Duende (mythology)

This article is about the creature in mythology. For other uses, see Duende (disambiguation).

A sculpture representing a duende.

A duende is a fairy- or goblin-like mythological creature from Iberian, Latin American and Filipino folklore. Duendes may also have some traits similar to goblins and kobolds.

The word is often considered to be the Spanish and Portuguese equivalent of the English word "sprite" or the Japanese word yōkai and is used as an umbrella term for any fairy-like being such as goblins, pixies and elves. The Spanish term originated as a contraction of the phrase dueño de casa or duen de casa, "possessor of a house," and was originally conceptualized as a mischievous spirit inhabiting a house.

Usage

Portuguese

The word is also used in Portuguese folklore, being used to describe Goblins, pixies, brownies and leprechauns. They are believed to be of a small stature wearing big hats, whistling a mystical song, while walking in the forest. Using their talent, they are believed to lure young girls and boys to the forest causing them to lose their way home.

Latin America

Conversely, in some Latin American cultures, the 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, particularly amongst the country's African/Island Carib-descended Creole and Garifuna populations, Duende are thought of as a forest spirit called "Tata Duende" who lacks thumbs.

In 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 and it is said that they are most commonly found in the mossy cloud forests of the state's mountain ranges.

Philippines and Mariana Islands

Chamorro people in the Marianas tell tales of taotaomonas, duendes and other spirits. Duende, according to the Chamorro-English Dictionary by Donald Topping, Pedro Ogo and Bernadita Dungca, is a goblin, elf, ghost or spook in the form of a dwarf, a mischievous spirit which hides or takes small children.

Some Filipinos believe in dwende, which frequently live in rocks and caves, old trees, unvisited and dark parts of houses or in ant hills where they are called nuno sa punso (old man of the mound). They are either categorized as good or evil depending on their color, white or black, respectively, and often play with children.

Similar folklore

While its nature varies throughout Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Spanish-speaking America and the Philippines, analogues from other cultures include the Danish–Norwegian Nisse, the French lutin and Nain Rouge, the Irish clurichaun, leprechaun, and far darrig, the Manx fenodyree and mooinjer veggey, the Scottish/English brownie, the Welsh Tylwyth Teg, the Breton korrigan, the Swedish Tomte, and the Russian Domovoi.

The etymology of the word "duende" reinforces the equivalence to the latter (tomte from tomt="home") as it shares the same origin as the Portuguese word dono, "owner" (from the Latin word for house "domus"). As Federico García Lorca uses the term, it seems closer to fairy as a realm of being.

See also

• Tennin

External links

• Filipino Folklore: Aswang