Photo is an excerpt of a painting by Otto Kubel
This is the second story of a four-story-arc. The first story in the series, "Rumpelstiltskin's Good Deed" can be read here.
Mother Holle was the mother of all mothers. She was the wisest of the Gods. She spent eternity at her spinning wheel, keeping the lives of the humans in motion. They called her the White Lady, and they were equally awed by her and afraid of her. Everyone knew that she took care of the children who did not stay on Earth. Therefore, they reverently called her mother.
When the little man whose name she had forgotten, had brought her that beautiful baby Princess, Mother Holle knew that she had to protect her from the evil God Balder. So, she did what any caring mother would have done. She found a way for the baby girl to stay safe. Stay with her. Which meant, Aurora had to die.
At the tender age of just 15 months old, baby Aurora sat at a spinning wheel and pricked her finger on a spindle. Her fate was sealed. This was how she was going to die. Only that Mother Holle had a trick up her sleeve. She enchanted the spindle and asked for Aurora to stay alive and for this specific spindle only to claim her once she was of age. Mother Holle thought they could destroy the spindle and even the whole spinning wheel in the meantime.
However, what Mother Holle didn’t know, was that Balder found out about her shrewd plan. He had almost killed Rumpelstiltskin for betraying him, but as he was about to strike, he saw the small man bowed down in front of him and the evil God was reminded of his dutiful service all these years. Balder did not want to lose him. So, he came up with a better punishment. He sent Rumpelstiltskin back to Mother Holle and instructed him to steal the spinning wheel, which was destined to kill Aurora. Rumpelstiltskin did not understand the significance of it and being so close to his own death, he was ready to do anything. When Mother Holle happily invited him into her home and proudly showed him Aurora, who was now a beautiful toddler, with goldilocks and cloudlike eyes, Rumpelstiltskin felt the guilt creep up his neck. But in the dead of night, when Mother Holle, her two sisters and Aurora were sleeping, Rumpelstiltskin crept out of his room, into the lounge and grabbed what he had been instructed to steal.
Balder threw a party for the ages, once the little man had returned with the spinning wheel and its spindle. Just at the end of it, when Rumpelstiltskin was drunk on his success, the evil God told the little man his true punishment. The day that Aurora turned 15, Rumpelstiltskin had to go and make her prick her finger, so that finally her fate would be completed. Rumpelstiltskin cried out in shame for his actions and cursed Balder for his shrewdness. But a plan was forming in his cunning mind. And so, he waited for the evil God to be drunk and passed out and only then, did Rumpelstiltskin make his move. He moved in the shadows, as quick as a tick, and in a breathless moment he had stolen back the spindle. He would bury it at the ends of the world, so nobody would ever find it. So Aurora would be safe.
Having grown up at Mother Holle’s cottage, all Aurora had known was a life lived in the company of women. Busying themselves at all times of the day, her three aunts were masters at their individual crafts. And all of them knew how to spin flax into gold, a talent they had been handed by Mother Holle herself.
At times, Aurora wished that she had been blessed with the same gift. Often, she felt excluded, while the women of the house were gathering in the sitting room. Each one of them at the spinning wheels while listening to one of them spinning her tales. But Aurora was in a way still part of it. She would bake a pie or other sweet treats for the aunts and warm herself by the fire, while the legends were being told.
Aurora loved these ancient stories, which were filled with love, rivalry and heraldry. She couldn’t get enough of them and went to search them out regularly in Mother Holle’s extensive library at the adjoining castle. If she didn’t have her nose buried in a book, Aurora could often be found wandering the Heideland around the castle, looking for berries or flowers or other trinkets to take home and decorate the dinner table with. One of her favourite times of day, was dinner time. Everyone at the cottage and the castle would come together and eat in unison. It was the only time of day she usually saw Mother Holle. The benign Goddess gave her a gentle pat on the cheek on most days and rarely did she sit down next to her, ask about her activities or even tell her a story about the other Gods in the realm.
Aurora knew that at the age of twenty-one, she would prick her finger on a cursed spindle, and she would die. She had made her peace with that fate; she had known the reality of it her whole life. Mother Holle had never attempted to hide any of it from her. On the same day, Aurora would be allowed to go back to her parent’s lands, to meet them for the first time. Her three aunts had told her, that there was a risk in going to see her parents. The spindle that had been lost could be hidden there for example, in some cruel trickery by the evil God Balder.
In consequence, there had been much discussion, leading up to Aurora’s coming of age, whether or not she should be allowed to leave the Heideland and visit her real home. To Aurora it was not even a question. She knew she would go no matter what. And by the sad look that Mother Holle would cast at her from time to time at dinner, Aurora knew that also she was certain that her fate was sealed. It didn’t matter where she did or did not go. In all likelihood, the spindle would find her.
On the evening of Aurora’s twenty-first birthday, the whole of the Heideland came together for a celebration of the ages. Mother Holle had spared no expenses to show Aurora how loved she was. As Aurora and Goddess were embracing, the girl thanking the Goddess for her generosity, a loud bang disrupted the festivities. With a thunderous laugh and a big flash, the evil God Balder appeared before the party. Some cried out in terror, others made a run for it. Aurora though looked the God straight in the eye. She wanted him to know that she was not afraid of him. Mother Holle positioned herself in front of Aurora, hiding part of her behind the long flowy white dress she was wearing.
“What are you doing, disturbing the peace of my harmonious Heideland?”, Mother Holle asked with an indignant tone. Aurora could sense the fury emanating from her large body.
“Well, well, dear Holle, have I indeed managed to disturb your peace, o ever solemn White Lady?”, Balder answered in dulcet tones, dripping with dishonesty. Then is voice changed, it grew in volume and vexation. “Look here, everyone.”, he shouted and after making sure the attention was on him, he pulled a little man from his pocket and held him high above his head.
“Rumpelstiltskin has finally found his way back to me.”, Balder said, his eyes boring into Mother Holle, who stood stock-still in front of Aurora. “You know what this means, don’t you, White Lady?” Addressing her thus sounded a mockery from his lips. Nonetheless, Mother Holle nodded her head.
“You’ve found the spindle.”, she whispered, and right then and there, Aurora knew, it was her time to die.
