Rónaszék: Playing Cards with Kobolds (Small Town Legends A to Z)

This year my A to Z theme is Small Town Legends. I am exploring folklore from villages and small towns around Hungary, bringing you the most entertaining bits. You can plan your next visit around them!

Rónaszék is a village of about 700 people in northern Romania, Máramaros county. In historical times this region used to be a part of Hungary. People have been mining salt in Rónaszék since the Bronze Age. The mines were finally shut down in the 1930s. Miners have always had a particularly rich and fascinating folklore which researchers have been collecting for decades.

Here is one of my favorite stories:

A carpenter was summoned to one of the mines because some planks had to be replaced. He descended into the mines with his young son. As they took a light into one of the abandoned corridors, they saw a man in a fur coat. The carpenter warned the stranger that the walkway was unstable, but he just waved, motioning at the boy to be sent away. The carpenter sent the boy to watch the other miners cutting salt. The boy was so fascinated by the adventure that he only remembered to return to his dad at the end of the day.

When he returned, he found his father playing cards with the stranger. He told them the mine was about to close, so his father went back to the surface with him... but the stranger disappeared in the opposite direction. At home, the carpenter revealed that he had won a lot of money on cards. The stranger had been a mine spirit who invited him to play. The carpenter said he only had one coin in his pockets, but the spirit insisted on playing anyway... and, game after game, he let the carpenter win.

(Mining spirits can feature into legends as benevolent, mischievous, or downright dangerous creatures. In this case, the carpenter got lucky.)

(The story was told as a memory by the carpenter's son later in his life. Source here)

Image from here