LL-L "Folklore" 2002.08.19 (05) [E/LS]

Mon Aug 19 23:00:44 UTC 2002

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From: "Luc Hellinckx" <luc.hellinckx at pandora.be>
Subject: Folklore

Beste leeglanners,

There's usually a whole bunch of so called "Zwarte Pieten" ("Zwette
Piet",
even though Piet is usually pronounced "Pië" here in Brabant)
accompanying
Santa Claus. Indeed, they're there to do the dirty work, a liiiiitle bit
like in the Cervantes story about Don Quijote and his helper Sancho
Panza.
Greetings,

Luc Hellinckx

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From: "Wim" <wkv at home.nl>
Subject: LL-L "Folklore" 2002.08.19 (02) [E]

Hi!

In dutch , zwarte piet, does help sinterklaas indeed.
sinterklass and zwarte piet even have their own web  page..
http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~erik/sint/sint.html

W!M

wkv at home.nl
[Wim Verdoold]

-----------

From: globalmoose at t-online.de (Global Moose Translations)
Subject: LL-L "Folklore" 2002.08.19 (02) [E]

The Dutch Sinterklaas is traditionally accompanied by "Zwarte Piet",
i.e.
Black Peter. They arrive together on a steamboat from Spain every year,
an
event which is always covered on Dutch television.

Greetings,
Gabriele Kahn

----------

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

Dear Lowlanders,

This is "Folklore" with an "Etymology" crossover.

We have been discussing the scary "bogey(man)", "bogle(man)', "bugbear",
etc.  I checked out various etymological sources.  Here and there they
would lead to "origin unknown."  In summary, however, it appears
possible that there is a Celtic link, possibly with roots going back
even farther.

It seems possible to trace these words back to *_bog_ ~ *_bug_, -- yes,
including "bug" (as in "creepy-crawly" or "insect" = "scary creature",
cf. Scots _bug_ ~ _bog_ for 'bug') and also "boggle" (as in "to
frighten"), apparently "dialectal of _bogle_", "bogy", "bogey" and
"bogle" being diminutive forms of *_bog_.  (What about "bug-eyed"?)

In this connection, _Chambers English Dictionary_ points out obsolete
Welsh _bwg_ for a type of demon, and Partridge points out the tradition
of the German _Puck_ demon.  I believe this _Puck_ -- a house troll that
inhabits the dark areas between the eaves and the roof of old-time
houses, thus similar to the Scottish _brownie_ -- is a Southern German
figure, and the Southern German dialect area has Celtic roots.  This
Puck seems to be known in the British Isles also, being featured in
Rudyard Kiplings _Puck of Pook's Hill_ as well as in Shakespeare's _A
Midsummer Night's Dream_.

<quote>
*Robin Goodfellow* A "drudging fiend," and merry domestic fairy, famous
for mischievous pranks and practical jokes. At night-time he will
sometimes do little services for the family over which he presides. The
Scotch call this domestic spirit a _brownie_; the Germans, _kobold_ or
_Knecht Ruprecht_. The Scandinavians called it _Nissë God-dreng_. Puck,
the jester of Fairy-court, is the same.
   "Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
   Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
   Called Robin Goodfellow. ...
   Those that Hob-goblin call you, and sweet Puck
   You do their work, and they shall have good luck."
       Shakespeare: _Midsummer Night's Dream_, ii. 1
</quote>
http://kenji.cnu.ac.kr/my/references/phrase/data/1061.html

<quote>
HOBGOBLIN
# 701: The word Goblin means a spirit, probably derived from the same
root as Kobold, a spirit of caves and mountains. A hobgoblin, however,
was a spirit of the hearth (hob), a domestic ghost or ancestral guardian
of the family fireside. Because of the primitive practice of burying
family dead under the treshold or under the central firepit, their
ghosts were long supposed to inhabit and protect the house - even when
later customs made burial places elsewhere. # 100: Used by the Puritans
and in later times for wicked goblin spirits, as in Bunyan's 'Hobgoblin
nor foul fiend', but its more correct use is for the friendly spirits of
the Brownie type. In a MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM a fairy says to
Shakespeare's Puck:
   'Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
   You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
   Are you not he?'
and obviously Puck would not wish to be called a hobgoblin if that was
an ill-omened word. 'Hob' and 'Lob' are words meaning tha same kind of
creature as the Hobgoblin. They are, on the hole, goodhumoured and ready
to be helpful, but fond of practical joking, and like most of the
fairies rather nasty people to annoy. # 100 - 593 - 701 p 259
</quote>
http://celt.net/Celtic/celtopedia/h.html

<quote>
Bogey
The Bogey-man was a devil derived from the Slavic _bog_, "god." English
cognates were bugabow, bugaboo, bugbear and boggle-bo which used to
designate the pagan image carried in a procession to the May Day games.
(see Maypole) "Humbug" came from the Norse hum, "night," plus bog or
bogey, i. e., a night spirit. The word "bug," from the Welsh _bwg_,
"spirit," was applied to insects because of the old belief that insects
were souls in search of rebirth. A mantis was a soul of the seer or
wizard. A butterfly was Psyche, or a Female Soul.
Other derivations of bog were Scotish _bogle_, Yorkshire _boggart_,
English Pug, Pouke and Puck; Icelandic _Puki_; the _Puk_ of Friesland;
the German _Putz_ or _Butz_; Irisk _Pooka_ and Welsh _Pwcca_; Danish
_Spoge_ and Swedish _Spoka_ with their English offshoot of "spook." The
old English _puca_, a fairy, was applied to the old gods of Beltain. So
Puck was the same as the witches' god Robin. A.G.H.
</quote>
http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/b/bogey.html

Note: German _Putz_ = _Butzemann_?

