Customer Reviews

Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the Night (Studies in Early Modern German History)

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Chonrad Stoeckhlin, a stall boy (and the main character of this book), made an agreement with his good friend, the oxherd Jacob Walch, in 1578. According to this agreement, he who died first would return to tell about life in the hereafter. And no more than a few days after the pact was agreed upon, Jacob suddenly died. He kept to his word with his friend though and appeared before Chonrad five whole times. Since I have no intentions to ruin the reader's experience, I will not divulge what Jacob had to tell about life in the hereafter or how Chonrad reacted to what he heard. But after some years the judicial authorities took notice of the stall boy's strange and suspicious tales about contacts with the other world. And in 1587 the stall boy from the Bavarian alpine town of Oberstdorf was executed for witchcraft. Stoeckhlin had to answer 146 various questions during the legal proceedings. Based upon the profuse 1586 sources, the German historian expands his story to delve into topics such as fortune telling, shamanism, witch sabbaths, and the interplay between popular and learned culture. This is a fascinating book, even though Behringer occasionally has a tendency to waver some distance from Chonrad's story. But, certainly, the stall boy story from Oberstdorf is fascinating reading and a work of eminent scholarship.

The horse wrangler Chonrad Stoeckhlin was burned after accusations of witchcraft in 1587. Taking this as his starting point, the author discusses withcraft, local history, pre-christian religion and more. Much more! And that may be my main objection to this book: The reader gets intriguing bits of information that merrits books on their own.