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A duende is a
humanoid A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and '' -oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. The earliest recorded use of the term, in 1870, referred to indigenous peoples in areas colonized by Europeans. By the 20 ...
figure of
folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fr ...
, with variations from Iberian, Ibero American, and Filipino cultures, comparable to dwarves,
gnomes A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its charact ...
, or leprechauns. In Spanish ''duende'' originated as a contraction of the phrase or , effectively "master of the house", or perhaps derived from some similar mythical being of the
Visigoth The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what i ...
or Swabian culture given its comparable looks with the “Tomte” of the Swedish language conceptualized as a mischievous spirit inhabiting a dwelling.


Spain

Duendes are known to smell like grass and are small in size—not much larger than a flower—but may change their size to be as large as mortal humans or even taller. In other regions, anjanas are as tall as humans.


Anjanas

Anjanas are said to live in fountains, springs, rivers, ponds, lakes and caves and come out only at night when humans are sleeping. Their homes are said to hold bountiful treasures that they protect and may use to help those that truly need them. Anjanas are never malignant but always benign. They help humans and creatures running away from nasty ogre-like beings called ojancanus. They bless the waters, the trees, the farms and herds. It is said that a man that finds an anjana brushing her hair can marry her and take possession of all her bountiful treasures. However, if the man is unfaithful, she will disappear forever with all her treasures, and the man shall remain destitute for the rest of his life. In Galicia and
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the ...
, a similar mythological being to the Anjanas or Xanas is called a Moura.


Apabardexu

In the Lakes of Somiedo, locals say they live in a kind of mountain duende. In Asturleonese, ''apabardexu'' may translate to duende of the mountain or of the lake.


Busgosos

Busgosos, also known as musgosos, are tall bearded duendes dressed in moss and leaves. They play sad songs on their flutes to help guide shepherds through forests. They are compassionate and hardworking. They will repair the barns and homes of humans that have collapsed due to the weather.


Diaños

Diaños are mischievous duendes that adopt the figure of horses, cows, rams or any other domestic animal, even a human baby. They are active during the night, scaring those who walk at odd hours, and disorient peasants searching for their lost cattle. They annoy millers who mill in the moonlight and mock waiters who return late from parties. Among their most common antics is turning into a white donkey and offering themselves as a mount to passerby; once mounted, they grow and grow incessantly. Similarly, they become a horse and after a hellish gallop return the rider to the same place from which it started. As cold and wet goats, they mock a benefactor that brings them home to dry and warm up close to a fire. As a black dog, they chase a person on foot. As toads, they run faster than horses. They love to turn into babies that play naked in the snow. They may also be the cause of endless noises, mysterious lights and other disturbing phenomena that frighten those who walk at night.


Enanos

Enanos (dwarfs in English) are diminutive beings that toil night and day in the forests, guard the immense riches that the subterranean world hides, and, mockingly, tempt the greed of peasants by offering him gold combs, bags full of silver, which later become piles of withered fern leaves and white pebbles. Some enanos, like the Duende de los Extravios, help good people find their lost possessions.


Elfos

Elfos (elfs in English) are probably not pre-Roman mythological beings of the
Iberian peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
but instead were brought in by
Germanic tribes The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...
(
Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area be ...
,
Suevi The Suebi (or Suebians, also spelled Suevi, Suavi) were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own nam ...
and
Visigoths The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what i ...
) that settled into
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
during
Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medit ...
and after the
fall of Rome The fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome) was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vas ...
. The oldest mention of Elfos are in the famous Cantar de Mio Cid, a medieval tale of a Castillian knight named Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, known best as
El Cid Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043 – 10 July 1099) was a Castilian knight and warlord in medieval Spain. Fighting with both Christian and Muslim armies during his lifetime, he earned the Arabic honorific ''al-sīd'', which would evolve into El C ...
. Elfos have very similar characteristics of Anjanas and were most likely readily taken up by locals as such.


