From Kobolds to Goblins: The Full History of How Cobalt Got Its Name

The subterranean spirits are those who dwell in caverns and other recesses of the earth, where they kill or suffocate or render insane miners in search of precious metals. The Germans call them Kobolds. They are gnomes, dwarfs not over an ell in height, and they help in cutting stones, getting out metals, packing them in baskets and hauling to the surface. They laugh and whistle and perform a thousand tricks, but their services often redound to the injury and death of those whom they serve. They cut the ropes, break the ladders, cause the fall of rocks, send poisonous vapor; and you will see rich mines abandoned for the fear of them . . . It is they who cause earthquakes . . . They are not only the guardians of the mines, but of hidden treasures, which they allow no one to take… 

-Pedro de Valderrama (c. 1617)^[1]

By the 16^th century, the Ore Mountains of Saxony (known in German as the Erzgebirge) had already been mined for silver for over three centuries. The Ore Mountains run south of Freiberg along what is now the German-Czech border, extending for about 150km (90 miles) east to west and 40km (25 miles) north to south. 

One of the earliest references to mining in the area was in a contract dated in the year 1237, which noted a number of swords would be paid for with “good silver from Schneeberg”, one of the key mining centres of the Erzgebirge.^[2]

By 1500, scores of tin and silver mines, employing thousands of miners, covered the Ore Mountains. But silver ore grades were declining in the region and, as mines went deeper below ground in search of more silver, they only seemed to encounter more flooding. At the same time, European ships had just started to bring significant and increasing shipments of silver from the New World. This only increased pressure on the investors financing Saxon silver mines.^[3]

One can only imagine the working conditions of medieval mines: Lit only by candle and torch light, shafts were dug and ore broken by pickaxe. If an ore wall proved too hard, scalding water was poured on it to cause thermal cracking, but this often resulted in cave-ins. This process, along with smoke from the torches and gases released by water seepage, resulted in toxic fumes that had to be vented or fanned through the shafts, lest whole work crews were lost to poisoning. Work hours and conditions were as the mine owners deemed fit. 

In this era of proto-science and alchemists, chronic illnesses caused by the exposure and inhalation of toxic metals and compounds were often attributed to superstitious explanations. 

Above the mines, great changes were reshaping Saxony and Europe; Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Holy Roman Church in 1521 and Protestantism had begun spreading through Europe, challenging centuries of domination by the Vatican. The bubonic plague still regularly swept through towns of Europe, including an epidemic that spread from Zurich in the 1560s.^[4] Meanwhile, inexplicable events that were deemed malicious often resulted in witch trials. The Rottenburg witch trials led to the deaths of 150 people in Germany and Austria between 1578 and 1609. 

In this environment, it is not surprising that those working in the mines turned to the supernatural in order to explain the strange occurrences underground. In the Ore Mountains, this took the form of kobolds. 

Kobolds were believed to be mischievous sprite-like creatures that likely evolved from kobalos (Κόβαλος) of Greek mythology. 

While in southern Europe, these prank-loving, elusive beings were more often described as domestic trouble-makers known for spoiling fresh milk, moving tools or even helping with household chores. But, as stories of the temperamental creatures began being recorded in Germany around the 13^th century they also entered into the mines. In fact, the German name kobold likely derived from kobe meaning “cavity” or “hollow in rock” in Middle-German. 

It is also possible that kobolds were a confluence of cultures; from the south came the prankster kobalos sprites, whereas from the north came stories of Norse mine-dwelling dwarves. The two mythologies likely amalgamated in the medieval Ore Mountains as mines and mining communities were growing. Regardless, from 1500 onwards the kobolds ruled the Erzgebirge. 

In the mines, it was said that kobolds would throw rocks as a warning of danger to miners (although some could argue that falling rocks indicated a pending cave-in), while aboveground ores that would not melt or that gave off toxic fumes were surely cursed by the little creatures. 

