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FREISCHUTZ

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 96 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FREISCHUTZ , in See also:

German See also:folklore, a marksman who by a compact with the See also:devil has obtained a certain number of bullets destined to See also:hit without fail whatever See also:object he wishes. As the See also:legend is usually told, six of the Freikugeln or " See also:free bullets " are thus subservient to the marksman's will, but the seventh is at the See also:absolute disposal of the devil himself. Various methods were adopted in See also:order to procure See also:possession of the marvellous missiles. According to one the marksman, instead of swallowing the sacramental See also:host, kept it and fixed it on a See also:tree, s''ot at it and caused it to bleed See also:great drops of See also:blood, gathered the drops on a piece of See also:cloth and reduced the whole to ashes, and then with these ashes added the requisite virtue to the See also:lead of which his bullets were made. Various See also:vegetable or See also:animal substances had the reputation of serving the same purpose. Stories about the Freischutz were especially See also:common in See also:Germany during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries; but the first See also:time that the legend was turned to See also:literary profit is said to have been by Apel in the Gespensterbuch or " See also:Book of Ghosts." It formed the subject of See also:Weber's See also:opera Der Freischutz (1821), the libretto of which was written by See also:Friedrich See also:Kind, who had suggested Apel's See also:story as an excellent theme for the composer. The name by which the Freischutz is known in See also:French is See also:Robin See also:des Bois. See Kind, Freyschiitzbuch (See also:Leipzig, 1843) ; Revue des deux mondes (See also:February 1855); See also:Grasse, See also:Die Quelle des Freischutz (See also:Dresden, 1875).

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