The Cold Bitterness of Edelweiss
In one legend, the edelweiss is related to heaven, so near to which it grows, for an angel, wearing of her celestial home, longs to taste once more the bitterness of the earth. She receives permission to take her shape of flesh again, but, unprepared to mingle with a humanity that even to her sympathetic eyes is enacting a tragedy of poverty, crime, oppression, misfortune, and discontent, she choose a home among the highest and wildest of the Swiss mountains, where she may look off upon the world, yet not be of it. The angel soul of the visitant illumines her face and transfigures her form to marvellous beauty. Having been seen by a daring climber, the icy fastness where she hides her loveliness is invaded by men eager to behold, and, from the joy of beholding, doomed to love her, hopelessly. She is kind but cold to all, and, unable to endure the sight of so beautiful a presence and be separated from it, her lovers join in a prayer to God that as they may not possess her they may at least be relieved from the torment of her loveliness. The prayer is answered: the angel is taken back to heaven, leaving her human heart in the edelweiss, as a memento of her earthly residence.

From: Myths and Legends of Flowers, Trees, Fruits, and Plants, by Charles M. Skinner, c. 1911 by J.B. Lippincott Company