Hadas

Hadas (''fades'' in Catalan, ''fadas'' in Galician-Portuguese) are the Hispanicized Roman fatas (feminine plural of fatum). The fatum in Roman times were personifications of destiny. Hadas used interchangeably with the Anjanas or used as a general word to describe all sorts of mythological beings, not only duendes but also ogres, sirenas (mermaids) and others, similar to how English speakers use the word fairy.


Nomos


Nuberos

Nuberos may be good or malignant duendes in the form of clouds said to have the ability to make it rain, hail, and snow. The bells of villages and towns can conjure nuberos with the sad song of the tente-nu.


Tentirujus

Tentirujus are small malignant duendes that dress in red and turn obedient and good children (particularly girls) into bad and disobedient ones. They do so using the secret powers of the
mandrake A mandrake is the root of a plant, historically derived either from plants of the genus '' Mandragora'' found in the Mediterranean region, or from other species, such as ''Bryonia alba'', the English mandrake, which have similar properties. The ...
, a magical plant with roots in the form of humans.


Trasgos

Trasgos are among the most hated of duendes. They are mischievous creatures. They love to enter peoples homes through chimneys and live within the hidden spaces of a home. They move things around or right out steal things from the homes they inhabit so they are forever lost. They love to climb up trees and throw pebbles, seeds, and branches at people. They may turn good boys into mischievous ones. Boys who are improperly raised may even become trasgos themselves!


Trastolillos

Trastolillos are small duendes that live in the dwellings of man. They make wheat flour in troughs bloom back into wheat forcing farmers to remill them into flour. They love to drink milk and will drink all the stores of milk. They also open windows during windy storms and cause stews to overcook and burn. They will apologize for the damage they have done but cannot help themselves and will do it again.


Trentis

Tentis are small duende being either made up of or clothed in leaves, moss, roots and twigs. They are said to live in thick hedges and love playing pranks on people. They are known to pull down the skirts of women and pinching them in their buttocks.


Tronantes

Tronantes translates to "thunderers." These duendes have the ability to make thunder and lightning.


Ventolines

Ventolines are good fairy-like duendes with large green wings. They live on the ocean and help old fishermen to row their boats at sea.


Castilian duendes

It is possible to distinguish between the Spanish and the Castilian duendes. Castilian duendes usually take the form of Martinicos, diaños, trasgos, gnomes, enchanted women, fairies, and elves. The Martinicians, bogged down with the bestiones of the Middle Ages and engraved in some of Goya's Caprichos, are big-headed dwarfs (represented as big heads in popular festivals) with big hands and are usually disguised with a Franciscan habit. They make noises in cupboards, move and lose objects, and play cruel jokes. The gnomes inhabit the cavities of the earth. The first mention of an elf in Spanish literature is made in the Cantar de Mio Cid, when it speaks of the "Elfa pipes", that is, Elfa's cave. The first to deal extensively with goblins was the demonologist Fray Antonio de Fuentelapeña in The Elucidated Entity: Unique New Discourse That Shows That There Are Invisible Irrational Animals In Nature (1676). It was said that all the goblins disappeared with the bull of the Holy Crusade. Later, in the eighteenth century, the pre-enlightened Benedictine Father Benito Jerónimo Feijoo engaged in an all-out fight against these superstitions in his Universal Critical Theater. On the other hand, in the flamenco cultural context, the inexplicable and mysterious character that this art and its interpreters acquire on certain occasions is called duende, a mysterious power that everyone feels and no philosopher explains.


Portugal

Duende also appear in Portuguese folklore, describe beings of a small stature wearing big hats, whistling a mystical song, often walking in the forest. Variously rendered in English as "goblins", "pixies", "brownies", "elves", or "leprechauns", the duende use their talents to lure young children to the forest, who lose their way home.


