Krampus: book review

Krampus and the old dark christmas: roots and rebirth of the folkloric devil

Al Ridenour, Feral House, 2016

ISBN 9781627310345

An adventure into the world of the traditional Krampus: the horned, furred wildman companion of St Nicholas in central ad northern Europe. From the Netherlands Swart Piet to Italian carnivale, Al Ridenour in Krampus and the old dark christmas explores the history of this, and other, exciting figures out of local folk traditions.

The charting of Krampus-like figures across the area is fascinating: a mixture of witches, angels and wandering Saints, meeting multi-horned beastfolk, wooden masks, stuffed animals on ‘table hats”. There are processions in the company of controlling saintly figures, dramas that sound remarkably similar to British mumming plays  and wilder runs where saintly restraint is removed. But they are surprisingly restrained: ferocious characters who are never quite as fiercesome as they seem to be.

Not a Krampus but wanted to be included

The book explores the images of winter characters and their place in local history. It makes for fascinating reading. Ridenour looks with somewhat sceptical eyes at various interpretations of the Krampus and their cousins: considering how 19th Century gathering of folklore to reinforce various theories (eg the brothers Grimm and the desire to find a northern European or Scandinavian root in everything). Then there is the very J G Fraser Golden-Bough-flavoured ancient fertility cults interpretations of the early 20th Century, on through to contemporary pagan desires for Krampus and his cousins to be relics of pre-Christian practice. He sensibly considers all of these and more without coming to his own conclusion but does make a lovely point about why our medieval predecessors should not have simply had a sense of fun and that mischief and glee might have run alongside other ideas in the evolution of the Krampus Runs.

It goes on: there is a lot of information here. It can be confusing reading at times. It feels like there is so much here that one gets lost in a maze ofsaints and saint days and descriptions. A bit like eating too much Christmas cake: an idnviudal mouthful or two is rich and tasty, too much and you need to go and lie down quietly somewhere. Stepping back and trying to get some perspective on its all is tricky.  A table might have been helpful charting Dates, Places and Characters?

Frau Perchte maybe?

Ridenour gathered his information directly: speaking to “performers” and local anthropologists and artists. It would be interesting to see how he felt about work like Alford’s Hobby Horse book (see below). This is good work and a good book. Hard going at times - more because i felt overwhelmed by detail rather than anything else but exciting and tempting and provoking. I know I want Krampus to be embodiments of wild winter and snow on forest trees blowing in from the hills to bring the Wild Hunt. And that is OK. A lot of people might see it as just a bit of fun, others may find something spiritual in their Running, still others may be involved to support local traditions and protect a sense of local disntinctiveness. It can all be true - either now or next as the Krampus traditions continue to grow and evolve




 

Related books from my bookshelves
Alford, Violet: The Hobby Horse and Other Animal Masks, Merlin 1978 - based on work done much earlier in the 20th Century - fascinating
Brom: Krampus: the Yule Lord ( a novel)
Freger, Charles: Wilder Mann, the image of the savage, Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2012 - beautiful photos
Lake, Matt: Krampus Carols, ancient and modern, Createspace - great fun!
Mallory, Michael: The Art of Krampus, Insight Editions, 2015: image and design from the film "Krampus"

There is a CD
Teho Teardo: Music for a Wildermann: a bit too restrained and classical for my taste: I wanted more big cow bells, drums and maybe some screams and howls…..