Walling
Walling refers to the permanent enclosure of living people or animals behind a newly built wall . It is a special case of being buried alive. It is a motif that is used in a variety of legends and stories. The motive of the walling in these stories is either the idea of a building sacrifice or the motive of the walling up as punishment. The term walling is also used in connection with inclusion , i.e. walling for reasons of asceticism .
Use in sagas and stories
Walling up is a common literary topos . For example, Antigone threatens to be walled in. In the opera Aida , the general Radames is walled up alive as a traitor. His supposedly saved lover Aida, however, has hidden in the burial chamber and dies with him voluntarily.
There are legends about walling in a variety of places and buildings, e. B. Měšice Castle in South Bohemia .
In modern times, for example, the walling appears in Edgar Allan Poe's story Das Fass Amontillado .
Walling up as a building sacrifice
Walling in as a building sacrifice was a common custom or punishment among many peoples in antiquity . People or animals were buried alive under new buildings.
According to the belief of the time, this was intended to prevent the building from collapsing and prevent damage. Today this custom is still preserved as a cornerstone at the topping-out ceremonies for new larger buildings. The Germanic sagas in particular have many examples of walling in. Bone remains of humans and animals that have been found under the foundation wall or under bridge piers bear witness to the generality of the custom.
distribution
The custom is found among the Greeks , Romans , the Celts , the Slavs , the Germanic peoples , but also in India and Southeast Asia , Japan , China and Australia . In particular, children were used. Sometimes only the head was walled in instead of the body, which explains the name of the Capitol ( caput toli ) in Rome . From Italian Mafia organizations are walls z. B. became known in bridge piers as a terrorist instrument and act of revenge.
Animal enclosures
While people or parts of their bodies were walled in to prevent them from collapsing, animals were used to keep diseases away from the walls surrounding the building. In this case, too, the head can be used for the whole animal. Almost all animal species are mentioned in the legends of the walls of animals, especially dogs, roosters and horses. When this custom was ended, bones and stone figures took the place of living beings.
Related customs
In addition to the foundation stones mentioned, the animal heads attached to the houses in many areas are symbolic remains of the walling.
Walling up as punishment
The walling up in a narrow prison also appears as a punishment in the medieval inquisition judgments. However, this does not have to mean walling in in the sense of being buried alive, but means sentencing to a ( life ) prison sentence .
literature
- Paul Sartori: About the sacrifice . Berlin 1898.
Individual evidence
- ^ Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer, Hanns Baechtold-Staeubli (ed.): Concise dictionary of German superstition . Vol. 2, 1930, pp. 712-713, online
- ↑ E [rnst] Götzinger: Reallexicon the German antiquities. Woldemar Urban, Leipzig 1885, pp. 455-457 (sv Inquisition ), online
- ^ Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer, Hanns Baechtold-Staeubli (ed.): Concise dictionary of German superstition. Vol. 6, 1935, p. 1116, online