Kobold

A kobold is known by various names. As a household spirit, it may perform chores such as tidying the kitchen, but it can be prankish, and when mistreated, it can resort to retribution, sometimes of the utmost cruelty. It is often said that a household must put out sweet milk (and bread or bread soup) as offering to keep it on good behaviour. The legend of the house sprite's retribution is quite old. The tale of the hütchen (or hodekin in Low German, meaning "little hat") is set in the historical background after c. 1130 and attested in a work c. 1500 (later retold as Grimms Deutsche Sagen No. 74). This sprite that haunted the castle of the Bishop of Hildesheim retaliated against a kitchen boy who splashed filthy water on it (Cf. fig. top right) by leaving the lad's dismembered body cooking in a pot. Similarly, according to an anecdote recorded by historian Thomas Kantzow (d. 1542), in 1327, the resident of Mecklenburg Castle allegedly chopped up a kitchen boy into pieces after he took and drank the milk offered to the sprite. The story of the "multi-formed" Hinzelmann (Grimms DS No. 75) features a typical house sprite tidying the kitchen and repaying insolence. Though normally invisible, it is a shapeshifter as its name suggests. When the lord of Hudemühlen Castle fled to Hanover, the sprite transformed into a feather to follow the horse carriage. It also appears as a marten and serpent after attempts at expelling it. A kobold by the similar name Heintzlein (Heinzlein) was recorded by Martin Luther. Although a group of house sprite names (Heinz, Heinzel, Heinzchen, Heinzelman, Hinzelman, Hinzemännchen, etc.) are considered to derive from diminutive pet name of "Heinrich", the name Hinzelmann goes deeper, and alludes to the spirit appearing in the guise of a cat, the name Hinz[e] being an archetypical name for cats. Also Hinzelmann and Heinzelmänchen of Cologne are considered different house sprites altogether with the latter categorized as one of "literary" nature. The house sprite names Chim, Chimken, Chimmeken, etc. are diminutive informal names of Joachim. The true form of a kobold is often said to be that of a small child, sometimes only confirmed by the touch of the hand, but sometimes a female servant eager to see it is shown a dead body of a child (cf. Hinzelmann). The folklore was current in some regions, e.g. Vogtland that the kobold was the soul of a child who died unbaptized. The Grimms (Deutsche Sagen) also seconded the notion of "kobold" appearing as a child wearing a pretty jacket, but Jacob Grimm (Deutsche Mythologie) stated contrarily that kobolds are red-haired and red-bearded, without examples. Later commentators noted that the house sprite Petermännchen sports a long, white beard. The Klabautermann is red-haired and white-bearded according to a published source. The kobold often wears red pointy hats, a widely disseminated mark of European household spirits under other names such as the Norwegian nisse; the North or Northeastern German kobolds named Niss or Puk (cog. puck) are prone to wearing such caps. The combined form Nis Puk is also known. In the north the house sprite may be known by the dragon-like name , said to appear in a form like a fire shaft. Sometimes household sprites manifest as noisemakers (poltergeists). It may first rattle, then speak invisibly, and then do chores gradually making its presence and personality more clear (see Hintzelmann tale). In some regions, the kobold is held to be the soul of a prematurely killed child (). They may be hard to eradicate, but it is often said that a gift of an article of clothing will cause them to leave. The klopfer is a "noisemaker" or poltergeist type of kobold name while the poppele and butz (which Grimm and others considered to be noise inspired) are classed as names referring to a doll or figurine. and the word assumptively also meant "household spirit" in MHG and certainly something of a "household deity" in the post-medieval period (gloss dated 1517). The etymology of kobold that Grimm supported derived the word from Latin cobalus (Greek , ), but this was also Georg Agricola's Latin/Greek cypher for kobel syn. denoting mine spirits, i.e. gnome. This Greek etymology has been superseded by the Germanic one explaining the word as the compound kob/kof 'house, chamber' + walt 'power, authority' (cf. cobalt#etymology). The gütel has a variant , a hayloft or stable kobold, which tampers with horses. ==Nomenclature and origins==

