The bride's veil

Once upon a time in Corsica there lived a beautiful queen and a wicked lord who was known as the ogre of Canapale. The queen’s wrist had been mutilated long before, and she had asked all the wise men in the land to find a cure. At last, one old man told her to go to the sacred fountain and bathe her wrist there, so that it would grow whole again before her wedding.

The queen went up into the mountains to the source, all alone and dressed in white with a long white veil. She dipped her arm in the icy water and her wrist was healed, but as she turned to leave she saw the ogre watching her with covetous eyes from among the trees.

Turning to run her veil caught on a branch and, enraged, the ogre took hold of great rocks from around the lake and flung them after her. With a deafening rush the water spilled through the breach he had made and the wicked lord was tangled in the veil and carried away by the deluge. The queen watched safely from beside the new waterfall, which ever afterwards took the shape of her bridal veil.



According to the information sign, this is the legend of the waterfall in the mountains near Bocognano. We walked up towards the sound of falling water through the forest and came across wild pigs foraging on the steep slopes, slipping quietly through the trees except for when they truffled too enthusiastically and caused little avalanches. Then we had bread and cheese, admired the tadpoles in the pools at the base of the waterfall and walked back to the car, damp with mist.