Epitome of German Mythology. Part 2.
There isn't much known of the mythology of the ancient German tribes. This is part 2. of an article in which the author tries to make connections with the surviving traditions, superstions and usages with that mythology. His research is based on what other researchers found and on what the clergy wrote about the heathen customs of the ancient Germanic tribes. See part 1. here.
(Please note: I have moved the footnotes from the bottom of the pages directly into the text. The author refers to his own book vol.I, II and III on 19 occasions in the footnotes. I have colored these footnotes red like this (See 10.) and made links to the collection of footnotes in a seperate blog.)
What follows are descriptions and tales from an old source:
It now remains for consideration whether the gods were worshiped only in such places in the open air, or whether temples were erected to them. In answer to this question we shall limit ourselves to a few general observations. In general it appears that temples, even at the period of the conversion, were, as in the time of Tacitus, but few. In the interior of Germany it is probable that none existed ; for, had the case been otherwise, we should hardly have been without some notice of a temple among the Saxons. There is, however, little doubt that the Frisians had temples; for the words of the Lex Frisionum: Qui templum effregerit immoletur diis, quorum templa violavit; nee manducare nee bibere praesumant. Towards the middle of the ninth century the Roman synod under Leo IV. forbade to the Saxons the carmina diabolica treasures were kept in the Frisian temples. But with respect to the temples, of which mention is made, either on the Rhine or in Gaul (where the greater number occur), it is doubtful whether they are not rather to be considered as Keltic, which the invading Franks and Burgundians appropriated to themselves; as heathenism is inclined to dedicate to its own worship places regarded by others as holy. With respect to other places, the accounts supplied by the authorities are so vague, that it cannot be pronounced with certainty whether the question is of a temple or a grove, which is mentioned among the Langobardi. The paucity of temples among the Germans implies also a paucity of idols among them; for the heathen temple did not, like a Christian church, serve for the reception of a holyday congregation, but was originally a mere shelter or house for the image of the god. Certainly we are not justified in totally denying the presence of images; as it is expressly stated that the Gothic king Athanric caused a carved image to be carried about , which, like Nerthus, was everywhere received with prayers and offerings. Nor are we, at the same time, justified in assuming the fact of their existence among all the German nations; and although in the authorities idola and simulacra are repeatedly mentioned, and great zeal is manifested against the folly of the heathen, in expecting aid from images of gold, silver, stone and wood; yet are these only general forms of speech directed against idolatry, and applying rather to Roman than German heathenism. (Idola was the usual denomination of the heathen gods. The passages, however, in the Vita Bonifacii and Vita Willehadi, which refer to the Frisians, may appear convincing, as they had temples also).
We have in fact no genuine or trustworthy testimony that clearly describes to us an idol in Germany Proper. In no Life of a saint is it related that a converter destroyed such an idol. On the contrary, all the passages, which here enter into consideration, point either to a blending of foreign worship, or, on closer examination, there is no question in them of an idol, or they are of doubtful character. The three brazen and gilt images, which St. Gall found and destroyed at Bregenz on the Lake of Constance, built into the wall of a church dedicated to St. Aurelia, and venerated by the people as gods, were no doubt of Roman origin, like those stone images which St. Columban met with at Luxeuil in Franche Comte. The statue of Diana at Treves, and the images of Mars and Mercury in the south of Gaul, of which Gregory of Tours makes mention, are likewise rather Roman or Keltic than German. Not even the noted and in other respects remarkable passage of Widukind, according to which the Saxons, after their victory over the Thuringians on the Unstrut, raised an altar and worshiped a god appears to us unquestionably to indicate a true idol. We can infer from the words of Widukind nothing more than the erection of a column similar to the Irmenseule at Eresburg, which Charles the Great destroyed.
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| 1. Nerthus |
The history of the development of Greek and Roman image worship may aid us to a clearer insight into our native heathenism. The Greek representation of a god had not from the commencement the pretension of being a likeness of the god, but was only a symbol of his presence, for a sense of which the piety of ancient times required the less of externals the more deeply it was impressed with the belief of that presence . An external sign of the divinity was, nevertheless, necessary for the sake of having an object on which pious veneration of the gods might manifest itself. As, therefore, both in Hellas and Italy, the antique representations of the gods, as lances, etc., were mere symbols, in like manner we may regard the swords of the Quadi and the golden snakes of the Langobardi only as consecrated signs announcing the presence of the god. The representations of the gods next developed themselves, among the Greeks, under the form of rough stones, stone pillars and wooden poles, which were set up and regarded as images of the gods. Raised-up poles or beams were, no doubt, also among the Germans the prevailing and still symbolic species of images. The Irmenseule was such a pole : to such an image, if so it can be called, to a simple up-raised pillar, does the before quoted passage of Widukind allude.
That prayers to the gods were frequently composed in a metrical form, that religious songs and poems existed, is evident from the circumstance that the Langobardi offered to one of their gods the head of a goat, with certain ceremonies and accompanied by a song. The passage which gives this account affords ground for the supposition that certain saltations took place at the sacrifices. And why should there not be religious songs at this period, when, at a still earlier, songs in honour of Hercules were sung before a battle, when Tacitus makes mention of old mythoepic songs in which the traditions of the German people were recorded ? The oldest poetry of a nation generally attaches itself closely to religion, and the numerous forms of adjurations and spells, which through tradition we have inherited from heathenism, are for the most part com posed in a rhythmical garb. It may, therefore, be reasonably supposed that the popular songs were, in the first Christian centuries, so bitterly decried by the clergy because they contained many remains of heathenism, and, consequently, seemed perilous to Christianity. The stigmatizing of the popular songs as carmina diabolica, the predicates turpia, inepta, obsccena applied to them give to this supposition additional strength; and the Capitularies explicitly forbid dances and songs as relics of Heathenism. (For the prohibitions of the ancient popular songs, the reader is referred to the collections of extracts on the subject, as Wackernagel, Das Wessobrunner Gebet, pp. 25-29; Hofmann, Geschichte des Deutschen Kirchenliedes, pp. 8-11;Massmann, Abschworungsformeln.) At funerals also heathen religious songs were sung.
With prayer, sacrifice, which formed the chief part of heathen worship, was inseparably connected. In general there was prayer only at the sacrifices. The principal sacrifice was a human one, the offering of which by all the Germanic races is fully proved. (For human sacrifices among the Goths, see Jornandes, c. 5 ; Isidori Chron. Goth, sera 446; among the Heruli, Procop. de Bello Goth. n. 14; among the already converted Franks, ib. II. 25 ; the Saxons, Sidon. Apoll. 8. 6, Capit. de Part. Sax. 9 ; the Frisians, Lex Fris. Addit. Sap. Tit. 12 ; Thuringians, Bonifac. Ep. 25. Comp. D. M. p. 39.) Human beings appear chiefly to have served for sacrifices of atonement, and were either offered to the malign deities, or, as propitiatory, to the dead in the nether world. (The great sacrifice at Lethra, described by Dietmar of Merseburg, I. 9, at which ninety-nine men, and a like number of horses, dogs and cocks were offered, was evidently a sacrifice of propitiation.) (Tacitus (Germ. 27) testifies only to the burning of the horse. In the North servants and hawks were burnt with the corpse. In the grave of King Childeric a human skull was found, which was supposed to have been that of his marshal. The wives of the Heruli hanged them selves at the graves of their husbands. Procop. B. G. II. 14. Among the Gauls also it was customary to burn the slaves and clients with the corpse of a man of high rank. (Caesar, B. G. IV. 19.)
