Praising Perchta as the Embodiment of Nature’s Cycles: Worship and Demonization of Perchta and Holda in Medieval and Early Modern Culture
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William Mahan
Abstract
Those familiar with Perchta typically think of a Krampus-like creature as part of Alpine traditions preserved through folklore and, especially costumes, or in some cases the name brings to mind a ‘Christmas Witch.’ This paper examines Perchta as a goddess, depicted in medieval and early modern texts as an embodiment of nature’s elements including the Winter and Spring seasons. Religious and other sources condemned the worship of Perchta and demonized the goddess, but in folklore and customs surrounding Perchta, she is honored as a protectoress and as part of nature, often having animal-like qualities or identified as a personification of the seasons. This paper considers Perchta in religious and secular texts as well as folk customs including “feeding,” such as leaving a plate of food outside for Perchta, and mumming, or mask-making, and considers both individualized and pluralistic appearances of Perchta and Perchten. In her duality of brightness and beauty versus darkness, the demonic, and death, Perchta reflects cycles in nature such as day and night or the changing of seasons. The costumes of goatskin, horns, masks, fangs, and twigs all reflect the embodiment of nature and wildness (as the name “Wild Hunt,” a motif in northern European folklore popularized by Jacob Grimm, implies) in human-like form. The worship or “feeding” of Perchta, essentially a reverence of the seasons and an acknowledgment of human dependence on nature, deeply troubled the Church as a connection to a false idol. Pagan celebrations of nature and the seasons conflicted with Christian holidays and represented a refusal to convert and pay taxes to the Church by people who lived in remote areas and retained traditional pagan beliefs. Perchten (pl.) are personified as forces of nature in identities such as “Winterdämonen” (wild winter demons), wild women of the mountain forests, or in other cases as bright usherers of spring.
Abstract
Those familiar with Perchta typically think of a Krampus-like creature as part of Alpine traditions preserved through folklore and, especially costumes, or in some cases the name brings to mind a ‘Christmas Witch.’ This paper examines Perchta as a goddess, depicted in medieval and early modern texts as an embodiment of nature’s elements including the Winter and Spring seasons. Religious and other sources condemned the worship of Perchta and demonized the goddess, but in folklore and customs surrounding Perchta, she is honored as a protectoress and as part of nature, often having animal-like qualities or identified as a personification of the seasons. This paper considers Perchta in religious and secular texts as well as folk customs including “feeding,” such as leaving a plate of food outside for Perchta, and mumming, or mask-making, and considers both individualized and pluralistic appearances of Perchta and Perchten. In her duality of brightness and beauty versus darkness, the demonic, and death, Perchta reflects cycles in nature such as day and night or the changing of seasons. The costumes of goatskin, horns, masks, fangs, and twigs all reflect the embodiment of nature and wildness (as the name “Wild Hunt,” a motif in northern European folklore popularized by Jacob Grimm, implies) in human-like form. The worship or “feeding” of Perchta, essentially a reverence of the seasons and an acknowledgment of human dependence on nature, deeply troubled the Church as a connection to a false idol. Pagan celebrations of nature and the seasons conflicted with Christian holidays and represented a refusal to convert and pay taxes to the Church by people who lived in remote areas and retained traditional pagan beliefs. Perchten (pl.) are personified as forces of nature in identities such as “Winterdämonen” (wild winter demons), wild women of the mountain forests, or in other cases as bright usherers of spring.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Introduction 1
- Nature and Human Society in the Pre-Modern World 29
- Unnatural Humans: The Misbegotten Monsters of Beowulf 97
- Natural Environment in the Old English Orosius: Ohthere’s Travel Accounts in Norway 135
- When Is a Good Time? Health Advice and the Months of the Year 153
- Humans Serving Nature: Beekeeping and Bee Products in Piero de Crescenzi’s Ruralia commoda 169
- Medieval Epistemology and the Perception of Nature: From the Physiologus to John of Garland and the Niederrheinische Orientbericht. Bestiaries and the ‘Book of Nature’ 189
- Waste, Excess, and Profligacy as Critiques of Authority in Fourteenth-Century English Literature 217
- “A New Flood Was Released from the Heavens”: The Literary Responses to the Disaster of 1333 253
- The Environmental Causes of the Plague and their Terminology in the German Pestbücher of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 301
- Island, Grove, Bark, and Pith: Nature Metaphors in Teresa de Cartagena 331
- Nature, Art, and Human Perception in Giulio Romano’s Room of the Giants at the Palazzo del Te, Mantua (1532–1535) 353
- Human Body, Natural Causes, and Aging of the World in Czech-Language Sources of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period 383
- Perception of Air Quality in the Czech Lands of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 415
- Johann Arndt’s Book of Nature: Medieval Ideas During the German Reformation 435
- Imitation vs. Allegorization: Martin Opitz’s Influential Proposal Concerning Poetic Reflections on Nature 459
- François Bernier and Nature in Kashmir: Belonging in Paradise? 485
- Cosmology and Pre-Modern Anthropology 505
- Praising Perchta as the Embodiment of Nature’s Cycles: Worship and Demonization of Perchta and Holda in Medieval and Early Modern Culture 549
- List of Illustrations 581
- Biographies of the Contributors 583
- Index 589
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Introduction 1
- Nature and Human Society in the Pre-Modern World 29
- Unnatural Humans: The Misbegotten Monsters of Beowulf 97
- Natural Environment in the Old English Orosius: Ohthere’s Travel Accounts in Norway 135
- When Is a Good Time? Health Advice and the Months of the Year 153
- Humans Serving Nature: Beekeeping and Bee Products in Piero de Crescenzi’s Ruralia commoda 169
- Medieval Epistemology and the Perception of Nature: From the Physiologus to John of Garland and the Niederrheinische Orientbericht. Bestiaries and the ‘Book of Nature’ 189
- Waste, Excess, and Profligacy as Critiques of Authority in Fourteenth-Century English Literature 217
- “A New Flood Was Released from the Heavens”: The Literary Responses to the Disaster of 1333 253
- The Environmental Causes of the Plague and their Terminology in the German Pestbücher of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 301
- Island, Grove, Bark, and Pith: Nature Metaphors in Teresa de Cartagena 331
- Nature, Art, and Human Perception in Giulio Romano’s Room of the Giants at the Palazzo del Te, Mantua (1532–1535) 353
- Human Body, Natural Causes, and Aging of the World in Czech-Language Sources of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period 383
- Perception of Air Quality in the Czech Lands of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 415
- Johann Arndt’s Book of Nature: Medieval Ideas During the German Reformation 435
- Imitation vs. Allegorization: Martin Opitz’s Influential Proposal Concerning Poetic Reflections on Nature 459
- François Bernier and Nature in Kashmir: Belonging in Paradise? 485
- Cosmology and Pre-Modern Anthropology 505
- Praising Perchta as the Embodiment of Nature’s Cycles: Worship and Demonization of Perchta and Holda in Medieval and Early Modern Culture 549
- List of Illustrations 581
- Biographies of the Contributors 583
- Index 589