<quote>
BWCA
(booka) A story collected by John Rhys in CELTIC FOLK LORE shows how
close the connection can be between the Brownie and Boggart, or the
_Bwca_ and _Bugan_. Long ago a Monmouthshire farm was haunted by a
spirit of whom everyone was afraid until a young maid came, merry and
strong and reputed to be of the stock of the Bendith y Mamau, and she
struck up a great friendship with the creature, who turned out to be a
_bwca_, who washed, ironed and spun for her and did all manner of
household work in return for a nightly bowl of sweet milk and wheat
bread or flummery. This was left at the bottom of the stairs every night
and was gone in the morning; but she never saw him, for all his work was
done at night. One evening for sheer wantonness she put some of the
stale urine used for a mordant in his bowl instead of milk. She had
reason to regret it, for when she got up next morning the bwca attacked
her and kicked her all over the house, yelling: 'The idea that the
thick-buttocked lass, should give barley-bread and piss, to the bogle!'
After that she never saw him again, but after two years they heard of
him at a farm near Hafod ys Ynys, where he soon made great friends with
the servant girl, who fed him most delicately with constant snacks of
bread and milk and played no unseemly pranks on him. She had one fault,
however, and that was curiosity. She kept on asking to be allowed to see
him and to be told his name - without succes. One night, however, she
made him believe that she was going out after the men, and shut the
door, but stayed inside herself. Bwca was spinning industriously at the
wheel, and as he span he sang: 'How she would laugh, did she know that
Gwarwyn-A-Throt is my name.' 'Aha!' cried the maid, at the bottom of the
stairs, 'now I have your name, Gwarwyn-a-Throt!' At which he left the
wheel standing, and she never saw him again.
   He went to a neighbouring farm, where the farm-hand, Moses, became
his great friend. All would have gone well with poor Gwarwyn-a-Throt but
that his friend Moses was sent off to fight Richard Crookback and was
killed at Bosworth Field. After the loss of this friend the poor _bwca_
went completely to the bad and spent all his time in senseless pranks,
drawing the ploughing oxen out of the straight and throwing everything
in the house about at night-time. At length he became so destructive
that the farmer called in a Dyn Cynnil (wise man) to lay him. He
succeeded in getting the _bwca_ to stick his long nose out of the hole
where he was hiding, and at once transfixed it with an awl. Then he read
an incantation sentencing the _bwca_ to be transported to the Red Sea
for fourteen generations. He raised a great whirlwind, and, as it began
to blow, plucked out the awl so that the poor _bwca_ had changed his
shape with his nature, for brownies were generally noseless, and he was
nicknamed in this farm 'Bwca'r Trwyn', 'the Bwca with the Nose'.
</quote>
http://www.ealaghol.demon.co.uk/celtenc/celt_b4b.htm

<quote>
One common one causing fright or dread was called in Yorkshire the
_boggart_, in Scotland the _bogle_, and in England the bogey or
bogeyman. These words are all related, the oldest of them being _bogle_
and the most recent bogy. This last form only appeared in the nineteenth
century, along with _bugan_, as in the obsolete expression to play the
_bugan_, 'to play the devil with'. It's thought that the root Celtic,
perhaps cognate with the Welsh _bwgwl_, 'terror, terrifying'. Our verb
boggle was originally applied to a horse being startled as at a _bogle_.
The Welsh root word _bwg_ gave rise to the long-obsolete word bug for a
hobgoblin, which now survives only in bugbear, a dreadful bearlike
apparition that ate naughty children, a more terrifying idea than the
modern weakened sense of something merely vexatious or annoying. Another
closely related word is bugaboo. Possibly also related is the
_barghest_, a goblin which appeared in the form of a large, black dog
and which portended doom; the _barghest_ was given many particular names
locally in Britain, including the Demon of Tidworth, the Black Dog of
Winchester and the Padfoot of Wakefield. The banshee (from the Irish
_bean sídhe_, 'woman of the fairy hill') was a spirit reputed to wail
under the windows of a house where someone was about to die.
   The _brownie_ was of a quite different type. In Scottish folklore,
this was a small, industrious fairy or hobgoblin believed to inhabit
houses and barns and who did good by stealth at night provided you fed
him bread and milk. This term has survived much better in American
English than in British. Larry Niven's use of it to name little
industrious and helpful alien creatures in _The Mote in God's Eye_ must
have puzzled many English readers, who mostly know Brownies as clubs of
brown-uniformed girls who are the junior wing of the Girl Guides (Girl
Scouts to you in the US). In England the hobgoblin was as helpful a
sprite as the brownie and was also known as _Robin Goodfellow_ or
_Puck_. The last name was also spelled _pook_ and in earlier times was
regarded as a name for the devil. The _hob_ part of hobgoblin was a
familiar form of Robin or Robert and became a standard name for a rustic
person or a clown, though _Old Hob_ or _Old Hodge_ were also names for
the devil. Other names for this mother's little helper were _lubber
fiend_ and _Lob-lie-by-the-fire_, where _lob_ is another name for a
clown or a rustic.
</quote>
http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/bump.htm

Anyway, some of you might like to sink their teeth into this small
selection of morsels.

Cheers!
Reinhard/Ron

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