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Rübezahl

January 06, 2023

Rübezahl (Polish: Liczyrzepa, Duch Gór, Karkonosz, Rzepiór, or Rzepolicz; Czech: Krakonoš) is a folkloric mountain spirit (woodwose) of the Giant Mountains (Krkonoše, Riesengebirge, Karkonosze), a mountain range along the border between the historical lands of Bohemia and Silesia. He is the subject of many legends and fairy tales in German, Polish, and Czech folklore.

Rübezahl (Rübenczal) as a tailed demon, first known depiction by Martin Helwig, 1561

Name

 
The Rübezahl statue in Berlin's Märchenbrunnen Fountain.

The origin of the name is not clear. One interpretation is from the story How Rübezahl Got his Name by Johann Karl August Musäus, which recounts how Rübezahl abducted a princess who liked turnips (German: Rüben, singular Rübe). The princess gets very lonely there in the mountains. To keep her company, Rübezahl turns the turnips into her friends and acquaintances. As the turnips wilt after a little while, so do the persons that were created by Rübezahl's magic. The princess asks him to count (zählen) the turnips in the field. While he counted, she escaped.[1] Following this explanation, some early English writers translated his name as "Number Nip" (that is, "turnip numberer"), including the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.[2][3]

Another proposed etymology is Riebezagel, from a combination of the personal name Riebe and the Middle High German zagel, meaning "tail", from his pictorial representation as a tailed demon. According to the etymologist Friedrich Kluge, the name is a contraction of Middle High German Ruobezagel, ‘turnip-tail’.[4]

Rübezahl is a name of ridicule, the use of which provokes his anger. Respectful names are "Lord of the Mountain(s)" (Herr vom Berge, Herr der Berge), "Treasure Keeper" (Schatzhüter) or among herbalists "Lord John" (Herr Johannes, Latin vocative: Domine Johannes).[5][6] In one Silesian folktale, he is called "Prince of the Gnomes" (Fürst der Gnomen).[7]

The Polish name Liczyrzepa is a direct translation of the German name, introduced by Stanisław Bełza in 1898. It only became widespread in Poland after 1945 when Józef Sykulski started to translate tales of Rübezahl from German into Polish.[8] The Czech name, Krakonoš, is simply derived from the name of the mountains.

Legends

Denn Freund Rübezahl sollt ihr wissen, ist geartet wie ein Kraftgenie, launisch, ungestüm, sonderbar; bengelhaft, roh, unbescheiden; stolz, eitel, wankelmüthig, heute der wärmste Freund, morgen fremd und kalt; zu zeiten guthmüthig, edel, und empfindsam; aber mit sich selbst in stetem Widerspruch; albern und weise, oft weich und hart in zween Augenblicken, wie ein Ey, das in siedend Wasser fällt; schalkhaft und bieder, störrisch und beugsam; nach der Stimmung, wie ihn Humor und innrer Drang beym ersten Anblick jedes Ding ergreifen läßt.
— Translation: "...Rübezahl, you should know, has the nature of a powerful genius: capricious, impetuous, peculiar, rascally, crude, immodest, haughty, vain, fickle, today your warmest friend, tomorrow alien and cold; ...roguish and respectable, stubborn and flexible..."

—Musäus, Volksmährchen der Deutschen. Zweiter Theil containing Legenden von Rübezahl, 1783

 
The Grave of Rübezahl in Szklarska Poręba.

In legends, Rübezahl appears as a capricious giant, gnome, or mountain spirit. With good people he is friendly, teaching them medicine and giving them presents. If someone derides him, however, he exacts a severe revenge. He sometimes plays the role of a trickster in folk tales.[7]

The stories originate from pagan times. Rübezahl is the fantastic lord of weather of the mountains and is similar to the Wild Hunt. Unexpectedly or playfully, he sends lightning and thunder, fog, rain and snow from the mountain above, even while the sun is shining. He may take the appearance of a monk in a gray frock (like Wotan); he holds a stringed instrument in his hand (the storm harp) and walks so heavily that the earth trembles around him.[citation needed]

In Czech fairytales, Rübezahl (Czech: Krakonoš) gave sourdough to people and invented the traditional regional soup kyselo.[9] There is also a mountain named Kotel (Polish: Kocioł, German: Kesselkoppe), which means cauldron. When fog rises from the valley at the bottom of the Kotel, people say that Rübezahl is cooking kyselo.[10] Rübezahl is seen to be the guardian of the Krkonoše Mountains. Physically, his appearance varies; he can take any form he wishes, from an old grandma to a giant crossing his mountains with one step. Historically, his character has kept on expanding; from a bad demon causing storms and heavy snow, he evolved into a guardian of the poor people living in his mountains. It is said that he could test someone at any time to know whether that person's heart is pure (e.g. meeting someone as an old lady asking for help) and that if one does, that person would be shown the way to treasures hidden deep inside his mountains. He punished the German landlords mistreating Czech people as well as any invaders.

