Chapter 13

To these significant traditions of Thuringia, others can be added from Bavaria and Austria. In the mountain district about Trauenstein (Up. Bavaria, opposite Salzburg) they tell the children on the eve of Epiphany, that if they are naughty, Berche will come and cut their bellies open. Greasy cakes are baked that day, and the workmen say you must grease your stomach well with them, so that dame Bercha's knife may glance off (Schm. 1, 194). Is this the reason why she is called wild Bertha, iron Bertha? Crusius, Ann. Suev. p. 2, lib. 8, cap. 7, p. 266, relates, as his explanation of the origin of the name, that Henry IV. bestowed privileges on the city of Padua: Inde, in signa libertatis, armato carrocio uti coeperunt in bello, Bertha nominato. Hinc dictum ortum puto, quo terrentur inquieti pueri, 'Schweig, oder die eiserne Bertha kommt!' (55) In other places, Franconian and Swabian, she is named Hildaberta (apparently a combination of the two names Holda and Berta), and Bildaberta; with hair all shaggy she walks round the houses at night, and tears the bad boys to pieces (see Suppl.). (56)

Dame Precht with the long nose is what Vintler calls her: and even a MHG. poem, which in one MS. is entitled 'daz mære von der Stempen,' has in another the heading 'von Berchten mit der langen nas' (Haupt's Altd. bl. 1, 105). It is only from the former (with corrected spelling) that I am able to extract what has a bearing on our subject:

nu merket reht waz (ich) iu sage:-------Now mark aright

     what I you tell:

nâch wîhennaht am zwelften tage,------after Christmas the

     twelfth day,

nâch dem heilgen ebenwîhe (57)-----after the holy New-

     year's day

(gotgeb, daz er uns gedîhe),------------(God grant we

      prosper in it),

dô man ezzen solt ze nahte,-------------when they should

eat supper

und man ze tische brâhte---------------and had to table

brought

allez daz man ezzen solde,---------------all that they should

 eat,

swaz der wirt geben wolde--------------whatso the master

would give,

dô sprach er zem gesinde---------------then spake he to

      his men

und zuo sîn selbes kinde:---------------and to his own child:

'ezzet hînte fast durch mîn bete,--------'eat fast (hard) to

night, I pray,

daz iuch die Stempe niht entrete.'-------that the Stempe

tread you not.'

daz kintlîn dô von forhten az,-----------The child then ate

from fear,

er sprach: 'veterlîn, waz ist daz,---------he said: 'father, what

is this

daz du die Stempen nennest?-----------that thou the Stempe

callest?

sag mir, ob dus erkennest.'--------------tell me, if thou it

 knowest.'

der vater sprach: 'daz sag ich dir,-------The father said: 'this

 tell I thee,

du solt ez wol gelouben mir,-------------thou mayest well

believe me,

ez ist so griuwelîch getân,---------------there is a thing so

gruesome done,

daz ich dirz niht gesagen kan:-----------that I cannot tell it

thee:

wan swer des vergizzet,-----------------for whoso forgets

this,

daz er nicht fast izzet,-------------------so that he eats not

 fast,

ûf den kumt ez und trit in.'--------------on him it comes, and

 treads him.'

Here also children and servants are warned by the master of the house to eat up clean all that is brought on the table, and are threatened with a trampling from Stempe. This cognomen of Berchte must have come from stamping (step, tap, thump, &c.), and perhaps it ought to be spelt Stempfe (German stampfen, to stamp); but in Bavaria there is a proper name Stempo (MB. 2, 280, anno 1130), not Stempho, and both stampen and stampfen seem to be correct for trampling and squeezing, Ital. stampare: she is the night hag, similar to alp and schrat [old scratch?]. Add to this, that in the Nordgau of Franconia, dame Holda is called the Trempe (Döderlein, Antiq. nordg. 41), i.e., the trampling racketing one; Stalder defines trämpeln as walking with short, measured steps (tripping), and the Drut (night-goblin) approaches with soft footfall; at the same time, trampel, trampelthier, is a heavy clumsy woman. Now, as S is occasionally added before an initial T, it is surely not going too far, to connect Stempe with the more ancient Tamfana, Tanfana, p. 257 (see Suppl.).

