willkommen-in-germany:“Frau Holle” (aka “Mother Hulda” or “Old Mother

willkommen-in-germany:“Frau Holle” (aka “Mother Hulda” or “Old Mother Frost”) is a German fairy tale that comes from the book Kinder- und Hausmärchen, collected by the Grimm brothers. It’s the 24th story in the first volume of the book, published in 1812. The legend, as it was later passed to the Grimm Brothers, originates from oral traditions in Hessen, Central Germany. It was told by Henriette Dorothea Wild, whom Wilhelm Grimm married in 1825. It’s still a common expression in Hessen and beyond to say “Frau Holle is making her bed” when it’s snowing - that is, she shakes out her feather bed and out comes snow from heaven. Like many other tales collected by the Grimms, the story was used to teach a moral - in Frau Holle, it is that hard work is rewarded and laziness is punished.Marija Gimbutas names Hulda/Holle as having originally been an ancient Germanic supreme goddess who predates most of the Germanic pantheon, including deities such as Odin, Thor, Freya, and Loki, and continues traditions of pre-Indo-European Neolithic Europe. As Christianity slowly replaced Paganism in the early Middle Ages, many of the old customs were gradually lost or assimilated into Christian tradition. By the end of the High Middle Ages, Paganism was almost completely marginalized and blended into rural folklore, in which the character of Frau Holle survived. In Germanic Pre-Christian folklore, Hulda, Holda, Holle and Holla were all names to denote a single being. According to Erika Timm, Perchta emerged from an amalgamation of Germanic and pre-Germanic traditions of the Alpine region after the Migration Period in the Early Middle Ages. 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. Holle is the goddess to whom children who died as infants go - she’s alternatively known as both, the Dunkle Großmutter (Dark Grandmother) and the Weisse Frau (White Lady), elements associated with Grimm’s tale as well. Her connection to the spirit world through the magic of spinning and weaving has associated her with witchcraft in Catholic German folklore.Frau Holle is one of Germany’s most durable female legendary figures and represents a pre-Christian deity who survived in popular belief and in the memory of common people well into the 1900th century. -- source link

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