Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings.   For this week’s Femme Fatale Friday, I have decided to discuss yet another Christmas Folklore Witch!   This week’s folklore figure is Frau Perchta, who is very similar to Gryla, whom I wrote about last week, but also has her own unique associations and reasoning for her actions in her tales.    Without further ado, let’s get into Frau Perchta’s story! 

Frau Perchta is a German Christmas Witch who is not nearly as well-remembered as Krampus, even though her story comes from very similar areas of the world.   Some of her other names include Berchta, Bertha, and “Spinnstubenfrau” or “Spinning Room Lady.”   Her most common depictions include having a beaked nose made of iron, which is similar to the classic witch’s nose, but it is interesting that her nose is not flesh.    She is commonly dressed in rags and carries a cane, however, she is far from the common old crone, she is also known to carry a blade underneath her skirt.

It has been said that she has a resemblance to the Goddess Frigga especially in that they share a love of spinning.    Frau Perchta is very obsessed with the domestic arts, and can harshly judge those who do not have their housework completed in an appropriate time frame!   Similar to another Christmas Witch, but a much nicer one, La Befana, she has a connection to Twelfth Night, or the Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6th.   However, instead of giving gifts to children as La Befana does, Frau Perchta will punish the lazy women who do not have all their flax spun by that night!   If you do not complete spinning your flax by that night, she will trample it and set it on fire, which would have been a severe punishment for poor women of old to lose their resources!   

She even gets more vengeful if you further insult her by not leaving out the customary offer of a bowl of porridge and having a very messy home in general.   If you have failed to spin your flax, have your house a total mess, and do not offer her porridge, she was known to come into your bedroom and disembowel you and stuff you with rocks and straw in place of your guts!    As we can clearly see, she is just as cruel as last week’s Femme Fatale Friday featured Christmas Witch, Gryla.    Frau Perchta is different in that she chooses to punish women who have not properly cared for their homes and families, instead of going after children!   

Interestingly, she is also associated with the Wild Hunt and has an army of demonic servants nearly indistinguishable from Krampus visually!   It is in this version of her story where we get the reference to Frau Perchta also being named Holle.    Frau Holle is a feminine figure also commonly associated with the Wild Hunt, who I was much more familiar with, but I did not hear of Frau Perchta until I began researching more Christmas Witch folklore this year, after being very intrigued by La Befana and Gryla in recent years.    Reading about the connection between Frau Perchta and Frau Holle, and the fact that they could very well be the same figure is very intriguing to me!   It is her connection to Frau Holle that connects her to the Epiphany linguistically, as Epiphany means the ‘Shining Night’ and Holle means ‘bright’ and ‘shining’.

I have had a lot of fun getting to know more about all of these different Christmas Witches this December.   I hope you have enjoyed reading these Femme Fatale Friday posts about the creepiest of the Christmas Witches I have read about.    Who is your favorite Christmas Witch?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is Frau Perchta.   I found the image on https://www.d20radio.com/main/finders-archives-creatures-of-the-season-frau-perchta/.

Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services!    I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon!  Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/

Further Reading

• https://boroughsofthedead.com/frau-perchta/
• https://germangirlinamerica.com/what-is-frau-perchta-goddess-or-belly-slitter/
• https://www.vice.com/en/article/43989p/perchta-christmas-goddess-demon-woman
• https://www.muddycolors.com/2020/12/frau-perchta-the-christmas-witch/   
• https://www.lacucinaitaliana.com/trends/news/la-befana-celebrating-the-feast-of-the-epiphany-in-italy?refresh_ce=&fbclid=IwAR3_dT48I9HluPiQlVToKekJqOhUSqRWRaqGXkbBA932VDXl_rOB7aU9If8