Chapter 17

Out of all these it is hard to pick out the true name. Wolfram makes pilwiz (var. pilbiz, bilwiz, bilwitz) rhyme with biz (morsus), where the short vowel in the last syllable seems to point to pilwiht; the same with bilbis in another poem, which would have spelt it bilbeis if it had been long; so that we cannot connect it with the OS. balowîs, nor immediately with the bilwîs and balwîs contrasted on p. 374. The varying form is a sign that in the 13-14th century the word was no longer understood; and later on, it gets further distorted, till bulwechs makes us think of a totally unconnected word balwahs (hebes). (68) A confession-book of the first half of the 15^th century (Hoffmann's Monatschr. 753) has pelewysen synonymous with witches, and Colerus's Hausbuch (Mainz 1656), p. 403, uses bihlweisen in the same sense; several authorities for the form pilbis are given in Schm. 4, 188. We welcome the present Westph. Nethl. belewitten in the Teutonista, where Schuiren considers it equivalent to guede holden and witte vrouwen (penates). Kilian has belewitte (lamia); and here comes in fitly a passage from Gisb. Vœtius de miraculis (Disput., tom. 2, 1018): 'De illis quos nostrates appellant beeldwit et blinde belien, a quibus nocturna visa videri atque ex iis arcana revelari putant.' Belwit then is penas, a kindly disposed home-sprite, a guote holde (supra, p. 266), what Rüediger calls 'ein guoter und ein pilewiz.' Peculiar to AS. is an adj. bilwit, bilewit, Cædm. 53, 4. 279, 23, which is rendered mansuetus, simplex, but might more exactly mean aequus, justus. God is called 'bilewit fæder' (Andr. 1996), Boeth. metr. 20, 510. 538; and is also addressed as such in Cod. exon. 259, 6; again, 'bilwitra breoste' (bonorum, aequorum pectus), Cod. exon. 343, 23. The spelling bilehwit (Beda 5, 2, 13, where it translates simplex) would lead to hwît (albus), but then what can bil mean? I prefer the better authorized bilewit, taking 'wit' to mean scius, and bilwit, OHG. pilawiz, pilwiz? to mean aequum (69) sciens, aequus, bonus, although an adj. 'vit, wiz' occurs nowhere else that I know of, the ON. vitr [[wise]] (gen. vitrs) being provided with a suffix -r. If this etymology is tenable, bilwiz is a good genius, but of elvish nature; he haunts mountains, his shot is dreaded like that of the elf (p. 460), hair is tangled and matted by him as by the alp (p. 464. One passage cited by Schm. 4, 188, deserves particular notice: 'so man ain kind oder ain gewand opfert zu aim pilbispawn,' if one sacrifice a child or garment to a pilbis-tree, i.e., a tree supposed to be inhabited by the pilwiz, as trees do contain wood-sprites and elves. Börner's Legends of the Orlagau, p. 59. 62, name a witch Bilbze. The change of bilwiz, bilwis into bilwiht was a step easily taken, as in other words also s and h, or s and ht interchange (lios, lioht, Gramm. 1, 138), also st and ht (forest, foreht, Gramm. 4, 416); and the more, as the compound bilwiht gave a not unsuitable meaning, 'good wight.' The Gl. blas. 87ª offer a wihsilstein (penas), nay, the varying form of our present names for the plica (p. 464), weichselzopf, wichselzopf, wichtelzopf (bichtelzopf) makes the similar shading off of bilweichs, bilwechs, bilwicht probable: I have no doubt there is even a bilweichszopf, bilwizzopf to be found. (70)

