Walpurgis Night

The eve of May Day, when the old pagan witch-world was supposed to hold high revelry under its chief on certain high places. The Brocken of Germany was a favourite spot for these revelries.

Walpurgis was a female saint concerned in the introduction of Christianity into Germany. She died February 25th, 779.

“He changed hands, and whisked and rioted like a dance of Walpurgis in his lonely brain.”—J. S. Le Fanu: The House in the Churchyard, p. 109

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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