Winter Spirit: Frau Perchta
- ritualcapecod
- Jan 5, 2023
- 3 min read
FRAU PERCHTA Frau Perchta reaches new heights of terrifying in the holiday season. Were you good all year? Did you work hard and honor your rest on your holy days, keep a clean house, and were you charitable? Or maybe you overworked, or were give over to sloth, or perhaps you were naughty or greedy, you lied, or even wronged others this year. If the first part rings true, know that you'll be rewarded with a silver coin or small gift outside your door. But If you were the latter, than nothing can save you. Sometime between now and christmas, Frau Perchta and her children the Perchten are coming to claim you. Under her snow white skirts she carries a sharp blade, and uses it to disembowel the wicked, replacing their innards with straw and rocks as her wild horned perchten hold them down. Suddenly Krampus is looking pretty tame. The lore of Frau Perchta seems to emanate from the Alpine region of Europe (Northern Germany, and Switzerland) with mentions as early as the 10th century, and she may be an amalgamation of Norse, Germanic, and Slavic goddesses, with Holda and Frigg as the two most likely, and to me she carries shades of the Gryla and the Yule Lads lore as well as Baba Yaga. She is often accompanied by a horde of Krampus-esque figures called the Perchten. She considers these spirits to be her "children" and they're more than willing to do her bidding.
