Beloved Creature
An old Danish Christmas card
As long as there's been permanent settlement in the history of human race, people have believed in a building and a lot having a spirit of their own. This spirit is in the best case protecting, managing, advicing, healing, helping, taking care of and enriching the place, its habitants and domestical animals. In the worst case, if he gets offended (and he gets easily offended), he will tease everybody and ruin everything, for he possesses immense strength and magical powers, even if he is very small.
There exist no prospering farmhouse without a gnome taking care of the house. In particular, the kitchen maids and stall boys benefit from the gnome's goodwill when he carries the water inside and sweeps up the floor for the maids, and brushes horses for the stall boys. However, if the gnome sees any disorder, he will punish the habitants. Usually he wears gray clothes and a red tapered cap.
Thiele, J. M.: Danmarks Folkesagn, 1843. Translation: Author.
As beloved children children have many names, so does this very beloved creature. In Scandinavia, no other mythological creature has as many names.These names can be divided in two cathegories; first those which mean a farm-yard resident or protector like in Icelandic: ármaðr, or in Danish: gårdbo and gårdbonde, or in Swedish: gårdsrå and gårdsbonde, or in Norwegian: gardsbo, gardsvord, gardbo, tunkall or tunvord. And in the same group belongs the Swedish and Norwegian tomte, the Norwegian tufte and the Finnish tonttu. They are derived from the words tomt, tuft and tontti meaning a house lot. Usually the word 'old man' is added to these names, like in tomtegubbe, tuftekall or tonttu-ukko.
In English he should be called goblin, which comes together with the German Kobold from the old Anglo-Saxon word cof-godas (gods of the house). But unfortunately the nisse/tomte/tonttu is usually mistaken to be a pixie, a brownie or a (Christmas) elf, which really are completely different kind of creatures.
All the previous original names insinuate we are dealing with a being living at a building ground or a house, taking care of it. He is nowdays associated with Christmas and Santa Claus, but it is probable his roots are in a time before such concepts even existed in any forms.
Harald Wiberg: Tomten
Good Lad of the House
Many things point out to the possibility of his being a remnant from the Stone Age cult of Mother Earth, so being one of our oldest deities. So important and beloved, he was easily included both in the patriarchal Bronze Age religions (as the servant and helper of Odin as Father Yule) and in the medieval Christianity, and finally in the Industrial Age atheism as a beloved fable.
The gnome's association with Christianity has given him the other cathegory of names. The Scandinavian nis and nisse are nicknames for the male name Niels, which in turn originates from Nikolaus. This was the most popular male name in the medival times, owing to the popular Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors and small children.
However, gnomes have nothing to do with Saint Nicholas, sailors or children. It was more a case of people giving the most popular name for the most popular creature. Thus in Germany the gnome was called Heinze, Heinrich, Chim or Wolterchen, in France Maître Jean or Thomas, and in English Robin Goodfellow. Many times the word 'good lad' is added to this type of names, like in Nisse Goddreng.
The gnome was the good lad of the house, and one had to keep him good. In ancient times in Europe a little statue of a gnome was worshipped by rubbing him with butter and drying him before the hearth. Later on it was enough just to serve him porridge with butter and beer, especially at Yule. If that didn't happen, the gnome would surely become furious, tie cows' tails together, turn objects upside-down, break things and finally leave the farm, taking its fortune away.
Jenny Nyström: An old Swedish Christmas card
The European gnome is always depicted as a small old man with a long beard, dressed in the everyday clothing of a farmer from the 18th century: gray kneepants, red cap and wooden shoes as depicted below:
Roman and Vedic gnomes
In the ancient Rome there were small house genies called as lares or genii loci (Latin: the spirits of the place), appearing together with ancestors (penates) and with Vesta, the goddess of the hearth and home. Their statues were holding a bowl and a drinkhorn in their hands, and they were daily worshipped with prayers and food at the home shrine. Compared with the northern house spirits, the lares were youthful and social, while the former were old and solitary. However, as in the other cultures, the happiness and wealth in a house was totally dependent on the lares' goodwill.
Lares. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
In India this kind of gnome-like spirit is called vastu-purusha or vastospati, which in Sanskrit means the lord of the house. As Rig Veda (book 7, hymn LIV, Vastospati) describes:
1. Acknowledge us, O Guardian of the Homestead: bring no disease, and give us happy entrance. Whate’er we ask of thee, be pleased to grant it, and prosper thou quadrupeds and bipeds.
2. Protector of the Home, be our promoter: increase our wealth in kine and steeds, O Indu. May we be ever-youthful in thy friendship: be pleased in us as in his sons a father.
3. Through thy dear fellowship that bringeth welfare, may we be victors, Guardian of the Dwelling! Protect our happiness in rest and labour. Preserve us evermore, ye Gods, with blessings.
Vastu purusha or vastospati sketched inside the house or the lot.
Both in India and in Europe the gnome was believed to already live at the particular place or house before any people move there. Therefore there should always be a pacifying sacrifice before settling down to a new place. The Grihya-Sutras: III Adhyaya, 4. Khanda:
1. At the sacrifice to Vastoshpati;
2. Having established the sacred domestic fire outside with the words, 'I place here Agni with genial mind; may he be the assembler of goods. Do no harm to us, to the old nor to the young; be a saviour to us, to men and animals!'
[...]4. And spoken over it the words, 'Unhurt be our men, may our riches not be squandered!'
[...] 8. The four Mahâvyâhritis, the three verses,'Vâstoshpati!', 'Driving away calamity,' and 'Vâstoshpati a firm post'
9. Taking with himself his eldest son and his wife, carrying grain, let him enter the house with the words, 'Indra's house is blessed, wealthy, protecting; that I enter with my wife, with offspring, with cattle, with increase of wealth, with everything that is mine.'
House Spirit with Many Forms
As shapeshifter the Indo-European gnome could take any kind of form. In most cases he is a dog as here in Rig Veda (book 7, hymn LV: Vastospati):
1. Vastospati, who killest all disease and wearest every form, Be an auspicious Friend to us.
2. When, O bright Son of Saramā, thou showest, tawny-hued! thy teeth, They gleam like lances' points within thy mouth when thou wouldst bite; go thou to steep.
3. Saramā's Son, retrace thy way: bark at the robber and the thief.
[...] 4. Be on thy guard against the boar, and let the boar beware of thee.
The Scandinavian gnome was also a shapeshifter as in Landnámabók: A gnome came to a man called Bjørn and offered him a liaison. Bjørn accepted this right away. After this a new billy-goat suddenly appeared at his barn and the she-goats becan to reproduce tremendously. Bjørn became a very rich man and he was called Goat-Bjørn.
However this tendency to grand riches to the farm by the gnome's unseen work could lead to some problems with the neighbours. If one farmer was more succesful than his fellow, this would lead to accusations of him having a gnome who was stealing from the others.
Morover, Christianity considered gnomes as false gods and devils, telling their worship would put the fate of one's soul at risk. Therefore the direct worship of house spirits died out with time, but they are still remembered and beloved. At least I can not think about the Yule without imagining there are small gnomes peeking behind windows like small agents and checking whether I have been good enough to deserve some presents.
To be continued in a subsequent blog.
0 comments:
Post a Comment