or ('Bertha'; ), also commonly known as () and other variations, was thought to be a goddess in Alpine paganism in the Upper German and also Austrian and Slovenian regions of the Alps.
The Perchta/Berchta lore holds sway "precisely [in the areas] where Holda leaves off", thus complementing each other. For Perchta is often identified as stemming from the same Germanic goddess as Holda and other female figures of Germanic folklore (see Frija-Frigg). They both oversee spinning, share the role of guardian of woodland beasts. Perchta is Holda's southern cousin or equivalent, as they both share and appear during the Twelve Days of Christmas.Motz according to Hilton 1984.
Nomenclature Perchta, Berchta, or Percht, also variously spelt , Berchta, , (or ,) , etc., is a female character with ambivalent traits and a wide range of role in the folklore of Upper Germany/South Germany (especially Bavaria/Swabia but also the Vogtland), Austria (particularly around Salzburg), Italian South Tyrol, Slovene Carinthia, (Enzyk. des Märchens), p. 722 quoted with English translation by . as well as Alsace and Switzerland.
She may be addressed as Frau Percht/Frau Perchta (Mrs. Perchta), etc.
is a reconstructed spelling, which Grimm asserted to be the earlier Old High German form (which will be rediscussed under below).
Regional variations of the name include (in Styria), , , () (, ) , , (, ), , etc. Some of these names may count as parallels, for which cf. where additional examples such as Posterli, Quatemberca, Fronfastenweiber. and , are listed).
The equivalent of the Perchta in Slovene is known as , or (generally in Slovene Carinthia/Koroška), but she is also known among the Wends (Slovenes) in Austrian Carinthia as ,, or (in Möll valley), etc.; with variants known as or (in Bovec, Slovenia), and (localized in Upper Carniola to the north).
The counterpart of the German Perchta/Perchta in Czechia, is called , , or , in Bohemia ( in northern Bohemia, , , or in Central Bohemia) and in Moravia. Perchta however has come to denote a mare prop fashioned out of linen in southern Bohemia, so an anthropomorphic (costumed) Perchta needs to be distinguished.
Etymology The name of Perchta (and the festival, ) probably derives from Old High German meaning "Epiphany night".
It was Jacob Grimm who argued that the name stemmed from the Old High German from signifying the "bright one",Cf. Notes, ; but no firm evidence has been shown to substantiate this. Perchta is not attested before the 13th century, where she is referred to as "Domina Perchta"., pp. 61ff apud (Enzyk. des Märchens), p. 722 quoted with English translation by .
If her name can be interpreted as 'the bright one' , it presumably descends from , from Proto-Germanic *berhtaz (which would make the name cognate with , meaning 'Epiphany day'). But Eugen Mogk provided an alternative etymology, attributing the origin of the name to the Old High German verb , meaning 'hidden' or 'covered'.
Appearance and costume In the Tyrol, she is portrayed as being "a little old woman with a very wrinkled face, bright lively eyes, and a long hooked nose; her hair is disheveled, her garments tattered and torn".
But Perchta has two forms or aspects, the beautiful and the ugly. At Lienz in the Tyrol, the masker (costumed procession participant) portraying the beautiful version dons dresses decked with ribbons and galloons, while those in the other role look hideous, with rats and mice, bells and chains hanging from them.
The historical Bertha Broadfoot (Bertrada of Laon), mother of Charlemagne may have had influence on the conception of Perchta with a strange foot, albeit unwittingly. In many old descriptions, Perchta had one large foot, sometimes called a goose foot or swan foot. Grimm thought the strange foot symbolized her being a higher being who could shapeshift to animal form. He noticed that Bertha with a strange foot exists in many languages (Middle German "Berhte mit dem fuoze", French "Berthe au grand pied", Latin "Berhta cum magno pede", Italian " Berta dai gran piè", title of a medieval epic poem of Italian area): "It is apparently a swan maiden's foot, which as a mark of her higher nature she cannot lay aside...and at the same time the spinning-woman's that worked the treadle, and that of the trampling dame Stempe or Trempe".
Holiday tradition Perchta was said to roam the countryside at midwinter, and to enter homes during the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany (especially on the Twelfth Night), and the eve of Epiphany was called Berchta's Day. The pertinent period is sometimes referred to as ("Rough nights"), usually from St. Thomas's Night (December 21) to Epiphany, thus coinciding with twelfth night. (cf. also Ember days pertinent to )
Perchta was regarded the guardian of the spinstress's occupation, that is to say, she enforced the timely job of spinning duties, usually to be completed before the holidays, or make it taboo to spin during the holidays. Thus, tradition warned that she was particularly concerned to see that girls had spun the whole of their allotted portion of flax or wool during the year. Perchta inspects the distaff on the twelve days, and if any spinstress has left flax or tow unspun, Pertha will scratch the lazy girl's face and smack her fingers, leaving a permanent scar. Or worse, she will slit the culprit's belly and stuff flax inside. The Perchtra-baba shows up in the custom among Slovenes in Möll valley, Carinthia, while the ( "star singers") and the Three Kings singers visit house to house.