The "kobold" is defined as the well-known household spirit, descended from household gods and hearth deities, according to Grimms' dictionary. However, Middle High German "" is defined as "wooden or waxen figures of a nixie-ish (neckische) house spirit", used in jest. Kobold as generic term The term "kobold" was being used as general or generic term for "house spirit" known by other names even before Grimm, e.g., Erasmus Francisci (1690) who discusses the hütchen tale under the section on "Kobold". but this cannot be considered an independent source since the book (i.e., the rewriter) cites Erasmus Francisci elsewhere. Both these were primary sources for the kobold tales in Grimms' Deutsche Sagen, No. 74, 75. Praetorius (1666) discussed the household spirit under names such as (dat. pl. ), kobold, gütgen, and Latin equivalents. Steier (1705) glossing kobold as "Spiritus familiaris" meaning "ruler of the site" (). The earliest known uses of the word kobold in 13th century Middle High German refer jokingly to figurines made of wood or wax. ;Stringed puppet The kobolt and Tatrmann were also boxwood puppets manipulated by wires, which performed in puppet theater in the medieval period, as evident from example usage. The traveling juggler () of yore used to make a kobold doll appear out of their coats and make faces with it to entertain the crowd. ;Dumb doll insult There are other medieval literary examples using kobold or tatrmann as a metaphor for mute or dumb human beings. Note that some of the kobold synonyms are specifically classified as Kretinnamen, under the slander for stupidity category in the HdA, as aforementioned. Grimm's alternate etymology Joseph Grimm in Teutonic Mythology gave the etymology of kobold/kobolt as derived from Latin cobalus (pl. cobali) or rather its antecedent Greek ''koba'los (pl. kobaloi; , plural: ) meaning "joker, trickster". The final -olt'' he explained as typical German language suffix for monsters and supernaturals. The derivation of kobold from Greek kobalos is not original to Grimm, and he credits Ludwig Wachler (1737). Thus the generic "goblin" is a cognate of "kobold" according to Grimm's etymology and perhaps even a descendant word deriving from "kobold". The Dutch kabout, kabot, kabouter, kaboutermanneken, etc. were also regarded as deriving from cabolus by Grimm, citing Dutch linguist Cornelis Kiliaan. Conflation with mine spirit Jacob Grimm certainly knew that kobel and Bergmännlein (=Bergmännchen) were the proper terms Agricola used for "mine spirits" since his Deutsche Mythologie quoted these terms from Georgius Agricola (16th cent.) in the annotation volume. So to know the actual German terms ("kobel"), one needed to consult the glossary. The glossary was later attached to a 1657 omnibus edition consisting of an excerpt of De animatibus added to de re metallica in XII books, which is clearly the Basel 1657 edition Grimm is citing. But Grimms' dictionary, while admitting that the mine spirit went by the name kobel, considered that word merely to be a variant or offshoot of kobold (for the house spirit). The dictionary stated under "kobold" that kobel must be a diminutive cognate . And under "kobalt" it considered the name of cobalt ore derived from the supposed mischief caused by the kobold or (mountain manikin, mountain spirit) in these mines. Thus, unsurprisingly, later writers have continued referring to mine spirits as "kobolds" or considering "kobold" to be both house spirit and mine spirit in a wider sense (cf. , ). At any rate, it is recognized that the original "house spirit" kobold got conflated with the "mine spirit" also known as kobel. Visitors from mines Spiritualist Emma Hardinge Britten (1884) recorded a story about "kobolds" in the mines who communicated with local German residents (of Harz Mountains?) using banging sounds and fulfilled the promise to visit their homes. Extracted as real-life experience from a Mrs. Kalodzky, who was visiting peasants named Dorothea and Michael Engelbrecht. As promised, these kobolds appeared in the house in shadow as small human-like figures "more like a little image carved out of black shining wood". The informant claims she and her husband have both seen the beings since and described them as "diminutive black dwarfs about two or three feet in height, and at that part which in the human being is occupied by the heart, they carry the round luminous circle" and the sighting of the circle is more common than the dwarfish beings. ==Subtypes==

