Perchta the belly-slitter and her kin: a view of some traditional threatening figures, threats and punishments

Schweig, oder die wilde Berta kommt! (Grimm 1974, 268). Del lavor delle feste, il diavolo si veste (Buchli 1990, 791). Every land save feyther's was called hag-begagged, to keep us childer in proper bounds belike (Madox-Brown 1876, vol. 2, 252). [1]

Abstract

In the contemporary folklore of Austria, Frau Perchta (active during the twelve days of Christmas) is depicted as the rewarder of the generous and the punisher of the bad. But the punishments she Inflicts, such as ripping out a person's guts and replacing them with refuse, do not seem to fit the crime. This paper links Perchta's behaviour, and that of other bogeyman figures, to their historical context. Initially Perchta was the enforcer of communal taboos, hunting down those who spun on holidays or who failed to partake sufficiently in collective feasting (a propitious act designed to ensure future plenty). However, with the growing involvement of peasant women in the market economy (particularly for textiles), Perchta's role changed to the punisher of the lazy. Yet Perchta's previous roles survive, in attenuated form, In each new incarnation.

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Tracing Lost Links between Legendary Punishment and Offence

As any schoolgirl knows, the Danaides, fifty daughters of a fabled king of Argos, murdered their bridegrooms on their wedding night, and were condemned to pour water into sieves for all eternity. Less well known is the precise background to this punishment. In fact, the perfidious brides are vainly attempting to carry water to a nuptial bath that was never prepared for them (Hoffmann-Krayer and Bachtold-Staubli 1927-41, vol. 2, 69-70 and vol. 7, 1665; Ranke and Brednich 1977ff., vol. 3, 267-70). Carrying water in a sieve or the like is a motif that does occur in at least one of the stories about Frau Perchta, but it is only marginal there. More important is that, if we seek, there turn out to be cogent reasons for the incongruous-seeming punishments meted out by Perchta and her kin, just as there are for that inflicted on the Danaides.

Who is Perchta?

Who is, or was, the Frau Perchta of southern German and Austrian folklore? A short answer might be that, like our own Father Christmas or the Italian Befana, she is a mysterious figure said to be at large at one time or another during the Twelve Days of Christmas, receiving offerings, rewarding those who conform to certain norms, and looking askance on those who do not. On the whole, Perchta is a sinister figure, who punishes the slovenly, the idle, the greedy, the inquisitive. Refractory children, and even adults, are in danger of having their stomachs ripped open by her. She will then remove the contents, even the intestines, and replace them with refuse. Just occasionally we glimpse a different side of Perchta's nature. Among the Slovenes she was a tall, powerfully built woman living in the groves and mountain chasms, but also in the depths of lakes in summer. In winter she withdrew to the inside of mountains, where, like Frau Holle, she made the snow. In the winter months she also occupied herself with spinning, and when the shepherds brought flax to her in summer, she blessed their flocks. The shepherds claimed often to see her walking above the steepest slopes at twilight, a golden spindle in her hand (Schmidt 1889, 414).

Romantic and Post-Romantic Mythologisation of Perchta

Not surprisingly, a tendency to mythologise has frequently characterised attempts to interpret a figure as mysterious as that of Perchta. Thus, in a recently published dictionary of folklore, we read: "She is thought to have originally been a goddess, like her northern counterpart Hulda, perhaps the earth-goddess Erda, but her mythical aspect declined with the advent of Christianity, and she was transformed into a witch or hobgoblin" (Jones 1995, 64).

At the back of such accounts lies, ultimately, the influence of Jacob Grimm, notably in his Deutsche Mythologie, four editions of which appeared between 1835 and 1878. Seeking to retrieve lost mythologems, the sole evidence for which were the reflexes produced by the distorting mirror of Christianity, Grimm believed he could descry a group of benign mother goddesses, who in Germanic times taught humanity the secrets of agriculture and household economy, and especially the peaceful arts of spinning, weaving, and tending the hearth. One such goddess was Perchta, dim memories of whom the common people had retained right up to the present (Grimm 1968, vol. 1, 88). Her very name, which meant "shining one," testified to her former status, and to her relationship with classical deities such as Selene, the no less refulgent moon goddess, as well as Diana or Artemis (Grimm 1968, vol. 1, 207 and vol. 3, 88). Not less importantly, there were also links with the northern pantheon. Another manifestation of Perchta was known as Stempe, a name for which Grimm persuasively suggests an etymological link with the "stamping" and other oppressive activities associated with such nightmarish figures. At the same time, he rather less convincingly postulates some sort of contamination with the name of a Germanic goddess Tanfana or Tamfana mentioned by Tacitus, thus providing Perchta alias Stempe with the same sort of Teutonic pedigree as that attributed to her north German counterpart Frau Holda or Holle. For were not Holle's names cognate with those of Scandinavian sorceresses and spirits of the woods known as Hulla, Huldra, Huldre (Grimm 1968, vol. 1, 225-31)?