Mountain spirit
Berggeist ( Latin daemon subterraneus , "underground demon"; also daemon metallicus "mine demon" ) is the generic term for various mythical creatures that can be found in mines or in the mountains. Well-known examples are the mountain monk , the mountain devil and the goblin-like miners or trolls. The term was later extended to include forest and mountain spirits, such as Rübezahl (Giant Mountains). Other common names for mountain spirits are Knappenmandl , Grubenmännlein , Lötterl (Slovenia) etc. Names for individual mountain spirits are Nickel , Skarbnik (treasure keeper , Upper Silesia), Gübich (Harz), Gangerl (area around Budweis) etc.
precursor
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The term “Bergmännlein” is mentioned for the first time in 1487 as the name of a mine in Schneeberg . Around the same time, a woodcut for the Judicium Jovis by the humanist Paulus Niavis , the oldest poetry on mining in the Ore Mountains, shows a representation of three naked, child-like beings, without clear gender characteristics, who are interpreted as the protective spirits of mining. This type of representation is probably based on the ancient penates who watched over the pantry and the supplies of a household. Elsewhere, Niavis also reports that the miners in Schneeberg knew dangerous underground demons "who do violence to people". In a Prague miniature from 1525, about the granting of the right to mint to the miners of Kuttenberg by Wenceslaus II , a small, naked figure crouches at the king's feet and extends a pit light to greet the miners .
The system of the mountain spirits at Agricola
In his mining scientific writings Bermannus (1530), De animantibus subterraneis (1549) and De re metallica (1556), Georgius Agricola tried, among other things , to reconcile the traditions of miners known to him with the views of medieval demonologists such as Michael Psellos and Johannes Trithemius . Psellos z. B. divided the demons into six classes, of which he counted the fifth, the “subterranean”, next to the “light haters”, among the most evil and dangerous, because they were endowed with a solid body. Agricola countered this by stating that in addition to such malicious mountain spirits there were also harmless and good-natured ones. He designated these two types of mountain spirit (and the glossary for De animantibus ) as:
- daemon subterraneus truculentus (Latin: dark, coarse, wild): "mountain devil"
- daemon subterraneus mitis (lat .: mild, peaceful): "bergmennel", "kobel", and "guttel"
In contrast to the theologians of his time, he also counted these spirits among living beings and not among purely spiritual beings .
As an example of a "mountain devil" Agricola mentions for the first time a spirit with wild eyes and a long neck (like a horse) who is said to have killed twelve workers in Annaberg with its poisonous breath, whereupon the mine, despite its high silver content, gave up has been. In the early translations into German, however, there is direct talk of a "horse" with a long neck and wild eyes, and this (nameless) spirit has also entered the legend in this form .
Another example is a ghost in a black robe who is said to have lifted a worker in the St. Georg pit on the Schneeberg and placed him in a silver-rich cave, “not without messing him up”. In more recent transmissions, however, there is only talk of stored tools that the spirit, "not without physical exertion", took to a higher route. Even if Agricola does not call him that, this spirit is evidently the malicious mountain monk, who later found its way into the mining sagas, especially in the Harz , the Ore Mountains , Saxony and Transylvania .
Agricola confronts these dangerous, vicious loners with the sociable "miners". These show the characteristic behavior of goblins : They giggle happily and make themselves noticeable through noises (knocking etc.) or stones, run here and there and imitate working people. Most of the time they are invisible. Otherwise they appear in the shape of three spanish old men who wear the typical work clothes of the miners with hooded smocks and ass leather . This appearance became canonical for dwarves from now on . Although they sometimes tease the miners, they rarely harm them (only after being insulted by laughter or swear words). The miners have nothing against the miners' presence. On the contrary, they are a good omen for rich finds (hence the name Guttel). Agricola herself compares them with the above-ground house spirits who help people in the household or with feeding cattle (similar to elves or brownies ), as well as with the Scandinavian trolls , but the latter also in a harmless, "domesticated" form.
