Yes, A new project is started …

While several of my research-and-writing projects are in different stages of progress, a new project is added.

Too often I have heard statements about the Christianization of ‘the’ Germanic people which showed up to be assumptions and guesses, some were even easy-provable wrong; nevertheless  they’re presented as facts. As that recently happened again, it was for me the straw that breaks the camel’s back. So I decided to this new project with the  temporary title:

“Christianization of Germanic peoples – who, when, where, why, how and its tempo”.

This is just a work title which mainly has to remember me the several topics included.

Geographically, the focus will lie on the areas Central- Western- and Northern Europe, including the United Kingdom and Iceland.

I am aware that quite some information exist about the Christianization in Europe, most of it is scientific literature. My aim is to present such a work in my usual rather easy reading and conversational language to all interested people – so the target audience are not just scholars – the main target audience however is the pagan community.

The first stage, the gathering of literature has already started. Because the project will take several years, I prefer getting (buying) the related literature (books, articles, etc.) in stead of loaning it for very limited time from a library. That means, I periodically need time to save money before buying a book.

Any tips, suggestions, or other help is welcome.

While this praject has started, several other ones are still going on, some are nearing their finish;

•   the revised 2nd edition of the German “Der Nerthus-Anspruch” is ready and will be published within a few weeks.

•   The English translation of my “Wild Hunt and Furious host” is done, the proofread phase is over, the layout is ready. In the first week of June, one print-copy will be ordered at the Print-on-Demand company to do a final proofread, checking for missed typos etc. Most likely the book will become available in July.

•   The English translation of my German “Germanischer Götterglaube”, English work title: “Asatru: Walk in the Light of the Gods” is going on. The finishing of the first translated draft is targeted around the end of this year. Proofread-volunteers are welcome.

•   The project “Charlemagne, Saxons, Widukind – the myth of popular knowledge” is progressing. Much literature is gathered, partially also read, more is coming this summer and autumn.

•   The Loreley project is still in the first research phase – collecting literature and illustrations.

•   The Chatti-Batavi project is in the same stage as the Loreley project, will need at least another two years before the next stage, sifting the literature, can start..

So far this information……
Any questions, suggestions, proposals?

Dedicatory inscription, found at the town Gleuel, near Cologne in Germany.

The inscription in the stone reads:
Ahueccanis / Avehae et Hellivesae / Sexti Val(erius) Peregrin(us) / et Val(erius) Felicio fratres / ex reditu ipsarum / l(ibentes) p(osuerunt) / Muciano et Fabiano co(n)s(ulibus)

Which means:
The brothers Sextus Valerius Peregrinus And Felix dedicate this altar to the ‘ahueccanic’ goddesses Aveha and Hellivesa, payed with the earnings from the temple.

Hellivesa is likely a Germanic goddess who was venerated in the region directly west of Cologne.The related literature offers two possible explanations for her name and meaning:

1. Her name points to the small river Elle, nowadays called Ellebach  which streams in the aforementioned region and flows into another small river, the Rur. In this explanation, this goddess is seen as a local river goddess of that Ellebach river.
2. In the second explanation the first word of the inscription ‘Ahuecanis‘ is drawn into the case:
   The first part of that term is assumed of being related with Germanic ‘*ahwō-‘  and Old High German ‘aha‘ which both mean ‘water’.
   The second part ‘-canis’ is brought in relation with later Germanic ‘*galan‘ singing spells (incantations), *seiþan and *sīþan meaning performing magic and Indo-european *wigulōn, *wihulōn, meaning to prophesy and to cast spells, to perform magic.

Hence, the term ‘ahuecanis’ would point to the two goddesses Aveha and Hellivesa who are either divine seeresses using water for their magical practice or water goddesses who are seeresses, sooth-sayers or prophetesses.

The English edition of my upcoming book “Wild Hunt and Furious Host – a prowl” is in the layout phase now after the proofreading is done.
It will likely be published in early summer 2013.

