Written by Patricia Robin Woodruff edited by Kimberly Anne
I would like to tell you about one of the most famous Slavic spirits. He has been described as a giant, a devil, a gnome, an elf, a prince, a satyr, a goblin, and a ghost. Some call him a great spirit. Some refer to him as a great lord. Where else would such a great being live but in the Giant Mountains?!
If you’ve never heard of the Giant Mountains, you may be wondering where they are; or maybe you know of the mountains by their Polish name, the Karkonosze mountains, which forms the border between the Czech Republic and Poland.
It is these huge granite mountains that a giant lives by the nickname of… well… we better not get him angry, so like the Germans, we can respectfully call him the “Lord of the Mountain” which would be “Herr vom Berge” or “Lord John,”which would be Herr Johannes. The Czechs call him Krakonosh after the mountains, but it very well could be those mountains are named after him! In one story he introduces himself as Lord Giantdale.
Rubezahl woodcarving in the Polish Giant Mountains
Lord Giantdale or Krakonosh is the spirit of the woods, the mountain and the great caverns and waters under the mountain. Not only is he the “Lord of the Mountain,” but in the times before the Czech Republic when the area was known as Silesia and Bohemia he was called “Fürst der Gnomen”, the Prince of the Gnomes. How can one being have so many different titles? This is because not only can he appear as a giant, but he is a powerful spirit, so he can change his shape to be whatever he wants!
One of the first portraits of him that people know about was made by schoolmaster Martin Helwig in 1561. Mr. Helwig drew a map of the Karkonosze mountains and standing in the mountains is Rü… (Ooops! I almost said that nickname that he hates!) We’ll call him “Duch Gór” which means “The Mountain Spirit.” Anyway, “Duch Gór” is holding a staff and has large antlers, goat feet and a tufted tail. He tends to reward those who are kind and punish those who are cruel or greedy and as always he is a bit mischievous. As the Spirit of the Mountain said in his guise as Lord Giantdale, “My laws are no other than those which Nature has already inscribed on thy heart…”
I will tell you a German story from a book by Charles John Tibbitts called Folk-lore and Legends. These ancient verbal folktales were collected and published by Tibbitts in 1892.
Once upon a time a glazier who was traveling across the mountains, feeling very tired from the heavy load of glass which he was carrying, began to look about to discover a place where he might rest it. Rübe… Ooops! Duch Gór, who had been watching for some time, no sooner saw this than he changed himself into a little mound, which the glazier not long afterwards discovered in his way, and on which, well pleased, he proposed to seat himself. But his joy was not of long countenance, for he had not sat their many minutes before the heap vanished from under him so rapidly, that the poor glazier fell to the ground with his glass, which was by the fall smashed into a thousand pieces.
Upon this, the Mountain Spirit, assuming the appearance of a traveller, accosted him, and inquired why he so lamented, and what was the great sorrow with which he was afflicted. The glazier related to him the whole affair, how that, being weary, he had seated himself upon a mound by the wayside, how this had suddenly overthrown him, and broken to pieces his whole stock of glass, which was well worth eight gold pieces, and how, in short, the mound itself had suddenly disappeared. He declared that he knew not in the least how to recover his loss and bring the business to a good ending. The compassionate mountain sprite comforted him, told him who he was, and that he himself had played him the trick, and at the same time bade him be of good cheer, for his losses should be made good to him.
Upon this the giant transformed himself into an ass, and directed the glazier to sell him at the mill which lay at the foot of the mountain, and to be sure to make off with the purchase-money as quickly as possible. The glazier accordingly immediately bestrode the transformed mountain sprite, and rode him down the mountain to the mill, where he offered him for sale to the miller at the price of ten gold pieces. The miller offered nine, and the glazier, without further haggling, took the money and went on his way.
When he was gone the miller sent his newly purchased beast to the stable, and the boy who had charge of him immediately filled his rack with hay. Upon this the Mountain Spirit exclaimed, “I don’t eat hay. I eat nothing but roasted and boiled, and that of the best.”
The boy’s hair stood on end. He flew to his master, and related to him this wondrous tale, and he no sooner heard it than he hastened to the stable and there found nothing, for his ass and his nine gold pieces were alike vanished.
But the miller was rightly served, for he had cheated in his time many poor people, therefore the Lord of the Mountain had punished in this manner the injustice of which he had been guilty.
Duch Gór is a very powerful spirit and controls all the treasures of the mountains, which gives him another one of his titles, Schatzhüter, the “Treasure Keeper.” His treasure can be healing herbs, a successful hunt, or the gold of the mountain which he gifts to those he deems worthy.
