Lübeck's Dance of Death

Dances of Death in Lübeck, Tallinn, Berlin and Denmark. Pictures, books and primary sources. Several books are reproduced.

Our only witness to the text from 1463 is Jacob von Melle who wrote down the text and published it in his books with the words "zum Gedächtnis, und dem Alterthum zu Ehren". Countless other dances of death have since disappeared without a trace - because they did not have a Jakob von Melle to record them.

Today - with the Internet full of medieval texts - there's still next to nothing about dances of death. This is a pity because dances of death are a great source for discovering the medieval state of mind - since the dance of death is a mirror of the entire society. There's also quite an amount of satire and social criticism.

We are no longer threatened by The Black Death - but Death itself hasn't retired, and whether we shall die simultaneously - hand in hand as on the paintings - or one at a time as in the manuscripts - the mortality rate remains the same as in the Middle Ages, namely 100%.

Therefore this site - for remembrance, and to honour the antiquity.

This site concentrates on the medieval Low German dances of death (Lübeck, Tallinn and Berlin), but as a Dane, Martin Hagstrøm felt obliged to describe all Danish dances of death (there's nothing about them on the Net either). Later Martin Hagstrøm intend to include dances of death from Klever and from St. Paul's in London.

http://www.dodedans.com