The contents:

Getting in the mood: Marije’s displeasure
A few preceding words
Introductory thoughts and reflections

Part 1: Classical antiquity
– 5th Century BCE: Greece – Marathon
– 1st Century BCE: Greece – Actaeon’s death
– 1st Century: The Harii

Part 2: Migration Period and Early Middle Ages
– 5th Century: The Frankish Empire – Battle of the Huns
– 8th Century: Italy – A Flying Host
– 10th Century: Scandinavia – Hjaðningavíg, the eternal Battle
– 11th Century: England – Edric the Wild
– 11th Century: North-Germany – Woden—that is, the Furious
– 11th Century: France – Mesnie Hellequin
– 11th – 12th Century: Wales – Gwyn ap Nudd

Part 3: High Middle Ages
– 12th Century: Wales – Mallt-y-Nos
– 12th Century: England – Peterborough
– 12th Century: South-Germany – Ruolandes Liet (Song of Roland)
– 12th Century: England – King Herla
– 13th Century: Iceland – Odin in Viking mythology
– 13th Century: Central Germany – Moritz von Craûn
– 13th Century: Bavaria, Germany – Diu urstende
– 13th Century: Iceland – Brennu Njáls Saga
– 13th Century: Germany – “Das Väterbuch” (Fathers book)
– 13th Century: Wales – Battle in the sky
– 13th Century: Sweden – The Bagler Sagas
– 13th – 14th Century: Switzerland – Reinfrid of Brunswick
– 13th – 14th Century: Germany – Of two companions
– 14th Century: Germany – The Munich Night Blessing
– 14th Century: Austria – Prognostikon

Part 3: Late Middle Ages and early modern age
– 15th Century: Germany – von Brunswick: Henry the Lion
– 15th Century: Southwest-Germany – The ‘wittisch’ Host
– 15th – 19th Century: Sweden – The swamp of Gladvattnet and more
– 15th Century: Spain – The Santa Compaña
– 16th Century: France – The Great Hunter
– 16th Century: Franconia (Germany) – The Furious Host of the petty thieves
– 16th Century: Franconia (Germany) – Seckendorf
– 16th Century: Denmark – The Slattenpatte
– 16th Century: Norway – Lussinatta
– 16th Century: Switzerland – Renward Cysat
– 16th Century: Germany – Johannes Agricola
– 16th Century: North-Germany – Affgade Woden
– 16th – 17th  Century: England – Herne the Hunter
– 17th Century: Sweden – Loccenius and Scheffes
– 17th Century: Sweden-Finland – Odinsrider

Part 4: Age of Enlightenment and Romanticism
– 18th Century: Germany – Gottfried August Bürger
– 19th Century: Germany – The Furious Host at Mösskirch town
– 19th Century: Ireland – The Wild Hunt of the Sidhe
– 19th Century: Germany – Joseph Victor von Scheffel (1826-1886)
– 19th Century: Austria -Hungary – Johann Ladislav Pyrker
– 19th Century: Belgium and The Netherlands – Halewijn or the end of a Wild Hunter
– 19th Century: Norway – Draumkvedet (The Dream Lay)
– 19th Century: Norway – Guro Rysserova
– 19th Century: England – Lady Howard

Part 5: Contemporary aspects
– 20th Century: Otto Höfler – A critical note
– 20th Century: USA – Recent reports
– - Ghostriders in the Sky
– - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Part 6: Backgrounds and social-cultural environment
– Hunt and Host in the folk tales
– The age of the folk tales and real incidents
– Terms in folk tales: A spot check
– Religiousness in the Middle Ages

Part 7: Folk tales
– Upper Swabia (Germany) – The Wild army near Albers
– Lower Saxony (Germany) – Heuke the Wild Hunter
– Austria – The Huntsman
– Denmark – Wolmar at the white horse
– Westphalia (Germany) – The tailor from Munster
– The Netherlands – Little Hans with the hound
– Belgium – The Badlord (Slechteheer)
– Upper Hesse (Germany) – The Wild Hunter Nimrod
– Lower Franconia (Germany) – The Wild Host and the Ferryman
– Netherlands – A squint-eyed woman called Guurte
– Austria – The fallen horseshoes
– Hesse (Germany) and Alsace (France) – The Lime Smith
– Hesse (Germany) – The Knight of Rodenstein rides out
– Cornwall  (England) – The Black Hunter
– Swabia (Germany) – The Mutes Host at Wurmlingen
– Denmark – The Grönjette
– North Sea coast (Germany) – The Rider on the White Horse
– Pomerania (Germany) – The Rider on the White Horse at Pasewalk
– Czech Republic – The Wild Hunt at Christmas
– Mecklenburg (Germany) – How the Wod was fooled
– Scotland – The Unseelie Court
– Uckermark (Germany) – The minstrel and his hump
– Austria – The hatchet in the stalk
– Twente (Netherlands) – Dirk and his wild boar
– Germany – No spinning wheel may rotate
– Russia – The ghastly beast
– Germany – Wode and the creatures from the underground
– Norway – Turned into a log
– Switzerland – People of the Night
– Germany – The hunted woman
– England – The farmer at Dartmoor
– Germany – The  ‘wuotes’ Host at Saulgau
– Giant Mountains (Czech Republic and Poland) – The night Hunter hunts the rattle wives
– Orkney Islands – The Wild Hunt of the Trows

Part 8: Conclusive reflections
– An important clarification
– Open questions and explanatory comments
– Still material for artists

Last but not least …
– Marijes displeasure – continued
– Special Thanks!