She would also impose the same kind of cruel punishment for another infringement, namely eating something other than the fish and gruel permitted on fast days; she will slit the fast-breacher's bellies open and stuff them with straw, sewing it up using plowshare for needle and chains for thread. A variant telling states that the victim's slit belly is filled with stone, and the weighed down body sunk in a well; however, the punishment for laziness and the meal infraction could be milder, merely making the perpetrator have a nightmare ( caused by an Alp).
It is similarly told in Czechia. If children attempt to partake of the Christmas meal too early, they are frightened by the prospect of the Parychta ripping their bellies open. Or else, the Peruta enforces the fast on Christmas.
The same Perchta (or Perchta-Holle) who punishes poorly motivated spinners will reward diligent spinners with full spindles, golden threads, and flax tow, and the good maidservant may even find coins (silver groschens) in a bucket (usually at the well). She is also said to be responsible for the growth of the grain.
In the Czech region, the () appears on Christmas Eve, dressed frightfully in furs, holding a knife in a bloody hand, to frighten children.
Bogeyman aspect In contemporary culture, this Perchta is portrayed as a "rewarder of the generous, and the punisher of the bad, particularly lying children",, Abstract: "This paper links Perchta's behaviour, and that of other bogeyman figures, to their historical context". but this bogeyman aspect was of a later development, and initially, Perchta's role was to hunt down those who failed to comply with communal taboos, and did not call for such unusual an cruel punishment that did not fit the gravity of the petty crime.
Bribes of food The cult venerating Abundia or Satia (called "Fraw Percht" by the common people) involved followers leaving food and drink for Fraw Percht and her retinue in the hope of receiving wealth and abundance; this practice was condemned in Bavaria in the Thesaurus pauperum (1468) attributed to Petrus Hispanus (presumably the later pope), and by Thomas Ebendorfer von Haselbach's De decem praeceptis (1439).
According to one piece of folktale, a farmwoman of Kalwang, Styria would put out milk as offering to the (or ) as the mistress was called locally; the farmhand working for her was a disbeliever, and endeavoring to debunk the myth, hid in a stove and peeped through a bore hole on the Perchtlnacht (evening on or before Epiphany); but when Perchtlgoba and her retinue of the souls of unbaptized children, she ordered the "opening" to be covered, which caused the man to be struck blind, though he was unblinded when he hid the same way the next Perchtlnacht and she ordered "Uncover the opening".
Ward of children
The Perchta-Holle conflation is observed for the female supernatural seen as guardians of the children's souls and associated with water-springs.
Such a Frau Holle (or Perchta-Holle) is associated with Frau-Holle-Teich ("Mrs. Holle's Pond") in Hesse, who enforces spinning threads, is also associated with children in many ways. She heals and bestows fertility upon women who steep themselves in her well, which is located near Meißner in Hesse. Newborn infants are engendered in this well, and she brings them into the world, according to folklore. Similarly, Berchta is said to dwell in a Tyrolean cave, cohabitating with unborn children, and women wishing to give birth must visit upon the divinity at this landmark (near Lusarn, i.e. Luserna in the now Italian South Tyrol) in order to be successful.
The Perchta-Holle of the well in Hesse will also snatch children into her pond: the good ones she transforms into children of fortune, turning the naughty ones into changelings. Perchta (Perchtl) is said to be followed by a retinue of children who died unbaptized.
Festival
The festival itself is called Perchtenlauf (the "Perchten run" or "race"),
The is mentioned by (1796), and described as a tradition practiced in those heydays all over the Pongau and Pinzgau districts. Back in those days, something on the order of 100 to 300 participants would be involved, disguised in comical masks and toting weapons while they danced around in broad daylight, especially at Pinzgau., also recapped in brief by ; Another early accounts given by Friedrich von Spaur in 1800, traveling through the Pinzgau region of the State of Salzburg.
Around the turn of 20th century (), the participating area had dwindled to pockets in the area such as St. Johann and Gastein in the Pongau District, or Krimml and Zell am See in the Pinzgau district. And the district courts of Zell am See and Mittersill issued bans forbidding people from participating as the "ugly" Perchten.
An account of the procession of the Schiache or "Ugly" Perchten, from an informant who witnessed it in the first half of the 19th century, was that about a dozen men from neighboring villages enacting the Perchten would meet at the appointed place to march together. They were clad in sheepskin and wore badger skin caps, leather belts affixed with bells. They wore carved wooden masks with crudely humanlike visages, though with elongated teeth and long horns, or wore beast-basks, with beaks, bristles, or movable jaws. They carried torches or lamps surmounted on staffs. There were sub-characters in the retinue, such as the fools and she-fools (), and the jester carried a sausage-shaped roll stuffed with wool, with which he would mischievously whack onlooking women who were his acquaintances. There would also be a quack doctor () carrying a load of snake oils and ointments in his basket.
As for Schöne or "Beautiful" Perchten, around 1900, both in Bad Gastein and St. Johann, the Schöne Perchten had been portrayed by a man wearing an enormously tall headdress, heavily decorated, weighing , often supported on metal frames borne on his shoulders. He was accompanied by "G'sellin" (feminine of , "associate") enacted by a boy in woman's dress (cf. image left). Some in Gastein wore a variant version of headdress, like a cone-shaped fish trap made of willow withes as framework, and covered with various decorations.
(Cf. describing mostly the present-day version)
Interpretations