Les origines étranges de la comptine Am Stram Gram !

Shamanism exists worldwide, including in the heart of Germanic Europe before being erased by Christianity.

• Amazon rituals • Native American Great Spirit • Ceremonies of the Caucasus, Siberia, and Mongolia

European shamanism did not entirely disappear; it survived through obscure traditions and oral transmission.

Explore the legacy of European shamanism and its unexpected connection to the nursery rhyme Am Stram Gram.

During the Merovingian era (6th–8th centuries), paganism experienced a strong resurgence, not as Gallic religion but as aggressive paganism from the Germanic sphere.

• Boniface of Mainz in the 8th century • Burchard of Worms in the 11th century • Fought shamanistic rituals incompatible with the Judeo-Christian universe

Missionaries Latinized pagan deities to transform them into known biblical references, reducing new cults to identified heresies.

By labeling shamanism as a deviation from known cults, the Church consciously or accidentally made it disappear from memory.

• Christian written sources allow historians to rediscover shamanism • Oral transmission preserves obscure traditions

21st-century healers and bonesetters still perform rituals using formulas whose meaning and deep origin they ignore.

These ancient formulas spread through society in the form of children's nursery rhymes like Am Stram Gram.

The nursery rhyme Am Stram Gram makes no sense in French nor in the 15 other versions recorded in Arabic, Hebrew, Brazilian Portuguese, and so on.

A feast for the dead takes place 3 days after death, presided over by the officiant called mag-saca.

• Ingestion of beer mixed with drugs and the deceased's blood • Frenzied dancing with the tan (magical wand or staff)

The tan allows the mag-saca to command Gram (Mana-Gram, the Celestial Wolf), who is emstrang, meaning ever-strong.

The officiant sings the ritual chant and falls into a magical trance called night-riding or seidhr, revealing the future.

Emstrang Gram / Bigà bigà ic calle Gram / Bure bure ic raede tan, Emstrang Gram !

• Ever-strong Grain • Come, come, I call upon you Grain • Hasten, for I command you by the wand, Ever-strong Grain

The original chant with clear meaning gradually mutated into the nursery rhyme Am Stram Gram, losing its context and significance.

Children use Am Stram Gram for drawing lots without knowing its shamanistic origin.

• Ysengrin from the Roman de Renart (Provençal version In Sin Grin) • Etymology: Old English grennian (bare teeth), High German grînen (grate), Dutch grinsen (sneer)

Managarm can be linked to the Norse wolves Managarm, Sköll, and Hati who devour the sun and moon, honored by Swedish metal band Månegarm.

Eredin, master of the Wild Hunt riders in The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski, revives the figure of Heredainn and his night-riding.

These legacies demonstrate that European shamanism influenced literature, mythology, and popular culture throughout the centuries.