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Untitled
editI am completely against this article's claims. Old High German Holle/Holda/Hulda has no connection to Old Norse Hel. There is no evidence that the Norse viewed Hel (the being) as a bad person; she is merely a receiver of the dead. Also, the fact that Hulda has such a different role to that of Hel should tell you that they are different people.
This article also says that the Germanic tribes are barbarians. This lacks neutrality. They didn't go off enslaving other cultures and building empires, unlike the ever popular Roman Empire, nor did they have continuous religious warfare, unlike much of the Middle East.
Throughout this article, there are mentions of the triple goddess. Germanic religion does not have this concept; this is Celtic in origin. Since so many Wiccans are enthralled with this idea today, I believe that this is a corruption of the original religious beliefs. Again, lack of neutrality.
There is no citation for this Holler, King of Winter and Frost. Indeed, I've never seen any literature mention him; only people who copy others talk of him. In addition to this, Holler is supposed to be Norse, if one is to believe what people say. The Norse may be Germanic, but he would have existed in a very different part of the Germanic world, far away from the goddess Holda, whom we know to exist.
There is a mention that Holda is the "Queen of the Witches." There is no proof of that. There may have been people who were called witches who also worshipped Holda, but this information is from a Christian point of view, which is hardly conclusive. I admit that there is talk of these people who did things during the night, especially around mountains and such places. Does this tell us anything? No. We have only a slight connection to Holda in all our material, but this could have very well been a later creation, with nothing to do with Holda.
There is a lot about her being the queen of this or that, but this word does not appear in any literature that I have seen. I doubt that any such titles were ever used during these times.
The sentence about her possibly lending her name to Holland is rather wrong. Some say that it means "hollow land," as in it is rather low in relation to the sea. More popularly, however, it is said that Holland comes from holt lant, which is Old Dutch for "wood land."
According to one website, which has shown that scholarly work was done before the making of its articles, there can't really be a relation between Hel and Holda.
Whatever appearance the Goddess Hel may have originally taken in ancient Heathenry has been lost amongst the letters of Christian hands. Some modern Heathens based on folk ethymology link her to the Godess Holde. But High German Hölle and Helle will never equate High German Holle no matter how you twist the sound shifts. And the subterranean domain of Holda/Holle are as often found under ponds as in mountains (which it might be good to add Thor's followers were said to enter a mountain after death as well). Grimm notes that "Hel, the death-goddess, does not destroy, she recieves the dead man in her house, and will on no account give him up. To kill a man is called sending him to her. Hel neither comes to fetch the souls fallen due to her, nor sends messengers after them." in Teutonic Mythology. This further dispells the idea Hel is Holda, as Holda reguarly lead the Wild Hunt taking the unsuspecting with her.