Wolfssegen

In Bavarian folklore of the Early Modern period, a ''Wolfssegen'' (; also ''Wolfsegen, Wolf-Segen'') was an apotropaic charm against wolves; conversely, a ''Wolfbann'' (''Wolf-Bann'') was a malevolent spell causing a wolf attack.

The ''Wolfssegen'' is just one specific example of various distinct kinds of '' Segen'' ("blessing; charm, incantation") in the folklore of German-speaking Europe.

While early examples of ''Wolfssegen'' survive from the Late Middle Ages, use of these charms seems to have peaked during the 17th century, when they were offered by professional "wolf charmers" (''Wolfssegner'' or ''Wolfbanner''). This corresponds to the cold period known as the Little Ice Age, for which there is ample historical evidence of wolf populations in much of the Bavarian Alps. There is no extant text of a ''Wolfbann'', the malevolent opposite of the ''Wolfsegen''; however, there is the text of a spell ''reversing'' a ''Wolfbann'' recorded in 1635 (in effect again a ''Wolfsegen'', but against a specific wolf earlier conjured by a ''Wolfbann'')

The ''Wolfssegner'', or more generally ''Segner'', were mostly destitute elderly men who made a living by selling charms or incantations. They were mostly tolerated in the 16th century, but from the 1590s they began to be persecuted as witches. During the early 1600s, a number of ''Wolfssegner'' were tried and executed as werewolves. Apparently, the ''Wolfssegner'' often used fraudulent scams in order to convince the peasants of their magical power.

These trials persisted into the 1650s (albeit without the werewolf accusation). A typical example is the trial of one Thomas Heiser, aged 84. According to the protocol, Heiser underwent the first stage of torture before confessing to know how to perform the ''Wolf-Segen'', which he had learned from a friend some fifty years earlier, in Innsbruck, and had made his living by performing it for the peasantry. He claimed to be able to call the wolves to attack a specific head of cattle, and to have done this a total number of ten times over a period of 40 years. He confessed that he had to promise his soul to the devil in order to learn the charm.

In Vienna, there was also a custom known in which the text of the '' Liber generationis Jesu Christi'' (Matthew 1, viz. the beginning of the gospel) was known as ''Wolfssegen'', chanted in a particular way after mass on Christmas night. This was supposed to commemorate the banning of wolves by singing the gospel in former centuries, before the city was fortified.

In popular culture

The novel ''Empire of Wild'' (2019; Penguin Random House Canada) by Cherie Dimaline features a ''Wolfssegner''.

See also

*Wolf hunt
*Wolfsangel
*Werewolf witch trials

References and sources

;References

;Sources
*Wolfgang Franz von Kobell, "Jagdhistorisches über Raubwild" in Bischoff (ed.) ''Wissenschaftliche Vorträge gehalten zu München im Winter 1858'', 1858
204f.
!--https://archive.org/stream/correspondenzbla161862zool#page/90/mode/2up-->
*Fritz Byloff, Siegfried Kramer (eds.), ''Volkskundliches aus Strafprozessen der Österreichischen Alpenländer mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Zauberei- und Hexenprozesse von 1455 bis 1850'', item

(1929).
*Johann Andreas Schmeller, ''Bayerisches Wörterbuch'' s.v.
Wolf
(1837).
*"Wolfssegen" in Meyer (ed.), ''Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Waage - Zypresse, Nachträge'', 1974
800f.

{{Superstitions

Superstitions of Europe
Werewolves
Austrian folklore
Bavarian folklore