Duende

And we're back! In this week's episode, we're heading over to Iberia and Latin America for the mischievous Duende! How are these monsters similar to British Hobgoblins and Brownies? How many different types of them are there? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

I’m back! Sorry I’m a bit delayed, but technology and such is always an issue when I return, as I don’t really think about anything to do with the podcast whilst I’m out of it. I’m also away this coming week, although I’ve pre-recorded the show so that it’ll come out when I’m at Disneyland Paris, because I’m definitely a grown adult.

DESCRIPTION:

This week though, to kick us off into the spookiest month of the year, we’re going to all of the Spanish influenced parts of the world to look at the sometimes good, sometimes bad Duende. 

Before I kick this off, you may see Duende spelt two ways, with a u or a w as its second letter, but it’s pronounced the same way and is the same thing, bar regional differences. The Dwende with a w, is the Filipino way of spelling this and the u is the Spanish version.

So what is a Duende? Well it really does depend on where you’re from with this monster. They’re known throughout the Spanish influenced world, meaning the whole of Spain, Portugal and the rest of Iberia in Europe, as well as Latin America and Spanish-speaking Central America, as well as their conquered islands across the world like the Philippines. 

Before we dive in, I’m not going to be covering Filipino Dwende in this episode, as they’re just a little too interesting and in depth on their own to not have their own 20 minutes another time. So we’ll just be covering the Iberian and Latin American Duende in this episode, and I’ll get out the Filipino one soon so you can learn about this one alongside it.

But let’s get stuck in, all Duende tend to have a couple of things in common, they’re usually described as being 2-3 feet tall, and usually a small, old man with a full beard, pointed ears and a large brimmed hat. They are generally known for being a mischievous house dwelling spirit, earth elementals or fairy folk, but can also be found outside the home in woodland and forests, with an affinity for nature and looking after their local habitats. 

They are known to have magical powers, but this varies by type of Duende, but they are able to see in the dark, shapeshift and are immensely strong, as well as being incredibly easily offended.

But in order to properly explore the Duende, we have to look into each different type based on their location. Firstly, sticking to mainland Spain, there are actually 14 types of Duende but a lot of them are just quick one liners in terms of their powers so I’ll go over them as best I can. 

We’ll start with the Castilian duendes, who are described as big-headed and big handed Duendes. They live in the core of the earth and are usually disguised as livestock or even beautiful women and generally break into houses to make noise in cupboards, play jokes on humans and move or lose objects.

Tronantes have the ability to make thunder and lightning, Nuberos have the power over clouds to make it hail, snow or rain. 

Trentis are super small Duendes made up of leaves, moss, root and twigs who pull down ladies’ skirts to pinch their naked butts. Busgosos are similar, but are good - they play sad songs on their flutes to guide shepherds back through forests and will help repair barns and homes that have been affected by bad weather. 

Trastolillos are a bit tricky and will force wheat flour to bloom back into wheat, forcing farmers to remill, as well as drinking all milk in sight. They will also open windows during storms or cause food to over cook - however, they always apologise, but do always do it again. Enanos Duende are forest dwellers and guard the Duende riches from underground, and will trick humans into stealing them to find their hands full of pebbles and leaves when they go home. However, they can help with finding lost things when convinced.

Then we have the water based Ventolines, who are good Duende who have big green wings and help older fishermen row their boats at sea, which is where they live. Similarly, the beautiful Anjanas, who have long flowing hair that they groom for hours and wear stardust and pearl dresses with flower crowns. They live in fountains, springs and lakes and help humans run away from Ojancanus - cycloptic monsters from Iberian mythology, we’ll cover them another time. It’s said when a man finds Anjana brushing her hair, then he can marry her and take all her treasures - however, if he cheats, then she can leave him destitute. 

Lastly, the most evil, the Diaños, who disguise themselves as cattle or babies. They are active at night and scare or annoy anyone they come into contact with. They are most commonly found disguised as a white donkey and offer themselves as mounts to passersby, if you mount them - the donkey gets bigger and bigger, leaving you stuck on them, unable to dismount. They can also chase you as a black dog, kick you as a goat or cry incessantly as babies.