Museum

Museum devoted to the figure of Rübezahl in the German town of Görlitz, the Rübezahl Museum, was opened in May 2005, thanks to the work of Ingrid Vettin-Zahn. Originally from Lauban (Lubań) in Lower Silesia, Vettin-Zahn was expelled from her hometown like other Silesian Germans and subsequently resettled in Switzerland after 1945.

Appearances in literature

 
Illustration taken from James Lee & James T. Carey: “Silesian Folk Tales (The Book of Rubezahl)”. American Book Company, New York 1915.

Rübezahl was first mentioned in 1565 as Ribicinia in a poem by Franz von Koeckritz. The Rübezahl story was first collected and written down by Johannes Praetorius in the Daemonologia Rubinzalii Silesii (1662). The character later appeared Johann Karl August Musäus's Legenden vom Rübezahl and Carl Hauptmann's Rübezahl-Buch as well as Otfried Preußler's Mein Rübezahl-Buch. Finally, there is Ferdinand Freiligrath's Aus dem schlesischen Gebirge[11] from Ein Glaubensbekenntnis, 1844 and Robert Reinick's Rübezahls Mittagstisch. He is potentially inspiration for the character Huhn in Gerhart Hauptmann's "Und Pippa Tanzt!".[12]

The poem "Count Carrots" by Gerda Mayer is based on the tale and appears in The Oxford Book of Story Poems.[13]

Rübezahl's Garden

Near Mount Sněžka in the Czech Republic close to the Polish border, there is a botanical locality with an especially large variety of plants that bears the name "Rübezahl's Garden". Some unusual stone buildings in the area are named after him as well, for example the Rübezahlkanzel an den Schneegruben.

In the vicinity of Jelenia Góra and other Polish locales under the Krkonose Mountains, there is an annual series of opera performances titled Muzyczny Ogród Liczyrzepy, which translates into English as "Rübezahl's Musical Garden. In 2016, the series commenced for the 13th time.

In music

In film

Krakonoš

The Czech variant of Rübezahl, Krakonoš, features in literature and in other culture:

  • Krakonoš played an important role in old local legends in Krkonoše, which have been collected since 1618.[14] To the present day Krakonoš features as the principal character in many regional folk-tales.[9]
  • Krakonoš appeared as a main character in the Czech children's television series Krkonošské pohádky (English: Fairy Tales From Krkonoše) broadcast in the program Večerníček.[15]
  • A brewery located in Trutnov makes "Krakonoš" beer.[16]

Further reading

  • Henning Eichberg: Rübezahl. Historischer Gestaltwandel und schamanische Aktualität. In: Jahrbuch der Schlesischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau, Sigmaringen, 1991; 32: 153-178.
  • Stephan Kaiser: Der Herr der Berge Rübezahl. Katalog zur Ausstellung. Königswinter-Heisterbacherrott: Museum für schlesische Landeskunde, 2000 (Hrsg.)

Notes

  1. ^ Anthony S. Mercatonte, The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, New York: Facts on File, 1988, p. 562
  2. ^ Blamires, David (2009). "Musäus and the Beginnings of the Fairytale". Telling Tales: The Impact of Germany on English Children's Books 1780–1918.
  3. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Riesengebirge" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  4. ^ Kluge, Friedrich (1891). "Rübezahl" . Etymological Dictionary of the German Language. George Bell & Sons – via Wikisource.
  5. ^ Der politische Bezirk Trautenau. Ein Beitrag zum erdkundlichen Unterrichte für das 3. Schuljahr. Von Adolf Ettelt, 2nd edition, Trautenau, 1873, p. 82 (Google)
  6. ^ Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon aller Wissenschaften und Künste, 32 volume (Ro – Rz), Leipzig & Halle, 1742, col. 1686, s.v. Rübezahl, Rübenzahl (Google)
  7. ^ a b Elizabeth Knowles, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Page 940.
  8. ^ . Archived from the original on 2014-05-05. Retrieved 2014-05-05.
  9. ^ a b Kubátová, Marie (2011). Krkonošské pohádky (in Czech). Praha: Fragment. ISBN 978-80-253-1126-4.
  10. ^ Pavlová, Svatava (2000). Dva tucty pohádek z Krkonoš a Podkrkonoší (in Czech). Praha: Knižní klub. ISBN 80-242-0283-2.
  11. ^ Aus dem schlesischen Gebirge at Spiegel Online
  12. ^ Carolyn T Dussere, The Image of the Primitive Giant in the Works of Gerhart Hauptmann (U of Kentucky Press, 1977)
  13. ^ Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark, ed. (1990). The Oxford Book of Story Poems. OUP. pp. 81–86. ISBN 0-19-276087-4.
  14. ^ "KRAKONOŠ dobrý duch našich hor". freiheit.cz.
  15. ^ Šimková, Božena (Writer) (1974–1984). Krkonošské pohádky (Television production). Czech Republic: Czech Television.
  16. ^ "Pivovar Krakonoš Trutnov". pivovar-krakonos.cz.

