German folklore

As in Scandinavia, when belief in the old gods disappeared, remnants of the mythos persisted: There are: and many more generic entities such as the elf, dwarf, Kobold (with variants such as Bieresel, Gütel, Heinzelmännchen, Jack o' the bowl, and Niß Puk), Klabautermann, Schrat, Wild man, Drak, Aufhocker, Ork, poltergeist, bogeyman, Will-o'-the-wisp, various Feldgeister, and Erlking.

Character folklore includes the stories of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, the Godfather Death, the trickster hero Till Eulenspiegel, the Town Musicians of Bremen and Faust.

As early as 1851, author Bernhard Baader published a collection of folklore research obtained by oral history, called Volkssagen aus dem Lande Baden und den angrenzenden Gegenden.

For instance, folklore elements, such as the Rhine Maidens and the Grimms' The Story of a Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear, formed part of the source material for Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.

[1] Folklore studies, Volkskunde, were co-opted as a political tool, to seek out traditional customs to support the idea of historical continuity with a Germanic culture.