![]() One example, known as the monoloke, was made from white wax and wore a blue shirt and black velvet vest. These kobold effigies were 30 to 60 cm (12 to 24 in) high and had colourful clothing and large mouths. People believed that the wild kobold remained in the material used to carve the figure. According to 13th-century German poet Conrad of Würzburg, medieval Germans carved kobolds from boxwood and wax and put them "up in the room for fun". Alternatively, Nancy Arrowsmith and George Moorse have said that the earliest kobolds were thought to be tree spirits. Religion historian Otto Schrader has suggested that kobold beliefs derive from the pagan tradition of worshipping household deities thought to reside in the hearth fire. Kobold beliefs represent the survival of pagan customs into the Roman Catholic and modern eras and offer hints of how pagan Europeans worshipped in the privacy of their homes. ![]() Irish historian Thomas Keightley argued that the German kobold and the Scandinavian nis predate the Irish fairy and the Scottish brownie and influenced the beliefs in those entities, but American folklorist Richard Mercer Dorson discounted this argument as reflecting Keightley's bias toward Gotho-Germanic ideas over Celtic ones. Sources equate the domestic kobold with creatures such as the English boggart, hobgoblin and pixy, the Scottish brownie, and the Scandinavian nisse or tomte while they align the subterranean variety with the Norse dwarf and the Cornish knocker. ![]() The name of the element cobalt comes from the creature's name, because medieval miners blamed the sprite for the poisonous and troublesome nature of the typical arsenical ores of this metal ( cobaltite and smaltite) which polluted other mined elements. Similarly, subterranean kobolds may share their origins with creatures such as gnomes and dwarves and the aquatic Klabautermann with similar water spirits. This may indicate a common origin for these creatures, or it may represent cultural borrowings and influences of European peoples upon one another. 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. Other similar sprites include the household lares and penates of ancient Rome, or native German beliefs in a similar room spirit called kofewalt (whose name is a possible rootword of the modern kobold or a German dialectal variant). Depictions of kobaloi are common in ancient Greek art. Greek myths depict the kobaloi as impudent, thieving, droll, idle, mischievous, gnome-dwarfs, and as funny, little tricksy elves of a phallic nature. kobaloi) (Ancient Greek: Κόβαλος, plural: Κόβαλοι) of ancient Greece which was a sprite, a mischievous creature fond of tricking and frightening mortals, even robbing Heracles/ Hercules. Such pagan practices may have derived from beliefs in the mischievous kobalos (pl. Belief in kobolds dates to at least the 13th century, when German peasants carved kobold effigies for their homes. Kobold beliefs are evidence of the survival of pagan customs after the Roman Catholicization of Germany, or merely that the legends of them have lived on as stories. A third kind of kobold, the Klabautermann, lives aboard ships and helps sailors. Another type of kobold haunts underground places, such as mines. ![]() In some regions, kobolds are known by local names, such as the Galgenmännlein of southern Germany and the Heinzelmännchen of Cologne. Famous kobolds of this type include King Goldemar, Heinzelmann, and Hödekin. Most commonly, the creatures are household spirits of ambivalent nature while they sometimes perform domestic chores, they play malicious tricks if insulted or neglected. Legends tell of three major types of kobolds. Kobolds who live in human homes wear the clothing of peasants those who live in mines are hunched and ugly and some can materialise into a brick kobolds who live on ships smoke pipes and wear sailor clothing. The most common depictions of kobolds show them as humanlike figures the size of small children. Having spread into Europe with various spellings including " goblin" and " hobgoblin", and later taking root and stemming from Germanic mythology, the concept survived into modern times in German folklore.Īlthough usually invisible, a kobold can materialize in the form of a non-human animal, a fire, a human, and a candle. A kobold (occasionally cobold) is a mythical sprite.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |