Kobold

Kobold

The kobold Heinzelmann
Grouping	Mythological creature Fairy Sprite
Country	Germany

A kobold (occasionally cobold) is a mythical sprite.

Earliest attestation from medieval writings (13th century) indicate it was a doll carved from wood or made of wax, and it is speculated these were fetish figurines, or carvings of household spirits, set up in the house, likely mounted upon the fireplace mantel or the hearth.

The practice may may have descended from an ancient Germanic house or a hearth god (Old High German: hûsing, herdgota), similar to the ancient Roman lares or lar (hearth goddess) worshiped as figurines, or the penas (sing. of penates).^[1][4][5]

What is clear is that these kobold dolls were puppets used in plays and by travelling showmen, based on 13th century writings. They were also known as tatrmann and described as manipulated by wires.

Either way, the idol or puppet was used rhetorically in writing by the minstrels, etc. to mock clergymen or other men.^[7]

The original notion of the kobold as household spirit, seemingly corroborated by the etymology kob[en] "chamber" + walt "ruler, power, authority" was corrupted by the idea of mine spirits. Such mine spirits in the legends of 16th century German mine-workers were called kobel (cobalus) and Bergmännlein (virunculos montanos) as attested by Georgius Agricola (see gnome). Grimm had argued for an alternate etymology for kobold, as deriving from this Latin cobalus, making kobold a cognate of cobalus (kobel) and "goblin".

Thus the kobold or its synonyms were later regarded as no longer confined to the household, but haunting mines, mountains, forests, or fields. As household spirits, they may perform domestic chores, or play malicious tricks if insulted or neglected. The kobold is sometimes called Heinzelmann (from the diminutive of Heinrich) or Hinzelmann (Hintzelmann), which are sometimes commingled but are distinguishable, and the latter has been theorized as a reference to the kobold's occasional cat-form. In German folklore, the kobold materialize in the form of such an animal, a human, or a pillar fire in mid-air.

Kobold subtypes called hütchen or Low German hödekin come from their wearing caps or hoods. It has been stated by Jacob Grimm that the kobold has the general tendency to wear red pointy hats, while acknowledging this to be a widely disseminated mark of household spirits under other names such as the Norwegian nisse; and the North German Niss-Puk (cog. puck) are also prone to wearing such caps.

The Klabautermann aboard ships that help sailors are sometimes classed as a kobold.

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.