Kabayter ( Niderl. Kabouter ) - a character of Dutch folklore, an analogue of Irish Leprechaun , Norwegian Nyssa , Scottish Brownie [1] , German Kobold [2] , Russian brownie and others.
Content
Etymology
In Dutch and other languages, Kabauters are often confused with gnomes . The main difference between kabauters and gnomes comes down to their habitats: kabauters live in people's dwellings, mills [3] or mushrooms , while gnomes live mainly in forests or underground. The word "kabauter" ( Dutch: Kabouter ), apparently, comes from the ancient German words kuƀa-Walda ("caretaker") or kuƀa-hulþa ("keeper of the house", where the word "Kobold" came from - good or evil domestic spirit). In the Old English language there are similar words cofgodu , cofgodas ( penates , lars ).
The word “gnome" was first introduced into circulation by a Swiss doctor and 16th-century alchemist Paracelsus . He described them as a kind of “ elemental ” about 40 cm high [4] .
In folklore and popular culture
In Dutch folklore, kabauters are represented as tiny people, growing from 15 to 45 centimeters, living in people's homes, mills or mushrooms. Male kabauters have long beards and wear tall pointed red or green hats . As a rule, people are shy.
In an old Dutch fairy tale, the Legend of wooden shoes, a kabauter teaches the Dutchman how to make piles and wooden shoes [5] .
Kabauters gained wide fame thanks to the book of the Dutch writer Will Hagen with illustrations by Rin Portwlit - Leven en werken van de Kabouter ( Russian. Life and works of the Caboters ), which was translated into English and published in 1977 under the title " Dwarves " [6] .
In modern popular culture, Travelocity, an American travel agency, uses the Kubauter figurine for its commercials in the style of Portwlith’s illustrations, which is called the “Traveling City Gnome”.
The word “kabauter” was also used by Roel van Duin to refer to the anarchist group Kabuter created by him that existed in the Netherlands in the 1970s [7] .
See also
- Brownie
- Goblin
- Brownie
- Leprechaun
Notes
- ↑ Briggs, Katherine M. A Dictionary of Fairies. - Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1976. - P. 339. - ISBN 0-14-004753-0 .
- ↑ Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek by Jan de Vries. Page.905.
- ↑ Kabutermannekin
- ↑ CS Lewis, The Discarded Image, p. 135 ISBN 0-521-47735-2
- ↑ Legend of the Wooden Shoes , as retold by William Elliott Griffis in Dutch Fairy Tales For Young Folks. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1918. (English). Available online from SurLaLune Fairy Tales.
- ↑ (1977) Gnomes , Harry N. Abrams Inc., ISBN 0-8109-0965-0 (20th Anniv.) ISBN 0-8109-5498-2 (30th Anniv.)
- ↑ Netherlands: The Second Liberation - Roel van Duijn - Becoming a Kabouter Archived September 5, 2012 on Wayback Machine
Literature
- Magical creatures: Encyclopedia .. - St. Petersburg. : ABC classic, 2008 .-- 512 p. - ISBN 978-5-352-02284-9 .