Every month when the moon is full, the witch-maiden comes to me. She looks up to the moon, then kneels before me and dips her hands in my water. She bathes her face nine times, then looks up to the moon once more. After that, she walks around me nine times, singing this song:

Full-faced moon with light unshaded,
Let my beauty ne’er be faded.
Never let my cheek grow pale!
While the moon is waning lightly,
May the maiden bloom more brightly,
May her freshness never fail!

She ends by drying her face with her hair. Oh, I will never grow tired of this ritual. It is so refreshing!

The Well of the Witch-Maiden in The Dragon of the North, Yellow Fairy Book. Illustration by Rene Cloke.