The custom of burning the servants and horses with the corpse, must,therefore, be understood as a propitiatory sacrifice to the shade of the departed.
The testimonies just cited on the subject of human sacrifices inform us at the same time that prisoners of war as in the time of Tacitus purchased slaves or criminals were especially chosen for sacrifice (According to the Vita S. Wulframmi (ob. 720) in Act. Bened. sec. 3, pp. 359, 361, the individuals to be sacrificed were sometimes chosen by lot. The accounts given in this Life seem rather fabulous, but are, nevertheless, not to be rejected. S. Willibrord and his companions, when they had desecrated the sanctuary of Fosite, were subjected to the lot, and the one on whom the lot fell was executed. Alcuini Vita S. Willibr. c. 10. Among the Slaves also human sacrifices were determined by lot. Jahrb. fur Slaw. Lit. 1843, p. 392.) When a criminal was sacrificed, his death was at the same time the penalty of his misdeeds. He was offered to the god whom, it was believed, he had particularly offended, and his execution, decreed by the law, was reserved for the festival of that divinity. This usage, which gives an insight into the intimate connection between law and religion, and shows the punishment of death among the Germans in a peculiar light, is particularly conspicuous among the Frisians. This people put criminals chosen for sacrifice to death in various ways; they were either decapitated with a sword, or hanged on a gallows, or strangled, or drowned. (Vita S. Wulframmi,p.360.) A more cruel punishment awaited those who had broken into and robbed the temple of a god.(Muller, p. 77. Lex Frisionum, Addit. Sap. Tit. 12. Qui fanum effregerit et ibi aliquid de sacris tulerit, ducitur ad mare, et in sabulo, quod accessus maris operire solet, finduntur aures ejus, et castratur, et immolatur diis, quorum templa violavit. -A shrine and steals sacred items from there, and the one who can bring, and taken to the sea, and on the sand, which will be covered is accustomed to, split, and his ears opened, and he will be castrated and sacrified to the gods, whose temple he dishonored.)
Of animals used for sacrifice, horses, oxen and goats are especially mentioned. The horsesacrifice was the most considerable, and is particularly characteristic of the Germanic races. The heads were by preference offered to the gods, and were fixed or hung on trees. The hides also of the sacrificed animals were suspended on sacred trees. In the North the flesh of the sacrifices was boiled, and the door-posts of the temple were smeared with their blood. The Indiculus (cap. 26) leads to the supposition of a particular kind of offering. The Simulacrum de consparsa farina there mentioned appears to be the baked image of a sacrificial animal, which was offered to the gods in the stead of a real one. Similar usages are known to us among the Greeks and Romans, and in Sweden, even in recent times, it was a custom on Christmas eve to bake cakes in the form of a hog.
It was extremely difficult to prevent a relapse into heathenism, seeing that to retain a converted community in the true faith, well-instructed ecclesiastics were indispensable, and these were few in number, the clergy being but too frequently persons of profane and ungodly life. In many cases it was doubtful whether they had even received ordination. Instances might therefore occur like that recorded in the Life of St. Gall, that in an oratory dedicated to St. Aurelia idols were afterwards worshiped with offerings ; and we have seen that the Franks, after their conversion, in an irruption into Italy, still sacrificed human victims. Even when the missionaries believed their work sure, the return of the season, in which the joyous heathen festivals occurred, might in a moment call to remembrance the scarcely repressed idolatry; an interesting instance of which, from the twelfth century, we shall see presently. The priests, whose duty it was to retain the people in their Christianity, permitted themselves to sacrifice to the heathen gods, if, at the same time, they could perform the rite of baptism. (Bonifac. Ep. 25 : Qui a presbytero Jovi mactante et immolatitias carnes vescente baptizati sunt.- A priest who sacrificed their flesh and Jupiter mactantes eating immersed; Comp. Ep. 82 and Capitul. vii. 405.) They were addicted to magic and soothsaying. (Statut. Bonifac. 33, p. 142, ed. Wiirdtw. : Si quis presbyter aut clericus auguria, vel divinationes, aut somnia, sive sortes, seu phylacteria, id est, scripturas, observaverit.- If any priest or a cleric, an enchanter, or a
It was extremely difficult to prevent a relapse into heathenism, seeing that to retain a converted community in the true faith, well-instructed ecclesiastics were indispensable, and these were few in number, the clergy being but too frequently persons of profane and ungodly life. In many cases it was doubtful whether they had even received ordination. Instances might therefore occur like that recorded in the Life of St. Gall, that in an oratory dedicated to St. Aurelia idols were afterwards worshiped with offerings ; and we have seen that the Franks, after their conversion, in an irruption into Italy, still sacrificed human victims. Even when the missionaries believed their work sure, the return of the season, in which the joyous heathen festivals occurred, might in a moment call to remembrance the scarcely repressed idolatry; an interesting instance of which, from the twelfth century, we shall see presently. The priests, whose duty it was to retain the people in their Christianity, permitted themselves to sacrifice to the heathen gods, if, at the same time, they could perform the rite of baptism. (Bonifac. Ep. 25 : Qui a presbytero Jovi mactante et immolatitias carnes vescente baptizati sunt.- A priest who sacrificed their flesh and Jupiter mactantes eating immersed; Comp. Ep. 82 and Capitul. vii. 405.) They were addicted to magic and soothsaying. (Statut. Bonifac. 33, p. 142, ed. Wiirdtw. : Si quis presbyter aut clericus auguria, vel divinationes, aut somnia, sive sortes, seu phylacteria, id est, scripturas, observaverit.- If any priest or a cleric, an enchanter, or a
wizard, or dreams, or lots, or phylacteries, ie, The scriptures observed.) And were so infatuated with
heathenism that they erected crosses on hills, and with great approbation of the people, celebrated Christian worship on heathen offering-places. (Muller, p. 103. Bonifac. Ep. 87: Pseudosacerdotes, qui sine episcopo, proprio arbitrio viventes, populares defensores habentes contra episcopos, ut sceleratos mores eorum non confringant, seorsuui populum consentaneum congregant, et illud erroneum ministerium non in ecclesia catholica, sed per agrestia loca, per colles rusticorum, ubi eorum imperita stultitia celari episcopos possit, perpetrarit, nee fidem catholicam paganis predicant, nee ipsi fidem rectam habent.-Pseudo-offerings that without the proper disposal of life for the people who have to defend against the Bishops does not break down the habits of those that had been wicked, seorsuui in harmony with the people, gather, and it is erroneous to say the service is not in the Catholic Church, but through the wild places, along the hills, for the country people, where they have their 's inexperience, foolishness: Bishops hide that can be committed, nor did he offer the Catholic Church preach not even have a credit line- Of the Prankish priest Adalbert it is said,that he
seduced the people, ita ut cruces statuens in campis et oratoriola, illuc faciat populum concurrere, publicasque ecclesias relinquere. /Comp. Ep. 59, 67.-So that it crosses, setting fields and oratoriolum; thither, to cause the people to come together, to leave the churches, and public).
