Epitome of German Mythology (excerpt 6)
...from "Northern Mythology: compromising the principal popular traditions and superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, and the Netherlands" (1851)
“Of all the divinities of whom mention has been already made Wodan alone appears to have survived in the north of Germany. From the following customs it will appear that he was regarded as a god in whose hand rested the thriving of the fruits of the field.
In Meklenburg it was formerly a custom at the rye-harvest to leave at the end of every field a little strip of grain unmowed; this with the ears the reapers plaited together and sprinkled it. They then walked round the bunch, took off their hats, raised their sithes, and called on Wodan thrice in the following verses:
“Wode, hale dynem rosse nu voder (Wode, fetch now fodder for thy horse)
nu distel unde dom, (now thistles and thorn,)
thorn andren jahr beter kom!” (for another year better com!)
The corn thus left standing for the horse of the god was a simple offering to the bestower of the harvest. At the mansions of the nobility and gentry, it was a custom, when the rye was cut, to give Wodel-beer. On a Wednesday people avoided all work in flax or sowing linseed, lest the horse of the god, who with his dogs was often heard in the fields, might tread it down.
With these customs a custom of the Mark may be compared. In the neighbourhood of the former monastery of Diesdorf, during the whole rye-harvest, a bundle of ears is left standing in every field, which is called the Vergodendee/’s Struus. When all is mowed, the people, in holy-day attire, proceed to the field with music, and bind this bundle round with a variegated riband, then leap over it and dance round it. Lastly the principal reaper cuts it with his scythe and throws it to the other sheaves. In like manner they go from field to field, and finally return to the village singing; "Nun danket alle Gott” and then from farm to farm, at each of which some harvest lines are repeated. The name of this harvest festival is Vergodendeel which is said to signify remuneration for the hard harvest-work, and is to be met with also in some of the neighbouring villages. From among the several harvest-verses we select the following:
“Ich sage einen amdtekranz, (I saw a harvest-garland,)
es ist aber ein Vergutentheils kranz, (but it is a Vergutentheil’s garland.)
Dieser kranz ist nicht von disteln und domen, (This garland is not of thistles and thorns,)
sondem von reinem auserlesenem winterkome- (but from clean, selected winter comb-)
es sind auch viele ahren darin; (there are also many ears therein;)
so mannich ahr, (so many ears,)
so mannich gat jahr, (so many good years,)
so mannich kom, (so many corns,)
so mannich wispeln auf den, (so many wispels for the master's)
wirth seinen horn boden.” (granary.)
As the resemblance between this custom and the Meklenburg one is obvious, the "Vergodendeels struus” may without hesitation be explained by “Fro Goden deels struus” i.e. the strauss or wisp, which Fro (Lord) Wodan gets for his share. Hence a similar harvest custom in Lower Saxony, at which Fru Gaue is invoked, may likewise refer to Wodan. When the reapers mow the rye, they leave some straws standing, twine flowers among them, and, after the completion of their labour, assemble round the wisp thus left standing, take hold of the ears and cry:
Fru Gone, haltet ju fauer, (Fru Gaue, hold your fodder,)
diit jar up den wagen, (this year on the wagon,)
dat andar jar up der kare. (the next year on the cart.)
It will excite but little surprise that in the uncertainty of later popular tradition this appellation has afterwards been attributed to a female divinity.
The names of the other gods have passed out of the memory of the people. Of the worship of Donar (Thor) there is perhaps still a faint trace in the custom that in Meklenburg the country people formerly thought it wrong to perform certain work on a Thursday, as hopping etc.
Of the goddesses Wodan’s wife, Frigg, was, till comparatively recent times, still living in the popular traditions of Lower Saxony, under the name of Fru Frecke, but now seems defunct. In the neighbourhood of Dent in Yorkshire the country people, at certain seasons, particularly in autumn, have a procession, and perform old dances, one of which they call the giants dance. The principal giant they call Woden, and his wife Frigga, The chief feature of the spectacle is, that two swords are swung round the neck of a boy and struck together without hurting him.
But in the popular traditions of the Germans the memory still lives of several female divinities, who do not appear in the Northern system. Goddesses can longer maintain themselves in the people's remembrance, because they have an importance for the contracted domestic circle. But their character, through length of time and Christianity, is so degraded, that they usually appear more as terrific, spectral beings than as goddesses. Whether their names even are correct, or have sprung out of mere secondary names or epithets, whether several, who appear under various names were not originally identical a supposition rendered probable by a striking resemblance in the traditions can no longer be decided. We can here only simply repeat what popular tradition relates of them.
