Hanstein and Frau Holle

I spent the last couple of days exploring Meißner with a friend. This involved walking up lots of hills. One very cool place we visited was Burg Hanstein, a castle just across the border of Hesse with Thuringia.

In Ye Olden Days Hanstein was controlled by Raubritter, literally robber barons. Rather than keeping on top of the social pile through ideological propaganda and controlling the means of production and so on, they cut to the chase and went about ambushing and robbing anyone who wandered onto their land in a brutal but undeniably up-front fashion. They were basically extremely successful Robin Hoods without any of that ‘giving to the poor’ crap.

Could Robin Hood afford a place like this? Like hell he could.

The robber barons of Hanstein clearly did rather well for themselves at any rate. Their castle had fantastic views over a passing trade route, so they could basically wander down and rob the hell out of everybody whenever they felt like it, and then return home laden with booty and have a nice medieval banquet with roast pig and ale and wenches etc.

Luckily the robber baron didn't notice the two old people or he would have stolen their shoes and pension books

We also went to find Frau Holle, who lives in a pool up in the forests of Meißner. A couple of centuries ago the Brothers Grimm collected local folk tales about Frau Holle which probably evolved from old pagan traditions. One theory is that she was the wife of Wodan (Odin), but nobody really knows.

Frau Holle carrying a pillow through fake mist

Stories about her are scattered across northern Hesse and Thuringia though, so she must have been an important part of folklore for a long time. In the Grimm story she’s an old hag who lives in the underworld and for some reason is obsessed with tidiness, homekeeping and pillows - the original domestic goddess, if you will. There was a bit of fuss when the above statue of her was set up at Frau Holle Teich, because she’s portrayed as young and voluptuous instead of withered and frightening as she should be.

A few miles away there’s also a cave beneath a tall cliff which was called Hollenstein in a thirteenth-century charter. There are stories about how Frau Holle threw women who cheated on their husbands from the top of the cliff - the original agony aunt, if you will. The cave itself, tucked away at the bottom of the cliff, is very long, very dark and very cold. On a hot day, as you take the steps down to the opening and creep inside, you can feel the temperature drop by twenty degrees in as many vertical feet. The air in your lungs becomes icier with every breath. It’s a bit freaky. Inside the cave is a pond, which is presumably where Frau Holle actually lives. Her underworld realm can only be reached through water, you see.

Note the offering of flowers for Frau Holle (not from me, I don't think she even exists!)