But the clergy were under the necessity of suffering much heathenism to remain, if they would not totally disturb and subvert the social order of life. Heathen institutions of a political nature might no more be attacked than others, which a significant and beneficial custom had made venerable and inviolable. The heathen usages connected with legal transactions must for the most part remain, if the clergy would not also subvert the law itself, or supplant it by the Roman code, according to which theythemselves lived. Hence the place and time of the judicial assemblies remained unchanged in their connection with the heathen offering-places and festivals; although the offerings which had formerly been associated with these meetings had altogether ceased. In like manner the old heathen ordeals maintained their ground, though in a Christian guise. Offenders must be punished, and the clergy patiently saw heathen practices accompanying the punishment, because the culprit was an unworthy Christian. (E.g. When criminals were hanged with wolves or dogs, which at a later period was regarded as particularly ignominious. Grimm, D.R. A. 685. Criminals were buried in crossways, the old heathen offering-places, and the gallows stood at the intersection. Ib. 720, 683. In general, certain customs at executions, as dragging the criminal on a cowhide, are probably regarded as the more ignominious, because they were originally heathen.)
In matters of warfare and the heathenism still practised in the field, the clergy were equally powerless. Hence the Christian Franks, as we have already seen, when they invaded Italy, sacrificed men, while such cruelty in ordinary life had long been abolished among them. Thus did much heathenism find its way back during the first Christian age, or maintained its ground still longer, because it was sanctioned by law and usage. Where the converters in their blind zeal would make inroads into the social relations, the admission of Christianity met with many hindrances. The teaching of St. Kilian had found great favour with the Frankish duke Gozbert; but when he censured that prince for having espoused a relation, he paid for his presumption with his life. Among the Saxons Christianity encountered such strong opposition, because with its adoption was connected the loss of their old national constitution.
As the missionaries thus found themselves obliged to proceed with caution, and were unable to extirpate heathenism at one effort, they frequently accommodated themselves so far to the heathen ideas as to seek to give them a Christian turn. Many instances of such accommodations can be adduced. On places, for instance, regarded by the heathen as sacred, Christian churches were constructed (Vita S. Agili Resbac. in Act. Bened. sec. 2. p. 31 7; Vita S. Amandi, ib. p. 715 ; Vita Liudgeri ap. Pertz, n. p. 410; Gregor. M. Ep. ad Mellitum (Beda, H. E. I. 30) : “ Dicite ei (Augustino) quid diu mecura de causa Anglorum cogitans tractavi : videlicet, quia fana idolorum destrui in eadem gente minime dcbeant ; sed ea quae in ipsis sunt idola destruantur ; aqua benedicta fiat, in eisdem fanis aspergatur, altaria construantur, reliquiae ponantur ; quia si fana eadem bene constructa sunt, necesse est ut a cult u daemonum in obsequium veri Dei debeant commutari, ut, dum gens ipsa eadem fana sua non videt destrui, de corde errorem deponat, et Deum verum cognoscens et adorans, ad loca quae consuevit familiarius concurrat.” - Tell him (Augustine) about how long any love for me the cause of the English, determined upon: that is to say, that the temples of the idols in that nation ought not be exempt; the idols were destroyed, but that the things that are made on them, but the holy water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected, and relics placed there; For if those temples are well built, it is necessary to as a cult of devils to the service of the true God, they ought to be changed, so that the nation, seeing that their temples are not destroyed, may remove error from their hearts, and the God of truth, when he understood, and did worship, and, to the places that I have been accustomed to familiarly resort.", or, at least crosses there erected (Mone, Gesch. des Heidenthums, ii. 52. Schreiber, die Feen in Europa,), that they might no longer be used for heathen worship, and that the ”people might the more easily accustom themselves to regard them as holy in a Christian sense.“
The wood of the oak felled by Boniface was made into a pulpit, and of the gold of the Langobardish snake altar-vessels were fabricated. Christian festivals were purposely appointed on days which had
been kept as holy days by the heathens ; or heathenish festivals, with the retention of some of their usages, were converted into Christian ones. (In the letter just cited of Gregory it is further said:
“Et quia boves solent in saerificio dsemonum multos occidere, debet eis etiam hac de realiqua sollemnitas iramutari ;ut die dedications, vel natalitiis sanctorum martyrum, quorum illic reliquiae ponuntur, tabernacula sibi circa easdem ecclesias, quse ex fanis commutatse sunt, de ramis arborum faciant, et religiosis conviviis sollemnitatem celebrent; nee diabolo jam animalia immolent, sed ad laudem Dei in esu suo animalia occidant, et Donatori omnium de satietate sua gratias referant;ut dum eis aliqua exterius gaudia reservantur, ad interiora gaudia consentire facilius valeant. Nam duris mentibus simul omnia abscidere impossibile esse non dubium est ; quia et is, qui summum locum ascendere nititur, gradibus vel passibus, non autem saltibus elevator”- but because cows to slaughter many in the saerificio demons are accustomed to, it should be on this account, iramutari some solemnity; and the dedication to debate of the martyrs, whose relics are there deposited, they make them teaching about them the churches, which, according to the houses of the commutatse of the boughs of the trees: they can do, also in the religious dinners celebrate the solemnity neither the devil already sacrifice animals But, for God's refreshing kill cattle, and the giver of all out for their sustenance; so that, whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them to be reserved, the more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God. In fact, their obdurate minds; at the same time it ought neither to efface every thing there is a doubt; Because of them, who exercised the highest place, rises by degrees or steps, and not, however, woods elevates ")
If, on the one side, through such compromises, entrance was gained for Christianity, so on the other they hindered the rapid and complete extirpation of heathenism, and occasioned a mixture of heathenish ideas and usages with Christian ones. To these circumstances it may be ascribed that heathenism was never completely extirpated, that not only in the first centuries after the conversion, an extraordinary blending of heathenism and Christianity existed, but that even at the present day many traces of heathen notions and usages are to be found among the common people. As late as the twelfth century the clergy in Germany were still occupied in eradicating the remains of heathenism . The missionaries saw in the heathen idols and in the adoration paid to them only a delusion of the devil, who, under their form, had seduced men to his worship, and even believed that the images of the gods and the sacred trees were possessed by the evil one.
Thus they did notregard the heathen deities as so many perfect non-entities, but ascribed to them a real existence, and, to a certain degree, stood themselves in awe of them. Hence their religion was represented to the heathens as a work of the devil, and the new converts were, in the first place, required to renounce him and his service. In this manner the idea naturally impressed itself on the minds of the people that these gods were only so many devils; and if any person, in the first period of Christianity, was brought to doubt the omnipotence of the God of the Christians, and relapsed into idolatry, the majority regarded such apostasy as a submission to the devil.
Hence the numerous stories of compacts with the evil one, at which the individual, who so devoted himself, must abjure his belief in God, Christ, and the Virgin Mary, precisely as the newly converted Christian renounced the devil. That the devil in such stories frequently stood in the place of a heathen god is evident from the circumstance, that offerings must be made to him in crossways, those ancient places of sacrifice (Muller, p. 109. Hence the expressions “ diabolo Sacrificare”, “diaboli in amorem vinum bibere.”- "Devil sacrificing", "Devil in love to drink wine."; A black hen was offered to the devil. (See 11.) (Harrys, i. No. 55. Temme, Sagen Pommerns, No. 233).
