Gustave Dore: The Snow Queen
Fairy Tale Fridays: Mother Holle
History
The most well-known version of this story was collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in their 1812 Children's and Household Tales. It was first told to them by, Henrietta Dorothea Wild[1] (who later married Wilhelm Grimm). It has since been included in a number of anthologies, and the oral telling of the tale persists in parts of Germany, most notably Hesse.
Despite the continuing popularity of this fairy tale, it's difficult to trace its origins. Etymology suggests a link to Norse mythology, in particular the goddesses Frigg and Hel. This will be discussed further below.
Classification and Variations
Like our earlier tale, Kate Crackernuts, Mother Holle is a 'tale of kind and unkind girls[2]'. Unlike Kate Crackernuts, however, there are several extant variations on Mother Holle. In the Pentamerone, Basile tells of Cicella and Grannizia in The Three Fairies; the Grimms' collected Three Little Men in the Wood, also in Andrew Lang's Red Fairy Book; Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen; and The Old Witch, in Joseph Jacobs' More English Fairy Tales. Sometimes it is known as Frau Holle, or Mother Hulda--even Grandmother Winter.
For a reversal of the kind grandmother role, see Hansel and Gretel, and some of the Baba Yaga tales.
Symbolism
Depending on the perspective, Mother Holle can be considered both rich and poor in symbolism. Here, we will focus on only a few possible elements: spindle; apples; bread; and rooster.
Spindle
The spindle has long been a symbol of domesticity-spinning is a woman's province and, in earlier times, one of the few ways in which poorer women could support themselves. The distaff and drop spindle are also symbols of the Nordic goddess Frigg, who has been linked with Mother Holle (we will discuss this more below).
Why does the beautiful girl jump in the well? Ostensibly, it's because her stepmother has ordered her to fetch the spindle she has dropped. And why has she dropped it? Because she has bled upon the spindle, then attempted to wash it clean[3]. Now, I don't want to get into the sexual symbolism of fairy tales-it's a tricky area to navigate, and I've never been much for psychology, but, In this context, it's likely the bloody spindle is representative of the girl's entering menses, i.e. of the girl reaching sexual maturity. Why is this important?
Let us consider the situation for a moment: the beautiful girl has been kept in reduced circumstances for the better part of her life; she is afraid of her stepmother; and now she has dropped a spindle and expects punishment from the aforementioned stepmother. Considering this, why doesn't she run away? We know she is industrious and hard-working, we know she is skilled, we know she is kind-hearted and beautiful. Any one set of these qualities assures of her work elsewhere and yet the idea of leaving never enters the beautiful girl's head.
Why?
Because she's unready. The blood on the spindle is the reason she leaps into the well beginning her transformation, the catalyst for change. Running away accomplishes nothing-the girl would remain the same, dependent creature she has always been.
Bread
In her journey throughout the well-world, the beautiful girl encounters an oven full of bread, begging to be taken from the oven.
Like Persephone, the beautiful girl has been carried away to an underworld to bide her time. In fairy tales-consider Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella-this time of hibernation is the unconscious period in which the heroine gathers the necessary information and energy she needs to move into a new stage in her life.
Bread is an old, old symbol of domesticity and fertility. Until recent times, bread was made in house. And by whom? Wives. Mothers. Here is a test of the girl's domestic skill, and her readiness for keeping a household of her own.
Finally, the girl's encounter with the oven and, later, the apple tree, is a call to the girl's compassion. In some stories the heroine helps inanimate objects on her way; on her return, said objects protect her from the giant, witch, or other creature in pursuit. These stories are somewhat unknown to most people-perhaps more familiar are the talking animal set in which the protagonist helps a colony of ants, a fish, a hive of bees[4], or some other distressed creature.
Apples
Now taken for granted in most parts of the world apples have, at times, been considered quite precious. In the UK, they were believed to be fruit of the good folk; the fabled Isle of Avalon is actually the Isle of Apples. It was also believed that harming an apple tree caused offense to the fairies and, as such, brought ill fortune, while apple blossoms have been thought to bring good luck to a new marriage.
Apples are also featured in a variety of myths, most notably: the Biblical story of Adam and Eve[5]; in Greek mythology, golden apples were much sought after and, indirectly, the cause of the Trojan War; and in Teutonic mythology it is associated with beauty and youthfulness. Most relevant to this story, though, is Nordic mythology, in which apples were sacred, and oftentimes buried with the dead (see discussion of Hel and Nehalennia below).
How does all this relate to our story? Like the encounter with the bread, the apple tree is asking for the beautiful's girls compassion. But the fruit, like the girl herself, is in a stage of transition . Finally, apples are sacred and associated with death-the girl is in, for all intents and purposes, an underworld and one part of her life is dying, falling away.
Interestingly, apple trees are heterozygous-that is to say that, like people, the seeds give rise a new individual, rather than a clone of the parent ; mayhap the tree is representative of motherhood, fertility, and childhood.
Rooster
The presence of the rooster is one of the stranger elements of Mother Holle. Its role is unclear, though Maria Tatar suggests that it is symbolic of the recognition of a male. Perhaps the original setup of the story-stepmother and two daughters-did not allow for a male figure, and the rooster acts as substitute.
Tomorrow: fairy tale princesses, Mother Holle in mythology.
Footnotes:
[1] Paradiz, Clever Maids: The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales
[2] Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p. 128
[3] See also the role of the spindle in Sleeping Beauty.
[4] See The Queen Bee, Children's and Household Tales, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
[5] Familiar strains of apples, like the red delicious, are the product of grafted trees.
References:
Tatar, Maria, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, W.W. Norton and Company, 2004.
Gould, Joan, Spinning Straw Into Gold
Paradiz, Valerie, Clever Maids: The Secret History of The Grimm Fairy Tales, Basic Books, 2005.
Ragan, Kathleen (ed.) Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World, W.W. Norton and Company, 2000.
Alexander, Marc, The Sutton Companion to Folklore, Myths and Customs in Britain, Sutton Publishing, 2006.
Zipes, Jack, et al., The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm All-New Third Edition, Bantam, 2003.
