed a place to stay for the night, so I said that he could sleep in the barn”.
“That’s very kind of you Papa”, the daughter said, then asked the farmer, “Did you offer the man anything to eat?”
“Oh no, I didn’t”, the farmer answered, “that was very rude of me”.
The daughter asked, “Would you like me to take him some food Papa?”
Her father agreed, so she went into the kitchen, prepared a plate of food and then took it out to the barn.
The daughter was in the barn for an hour before returning to the house.
When she came back in, her clothes were all disheveled and buttoned up wrong and she had several strands of straw tangled up in her long blonde hair. She immediately went up the stairs to her bedroom and went to sleep.
A little later, the farmer’s wife came down and asked the farmer why their daughter went to bed so early.
“I don’t know”, said the farmer. “I told a man that he could sleep in the barn and our daughter took him some food”.
“That’s good”, replied the farmer’s wife. “Well, did you offer the man something to drink?”
“Umm, no, I didn’t”, said the farmer.
The wife then said, “I’m going to take something out there for him to drink”.
So the farmer’s wife went to the cellar, got a bottle of wine, then went out to the barn.
She did not return for over an hour, and when she came back into the house, her clothes were also messed up and she had straw twisted into her blonde hair. She went straight up the stairs and into bed.
The next morning at sunrise, the man in the barn got up and continued on his journey, waving to the farmer as he left the farm.
A few hours later, the daughter woke up and came rushing downstairs. She went right out to the barn, only to find it empty.
She ran back into the house and asked here father, “Where’s the man from the barn?”
Her father answered, “He left several hours ago”.
“What?” she cried. “He left without saying good bye? After all we had together? I mean, last night he made such passionate love to me!”
“What?” shouted the father, enraged. “He took advantage of you?”
The farmer ran out into the front yard looking for the man but by now the traveller was halfway up the side of the mountain on the other side of the valley.
The farmer screamed up at him, “I’m gonna get you! You had sex with my daughter!”
The man looked back down from the mountainside, cupped his hands next to his mouth and yelled out down the mountain:
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(You ready for this?)
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(It’s good!)
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(Hope you’re sitting!)
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“I laid the old laaydeee too!”
And that my friends is how yodeling came about.
Image used under a Collective Commons License from https://www.flickr.com/photos/franciscoantunes/1206865496/in/gallery-travelinho_com-72157687209245872/