Chapter 34

It perfectly agrees with the view propounded, that the Thuring. Horselberg is at once the residence of Holda and her host (pp. 456. 935. 959), and a trysting-place of witches (p. 1052). Keisersberg in Omeiss 36. 40 makes the night-faring wives assemble no otherwhere but in the Venusberg (p. 953), whereat is good living, dancing and hopping. Still more decisive are the passages quoted in the Appendix (Superst. C, int. 44; 10, 1; p. 194a. D, 140 r. ), by which it appears, that down into the tenth and into the 14^th cent., night-women in the service of dame Holda rove through the air on appointed nights, mounted on beasts; her they obey, to her they sacrifice, and all the while not a word about any league with the Devil. Nay, these night-women, shining mothers, dominae nocturnae, bonnes dames (p. 287-8), in Hincmar 'lamiae sive geniciales feminae,' were originally dæmonic elvish beings, who appeared in woman's shape and did men kindnesses; Holda, Abundia, to whom still a third part of the whole world is subject (pp. 283-8), lead the ring of dancers, and on the goddess's itinerant ship dances were trod (p. 260). It is to such dancing at heathen worship, to the airy elf-dance (p. 470), to the hopping of will-o'-wisps (p. 916), (37) that I trace primarily the idea of witches' dances; though festive dances at heathen May-meetings can be reckoned in with the rest. To christian zealots all dancing appeared sinful and heathenish, and sure enough it often was derived from pagan rites, like other harmless pleasures and customs of the common people, who would not easily part with their diversion at great festivals. Hence the old dancings at Shrovetide (p. 770n.), at the Easter fire and May fire, at the solstices, at harvest and Christmas; a minuter examination than has yet been made of the proceedings at these holidays would bring out many things more clearly. Afzelius 2, 5 informs us, that to this day stories are afloat in Sweden of dances and reels performed by the heathen round holy places of their gods: so wanton were they, yet so enticing, that the spectators at last were seized with the rage, and whirled along into the revelry. When chronicles of our Mid. Ages occasionally record the desecration of holy days by wild dancing, and that the penalty imposed was, to keep it up without ceasing for a whole year, DS. no 231, this again expresses the disgust of the christians at the relics of heathenism, and resembles the perversion of Wuotan's march into the 'everlasting hunter's' chase. (38) Why Herodias was dragged into the circle of night-women, was just because she played and danced, and since her death goes booming through the air as the 'wind's bride.' In this ghostly band, then, popular fancy placed human sorceresses too, i.e. women of ill repute who clung to heathenism, fantastic old wives: 'Et si aliqua femina est, quae se dicat cum daemonum turba, in similitudinem mulierum transformata, certis noctibus equitare super quasdam bestias, et in eorum (daemonum) consortio annumeratam esse;' and: 'Quaedam sceleratae mulieres retro post Satanam conversae, daemonum illusionibus seductae, credunt se nocturnie horis cum Diana paganorum dea, vel cum Herodiade et innumera multitudine mulierum, equitare super quasdam bestias, et multa terrarum spatia intempestae noctis silentio pertransire, ejusque jussionibus velut dominae obedire, et certis noctibus ad ejus servitium evocari.'---Such was the earlier way of thinking about witches' rides; (39) and the names naht-farâ, naht-frouwâ, naht-ritâ, dating doubtless from the heathen time, agreed exactly with the ON. qveldriða, myrkriða on p. 1053-4. I cannot indeed produce them from earlier than the 13^th century, as Wh. 1, 82b: 'wil der (Machmêt) helfe sparn, sô helfen in die naht-varn; daz sint alter wîbe troume,' if M. grudge help, the night-farers help them. Ls. 3, 10: 'ez konde niemen bewarn, ich mües eine (alone) ûz farn mit der naht-frouwen (i.e. with the goddess); dô sprach ich zuo mîme gesellen: als schiere sô (as soon as) ez naht wirt, diu vart mich niht verbirt, ich sol lîden grôze nôt, bezzer wære mir der tôt. Ist aber daz mir wol ergât, so kum ich umb die hankrât, des enweiz ich aber niht. Mîn triu, dû solt mir ein lieht kleiben hin an etewaz, daz ich kunne dester baz komen her wider hein: kleib' ez an einen stein, oder kleib' ez an die want.' Notice that to the simple-minded man the woman represents her alleged expedition as a painful necessity. (40) In Vintler (Superst. G, 1, 274) it is said: 'so farent etlich mit der (nacht) far auf kelbern und auf pecken (böcken) durch stain und durch stecke.' So calves and he-goats are those 'quaedam bestiae.' At p. 723 we saw the word nachtfare fittingly applied even to a star travelling in the sky. John of Salisbury, who lived in England and France (d. 1182), and believed in demonic influence, has a remarkable statement in his Policr. ii. 17: 'Quale est quod nocticulam (nocticolam? noctilucam?) quandam, vel Herodiadem, vel praesidem noctis dominam, consilia et conventus de nocte asserunt convocare, varia celebrari convivia, ministeriorum species diversis occupationibus exerceri, et nunc istos ad pocnam trahi pro meritis, nunc illos ad gloriam sublimari; praeterea infantes exponi lamiis, et nunc frustatim discerptos edaci ingluvie in ventrem trajectos congeri, nunc praesidentis miseratione rejectos in cunas reponi. Quis vel caecus hoc ludificantium daemonum non videat esse nequitiam? quod vel ex hoc patet, quod mulierculis et viris simplicioribus et infirmioribus in fide ista proveniunt.' I will add some equally conclusive testimonies from various parts of France, and all of the 13^th cent., to the character of these night excursions; their analogy to the preceding will not fail to be perceived. The Acta sanct. 