Fox witch

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The fox witch is a legendary figure who is mainly known from the legendary world of the Alps , but also from other German-speaking regions. The main difference to the Far Eastern fox fairy is that in the European legends a human woman turns into a fox, whereas in Japan, China and Korea a fox spirit takes on the form of a woman in order to achieve redemption.

transformation

The fox witch is primarily a witch who transforms into the shape of a fox. Most of the time, the intention is to do evil. In the shape of a fox, she often fools the hunter, but if he injures the supposed animal with his weapon, the witch is sometimes identified by the fact that the woman shows an injury on the same part of the body as the fox.

A second category of "fox witch" is a woman who has been transformed from a witch into a vixen. It is usually redeemed by a hiker or hunter finding a tethered animal and freeing it. Later he meets a woman who reveals herself as the transformed one and expresses her gratitude to him. This gratitude usually consists of a reward or a gift, but sometimes a marriage occurs.

Examples

The fox witches are only very rarely mentioned by their name, which indicates a strong taboo. In the Swiss legend “The Fox Witch and the Kummetbach”, two boys observed a fox creeping up through the Kummettal in the direction of Regliberg to turn out to be Katharina Wyrsch on the Sewli, who had long been suspected of witchcraft. Soon afterwards, a thunderstorm swelled the Kummetbach and threatened all of Attinghausen. Christiana Morhauptin, a witch from the 17th century, could also be called a “fox witch”. She is said to have forced the mayor of Bamberg, Johannes Junius, into a love affair and participation in witches' sabbaths, whereby he had to call her “vixen”.

From German literature, through the story Thrin Wulfen by Ernst Moritz Arndt (1769–1860), a fox witch is known who transforms into a vixen in front of a pastor. Tamamo no Mae is known from Japan and is sometimes referred to as the "fox witch", which she is not in the sense defined here, but only suggests her magical abilities in connection with the fact that she was a fox fairy .

swell

  • Friedrich Baader: Legends of the Neckarthals, the Bergstrasse and the Odenwald from the mouths of the people and the poets. Mannheim 1843 digitized
    • Witch as a fox, p. 132
  • Karl Bartsch: Legends, fairy tales and customs from Meklenburg. Vienna 1879/80 digitized
    • The Fuchsberg near Dodow, Vol. 1, pp. 146-147
    • [Hexen], Vol. 2, p. 23
  • Richard Beitl: In the forest of legends. New legends from Vorarlberg. 1953
    • Die Drei Jungfern, pp. 68–69
    • Consecrated in the Powder, pp. 206–207
  • Hulda Eggart, KA Reiser: Legends, customs and proverbs of the Allgäu. Kempten / Munich 1914
    • Hexe als Fuchs, Vol. 1, pp. 258-259
  • Christian Falkner: Legends and stories from the Ötztal Alps. (Ötztal Archive), Innsbruck 1997
    • A witch as a fox
  • Nikolaus Gredt: Legends of the Luxembourg country. Esch-Alzette 1963
  • Josef Haltrich: German folk tales from the Sachsenland in Transylvania. Vienna 1882
    • The two girls and the witch
  • Dietrich Jecklin, Kaspar Decurtins: Popular things from Graubünden. Zurich 1874 digitized
    • The aunt as a witch, p. 56
    • The hunter in distress, p. 57
    • The Bewitched Lady, p. 57
    • The Punished Witch, p. 66
    • The witch in Scheid, p. 148
    • The fox of Fulun, pp. 165–167
    • The strange foxes, pp. 270–272
    • The "God" as a witch, p. 277
    • The fox hunt, p. 277
  • Adalbert Kuhn: Legends, customs and fairy tales from Westphalia. Vol. 1, Leipzig 1859 digitized
    • The devil's stone in dog sauces, pp. 191–192
  • Jakob Kuoni: Legends of the Canton of St. Gallen. St. Gallen 1903
    • The tethered fox, pp. 119–120
    • The witch's dance on the Gafarrabühl, p. 149ff.
  • Karl Müllenhoff, Otto Mensing: Legends, fairy tales and songs of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg. Kiel 1845 digitized
    • Witch as a fox, pp. 246–247
  • Josef Müller: Legends from Uri. Vol. 1, Basel 1926
    • The wounded fox witch, p. 156
    • The Fox Witch and the Kummetbach, p. 157
    • The little fox in Glattalp, pp. 158–159
    • Little Fox and Landlady's Daughter, p. 159
    • The spared little fox, p. 160
    • The fox woman in Gurtnellen, p. 161
    • Girl as a fox, p. 161
    • The End of the Fox Witch, Vol. 3, p. 252

literature

  • Klaus Mailahn: The fox in belief and myth . Lit-Verlag, Münster et al. 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9483-5 , pp. 372-380 ( Religionswissenschaft 11).
  • Klaus Mailahn: Goddess, Fox and Easter . Lit-Verlag, Münster et al. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-0663-7 , pp. 78-81 ( Religious Studies 14).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Müller, Sagen aus Uri, 1, 1926, p. 158
  2. ↑ http://history.hanover.edu/texts/bamberg.html
  3. ↑ Ernst Moritz Arndt : Thrin Wulfen in the Gutenberg-DE project ( archive version )