The template for this extensive novella, published in 1832 by Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853), is a historical event from the year 1459, when the northern French city of Arras was swept by a wave of witch hysteria. Tieck places two women at the center of his narrative: the young widow Catharina Denisel, who is denounced by the church and accused of witchcraft, and the venerated beggar Gertrud, who ultimately succumbs to religious madness and accuses herself of witchcraft.