The Christmas Witch and the White Lady
Those Who Control the Pen, Control the Narrative
Necro’s Monster of the Week!
Frau Perchta is known as the Christmas Witch, the Alpine Witch, Berchta, and The White Lady (Austrian/Scandanavian/Germanic.) Other Names include Frau Faste, Gode, Herke, Stampe, Faste, Frau Holle, the Belly-Splitter, and the Christmas Hag.
To be crystal clear, SHE IS NOT THE FEMALE KRAMPUS! She existed before that Christmas rascal.
CATCHPHRASE: “Spin or Suffer.”*
*not so much a threat as it is a reminder that if you don’t get all your spinning done, you will be held back in the new year by old tasks or baggage. The idea is similar to modern resolution entering the new year.
To begin, Frau Perchta is not a demonic witch as many stories potray her. She’s a goddess. The Divine Feminine being transformed into an evil witch is a tale as old as time. A story's spin has always been powerful and dangerous. Because of that and the scary stories told throughout time about her, most people know Frau Perchta as a violent and evil Christmas Witch. Let’s begin there.
She’s known as a witch of the old crone variety, dressed in rags with a hook nose, sometimes a hooked iron bird nose. She is also rumored to have a Goose Foot – large, splayed or webbed foot, maybe caused from spinning so much. She’s obsessed with spinning and a tidy home. She supposedly shows up at homes on the 12th and last day of Christmas to terrorize people with messy homes or those who have not finished all their spinning. If someone did not finish their spinning, she would set fire to their unfinished work. If someone also had a messy house, she pulls out her giant knife, disembowels them and fills that cavity with straw, stones, or trash. This is why some call her the Belly-Splitter. Not cool at all. Also, it does seem like a bit of an exaggeration or overreaction, doesn’t it? Or a way to scare the women of the house to keep things neat. Maybe something made up to make you fear a powerful goddess? Or to prevent women time to do anything other than housework? Definitely a bit of powerful propaganda, a destructive spin to tear down a pagan goddess.
Forgetting to leave Perchta a tribute, some Perchtenmilch or porridge and herring, dumplings and herring or gruel with fish, will cause a person a bit of violent trouble at the hands of the Christmas Hag as well. The witch was very private and did not like people spying on her, so she would blind people who would spy on her. The blinding was temporary so it was more of a warning to stay out of her business than a permanent punishment for that transgression.
It is also written that she abducts children and carries them in a sack through towns as a warning to other children. She is often associated with Krampus except she does not ride side-by-side with St. Nicholas and came way before him. Rather, she flies with her own demon crew – the Perchtan or Straggele – transformed souls of the children she abducted (look similar to Krampus). Together, they participate in the Wild Hunt on the Day of Epiphany.
The Wild Hunt appears across European mythology. It is a hunt where all types of monsters, fae, and figures from mythology abduct those who are unlucky enough to be outdoors. Often, if you get caught in a wild hunt, you get left somewhere far from where you were abducted and must find your way home. However, if you are caught by more evil entities, like Frau Perchta, your soul may belong to her forever.
The truth is that she was once a beautiful, powerful female goddess worshiped by the many across the Germanic continent. (Lotte Motz, The Great Goddess of the North).
She is connected to the German goddess Berchta or the White Lady, meaning bright or shining light. She is often associated with the birch tree and a protector of nature as well as children who died in infancy. She is also the goddess of liminal spaces – between safety and danger, life and death, and on the Epiphany, the time between years. This is the Frau Perchta that I know. Although, it is fun when she takes her anger out on particularly greedy and destructive humans.
She is also connected to the goddess, Frau Holda. This goddess cared for the souls of children who died young and taught mortals to make linen from flax. The tribute of porridge was not left to avoid violent punishment but to receive blessings.
So, how did this feminine figure transform from a beautiful, powerful goddess to a horrific witch obsessed with household chores and idle hands?
One guess only?
I am sure you got it but just in case, the answer is…
…The Church!
Most pagan traditions were passed down orally. The Church had many scribes who would write down their accounts and were able to transform the pagan gods and their followers into whatever they wanted them to be. Those scribes would extensively document bad behavior by these entities and their followers. Often the written version outlasts and overpowers an oral one, so most of what we know of Frau Perchta comes from those ecclesiastical records.
The church waged a propaganda war against the rituals and idea around the goddess and the practice of leaving her a tribute as the Queen of Heaven. The church presented the people with an ugly, violent witch coming to slice you up and take your children. And that version remains.
Fortunately, the folklore and the oral stories weren’t completely destroyed and the duality of Frau Perchta still remains. They were never able to erase the goddess forms completely.
She is still connected to the divine feminine in tales about her, so the church was not completely successful in its smear campaign. Some versions present a Frau Perchta that has two forms. She is represented as a figure that upholds cultural practices and goes from home to home to check on the home and if the spinning is complete. If you please her, you will be visited by her beautiful form and be given a coin. If you displease her, the old hag visits you and pulls out her giant knife, disembowels you and fills that cavity with straw, stones, or trash. Some of Frau Perchta’s darker behaviors can be connected to the goddesses’ darker sides as well but she was definitely not going around the countryside splitting open every lazy housekeeper in town.
In a very physical tradition, this duality is on full display in some parts of Austria and Bavaria. There are processions of Schönperchten (“beautiful Perchtas”) and Schiachperchten (“ugly Perchtas”) during the twelve nights between Christmas and Epiphany. This tradition connects the goddess and the witch, two sides of the same powerful coin.
Now, is Frau Perchta capable of disemboweling those who displease her and blinding those who spy on her? Of course! Is it her nature? No. She mostly focuses any of her violent practices on the greedy these days so be sure to be generous and kind if you want to avoid any unpleasantness from Perchta.
Should you leave out porridge for her? Yes. It is better to be blessed than to be cursed. Perchta is an excellent guide through transitions, and having her on your side is truly a great thing. She definitely takes special care to make sure children who have passed experience a peaceful transition between life and death. She of course participates in the Wild Hunt but that tradition is as misunderstood as the Christmas Witch, and is a story for another day.
Finally, she promises me that putting Herring into a porridge, make it taste good… however, that is one story I simply can’t believe.
This is the final week to order the holiday gift set so that it arrives by regular shipping. Please order by December 12th to guarantee delivery for the holidays.
She attacks someone whose house is messy? I'm going to be disemboweled for sure!
As always, an interesting and informative post. I was especially interested in her association with the wild hunt. Typically, it's male figures who lead it (Odin, Gwyn ap Nudd, King Arthur, even Satan--quite a diverse crew). It's nice to know the women weren't left out completely.
Well, I should have been disembowelled a long time ago then! Good article!