Yule 2017Imbolg

Newsletter for Ar nDraiocht Feins South East Region

2018
Issue 11

ADF: News of the

South East
Want to connect with
Druids in the South Events in the Region; The Goddess Holda
East Region?
By Ratatask Thora
Virginia:
Theres an
Grove of the Seven Hills Holda (also known as Holle, Huld, and
e-list & forum. You can Frau Holle) is a Goddess from Northern
Dec. 16: Yule Rite 6pm
subscribe through the Germany. Her name means "friendly,
ADF website. benevolent one" (in Old High German the
word "Hold" meant benevolent or faithful)
Three Branch River
or "hidden one". She is said to dress in
There are two, count Dec. 17: Yule Rite white with keys on her belt. The keys were
often worn by women who were head of
them , two Facebook their household to indicate their status. She
groups: Maryland: is described as having ugly, big teeth, a big
r nDraocht Fin - nose and a flat foot, which is a result of her
CedarLight Grove love of weaving. The foot can flatten a due
South East to the frequent pressing of the peddle on the
Every Sunday 10am Rites of Caffeina
and loom. Her home is widely accepted to be
11:30 Walk with the Old Ones. Hohe Meissner mountain in Westphalia.
ADF South East Region Dec. 16: Yule Rite She is said to dwell there in Kitzkammer
cave where her cats live (who may be girls
who Holda has turned into cats to live and
And theres always your Hallowed Ground work with her for a time as a consequence
Regional Druid team: of their laziness) and have a lake known as
Dec. 17: Yule Rite Frau Holle lake where she keeps the souls
RD-Rev. Nancy of newborns and infants who die.
McAndrew
Holda has a particularly strong connection
AL Deputy-Brenda Georgia: to spinning and flax. She is said to have
Lively given a peasant flax seed and taught him
Red Earth Grove and his wife how to harvest, spin, weave
and bleach it, thus granting them
Dec. 16: Yule Rite prosperity. This is just one case of one of
her most common aspects. She often grants
Florida:. gifts and rewards to hard working people. It
is said that if a person works hard at
spinning all day, she may come in and
Manatee Oak ProtoGrove finish the spinning during the night.

Dec. 23: Yule Rite Continued on page 2...

The Goddess Holda; cont. from pg. 1
Likewise, she often punished lazy people by burning or had described and starts walking towards Mother Holle's
dirtying their spinning. house. Along the say, she sees the apple tree full of apples. It
calls to her and says "Shake me! Shake me! My apples are
In central Germany there are many versions of the story that ripe and my branches are heavy with all these apples!", but
the Brothers Grimm wrote down as Mother Holle. In this she replies "I don't have time for you" and walks on. She sees
story, a hard-working girl goes to the well to wash out some the bread which cries "Take me out! I'm done and going to
blood that she got on her spinning reel, but accidentally falls burn!", to which she replies "I don't want to get my hands
down into the well (in some versions she drops the reel in dirty" and walks on. Eventually she reaches the home of
accidentally and jumps in after it). When she reaches the Mother Holle and announces that she would like to work for
bottom of the well, she finds herself in a beautiful green land. her. Mother Holle takes her in and puts her to work. In a short
She starts walking along the land and sees an apple tree that time however, the girl gets bored with the chores and became
is full of apples. The tree cries "Shake me! Shake me! My very lazy. Soon the girl announced that she was homesick
apples are ripe and my branches are heavy with all these and wanted to return home. Mother Holle was relieved and
apples!" So the girl goes to the tree, shakes all the apples off showed the girl the way home. But when the returned home
the tree and stacks them in a pile. She moves on and comes again, she found that she was covered in dirt that would not
across bread baking in an oven. The bread cries "Take me wash off. Holda also has a particularly strong connection
out! I'm done and going to burn!" She goes to the oven, with water. She is associated with springs, wells and lakes,
removes the bread and sets it out to cool. such as the lake where she is said to keep the souls of
newborns and infants who die unnamed. She also has a
connection with fog.
Eventually she comes to a house where an old woman lives.
The woman introduces herself as Mother Holle and invites
the girl in to live with her in return for helping with the It is said that Holda can be seen at times as a dark shape
chores. The girl stays with Mother Holle and is very hard- drifting in the fog, and fog maidens are called "die Hollen"
working and industrious. Mother Holle is quite pleased with after her. And she is associated with snowfall. It is said that
her. Eventually Mother Holle realizes that the girl is snowfall is Holda shaking her bed and making the feathers
homesick and wants to go home. So Mother Holle shows the fly.
girl the way home, and the girl returns to her home and finds
herself covered in gold. Holda is also associated with Yule. She is said to drive her
wagon over land at Yule at the head of hosts of children.
When she returns home, she tells her lazy sister what had Food associated with her such as oatmeal and fish are eaten at
happened. Her sister decides that she wants some of this gold this time, and plates are set out for her as an offering. And at
as well, so she goes to the well with some weaving. She the beginning of Yule, people shake apple trees saying "little
weaves for a bit and then gets tired and so pricks her own tree, wake up, Frau Holle is coming!" in order to ensure that
finger and throws the reel down the well, jumping down
behind it. She finds herself in the same land the other sister Continued on page 3

