Folk Customs and Christianization
An analysis of the Indiculus Superstitionum et Paganarium by Nico de Haas. Originally published in Hamer magazine, October 1942.
Among the collected writings of Pope Gregory the Great (596–604), we find a letter from the year 601 that is of considerable importance for folklore studies: a letter addressed to the abbot Mellitus, who was working among the Anglo-Saxons.
This two-folio document demonstrates that the Church had already discovered, at the beginning of the seventh century, that popular belief could not be broken by force alone, but that a “bringing into conformity” of the old customs was considered necessary in order to secure acceptance for Christianity. The monk Bede likewise mentions this papal missionary letter in the first book of his important chronicle on the ecclesiastical history of the Angles.
The instructions to Mellitus read, in part, as follows:
“The temples of the gods among this people must certainly not be destroyed; only the idols within them are to be broken. Holy water should be consecrated and sprinkled upon these temples; altars are to be erected and relics brought there. For if these temples are well built, they must be withdrawn from the worship of demons and dedicated to God.
If the people see that the temples are not destroyed, they will abandon their error in their hearts. Sacrifices and sacrificial feasts may continue to be observed, only everything must be done in honor of God and the martyrs whose relics are preserved in the temples. For if certain outward pleasures are frankly permitted to them, they will more readily become accustomed to inward joys.
For it is impossible to deprive stubborn minds of everything at once, since even he who wishes to ascend to the highest point rises gradually and step by step, not by leaps.”
Almost a century and a half later, the old folk customs appear to have been the subject of extensive discussion at a synod presided over by the so-called “Apostle of the Germans,” namely Boniface, who at Dokkum in Friesland caused the oak of Wodan to be felled. Which folk customs these were becomes clear from the much-cited Indiculus Superstitionum et Paganarium.
By the Indiculus Superstitionum et Paganarium (“List of Superstitious and Pagan Practices”) is meant a document discovered in the seventeenth century by Holtenius in the so-called Pfälzer Codex (no. 577) of the Vatican. Apparently, it contains only the headings of the series of customs discussed at the Synod of Leptines in the year 743—presided over by Boniface—and especially commended to the attention of the clergy. Although nothing beyond some thirty paragraphs has survived, this overview nevertheless possesses great significance for folklore studies, because it allows us to see that a large number of these folk customs still survive today and have sometimes even been incorporated into church practice.
The thirty paragraphs are as follows:
I. De sacrilegio ad sepulchra mortuorum
(Concerning sacrilegious practices at the graves of the dead)
The Germanic clan burial grounds, and burial mounds in general, were sacred places, for the Germanic sense of eternity—which was the sense of the eternity of the lineage, of the bloodline—found expression in the veneration of the ancestors by the living. In this way, the grave became the sacred center of the blood-bound order of life.
Even today, on All Souls’ Day, lights are kindled upon graves in many parts of the Germanic world, and the surviving relatives visit the burial places of blood relations. These are customs that can in no way be explained from Christian doctrine alone, but which, though Christianized, still preserve memories of the old Germanic age.
II. De sacrilegio super defunctos id est dad-sisas
(Concerning sacrilegious practices surrounding the dead, namely “dad-sisas”)
For centuries, the Church persecuted funeral feasts, though without success, for they still exist today, and both minister and priest sit among the guests. During the Middle Ages, the minne (memorial toast) of the dead was drunk, and during the meal the deeds of the deceased were praised.
The dances that, according to early penitential texts, were still being held in the seventh and eighth centuries in connection with such gatherings were already distant echoes of the fully pagan age, when certain dances associated with the cult of the dead were almost certainly customary at the graves of important persons. Christianity, which demanded at the grave “fear and trembling” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” therefore denounced the popular customs surrounding burial as “pagan uproar” and “horrible sacrilege.”
III. De spurcalibus in Februario
(Concerning the impure festivities in February)
By “impure” or “immoral” festivities, the Church understood those customs connected with fertility—the “blessing of life”—especially the customs associated with the carnival season before Lent. The people often gave expression to their own will toward fertility, and to their desire for the fruitfulness of the fields, through highly vivid and sometimes drastic symbols and symbolic acts.
These nature-bound conceptions lay entirely outside the mental horizon of the monastic clergy, who, in their estrangement from healthy peasant life, denounced these traditional practices as “immoral.” Since the pre-Lenten fertility customs could not simply be eradicated, the Church transformed them into a Fastenabend, an eve of abstinence before Lent. Here again, Christianization signified an “inversion” of folk belief and its assimilation into the framework of Church doctrine.