Martin of Amberg (58) calls her Percht mit der eisnen nasen (with iron nose), and says that people leave meat and drink standing for her; which means a downright sacrifice.

In the mountains of Salzburg there is kept up to this day, in honour of the terrible Perchtel, a so called Perchta-running, Perchta-leaping at the time of the rauchnächte [incense-nights?] (59) In the Pinzgau, from 100 to 300 young fellows (styled the Berchten) will roam about in broad daylight in the oddest disguises, carrying cows' bells, and cracking whips. (60) In the gastein valley the procession, headed by from 50 or 100 to 300 stout fellows, goes hopping and skipping from village to village, from house to house, all through the valley (Muchar, Gastein pp. 145-7). In the north of Switzerland, where in addition to Berchtli the softened form Bechtli or Bechteli is in use, Bechteli's day is the 2^nd (or, if New-year's day falls on a Saturday, the 3^rd) of January, and is honoured by the young people in general with social merrymakings; they call the practice berchteln, bechteln. In the 16^th century it was still the custom at Zürich, for men to intercept and press one another to take wine; this was called 'conducting to Berchtold.' (Stald. 1, 150-6). There was thus a masculine Bercht or Berchtolt, related to Wuotan, as Berhta was to Freke; and from this again there arose in Swabia a new feminine, Brechtölterin, Prechtölterin (Schmid, Schwäb. wtb. 93). In Alsace the bechten was performed by prentices and journeymen running from one house or room to another and keeping up a racket (see passages in Oberlin, sub. v. Bechten). Cunrat of Dankrozheim says in his Namenbuch, composed 1435: (61)

darnauch so komet die milde Behte,

die noch hat ein gar gross geslehte (great kindred).

He describes her as the mild, gracious to men, not as terrible. Berchtolt however is in Swabian legend the white mannikin, who brings spools to be filled with spinning (Mone's anz. 8, 179), exactly like Berchta, p. 274 (see Suppl.).

And as a kind benevolent being she appears in many other descriptions, which undoubtedly reach far back into the Mid. Ages. The white lady, by her very name, has altogether the same meaning, for peraht, berht or brecht, signifies bright, light, white. This white lady usually attaches herself to particular families, but even then she keeps the name of Berta, e.g., Berta of Rosenberg. In snow-white garments she shows herself by night in princely houses, she rocks or dandles the babies, while their nurses sleep: she acts the old grandmother or ancestress of the family (see Suppl.).




ENDNOTES:

55. Conf. Crusius p. 1, lib. 12, cap. 6, p. 329, where Bertha the mother of Charles is meant. The Lombards called a carrocium Berta and Berteciola (Ducange sub v.), perhaps the carriage of the travelling goddess or queen? Back

56. Joach. Camerarius, chronol. Nicephori, p. 129. Back

57. Even-holy, equally-holy day, Scheffer's Haltaus, p. 68. Back

58. His Gewissensspiegel (mid. of 14^th cent.) is in two MSS. at Vienna (Hoffm. pp. 335-6); conf. Schm. 4, 188. 216, and the Jahrb. der Berliner gesellsch. für deutsche spr. 2, 63-65. Back

59. This Perchtenspringen is like the hexentusch in the Böhmerwald, which, Jos. Rank p. 76-7 says, is performed at Whitsuntide, when young men and boys provide themselves with loud cracking whips, and chase all the witches out of houses, stables and barns. Back

60. Journey through Upper Germany, p. 243. Schm. 1, 195. Back

61. Ad. Walt. Strobel's beitr., Strasb. 1827, p. 123. Back