Druids Garden: Wait, You Can Garden at Yule?

Of course you can! Heres a
list of Yuletime garden activi-
ties;
Clear weeds and debris
from beds
Mulch, mulch, mulchget he last of those leaves for com-
posting or mulching.
In a cold frame cultivate kale, collards, or spinach
Harvest sunchokes at will
Enjoy some cocoa while dreaming over seed catalogs and
garden planning
Get your brlap ready to protect figs, camellias, and jas-
mines if the temps get into the 20s
You can plant bare root trees in the winter (zone 7 and
higher)
Plant iris, anemone, and liriope (zone 8)
Sow winter/cover crops: winter pea, annual rye grass, fa-
vas, oats, millet, etc. (zone 9)

the tree will bear more in the next year.
Holda is also linked with witches and witchcraft in folktales.
In Christian times, she was seen as the queen of the witches,
and was said to lead witches, along with unbaptized children
on her wild hunt. Those who ride with Holda were said to
go on "a witches' ride". The Milky Way was sometimes
called the highway of Frau Hulde in Middle Dutch.
Holda is often linked to Brocken mountain, which is
associated with witches in the folktale, "the Trip to
Brocken" says: "The day came when witches go the
Brocken, and the two women climbed into the hayloft, took
a small glass, drank from it, and suddenly disappeared. The
bridegroom-to-be, who had sneaked after them and observed
them, was tempted to take a swallow from the glass. He
picked it up and sipped a little from it, and suddenly he was
on the Brocken, where he saw how his fiance and her
mother were carrying on with the witches, who were
dancing around the devil, who was standing in their midst."
The type of witchcraft associated with the witches on
Brocken mountain and with Holda is knot magic, shape
shifting, flying, using potions and casting spells. It was a
different sort of magic than seithr, which is primarily trance
work.
The Elder tree, which has many medicinal and alcoholic
uses, is sacred to her. It was thought that Elder by the door
of a farmhouse brings protection and luck. Other trees
possibly sacred to her are maple, juniper and linden.
References to Holda appears other literature, besides
the fairly tales,. There is a giantess named Hulda in
Sturlunga Saga that may be related to Holda (or may
be Holda). In the Ynglinga saga, the Vlva and
Seithkona named Huldr or Hulla who may be related
to Holda. She also may be related to a woman named
Hulda, who is said to be beloved of Odin and mother
of Thorgerdhr and Irpa in a 14th century saga (this
Hulda and Huldr may be the same person). Folk tales
in Norway, Sweden and Denmark speak of Hulla,
Huldra or Huldre as a mountain- or wood-wife. In
Iceland, Landwights or dwarves are called huldrefolk
which could connect them to Holda, although it's
possible that there is an older meaning of the word
huldr that could be a general word for benign spirit.
Frau Holda is often related to other goddesses within
the Norse pantheon. She is sometimes related to
Frigga due to her association with spinning,
households and children, as well as the possible
association between her and Odin (see above
paragraph). It has been suggested that she may be an
aspect of Frigga that has been separated out. Because
she is a leader of the Wild Hunt, is associated with
