The Bullroarer Atlas

GEISER1978-001 - historical text

Swiss folk tradition; Ticino name

Ticino - Switzerland-wide folk tradition - Europe - Alpine

Play / practical

Representative—not this record’s object: an English folk bullroarer from the Lovett collection, shown for the general European folk-toy form;...
Representative—not this record’s object: an English folk bullroarer from the Lovett collection, shown for the general European folk-toy form; the Swiss firlifurli was published only as a line drawing in Geiser’s 1978 survey. Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (1894.42.1) Image source
Wooden bull roarer from Suffolk, England, collected by folklorist Edward Lovett — National Museum of American History DL.211913.
Wooden bull roarer from Suffolk, England, collected by folklorist Edward Lovett — National Museum of American History DL.211913. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution (DL.211913) Image source

Schnurre / fiferlet / firlifurli German

Source term: Schwirrholz

firlifurli [TI] = Ticino-labelled name; Schnurre and fiferlet are the other source forms; Schwirrholz is the German bullroarer term.

A children's toy found everywhere in Switzerland — so Brigitte Geiser's survey of Swiss folk instruments records it: a wooden shingle on a cord, swung over the head until it hummed, the pitch climbing and falling with the speed of the swing. German Switzerland called it the Schnurre; in Ticino it was the firlifurli. And the toy is old — archaeological finds attest it in Switzerland since the fourteenth century, six hundred years of the same simple rig.

Eine Schindel an einer Schnur wird vom Spieler über dem Kopf durch die Luft gewirbelt.

A shingle on a cord is whirled through the air over the player's head.

Brigitte Geiser, 'Die Volksmusikinstrumente der Schweiz' (1978), p. 78.
Object
A wooden shingle tied to a cord and whirled over the player's head; Geiser's accompanying drawing shows the end-corded slat.
Function
Geiser classifies it as a whirled aerophone and calls it a children's toy widespread across Switzerland; pitch varies with rotation speed, and archaeological finds attest the instrument in Switzerland since the 14th century.
Map confidence
medium - Ticino canton reference point; [TI] marks the local name firlifurli, not a village or specimen location.
Source location
p. 78

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