;(Other house spirits) The term kobold has slipped into becoming a generic term translatable as goblin, so that all manners of household spirits (hausgeister) became classifiable as "types" of kobold. Such alternate names for the kobold house sprite are classified by type of naming (A. As doll, B. As pejoratives for stupidity, C. Appearance-based, D. Characteristics-based, E. Diminutive pet name based, etc.) in the (HdA). Doll or puppet names The term kobold in its earliest usage suggest it to be a wooden doll (Cf. § Origins under below). A synonym for kobold in that sense includes Tatrmann which is also attested in the medieval period. What is clear based on 13th century writings is that these kobold dolls were puppets used in plays and by travelling showmen. They were also known as '''''' and described as manipulated by wires. Either way, the idol or puppet was invoked rhetorically in writing by the minstrels, etc. to mock clergymen or other people. The household spirit names ' and ' were thought by Grimm to derive from noise-making, but the HdA considers them to be doll names. The poppele is thought to be the German word Puppe for doll. The term Butz meanwhile could refer to a "tree trunk", and by extension "overgrown", "little", or "stupid", and thus is cross-categorized as an example of "cretin names" (category B). Ranke suggests the meaning of ("klutz, hunk of wood") or a "small being" with "noisemaker ghost" as a possible descent from MHG "to beat, strike". Grimm thinks that all MHG usage treats butze as a type of bogey or scarecrow (). So in some sense, Butz[e] is simply a generic bogeyman (German: Butzemann). And butz[e], while nominally a kobold (house spirit), is almost a generic term for all kinds of spectres in the Alps region. conjecturing the use of güttel as synonymous to (i.e., sense of 'idol') in medieval heroic legend. The term gütel answers to Agricola's guteli (in Latin) as an alternate common name for the mine spirit (bergmännlein). The tale "Schrätel und wasserbär" (kobold and polar bear) had been recorded in Middle High German, Still, the forms and seemed to be current around Fichtelgebirge (Fichtel Mountains), or at least in Upper Franconia region as a sprite haunting a house or stable. The schrezala form is recognized in Vogtland also. While Hinz, Hinzelmann, Heinz are categorized as C subtype "beast-shape names" (cat-shape names) in the HdA (Cf. , below), The HdA does not explicitly include the child-sprite Heintzlein (Heinzlein) mentioned by Martin Luther in his Table Talk, which turns out to be the spirit of the unwanted child murdered by its mother (a motif seen by kobolds elsewhere). This spirit is renamed "Heinzchen" in Heine's exposition, and perhaps also in Grimm's Deutsche Sagen No. 71 as well. Grimm also lists other variant spellings () to be considered together. Grimm's commentary then mentions Heinze as a mountain sprite (Berggeist, gnome) in Rollenhagen's Froschmeuseler, Heinze being a diminutive (or rather more properly the affectionate shortened forms, or hypocorism) of Heinrich. The kobold Heinzelmännchen (another diminutive of Heinrich Chimgen (Kurd Chimgen), and Chim are other forms. Wolterken, also Low German, is diminutive for Walther, and another piece of household spirit of the pet name type, Wolterken glossed as "lares" and attested together with "" and "" in (1587) Panurgia lamiarum. To this group belongs the Low Saxon form () of the house sprite Hütchen from Hildesheim, which wears a felt hat (). Grimm also adds the names . Cat-shape . The kobold Hinzelmann or Hintzelmann or a marten, or a serpent. (cf. ). The kobold appears in the guise of a cat to eat the panada bribe, in Saintine's version. Poltergeists The HdA's category D consists of kobold names from their behavioural characteristics, and other than some non-German sprites discussed, these are mainly the poltergeists, or noise-making spirits (otherwise, they are names derived after their favourite dish, cf. below). The poltergeists include the ("knocker"), Likewise, though Grimm thought was reference to noise, even though butz seems to refer to a "tree trunk" and thus, had been classed as A for doll-name by HdA. Miscellaneous Other house spirits categorized as "K. Other names" by the HdA are , , . The mönch lore is widespread from Saxony to Bavaria. King Goldemar, king of dwarfs, is also re-discussed under the household spirit commentary by Grimm, presumably because he became a guest to the human king Neveling von Hardenberg at his Castle Hardenstein for three years, making a dwarf sort of a household spirit on a limited-term basis. For cognate beings of kobolds or house spirits in non-German cultures, see . ==Characteristics==