But heathenism itself entertained the belief in certain beings hostile alike to gods and men, and at the same time possessed of extraordinary powers, on account of which their aid frequently appeared desirable. We shall presently see how in the Popular Tales the devil is often made to act the part which more genuine traditions assign to the giant race, and how he not unfrequently occupies the place of kind, beneficent spirits.Let it not excite surprise that, in the popular stories and popular belief, Christ and the saints are frequently set in the place of old mythologic beings (See 12). Many a tradition, which in one place is related of a giant or the devil, is in another told of Christ, of Mary, or of some saint. As formerly the minne (memory, remembrance, love) of the gods was drunk, so now a cup was emptied to the memory or love of Christ and the saints, as St. John s minne, Gertrud s minne. (Goth, man (pi. munum, pret. munda), - think, remember, whence Ohg. minna = minia, amor ; minnon = minion, amare, to remember the beloved. In 0. Nor. there is man, munum, and also minni, memoria, minna, recordari. Grimm, D. M. p. 52.
And, as of old, in conjurations and various forms of spells, the heathen deities were invoked, so, after the conversion, Christ and the saints were called on. Several religious usages which were continued became in the popular creed attached to a feast-day or to a Christian saint, although they had formerly applied to a heathen divinity. (Instances are the fires kindled on St. John s day and the usages on St. Martin s day. (See 13). In like manner old heathen myths passed over to Christian saints, some of which even in their later form sound heathenish enough, as that the soul, on the first night of its separation, comes to St. Gertrud (A striking instance of this is the second Merseburg poem with its several parodies.) That in the period immediately following the conversion, the heathen worship of the dead was mingled with the Christian adoration of saints, we have already seen from the foregoing; and the manner in which Clovis venerated St. Martin, shows that he regarded him more as a heathen god than as a Christian saint. It will excite little or no surprise that the scarcely converted king of the Franks sent to the tomb of the saint, as to an oracle, to learn the issue of a war he had commenced against the Wisigoths, as similar transmutations of heathen soothsaying and drawing of lots into apparently Christian ceremonies are to be found elsewhere. “Non licet ad sortilegos vel ad auguria respicere ; nee ad sortes, quas sanctorum vocant, vel quas de ligno aut de pane faciunt, adspicere. “ -. "It is not permitted to recognize or look at times; And to meet the lots, using what they call it, or which he has, or of the bread, but of the tree they make that gaze. According to the Lex Frisionura, Tit. 14, two little staves, one of which was marked with a cross, were laid on the altar or on a relic. A priest or an innocent boy took up one of them with prayer.
We will now add two instances, one of which will show how an individual mentioned in the New Testament has so passed into popular tradition as to completely occupy the place of a heathen goddess, while the other will make it evident how heathen forms of worship can, through various modifications, gradually assume a Christian character. Herodias is by Burchard of Worms compared with Diana.( 10, 1. (from the Cone. Ancyran. a. 314): “Illud etiam non omittendum, quod quaedam sceleratae mulieres, retro post Satanam converse, dsemonum illusionibus et phantasmatibus seductx, credunt se et profitentur nocturnis horis cum Diana, paganorum dea, vel cum Herodiade et innumera multitudine mulierum equitare super quasdam bestias, et multa terrarum spatia intempestse noctis silentio pertransire, ejusque jussionibus velut dominae obedire, et certis noctibus ad ejus servitium evocari”- "It should also not be overlooked;that there are some of their accursed women, back after Satan, conversely, the deceits of the demons and the images a seduction, they profess that they believe that they, and nighttime hours when Diana, pagan goddess or when the Herodiada countless number of women who ride on top of certain animals and in tempestse not pass through the silence of the night, a great expanse of the earth, and his commandments like a lady obey, and its service to a specific nights afterbirth".) The women believed that they made long journeys with her, on various animals, during the hours of the night, obeyed her as a mistress, and on certain nights were summoned to her service. According to Ratherius, bishop of Verona (ob. 974), it was believed that a third part of the world was delivered into her subjection. (Opera, edit. Ballerini, p. 20. D. M. p. 260.)
The author of Reinardus informs us that she loved John the Baptist, but that her father, who disapproved of her love, caused the saint to be beheaded. The afflicted maiden had his head brought to her, but as she was covering it with tears and kisses, it raised itself in the air and blew the damsel back, so that from that time she hovers in the air. Only in the silent hours of night until cockcrowing has she rest, and sits then on oaks and hazels. Her sole consolation is, that, under the name of Pharaildis, a third part of the world is in subjection to her.
That heathen religious usages gradually gave rise to Christian superstitions will appear from the following. It was a custom in the paganism both of Rome and Germany to carry the image or symbol of a divinity round the fields, in order to render them fertile. At a later period the image of a saint or his symbol was borne about with the same object. (Eccard, Franc. Orient, i. 437.) Thus in the Albthal, according to popular belief, the carrying about of St. Magnus’ staff drove away the field mice. In the Freiburg territory the same staff was employed to extirpate the caterpillars.
Of all the divinities, of whom mention has been already made, Wodan alone appears to have survived in the north of Germany. From the following customs it will appear that he was regarded as a god, in whose hand rested the thriving of the fruits of the field. In Meklenburg it was formerly a custom at the ryeharvest to leave at the end of every field a little strip of grain unmowed; this with the ears the reapers plaited together and sprinkled it. They then walked round the bunch, took off their hats, raised their sithes, and called on Wodan thrice in the following verses :
Wode, hale dynem rosse nu Wode, fetch now fodder for thy voder, horse,
nu distel unde dorn, now thistles and thorn,
thorn andren jahr beter korn! for another year better corn!
The corn thus left standing for the horse of the god was a simple offering to the bestower of the harvest. At the mansions of the nobility and gentry, it was a custom, when the rye was cut, to give Wodel-beer. On a Wednesday people avoided all work in flax or sowing linseed, lest the horse of the god, who with his dogs was often heard in the fields, might tread it down.
With these customs a custom of the Mark may be compared. In the neighbourhood of the former monastery of Diesdorf, during the whole rye-harvest, a bundle of ears is left standing in every field, which is called the Vergodendeels Struus. When all is mowed, the people, in holyday attire, proceed to the field with music, and bind this bundle round with a variegated riband, then leap over it and dance round it. Lastly the principal reaper cuts it with his sithe and throws it to the other sheaves. In like manner they go from field to field, and finally return to the village singing:“Nun danket alle Gott”, and then from farm to farm, at each of which some harvest lines are repeated. The name of this harvest festival is Vergodendeel, which is said to signify remuneration for the hard harvestwork, and is to be met with also in some of the neighbour ing villages. From among the several harvest-verses we select the following:
Ich sage einen arndtekranz, I saw a harvest-garland,
es ist aber ein Vergutentheils kranz, but it is a Vergutentheil’s garland.
Dieser kranz ist nicht von disteln und dornen, This garland is not of thistles and thorns,
sondern von reinem auserlese winterkorne - but from clean, selected winternem corn,
es sind auch viele ahren darin; there are also many ears therein ;
so mannich ahr, so many ears,
so mannich gut jahr, so many good years,
so mannich korn, so many corns,
so mannich wispeln auf den, so many wispels (A wispel = 24 bushels.)
wirth seinen born (boden), for the master’s granary.
