Ewicher Yeeger: Why Honor Death?

Tonight starts the final day of the Urglaawe observance of Allelieweziel. Now we honor Holler, who is also known as Ewicher Yeeger. His association with death is reflected in the translation of His byname into English: the Eternal Hunter. Indeed, He is seen by many as Death personified, and imagery and versions of folk tales over the centuries have presented Him as a bringer of disruption, disease, destruction, and, well, death. So, this begs the question: Why honor Him?

There are many possible answers to this question. Ironically, the most significant tale about Holler shows a merciful side to Him that is not typically associated with death. While death appeared imminent to the settlers of Lynn Township, the fact that they recognized the error of their ways and gave up offerings caused Holler to save the colony. Driving game over the Blobarrick ridge provided the settlers with food to survive through the winter months. 

While this story is one version of the best known tale of Ewicher Yeeger, there are bits of knowledge and remnants of other tales that reflect a complex character to this god. One of the more curious remnants reflects the push and pull among the various forces in existence as viewed within our physical world. After Holle’s departure and the burning of the Butzemenner, King Frost’s armies are on the move into our realm. The Frost Giants seize the spirits of the plants and animals (and humans, for that matter?) that they kill, thereby removing them from the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. In this tale remnant, Holler brings death and/or dormancy to the weaker plants and animals. Those who die are released to the Wild Hunt, which ensures their continuity in the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. The Frost Giants pass by the dormant spirits, who sleep safely until Spring under the care of an entity named Schlumm. 

In this case, we see Holler playing a role in tandem with Holle. He aids in the ongoing cycle of life even while bringing death. This reinforces the idea that death is a part of life and also of rebirth.

Another tidbit is a little more confusing because it conflates Ewicher Yeeger with aspects of Krampus. In this instance, Ewicher Yeeger is a punisher and a wild, primal beast. This tidbit is an outlier from most understandings of Ewicher Yeeger, but it is not the only one. Other versions reflect lore related to the Wild Hunt found in other Germanic lands. Some say Ewicher Yeeger is actually a cursed nobleman (much like Count Hackelberg in Germany) who is doomed to hunt as payback for his misdeeds in life. 

These stories are worth mentioning, though, because they reflect the convolution of tales over many centuries and across many lands, including the Deitsch lands in Pennsylvania. However, the most intact story from the Deitsch cultural context places Ewicher Yeeger as an entity (or in the Urglaawe context, a god) strongly associated with death yet not to be pigeonholed.

The understanding conveyed to me about Ewicher Yeeger throughout my lifetime has been one of an entity who is much larger than our understanding. He has His own agenda and purposes for actions that we cannot always fathom. In Braucherei, He is appealed to for brute strength, terminations, and transformations. 

The transformation aspect plays a major role in our understanding of death. Death is scary. Death is unwanted. Yet Death comes to all of us at some point. One theme of Allelieweziel is that we live in a society that, on the one hand, likes to pretend that death does not exist. Yet, on the other hand, we are obsessed with it. We depict it so cavalierly in movies and on television, yet we don’t want to plan for the end of the lives of our loved ones or of ourselves. 

Most Urglaawer believe in some form of rebirth. The most common belief is that at least one part of the soul is reborn into a new, unique construct, thus giving us opportunities to grow and to expand our consciousness from lifetime to lifetime. We hope that, at the end of this cosmic cycle, we will be where the deities were at the beginning of it. Our corporeal forms have limits to our lifetimes, but each experience in this physical realm affords us the opportunity to increase the human life wave. 

Thus, death is not to be feared per se; instead, it is part of the continuity of life and the evolution of existence. While we are to embrace our lives and to make the most of them, the eventuality of death is something with which we all must reconcile ourselves. 

Therefore, we take a moment at this time of Ewicher Yeeger to understand our mortality, to consider how to make the most of the current life we have, and to ponder the prospects for a better future for humanity. We honor the god who helps us to prepare for and to confront the reality of death even while celebrating the life we have. 

Thus, at this time of the observance of Ewicher Yeeger, let us hail Holler.

Hail!

Hollerbeer Haven 20

The Fall 2013 issue of Hollerbeer Haven is now available as a .PDF download.

This issue features the article on Ewicher Yeeger from the Deitsch Mythology blog.