You might think, “He doesn’t sound much like the giants I’ve heard of!” but you’ve probably never heard the tale of Number-Nip. I think I can probably get away with calling him that, since not many people anymore know what a “nip” is, and this is a tale of his strength and justice.
“In the year 1512 a man of noble family, who was a very tyrant and oppressor, had commended one of his vassals or peasants to carry home with his horses and cart an oak of extraordinary magnitude, and threatened to visit him with the heaviest disgrace and punishment if he neglected to fulfill his desires. The peasant saw that it was impossible for him to execute the command of his lord, and fled to the woods with great sorrow and lamentation.
Sculpture of Krakonoš in Hořice
There he was accosted by Number-Nip, the Spirit of the Mountain, who appeared to him like a man, and inquired of him the cause of his so great sorrow and affliction. Upon this the peasant related to him all the circumstances of the case. When Number-Nip heard it he bade him to be of good cheer and care not, but go home to his house again, as him himself would soon transport the oak, as his lord required, into his courtyard.
Scarcely had the peasant got well home again before Number-Nip took the monstrous oak-tree, with its thick and sturdy boughs, and hurled it into the courtyard of the nobleman, and with its huge stem, and its many thick branches, so choked and blocked up the entrance that no one could get either in or out. And because the oak proved harder than their iron tools… the nobleman was compelled to break through the walls in another part of the courtyard, and have a new doorway made, which was only done with great labour and expense.”
In this tale Number-Nip sounds more like your typical giant. You are familiar with traditional giants, right? The incredibly large and powerful ones – the ones that can roar like thunder, tremble the ground, and eat people?! But, in this more “traditional” giant story, what does the name Number-Nip mean? Alright! I’ll tell you. I guess we’re far enough away from his kingdom in the Karkonosze mountains for me to safely say. “Nip” means “turnip,” but you can only call him Number-Nip in private. This is the English translation of the name Rübezahl, which means “Turnip Counter” or the name he really hates, which is Riebezagel which means “Turnip Tail”. You might think, “Well, that’s not so bad of a name!” But he finds it very embarrassing especially since people think it came from a tale where the Lord of the Mountain was tricked.
The tale goes… Number Nip spied the beautiful Princess of Silesia and watched her for a while in the form of a raven. But as we know, he was a master of shape-shifting and couldn’t bear to stay a raven much longer because he was so captivated by the Princess. When he transformed into the form of a young man, he got the full feelings of a young man too. This means he promptly fell in love with her and wanted nothing more than to marry her. When she went to bathe in a beautiful mountain lake, he pulled her into his underground kingdom through a whirlpool. However, the Princess wasn’t keen on this idea of living in his underground kingdom forever, plus she was lonely, missing her old life above ground. The Princess tried to come up with objections as to why should couldn’t marry him. Grasping at straws she pointed out that it wouldn’t feel like a wedding without a lot of people as wedding guests. Krakonosh looked around his underground kingdom and spied a crop of turnips. He told the Princess he could turn them into people and that would give them plenty of wedding guests. The Princess thought quickly and stressed it was very important that she knew exactly how many guests to plan for. She instructed him to count the turnips several times so as to make no mistake. While he was busy carefully counting each and every turnip, she seized the opportunity to escape. So if you know what’s good for you, you should never ever call him Rübezahl, Riebezagel or Liczyrzepa (the Turnip Counting Man).
I’ll have you know that Krakonosh is pretty powerful. He can command the bats and ravens. He can look like an old man with a grizzled beard and a large broad-brimmed hat. He carries an uprooted tree for a staff with the roots forming a curious tangle at the top. If you are thinking, “Wait a minute… that sounds a bit like the wizard Gandalf in The Hobbit!” you’d be right, since J.R.R. Tolkien took the description of the Lord of the Mountain combined him with tales of Odin and turned him into a wizard. So you can see where this intriguing mountain spirit has morphed and changed throughout the stories. In one tale, Krakonosh even detaches his leg and turns it into an axe with which he cuts piles and piles of firewood, all one-legged. In the story this is to punish a greedy landowner by cutting down all his trees and giving the firewood to the workers that the landowner shortchanged.
But in this tale is hidden a secret of Slavic magic for those wise enough to recognize it. For both the Slavs and the Celto-Germanic people used a method of channeling magic called the “Crane stance” or one-eye, one-hand and one-foot. By closing one eye, tucking your hand behind your back and standing on one leg you put half of your body into the Spirit World. Then you are able to channel the energy from the Spirit World into the Mortal World to accomplish magic.