As the resemblance between this custom and the Meklenburg one is obvious, the “Vergodendeels struus”, may without hesitation be explained by Fro Goden deels struus, i. e. the strauss or wisp, which Fro (Lord) Wodan gets for his share (We must here bear in mind the dialectic form Gwodan (Goden). On the Elbe Wodan is still called Fru Wod. Lisch, Meklenb. Jahrb. 2, 133.) . Hence a similar harvest custom in Lower Saxony, at which Fru Gaue is invoked, may likewise refer to Wodan. When the reapers mow the rye, they leave some straws standing, twine flowers among them, and, after the completion of their labour, assemble round the wisp thus left standing, take hold of the ears and cry:
Fru Gaue, haltet ju fauer, Fru Gaue, hold your fodder,
diit jar up den wagen, this year on the wagon,
dat andar jar up der kare. the next year on the cart.
It will excite but little surprise that in the uncertainty of later popular tradition this appellation has afterwards been attributed to a female divinity. (Goth. Frauja, dominus, whence the modern feminines Fran, Fru, domina, lady. The masculine is no longer extant.)
The names of the other gods have passed out of the memory of the
people. Of the worship of Donar (Thor) there is, perhaps, still a faint trace in the custom,
that in Meklenburg the country people formerly thought it wrong to perform certain work on a
Thursday, as hopping, etc. Of the goddesses, Wodan's wife, Frigg, was, till comparatively
recent times, still living in the popular traditions of Lower Saxony, under the name of Fru Frecke,
but now seems defunct. In the neighbourhood of Dent in Yorkshire the country people, at
certain seasons, particularly in autumn, have a procession, and perform old dances, one of which
they call the giants dance. The principal giant they call Woden, and his wife Frigga. The chief
feature of the spectacle is, that two swords are swung round the neck of a boy and struck together
without hurting him. But in the popular traditions of the Germans the memory still
lives of several female divinities, who do not appear in the Northern system. Goddesses can longer
maintain themselves in the people’s remembrance, because they have an importance for the
contracted domestic circle. But their character, through length of time and Christianity, is so
degraded, that they usually appear more as terrific, spectral beings than as goddesses. Whether their
names even are correct, or have sprung out of mere secondary names or epithets, whether several,
who appear under various names, were not originally identical, a supposition rendered
probable by a striking resemblance in the traditions, can no longer be decided. We can here only simply
repeat what popular tradition relates of them .
Frau Holda, or Holle, still survives in Thuringian and Hessian, as
well as in Markish and Frankish tradition and story. The name of this goddess signifies
either the kind (holde) or the dark, obscure (The word is
connected either with hold, propitious, kind, O. Nor. hollr, or with 0. Nor. hulda, obscurity, darkness. D. M. p. 249.).
She is represented as a being that directs the aerial phenomena, imparts fruitfulness to the earth, presides over rural labours and
spinning. She appears likewise as a divinity connected with water, as she dwells in wells and ponds,
and particularly in the Hollenteich (so called from her) in the Meissner. From her well
children come, and women, who descend into it, become healthy and fruitful. But she also takes
persons drowned to her, and is so
 |
| 2. Frau Holda |
Frau Berchta is particularly at home among the Upper German races, in Austria, Bavaria, Swabia, Alsace, Switzerland, also in some districts of Thuringia and Franconia. She is even more degraded in popular story than Holda. She also appears in the twelve nights as a female with shaggy hair, to inspect the spinners, when fish and porridge (Brei) are to be eaten in honour of her, and all the distaffs must be spun off. (Of those who have eaten other food than her festival-dishes she rips open the bodies, takes out the forbidden viands, stuffs them with chaff, and sews them up again with a ploughshare and an iron chain. Grimm D. S. No. 268 ; Abergl. No. 525.) She is also the queen of the Heimchen (little elementary spirits), who by watering the fields rendered the soil fertile, while she ploughed beneath the surface, and so far has claims to the character of an earth-goddess and promoter of the fertility of the land . To those who mend her chariot she gives the chips by way of payment, which prove to be gold.
Between Berchta and Holle there is unquestionably a considerable resemblance, although their identity is extremely doubtful, as they apparently belong to different German races. The name of Berchta (Berhta, Perahta, Bertha) signifies resplendent, shining, with which the Welsh substantive berth, perfection, beauty, and the adjective berth, beautiful, rich, may be compared. As this goddess appears only in the south of Germany, it is a question whether she did not pass from the Kelts to the German races. We will not decide in the affirmative, though it is worthy of remark that the name enters also into French heroic lore. Bertha with the great foot, or with the goose’s foot, was, according to tradition, the daughter of Flore and Blancheflor, the wife of Pepin and mother of Charles the Great. In France, too, the phrase the time when Bertha span is used to express days long since gone by. It was also customary to swear by the spinning-wheel of the reine pedauque (She is elsewhere called "Frau Precht mit der langen nas." See Grimm, D. M. pp. 250-260. 2 She is also called Bertha. See in Harrys, i. No. 3, Die schone Bertha von Schweckhauserberge.)
.
In German tradition the name of Berchta is given to the so-called White Lady, who appears in many houses, when a member of the family is about to die, and, as we have seen, is thought to be the ancestress of the race. She is sometimes seen at night tending and nursing the children, in which character she resembles the Keltic fairy. In other and more wide-spread traditions, the White Lady is an enchanted or spell-bound damsel, who usually every seventh year appears near some mountain or castle, points out treasures, and awaits her release. Sometimes she is seen combing her long locks or drying flax-knots. Some pretend that, like Huldra, she is disfigured by a tail. She wears a white robe, or is clad half in white half in black ; her feet are concealed by yellow or green shoes. In her hand she usually carries a bunch of keys, sometimes flowers, or a golden spinning-wheel. These traditions evidently point to a goddess that possesses influence over life and death, and presides over domestic economy; although the glimmering shed on her through the medium of popular tradition does not enable us to ascertain more of her nature.
In the traditions of the Altmark there lives another goddess Frau Harke, of whom it is related, that in the twelve nights of Christmas she passes through the country, and if by Twelfthday the maids have not spun off all the flax, she either scratches them or befouls the spinningwheel. Stories concerning her must formerly have been more numerous. Gobelinus Persona relates, that Frau Hera in the Twelfths flies through the air and bestows abundance. (Cosmodrom. Act, vi. Meibom. Scriptt. Rer. Germ. i. p. 235 “Inter festum Nativitatis Christ! ad festum Epiphani* Domini, domina Hera volat per aera. Dicebant vulgares pradicto tempore: Vrowe Hera seu corrupto nomine Vro Here de vlughet, et credebant illam sibi conferre rerum temporalium abundantiam”- Between the birth of Christ; at Epiphani * the lady Lady flying through the air. They said in the vernacular by the foresaid time: Vrowe, Hera, or the corruption of the name of the Vro Here de vlughet away, and believed to confer on it for themselves And plenty of temporal ") As this account points to an earth-goddess, there seems no doubt that the Erce , invoked as mother of earth in an Anglo-Saxon spell for the fertilizing of the land, is identical with her.
