Adam Gish
Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
11/6/05
Wolfgang Behringer. Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of
the Night. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998.
Elite culture and popular culture have always been two vastly different entities,
and when they clash, it is the elites who invariably come out on top. As Behringer shows
in his book, popular culture all over Europe had similar ideas of phantoms and other
night-folk, from the German Alps to the far reaches of Scandinavia. On the other hand,
these ideas were adopted and discriminately changed by the elite culture, serving to mix
up the folklore, an abuse which cost the lives of thousands of peasants.
Although much of his evidence stems from old court records, Behringer's
storytelling ability rivals that of many historical authors. He starts off his book with the
background of 16th century Germany, including everything from the geography to the
time of year, and then introducing a horsewrangler by the name of Chonrad Stoeckhlin.
This character is revealed to the reader as a good and honest man who made a deal with
his friend that, whichever of them should die first, they would then come back to visit the
other and relate what it was like to be dead. However, when Chonrad's friend indeed died
a week later and returned to him, their deal proved to go well beyond its original
intention. The horsewrangler would fall into periodic raptures, during which time he
claimed to have met the Nachtshar, or the Phantoms of the Night. The Catholic church
eventually found out about this and, with their vast authority at the time, stepped in to do
investigate. Chonrad was tortured and forced to profess that his night phantoms were
actually demons, rather than peaceful spirits, and that he willingly participated in "the
witches' dance, where they had danced, feasted, and copulated" (p. 103). Shortly
afterward, Chonrad Stoeckhlin was burned at the stake.
To certain people at the time, night phantoms were viewed as good spirits or
angels; but to others the night phantoms were malicious "demon-lovers" (p. 103) who
enticed men and women to renounce the teachings of the Catholic – or Protestant –
church. According to Behringer, popular culture viewed the phantoms of the night as
having their own categories. There were nice, festive spirits who helped people and
taught them things, and then there were malicious spirits called Wuotas, who "did not
bring any good," but rather "caused frightful damage" (p. 72). Such legends helped
reaffirm social norms in that people thought they had to be nice or else fall victim to
these bad spirits; if people were good, then they might meet a helpful spirit who would
reward them somehow. Such notions also interplayed with elite Catholic stories, so that
the popular culture might have been confused on what to believe. "Irish saints were said
to be able to fly" (p.44), a belief that competed with the ability of flight utilized by so
many druids and witches. Behringer explains how groups of clergymen – inquisitors
especially – would ignore certain evidence and favor other evidence in order to fit
everything together according to their own notions of the truth. The elites framed these
spirits and possessions as demonic, even though the origins of such legends were far from
it. Behringer looks at plenty of sources, most of which stem from ancient Celtic folklore
which, throughout the years, had been spread all across Europe.
After the reader has been armed with a knowledge of this background, Behringer
then moves to show how the elite culture imposed its own beliefs upon the popular
culture. Neither the inquisitors or the townsfolk were satisfied with the burning of only
one witch – they wanted to start a whole witch hunt that would exterminate nearly
everyone in Chonrad's family. During the horsewrangler's trial, the inquisitors discovered
that it was Chonrad's deceased mother who started the spread of magic in the area. But
that was not all. "Nine more men and women had been implicated" (p. 107) before
Chonrad had been executed. After the whole affair had ended in 1588, twenty-five people
had been put to death, all of which had been women – with the exception of Chonrad
himself.
Behringer spent much time in Europe collecting all of these sources in order to
break them up and analyze their most basic characteristics. His book is important to the
history of witchcraft because it shows how certain elites could impose upon the beliefs of
popular culture in the 16th century, and rally up such a fright among the populace of an
area as to instigate a massive witch hunt. The book flows well, almost like a novel,
catching the reader's interest from page one: "One evening, eight days before Shrovetide,
Chonrad Stoeckhlin and Jacob Walsch were sitting together." That Behringer is the
author of many other books becomes clear in his writing, for his method is as informative
as it is enjoyable.
