LL-L "History" 2009.03.14 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 14 March 2009 - Volume 05
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: History

Hi, Folks!

I wrote about the Pirate Störtebeker's name:

I assume that this thing about Störtebeker's last name is a case of folk
etymology, perhaps already created in his lifetime ("Look how he pours down
the beer, true to his name!")

If it were German it would be something like Stürz(e)bacher. The verb *
störten* (German *stürzen*) has basic meanings like "to fall heavily", "to
plummet", "to crash". In connection with *Bääk (Beek*) (brook, rivulet) it
suggests the rushing of fast streaming water.


Of course, some claim that Störtebeker, known as Stortebeker in older
documents, was a nickname or a nickname-derived surname in which the last
part is etymologized as *beker* (> *Bäker* ~ *Beker*) 'beaker'. Legend has
it that he was able to empty a four-liter beer stein in one gulp. Again just
legend, though Middle Saxon *storte den beker* (something like "down the
hatch") > *Stortebeker* is not an impossibility.

If the name is place-derived we would have to locate a place once called **
Stortebêk*. But places and their names came and went.

There are several theories regarding Störtebeker's place of origin. As far
as I am concerned, the most plausible of these is Wismar, a Hanseatic port
town in Mecklenburg. This would favor Störtebeker's life as a seafarer and
contacts with the Hanseatic Trading League (for not many people at that time
left their place of birth). Furthermore, a contemporary document mentions
that two persons had been banned from Wismar on account of brawling, one of
them named *nicolao stortebeker*.

My basic point is that we need to take stories about Störtebeker with
several grains of salt. Much or most of relevant popular literature, TV
programs and the annual Rügen Störtebeker Festival are based on popular
legends.

The same apparently applies to a portrait that has been attributed to him
and has been circulated in relevant literature, now also on the Web.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Kunz_von_der_Rosen.jpg

First of all, anyone that knows anything about historical art ought to know
that the fashion displayed there is that of about one century later. Serious
historians attribute the portrait to the German (more precisely Swabian)
aristocrat Kunz von der Rosen.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunz_von_der_Rosen

According to records, in 1401 Störtebeker was beheaded on the then island of
Grasbrook, a part of Hamburg. Toward the end of the 19th century, an impaled
skull was found there. It was determined that it belonged to a person
executed there around the year 1400, and that led to the assumption that it
was Störtebeker's. A reconstruction of the owner's head is now an exhibit in
the History Museum of Hamburg (Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rekonstruierter_Schaedel.jpg
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,569321,00.html

Anyway, legend furthermore claims that the mayor later broke his promise and
had all 73 pirates beheaded and their heads displayed impaled. Besides, the
found skull was merely the only fairly intact one among skull fragments that
were unearthed.

What may have contributed to the assumption that it was Störtebekers skull was
the popular assumption that Störtebeker was the only one among his men that
suffered this fate. This again is based on the legend that the pirate made a
deal with the authorities according to which all those men be freed past
whom his headless body managed to walk. He went past the eleventh comrade
when the executioner tripped him ... Even if this were true it would be no
grounds on which to assume that the skull belongs to Störtebeker.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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