Der Butzemann

Among practitioners of Urglaawe and other Germanic paths of Northern Tradition, the time of year we are now approaching, the beginning of February, is the traditional time of creating and activating the Butzemann, a type of scarecrow, the practice of which was brought to America by German and Swiss settlers whose descendants are known as the Pennsylvania Deitsch. But rather than scaring crows, the Butzemann has the more important task of blessing and protecting the crops, making them grow large and fruitful and keeping away blights and other maladies.  The Butzemann serves as the corporeal shell for a spirit of the land which fulfills this task and to which offerings are made of flowers, food, or coffee. He has his counterparts in the Alraune which may be used to protect the home in Northern European systems of magic, and also to the Utu and similar dolls used in the African diasporic systems. Wikipedia cites a Burtzefraa as a female counterpart, set up opposite the Butzemann as his wife, though I have heard the refutation that the Butzemann is already married to the Earth. For this reason, our Hearth, which incorporates some of the Pennsylvania Deitsch and Urglaawe customs into our practice, only puts out a Butzemann. Most of what follows is how we perform this task and ceremony. Others may do it differently.

The Butzemann is activated in the Ceremony of the Corn, in which he is called to life by a name which he has already told us, and shown the land that shall be his domain and responsibility in the coming season. This is traditionally done on February 2, Groundhog Day, - or as close to it as possible, - which is also the time for Charming of the Plow. Our Butzemann is composed of the usual old clothes, but rather than the usual straw or hay, which we do not grow, we stuff ours with remnants of the previous year's crops, - bean, tomato, and squash vines, corn stalks, leaves from our fig and pear trees,  - which we wish to grow in the coming year. The corn stalks come from the Last Sheaf gathered and put out for Sleipnir at Winter Nights. As this also marks the time that the Wild Hunt returns home, we're fairly certain Sleipnir has had his fill.

At Halloween or some time before that, - but no later, - our Butzemann is retired in the prescribed method, by burning. As this comes close to the time for Winter Nights, it is usually incorporated into the observances for that time. The Butzemann is thanked for his hard work and bid farewell, and is burned facing the Last Sheaf, which, because it will be incorporated into next year's Butzemann, is referred to as his son. The ashes are then gathered and scattered upon the garden beds as a final blessing for fertility.

Burning the Butzemann before the start of Winter is important because it releases the spirit and destroys the shell. If this is not done, the spirit may still leave of its own volition, but may be replaced by a more malevolent one. Per the temperamental nature of land wights, the original spirit may alternatively remain in the body and become angry at what it sees as neglect and disrespect. Either way, the Butzemann may take on the characteristics typical of his name's more common translation in modern German, that of  "boogeyman." Farms with this type of angry spirit may find themselves with blighted crops, poltergeist activity, skittish animals, or children suffering nightmares.

This is probably the source for living scarecrows being a motif in so many horror stories. The Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz is said to have been inspired by childhood nightmares author L. Frank Baum had of being chased by a scarecrow. Baum also once spoke of the "mystical feelings" scarecrows inspired in him as a boy, and how they seemed to move of their volition.  He also noted that the scarecrow on his father's farm hung up for many seasons before being blown away in a storm. The Nathaniel Hawthorne tale "Feathertop," which is about a living scarecrow, probably  played a great influence on Baum also, as he was an avid reader of Hawthorne's work. Being of German ancestry himself, Baum may have been aware of the Butzemann legend as well. Ruth Plumly Thompson, in her Royal Book of Oz, gives an alternate origin for the Scarecrow in which he becomes alive as he is placed on his bean pole and a spirit races up the pole out of the Earth and into his body. Actor turned novelist Thomas Tryon, author of the horror novel Harvest Home, may have also been aware of the Butzemann legend or some variation thereof, as the inhabitants of the town in that novel and the 1979 television mini-series adaptation with Bette Davis also burn their scarecrows in a large communal bonfire and scatter the ashes on their fields. Though in the case of Tryon's novel, one of the scarecrows is an actual human being who dared curse the crops and the Earth. Stories of the Butzemann may also be the source for the taboo against taking clothes from a scarecrow and wearing them, as this brings much bad luck.

Our Butzemann for this year has not let us know yet what his name shall be, but his clothes are being gathered ad the crop remnants are waiting to be gathered.