Germanic goblins and the Indo-European fireplace

2015 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-86
Author(s):  
Peter Alexander Kerkhof

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.

Diabetes ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 370-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. C. Elbein ◽  
K. L. Bragg ◽  
M. D. Hoffman ◽  
R. A. Mayorga ◽  
M. F. Leppert

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 38-48
Author(s):  
V. I. Batuev ◽  
I. L. Kalyuzhny

The development of the European North of Russia, where flat and high-hummocky bog complexes are spread, requires information on the processes of formation of their hydrological regime and freezing of this territory. For the first time, based on observational data, for the period from 1993 to 2013, characteristics of the hydrological regime and freezing of hummocky bogs in Northern European Russia are presented, the case study of the Lovozerskoye bog. The observations were carried out in accordance with the unified methods, approved for the specialized network of Roshydromet bog stations. The regularities of the formation of the hydrological regime of hummocky bogs have been revealed: bog water level drops dramatically from the beginning of freezing to the end of March, rises during snow melt period, slightly drops in summer and rises in autumn. The main feature of hummocky bogs is permafrost, which determines their specific structure. It has been discovered that gravitation snowmelt and liquid precipitation waters relatively quickly run down the hummocks over the frozen layer into hollows between them. Levels of bog waters on the hummocks are absent for a longer period of time. In spring, the amplitude of water level rise in swamplands is on average 60–80 cm. Air temperature and insulation properties of snow are the main factors that influence the bog freezing. Hummocks freeze out as deep as 63–65 cm, which corresponds to the depth of their seasonal thawing in the warm period of the year, and adjoin the permafrost. The greatest depth of freezing of the swamplands is 82 – 87 cm, with an average of 68 cm. The frozen layer at swamplands thaws out from both its upper and bottom sides. The melting of the frozen layer at hummocks occurs only from the bog surface with an average intensity of 0,51 cm/day.


Erdkunde ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-354
Author(s):  
Sebastian Schmidtlein ◽  
Ulrike Faude ◽  
Ole Rössler ◽  
Hannes Feilhauer ◽  
Jörg Ewald ◽  
...  

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