MANNHARDT, Wilhelm. — Mythographer of the ethnological school, b. at Friedrichstadt on March 26, 1831, d. at Danzig on Dec. 26, 1880.
At one time a follower of the naturalistic school of Max Müller and his astral and meteorological mythology (high mythology): *Germanische Mythen* (Berlin 1858); *Die Götterwelt der deutschen und nordischen Völker* (ibid. 1860), he later turned his attention to agrarian myths populated by spirits, genii, elves, fairies (low mythology) as they appear in the agrarian folklore of the Germanic peoples, whom he examined in particular in the following works: *Die Korndämonen* (Berlin 1868); *Wald- und Feldkulte* (2 vols., ibid. 1875-77); *Mythologische Forschungen* (Strasbourg-London 1884, posthumous).
The agrarian folklore, which revolves around the “spirit of vegetation,” is based on the premise that man must contribute through his labor to maintaining the rhythm of vegetation by preserving the spirit of the harvest to transmit it to the new sowing.
From the description of the extensive material on 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 else of some animal captured and placed in contact with it (dog, fox, rooster, hare, cat); in the carrying of it to the granary where the grains are mixed with those destined for the new sowing. The ancient sacrifice that once concluded the harvest and redeemed the rest of the harvest for profane use is here reduced to that of the captured animal; and if it is a man (e.g., the last reaper, the steward, a stranger crossing the field), he is forced to pay the price of his ransom, certainly a remnant of a very ancient human sacrifice. Regarding the death and resurrection of the god in agrarian rites V. MISTERIO.