Untitled - Centrostudirpinia.it

456 WIGHTS AND ELVES.
(Methinks she comes to me through solid walls, Her help, her
comfort lets me nothing fear And when she will she wafteth me
;
from here With her white hand high o er the pinnacles.
I ween
her then to a Yenus or
she is a Venus high.) He compares
Holda, with the elvish power to penetrate through walls and
carry you away over roof and tower (see chap. XXXI., Tann-
hiiuser; and Suppl.). Accordingly, when a Hessian nurserytale
(no. 13) makes three haule-mdnnerchen henchmen of
appear, these are
Holle, elves in her retinue, and what seems espe
cially worthy of notice is their being three, and endowing with
gifts : it is a rare thing to see male beings occupy the place of
the fortune-telling wives. Elsewhere it is rather the little earth-
wives that appear; in Hebel (ed. 5, p. 268) Eveli says to the
wood-wife : God
bless you, and if you re the earth-mannikin s
wife, I won t be afraid of you. *
There is another point of connexion with Holda : the ex
pressions die guten holden (p. 266), guedeholden penates
(Teutonista), or Tioldichen, holdeken, holderchen seem perfectly
synonymous with
f
the good elves; holdo is literally a kind,
favourably disposed being, and in Iceland liu fling ar (darlings)
and huldufolk, huldumenn (p. 272) are used for alfar. The form
of the Dan. hyldemdnd is misleading, it suggests the extraneous
notion of hyld (sambucus, elder-tree), and makes Dame Holda
come out as a hyldemoer or hyldeqvind, viz., a dryad incorporated
with that tree (Thiele 1, 132) ; but its real connexion with the
huldre is none the less evident. Thus far, then, the elves are
good-natured helpful beings ; they are called, as quoted on p.
452, the stille volk (Deut. sagen, No. 30-1), the good people, good
neighbours, peaceful folk (Gael, daoine shi, Ir. daoine maith, Wei.
dynion mad). When left undisturbed in their quiet goings on,
they maintain peace with men, and do them services when they
can, in the way of smith-work, weaving and baking. Many a
time have they given to people of their new-baked bread or cakes
(Moneys Anz. 7, 475). They too in their turn require man s
advice and assistance in certain predicaments, among which are
1 One winter Hadding was eating his supper, when suddenly an earth-wife
pushed her head up through the floor by the fireside, and offered him green vege
tables. Saxo, p. 16, calls her cicutarum gerula, and makes her take Hadding into
the subterranean land, where are meadows covered with grass, as in our nurserytales
which describe Dame Holla s underground realm. This grass- wife resembles
a little earth-wife.