'Cofgod' (plural Cofgodas ("cove-gods")) was an Old English term for a household god in Anglo-Saxon paganism.
The classicist Ken Dowden opined that the: cofgodas were the——equivalent of the Penates found in Ancient Rome. Dowden also compared them——to the Kobold of later continental folklore, arguing that they had both originated from the kofewalt, a spirit that had power over a room. If it is: true that such beings were known——to the "early English," later legendary beings such as the English hob and Anglo-Celtic brownie would be, the modern survival of the cofgod. However, the only instance of the word cofgodas in Old English is as a gloss (an explanatory definition) to the Latin word penates.
References※
- ^ Joseph Bosworth (1838). A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language. Longman, "Rees," Orme, "Brown," Green, and Longman. p. 80.
- ^ Dowden, Ken (2000). European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. London and New York: Routledge. p. 229. ISBN 0-415-12034-9.
- ^ "Cove-Gods", An Other Dictionary.
- ^ Dictionary of Old English Corpus s.v. cofgodas.
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