"Frau Holle" (; ; also known as "Mother Holle", "Mother Hulda" or "Old Mother Frost") is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Children's and Household Tales in 1812 (KHM 24). It is of Aarne-Thompson type 480.
Frau Holle (also known in various regions as Holla, Holda, Perchta, Berchta, Berta, or Bertha) was a folk figure whom the Grimms claimed survived in popular belief well into the 19th century. The figure originated as an ancient pre-Christian Germanic and Scandinavian goddess of winter, domestic crafts, and the underworld before being preserved in European folklore and published as a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm in 1812.
The name may be cognate of the Scandinavian creature known as the Hulder. Jacob Grimm made an attempt to establish her as a Germanic goddess.
Legendary creature
Etymology The name is thought to originate from German huld ("gracious, friendly, sympathetic, grateful" found in hold sein, huldigen), Middle High German hulde, Old High German huldī ("friendliness"). Cognate with Danish and Swedish huld ("fair, kindly, gracious") or 'hyld' ("secret, hidden"), Icelandic hollur ("faithful, dedicated, loyal"), Middle English hold, holde, Old English hold ("gracious, friendly, kind, favorable, true, faithful, loyal, devout, acceptable, pleasant"), from Proto-Germanic hulþaz ("favourable, gracious, loyal"), from Proto-Indo-European *kel- ("to tend, incline, bend, tip").
The name Hludana is found in five Latin inscriptions: three from the lower Rhine (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XIII 8611, 8723, 8661), one from Münstereifel () and one from Beetgum, Frisia () all dating from 197 AD-235 AD. Many attempts have been made to interpret this name.An early interpretation, with quoted inscriptions, is Boissevain noted the Celtic form Hluðena and located inscriptions among the Frisian Ingaevones of
Origins and attestations
In Germanic folklore, Hulda, Holda, Holle, and Holla were all names to denote a single being. Hulda is also related to the Germanic figure of Perchta. She dwells at the bottom of a well, rides a wagon, and first taught the craft of making linen from flax. According to Erika Timm, Perchta emerged from an amalgamation of Germanic and pre-Germanic, traditions of the Alpine regions after the Migration Period in the Early Middle Ages.Timm, Erika. 2003. Frau Holle, Frau Percht, und verwandte Gestalten: 160 Jahre nach Grimm aus germanistischer Sicht betrachtet.
Holda's connection to the spirit world through the magic of spinning and weaving has associated her with witchcraft in Catholic, German folklore. She was considered to ride with witches on distaffs, which closely resemble the brooms that witches are thought to ride. Likewise, Holda was often identified with Diana in old church documents. As early as the beginning of the 11th century, she appears to have been known as the leader of women, and of female nocturnal spirits, which "in common parlance are called Hulden from Holda". These women would leave their houses in spirit, going "out through closed doors in the silence of the night, leaving their sleeping husbands behind". They would travel vast distances through the sky, to great feasts, or to battles amongst the clouds.
The 9th-century Canon Episcopi censures women who claim to have ridden with a "crowd of demons". Burchard's later recension of the same text expands on this in a section titled "De arte magica":
Have you believed there is some female, whom the stupid vulgar call Holda [in manuscript Cod. Vat. 4772, strigam Holdam, the witch Holda], who is able to do a certain thing, such that those deceived by the devil affirm themselves by necessity and by command to be required to do, that is, with a crowd of demons transformed into the likeness of women, on fixed nights to be required to ride upon certain beasts, and to themselves be numbered in their company? If you have performed participation in this unbelief, you are required to do penance for one year on designated fast-days. Based on critical editions and manuscripts listed on p. 440.
Later canonical and church documents make her synonymous with Diana, Herodias, Bertha, Richella, and Abundia. Carlo Ginzburg has identified similar beliefs existing throughout Europe for over 1,000 years, whereby men and women were thought to leave their bodies in spirit and follow a goddess variously called Holda, Diana, Herodias, Signora Oriente, Richella, Arada, and Perchta. He also identifies strong morphological similarities with the earlier goddesses Hecate / Artemis, Artio, the Matres of Engyon, the Matronae, and Epona, as well as figures from fairy-tales, such as Cinderella.
A 16th-century fable recorded by Erasmus Alberus speaks of "an army of women" with sickles in hand sent by Frau Hulda. Thomas Reinesius in the 17th century speaks of Werra of the Voigtland and her "crowd of maenads."
Here cometh up Dame Hulde with the snout, to wit, nature, and goeth about to gainstay her God and give him the lie, hangeth her old ragfair about her, the straw-harness; then falls to work and scrapes it featly on her fiddle. — M. Luther (1522)
Grimm based his theory of Holda on what he took to be the earliest references to her: An 11th-century interpolation to the Canon Episcopi by Burchard of Worms, and pre-Christian Roman inscriptions to Hludana that he tentatively linked to the same divinity. There were early challenges to connecting this figure with a pagan goddess,The early challenges were summarized in since her earliest definite appearance links her with the Virgin Mary, commonly called the "Queen of Heaven": An early-13th-century text listing superstitions states that "In the night of Christ's Nativity they set the table for the Queen of Heaven, whom the people call Frau Holda, that she might help them"., quoted by . This text, an Aberglaubenverzeichnis (a common late-medieval and early modern genre), was compiled in the years 1236–1250 by Rudolph, a Cistercian monk. Lotte Motz and Ginzburg both conclude that she is pre-Christian in origin, based on comparison with other remarkably similar figures and ritual observances spread throughout Europe.
