Chapter 34

Certain features, that agree with the descriptions to be given by and by of witches' doings, might be thought plagiarisms. I doubt it. True, the nocturnal gathering before Skelking, Ofôti and Thôrgerð is not altogether in the spirit of ON. religion, but it may have arisen in Scandinavia itself by the gradual deterioration of older beliefs. Nowhere is the Devil mentioned, though the 'footless one' may remind us of the horse-footed. This Norse trölla-þîng is more like the meetings of our night-women, whom I take to have sprung out of wise-women and völvas; and this is fully borne out by the nightly excursion of Heiðr with her party of 30 persons, and that of Skuld with elves and norns. Thôrgerð, Skuld and Heið are, like Hulda and Berhta, purely pagan half-goddesses, round whom gathers the magic ring-dance; they stir up storm and tempest, they make invulnerable, they prophesy. Their seið-hiallr with four props or prongs (stôlpar, stiklar), Fornald. sög. 1, 12. 3, 319 (see Suppl.), finds nothing to match it in the German witch-world; it does remind us of the Delphian pythia's tripod, and possibly further inquiry may allot a three-legged stool to German night-excursionists as well, especially as that article has a sacredness belonging to it from of old, RA. 80. 189. 208; conf. in Superst. F, 59. 60 the sitting on the tripod, and I, 111 the caution against setting an empty trivet on the fire. Skuld queens it here, does her spiriting in a black tent, sits on her magic stool: 'sat î sinu svarta tialdi â seiðhialli sînum, skiptir nû svâ um, sem dimm nôtt komi eptir biartan dag,' Fornald. 1, 105. With the Norse enchantresses the power and obligation to prophesy is still predominant, which in German witches and night-women falls into the background. Other features of the Norse faith in magic I can better weave into the account, now to follow, of our own antiquities.

Christianity found a heathen belief in magic-wielding women existing among Celts and Germans as well as Greeks and Romans, but has largely modified it; views held by heretics or imputed to them got mixt up with it, and out of everything put together witchcraft has to be explained. Down to the latest period we perceive in the whole witch-business a clear connection with the sacrifices and spirit-world of the ancient Germans. This of itself proves the gross unfairness and grotesque absurdity of witch-burning in later times.

A world-old fancy, that has penetrated all nations, finds in sorcery the power to hide or change one's figure. Enchanters would turn into wolves, enchantresses into cats; the wolf was the sacred beast of Wuotan, the cat of Frouwa, two deities that had most to do with souls and spirits. The adept in magic assumed a mask, grîma (p. 238), (20) a trölls-ham, by which he made himself unrecognisable, and went rushing through the air, as spirits also put on grîmhelms, helidhelms (p. 463); often we see the notion of sorceress and that of mask (21) meet in one, thus the Leges Roth. 197. 379 have 'striga, quod est masca,' 'striga, quae dicitur masca.' On this last term I shall have more to say by and by (see Suppl.).

But sorceresses have also at their command a bird's shape, a feather-garment, especially that of the goose, which stands for the more ancient swan, and they are like swan-wives, valkyrs, who traverse the breezes and troop to the battle. Inseparable from the notion of magic is that of flying and riding through air (p. 427), and the ancient Thrûðr becomes a drut (p. 423), and olda an unholdin. Like the 'holde' sprites, 'unholde' now float in the air with the Furious Host. They assemble in troops to fulfil a common function.

From this subject, then, heathen sacrificial rites are by no means to be excluded. Our very oldest Laws, esp. the Salic, mention gatherings of witches for cooking, and I remind the reader of those Gothland suðnautar (p. 56) at a sacrifice. The Lex Sal. cap. 67 specifies it as the grossest insult to call a man witches''kettle-bearer: 'si quis alterum chervioburgum, hoc est strioportium clamaverit, aut illum qui inium dicitur portasse ubi strias (for striae) cocinant.' In my RA. 645 I have tried to explain chervioburgus. (22) He that demeans himself to carry witches' utensils becomes contemptible to men; he may also be called simply strioportius, witches' carrier, being hired by them to do it. Now this kettle-bearer is never named in the later stories of witches, but these often take a piper to their meetings, whose business is to play to their feasting and dancing, without being exactly an accomplice in the conjuring; and he may be likened to that menial. The words ubi striae cocinant (some MSS. coquinant, cucinant; Lex. emend. incorrectly concinunt) imply a cooking and seething (seyðr p. 1036) by several witches in common. In Macbeth three witches----but they are 'weird-sisters' too (p. 407), and so suggest the old meaning of drût---meet on a heath and in a cave, to boil their cauldron. They are not so much enchantresses in league with the Devil, as fate-announcing wise-women or priestesses, who prophesy by their cauldron, p. 56 (see Suppl.).

It may seem over-bold to name Shakspeare's witches in the same breath with ancient Cimbrian prophetesses, with strigas of the Salic Law; but here we have other links between the oldest times and the recent.

