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

Grimm's speculations were to have far-reaching consequences, only to be touched on more or less at random here. Mannhardt, developing Grimm's ideas soon after the mid-nineteenth century, saw Perchta and Holda as heathen personifications of natural forces. For Elard Hugo Meyer, writing about the turn of the century, the Scandinavian goddess Frigg was behind Perchta, Holda, and their sibling Fru Frick. Evidence of the link was provided not only, presumably, by the apparently related name Frick, but also by the spindle or distaff common to all three. At the end of the 1930s, Kranzmayer was still arguing that Perchta harked back to Germanic pre-literary tradition. In his work published in the 1950s, Josef Hanika contended that the Perchta of custom and legend had direct links with a pre-Christian supernatural figure, and that her alleged belly-ripping activities were a relic of prehistoric initiation rites (Kellner 1994, 329-31). As late as the 1970s, Beitl divines behind the name Perchta a Germanic figure, "for which we admittedly have no evidence" (Beitl 1974, 75). Wolfram also refers to the lack of pre-medieval evidence, but perceives "characteristics that cannot be other than pagan in the figures of Percht and Holle" (Wolfram 1980, 111). It is only scholars such as Rumpf (1973; 1976; 1980; 1991) and Kellner (1994; Ranke and Brednich 1977ff, vol. 10, 721-7) who, with their tenacity and intimate knowledge of the daunting terrain, can point out a way through the thickets. Even with such help, the well-meaning but ill-equipped traveller can still no doubt lose his way and come to grief.

Anglo-Saxon Attitudes

Save for a brief quotation from a dictionary of folklore, I have so far neglected Anglo-Saxon attitudes. Among the most recent to be recorded are those of Hilda Ellis Davidson (1993) in her Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe. Davidson makes interesting comparisons, hinting at possible parallels between Perchta's wagon or plough and English Plough Monday ceremonies, or between Perchta's association with spinning and St Brigid's affinity with the same activity. Some of the customs associated with Perchta, processions and visitations for instance, are also seen as similar, if not related, to the activities of the saint's representatives, the biddies, fantastically arrayed youths who might visit Irish houses and terrify children on the eve of St Brigid's Day, 1 February.

The gist of Davidson's account seems to be that Perchta and Holle may be seen as belonging to a group of minor goddesses, a status to which their names bear witness, since Perchta appears to come from an adjective meaning "bright" or "glorious," and Holle from one meaning "merciful," "benign" (Davidson 1993, 113-7). Recent research suggests that such an interpretation of Holle stems from misreadings of medieval Latin texts, which in fact contain a word meaning simply "demon" (Kellner 1994, 339-40).

Interpreting Perchta's Name