Buschgrossmutter

Also Known As: German Buschgroßmutter, “bush grandmother” or “shrub grandmother”; also Pusch-Grohla and Buschmutter in Silesia, and Buschweibchen, Buschweiblein or Buschweibel in Silesia, Lusatia and Bohemia
Region/Culture: Western Europe
Mythos: Germanic Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Fairy Folk and Spirit Beings
Mythical Attributes: The Buschgrossmutter is an ancient woman of the deep forest in the German legends of Thuringia, Saxony, Silesia and Bohemia, whose cooking is the mist on the mountains and whose gifts of leaves and yarn turn out to be worth far more than they look.
Role in Mythos: She is the old one of the woods, on the Saale the mother of the moss maidens who travels with them on holy nights, and elsewhere a lone wanderer who tests the manners of the people she meets.
Relation to Humans: She asks herders and spinners to comb and delouse her hair and pays those who agree with endless yarn or with leaves that turn to gold. Those who laugh at her are breathed on and break out in a rash, or find her riding on their backs, and children were kept in line with her name.

When the mountains of northern Bohemia smoke with fog in spring and autumn, the old explanation was that somebody up there had put a pot on. The bush woman is cooking, people said. When an April hailstorm came down and the ridges vanished behind it, she was climbing over the tops.

She is known by a handful of names across a wide stretch of country. In Thuringia, on the left bank of the Saale near the town of Leutenberg, she is the Buschgrossmutter, the bush grandmother. In Silesia she is the Pusch-Grohla or the Buschmutter. In Lusatia and Bohemia she shrinks to the Buschweibchen, the little bush woman, and sometimes there are several of her. The folklorists who collected these names in the nineteenth century, among them Ludwig Bechstein in Thuringia, Josef Virgil Grohmann in Bohemia and Richard Kühnau in Silesia, were writing down the same old woman in different dialects.

She lives in the deepest part of the forest and, by one account, shows herself to people only once in a hundred years. Those who met her described someone small and stooped, wrinkled and ugly, with eyes that stare. Her hair is long and as white as snow, a matted tangle crawling with lice. Moss grows over her feet. She walks with a wobble, leaning on a gnarled stick, with a basket on her back and her apron knotted up as though it held something. A few tellings give her a head of iron and do not explain it. The Silesian Buschmutter goes about in rags with a crutch.

Nobody says where she came from. She has no parents and no beginning in any of the legends. She is simply as old as the wood.

What she wants from people is small and unpleasant. She wants her hair combed. A cowherd girl was minding cattle at the edge of the woods between Hainewalde and Spitzkunnersdorf in Upper Lusatia, spinning as she watched them, when a bush woman came out of the trees and made her an offer: comb me and louse me a little, and I will spin your bobbin full. The girl did it. Those who have done the job say the old woman’s head is as cold as ice and that the fingers go numb in her hair. The bush woman kept her word. That evening the girl wound off one skein from the bobbin, then a second, then a third, and partway into the fourth she lost her temper and swore that the yarn had no end. The end came off the bobbin as she said it.

Another girl in the same district did the same favour and was paid with an apronful of dry leaves. She shook them out on the path. At home one gold piece was still caught in the cloth, which told her exactly what she had thrown away. The leaves are sometimes green and sometimes yellow, and the rule is always the same. They must be carried home. Most people do not carry them home.

There is a darker telling on the Saale. Bechstein, who printed it in 1853, has her roving the country at certain times and on certain holy nights with her many daughters, the moss maidens, often riding in a little cart. It is not good to meet her then, with her wild eyes and her mad hair, and sensible people get off the road. Children were afraid of her and told each other stories about her in whispers, which is one way of saying that their parents found her useful.

Her gifts follow from what she is. She is the forest’s own housekeeper, so she pays in forest goods, leaves and spun thread, and the thread runs on for as long as the spinner holds her tongue. The weather on the heights belongs to her kitchen.

Her temper is the other side of it. Anyone who jeers at the ragged old woman is breathed on and comes out in a rash or falls ill, or she climbs onto the mocker’s back and rides there until the victim is lame and wretched. The Silesian Buschmutter is plainly a menace. She falls on children picking berries, takes the fruit and smashes their jugs. She milks cows dry in the pasture. She wakes sleeping cowherds with a blow of her crutch.

She has limits. Her yarn stops at a curse, and her gold is leaves to anyone without the patience to carry rubbish home. She is seldom seen, and she is bound to the trees. No legend puts her in a house or a village street. Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Mannhardt made her queen of the moss people, and Bechstein thought she was Holda or Perchta under a country name. Later scholars took the crown away and called her a forest demon of an older and simpler kind. The girl with the single gold piece might have agreed with them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the Buschgrossmutter?

The Buschgrossmutter is an old forest woman in German folklore, known in Thuringia, Saxony, Silesia and Bohemia. Her name means bush grandmother. She lives in the deepest woods, rewards people who comb her hair and punishes people who mock her.

What does the Buschgrossmutter look like?

The Buschgrossmutter is small, bent, wrinkled and ugly, with staring eyes and long snow-white hair that is tangled and full of lice. Moss grows over her feet, and she walks unsteadily with a gnarled stick. She carries a basket on her back and wears an apron tied up as if something were inside it.

What happens if you comb the Buschgrossmutter’s hair?

People who comb and delouse the Buschgrossmutter are paid for it. The reward is a bobbin of yarn that never runs out, or an apronful of leaves that turn into gold if they are carried home. The yarn ends the moment the owner curses, and most people throw the leaves away before they change.

Is the Buschgrossmutter good or evil?

The Buschgrossmutter is both. She is generous to people who help her, and she makes those who laugh at her ill by breathing on them or riding on their backs. In Silesia, as the Buschmutter, she robs children picking berries, milks cows dry and hits sleeping cowherds with her crutch.

How is the Buschgrossmutter related to the moss people?

In the Thuringian legend printed by Ludwig Bechstein in 1853, the Buschgrossmutter is the mother of the moss maidens and travels with them on holy nights in a little cart. Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Mannhardt called her the queen of the moss people. Later scholars dropped that title and described her as a forest demon.