Chapter 17

(nick, nick, needle in water! Virgin casteth steel in water. Thou sink, and I flee). A similar one for bathers is given in Superst. Swed. no. 71 [with the addition: 'thy father was a steel-thief, thy mother was a needle-thief,' etc.]. Steel stops a spirit's power to act upon you (supra, p. 466-7 n.).

A sepulchral cry of the nix, similar to death groans, is said to portend drowning (Faye, p. 51). Some very old writings ascribe to watersprites in general wailing voices and doleful speeches, that resound from lakes and pools: they tell each other of their baffled schemes, or how they have to vacate the land befoe the christians. Gregory of Tours, in De glor. confess. cap. 31, remembers an incident of his young days 'apud Arvernos gestum.' A man setting out early to the forest has his morning meal blessed before he takes it: Cumque ad amnem adhuc antelucanum venisset, imposito plaustro cum bobus in ponte qui super navem locatus erat, alterum transmeare coepit in littus. Verum ubi in medium amnis devenit, audivit vocem dicentis 'merge, merge, ne moreris!' Cui respondens vox alia ait: 'sine tua etiam admonitione quae proclamas fecissem, si res sacra meis conatibus non obstaret; nam scias eum eulogiis sacerdotis esse munitum, ideo ei nocere non possum' (see Suppl.)---In the Vita Godehardi Hildesiensis (first quarter of 11^th cent.), cap. 4 (Leibn. 1, 492), we read: Erat etiam in orientali parte civitatis nostrae (Hildenes-hem) palus horrifica et circummanentibus omnino plurali formidine invisa, eo quod ibi, ut opinabantur, tam meridiano quam et nocturno tempore illusiones quasdam horribiles vel audirent vel viderent, quae (sc. palus) a fonte salsuginis quae ibidem in medio bulliebat Sulza dicitur. Qua ille (Godehardus) spectata, et illusione etiam phantastica, qua bruta plebs terrebatur, audita, eandem paludem secundo sui adventus anno cum cruce et reliquiis sanctorum invasit, et habitationem suam ibidem aptavit, et in medio periculo oratorium in honorem S. Bartholomaei apostoli fundavit, quo sequenti anno consummato et dedicato, omne daemonum phantasma (conf. p. 482) exinde funditus extirpavit, et eundem locum omnibus commorantibus vel advenientibus gratum et sine qualibet tentatione habitabilem reddidit.---My third quotation is a continuation of that given on p. 108 from the Vita S. Galli (Pertz 2, 7): Volvente deinceps cursu temporis electus Dei Gallus retia lymphae laxabat in silentio noctis, sed inter ea audivit demonem de culmine montis pari suo clamantem, qui erat in abditis maris. Quo respondente 'adsum,' montanus econtra: 'Surge' inquit 'in adjutorium mihi. Ecce peregrini venerunt, qui me de templo ejecerunt (nam deos conterebant quos incolae isti colebant, insuper et eos ad se convertebant); veni, veni, adjuva nos expellere eos de terris.' Marinus demon respondit:

'En unus eorum est in pelago,

cui nunqum nocere potero,

volui enim retia sua ledere,

sed me victum proba lugere:

signo orationis est semper clausus,

nec umquam somno oppressus.'

Electus vero Gallus haec audiens munivit se undique signaculo Christi, dixitque ad eos:

'In nomine Jesu Christi praecipio vobis,

ut de locis istis recedatis,

nec aliquem hic ledere presumatis!'

et cum festinatione ad littus rediit, atque abbati suo quae audierat recitavit. (118) Quod vir Dei Columbanus audiens, convocavit fratres in ecclesiam, solitum signum tangens. O mira dementia diaboli! voces servorum Dei praeripuit vox fantasmatica, cum hejulatus atque ululatus dirœ vocis audiebatur per culmina.---Read further on (2, 9) the story of two lake-women who stand naked on the shore and throw stones. Everywhere we see the preachers confront the pagan dæmons with cross and holy spell, as something real; the mournful howl of the spirits yields to the ringing of the bells. Gods and spirits are not distinguished: the god cast out of the temple, whose image has been broken, is the elf or nix meditating revenge. It is remarkable, too, that mountain and water sprites are set before us as fellows (pares); in folk-tales of a later time their affinity to each other seems abundantly established.

