Erfurt's dance of death,

Adam and Eve

Götz: Adam and Eve

Kruspe: Adam and Eve

The first humans are expelled from Paradise, with Death breathing down their necks. Götz' watercolour (above) show one those cherubims, who are tasked with guarding the Tree of life from now on.

Normally this scene is placed at the start of the dance, which is far more logical, because the Original Sin is the cause of all ensuing death. This is where we find Adam and Eve in La Chaise-Dieu, Bern, Mors de la Pomme, Les loups ravissans, La vie de l'Homme, Markus Reinhart's book of hours and, of course, in Holbein's dance of death. It did come at the very end in Basel, but in this dance the Paradise-scene was a much later addition, maybe as late as 1616.

According to our oldest source, Arnold from 1802, the same was true in Erfurt. Arnold placed the Expulsion on his list as No. 2, and so did Götz and Pohle later. When Kruspe published his drawings in 1872 (picture to the right), he used a totally different sequence, but he still had the Expulsion placed as No. 2.

On the present site, however, we follow the order used by Schröer, who probably used a booklet by Schellenberg, and they place the Expulsion very late in the dance.

Der Tod kein Tanz!
Des Todes Tyrannei beherrscht die ganze Welt,
Nachdem der schlaue Feind das erste Paar gefällt.
Es ist der alte Bund:(1) von einem Tag zum andern
Sieht man die grosse Schaar durch's Thal des Todes wandern.
Das Sterben aber geht, wie kann es anders sein!
Den Meisten zentnerschwer und mehr als sauer ein.
Was kann Entsetzlichers und Grässlichers auf Erden
Wohl als der Sünden Sold, der Tod, gefunden werden!
Kommt, die ihr noch nicht wisst, was dieser Würger kann,
Und schaut der Sünde Tod doch etwas ernstlich an,
Betrachtet mit Bedacht die ängstlichen Geberden !
Schaut! wie das Antlitz bleich, die Augen dunkel werden!
Seht doch der Lippen Göscht, hört, wie die Kehle schluckt!
Schaut, wie der Sterbende mit Händ und Füssen zuckt!
Wie in der lichten Noth die welken Glieder zittern!
Eh' dieser Wütherich das Herze kann zersplittern,
Eh' der Tyrann noch den völl'gen Sieg erhält!
Sagt! wie euch dieser Tanz, ihr Sterblichen, gefällt!
Was steht ihr starr und stumm, was ringet ihr die Hände!
Ein unbekehrter Mensch nimmt nur ein traurig Ende.

Death is not a Dance
The tyranny of death rules the whole world,
ever since the cunning enemy struck down the first couple.
It is the old covenant:(1) from one day to the next.
One sees the great crowd wandering through the Valley of Death.
But death is - how could it be otherwise!
- for most as heavy as a millstone and more than sour.
What more horrible and horrible thing can be found on earth
than the wages of sin, Death?
Come, you who do not yet know what this strangler can do,
and look at the Death caused by Sin a little seriously.
Consider carefully the anxious gestures!
Look! how the face turns pale, the eyes dark!
See how the lips turn pale, hear how the chest rises,
See how the dying man trembles through all his limbs;
How the withered limbs tremble in the bright distress!
Before this madman can shatter the heart,
Before the tyrant gains complete victory!
Tell me! How you like this dance, you mortals!
Why do you stand there stiff and silent, why do you wring your hands!
An unconverted person only comes to a sad end.

The headline »Der Tod kein Tanz« once again points to Lübeck's "new" text. However, this time it's not a quote from the painting, but from those books that Nathanael Schlott published himself shortly after. In these books Schlott added a conclusion to the dance of death: thesis "Der Tod ist kein Tantz" and antithesis "Der Tod ist ein Tantz".

Here in Erfurt the antithesis is Christ victorious.

Götz and Pohle have another version of the two lines starting: »Seht doch der Lippen Göscht«:

Seht, wie die Lippe bleicht, hört wie die Brust sich hebt,
Schaut wie's dem Sterbenden durch alle Glieder bebt;

I have chosen to base the translation on these 2 lines for the sole reason that I have no idea what "Göscht" means.

Footnotes: (1)

Syrach / Ecclesiasticus 14:17, All flesh waxeth old as a garment: for the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shalt die the death.

There's also a reference to this "alter Bund" in Lübeck's new text, where Death says to the emperor: »Mein alter Bund gilt mehr, als Apfel, Schwerdt und Bullen«.