Stones and Spirits

Abstract

Stone-throwing by demons and witches and the mischievous activities of kobolds in mines are reviewed as part of an investigation into the darker folklore history of geology. Lithobolia has a pedigree extending from classical times, but sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century reports are particularly common. The existence of kobolds, who tormented miners by episodes of stone-throwing and mineral-switching, was accepted by clergy, laity and scientists alike. [1]

Notes

 [1] This paper is one of a series dealing with the general topic of “geology and the dark side.” The papers investigate, for the first time, the connection between geology and the occult. Each of the papers is distinct in contents. Main threads include folklore association between fossils, rocks and minerals and various supernatural entities as expressed in colloquial nomenclature of geological specimens (Duffin and Davidson 2011), geological materials used by supernatural entities such as the devils or witches, divination using geological materials, and the use of geological materials as protective agents against witchcraft (Duffin, 2011).

 [2] The British television programme Most Haunted features the activities of a team of paranormal investigators who are, in almost every episode, routinely pelted with thrown stones, bits of broken glass, and other such objects, which, it is suggested, are projected towards them by ghosts or evil entities. The investigators make provocative comments such as “If you are here with us, give us a sign, make a sound, throw something.” Comments like that frequently seem to produce a stone-throwing event. The US radio programme, Coast to Coast AM, Art Bell, Somewhere in Time, on 9 May 2009, contained a replay of a programme originally broadcast on 18 December 2002, during which a caller reported to host, Art Bell, that he had frequently been pelted by stones thrown at him by an unseen evil entity. Bell commented to the caller that this was a pretty routine thing to have happen in such a paranormal incident.

 [3] Digital version available from http://www.digital-collections.de/index.html?c = autoren_index&l = en&ab = Plantsch%2C+Martin; INTERNET [accessed 1 January 2010].

 [4] Godelmann (1591, Book III) contained his list of permissible questions for witchcraft trials. Godelmann's book was very influential and was republished several times following the first edition. Editions of 1592, in German, and 1601, in Latin, are also known (see Godelmann 1592).

 [5] For the purposes of this essay, the term “magus” denotes a magician. One might be a magician and also a witch. A sorcerer similarly was a magician, but could also be a witch. Magic is defined here as acts that compelled a supernatural being, angel or devil, to appear and do the biding of the magician. Magic was not necessarily an evil act in Early Modern Europe. But it was a supernatural act.

 [6] The pamphlet is readily available from several online sources. Two copies of the original are in the British Museum. The American historian George Lincoln Burr transcribed the pamphlet and gave brief comments on it in his Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, New York, published by Charles Scribner's Sons (see Burr 1914, 55–77). Baker (2007) goes into detail about the case and possible explanations of the poltergeist activities.

 [7] Bibliographical notes contain a list of various early printed and manuscript sources for Livy's Historicorum Romanorum. Titi Livii Patauini historicorum Romanorum principis, Libri omnes superstites 1628 [A History of Rome. All Surviving Books 1628]. There are several sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century printed editions of Livy's History of Rome.

 [8] See Baker (2007, 15 and 210) for the accounts of Pausanias and Livy.

 [9] For the account of Saint Daniel the Stylite excerpted from Baynes (1948), see also http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/dan-stylite.html; INTERNET [accessed 10 June 2010].

[10] We use here an undated specialty-bound copy from about 1834, published in London by William Tegg. Letter Ten contains several accounts of thrown projectiles. See Scott (n.d. [1834?], 364–6) for the story of Jarvis Matcham.

[11] Here we use the 1912 Hoover and Hoover volume. There is also a facsimile reprint of the 1912 book, published by Dover Publications, New York, 1950. We also used the second Latin edition of De re metallica. Basileae: H. Frobenium and N. Episcopium, 1561. The first edition was also printed by Froben in Basel in 1556.

[12] “Miners have been in all ages remarkable for their superstitious notions. The miners of Germany were said to be haunted by evil spirits, termed Kobolden by the miners; and those minerals having the appearance of rich ores, but which afforded nothing valuable, were considered the work of those evil spirits, and were named Kobold” (Jameson 1820, 279).

[13] “Table Talk” from The Works of Martin Luther (Martin 2009, lines 11405–11).

[14] According to H. C. Lea, the book was originally published in German in 1569 in Zurich (Lavater 1569 [translated into English by Harrison 1572]; see also Wilson and Yardley 1929). The earliest Latin edition seems to date from 1571 although many later editions were produced in various languages including Latin, French and English. The book remained popular well into the seventeenth century. For comments on Lavater and his beliefs in kobolds, see Lea (1939, vol. 2, 550), who used the 1659 Amsterdam edition of Lavater' work.

[15] This book also went through several editions into the seventeenth century, thus continuing the prevalence of the beliefs in kobolds.

[16] Lea noted that Valderrama was very credulous. Lea paraphrased Valderrama and did not provide direct quotes for the Valderrama material on kobolds. See Lea (1939, vol. 2, 550).