32 Jul. p. 287b draw from a parchment MS. of the 13^th cent. the following, which has also got into the Legenda Aurea cap. 102, though wanting in the older biographies of Germanus: 'Hospitatus (S. Germanus Autissiodor.) in quodam loco, cum post coenam iternum mensa pararetur, admiratus interrogat, cui denuo praepararent? Cui cum dicerent, quod bonis illis mulieribus, quae de nocte incedunt, (41) praepararetur, illa nocte statuit S. Germanus vigilare. Et ecce, videt multitudinem daemonum in mensa, in forma hominum et mulierum venientem. Qui eis praecipiens ne abirent, cunctos de familia excitavit, inquirens, si personas illas cognoscerent? qui cum omnes vicinos suos et vicinas esse dicerent, misit ad domos singulorum, daemonibus praecipiens ne abirent. Et ecce, omnes in suis lectulis sunt inventi. Adjurati igitur se daemones esse dixerunt, qui sic hominibus illudebant.' --- Guilielmus Alvernus p. 1066: 'Idem et eodem modo sentiendum est tibi de aliis malignis spiritibus, quos vulgus stryges et lamias vocant, et apparent de nocte in domibus in quibus parvuli nutriuntur, eosque de cunabulis raptos laniare vel igne assare videntur: (42) apparent autem in specie vetularum. Vetularum autem nostrarum desipientia opinionem istam mirabiliter disseminavit et provexit, atque animis mulierum aliarum irradicabiliter infixit. Similiter et de dominabus nocturnis, quod bonae mulieres sint, et magna dona domibus quas frequentent per eas praestentur, mulieribus potissimum persuaserunt; et, ut ad unum dicam, pene omnes reliquias idololatriae retinuit et reservavit et adhuc promovere non cessat anilis ista fatuitas.'---- Vincentius Bellovac. in Spec. mor. iii. 3, 27: 'Cum in quadam parochia homines talibus crederent, quidam ribaldi transfiguraverunt se in similitudinem mulierum, earum assumto habitu, et domum cujusdam rustici cum tortiis (torches) intrantes et choreas ducentes suppressa voce canebant Gallice 'un en prenes, cent en rendres,' Latine: unum accipite, centum reddite! et sic in oculis rustici domum ejus evacuaverunt omnibus bonis, dicentis uxori suae: tace, et claude oculos, divites erimus, quia bonae res sunt, (43) et centuplicabunt bona nostra.' And further on: 'Cum quaedam vetula volens blandire suo sacerdoti diceret ei in ecclesia: domine, multum me debetis diligere, quia liberavi vos a morte: quia cum ego vadebam cum bonis rebus, media nocte intravimus domum vestram cum luminaribus, ego videns vos dormientem et nudum, cooperui vos, ne dominae nostrae viderent nuditatem vestram, quam si vidissent, ad mortem vos flagellari fecissent. Quaesivit sacerdos, quomodo intraverant domum ejus et cameram, cum essent fortiter seratae? Tunc ait illa, quod bene intrabant domum januis clausis. Sacerdos autem vocans eam intra cancellum, clauso ostio verberavit eam cum baculo crucis, dicens: exite hinc, domina sortilega! Et cum non posset exire, emisit eam sacerdos dicens: modo videtis quam fatuae estis, quae somniorum creditis vanitatem.' This priest goes very sensibly to work with the sorceress, and never dreams of baiting her as a criminal.---- Gervase of Tilbury 3, 85: 'Lamiae dicuntur esse mulieres quae noctu domos momentaneo discursu penetrant, dolia vel cophinos, cantharos et ollas perscrutantur, infantes ex cunis extrahunt, luminaria accendunt, et nonnunquam dormientes affligunt.' At 3, 93 he assures us hehad known women who declared 'se dormientibus viris suis cum coetu lamiarum celeri penna mare transire, mundum percurrere, et si quis aut si qua in tali discursu Christum nominaverit, statim, in quocunque loco et quantovis periculo fecerit, corruere;' and one woman had fallen into the Rhone that way. 'Scimus quasdam in forma cattorum a furtive vigilantibus de nocte visas ac vulneratas in crastino vulnera truncationesque ostendisse.' --- So then the witches travel in the nightly train of gracious dames, (44) for whom men spread tables, as they do for visitant fays and elves (pp. 409. 411. Superst. C, 198d), because they bring luck or multiply it, scrutinize the house-gear, bless the babes in the cradle. Heathenish the superstition was, for the name of Christ might not be uttered; but it did not pass for devilish yet. True, the notion of kidnapping (of which elves also were accused, p. 468) already mingles with it, and rises to the barbarous height of roasting and devouring; but this also hangs on myths about elves and goddesses, and had always been laid at the door of sorceresses. One passage even celebrates the compassion of the president and directress of the feast, she has the stolen sucklings carried back to their cradles (see Suppl.).

