TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

280 GODDESSES.
for peraht, berht or brecht, signifies bright, light, white. This
white lady usually attaches herself to particular families, but even
then she keeps the name of Bert a, e.g., Berta of Rosenberg. In
snow-white garments she shows herself by night in princely houses,
she rocks or dandles the babies, while their nurses sleep : she acts
the old grandmother or ancestress of the family (see Suppl.).
There is a good deal in the fact, that several women of that
name, who are famed in our national traditions, stand connected
with the ghostly Berhta ; they have been adopted out of the divine
legend into the heroic legend. In Italy and France, a far distant
past is expressed by the phrase : nel tempo ove Berta filava? when
B. span (Pentamerone. Liebrecht 2, 259), au terns que la reine
Berthe fila.it : the same idea still, of the spinning matron. 1
Berta,
the daughter of king Flower and of Whiteflower, afterwards the
wife of king Pippin and mother of the great hero Charles,
she who in the MLG. poem of Flos is called both Vredcling and
Brehte (1555. 7825), does not belie her mythic origin. 2 She is
called Berhte mit demfuoze (foot), Flore 309; in French, Berthe au
grand pied; and ace. to the Eeali di Franza 6,1: Berta del gran
pie, perche ella aveva un pie un poco maggior dell altro, e quello
era il pie destro, had the right foot larger. The French poet Adenez
tries apparently to extenuate the deformity by making both her
feet large, he calls her Berte as grans pies (Paris ed. LI I. 78. 104);
so the Mid. Dutch, Baerte met ten breden voeten, Floris 3966.
But the one big foot is more genuine, as may be seen by the far
* I can produce another spinning Bertha. The Vita S. Berthae Avenna-
censis in dicccesi Remensi (conf. Flodoardus 4, 47) says (Acta Sanctor., Maii p.
114 b ) : Quae dum lustraret situs loci illius, pervenit ad quendam hortum, in
quo erat fons inirae pulcritudinis. Quern ut vidit Deo devota femina, minime
concupivit, sed possessoribus ipsius praedii sic locula est : fratres, hunc
fontem praedii vestri vendite mihi, et accepta digna pecunia cedite usibus
nostris. Cui sic aiunt : En praesto sumus, si tamen detur pretium a nobis
taxatum. Sancta autem, videntibus qui aderant, libram unam denariorum
posuit super lapidem qui erat super os ejusdem fontis, domini vero ac venditores
receperunt aes. Tune sancta mater, Deo plena, colo quain manu tenebat
coepit terram fodere, et in modum sulci rigam facere, orans ac dicens : Ostende
nobis, Domine, misericord iam tuam, et salutare tuum da nobis ! Revertens
namque monasterium, colum eadem post se trahebat, tantaque abundantia
aquae earn sequebatur, ut ad usus omnes hominibus pertinentes sufficeret, sicut
usque hodie apparet. Nomen quoque sancta mater iluviolo ipsi composuit,
dicens : Libra vocaberis, quia una libra pro emptione tua data est.
2 How firmly she is rooted, may be seen by her being the link that joins
the Carolingian legend to the : Langobardic she is mother of Carl, wife of
Pippin the son of Rother (4789), and daughter of Flore and Blancheilor, whose
name again contains the notion of whiteness.