From the front to the Enchanted Valley

His encounter with the 'Enchanted Valley

A remote place, where time stands still and the mountains seem to breathe. Here, surrounded by silences and archaic presences, Musil finds an 'other' world, which he will later call the Enchanted Valley.

This experience leads to Grigia, the novella published in 1921.
It is the story of Homo, a geologist sent by the entrepreneur Hoffingott to prospect for lodes of gold. Leaving behind his wife and child, his soul is already cracked, ready to welcome a new light.

Lena Maria Lenzi, 'la Grigia'

The valley welcomes him with open arms. Newcomers bring work and the inhabitants respond with curiosity and spontaneity.
Nature is portentous and the women unexpectedly expansive. Especially one of them.

'Her name was Lena Maria Lenzi: that name, like those of Selvot or Gronléit or Malga Mendana, brought to mind amethysts and flowers, but he preferred to call her 'la Grigia', after the cow she owned.'

A secret relationship thus blooms, based on inevitable furtive encounters.
As the days pass, Homo loses touch with his former life, like the protagonist of Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
But there is no horror here, only sweet, mystical, total abandon.
"Heavenly, halcyon days."

Autumn, the mine, the end

Then comes autumn.
Grigia tells him that it must all end. Meanwhile, the mining company also goes bankrupt.
There is time for one last meeting, in an abandoned mine converted into an alcove. There the woman's husband surprises the two lovers.
She manages to save herself. Homo doesn’t. He remains motionless, trapped in the depths of the earth, of the stone, of the mine, as if accepting that this destiny is part of the natural order of the valley, of that ancient force that has taken him in and finally swallowed him up.

The Return of Musil

Musil, on the other hand, survived.
After months spent in Valle dei Mòcheni, he arrived in Bolzano, passing through Isonzo and Vienna, where he met up with his wife Martha again.
In 1916, he became editor of the Tiroler Soldaten-Zeitung, the troop bulletin, and continued to write patriotic articles.

Only later, in his monumental work The Man Without Qualities, did he given full voice to his disenchantment with the war and the collapse of the Empire.

But Grigia will forever remain an extraordinarily vibrant, intense, evocative portrait of Valle dei Mòcheni, its nature, and its people.

A valley that, then as now, continues to exude silence, mystery and revelation.