Mother Holle

A widow had two daughters: one worked hard, while the other avoided household tasks. She loved the lazy girl, who was her own child, and made the stepdaughter do all the housework—quite the Cinderella of the family. Every day she sent the girl to sit by the well on the high road and spin until her fingers bled.

One day blood fell on the spindle. As the girl bent over the well to wash it, the spindle sprang from her hand and sank. She ran home crying. Her stepmother scolded her harshly and said that since she had dropped the spindle, she might go herself and fetch it out.

Not knowing what else to do, and frightened of another scolding if she came home empty-handed, the girl jumped into the well after the spindle. She remembered nothing until she woke in a beautiful sunny meadow full of flowers. Walking on, she came to a baker’s oven full of bread. The loaves cried out, “Take us out, take us out, or we shall burn! We have been baked through for a long time.” She took the shovel and drew them all out.

Farther on an apple-tree called to her, “Shake me, shake me! My apples are all ripe.” She shook until they fell like rain, piled them in a heap, and went on. At last she reached a little house where an old woman looked out of a window. The woman had such large teeth that the girl was frightened and would have run, but the woman called kindly, “Do not be afraid. Stay with me; if you do the housework well I will make you happy. Only take care to shake my bed well and plump the feathers—then it snows on earth, for I am Mother Holle.”

The girl agreed and worked with a will. She shook the feather-bed until the feathers flew like snowflakes. She lived contentedly for a time, then grew homesick and asked to go back to her own people. Mother Holle was pleased that she wished to go and led her to a door. As the girl passed through, a shower of gold fell on her and clung until she was covered from head to foot. “That is your reward for industry,” said Mother Holle, and gave her back the spindle as well.

When she came into the yard the cock on the well-side crowed that their golden daughter had come home. Seeing her covered with gold, stepmother and sister welcomed her warmly. She told them everything. The mother then wanted the same fortune for her lazy daughter and sent her to sit by the well and spin. The girl did not spin much; she pricked her finger on purpose, threw the spindle into the well, and jumped after it.

She woke in the same meadow, but when the bread cried out she answered that she would not dirty her hands, and when the apple-tree begged to be shaken she refused to spoil her clothes. At Mother Holle’s house she undertook the work, thinking of the gold, but soon grew lazy, would not rise early, and neglected the feather-bed so that no snow fell. Mother Holle tired of her and sent her away. The girl hoped for gold at the door; instead a bucket of pitch poured over her. She went home coated with it, and the cock crowed that their dirty daughter had come back. Try as she would, she could not get the pitch off; it stuck to her as long as she lived.

Where this tale comes from

“Mother Holle” (“Frau Holle”) is number 24 in Margaret Hunt’s translation of the Grimms. This telling is from Project Gutenberg’s Grimms’ Fairy Tales (#2591), whose English its preparer bases on the translations of Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes.

Mother Holle says that when the feathers fly from her bed it snows on earth, offering an imaginative origin for snow within the tale. Two stepsisters follow the same route but make different choices. Their contrasting rewards are central to the tale; the second girl’s permanent coating of pitch is a severe punishment, not a harmless joke.

Read the original: Grimms’ Fairy Tales (Project Gutenberg #2591)

Best for older readers with an adult — includes abusive overwork, bleeding fingers, jumping into a well and a lifelong bodily punishment. The magical journey is not something to imitate.

Reading the story closely

Mother Holle’s appearance frightens the first girl, but her behavior initially offers what the girl’s family does not: kind speech, food and permission to leave. The bread and apple tree also ask for timely help rather than setting impossible tasks. The second visit repeats these encounters so readers can compare responses.

Create paired panels for the oven, tree, housework and doorway. What does each girl know or expect at each stage? Then consider the punishment separately from the contrast in effort. The story rewards helpfulness, but readers can question whether neglecting work warrants a mark that can never be removed.

Talk about it

• Why did the good girl help the bread and the apple-tree when no one was watching?
• Why do you think the lazy girl only worked hard on the first day?
• How does Mother Holle respond when the first girl asks to leave, and how does that compare with the girl’s treatment at home?

Related stories

• Ashputtel — a hard-working stepdaughter is treated cruelly and then richly rewarded
• The Elves and the Shoemaker — a Grimm story where good, honest work is rewarded by magic helpers
• The Three Languages — a Grimm tale where a young person learns from strange helpers and is rewarded