Brewer's: Berchta

[the white lady ]. This fairy, in Southern Germany, answers to Hulda (the gracious lady) of Northern Germany; but after the introduction of Christianity, when pagan deities were represented as demons, Berchta lost her former character, and became a bogie to frighten children.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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