Queens: N

Erdudfyl, Erddudnid (Potentcy) Efrddyl, Eberwella, Everwella, Nerba, Nerthus (Strength) Perahta, Wilde Bertha, Hertha, Berchta, Eisenberta (Mother Earth) Birch, Birth, Begin, Birtu (Light) Wyfach,Vagdavercustis
(pron. uidh-va) Danish fertility, abundance & earth goddess worshiped by the Suevi tribe. Goddess of trees at Köln: Cologne. Her father Tryffin threw her into a sack and drowned her in the River Wye when he discovered she was pregnant. Miraculously she floated and returned safely each time to the riverbank. Peibio then tried to burn her on a funerary pyre at Madley, in Herefordshire. She defied the flames and gave birth to a baby boy, Dyfrig: Melt, in the ashes. Roman historian Tacitus said human sacrifices were drowned in the river as tribute to her. Wights are the Guardians of life who are Aids to the great mother Nerthus. She drives a chariot drawn by cows & escaped in an arc. Her sanctuary is on an island with a sacred lake of black waters. Hertha Castle, Jasmund, Island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. From Advent to the Feast of Saint Melania at Ephiphany she flies over Germany, Bavaria, Tyrol and Eastern Switzerland with a bag of hail and lighted Christmas wand with the faery host who cling to her black cape of fog, snow, and wind. The host brings presents to children and destroys a bailiff who evicted a cobbler and his family in the depths of winter. Giving her leftovers of a meal guarantees food for the whole year. Giving her a wreath of holly ensures an abundant harvest. Berchta descends at the crossroads of the four roads to rescue a frozen soul and carry it back to her followers who cover it with caresses and kisses and restore it to life and light. It becomes a firefly. At Kufstein she gives a woodcutter a purse of gold for mending his child’s shirt and removing the frost from the hair. Ynys Efrddyl, Ergyng at Llanebrdil and Llanerthyl in Gwent. Her well is the Ffynnon Emrdil. In the Icelandic Sagas she is the twin sister of the sea god Njord and mother of the earth dieties Freyr: Lord and Freyja: Lady. Vaga, Wye, England (Kent).Yr Wyddfa: Snow Hill, Snowdon The Yule log burns keeping back the darkness and blessing the household with the promise that the sun returns again. An altar of flat stone is made for Berchta on which burns a fire of evergreen boughs. (51, 58, 71, 75, 169, 170, 222)

[French Ministry of Education Site: Centre national de documentation pédagogique]