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Hinzelmann

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Hinzelmann was a kobold who haunted Hudemühlen Castle
―Willy Pogány illustr. (1912), "The Little White Feather" in The Fairies and the Christmas Child ed. Gask[1]

Hinzelmann (orig. Hintzelmann, also known as katermann or katzen-veit) was a kobold in the mythology of northern Germany. He was described as a household spirit of ambivalent nature, similar to Puck (Robin Goodfellow).[2] The similar-sounding Heinzelmann (Heinzelmännchen) is considered distinct and separate being by modern scholars.

Nomenclature

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Hinze the cat
―Fedor Flinzer illustr. (1880), from Reineke Fuchs edd. Lohmeyer and Bormann [3][a]

The Hinzelmann is a type of kobold, while the similarly sounding Heinzelman (or rather Heinzelmännchen) is not, according to modern scholarship. These two are ascribed different outward appearances and behavioral characteristics.[4]

However, Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie had treated heinzelman, hinzelman, hinzemännchen as variant forms of the name of the same house sprite, considering them to be the pet names of the German given name Heinz.[5]

While "Hinz" is indeed a shortened form of Heinz, such terms (Hinz, Hinze, or Heinz) represents a cat-man type being in regional German folklore,[7] thus the "pet name" etymology for Hinzelmann is no longer taken at face value, and now Hinzelmann is considered rather as a name referring to its catlike appearance according to the Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens [de] (HdA).[b][8] In fact, Grimm had revealed this etymology also, noting that Hinz was the name of the cat in Reineke (i.e., Reynard the Fox), so that Hinz/Hinze was an emblematic name for a "cat".[c][5]

Synonyms or near-synonyms of Hinzelmann include katermann[5] and katzen-veit.[9][8]

Legend

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An abridge version of the legend was printed by the Grimms (1816) as No. 75 "Hinzelmann" in their Deutsche sagen anthology,[12] and was sourced solely from one book, properly titled Der vielförmige Hintzelmann (1704), ascribed to Pastor Marquart (Marcqvart) Feldmann at Eickeloh who kept his day-book in the years 1584–1589.[13]{{sfnp|Keightley|1850|p=240

According to this legend, the Hinzelmann ("Hintzelmann" in the original source) began haunting the castle Hudemühlen in 1584, first making is presence known with banging noises. He then began to talk to servants in the castle, and when the humans began to grow accustomed and no longer feared him, began telling his personal details, that he was named Lüring, with a wife named Hille Bingels,[15] and that he used to live in the Bohemian Forest mountain range[18] The presence of the drove the lord of the Castle[d] to remove himself to Hanover, but only temporarily as it turns out, because the poltergeist followed him in the guise of a "white feather". At an inn, the lord blamed the disappearance of his gold chain on the innkeeper's servants, but the sprite privately appeared and disclosed the whereabouts of the chain to be under the pillow.[20][21]

Hinzelmann would usefully perform kitchen chores, recover lost items tasks, and groom horse. It gave advice or pep talks, but could strike with a stick when his words are not paid attention to. The cook or the servants made a habit of putting out sweet milk, sometime with bread floating in it.[e] It was said to occupy it own room with chair, table, and bed (Grimm emphasizes that the Hinzelmann leaves depression as if a cat has lain in it[22]). Sometimes he would make his presence known at the master's table, then the servants would be obliged to place dishes at "his" sea and serve food, or incur his wrath.[23]

The Hinzelmann was certainly a trickster, but his pranks were generally harmless.[24]A comparison has been made between the Hinzelmann and Puck (Robin Goodfellow) of English tradition.[2] A nobleman tried to exorcize it and failed; the Hinzelmann professed there was no evil in him (note he claimed earlier to have a Christian for a mother), and asked to be left alone.[25]

Ludwig Bechstein's Deutsches Sagenbuch remarks that the Heinzelmann usually took the form of a congenial child in red velvet.[26] In one tale he showed his true form to a maid, who fainted; it was that of a small child, around four years of age, stabbed and slashed with two swords.[26] However, the hats and the knife-struck child anecdote is common to the legends of kobolds by other names.

Some local lore dating back generations puts the Heinzelmann in the role of elves, leaving trinkets or candies in the shoes of well-behaved children, when said shoes are left by the door in the days leading up to Christmas.

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Hinzelmann appears in the Neil Gaiman novel American Gods, where he protects the town of Lakeside, Wisconsin from economic trouble: in return he enjoys the annual sacrifice of a town's child (though residents remain unaware of the matter). His fictional history describes him as being a god to a tribe of nomads living in the Black Forest before its invasion by the Romans. For the third season of the American Gods television series, the deity was adapted as Ann-Marie Hinzelmann, the local busybody and shop owner portrayed by Julia Sweeney.

