Editing Textiles in folklore (section)

==Germanic==
For the [[Norse paganism|Norse]] peoples, [[Frigg]] is a goddess associated with weaving. The Old Norse [[Darraðarljóð]], quoted in [[Njals Saga]], gives a detailed description of [[valkyrie]]s as women weaving on a loom, with severed heads for weights, arrows for shuttles, and human gut for the warp, singing an exultant song of carnage. Ritually deposited spindles and loom parts were deposited with the [[Pre-Roman Iron Age]] [[Dejbjerg wagon]], a composite of two wagons found ritually deposited in a peat bog in Dejbjerg, Jutland,<ref>Found in the 1880s; noted by Grigsby, John (2005). ''Beowulf and Grendel: the Truth behind England's Oldest Myth''. Watkins. p. 57, 113f. {{ISBN|1-84293-153-9}}. See discussion of the ritual wagons in Danish bogs in Glob, Peter Vilhelm & [[Rupert Bruce-Mitford|Bruce-Mitford, Rupert]] (transl.) (1988). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=5e0tkA6gGT8C The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved]''. New York Review. pp. 166-71. {{ISBN|1-59017-090-3}}.</ref> and are to be associated with the wagon-goddess.

In Germanic later mythology, [[Holda]] (Frau Holle) and [[Perchta]] (Frau Perchta, Berchta, Bertha) were both known as goddesses who oversaw spinning and weaving. They had many names.

[[Holda]], whose patronage extends outward to control of the weather, and source of women's fertility, and the protector of unborn children, is the patron of spinners, rewarding the industrious and punishing the idle. Holda taught the secret of making [[linen]] from [[flax]]. An account of Holda was collected by the [[Brothers Grimm]], as the [[fairy tale]] "[[Holda|Frau Holda]]". Another of the Grimm tales, "[[Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle]]", which embeds social conditioning in fairy tale with mythic resonances, rewards the industrious spinner with the fulfillment of her mantra:
:''"Spindle, my spindle, haste, haste thee away,''
:''and here to my house bring the wooer, I pray."''

::''"Spindel, Spindel, geh' du aus,''
::''bring den Freier in mein Haus.''"

This tale recounts how the magic spindle, flying out of the girl's hand, flew away, unravelling behind it a thread, which the prince followed, as [[Theseus]] followed the thread of [[Ariadne]], to find what he was seeking: a bride "who is the poorest, and at the same time the richest". He arrives to find her simple village cottage magnificently caparisoned by the magically aided products of spindle, shuttle and needle.

[[Jacob Grimm]] reported the superstition "if, while riding a horse overland, a man should come upon a woman spinning, then that is a very bad sign; he should turn around and take another way." (''Deutsche Mythologie'' 1835, v3.135)