The Dead of Winter: Beware the Krampus and Other Wicked Christmas Creatures

by Sarah Clegg

magical woman who wasn’t directly Christian, whether or not the woman in question had anything to do with hunting or the moon (perhaps because Diana is the only pagan goddess whose name appears in the Bible). Herodias, meanwhile, is a figure who lived very much in grey areas, at least in medieval folklore. In the Bible she’s the wife of King Herod, but in stories told in the Middle Ages she was his daughter, who fell in love with John the Baptist. When her father found out, he ordered the saint beheaded. Herodias went to kiss the severed head, but John the Baptist (who had never returned her love, and was presumably unimpressed by how the entire mess has turned out for him) blew her away, up into the sky, where she spent the rest of eternity dancing and parading through the night – an obvious figure to lead other women in the darkness, and one who, though connected to plenty of evil deeds, was not evil herself. ‘Holda’ is even more positive. Her name seems to relate to an early German word huld – which means ‘friendly’ or ‘gracious’ – hardly a quality you’d associate with murderous bands of monsters.