death (of children) and is a worker of a type of magic more
similar to galdor, of which Odin is a master, than seithr,
which Odin is said to have learned from Freya, it has been
suggested that if you merge her and Frigga, she would make
the perfect counterpart to Odin. Holda is also associated
with Freya at times due to her connection to cats (her cave,
Kitzkammer means "Cat Chamber"), with magic, and with
the dead. She is also sometimes associated with Hel, though
that seems to be primarily due to the similarities in their
names and Holda's association with death. Holda is often
associated with Perchte and Berchta, a goddesses from
southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland. They are both
associated with spinning and abhor laziness like Holda. And
both are associated with Yule and the Wild Hunt. They do
not, however, share Holda's association with magic and
witchcraft. Other goddesses sometimes associated with
Holda include Hlodyn, Nehalennia and Hlundana. Outside
of the Norse pantheon, Holda has also been linked with the
Roman goddess Diana her association with the wild hunt,
and with Hecate due to her association with witches.
Resources:
"Frau Holle in the Sky" by Birgit Knorr, published in Idunna
"Holle" by Birgit Knorr Workshop and interviews with
Birgit Knorr
"Holda and the Cult of Witches"
http://www.ealdriht.org/witchholda.html
"Holda" by Thorskegga Thorn
"Holda" by Diana Paxson
http://hrafnar.org/articles/dpaxson/asynjur/holda/
 GROVES & PROTOGROVES IN THE SOUTH EAST REGION
Maryland:
Cedarlight Grove, ADF; Baltimore, MD
Phone: (410) 929-2544
E-mail: clg@cedarlightgrove.org
Cultural Focus: Northern I-E mostly
http://www.cedarlightgrove.org
https://www.facebook.com/cedarlightgrove/
Georgia:
Grove of the Red Earth, ADF; Duluth, GA
Phone: 770-662-0602
E-mail: redearthseniordruid@gmail.com
Cultural Focus: Pan-Indo-European
http://www.redearthadf.org
https://www.facebook.com/groups/redearthadf/

Virginia:
Grove of the Seven Hills, ADF; Lynchburg, VA
E-mail: sevenhillsadf@yahoo.com
Cultural Focus: Celtic, Norse
http://sevenhillsadf.weebly.com/
https://www.facebook.com/gosh.adf
Florida:
Manatee Oak Protogrove, ADF; Brandon, FL
E-mail: manateeoak@gmail.com
Cultural Focus: Celtic, Norse, Hellenic
http://manateeoak.org
https://www.facebook.com/ManateeOakGroveAdf

Three Branch River Grove, ADF;

Portsmouth, VA
Phone: (757) 572-5874
E-mail: Three.Branch.River.Grove@gmail.com
Cultural Focus: Celtic/Norse/Germanic
www.facebook.com/ThreeBranchRiverProtogroveADF

Update on the ADF Office

Posted by Selene Tawny
I have finally caught up on all of the work for the ADF Office. The last of the Membership ID cards
will be sent out tomorrow. If you requested a card and you do not receive it by next Friday, please
contact me at adf-office@adf.org.
If you have sent in a payment in October or November and you have received no acknowledgement
of that payment, please contact me at adf-office@adf.org.
I am finishing up the procedures for the office tasks, the procedures we had were out of date. Once
that is complete I believe the Administrator will be announcing the Office Manager job. I will help to
train the new Office Manager and will be around for any questions he or she may have.
Selene Tawny
Interim Office Manager