The featherbed shaking snow goddess, Holle.

Snow is grandmother Holle shaking out her featherbed...(from ancient Germanic folk traditions)
as told by my friend and talented poet, Annelinde Metzner....HERE.

This is another of her beautiful poems which brings together the traditions of a goddess and the wonders of our Appalachian home here in Western North Carolina.

I'm so glad she includes a link HERE to the Sahara Peace Choir singing Annelinde's own song about Holle. (Please turn the sound down after the little girl announces the title!) In this rehearsal video, I was actually a member of that choir, and am seated in blue on the left in the second row.  That was the year I wore my hair red and sang alto!

I should probably mention that Holland was named after Holle.

In Germanic legends, Frau Holda, also Frau Holle, was the protectoress of agriculture and women's crafts....Jacob Grimm made an attempt to establish her as a Germanic goddess .

Grimm based his theory of Holda on what he took to be the earliest references to her: an eleventh-century interpolation to the Canon Episcopi by Burchard of Worms, and pre-Christian Roman inscriptions to Hludana that he tentatively linked to the same divinity. There were early challenges to connecting this figure with a pagan goddess, since her earliest definite appearance links her with the Virgin Mary, commonly called "Queen of Heaven": an early-13th-century text listing superstitions states that "In the night of Christ's Nativity they set the table for the Queen of Heaven, whom the people call Frau Holda, that she might help them". Lotte Motz and Carlo Ginzburg both conclude that she is pre-Christian in origin, based on comparison with other remarkably similar figures and ritual observances spread throughout Europe.   (Source: Wikipedia)

Just some more interesting information about Holle!

Thanks Annelinde for sharing your talents with the Asheville area and beyond!