#Bannkorb

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Altar Guardian (Making of)

Some time ago, I posted about the North German practice of the Bannkorb ((Spell)Binding Hive), a beehive adorned with a human face, which is supposed to keep evil spirits and honey thieves from a group of beehives.

While researching, I came across a publication by Aladin Borioli, who took some stunning photos of extant examples in German museum collections. I cut some of these out from a brochure of his publishing house (spector books), which I plan to frame and hang in my flat.

I’ve been thinking a lot about binding practices and how in different spiritual practices figurines and statues guard holy and sacred places. Since I felt such a resonance with these hive-figures, I wanted to create a miniature Spellbinding Hive for my Altar Space.

I collected a whole bunch of dandelion stems, that had already gone to seed and hung them up to dry. Once they were nice and crispy, I began braiding them into one long braid and startet sewing it to itself.

I’m currently in the process of forming the basket-structure. The next step will be to form the face/mask and attach it to the finished miniature hive.

[wildoute]

[mimieux0u0]

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[H-0425] Bannkorb. Provenance: Heimatbund Museum Soltau, Germany. Apian (Aladin Borioli) 2023.

[kuemmernis]

Der Bannkorb / The Spellbinding Hive

The Bannkorb or Spellbinding Hive was a special kind of beehive used in Northern Germany, especially the Lüneburger Heide between the 16th and 19th century. The form is that of an historical hive, made from braided straw and cow dung, to which a carved wooden face was added.

Between every group of regular hives one of the Spellbinding Hives was placed, to ward off the evil eye, bad luck, ghosts, plague or – as some believe – to scare the non-suspecting honey thieve, who would come during the night and spot a face between the other hives, and so abandon his pursuit.

The mouth of the mask would serve as the bee’s entry to the hive. In some examples the whole hive was formed like the torso of a person, but more regularly they took the form of the usual hives, to which a mask was fastened.

I couldn’t find much information about these online and I wasn’t sure of the terminology in English. There are some books about these I might invest in, if I find them sold somewhere.

In German this type of woven beehives are called “Beuten”, and the Bannkorb is a “Figurenbeute”.

[wildoute]