We have now considered genii of mountains, of woods and of rivers; it remains to review the large and variously named group of the friendly familiar Home-sprites.

They of all sprites stand nearest to man, because they come and seek his fellowship, they take up their abode under his very roof or on his premises.

Again, it is a feature to be marked in home-sprites, that they are purely male, never female; there appears a certain absence of sex in their very idea, and if any female beings approach this goblin kind, it is former goddesses who have come down in the world. (119)

What the Romans called lar, (120) lar familiaris (see the prologue to Plautus's Aulularia) and penas, is named in our older speech hûsing or stetigot (genius loci); conf. 'hûsinga (penates)' in Notker's Capella 51. In Cap. 142 N. renders lares by 'ingoumen (hiusero alde burgo)'; the literal meaning of ingoumo would be guard of the interior. In Cap. 50 he uses ingesîde for penates, i.e., our ingesinde, inmates, domestics; the form continued to be used in MHG. : daz liebe heilige ingesîde, Rol. 115, 1. 226, 18. Similarly the Span. duende, duendecillo (goblin) seems derivable from domus, dueno is house-owner (dominus, distinct from don, p. 299 note), and duendo domestic, retired. The ON. tôft [[house spirit, brownie]], Swed. tomt, means area, domus vacua, and the home-sprite's name is in Swed. tomtekarl, tomtegubbe (old fellow on the premises), tomtrå, tomtebiss, som styr i källrars rike (Hallman, p. 73): Norw. tomtevätte, toftvätte. Another ON. name is skûrgoð [[skurðgoð - idol]], p. 112. We can trace in them a peculiar connexion with the hearth of the house; they often come out from under it (p. 456 n.), it seems to be the door, as it were, to their subterranean dwelling: they are strictly hearthgods. Here and there in Germany we also meet with the name gesell, fellow (supra, p. 464, selle, selke), gutgesell, nachbar, lieber nachbar, in the Netherlands goede kind (Horae Belg. 119), in England Goodfellow, in Denmark god dreng, good boy, kiäre granne, dear neighbour, (conf. bona socia, p. 283-8), and guote holde, p. 266). The Eng. puck we may indeed connect with the Ir. phuka, Wel. pwcca, (121) but with more justice perhaps with the Dan. pog (lad), which is simply the Swed. pojke, ON. pûki [[devil, fiend]] (puer), and comes from Finn. poica (filius); in Lower Germany too they say pook for a puny stunted man (Brem. wb. 3, 349). Heimreich's Nordfries. chron. 2, 348 has huspuke (see Suppl.).

