Tell
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Tell. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
William, a Swiss peasant of the canton of Uri on Lake Lucerne, Switzerland. According to the tradition current, he lived in the early half of the fourteenth century. Gessler, an insolent bailiff, set his hat on a pole and ordered that no villager pass by without baring his head and bowing respectfully. Tell, a famous hunter and bowman, proudly ignored the order. Gessler arrested Tell and condemned him to shoot an apple from the head of his own son, stationed many yards distant. The boy stood unflinching. The shaft flew true. The craven peasantry could not refrain from expressions of relief and joy. As Tell was about to turn away, a second arrow was noted on his person. "For what purpose?" demanded Gessler. "For thy heart in case my son had been harmed," replied the undaunted Tell. Gessler then ordered Tell to be placed in a boat with himself to be conveyed to prison. During the passage of Lake Lucerne a violent storm arose and Tell, who was a skillful boatman, was freed from his bonds to save the boat and its passengers from destruction. Guiding the boat alongside a sheltering rock, Tell sprang ashore before anyone could stop him, and hastening to a defile through which the party must pass, he awaited Gessler and shot an arrow through his heart. Tell was instrumental in uniting the four Forest Cantons in opposition to the Austrians, and was an active participant in the battle of Morgarten in 1315, in which 15,000 Austrians were defeated with tremendous loss of life. Tell perished in 1350 while trying to save a drowning man. Although the birthplace of William Tell, the spot where he shot the apple from the head of his son, the rock where he leaped ashore, the defile where Gessler was slain, and the rock in Lake Lucerne where the Swiss conspirators met are all pointed out by popular tradition and are marked by suitable memorials, historians have rejected the Tell story as wholly traditional. Local records give an uninterrupted list of bailiffs, but there is no Gessler. The parish records of births and deaths reveal no William Tell. The historians, or rather chroniclers of the period, do not mention Tell. So far as can be learned his name did not appear in the ballads of the region for a century or two after his supposed death. In a word, documentary evidence is all too recent by centuries to be taken as evidence. Moreover, the story of being given one's freedom as a reward for shooting an apple from the head of a son appears to be widespread among Teutonic people. It is found among the legends of Iceland and Denmark, and in the old English ballads of Adam Bel and Clym of the Clough and William of Cloudesley. See Schiller ; Lucerne
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM, the champion of Swiss liberty; was a native of Bürglen, in the canton of Uri. He was distinguished by his skill in archery, his strength and courage. He joined the league of the Three Forest cantons formed to free the country from Austrian tyranny. The Austrian governor of Switzerland, Herman Gessler, pushed his insolence so far as to require the Swiss to uncover their heads before his hat (as an emblem of his sovereignty), and is said to have condemned Tell, who refused to comply with this mandate, to shoot an apple from the head of his own son. Tell was successful, but confessed that a second arrow, which he bore about his person, was intended, in case he had failed, for the punishment of the tyrant, and he was therefore retained prisoner. While crossing the Lake of the Four Cantons, or Lake of Lucerne, in the same boat with Gessler, a violent storm arose. Tell, as the most vigorous and skillful helmsman, was set free, and he conducted the boat successfully to the shore, but seized the opportunity of springing on a rock, at the same time pushing off the boat. On this rock, since called the Rock of Tell, a commemorative monument or chapel has been erected. He had fortunately taken his bow with him; and when the governor finally escaped the storm, and reached the shore, Tell shot him dead on the road to Küssnacht. This event was the signal for a general rising, and a most obstinate war between the Swiss and Austrians, which was not brought to a close till 1499. The uprising is said to have happened on Nov. 7, 1307; and the citizens having previously chosen for their leaders three men of approved courage and abilities, namely, Werner of Schwyz, Walther Fürst of Uri, and Arnold Melchthal of Unterwalden, they secretly agreed to surprise and demolish the castles in which the imperial governors resided. This compact being effected, these three cantons joined in a league for 10 years, which gave birth to the Helvetian Confederacy. The story of Tell's shooting the apple from his son's head is not recorded by contemporary writers. It is a familiar legend related of national heroes in other countries.