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Description
Huldra (or Hulda), as I have opted to depict her, is for the most part absent in Norse mythology. There is a character by that name in Snorri Sturluson's Ynglinga Saga, but she's really just a generic witch character who only makes a brief cameo to help the protagonists curse one another by summoning Nightmares to sit on their chests. Her most familiar cognate in the modern day is the German fairytale, Frau Holle. The story goes that once upon a time, there was a poor young maiden living under the thumb of her evil stepmother. Because of course. One day, this unnamed Cinderella knock off loses her spinning needle down a well, and she dives in after it. Instead of breaking her neck, however, she instead finds herself transported to a realm of sunshine and flowers. Don't try this at home. Exploring this world, she passes by a handful of sentient chores that beg her to be done, and the polite little lady obliges. Finally, she comes to the home of a mysterious old lady named Frau Holle, who offers to let her stay so long as she chips in around the house and fluffs Frau Holle's bed sheets (which incidentally is what causes it to snow in the realm of men). This all turns out to be a pretty sweet deal for our protagonist, but for whatever godforsaken reason she eventually gets homesick for the abusive household of her stepfamily. Girl, check yourself. Still, Frau Holle respects the girl's wishes, and leads her to the portal home, but not before showering her in gold for being such a generous and kind roommate. When the girl returns home with pockets full of supernatural bling, the stepmother orders her biological daughter to yeet herself down the well too. Unfortunately this stuck up brat was a lazy bitch who didn't stop to help the sentient chores or put in any elbow grease around Frau Holle's house. When it came time for Frau Holle to boot her ass out, she led her to the same portal she had her stepsister pass through, only this time it shat out a shower of pitch instead of gold. The lazy stepsister was thus sent home without reward, a pretty obvious moral to get children to do their housework.

So what does any of this have to do with this elven queen I've designed? Bear with me, this is where it gets convoluted. See, in my attempt to extend the lore of elves for the Drake Hero Universe, I turned to Jacob Grimm's insights on the various little sprites and ghouls found throughout Germany. I did try to find modern takes on his deductions, but no one seems to be too interested in the subject, so be sure to take my summary with a grain of salt or provide more modern sources if you have them. Grimm starts his analysis of the elves with a creature from German folklore called the "bilwis". A bilwis is a somewhat ambiguous little scamp who goes around causing minor mischief like damaged corn and bad hair days. As a girly girl from Indiana, I struggle to imagine a graver exstistenial threat. Alternatively, a bilwis can be a human who acts out like this creature, but I believe the technical term for that is "asshole". The feminine derivative of bilwis is apparently "perchta", which is more often described as the name of an individual rather than a species. Perchta in this sense is a holiday goddess associated with Christmas time, carrying a sickle like the bilwis, but using it instead to slice open the bellies of naughty children. If you've heard of Krampus, the evil Santa Claus who punishes children by stuffing them into his sack, Perchta is basically the female version. Indeed, modern holiday festivities revolving around Perchta are near identical to Krampus events, with a bunch of drunk teenagers dressing up in scary goat masks and making a general mess of the place. I'm not sure what distinguishes that from any other day of the year, maybe it's just the excuse.

Jacob Grimm identifies Perchta as a synonym for Holle, as different regions of Germany more or less put them in the same role and in some cases even combine the two names into one "Hildaberta". In fact, Grimm hypothesizes that Holle, or "Hulda" as it would be in Old Norse, is actually a branch off of the original bilwis/perchta, and that she came to embody the more benevolent gestures that the creature originally possessed (like say your typical cobbler elf). Perchta and the bilwis meanwhile were left with the more gruesome aspects of the original sprite. This certainly would flesh out her character in the Frau Holle fairy tail, as a powerful supernatural entity who gives great reward for children on Santa's nice list, and deals out great punishment for all the naughty little bastards who scream in my ear at the grocery store. Her ties to snow are also interesting to note in this comparison. Some traditions even have her leading the infamous Wild Hunt around the winter months, showering the land in snow as she rides with her entourage of "huldufólk" (literally "hidden people" just as Hulda means "the hidden one"). These are Icelandic mountain spirits which are often identified as being more or less identical to elves. It's a bit of a stretch, but based on this, I've decided to insert Hulda as the queen of Álfheimr, a roll which Grimm cites regularly to contrast elves against dwarves, who are often said to have a king instead.

Design notes, this was a lot of fun. It's been a while since I've sat down and drawn something extremely regal and feminine, so this was a great experiment! I decided I wanted to go for a sort of Elsa vibe, so I turned to referencing photographs of Queen Alexandra of Denmark and her relatives. Admittedly, it does look a little too modern for what's supposed to be a medieval goddess, but I think that actually kinda works for the silhouette we'd expect of an elven queen. It also came out looking very Christmassy, which I'm quite fond of given all we've discussed. Obviously all the little beads and rhinestones echo ice and snow, and I also made her cape all thick and feathery as a nod to Frau Holle's sheets. Modern artwork of Hulda/Perchta seems to prefer to depict her as a beautiful young maiden. This is a form Hulda is said to be able to assume, but most all sources describe her as being an old lady who's not too easy on the eyes. Sometimes this is glossed as "hag" but not often. I imagine the foxy lady is probably an overcorrection on the part of modern beauty standards, which I get, but I don't find particularly necessary. I decided that the best artistic compromise was to lean into the Perchta festival angle, giving her two different masks she can wear as the embodiment of either her benevolent generosity, or her scornful vengeance. Hulda rules Álfheimr fairly, but break her laws, and you will not be forgiven.

