Agricola (16th century), one of the greatest writers of the Middle Ages, repeatedly mentions little people in his book On Underground Minerals. Om claims that underground spirits are demons and are divided into, two types: some - similar to young pygmies, others - decrepit, crooked old men. The places where they live are most often rich in minerals or precious metals.
The medieval bishop Olaf Magnus describes in his writings six groups of mountain gnomes, but he considers them to be the offspring of Satan. Underground spirits, according to Magnus, often appear in mines and pretend to help the miners. But in reality they seek to thwart the workers. The miners, having found nothing where the dwarfs have already been, begin to swear loudly and blaspheme - the forces of evil, of course, need only that.
Along with this, there are legends telling about the good attitude of the gnomes to people. These cases, first of all, refer to silver mines. For example, in the old mine Markirche, which has existed in Alsace since 963, a 100-kilogram nugget of silver was found in 1539, and at the end of the next century - a 500-kilogram! In those places, it was believed that the Mountain Spirit ruled in the mine, which helps the miners and does not skimp on gifts. In Alsace there is even a beautiful legend about the love of the Mountain Spirit for an earthly girl, the daughter of one of the workers. But the beauty only laughed at the poor fellow. Then the Spirit decided to leave his possession, but at parting he still presented his beloved with a rose made of pure silver. It is still kept in Alsace and has magical properties. Whenever a happy event awaits the family, the flower opens,and if misfortune is coming - tightly squeezes the petals. According to legend, gnomes were found not only in silver mines. The similarity of the closest mineral relatives of iron - cobalt and nickel - surprisingly begins with the names of Kobold and Nickel - nicknames of mountain gnomes. Kobold got used to stealing the precious mineral directly from the ore, and Nickel specialized in copper ores.
The ore spoiled by these demons was called kupfernickel by the miners, which differed little from copper ore. But when putting it into the oven, a cloud of poisonous smoke suddenly rose, smelling like a garlic stench! The miners endured the tricks of the mischievous dwarfs for a long time, until in the 16th century the young son of the pharmacist Christopher Schührer finally revealed the secret of cobalt. After incredible efforts and many days of experiments, he managed to get a beautiful blue paint from the harmful metal. Now it is used to make the famous cobalt blue porcelain.
From time immemorial, underground dwarfs have been considered the keepers of treasures. True, they do not want to part with their wealth and severely punish those who dare to disturb their peace. Theologian Boden in his Demonomalia tells how a group of young lovers of easy money from the city of Magdeburg learned that untold treasures were buried under one of the city's old towers. Armed with shovels, the young people set to work. But as soon as they began to dig, they heard a terrible noise, some voices, and after that the tower collapsed, burying all the unfortunate under the rubble.
On the island of Malta, during one of the crusades, two knights met a sorcerer, who assured them of his ability to find the kla-ChchDY. He promised them treasures in exchange for his ransom from slavery. The word was given to the sorcerer, and all three went after him to the cache, where the magician began to dig. When the goal was already close, the sorcerer decided to take a break and asked the knights to bring him water. Coming back, the friends heard loud cries for help. Having run up to the place where the treasure hunter remained, they saw his corpse, striped with cruciform incisions. The knights carried the corpse to the seashore, threw it with a stone on its feet into the water and, crossing themselves, went home … The image of the ruler of the mountains is often found in Russian folklore. This is the famous Mistress of the Copper Mountain, sung with great love by the storyteller Bazhov. Usually "our" gnomes are kinder and more accommodating than their European counterparts.
It is believed that the mysterious inhabitants of the dungeons are still found today. There is a whole cycle of legends about the White and Black cavers. The former helps the cave explorers, the latter mixes.
Some researchers of anomalous phenomena suggest that the world where we are lucky enough to be, consists of two parts - physical and non-physical. The vast majority of people do not perceive the second world. And only a select few are able to see him and make contact with him.
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All forces and entities operating in the non-physical world are divided into "black" and "white". The former are constantly attracted to the physical world by the energy of living beings, primarily people. Devilish forces are deprived of the ability to reproduce their own kind. Therefore, they incarnate in the physical world due to human energy. This, obviously, is the mechanism for the appearance of brownies, mermaids, goblin and other evil spirits. Some of them do good, others - evil, and all together for many centuries coexist with people, giving rise to more and more legends.
Alexandra WHITE. UFO number 33, 2002