As the silver content in Saxon mines was in decline by the late 1500s, ores that produced more bluish compounds in place of silver became increasingly prevalent. We now know these to be cobaltite (CoAsS) and smaltite (CoAs₂), both of which contain arsenic and cobalt and are common to the Erzgbirge. But, at the time, the only explanation for the toxic fumes and lack of silver was kobolds. The association with kobolds would follow this difficult to process, low silver-bearing ore from the Erzgbirge through the centuries. 

Georg Bauer (better known as Georgius Agricola) was born on the northern edge of the Ore Mountain region in 1494. Staunchly catholic in this era of reformation, Agricola studied at the University of Leipzig before heading to Italy in 1523 to train as a physician. Upon returning to Saxony three years later, Agricola settled in the heart of the Ore Mountains, working as a physician and pharmacist in Joachimsthal, Zwickau and Chemnitz. 

A great deal of his patients would have been miners injured in cave-ins, suffering from the effects of noxious fumes or the countless other occupational hazards of medieval mining. No doubt, these miners would have also shared with Agricola stories about the kobolds that may have caused their bad luck. 

The inquisitive doctor became particularly curious about mines and the mining industry. Around 1526, he started travelling throughout the mining regions of Europe conducting his own research on mines, geology, minerals and ore processing. Agricola, consequently, began work on what has been described as the “first encyclopedic analysis of metal and minerals ever written.”^[5]

De Re Metallica (translated as On the Nature of Metals) was published shortly after Agricola’s death in 1556 and was notable not only for its thorough research on all topics related to geology, mining and industrial metal extraction, but also for its reliance on modern scientific methods based in observation and inductive analysis. This stood in contrast to similar pre-enlightenment works that were still heavily based in the mystical, religious and superstitious. 

De Re Metallica and Agricola’s preceding work De Natura Fossilium (1546) established Agricola as the father of mineralogy. So highly regarded was he that Goethe likened him to Francis Bacon.^[6]

Yet, despite Agricola’s adherence to scientific reasoning, De Re Metallica made numerous references to kobolds. He went so far as to describe their appearance; “around two feet tall and wearing a filleted garment with a leather apron”.^[7] He goes on, saying that they would mimic the miners, giggle in cheerfulness, pretend to doing many things while actually doing nothing, and had a tendency to throw stones at miners. 

In 1912, De Re Metallica was first translated in English by mining engineer Herbert Hoover (later the 31^st President of the United States) and his wife Lou Henry Hoover. The Hoovers commented in their translation that Agricola’s belief in kobolds was “remarkable in view of (Agricola’s) very general skepticism regarding the supernatural.” And that “the presence of demons and gnomes in the mines was so general a belief that Agricola fully accepted it.”^[8]

The belief in kobolds may have been spreading through Europe organically, but it also received a huge boost in 1555 with the publishing of Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (translated as A Description of Northern Peoples). The epic, written by the highly respected Roman Catholic Archbishop of Uppsala and participant of the council of Trent, Olaus Magnus, consists of 22 books (476 chapters) and outlines the history and folklore of the peoples of northern Europe. Focused on the writer’s homeland of Sweden, it also covers many other national cultures with a particular interest in myth and lore, making numerous references to kobold mining. A Description of the Northern Peoples was written in Latin but by 1665 had been translated into Italian, English, Dutch, French and German, spreading word of the kobold. 

Interestingly, Magnus had traveled from Sweden to Italy in 1523 – the same year as Agricola – and one can wonder whether the two northerners crossed paths during their time at the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. 

