LL-L "Folklore" 2002.12.09 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 09.DEC.2002 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: luc.hellinckx at pandora.be <luc.hellinckx at pandora.be>
Subject: Folklore

Beste liëglanners,

Maybe I can kill two (or three) birds with one stone this time.some people
were wondering if there's anybody around in the Lowlands area who has
collected all these "Great Stories" that our grandparents used to tell.just
like Grimm used to do in the 19th century.Well folks, such a guy does exist
and his name is Stefaan Top. He is a professor at the university of Leuven
in Belgium (Afdeling Nederlandse literatuur en volkskunde) and he's been
collecting and publishing such stories ever since I know. You can find more
information about him at the following link :

http://cwisdb.cc.kuleuven.ac.be/persdb-bin/persdb?lang=N&oproep=persoon&fnaa
m=17689

The second bird is about "Old Nick" (vs. Saint Nick). Could he be related to
all those water sprites that we usually denote with :

*nikker, nekker in Dutch (cf. Nekkerspoel in Mechelen)
*nix in German
*neck in English
*nokke in Danish

I always thought these words were derived from the Latin base "necro"
(necromancy for example is pronounced "niggermanse" in Brabantish), which
means black, quite an appropriate name for a devil I guess.
On the other hand, this word has probably been influenced by the Sea God
"Ægir" (related with Latin aqua = water, ~ aquarium). In this respect, maybe
the story of "Ekke Nekkepen" (told in Helgoland) could provide more insight,
dealing with an (impossible) relationship between a merman and a girl from
the mainland.

Maybe Ron allows me to digress onto this other (folkloric) habit of leaving
shoes outside the house. First of all, I would like to state that it's not
very difficult to buy a mat in Belgium *s*. And finally I'd like to point
out that "The cleaner we keep our houses on the inside, the more dirty it
will be outside the house".
It's quite common here (= China) to see even young women spit on the floor
in department stores for example, so maybe China has already taken its toll
of me. *s*

Luc Hellinckx

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Folkore

Luc, Lowlanders,

> Maybe Ron allows me to digress onto this other (folkloric) habit of
leaving shoes outside the
> house. First of all, I would like to state that it's not very difficult to
buy a mat in Belgium *s*. And
> finally I'd like to point out that "The cleaner we keep our houses on the
inside, the more dirty it
> will be outside the house".
> It's quite common here (= China) to see even young women spit on the floor
in department
> stores for example, so maybe China has already taken its toll of me. *s*

Welcome to culture shock, Luc!

Well, what you wrote there isn't really all that much off-topic.  Bear in
mind that China and the Lowlands are on one continent, Eurasia, and there is
a cultural continuum betweeen them (never mind what fantasies circulate
about "the continent Europe" and Marco Polo having discovered China).  What
you are witnessing in China -- and I know it very well first-hand, involving
also throwing bones and fruit and vegetable peelings on the floor of homes
and restaurants, later to be swept away -- is what used to be the case in
Europe also, and not all that long ago (involving also animal stables and
people's dwellings being under one roof and on one floor).  It gradually
disappeared with multi-story apartment living and carpeted floors.

In China, as in Europe and Africa, floors are or used to be made from
patted-down dirt and are or were perceived as extensions of the outside.
Garbage thus can or could be trown onto them, and liquids could be spilled
onto them, and the loose garbage would periodically be swept up and thrown
outside.  Because of this, floors are considered dirty, and you must always
wear shoes inside and never sit or lie on a floor.  This has been carried
over into "modern" living, where floors are wooden, tiled, linoleum-covered
or concrete and are or ought to be kept clean.  You must also bear in mind
the omnipresent gray Gobi Desert dust throughout Northern China, making it
impossible to keep anything very clean without storing it in airtight
containers (especially during those dry, biting-cold winters).  My Chinese
roommate used to be horrified when I walked around barefoot on our
(atypically) immaculately clean wooden floor in the summer.  He would swear
that I would pick up a terrible disease or two and would die a torturous
death, but he did not have any scientific explanation for that when I asked
for it.  In other words, this "knowledge" was unquestioned, had become
folklore based on traditional Chinese medical knowledge that assumed dirt(y)
floors.  This would also explain why on a visit to a Kazakh family in
Xinjiang (Eastern Turkestan) my Han Chinese companions would sit in a row on
one bed, the only piece of furniture in the yurt, and would watch in
discomfort as our hosts and I were sitting on a beautiful, clean rug eating
dried fruit and sheepsmilk curds and drinking tea set on a silver tray
placed on that rug on the floor (= patted-down clay) -- a truly barbarian
and horrific sight for Han Chinese to behold.

As for leaving shoes outside, let me clarify that the focus of the
pre-Christian Scandinavian custom was not that the shoes were left outside
(and for all I know they may have been left inside by the threshold) but
that all family members' shoes were placed together to symbolize the wish
that the next Yule none of the pairs would be missing, that the family would
stay together another year.  Leaving shoes outside to keep floors clean may
be a much later development and does not only apply to Yule/Christmas.

Cheers!
Reinhard/Ron

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