LL-L "Folklore" 2001.12.14 (01) [E/German]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 14.DEC.2001 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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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!

Dawn

>The _Korenmoimeke_ {Eastphalian, elsewhere _Kornmöhm(e)_ "corn/grain
>aunt/woman"} or _Korenwief_ {Eastphalian, elsewhere _Kornwief_
>"corn/grain woman"}, in some areas the _Arftenwief_ {"pea woman"},
>usually a white-haired hag wearing tattered clothes, is a spirit that
>inhabits fields or gardens and will abduct children that stray too far
>off while playing or picking flowers.  {This is related to the German
>tradition of the _Kornmuhme_ or _Roggenmuhme_, also to the Sorbian
>tradition of the _Pr^ipol/dnica_ "midday woman," a woman in white who
>kills people that work in fields in the blistering sun, unless they
>manage to answer her riddles or tell her tales within a given amount of
>time.}

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Folklore

Dawn,

You wrote (above):

> All of the "white lady" stories I've seen on Lowlands-L have been so
> grisly! :-)

Sorry ...  ;-)

> I wonder if the White Lady brought to Missouri by our
> ancestors was also thus, or had been previously conflated with the Virgin
> Mary ...

I consider that possible, coming from a Roman Catholic rather than from a
Protestant tradition (i.e., mythological-religious mixture).

This is what the Grimm Brothers had to say about a white woman
(http://gutenberg.aol.de/grimm/sagen/g123.htm):

"Die schloßweiße [sic.] Frau erscheint in Wäldern und auf Wiesen, bisweilen
kommt sie in Pferdeställe mit brennenden Wachskerzen, kämmt und putzt die
Pferde, und Wachstropfen fallen auf die Mähnen der Pferde. Sie soll, wann sie
ausgehet, hell sehen, in ihrer Wohnung aber blind sein."

(I am fairly sure it is supposed to be "schlohweiße" rather than
"schloßweiße.")

My translation:

"The snow-white woman appears in forests and on meadows. Sometimes she enters
horse stables with lit candles and combs and brushes the horses, and droplets
of wax fall on the manes of the horses. She is supposed to have clear
[second?] sight [is clairvoyant?] whenever she goes out but is supposed to be
blind while she is inside her home."

This sounds a tad less scary, doesn't it?  But what's this thing about her
sight?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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