# Mother Holle — Household Tales character guide

> Mother Holle in Household Tales by Jacob Grimm.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mother

**First appearance:** 0023-mother-holle

## Snapshot

A snow-bound matron whose cottage tests the desperate and the dutiful, rewarding the girl who shakes her feather-bed until the world whitens.

## Who they are

She keeps a strange household where the weather itself depends on her bedding, and she takes in girls who arrive frozen, hungry, and sent by cruel stepmothers. Her test is simple and unforgiving: shake the feather-bed dutifully and gold falls; shirk, and pitch clings. Her rewards and punishments set the moral arithmetic of the tale, sorting the deserving from the idle before the world does.

## Relationships

### [the girl](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/the_girl)

_professional_

Mother Holle is a supernatural employer testing the girl's work ethic and rewarding her.

### [Clever Hans](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/clever_hans)

_psychological_

Clever Hans and Mother Holle engage in a battle of wits, with Hans often outsmarting her.

### [the luck-child](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/the_luck_child)

_professional_

Mother Holle tests the luck-child's character through work and rewards or punishes accordingly.

### [the son](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/the_son)

_family_

Mother Holle is the son's mother or stepmother, often controlling or testing him.

### [the young King](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/the_young_king)

_social_

Mother Holle and the young king have limited interaction, often as a magical benefactor or obstacle.

### [Thumbling](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/thumbling)

_friendship_

Mother Holle and Thumbling share a playful or cooperative relationship in miniature adventures.

### [Thumbling](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/thumbling)

_friendship_

Mother Holle and Thumbling share a playful or cooperative relationship in miniature adventures.

### [Clever Hans](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/clever_hans)

_psychological_

Clever Hans and Mother Holle engage in a battle of wits, with Hans often outsmarting her.

### [the son](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/the_son)

_family_

Mother Holle is the son's mother or stepmother, often controlling or testing him.

### [the girl](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/the_girl)

_professional_

Mother Holle is a supernatural employer testing the girl's work ethic and rewarding her.

### [the luck-child](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/the_luck_child)

_professional_

Mother Holle tests the luck-child's character through work and rewards or punishes accordingly.

### [the young King](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/the_young_king)

_social_

Mother Holle and the young king have limited interaction, often as a magical benefactor or obstacle.

## In the story

### [Mother Holle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/chapters/mother-holle)

The magical old woman who rewards industriousness and punishes laziness; her bed-shaking causes snow on earth.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters/mother_holle
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/household_tales_se/characters