Demons and goblins

There are no Jewish goblins. On the other hand, there are plenty of them throughout Denmark in the month of December. They tease, leave gifts and act in stories and songs. Some artists associated with the Jewish community have depicted them in forms where they appear in Danish homes, such as crawling elves.

The origin of the story of the little creatures is a little unclear. In Danish folklore, they appear as a kind of nature guardian, spirits with powers over nature. According to folklore, they are originally fallen angels who were thrown out of heaven along with Lucifer. They sprinkled down from the sky onto the earth and turned into different creatures depending on where they landed. Trolls in the mountains, elves in the forests, brook men in streams and therefore goblins on the farms.

It was important to stay good friends with them, otherwise they killed the animals or did damage to both people and crops. If you took good care of them, however, they helped in different ways. In many ways, they are somewhat reminiscent of house spirits or house gods. They were therefore also difficult to get rid of. The goblin often moved with them, as they say.

They are therefore demonic creatures, and as such they are also depicted in the 1500th century. Stories of fallen angels and demons abound in Jewish belief and culture, but as far as we know none parallel the story of the goblins.

It had to be the goblins that the Jewish legendary figure, Herschel of Ostropol from the Jewish folklore, defeated during the 8 days during Chanukkah, as you can read in the illustrated children's book by the Jewish author Eric Kimmel: "Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins” from 1990.