Hinzelmann is the primary antagonist of the short piece "A Late Symmer Night's Battle" by Laura Frankos, printed in Turn the Other Chick (ed. Esther Friesner, Baen Books, 2004). He leads an army of kobolds to invade the English fairy kingdom of Oberon and Titania, sometime after the events of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

See also

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Explanatory notes

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  1. ^ Cf. also Wilhelm von Kaulbach (d. 1874) Hinz and copperplate etchings from 1498 edition, e.g., at Das 12te Hauptstück. Wie Hinz, der Kater, vom Könige zu Reineken gefandt, reproduced in Johann Christoph Gottsched ed. (1752)
  2. ^ The HdA entry for "kobold" categorizes synonyms as "E" for "pet names", and "C (b)" for appearance-based names, subtype for catlikeness.
  3. ^ Just as "renard" stands for "fox" in modern French, due to the popularity of the Reynard Fox fabliau, supplanting the original French word for fox, which was goupil, cognate with Latin vulpēs (whence the adjective "volpine").
  4. ^ "Herr von H. (Hudemühlen)".[13]
  5. ^ Cf.. The bribe of milk or panada given to other kobolds.

References

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  1. ^ Gask, Lilian (1912). "Chapter IX: The Little White Feather". The Fairies and the Christmas Child. Illustrated by Willy Pogány. London: Harrap & Co., n.d. pp. 175–196.; HTML version @ UPenn digital library
  2. ^ a b Knight ed. (1852), Boys' Own Story-book p. 84 compares Hinzelmann to a composite of Orthon and Robin Goodfellow, on p. 84, the latter is "alias Puck".
  3. ^ Lohmeyer, Julius [in German]; Bormann, Edwin, eds. (1881) [1880]. Reineke Fuchs: ein heiteres Kinderbuch. Illustrated by Fedor Flinzer (2 ed.). Glogau: Carl Flemming. p. 6.
  4. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar, eds. (2012) [1899]. "Heinzelmännchen". Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache (25 ed.). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 406. ISBN 9783110223651.
  5. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob (1883). "XVII. Wights and Elves §Elves, Dwarves". Teutonic Mythology. Vol. 2. Translated by James Steven Stallybrass. W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen. p. 503.
  6. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar, eds. (2012) [1899]. "Hinz und Kunz". Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache (25 ed.). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 418. ISBN 9783110223651.
  7. ^ "Hinz und Kunz" entry remarks on shortened forms, and appends as a different entity, the Hinz, Hinze, Heinz which regionally refers to a sort of beast-man (?werecat), comparable to English "tomcat",[6] so perhaps more of an anthropomorphosis of cat, like puss-n'-boots.
  8. ^ a b Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens, Walter de Gruyter (1974), s.v. "Kobld", Band 5: 26–31ff. Reprint (1987), p. 5: 29ff
  9. ^ Grimm & Stallybrass tr. (1883), pp. 480, 486, 514.
  10. ^ Grimms, ed. (1816). "75. Hinzelmann". Deutsche Sagen. Vol. 1. Berlin: Nicolai. pp. 103–128.
  11. ^ Grimm (1852). "Hinzelmann". In Knight, Charles (ed.). The Boys' Own Story-book, by the Best Authors. London: George Routledge & sons. pp. 88–90.
  12. ^ Grimms (1816) DS No. 75 "Hinzelmann"[10] Translated by Keightley (1828), pp. 42–67; Keightley (1850), pp. 240–254. Also revised and reprinted in Boys.. (1852) ed. Knight.[11]
  13. ^ a b c Lombroso, Cesare (1909). "Ch. 11. Spukhäuser §7. Familien, denen von Geistern Ratschläge erteilt werden". Hypnotistische und spiritistische Forschungen. Stuttgart: Julius Hoffmann. pp. 331–333ff., Reprint (2012)
  14. ^ Feldmann (1704) Cap. III, p. 35.
  15. ^ Verified in 1704 book.[14]
  16. ^ Watzlik, Hans (1921). "Ein Landsmann". Böhmerwald-Sagen. Böhmerwäldler Dorfbücher 5. Illustrated by Toni Schönecker. Budweis: Verlag Anst. "Moldavia". p. 89–90.
  17. ^ Keightley (1850), p. 240.
  18. ^ Böhmerwald as specific geographical location is clearly given by Hans Watzlik [de][16] (cf. also Lombroso[13]). Grimm refers to both mountains "böhmischen Gebürg" and forest "Böhmer-Walde" and is followed by Keightley,[17] but the Boys' Own Story-book version omits "mountain".
  19. ^ Feldmann (1704) Cap. IV, "weiße Feder" pp. 51–55.
  20. ^ Verified in 1704 book.[19]
  21. ^ Grimms (1816), pp. 103–104; Keightley (1850), pp. 240–242
  22. ^ Grimm & Stallybrass tr. (1883), p. 503, n4 stating this motif is shared by the heinzlin mentioned in Martin Luther's Table Talk.
  23. ^ Grimms (1816), pp. 104–108; Keightley (1850), pp. 242–243
  24. ^ Grimms (1816), pp. 109–110; Keightley (1850), pp. 244–245
  25. ^ Grimms (1816), p. 104–109–110; Keightley (1850), pp. 245–246; {Feldmann (1704) Cap. V, pp. 68ff.
  26. ^ a b Ludwig Bechstein, Deutsches Sagenbuch, Leipzig, 1853
Bibliography
  • Keightley, Thomas (1828). "Hinzelmann". The Fairy Mythology, in Two Volumes. Vol. 2. London: William Harrison Ainsworth. pp. 42–67.
    • —— (1850). "Hinzelmann". The Fairy Mythology, Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries. London: H. G. Bohn. pp. 240–254.
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