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.
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. 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. 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, 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".
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.
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." 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. Spillahole, Spillahôle, Spiellahole;
Standard German: Spindelholle; 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. 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: 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 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 band of wood sprites. The Bohemian Frau Holle is accompanied by small deformed wights whom she orders to beat lazy and slovenly spinsters with rods. == Fairy tale ==