Brownies from different countries: which character is worse, and how can they help or harm

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Belief in the spirits that somehow control the house, its true owners, is inherent in many peoples of the world. They were afraid of these spirits, respected, sought friendship with them, and sometimes entered into a love affair with them. Everything depended on the hostess and the region.

Russian brownie: when there is no cross on it

In Russia, it was believed that this spirit is the only one who can live “under the icons”, and the consecration of the house does not harm him in the least. In general, it is difficult to call him evil. According to popular beliefs, the brownie was distinguished by increased shaggy and strictness to the cleanliness of the owners. He also disliked being bullied by cats - his little companions. Some believed that he himself knew how to turn into a cat.

The brownie secretly helped the hard-working and tidy housewives so that the matter would be argued faster and that failure would not enter the house. But with a lonely mistress, he could also twist tricks - show up at night in bed. I could not, apparently, look calmly as the woman languishes without affection. In order to appear to a woman, he took the form of the last man who died in the house, but, moreover, it was easy to distinguish him - the brownie was all covered with wool.

Probably, with the belief that the brownie is friendly with cats (turns into cats, rides them invisibly, which is why they jump around the house like crazy) is connected the custom of letting the cat into the house first - so that the living spirit will enter with it. However, rather, it is associated with the custom according to which the brownie demanded a bloody tribute from new tenants. In pre-Christian times, an animal or even a child was killed in front of the threshold for this and then buried under the threshold. In the Christian era, the practice was severely suppressed by the priests, and there was a belief that the "owner" himself takes a sacrifice from such disrespect - the first who crosses the threshold will die. Except for the cats. He loves cats. So cats began to replace the victim with the "owner" of the new home.

If the house was poorly cleaned, the brownie began to lick up the fat and crumbs and swell, turning into a huge jelly-like creature. His character deteriorated no less than his appearance. Such a house-fellow was called "wen" or "lizun".

The brownie was called not only the brownie or the owner, but also many other words: golbeshnik (the one who hides behind the golbets, the partition behind the stove), baker, baker, grandfather, highway, well-wisher, breadwinner, postn, soussedko (neighbor). Sometimes they believed that the brownie had a wife - the housewife. Some believed that the housewives ruled in the widows' houses, from where the “master” left with the death of the men.

The brownie most of all appreciated order and began to get angry and hide or spoil things if the order was not followed, it does not matter whether it was about the fact that the woman went loose or that people did not have supper in the evening.

All Eastern Slavs had a similar view of the brownie, although each locality had its own nuances.

English brownie: when the brownie is uncomfortable in the house

As one of the faeries, the brownie differed from the Russian brownie in that he entered the house only when necessary, and preferred to live on a tree in the yard. So every hostess was worried that the yard did not become naked - at least one tree is needed. However, in the absence of a tree, a brownie can always dig a hole for itself.

The growth of a brownie with a child, but it is impossible to confuse him with a child - he has ugly long feet and hands. The elven nature of the brownie is betrayed by his blue eyes and matted hair. Most often, brownies are men, well, or people hardly distinguish women brownies, so the latter are very rare in legends.

Brownie can do more than just help around the house. There are stories in which he is shown to people when they need to call for help - if help is needed in this by the beloved mistress of the house. For a bad hostess, he will not try. So that people do not immediately understand that they see the fairies, the brownie is shown to them only wrapped in a cloak.

Brownies enter the house only at night, when everyone is asleep; they scare away rust from iron tools, calm chickens and children, in general, do what the eye cannot see, but seriously make life easier. They, like Russian brownies, can not only help the hostess, but also punish her for negligence or quarrelsomeness, tangling yarn, spoiling food and stealing small things.

Brownie should never be offered anything directly, you can only accidentally leave all sorts of goodies for him, otherwise the brownie will leave the house. A homeless brownie runs wild and dangerous to passers-by, the same happens if a big misfortune happens in the house (for example, everyone was killed). To help himself, he can summon other fairies, but in fairy tales he sometimes brings a human doctor or warns people about a fire. Like fire, brownies are afraid of holy symbols and prayers, which betrays their pagan nature.

Luteins and lutins: when emigration is not good

The French and French-speaking Canadians used to believe in the lutins and their lutin wives, similar to the brownies if they dared to go into a house and live there. Like English fairies, lutes can dump people's hair into mats for fun - but the crucifix inside the house does not frighten them, which makes the lutes akin to Russian brownies. But they are afraid of spilled salt, and if the owner of the house somehow did not please the lute, so that he now blunts his braids, makes the glass in the windows crack and rages in other ways, salt is the only way to drive him away from the house.

The Canadians believe that the lute can transform into different animals, while the French limit the ability of the lute to be thrown around by a saddle horse (however, you should not ride one).

From folk tales to literature, lutes first passed in history from the French storyteller Madame d'Onois, at the end of the seventeenth century. Interestingly, the lute was also transferred to the soil of the United States, but there it turned into an unpleasant, frightening, foreboding creature known as the Detroit Red Dwarf.

Nisse: when the brownie brings gifts

In general, the nisse are just something like gnomes, but one of their varieties is similar in lifestyle to the house or lute. In different parts of Norway, such a creature is called a brownie nisse, a courtyard peasant, an old brownie, a good bond and a bond from under the hill (literally - "kurgan"). An angry nisse not only spoils or hides things, but can even kill livestock, condemning the owners to starvation.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Danes came up with the idea of telling children that magic gnomes - nisse - put gifts under the Christmas tree. Over time, the nissés became regular heroes of Christmas throughout Scandinavia, for the Christmas nissés they came up with their own special family history, and they are still the ones who bring gifts to children. Probably, under the influence of the image of the nisse, the French began to tell children that luteins help to wrap gifts to “Daddy Christmas” (an analogue of Santa Claus) in distant Lapland.

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