Water spirit

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Two mermaid children pour out a jug through which a downpipe runs. Architectural jewelry related to the function at the old town hall in Leipzig .

A water spirit is a spirit being that is supposed to live in or near water , such as bodies of water or wells . The idea of certain spirits the element of water to you, is originally from the elemental spirit theory of natural philosophy . Since then, the term has also been used as a collective term for various beings from folk tales and art . The word "water spirits" has been used since the 17th century. In German, there are “ Wassermann ” and “ Wasserfrau ” as names for male and female water spirits. The terms “Nix” and “ Nixe ” are also widely used. The many different beings that are summed up under the category of water spirits differ from one another in terms of history, content and cultural geography .

Water spirits in natural philosophy

In the wake of Renaissance humanism , some scholars began to rethink medieval Christian demonology . While authors such as Johannes Trithemius and Martin Luther identified the spirits they accepted in air, water and other elements as fundamentally evil fallen angels , Paracelsus and Agrippa von Nettesheim undertook a de-demonization of the spirit world.

In De occulta philosophia (1510–1533), Agrippa von Nettesheim differentiates between four classes of elemental spirits and ascribes certain properties of the soul to each of them. He connects the water spirits with imagination and feeling , which is why they would favor the "pleasure-seeking life". On the other hand, the air spirits, for example, are connected to reason and would help people to lead an active life . According to Agrippa, the angel Tharsis rules over the water and the water spirits. In later years, however, Agrippa rejected his spirit teachings again.

Paracelsus's doctrine of elemental spirits has become fundamental for the scholarly and artistic reception of water spirits to this day. In his work Liber de nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris, et de caeteris spiritibus (1566) he describes the water spirits as nymphs , although their real name is undines . He attributes two misshapen varieties to the nymphs, the sirens and sea ​​monks . Both mythical creatures, which early modern natural scholars regarded as quite real. The reinterpretation of the ancient term “nymph”, the neologism “Undine”, and the idea that Queen Venus was a water spirit are examples of Paracelsus' conscious break with established traditions. According to Paracelsus, of all elementals, the water spirits are most similar to humans, even if - like all elementals - they have no soul . There are water women stories of the Melusine motif, with which he illustrates one of his central theses: The elemental spirits are eager to seduce people into marriage, because they could achieve a soul and thus eternal life . Since the water spirits are most similar to humans in shape and language skills, they are best suited for marriage. Only in second place come the sylphs of the skies and forests, which are the closest to humans in terms of their elementary composition, but are rather coarse and unable to speak.

Water spirits in folklore

Lutz Röhrich found that water spirits in the sense of elementals belong to philosophy and literature and do not appear in folk tales and folk tales . The beings that are called "water spirits" in folklore because of their relation to water do not represent water in the philosophical sense . Dagmar Linhart understands this in such a way that the water spirits of popular belief cannot be called “elemental spirits”.

For her article in the encyclopedia of the fairy tale, Bea Lundt defines “water spirit” as a collective term “for all fantasy creatures of a supernatural nature who live in or near water.” According to her, the belief in water spirits should be a “ universal phenomenon ” based on “ animistic Understanding of the world ”. She also includes beings associated with rain and thunderstorms, such as will- o'-the-wisps and weather witches , as part of the “wider area” of the water spirits . Leander Petzoldt defines for his little lexicon of demons and elemental spirits: "Water spirits are nature demons who, according to popular belief, live in lakes, ponds , ponds, rivers and wells."

Water spirit traditions do not automatically arise from contact with water. Instead, they arise where people develop a cultural connection to water, for example through seafaring and fishing . Just as waters can have both life-giving and destructive effects on people, the spirits associated with them are also filled with positive and negative ideas. On the one hand, they can act as healing and helping beings, and especially through the motif of mahrtene marriage they serve as a projection surface for the sexual fantasies of heterosexual men in particular . On the other hand, water ghost stories often fulfill the function of warning messages , for example when a child frightening figure like the Hakemann is to prevent children from approaching the water.

In the 19th century, representatives of the so-called mythological school developed the theory that all water spirits in the Germanic-speaking area were former water deities who had sunk into spirits in the course of Christianization . This theory is now considered out of date. Modern research assumes that water spirits function as “links or border guards between nature and culture” and that their content changes dynamically with the values ​​of those who believe in them.

Water spirits in art

The fisherman and the siren , painting by Knut Ekvall . The predominantly male producers of water woman art used the motif to process the threatening aspects of sexuality.

