In the Brothers Grimm tale “Mother Holle,” snow falls from the sky when the girl shakes the bed.
The hardworking girl enters Mother Holle’s world after jumping into a well to retrieve a spindle. There, she performs household tasks, including shaking a feather bed. Mother Holle explains that the falling feathers make snow appear in the human world.
The girl is rewarded with gold when she returns home. Her lazy stepsister then imitates the journey but refuses to work properly. Because she does not help Mother Holle, she receives a shower of pitch instead of a valuable reward.
The tale was published by the Grimms as “Frau Holle.” Mother Holle is a figure from German-speaking folklore, and the story connects domestic work with seasonal weather. Modern retellings often call the character Mother Hulda or Mother Holle, but the bed-shaking snow episode remains one of the tale’s defining details.