How Fairytales are Created
Blacksmiths
The Folkloric Power of the Blacksmith Smith
The craftsmen in the oldest stories are, to tell the truth, only on rare occasions human. They are gods who shape the world around them, or are faeries. Many mythical blacksmiths are known to Western culture, the most recognizable might be Hephaestus who crafts the lightning bolts for Zeus (Gantz 1993:74). He is not the most powerful of the legendary smiths; that title might go to Ilmarinen, the hero smith of the Finnish Kalevala, who forged the heavens, a sun and moon, and a bride of gold and silver (Rhys 1915:93). Or the honor of being the most powerful might go to Goibniu, the smith to the Tuatha de Dannan (a group of Irish elves) who gives his people the drink of immortality (Gregory 1904:78-80). The most prolific, and my favorite, mythical smith is Wayland (or Völund) who appears throughout many Northern sagas including: The Poetic Edda (Bellow 1923), Beowulf (Williamson 2011), and Deor (Williamson 2011). His tale is one of woe and despair that provided entertainment for fire-lit listeners throughout the centuries.
Their skulls,
once hid by their hair, he took,
Set them in
silver and sent them to Nithuth;
Gems full fair from
their eyes he fashioned,
To Nithuth’s
wife so wise he gave them.
And from the
teeth of
the twain he wrought
A brooch for the
breasts, to Bothvild he sent it;
(Bellows 1923:263)
Through
trickery and a bit more deception, Wayland raped Bothvild, the daughter of
Nithuth. After explaining to the king
all he did, Wayland flew away laughing on a set of magic wings he had crafted
(Budd and Taylor 1995:130). The poem Deor makes reference to the distress
Bothvild suffers over the ensuing pregnancy (Williamson 2011: 138). Though not included in the Völundarkvitha, Wayland and Bothvild are
reconciled, and their son, Widia, becomes a great hero (Williamson 2011:139).
 |
| The Franks Casket with a picture of Wayland in his smithy. |
Somebody
‘uld come and John would tell ‘em “Sit down.”
He’d trick a man into helpin’ him
hammer somethin’ with
that big sledge-and let it shake ‘em a while ‘fore he’d
make it turn loose.
And if anybody
happen to brush against that firebush hit would grab ‘em
and they’d get
scratched up right pitiful, but old John he ‘uld just laugh
and let ‘em stay
stuck till he got ready to let ‘em go (Yolen 1986:361).
When
the devil and his sons come to collect John’s wicked soul, the smith tricks
each into using one of the enchanted items.
In exchange for being released, the devil and his sons promise never to
take John’s soul. When John is ready to
die, he is unable to enter Heaven or Hell.
So the devil gives him a set of tongs and a piece of glowing coal to
light his way as he wanders the earth.
Some versions of the tale recount that this was the creation of
jack-o-lantern or the cause of will-o-wisps.
Throughout the tale, John’s cunning ability to use magic marks him as
being different from the rest of his community.
In the end, this leads to his isolation and outcast state.
There are two other tales, The Smith of Wooton Major by J. R. R.
Tolkien and the Scottish folktale The Smith and the Fairies, which
demonstrate how the smith’s skills are increased through interaction with
faeries. Each tale follows the son of a
smith who becomes greater than his father through magic. The Smith’s son of The Smith and the Fairies is taken into Faerie through a faerie
hill by magic and there he crafts items for them (Douglas 1977:128). After the young smith is rescued by his
father, he sits for a year and a day without speaking, until one day without
warning he springs up, take the tools from his father and exclaims “‘That is
not the way to do it’;…he set to work himself in his [father’s] place, and soon
fashioned a sword the like of which was never seen in the country” (Douglass
1977:128). Their weapons became famous
throughout the land and surpassed by none.
In a similar fashion The Smith of
Wooton Major is given a special gift by the faeries that allow him to
travel to Faerie and, most important, increases his skills as a smith. Smith surpasses his father’s skill. Everything he crafts is strong and lasting,
but also has a grace about them in appearance and feels good to handle (Tolkien
1967:21). Smith’s specialty is the
making of gates. Tolkien writes that
“few could pass by one of the gates or lattices that he made without stopping
to admire it; no one could pass through it once it was shut” (1967:23). Given the blacksmith’s ability to move
between the Faerie and the human worlds, gates seem rather appropriate because
as a doorway, a gate serves as a direct metaphor for liminal abilities of the
blacksmith. The craftsmen of The Smith of Wooton Major and The Smith and The Fairies gain their
skills from the otherworld smiths’ with magical traits, allowing the humans
blacksmiths to surpass their earthly peers at their craft.
