Footnote 418: [(return)]
J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,,4 i. 517 sq.
Footnote 419: [(return)]
From information supplied by Mr. Sigurd K. Heiberg, engineer, of Bergen, Norway, who in his boyhood regularly collected fuel for the fires. I have to thank Miss Anderson, of Barskimming, Mauchline, Ayrshire, for kindly procuring the information for me from Mr. Heiberg.
The Blocksberg, where German as well as Norwegian witches gather for their great Sabbaths on the Eve of May Day (Walpurgis Night) and Midsummer Eve, is commonly identified with the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz mountains. But in Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and probably elsewhere, villages have their own local Blocksberg, which is generally a hill or open place in the neighbourhood; a number of places in Pomerania go by the name of the Blocksberg. See J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 ii. 878 sq.; Ulrich Jahn, Hexenwesen und Zauberei in Pommern (Breslau, 1886), pp. 4 sq.; id., Volkssagen aus Pommern und Rügen (Stettin, 1886), p. 329.
Footnote 420: [(return)]
L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden (London, 1870), pp. 259, 265.
Footnote 421: [(return)]
L. Lloyd, op. cit. pp. 261 sq. These springs are called "sacrificial fonts" (Offer källor) and are "so named because in heathen times the limbs of the slaughtered victim, whether man or beast, were here washed prior to immolation" (L. Lloyd, op. cit. p. 261).
Footnote 422: [(return)]
E. Hoffmann-Krayer, Feste und Bräuche des Schweizervolkes (Zurich, 1913), p. 164.
Footnote 423: [(return)]
Ignaz V. Zingerle, Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes,2 (Innsbruck, 1871), ii. p. 159, § 1354.
Footnote 424: [(return)]
I.V. Zingerle, op. cit. p. 159, §§ 1353, 1355, 1356; W. Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus, p. 513.
Footnote 425: [(return)]
W. Mannhardt, l.c.
Footnote 426: [(return)]
F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1855), i. p. 210, § 231.
Footnote 427: [(return)]
Theodor Vernaleken, Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich (Vienna, 1859), pp. 307 sq.