TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

appears as a grim bugbear to frighten
PERAHTA, BERCHTE. 273
children with. In the
stories of dame Berchta the bad meaning predominates, as the good
one does in those of dame Holda; that is to say, the popular
Christian view had degraded Berchta lower than Holda. But she
too is evidently one with Herke, Freke and some others (see
SuppL).
Where their identity comes out most plainly is in the fact that
they all go their rounds at the same time, in the so-called twelfths
between Christmas and New-year. Berchta however has a
particular day assigned her at the end of that period, which I never
find named after Holda. And no less similar are their functions.
Berchta, like Holda, has the oversight of spinners; whatever
spinning she finds unfinished the last day of the year, she spoils
(Superst. 512). Her festival has to be kept with a certain tradi
tional food, gruel and fish. Thorr says he has had sildr ok hafra
(herrings and oats) for supper, Sgem. 75 a ; our white lady has pre
scribed the country folk a dish of fish and oat-grits for evermore,
and is angry whenever it is omitted (Deutsche sagen, no. 267).
The Thuringians in the Saalfeld country wind up the last day of
the year with dumplings and herrings.
Fish and farinaceous food
were considered by Christians the proper thing for a fast. 1
The revenge taken by the wrathful Berchta, when she misses the
fish and dumplings, has a quaint and primitive sound : whoever has
partaken of other food on her day, she cuts his belly open,
with chopped straw, and sews up the gash with a ploughshare for
fills it
a needle and an iron chain by way- of thread (Superst. 525). 2
1 The Braunschw. anz. 1760, p. 1392, says no leguminous plants are to be
i eaten when dame Holla is going round in the . twelve-nights Either a
mistake, j
or to be understood of particular kinds of pulse.
2 Almost the same is told in the Voigtland of the Werre or dame Holle.
The Werre, on the holy eve of the high New-year, holds a strict inquiry
I whether all the distaffs are spun off ; if they are not, she defiles the flax. And
on that evening you must eat poise, a thick pap of flour and water prepared in
a peculiar way if ; any one omits it, she rips his body open, Jul. Schmidt,
Reichenfels, p. 152. The name Werra (from her gewirrt, tangled shaggy
hair?) is found in Thorn. Reinesius, Lect. var., Altenbg 1640, p. 579 (in the
(critical notes on Rhyakinus s,
i.e. Andr. Rivinus or Bachmann s Liber Kirani-
ium : Kirani, Lips. 1638) Nostrates hodieque petulantioribus et refractariis
manducum aliquem cum ore hiante frendentem dentibus, aut furibundam
silvesceute coma, facie lurida, et cetero habitu terribilem cum cornitatu maenajdum
Werram interminantur. Reinesius (1587-1667) came from Gotha, but
(lived at Hof in the Voigtland. A werre is also a noisome chirping insect of
le cricket kind (Popowitsch 620). In MHG. : ssejet diu Werre, (Discordia)
samen dar, BOWS her seed, Ms. 2, 25 l b , conf. Troj. 385 (see Suppl.) and in
;
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