The Benandanti  & Scandinavian Folktales

Film Clip: Carneval in SW Germany

Lecture: The Benandanti

Were There Actually Witches in Early Modern Europe? 

      With the proliferation of the Malleus Maleficarum and the Great Witch Craze in Europe, we are faced with the documentary “evidence” of the lurid confessions of diabolical sabbats, desecration of the host, profanation of God, orgiastic sexual excess, infanticides, incest & similar stories, which were extracted under torture with suggestive questions. When scholars ask if there really were witches at that time, they tend to dismiss the whole thing as a nasty episode born of the sexual fantasies of two impotent Dominican priests.

Beliefs in Folk Magic As Model for Diabolical Sabbats: 

      Yet as we have seen in the folk tales collected in Scandinavia in the 19th century, there were popular beliefs in folk magic and supernatural occurrences, practitioners of folk magic, women healers & midwives, that survived from the middle ages into modern times.  These practices of folk magic, remnants of pagan traditions & beliefs within Christianity, probably provided the model for the Catholic Church’s diabolical fantasies.  We can see how this may have operated by looking at the phenomenon of the benandanti.

The Benandanti: (from Carlo Ginzburg’s Night Battles)

•      study based on over 850 confessions from the years 1620-1650 located in Inquisition’s archives in Friuli (Northern Italy near Venice);

•      show existence of rural fertility cults that later were interpreted by Inquisition as diabolical witchcraft —> under persistent questioning, people gradually began to believe they were witches;

•      benandanti = “go-gooders”:  predominantly men (born with the amniotic sack/caul/afterbirth) who believed they went out at night (in spirit while they slept) as God’s army to do battle with the witches &defend the crops/harvest;

•     4 x per year on Thursdays during the Ember seasons (solstices & equinoxes);

•      benandanti = wore white + white silk banner with gold lion; witches black & red in service of Devil;

•      benandanti ate garlic & carried bundles of fennel as protection against witches; witches & warlocks armed with stalks of (broom) sorghum;

•      witches = against fertility, harmed crops & children;

•      ointments, narcotics, hallucinogens; epilepsy, catalepsy, hysteria;

•      myths of nocturnal gatherings to do battle ± witches would dance & leap about;

•      older fertility rites:

      ritual contests between Winter & Summer/Spring

      symbolized winter in effigy as Death/Witch and symbolically beat her & expelled her from the town;

•      outcome of these battles = uncertain

      As time passed, the benandanti began to adapt their stories to the expectations of the Inquisitors and eventually confessed to being diabolical witches themselves.

Livonian Werewolves & Other Areas of Europe: 

      Similar rituals reported in Lithuania in 1692 at a trial of the Livonian werewolf Thiess. Cf. Germany, Russia.

•      born with caul;

•      night battles in God’s service (God’s Hounds) with the witches who were armed with brooms;

•      fought to preserve fertility of crops.

Map Showing Distribution in Europe:

In-Class Writing Assignment:

How are witches portrayed in the Scandinavian Folk Tales? Can you think of any folk beliefs that you learned that may be similar?

Witches in Scandinavian Folktales:

Folktales:  local Scandinavian legends and tales involving the supernatural = kept alive through an oral tradition of storytelling + passed from generation to generation.  These tales collected in 19th & 20th century (sources listed below each tale).

Witches in Folktales:

Recorded in 19th century, so we see influence of Christianity and more of the stereotypes of the modern witch.  Similar views in many rural European societies.

•      image of the respected prophetess —> ugly old woman, old hag = mischevious, malefic neighborhood witch (shape-changing, night-flying, hag-riding, witches’ sabbaths) —> but witch can be recognized & outwitted by normal men;

•      witchcraft = offers explanation for disease, trouble with livestock, crop failure, bad weather, poverty, personal misfortune;

•      witchcraft = offers outlet for anger:  if misfortune comes from a witch —> it can be treated by counter-charms (good magic) + the witch can be punished;