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