In German popular story other names are mentioned of female beings, but who are enveloped even in greater obscurity than the before-mentioned. The Werre, who is at home in Voigtland, inspects, like Frau Holle, the spinners on Christmas eve, and, if all the distaffs are not spun off, befouls the flax. Like Berchta, she rips up the bodies of those who have not eaten porridge. The Stempe tramples on those children who on New Year s day will not eat. The Straggele appears in Lucerne the Wednesday before Christmas, and teazes the maids, if they have not spun their daily task. (See 15). This tradition is probably of Keltic origin, which may likewise be the case with the following one. Domina Abundia, or Dame Habonde, who is mentioned by Guilielmus Alvernus, bishop of Paris (ob. 1248), and who also figures in the Roman de la Rose, is said, on certain nights, accompanied by other women, who are likewise styled Domina, and all clad in white, to enter houses and partake of the viands placed for them. (Nymphse albze, domino bonse, dominje nocturnae. Wolf, Niederl, Sagen, No. 231.) Their appearance in a house is a sign of good luck and prosperity. In these white-clad females we at once recognise the Keltic fairies. The name Habundia has no connection with the Latin abundantia, from which Guilielmus Alvernus would derive it . Together with Habundia Guilielmus Alvernus places Satia, whose name he derives from satietas. The goddess Bensozia, whom Augerius episcopus Conseranus mentions as a being with whom, as with Herodias, Diana and Holda, the women were believed to ride at night, may be identical with her, and her name be only a fuller form of Satia. The foregoing are the principal memorials of heathen divinities that have been preserved in Christian times. Together with them we find traces of that living conception of nature, which is perceptible among the Germans from the remotest period. The sun and moon were always regarded as personal beings, they were addressed as Frau and Herr (Domina and Dominus), and enjoyed a degree of veneration with genuflexions and other acts of adoration.
Wanne Thekla is in the Netherlands the queen of the elves and witches.
 |
| 4. Wanne Thekla |
To certain animals, as cats, the idea of something ghostly and magical was attached; to others, as the cuckoo, was ascribed the gift of prophecy; while others, as snakes, had influence on the happiness of men, or are accounted sacred and inviolable. Trees, also, even to a much later period, were regarded as animated beings, on which account they were addressed by the title of Frau; or it was believed that personal beings dwelt in them, to whom a certain reverence was due (See 16, Muller, p. 130.).
Of processions and festivals, which have pretensions to a heathen origin, we can give only a brief notice. As, according to Tacitus, the goddess Nerthus was drawn in a carriage in a festive procession, through the several districts, so in Christian times, particularly during the spring, we meet with customs, a leading feature of which consists of a tour or procession. Such festive processions are either through a town, or a village, or through several localities, or round the fields of a community, or about the mark or boundary. On these occasions a symbol was frequently carried about, either an animal having reference to some divinity, or else some utensil. A procession may here be cited which, in the year 1133, took place after a complete heathenish fashion, notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of the clergy. In the forest near Inda (Inden in the territory of Julich, afterwards Cornelimunster.), a ship was constructed, and furnished beneath with wheels; this was drawn by weavers (compelled to the task), harnessed before it, through Aix-la-Chapelle, Maestricht, Tongres, Looz and other localities, was everywhere received with great joy, and attended by a multitude singing and dancing. The celebration lasted for twelve days. Whosoever, excepting the weavers who drew the ship an office they regarded as ignominious touched the same, must give a pledge, or otherwise redeem himself (See a circumstantial account of this custom in Grimm, D. M. pp. 237, sqq.). This custom maintained itself to a much later period in Germany, as by a protocol of the council of Ulm, dated on the eve of St. Nicholas, 1330, the procession with a plough or a ship is prohibited. A connection between the above custom and the worship of the Isis of Tacitus, whose symbol was a ship, seems in a high degree probable; it had, at least, reference to a goddess, as, according to the original narrative, the women took part in it with bacchanalian wantonness (Muller, p. 133. Rodolfi Chron. Abbatiaj S. Trudonis, lib. ix. fugitiva adhuc luce diei imminente lima, matronarum catervse abjecto femineo pudore audientes strepitum hujus vanitatis, sparsis capillis de stratis suis exiliebant, alia; semiimdae, alise simplice tantum clamide circumdutse, chorosque ducentibus circa navim impudenter irrumpendo se admiscebant. / fleeting light of day again threatening the file, the ladies off catervse Hearing the shouts of a woman's modesty lies about her hair disheveled upon their couches exiliebant, then the other; semiimdae, flies only a simple cloak circumdutse; dancing around the boat to break into the unobjectionable mingle.).
Mention also occurs of a procession with a plough, about Shrovetide, in other parts of Germany, viz. on the Rhine, in Upper Saxony and Franconia, with the remarkable addition, that young unmarried women were either placed on the plough, or were compelled to draw it. Another procession, called The driving, or carrying, out of Death (winter), took place formerly about Midlent, usually on the Sunday Latare (the fourth in Lent), and sometimes on the Sunday Oculi (the third in Lent), in Franconia and Thuringia, also in Meissen, Voigtland, Lusatia and Silesia. Children carried a figure of straw or wood, or a doll in a box, or stuck on a pole, through the place, singing all the time, then cast the figure into the water or burnt it. In its stead a fir-tree was brought back to the place. If the procession met any cattle on their return they beat them with sticks, believing that they thereby rendered them fruitful . In other places the beginning of the beautiful season is represented as the entrance of a benignant divinity into the country. In Thuringia, on the third day of Whitsuntide, a young peasant, called the green man, or lettuceking, is in the forest enveloped in green boughs, placed on a horse, and amid rejoicings conducted into the village, where all the people are assembled. The Schulze (Bailiff or Mayor) must then guess thrice who is concealed under the green covering. If he does not guess, he must forfeit a quantity of beer; and even if he does guess, he must, nevertheless, give it. Of the same class is the procession of the Maigraf (Count of the May), called also the King of the May, or King of Flowers), which formerly, usually on the first of May, took place with great rejoicings, not only in Lower Germany, but in Denmark and Sweden. Attended by a considerable company, and adorned with flowers and garlands, the Count of the May paraded through the several
districts, where he was received by the young girls, who danced round him, one of whom he chose for Queen of the May.