IV. De casulis id est fanis
(Concerning little huts, that is, shrines or temples)
At the beginning of the seventh century, Pope Gregory the Great already advised the clergy working among the Anglo-Saxons not to destroy the old customs, but rather to reinterpret them. Among other things, he mentions the Germanic practice of building leafy huts around their sanctuaries—thus an ancient native custom, which should not be confused with the Jewish Sukkot.
The old Frisian Pentecost crown, the Lauerhütte associated with the Questen festival in the Harz, and the Pentecost huts of Hessian youth are connected with such festive structures of greenery and flowers.
V. De sacrilegiis per ecclesias
(Concerning sacrilege committed in and through the churches)
The old Germanic sanctuary was the place where countless folk customs connected with the well-being of tribe and clan were practiced. In order to draw the Germanic peasants toward the Christianized sanctuaries or newly built churches, the Christian clergy, too, were compelled to allow many of the old customs to continue under the new faith.
Later, however, it became necessary to suppress these pagan traditions once again as they gained an ever firmer footing. Thus, a fierce struggle was waged against the singing of pagan songs, the use of pagan musical instruments, and the growing custom of noisy or mocking special masses—such as the notorious “Feast of the Ass,” during which the chanting was imitated by braying.
The cuckoo-call of the church organ on Easter Sunday is a reminder of the Germanic proclamation of spring, and the rattles used in Thorn, a town in Limburg, likewise do not derive from Roman Catholic liturgy.
VI. De sacris silvarum, quae nimidas vocant
(Concerning the sacred groves, called “nimidas”)
The meaning of the word nimidas remains disputed, but this heading undoubtedly encompassed all those customs connected with the symbolism of the tree and with sacred places in the untouched forest. It therefore included both the processions and sacred journeys associated with green harvest branches, May trees, bridal greenery, Easter branches, Pentecost crowns, and similar customs.
Christianized forms of these traditions may still be found everywhere: the dragging of Easter branches at Denekamp, the St. Brigid’s tree at Noorbeek, and the little processional banners carried during the blessing of the fields, among many others.
VII. De his, quae faciunt super petras
(Concerning the sacred acts they perform upon rocks and stones)
Rocks situated at elevated points and favorably aligned with the position of the sun were used by our Germanic ancestors not only as “observatories,” from which the course of the sun could be accurately determined and the dates of the solar year established by means of marked signs, but rock formations and stone settings were undoubtedly also centers of worship. Thus, the famous Externsteine were almost certainly a Germanic rock sanctuary.
Many hills in the Netherlands, too, were sacred places, as may be inferred not only from their names, but also from their Christianization through the construction of chapels upon them, or from their deliberate desecration through the erection of gallows and wheels upon their summits.
The ancient spring fires were likewise kindled preferably upon the highest elevations, while many burial mounds and stone graves were laid out as sacred places at the highest points in the landscape. Even today, the Germanic peoples retain the urge to climb high rocks and mountains in order to experience there the grandeur and beauty of the earth in a natural sense of connectedness with the sacred powers that determine the order of life.
Under this heading must also be included those customs expressed in the carving or boring of particular grooves and hollows into stones regarded as especially suitable for such purposes. Thus, upon the capstones of certain megalithic tombs we find the well-known “elf-cups,” often arranged into remarkable figures that call to mind constellations of stars.
Various well-known sacred signs and runes are likewise found engraved upon rock faces and upon grave and boundary stones. In church portals throughout the Netherlands and elsewhere in the Germanic world, one also encounters “law-grooves” cut into the stone doorframes, which apparently are connected with immemorial legal customs.
In Brittany, great standing stones (menhirs) formed the destination and focal point of field processions. In certain places they still fulfill this role today in Christianized form. Even in present-day folk customs one encounters remarkable stones, such as the “Sacrificial Stone” associated with the ancient dragon-stabbing festival at Beesel.
Moreover, many “mysterious” stones are connected with legends and folk traditions, such as the chained “Devil’s Stone” at Utrecht, the Poppesteen near Burgum, the Reuzenpink on the Woldberg, and others. The stone table on the Rhenerberg and the stone of Voorthuizen were said to be “Wodan’s stones,” and so forth. All are indications that special stones have, from ancient times onward, played an important role in folk belief and folk custom.
