Buschgroßmutter

The Buschgroßmutter ("shrub grandmother",[1] in older orthography also Buschgrossmutter[2]), Pusch-Grohla ("shrub granny")[3] or Buschweibchen ("shrub woman", with Weibchen being the diminutive of Weib, "woman")[4] is a legendary creature from German folklore, especially found in folktales from the regions Thuringia, Saxony, former Silesia and the former German speaking parts of Bohemia.[1]

The Buschgroßmutter is a forest spirit living in the deepest woods which shows herself to humans only once every hundred years. She is as old as the hills, her appearance being small and ducked, wrinkly and ugly.[1] She has staring eyes[5] and is sometimes said to have an iron head, a typical demonic feature. The Buschgroßmutter's hair is long, as white as snow, but messy and full of lice.[1] The Buschweibchen holds a gnarled stick in her hand. Her feet are overgrown by moss and she walks in a wavering manner. She has tied her apron as if she were transporting something in it[6] and also carries a basket on her back.[1]

The Buschweibchen manifests herself in different natural phenomena. When the mountains are "smoking" with fog in spring and autumn, then the Buschweibchen is said to be cooking. Also when a hailstorm comes up in April and the mountains look veiled, then the Buschweibchen climbs over the mountains.[6]

The character of the Buschgroßmutter is ambivalent, fluctuating between benevolent and malevolent behaviour. She asks people to comb or louse her hair. Those who fulfill her request will be rewarded with a neverending clew of yarn[1] or with yellow leaves which will later become gold if not thrown away. It is but very difficult to clean and tidy the Buschweibchen's hair because her head is as cold as ice, thus leading to a (temporary) freezing of the helper's hands.[6] When she was sneered at, the Buschgroßmutter takes revenge by breathing on the sneerer which will result in illnesses, most commonly rash. Alternatively she will perch herself on the sneerer, also leading to negative effects. Sometimes this woman of the woods is simply evil, e.g. when she attacks children which are picking berries or when she steals the milk of a herdsman's cows.[1] The Buschgroßmutter is regionally used to scare the children.[5]

Normally the Buschgroßmutter is a solitary figure, but occasionally she is said to be the leader of a horde of Moosfräulein ("moss ladies"), female forest spirits[7] which are said to be her daughters. Accompanied by her daughters, the Buschgroßmutter roams the countryside in holy nights. At those times, she travels in a little cart or waggon and people try to stay out of her way.[8] In the 19th century, mythologists such as Jacob Grimm[2] or Wilhelm Mannhardt declared the Buschgroßmutter to be the leader[9] or even the queen of the moss people, similar to the elf queen.[2] Ludwig Bechstein, another mythologist of the 19th century, declared her to be identical with legendary creatures such as Hulda or Bertha,[5] which were interpreted as ancient goddesses at that time, basically on the same level as the historically recorded Germanic goddesses. This view was abandoned in early 20th century, thus defining Buschgroßmutter and Buschweibchen as forest demons of the most primitive kind.[7]

Literature
  • H. Naumann: Buschgroßmutter, Buschweibchen. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 1 Aal-Butzemann. Berlin 1927. (reprint: Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2000, ISBN 978-3-11-016860-0)
  • Ludwig Bechstein: Deutsches Sagenbuch. Meiningen 1852. (reprint: F. W. Hendel Verlag, Meersburg, Leipzig 1930.)
  • Josef Virgil Grohmann: Sagen-Buch von Böhmen und Mähren. Prague 1863. (reprint: Holzinger, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-1-4849-7919-8)
  • Jacob Grimm: Deutsche Mythologie: Vollständige Ausgabe. Berlin 1844. (reprint: Marix-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2014, ISBN 978-3-86539-143-8)
  • Wilhelm Mannhardt: Wald und Feldkulte: Band I. Gdańsk 1874. (reprint: Elibron Classics, 2005, ISBN 1-4212-4740-2)
  • Richard Beitl: Untersuchungen zur Mythologie des Kindes: herausgegeben von Bernd Rieken und Michael Simon. Partially approved: Berlin, University, habilitation treatise R. Beitl, 1933, Waxmann Verlag, Münster/New York/Munich/Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-8309-1809-7.

References
  1. H. Naumann: Buschgroßmutter, Buschweibchen. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 1 Aal-Butzemann. Berlin/New York 2000 p. 1714.
  2. Jacob Grimm: Deutsche Mythologie. Wiesbaden 2014, p. 375.
  3. Richard Beitl: Untersuchungen zur Mythologie des Kindes. Münster/New York/München/Berlin 2007, p. 16.
  4. Josef Virgil Grohmann: Sagen-Buch von Böhmen und Mähren. Berlin 2013, p. 87.
  5. Ludwig Bechstein: Deutsches Sagenbuch. Meersbusch, Leipzig 1930, p. 380.
  6. Josef Virgil Grohmann: Sagen-Buch von Böhmen und Mähren. Berlin 2013, p. 88.
  7. H. Naumann: Buschgroßmutter, Buschweibchen. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 1 Aal-Butzemann. Berlin/New York 2000 p. 1714 f.
  8. Ludwig Bechstein: Deutsches Sagenbuch. Meersbusch, Leipzig 1930, p. 379 f.
  9. Wilhelm Mannhardt: Wald und Feldkulte: Band I. 2005, p. 75.
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