Talk:Askafroa

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Vaesen RPG[edit]

I am not sure how/if to edit, so instead I would like to add here that under popular appearances, the TTRPG Vaesen features this creature as Ash Tree Wife. Also on the games cover. The game deals with industrialization clashing with scandinavian mythology. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.84.36.134 (talk) 18:33, 8 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Untitled[edit]

You know what, I don't think there is any such creature as askefruer i Danish folklore. If you search for "askefruer" on Google, you will find innumerable copies of the text in this article, but nothing, I repeat nothing other than that, with the one exception for this page from pantheon.org which is probably the source for this article. If you search for pages on .dk domains, you will end up with nothing as well. I've tried "askefru" (singular), "askefrun" (determinate), "askefruerne" (plural, determinate) and Norwegian and Swedish equivalents as well. There is simply void and nothingness, and nothing to support this article! Salleman 18:39, 7 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The Dictionary of Ancient Deities (2000) by Patricia Turner and Charles Russell Coulter has a brief entry on the askefruer:

Askefruer (Danish) Forest spirits who cure diseases.

Carol Rose's Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins (1996) has a paragraph-long entry on the identical askafroa. The former doesn't list which sources wer used in which entry, but does not list the Encyclopedia Mythica as a source. The latter references A. Porteous' Forest Folklore (1928) as its source. It's absolutely amazing how people will assume that a lack of online sources for an obscure subject equates to its being a total fabrication. -Sean Curtin June 30, 2005 19:14 (UTC)

Since when do two legitimate print sources not equal a reliable source? I'm certainly not spending $70+ for a copy of Alexander Porteous' book, so the above secondary sources that cite him will have to suffice for now. If you can find reason to doubt Porteous' book, then by all means, re-add the accuracy tag. -Sean Curtin 02:23, July 11, 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, I hadn't noticed that the talk page was active when I added the dispute tag - but anyhow I'm still a bit skeptical. Maybe I'll try to track down this Porteous book. - Haukurth 02:54, 11 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

hi. No need to buy Porteous. Here is the brief mention about this:

"The Askafroa (Eschenfrau), or wife of the Ash, was a very evil spirit, and did much damage. To propriate her it was necessary to make a sacrifice on Ash Wednesday." (Porteous 1928:93)

The index entry is "Askafroa (a Demon)". (Porteous 1928:307)

peace – ishwar (speak) 00:23, 7 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

[outdent]I have added the correct sources, there's no doubt that this is real. However, it seems to be more of a Swedish belief than a Danish one. –Holt T•C 12:08, 16 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

After doing some more research, I came to the conclusion that the only source for this creature and the sacrifice to it is from Hyltén-Cavallius. All other descriptions seem to be distortions of this one record. I have made it past tense, because folklore does not exist anymore when those who maintain it die. If anyone find any records of a Danish or German Askafroa, bring forth the primary source! As proved in this case, you can only really trust the primary sources. I encourage anyone who know Swedish to read Hyltén-Cavallius' ethnographic work, it is very interesting. –Holt T•C 13:13, 16 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for finally straightening this out! Haukur (talk) 13:23, 16 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Great work, Holt!--Berig (talk) 16:17, 16 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]