VIII. De sacris Mercurii vel Jovis
(Concerning sacred rites for Mercury or Jupiter)
It goes without saying that—apart from those who defected to the Romans—the Germanic peoples never sacrificed to Mercury or Jupiter. Unable to comprehend the character of the Germanic deities, however, the foreign intruders conveniently equated them with the familiar gods of the Roman pantheon, just as classical authors had long been accustomed to do.
Symbolic gifts and thank-offerings made by the peasant after the harvest was brought in nevertheless survive in present-day folk customs in the form of the last sheaf, the rapeseed hare, the martelgaus, the “old wife,” and similar figures. In various regions, the Church placed itself in the position formerly occupied by the old sanctuary, and today still permits harvest offerings to be placed before the altar—offerings that were once dedicated to the Germanic gods.
IX. De sacrificio, quod fit alicui sanctorum
(Concerning offerings made to one of the saints)
According to Roman Catholic interpretations, this heading refers primarily to the “memorial gifts” dedicated to the ancestors and placed upon the graves. When the Church made it impossible to bring these consecrated gifts directly to the graves themselves, people began instead to place them before the statues of saints erected in Christian cemeteries. This transition was made all the easier because, in popular belief, the new saints were often understood as renewed forms of the old gods and mythical heroes.
In this way, many ancient pagan characteristics were eventually transferred to the Christian saints; indeed, even the old symbols became attributes of the saints. Even today, very many “offerings” are still made to “the saints” from motives entirely foreign to Christianity, as every pilgrimage chapel demonstrates all too clearly.
X. De phylacteriis et ligaturis
(Concerning amulets and talismans)
Alongside other sacred signs worn upon necklaces, the transitional age of Christianization also saw the appearance of many pendants in the form of Thor’s hammer. These came into use more or less as a protest against—or in imitation of—the small crosses worn by Christians.
The Church, in turn, took advantage of the growing superstition that spread after Christianization by attaching to it a flourishing trade in “consecrated amulets.” Among the most popular were written charms intended to ward off illness, fire, and flood damage.
XI. De fontibus sacrificiorum
(Concerning springs as places of offering)
Sacred springs were certainly widespread among our people. Countless legends and folktales speak of wondrous wells—such as those of Stavoren—and of Christianized springs, such as the Boniface Well at Dokkum.
Holy water, living water, symbols of pure and flowing life—such were many of these springs. Some were even believed literally to possess healing power, and medicinal spring water is still used today against various ailments. The manner in which the Church appropriated the symbolism of the water of life can still be seen in the rites of baptismal and holy water.
XII. De incantationibus
(Concerning magical incantations and chants)
Several Old Germanic “magic spells” have come down to us, such as the well-known Merseburg Charms:
ben zi bena, bluot zi bluoda, lid zi geliden ...
(“bone to bone, blood to blood, limb to limb ...”)
Various such formulas were Christianized by attaching a Pater Noster to them or by incorporating the name of Christ into the text. A classic example is provided by the Norwegian rune-song:
Hagall er kaldastr korna
Kristr skop haimenn forna.
The first line—“Hail is the coldest grain”—belongs to the older tradition. Hagall, “the All-Enclosing,” symbolized by the Hagal rune ᚼ, the “sixfold cross,” which may likewise be seen in every crystal of ice (hail!), represented for the Germanic peoples the sense of security within the divine order of the world.
The new concept of “Christ” had to be made comprehensible to them, and the Church accomplished this by associating “the White Christ” with an already familiar religious conception. Thus Christ—as so often happened—was transformed, contrary to biblical tradition, into a creator of the world.
We have already spoken above of the prohibition against the old songs within the new Christian worship.
XIII. De auguriis vel avium vel equorum, vel bovum stercore vel sternutatione
(Concerning divination by birds or horses, or by cattle—whether from dung or from sneezing)
Under this heading, it should be remembered that the Indiculus did not apply solely to Germanic peoples. Non-Germanic pagan customs were likewise opposed by the Synod of 743. Moreover, foreign influences had already long penetrated the disrupted religious life of the Germanic world during the early Middle Ages.
It is nevertheless certain that the Germanic peoples drew conclusions from various natural phenomena, such as the migration of birds. Even today, many a farmer still takes account of the “foreboding” that horses, according to modern investigations as well, appear to possess. Both horse and bird also function as symbols within the Germanic worldview.
