December 25 marks the Feast of Frau Holle or Hulda in Germany. She's also celebrated at the Winter Solstice as a goddess of Light. Her festival runs until Jan 5-6. This cosmic deity dwells among the clouds, and as a warrior she's known to lead the Wild Hunt.
When Frau Holle shakes out feather pillows and bedding, snow falls to the earth. An ancient pagan goddess, her southern counterpart is Perchta, who dwells in a well. They're patrons of spinning and weaving. Perchta taught humans to spin flax.
Known as goddesses of the home or domestic deities, Holle and Perchta are both numbered among the leaders of the Wild Hunt (German: Wilde Jagd), giving insight into their powerful warrior roles. They may be considered two aspects of the same deity.
Read The Wild Hunt, a novella in the Lora Ley anthology Winter Tales.
A supernatural phenomenon across many parts of Europe, the Wild Hunt is led by deities such as Perchta, Hulda, Odin, his wife Frigg, or Diana the Huntress. Heroes and historical figures leading the Hunt include Siegfried of Xanten.
Leaders may also be Gwyn ap Nudd of Welsh lore or Theodoric the Great, King of the Ostrogoths. Later, the Hunt may be led by biblical personalities from Gabriel to Cain and Mephistopheles.
Among those who partake in the Hunt are witches and warlocks, satyrs, demi-gods, horses of six or eight legs, dragons, centaurs, warriors, dwarfs and other creatures of legend. The object of pursuit is not always clear.
In the south, the Wild Hunt is often called the Wütendes Heer (Raging Host or Army). Participants gather and thunder through the skies with fearsome shrieks and hollers. Anyone who encounters this frenzy should lie in the middle of the road and let the host pass overhead, or be swept into the supernatural storm.
Back home in her role as domestic goddess and patron of spinning and weaving, Perchta is the one who taught mortals how to spin linen from flax. She has a swan foot, which happens in spinners as treadle pressure spreads the bones of bare feet. Women who develop a swan foot consider it a special honor from hardworking Perchta.
The Wild Hunt is one of the novellas in the Lora Ley anthology Winter Tales
Perchta is also seen as an instrument of punishment. She checks households to be sure the children and young servants have done their allotted spinning for the year and otherwise behaved well. It's also forbidden to spin or weave during the Feast Days of Frau Holle and Perchta.
Usually Perchta appears to households on her Feast Days, January 5-6. She gives silver coins to the good and obedient workers, but rips out innards of the lazy to stuff the bodies with straw.
Perchta in her punishment aspect is also an example of Kinderschreck or "child fright", one of many monsters and stories told to children and superstitious young servants to frighten them into good behavior and away from dangerous places like wells or forests.
Kinderschrecken include evil witches, deceitful water nixies, the Butzemann or German Bogeyman, demons, harvest spirits and plenty more. In the Lora Ley Fantasy Fiction series Lora is half nixie or Nyx.
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READ: Lora Ley Adventures - Germanic Mythology Fiction Series
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