Zelstra

Zelstra, known in ancient Germanic cultures for uplifting the downtrodden, is one of the least-recorded mythological fugures in western European history. The legend has lived mainly through the oral cultures of northern Holland, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark.

According to legend, the Zelstern, a chalice that is said to have inhabitated a tiny church in East Friesland until the 1800s, was used by Zelstra to feed and water a boatload of fisherman during a storm so bad they could not return to port for 40 days. They had left port with rations for less than a week.

Little has been written AbOUT Zelstra, save for some stone carvings found northeast of current-day Leer, Germany. But her name was often invoked in the region as proof that charity exists. Zelstra remains in use as a surname in parts of the region.

In 1924, a widow in Paderborn, Germany, whose family had come from the north, discovered a painting that some cultural anthropologists believe may depict the Zelstra legend.1