The kobold is linked to a specific household. Some legends claim that every house has a resident kobold, regardless of its owners' desires or needs. The means by which a kobold enters a new home vary from tale to tale. Should someone take pity on a kobold in the form of a cold, wet creature and take it inside to warm it, the spirit takes up residence there. Even if servants come and go, the kobold stays. House kobolds usually live in the hearth area of a house, in barns and stables, or in the beer cellar of an inn. At night, such kobolds do chores that the human occupants neglected to finish before bedtime: They chase away pests, clean the stables, feed and groom the cattle and horses, scrub the dishes and pots, and sweep the kitchen. The is described as a spirit that scrapes the horse (that is to say, with the currycomb or in German, Striegel) in their stalls, feeds the swine to fatten them, and draws water and carries it over to the cattle to drink. Other kobolds help tradespeople and shopkeepers. Kobolds are spirits and, as such, part of a spiritual realm. However, as with other European spirits, they often dwell among the living. The spirit's doings, and how humans interact will be discussed further below () Kobolds can take on the appearance of children, be dressed a certain way, or manifest as non-human animals, fire, humans, and objects. This is further discussed below () ==Physical description==

There seems to be contradictory opinion on whether a kobold should be generally regarded as boyish looking, or more elderly and bearded. An earlier edition (1819) of the Brockhaus Enzyklopädie gives the childlike description, And a cherubic, winged child illustration occurs in the 1704 printed book narrative of the kobold, Hintzelmann (cf. right). The bearded look was underscored by Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythlogie where the kobold was ascribed red hair and beard, without specific examples. and an instance of a kobold from Mecklenburg, with long white beard and wearing a hood ('''') mentioned by Golther is in fact Petermännchen also. Cf. Other tales describe kobolds appearing as herdsmen looking for work and little, wrinkled old men in pointed hoods. Grimm mentions the spirit known as '''''' (meaning "little hat" of felt, cf. ) immediately after, perhaps as an example of such a cap-wearer. The kobold wearing a red cap and protective pair of boots is reiterated by, e.g., Wolfgang Golther. Grimm describes household spirits owning fairy shoes or fairy boots, which permits rapid travel over difficult terrain, and compares it to the league boots of fairytale. There is lore concerning the infant-sized niss-puk ( var. Neß Puk, where Puk is cognate to English puck) wearing (pointed) red caps localized in various part of the province of Schleswig-Holstein, in northernmost Germany adjoining Denmark. Karl Müllenhoff provided the "kobold" lore of the '''' of Schleswig-Holstein, in his anthology, this tale localized at Rethwisch, Steinburg (Krempermarsch). The Schwertmann was said to dwell in a (or donnerloch'', The lore of the house kobold puk was also current farther east in Pomerania, including now Polish Farther Pomerania. The kobold-niss-puk was regarded as wearing a "red jacket and cap" in western Uckermark. The tale of told in Swinemünde (now Świnoujście) held that a man's luck ran out when he rebuilt his house and the blessing passed on to his neighbor who reused the old beams. The pûks was witnessed wearing a cocked hat (), red jacket with shiny buttons. Invisibility and true form The normal invisibility of the Chimgen (or Chim) kobold is explained in legend which tells of a female servant taking a fancy to her house's kobold and asking to see him. The kobold refuses, claiming that to look upon him would be terrifying. Undeterred, the maid insists, and the kobold tells her to meet him later—and to bring along a pail of cold water. The kobold waits for the maid, nude and with a butcher knife in his back. The maid faints at the sight, and the kobold wakes her with the cold water. And she never wished to see the Chimgen ever again. In one variant, the maid urges her favourite kobold named Heinzchen (or actually Heintzlein What Praetorius (1666) stated was that the goblin haunting a house often appeared in the guise of children with knives stuck in their backs, revealing them to be ghosts of children murdered in that manner. The lore that the kobold's true identity is the soul of a child who died unbaptized was current in the Vogland (including such belief held for the gutel of Erzgebirge). Like the soul, the kobold can assume any shape, even "sheer fire". Cf. Grimm, the lore that unbaptized children become () Also, the Irrlicht (≈ will-o'-the-wisp), called locally in the southern Altmark, were said to be the souls of unbaptized children. Goldemar's traces Although King Goldemar (or Goldmar), a famous kobold from Castle Hardenstein, had hands "thin like those of a frog, cold and soft to the feel", he never showed himself. King Goldemar was said to sleep in the same bed with Neveling von Hardenberg. He demanded a place at the table and a stall for his horses. The master of Hudemühlen Castle, where Heinzelmann lived, convinced the kobold to let him touch him one night. When a man threw ashes and tares about to try to see King Goldemar's footprints, the kobold cut him to pieces, put him