Latin America

Conversely, in some Latin American cultures, duendes are believed to be the helpers of people who get lost in the forest so they could find their way home. In the folklore of the Central American country of
Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a w ...
, particularly amongst the country's African/ Island Carib-descended Creole and Garifuna populations, duendes are thought of as forest spirits called " Tata Duende" who lack thumbs. The Yucatec Maya of Belize and Southeast Mexico have duendes such as Alux and Nukux Tat which are seen as Guardian spirits of the forest . In the Hispanic folklore of Mexico and the American Southwest, duendes are known as gnome-like creatures who live inside the walls of homes, especially in the bedroom walls of young children. They attempt to clip the toenails of unkempt children, often leading to the mistaken removal of entire toes. Belief in duendes still exists among the Mixtecs and Zapotecs of
Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the Federative Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 570 municipalit ...
and it is said that they are most commonly found in the mossy
cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud ...
s of the state's mountain ranges.


Philippines and Mariana Islands

Filipinos Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or oth ...
believe in dwende, which often dwell in rocks and caves, old trees, unvisited and dark parts of houses, or in anthills and termite mounds. Those that live in the last two are termed ''nunò sa punsó'' (
Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Ta ...
for “old man of the mound”). They are either categorized as good or evil depending on their color (white or black, respectively), and are often said to play with children (who are more capable than adults of seeing them). Offending a ''nunò sa punsó'' is taboo; people who step on them are believed to be cursed by the angered dwende within. The
Chamorro people The Chamorro people (; also CHamoru) are the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, politically divided between the United States territory of Guam and the encompassing Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Micronesia. Today, signi ...
of the
Marianas Islands The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, be ...
tell tales of the '' taotaomo'na'', duendes and other spirits. A duende, according to the ''Chamorro-English Dictionary'' by Donald Topping, Pedro Ogo and Bernadita Dungca, is a
goblin A goblin is a small, grotesque, monstrous creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearances depending on t ...
, elf,
ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to r ...
or spook in the form of a dwarf, a mischievous spirit which hides or takes small children.


Literature

* Based on popular usage and folklore, the Spanish poet and playwright
Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...
wrote a treatise on the aesthetics of Duende in popular culture, called "Play and Theory of the Duende" (Argentina, 1933). Lorca's vision of duende includes: irrationality, earthiness, an awareness of death, and a diabolical touch. * The Duende looms large in both the poetry and Latino philosophy of Giannina Braschi. She has written an ''ars poetica'' featuring the Duende in Empire of Dreams (i.e., "Poetry is this screaming Madwoman"). She has also published a treatise on Lorca's treatment of the Duende, and a lyric essay called "Hierarchy of Inspiration" about artistic inspiration rising from the Duende,
Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles includ ...
,
Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in th ...
, and Daemon in
United States of Banana ''United States of Banana'' (2011) is a postmodern allegorical novel by the Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi. It is a cross-genre work that blends experimental theatre, prose poetry, short story, and political philosophy with a manifesto ...
. *Pulitzer prize winning poet
Tracy K. Smith Tracy K. Smith (born April 16, 1972) is an American poet and educator. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019. She has published four collections of poetry, winning the Pulitzer Prize for her 2011 volume '' L ...
wrote a book about desire entitled ''Duende''.


See also

* Alux *
Tennin , which may include , , and the specifically female version, the , are a divine kind of spiritual beings found in Japanese Buddhism, the equivalent of Angels. They were seemingly imported from Chinese Buddhism,
* Duende (art) *
Dwarf (folklore) A dwarf () is a type of supernatural being in Germanic folklore, including mythology. Accounts of dwarfs vary significantly throughout history however they are commonly, but not exclusively, presented as living in mountains or stones and being ...


Notes


References

* *


External links


Filipino Folklore: Aswang
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duende (Mythology) Spanish legendary creatures Spanish-language Latin American legendary creatures Philippine legendary creatures Portuguese legendary creatures Spanish mythology Portuguese mythology Mexican mythology Chilean mythology Peruvian folklore Latin American folklore Mexican folklore Spanish folklore Portuguese folklore Supernatural legends Goblins