Helhest
Ringkasan
Helhest adalah kuda berkaki tiga dalam cerita rakyat Denmark yang dikaitkan dengan Hel, kematian, dan penyakit, dan konon berkeliaran di halaman gereja.
The helhest is a three-legged horse of Danish folklore associated with Hel, death and illness, said to roam churchyards.
Kisah dan tradisi
Dalam cerita rakyat Denmark, helhest ("kuda Hel") adalah kuda berkaki tiga yang dikaitkan dengan Hel. Ia berhubungan dengan kematian dan penyakit, dan menurut cerita rakyat pernah terlihat di berbagai tempat di Denmark. Ia juga diyakini muncul pada malam hari di pemakaman dan menandakan kematian siapa pun yang melihatnya. Menurut Jacob Grimm, helhest kadang digambarkan berjalan mengitari pemakaman dengan tiga kaki sambil membawa kematian, dan dari Schleswig tercatat ungkapan bahwa saat wabah, Hel berkeliling di atas kuda berkaki tiga membinasakan manusia. Grimm juga menduga bahwa sebelum kristenisasi, helhest semula tunggangan dewi Hel. Sebuah legenda menyebut bahwa dahulu, sebelum jenazah manusia dimakamkan di suatu halaman gereja, seekor kuda hidup dikubur lebih dulu, dan kuda itu muncul kembali sebagai helhest. Di Katedral Roskilde orang dahulu meludahi sebuah batu sempit tempat helhest konon dikuburkan, dan di halaman Katedral Aarhus seorang lelaki yang melihat kuda itu dari jendelanya jatuh sakit lalu meninggal. Beberapa ungkapan Denmark abad ke-19 merujuk kuda ini, misalnya "berjalan seperti helhest" untuk orang yang melangkah berat dan berisik. Benjamin Thorpe mengaitkan ungkapan "ia memberi kematian sekarung gandum", yang dipakai bila seseorang selamat dari penyakit mematikan, dengan gagasan tentang helhest.
In Danish folklore the helhest ('Hel horse') is a three-legged horse associated with Hel. It is connected with death and illness, and folklore records sightings of it in various places in Denmark. It was also believed to appear at night in cemeteries and foretold the death of anyone who saw it. According to Jacob Grimm, the helhest was sometimes described as walking around the graveyard on three legs causing death, and from Schleswig comes a saying that in time of plague Hel rides about on a three-legged horse destroying men. Grimm also theorised that before Christianisation the helhest was originally the steed of the goddess Hel. A legend holds that formerly a living horse was buried in each churchyard before any human body, and this horse reappears as the helhest. At Roskilde Cathedral visitors once spat on a narrow stone said to cover a buried helhest, and at the Aarhus Cathedral yard a man who saw the horse from his window fell ill and died. Several 19th-century Danish phrases refer to the horse, such as 'to walk like a Hel-horse' for someone who steps heavily and noisily. Benjamin Thorpe linked the saying 'he gave death a pack of oats', used when someone survives a near-fatal disease, to ideas of the helhest.
Fakta utama
- Budaya / Culture
- Tradisi Denmark
- Kawasan / Region
- Eropa
- Klasifikasi / Classification
- Legendary Creature
- Habitat
- Graveyard
Nama lain / Alternate names
Helhesten, Hel-horse
Tahukah kamu? / Did you know?
Di Katedral Roskilde ada batu sempit yang dahulu diludahi orang karena seekor helhest konon terkubur di bawahnya.
At Roskilde Cathedral there is a narrow stone people once spat on because a helhest was said to lie buried beneath it.