Twelve Nights of the Wonnedanz

Every now and again, I come across short references that help to fill in some gaps in the understanding of our traditional practices.

One such gap is the time between Walpurgisnacht and the arrival of the Reifries (Frost Giants) thirteen days later. I think we finally have an answer.

On our current calendar, Walpurgisnacht falls on the night of April 30. However, since Urglaawe days begin at sundown, that night is actually 1. Wonnet (May 1) on the Urglaawe calendar. Deitsch tradition is that the Witches' Dances (Urglaawe: "die Wonnedanz," which translates to the "the dances of joy") take place at a variety of locations across the Deitscherei. Primary among these sites is Hexenkopf, which is located in Williams Township in Northampton County, but there are other sites as well.

In Germany, similar traditions relate to the Brocken, also known as Blocksberg, in the Harz Mountains. While I cannot speak to the exact meaning of the traditions at the Brocken, the impetus for the celebration in Deitsch culture is the return of Holle to the Hatzholz (also known as Mannheim, Midgard, or the physical realm). Hexenkopf is said to be Her home in this land. Her return brings order to the land and begins the growing season.

Tradition also holds that the Frost Giants become aware of Holle's return and attempt to destroy the order by freezing the land. Different Braucherei guilds have variations of this story, but the most cohesive version states that the first Frost Giant, Dreizehdax, arrives on the night of May 12 into May 13, which is actually 13. Wonnet on the Urglaawe calendar. Dreizehdax's efforts are thwarted by Dunner, and the Frost Giant is forced to retreat.

On the next night (May 13 into May 14), another Frost Giant, Vatzehvedder, makes his attempt. On that night, Dunner provides instruction to all of the Butzemenner (activated scarecrows) across the countryside in how to stop the Frost Giant. Vatzehvedder is also forced to retreat. On the third night (May 14 into May 15), Fuffzehfux makes his attempt and is beaten back by the combined efforts of the Butzemenner. After the pass of Fuffzehfux, it is considered safe to plant all crops outdoors.

I have often wondered about a few things regarding the variations of this story. For starters, there are so many locations where Witches' Dances and Wonnedanz were said to take place. Also, I wondered about the gap between the celebration of 1. Wonnet and the battle with Dreizehdax on 13. Wonnet.

Both situations can be explained by a small reference on p. 1619 of Volume IV of Grimm's Teutonic Mythology: "The Witches' Excursion takes place on the first night in May"... "They ride up Blocksberg on the first of May, and in 12 days must dance the snow away; then Spring begins."

This implies that the Wonnedanz is a multiple night occasion, perhaps symbolically beginning in the lowlands and working its way up the hills into the mountains. In our case, it would begin in places like Hexefeld near Riemeschteddel in the lowlands, up through Hexebaerrick in Berks County, and ending at Hexenkopf.

Although many Urglaawer have already been observing the Wonnedanz for several days after Walpurgisnacht, the reference in Teutonic Mythology provides some insight as to the likely cause of the delay between the restoration of order to the land and the Frost Giants' efforts to undo Holle's work. Henceforth, Distelfink Sippschaft will recognize the Wonnedanz will be a twelve-night celebration in a manner similar to the Yuulzeit.

Macht's immer besser!

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Editor's note: The term "Wonnetdanz" has also been used in the past, which implied the "dance of the month of joy." However, the term "Wonnedanz" has emerged as the more popular of the two.

Til, Elbedritsch, and April Fool

I am seeing many Heathens linking April Fool's Day to Loki, and, indeed, there are some grounds to make such a connection. However, Loki is not the only trickster figure to appear in Teutonic mythology. Deitsch lore carries the stories of two other trickster characters, Til Eileschpiggel and the Elbedritsch.

Til Eileschpiggel is well known in Continental German lore as Til Eulenspiegel. Although the origins are uncertain, historians have tried to establish connections between this trickster and historical individuals. General consensus is that the stories appeared around the year 1300, but the roots very likely run deeper than that. His name translates to "owl mirror," which perhaps reflects the reversal of traditional wisdom that Til Eileschpiggel represents. 

Til is either Lokian in nature, a complete buffoon, or a truth-teller, depending on the context of the tales. He was famous in Deitsch folklore for predicting the exact opposite of what would happen, and, with a semi-divine nature, people would follow his predictions and trouble would follow.

