Knecht Ruprecht
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In the folklore of Germany, Knecht Ruprecht, which translates as Farmhand Rupert or Servant Rupert, is a companion of Saint Nicholas. Tradition holds that he appeared in homes on Christmas Eve, and was a man with a long beard, wearing fur or covered in pea-straw.[1] Knecht Ruprecht sometimes carrying a long staff and a bag of ashes, and wore little bells on his clothes.[1]
Sometimes he rides on a white horse, and sometimes he is accompanied by fairies or men in blackface dressed as old women.[1]
According to tradition, Knecht Ruprecht asks children whether they can pray. If they can, they receive apples, nuts, and gingerbread. If they cannot, he beats the children with his bag of ashes.[1]
In the Middle Mark, he was known as De hêle Christ (“The Holy Christ”). He was also known as Hans Ruprecht, Rumpknecht, and in Mecklenberg, was called Rû Clås (Rough Nicholas).[1] In the Altmark and in East Friesland, he was known as Bûr and Bullerclås.[1]
Ruprecht was a common name for the Devil in Germany,[2] and Grimm states that “Robin fellow is the same home-sprite whom we in Germany call Knecht Ruprecht and exhibit to children at Christmas...”[2] Knecht Ruprecht first appears in written sources in the 17th century, as a figure in a Nuremberg Christmas procession.[2]
According to Alexander Tille, Knecht Ruprecht originally represented an archetypal manservant, "and has exactly as much individuality of social rank and as little personal individuality as the Junker Hanns and the Bauer Michel, the characters representative of country nobility and peasantry respectively.”[3] Tille also states that Knecht Ruprecht originally had no connection with Christmastime.[3]
Knecht Ruprecht is commonly cited as a servant and helper of St. Nicholas, and is sometimes associated with Saint Rupert.[4]
According to some stories, Ruprecht began as a farmhand; in others, he is a wild foundling whom St. Nicholas raises from childhood. Ruprecht sometimes walks with a limp, because of a childhood injury. Often, his black clothes and dirty face are attributed to the soot he collects as he goes down chimneys.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d e f Benjamin Thorpe, Northern mythology: comprising the principal popular traditions and superstitions of Scandinavia, north Germany, and the Netherlands (E. Lumley, 1852), 146.
- ^ a b c Phyllis Siefker, Santa Claus, last of the wild men: the origins and evolution of Saint Nicholas, spanning 50,000 years (McFarland, 1997), 82.
- ^ a b Alexander Tille, Yule and Christmas: their place in the Germanic year (D. Nutt, 1899), 116.
- ^ "Das Schwarze Netz: Rupert von Salzburg". Sungaya. 2009. http://www.sungaya.de/schwarz/christen/stseptember/Rupert2409.htm. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
