THE

SOUTHERN MAGAZINE

JULY, 1873.

ON THE GIERSFELD AND BOURTANGER MOOR.

A

MONG the antique resting-places of the Germans the Hünengraves take the first rank, and of these the Giersfeld is the most remarkable still existing in Northern Germany. It lies south of the Bourtanger Moor, between the towns of Lingen, in the valley of the Ems, and Quakenbrück. It is a heath of some two thousand acres in extent, silent and wild, bordered around by numerous ecclesiastical establishments of ancient date, such as the old churches of Alfhausen, of Merzen, of Ueffeln, and the celebrated Commandery of the Templars at Lage, showing how intimately Christianity united in its infancy with and sought the spots formerly consecrated to heathen worship. Even at the present day, at Whitsuntide, the peasantry of Alfhausen proceed to the Holy Mount - Heiligenberg on the Giersfeld, in pursuance of an old custom, followed by their cattle and horses, just as it was usual among the heathens; and up to the times of the Reformation the peasantry of the other villages around the Giersfeld did the same, by joining the procession of the Alfhausen peasantry.

The Holy Mount now is a completely desolate hill, surrounded by Hünengraves. It seems never to have been built upon in Christian times; and it is conceded by historians that we have here before us one of those localities where in pre-historic ages a giant race has buried its dead. The legend of the fiery spectre, the " Alk," which the simple inhabitants of this mysterious region believe still to haunt the Giersfeld, seems additionally to strengthen an assumption which already by the numerous stone monuments found on the field appears to be a reasonable and probable one.