In tales they say Krakonosh even rides a horse that is missing one leg or he rides a huge mountain goat with long curving horns that flies through the sky. The Lord of the Mountain can control the weather causing fierce snow storms but then letting the sun come out and sparkle on the snow like diamonds. He is a trickster in the spring when you think the day is going to be bright and warm and you go out without a coat and next thing you know the wind has come up and the temperature plummets. He can control a roaring whirlwind to punish the unworthy. You never know when you see an animal in the mountains, whether it might be Krakonosh disguised as a wolf, a deer, a boar or a bear.
In Czech fairy tales they will tell you that “Rübezahl” gave people the gift of sourdough and taught them how to make kyselo a staple soup of the area that is full of nutrients and made from sourdough and dried mushrooms. And yet it is possible that people have been making sourdough for the past 6,000 years. And tales of this Lord of the Mountain were already old when schoolmaster Martin Helwig drew him in the late Middle Ages.
And I will tell you a secret… and I know this because I’ve been studying the ancient Pagan deities of these lands. All these tales of the Lord of the Mountain lets me know that this are little bits of pieces left over from when Krakonosh was worshipped as a god going back thousands and thousands of years ago! That little sketch of the horned-figure with goat legs and a tail is not the first drawing of him. It might be the first drawing of him labeled as “Rübezahl” but I have seen other drawings and carvings of him. He is the Lord of the Forests, the Master of the Animals (especially cattle), the God of the Underworld and Lord of Winter. You might know some of his other titles, where he is known as the Slavic god Veles or Weles, the “Wooly One”. There are tales of the Slavic god Dazbog. His title means “The Giving God” and as Hors-Dazbog this may be just another way to title the God of Winter. The “Giving God” is described as lame, sometimes with one eye, and he can also be called the “Master of the Wolves”. Both “Dazbog” and “Veles” are said to be in charge of the treasures under the earth. The Germans knew Veles/Weles as Woden or Odin who is also called Björn, “The Bear” or Valkjósandi, the “One Who Chooses the Fallen Ones”. He also got remembered as Cernunnos, the Horned God, while the Greeks remembered him best as the horned and goat-footed Pan.
As Lord of the Underworld he is connected to underground vegetables, and this could be the reason the Slavic and Celtic peoples carve their Halloween lanterns out of turnips marking the beginning of winter and the time of the Spirits. A similar tradition of turnip lanterns to mark the season of winter is celebrated in the Netherlands on November 11th, now transformed into a tradition of St. Martin who just-so-happens to have a connection to the bear.
At the end of the winter season, we see a traditional event in Spain where a horned-figure associated with cattle is chased from the town by throwing turnips at him. This is an energetic way for the people to expel winter. This would also add legitimacy to the image of “The Sorcerer” as drawn by anthropologist Henri Breuil. The horned and bearded petroglyph is located in a cave in south-western France, near Spain and dates to approximately 13,000 BCE. While some skeptical academics pooh-pooh the legitimacy of this petroglyph, there are tales and carvings in this area that when looked at as a whole show a consistent belief over time. This Spanish Jarramplas festival is carried on by the force of tradition even when they don’t understand its origin, but I think you can see where some of these mysteries are beginning to be revealed.
So follow the conscience of your heart and be kind to strangers because you never know when you might offer hospitality to a hidden giant or a god in disguise!
Patricia Robin Woodruff, PhD is the author of “Woodruff’s Guide to Slavic Deities” which is an easier-to-read summary of the “Slavic Deities & Their Worship: Roots of Slavic Magic series, Book 1.” Both provide new and interesting information on the indigenous beliefs of the lands that we now know as “Slavic”. “Slavic Deities & Their Worship” includes an extensive list of scholarly sources that are cited.
SOURCES:
Adams, Angeline B. “The Sunne Meerten celebration” Turnip Lanterns turnip lanterns.wordpress.com 11 Nov, 2019
Iglesias, Sebastian Diaz. Jarramplas. Tiempo de fiesta en Piornal. La construction de identidades colectivas en torno al ritual. [Jarramplas: a celebration time in Piornal. The construction of collective identities around a ritual] Gazeta de Antropologia [Anthropology Gazette] Vol. 20 (2004)
Janků-Sandtnerová, Marie. Kniha rozpočtů a kuchařských předpisů [Book of Budgets and Recipes] (in Czech). Praha: Česká grafická Unie a.s. [Czech Graphic Union] (1933)
Musaeus, Johann Karl (trans. Mark Lemon). Legends of Number-Nip (1864)
Sayers, Stephen. “The Halloween Feast” Treat or Trick? Halloween in a Globalizing World. Foley & O’Donnell (2009)
Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology (1993)
Tibbitts, Charles John. Folk-lore and Legends: Germany (1892)
Author Patricia Robin Woodruff (Boyana), MDiv, PhD. 