Elbedritsch is an altogether different being. "Elbe" is a prefix that may refer either to the Elves or the Dwarves. In fact, his name is known in no less than fifteen variants across the Deitscherei, with the meaning being roughly "Elf twitch," "Elf cricket," "Elf tic," and sundry similar meanings. In actuality, there is no evidence to indicate that there is only one Elbedritsch. It is possible that Elbedritsche make up an entire race of wights. While the "Elwedritsche" is certainly known as a mythic creature in the Palatinate, I am not sure that some of the lore from Braucherei survives in the Palatinate consciousness.

The Elbedritsch is most commonly seen in the game of snipe hunting, when some pranksters manage to convince a person of lesser wit to go out on a cold night with a bag to hunt for this mythic creature. However, the prank belies some aspects of this being that have almost slipped out of the folk consciousness.

In time-cord journeywork, the Elbedritsch can serve as a trickster guide. He can mislead the journeyer in the middle of the work and can confound the healer's attempts to aid his clients. To what end does he partake of these actions? The primary purpose seems to be his own amusement, but, in a manner similar to Wudan's Yuletide riddles, the Elbedritsch also tests the mettle of those who encounter him. As such, should one be able to conduct fair business with the Elbedritsch, he can become a most faithful ally in a particular journey.

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Til Eileschpiggel and the Dwarves

Eileschpiggel had made a nuisance of himself to the Dwarves so much that they decided that he must be dealt with, so they made plans to drown him. 

They made a casket and placed him inside it, and then they started to trek towards the sea. On their way, they came to a tavern, and they went inside to revel in their victory, leaving the casket outside. 

Along came a herder with a large drove of cattle. When Til heard the approaching hoofbeats, he began to call out, "No! I won't do it! I can't do it!"

The herder stopped and listened to the calls, finally answering, "What is it that you cannot and will not do?"

"They want me to marry the king's daughter, and I won't do it. They are taking me to the king to force me to marry her against my will. I won't do it!"

"Let me take your place," said the herdsman greedily, "I'll marry the king's daughter!"

The herdsman took Til's place in the casket and Til took the cattle towards his own home. 

When the Dwarves came out of the tavern, they took the casket to the sea and sank it. They then headed home joyously.

As they neared the gates of their home, the Dwarves were astonished to see Til alive, and even more bewildered to see him driving a huge herd of cattle towards his home. 

Til said, "Down on the bottom of the sea are many such cattle. These I drove from the bottom and up onto the shore, and I brought them home."

All of the Dwarves, eager to get cattle, ran to the sea and jumped in, heading for the bottom. Not one of them resurfaced.

Hollerbeer Haven 17 - Winter 2013

The PDF version of Hollerbeer Haven 17 (Winter 2013) is now available.

This issue continues the discussion of Braucherei in the Urglaawe context with the first installment of a description of Urglaawe philosophy. As this is a complex topic, the next few issues will also continue this discussion.

The featured herb of this issue is Boneset, and, as always, news and pictures of Distelfink events are included.

This is a large file that is intended for professional printing, so please be patient during the download.

"Frau Holle" from the Urglaawe Perspective

This is a rewrite of an analysis written a few years ago. I cannot find the original text, so I hope I am not omitting any insights that were present in the original piece.

The story of Frau Holle (or Fraa Holle in Deitsch) is beloved among Grimm’s Fairy Tales. On the surface, it appears to be a simple “ardent” versus “lazy” tale comparing and contrasting two character archetypes.

From an Urglaawe perspective, though, the tale goes much deeper. It reveals facets of the goddess Holle that were submerged within folklore for centuries after the conversion, and it reveals a Heathen mindset in the treatment of its characters. I am using the version of the story that is found on pp. 128-134 of Maria Tatar’s (with whom I frequently disagree in analyses of fairy tales) The Annotated Brothers Grimm (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004), but most any version of the tale will suffice.

In the beginning of the story, we find a home in which a widow lives with her two daughters. As is often the case in these fairy tales, one is her natural daughter and the other is her step-daughter. The step-daughter is the conscientious worker who keeps the household in order. Every day, she sits near a well and is compelled to spin under her fingers start to bleed.

One day, her blood covers the spindle, so she walks over to the well to rinse it off. She drops the spindle into the well, and her step-mother forces her to go back and get it. In some versions of the tale, she falls into the well in her effort to retrieve it. In this version, she jumps in. Either way, she loses consciousness at the bottom of the well. When she recovers, she finds herself in a meadow.

From the Urglaawe perspective, the blood and the fall down the well represents the death of this girl. She loses her connection to the physical world, and, when she awakens, she finds herself in Holle’s realm at the other end of the well.

