MANNHARDT, WILHELM. - Mythographer of the ethnological school, b. at Friedrichstadt on March 26, 1831, d. at Danzig on Dec. 26, 1880.
A follower for a time of Max Müller's naturistic school and of its astral and meteoric mythology (high mythology): Germanische Mythen (Berlin 1858); Die Gotteswelt der deutschen und nordischen Völker (ibid. 1860), he then turned his attention to the agrarian myths peopled with spirits, genii, goblins, fairies (low mythology) as they appear in the agrarian folklore of the Germanic peoples, which he examined in particular in the following works: Die Korndämmen (Berlin 1868); Waldund Feldhülte (2 vols., ibid. 1875-77); Mythologische Forschungen (Strasbourg-London 1884, posthumous).
Agrarian folklore, which revolves around the "vegetation spirit," starts from the premise that man must contribute with his labor to maintaining the rhythm of vegetation, saving its spirit at harvest time in order to transmit it to the new sowing.
From the description of the ample material relating to the harvest, collected by M., it emerges that the constant pattern consists in the preservation of the last sheaf, called the "mother sheaf," "mother of the grain," which represents the old harvest; or of some animal captured and placed in contact with it (dog, fox, rooster, hare, cat); in its transport to the granary where the grains are mixed with those destined for the new sowing. The ancient sacrifice that once closed the harvest and redeemed for profane use the rest of the crop is here reduced to that of the captured animal; and if it is a man (e.g., the last reaper, the overseer, a stranger crossing the field), he is forced to pay the price of his ransom, certainly a remnant of a very ancient human sacrifice. On the death and resurrection of the god in agrarian rites v. MISTERI.
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Nicola Turchi