on a spit, roasted him, boiled his legs and head, and ate him. Fire phenomena The kobold is said to appear as an oscillating fire-pillar ("stripe") with a part resembling a head, but appears in the guise of a black cat when it lands and is no longer airborne (Altmark, Saxony). Benjamin Thorpe likens this to similar lore about the dråk ("drake") in Swinemünde (now Świnoujście), Pomerania. A legend from the same period taken from Pechüle, near Luckenwald, says that a drak (apparently corrupted from meaning "drake" or "dragon") or kobold flies through the air as a blue stripe and carries grain. "If a knife or a fire-steel be cast at him, he will burst, and must let fall what which he is carrying". Some legends say the fiery kobold enters and exits a house through the chimney. Legends dating to 1852 from western Uckermark ascribe both human and fiery features to the kobold; he wears a red jacket and cap and moves about the air as a fiery stripe. Such fire associations, along with the name drake, may point to a connection between kobold and dragon myths. To the Irrlicht is attached a folk belief about the fire-light being the soul of unbaptized children a motif already noted for the kobold. And the cited story of the Feuermann (Lausitz legend) explains it to be a wood-kobold () which sometimes entered houses and dwelled in the fireplace or chimney, like the Wendish "drake". or a puk appears as a hen. The comparison is readily made to the legend of the hen-hatched basilisk, and Polívka makes further comparisons to lore involving hens and dragons. Thorpe has recorded that the people of Altmark believed that kobolds appeared as black cats while walking the earth. The kobold Hinzelmann could appear as a black marten () and a large snake. One lexicon glosses the French term for werewolf, loup-garou, as kobold. This is somewhat underscored by the remark that werewolf transformation was considered an ability of sorcerers with unibrow, which was a physical mark shared with the Schratel spirit (as wood sprite). These do not comprise an exhaustive list of what forms the kobold can take on. The hinzelmann besides the cat appears as a "dog, hen, red or black bird, buck goat, dragon, and a fiery or bluish form", according to an old encyclopedic entry. Ranke (1910) gave a similar list for kobold transformations which includes bumblebee (''''). ==Activities and interactions==

Offerings and retributions A kobold expects to be fed in the same place at the same time each day. The association between kobolds and work gave rise to a saying current in 19th-century Germany that a woman who worked quickly "had the kobold" ("sie hat den Kobold"). In the story of the Chimmeken of the Mecklenburg Castle, (supra, dated 1327 given by Kantzow) the milk customarily put for the sprite by the kitchen was stolen by a kitchen-boy (Küchenbube), and the spirit consequently left the boy's dismembered body in a kettle of hot water. The offering was to be milk and '''' (bread roll) also according to a lexicon for Altmark. The offering was described as panada (bread [and milk] soup) in the French retelling by Saintine. According to the lore from South Tyrol (now part of Italy), the Stierl farmstead at experienced the trouble where the farmer's wife could not make butter for all her churning in the bucket (). The farmer decided it was the doings of a kobold, and went down to the basement where lived Kröll Anderle who was learned in the magic books, and Anderle gave instructions to dip a glowing hot skewer into the liquid while churning the bucket under the eaves, which succeeded. But the kobold driven out repaid the farmer's wife with a hot log leaving her a permanent burn injury. King Goldemar revealed the secret transgressions of clergymen, much to their chagrin. Even friendly kobolds are rarely completely good, and house kobolds may do mischief for no particular reason. They hide things, push people over when they bend to pick something up, and make noise at night to keep people awake. King Goldemar enjoyed strumming the harp and playing dice. Good fortune A kobold can bring wealth to his household in the form of grain and gold. Kobolds bring good luck and help their hosts as long as the hosts take care of them. The kobold Hödekin, who lived with the bishop of Hildesheim in the 12th century, once warned the bishop of a murder. When the bishop acted on the information, he was able to take over the murderer's lands and add them to his bishopric. The house-spirit in some areas were called Alrûn ("mandrake"), though this was also the name of a trinket sold in bottles, which instead of being genuine mandrake could be any doll shaped from some plant root. Exorcism by a Christian priest works in some tales; in certain versions of the Hödekin in the kitchen of the castle enfeoffed to the Bishop of Hildesheim, the bishop managed to exorcise Hödekin using "ecclesiastical censures" Insulting a kobold may drive it away, but not without a curse; when someone tried to see his true form, Goldemar left the home and vowed that the house would now be as unlucky as it had been fortunate under his care. ==Other specialized kobolds==