Crescentia, who had devoted herself to the nurture of children, is addressed as an unholde: 'Waz huotes dû dâse, ubele hornblâse? dû soldes billecher da ce holze varn, dan die megede hie bewarn; dû bist ein unholde, und sizist hie behangen mit golde.' She answers: 'Got weiz wol die sculde, ob ich bin ein unholde, oder ie dicheinis (any) zouberes gephlac,' Kaiserchr. 12199. Diemer p. 373 (imitated, Kolocz. 261-2). They believed then in the 12^th cent. that unholden 'fared to the woods,' to the Wild Host, and 'blew horns,' like Tutosel, who as a tooting hooting owl, i.e. strix, travels in the Furious Host (p. 922); can 'hortuta,' a word of insult in the Vestgötalag p. 38, have been hornþuta, hornþyta? ON. þiota, ululare, Goth. þut-haúrn salpugx. The precise meaning of dâse, unless it be for dwâse, twâse, getwâs (spectre, p. 915), escapes me (see Suppl.). Such unholden are much more night-dames, bonae dominae, than devil's partners. The 'faring to woods and forests' expresses the sentence pronounced on banished outlawed men, whose dwelling is in the wilderness, among wolves, RA. 733, to whom the forest becomes mother (shuma ti mati!), conf. saltibus assuetus (p. 482). Vulgar opinion in Sweden to this day suspects old women, who live alone in the woods, of harbouring and sheltering wolves when they are hunted: they are called vargamödrar, wolf-mothers, and such a one is meant in the song of Sämung (Sæmîngr p. 305): 'inde satt gamla djuramor, rörde med näsa i brände,' within sat the old beasts'-mother, stirred with her nose the coals (Afzel. sagohäfder 1, 38. 43). The long nosed hag here evidently melts into the notion of the alrune who mingles with wood-schrats, p. 404, and of the wild wood-wife, p. 432; she is like the ON. iarnviðja, p. 483.

But what to my mind completely establishes this milder explanation of witches' doings, which leaves the Devil out of the reckoning, is the collection of conjuring spells quoted in the Appendix, vol. 3. Taken mostly from witch-trials of the last few centuries, when the link between witch and devil was a long established thing to the popular mind, they refer not to devilish doings at all, but everywhere to elvish or even christian. Some of them seem to be of high antiquity, of heathen origin, and to have been handed down through a long course of oral tradition. Their power to hurt or heal is founded on faith in elves and sprites, whose place is afterwards filled by angels and holy names. As elf and elfin, dwarf and she-dwarf, bilwiz nd bilwizin are invoked (p. 472), so in the old AS. formula (App. spell i.) 'êsa gescot (âses' shot), ylfa gescot, hœgtessan gescot' all stand side by side. Such formulas, whose words must long ago have become unintelligible to witches of the 16-17^th cent., at once prove the injustice of the charge brought against them. It is to me a significant fact, that the imagination of the tortured witches still expressly owns to a journey 'auf Venesberg und in das paradis' (Mone's Anz. 7, 426), meaning therefore the ancient elvish or even christian abode of bliss, and not a devilish one.

The gradual intrusion of the Devil by whom, according to the Church's belief, men were possessed (p. 1015), is easily accounted for. The conception was radically foreign to the Teuton mind, which tried at first to naturalize it by transferring it to a female being (p. 990). But when in course of time the christian notion of a male devil got the upper hand, then all that had been told of Holda had in its turn to be applied to him. From their service and attendance on that unhold dame of night, the witches passed into the Devil's fellowship, whose sterner keener nature aggravated the whole relationship into something more wicked, more sinful. Those magic rides by night had merely rested on the general allegiance due to the people's ancient goddess, in whose train the women rode; but now that the Devil came to fetch the women, and carried them over hill and dale (pp. 1013. 1028), there grew up the idea of an amorous alliance between him and every single witch.




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