Appendices
– Appendix 1: Epithets of Odin
– Appendix 2: Seckendorf
– Appendix 4: Zimmern Chronicle – Möskirch
– Appendix 5: Ovids Wild Hunt
– Appendix 6: The doom of Colyn Dolphyn
– Appendix 7: King Herla and the dwarven king
– Appendix 8: Peterborough
– Appendix 9: Hans Sachs – The Furious Host of the petty thieves (Das Wütend Heer der kleinen Dieb)
– Appendix 10: The tale of Herne the Hunter
– Appendix 11: Hymn to the Maruts

Used Sources
– Illustrations
– Bibliography
– Websites

Recently a good web friend asked me, how I became a Pagan. That question woke up a lot of rather scattered pieces of memory, all more or less dealing with that question.
Maybe while telling a few of them, they might give a picture that would answer the question.

First, my parents hardly told anything about religion at home, they didn’t go to church, so almost all religious ‘information’ I got was at school and at the boarding school I was for about twelve years.

At the primary school, I was a young boy below 10 years of age, there was told about the Bible and the God who is the central ‘character’ in that book. Because there was spoken about him as a ‘he’, I thought he must be male and asked the teacher after his wife and friends. Keeping some doubts I could accept the answer he didn’t need a wife but refused the idea he was all alone, without any other divine friends and family. I couldn’t image someone could live so very long without having a family or at least a few friends. I did have friends, even a girlfriend for a short time, sometimes we walked hand in hand. But walking with a girlfriend soon became boring, especially while at the same time seeing my boyfriends kicking against a ball, which was much more exiting at that time. In the course of time, that view changed.
Not having family, relatives and friends….. I couldn’t even pity that, because I simply couldn’t conceive such a concept.

Another fragment I remember must have happened a few years later. As my younger brother was attacked by a much bigger boy, bigger too than I was, my instinct awoke, I ran towards them and hit the attacker with a fist on his lips which started bleeding, I kicked against his knee and as he bow forward for pain I hit my head against his nose which also caused bleeding. After that I cooled down slowly. The director of the boarding school punished me… for three days I had to write 2500 times a long Latin proverb.
We boys did not fight very much, but enough to clarify our hierarchy. Repeatedly we were told, that we violated the message of peace of Jesus by that, however that didn’t really change our behavior. On my question in a lesson about the Crusaders fighting the Saracens, whether those battles would violate that same message of peace, the teacher answered….. I don’t know anymore his answer, but as I pointed to my fight a few days before and said, defending my brother was as good as fighting Saracens I got another Latin saying to copy a 1500 times for being recalcitrant and impertinent.
It consolidated my rebelling convincement something was wrong with the belief I was so often told about in school.

Several years later as I read about Donar (Thor) who fought a lot and Wodan (Odin) who carried a long and dangerous spear, I felt a lot of affinity. Warlike Gods seemed to me much more plausible fitting to mankind than one God without family and friends who preaches peace but sends out armies in battle.

Later again, in a history lesson it was told that the primitive Batavian barbarians, dressed in hides, came rafting down the river Rhine to my home-country the Netherlands. Together with some friends we started in the next days building a float which was soon discovered and declared forbidden, we weren’t primitive Batavians, the teacher said.
Seeking for more information, I searched and found out that what was described in that history book about the Batavians was wrong and also that the Batavians venerated Gods and Goddesses, among them Magusanus.
I must have been 17 or 18 at that time.

In the following years I cemented my reputation as a bookworm, reading very many books about history and mythology, both fiction and non-fiction. Although I liked those stories and narrations from all over the world, my favorites were those about Germanics and Celts.

