Galster
With Galsterei or Galster a certain type of nowadays sorcery called. The term is often found in compositions such as galster woman as a name for a witch or a magical, that is, galster-knowledgeable woman. Pre-Christian magic acts are part of the Germanic religion .
Originally, Galster ( Old High German: galstar , Old Norse: galdr , Old English: gealdor ) means something like magic song or magic discussion from common Germanic * galdra magic song, song. To conjure up with a spell, to discuss is in Old High German bigalan . The essential background of the prefix germ. * -Gal is the bird song, which means that the Teutons originally derived magic spells or song from the bird calls, as for example the generic name of "Nacht-i-gal (l)" in today's standard German still shows .
A galster is uttered aloud, as suggested by the phrase “Galster yell”. Galster sayings are written in the Old Norse context in a meter specially designed for Galster, the Galdralag . Typical in Old English and Old German magic spells is singing about or conjuring up, galsters, in relation to the healing of diseases. The form that has been handed down in literary terms shows the Germanic alliance and the reference to Germanic mythology. Examples of this are the second Merseburg magic spell and the old English nine-herb blessing , in which Wodan / Odin appears as a healer or magician. In Norse mythology, in the Liederedda , the galster is also ascribed to Odin. B. in the Vegtamskviða ( Baldrs draumar ) is also called galdrs fǫður , father of the galster .
literature
- Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli (ed.): Concise dictionary of German superstition . Ten volumes. De Gruyter, Berlin / Leipzig 2000, ISBN 3-11-016860-X .
See also
Remarks
- ↑ Hans-Peter Hasenfatz: The religious world of the Germanic peoples . Herder, Freiburg 2001, ISBN 3-451-04145-6 .