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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter November 7, 2015

Germanic goblins and the Indo-European fireplace

  • Peter Alexander Kerkhof EMAIL logo

Abstract

In this article the etymology of the Modern German word Kobold ‘house spirit’ and its cognates is revised. It is argued that the Germanic root *kub- meaning ‘hut, small chamber’ which consitutes the first element of Modern German Kobold, is a loan from the Latin/Romance group of words deriving from Lat. cubīle, cubīculum. This Romance element may have replaced an earlier PGm. *gub- meaning ‘fire’, attested in Old Norse gufa ‘vapour, steam’, which goes back to the PIE root *ghu̯obh-. This theory is supported by French gobelin where the initial *g- is easily explained from Germanic *g-. The second element of the compound should be identified with the source of Finnish haltija ‘house spirit’ which derives from Gm. *haldija-. The compound was therefore Gm. *gub-haldija- and referred to the house spirit as the keeper of the fire, a concept well-known from Northern European folklore.

Online erschienen: 2015-11-7
Erschienen im Druck: 2015-10-16

© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

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