The Škriatok is a spirit of the West Slavic tradition.
By day a wet chick, by night a fiery chain in the sky.
The Škriatok is a Slovak house goblin and fiery wealth spirit who brings his keeper money, grain and milk. To be honest in classification: in Slovak folk belief, Škriatok is mostly a regional synonym for the zmok, the wealth demon; the substantiated evidence is found under zmok, not under Škriatok.
By day he appears as a wet black chick, by night as a fiery ball or fiery chain that brings money and grain down through the chimney. The price is the same as with the Lithuanian Aitvaras: the keeper’s soul is signed over in blood.
Type: Aitvaras-like wealth spirit with a soul price
Origin: Slovak folk belief
Texts: Encyklopédia ľudovej kultúry Slovenska, evidence found under the entry zmok
Period: Slovak folk belief
Appearance: wet black chick, at night a fiery ball or chain
The Škriatok belongs to Slovak folk belief; the source material is thinner than in Poland and the Czech lands, and the substantiated evidence is found under the entry zmok.
Slovakia; unlike its counterparts elsewhere, the Škriatok there tends more towards being a nature and forest being.
More thinly documented than its Polish and Czech relatives: the Encyklopédia ľudovej kultúry Slovenska, Králik’s etymological dictionary and Váňa.
Slovak: škriatok is a Germanic loanword, from Middle High German schretel or schrat, from the same family as Schrat, skrzat and skřítek, with the obsolete secondary meaning nočná mora, nightmare. In the Slovak-speaking area it stands in the synonym series zmok, rarášok, bôžik and kosper.
Appearance
The fiery appearance during flight is confirmed: by day a wet black chick, by night a fiery ball or fiery chain that brings money and grain down through the chimney, attested under the entry zmok.
Effect
The Škriatok brings money, grain and milk. Acquisition and the egg motif are confirmed: one carries the egg of a black hen under the left armpit for nine or thirteen days, without sleeping, speaking, praying or washing, until one’s own Škriatok hatches; the soul price is signed over in blood. If neglected, he makes noise and chokes people.
The key aspects of the Slovak wealth spirit at a glance.
Slovak folk belief; mostly a regional synonym for the zmok, the wealth demon, and part of the synonym series with rarášok, bôžik and kosper.
The keeper and his household: to him the Škriatok brings money, grain and milk, and from him he demands the soul, signed over in blood.
By day a wet black chick, by night a fiery ball or fiery chain that comes down through the chimney into the farmyard.
Wealth in exchange for a soul price: money, grain and milk for the keeper; if neglected, the spirit makes noise and chokes people.
An impossible task, such as carrying water in a sieve, whereupon he crumbles into black grime; the crowing of a cock drives him away.
The name is a Germanic loanword, from Middle High German schretel or schrat, from the same family as Schrat, skrzat and skřítek, with the obsolete secondary meaning nočná mora, nightmare. In the Slovak-speaking area the Škriatok stands in the synonym series zmok, rarášok, bôžik and kosper and tends more towards being a nature and forest being, whereas its counterparts elsewhere are house spirits.
The dense tradition, however, runs under the entry zmok: there the fiery flight, the armpit-egg of the black hen and the soul price signed over in blood are attested. Anyone searching for the Slovak wealth spirit will therefore find him less under his goblin name than under the name of the demon, whose regional synonym he mostly is.
In modern usage, the Škriatok has been de-demonised into a goblin, dwarf or elf in fairy tales, rendered as ‘goblin’ in the Tolkien translation, along with the tlačiarenský škriatok, the little printer’s-error devil.
In religious-studies terms, the Škriatok is an aitvaras-like wealth demon with a price on the soul, ambivalently devilish, who makes noise and chokes people if neglected. Two clarifications: he is not a cute house elf, that is the modern meaning. And he is not a distinct being but part of the synonym cluster with zmok and rarášok.
Under the entry zmok, practices for getting rid of the spirit are documented: one gives the spirit an impossible task, such as carrying water in a sieve, upon which he disintegrates into black slime; the crow of a cock drives him away; or one carries him back in silence, backwards, to the place where he was acquired. To be honest in classification: these practices are documented as part of the zmok complex, not as an isolated, independent Škriatok tradition.
The Škriatok is congruent with the Lithuanian Aitvaras, with fiery flight, egg-birth and a price on the soul, and with the Estonian kratt. He is clearly of the aitvaras type, not the Domovoi; the guardian-spirit line is weakest in the Slovak material. The Polish Chowaniec and Skrzat belong to the same family.
What is a Škriatok?
A Slovak house goblin, usually a synonym for the wealth demon zmok.
How does one acquire it?
By hatching the egg of a black hen under one’s armpit for nine or thirteen days and pledging one’s soul.
Is it a cute house elf?
No. That is the modern meaning; historically it is a wealth demon with a price on the soul.
Further standard works in the bibliography.
As a Slovak house goblin and fiery wealth spirit, the Škriatok shows how closely blessing and doom lie together in house-spirit belief: the fiery trail across the night sky brings grain, but the bill is settled with the soul.
Against its influence, cross-cultural tradition names these protective means:
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