Frau Holda or Holde still survives in Thuringian and Hessian as well as in Markish and Frankish tradition and story. The name of this goddess signifies either the kind (holde) or the dark obscure. She is represented as a being that directs the aerial phenomena imparts fruitfulness to the earthy presides over rural labours and spinning. She appears likewise as a divinity connected with water as she dwells in wells and ponds and particularly in the Hoilenteich' (so called from her) in the Meissner. From her well children come and women who descend into it become healthy and fruitful. But she also takes persons drowned to her and is so far a goddess of the nether worlds a circumstance that is alluded to in the tradition that she has her abode in mountains in which as we shall see the souls of the departed dwell. On account of these manifold and important functions Holda in the time of heathenism must no doubt have been a divinity of high rank. Other traditions concerning her are more obscure and difficult to explain. Burchard of Worms (p.194) mentions as a popular belief, that some women believed that on certain nights they rode with her on all kinds of animals and belonged to her train according to which she completely occupies the place of Diana and Herodias; and it is still a popular belief in Thuringia that the witches ride with the Holle to the Horselberg, and that like Wodan she leads the Wild Host. It is also said that she has bristling matted hair. This goddess had apparently two chief festivals one in the twelve nights of Christmas daring which she makes her tour; the other at Shrovetide, when she returns.
Frau Berchta is particularly at home among the Upper German races, in Austria, Bavaria, Swabia, Alsace, Switzerland, also in some districts of Thuringia and Franconia. She is even more degraded in popular story than Holda. She also appears in the twelve nights as a female with shaggy hair, to inspect the spinners, when fish and porridge (Brei)' are to be eaten in honour of her, and all the distaffs must be spun off. She is also the queen of the Heimchen (little elementary spirits), who by watering the fields rendered the soil fertile, while she ploughed beneath the surface, and so far has claims to the character of an earth-goddess and promoter of the fertility of the land. To those who mend her chariot she gives the chips by way of payment, which prove to be gold.
Between Berchta and Holle there is unquestionably a considerable resemblance, although their identity is extremely doubtful, as they apparently belong to different German races. The name of Berchta (Berhta, Ferahta Bertha) signifies resplendent, shining, with which the Welsh substantive berth, perfection, beauty, and the adjective berth, beautiful, rich, may be compared. As this goddess appears only in the south of Germany, it is a question whether she did not pass from the Kelts to the German races. We will not decide in the affirmative though it is worthy of remark that the name enters also into French heroic lore. Bertha with the great foot, or with the goose's foot, was, according to tradition the daughter of Flore and Blancheflor the wife of Pepin and mother of Charles the Great. In France too, the phrase the time when Bertha span is used to express days long since gone by. It was also customary to swear by the spinning-wheel of the reine pedauque.
In German tradition the name of Berchta is given to the so-called White Lady, who appears in many houses when a member of the family is about to die and as we have seen is thought to be the ancestress of the race. She is sometimes seen at night tending and nursing the children in which character she resembles the Keltic fairy. In other and more wide-spread traditions, the White Lady is an enchanted or spell-bound damsel, who usually every seventh year appears near some mountain or castle, points out treasures, and awaits her release. Sometimes she is seen combing her long locks or drying flax-knots. Some pretend that, like Huldra, she is disfigured by a tail. She wears a white robe, or is clad half in white half in black; her feet are concealed by yellow or green shoes. In her hand she usually carries a bunch of keys, sometimes flowers, or a golden spinning-wheel. These traditions evidently point to a goddess that possesses influence over life and death, and presides over domestic economy; although the glimmering shed on her through the medium of popular tradition does not enable us to ascertain more of her nature.
In the traditions of the Altmark there lives another goddess -Frau Harke, of whom it is related that in the twelve nights of Christmas she passes through the country, and if by Twelfth-day the maids have not spun off all the flax, she either scratches them or befouls the spinning-wheel. Stories concerning her must formerly have been more numerous. Gobelinus Persona relates, that Frau Hera in the Twelfths flies through the air and bestows abundance. As this account points to an earth-goddess, there seems no doubt that the Erce, invoked as mother of earth in an Anglo-Saxon spell for the fertilizing of the land, is identical with her.
In German popular story other names are mentioned of female beings, but who are enveloped even in greater obscurity than the before-mentioned. The Werre, who is at home in Voigtland, inspects, like Frau Holle, the spinners on Christmas eve, and, if all the distaffs are not spun off, befouls the flax. Like Berchta, she rips up the bodies of those who have not eaten porridge. The Stempe tramples on those children who on New Year's day will not eat. The Straggele appears in Lucerne the Wednesday before Christmas, and teases the maids, if they have not spun their daily task. Wanne Thekla is in the Netherlands the queen of the elves and witches. This tradition is probably of Keltic origin, which may likewise be the case with the following one: Domina Abundia, or Dame Habonde, who is mentioned by Guilielmus Alvemus, bishop of Paris (ob. 1248), and who also figures in the Roman de la Bose, is said, on certain nights, accompanied by other women, who are likewise styled Dominae and all clad in white, to enter houses and partake of the viands placed for them. Their appearance in a house is a sign of good luck and prosperity. In these white-clad females we at once recognise the Keltic fairies. The name Habundia has no connection with the Latin abundania, from which Guilielmus Alvemus would derive it.
Together with Habundia Guilielmus Alvemus places Satia, whose name he derives from satietas. The goddess Bensozia, whom Augerius episcopus Conseranus mentions as a being with whom, as with Herodias, Diana and Holda, the women were believed to ride at night, may be identical with her, and her name be only a fuller form of Satia…”
Sources:
“Northern Mythology: compromising the principal popular traditions and superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, and the Netherlands” Thorpe Benjamin, London, E. Lumley (1851)
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