Tannhäuser.
According to a mediæval tradition, Holda dwelt in a cave in the Hörselberg, in Thuringia, where she was known as Frau Venus, and was considered as an enchantress who lured mortals into her realm, where she detained them forever, steeping their senses in all manner of sensual pleasures. The most famous of her victims is doubtless Tannhäuser, who, anxious to save his soul, escaped from her power and hastened to Rome to confess his sins and seek absolution. But the pope, hearing that he had been in the company of one of the heathen goddesses, whom the priests taught were nothing but demons, declared that the knight could no more hope for pardon than to see his staff bear buds and bloom.
“Hast thou within the nets of Satan lain?
Hast thou thy soul to her perdition pledged?
Hast thou thy lip to Hell’s Enchantress lent,
To drain damnation from her reeking cup?
Then know that sooner from the withered staff
That in my hand I hold green leaves shall spring,
Than from the brand in hell-fire scorched rebloom
The blossoms of salvation.”