Vrouw Holle (Mother Holle)

Mother Holle’s well was one of the first attractions in the Fairytale Forest when the park opened in 1952.
Mother Holle herself was added to the attraction for the Winter Efteling of 2006-2007. She hangs out of the window of her cottage, shaking snow out of her pillow.

Story

Originally a Grimm tale.

There was once a woman who had two daughters: Mina and Rita. Mina was lazy and selfish, while Rita was sweet and hard-working.

One afternoon Rita sat silently crying by the well. She was working on a spinning wheel but couldn’t see what she was doing very well through her tears. Suddenly, one of the spindles from the spinning wheel slipped out of her hand and fell into the well. Rita bent over to look down, lost her balance and fell in too. Strangely enough, she found herself in a beautiful meadow. As she strolled through the meadow looking for the lost spindle, she came across a house with a bread oven built on the side. As she passed it she heard voices. “We soon will burn, that’s why we shout, please hurry up and take us out!” It was the loaves calling as they baked in the oven. Rita quickly removed the loaves from the oven and went on her way. A little further along, she came across a tree. “We’re already ripe, that’s why we call, please pick us quick, or else we’ll fall!” It was the tree’s apples calling and Rita was more than happy to help again.

Then she came to a house. “Hello, I’m Mother Holle, would you like to stay with me for a while? I could use the help.” Rita decided to help the old woman too. “All that I ask is that you shake out my bedclothes and pillow each day, until the feathers fly. When that happens, it will snow somewhere on earth.” After staying a while, Rita started to feel homesick and returned home. As a reward for her care and attention, the old woman showered her with gold. Her mother was very pleased to see Rita return home but her lazy sister was jealous. The following day Mina decided that she would also jump into the well. What an easy way to get rich! But would such a lazy girl as her receive the same reward from Mother Holle?

To read the full story go to the Efteling souvenir shop and purchase the Efteling Book of Fairy Tales.

Get Vrouw Holle souvernirs from the Efteling webshop

Translation

At the well of Frau Holle a story is played over the speakers. Please find below a translation of the story for your benefit.

There once was a woman who had two daughters, Rita and Mina.
Rita was very sweet but Mina was terribly lazy and stupid. Still the mother loved Mina more, the lazy daughter and therefore Rita always had to do the tedious jobs. One day while spinning, Rita dropped her spindle coil into the well and she dared not go home without it. Desperate, she jumped into the water of the well.

She sank down and wound up in a totally different world. What did she hear? She heard cries. "Take us out we're done!".
Rita hurried to where the voices were coming from. Look, there was bread steaming in the oven. Rita quickly removed them from the hot oven.

When she turned suddenly there was an old woman standing behind her. "You're an industrious girl, would you like to work for me?".

Rita did and from that moment on she worked for Frau Holle.
She polished and scrubbed and shook the bedding so hard that it snowed on earth.

But after a while she got homesick. She longed to return to Earth. She took leave of Frau Holle and when she left the house, as a reward she was completely covered in gold. Rita arrived home like this.

But when her sister saw this she was terribly jealous and do you know what that lazy Mina did? She jumped into the well. Upon arrival at the bottom she heard calling, "Pick us pick us! We are ripe!". They were shiny apples on a tree. But Mina was lazy and did not pick them. But she did go to work for Frau Holle.

Well work… really she didn’t do anything. Mother Holle was therefore very angry and when the time came to say goodbye, instead of gold, Mina was covered in tar. Pitch black, she came back to earth.