(ca. 1500) medieval Dutch story
The Dutch story Marieke van Nimwegen dates to the late medieval period, around 1500. At that time, belief in witchcraft was very prominent, and witches were believed to be women who had sexual relationships with the devil. Marieke van Nimwe-gen is the story of such a woman and her eventual redemption. The story is a “miracle play,” a medieval drama dealing with religious subjects.
The story’s main character is Marieke, a young and beautiful orphan who lives with her uncle Gijs-brecht, a pious priest, near the town of Nimwegen. After her father and mother, Gijsbrecht’s sister, died, she came to live with her uncle to keep his house for him. One evening, Marieke goes to the market in Nimwegen and accidentally gets caught away from home in the dark. She begs refuge with her aunt, Gijsbrecht’s other sister, but her aunt refuses her and accuses her of prostitution and drunkenness. Marieke is enraged and storms out of the town to find some bushes by the road to sleep under.
When Marieke angrily swears that she does not care whether it is God or the devil who comes to her aid, a one-eyed devil appears in the road before her. He introduces himself as Moenen, the Master of Arts. He says that if she comes to live with him in Antwerp, he can teach her seven arts: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and alchemy. Marieke badly wants to learn these things and agrees to live with him. Before they leave, Moe-nen makes her change her name to Emmeken (since Marieke means Mary, a name unpleasant for the devil) and swear never to make the sign of the cross.
When Marieke does not return from the market, Gijsbrecht gets worried and goes to Nimwegen to ask his sister if she has seen her. His sister first denies it but finally tells Gijsbrecht that she had turned his niece away. Gijsbrecht returns home deeply saddened and worried.
After living with Moenen for seven years and learning many things from him, Marieke becomes homesick and tired of the sinful life they live. She convinces the devil to take her back to Nimwegen, where she immediately slips away and returns to Gijsbrecht. The devil attempts to murder her but is prevented by God because Marieke is repentant. Marieke and Gijsbrecht travel to Rome, where she visits the pope to repent for betraying God and living with the devil. Three rings of iron are put around her neck and arms, and she is told that if the rings fall off, everything she has done will be forgiven. Deeply repentant, Marieke spends the next 24 years at a monastery for converted sinners with the weight of the rings upon her. Finally, an angel comes to her and removes the rings, and Marieke is at last redeemed.
The story of Marieke van Nimwegen is a famous tale in the Netherlands and was made into a movie titled Mariken Van Nieumeghen in 1974. Today, a statue of Marieke stands in Nimwegen, Holland.
English Versions of Marieke van Nimwegen
Raferty, Margaret M., ed. Mary of Nemmegen. Medieval and Renaissance Texts, vol. 5. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 1991.
Rietbergen, P. J. A. N. Europe: A Cultural History. New York: Routledge, 1999.
Warner, Marina. From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and their Tellers. New York: Noonday Press, 1996.
