Is Frau Holda the Virgin Mary?Author(s): Edgar A. ListSource: The German Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Mar., 1956), pp. 80-84Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Association of Teachers ofGermanStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/401399Accessed: 15/01/2009 20:13

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IS FRAU HOLDA THE VIRGIN MARY?

EDGAR A. LIST

The origin of Frau Holda has been a provocative subject for investigation ever since Grimm made the attempt to establish her as a benevolent goddess of German antiquity.1 Grimm based his theory on what he presumed to be early references to Holda, the oldest being the one found in Burkhard of Worms (d. 1024). Wolfgang Golther was the first to offer a direct challenge to this theory, relying in the main on the work of other researchers, who had either invalidated or cast doubt on all the references to Holda existing prior to about the year 1500.2 He argued that Holda was a more recent manifestation, that she could be one of the "Hol- den," who emerged from the group as a distinct individual. The argument, in part, revolves about the German folk tales which are common to both Frau Holda and the Virgin Mary. Grimm con- tended that these tales originally were centered on Holda but that as a result of Christian influence she was debased and replaced by Mary. Golther disagreed and had this comment to make con- cerning the two groups of tales: "Man kann nur schwanken, ob die Entwicklung der Hollesagen selbstandig und unabhangig ver- lief oder ob blosse Nachahmungen der Mariensagen vorliegen. Letzteres diinkt noch eher glaubhaft, zumal im Hinblick auf andere Beriihrungen zwischen Holle und Maria. Frau Holle als die holde Frau verstanden gab leicht Anlass zu ihrer Verschmelzung mit Maria" (pp. 498-499).

Since Golther nothing new has been brought forward in the way of explaining the origin of Holda or the relationship exist- ing between her and Mary. Later mythologists and other writers have adopted, in whole or in part, either Grimm's or Golther's view and have let the matter rest there. There are, however, several items of evidence which, I believe, warrent a re-evaluation of the

1 Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 4th ed., edit. by Elard H. Meyer (Giitersloh, 1876-77), I, 220 ff.

2 Wolfgang Golther, Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie (Leipzig, 1895), pp. 489-500.

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Holda question. This evidence, even if not sufficient for conclusive proof, is nevertheless pertinent enough to suggest that Holda was none other than the Virgin Mary herself.

Shortly after Golther had brought forward his views, an un- equivocal reference to Holda was discovered, which is significant for two reasons. (1) It antedates by about 250 years the earliest reference acceptable at Golther's time. (2) It links Frau Holda unmistakably with the Virgin Mary. This reference is found in a catalog of superstitions (Aberglaubensverzeichnis), a type of literature common from medieval times through the Reformation period. The work of a certain Rudolf, a Cistercian monk, it was compiled between the years 1236 and 1250.3 Inveighing against superstitious beliefs, the author records the pertinent one as fol- lows: "In nocte nativitatis Christi ponunt regine celi, quam domi- nam Holdam vulgus appelat, ut eas ipsa adiuvet."4 (In the night of Christ's Nativity they set the table for the Queen of Heaven, whom the people call Frau Holda, so that she might help them.)

In the copious notes which he appended to this passage, Joseph Klapper, who edited the manuscript from which the passage is taken, voices his inclination to accept Grimm's theory regarding Holda. Although it was not his intention to offer a solution to the question of Holda's origin, one nevertheless misses, in the light of the nature of the passage and of the stress that Golther places on the Holda-Mary relationship, some comment by him on this point. It is in this relationship that the solution to Holda's origin may lie. There should be no question that the author, a cleric, had in mind the Virgin Mary when using the term "regine celi." She is referred to as such in the opening words of the Easter anthem "Regina celi laetare," which goes back at least to the twelfth century.5 Besides, the custom which Rudolf mentions was practised on the night of the Nativity. Frau Holda may have been a name given to Mary, which in time assumed an identity of its own. Another possibility is that Mary, in the minds of the people, was associated with the "Hollen" because of the benignity

3 Joseph Klapper, "Deutscher Volksaberglauben in Schlesien in iiltester Zeit", Mitteilungen der schlesischen Gesellschaft fur Volkskunde, herausgeg. von Theodor Siebs, Band XVII, Erstes Heft (Breslau, 1915).

4 Klapper, p. 36. 5 The Catholic Encyclopedia, " Regina coeli."

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she had in common with them, so that she, so to say, emerged as a distinct "Holle," as Frau Holda.

