July 03, 2014

FAMELIARS (ELVES) OF IBIZA


ELVES IN IBIZA

Ibiza is mysterious and magical. Also superstitious, at least a few decades ago Ibiza folks were very surpersticiosos and if something is not lacking in the small island are numerous legends and characters that are real... or maybe not everyone can observe with the naked eye. Elves in Ibiza exist called "fameliars", at least in folklore, and in Santa Eulalia are the most famous ones, as they are a small and strange creatures who live in humid areas and especially under the stone bridge of Santa Eulalia River, is said was built by the devil in one night, in the night of San Juan (from 23 to 24 June) and where with much alacrity that night, when the sun, before rises, and for a few seconds grows an herb called "Grass des fameliar "that if someone catch it properly  and quickly gets inside a glass bottle of black color, in a short time one of these elves appear inside it, and so, we can have it in our home to our service.

To this fameliar or goblin we will must have to procure only two things ... entertain him giving a lot of work, or giving him food. He can eat huge amounts of food and can leave homes completely empty of food and can ruin the inhabitants; although one must be cautious with these creatures and learn to master them, otherwise they may give bad luck. The Fameliars although somewhat naughty,  do not have to be bads, but sometimes they have bad character. They're ugly, yes, with long arms and a big nose, in any case its size is small but with a huge, huge force and it must fit in a glass bottle, usually in a decanter. It's easy to pop it out but you must know to master, giving them work and enough food (but its hard to do it in proper balance) and to go back into the bottle, where there's no danger that run roughshod, we must do so through an olive branch, blessed on the Palm Sunday and say a prayer that over time has been lost, and few people (if any) knows. As an historical curiosity, It is said that in times of the Inquisition, some few people on the island were tried for possessing a fameliar in their home.

There are numerous legends about "fameliars", especially in homes, where when the man who used to be the master of fameliar was absent, the wife was trying to do abuse of the power of the fameliar in the absence of the husband but not knowing properly dominate the troll, also did not know then how to get him back into the bottle, creating chaotic situations that were resolved later when the husband as the owner of the troll, went back home, and had to scold the woman for daring to dominate the fameliar unknowing how to do so, compromising their own integrity and the house as well. There was also a fisherman who always carried the bottle with the troll inside when fishing, with him in his boat so that his wife did not have the temptation to open the bottle and use the fameliar in his absence. Arriving one day to port after fishing, he met two men who wanted to take away her fishing, and because not having much fish as they wanted,  forced the man to go back into the sea to bring more fish for them, so the fisherman opened the bottle and said to the elf  to throw them to the sea, which he did and never the fisherman left the bottle at home, when went to fishing.  Or a girl who had to marry one of her two suitors, one rich and the other poor, she told them that the first one of them to build a house, it would be her husband, and the next day, the poor one, who was owner of a fameliar in a bottle, ordered  the "fameliar" throughout the day  to build a house that ended on the afternoon, and of course the girl married him. When the couple was living there, start happening in it, strange things, and bad luck set the home, after was uninhabited since then, not again dwell never as it seems that misfortune had overtaken there.
The tradition of Fameliars or goblins is famous in many regions around the world. In Ibiza is believed that its origin comes from the Roman period, but perhaps came with those who colonized the island during the period that Ibiza belonged to the Kingdom of Aragon. But these characters not only exist in the Mediterranean, so exist the goblins of Asturias, the gobelins in Normandy, Leprechauns of Ireland, Hobgobins in Scotland, Kobolde in Germany ... etc. Actually they are very popular in Scandinavia and even recently in Iceland, they stopped the construction of a road, due to protests of Icelanders, they demanded to stop the roads due that the areas of the new road affect the place where many elves live. It is possible to read this, on the news by internet.