Kratt (or kratid in plural; also ''pisuhänd'', ''puuk'', ''tulihänd'', ''vedaja''), is a magical creature in old

Estonian mythology Estonian mythology is a complex of myths belonging to the Estonian folk heritage and literary mythology. Information about the pre-Christian and medieval Estonian mythology is scattered in historical chronicles, travellers' accounts and in eccles ...

, a treasure-bearer. A kratt was a creature formed from hay or of old household implements by its master, who then had to give the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...

three drops of blood to bring life to the kratt. The kratt was notable for doing everything the master ordered it to and was mostly used for stealing and bringing various goods for the kratt's owner. It was said to be able to fly around. An interesting aspect of the kratt is that it was necessary for it to constantly keep working, otherwise it would turn dangerous to its owner. Once the kratt became unnecessary, the master of the kratt would ask the creature to do impossible things such as build a ladder from bread, as portrayed in Andrus Kivirähk's ''Rehepapp'' (''The Old Barny''). Impossible tasks took so long to complete that it caused the kratt, which was made of hay, to catch fire and burn to pieces, thus solving the issue of how to get rid of the problematic creature. In folk astronomy a

bolide A bolide is normally taken to mean an exceptionally bright meteor, but the term is subject to more than one definition, according to context. It may refer to any large crater-forming body, or to one that explodes in the atmosphere. It can be a ...

was thought to be a kratt that had been given an impossible job. The enraged kratt was thought to catch on fire and burn away as a fireball.

In popular culture

The kratt has notably appeared in the works of Andrus Kivirähk, the Estonian author, whose work often draws upon Estonian mythology and presents it in a humorous and fairy-tale-like way. His book ''Rehepapp ehk November'' (''Old Barny aka November'') offers a description that suggests Estonians might have used blackcurrant berries instead of blood to cheat the Devil and save their souls from going to hell. Estonian composer and conductor Eduard Tubin (1905–1982) wrote a

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

titled '' Kratt'', which is entirely based on folk tunes. It is the first Estonian ballet and it deals with topics like: Will money bring happiness, How can damnation be born from greed, and Will there be a place for love in a world that puts such a great value on material goods. The 2017 film '' November'' features kratt and other elements of Estonian folklore.

Modern usage

The similarity of kratts to

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

s has resulted that in Estonia this character is used as a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

for AI and its complexities. For instance, algorithmic-liability law is also called the Kratt law.AI and the Kratt* momentum
e-estonia.com, October 2018

References

{{reflist Estonian legendary creatures Household deities