Popular belief in the last few centuries, having lost the old and higher meaning of this spiritual being, has retained, as in the case of the alb, of Holla and Berhta, only the hateful side of its nature: a tormenting terrifying spectre, tangling your hair and beard, cutting up your corn, it appears mostly in a female form, as a sorceress and witch. Martin von Amberg's Mirror of Confession already interprets pilbis by devil, as Kilian does belewitte by lamia, strix. The tradition lingers chiefly in Eastern Germany, in Bavaria, Franconia, Vogtland and Silesia. H. Sachs uses bilbitzen of matting the hair in knots, pilmitz of tangled locks: 'ir har verbilbitzt, zapfet und stroblet, als ob sie hab der rab gezoblet,' i. 5, 309b. ii. 2, 100d; 'pilmitzen, zoten und fasen,' iii. 3, 12ª. In the Ackermann von Böhmen, cap. 6, pilwis means the same as witch; 'pielweiser, magician, soothsayer,' Böhme's Beitr. zum schles. recht 6, 69. 'an. 1529 (at Schweidnitz), a pielweiss buried alive,' Hoffmann's Monatschr. p. 247. '1582 (at Sagan), two women of honest carriage rated for pilweissen and ----,' ibid. 702. 'du pileweissin!' A. Gryphius, . 828. 'Las de deine bilbezzodn auskampln' says the angry mother to her child, 'i den bilmezschedl get nix nei,' get your b. clots combed out, you don't come in in that shaggy scalp, Schm. 1, 168. pilmeskind, a curse like devil's child, Delling's Bair. idiot. 1, 78. On the Saale in Thuringia, bulmuz is said of unwashed or uncombed children; while bilbezschnitt, bilwezschnitt, bilfezschnitt, pilmasschnied (Jos. Rank. Böhmerwald, p. 274) denotes a cutting through a field of corn, which is regarded as the work of a spirit, a witch, or the devil.

This last-mentioned belief is also one of long standing. Thus the Lex Bajuvar. 12 (13), 8: 'si quis messes alterius initiaverit maleficis artibus, et inventus fuerit, cum duodecim solidis componat, quod aranscarti (71) dicunt,' I dare say such a delinquent was then called a piliwiz, pilawiz? On this passage Mederer remarks, p. 202-3: An honest countryman told me about the so-called bilmerschnitt, bilberschnitt, as follows: 'The spiteful creature, that wants to do his neighbour a rascally mischief, goes at midnight, stark naked, with a sickle tied to his foot, and repeating magic spells, through the middle of a field of corn just ripe. From that part of the field that he has passed his sickle through, all the grains fly into his barn, into his bin.' Here everything is attributed to a charm practised by man. (72) Julius Schmidt too (Reichenfels, p. 119) reports from the Vogtland: The belief in bilsen- or bilver-schnitter (-reapers) (73) is tolerably extensive, nay, there seem to be certain persons who believe themselves to be such: in that case they go into the field before sunrise on St. John's day, sometimes on Walpurgis-day (May 1), and cut the stalks with small sickles tied to their great toes, stepping slantwise across the field. Such persons must have small three-cornered hats on (bilsenschnitter-hütchen); if during their walk they are saluted by any one, they must die that year. These bilsenschnitter believe they get half the produce of the field where they have reaped, and small sickle-shaped instruments have been found in some people's houses, after their death. If the owner of the field can pick up any stubble of the stalks so cut, and hangs it in the smoke, the bilsenschnitter will gradually waste away (see Suppl.).

According to a communication from Thuringia, there are two ways of baffling the bilms- or binsen-schneider (-cutter), whichever he is called. One is, on Trinity Sunday or St. John's day, when the sun is highest in the sky, to go and sit on an elderbush with a looking-glass on your breast, and look round in every quarter, then no doubt you can detect the binsenschneider, but not without great risk, for if he spies you before you see him, you must die and the binsenschneider remain alive, unless he happen to catch sight of himself in the mirror on your breast, in which case he also loses his life that year. Another way is, to carry some ears that the binsenschneider has cut to a newly opened grave in silence, and not grasping the ears in your bare hand; if the least word be spoken, or a drop of sweat from your hand get into the grave with the ears, then, as soon as the ears rot, he that threw them in is sure to die.

