Cofgod

'Cofgod' (plural Cofgodas ("cove-gods")) was an Old English term for a household god^[1] in Anglo-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]