The harvest cock still survives in folk custom and adorns the spires of church towers as the weathercock. The horse symbol likewise continues to play a role in many different forms in the present day—as the horse of Saint Nicholas Day, as the carnival hobby horse, as a gable ornament, and in other manifestations.
And is not the “stork-spoonbill” still regarded as a symbol of good fortune? Did not the Church itself adopt the “Dove of the Holy Spirit” from popular belief for the feast of Pentecost? And how many people still say “Bless you!” after a sneeze?
XIV. De divinis vel sortilegis
(Concerning soothsayers and foretellers of fate)
Under this heading may be included everything connected with the so-called “second sight,” so widespread especially in the Low German-Saxon regions, but also the immemorial folk wisdom founded upon centuries of experience and observation, carefully preserved and transmitted by “wise women” and the elders of the clan.
The Church partly destroyed this tradition by declaring the wise women to be “witches” and putting them to death, while partly continuing it by making saints such as Saint Andrew and Saint Barbara into holy patrons of fortune-tellers.
Above all, however, this heading probably referred to “rune wisdom,” namely the knowledge of the meaning of the ancient symbolic signs and emblems, together with Old Germanic astronomy. The dream of Siegfried, among other examples, points to the significance attached to dream symbols. Even today, numerous acts of “fortune-telling” survive within folk customs.
XV. De igne fricato de ligno, id est nodfyr
(Concerning fire rubbed from wood, called “nodfyr”)
For centuries, the Church struggled against the spring, midsummer, and midwinter fires, which according to ancient tradition were kindled with fire produced by friction. Precisely because these customs proved impossible to eradicate, the Church was compelled to absorb and transform many of them. The threefold Easter candle, the altar lamp, and the Easter fire are either adapted survivals or Christianized forms of older customs that still continue on a large scale today.
XVI. De cerebro animalium
(Concerning the brains of animals)
The same observations may be made here as under § XIII.
XVII. De observatione pagano in foco vel in inchoatione rei alicujus
(Concerning pagan practices at the hearth or at the beginning of any undertaking)
Within the Germanic homestead, the hearth was not merely the center of domestic life, but also the sacred center of clan existence. This sacred hearth-fire, as a symbol of the sun and of life, kindled from the fire of the midwinter solstice, occupied so important a place in the Germanic worldview that the hearth, as the symbol of the holy clan-community, long functioned, as it were, as the popular counterpart to the ecclesiastical altar.
This opposition between hearth and altar ultimately ended when the Church adopted the “eternal flame.” Around its “altar lamp” there gathered many conceptions derived from the ancient hearth-fire. The pot-hook, as a symbol of the hearth, still plays a role here and there in rural marriage customs (the so-called haal-leiden). [Translator note: In Dutch (Limburg) folklore, haalleiden at a wedding is the custom where the groom leads his bride three times around the hearth or the “haal” (the chain or beam above the fireplace), symbolizing her official entry into the new household.]
The second part of this heading undoubtedly refers to the popular belief that “a good beginning is half the work,” not only in human affairs but in nature itself. Very many weather sayings express this idea by regarding the weather on a particular day as determinative for the entire period that follows.
The Church acknowledged the special “prophetic” days of the peasant weather calendar by assigning saints to them at a very early date—and in this way Christianizing the oracular language of the “pagan sayings.”
XVIII. De incertis locis, quae colunt pro sacris
(Concerning the uncertain places which they regard as sacred)
One naturally thinks here of that “mystery” (secretum illud) which Tacitus associated with the Germanic religion. Undoubtedly, one characteristic of the northern sanctuaries was that the outsider would discover little outwardly remarkable about them. An enclosed place in the forest, a large and well-formed tree standing prominently in the landscape, a clear spring, or a rock or hill—these were the natural symbols of the Germanic worldview.
And even where additional symbolic signs had been artificially applied, they would scarcely have been recognizable to the uninitiated. Yet such places continued, for centuries after Christianization, to serve as destinations for annual field processions and “pilgrimages.” The Church therefore frequently provided these sites with a chapel and an accompanying legend in order to absorb the customs of the people into Christian practice.
