Forest spirit
Forest spirit is a folkloric collective term for spirit beings that are considered to be connected with the forest . The many different beings that are summed up under the category of forest spirits differ from one another in name, behavior and appearance. Forest ghost traditions must be differentiated in terms of history, content and cultural geography . Forest spirit traditions do not automatically arise from the presence of forests. Rather, they arise where people create a cultural connection to the forest, for example through hunting and wood processing .
Research history
Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Mannhardt , James George Frazer and the representatives of the mythological school of the 19th century interpreted the forest spirits of the folk tales of the Germanic language area as relics of pre-Christian Germanic deities or as remnants of a tree cult around trees supposedly thought to be animated. These theories are now considered scientifically out of date. Many forest spirits are more like local child scare characters .
Folklorist Leander Petzoldt defines "forest spirits" as a "direct or indirect reference to the forest". However, it is difficult to differentiate the “genuine forest spirits” from the elemental spirits and the wild spirits . These terms are folklore taxonomies; these concepts do not play a role for the actual bearers of the traditions examined. According to Petzoldt, a basic distinction should be made between solitary forest spirits ( e.g. Rübezahl , Hehmann ) and collective forest spirits ( e.g. Salige women , moss women ). The folklorist Reinhard Bodner defines forest spirits as beings "with an inhabitant, possessive and protective relationship to the natural area of the forest".
Also Åke Hultkrantz , Lutz Röhrich , Ivar Paulson and Ronald Grambo made contributions to ethnographic research forest spirits.
Forest spirits in Central and Northern Europe
Female forest spirits are first mentioned in medieval sources by Burchard von Worms : "agrestes feminae quas silvaticas vocant". The erotic aspect of these forest women plays a role in the figure of Rauhen Else in the Middle High German Wolfdietrich epic. The wild man , on the other hand, appears in French epics of the 12th century as an opponent of the knightly heroes.
The various forest spirit figures have changed in content over time. Through Christianization , beings of popular belief could be played down as trick stars or demonized as devils . The tendency towards demonization is evident in medieval glosses , which translate Germanic words such as Schrat and Holzfrau with larvae and lamias . From the early modern period onwards, some figures, for example the wild hunter , were de-demonized and interpreted as sinners who would have to evade as punishment.
Also in the early modern period, forest spirits found a place in the learned demonologies of philosophers such as Johannes Trithemius and Agrippa von Nettesheim . Paracelsus assigned the forest spirits to the sylphs or New Years Eve , ie the elementals of the air. In his renaissance-humanistic spirit doctrine, the forest spirits were demonized to elementals and interpreted as beings specially created by God.
In Central European folk tales , forest spirits usually appear anthropomorphically in male or female form. Their living conditions are also often presented as similar to those of humans: They live in families, own houses and farms, and are ruled by kings. The various traditions with reference to the beings who are constricted as forest spirits are very diverse. An ambivalent relationship to people is described: On the one hand, it tells how they marry people, need human midwives , the shepherds tend the cattle and help the farmers with the harvest. In other stories, they mislead people, try to kill them, or steal children and exchange them for changeling . Dealing with forest spirits is regulated by various prohibitions, for example one may neither pronounce their name nor answer their call.
In Scandinavia appear seductive female forest spirits ( Swed . Skogsrå, norw . Huldra ) that can harm people or good. The forest trolls usually appear dangerous, ugly and stupid. The forest spirits of Scandinavian tales are often interpreted as lord of the animals .
literature
- Reinhard Bodner: forest spirits . In: Heinrich Beck , Dieter Geuenich , Heiko Steuer (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 33. Second, completely revised and greatly expanded edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2006, ISBN 978-3-11-018388-7 , pp. 129-131.
- Leander Petzoldt : Forest spirits . In: Rolf Wilhelm Brednich (ed.): Encyclopedia of fairy tales . Concise dictionary for historical and comparative narrative research . Volume 14. De Gruyter, Berlin and Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-040244-5 , Sp. 443-450.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Petzoldt 2014, column 443.
- ↑ Bodner 2006, p. 129.
- ↑ Bodner 2006, p. 129.
- ↑ Bodner 2006, pp. 130f.
- ↑ Petzoldt 2014, column 443.
- ↑ Petzoldt 2014, Col. 444f., 446f.
- ↑ Bodner 2006, p. 129.
- ↑ Petzoldt 2014, column 448.
- ↑ Petzoldt 2014, Col. 445f.
- ↑ Petzoldt 2014, Col. 446.
- ↑ Bodner 2006, p. 130.
- ↑ Petzoldt 2014, column 445.
- ↑ Petzoldt 2014, Col. 443f.
- ↑ Petzoldt 2014, column 447.
- ↑ Petzoldt 2014, column 447.
- ↑ Bodner 2006, p. 130.