Johann Mathesius, a Lutheran minister known for his compilation of Martin Luther’s Table Talk wrote in 1562:

“Sometimes, however, from dry hard veins a certain black, greenish, grey or ash-coloured earth is dug out, often containing good ore, and this mineral being burnt gives strong fumes and is extracted like ‘tutty.’ … You miners call it cobelt. Germans call the Black Devil and the old Devil’s furies, old and black cobel, who injure people and their cattle with their witchcrafts… fresh cobalt and kisswasser devour the hands and feet of miners, and the dust and fumes of cobalt kill many mining people and workpeople who do much work among the fumes of the smelters. Whether or not the Devil and his hellish crew gave their name to cobelt, or kobelt, nevertheless, cobelt is a poisonous and injurious metal even if it contains silver.”.^[9]

By the late 16^th century, the term kobold had firmly affixed itself to the ores of the Erzgebirge that were gave off noxious fumes and resulted in blue-producing compounds. These ores were not without value. While cobalt-based dyes had been used across continents for thousands of years, after 1600 there seemed to be a realisation of the value of the cobalt ores of Saxony.

Between 1540 and 1560, it was discovered that the cobalt-arsenide ores could be roasted and mixed with a potassium-rich flux to form a blue glass referred to as zaffre (saffre). This could then be mixed with quartz, sand or potash and melted to obtain difference grades of smalt glass. ^[10] Zaffre and smalt were dying compounds used to colour anything from glass and porcelain to paints. 

By 1654, 34 mines in the Ore Mountain region produced over 260 metric tonnes of cobalt ore per year.^[11]These ores were converted to smalt before being exported around the world. 

Chemical assays of Qing Dynasty porcelain from the early 18^th century have found chemical impurities, namely arsenic, that fingerprint their blue dye source as the Ore Mountains of Saxony.^[12]

Cobalt dye, particularly in the form of smalt, was a global trade. Yet, cobalt – the element – had still not been isolated; Many still believed the blue colouring was related to bismuth, which was the last identifiable element to be extracted from the ores before they were converted to smalt. Consequently, kobold as an identifier followed this strange compound that produced blue glass and toxic gases.

That was until 1742 when a Swedish scientist named Georg Brandt successfully isolated elemental cobalt from a German ore and proved that it was responsible for the blue colouration. His choice to call the new element cobalt reflected how tightly associated the term kobold had become with ores from the Erzgebirge. But the story of the kobold did not end there. 

As the lore of the kobold spread north from Saxony, it crossed the English Channel and appeared as coblynau in Welsh mines and quarries. Much like the German kobold, these knockers of Cornish lore helped miners find the best veins of ore by knocking on the walls of the mine.

The term goblin was first used in English in the 14^thcentury, and likely evolved from Middle-English and Old French, which both used gobelin, following the Medieval Latin gobelinus. Stories of mischievous little creatures with a penchant for cave-dwelling and throwing stones remained the same.  

In more modern times, however, the goblin began to take on a more sinister personality. The Princess and the Goblin, a children’s novel first published in the United Kingdom in 1872 tells of goblins that are seeking revenge on humans that have banished them to the mines.

At various points the goblins attempt to abduct a young princess and marry her to the goblin king, as well as imprison and attempt to starve a young miner; A Victorian-era children’s fantasy novel, indeed. 

Perhaps the novel’s most important role in the history of kobolds and goblins was its influence on a young writer named JRR Tolkien. Tolkien openly acknowledged that the orcs and goblins found in The Hobbit were influenced by George Mcdonald’s The Princess and the Goblin. 

Following The Hobbit, goblins became thoroughly embedded in English-language fiction. Today, the creatures are found in countless books, comics, movies, television shows, video and board games, as well as in at least one fantasy role playing game. Cobalt is no longer considered cursed, and is still used in dyes and ceramics, as well as in high temperature alloys and as a critical component of lithium-ion batteries. 