We shall conclude this sketch of the festive processions with a short notice of some other heathen customs. It is a wide-spread custom in Germany to kindle bonfires on certain days, viz. at Easter and St. John's (Midsummer) day, less usually at Christmas and Michaelmas. In Lower Germany the Easter-fires are the most usual, which are generally lighted on hills; while in the south of Germany the St. John's fires are the commonest, and were formerly kindled in the market-places, or before the gates of the town. The ceremonies connected with these fires are more and more forgotten. In former times old and young, high and low regarded the kindling of them as a great festival. These customs had apparently an agrarian object, as it is still believed that so far as the flame of the Easter-fire spreads its light will the earth be fertile and the corn thrive for that year. These fires, too, were, according to the old belief, beneficial for the preservation of life and health to those who came in contact with the flame. On which account the people danced round the St. John's fire, or sprang over it, and drove their domestic animals through it. The coal and ashes of the Easter-fire were carefully collected and preserved as a remedy for diseases of the cattle. For a similar reason it was a custom to drive the cattle when sick over particular fires called need-fires (Notfeuer), which, with certain ceremonies, were kindled by friction (Indie. Superst. c. 15. De igne fricato de ligno.); on which account the St. John’ s fire is strictly to be regarded as a need-fire kindled at a fixed period. Fire is the sacred, purifying and propitiating element, which takes away all imperfections. (Müller, p. 141. For details relating to these fires see Grimm, D.M. pp. 570-594. Particularly worthy of notice is the employment of a cartwheel, by the turning of which the needfire is kindled. In some places, at the Easter-fire, a burning wheel is rolled down a hill. In the Mark a cart-wheel is set on fire and danced round. A wheel, too, is hung over the doors of the houses for the thriving of the cattle. Mark. Sagen, p. 362. Comp. Grimm, D. M. 1st edit. Abergl. "Whoever puts a wheel over his doorway has luck in his house."; This custom of kindling sacred fires on certain days prevails throughout almost the whole of Europe, and was known to Antiquity, particularly in Italy. The Kelts kindled such fires, on the first of May, to the god Deal (thence even now called Bealtine), and on the first of November to the god Sighe. (Leo, Malb. Gl. i. 33.) But whether the need-fire is of Keltic origin remains a doubt. "The fires lighted by the [Scottish] Highlanders on the first of May, in compliance with a custom derived from the pagan times, are termed the Beltane-Tree, It is a festival celebrated with various superstitious rites, both in the north of Scotland and in Wales."; Scott's Minstrelsy, iii. p. 324.)
A similar salutiferous power is, according to the still existing popular belief, possessed by water, particularly when drawn in silence on certain holyday nights, as St. John’s or Christmas, from certain springs that were formerly sacred to some divinity. To wash in such water imparts health and beauty for the whole year. On Death, and the condition of souls after death, a few words are necessary. Even in Christian ideas of hell, the remains of pagan belief are here and there discernible. Among these may be reckoned that the devil has his habitation in the north, as in the Scandinavian belief the nether world lies in the north. According to some traditions, the entrance to hell leads, through long, subterranean passages, to a gate; in the innermost space lies the devil fast bound, as Utgarthilocus is chained in the lower world. According to another tradition, the emperor Charles, when conducted to hell by an angel, passed through deep dells full of fiery springs, as, according to the Scandinavian belief, the way to Hel's abode led through deep valleys, in the midst of which is the spring Hvergelmir. The popular tales also relate how a water must be passed before arriving at Hell.
According to all appearance, the idea was very general in the popular belief of Scandinavia, that the souls of the departed dwelt in the interior of mountains. This idea at least very frequently presents itself in the Icelandic Sagas, and must have been wide-spread, as it is retained even in Germany to the present day. Of some German mountains it is believed that they are the abodes of the damned. One of these is the Horselberg near Eisenach, which is the habitation of Frau Holle; another is the fabulous Venusberg, in which the Tanhauser sojourns, and before which the trusty Eckhart sits as a warning guardian (The relationship of the traditions of Frau Venus and Holda is indubitable. The Venusberg is considered by some as identical with the Horselberg, in which Frau Holle holds her court. Before the Venusberg according to the preface to the Heldenbuch sits the trusty Eckhard, and warns people; as he also rides and warns before the Wild Hunt. Grimm, D. S. No. 7. The tradition of the Venusberg first appears in monuments of the fourteenth century.). Of other mountains it is also related that heroes of ancient times have been carried into them. Thus the emperor Frederic Barbarossa sits in the Kyfhauser at a stone table ; his beard has already grown twice round the table ; when it has grown thrice round he will awake (Grimm, D. S. Nos. 23, 296. Comp. Bechstein, Thiir. Sagenschatz, 4, 9-54. See 17. According to another tradition, the emperor Frederic sits in a rocky cavern near Kaiserslautern.). The emperor Charles sits in the Odenberg, or in the Unterberg (Grimm, D. S. Nos. 26, 28. Mones 28 Anzeiger, 4. 409. Of Wedekind also it is said that he sits in a mountain, called Die Babilonie, in Westphalia, until his time comes. Redecker, Westf. Sagen, No, 21. Similar traditions are in D. S. Nos. 106, 207, and in Mones Anzeiger, 5, 174.), and an emperor not named, in the Guckenberg near Frankishgemünden.
Almost all the descriptions of the sojourn of souls after death have this in common, that the nether world was thought to be in the bowels of the earth, that is, in the interior of mountains or at the bottom of waters, and that its aspect was that of a spacious habitation, in which a divine being received the departed. That it was, at the same time, also a belief that the dead in their graves, in a certain manner, continued to live, that they were contented or sad, and heard the voices of those who called a subject to which we shall presently return is strictly in contradiction to the other ideas; but, in the first place, heathenism easily tolerated such inconsistencies, and, secondly, the depth of the grave became confounded with the nether world in the bowels of the earth. Thus while, on the one hand, it was thought that the dead preserved their old bodily aspect, and appeared just as when they sojourned on earth, although the freshness of life had departed; on the other hand there is no lack of passages, according to which a particular form is ascribed to the soul when separated from its body.
As mountains, according to the heathen popular belief, were supposed to be the sojourns of the dead, so it was imagined that in the bottom of wells and ponds there was a place for the reception of departed souls. But this belief had special reference to the souls of the drowned, who came to the dwelling of the Nix, or of the sea-goddess Ran. The depths of the water were, however, at the same time, conceived in a more general sense, as the netherworld itself. For which reasons persons who otherwise, according to the popular traditions, are conveyed away into mountains, are also supposed to be dwelling in Wells and ponds (Thus the emperor Charles is said to sojourn in a well at Nuremberg D. S. No. 22.); and the numerous tales current throughout the whole of Germany of towns and castles that have been sunk in the water, and are sometimes to be discerned at the bottom, are probably connected with this idea. It is particularly worthy of notice that beautiful gardens have been imagined to exist under the water (Thus Frau Holla has a garden under her pool or well, from which she distributes all kinds of fruits. L). S. No. 4. Comp. 13, 291, and K and H. M. No. 24.). Yet more widespread is the tradition that green meadows exist underwater, in which souls have their abode. In an old German poem it is said that these meadows are closed against suicides, according to which they would appear to be a detached portion of the nether world. The soul was supposed to bear the form of a bird. Even in Ssemund s Edda it is said, that in the nether World singed birds fly that had been souls:
Frá bvi er at segja, Of that is to be told,
hvat ek fyrst um sa, what I first observed,
Tá ek var kvölheima kominn: when I had come into the land of torment :
svidnir fuglar, singed birds,
er salir yam, that had been souls,
flugu sva margir sem my. flew as many as gnats. (Solarljod Str. 53.)
And in the popular tales similar ideas occur frequently. The ghost of the murdered mother comes swimming in the form of a duck, or the soul sits in the form of a bird on the grave; the young murdered brother mounts up as a little bird, and the girl, when thrown into the water, rises in the air as a white duck . The frequent conjurations into swans, doves and ravens originate in the same ideas: these birds are the souls of the murdered, a belief which the popular tale ingeniously softening, represents merely as a transformation. With this belief the superstition must be placed in connection, that, when a person dies, the windows should be opened, that the departing soul may fly out .