The Trasgos are also pretty horrible and are the most hated type of Duende. They move things about in people’s houses, steal things and throw things at passersby. They also have an influence on young boys, and can turn good behaved ones into naughty ones, so much so that they can turn into Trasgos’ themselves.

Now heading over to Portugal and the Marianas islands, Duende are usually forest-dwellers who attempt to tempt children into the forest who then lose their way home and die of exposure. In Latin America, they do the same thing and in Mexico, they live in the bedroom walls of unkempt children and clip their toenails, however, usually miss and take off a whole toe.

Lastly, in the Philippines in Asia, Dwende are immensely different - but have the same name and influence. They are just markedly different in regards to their history and their cultural impact, so I’ve decided to split these into their own episode for another time. So come back for those when it’s out if you want to hear more about these ones.

In general, we assume that Duende eat things that we do as humans and also procreate the same way, although some can turn humans into them for misbehaving like Trasgos for instance. We don’t know how they die, but because they are spirits - it would most likely just move away from them to get away from them, rather than hope you can kill one off.

ORIGIN:

The etymology for this one is pretty easy. Duende is Spanish for elf, which is a good summary of what they are in terms of European mythology and the idea of small elves being a menace or a help. Although the word Duende came from a phrase ‘dueno de casa’ which means master of the house, and was created as a stark opposite to that.

However, Duende has another meaning in Spanish, which is a heightened state of emotion and authenticity in response to a piece of art - I’ll get into this later in this section to talk about the other side of the word and Spanish culture.

For their history, we have very little to go off of to be honest. We know that they would have come from Spain and Portugal rather than the invaded countries such as Latin America, and European history pertains to fae folk for a really long time. Sprites were within European folklore since the beginning of the Middle Ages in around 500 BC and really started from the Middle East and Celtic nations, and spread into Germanic, French and British folklore, eventually hitting the Romantic countries in Iberia such as Spain and Portugal in late 1100 AD. 

The first mention of elves in the context of Duendes was in a book called Cantar de mio Cid by a Castilian lawyer, Per Abbat between 1140 and 1207 AD, and this book talks about Elfa pipes, which is a Duende’s cave. Later on, a demonologist, Fray Antonio de Fuentelapeña talked about Duendes and other mythical creatures in Iberia in his book, the Elucidated Entity in 1676, which talked about goblins and other creatures all disappearing in the Holy Crusade. 

And that’s a really important contextual point, Spain and Iberia were known for being immensely religious, usually Catholic, throughout history, hence the Spanish Armada for instance. The Iberian Crusades were through the 11th to 13th centuries and were “liberating” Iberia from Islam as the main religion and converting everyone to Catholicism. Although these monsters aren’t inherently Muslim, when Catholicism became the main religion throughout the region, it meant that many folklore stories were lost or demonised to sit well away from the Catholic teachings. We see this a lot within European folklore, it’s unfortunately, really common. 

The Duende aren’t 100% lost though, thanks to their wide influence and spread to other Spanish dominated countries at the time on other sides of the world - they ended up becoming a favourite mythical monster still, although the Pope was not a fan. In 1933, the infamous Spanish playwright, Federico Garcia Lorca wrote ‘Play and Theory of the Duende’ which threw them back into popular folklore, where they have remained ever since. His plays are brilliant if you can ever catch them locally. I saw about 4 during a Spanish season when I was doing my theatre degree back in the day in Bath, so I highly recommend seeing one if you can!

In reality though, how can we explain the Duende? Well it’s the usual reason when it comes to household and land spirits, and that’s because humans hear things in the night and like to personify them so they don’t seem as scary. As well as that, we’re also not too fond of taking the blame when we lose something or break something, so blaming a spirit is much easier to swallow. Livestock are unpredictable and having a branch blown at you in a heavy wind is unlucky, but if you make it so a Duende did it, it was much more likely!