Our heroine then wanders around the home and finds an oven in which loaves of bread are baking. The loaves calls out to her for help, saying that they will burn if they are not removed from the oven. They also say that they had been done long ago.

Keeping in mind that this girl was the keeper of the order of the house while she was alive, she is keeping order immediately upon arrival in this new realm, too. Allowing the bread to burn would be wasteful and an act of inefficiency.

Our heroine continues wandering, and this time she comes upon apple trees that are calling out for someone to shake them in order to release their ripe apples. The dutiful heroine once again does what is requested of her.

In each of these scenes, particularly with the bread, the girl’s sense of order is coupled with acts of compassion. Tatar adds an aspect that I had not previously considered but do find to be interesting: the bread and the apples are coming to the end of a transition, as is the girl. From that, I can extrapolate that the the ripening of the apples and the completion of the baking are consistent with the end of one phase of existence for the girl.

It is at this point that the girl comes upon a little house and meets Mother Holle. At first, she is afraid of Holle’s appearance, which includes an attribute of large teeth (a discussion for another time and place). Holle introduces Herself and includes a reference that is consistent with Holle’s association with falling snow. Although the heroine was frightened at first by Holle’s appearance, she finds Holle’s disposition and nature to be very benevolent and loving.

Holle offers the girl to stay with her, implying that the girl will be rewarded if she is good with the household chores. The girl agrees, and she has a pleasant life with Holle, including no harsh words and meat on the table every night (at least one version of this story implies the meat is of goose, but most versions seem to be silent on the menu).

This segment is, from the Urglaawe perspective, reflecting the time of decay in the physical realm while the soul is undergoing transitions, growth, and reward in Holle’s hall.

The girl eventually becomes homesick. Although she is much better off in Holle’s realm, she longs to return to this one. She expresses her desire to Holle, who is so sympathetic that She offers to take the girl back herself. She takes the girl by the hand and leads to a large gate. When the girl passes through the gate, gold showers down upon her, covering her from head to toe. Holle tells the girl that this is her reward for working so hard, and returns to her the spindle that she had originally lost. The girl then finds herself suddenly near her mother’s house.

At this point, from the Urglaawe perspective, we’re looking at the Higher Self of the girl’s sould seeking to fulfill the purpose of its existence. Although the girl is in a state of bliss with Holle, the higher purpose of the soul’s existence is to advance the human consciousness and to make the physical realm a better place in which to exist, particularly since the deities want us to advance to the level that they are at now. The heroine cannot succeed to that goal without returning to this realm. As Holle is the goddess of the Cycle of Life, She leads the girl back to this realm.

The gold is the effect of Wurt (Wyrd) upon the girl. In her previous life, the girl lived conscientiously, keeping her home and family in order despite the harsh conditions that were presented to her by her step-mother and sister. While she was in Holle’s realm, she exhibited compassion and the same diligence with which she lived her last physical life. Therefore, her Wurt has placed her in a situation that is far improved. The location of being near her mother’s home indicates, from the Urglaawe perspective, that she has been reborn with her previous community.

The next stage includes a rooster crowing about the girl’s good fortune. Tatar states that this inclusion seems odd and tries to juxtapose it with a dominant male proclaiming the girl’s success. I am not so sure about her theory. This aspect has a fair amount of guesswork in it, but there could be a relationship between the presence of the rooster in this scene and odd fertility rites in the Deitscherei in past centuries. The crowing of roosters does have an association of predicting fertility in some Deitsch folklore, including an odd (and mostly bygone) practice of boys mimicking crowing roosters during the time of Fasching or Entschtanning (which has different implications in Urglaawe from the Christian Fasching).

This theory is by no means certain, but, if there is a link between this rooster crowing and Germanic fertility associations with roosters, then, perhaps, the rooster is implying that the girl will also be more wealthy and successful. The rooster’s crowing does include a statement that the girl is well-to-do, so this theory may not be too farfetched.

Now, although the Urglaawe perspective has the heroine reborn in this story, it cannot achieve its contrast with the negative Wurt of the sister if the girl does not talk to her step-mother and sister about her experiences. The girl relates what happened to her, and the step-mother decides she wants the same thing to happen to her natural daughter. However, this girl does not want to work.

