Cofgod

Household god in Anglo-Saxon paganism

'Cofgod' (plural Cofgodas ("cove-gods")) was an Old English term for a household god^[1] in Anglo-Saxon paganism.

The classicist Ken Dowden opined that the cofgodas were the equivalent of the Penates found in Ancient Rome.^[2] Dowden also compared them to the Kobold of later continental folklore, arguing that they had both originated from the kofewalt, a spirit that had power over a room.^[2] If it is true that such beings were known to the early English, later legendary beings such as the English hob and Anglo-Celtic brownie would be the modern survival of the cofgod.^[3] However, the only instance of the word cofgodas in Old English is as a gloss (an explanatory definition) to the Latin word penates.^[4]

References

^ Joseph Bosworth (1838). A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman. p. 80.
^ ^a ^b Dowden, Ken (2000). European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. London and New York: Routledge. p. 229. ISBN 0-415-12034-9.
^ "Cove-Gods", An Other Dictionary.
^ Dictionary of Old English Corpus s.v. cofgodas.