What is here imputed to human sorcerers, is elsewhere laid to the devil (Superst. no. 523), or to elvish goblins, who may at once be known by their small hats. Sometimes they are known as bilgenschneider, as pilver- or hilperts-schnitter, sometimes by altogether differing names. Alberus puts sickles in the hands of women travelling in Hulda's host (supra, p. 269 note). In some places, acc. to Schm. 1, 151, they say bockschnitt, because the goblin is supposed to ride through the cornfield on a he-goat, which may well remind us of Dietrich with the boar (p. 214). The people about Osnabrück believe the tremsemutter walks about in the corn: she is dreaded by the children. In Brunswick she is called kornwif: when children are looking for cornflowers, they will not venture too far into the green field, they tell each other of the cornwife that kidnaps little ones. In the Altmark and Mark Brandenburg they call her roggenmöhme (aunt in the rye), and hush crying children with the words: 'hold your tongue, or roggenmöhme with the long black teats wil come and drag you away!' (74) Others say 'with her long iron teats,' which recalls iron Berhta: others again name her rockenmör, because like Holla and Berhta, she plays all manner of tricks on idle maids who have not spun their distaffs clear during the Twelves. Babes whom she puts to her black breast are likely to die. Is not the Bavarian preinscheuhe the same kind of corn-spectre? In the Schräckengast, Ingolst. 1598, there are coupled together on p. 73, 'preinscheuhen und meerwunder,' and p. 89 'wilde larvenschopper und preinscheuhen.' This prein, brein, properly pap (puls), means also grain-bearing plants like oats, millet, panicum, plantago (Schm. 1, 256-7); and breinscheuhe (-scare) may be the spirit that is the bugbear of oat and millet fields?

In all this array of facts, there is no mistaking the affinity of the bilwisses with divine and elvish beings of our heathenism. They mat the hair like dame Holla, dame Berhta, and the alb, they wear the small hat and wield the shot of the elves, they have at last, like Holla and Berhta, sunk into a children's bugbear. Originally 'gute holden,' sociable and kindly beings, they have twisted round by degrees into uncanny fiendish goblins, wizards and witches. And more, at the back of these elvish beings there may lurk still higher divine beings. The Romans worshipped a Robigo, who could hinder blight in corn, and perhaps, if displeased, bring it on. The walking of the bilwiss, of the Roggenmuhme in the grain had at first a benevolent motive: as the names mutter, muhme, mör teach us, she is a motherly guardian goddess of spindle and seedfield. Fro upon his boar must have ridden through the plains, and made them productive, nay, even the picture of Siegfried riding through the corn I incline to refer to the circuit made by a god; and now for the first time I think I understand why the Wetterau peasant to this day, when the corn-ears wave in the wind, says the boar walks in the corn. It is said of the god who causes the crops to thrive. Thus, by our study of elves, with whom the people have kept up acquaintance longer, we are led up to gods that once were. The connexion of elves with Holla and Berhta is further remarkable, because all these beings, unknown to the religion of the Edda, reveal an independent development or application of the heathen faith in continental Germany (see Suppl.). (75)




ENDNOTES:

68. Fundgr. 1, 343, where palwasse rhymes with vahse, as MHG. often has 'wahs for acutus, when it should be 'was,' OHG. huas, AS. hwæs, ON. hvass [[sharp, keen]]; thus the OHG. palohuas = badly sharp, i.e., blunt, ON. bölhvass? just as palotât = baleful deed. A later form bülwächs in Schm. 4, 15. Back

69. The simple bil seems of itself to be aequitas, jus, and mythic enough (p. 376). MHG. billich (aequus), Diut. 3, 38. Fundgr. ii. 56, 27. 61, 23. 66, 19. Reinh. 354. Iw. 1630. 5244. 5730. 6842. Ls. 2, 329. billichen (jure), Nib. 450, 2. der billich (aequitas), Trist. 6429. 9374. 10062. 13772. 18027. An OHG. billih I only know from W. lxv. 27, where the Leyden MS. has bilithlich. As the notions 'aequus, aequalis, similis' lie next door to each other, piladi, bilidi (our bild) is really aequalitas, similitudo, the ON. likneski [[image, idol; shape, form]] (imago). The Celtic bil also means good, mild; and Leo (Malb. Gl. 38) tries to explain bilwiz from bilbheith, bilbhith. Back