Many years later I found in the city library of my hometown Groningen an old dissertation about a Germanic Goddess called Holle. That was it. I must have read that at least four or five times consecutively. I wasn’t only fascinated, but had a very strong feeling that I had found what I was looking for. That Goddess appeared in my dreams and daydreams, I thought a lot about here, wrote Holle poems, made drawings and felt sure having ‘contact’ with her.
That strong feeling never left me.
I ‘discovered’ many more Gods, both Celtic and Germanic, got an affinity with more of them, but not as strong as with Holle. I felt and still feel myself at home with so many Germanic Gods and Goddesses…. well, OK…. a few continental Celtic Gods are ‘familiar’ too.

Today I can smile about this all, and I know what teachers and ministers told and preached about aspects of Christianity and Christian morals is not always by definition covering Christian belief, but then, I feel fine being a Pagan, specifically an Asatru.

Feeling myself ‘at home’ with so many Germanic Gods and Goddesses, I completely accepts the existence of other deities, be it the Christian and Islamic God, or Hindu and Buddhist deities, and Gods and Goddesses from other natural religions. There are enough beings on Earth to honor and worship them all….
I wouldn’t be surprised if those divine beings know each other and have their own struggles and parties.
That is also why I respect other religions, denying however, there is only one true religion and all others would be wrong. It implies too that I do not have a problem honoring Gods not belonging to my pantheon if I’m in one of there sacred places. I simply do not see any reason of not being polite, if such a divine being didn’t want me there, he or she surely would have shown that.

Today it is very often told and written, gods are human personifications of ‘power’ or ‘powers’ and many see those forces as parts of one main ultimate, ‘almighty’ force. For those people this implies, that it principally doesn’t matter if such a power is called Woden, Lugh, Jupiter or whatever other god name is used.
I really don’t feel well hearing that viewpoint. To my conviction, each deity is an individual and personality of its own, and with own spheres of competence and responsibilities. True, I’m not upset and neither do I feel offended hearing that. In fact, I think, the gods may smile about such human shortcomings which are basically for an imperfect mankind. But if I contact or honor goddess Holle, I an convinced not to connect to some ‘universal power’ but are interacting with a unique divine personality.

And then a rather hot item…. Quite often I’m asked about a possible connection between our personal genetics and ‘predestined’ gods to venerate. This article as a blog contribution must stay incomplete, but leaving out this topic would be really a deficiency. So, this is what I recently rather quick and dirty wrote about it in a Facebook group, quoting myself:

“Until today, any research for genetic descent is done through the Y-Chromosome. That is 1/46 part of the total descent. The rest, 45/46 part is much more difficult to determine and is hardly done yet and can come from any person in ones genetic history from very ancient times until to your parents. There are companies which offer genetic ancestral research and they’re often advertizing with the so called Frisian Rb1 genetic structure which should point to your ancestry. First, this is a pattern in the Y-Chromosome, and second, that pattern is found in many European countries, also in southern ones among the Mediterranean people. Generally, genetic markers to determine specific linguistic or cultural defined peoples don’t exist – it cannot be determined whether someone has Germanic, Celtic or Slavic ancestors because those people were from a genetic point of view already mixed peoples, developed from several other peoples.
If, with the accent on that word, someone has ‘Germanic’ ancestry, it simply cannot determined whether that is dominant in a genetic sense, one can have quite some other genetic dominance.
That could lead to the point, that if you want to honor your genetic ancestry and you’re restricting that to Germanic ancestry, you deliberately leave out all your other possible genetic ancestors which could be even a majority.

… as you know of course, linguists define Germanics as a group of peoples through language from that second Germanic sound shift until its spreading in several follow-up languages.
Archaeologist define it through specific characteristics of found remnants they ascribe to Germanic peoples. Historians and philologists again use other marks. The periods in these different points of view differ but have a big overlap.But none of them uses genetic markers to define Germanics.
If one should restricts honoring ancestors to those ‘Germanics’, he or she ignores older
ancestors…. those who we today call Indo-Europeans (in Germany called: Indo-Germanics). See e.g. here, which big range our ancestors may have. And of course we all have also much ‘younger’ and even much older ancestors.

But what I mean to say is, that honoring the Gods and Goddesses we see as ‘Germanic’ does not subsequently mean our ancestors just were those who also honored those deities.”
End quote.

Another question from a Christian acquaintance, it happened quite some years ago, was the friendly invitation to try to convince him that his religion would be wrong and mine the right one. He was quite astonished at my reply that both our religions were right. That is true IMO, because I accept that both his God and my Gods exist, worshiping them only can be right for those who wholeheartedly choose to do that. It is the concomitant human behavior that is sometimes highly problematic, specifically the behavior towards those people who have a different religion. I myself wouldn’t think one moment to proselytize or evangelize – it would IMO offend the God(s) others worship and would show principally disrespect for the freedom and self-responsibility of those other humans. Such an attitude reminds me to medieval situations:
“you better do this and that and leave the thinking to me”, which was and still is denying a basic social piece of humanity.

