Color mock up for enamel pin
The Milk Hare AKA the Witch Hare or Troll Hare!
Medieval witches, amirite? They’ve got a lot to do. Gathering herbs, making ointments, spoiling crops, dancing naked with the devil and flying around on twigs at the full moon. It’s a full schedule.
If only they could find some reliable help…
I mean, you don’t want to leave picking up the groceries to just any old minion or familiar, right?
Well, apparently the witches of Sweden at one time had it all figured out. They summoned or made a ‘milk hare’ (also known as a ‘witch hare’ or ‘troll hare’). And by ‘made’ I do mean the ultimate in DIY – those that were made were formed of hair, dirt, bones, blood and spit until the witch had something roughly rabbit shaped that also probably looked like what you might find when you finally clean behind the refrigerator.
And while the milk hare did a lot of normal familiar’s tasks, he had one job that was super specific. Sort of like Medieval Door Dash, this creature would go and fetch the milk. He’d sneak over to the neighbor’s barn, help himself to the teats of the milk cows there, and then once his belly was full to draggin’, he’d head back home and unload – by barfing that milk into a bucket for his mistress.
Depictions of this little cutie come to us from various church murals around Sweden. Here he is in the Ösmo Church in Södermanland:
Adorable! Hey, if you've read this far, and are a myth and folklore junkie, you're going to want to check out that link to the church. At the risk of sounding like Stephon, 'those murals have EVERYTHING. Unicorns. Devils. A pelican feeding its own blood to its young. Angels and phoenixes...'
My rabbits and hares in folklore enamel pin project is on Kickstarter until May 1st!
