Protection from, and exorcism of, supernatural evil in Germany (medieval to 19th century)

[malymin]

Hello!

Writing a fanfiction taking place inside of a fairy-tale kingdom. In-universe, the fairy-tale is a literary fairy tale (aka has a singular author, not a true folk tale), written by a German author, some time in the 18th century at earliest and the 19th century at latest. The author character lived and died in a fictional town heavily based on the real world town of Nördlingen. I'm writing a scene where a character from the fairy-tale setting is feeling guilt about having been "weak" against a supernatural, corrupting force, and is scared that force is still possessing or influencing him.

Most of the information I can find on the topic of exorcism, prayers against demonic/bewitching/etc influence, repentance for having practiced witchcraft, renouncing demonic temptation, etc I can find on my own are specifically resources aimed at modern-day Catholics living in English-speaking countries. (That is, when they're even remotely in the ballpark of what I'm looking for... new-age and non-Christian solutions, while interesting, are not helpful for what I'm writing.) However, I know that a large percentage of Christians in Germany are some flavor of Protestant. Even when it comes to Catholic-majority regions like Bavaria, there might be things that have been done there in the past that would not be recorded on an English-language website for English-speaking Catholics - especially folk beliefs and traditions not officially condoned by religious authorities.

Region:

• Least specifically looking for stuff from German speaking countries in Europe
• Most specifically: looking for things from the Swabia region of Germany, within the state of Bavaria

Religion:

• Christianity mainly, maybe some Germanic pagan stuff if I branch out.
• Protestant or Catholic
• Not just solutions ideally condoned by local religious authorities, but folk beliefs and practices

Historical Placement:

• Ideally, not newer than the 19th century. If people didn't believe it prior to, idk, 1925 or something, it's not as useful to me.
• Must have been practiced at some point after the Christianization of the region, at absolute earliest.
• However! Customs and beliefs that are not strongly attested to in reality, but that appear in fictional and folkloric depictions of the past or present written (or transcribed from oral tradition) within the "target range" (such as "pre-christian times" as they'd be seen in Wagnerian operas, or "feudal society" as depicted in both the feudal period's own courtly literature and later literature), are also helpful, as the fic I'm writing is set within an author-created world that would be influenced by such pre-existing and contemporaneous fiction's distortions of reality.

I hope this isn't too specific. If you know something in this ballpark but don't think it's "good enough" for my nitpicky criteria, please share anyways so I can learn something new! ^_^;

Comments

[lyorn]

It's a patchwork, and it changed during the industrial revolution when catholic farmers and agricultural workers from the countryside came into the cities. These days, catholic towns and municipalities in Bavaria get one holiday more than protestant. Since my employer moved offices from a small protestant city to a medium catholic town, I profit from that!

OP; if you decide on a place in Franconia or the Oberpfalz (i.e. the North of the federal state of Bavaria) I can probably find out its religious make-up. For southern Bavaria, go with catholic. Schwaben (the Bavarian part) I'm not sure about.

That said: Catholic is probably the easiest for story purposes.

[malymin]

Yea, I figured it wouldn't be uniform - these things rarely, if ever, are.

Also, as I mentioned in OP, the source material for the fanfiction I'm writing takes place in a fictional town heavily modeled after the layout and architecture of Nördlingen - there's some places in the source material that are identical to the real town, or clearly referenced with some alteration for plot purposes. (Though, there are also locations that are changed or added for plot convenience, such as a boarding school and some lightly forested areas inside the walls...) That's why I mentioned Swabia, as well as the larger area of Bavaria.

Though, the fanfic takes place inside an in-universe book written by a person from the town (like how the titular book-within-a-book in The Neverending Story is both a book you can read, and a place with living people inside it), which we never see the inside of in canon but we know real people can travel to, and I'm imagining that place is the written as the sort of "some other place similar to but not quite Here, in some imagined past" that the settings of fairytales often are. I feel like my closest bet for a "real" model for that fiction-within-fiction, if I want one, is Hohenschwangau, as the staff's pre-production inspiration tour also included scouring Neuschwanstein for swan-related imagery (all the Lohengrin stuff, etc) to pluck and modify. (Swans are... a major motif in the show, being associated with "good" characters from the in-universe fairy tale. Lohengrin gets namedropped, a depiction of the Swan Knight's swan-led boat is adapted into a flying chariot that two characters use to enter the fairytale world, and the in-universe fairy tale itself contains elements of Swan Lake.)

I hope nothing I've said as an American asking questions is too dumb or ignorant.

[lyorn]

Those are actually very interesting questions!

Nördlingen has been solidly protestant since 1522. I wish I knew more about Swabian folklore and practises of protection outside of mainstream religion to help.