Reading this all over again, you won’t find back the corresponding emotions and deep feelings I had and have about my religion and the closely related topics, I’m not able to express such things’ in clearer words.

The name of the goddess Vercana has been passed down to us through two inscriptions from Roman times, from approx. 100 – 300 CE.
The first inscription was found on a spring-bowl from Ernstweiler at Zweibrücken in Germany, somewhere between the cities Kaiserslautern and Saarbrücken) and reads:

In h(onorem) d(omus) d(ivinae) deae Vercanu / isd(em) co(n)s(ulibus) ips(?) Ant() Q() F() pos(uit?) aq(uaeductum?) / V Id(us) Mai(as)
Translated:
In honor of the Divine House and of the Goddess Vercana [ … ]
Deae Vercanu Source: http://db.edcs.eu/epigr/epi_ergebnis_en.php © CIL_XIII-Projekt Trier. Use permitted for scientific purposes only.

The second inscription was found on an altar stone found at Bad Bentrich (somewhere between the cities Koblenz and Trier), in Germany and reads:

De(a)e Vercan(a)e / et Medun(a)e / L(ucius) T() Acc(e)ptus / v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)
Translated:
To the goddesses Vercana and Meduna, Lucius T(…) Acceptus paid his vow willingly and deservedly

Meduna-Vercana votive stone.
This picture was provided by the Meduna Medical Center GmbH, Bad Bertrich, Web: http://www.meduna-klinik.de

There exist several suggestions concerning the sphere of competence of this goddess, all based on etymological presumptions of her name:

1. Because her name is mentioned on a bowl belonging to hot mineral wellsprings of Bad Bertrich, famous for their healing effects, it may indicate a deity related to those wellsprings. Because that are medicinal springs, it could concern a goddess of healing water.
2. The name is brought in relation with the Germanic word ‘*Werkanô’ (she who can work (effects, wonders). It doesn’t really explain what kind of things she could work, but healing is guessed.
   Alternatively a connection is assumed with Germanic ‘*Berkanô‘ and then it could concern a goddess of birch trees. Because those trees often were thought to have healing effects, it also could point to a healing goddess.
3. Another theory sees in her name the word ‘*verc-ano‘- which could come from an Indo-European root *uer-k- meaning to wind, to twist, Irish ferc, knob, handle and Welsh cywarch. In that etymological view Vercana could be understood as a water deity.
4. In a fourth view it is proposed that the name is derived from Indo-European ‘*uerg-‘ meaning to do, to act, to hasten, to press (an enemy), or to be puffed with rage, pride or anger, to torment, to push forward. Here Vercana would indicate that it concerns a goddess related to war and combat.
5. And in a last, rather far-fetched opinion, Vercana is compared with the Greek goddess Athena as a represent of Germanic artful work.

Although it is often stated that Vercana is a Germanic goddess, this is not sure. May the Germanic explanation among scholars be seen as the most probable one, there exist both Celtic and Germanic possible etymological derivations for her name.
Both facts that the inscriptions were found on previous Celtic territory and that Vercana is in one of the inscriptions mentioned together with the Gaulish goddess Meduna do not give acceptable indications for her origin; in that time inside the borders of the Roman Empire, tribe territories in those Northern regions had no big importance anymore;

• The city of Trier, where one of the finds was found was former territory of the tribe of the Treveri. Originally they may have been Celtic, but as they settled in the Trier region, they were most likely a mixed Celtic-Germanic people. Sources from Classical Antiquity point to that, e.g. a passage where the Treveri were said to be proud of their Germanic heritage.

• At places in the northern Roman provinces on the mainland where Romans lived in bigger concentrations, very often were also auxilary (supplementing troops of Celtic or Germanic origin or even both mixed) deployed. Because both inscriptions were found near to Roman centers, soldiers and civilians of many kinds of origins may have lived there.

• There were more votive stones found, dedicated to both a Celtic and a Germanic deity.

•  It looks like the people mentioned in the inscriptions were legal Roman citizens, carrying the usual three names. That points neither to Germanics nor to Celts, but in any case, for Romans it wasn’t unusual to honor local deities.

