Male and female witch aggression in 19th century Sagen of Northen Germany

Abstract

The article focuses on the malicious functions of male and female witches in the North German legends of the 19^th century. The research is based on the “Die Volkssagen von Pommern und Rügen” compiled by J.D.H. Temme (1840), the first volume of the “Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg” by K. Bartsch (1879), “Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Pommern, der Mark, Sachsen, Thüringen, Braunschweig” by A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz (1848) and some other folklore collections.

The author highlights possible perceived motivations, i.e. reasons for the aggression of male and female witches towards other people. It is noticed that some functions and motivations that are frequently attributed to the female witches – for example, bewitching a cow in the first case, the desire to enrich themselves and the desire for revenge in the second case – can be attributed to the male characters. Nevertheless, the behavior of female characters can often be described as less demonstrative than the behavior of male characters. It can be assumed, that this state of affairs is related to women’s desire to protect their reputation as good members of society.