Grain spirit
Grain spirits - in central and northern European mythologies the guardians of cornfields and fertility - are as Kornmuhme, Roggenmuhme , grain mother grain of honor, grain man, grain man , the old man, grain child Rogge Wolf , corn dog, Roggensau etc. in the superstition received. Often as an old, horrific woman to be looked at, more rarely in man or animal form, they roam through fields of grain and can possibly be dangerous to humans.
During the harvest, the last ears of grain were often tied together to form a shape (often also the corn muhme etc.) and remained on the field until modern times . A memory of offerings for nature spirits may have been preserved here.
literature
- W. Golther: Germanic Mythology (1895)
- J. Grimm: German Mythology (1835)
- A. Kuhn: Legends, customs and fairy tales from Westphalia (1859)