The possibility should not be excluded, that at the time those dedications were brought, the goddess Vercana, no matter her origin, had become a Gallo-Germanic goddess in daily religion there.

Free eBook – please Share it where you can.

“Helith: An Anglo-Saxon Pagan Deity”
by
Swain Wodening & GardenStone.
Available in several eBook formats at Smashwords HERE.

A German version can be downloaded at:
http://www.boudicca.de/Helith-de.pdf

A German folk tale, just translated, not yet proofread for spelling an grammar. It belongs to the upcoming book: "Wild Hunt and furious Host…

Human:
"Oh you Great Goddess Nerthus, I call upon you and invite you to come and join us in this ritual."

Nerthus:.. thinks… Oh well, a quick look won't bother me…… and she beams herself to the caller.

Human: "Oh you Great Goddess, I call you Nerthus, Isis, Diana and Cerridwyn. Be welcome at this sacred place."

Nerthus: "Whaaaat? Have you lost all your senses! You dare placing me on the same level with those two Roman bitches and that English wench from the forest?"

Human: "But…but… but aren't you Gods in fact all the same? A kind of energy?"

Nerthus: ..knocks her beautiful formed hand against her even more well shaped forehead…"I must have temporary forgotten how limited you humans often are. If you want energy, then call Electricia, but leave me alone."

Human: "Oh you Great Goddess Electricia …….".

Here's again a piece of my translation-in-progress of my German book "Wild Hunt and Furious Host".
Please note, that it is a from the first draft, not yet proofread, not even by myself. So it surely need quite some spelling and grammar corrections.

18th Century: Germany – Gottfried August Bürger

The poet Gottfried August Bürger (1747/48-1794), who is considered as belonging to the Sturm und Drang period of the Enlightenment, (Storm and Stress – a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music), by creating a dramatic poem tied in with the folk tales about a supernatural hunting party. However, to him the Wild Hunter is neither a God nor a famous historical figure, but a nobleman. The whole poem has 37 verses, in the first 28 of them a Count is described who brutally and without pity and commiseration leads a hunt. When he in his outrage even blasphemes against God, he is punished from 'above', as shown by the here cited last nine verses:

A free poetic translation by Sir Walter Scott can be found here:
http://www.litgothic.com/Texts/scott_wild_huntsmen.pdf
I didn't adopt Scott's version, because it is IMO a too free translation to compare it with the original.

A piece of the raw and totally uncorrected translation of my German book “The Wild Hunt and the Furious Host.
Translated by myself.

12th Century: Ekkehard of Aura (Uraugiensis)

Ekkehard of Aura was a Benedictine monk and abbot of Aura, a monastery in Bad Kissingen in the north of the German federal state of Bavaria. He became well known as a historian and chronicler and died in 1130. He updated and revised several times the existing Chronicle of the known world. His work has come down to us under the name “The Chronicle of Ekkehard of Aura”. Part of this chronicle was the promotion of a new crusade, presented in the typical style of the Middle Ages; magical signs and omens as well as supernatural events are described to underscore the ‘call of God’ for it. The relevant section of that Chronicle writes, translated from a modern German translation of the original Latin text:

It so happened that we saw around October the seventh a comet standing in the south, which strong glaring was stretched diagonally like a sword, in the third year after that we saw on February the 24th in the East another star, which, after standing a long time on the same place, changed his position in jumps; likewise we saw both in the West and the East rising up blood-red clouds that converged in the middle of the Heavens; furthermore each time at midnight upraised in the north a fiery Shininess, and we witnessed as well, together with numerous informants, to have seen repeatedly torches flying through the sky. A few years earlier a priest Swigger, a man of very commendable life, one day on the ninth hour saw two horsemen in the sky clashed together and fought each other for a long time and at the end one of them who was carrying a pretty big cross, with which he seemed to strike, won the fight.
A priest G., who now as a monk together with us offers to Christ a sheep in stead of the vowed firstborn foal of a donkey, went out one afternoon walking in the forest with two companions and saw there, how a remarkably long sword – no one knew from where it came – was carried away by a whirlwind, so far upwards into the sky until the eyes could not see it anymore. With his ears he perceived the clinking and with his eyes the metal itself.
Some reported that they saw, while warding the grazing horses, a town up in the sky and observed that several crowds riding and afoot were moving towards that town.
Some also stated that God had embossed the sign of the cross on their forehead, on clothes or on some other place on the body, and they believed that by this sign they were bound to the Army of the Lord.

The translation as raw text is planned to be completed around March 2013. Then the proofreading will start.