Rübezahl


Guardian Rübezahl is a folklore mountain spirit of the Krkonoše Mountains, 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.

Name

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. 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 the turnips in the field. While he counted, she escaped. Following this explanation, some early English writers translated his name as "Number Nip", including the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
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’.
Rübezahl is a name of ridicule, the use of which provokes his anger. Respectful names are "Lord of the Mountain", "Treasure Keeper" or among herbalists "Lord John". In one Silesian folktale, he is called "Prince of the Gnomes".
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.
The Czech name, Krakonoš, is simply derived from the name of the mountains.

Legends

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.
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 ; he holds a stringed instrument in his hand, and walks so heavily that the earth trembles around him.
In Czech local fairytales Rübezahl gave sourdough to people and invented the traditional regional soup kyselo. There is also mountain named Kotel, which means cauldron. When fog rises from valley at bottom of the Kotel, people say that Rübezahl is cooking the kyselo. Rubezahl is seen to be the guardian of the Krkonose Mountains. Physically, he varies; he can take any form he wishes from an old granny 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 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 in Lower Silesia, Vettin-Zahn was expelled from her hometown like other Silesian Germans, and subsequently resettled in Switzerland after 1945.

Appearances in literature

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

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

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