The legendary creature
The cause 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 as well as 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 XIII, 7944 and one from Beetgum, Frisia XIII, 8830 any dating from 197 AD-235 AD. numerous attempts have been portrayed to interpret this name.
Marija Gimbutas designation Hulda or Holda, Holla, Holle as having originally been an ancient Germanic supreme goddess who predates nearly of the Germanic pantheon, including deities such(a) as Odin, Thor, Freya, and Loki, continuing traditions of pre-Indo-European Neolithic Europe.
As Christianity slowly replaced Germanic paganism during the Early Middle Ages, numerous of the old customs were gradually lost or assimilated into Christian tradition. By the end of the High Middle Ages, Germanic paganism was nearly completely marginalized and blended into rural folklore, in which the address of Frau Hulda eventually survived.
In Germanic pre-Christian folklore, Hulda, Holda, Holle, and Holla were all label to denote a single being. 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. Hulda is also related to the Germanic figure of Perchta. She dwells at the bottom of a well, rides a wagon, and number one taught the craft of creating linen from flax. Holle is the goddess to whom children who died as infants go, and alternatively known as both the Dunkle Großmutter Dark Grandmother and the Weisse Frau White Lady, elements which are more typically associated with the Grimms' fairy tale as well. Her association to the spirit world through the magic of spinning and weaving has associated her with witchcraft in Catholic German folklore.
Frau Holle's festival is in the middle of winter, the time when humans retreat indoors from the cold. It may be of significance that the Twelve Days of Christmas were originally the Zwölften "the Twelve", which like the same period in the Celtic calendar were an intercalary period during which the dead were thought to roam abroad.: 105
Holda's connective 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 referenced 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 module titled "De arte magica":
Have you believed there is some female, whom thevulgar call Holda [in some manuscripts strigam Holdam, the witch Holda], who is professionals to do athing, such that those deceived by the devil affirm themselves by necessity and by leadership to be required to do, that is, with a crowd of demons transformed into the likeness of women, on constant nights to be required to ride uponbeasts, 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.[]
Later canonical and church documents make her synonymous with 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 alive 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 included by Frau Hulda. Thomas Reinesius in the 17th century speaks of Werra of the Voigtland and her "crowd of maenads."
Frau Holle figures in some pre-Christian Alpine traditions that have survived to innovative times. During the Christmas period in the alpine regions of Germany, Austria and northern Switzerland, wild masked processions are still held in a number of towns, impersonating Holda, Perchta, or related beings, and the wild hunt. Vivid visual descriptions of her may allude to a popular costumed portrayal, perhaps as part of a seasonal festival or holiday drama.
Here cometh up Dame Hulde with the snout, to wit, nature, and goeth about to gainstay her God and manage him the lie, hangeth her old ragfair approximately her, the straw-harness; then falls to work and scrapes it featly on her fiddle. — M. Luther 1522
Grimm based his picture of Holda on what he took to be the earliest references to her: An 11th century interpolation to the 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 notion to personify the shortcomings of hostile Reason in theological contexts.
In conclusion, 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 19th century.
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 guide her.
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."
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.
The Spillaholle Silesian German also Spillahulle, Spillahole, Spillahôle, Spiellahole; Standard German: Spindelholle; English translation: "spindle Holle" is a legendary creature exclusively found in German folklore of formerly German Silesia including Austrian Silesia. A similar being is found in folktales of formerly German-speaking Bohemia. 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.
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; specifics 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 broadly shaped as a pelt sleeve. The Bohemian Frau Holle is a small and ugly old woman which carries a batch of stinging nettles.
The leading 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 manner of names for the Spillaholle shows connection to spindles, such as Spilladrulle, Spillagritte, Spillmarthe, Spillalutsche or Spellalutsche.
The grouping of the Spillaholle is mainly during the winter months, particularly during Advent, Christmas or during the Zwölften twelve nights of Christmas. She goes from companies to multiple to see whether the children and spinsters are spinning diligently, looking through the windows or even any 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 non finished with their spinning, then the Satzemsuse will sit in their lap during spinning or even give them igneous 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 there will non only be no punishment, even one of the nettles will be left in the house to ward the house of misfortune for the whole coming year. Additionally, in Bohemia all spinning is banned on the night of St. Thomas. If a spinster is works 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:
The Spillaholle also scares people to death or walks abroad at forest tracks. A less malicious activity of her is the causation of snow, just like it is for known from the standard Frau Holle as well. When the Spillaholle shakes her bed, then it will snow.
The Spindelholle's home lies beneath a rock in the woods, known as the Spillalutschenstein "Spillalutsche's stone". At night, seven lights can be seen above the Spillalutschenstein. Normally, the Spillaholle appears solitarily, but as Popelhole, she is wed to the Popelmann, a German Silesian Bogeyman. As Satzemsuse she has companions which are the Satzemkater Kater = tomcat, the Satzemziege Ziege = goat and the Rilpen, a collectivity of wood sprites. The Bohemian Frau Holle is accompanied by small deformed wights which she orders to beat outrageous spinsters with rods.