From the popular traditions we also learn that the soul has the form of a snake. It is related that out of the mouth of a sleeping person a snake creeps and goes a long distance, and that what it sees or suffers on its way, the sleeper dreams of (When the grave of Charles Martel was opened, a large
snake was found in it; such at least is the story, which, moreover, tells us that having exhausted his treasures, he gave the tenth, which was the due of the clergy, to his knights to enable them to live. The story of the snake was told by St. Eucherius, bishop of Orleans. See Wolf, Niederl. Sagen, No. 68. Other traditions tell that the soul proceeds from the mouth of a sleeping person in the form of a butterfly, a weasel or mouse. D. S. Nos. 247, 255 ; D. M. pp. 789, 1036. Goethe alludes to a similar superstition in Faust: Ach! mitten im Gesange sprang ein rothes Mauschen ihr aus dem Munde.- Ah! in the midst of her song a red mousekin sprang out of her mouth.)
If it is prevented from returning, the person dies.
According to other traditions and tales, it would seem that the soul was thought to have the form of a flower, as a lily or a white rose (See 18. Grimm, K. and H. M. Nos. 9, 85. The popular tales tell also of persons transformed into lilies or other flowers. K. and H. M. Nos. 56, 76. On the chair of those that will soon die a white rose or lily appears. D. S. Nos. 263, 264; Harrys, i. p. 76. From the Grave of one unjustly executed white lilies spring as a token of his innocence ; from that of a maiden, three lilies, which no one save her lover may gather ; from the mounds of lovers flowery shrubs spring, which entwine together. Also in the Swedish ballads lilies and limes grow out of graves. In the Scottish ballad of Fair Margaret and Sweet William it is said :
Out of her breast there sprang a rose,
And out of his a Iriar ;
They grew till they grew unto the church-top,
And there they tied in a true lovers knot.
See also the story of Axel and Valdborg , where the trees are the ash.)See 19
These ideas may be regarded as the relics of a belief in the transmigration of souls, according to which the soul, after its separation from the body, passes into that of an animal, or even an inanimate object. More symbolic is the belief that the soul appears as a light. Hence the popular superstition that the ignes fatui, which appear by night in swampy places, are the souls of the dead. Men, who during life have fraudulently removed landmarks, must, after death, wander about as ignes fatuij or in a fiery form. According to a well-known popular tale, there is a subterranean cavern, in which innumerable
lights burn: these are the life-tapers of mortals. When a light is burnt out, the life of the person to whom it belonged is at an end, and he is the property of Death (See K. and H. M. No. 44. Muller, p.
404. The same idea is contained in the popular superstitions. On Christmas eve the light may not be extinguished, else some one will die. Grinim, A^ergl. Nos. 421, 468. In the Albthal, on a wedding-day, during the service, a triple twisted taper is borne by each of the bridal party: the person whose taper is first burnt out will be the first to die. Schreiber s Taschenbuch, 1839, p. 325.)
How do the souls of the departed arrive at their destined abode? German tradition assigns the office of receiving the souls of mortals at their death to dwarfs. Middle High German poems, and also the belief still existing among the people, regard Death as a person, under various names, who when their hour arrives, conducts mortals away by the hand, on a level road, dances with them (According to the preface to the Heldenbuch, a dwarf fetches Dietrich of Bern with the words: “Thou shalt go with me, thy kingdom is no more in this World”. According to Christian ideas, angels or devils receive the departed souls, an office particularly assigned to Michael.), sets them on his horse, receives them in his train, invites them to his dwelling, lays them in chains, or which is probably a later idea fights with them, and with spear, dart, sword or sithe, slays them (The dance of death cannot, however, be traced farther back than the fifteenth century. Muller, p. 405.). In some parts of Germany it is a custom to place a piece of money in the mouth of a corpse, probably to pay the passage-money, or defray the expenses of the journey. As the dead in the nether world continue their former course of life (Many of the German popular stories make the dead to appear as they were in life and to follow the same pursuits. In ruined castles, knights in their ancient costume hold tournaments and sit at the joyous feast; the priest reads mass, the wild huntsman and the robber continue their handiwork after death. D. S. Nos. 527, 828 ; Niederl. Sagen, Nos. 422, 424, 425 ; Mones Anzeiger, 4. 307 ; Harrys, i. No. 51 et alibi.), it naturally follows that they are not wholly estranged from earthly life. No oblivious draught has been given them, but the remembrance of their earthly doings cleaves to them. Hence they gladly see again the places frequented by them while on earth but they are particularly disquieted when anything still attaches them to earthly life. A buried treasure allows them no rest until it is raised; an unfinished work, an unfulfilled promise forces them back to the upper world .
In like manner the dead attach themselves to their kindred and friends. Hence the belief is very general that they will return to their home and visit them, and that they sympathize with their lot (In the neighbourhood of Courtrai it is a custom, when conveying a corpse to the churchyard, to repeat a Pater noster at every crossway, that the dead, when he wishes to return home, may be able to find the way. Niederl. Sagen, No. 317. The dead usually re-appear on the ninth day. Grimm, Abergl. No. 856. According to the Eyrb. Saga, c. 54, the dead come to their funeral feast.). Thus a mother returns to the upper world to tend her forsaken children (For a mother that has died in childbirth the bed is to be made during six weeks, that she may lie in it when she comes to give her child the breast. Niederl. Sagen, No. 326.), or children at their parents grave find aid, who, as higher powers, grant them what they wish . Slain warriors also rise again to help their comrades to victory (Grimm, D. S. No. 327. Comp. Wunderhorn, i. 73, 74. The dead also wreak vengeance. Niederl. Sagen, No. 312. It is an old belief that if a person is murdered on Allhallows day, he can have no rest in the grave until he has taken revenge on his murderer. Ib. No. 323,). But it disturbs the repose of the dead when they are too much wept for and mourned after. Every tear falls into their coffin and torments them; in which case they will rise up and implore those they have left behind to cease their lamentation . (Muller, p. 412. Grimm, K. and H. M. No. 109. This belief is feelingly expressed in the old Danish ballad of Aage and Else:
Hver en Gang Du glaedes, Every time thou art joyful,
Og i Din Hu er glad, And in thy mind art glad,
Da er min Grav forinden, Then is my grave within
Omhaengt med Rosens Blad. Hung round with roses leaves.
Hver Gang Du Dig graminer, Every time thou grievest,
Og i Din Hu er mod, And in thy mind art sad,
Da er min Kiste forinden, Then is within my coffin
Som fuld med levret Blod. As if full of clotted blood.)
Northen Mythology, comprising the principal traditions and superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, and The Netherlands. Compiled from original and other sources, in three volumes. Vol I of III, By Benjamin Thorpe,
Picture source:
1.Wikipedia
2. https://skadibella.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/holda-hulda-percht-berchta-frau-holle-frau-berta/
3.https://skadibella.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/holda-hulda-percht-berchta-frau-holle-frau-berta/
4.https://www.abedeverteller.nl/heksen-in-de-kunst-tot-1600/
Northen Mythology, comprising the principal traditions and superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, and The Netherlands. Compiled from original and other sources, in three volumes. Vol I of III, By Benjamin Thorpe,
Picture source:
1.Wikipedia
2. https://skadibella.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/holda-hulda-percht-berchta-frau-holle-frau-berta/
3.https://skadibella.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/holda-hulda-percht-berchta-frau-holle-frau-berta/
4.https://www.abedeverteller.nl/heksen-in-de-kunst-tot-1600/
Nico