It is noteworthy that when such chapels—as often happened—fell into ruin and were eventually demolished, the “pilgrimages of the faithful” quietly continued, just as they had in pre-Christian times. A remarkable example is furnished by the Placard concerning the Bevert Pilgrimage and Other Superstitions of 17 January 1647, proclaimed by the knighthood, nobility, and cities of Holland and West Friesland against the pilgrims who, despite every prohibition, continued to journey to Heiloo, where they held large open-air gatherings accompanied by numerous “superstitious” practices and dressed in linen garments.
The pretext for these observances was the scant remains of a certain chapel of “Our Lady at Need.” Yet there are many indications in both the customs and traditions, as well as in the very name of the place, that Heiloo had once been an ancient Germanic sanctuary.
XIX. De petendo quod boni vocant sanctae Mariae
(Concerning the prayers which the faithful address to Holy Mary)
It is not at all surprising that the Roman Church opposed popular devotion to Mary, mother of Jesus, for countless pagan ideas and customs had been transferred to “Our Lady.” One need only recall “Our Lady of the Holy Oak” at Aarschot and Our Lady of ‘s-Gravenzande, of whom popular speech said:
“Our Lady of ’s-Gravenzande is gracious unto us.
She has two wooden arms and two pear-tree buttocks ...”
Even Freyja’s distaffs (the constellation of Orion) passed over to Mary as “Mary’s distaffs”; “Freyja’s hair” became “Mary’s grass,” and so forth. Pagan Marian songs have likewise been preserved.
Among the pre-Christian customs adopted by the Church one may mention the blessing of herbs, corrupted in some regions into “Mary’s herb-wine,” as the feast of the Assumption is still occasionally called. The carrying of the image of Mary through the fields is a Christianized form of the old field processions held in honor of Freyja, Perchta, or Bertha.
Many attributes of “miraculous” images of Mary still allude to or preserve memories of native symbolic traditions, while Marian chapels and wells are clearly situated upon places that were sacred in ancient times.
XX. De feriis, quae faciunt Jovi vel Mercurio
(Concerning the feast days they celebrate in honor of Jupiter and Mercury)
The weekdays Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday still preserve Germanic heritage in their very names. Many feast days throughout the year likewise remained connected for a long time with the old gods, as may be seen from the symbolic signs found upon various peasant staff-calendars. The saints whom the Church placed upon these significant points of the yearly cycle later inherited many of these older symbols and emblems as their attributes.
XXI. De lunae defectione, quod dicunt vinceluna
(Concerning the waning moon, which they call “Conquer Moon!”)
The oldest systems of reckoning time counted by nights rather than by days. Even today, the English speak of a “fortnight” rather than “fourteen days.” For many purposes, such as warfare and public assemblies, people reckoned quite practically according to the time of the full moon.
The influence of the moon’s phases upon various functions of life is still not entirely disregarded in agricultural labor in many regions (sowing during the waxing moon!). Nor can the influence of the moon upon the inner life—sleepwalking and similar phenomena—be wholly denied.
During the Middle Ages, however, this folk wisdom degenerated into unrestrained superstition, and celestial phenomena frequently aroused terrible fears. The Church exploited these fears by using them to remind “sinners” of the horrors of the Last Judgment, thereby reinforcing the supposed necessity of its own mediating role—a position for which it exacted heavy payment in the form of indulgences.
After this uprooting of folk belief, scarcely anything remained of the old popular wisdom concerning the moon. Only a few legends of the “man in the moon” survive, together with rhymes such as:
“If someone falls within the moonlight,
the moon itself must be the cause.”
The cry “Conquer Moon!” mentioned in the Indiculus Superstitionum probably indicates that the waxing of the moon after its waning was understood as a fortunate victory of the night-light over the powers of darkness.
The Indo-Aryans believed they could discern a hare in the moon, thereby linking the moon with a symbol of fertility. Traces of this conception may also still be found within our own folk traditions. Equally clear is the importance attributed in folk medicine to the influence of the moon, preserved in praises such as the fourteenth-century Die cracht der mâne.
XXII. De tempestatibus et cornibus et cocleis
(Concerning storms, horns, and spoons)
Customs associated with thunderstorms are still practiced today, such as the burning of a palm branch taken from the consecrated bundle of herbs, and similar rites.
What precisely is meant by “horns and spoons” can no longer be determined with certainty. Judging from the rock carvings of Sweden, wind instruments were already being used in the worship of the Germanic peoples during the Bronze Age in highly developed forms. Beautifully ornamented bone flutes have even survived from the Stone Age. Small hand-drums likewise belong to the most ancient northern cultural inheritance, as do various rattling instruments.
