Skip to content
Atlas NoctisA nocturnal atlas of folklore
A — documented

Mazzamurello

the Marche · Abruzzo · Umbria · Central Apennines and the Adriatic
Monti Sibillini and inland Abruzzo, with a diffusion reaching as far as Sardinia

Mazzamurello — sprite of the «little people» of the Marche and Abruzzo, which signals hidden treasures and torments those who sleep.

The Mazzamurello knocks on the walls of a stone house in the Sibillini: no one sees him, everyone hears the blows and looks for the treasure.
Variants and dialect names
Mmazzamureo, mmazzamëriéllë, mazzamurillë, mazzəmarìllë, mazzamuriéllë, scazzamurello, mazzamureddu
What is told
Sprite of the «little people». The defining trait is not the appearance but the sound: knocks against the walls, creakings, footsteps. It raises whirls of wind. In the Abruzzo-Molise area it is often the spirit of a child who died before baptism.
What it was forthe author’s reading
It is the only Italian sprite with an oracular function: it signals the nearness of a treasure, announces an imminent danger, brings messages from the dead. In the Sibillini it is explicitly «a messenger between the ordinary world and the enchanted world».
Where it is attested
Caterina Pigorini-Beri, Costumi e superstizioni dell'Appennino marchigiano, 1889. Gennaro Finamore, 1890 and 1894. Antonio De Nino, 1879-1897. Ernesto Giammarco, DAM, 1968-1979. Davide Boccia, onomastic study 2020.
Caution
The etymology from «ammazza Mori» is a popular one and implausible. «mazza + murello» too is transparent and suspect precisely for that reason: the form with initial sc- suggests that the initial syllable may not be mazza- at all.

The grade says how well the entry is documented, not how interesting it is. How the grades are assigned.

In the same area

APantaficaAbruzzo, the Marche — Inland Abruzzo and the Marche; the belief covers the entire peninsula under different namesALupe menareAbruzzo, Molise — Abruzzo, all four provinces, and MoliseAPantàsemaLazio, Abruzzo, the Marche — Central Apennines: Lazio, Marche, Abruzzo. Documented localities: Jenne (province of Rome), Grotti di Cittaducale (province of Rieti), Torre Cajetani (province of Frosinone), Monti CiminiBLengheloLazio — Castelli Romani: Marino, Genzano, Albano, Colli AlbaniBLa Sibilla appenninicathe Marche, Umbria — Monti Sibillini, Marche side, comune of Montemonaco (province of Ascoli Piceno): Monte Sibilla (2,173 m) and Lago di PilatoBIl drago della ValnerinaUmbria — Castel San Felice, a hamlet of Sant’Anatolia di Narco (province of Perugia); abbey of Santi Felice e Mauro, on the bank of the river Nera

Related by theme

Entries that share the motif, the phenomenon behind it or the history of their collection — not the geography.

BMonachicchioBasilicata, Calabria — Inland Basilicata and northern Calabria; strong attestation from Aliano (province of Matera)BDokkaebiSouth Korea — Korean peninsula; documentary anchorage at Gyeongju, where the figure touches writing for the first timeAAswangthe Philippines — Visayas, southern Luzon and Mindanao, with a symbolic concentration on the province of Capiz, island of Panay

← Back to the atlas of Italy