THE WITCHES' DANCE ON THE BROCKEN.

AMONG all the legends of Germany-that country where every plain has its genius, every mountain its giant, every grotto its dwarf, every house its domestic sprite or Cobold, every historic fact its myth-there is, perhaps, not one of them all so popular, or so universally known, as that of the Witches' Dance on the Brocken. This general diffusion, with the hold it so long maintained on the belief of the people, makes it hardly possible to doubt that it has its origin in some historic fact; and it is believed that this attempt to trace it to its source may not be without interest to many. The scene of this well-known legend, the Brocken, or Blocksberg, is the loftiest summit of that range of mountains on the confines of Hanover, called the Hartz, extending about seventy miles in length, and twenty in breadth. On this spot, according to the story, the witches and sorcerers of the whole earth hold their sabbath once a-year, upon the eve of May-day. Thither from all quarters these servants of Satan repair, mounted, some on horses, some on goats and wild beasts, some on pitchforks and brooms, and flock around their infernal master, when, after due homage paid to him, the unholy orgies commence. Brandishing torches, they dance around a blazing fire, with wild cries, till summoned before "the Devil's Pulpit"—a mass of granite thus named, and only very recently destroyed-where they alternately listen to his instructions, or recount their own exploits, making the air resound with blasphemics against God; and at length the hellish festival closes with a banquet, which consists entirely of sausages dressed on "the Witches' Altar," unless, indeed, a head-dish should be supplied, by the dismembered body of one of the confraternity.

For should a witch arrive too late, this breach of proper etiquette is punished by a fearful death. She is torn in pieces by Satan himself, and the severed limbs, after being laid on the altar, figure at the feast, as a warning to the rest. With the morning dawn, the fiendish crew disperse to their several quarters. The inhabitants of the district round the Brocken are in the habit of setting up three crosses at the doors of their houses and stables, by which they imagine they secure both themselves and their cattle from all the wiles or assaults of sorcerer and demon, on their way to and from the place of rendezvous.

Such is the legend; and we believe it to be a myth— the people's mode of chronicling a real event, a historic fact. Wild and absurd as are the scenes and circumstances in the tradition, and lamentable as is the superstition that gave them this form, we think that we can trace them up to real occurrences, and that those occurrences are to be found in the history of that illustrious Emperor of France, who, for his single-handed struggle against ignorance, barbarism, and lawlessness, has been so regarded as the very type of greatness, that his name and the name of Great have been blended into one-that of Charlemagne. In his treatment of the Saxons conquered by him, we have the germ of this popular tradition.

While in some respects his treatment of them, as of the other nations he subdued, was worthy of him, as he extended to them equal privileges with the Franks; and while he was right in thinking, as he did think, that his work of civilisation could be successful only as long as it was based upon religion, yet he unhappily yielded to an unenlightened zeal, and instead of employing mild persuasion to turn them from their "idols, to serve the living and true God," he thought to compel them, at the point of the sword, to take upon them the yoke of the meek and lowly Saviour, the Prince of Peace;

and he enforced the profession of Christianity under severe penalties, thus degrading the Divine laws, by turning them into civil enactments. True it is that he at first showed great toleration; but during the three-and-thirty years which it cost to subdue this bold and free people, they tried the conqueror's patience to the utmost by their repeated revolts after submission, and by their frequent relapses into idolatry after a profession of Christianity; till, at length, Charlemagne issued an edict, that any one refusing to be baptized, or after baptism continuing in idolatry, should be put to death.

But while the pagan Saxons were thus compelled to outward conformity, and to receive baptism, still they remained pagans at heart; and no sooner had Charlemagne withdrawn his troops, than they recommenced sacrificing to their gods. Upon this, Charlemagne had the altars and images of the idols destroyed; and, thus prevented from celebrating their worship openly, the people repaired to the forests and mountains of the Hartz, selecting the Brockenberg as the least accessible. No sooner was Charlemagne made aware of this, than he ordered strict watch to be kept at the mountain-passes on the days usually set apart for the idol-feasts. The Saxons had now recourse to stratagem, in order still to find means of solemnising their religious rites. Disguising themselves in the skins of beasts, and wearing hideous masks, and armed with pitchforks and other rustic implements, as well as with the weapons used by them in the chase, they rushed upon the sentries, who, in real or pretended terror, took to flight. Some of these implements were probably needed for their sacrifices, either in piling up the wood, or drawing out the firebrands, which they bore aloft as they danced in wild joy around the sacrificial flames. And as to the brooms, upon which, according to the legend, the Witches of the Walpurgis-night used to ride, they may have been in requisition to sweep away which

the snow,

WITCHES' SABBATH.

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even now, on the first of May, covers the tops of the Hartz mountains, lying thick upon the Brocken.

Now it is certain that not only the Jews, but the early Christians, believed that the gods worshipped by the heathen were really existing evil demons. This, we think, has been fully shown in an article in a late Number on the Evil Angels. Not only do we find, as has been pointed out, Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, the god of the Philistines, called by the Jews "the Prince of the Demons;" but we also find the Apostle Paul saying, "The things that the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with demons." Indeed, the very name "demons" was applied by the heathen themselves to the beings they worshipped. And the Christians of Charlemagne's day held not less firmly the belief that idol-worship was demon-worship; so that their describing the Saxon rites as such would have been both true and natural; and the addition of other circumstances to this basis of truth is easily accounted for by popular superstition. The delusion embodied in the legend, that Satan himself, the great leader and prince of the evil spirits, appeared in bodily form and horrid shapes, and contrived, in spite of the Christian guards that beset the way, to convey the worshippers through the air to the Brockenberg, was produced, or kept up, by the stories which the sentinels either told as an excuse for their cowardly flight, or dared not contradict.

Such are the facts which we believe to be bodied forth in this myth of the Witches' Sabbath on the Brocken. And though we cannot give a positive answer to the inquiry, why the special day named in the legend was fixed upon, yet we think a very probable one may be found. As we know that the pagan Germans celebrated one of their great

* See also Archbishop Whately's "Scripture Revelations of Good and Evil Angels."

est and most joyous feasts-the feast of the returning Spring -on the first of May, and consequently about the time of our Easter; as on that occasion they were wont to deck their altars and houses with boughs and branches of birchtrees, and to dance with them round their immense sacrificial fires. And again, as this feast was specially dedicated to their goddess Eastera, the object of peculiar veneration in this very district of the Hartz, so it is more than probable, that the great attraction which this festival of the first of May had for the Saxons gave rise to the fable of the special concourse of witches on Walpurgis-night; and the fact of its being so called from the name of a saint said to have converted the Saxons to Christianity, seems a fresh link connecting it with their religious history. The custom still prevalent in Germany, and amongst us, of decorating the churches and houses with green boughs at Easter and Christmas, appears to be a remnant of the ancient pagan rites, as well as the less pleasing practice of the young village lads in and about the Hartz district of dancing round a large fire. Many such vestiges are to be found in our own country; and I have little doubt that the custom, in some parts of England, of strewing the church-aisle with rushes at Whitsuntide may be traced to our Pagan and Saxon ancestors. It need hardly be pointed out that the word Eastre, the name of the Saxon goddess, has passed from Paganism into the Christian Church. Whatever may have been the original cause of this, and many a similar, transition or adoption, every one of them may well be to us a monument of the grace that has "called us out of darkness into the marvellous light" of the Gospel.

A. H.