Odd Wisconsin Archive
Elves in the Attic
"It was formerly a belief of children in some German households in a midwestern city that in the weeks or month before Christmas (Weinachten), the garrets of homes were occupied by dwarfs called kobolders. These little men were described as being attired in close-fitting brown jackets and knitted brown woolen caps (zipfelkappen) terminating in a long point with a tassel. They had full white or gray beards and wore pointed cloth shoes.
"They were servants of good Saint Nicholas. In the fastnesses of the garret, these industrious kobolders were employed in making toys for the children of the household. In their spare time, especially at night, these dwarfs often engaged in bowling contests. They were very fond of the game of ninepins. The young folks could, in their imagination, hear the wooden balls rolling across the attic floor, and the noise which they made when the wooden pins were hit.
"No one was ever permitted to gaze upon them when at work or at play. No child, no matter how daring, cared to venture into the garret during their occupancy. They became very angry when interfered with. To gain their goodwill, the older children sometimes placed little offerings of hard cookies (pfefferniisse) on the attic stairs for their refreshment. These always mysteriously disappeared."
Wisconsin Historical Society museum curator and archaeologist Charles E. Brown (1872-1946) collected folktales such as that one for several decades. He talked with Wisconsin Indians, lumberjacks, railroad workers, miners, ship captains, and other people whose stories usually went unrecorded. Starting in 1921, Brown occasionally printed some of these folktales in little pamphlets for groups to which he belonged, summer school classes he taught, or just for the amusement of a few friends.
By the time he died in 1946, he had issued nearly 50 of these booklets, containing hundreds of legends and folktales from Wisconsin and other parts of the U.S. He had preserved Ho-Chunk narratives told him by trusted elders, a great corpus of Paul Bunyan tales, and stories of ghosts, sea serpents, and other mythical creatures.
All of these tales are now available for free in the Society's Turning Points in Wisconsin History online collection. Click here for a list of the pamphlets, and select "View the Document" at the bottom of the list to browse among this treasure trove of Wisconsin folklore.
Scholar Joseph Campbell reportedly defined a myth as "a story that never happened but is always true." These Wisconsin tales don't always have that kind of authenticity, but they are likely to entertain you -- and connect you to a world of stories that your grandparents and great-grandparents heard when they were children long ago.
:: Posted in Curiosities on December 19, 2006
Did You Know?
The Wisconsin Historical Museum is currently featuring Odd Wisconsin objects in the latest exhibit: Odd Wisconsin. And don't miss the Odd Wisconsin book by author Erika Janik published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
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