Northern mythology

under various names, were not
originally identical, a supposition
rendered
APPENDIX. 277
probable by a striking resemblance in
the traditions, can no longer be decided. We can here
only simply repeat what popular tradition relates of
them^
Frau Holda, or Holle, still survives in Thuringian and
Hessian, as well as in Markish and Frankish tradition and
story. The name of this goddess signifies either the kind
(holde) or the dark, ohscure'^.
She is represented as a being
that directs the aerial phenomena, imparts fruitfulness to
the earth, presides over rural labours and spinning.
She
appears likewise as a divinity connected with water, as she
dwells in wells and ponds, and particularly in the ' Hollenteich
' (so called from her) in the Meissner. From her
well children come, and women, who descend into it,
become healthy and fruitful. But she also takes persons
di'owned to her, and is so far a goddess of the nether
world, a circumstance that is alluded to in the tradition
that she has her abode in mountains^, in which, as we
shall see, the souls of the departed dwell. On account of
these manifold and important functions, Holda, in the
time of heathenism, must, no doubt, have been a divinity
of high rank. Other traditions concerning her are more
obscure and difficult to explain. Burchard of Worms
194^) mentions, as a popular belief, that some women
(p.
believed that on certain nights they rode with her on all
kinds of animals, and belonged to her train, according to
which she completely occupies the place of Diana and
Herodias ; and it is still a popular belief in Thuringia, that
the witches ride with the Holle to the Horselberg, and
1 MLlller, p. 121.
2 The word is connected either with hold, projndous, kind, 0. Nor.
hollr, or with O. Nor. hulda, olscurity, darkness. D. M. p. 249.
3 E. g. in the Horselberg near Eisenach. See p. 243.