Instead of spinning to make her fingers bleed, she uses a thorn to prick her finger. She throws the spindle into the well and jumps after it. She ends up in the meadow, but ignores the bread and the apples. She has no fear of Holle because her sister had already described Holle’s appearance to her, and she immediately agrees to work for Holle because she believes the payout will be worth it.

At first, the girl works hard, but she eventually slacks off. Holle ends her service, which is fine with this girl, who thinks that she will now get the gold. Holle takes the girl to the gate, but, instead of gold, pitch pours down on this girl. Holle tells her that the pitch is the reward for her service. The rooster crows some insulting words towards that girl, and the pitch stays with that girl for the rest of her life.

Once again, we’re looking at the effects of Wurt. The girls intentions are based in greed from the get-go, and that influences everything else she does. She does not even pretend to have compassion for anyone who cannot or will not give her what she wants. When she is in the presence of Holle, who can give her what she desires, she strives to create the facade of a decent, orderly person. She event engages in the ruse of being a hard worker, but she is unable to maintain the required productivity, even with the belief that she would receive the reward that her sister got. Instead, her true nature continues during her time with Holle, and her Wurt is to have her soul stained in her next life by her actions in her previous life. Much like the stains that are present when the Urleeg (orlog) attaches itself to the soul, the pitch stays with her for her entire life. Interestingly, the Deitsch word for "pitch" ("Bech") and its German cognate both also mean "bad luck."

From the Urglaawe perspective, this tale is about life, death, and rebirth and the impact our actions have on our souls from one life to the next.

Hollerbeer Haven Issues

Hail!

All old issues of Hollerbeer Haven, the Journal of Urglaawe, Braucherei, and Detisch Wisdom, are now available here on Urglaawe.net.

Urglaawe in ACTION

We're very grateful to Christopher Blackwell, Editor of ACTION, the official newsletter of the Alternate Religions Educational Network, for publishing an article on Urglaawe in their Imbolc 2013 edition. Hail!

Der Butzemann and Der Kannsege

Through Braucherei we know that plants have spirits that are different from those of humans, but they are still spirits engaged in the birth, life, death, decay, rebirth cycle. Part of the Zusaagpflicht, or the Sacred Duty, is to forge the relationship between humans and plants. The Butzemann bridges both realms. We cultivate his "children" and he, in turn, helps to ensure healthy crops and safe land. The Kannsege represents both birth and rebirth. It is the birth of a new Butzemann but the rebirth of the plant spirits contained within him.

A knowledge of Braucherei would help here, because one may need to move the energy of the plants into the remnants of last year's crop. However, typically, the energies are still present in the remnants.

The remnants are placed into the form of a scarecrow. I typically chant runes over the form while creating him. I physically insert the runes Ingwaz, Othala, Jera, and Fehu into his clothes, but I usually chant other runes, particularly Ansuz, over him. We're working to arouse the plant spirits.

I then insert a symbolic "heart," which often comes from the root of a plant such as maize, sunflower, or other annual. I sew him up (if need be) or tighten the components. Right now, he is just a scarecrow with some runic energy.

During the Ceremony of the Corn, the Ansuz rune plays a major role in the mind's eye. The purpose is to communicate the runic energies of the mind to the runic energy in the scarecrow. We then breathe into the "mouth" of the scarecrow, now activating the plant spirits and giving plant consciousness to the Butzemann.

He is then given a name.  The names in Urglaawe follow old, perhaps antiquated, Deitsch naming conventions.

He is then given numerous blessings and well wishes... Offerings of food are placed before him, and he is given instructions. The instructions include what he is to watch, how he is to protect the land and scare away intruders, and how he is connected to you (he is a manifestation of the land upon which we live). We make an oath to look after him and to tend to him, to the "mother" of his children (the land, hence the lack of a Butzefraa), and to his children.

He is then walked around the perimeter of his turf so he knows what he is to guard. Then he is perched at his post where he should remain throughout the growing season. If his perch breaks, it should be replaced respectfully.

Throughout the growing season, the Butzemann should be given offerings of milk, honey, mead, incense, flowers, etc.

Two important Verbots (taboos) come through Braucherei's lore to us: 1). As his clothes are the Butzemann's only possessions, they must never be used again on a human or another Butzemann; 2). A Butzemann must not remain beyond Allelieweziel (October 31). Otherwise, his spirit follows Holle on the Wild Hunt, leaving behind an activated shell that is attractive to baneful wights.

The burning time can take place as early as Erntfescht (Autumn Equinox/Second Harvest), but, typically, in Urglaawe, the burning takes place as close to Allelieweziel as possible.