Neversink Mountain Happenings

Hail!

Tonight I was with two of my kinsmen. We were looking up at the clear night sky, and we noticed that streams from jets had set almost perfect triangles that outlined the constellation of Orion. Interestingly, to the right of Orion, we noticed that the lines of the triangles had created a giant Valknut in the sky!

The left-most angle of the Valknut almost touched Delta Orionis (Mintaka), which, interestingly, is one of the star's in the constellation known to earlier Teutonic generations as "Frigg's Distaff." It was one of those instances in which I wish I had a camera capable of capturing night shots!

Also, Ewicher Yeeger has been heard the last two nights on nearby Neversink Mountain. The rumblings have been heard late at night and into the early morning. :)

Der Ewich Yeeger

My first encounter with Der Ewich Yeeger (The Eternal Hunter) that I can remember was when I was about four or five years old. I was at some event being held by my mother's extended family. It was a pleasant afternoon. Suddenly, a brief burst of noise erupted all around us. It did not last long, but it was a surprising din of barking sounds. One of my older relatives said to me, "Don't worry. It is just Ewicher Yeeger scaring up the ghosts on the mountain." She said that Ewicher Yeeger helped to feed the early settlers and that we owe our survival to him.

Many years later, I began to seek more information on the entity who dwells on the Kitatinny Ridge (more commonly known as the Blue Mountain Ridge). I found this reference to his story in a book called American Folklore and Legend (pp. 28-29; Readers Digest Association, 1978):

One summer when some early settlers were struggling to maintain a colony, there was a terrible drought. The crops failed, streams were waterless, and all the wildlife left the vicinity. The settlers were in dire circumstances, and as venison was their only source of meat, one of the old men decided to use his dogs to hunt and chase back the deer. Before taking off for the wilderness, he promised his people that he would hunt forever, even through the sky if necessary, to save the settlement from starvation. After he had been gone for a few days, the deer began to appear in the valley, but the old man never returned. Ever since then, on certain nights during the hunting season, people still hear the barking of a pack of hounds off in the sky. "The Eternal Hunter," they mutter.

Over the years, I have asked quite a few folks from Pine Forge to Bowmanstown about their knowledge of the tale. Some knew it; others did not. Those who knew the tale seemed to believe that Ewicher Yeeger was never actually a man but was instead a spiritual entity.

A few years ago, after hearing the phenomenon again, I continued looking into other sources for the stories. I found some in ghost story books, including one tale that made Ewicher Yeeger sound like a criminal. This version was so far out of sync with the tales I had heard and the other stories I had found; thus, I do not give that version much weight.

However, I did discover through some aspects of the stories that Ewicher Yeeger moves in His own way in His own time. Although He is credited with saving the colonial settlements, He is also running His own errands, and it is possible for people to get swept up in the fray. A clear depiction of the scarier side of Der Ewich Yeeger comes from a painting done by Kutztown artist J. Allen Pawling. Alas, I am unsure as to where the original painting may be viewed. However, the black and white rendition below may be found on page V of Echoes of Scholla -- Illustrated by Arthur D. Graeff and George M. Meiser, IX (Kutztown, PA: Berksiana Foundation, 1976).

Urglaawer generally view Der Ewich Yeeger quite differently. He is usually seen as a Herne-like figure, and indeed, some Urglaawer call Him by the name of Hern (pronounced roughly like Hann). The picture even bears some resemblance to depictions of Herne the Hunter (lacking really only the horns).

The picture above brings in some features associated more with the god Holler, which is another valid possibility, particularly in relation to the presence of mountaintops sacred to Holle on adjacent ridges.

Either way, the Deitsch settlers on and north of the ridge owed their survival to Der Ewich Yeeger. Thus, it is fitting that we honor Him. Meat offerings are customary, but even flowers or other votives are acceptable. The ridge is long and wide, and the places for offerings are many.

The ridge draws closer and closer to the right of the picture above, but this particular location along the Lechau (Lehigh) served as a spiritual spot at which to share in ritual offering to Der Ewich Yeeger.

Although a typical Urglaawe times for ceremonial offering to Him would be in November, there is never an inappropriate time to honor the gods and goddesses (Ziewe) of our folk.

Hail!