In fernyear there lived many bewitched and enchanted women, who meant well by folk and even offered help in times of need or disaster. In particular, the goodly Queen Berta is well- known for the many beneficial things she did for the earth. She especially liked to hover round the Sourze Tower in Waadt Land. Every winter she was said to appear there in a white, radiant gown. Swinging a winnower filled to the brim, she broadcast seed over every mountain and valley. At Christmas she appeared as huntress with magic wand in hand, and processed through the village accompanied by many spirits. She circled the houses and dwellings to find where industry, diligence and order ruled. But the good wife Berta was not the only beneficent woman. In the steep rocky cliffs of the Jura Mountains near Vallorbes there is an enormous cave. In olden times many kindly and beautiful fairies lived there, but no one was allowed to intrude into their underground dwelling without punishment. This did not mean you could not see them. One fairy always showed herself from a distance every Palm Sunday. She led a white lamb on a string when a fertile year lay ahead, but in times of misfortune or famine a pitch-black goat followed her. Another fairy bathed at the midnight hour in the blue pools of the Orbe Spring. Two powerful wolves always circled the pool to keep people away. When it snowed in winter and became cold, the fairies came into the village and entered the empty smithies as soon as the workers had left. They warmed themselves by the fire and a rooster crowing loudly announced the return of the forge workers. Then the fairies vanished from the work place. The appearance of fairies was well-known throughout the entire land. Every herder boy knew that there were tall and beautiful women in white gowns that flowed down to the ground, which carefully concealed their feet. The fairies also sang beautifully. But their abundant and rich hair was the finest attribute of all, for their golden tresses fell round their shoulders and enveloped them like a golden mantle.



Fairy Tale Factum

The German expression in teueren Zeiten (Teuerung) is used in this Swiss saga and appears in other saga of the Brothers Grimm. Its antiquated meaning refers to a time of disaster, famine or need. The modern translation is inflation or a rise in prices. At first glance this modern usage seems to have little to do with the older meaning. Teuerung is a term from economics and describes the cost of living index or the price of commodities. Its ancient meaning often meant death from starvation and its causes included failed crops, mismanagement of agricultural resources or unsustainable economic or farming practices.



Queen Berta is spreading the seed for planting using a Futterschwinge. I would guess that 75 years ago, people were still familiar with this exact implement. Since the word is not included in any of the dictionaries at my disposal, I must derive its meaning from its parts, on the one hand, and a pictorial encyclopedia of early American farm tools on the other. Futter = dried food for cattle such as hay or grain and schwinge = something swung back and forth or a shallow, oval basket. The Museum of Early American Tools by Eric Sloane describes a winnower or winnowing scoop as a tool used to throw flailed grain into the air to separate the lighter particles of chaff. The process of winnowing beats or diffuses something through the air. I suspect the tool was something similar for dispersing seed during the spring planting, perhaps by swinging a shallow basket back and forth. Fernyear is a now obsolete term which means in olden times or past years. Fern means remote or distant in German.


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Grimm's Saga No. 362: Food from God

Guardian Angel Protects against the Last Fierce Onslaught of Winter

Not far from Zwickau in Vogtland parents once sent their young boy into a deep forest to drive home the oxen, which had wandered off. But when the boy did not return and night fell, the parents became fearful. A heavy snow was falling and the entire mountain would soon be covered with deep snow. The boy could not have returned from the forest if he had desired it. But when he did not return the following day, the parents were not so much worried about the oxen as they were about the boy. They could not go out and look for him because of the deep snow. On the third day, after the snowfall had diminished, they went out to find the boy. They finally found him sitting on a sunny hill, where no snow had fallen. When the boy saw his parents, he laughed. When they asked him why he had not come home, he answered that he decided to wait until evening and was unaware that an entire day had lapsed. No harm had befallen the child and he appeared happy and healthy. When they asked him if he had eaten anything he replied that a man had come to him and offered him fresh cheese and bread. Without doubt this child had been fed and sustained by an angel sent by God.

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Swiss Fairy Tale: The Gnome Wife Tirli-Wirli

In these fairy tales, some words must never be spoken.

In Switzerland a farmhand married Tirli-wirli, the daughter of a gnome. One day she asked him to promise never to call her by name and he agreed. In June he went out to work in the fields and when he came home late that evening, his wife said she had had a difficult time that day. She expected frost that night and had therefore cut and secured the young, green corn. The man became enraged and yelled: “You silly Tirli-Wirli!” He had barely spoken the words when she walked out the door and vanished. That night a heavy frost did indeed fall, ruining the plants of all the neighbors.

Now the man had three children, whom he had to leave at home when he went out to work. Every morning their mother returned and washed and combed the children’s hair so that the father, when he returned found the rooms clean and the children properly cared for. He asked who was doing this because he locked the door and hid the key every day. The children cried that it was their mother who did everything. The father sorely missed his wife and he would have begged her to return if she had shown herself. He told the children they should ask their mother how she managed to enter a locked house.

When the children asked their mother, she replied she knew where the key was hidden. The unfortunate father now asked a friend to lay in watch and when his wife entered the house, he was to close the door and call him. This happened and the father rushed home and begged his wife for forgiveness. Now they have lived several years happily together.

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