External links

  • Musäus: Rübezahl und das Hirschberger Schneiderlein, illustrated by Arpad Schmidhammer, Fischer & Franke, Berlin 1901 (in German)
  • Carl Hauptmann: Rübezahl-Buch on Projekt Gutenberg-DE (in German)
  • Rübezahl and music (in German)
  • Rübezahl – Sage und Wirklichkeit (in German)
  • muellers-lesezeit.de
  • Rübezahl - Duch Gór - Rybecal by Ullrich Junker & Izabela Taraszczuk, Bodnegg - Jelenia Góra 2003 on Digital Library of Jelenia Góra (in German and Polish)
  • Greiffenberg Notgeld (emergency banknotes) Small currency notes from the town of Greiffenberg depicting the legend of Rübezahl webgerman.com/Notgeld/

January 06, 2023
rübezahl, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, june, 2019, learn. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Rubezahl news newspapers books scholar JSTOR June 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message Rubezahl Polish Liczyrzepa Duch Gor Karkonosz Rzepior or Rzepolicz Czech Krakonos is a folkloric mountain spirit woodwose of the Giant Mountains Krkonose Riesengebirge Karkonosze a mountain range along the border between the historical lands of Bohemia and Silesia He is the subject of many legends and fairy tales in German Polish and Czech folklore Rubezahl Rubenczal as a tailed demon first known depiction by Martin Helwig 1561 Contents 1 Name 2 Legends 3 Museum 4 Appearances in literature 4 1 Rubezahl s Garden 4 2 In music 4 3 In film 4 4 Krakonos 5 Further reading 6 Notes 7 External linksName Edit The Rubezahl statue in Berlin s Marchenbrunnen Fountain The origin of the name is not clear One interpretation is from the story How Rubezahl Got his Name by Johann Karl August Musaus which recounts how Rubezahl abducted a princess who liked turnips German Ruben singular Rube The princess gets very lonely there in the mountains To keep her company Rubezahl turns the turnips into her friends and acquaintances As the turnips wilt after a little while so do the persons that were created by Rubezahl s magic The princess asks him to count zahlen the turnips in the field While he counted she escaped 1 Following this explanation some early English writers translated his name as Number Nip that is turnip numberer including the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica 2 3 Another proposed etymology is Riebezagel from a combination of the personal name Riebe and the Middle High German zagel meaning tail from his pictorial representation as a tailed demon According to the etymologist Friedrich Kluge the name is a contraction of Middle High German Ruobezagel turnip tail 4 Rubezahl is a name of ridicule the use of which provokes his anger Respectful names are Lord of the Mountain s Herr vom Berge Herr der Berge Treasure Keeper Schatzhuter or among herbalists Lord John Herr Johannes Latin vocative Domine Johannes 5 6 In one Silesian folktale he is called Prince of the Gnomes Furst der Gnomen 7 The Polish name Liczyrzepa is a direct translation of the German name introduced by Stanislaw Belza in 1898 It only became widespread in Poland after 1945 when Jozef Sykulski started to translate tales of Rubezahl from German into Polish 8 The Czech name Krakonos is simply derived from the name of the mountains Legends EditDenn Freund Rubezahl sollt ihr wissen ist geartet wie ein Kraftgenie launisch ungestum sonderbar bengelhaft roh unbescheiden stolz eitel wankelmuthig heute der warmste Freund morgen fremd und kalt zu zeiten guthmuthig edel und empfindsam aber mit sich selbst in stetem Widerspruch albern und weise oft weich und hart in zween Augenblicken wie ein Ey das in siedend Wasser fallt schalkhaft und bieder storrisch und beugsam nach der Stimmung wie ihn Humor und innrer Drang beym ersten Anblick jedes Ding ergreifen lasst Translation Rubezahl you should know has the nature of a powerful genius capricious impetuous peculiar rascally crude immodest haughty vain fickle today your warmest friend tomorrow alien and cold roguish and respectable stubborn and flexible Musaus Volksmahrchen der Deutschen Zweiter Theil containing Legenden von Rubezahl 1783 The Grave of Rubezahl in Szklarska Poreba In legends Rubezahl appears as a capricious giant gnome or mountain spirit With good people he is