The spoon also occupies a favored and distinguished place within folk customs as an object of symbolic significance—for example, bridal spoons. Spoons were likewise employed in acts of divination, such as the pouring of molten tin on New Year’s Eve.
The “horns” probably also refer to the horn-shaped ceremonial breads symbolizing either the primeval bow or the crescent moon. Finally, the horn may allude to the drinking horns used during communal festive meals (minne-drinking), while the spoons may likewise have been mentioned as attributes of these banquets, which included traditional porridge dishes, as has been shown by ancient guild and harvest feasts handed down through tradition.
Throughout the Germanic world, horns and spoons were richly ornamented and in some places have survived bearing rune inscriptions or family marks.
XXIII. De sulcis circa villas
(Concerning the ditches or moats surrounding the farmsteads)
The old Germanic farmsteads were surrounded either by earthen embankments and ditches or by moats and palisades, for the ancient hereditary farms (odal holdings) were defensible solar fiefs belonging to free men. The old Frisian peasant law concerning the “driving of swans” demonstrates how important an independent water boundary was considered, since the peasants liked to draw attention to it by means of these royal solar birds. The Groninger Almanak further records that the swans also bore the family mark, the symbol of the clan.
Boundary divisions likewise played an important role in the ancient legal customs surrounding the taking possession of a farmstead, as in the ritual circling of the property with the plow. Many annual customs also took place at or upon these boundaries, such as the erection of Pentecost greenery, the lighting of spring fires, and similar observances.
Since the Church opposed both the concept of the solar fief and the Germanic legal customs in favor of Roman law and the feudal system, it is hardly surprising that the highly significant boundary markers of the Germanic peasants likewise came under attack.
XXIV. De pagano cursu, quem Yrias nominant, scissis pannis vel calceis
(Concerning the pagan procession called “Yrias,” with torn clothes and shoes)
Among these processions—which, as we know from the chronicle of the weavers’ procession with the Blue Barge through the Low Countries, sometimes covered hundreds of kilometers, greatly wearing out clothing and footwear—there must undoubtedly be counted those processions containing solar, cyclical, and fertility symbols that already appear in the Bronze Age rock carvings.
These Bronze Age depictions already show processions with gigantic figures (surviving in characters such as Valuas and his Wife from Venlo), together with solar emblems, ships, and related imagery. In the Middle Ages, customs such as the Perchten processions, the masked figures associated with the burning of Winter, and the festivities of Carnival were probably also intended under this heading.
For centuries the Church opposed these customs in word and writing, while reinterpreting some of them—for example, the “burning of Judas.” In the Easter pole-dragging custom at Denekamp, “Judas” has even been divided into two separate figures: Judas and Karioth.
XXV. De eo, quod sibi sanctos fingunt, quoslibet mortuos
(Concerning the fact that they make saints of their dead whenever it suits them)
The sacred character of the clan led the Germanic peoples everywhere to elevate their own heroic figures into local “saints,” thereby enabling the continuation of ancestor veneration. The Church—which in those days was itself by no means sparing in the canonization of saints—naturally objected to the excessive presence of Germanic figures within its worship, since together with these suspect “saints” there entered a variety of pagan ideas and customs.
Only in exceptional cases did northern heroic figures attain the status of officially recognized saints of the Church, and even then only when the Church itself had a strong interest in doing so—as, for example, in the canonization of Charlemagne.
With the observance of All Souls’ Day, however, the Church did in some measure accommodate the continued veneration of the ancestors.
XXVI. De simulacro de consparsa farina
(Concerning figures made from grain or dough)
Many of these bread-forms still survive today in the festive pastries of midwinter, springtime, and Easter. They are ancient representations of Germanic symbols, such as the solar wheel, the cock, the horse, the sacred knot, the solar spiral, the tree of life, and similar figures. The molds used for speculaas still display these symbols in remarkable abundance.
The character of the Germanic “offering” as a symbolic gift of friendship—an expression of the faithful relationship between god and man—is clearly reflected in them. The Church Christianized a number of these symbolic baked forms and incorporated them into its own customs, for example as the so-called Christmas wreath or Easter bread. Other forms were reinterpreted and otherwise left to the people, such as the pretzel, which was declared to represent “the bonds of Christ” and still survives in folk custom under that meaning.
