How a Simple Butterfly Caused Panic in Medieval Germany

The word “butterfly” has intrigued me since I was a child. I always thought there was something strange about it. The word itself sprouted bad childhood jokes about butter being thrown out the window to create a butterfly.

I decided to dig deeper into the origins of this word and it was darker than I imagined.

To understand why butterflies became connected to the dark magic of witches, we have to uncover the history behind the witch hunts throughout history and how ordinary people thought back in the middle ages.

German witches in history

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Europe was whipped up into a frenzy over witches. Although the history of witch hunts shows us that they were taking place sporadically in the early medieval era, the peak of witch hunts and witch trials happened in the 17th century.

Not so coincidentally, it was the same time as the Little Ice Age. The drastic climate change spurred communities into a hate-filled rage, looking for possible causes of failing crops and scarce supplies. Medieval people needed a reason for the change in climate because after all, this would not have happened unless they had done something to displease the Lord.

The history of witchcraft in Germany is gruesome, to say the least. In Würzburg during 1625 - 1631 the largest amount of witches were convicted in the whole of Europe. From this and similar historical evidence from Germany, we know that the peak of the witch trials is dated between 1561 - 1670.

Interestingly, witchcraft before 1500 in the medieval world was largely dismissed. That was until powerful medieval people such as King James VI of Scotland, who published Daemenologie, and Maximillian I, Elector of Bavaria, became obsessed with stamping out perceived witchcraft. Soon, regular people started to become "witch hunters", carrying out the deeds of their radicalized leaders.

The harsh circumstances people faced in both medieval England and Germany show that people struggled to reconcile their hard circumstances with their religious beliefs. This in turn spiraled into attacks on marginalized people within their societies.

This struggle was not only shown through their actions during the witch hunts in history but also through the words they used.

How medieval witchcraft changed words

The history of witchcraft and magic reveals a deep-seated belief in magic. We know this from the trial documents and what people confessed to. Apart from this, we don't exactly know what people of the middle ages from this period believed because no records of this are kept.

The one place their beliefs do surface, however, is in language.

Language can be a record of the folklore of beliefs based on how words changed and how they were created.

The word “butterfly” in both English and German reveals a sinister belief that caused many innocent people to be burned alive.

In English, the word butterfly derives from the Old and Middle English word “buterflege” referring to the flying insect. If we look closely at the two words, it means as it does today — “buter” meaning butter, and “flege” is a Germanic word for flying.

At first glance, the word is strange and nonsensical. Digging a bit deeper and looking at how the word evolved, etymology reveals a dark meaning.

Before the peak of the witch hunts in the 1500s, there is a record of a botanist by the name of Jean Bauhin, who worked with the Duke of Wüttemburg and recorded the term “Pfeiffholter” in his translation of a Latin text.

This word has no relation to the later term for butterfly and in fact is rather benign. Going back even further into the early middle ages, we can find the original ancient word for butterfly.

In German, a butterfly was called “fifaltra” and in Old English, it was “fifalde” which means "to flutter”. This is related to a German word still in use, "falter" which refers to a flying insect.

This ancient word literally relates to the fluttering of the insect's wings. It's a pure and accurate description of what a butterfly is. By the 17th century, however, a new word was coined a used. A word that would bring the threat of witchcraft into the everyday.

German folklore reveals the real meaning of the butterfly

German witchcraft history shows us through etymology how the word began to change. A new word began to be used to mean butterfly — Schmetterling. Schmetterling itself is a dialect word coming from East Central Germany “Schmetten” meaning “cream” or other churned dairy products like butter.

This word, "Schmetterling" contains a folkloric belief that helped condemn thousands of witches. In German folklore, it was said that butterflies are witches in disguise — shapeshifting with black magic into a fluttering creature in order to steal milk products like cream and butter from farmers.

It was even believed that the butterflies would spoil the milk if they came in contact with it. That’s why in German, butterflies were called “Molkenstehler” or “whey-stealers”.

To counteract the evil from witches and their butterflies, the milk pail was covered to protect it. Since this did indeed stop the milk from spoiling, this was taken as further evidence against witches.

Etymology reveals to us what ordinary people of the period believed. They believed in shapeshifting witches that were purposefully and maliciously out to cause harm.

Dairy products were extremely important to medieval people, especially in times of food shortages and hardships. Butter and cream were staple foods that provided a high amount of nutrients to a family and community. Anyone stealing this for themselves showed that they were against the community -- something very dangerous in a middle ages society since they operated far more communally than we do today.

In short, the witches were stealing from good, hardworking farmers for themselves. They used their evil magic in order to bring down the community from within.

The fear of witches through the ages

Folklore shows us how incredibly feared witches were, especially within the Holy Roman Empire. The fear of those who practiced witchcraft was so high that folklore beliefs and customs sprouted to protect oneself from the threat of enchantment.

Folklore is tricky because we don’t always have a record of people’s beliefs. Language is the door that reveals what early modern people believed and allows us insight into what an accused witch was tried for.

The mapping of words reveals that throughout the course of the time that the trials occured, fear was so great that innocuous insects were turned into a coded insult towards those accused of witchcraft.

Can you imagine being a humble peasant churning butter, and feeling your stomach drop as a butterfly flutters past? The terror when you realize that the suspected witches are really out to get you and your family? This was the reality for men and women in early Christian communities.

Witch persecutions affected not just those put to death, but the whole community.