Gotthard is the mountain route Tell describes as the threshold between German soil and Italy. Its heights, lakes, and descending waters give the journey a clear direction: ascent leads to departure, and a new stream carries the traveler onward toward a different land.

Alpine Heights and Waters

Tell describes travelers ascending toward Gotthard’s heights, where lakes seem to rest beneath the open sky and are fed by streams from above. The route is defined not by a settlement or fortress but by elevation and flowing water. The mountain landscape supplies the passage’s scale, while the streams make it legible as a route through and beyond the high ground.

A Passage Between Lands

At the heights, the traveler bids farewell to German soil; from there, another stream leads toward Italy. Gotthard therefore marks a geographical transition in Tell’s account, joining the act of climbing to the prospect of crossing into another country. The route is presented as a sequence—rise, leave one territory, then follow water onward—rather than as a static landmark.

Dramatic Setting

The description occurs in Tell’s speech, but it does not remain an uninterrupted travel account. After he traces the way toward Italy, an Alpine-horn performance of the Ranz des Vaches is heard, followed by voices that draw his attention away from the route. The shift places Gotthard within a dramatic landscape where directions and distant sounds meet: the mountain passage is both a way onward and part of the scene’s immediate world.