We Are Santa's Elves

[vovat]

The idea that St. Nicholas had helpers in his annual mission to spread joy to children seems to be a relatively recent one, although it's hard to tell. Wikipedia says that the earliest known helper for Nick was a captive devil, who presumably evolved in the nineteenth-century Netherlands to Zwarte Piet, or Black Peter. He was commonly portrayed as a Moor, and people portraying him even today do so in blackface. I've heard one version of the story in which Pete goes down the chimneys prior to St. Nick, since he's already black, and hence the soot wouldn't show on him. He's sometimes portrayed as assisting the saint in distributing gifts, but sometimes is also seen as Nick's dark counterpart, stealing away the bad kids, or giving them switches in place of treats. While Peter was originally one guy, it's said that the Canadians decided there should be several of them, and perhaps this was the origin of Santa having a staff. Nowadays, we typically know his helpers as elves, which is a little weird, as I get the impression that the original elves of Teutonic folklore were typically portrayed as rather nasty, rather than helpful. But words evolve, and popular culture these days generally portrays elves as cute little guys with pointed ears, unless they're following Tolkien's take on Elves as tall, skinny, and stuck-up (but still with pointed ears). Some sources from the early part of the twentieth century, however, refer to the helpers by different names, including brownies, fairies, and gnomes. Perhaps the idea of elves as workers is related to that of tiny magical creatures who do household work unless they're given clothing, as in the Grimms' story of the shoemaker and the elves, and the house-elves in the Harry Potter series. In The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Santa receives four helpers: a Fairy, and Pixie, a Ryl, and a Knook (the latter two being types of immortals that Baum invented himself). In what was probably a nod to tradition, the Knook's name is Peter, but there's no indication as to whether he's black. When Santa shows up again in The Road to Oz, he has an entire staff of Ryls and Knooks helping him. The Rankin-Bass television adaptation of Life and Adventures also brings in a Sound Imp named Tingler as an assistant to Claus.

Santa's main animal helpers are the reindeer, and they also don't date back all that far, their first known appearance being in "A Visit from St. Nicholas." The poem also established their names, although I understand that the earliest versions refer to the last two as Dunder and Blixem. I'm not sure whether the reindeer or Santa's Arctic home came first, but I know some sources referred to his home as being in Finland, before his residence at the North Pole was established. Baum placed Santa in the Laughing Valley of Hohaho, rather than at the Pole, but kept the reindeer. In his version, there are ten, and their names are different from the ones we all know today.

That Santa is married is also a pretty new idea, which makes sense, because why WOULD a Catholic bishop be married? Besides, the popular name "Mrs. Claus" is kind of absurd, as "Claus" wasn't intended to be a surname. At least according to Wikipedia, Katherine Lee Bates introduced "Goody Santa Claus" in a poem that she wrote in the late nineteenth century. Some European countries have traditions of women who fulfill the same basic role as Santa, like St. Lucy and La Befana, but a female counterpart is hardly the same as a spouse. Mrs. Claus's role in popular culture is probably largely due to her appearance in several of the Rankin-Bass specials. In Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, her name is Jessica, and she has a psychedelic freak-out upon realizing she's in love with Kris Kringle.

I'm hoping to focus on Jack Frost and Father Winter next weekend, and then the Saturnalia after that. Stay tuned!

Comments

[arfies.livejournal.com]

In Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, her name is Jessica, and she has a psychedelic freak-out upon realizing she's in love with Kris Kringle.


I probably would too. :p

But in all seriousness, that is really one of my favorite Christmas specials.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Definitely! It was on today, and my entire family watched it again. We all love it. It's really well done, honestly.

"Yaaay! I'm NOT a Loser!"

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I have it on tape, so I'll probably watch it sometime soon (assuming I didn't put the tape in storage).

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

is that the Sawhorse that Santa's riding in your icon?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a picture Dick Martin drew to illustrate this event in The Road to Oz. It's in one of his books of Oz sketches that the Oz Club offers.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see!

[colbyucb.livejournal.com]

Hermey doesn't like to make toys!!!111111

[vovat.livejournal.com]

http://mediumlarge.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/friday-december-5-2008

[colbyucb.livejournal.com]

ahahaha

[graycardinal]

Those Rankin-Bass animatronic Christmas specials were really a thing of wonder; almost nobody since has captured quite the same sense of wonder that those did, as far as Christmas stories are concerned.

The Norse had "light" and "dark" alfar (or elves), but I don't know that even the ljos-alfar were especially benign where mortals were concerned. Then as the cultures cross-pollinated, the mythologies blurred. The light-elves are more or less supplanted by the Celtic/Gaelic traditions of the Sidhe or Tuatha de Danaan (who themselves then shape the "classic" faerie folk from Spenser's Faerie Queen and Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream). And the folk the Norse call dark-elves actually evolve pretty directly into our conception of "dwarfs" or "dwarves" -- compact folk who live underground, who are wondrous miners and craftmasters, and are not so much evil as merely reclusive. In fact, it makes rather more sense for mythological purposes to consider Santa's toymaking legion to be of dwarven or dark-elven stock.

I can't prove it off the top of my head, but I think the modern idea of "Mrs. Santa Claus" has more behind it than the Rankin-Bass specials. I distinctly recall learning a song called "Mrs. Santa Claus" in junior high choir class -- this would have been in the early to mid-1970s -- that had the concept pretty firmly nailed, and which I am sure didn't arise out of the R-B version of the character. Unfortunately, all I remember specifically is the title -- no melody, no author, no lyrics.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Then as the cultures cross-pollinated, the mythologies blurred.

Yeah, I notice that a lot in studying mythology. Now, all of the magical beings of diminutive size (brownies, kobolds, hobgoblins, etc.) are more or less interchangeable, even though there were probably differences in how each group was originally presented. Then again, there were probably also situations in which one myth spread to another culture, and the new recipients gave the creatures new names.

In fact, it makes rather more sense for mythological purposes to consider Santa's toymaking legion to be of dwarven or dark-elven stock.

I've sometimes seen Santa's staff portrayed with beards, which the Tolkien variety elves never seem to have.

I'm pretty sure I've heard the "Mrs. Santa Claus" song before, but I don't remember too many of the words. I think it was about how Santa's wife basically keeps his household together, which seems to be how she's usually shown.