For centuries, in Italy and beyond, Benevento was the city of witches. The reason is a tree: the walnut of Benevento, where, according to legend, witches from the whole peninsula gathered. In Samnium these figures have a name of their own, janare, and around them grew one of the richest bodies of belief in southern folklore.
The Lombard cult
The origin of the legend is commonly traced back to the Lombard period. Benevento was the seat of an important Lombard duchy and, according to hagiographic tradition, the Lombards performed rites there beside a sacred tree. The Life of Saint Barbatus, bishop of the city in the seventh century, relates that warriors hung an animal skin from the branches and, galloping on horseback, struck it to tear off pieces, which they then ate. The image of a viper was also venerated there.
Barbatus, again according to the account, persuaded Duke Romuald to end these cults and had the tree cut down. The episode, told by a religious source with an obvious edifying purpose, became the historical core around which the later legend crystallised.
From pagan cult to sabbath
In the late Middle Ages the walnut changes meaning: from the site of an ancient rite it becomes the meeting place of witches. As early as the trial of Matteuccia da Todi, held in 1428, there is a reference to the walnut of Benevento and to a formula spoken in order to fly there.
The formula, in its various folk versions, runs roughly like this: "Ointment, ointment, carry me to the walnut of Benevento, over the water and over the wind." The ointment, spread on the body, was the means of the night journey.
In the seventeenth century the Beneventan physician Pietro Piperno devoted a Latin treatise to the subject, De nuce maga beneventana, a sign that the place's fame was by then established among scholars too.
Who the janare were
In Samnite tradition the janara is a village woman who leads an ordinary life by day and transforms at night. Two hypotheses on the etymology of the name are mainly discussed:
- from the name of Diana, the lunar goddess associated in medieval sources with the night rides of women;
- from the Latin ianua, "door", because of the janara's link with the thresholds of houses.
The two hypotheses do not exclude each other as suggestions, but neither has been definitively proven.
The threshold, the broom and the salt
The most widespread belief concerns the door itself. The janara, it was said, could enter houses by slipping under the door or through cracks. To keep her away a broom or a small heap of salt was placed behind the door. The witch, bound by an irresistible compulsion, would have to count every bristle of the broom or every grain of salt, and meanwhile dawn would break and force her to flee.
It is an anthropologically eloquent motif: the defence does not consist in fighting the witch, but in holding her in an endless task until the night runs out.
The horses' braids
Another belief attributed to the janare the small braids sometimes found in horses' manes in the morning. The witches, it was said, had ridden the animals during the night, leaving them sweaty and exhausted. Similar motifs appear in other Italian regions too, attributed to sprites and household spirits.
How to catch a janara
According to the stories, to catch a janara one had to seize her by the hair, her most vulnerable part. To the witch's question "what are you holding?" one had to answer "iron and steel", not "hair", or she would slip away. Once caught, the janara might offer protection to her captor's family for seven generations in exchange for her freedom.
A legend alive in the landscape
The legend of the walnut has remained bound to the city's identity, which recalls it in place names, stories and cultural events. For the student of traditions, Benevento is an example of how a historical episode, handed down by a hagiographic source, can become the centre of an imagery that crosses centuries and regions.
| Phase | Meaning of the walnut |
|---|---|
| Lombard age | Sacred tree of a warrior cult |
| Hagiography of Saint Barbatus | Symbol of defeated paganism |
| Late Middle Ages | Gathering place of witches |
| Early modern age | Subject of learned treatises |
In short
- The walnut of Benevento is linked, according to tradition, to a Lombard cult ended by Saint Barbatus.
- From the late Middle Ages it became the legendary gathering place of witches, already mentioned in a trial of 1428.
- The janare are the witches of Samnium, whose name is derived from Diana or from ianua.
- A broom or salt behind the door forced them to count until dawn.
- The legend shows how a historical fact turns into a collective imagery.
