Frau Gode

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In the Twelve Nights of Christmas, Frau Gode is abroad, and many people have encountered her during this time. Once a farmhand was in the stables with his horses as Frau Gode arrived. She handed him a pole and told him to hew a sharpened tip into the pole. At first he was reluctant, but, after she promised him a good wage, he agreed. When he was finished, she told him to keep and secure the wood shavings that had fallen off. He did so, and they turned into pure gold in the next morning.

People also used to tell stories about how Frau Gode was traveling through the air with her dogs. Once she passed over a farmhouse, and when the farmer stepped out of his door he discovered a small dog lying on the ground. He took the dog inside and raised it together with his wife. But the next year around the same time the dog was suddenly gone, though at its usual sleeping place there was a big lump of gold. This must have been given to the farmer by Frau Gode, for he used to be a poor man and now became very rich.

A farmer who lived in Wredenhagen traveled home with his wagon one evening as Frau Gode approached. He climbed down from the wagon and walked to his horses, which had become quite nervous. He let the party pass him, but as they were nearly gone he struck one of the small dogs with his whip. This deed returned on him badly, for the next day he had a heavily swollen head and was confined to his bed for fourteen days until he became well again.

In Zielow there once was a man who joined in the cheering when Frau Gode traveled over his house. Suddenly, a leg flew into his window — with the stocking still attached — and a voice shouted: “If you joined in the cheering, you must also join in the feasting!”

Source: Bartsch - Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg Band 1, p. 19

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Geographic Coordinates: 53° 17' 5.00" N, 12° 30' 59.98" E; 53° 21' 17.93" N, 12° 41' 23.01" E

caption Note: This story was published in the book Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles: Commentaries on German folklore. Get the book for further context and explanatory commentary!