From the 13^th century (and possibly earlier, if only we had authorities)(122) down to the present time the name kobold has been in use. A doc. of 1250 in Böhmer's Cod. francof. 1, 83 has a 'Heinricus dictus Coboldus.' Even before that date coboldus occurs (Zetitschr. des Hess. vereins 3, 64). Conrad of Würzburg, MS. 2, 206ª, has: 'mir ist ein lôser hoveschalk als ein kobolt von buhse,' no better than a k. of boxwood; and the Mîsnære (Amgb. 48ª): 'wê den kobolden, die alsus erstummen (are so struck dumb)! mir ist ein holzîn (wooden) bischof vil lieber dan ein stummer herre.' The notions of kobold, dwarf, thumbkin, puppet, idol largely run into one another (conf. supra, malik, p. 104 note). It seems, they used to carve little home-sprites of boxwood and set them up in the room for fun, as even now wooden nutcrackers and other mere playthings are cut in the shape of a dwarf or idol; yet the practice may have had to do with an old heathen worship of small lares, to whom a place was assigned in the innermost part of the dwelling; in time the earnest would turn into sport, and even christian sentiment tolerate the retention of an old custom. (123) They must also have tied rags and shreds into dolls, and set them up. The dumb wooden kobold is kept in countenance by the 'wooden bishop' mentioned immediately after by the Mîsnære. (124) In the oft-quoted poem of Rüediger we find (17d of the Königsb. MS.) 'in koboldes sprâche,' [i.e., speaking low]. In Altd. w. 2, 55 'einen kobold von wahse machen,' one of wax. Hoffmann's Fundgruben give us in the Glossary 386, from a Vocab. of the 14^th century, opold for kopold. Hugo von Trimberg has several allusions to koboldsÆ line 5064, 'und lêrn einander goukelspil, unter des mantel er koblte mache, der (whereat) manic man tougen (secretly) mit im lache'; 5576, 'der mâle ein andern kobolt dar, der ungessen bî im sitze'; 10277, 'einer siht den andern an, als kobolt hern taterman'; 10843, 'ir abgot (the heathens' gods), als ich gelesen hân, daz waren kobolt und taterman'; 11527, 'Got möhte wol lachen, solte ez sîn, wan sîne tatermennelin (same in Roth's Fragment, p. 65) sô wunderlîch ûf erden leben,' God might laugh to see his little mannikins behave so strangely. Jugglers bring kobolds out from under their cloak, kobolds are painted on the wall, the heathen gods were nothing but kobolds and tatermen, to stare at each other like kobold and taterman,---all through, the kobold appears as the tiny tricky home-sprite. In writers of the 17^th century I find the remarkable phrase 'to laugh like a kobold,' Ettner's Unwürd. doct. p. 340, and App. p. 53; 'you laugh as though you'd empty yourself, like a kobolt,' Reimdich p. 149. This must either mean, to laugh with mouth agape, like a carved kobold, who may have been so represented, or simply to laugh loud and heartily. (125) Again, 'to laugh like a hampelmann,' Deutschfranzos p. 274; 'ho, ho, ho! the loud laugh of Robin Goodfellow,' Anecd. and Trad., ed. by W. J. Thoms, Lond. 1839, p. 115. In the poem of Zeno 867. 1027 this dæmonic laughter is expressed by skraken (Brem. wb. 4, 686 schrachtern). Schweinichen 1, 260 tells of an unquiet spirit laughing loud and shrill; it may be a laugh of mirth or mockery.




ENDNOTES:

118. Conf. the conversations of trolls overheard by two of St. Olaf's men, Fornm. sög. 1, 185-188. Back

119. Holla, Berhta, Werra, Stempe. Females are the Gr. Mormw and Lamia, the Rom. Lamia, Mania, Maniola. The Poles too have a fem. Omacnica: 'Aniculae vetant pueros edere in tenebris. ne spectrum hoc devorent, quod eos insatiabiles reddat.' Linde sub. v. 'omacac,' to burden. OHG. âgenggun lamiae, Graff 1, 132. Back

120. Larva (spectre, dæmon) is conn. with lar, as arvum, arvus with arare. The Monachus Sangall. calls the pilosus (p. 481) larva. Back

121. Croker's Fairy legends 3, 230-2. 262. Back

122. 'Acc. to Falke, a Koboltesdorp (ann. 946), Trad. corv.; Adalpertus chobolt, kobolt (ann. 1185), MB. 27, 36. 42.'---Extr. from Suppl. Back

123. One ought to search out the age and design of the various gear that is set out (as mere ornament this long while) on shelves and tables; from this and from long-established moulds for pastry, we may arrive at some conclusions about the heathen custom of carving or 'doughing' idols (conf. pp. 15. 105. 112. 114): teig (dough) including any soft substance, clay, wax or flour-paste. Back

124. On 'papa salignus' conf. Reinh. p. xciv. Back

125. 'Hlahtar kiscutitaz,' laughed till he shook, K. 24. Notk. Cap. 33 has: 'taz lahter scutta sia; Petronius, cap. 24, 'risu dissolvebat ilia sua'; Reinardus 3, 1929, 'cachinnus viscera fissurus'; or, as we say, to split with laughing, laugh yourself double, short and small, to pieces, to a hölzlin (Gryphius p. m. 877), brown, out of your senses; 'einen schübel voll lachen'; perish, die with laughing, MHG. 'man swindet under lachen,' Ben. 330. A breton song in Villemarqué 1, 39 speaks of the loud laugh of the korred (see Suppl.). Back