friendly teaching them medicine and giving them presents If someone derides him however he exacts a severe revenge He sometimes plays the role of a trickster in folk tales 7 The stories originate from pagan times Rubezahl is the fantastic lord of weather of the mountains and is similar to the Wild Hunt Unexpectedly or playfully he sends lightning and thunder fog rain and snow from the mountain above even while the sun is shining He may take the appearance of a monk in a gray frock like Wotan he holds a stringed instrument in his hand the storm harp and walks so heavily that the earth trembles around him citation needed In Czech fairytales Rubezahl Czech Krakonos gave sourdough to people and invented the traditional regional soup kyselo 9 There is also a mountain named Kotel Polish Kociol German Kesselkoppe which means cauldron When fog rises from the valley at the bottom of the Kotel people say that Rubezahl is cooking kyselo 10 Rubezahl is seen to be the guardian of the Krkonose Mountains Physically his appearance varies he can take any form he wishes from an old grandma to a giant crossing his mountains with one step Historically his character has kept on expanding from a bad demon causing storms and heavy snow he evolved into a guardian of the poor people living in his mountains It is said that he could test someone at any time to know whether that person s heart is pure e g meeting someone as an old lady asking for help and that if one does that person would be shown the way to treasures hidden deep inside his mountains He punished the German landlords mistreating Czech people as well as any invaders Artistic depictions of Rubezahl Sculpture of Krakonos in Horice Rubezahl woodcarving in the Polish Karkonosze Mountains Rubezahl by Moritz von Schwind 1859 The Krakonos Fountain in Trutnov Czech Republic The 3 meter sculpture was completed in 2013 Museum EditMuseum devoted to the figure of Rubezahl in the German town of Gorlitz the Rubezahl Museum was opened in May 2005 thanks to the work of Ingrid Vettin Zahn Originally from Lauban Luban in Lower Silesia Vettin Zahn was expelled from her hometown like other Silesian Germans and subsequently resettled in Switzerland after 1945 Appearances in literature Edit Illustration taken from James Lee amp James T Carey Silesian Folk Tales The Book of Rubezahl American Book Company New York 1915 Rubezahl was first mentioned in 1565 as Ribicinia in a poem by Franz von Koeckritz The Rubezahl story was first collected and written down by Johannes Praetorius in the Daemonologia Rubinzalii Silesii 1662 The character later appeared Johann Karl August Musaus s Legenden vom Rubezahl and Carl Hauptmann s Rubezahl Buch as well as Otfried Preussler s Mein Rubezahl Buch Finally there is Ferdinand Freiligrath s Aus dem schlesischen Gebirge 11 from Ein Glaubensbekenntnis 1844 and Robert Reinick s Rubezahls Mittagstisch He is potentially inspiration for the character Huhn in Gerhart Hauptmann s Und Pippa Tanzt 12 The poem Count Carrots by Gerda Mayer is based on the tale and appears in The Oxford Book of Story Poems 13 Rubezahl s Garden Edit Near Mount Snezka in the Czech Republic close to the Polish border there is a botanical locality with an especially large variety of plants that bears the name Rubezahl s Garden Some unusual stone buildings in the area are named after him as well for example the Rubezahlkanzel an den Schneegruben In the vicinity of Jelenia Gora and other Polish locales under the Krkonose Mountains there is an annual series of opera performances titled Muzyczny Ogrod Liczyrzepy which translates into English as Rubezahl s Musical Garden In 2016 the series commenced for the 13th time In music Edit Joseph Schuster opera Rubenzahl ossia Il vero amore 1789 Trieste Vincenc Tucek singspiel Rubezahl 1801 Breslau Carl Maria von Weber romantic opera Rubezahl 1805 Breslau Franz Danzi romantic opera Der Berggeist oder Schicksal und Treue 1813 Karlsruhe Wilhelm Wurfel opera Rubezahl 1824 Prague Louis Spohr opera Der Berggeist 1825 Kassel August Conradi comic opera Rubezahl 1849 Berlin Francis Edward Bache operetta Rubezahl 1853 Friedrich von Flotow opera Rubezahl 1852 Retzin Gross Pankow Gustav Mahler opera Rubezahl 1879 83 music lost but