70. Another Polish name for plica, beside koltun, is wicszczyce (Linde 6, 227), and vulgar opinion ascribes it to the magic of a wieszczka wise woman, witch. This wieszczyce agrees with our weichsel-zopf, and also with the -wiz, -weis in bilwiz. If we could point to a compound bialowieszczka (white witch, white fay; but I nowhere find it, not even among other Slavs), there would arise a strong suspicion of the Slavic origin of our bilwiz; for the present German character seems to me assured both by the absence of such Slavic compound, and by the AS. bilwit and Nethl. belwitte: besides, our wiz comes from wizan, and the Pol. wieszcz from wiedziec [O. Sl. védeti, to wit], and the kinship of the two words can be explained without any thought of borrowing. Of different origin seem to me the Slovèn. paglawitz, dwarf, and the Lith. Pilvitus (Lasicz 54) or Pilwite (Narbutt 1, 52), god or goddess of wealth. [The Russ. vèshch (shch pron. as in parish-church) has the same sound as wieszcz, but means thing, Goth. vaíht-s; for kt, ht becomes shch, as in noshch, night. I am not sure therefore that even wieszczka may not be "little wiht."---Trans.] Back

71. Goth. asans (messis), OHG. aran, arn. Back

72. Can this magic be alluded to so early as in the Kaiserchronik (2130-37)?

diu muoter heizit Rachel,-----------------sin sichil sneit schiere

diu hât in gelêret:--------------------------mêr dan andere viere;

swenne sie in hiez snîden gân,-----------wil er durch einin berc varn,

sin hant incom nie dâr an,----------------der stêt immer mêr ingegen im ûf getân.

(His mother R. taught him: when she bade him go cut, he never put his hand to it, his

sickle soon cut more than any other four; if he will drive through a hill, it opens before

him.) Back

73. Bilse is henbane, and binse a rush, which plants have no business here. They are merely an adaptation of bilwiz, when this had become unintelligble.---Trans. Back

74. Conf. Deut. sagen, no. 89. Kuhn, p. 373. Temme's Sagen, p. 80. 82, of the Altmark. The Baden legend makes of it a rocket-weibele and an enchanted countess of Eberstein, who walks about in a wood named Rockert (Mone's Anzeiger, 3, 145). Back

75. The Slavs too have a field-spirit who paces through the corn. Boxhorn's Resp. Moscov., pars 1, p. .....: "Daemonem quoque meridianum Moscovitae metuunt et colunt. Ille enim, dum jam maturae resecantur fruges, habitu viduae lugentis ruri obambulat, operariisque uni vel pluribus, nisi protinus viso spectro in terram proni concidant, brachia frangit et crura. Neque tamen contra hanc plagam remedio destituuntur. Habent enim in vicina silva arbores religione patrum cultas: harum cortice vulneri superimposito, illum non tantum sanant, sed et dolorem loripedi eximunt." Among the Wends this corn-wife is named pshipolnitza [prop. prepoln., from polno, full, i.e. full noon], at the hour of noon she creeps about as a veiled woman. If a Wend, conversing with her by the hour on flax and flax-dressing, can manage to contradict, everything she says, or keep saying the Lord's prayer backwards without stumbling, he is safe (Lausitz. monatsschr. 1797, p. 744). The Bohemians call her baba (old woman), or polednice, poludnice (meridiana), the Poles dziewanna, dziewice (maiden), of whom we shall have to speak more than once, conf. chap. XXXVI. Here also there are plainly gods mixed up with the spirits and goblins. Back