Speaking of heilawâc (healing waters) in chap. XX, I on purpose omitted all mention of salt springs, that I might here bring their sacredness into immediate connection with the witchcraft of a later time. Tacitus, in a passage of importance in many ways, Annals 13, 57, tells us: 'Eadem aestate inter Hermunduros Chattosque certatum magno praelio, dun flumen gignendo sale foecundum et conterminum vi trahunt; super libidinem cuncta armis agendi religione insita, eos maxime locos propinquare coelo, precesque mortalium a deis nusquam propius audiri. Inde indulgentia numinum illo in amne illisque silvis salem provenire, non ut alias apud gentes eluvie maris arescente, sed unda super ardentem arborum struem fusa, ex contrariis inter se elementis, igne atque aquis, concretum.' (23) Burgundians and Alamanns also fought for salt-springs: 'Burgundii salinarum finiumque causa Alamannis saepe jurgabant,' Amm. Marc. 28, 5. That not only in Germany, but in Gaul, salt was obtained by pouring water on burning wood, we know from Pliny 31. 7, 39: 'Galliae Germaniaeque ardentibus lignis aquam salsam infundunt;' hence the ritual that hallowed it may have been common to Celts and Teutons. Now of streams charged with salt there was doubtless a good number in Germany, then as now, and it is hardly possible to say which in particular was meant by Tacitus. (24) They rose on mountains, in sacred woods, their produce was deemed the direct gift of a near divinity, possession of the spot seemed worth a bloody war, the getting and distributing of salt was a holy office; would not there be very likely sacrifices and festivals connected with salt-boiling? (see Suppl.).

Suppose now that the preparation of salt was managed by women, by priestesses, that the salt-kettle, saltpan, was under their care and supervision; there would be a connection established between salt-boiling and the later vulgar opinion about witchcraft: the witches gather, say on certain high days, in the holy wood, on the mountain, where the salt springs bubble, carrying with them cooking-vessels, ladles and forks; and at night their saltpan is a-glow. (25) These conjectures are countenanced by a poem in the Vienna MS. 428, 154b either by Stricker or one of his countrymen and contemporaries, which I quote in full:

Ich bin gewesen ze Portigâl

und ze Dolêt sunder twâl (Toledo, I assure you),

mir ist kunt (ken'd) Kalatrâ daz lant

dâ man di besten meister vant (found);

ze Choln (Cologne) und ze Parîs,

dâ sint di pfaffen harte wîs (exceeding wise),

di besten vor allen rîchen (realms).

Dar fuor ich wærlîchen (travelled I truly)

niwan durch diu mære (merely to ascertain)

waz ein unholde wære (what a witch was)?

Daz gehôrt ich nie gelesen (never heard it read),

waz ein unholde müge wesen (might be).

Daz ein wîp ein chalp rite (should ride a calf),

daz wære'n wunderlîche site (fashion),

ode rit ûf einer dehsen (wand),

ode ûf einem hûspesem (besom, broom)

nâch salze ze Halle füere (fare to H. for salt);

ob des al diu welt swüere (if all the world swore it),

doch wolde ich sîn nimmer gejehen (say yea to it),

ich en-hete (unless I had) ez mit mînen ougen gesehen

wand (for) sô würde uns nimmer tiure (dear, scarce)

daz salz von dem ungehiure.

Ob ein wîp einen ovenstap über schrite (bestride)

und den gegen Halle rite

über berge und über tal,

daz si tæte deheinen val (make no fall),

daz geloube ich niht, swer daz seit (whoever says it),

und ist ein verlorniu arbeit (lost labour);

und daz ein wîp ein sib tribe (drive a sieve)

sunder vleisch und sunder ribe,

dâ niht inne wære (wherein was nought),

daz sint allez gelogniu mære (all a lying tale).

Daz ein wîp ein man über schrite

und im sîn herze ûz snite (cut out his heart),

wie zæme daz (how were that possible) einem wîbe,

daz si snite ûz einem lîbe (body)

ein herze, und stieze dar în strô (stuff straw therein),

wie möht' er (how could he) leben ode werden frô?

ein mensche muoz ein herze haben,

ez habe saf od sî beschaben.

Ich wil iu sagen mære (give you information),

waz sîn rehte unholdære (who real sorcerers are):

daz sint der herren râtgeben (counsellors of lords)

di ir êre furdern solden und leben,

di siflent in zuo den ôren (whisper in their ears)

und machent sie ze tôren (make fools of them),

si niezent (profit by) ir erbe und ir lant

und lâzent och si ze hant (make them very soon)

scheiden von êren (part with their honour) und von guote,

von vröuden (joy) und hôhem muote.

Ditz ist ein wârez mære (true tale):

di selben (these same) unholdære

die sougent ûz (suck out) herze und bluot,

daz vil mangem (full many a) herren schaden tuot.

This Halle is probably the one in Austria or Bavaria, so that in those parts there still prevailed at that time the vulgar belief that the 'unholden' rode on broomstick, oven-stick or twig (Schm. sub. v. dächsen, conf. diesse p. 270 n.) over hill and dale to Halle. Was it imagined that they fetched their supply of salt home from there? which seems almost to be implied in the words, 'were it so, they would not make salt scarce to their neighbours (abstract it).' As Christians equally recognised salt as a good and needful thing, it is conceivable how they might now, inverting the matter, deny the use of wholesome salt at witches' meetings, and come to look upon it as a safeguard against every kind of sorcery (Superst. I, no. 182). For it is precisely salt that is lacking (26) in the witches' kitchen and at devil's feasts, the Church having now taken upon herself the hallowing and dedication of salt. Infants unbaptized, and so exposed, had salt placed beside them for safety, RA. 457. The emigrants from Salzburg dipped a wetted finger in salt, and swore. Wizards and witches were charged with the misuse of salt in baptizing beasts. I think it worth mentioning here, that the magic-endowed giantesses in the Edda knew how to grind, not only gold, but salt, Sn. 146-7: the one brought peace and prosperity, the other a tempest and foul weather.




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