Do
to their associations with iron blacksmiths are greater than the average person
for they are forever linked with the supernatural. This association is passed to the objects
they make. Swords and rings become
magical tools. Iron objects are said to
keep faeries at bay and become tokens of good luck and protection. The smiths’ command of the craft gives them
great renown and respect in their communities whether crafting something
mundane or magical. Customers would
travel far and wide to procure their wares. Through their skill and the nature
of the occupation, the blacksmiths are regarded as powerful members of town. Everyone in the community relied on them to
produce and repair small, everyday items and make specialty materials. A smith could hold a considerable about of influence
in a community. A great number of
political and social arrangements were probably reached around the anvil. Should a smith leave his village, the town
would suffer until a replacement was found.
With his political and magical influence a smith was a powerful ally or
a dangerous enemy.
The Cultural
Magic of the Smith
Today
blacksmithing is not a modern career choice for most people in the Western
world. It is a hobby in America, but
there are other places where it is practiced as a vocation. This is true of Africa, which has a long
history of iron production. Today in
Africa, blacksmiths are a central part of the local economies and influential members
of their communities. In many cultures
blacksmiths are regarded as a necessary evil.
They are responsible for supplying tools for the community and their
smithies function as meeting places to facilitate social interactions. Yet, his ability to produce and shape metal
marks him with special gifts to influence the organization of his cultural
world. Blacksmiths are often regarded as
shamans, sorcerers, or witch doctors; they are powerful and are to be respected
and feared. These blacksmiths rely on
ritual, lore, symbolism, and secrecy in order to heal communities and curse
individuals.
People
outside of the smithing clans fear and shun the blacksmiths as dangerous, and
the smiths segregate themselves and jealously guard their occult knowledge and
professional monopoly (McRae 1995:59).
This fear gives the smiths great political power. They possess almost an autonomous status with
their own political hierarchy separate from the larger community. The leader of the smith caste, or mir in Darfur, was called the King of
the Smiths. He answered only to the
sultan, for whom he was doctor, advisor, and, in many ways, an equal (Haaland,
Haaland and Rijal 2002:41). Peter R.
Schmidt’s research in West Africa demonstrated that blacksmiths gained much of
their autonomous state through their role in the installation of kingly lines. The blacksmith was responsible for forging
the royal emblems of power (Schmidt 1997:33).
He played special ritual roles during coronation ceremonies (Schmidt
1997:33). Part of the ceremony involved
transforming the would-be-kings into blacksmiths. The king enters the forge to pump the bellows
and shape the hot iron. “The installation ritual…place[s] the [king-elect] in a
role that is analogous to that of a child, for bellows pumpers at forges are
often children and apprentices. This
acknowledges clearly the power and influence of iron workers in their
relationship to the throne” (Schmidt 1997:34). At the same time it placed the ironworkers on
the same level as the kings.
During
iron production, a number of precautions are taken to guarantee a successful
smelt. Sacrifices are made at local
shrines and temples to guarantee the favor of spirits or the god of iron
(Schmidt 1997:95). When the furnace
collapsed during Schmidt’s smelting experiments, the head smelter constructed a
spirit hut of grass that was said to be the house of Irungu, the god of iron
and hunting (1997:95). Divination
grasses were used to remove possible curses from the furnace and to purify
it. As these grasses were cast away from
the furnace, the curse was said to be cast out as well (Schmidt 1997:95). A chicken was then sacrificed to the god to
regain his favor. Ritualistic killing
will often take the form of animal sacrifices, usually a chicken or a goat
(Haaland, Haaland and Rijal 2002:39).
All of these rituals take place in great secrecy.
By
borrowing the concept of fetishism of commodities expressed by Maurice
Godelier,a Marxist philosopher, it is possible to examine how magical potential becomes associated with
blacksmiths. Godelier argued that an object becomes a fetish, or sacra, when
the process of production is not salient.
Since iron production is secretive, the community does not understand
the process involved. The steps involved
in producing and working iron remained locked in the smithing castes as the
craft is passed from parent to child.
