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                                              History

     As many of thee might have heard, the night of 30th April to May 1st  is called, according to an ancient Germanic legenda, the Walpurgis Nacht. Its name was taken from Saint Walburga, which is often referred to also as Gaudurge, Bugga, Walpurga...or Walpurgis. Walburga, born in 710, was the niece of Saint Boniface, the man who evangelized the Germans in the so odious christian church. He was in need of nuns for the stirringly requested English monasteries, and therefore he sent for a colony  of nuns to be sent out by boat. Amongst them was Walburga, nun of Wimborne under St. Tatta and sister of Willibald and Winebald (sons of Saint Richard; nephews and apostles of Boniface). She was appointed a mere two years after as the abbess of Heidenheim, where Winebald ruled an abbey of men. A remarkable woman she indeed was, for when the time came for Death to take away her brother Winebald, she was appointed in his place and given the double charge over both men´s  and women´s congregations. Walburga died in 779, as abbess of Heidenheim, and her relics were transferred to Eichstaett on the night before May 1...the Walpurgian Night.
     It  is, indeed, curious that this English woman were to take place in German folklore and there are still those who say that the ancient pagan origin of this legend has nothing to do with Saint Walpurga. However, and independently of its origin, legend tells us that the Walpurgis Nacht was the night when, in the medieval and Renaissance times, witches and sorceresses assembled on the Harz mountain tops (the Brocken or Blocksberg was the highest peak) to consort with the Devil, celebrating a sabat. They would arrive in broomsticks or with demons to perform their evil rites , indulge in  wild dances and orgies, affirm their allegiance to their master (who was present, generally in the form of a goat, other times as another animal), initiating new members and receiving their assignments for the new witching year. It is, therefore, deeply associated with witchcraft and other superstitions (J. W. Goethe mentioned it in his masterpiece Faust, see "Walpurgis Night in the Hartz mountains", where he presents a vivid picture of the witches´ Sabat held there). Saint Walburga is venerated in Eichstaett (Roeder) and has been portrayed many times and in many different forms in art, being it together with her saintly brothers, with angels holding a crown o´er her, with three ears of corn in her hand, or with miracles taking place from the oil extruding from her tomb, at Roeder. In some countries, it is also occasion for the Spring arrival celebrations to take place, like in Sweden.
She is invoked  against coughs, dogbite, plague, and for good harvest (at Roeder).

Here is a poem on Walpurgisnacht:

   "Reeling in shadows, blasted by night
 Eager, excited, entranced by the sight,
 Lustrous and luminous Moon over May-Eve
 Exposing dark deeds dreams dare not conceive
 Enacted in untrodden, blasphemous grottoes
 Haven to witches and evil mulattoes
 With all of my darling young vampires....

 Latticed window breaks; in sneak scurrilous shapes
 Advancing - intent on a sanguinous rape.
 Teeth turn to fangs; fangs tear your flesh.
 Sharp nails become claws as they shred off your dress.
 You bend and you swoon with inimical force
 Released of libido by this mad intercourse.
 Condemned to undeath by my darling young vampyres..."

  "What Walpurgis Nacht, as a band, means to me is the blasting power of the Wampyr, the draculean blood chronicles, the blasphemous spells of wrath conjured on the whoracle of the damned, the nature mysteries, entrancing visions of the surreal cosmic phantasias, whilst storming forward on all paths untrodden, laying bare our souls for the world to crush with the swords of might" Bruno(RAVENMOON).
 

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