Frau Holle

Title

• Germanic Goddess of winter, witches, weather, weaving, spinning, and flax

Description

• An old woman with long teeth and a flat foot from spinning, or a kindly looking woman 

Duties

• Leader of the wild hunt, cause of weather,  and watches over children in the midst of winter

Lineage

• No beginning/ parents are noted and she has no children of her own.

Stories

• One legend has a peasant coming upon her in a cave enthroned and surrounded by women. The man is captivated and then surprised when she offers him a gift. Modestly he asks only for the flowers in her hand, which turn out to be flax flowers. She sends him away with flax seeds and instructions for the growing of them. Over time she teaches the peasant man’s wife how to prepare and spin flax.

Interesting Facts

• Unnamed or unbaptized children that die go to Frau Holle

Symbols

• Flax flowers, linen, spindle, thread, knitting, and crochet

Superstition 

Walking Under a Ladder

Today, much like with the umbrella superstition there is just plain common sense involved. Either the ladder may fall on you or you may knock someone off of the ladder if you walk under one. 

That states the obvious

—But let's go back further. Like so many historical items I’ve been researching, one of the considered origins may be from the Egyptians 5000 years ago. Here the idea was that you didn’t want to see a God going up or down a ladder which the God might be using. I’m guessing you weren’t supposed to look upon the Gods.

It may have been that they saw triangles being formed by a ladder, the ground and the item it’s leaning against and therefore was connected to the Pyramids which were thought to have been powerful forces of nature. Walking under a ladder would mean  you would be breaking that sacred power. 

Or even still It may be because they believed the spirits of the dead buried inside the pyramids, (of which the ladder was leaning against), would use it to ascend to the heavens. The space between the ladder and the pyramid was considered to have housed good and evil spirits and if they were disturbed the spirits would be angered. It was simply not allowed to walk under a ladder.

—Later it could be connected to Christian times where a triangle formed the Holy Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. A ladder against a structure formed a triangle and walking through it meant you were breaking the Holy Trinity, or that you had sinned against the Holy Trinity and you would never be forgiven. There is another thought which was that  “since a  ladder was  leaned up against the crucifix it became a symbol of wickedness, betrayal, and death” according to Panati’s explanation .

—Then we have the gallows superstition. Ladders were commonly used at the gallows in the Medieval era. If you were to walk under one it foretold your death by hanging. Or it was thought that the ghosts of the dead were connected to the gallow’s lad