Mountain devils in theology vs. Gnome in natural philosophy
This clear division into friendly and hostile mountain spirits, which is presumably based on the dualistic separation of angels and devils, was partially blurred again by Agricola's contemporaries. Even by the translators of his Bermannus , the inhumane mountain spirits were once again referred to as "miners". Only Sebastian Münster retained the strict separation between “klein teüfelin” and “bergmenlin” in his Cosmographia .
In the religiously heated climate of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation , the diabolization of the mountain spirit continued steadily: Martin Luther ascribes the mischief of the mountain monk in particular to the direct work of Satan , who also tries to ruin the miners through lies and deception. The reformer and preacher Johannes Mathesius still knows the terms “Cobelt” and “Gütlein”, but their philanthropic nature seems to have been forgotten. All of them are mere ghosts . The "mountain devil" is surrounded by numerous "mountain devils", and like them, the "mountain mennel" have nothing else in mind than to frighten the miner and plunge to his death. Also in the work of the Catholic Olaus Magnus , the mountain spirit is consistently depicted in the iconography of the devil of the time (even if he “helped” with the work): with large ears or horns, beak-like snouts, clawed hands and birds of prey feet.
Paracelsus created new impulses, but also confusion, by classifying the mountain spirits within the framework of the four-element doctrine and declaring them to be elementals . He referred to the mountain spirits as "pygmies" (but apart from their small stature, they have almost nothing to do with the pygmies of ancient tradition), or, with a Greek foreign word of unclear meaning, as gnomes . Unlike Agricola, Paracelsus by no means ascribes a solid body to the earth spirits, but, on the contrary, considers them to be extremely subtle and almost disembodied, since they can move through the densest of all elements, earth. Similar to the salamanders, they consist of a fiery substance of light. But since they can move effortlessly through less dense elements, like the Undines, they sometimes come into contact with people. Then they appear in the form of will- o'-the-wisps , ghosts or traditionally as helpful little men. Like the other elementals, the gnomes have no soul . They can only attain this by marrying a person. The eventual descendants of gnomes and humans are dwarfs.
Mountain spirits in the legend
Later on, such ideas returned to popular narratives from the writings of humanist Renaissance scholars. There, the individual elements were newly combined with one another in a wide variety of ways and from there they found their way into the saga collections of the 18th and 19th centuries.
The lonely mountain spirit takes on more and more features of the sociable miners. Like them, he now often appears in the form of an old man in miner's clothing. He can also lead the miners to new sites and occasionally helps them in person to mine the ores. Sometimes the miners make sacrifices to him (daily food and lights , a red skirt a year). In the event of non-fulfillment, the ore dries up or the defaulting party is killed by the mountain spirit. The mountain spirit generally rewards hard work and honesty, but punishes greed and broken words. Like the gnomes of Paracelsus, he can walk through the rock, often appears above ground, near the shafts, in the mountains and in the forest (where as yet unknown rich ore veins can be found). Usually the mountain spirit is seen as male, but sometimes also as female, as a beautiful fairy or white woman who sometimes falls in love with a miner. The mountain spirit is seldom a wild man (founding legend of Wildermann in the Harz Mountains) or a water man (in a lake near Erzberg ).
The goblin-like miners also appear more and more like fairy-like creatures: their clothes are (for miners) either conspicuously "colorless" (white, gray, silver), or conspicuously colorful (red, green). They not only perform their parties and dances in underground caves and palaces, but also on meadows in the moonlight. Occasionally (e.g. in Banská Štiavnica ) the mountain spirits even appear in the form of barefoot dancing girls. In stories about a war between different dwarf peoples, however, the dualism between “little mountain devil” and “little mountain man” shimmers through. In addition, the mountain spirits also appear as small animals, e.g. as rats (that run out of mountain crevices), or as black birds , flies and hornets etc.
The mountain monk
The mountain monk in particular became an extremely contradictory figure: instead of in the form of a monk, he also appears as a giant with a hood (with sparkling eyes, as large as carriage wheels), in the form of a climber or a mountain master (with a silver pit light) or even more often than Juror . In fact, in some legends he is mistaken for the ghost of a dead miner who could not part with his beloved work and who has to work in the tunnels and pits forever. He is still dangerous, like a mountain devil, and with his poisonous breath he kills the miners who complain about him. It collapses tunnels or causes water ingress and firedamp . On the other hand, the miners he throws into the shafts or gear trains are mostly unjust overseers or greedy liars. On the other hand, he gives poor miners rich ore and money. He brings food to those who have been buried and renews the sledge on their lamps. He charges half of the wages for helping with work. If the miner really wants to share with him honestly, he'll give him the other half as well.
