Sorginak

Sorginak ( root form: ''sorgin'', absolutive case (singular): ''sorgina'') are the assistants of the goddess Mari in Basque mythology. It is also the Basque name for witches, priests and priestesses, making it difficult to distinguish between the mythological and real ones.

Sometimes ''sorginak'' are confused with lamiak (similar to nymphs). Along with them, and specially with Jentilak, ''sorginak'' are said often to have built the local megaliths.

''Sorginak'' used to participate in Akelarre. These mysteries happened on Friday nights, when Mari and Sugaar are said to meet in the locally sacred cave to engender storms.

Etymology

The etymology of the name is disputed. The common suffix ''-gin'' (''actor'', from ''egin'': ''to do'') is the only agreement.

One theory claims that ''sor'' derives from ''sorte'' (''fortune''), and hence it would be rendered as fortune-teller. Another states that ''sor'' is the radical of ''sor(tu)'' (''to create''), and hence sorgin means literally: ''creator''.

Most common references to sorginak

''Sorginak'' are often said to recite the following spell to travel to and back from the ''akelarre'': ''Under the clouds and over the brambles'', or variants of it. In many legends a failed witch (normally a man) says the spell inverted (''Under the brambles and over the clouds'') and arrives to the akelarre quite bruised.

''Sorginak'' also chant the following:

Other variants of this song are also known.

''Sorginak'' often are said to transform themselves into animals, most commonly cats. These cats are sometimes said to bother pious women that do not wish to go the akelarre. It has also been recorded that they collected monetary fines from the people that did not wish to go to their ecstatic gatherings or those witches that absented themselves from them.

Inquisitorial documents describe horrific practices of witches, like eating children or poisonings. But popular legends do not speak of these practices, instead mentioning kissing "the devil's arse" or an animal's genitals, occasional poisoning of crops, bothering modest women (in the shape of cats or other animals) and anointing their bodies with flying ointment (containing entheogenic, Solanaceous plants) to "fly" to and from the akelarre and perform other supposed feats.

Major persecutions against Basque witches

While in the late Middle Ages there are a handful of references to witchery, they are mostly fines for accusing someone of being one.

This changes in the 16th and 17th centuries with the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition and the pan-European witch panic that afflicted the Early Modern Age. Since being conquered by Castile in 1512–21, Navarre (and to a lesser extent areas of the Basque Country) suffered numerous inquisitorial processes, mainly against Jews and Muslims, but occasionally also against Basque ''sorginak''. Particularly important was the 1610 process of Logroño that focused on the akelarre of Zugarramurdi. The previous year, in 1609, French judge Pierre de Lancre had initiated a massive process in Labourd, focusing mainly on Basque women and priests. He was eventually displaced but not without causing many deaths and much suffering. The witch panic extended beyond the frontier and accusations of witchcraft proliferated among the local population until the Spanish Inquisition intervened. The Logroño process ended with 12 women burnt at the stake (five of them symbolically, as they had died under the tortures inflicted in the process) and shattered Pyrennean Navarre and led also to a serious reconsideration of the Inquisition's attitude towards accusations of witchcraft. The Spanish and Italian Inquisition generally approached accusations of sorcery and witchcraft with skepticism and similar processes were rare in comparison to other European countries where no such centralised institution existed.

Places associated with sorginak

Throughout the Basque Country there are many places associated with sorginak, often also associated with Mari or other mythological characters. This is an incomplete list of the most famous ones:

Álava

*Aramaio: the places of Abadelaueta, Anbotondo and Amezola, as well as an undetermined field at the Gorbea mountain are said to have been places of ''akelarres''.
* Maeztu: a woman from this village, Margarita Jauri, was one of the "witches" tried by the Inquisition in the case of the Zugarramurdi covenant. Though finally acquitted, she was so traumatised by the detention and torture that she committed suicide soon after her release.
* Urizaharra: the field of Urkiza or Urkizo seems to have been the site of the local ''akelarre''.

