Скачать или смотреть The Deep Roots of the Wood Maiden: The Evolution of German Folklore’s Holzfräulein

Until she became the subject of nineteenth century Romantic literary works, few people outside the Bavarian Forest in southeastern Germany had ever heard of the wood maiden (Holzfräulein), a tiny, helpful land spirit who connects humans and nature. A remnant of ancient fertility goddesses, she lives in the forest near humans and blesses crops, while avoiding demonic Wild Hunters. Formed in prehistory and evolving through indigenous, Nordic, and Roman cultures, this pagan being emerges during times of significant threats to humans’ cultural connection with nature. She accompanies the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture cultivation, from paganism to Christianity, and from a rural agricultural economy to an urban industrial one. In each cultural transition, the wood maiden emerges, adapts, and ultimately tethers the society back to nature in a new way.

This is the thesis presentation for Carolyn Bloodworth Templeton's Master of Liberal Arts program at Stanford, given April 7, 2017.