Kabouter is the Dutch word for gnome. In folklore, the Dutch Kabouters are akin to the Irish Leprechaun, Scandinavian Tomte or Nisse, the English Hob, [1] the Scottish Brownie [2] and the German Klabauter or kobold. [3]
In the folklore of the Low Countries, kabouters are tiny people, about 10–15 cm tall, who live in or near houses and stables, or in hills, in forests or on heaths. Many stories refer to vast kabouter kingdoms with specific locations where they were seen more often or resided. In modern children's stories, kabouters live in mushrooms or sometimes underground. Kabouters can be regarded as spirits who help in the home by doing tasks at night and care for the animals like milking them. Descriptions of Kabouters vary throughout time and place. Often Kabouters are associated with red squirrels. The males have long, full beards and they all wear tall, pointed hats, generally of a red or green colour. Kabouters are shy of humans and in stories often punish people for spying on them. Kabouters are sometimes associated with collecting gold or treasure, but this seems mostly connected to their association with lost objects. Often they would also steal livestock for themselves if those were left unattended by the farmers. Blinding was a common punishment for spying on the gnomes, but they could also make life more difficult by souring the milk, blacken the grain, making objects disappear or scaring the livestock. Leaving milk and bread out for Kabouters was a way to improve relationships with the Kabouters. Kabouters could become very old and many are depicted with grey hair. [4] [5] [6] [7] Throughout Flanders and the Netherlands, they exist under a number of different local names like alvermannekes or auwelkes.
A well known story is about the disappearance of kabouters from the Kempen to an unknown place after a local hunter shot their king Kyrië.
Other stories about the disappearance of the kabouters exist as well. About the disappearance of kabouters from East Flanders and West Flanders, telling of the boy that kept loosing cows until he held on to a cow tail and was taken with the cow into a kabouter kingdom, after which he spoke so beautiful that the kabouters gave him gold and his 15 cows for him to marry his love, after which the kabouters forever disappeared to the other side of the Rhine where they still live to this day. [8]
In the Legend of the Wooden Shoes, an old Dutch folktale, a kabouter teaches a Dutch man how to make piles and how to make wooden shoes. [9]
The Dutch illustrator Rien Poortvliet played an important part in modern Kabouter lore with his publication of Leven en werken van de Kabouter (English title "Life and works of the Gnome"), later translated into English and published as "Gnomes". [10]
In popular culture today, the business Travelocity uses a Rien Poortvliet-style statue of a Kabouter for commercials. They call him the Travelocity Roaming Gnome.
A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Typically small humanoids who live underground, gnome characteristics are reinterpreted to suit various storytellers and artists.
A nisse, tomte, tomtenisse, or tonttu is a mythological creature from Nordic folklore today typically associated with the winter solstice and the Christmas season. They are generally described as being short, having a long white beard, and wearing a conical or knit cap in gray, red or some other bright colour. They often have an appearance somewhat similar to that of a garden gnome.
Clogs are a type of footwear made in part or completely from wood. Used in many parts of the world, their forms can vary by culture, but often remained unchanged for centuries within a culture.
A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found throughout much of European folklore. A changeling was a substitute left by a supernatural being on kidnapping a human being. Sometimes the changeling was a 'stock', more often the changeling was a supernatural being made magically to look like the kidnapped human. Supernatural beings blamed for stealing children included fairies, demons, trolls, nereids and many others. Usually, the kidnapped human was a child; but there were cases, particularly in Scandinavia and Ireland, where adults were taken.
Garden gnomes are lawn ornament figurines of small humanoid creatures based on the mythological creature and diminutive spirit which occur in Renaissance magic and alchemy, known as gnomes. They also draw on the German folklore of the dwarf.
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"Snow-White and Rose-Red" is a German fairy tale. The best-known version is the one collected by the Brothers Grimm in 1837 in the third edition of their collection Grimm's Fairy Tales. An older, somewhat shorter version, "The Ungrateful Dwarf", was written by Caroline Stahl (1776–1837). Indeed, that appears to be the oldest variant; no previous oral version is known, although several have been collected since its publication in 1818. Oral versions are very limited regionally. The tale is of Aarne-Thompson type 426.
Rien Poortvliet was a Dutch artist and illustrator.
"The Red Shoes" is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen first published by C.A. Reitzel in Copenhagen 7 April 1845 in New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Third Collection. Other tales in the volume include "The Elf Mound" (Elverhøi), "The Jumpers" (Springfyrene), "The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep", and "Holger Danske".
Willibrord Joseph Huygen was a Dutch book author. He is best known for the picture books on gnomes, illustrated by Rien Poortvliet.
The Fairytale Forest is a 15-acre (61,000 m2) wooded section of the amusement park Efteling in the Netherlands, where a number of well-known fairy tales and fairy tale figures are depicted by animatronics and buildings. Most of the figures are inspired by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Charles Perrault.
Folklore of the Low Countries, often just referred to as Dutch folklore, includes the epics, legends, fairy tales and oral traditions of the people of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Traditionally this folklore is written or spoken in Dutch or in one of the regional languages of these countries.
The mythology of the modern-day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg has its roots in the mythologies of pre-Christian cultures, predating the region's Christianization under the influence of the Franks in the Early Middle Ages. At the time of the Roman Empire and in the Early Middle Ages, some of the resident peoples of the Low Countries' included:
A duende is a humanoid figure of folklore, with variations from Iberian, Ibero American, and Latin American cultures, comparable to dwarves, gnomes, or leprechauns. In Spanish duende originated as a contraction of the phrase dueñ(o) de casa, effectively "master of the house", or perhaps derived from some similar mythical being of the Visigoth or Swabian culture given its comparable looks with the “Tomte” of the Swedish language conceptualized as a mischievous spirit inhabiting a dwelling.
Gnome King Kyrië is, according to local folklore, the leader of the legendary gnomes (kabouters) which lived in the Campine region of the province of North Brabant, the Netherlands. These gnomes had their base in the village of Hoogeloon. From Hoogeloon the gnomes often made journeys in the neighboring lands. According to tradition the Gnome King Kyrië lived on the Kerkakkers in the Kabouterberg also known as Duivelsberg, a tumulus located in the Koebosch forest, slightly northeast of Hoogeloon.
A goblin is a small, grotesque, monstrous creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearances depending on the story and country of origin, ranging from mischievous household spirits to malicious, bestial thieves. They often have magical abilities similar to a fairy or demon, such as the ability to shapeshift.
Kabouter Wesley is a Flemish/Belgian series of comics and short animated cartoons about a grumpy and violent kabouter (gnome), made by Jonas Geirnaert. Both the drawing style and the content are purposely made naive and amateurish and the situations are surreal and violent. There is also a lot of insulting and toilet humour in the series.
Gnomes, originally published in Dutch in 1976 as Leven en werken van de kabouter, then released in English in 1977, is a fiction book written by Wil Huygen and illustrated by Rien Poortvliet. The book explains the life and habitat of gnomes in an in-universe fashion, much as a biology book would do, complete with illustrations and textbook notes.
The Nac Mac Feegle are a fictional type of fairy folk that appear in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels Carpe Jugulum, The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, I Shall Wear Midnight, Snuff, and The Shepherd's Crown. At six inches tall, these fairy folk are seen as occasionally helpful thieves and pests.
Goldie & Bear is an American animated fantasy children's television series created by Jorge Aguirre for Disney Junior. The series is produced by Milk Barn Entertainment and Titmouse, Inc in its first and second seasons respectively. Inspired by the fairy tale "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," the show focuses on Goldie and Bear, who become best friends following an incident at his house.