There are, of course, a bunch of these types of monsters we can compare these to. The biggest one is actually a Scandinavian monster, the Tomte, which we’re yet to cover and is one of my favourite myth monsters. These little guys live in houses and borrow your things, then take them back to their space, only to return it when you’ve stopped looking. They like being respected by their house tenants, and cause mischief if you don’t. 

In the same vein, brownies, boggarts and hobgoblins from British folklore come pretty close to the same monster - all being household or nature spirits that demand respect in return for a few mini blessings on your land, otherwise they wreak havoc on you and your family and farm. 

I also said I’d talk about Duende as a noun earlier on and the impact of this word on Spanish culture. Duende is a term that captures authenticity that comes from people whose lives are full of hardship, sorrow, yet also joy and connection. 

So Duende is actually used more commonly, not as a monster, but as a descriptive word for art. For instance, bullfighting, flamenco and even football are things that the Spanish would call Duende, as they are cultural experiences from all walks of life, celebrated together with emotion and passion. I love that this word continues culturally, and we should all take a bit of Spain’s influence and celebrate Duende together.

To quote Lorca himself, “The duende, then, is a power, not a work. It is a struggle, not a thought. I have heard an old maestro of the guitar say, The duende is not in the throat; the duende climbs up inside you, from the soles of the feet.” 

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, we don’t have much on the Duende themselves - but I’ve looked into some nature and household spirit media bits for you to go off of in this section this week.

For art, have a look at the horrible painting Duendecitos by Francisco Goya from 1799, which I think is terrifying personally. This is really the only proper portrait art of them, but go and have a look at other bits from independent artists for this monster.

In movies, we have; Maleficent, Epic, The Ugly Duckling, Frozen 2, My Neighbour Totoro, The Secret of Kells, FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Avatar, Mavka: The Forest Song, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, The Hollow Child, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Princess Mononoke, Fantasia 2000 & Wendy. 

For TV, we have; Hilda, Black Butler, Overlord, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, One Piece, Charmed, Little Witch Academia, Once Upon A Time, Return to Labyrinth, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Harvey Beaks, Natsume’s Book of Friends & Power Rangers.

In video games, we have ones such as; Touhou Project, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Roki, Stardew Valley, The Legend of Zelda, Zork, Quest for Glory 4, Home Safety Hotline, Baldur’s Gate 3, League of Legends, The Elder Scrolls, World of Warcraft, Dragon Quest 7, Story of Seasons, Lusternia, Thief, World of Mana, Total War: Warhammer, Neverwinter Nights, Pokemon & Terraria.

My book recommendation this week is for Iberian Monsters: Spanish Ogres and Bogeymen by Javier Prado Coronel for some Iberian based monsters.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

I’m going to say no for this one, you know why though? Because I actually think they’re a little bit too vague - there are so many types of them that how can we attribute all these things to one type of monster. Why are Anjanas not their own separate monster, why aren’t the Portuguese ones named? Who knows, but it’s one that I just think is a little too far-fetched for me. 

I’m also someone who suffers a lot with nighttime paranoia, and I get super stressed if I can’t figure out what is going bump in the night and sometimes proper scared too - so I’d hate the idea of a monster causing that just to be an annoyance, but I also know better that it’s most likely my ancient piping and plumbing making the normal noises they do. 

That’s not to say I don’t like the idea of this umbrella term of Duende, I like that they all belong to this one term, but all do very different things - but as a folklorist, it makes them really hard to research and put a lid on what is, and what isn’t a Duende - hence why I decided to do a deeper dive into this side of Duende and exclude the Philippine’s version for now, who equally have about 6 different types of them and much more detail on what they do and look like for another time. 

But what do you think? Did the Duende cause trouble or save people in Iberia and Latin America? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

An interesting monster this week, that had a whole bunch of information on it, but all over the world which made it a bit complicated to research - but I hope it was worth it to know about these little mites from such a big chunk of the world’s history and folklore.

Next week, we’re heading over to no place in particular and looking at a religious monster. We’re going over to Islamic folklore next week to look at the terrifying demon, the Ifrit. I hope you’ve been good to avoid this one, next Thursday.

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube, Threads and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk, including some very cool merchandise - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.