Biscay

*Anboto peak is the well established principal home of Mari, also known as ''Anbotoko Sorgina'' (Witch of Anboto) and ''Anbotoko Damie'' (Lady of Anboto). Her home was said to be specifically in an unreachable cave known as Sorginkoba (witch's cave).
* Dima: the farmhouse of Petralanda was the main site of the ''akelarre'' of Arratia Valley in the 16th century, according to inquisitional records.
*Durango was the center of a medieval Beguine heresy that ended with 13 people burnt at the stake. Later, in the 16th and 17th centuries other inquisitional trials were held in this town.
*Mañaria: the cave of Azkondo was the witches' meeting place, according to local legend. José Miguel Barandiaran also mentions that the cliffs between the field of Akelarre and the cave of Silibranka (a paleolithic site) were the playfield of demons.
*Murueta: the place of Etxebartxuko-landa, according to local legend.
*Muxika: several places attributed as akelarre-sites are called generically ''eperlanda'' (partridges' field).
*Orozko: local legend points to Garaigorta mountain as site of the local ''akelarre'' Also the cave of Supelegor, in the karstic area of Itxina, is associated with witches and especially ''lamiak'', and it is even considered one of the mansions of Mari herself.
*Zalla: it is called "town of sorcerers"
*Zeberio: the local witches went to the akelarre of Petralanda (in Dima) but also met locally at Hereinoza household.

Gipuzkoa

* Andoain: an old bridge is said to have been built by witches.
* Ataun: the sites of Txabaltxo (near a creek), Iraubeltz (a wood), Mendabiita (a bridge), Zelaun (a plain), a creek near the Artzate farmhouse, the spring of Negarregi and the place of Dantzaleku are all said to have frequented by ''sorginak''. Additionally several local sites bear their name: Sorginiturri (witches' spring), Sorginpelota (witches' ball game), Sorginzulo and Sorgizuloeta (witches' niche and niches respectively).
*Azkoitia: the farmhouse of Kimutxo.
*Bergara: Itxu mountain was the local site of ''akelarres''.
*Errenteria: a woman from this village (now an industrial town), María Zozoaia, was one of the main accused in the process of Zugarramurdi. According to inquisitional records, they gathered in the field of Matxarena, that they called ''Atsegin Soro'' (pleasure orchard).
* Hernani: the cave of Sorgintxulo, as recorded by Barandiaran.
*Hondarribia: a local (but none-the-less brutal) series of inquisitorial trials in 1530 ''discovered'' that witches met at Jaizkibel mountain, near the hermitage of St. Barbara. Other sites that the accused declared to be their meeting places were: near the hermitage of St. Philip and St. James, or near the hermitage and castle of St. Telmo. Local popular legend instead says that the ''akelarres'' happened near one of the local bridges: either Mendelo, Puntal or Santa Engracia, during the feast of St. Agatha.
* Lezo: Inquisitor Ugarte was supposedly poisoned by the local witches in this village in 1531.
* Lizartza: near a fence at Aini mountain.
*Mendaro: the house of Silerokua or Silerene once was inhabited by a witch that, typically, transformed herself as cat to bother more chaste women, legend says.
* Oiartzun: witches met near the cliffs of Irantzi and Puilegi, according to legend.
*Oñati: the cave of Gaiztozulo (evil hole) is said to be one of the main homes of Mari and her court of ''sorginak''.
*Pasaia: local woman Mari Zuloko was imprisoned in St. Sebastian, accused of witchery. Later she was stoned and expelled from her hometown, settling in Donibane-Lohitzune.
* Tolosa: it is said that witches used to wash clothes near Ugartebide. They also met in Edar Iturri and Sorginerreka.
*Zegama here goddess Mari, also often considered a witch, is known as Aketigiko Sorgina (witch of Aketegi mountain). It is also believed that she lives in Sorginzulo cave.

Labourd

Lapurdi was particularly shaken by the large-scale trials of 1609 led by Pierre de Lancre, who was convinced that most people in the country were witches.
*Arcangues: the people of this village had the fame of all being witches.
*Ascain: in the 1609 trials, the priest of this village was burnt at the stake as a witch.
*Saint-Jean-de-Luz: Alakoandia field and the bridges that are between this village and Ciboure.
*Hendaye: the local beach was the favorite site for the ''akelarre'', specifically in a site then known as Lakua (the lake). In the 1609 trials it was declared by one of the accused that there was as many people in the local akelarre ''as stars are in the sky''.
*Lahonce