Literary and pictorial representations of water women were created primarily by male artists who use the motif to treat a mixture of fear and pleasure . The literary scholar Hartwig Suhrbier assumes two sources, due to their formative effect, female water spirits became this projection surface for heterosexual male fantasies: First, the biblical and ancient tradition. Through the story of Adam and Eve and the Odyssey ( siren scene ) women, and especially women associated with water or snake symbols, became the epitome of destructive seduction. Second, the elementary spirit teaching of Paracelsus based on this, according to which the water spirits are eager to seduce men, but take fatal revenge for insults or infidelity. In order to understand a specific water woman's work of art , the respective art-historical context must always be taken into account.

Male water spirits are only rarely found in German literature, Suhrbier took place from the late 18th to the late 20th century, only about two dozen texts of mermen act. Wassermann's wife established an important role in the reception , a folk ballad that became tangible in writing from 1817 onwards. The ballad is about a girl who is kidnapped by cunning and violence by a pagan Aquarius and gives birth to several children over the years. The girl longs for her parents and the church. Eventually, Aquarius allows her to go back ashore for a visit. She no longer wants to return to the water, but otherwise the Aquarius threatens to kill her children. For the sake of her children, she returns to him, leaves family and human society forever and forfeits her salvation . In later artistic arrangements, for example by Karl Lappe ( The Daughter of Hiddensee and the Meerman , 1829) and Paul Heyse ( The Meerman , 1924), the girl lets herself be seduced and goes with the Aquarius voluntarily. These edits warn against a love marriage against patriarchal and ecclesiastical prohibitions. Agnes Miegel's ballad Schöne Agnete (1907) also emphasizes the motherly love that the repentant sinner connects with her mermaid children as well as with her own mother.

Other authors took up the child-frightening function of Aquarius, such as Annette von Droste-Hülshoff ( The Children from the Shore , 1844) and Hermann Karl Weinert ( The Aquarius , 1897), and warned children against water. Björn Graf von Rosen 's children's book The Fairy Tale of the Disobedient Adeli-Sofi and her terrible encounter with Aquarius (1944) has a different intention : Aquarius pulls the girl down and tries to persuade her to stay with him. But she doesn't let herself be intimidated and screams that she wants to go home until the man lets her go. Finally, she is lovingly cared for by her dismayed mother.

literature

Web links

Commons : Water Spirits  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Wassergeist  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lundt 2014, col. 519.
  2. ↑ Petzoldt 2014, p. 173.
  3. ↑ Bodner 2006, p. 291.
  4. ↑ For a comparison of the spirit teachings of the four authors cf. Dinzelbacher 2010, pp. 42–45.
  5. ^ Lutz Röhrich : Elemental spirits . In: Kurt Ranke (ed.): Encyclopedia of fairy tales . Concise dictionary for historical and comparative narrative research, Volume 3. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1981, ISBN 3-11-008201-2 , Sp. 1316-1326. Here Sp. 1319f.
  6. ↑ Dinzelbacher 2010, p. 45.
  7. ↑ Lundt 2014, Col. 523.
  8. ↑ Dinzelbacher 2010, p. 26f.
  9. ↑ Suhrbier 1992, p. 354.
  10. ↑ Dinzelbacher 2010, p. 26f.
  11. ↑ Isabelle Gloria Stauffer : Undine's longing for love. About Paracelsus' conception of the animation of elemental spirits in the Liber de nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris, et de caeteris spiritibus. In: Nova Acta Paracelsica. Contributions to Paracelsus research. New episode , 13, 1999, pp. 49-100. Here p. 69f.
  12. ^ Lutz Röhrich : Elemental spirits . In: Kurt Ranke (ed.): Encyclopedia of fairy tales . Concise dictionary for historical and comparative narrative research, Volume 3. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1981, ISBN 3-11-008201-2 , Sp. 1316-1326. Here Sp. 1323f.
  13. ^ Dagmar Linhart: House spirits in Franconia. On phenomenology, the history of tradition and the learned interpretation of certain helpful or harmful legendary figures. Verlag Josef H. Röll, Dettelbach 1995, ISBN 3-927 522-91-0 . Here p. 407.
  14. ↑ Lundt 2014, col. 519.
  15. ↑ Petzoldt 2014, p. 173.
  16. ↑ Bodner 2006, p. 291.
  17. ↑ Lundt 2014, Col. 519f., 522.
  18. ↑ Petzoldt 2014, p. 174.
  19. ↑ Bodner 2006, p. 293.
  20. ↑ Roebling 1992, p. 1.
  21. ↑ Suhrbier 1992, pp. 353-355.
  22. ↑ Roebling 1992, p. 2.
  23. ↑ Suhrbier 1992, p. 352.
  24. ↑ Suhrbier 1992, pp. 355-358.
  25. ↑ Suhrbier 1992, pp. 362-364.