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The Wisconsin Gnomelore Database
The Kobolders
"In the fastnesses of the garret these industrious kobolders were employed in making toys for the children of the household."
From There Be Hodags, by C.A. McAllister:
The kobolders are a type of little people found in the folklore of some German-Wisconsinite communities, notably in Sheboygan County, where they serve as toymakers and assistants of Saint Nicholas, much like the modern notion of Santa’s elves. However, unlike Santa’s elves, who make their toys on the north pole, Saint Nicholas’ kobolders would make their toys on-site, taking over the attics of homes in the weeks leading up until St. Nicholas’ Day, and constructing all of the toys for that household inside of that attic.
The kobolders wore brown jackets, pointed cloth shoes, and a type of pointed, tasseled, knit brown cap called a zipfelkappen. They had long beards, either white or gray in color. During the nights, the kobolders would take a break from toymaking and would typically entertain themselves with bowling competitions, the noise from the attic bowling heard by the children sleeping (or rather, attempting to sleep) below.
To gain the favor of the kobolders, children would make offerings of cookies, left on the stair leading up to the attic. The kobolders above all else did not permit anyone to look upon them, becoming very angry if any curious child dared to peak in on them. Thus, no child wished to offend them and risk being deprived of toys on St. Nicholas’ Day by an angry kobolder.
Wisconsin folk stories claimed that these kobolders were relatives of both the dwarves that served a fabled goblin from New York folklore, who dwelled near the Hudson River, as well as being related to dwarves that bowled with Rip Van Winkle in the Catskill Mountains, also in New York. They were also proposed to be relatives of the tomte nisse, from the folklore of Wisconsin’s Scandinavian immigrants.
From Ghost Tales, by Charles E. Brown:
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 good will the older children sometimes placed little offerings of hard cookies "pfeffernüsse", on the attic stairs for their refreshment. These always mysteriously disappeared.
Doubtless these busy dwarfs were of the same breed or tribe as those which disported themselves in the region of the Dunderberg on the Hudson River in New York and served the fabled goblin who inhabited this eminence. This goblin was the dread of the early Dutch navigators who sailed this beautiful river. To him they dropped the peaks of their mainsails in salute as they passed this place. No doubt they are related also to the dwarfs with whom Rip Van Winkle bowled in the long ago on the heights of the Catskill Mountains.
In Wisconsin some early Scandinavian settlers kept up for a time at least the Old World custom of setting out a little bowl of porridge for the friendly household dwarf, Tomte Nisse, who in return for this kindness it was supposed washed the dishes and performed other work about the home. One man is known to have planted a small corner of a farm field for this good elf every year. This was fenced in and tended with particular care. Perhaps some of these dwarf folk of the old Germans, Dutch, Scotch and Scandinavians are still with us?
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