Mother Hulda
The Classical German fairytale revolves around the kind girl / unkind girl story and finds its roots in Scandinavian paganism.
The figure of Frau Holle (Hulda / Holda / Holla) originated in an ancient Germanic supreme goddess amalgamated with Celtic traditions and denotes a single being.
Hulda is the Goddess to whom children who died as infants go. Her connection to the spirit world through the magic of spinning and weaving has associated her with witchcraft in Catholic German folklore. Over time religious views changed the tone of stories and also the mainly male collectors and publishers of them, like the Grimm Brothers. (Frau Holle was told to them by Henrietta Dorothea Wild whom Wilhelm Grimm married in 1825.)
“Hulda is making her bed” is a common expression in Germany when it’s snowing, that is she shakes her bed and out comes snow from heaven.
Installation as part of the Wilde Weekend Festival in Enniskillen.