I've posted about European indigenous beliefs being appropropriated by the writing and publishing industry, badly, speaking generally. Let me be specific so it can be understood. The fairy tales that Jacob Grimm wrote were to collect remaining knowledge in the people of Holle, a powerful very old goddess. When there are stories about a god who curses an arrogant man and turns him into a beast, it is not a powerful fairy. It is this ancient spirit.
Holle is known by many names in many cultures, for many things. Her power as a god is being able to appear not just in one form recognised by all, but as a woman in any stage of life: young, middle, or old. She predates the later known Germanic Norse gods Woden and Thunar. Her main holiday is from December 25 until January 6, and during this time she is particularly known for welcoming infants who died early. The goddess is known for incredible warmth, but should not be assumed to be diminished to the role of "bibbity bobbity boo." Though the stories of her having affinity for kind, diligent, and respectful people, is the same facet that she dislikes strongly the arrogant and proud from where the stories of cursing them to be frogs or beasts arises.
The arrogance of the writing community to take stories of the god of the German people and tell Muslims to write a Muslim story about that god has lacked delicacy and discretion. The frustration of these stories perpetuating gendered archetypes are maybe a problem not correctly being addressed. Because this powerful god of the Germans was replaced in popularity by younger gods, and Norse made Yule a festival of Odin, involving enormous cruelty of human sacrifice. Historical record shows that the cult of Odin led by one Norse king sacrificed 81 people in one Yule season. This is the misogyny to chose cruel worship of a male diety over a powerful goddess and say she has a mean streak for punishing arrogance and laziness that doesn't hold a candle to that level of cruelty.
There is no knowledge of this German god when someone choses one of our stories about her to make politically correct or feminist without understanding that the way to do that is to remove the problem of diminishing her power, and relegating her to gendered archetypes of old maternal figure, spinning and cleaning the home, always in long dresses of ancient times.
I think about how this god would respond to the war in Ukraine that is sending so many young infants and children to her arms. Where good, diligent, respectful and kind people are being killed by greedy, imperical tyrants. How did she feel when the Germanic tribes who worshipped her faced similar threats from Rome? Or when the temples of the Germans were destroyed by Christians? While young gods she viewed as cruel were getting sagas written about their deeds, while her stories relegated her to housemaid? She was known for far more things than this. She is known as the goddess of seers, which is not a concept well known or understood in today's modern world, among many other powers.
Instead of thinking it's popular to take the gods of a people to appropriate and hand around the world to tell strange disconnected stories about them, a better path would be to tell better stories about this god, that celebrate her power, round out her might and deeds beyond relegating her to a gender archetype. Or trying to overcompensate or overcorrect in incorrect ways for the sad state of how she has been remembered.
