Journal of Geomancy vol. 4 no. 2, January 1980
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Near the mouth of the Weser, opposite Bremerhaven, lies the ancient village of Blexen and its church, whose tower has for centuries been a landmark for ships on the Weser. Here the missionary Willehad made his headquarters, and here he died in the year 789 (buried in Bremen Cathedral). He is said to have opened up a well, still to be found in the vicarage garden near the church, with his staff, and to have baptized the first pagans with its water. The fact that Willehad, the first bishop of Bremen, made Blexen the centrepoint of his missionary activities is enough to show the importance of this site. Blexen lies on a high knoll somewhat higher than the present dike. The knoll here incorporates the dike. In ancient times it would have risen high above it, for the dike was considerably lower in past centuries. The names Plekateshem, Plekkazze and Blackeson, cited for Blexen in the year 789, have been explained as ‘blitzheim’ (lightning-ham.). They thus indicate that a site for the worship of Thor (Donar) existed in Blexen. It is certainly true that the first Christian churches, chapels and monasteries were built by preference on sites held sacred by the Germans, in order to redirect the worship of their gods on to the god of the Christians. In this way the medieval Church took over many mythological concepts from prehistoric times, gave them a Christian interpretation, and transferred them to the apostles and other saints. Churches built upon sites of Thor worship were often dedicated to the apostle Peter. Thor with his hammer Miölnir reappeared as Peter with his key. In Blexen Thor’s tradition was carried on in the legend of St Hippolytus. In the battle of the Rüstring Frisians against the Counts of Oldenburg at Coldewärf (not far from Blexen) in 1368, the bronze club of Hippolytus, about 200 pounds in weight, was seen in the air, shattering the enemy. Such is the tradition. The weapon actually existed, and until the Reformation was preserved in Blexen church as the club of St Hippolytus. Jolricus Meinardus, pastor of Blexen from 1563 to 1568, wrote: “My father Meinardus Jolricus, at the command of Count Anton I of Oldenburg, took this club along with many other adornments of the church to Ovelgonne Castle about 1534.” The weapon probably originated far back in the Germanic period and will have represented Thor’s hammer Miölnir. Possibly this object ‘fell from heaven’ as a meteorite thousands of years ago.
An old statue, showing how the Hippolytus of Greek myth was dragged to death by a bull in the fields, is to be seen in the church on the north side of the chancel. At the same place in the outer wall, however, is shown the grave of St Hippolytus: a cavity closed by a door made from a single stone, which has been carved out as if for a human body in the same way as the rock tomb in the Externsteine. Here Hippolytus is said to have lain enclosed in the wall. Unfortunately the front of the stone grave was partially knocked away during restoration of the church 50 or 60 years ago. As far as I know this rock-cut grave is the {4} only one on record outside the Externsteine. Both these rock graves will have belonged to Germanic mystery rituals. It may therefore be assumed that the sanctuary of Thor in Blexen was particularly important. At this sacred place our ancestors gathered together from afar. In the Middle Ages Blexen church was still a church of pilgrimage. Even in Protestant times the local pastor made out a certificate for a pilgrim from distant countries, stating that he had visited the church.
In Strakerjan’s Superstitions and Legends (Aberglauben und Sagen 2nd ed. vol. 2 p. 388) we read that the tower at Blexen is older than the church and was built by three old spinsters for the benefit of seafarers. The three lie buried on the Heiliger Wiem between Einswarden and Grebswarden. This tradition or legend yields the information that originally the tower was free-standing. The same may be shown in another way. The aperture in the niche in the upper storey of the tower on the east side, which now faces into the church, has a sandstone frame on the outer side, indicating that originally it looked not into the church but into the open air. The three old spinsters mentioned in the legend are perhaps the three Germanic ‘weird sisters’ Ainbet, Warbet and Wilbet, worshipped in ancient times.
Similar to the Blexen church tower are the church towers of Berne and Ganderkesee, both situated in the Oldenburg region. These are both ancient. Certainly both are built upon sites that were considered sacred before the introduction of Christianity. For Ganderkesee this assumption is confirmed by the fact that important ley lines (Ortungslinien) run out from the church in several directions.
Legend tells of many old churches, for example Ganderkesee again, that the Devil either tried to hinder the building work, or was forced to drag stones for the Christian masons (cf. the picture by Moritz von Schwind, 1804–71). At the time when many buildings of the Germanic period were being converted into Christian churches, the change-over was probably tied up with the idea that the Germanic god, now depicted as the Devil, must have unwillingly performed this service for the Church even before the introduction of Christianity. It would be worthwhile to ascertain the Christian buildings to which this legend has attached itself.
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EDITOR’S NOTE
An example of this exists in England at Dover, where the early Saxon Christians erected the church of St Mary, now
inside the Castle precincts, to the east of the Roman lighthouse known as the Pharos. The. Pharos eventually lost its
function as a landmark for mariners, and it became fitted up as a conventional west tower with bells. Another German
researcher of the 1920s and 30s, Wilhelm Teudt, claimed that many old church towers likewise were watch towers before
being appropriated by the church, and can be seen as such by their geomantic positioning. Many of the round church
towers which abound in East Anglia, an area of great Saxon influence, may also have originally served as watch-towers
and landmarks for the guidance of wayfarers.
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