Other than the mine spirit kobold above, there are others "house spirits" that haunt shops, ships, etc. places of various professions. The Klabautermann (cf. also below) is a kobold from the beliefs of fishermen and sailors of the Baltic Sea. Adalbert Kuhn recognized in northern Germany the form (syn. ) which haunted mills and ships, subsisted on the milk put out for them, and in return performed chores such as milking cows, grooming horse, helping the kitchen, or scrubbing the ship. The bieresel, sometimes called a type of kobold live in breweries and the beer cellars of inns or pubs, bring beer into the house, clean the tables, and wash the bottles, glasses and casks. The family must leave a can of beer, (cf. Hödfellow) and must treat the kobold with respect, never mocking or laughing at the creature. Klabautermann The Klabautermann is a spirit that dwells in ships, according to the beliefs of the seafaring folk around the Baltic Sea in Germany and Netherlands, etc. The spirit has been classed as a ship-kobold and is sometimes even called a "kobold". The Klabautermann typically appears as a small, pipe-smoking humanlike figure wearing a red or grey jacket, or yellow attire, wearing nightcap-style sailor's hat or a pair of yellow hoses and riding boots, and a "steeple-crowned" pointy hat. Klabautermanns may be benevolent and aid the ship's crews in their tasks, but also be a menace or nuisance. For example, it may help pump water from the hold, arrange cargo, and hammer at holes until they can be repaired. But they can pull pranks with the tackle lines as well. The Klabautermann is associated with the wood of the ship on which it lives. It enters the ship via the wood used to build it, and it may appear as a ship's carpenter. It is said that if an unbaptized child is buried in a heath under a tree, and that timber is used to build a ship, the child's soul will become the klabautermann which will inhabit that ship. ==Parallels==

Kobold beliefs mirror legends of similar creatures in other regions of Europe, and scholars have argued that the names of creatures such as goblins and kabouters derive from the same roots as kobold. This may indicate a common origin for these creatures, or it may represent cultural borrowings and influences of European peoples upon one another. Similarly, subterranean kobolds may share their origins with creatures such as gnomes and dwarves. Sources equate the domestic kobold with creatures such as the Danish as well as the Welsh coblynau. The zashiki-warashi (lit. 'sitting-room lad') of Japanese folklore parallels the kobold. Many points of commonality have been pointed out, for instance, the house inhabited by the sprite flourishes, but will fall to ruin once it leaves. The warashi is also of prankish nature, but does not actually help out with household chores. Both sprites can be appeased by offerings of favorite food, which is ("adzuki rice") for the Japanese version. ==In culture==

Literary references German writers have long borrowed from German folklore and fairy lore for both poetry and prose. Narrative versions of folktales and fairy tales are common, and kobolds are the subject of several such tales. The kobold is invoked by Martin Luther in his Bible, translates the Hebrew lilith in Isaiah 34:14 as kobold. In Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, the kobold represents the Greek element of earth. This merely goes to show that Goethe saw fit to substitute "kobold" for the gnome of the earth, one of Paracelsus's four spirits. Fantasy novels and anime The fantasy novel Record of Lodoss War adapted into anime depicts kobolds as dog-like, based on earlier versions of Dungeons & Dragons, resulting in many Japanese media depictions doing the same. In the novel American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, Hinzelmann is portrayed as an ancient kobold who helps the city of Lakeside in exchange for killing one teenager once a year. In the novel The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold, mining kobolds help the protagonists and display a fondness for milk. In an author's note, Bujold attributes her conception of kobolds to the Herbert Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover translation of De re metallica. Film and television In the East German TV series Brummkreisel, the character Kunibert is a kobold of sorts. ==See also==