The " Holda is Mary" theory finds additional support in two striking bits of evidence from the first half of the sixteenth century, which until now have gone unnoticed in connection with the Holda-Mary relationship. These are in the form of two epithets, heretofore believed peculiar only to Mary, which in these instances are applied to Holda. The first is in connection with Martin Luther's frequently quoted passage (1522): "Hie tritt fraw hulde erfur mit der potznasen, die natur, und thar yhrem gott wider- pellen . . 6 Martin Bucer, who translated this into Latin, renders "fraw hulde" with "verenda nostra hera,"7 "Our Venerated Lady." The second instance is supplied by Erasmus Alberus. In a metrical version of the Aesopian fable of the mountain which brings forth a mouse (1550) Alberus describes the women mem- bers of the motley crowd that has come out to kill the expected monster: "Es kamen auch in diesem heer/ Viel Weiber, die sich forchten sehr,/ Vnd trugen sicheln in der handt,/ Fraw Hulda hatt sie aulgesandt. '8 The last line of this quatrain in the original version (1534), in- terestingly enough, has the reading "Vns liebe frawe"9 [italics mineJ instead of "Fraw Hulda." It is obvious that metrical con- siderations were in part responsible for the revision. A further reason for the substitution lay perhaps in the fact that Alberus wished to avoid the possibility of anyone associating the Virgin Mary with this nondescript mob. The incongrous "Mary-Our Dear Lady-unattractive Holda" relationship need not be disturb- ing, however, for by the sixteenth century the original, direct Mary-Holda association had ceased to exist. What we have in Bucer's translation and in Erasmus Alberus' original reading is only a residuum of this onetime association: epithets peculiar to Mary, applied to a former epithet of her, which in itself had become a separate entity. In surveying the total information about Holda to the year 1550 it becomes apparent that Holda and Mary became

6Martin Luther, Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimar, 1883 ff.), X, part 1 (1), p. 326.

7 Ibid., note 3. s Neudrucke deutsch. Litter. des XVI./XVII. Jh., No. 104-107, p. 70. 9 Ibid., note to line 96, p. 70.

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dissociated, at least to a degree, sometime during the fourteenth century. From the beginning of the fifteenth century and into the sixteenth there are two concepts existing side by side: one negative, the other favorable. The negative one has a twofold origin. Joseph Klapper, recapitulating the work of Adolf Franz and supplementing it with research of his own, has shown how Holda, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, became identified with Domina Abundia of the French folk tale similar to the German one recorded by Rudolf as the result of a scribal error.10 He shows further how she, as the result of her association with Abundia, came to be identified with Herodias, Diana, and others (pp. 45-46). This concept of a pagan Holda received wide dissemination in catalogs of superstition and in sermons throughout the fifteenth century. As the other factor contributing to the uncomplimentary concept of Holda we have, also in the fifteenth century, her as- sociation with Perchta, an unattractive and ill-tempered personage of German folklore."l Luther, who is the source for nearly all the references to Holda in the first half of the sixteenth century, is in this tradition of a pagan and unattractive Holda and, with his extreme caricaturization of her, the culmination of it. This view, to be sure, succeeded in clouding and distorting the favorable image of Holda, but it did not obliterate it. Even Luther, who treated her so harshly, knows of a benevolent Holda who liberally rewards those who aid her in distress.12 One is not on safe ground when one takes Luther's unflattering picture of Holda as represen- tative of the popular concept of her. Luther's interest in her was not mythological. He employed her in a theological sense as the personification of human reason, which is unreliable in matters

o1 Klapper, pp. 48-51. 11 Stephan von Landskrona, HimmelstraB (1484). Quoted from Johannes

Geffcken, Der Bildercatechismus des fiinfzehnten Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1855), Beilage 112.

12 Werce, I, 406; One is tempted to see in Luther's "Sagt myr fraw Hulda, die yhr sonst so reyn [italics mine] seyt . . ." (XVIII, 183) an al- lusion to one of the more common tales about Holda - not recorded until after Luther's time. This tells of Holda as a lover of cleanliness and order- liness who at night checks on the work of spinning maidens. She rewards those who have spun all the flax from the spindle, but burns or soils the spindle of those who have neglected to do so.

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pertaining to faith.13 There should be no doubt that there was an unbroken tradition of folk tales showing Holda in a favorable light from the "Holda is Mary" tale of the thirteenth century to the time when they began to be recorded after the sixteenth century. In fact, it would be difficult to conceive of their interruption.

Until more evidence is uncovered which would lend greater clarification to the Holda-Mary relationship, the "Holda is Mary" theory appears to me to offer the most satisfactory explanation of Hold.'s origin. It would also rule out the theory that she was origi- nally a Germanic goddess. State University of Iowa, Iowa City

13 See my "Frau Holda as the Personification of Reason," PQ XXXII, (1953), 446-448.

Article Contentsp. 80p. 81p. 82p. 83p. 84

Issue Table of ContentsThe German Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Mar., 1956), pp. iii-iv+63-118Front Matter [pp. iii - 107]Our New President [pp. 63 - iv]Presidential "Rechenschaftsbericht" Twenty-Third Annual Meeting, A. A. T. G. [pp. 64 - 70]Ludolf Wienbarg und der Kampf um den Historismus [pp. 71 - 74]The Dictionary in First and Second Year German [pp. 75 - 79]Is Frau Holda the Virgin Mary? [pp. 80 - 84]Die Deutsche Literatur im Werke Freuds [pp. 85 - 96]Reflections on the Final Report of the Committee on Textbooks [pp. 97 - 99]Minutes of the Twenty-Third Annual Meeting, A. A. T. G. [pp. 100 - 104]Correction [p. 106]News and Notes [pp. 108 - 113]Reviewsuntitled [pp. 114 - 115]untitled [pp. 115 - 116]untitled [p. 116]untitled [p. 117]untitled [pp. 117 - 118]