Husband was at the local college library the other day and saw a book that he thought I would like. He checked out Hausgeister! Household Spirits of German Folklore, and it has been quite a fun read. The book details the various spirits that inhabit German folklore, and outlines the origins and changes in attitudes regarding these characters over the years. Most Germans believed that their homes, particularly farm homes, were inhabited by these creatures, and that the world around them was as well. It was easy to believe in them in the times when houses were poorly lit and were heated with fireplaces. All you needed to be mindful of was making sure you fed them what they liked to eat.
Most of the myths were about kobolds, male household gnomes who helped out with the housework and farm chores. Wichtel were spirits who lived in communities below mountains. They were also helpful. Draks were small fire dragons that could be either good or evil. They entered the house through the chimney. Holzfraulein were female spirits of the forest. Geldmannlein brought people money and looked like weeds.
The Brothers Grimm wrote extensively about these creatures in addition to writing their fairy tales. Tomte and Nisse are their Scandinavian counter parts. I think there is a Finnish character called Sit Behind the Stove. I think we have a kobold in our dining room who rolls the dog’s balls out from underneath the buffet. Something manages to do it. The ball rolls under, and a few seconds later rolls back out. A kobold is more fun to imagine than uneven flooring.
What hausgeist would you want to have? Favorite fairy tales?
Trail Baboon 
My current dwelling, and the couple before it, because they moved with me, is haunted by creatures who zip around just on the edge of my eyesight, mostly along the baseboards, convincing me I have mice. However, they have an air command who often sit between me and a source of light, who wait until I blink to take up new positions or to sneak away. Sometimes they haunt in force, such as right now, ghostly amorphous hollow figures between me and my IPad,mwho think it’s funny to mess up my typing.
Clyde
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I hate it when that happens
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Easiest question ever. Please send me a dusting hausgeist!!
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I agree. I’d like one who does all of the household chores, including wash windows.
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…and will never move away.
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I’ll pass on having any extra people.
One of the many beloved fractured fairy tales.
It wasn’t until watching Arsenic and Old Lace, that I was able to put a face with the voice of Edward Everett Horton.
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i love his voice and it perfectly matches his persona
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Edward Everett Horton has a good role in the movie ‘Pocket full of Miracles’ (available free on youtube!)
Yeah, send the ‘fix-it’ sprites, and dusting sprites! We joke in the theater about the dust up on the catwalk ledges, “The maid wasn’t in today”. I need theater fairies…
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
What fun this is. I would love some little helpers around the house, but the sprites that cause mischief–not so much. I have some Arizona clay pots with kokopelli on them. My understanding is that kokopelli can be helpful or mischievous, depending on the day. The phenomena of little spirit helpers is so common among cultures that I always wonder–are they out there? In Ireland they had fairy circles–stones arranged in circles that are alleged to have been done by fairies. And the leprochauns! We have Nisse around the house. Lou’s mother was a great fan of these.
My house is awash in dog hair right now–someone is shedding and resists brushing. When I asked the vet about her dislike of brushing and baths he stated, “Corgis don’t like anything that interferes with their personal integrity.” Unless it involves digging a hole and getting dirty. Then she is quite happy that her paws are full of dirt. So I use my robo-vac to get the dirt and dog hair off the floor. I have decided that is the 2024 version of a Nisse. Lou’s personal care attendant mopped the kitchen floor Tuesday. I think I can identify him as a helpful being.
Fairy Tale favorite: Three Billy Goats Gruff. I loved that one.
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JacAnon
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I miss Robin Williams. Here he is as a frog/toad with Teri Garr:
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I like that RetroSauce guy
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The Hausgeister book had maps of Germany where the various Geists were popular. Kobold and draks were popular in the area of Germany my family came from. Martin Luther was convinced there was a kobold at his seminary.
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I think I would love this book, and wish there was a Scandinavian counterpart – I imagine I could find one if I tried.
I would like one that dusts, mops in the corners and under furniture, AND cleans the bathroom.
OT: Book Sale this Saturday, so will not be here much the next few days.
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The illustrations in the book are amazing. The text is extremely interesting but written by researchers and historians, so kind of dry.
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Coincidentally I just recently finished Ghosts: A Haunted History by Lisa Morton. Morton is an historian of the paranormal and a writer of horror fiction. Her book traces the tradition and role of ghostly spirits from The Epic of Gilgamesh and early Roman and Egyptian tales to ghost-related activities of the present day. Not only does she reference ghosts as a literary and cultural device but also recounts some of the more famous sightings and haunted places.
The rise of spiritualism, which is really a religion based on ghosts, and the phenomena of mediums and seances in the nineteenth century is a subject area that fascinates me and occupies several of my bookshelves.
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You must need a Hausgeist to dust those books.
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Something should, because I haven’t been.
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Ghosts are not quite the same thing as those liminal non-human spirits represented by fairies and sprites, kobolds and tomten. Ghosts, having once been human, often have posthumous purposes whereas the various household spirits have their own independent agenda.
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sounds interesting. Let’s see how long it takes interLibrary loan to get it to me.
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Shocking, the paucity of titles in the Hennepin system.
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Fun topic! I don’t think I have any hausgeister (is that the correct plural?) Anyway, I don’t notice anything. And I certainly don’t have any helpers cleaning up after me or Pippin. I wish I had one that would clean the carpets. My carpets are so old and worn and stained. I can’t imagine replacing my flooring because there is simply no room to move the furniture around. It needs doing though, and I will have to face it. I have a guy who wants to do the work, so that will help. I just need the will power. Can a hausgeist help with that? Please send one.
I would also like my ability to believe in such things to return. I’m afraid that a lot of these mythologies require you to actually believe that they’re true, and I’m sadly lacking the ability to believe in them anymore. There have been moments that I thought I saw something move out at the edge of my vision, but it was just floaters.
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I don’t think you have to believe to the extent that you are making life choices based on your belief or even to the extent that you are putting out saucers of milk or whatever to appease the spirits. I think it’s enough to accept that in this world of rational cause and effect, sometimes you get an effect without an apparent cause and there is still room for some mysteries.
If you choose to ascribe those unexplained effects to the mischief of elusive spirits, that’s really no less preposterous, in my opinion, than the tenets of the world’s organized religions.
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Good point!
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I meant to say “no more preposterous…”
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I agree with Bill.
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Love. This. Song.
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It is interesting that until the Reformation, Geist were viewed pretty benevolently by the Church, and were demonized after the Reformation until the Enlightenment.
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I also wonder if the current popularity of gnome decorations is just another example of a natural human penchant for belief in the supernatural.
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I think gnomes are to the supernatural as Casper is to ghosts.
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I thought they were just cute.
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no
chinese companies make what sells
gnomes are about the only thing besides little butterflies and bunnies that does sell
bent over butts lost their appeal so gnomes it is
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if I could arrange to have an essence do stuff I requested I’d love it but I suspect it would be more like my wife putting stuff where it belongs so I have to put on my where the heck should it be hat in order to find it
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When we lived in Taiwan, we wanted one that would eat mosquitoes. What we actually had were geckos, which was almost as good.
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I loved the Andrew Lang Fairy books when I was a kid. You can get a complete set of first folio printings for $8000 on eBay.
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