A pagan Holda received wide distribution in catalogs of superstitions and in sermons during the 15th century, and in the 16th, Martin Luther employed the image to personify the shortcomings of hostile Reason in theological contexts.
Variants Frau Gauden
Frau Gauden, also known as Frau Gode, Frau Gaur, Fru Goden, Frau Wohl, and Mutter Gauerken, is a being from the folklore of Mecklenburg. She is said to be cursed because she expressed to prefer eternally hunt rather than go to Heaven, and her daughters, who expressed the same desire, were transformed into small dogs who either pull her wagon or sled, or serve as hunting dogs. She visits the homes of humans during the Twelve Nights of Christmas and punishes the lazy while sometimes rewarding the virtuous or those who help her. Also available from Google Books.
Perchta
The Grimms say Perchta or Berchta was known "precisely in those Upper German regions where Holda leaves off, in Swabia, in Alsace, in Switzerland, in Bavaria and Austria."Grimm, Jacob (1882). Deutsche Mythologie 4th ed. . Trans. James Stallybrass Grimm's Teutonic Mythology Volume 1. According to Jacob Grimm (1882), Perchta was spoken of in Old High German in the 10th century as Frau Berchta and thought to be a white-robed female spirit. She was known as a goddess who oversaw spinning and weaving, like myths of Holda in Continental German regions. He believes she was the feminine equivalent of Berchtold, and she was sometimes the leader of the wild hunt.
According to Erika Timm, Perchta emerged from an amalgamation of Germanic and pre-Germanic, probably Celtic, traditions of the Alpine regions after the Migration Period in the Early Middle Ages.
Spillaholle The Spillaholle (Silesian German also Spillahulle,Marzell: Spillaholle. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 1 Aal-Butzemann. Berlin/New York 2000 p. 262. Spillahole, Spillahôle,Marzell: Spillaholle. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 1 Aal-Butzemann. Berlin/New York 2000 p. 261. Spiellahole;Richard Beitl: Untersuchungen zur Mythologie des Kindes. Münster/New York/München/Berlin 2007, p. 136. Standard German: Spindelholle; English translation: "spindle Holle") is a legendary creature exclusively found in German folklore of formerly German Silesia including Austrian Silesia.Richard Kühnau: Sagen aus Schlesien. Paderborn 2011, p. 27. A similar being is found in folktales of formerly German-speaking Bohemia.Josef Virgil Grohmann: Sagen-Buch von Böhmen und Mähren. Berlin 2013, p. 39. The Spillaholle is a Silesian variant of female German legendary creatures such as Hulda (Frau Holle) or Perchta. In Bohemia, she is simply known as Frau Holle ("Mrs. Holle"). Other Silesian names are Satzemsuse, Mickadrulle, and Mickatrulle.Will-Erich Peuckert: Schlesische Sagen. Munich 1993, p. 264.
The Spindelholle is a sallow old woman with short arms and legs, sometimes directly called a hag. She appears hooded (characterized by the name Popelhole or Popelhôle; Standard German: Popelholle; English translation: "hooded Holle") or wearing ragged clothing (as shown by the name variant Zumpeldrulle or Zompeldroll). She also can be seen in old Franconian dress or generally shaped as a pelt sleeve. The Bohemian Frau Holle is a small and ugly old woman who carries a bunch of stinging nettles.
The main activity of the Spillaholle is connected with spinning, for she is the overseer of spinning taboos and a bogey used for spinning children. Therefore, a broad variety of names for the Spillaholle shows connection to spindles, such as Spilladrulle, Spillagritte, Spillmarthe, Spillalutsche or Spellalutsche.
The appearance of the Spillaholle is mainly during the winter months, especially during Advent, Christmas or during the Zwölften (twelve nights of Christmas). She goes from house to house to see if the children and spinsters are spinning diligently, looking through the windows or even all gaps in the house wall. When they are still spinning during evening and night, then there will be slight or even severe punishments.
When spinsters are not finished with their spinning, then the Satzemsuse will sit in their lap during spinning or even give them fiery spindles instead of normal ones. The Spillaholle takes the lazy spinsters away. Frau Holle beats them with a batch of stinging nettles. If all the tow is already spun, then not only will there be no punishment, but also one of Holle's apotropaic nettles left behind to banish misfortune from the house for the whole of the coming year. Additionally, in Bohemia all spinning is banned on the night of St. Thomas. If a spinster is working anyway, she will be punished by Frau Holle.
To children spinning in the night the Spindelholle says: "Verzage nicht, verzage nicht, warum spinnst du die Zahl am Tage nicht?" (Do not quail, do not quail, why do you not spin the number at day?) Then she kills the children or takes them away. That this will not happen the children will be warned by their parents when at evening the wind is howling in the stove: "Die Spillagritte kommt!" (The Spillagritte comes!), or they will have to listen to the following rhyme:
Silesian German Standard German English Spennt, Kendala, spennt, Spinnt, Kinderlein, spinnt, Spin, little children, spin, De Spellalutsche kemmt; Die Spillalutsche kommt; The Spillalutsche comes; Se guckt zu olla Löchlan rei, Sie guckt zu allen Löchlein rein, She peeks through all the little gaps, Ebs Strânla watt bâle fertig sein. Ob das Strähnlein wird bald fertig sein. If the little strand will be finished soon.