Fairy Tale Fridays: Mother Holle, Mother Holle: Commentary (part I), Mother Holle: Commentary (part II)
Mythology (continued)
Hel
Hel, a Nordic goddess of the underworld, has long been linked with Mother Holle, and there is an etymological connection between her name, Hel, and the German word for hell, Hollë. Interestingly, the word Hel is derived from a Proto-Germanic word meaning ‘one who covers up or hides something’, as Mother Holle covers the earth with her blanket of snow. An interesting aside: from an earlier Indo-European root, both Hel and Holle are related to the English word for the underworld, hell.
Although Nordic mythology describes her as a monster, half alive half dead, the bringer if disease, in Nordic mythology, Germanic mythology represents Hel as an almost maternal figure, a goddess of death and transformation[1].
Hel, a maternal figure in her underworld, is an interesting shade of Demeter and Persephone. The underworld, oft associated with winter, can also be linked to old age and change. It is in winter that the world sleeps, readying for the new spring. Like the earth in winter, like Persephone, the beautiful maiden 'sleeps' in the underworld, unconsciously preparing herself as she sweeps and cleans and shakes out Mother Holle's coverlet.
Hulda/ Frau Holda
Another name for Mother Holle, Mother Hulda[2] is seemingly derived from the Germanic goddess Hulda, a kind goddess, patroness and guardian of maidens, yet also the goddess of marriage, This is entirely fitting with the story of our mistreated but beautiful girl and her journey through the well’s meadow: beginning as a maiden she is protected by Mother Holle/Mother Hulda, who also ushers her forward into the next stage of her transformation, the next stage of her life i.e. marriage[3].
In The Living Goddesses, Marija Giambutas discusses Hulda as a triple goddess, i.e. maiden, mother, and crone, a goddess of the transformations in a woman’s life, sometimes known as the Dark Grandmother and the White Lady. Her lore says that she lives in the bottom of a well, first taught the art of spinning flax to linen, and has control over the weather—dominion over sunshine, snow, and rain.
Holla is set before us as a spinning-wife; the cultivation of flax is assigned to her. Industrious maids she presents with spindles, and spins with reels full for them over night; a slothful spinner's distaff she sets on fire, or soils it. The girl whose spindle dropt into her fountain, she rewarded bountifully....The Greeks put spindle and distaff in the hands of several goddesses, especially Artemis and her mother Leto, but also Athene, Amphitrite and the Nereids. All this fits in with Holda, who is a goddess of the chase (the wild host), and of water-springs.[4]
Like Artemis, Hulda is the White Lady, associated with the hunt and the maiden, a protective goddess, and sometimes vengeful one. She, too, is a guardian to protect and aid the beautiful girl of our story. And, like Mother Holle, both goddesses despise the idle, the slothful. But, where Artemis is depicted as beautiful in most renderings,
…Hulda, instead of her divine shape, assumes the appearance of an ugly old woman, long-nosed, big-toothed, with bristling and thick-matted hair. 'He's had a jaunt with Holle,' they say of a man whose hair sticks up in tangled disorder…[5]
This old woman is likely Hulda in her crone phase; the ‘jaunt with Holle’ supports this idea, for, to paraphrase Joan Gould, old women are arguably the most comfortable with the idea of sex, and, thereby, the self. And who better than a woman (or goddess) comfortable in her own skin to guide the transformation of others?
So what does all this suggest about our fairy tale? Is it likely that Mother Holle, Hulda, Holda, and Hel are one in the same?
For this reader, the etymological similarities discussed provided an interesting, though weak link, but the province of the goddesses mentioned, coupled with parts of their lore and worship are highly suggestive of the idea that Mother Holle is indeed derived from these, or, at least, similar sources.
Although I had intended to discuss Frigg today, the above commentary proved longer and more in depth than I had expected. I will post more about Frigg tomorrow, then, on Friday, post a Polish tale, The Glass Mountain.
Fairy Tale Fridays: Mother Holle, Mother Holle: Commentary (part I), Mother Holle: Commentary (part II)
Footnotes:
[1]Another such goddesses is the widely misunderstood Kali of Hindu belief.
[2]Hulda has also been linked with Hertha, goddess of peace and fertility, and another name for Hloydn (also called Jord) in the Edda (Poems and Tales of Norse Mythology).
[3]It is important to remember that, in fairy tales, all maidens wish to be married, and all women wish to have children. Though this may not be the case in today’s world, it is necessary for us to take these values for the sake of meaningful analysis and commentary.
[4] Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, Chapter 13.
[5] ibid.
References:
Gimbutas, Marija, The Living Goddesses, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
Grimm, Jacob, Teutonic Mythology, Chapter 13, online version provided by Northvegr, http://www.northvegr.org/lore/grimmst/index.php
Gould, Joan, Spinning Straw Into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About The Transformations In A Woman’s Life, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006.
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