– Terence Bell / October 2022

Further reading:
I highly recommend a paper by Jane P. Davidson and Christopher John Duffin from 2012 titled, “Stones and Spirits” published in Folklore (123:1, pp. 99-109). For more information on Georgius Agricola, Beverly Ballaro wrote a brief but excellent biography entitled Georgius Agricola. (2017). Accessed through EBSCOhost / MasterFile Premier (Oct. 2022). ISBN 9781429808453.
Websites:
Schneeberg Mining Landscape.
Link: http://www.montanregion.cz/en/saxon-component-parts/schneeberg-mining-landscape.html
Landwehr, D. De Re Metallica – a 16th-century bestseller.
Link: https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2022/01/agricolas-16th-century-bestseller/
The Project Gutenberg EBook of De Re Metallica, by Georgius Agricola. Translated by: Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover.
Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38015/38015-h/38015-h.htm#Footnote_21_166
Drake, Lon. “The Curse of the Kobolds”.
Link: https://buroaklandtrust.org/the-curse-of-the-kobolds/

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^[1] Valderrama, Pedro de. Histoire Generale due Monde et de la Nature (1617-1619). From: Lea, Henry Charles. Materials Toward a History of Witchcraft. 3 vols. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1939.

^[2] Bergbaum Museum. History Schneeberg. Link: https://www.bergbaumuseum.it/en/schneeberg/location-schneeberg/history-907.html

^[3] In order to finance the dig for deeper ores and address increasing flooding, Saxon mines were some of the earliest mining companies to sell shares (kuxe). Jenks, Stuart. “The First Bubble: Silvermining in the Saxon Erzbirge, c. 1470-1540”. (2019)

^[4] Gunnoe, Charles. “Gessner’s Plague: The Bubonic Plague Epidemic of 1562–1566”. Conrad Gessner (1516-1565): Die Renaissance der Wissenschaften (The Renaissance of Learning), edited by Urs Leu and Peter Opitz, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2019, pp. 295-310. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110499056-015

^[5] Ballaro, Beverly. Georgius Agricola. 2017. ISBN 9781429808453.

^[6] Ibid 

^[7] Agricola, G. De Re Metallica. 1556, p. 78. Translated by Hoover and Hoover. 1912, p. 217. 

^[8] Ibid 

^[9] Nürnberg. Sarepta oder Bergpostill, (1562) contains the following passage (p. 154). Taken from Davidson, J. & C. Duffin. “Stones and Spirits”, Folklore, 123: 1, Pp. 99-109.  

^[10] B. Bajnóczi, G. et al. (2014). “Archaeometric characterization of 17th-century tin-glazed Anabaptist (Hutterite) faience artefacts from North-East-Hungary”. Journal of Archaeological Science. 45, Pp. 1-14.

^[11] Ibid.

^[12] Giannini, R. et al. “European cobalt sources identified in the production of Chinese famille rose porcelain”. Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 80, 2017, Pp. 27-36,

Image Sources:
Image 1: Historical mining map of Saxony and the Erzgebirge by Pieter Schenk (1752). Source: Gotzfried Antique Maps. https://www.vintage-maps.com/en/antique-maps/europe/germany/saxony/schenk-saxony-erzgebirge-ore-mountains-1752-56::12589
Image 2: The process of removing kobelt, likely the cobalt-arsenic-bismuth minerals common in Saxony, from ore, as depicted in De Re Metallica. Note: Agricola, G. De Re Metallica. 1556, p. 435.
Image 3: Back of the Annaberg Mountain Alter, 1522. Agricola made direct reference to monsters “at Annaberg, who killed more than 12 workers in a pit called Rosenkranz with his breath. The breath gushed out of his throat. His neck was said to have been long like that of a horse and his eyes were wild.’ Source Wikimedia. Hans Hesse, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. 
Image 4: Illustrations from Description of the Northern Peoples. The top illustration shows a mining landscape, a miner (on the left) and a kobald (shadow on the right). The bottom illustration shows a kobold-like figures influencing the lives of miners, workers and sailors. Ohaus, M. Description of the Northern Peoples. 1555, Book 6, Ch 10. Website: https://www.avrosys.nu/prints/prints28-olausmagnus.htm
Image 5:   18^th Century Qing-era porcelain tea cup with underglaze cobalt blue. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain. Website: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/48071
Image 6: The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1920. Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons