She Who Sits on the Hedge
TRADITION / STORY A word at the edge
The Dutch heks and German Hexe most likely come from Old High German hagazussa. The first half, hag-, is the hedge — the boundary between the village and the wild. A common reading is "she who sits on the hedge": a woman who lives on the border between worlds. Linguists still argue about the second half, so treat this as a beautiful, probable story rather than a settled fact. But it names exactly what an ecstatic dance is: a few hours on the edge between the everyday and something else.
HISTORY Mariken of Nijmegen
Around 1500, an anonymous author in Antwerp wrote Mariken van Nieumeghen, one of the great plays of Dutch literature. Mariken, sent to Nijmegen to do the shopping, is turned away by her aunt. In the dark streets she meets Moenen, who promises to teach her every art there is. He is the devil. She lives with him for seven years, until a play on the market square of Nijmegen turns her heart; Moenen carries her into the air and drops her, and she survives to find forgiveness. Her statue still stands on Nijmegen's Grote Markt.
HISTORY The honest scales of Oudewater
People believed a witch weighed next to nothing — how else could she fly on a broom? So suspects were weighed. In 1545 Emperor Charles V granted the town of Oudewater the privilege of weighing honestly, and whoever came out at a normal weight received a Certificaet van Weginghe: proof, for life, of not being a witch. As far as the records show, no one weighed in Oudewater was ever condemned. You can still be weighed there today, on the original scales, in the Heksenwaag museum.
On the Dance Floor
Start the night at a threshold. Before you step onto the floor, pause at the edge of the room for three breaths: you're leaving the village and stepping onto the hedge. And remember the scales of Oudewater — on our floor, nobody gets weighed.
DONE WHEN...
You can tell the Mariken story and the Oudewater story in your own words, and you know which parts are history and which part (the meaning of "witch") is a probable story.
References & Resources
Mariken van Nieumeghen (anonymous, Antwerp, c. 1500). English: A Marvelous History of Mary of Nimmegen, Project Gutenberg #68434.
Museum De Heksenwaag, Oudewater — heksenwaag.nl. The 1545 privilege of Charles V and the Certificaet van Weginghe.
Into Nijmegen — "Mariken van Nieumeghen: a play character as a citywide icon".