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Belief in a folk goddess under variations on the name Holda (Hulde, Hülle, Frau Holle, etc.) has been attested since at least the 13th century, though spirits with cognate names are known from earlier centuries. Conflicting records have contributed to a long-lived debate among folklorists and linguists as to the nature and age of Holda. Yet more controversial has been the question of whether the etymology of Holda's name indicates a prehistory of her worship in the pagan practices of Germanic peoples. This paper argues that good reason exists to project devotion to a divine concept of *hulp- (Germanic: graciousness, mercy), if not a goddess *hulpo, though one need not assume that the characteristics surrounding a theonym remained consistent throughout history. Since numerous Nordic and Mediterranean goddesses appear only as inactive participants in myth, if they appear at all, many intermediate stages may lie between a projected Goth. *hulpo (whose existence is implied by Goth, unhulpo) and the figure of Grimms' tale "Frau Holle." The aim here is to understand Holda as a mythic figure and a representation of values expressed in her name, for in many cases deities and the stories about them proceed from concepts (e.g. mercy, desire, fertility) invested with divinity.
A. The Character of Holda
In Fairy Tale and Legend
In the first systematic collection of German legends, Frau Holle or Holda appears as a chthonic fairy. "Von dieser Holle erzählt das Volk vielerlei, gutes und böses." ["The people say much, good and bad, concerning this Holle" (Deutsche Sagen 1994: 39).] Women who bathe in her spring at Meissner become healthy and fertile, she brings newborn children out from her residence, she gives the produce of her garden to those she finds agreeable, and she cares for order in homes. When it snows, Holda is shaking out her bed sheets. She punishes lazy spinners and rewards the industrious; by an annual tour of the country she ensures the fertility of the land, and she terrifies those who witness her leadership of the wild hunt.
Holda's position in Kinder- und Hausmärchen (hereafter KHM) 24 ("Frau Holle") is appropriate to her character as a rewarding and punishing deity, but, as we shall see, her presence in the tale type is unique. In the...