The Poisoned Pilgrim: A Hangman's Daughter Tale (63 page)

Jesus’ Foreskin:
According to unsubstantiated rumors, this is one of the many relics at Andechs—though it’s thought to be kept at other Christian sites, too. If you believe the Greek scholar Leo Allatius (who died in 1661), Jesus’ foreskin ascended with him into heaven where it turned into the rings of Saturn.

Kien Valley:
This forested valley is traversed by hiking and pilgrimage routes. The best-known pathways lead from Herrsching along the Kien Brook and along the edge of the forest over the so-called Hörndl (approximately one and a half hours on foot).

Lightning:
There was—and is—lots of it in Andechs. On May 3, 1669, the steeple of the Andechs church was struck during a violent storm. The resulting fire destroyed almost the entire monastery, which had to be rebuilt. For dramatic reasons, I bumped this event up to the year 1666.

Macer Floridus:
This was a standard work on medieval herbal medicine that described the medicinal properties of around eighty plants. It was written in the second century by the Benedictine monk Odo Magdunensis.

Ox Trench:
This ditch, dug by the monastery, extended down into the Kien Valley and was used primarily during the Thirty Years’ War as an escape route for men and animals.

Phosphorus:
This chemical element takes its name from the Greek word
phosphoros,
meaning light-emitting. In 1669, the German apothecary and alchemist Hennig Brand discovered it while boiling urine in his search for the philosopher’s stone. White phosphorus glows in the dark and is quite flammable. In my novel, I’ve moved the date of its discovery back a few years.

Pilgrimages:
At the end of the Thirty Years’ War, there was renewed interest in pilgrimages in Germany. The destinations were Rome and Santiago de Compostela, but also Andechs in Bavaria. In just the
years 1622 to 1626, a half million pilgrims visited the Holy Mountain. Today, only a few hundred come each year to Andechs for the Festival of the Three Hosts (q.v.).

Prince’s Quarters:
These rooms, dating back to at least 1530, were located on the third floor of the monastery and reserved exclusively for the Wittelsbach family.

Rambeck, Maurus:
The Andechs abbot from 1666 to 1686, his picture hangs alongside the portraits of other abbots in the monastery library. Contemporaries referred to him as a “walking library.” He loved philosophy but, above all, the languages of the Orient. Hebrew was his specialty.

Sacred Treasure:
These Andechs relics were lost after the storming of the Andechs Castle (q.v.) and did not reappear until 1388 when a priest noticed a mouse scurrying away during a mass with a piece of parchment in its mouth. Alongside the altar, under a stone slab, a chest with iron fittings was found containing, among other things, the victory cross of Charlemagne, part of Christ’s crown of thorns, and the three sacred hosts.

Tavern:
The history of the Andechs Monastery tavern goes back to the time of Duke Albrecht III, who founded the Benedictine monastery in the fifteenth century. There, marvelous beer has been brewed since 1455. If you do visit and have too much to drink, just be careful coming down through the Kien Valley, a number of drunks have fallen there.

Thirty Years’ War:
Lasting from 1618 to 1648, this war was particularly savage in Bavaria, exacerbating the Plague, crop failures, hunger, storms, robberies, and roaming packs of wolves. In some areas, over half the population died, and entire regions were abandoned.

Three Holy Hosts:
Andech’s most precious relics. Divine signs are said to have once appeared on the three holy hosts, which came to Andechs
via a circuitous route and are still kept there in an eighteen-pound silver monstrance in the holy chapel (q.v.).

Tunnels:
According to a local historian, a number of excavations in the 1980s revealed the entrance to a tunnel about thirty feet underground near the monastery. Rumors persist to this day about subterranean passages around the old Andechs castle (q.v.), and one such rumor claims an escape tunnel was found leading to a castle in Seefeld, some miles away.

Typhoid:
This fever, whose name comes from the Greek word
typhos,
meaning
smoke
or
fog,
is caused by contaminated food and unsanitary conditions. Typical symptoms are a gray coating on the tongue and reddish spots on the chest and belly. It was first described in the sixteenth century by the Italian physician Girolamo Fracastoro, who’s now regarded as the forerunner of modern microbiology.

Virgilius:
This name was given to a mythical warlock who often appeared in medieval stories as a builder of automata. The name probably goes back to the Roman poet Virgil.

Wittelsbachs:
One of the oldest German noble families, they rose to prominence among the Bavarian nobility after the downfall of the Andechs-Meranier (q.v.). The Wartenbergs of my novel are a branch of the Wittelsbach family.