libretto preserved Arthur H Bird ballet Rubezahl 1887 Josef Richard Rozkosny opera Krakonos 1889 Prague Hans Sommer opera Rubezahl und der Sackpfeifer von Neisse 1904 Braunschweig Erich Wolfgang Korngold movement No 3 of Marchenbilder Op 3 1911 Carlsbad Willy Czernik symphonic poem Rubezahl 1940 Amon Duul II instrumental psychedelic rock track The Return of Rubezahl on the LP Yeti album 1970 Jan Klusak opera pasticcio Bertram a Mescalinda aneb Potrestana vernost tez Ocarovane housle Einsteinovy cili Krakonosuv dar 2002 Praha Dschinghis Khan song Rubezahl from LP Helden Schurken amp der Dudelmoser 1982 In film Edit Rubezahl s Wedding 1916 Rubezahl 1957 The Rubezahl Series 1975 1983 Kratky film Praha Studio Jiriho Trnky Czechoslovakia amp DEFA GDR filmed in Dresden Rubezahls Schatz 2017 German Czech fairytale movie filmed in Bohemian SwitzerlandKrakonos Edit The Czech variant of Rubezahl Krakonos features in literature and in other culture Krakonos played an important role in old local legends in Krkonose which have been collected since 1618 14 To the present day Krakonos features as the principal character in many regional folk tales 9 Krakonos appeared as a main character in the Czech children s television series Krkonosske pohadky English Fairy Tales From Krkonose broadcast in the program Vecernicek 15 A brewery located in Trutnov makes Krakonos beer 16 Further reading EditHenning Eichberg Rubezahl Historischer Gestaltwandel und schamanische Aktualitat In Jahrbuch der Schlesischen Friedrich Wilhelms Universitat zu Breslau Sigmaringen 1991 32 153 178 Stephan Kaiser Der Herr der Berge Rubezahl Katalog zur Ausstellung Konigswinter Heisterbacherrott Museum fur schlesische Landeskunde 2000 Hrsg Notes Edit Anthony S Mercatonte The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend New York Facts on File 1988 p 562 Blamires David 2009 Musaus and the Beginnings of the Fairytale Telling Tales The Impact of Germany on English Children s Books 1780 1918 Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Riesengebirge Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th ed Cambridge University Press Kluge Friedrich 1891 Rubezahl Etymological Dictionary of the German Language George Bell amp Sons via Wikisource Der politische Bezirk Trautenau Ein Beitrag zum erdkundlichen Unterrichte fur das 3 Schuljahr Von Adolf Ettelt 2nd edition Trautenau 1873 p 82 Google Grosses vollstandiges Universal Lexicon aller Wissenschaften und Kunste 32 volume Ro Rz Leipzig amp Halle 1742 col 1686 s v Rubezahl Rubenzahl Google a b Elizabeth Knowles ed The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Oxford Oxford University Press 2000 Page 940 Tajemnice Karkonosza Ducha Gor artykul 10 Archived from the original on 2014 05 05 Retrieved 2014 05 05 a b Kubatova Marie 2011 Krkonosske pohadky in Czech Praha Fragment ISBN 978 80 253 1126 4 Pavlova Svatava 2000 Dva tucty pohadek z Krkonos a Podkrkonosi in Czech Praha Knizni klub ISBN 80 242 0283 2 Aus dem schlesischen Gebirge at Spiegel Online Carolyn T Dussere The Image of the Primitive Giant in the Works of Gerhart Hauptmann U of Kentucky Press 1977 Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart Clark ed 1990 The Oxford Book of Story Poems OUP pp 81 86 ISBN 0 19 276087 4 KRAKONOS dobry duch nasich hor freiheit cz Simkova Bozena Writer 1974 1984 Krkonosske pohadky Television production Czech Republic Czech Television Pivovar Krakonos Trutnov pivovar krakonos cz External links EditMusaus Rubezahl und das Hirschberger Schneiderlein illustrated by Arpad Schmidhammer Fischer amp Franke Berlin 1901 in German Carl Hauptmann Rubezahl Buch on Projekt Gutenberg DE in German Rubezahl and music in German Rubezahl Sage und Wirklichkeit in German muellers lesezeit de Rubezahl Duch Gor Rybecal by Ullrich Junker amp Izabela Taraszczuk Bodnegg Jelenia Gora 2003 on Digital Library of Jelenia Gora in German and Polish Greiffenberg Notgeld emergency banknotes Small currency notes from the town of Greiffenberg depicting the legend of Rubezahl webgerman com Notgeld Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Rubezahl amp oldid 1128652949, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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