A () is a type of

hobgoblin A hobgoblin is a household spirit, appearing in English folklore, once considered helpful, but which since the spread of Christianity has often been considered mischievous. Shakespeare identifies the character of Puck in his '' A Midsummer Nigh ...

(an amusing goblin) in French

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

and

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

s. Female lutins are called (). A ''lutin'' (varieties include the '' Nain Rouge'' or "red dwarf") plays a similar role in the folklore of

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

household spirit A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. Household deities fit int ...

s in England, Germany and Scandinavia. ''Lutin'' is generally translated into English as: brownie,

elf An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic peoples, Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in Norse mythology, North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda'' ...

fairy A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

gnome A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...

goblin A goblin is a small, grotesque, monster, monstrous humanoid 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 appearan ...

imp IMP or imp may refer to: * Imp, a fantasy creature Arts and entertainment Music * IMP (band) a Japanese boy band Fictional characters * Imp (She-Ra), a character in ''She-Ra: Princess of Power'' * Imp a character in '' Artemis Fowl: The L ...

leprechaun A leprechaun () is a diminutive supernatural being in Irish folklore, classed by some as a type of solitary fairy. They are usually depicted as little bearded men, wearing a coat and hat, who partake in mischief. In later times, they have bee ...

pixie A pixie (also called pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, piskie, or pigsie in parts of Cornwall and Devon) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are speculated to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas around Devon and Cor ...

, puck, jetin or sprite. It sometimes takes the form of a horse saddled ready to ride, and in this shape is called Le Cheval Bayard.Brewer
pp.283-84
Lutins sometimes tangle people's or horses' hair into

elf-locks In folklore, fairy-locks (or elflocks) are the result of fairies tangling and knotting the hairs of sleeping children and the manes of beasts as the fairies play in and out of their hair at night. English tradition The concept is first attested in ...

. A French fairy tale, " Le Prince Lutin", written in 1697 by Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy has a description of the "air, water and terrestrial ''lutin''": "You are invisible when you like it; you cross in one moment the vast space of the universe; you rise without having wings; you go through the ground without dying; you penetrate the abysses of the sea without drowning; you enter everywhere, though the windows and the doors are closed; and, when you decide to, you can let yourself be seen in your natural form." In this story a red hat with two feathers makes the lutin invisible. ''Lutins'' also assist Père Noël in Lapland.

Name and etymology

The name is attested as ''netun'' c. 1176–1181 by

Chrétien de Troyes Chrétien de Troyes (; ; 1160–1191) was a French poet and trouvère known for his writing on King Arthur, Arthurian subjects such as Gawain, Lancelot, Perceval and the Holy Grail. Chrétien's chivalric romances, including ''Erec and Enide'' ...

in ''

Yvain, the Knight of the Lion ''Yvain, the Knight of the Lion'' () is an Arthurian romance by French poet Chrétien de Troyes. It was written c. 1180 simultaneously with ''Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart'', and includes several references to the narrative of that poem. It ...

'', as ''nuiton'' by

Benoît de Sainte-Maure Benoît de Sainte-Maure (; died 1173) was a 12th-century French poet, most probably from Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine near Tours, France. The Plantagenets' administrative center was located in Chinon, west of Tours. ''Le Roman de Troie'' His 40,000 ...

in ''Troie'', and as ''luitun'' c. 1176–1181 by

Wace Wace ( 1110 – after 1174), sometimes referred to as Robert Wace, was a Medieval Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy (he tells us in the ''Roman de Rou'' that he was taken as a child to Caen), ending his car ...

in the ''

Roman de Rou ''Roman de Rou'' (" Romance of Rollo") is a verse chronicle by Wace in Norman covering the history of the Dukes of Normandy from the time of Rollo of Normandy to the Battle of Tinchebray in 1106. It is a national epic of Normandy. Following ...

''. It originally designated a sea monster. The meaning "a kind of demon, more mischievous than evil, who comes to torment people" appeared in the second quarter of the 14th century as ''luitin'' in ''Le Chevalier de La Tour Landry''.''

Trésor de la langue française The ''Trésor de la langue française'' (; ''TLF''; "Treasury of the French Language"; subtitled ''Dictionnaire de la langue du XIXe et du XXe siècle (1789–1960)'') is a 16-volume dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from ...

'', v.
lutin, -ine
'. It comes from Latin ''

Neptunus Neptunus is a professional baseball and softball club in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Following its 2014 championship season, the club signed a sponsorship contract for the 2015 through 2017 seasons with Curaçao and competes under the name Cura ...

'', the name of the Roman god of the seas, which came to also designate a pagan god in Late Latin. The transition from ''netum'' to ''nuiton'' was probably influenced by

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

''nuit'' ('night'), and the form ''luitun'' ~ ''luiton'' by Old French ''luitier'' (modern ''lutter'', "to fight").

Lutins in Quebec

Belief in ''lutins'' also spread to North America, particularly the Canada, Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, as spirits in the form of either pets (such as dogs or rabbits) or other common animals. Completely white cats are especially considered likely to be ''lutins'', although seemingly any distinctive animal that lives in or near the home may be regarded as such. These ''lutins'' may be good or evil, with good ''lutins'' being attributed powers ranging from control of the weather, to shaving the beard of the master of the house before he woke on Sundays. Evil or offended ''lutins'' may harass the house-owner with any number of minor troubles, such as blunting a scythe or filling shoes with pebbles.

Salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

is considered abhorrent to them, and they are thought to go out of their way to avoid crossing it when spilled on the ground.

Lutins in Detroit

The Nain Rouge appearance is said to presage terrible events for the city. The Nain Rouge appears as a small childlike creature with red or black fur boots. It is also said to have "blazing red eyes and rotten teeth."

Lutins in Newfoundland

French-Newfoundland culture also mentions the lutin, particularly in connection with causing fairy-locks.Gary R. Butler, ‘The Lutin Tradition in French-Newfoundland Culture: Discourse and Belief’, in The Good People: New Fairylore Essays, ed. by

Peter Narváez Peter Narváez (born Peter Reuben Aceves; March 16, 1942 – November 11, 2011) was a Canadian writer, scholar, folklorist, and musician known for his contributions to the study of folklore, ethnomusicology, blues, popular culture and Canadian cul ...

, Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, 1376 (New York: Garland, 1991), pp. 5–21.

Sources

The Fairy Mythology (France) by Thomas Knightly (1870)
{{Fairies Puck (folklore) French legendary creatures Norman folklore Canadian legendary creatures Culture of Quebec Household deities

Name and etymology

Lutins in Quebec

Lutins in Detroit

Lutins in Newfoundland

See also

Sources