The treasurer
An important function of the mountain spirit is that of the treasure keeper. He guards immeasurable treasures of precious metals and stones in underground caves and palaces. Often these guardians are demonic beings, like black dogs , snakes , basilisks , dragons , or the ghosts of wicked and damned miners. Sometimes the treasure keeper is an executioner , with a red cloak and a bare sword, who only kills the cowards who shrink from him, but let the brave pass. Even the devil in person sometimes functions as a treasure guard. The Upper Silesian Skarbnik has many similarities with both the mountain monk and Rübezahl, but tends to behave even more viciously. He usually appears in the form of a miner, but his eyes are pitch black or glowing red. Just by looking at him, he can make an intruder terminally ill. While the miners generally rely on the goodwill of the treasure keepers if they want to make rich finds, the whales in the sagas often have power over the treasure keepers too.
Occasionally, however, it is also the “mistress of the mountain” who rules the other mountain spirits, who guards treasures and can allocate them at will (e.g. to her lover), or make them disappear again.
Further reception
- Both the metal nickel and the mineral nickeline were named after the mountain spirit nickel , who bewitched supposed copper ores so that copper could no longer be extracted from them . Similarly, goblins were considered "silver robbers" because the cobalt ores named after them were confused with silver ores. See also tungsten
- A district of the municipality of Murnau am Staffelsee is named after the Berggeist, the Berggeistweiher as well as the Berggeist mine near Brühl in the Rhineland.
- The opera Der Berggeist by Georg Anton Bredelin has not survived today.
- The romantic opera by Louis Spohr (1824) is also called Der Berggeist .
- The painting Der Berggeist by Josef Madlener depicts an old man with a long white beard who wears a broad-brimmed green hat and a wide red hooded cloak, who sits on a stone block in a wooded mountain valley while a deer eats from his hand. JRR Tolkien owned a postcard with a reproduction of this painting, which he said inspired the character of Gandalf .
- The motif of the dwarf war between different peoples of meerkats can be found in Tilde Michels ' children's book Kleiner König Kalle Wirsch , which became particularly well known through the television production of the Augsburger Puppenkiste .
- The mythical creature is also being adapted in contemporary literature: the tunnel troll in Walter Moers ' novel Die 13½ Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär is similar in character to the mountain monk.
- In Leoben there was a student association “Berggeist Leoben” with the colors green-white-black.
See also
Web links
- The legendary Ore Mountains - stories from Saxony. In: geschichten-aus-sachsen.de. Retrieved June 12, 2017 .
literature
- Karl Haiding: The legends of mine formation and collapse , commentary on the Austrian Folklore Atlas 5th delivery, 2nd part, 1978
- Manfred Blechschmidt (Ed.): The silver rose. European mining sagas , Greifenverlag zu Rudolstadt, 1st edition, Leipzig, 1974
- Gerhard Heilfurth : The concept of the 'mountain spirit' in Georg Agricola and his contemporaries , Vienna, 1967
- Leander Petzoldt : Small Lexicon of Demons and Elementals , Beck, 3rd edition, Munich, 2003, pages 37-38 ISBN 3-406-49451-X
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gottfried Schatz: The Kobold in me: What the cobalt of our body tells of the story of life . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , February 27, 2009. ISSN 0376-6829 . Accessed on June 3, 2012. “ The fabulous world of the Alps has always been rich in horror figures. On winter nights, Perchten, Habergeissen and Krampusse threatened lonely hikers, and deep underground the mountain spirits mirrored goblins and nickel in the form of glistening ores for the miners' silver veins. Instead of the coveted precious metal, however, these ores only provided unsightly slag when smelted - and the goblin also produced highly toxic arsenic oxide, which was notorious as an insidious murderous poison under the name "Hüttrauch". "
- ↑ Unknown corporations . In: Acta Studentica . No. 192 , June 2015, p. 8th ff .