Akelarre (witchcraft)

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Akelarre is the Basque name ("meadow of the he-goat") of several places, all them said to have been a place in which witches (sorginak in Basque) met.

Akelarre is also the generical Basque term for sabbat, obviously because of the general belief that these meetings were presided by the devil in form of a black he-goat. This word was lent to Spanish vocabulary with the modified ortography of aquelarre.

1 Places called Akelarre
2 Zugarramurdi witch-hunt
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Places called Akelarre

Akelarre: a field of Mañaria (Biscay).
Akelarrenlezea: a large cave of Zugarramurdi (Navarre). Actually the witches met outside the cave in the place of Berroskoberro.

Other expressive names used for sabbat meeting places in Basque culture were, for instance:

Eperlanda: partriddges' field (in Muxika, Biscay)
Bekatu-larre: sinful meadow (in Ziordi, Navarre)
Sorgintxulo: witches hole, a cave in Hernani (Guipuscoa). There is another Sorginzulo in Zegama and still another one in Ataun, all them in Guipuscoa.
Dantzaleku: dancing place, also in Ataun.
Atsegin Soro: pleasure orchard. This was the name by which witches themselves called the field of Matxarena in Errenteria (Guipuscoa), according to inquisitorial records.
Basajaunberro: site of Basajaun (the wild man of the woods), in Auritz (Navarre).
Sorginerreka: witches' creek, in Tolosa (Guipuscoa).
Edar Iturri: Beautiful Spring, also in Tolosa.

[edit] Zugarramurdi witch-hunt

In 1610, the Inquisition tribunal of Logroño initiated a large witch-hunt in Navarre that ended with 12 supposed witches burnt at the stake (5 of them symbolically, as tortures had killed them earlier). It was maybe this major process which favored the extension of the term akelarre in either Basque or Spanish languages (or both) with the meaning of sabbat.