Articles

Carlo Sgorlon ((Cassacco, 1930–Udine, 2009) was deeply bonded to his birthplace, especially to the rural civilization of Friuli, its myths, legends and archaic traditions, which he often described in his books. His family has recently donated his collection of books and documents to the Municipality of Udine.

From Faedis, a nice village in the eastern hills of Friuli nested between the vestiges of the ancient castles of Zucco and Cuccagna, you can easily reach the huts above the village of Porzus. The dramatic events happened near the Malghe di Porzus are at the heart of the novel “La Malga di Sir” by CARLO SGORLON, although the author never makes a precise reference to the places narrated in his books. He maintained that “La Malga di Sîr, like other novels I wrote, is a mix of history and fiction. All my characters are born from my imagination, and any possible contact between them and real people must be considered as entirely casual”. Nonetheless, the novel recalls a massacre perpetrated on 6th February 1945, when about a hundred guerilla men belonging to the Garibaldi Brigade got to the huts and killed the guerilla men from the Osoppo Brigade (Republican Catholic). The slaughtered group included Guido Pascolini, the brother of PIERPAOLO PASOLINI, who was saved for a while but then executed in Bosco Romagno, a woodland near Cividale. The poet wrote a poem about the mischievous fact, published in the magazine Stroligut in August 1945.