Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
wood-wife en · NOUN
Meanings
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(Germanic) A type of female wood spirit.
In Germany the Wood Wives or Moss People take the place of the Scandinavian Wood Elves.
1978, Katharine M. Briggs, The Vanishing People, London: B.T. Batsford, page 76:The Vicentina Germans worship a wood-wife, chiefly between Christmas and Twelfthday: the women spin flax from the distaff, and throw it in the fire to propitiate her.
1882, Jacob Grimm, translated by James Steven Stallybrass, Teutonic Mythology, volume III, London: George Bell and Sons, page 432:Like the Wild Huntsman, the devil on Ash Wesdnesday hunts the wood-wives.
1851, Benjamin Thorpe, Northern Mythology, volume I, London: Edward Lumley, page 235:
Forms