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WORKING DRAFT: DO NOT QUOTE WITHOUT AUTHOR'S PERMISSION

Skjelver

The Hundred

Preface
The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. - L.P. Hartley

Christopher S. Mackay opens the introduction to his translation of The Hammer of Witches with this line. The 1486-7 manual for interrogating suspected witches, also known by its Latin name Malleus Maleficarum, was published when Martin Luther was a small boy. This fact is not incidental to the person Luther was. Rather, it reflects the world that shaped him, for his world was populated by witches, sprites, fairies, and demons. In this novel, unseen entities are portrayed as actual because that is how the characters perceived them. Many readers may find it hard to believe how integral the unseen world was to the daily life of medieval people. The existence of a spirit world is not really the point, however. What matters is that a vibrant, interactive invisible world was very much a reality in the minds of medieval people. Theirs was not a world of coincidence. Every occurrence had an explanation, and usually it was a spiritual one. Storms or lack of rain, for instance, did
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Skjelver

The Hundred

not just happen, and they certainly had no scientific explanation. Weather was a tool of God and the Devil. If God caused rain, it was a blessing. If God caused a storm, it was punishment or a test for his people. If the Devil caused rain, it might be to deceive and lull people into a false sense of spiritual security. If the Devil caused a storm, it was often seen as the work of a witch wreaking vengeance on her fellow villagers for some slight. This set of examples is a simplification to be sure, but it demonstrates that for medieval people, nothing just happened. Nearly everything had a spiritual source, and that source was never neutral. It was always Divine or Evil. My aim is to assist the reader in a deeper understanding of Luther's world, of the forces that shaped him. He indeed grew up in a world of laughter and music, love and joy. Yet his was also a world of war, famine, and plague; of deference and power; of tremendous fear of God, the Devil, and all their unseen forces. While drawing on years of research ranging across eight languages, much of it primary source research, this is first and foremost a work of fiction. This book is informed by Luther's own memories of childhood and youth as expressed in his letters, sermons, and Table Talk. Memories are, of course, malleable; but they are also the best evidence we have
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Skjelver

The Hundred

of Luther's childhood. The views of his contemporaries - allies, enemies, and indifferent parties - likewise fill this work. Among those indifferent parties, Paul Dolnstein, the subject of my master's thesis, builds a bridge between Luther and the fictional characters. And yet, heavily researched as this novel is, it is still first and foremost a work of fiction. Hence, it may help the reader to address a few points: LUTHER'S FAMILY: All of the characters in the Luther family are based on real people. Martin was the second son, but at present, it is not known how long the first boy lived. Martin's Uncle Hans was a real person. He was a scandalous figure and shared a name with Martin's father. The two men were known as Big Hans (Martin's father) and Little Hans (Martin's uncle). The distinction was likely not always clear to people outside Martin's childhood community of Mansfeld. SCHOOL: We do not know when Luther started school. Some say as young as four, some as old as seven. He recalled an older student carrying him to school when he was a small boy, according to Heiko Oberman. I have chosen the age of five. The names of many of his teachers and classmates are fictional.
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Skjelver

The Hundred

PAUL DOLNSTEIN: The master builder and Landsknecht who served Luther's prince, was a real person. Landsknechts were highly prized, highly trained pikemen. Typically, they were mercenaries, but some also served their own princes in a fashion akin to a modern National Guard. Dolnstein's sketchbook provides the imagery and much of the detail for the military events that transform the lives of our fictional characters. Some of the Landsknechts' names come from the sketchbook. Wolf von Zwickau, for instance, is a real person, who worked for Luther's prince as a stone mason and Landsknecht. THE GUTMANN FAMILY: Adelhait, Jger, Friz, Volker, and their family are all fictional. Though their lives and actions are based on people and occurences discovered in research, they are not historical figures. For instance, Nicholas is based on the boy who carried Luther to school. In reality, this boy's name was Nicholas, but not Nicholas Gutmann. MUSIC AND PRAYER: I have endeavored to remain as true to liturgy, song, and prayer as possible. Some of the martial songs can be traced no further back than the nineteenth century, though the sources claim that the songs are medieval. Their authenticity
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Skjelver

The Hundred

should be questioned, but the spirit of these tunes is in keeping with a fictionalized account of real events. COARSE LANGUAGE: I have included a little of the earthiness that marked Luther's personality. I have bowed to what I expect to be my audience's preferences. I am unsure that I will remain in this safe zone, for it does not match Luther's indisputable skill with vulgarity. It was indeed useful to him later in life. However, if I portray scatological vulgarity, I ought as well to portray sexual vulgarity, and this is a topic I am not sure I want to write more thoroughly than I have. The latter form of vulgarity would effect Luther's portrayal very little, but it would effect the portrayal of Dolnstein and the fictional characters a great deal. It would certainly be more accurate. I have not yet made up my mind about this particular aesthetic choice. In sum, this book rests on years of research in original sources, often in their original languages, as well as over 500 books on Martin Luther and Late Medieval - Reformation Europe. Yet, in the end it is only a novel. Though its foundation is stout, this book is at heart a work of fiction.