XXVII. De simulacris de pannis factis
(Concerning figures made of cloth)
Reference should here be made to paragraph XXIV. In the field processions, large figures were carried along which, much as is still often the case today, were probably constructed from wicker frameworks covered with cloth.
Besides the “giants,” one may think here of the reed hobby-horses of the carnival at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, as well as the straw figures covered with cloth used in the “burning of the fair,” the “driving out of Winter,” or the “expulsion of Death.”
XXVIII. De simulacro quod per campos portant
(Concerning the figures which they carry through the fields)
The Old Germanic field processions, with symbols such as the plow, the ship, the solar wheel, and similar emblems, still survive today in the field processions of the Roman Catholic Church. Only now, in place of the sacred symbols, images of various Christian saints are carried along.
Some impression of these portable peasant procession-symbols may be gained from the palmpasen decorations, now reduced to children’s amusement, many of whose faithfully preserved forms are striking for their color and beauty of design, as well as for their meaningful arrangement of symbols such as the solar wheel and the solar birds.
XXIX. De ligneis pedibus vel manibus pagano ritu
(Concerning wooden feet and hands according to pagan custom)
Among a people so distinctly characterized by joy in labor as the Nordic race, it could hardly have been otherwise than that the hand should very early have become a sacred symbol. The foot likewise acquired symbolic significance at an early period, as is evident from the depictions of feet found in the rock carvings. Within these symbolic series one also encounters representations of divine figures with exceedingly large hands.
The hand furthermore plays an important role in legal customs. Gloves, as well as wooden shoes, continued down to modern times in rural districts to be ornamented on special occasions—such as wedding gifts—with Germanic symbolic designs according to ancient custom.
Votive offerings to Christian pilgrimage chapels and similar places, though themselves of non-Germanic origin, were in the Germanic lands frequently surrounded by pagan folk beliefs and used in a non-ecclesiastical sense by the people. For this reason the Church also opposed such practices, although such offerings may still be seen everywhere today.
XXX. De eo, quod credunt, quia feminae lunam commendent, quod possint corda hominum tollere juxta paganos
(Concerning the belief that women can influence the moon and, according to pagan opinion, steal the hearts of men)
This paragraph clearly demonstrates how the terrible witch-delusion was prepared and unleashed by the Christian Church. A careful study of the sagas shows beyond dispute that “sorcery” was regarded with abhorrence by the Germanic saga-farmers, and that harmful magic was severely punished whenever the perpetrators were believed to be known.
It further appears that the healthy members of pure-blooded clans did not involve themselves in such practices at all, but that “witchcraft” was practiced only by eccentrics, bastards, or outcasts of foreign race, such as the Lapps (“Finns”). In general, sorcery was therefore called “Finn-work.”
Quite different, however, was the folk belief expressed in practices such as fortune-telling, clairvoyance, rune lore, folk medicine, and related arts. These gifts were indeed possessed by the finest members of the clan and accordingly held in high esteem. Wise women in particular cultivated such knowledge, but no Germanic person would ever have thought of accusing these honorable women of “witchcraft” or of some sinister crime.
The Christian clergy, however, which sought to dissolve the old clan bonds in order to establish the new religion, succeeded—after centuries of suspicion and ever-growing superstition—in declaring such gifted women to be “witches” and terrifying the people with fear of their supposed powers. In the dreadful witch mania that followed, hundreds of thousands of women of the finest Germanic stock and greatest natural ability fell victim to the murderous persecution of power-obsessed priests. Much knowledge of nature and much ancient inherited wisdom thereby disappeared forever.
The lower forms of superstition that penetrated many folk customs, however, were certainly not of original Germanic origin, but entered from other peoples and races after the unity of Germanic culture had been broken. The sagas themselves likewise demonstrate this: the younger the saga, the greater the role played within it by superstition and sorcery. During the flowering period of Germanic culture, superstition can therefore have played only a very minor role, and folk belief must have remained comparatively pure.
Thus end the thirty paragraphs of the Indiculus Superstitionum et Paganarium. They are indeed of great interest, for they demonstrate with unmistakable clarity how, despite twelve centuries of opposition, many of the old folk customs have continued to survive in one form or another. They further reveal that these customs were of pre-Christian origin and formed part of a religious tradition that was combated by the new faith through every possible means.
Thousands of years old, persecuted for a thousand years, and still not dead—the vitality of folk customs may well fill us with pride.