The Mosspeople are little creatures similar to fairies, dwarfs and ghosts. They’re described to be close to the forests and trees in German folk tales, also called „Schrat“ or „Waldschrat“.
They’re similar looking to dwarfs, nearly as tall as children, their skin is grey, they’re old, hairy and overgrown with moss.
In Tales, they tell about how they would borrow objects from humans or ask for help, they would reward them generously with good advice or bread. It was fairly easy to anger these creatures though, either through declining their gifts and rewards, or to give them Caraway bread - which they hated to an extreme degree, and often chanting the „Doggerel- Reim“-„Kümmelbrot - unser Tod!“ what translates to „Caraway bread - our death“, it does rime in German, this is just the English word-for-word translation.
In some myths, they asked humans for breast milk, to feed their babies, or even go as far to steal small human children.
Moss people, especially the females of the species, can send plagues on the one hand, but on the other hand they can also heal the victims of such plagues. During the epidemics, the wood damsels emerged from the forest to show people which medicinal herbs could cure or ward off the plague.
They were often, but not always, the subject of the Wild Hunt. According to folklore, to escape the hunt, they enter the trees that forest workers have marked with a cross, which is cut down. Des Knaben Wunderhorn records "Volkslieder auf, die den Jäger im Wald dazu bringen, eine dunkelbraune Magd zu gründen und sie zu begrüßen: 'Wohin, wildes Tier ?', Aber seine Mutter nahm sie nicht zur Braut." - „folk songs which make the hunter in the forest set up a dark-brown maid and greet her: 'Where to, wild beast?' But his mother did not take her as a bride." (Translation)
The moss people resemble hamadryads. The moss people resemble hamadryads. Her life is "tied to the trees; if any one loosens the inner bark by friction, a wood-woman dies."
According to Jacob Grimm:
"Zwischen Leidhecken und Dauernheim in der Wetterau steht der hohe Berg und darauf ein Stein, der welle fra gestoil (die Stühle der wilden Frau); es gibt einen Eindruck auf dem Felsen, wie von den Gliedern menschlicher Sitter. Die Leute sagen das Dort lebten wilde Leute 'wei di schtan noch mell warn', während die Steine noch weich waren; danach lief der Mann verfolgt, die Frau und das Kind blieben in Dauernheim in Gewahrsam, bis sie starben“
"Between Leidhecken and Dauernheim in the Wetterau stands the high mountain and on it a stone, the welle fra gestoil (the chairs of the wild woman); there is an impression on the rock, as of the limbs of human sitters. People say that there lived wild people 'wei di schtan noch mell warn' while the stones were still soft; after that the man ran pursued, the woman and child remained in custody at Dauernheim until they died."
The female Moss people, the Moosfräulein ("Moss Ladies"), have a queen named Buschgroßmutter (Bushgrandmother; "shrub grandmother"). Ludwig Bechstein describes them in his fairy tale 551:
"According to certain tales of the peasants, a demonic creature lives near People's Mountain and on the left bank of the Saale, called Buschgroßmutter ("Shrub Grandmother"). She has many daughters, called Moosfräuleins ("Moss Ladies"), with whom she travels at certain times and across the country on certain holy nights. It is not good to meet her, for she has wild staring eyes, and crazy unkempt hair. Often she drives about in a little cart or wagon, and at such times it is advisable to her to get out of the way. Children, in particular, are afraid of this cleaning mommy (hooded, female bogey) and delight in whispering tales of her to scare one another. She is essentially the same spirit as Hulda or Bertha, the Savage Huntress - attributing to local tales a following of children under the guise of crickets (dwarves, elves, brownies, hobgoblins) who are her companions in the area the she visits.
I translated this from my original german resources and websites, please let me know if you have any german folk myths, lores and tales, german traditions and culture translated or explained.