For a non-smith, a magical explanation is created to understand the
manufacturing of iron. These beliefs are
reinforced and encouraged by the smiths and ironworkers when they insist on
secrecy and perform their rituals. It
becomes impossible to separate the practice, the smelting process, from the
religious representation, the magical and spiritual beliefs (Godelier 1977:179). Paul Budd and Timothy Taylor, in their
discussion of magic and its role in interpreting the past, argue that “in
non-literate societies, complex procedures are necessarily ritualized - a
sequence of procedures that cannot be written down in a scientific manual must
be committed to memory as a formulaic ‘spell’ ” (1995:139). The chants, activities, and superstitions
surrounding the iron production process are ways to assist the smiths in
remembering the procedures involved in the production of iron. If a non-smith were to witness any part of
the ritual with its various involved customs, it would add fuel to the belief
in the sorcerer-blacksmiths.
The
blacksmiths are said to command a wide range of magic, and many of them are not
associated with iron in particular. The
Fur people believe that their smiths, along with transmuting ore into iron,
could transform their shapes into those of animals such as hyenas, dogs, and
lions (Haaland, Haaland, and Rijial 2002:40).
These animals are dangerous and powerful just like the smiths
themselves. Blacksmiths are said to be
able to control thunder and lightning, which they can use to strike down others. The film, Yeelen,
reveals the story of the sorcerer-blacksmiths of Mali who, through iron
production, are able to control the power of the Koré, occult knowledge that
mediates between the spiritual world and the material world (McRae 1995). Using this power the sorcerer-blacksmiths
have been able to gain and control political power throughout much of Mali’s
history. In the film, the sacrifice of a sorcerer-blacksmith is said to heal
the land after years of poor leadership (McRae 1995). In Nepal, iron knives or sickles were used to
cure illness and ward off evil (Haaland, Haaland, and Rijal 2002: 52). Blacksmiths walk a delicate balance between
being dangerous, malevolent enemies or powerful, benevolent allies.
The
most important magic that blacksmiths hold influence over is that of
fertility. For many cultures throughout
time, the smelting furnace is seen as a feminine force that gives birth to the
iron. For the Fur and Fipa tribes, the
bloomery is often referred to as the smith’s wife (Haaland, Haaland and Rijal
2002:35). To protect the fertility of
the furnace, there are many sexual taboos placed on the smelters. Women are not permitted to be involved in the
smelting process; in fact during a smelt, a blacksmith is not permitted to
sleep with his wife because that will jeopardize the fertility of his
furnace-wife (Haaland, Haaland and Rijal 2002:37). Therefore, during most of the rituals
surrounding the smelting tradition, the community is kept away from the
process. The Fur and the Fipa tribes of
East Africa believe that the veil of secrecy protects the iron from non-smiths
who could cast the evil eye and ruin the smelt, causing the iron to not
properly separate from the ore (Haaland, Haaland, and Rijal 2002:38). Animal symbols are drawn onto the furnace
using millet/sorghum flour to protect against the evil eye should the secrecy
fail. The flour is called bora fatta, and known as “milk white”,
an association evoking innocence and purity (Haaland, Haaland, and Rijal 2002:39).
The purity will counteract any evil intent against the furnace.
The
fertility of the furnace guarantees the fertility of the community; if a large
amount of iron is produced then many tools can be made, and the land will be
bountiful. However, if the furnace does not
produce iron then the land will not be fertile.
Famine can disrupt communities and overthrow kings. Blacksmiths fulfill an important position
within their communities. Smiths craft
numerous tools that cultivate the ground and bring forth food. His part during the installation ritual of
kings lands him a station of political authority and autonomy. The smith instills his position with mystical
power by utilizing isolation to guard his abilities from the public. The community, in turn, constructs the notion
of the smith as a magician, just as in folk accounts.
In Europe and America iron is believed to hold magic
powers as well even to this day. Their influence may have faded to a
superstition or a novelty, but there are a number of people who believe
horseshoes bring good luck and hang them over doors (Franklin 2002:135). There is some debate about the way the
horseshoe should be facing; some say that the opening should face upward to
hold the luck in while others say the opening should face downward to allow the
luck to pour down onto those who walk through the door. However, that may also allow
all the luck to run out. This account
supposedly comes from St. Dunstan tricking the Devil into having his hooves
shod. In order to remove the shoes, the
Devil had to promise to never enter a home with a horseshoe above it (Flight
1871). Iron was also thought to keep
evil spirits, faeries, and witches at bay; thus young women, children, and
anyone else thought to be vulnerable were encouraged to carry something iron on
their person to protect them being cursed or lead astray by fair folk (Franklin
2002:237). Several blacksmiths have told
me that it was considered lucky to shake hands with a smith because some of
power of the iron could be passed on that way.
A blacksmith could be a valuable tool in bringing protection and luck to
a community, but his abilities and knowledge opened a gate to a world of the
unknown and potentially dangerous.
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