LL-L "Folklore" 2001.12.16 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 16.DEC.2001 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Folklore

Dear Lowlanders,

According to Renate Winter (_Plattdeutsch-hochdeutsches Wörterbuch_), on
the Baltic Sea island of Rügen (which once was a major center of the
pre-Christian Pomeranian belief in Triglav, the three-headed god) and in
certain other eastern Low-Saxon- (Low-German-) speaking areas of
Germany, the Low Saxon (Low German) term _witt Wiev_ (_witt Wief_) [vIt
'vi:f] "white woman" (plural _witte Wiever_ [,vIte 'vi:v3]) can be used
to generally refer to female witches, mediums and ghosts.

(Note: I believe the reason that _Wiev_ [vi:f] (nowadays mostly used in
derogatory contexts) rather than more neutral _Fru_ [fru:] or _Fro_
[fro.U] ~ [freoU] is used is not necessarily to put a negative spin on
the term but is an archaism that is being preserved because the slot
*_witt(e) Fru_ ~ *_witt(e) Fro_ is taken up by the noun _Wittfru_
['vItfru:] ~ _Wittfro_ ['vItfro.U] ~ ['vItfreoU] 'widow'.)

Dawn Work remarked that the Lowlandic white women/lady figures we have
been mentioning to far are all frightening:

> From: "Dawn Work" <dawn_work at uswest.net>
> Subject: Folklore
>
> All of the "white lady" stories I've seen on Lowlands-L have been so
> grisly! :-)  I wonder if the White Lady brought to Missouri by our
> ancestors was also thus, or had been previously conflated with the Virgin
> Mary, or was perhaps one of the ubiquitous spirits that brought both weal
> and woe!

>From the reading I have done about developments of mythological figures
in Europe, I gather that by and large this is the result of what in
German is known as _Verteufelung_, i.e., "demonization" (lit.
"devilization").  It began with conversion to Christianity, which had
less to do with missionary activities than with political power and
expansion, conversion of entire tribes or nations by decree and force,
usually as a part of colonization (such as Charlemagne's Frankish
conquest of the stubbornly "heathen" Saxons, and Germanic conquests of
"heathen" West Slavs in today's Eastern Germany).  This, at an age when
"church" and "state" were virtually synonymous and had absolute power,
brought in its wake denigration of those elements of the previously
dominant religions that could not be converted to Christian
equivalents.  The old religions went underground and were handed down in
secret, mostly among women, especially among women that were socially
ostracized and/or economically disenfranchised (e.g., those that were
widowed or had never married) and lived in seclusion where, usually for
a living, they perform Shamanist rituals, healing practices (including
herbal medicine) and midwifery skills that were parts of the old
religions.  In Northern Continental Europe and on the British Isles,
these previously revered shamans and those accused of being such came to
be persecuted by the church (=state) as "witches" ("white witches" and
"black witches"), and the witch hunts went on for centuries and turned
into one of the greatest holocausts in recorded European history.

A number of authors link the white lady figure of folk mythology to the
pre-Christian earth goddess, i.e., the goddess of fertility that
inhabits meadows and fields and occasionally appears there to the eyes
of mere mortals.  Rituals of reverence of this goddess left traces
especially in springtime (fertility) celebrations (e.g., Easter < Esther
~ Astarte) and in harvest-time thanksgiving festivals, especially among
Germanic- and Slavic-speaking peoples.  In Roman-Catholic- and
Eastern-Orthodox-dominated cultures (as well as in the cultures of
Europe's Indic-descent Roma ("Gypsy") people), elements of this goddess
worship came to be absorbed into adoration of the Virgin Mary ("our dear
Lady").  This changed in those areas in which Protestantism came to
dominate (which is the larger part of our Lowlands) and Mary adoration
came to be seen as idolatry (at least among puritans).  It is my theory
that in these areas this goddess worship thus had nowhere to go and
consequently underwent wholesale denigration, i.e., denigration of
pre-Christian beliefs as well as denigration of pre-Protestant Mary
adoration.  It thus comes as no surprise to me that in most parts of the
Lowlands mythological figures, especially female ones (including female
tree spirits like the elder mother we discussed some time ago), were
developed from benevolent spirits to malevolent spirits.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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