Description
Huldra (or Hulda), as I have opted to depict her, is for the most part absent in Norse mythology. There is a character by that name in Snorri Sturluson's Ynglinga Saga, but she's really just a generic witch character who only makes a brief cameo to help the protagonists curse one another by summoning Nightmares to sit on their chests. Her most familiar cognate in the modern day is the German fairytale, Frau Holle. The story goes that once upon a time, there was a poor young maiden living under the thumb of her evil stepmother. Because of course. One day, this unnamed Cinderella knock off loses her spinning needle down a well, and she dives in after it. Instead of breaking her neck, however, she instead finds herself transported to a realm of sunshine and flowers. Don't try this at home. Exploring this world, she passes by a handful of sentient chores that beg her to be done, and the polite little lady obliges. Finally, she comes to the home of a mysterious old lady named Frau Holle, who offers to let her stay so long as she chips in around the house and fluffs Frau Holle's bed sheets (which incidentally is what causes it to snow in the realm of men). This all turns out to be a pretty sweet deal for our protagonist, but for whatever godforsaken reason she eventually gets homesick for the abusive household of her stepfamily. Girl, check yourself. Still, Frau Holle respects the girl's wishes, and leads her to the portal home, but not before showering her in gold for being such a generous and kind roommate. When the girl returns home with pockets full of supernatural bling, the stepmother orders her biological daughter to yeet herself down the well too. Unfortunately this stuck up brat was a lazy bitch who didn't stop to help the sentient chores or put in any elbow grease around Frau Holle's house. When it came time for Frau Holle to boot her ass out, she led her to the same portal she had her stepsister pass through, only this time it shat out a shower of pitch instead of gold. The lazy stepsister was thus sent home without reward, a pretty obvious moral to get children to do their housework.

So what does any of this have to do with this elven queen I've designed? Bear with me, this is where it gets convoluted. See, in my attempt to extend the lore of elves for the Drake Hero Universe, I turned to Jacob Grimm's insights on the various little sprites and ghouls found throughout Germany. I did try to find modern takes on his deductions, but no one seems to be too interested in the subject, so be sure to take my summary with a grain of salt or provide more modern sources if you have them. Grimm starts his analysis of the elves with a creature from German folklore called the "bilwis". A bilwis is a somewhat ambiguous little scamp who goes around causing minor mischief like damaged corn and bad hair days. As a girly girl from Indiana, I struggle to imagine a graver exstistenial threat. Alternatively, a bilwis can be a human who acts out like this creature, but I believe the technical term for that is "asshole". The feminine derivative of bilwis is apparently "perchta", which is more often described as the name of an individual rather than a species. Perchta in this sense is a holiday goddess associated with Christmas time, carrying a sickle like the bilwis, but using it instead to slice open the bellies of naughty children. If you've heard of Krampus, the evil Santa Claus who punishes children by stuffing them into his sack, Perchta is basically the female version. Indeed, modern holiday festivities revolving around Perchta are near identical to Krampus events, with a bunch of drunk teenagers dressing up in scary goat masks and making a general mess of the place. I'm not sure what distinguishes that from any other day of the year, maybe it's just the excuse.

Jacob Grimm identifies Perchta as a synonym for Holle, as different regions of Germany more or less put them in the same role and in some cases even combine the two names into one "Hildaberta". In fact, Grimm hypothesizes that Holle, or "Hulda" as it would be in Old Norse, is actually a branch off of the original bilwis/perchta, and that she came to embody the more benevolent gestures that the creature originally possessed (like say your typical cobbler elf). Perchta and the bilwis meanwhile were left with the more gruesome aspects of the original sprite. This certainly would flesh out her character in the Frau Holle fairy tail, as a powerful supernatural entity who gives great reward for children on Santa's nice list, and deals out great punishment for all the naughty little bastards who scream in my ear at the grocery store. Her ties to snow are also interesting to note in this comparison. Some traditions even have her leading the infamous Wild Hunt around the winter months, showering the land in snow as she rides with her entourage of "huldufólk" (literally "hidden people" just as Hulda means "the hidden one"). These are Icelandic mountain spirits which are often identified as being more or less identical to elves. It's a bit of a stretch, but based on this, I've decided to insert Hulda as the queen of Álfheimr, a roll which Grimm cites regularly to contrast elves against dwarves, who are often said to have a king instead.

Design notes, this was a lot of fun. It's been a while since I've sat down and drawn something extremely regal and feminine, so this was a great experiment! I decided I wanted to go for a sort of Elsa vibe, so I turned to referencing photographs of Queen Alexandra of Denmark and her relatives. Admittedly, it does look a little too modern for what's supposed to be a medieval goddess, but I think that actually kinda works for the silhouette we'd expect of an elven queen. It also came out looking very Christmassy, which I'm quite fond of given all we've discussed. Obviously all the little beads and rhinestones echo ice and snow, and I also made her cape all thick and feathery as a nod to Frau Holle's sheets. Modern artwork of Hulda/Perchta seems to prefer to depict her as a beautiful young maiden. This is a form Hulda is said to be able to assume, but most all sources describe her as being an old lady who's not too easy on the eyes. Sometimes this is glossed as "hag" but not often. I imagine the foxy lady is probably an overcorrection on the part of modern beauty standards, which I get, but I don't find particularly necessary. I decided that the best artistic compromise was to lean into the Perchta festival angle, giving her two different masks she can wear as the embodiment of either her benevolent generosity, or her scornful vengeance. Hulda rules Álfheimr fairly, but break her laws, and you will not be forgiven.