#klabautermann

I like to think Nami was the closest to Merry alongside Usopp and Luffy. Especially setting sail for the first time after she's free from Arlong... 🥲

Going Merry doodles:

They say he dances on wet planks and hums through rusted nails. That if a ship creaks wrong, it’s not the tide—it’s him remembering.

Not a ghost. Not a goblin. But something in between—a smile nailed shut by splinters. He is the laughter in storm-wind, the pipe smoke in fog, the tapping boots when no one walks the deck.

The Klabautermann. Or as Mara calls him: “That weird uncle the ocean never stopped inviting.”

They say he wears a red cap soaked in whale oil, not to frighten—but to warn. His beard is seaweed, his fingers tar, and his eyes? Two polished knots of driftwood that saw too many drownings. He doesn’t weep. He grins.

🪶 In the oldest tales told along the Elbe and down the Baltic’s throat, he was once a carpenter—a soul too stubborn to drown, too kind to leave a crew behind. When his ship went down, he stayed. Not in heaven. Not in hell. But in hulls. In ropes. In bilges and brine.

He patches leaks you don’t know exist. He steadies the mast in storms no map has charted. But cross him—and the sea goes blind. Compass spins. Bread turns to ash. And someone, somewhere below deck, starts whistling a tune you’ve never heard—but suddenly remember.

Mara wrote once:

“He fixed the anchor. He also stole my socks. But in the end, he tucked my doll in and said, ‘Storm’s coming. Be less breakable, little one.’ And vanished into the rigging like a bad idea that worked.”

In The Witcher’s world, they might call him a minor sea sylph or a liminal animus—one foot in folklore, the other on the gunwale. But Mythveil knows better. He’s not a creature. He’s a pattern. A reminder carved into tide and tar:

That not all who haunt are cruel. And not all who laugh are safe. Some just want to help—and leave the rope coiled properly.

So next time your lamp swings twice, and the gulls stop talking— don’t pray. Whistle.

And leave out some rum.

Unknown Uncle

Uta, Red hair pirates and an unknown uncle

And so, after a loooong request someone did on 4chan, I finally finished all of my versions of Klabautermänn and I can finally show you all them (to be honest, they requested only one of them, it was me who had the idea of making another two different kinds of Klabauters XD).

The Klabautermann is the name given to a ship's figurehead. Legends say that figureheads are alive and protect the ships where they are placed. They can also materialize in the form of a small Nordic child dressed in various ways, but always with a large coat over their clothes and a hood. In reality, the origins of the Klabautermänn are varied. Some are mylingar—children or adolescents who were lost at sea and found a home among the timbers of ships, or mylingar who were buried beneath a tree used in the construction of a ship, or children saved by the Tides (daughters of Ægir with Rán) and transformed into child spirits, or children who were killed at sea and their souls found a ship to inhabit. It appears to help the ship in critical situations, repairing it or navigating it in dire times.

The Klabautermann, Kalfatermann or Klabattermann (from Low German klabastern “to rumble”, “to walk around noisily” or from also Low German kalfatern “to seal with pitch and tow”) is, in seafaring superstition, a ship’s spirit or goblin who – usually invisibly – warns the captain of dangers and likes to play practical jokes.

The figure of the Klabautermann is associated with sailing. He lives in the hold, where he hammers, piles up and throws boards; only sometimes he lives under the windlass. He also comes on deck, climbs into the mast, climbs in the rigging and sits on the bowsprit or jib boom of sailing ships. His appearance on a ship is said to be a bad sign and indicates the impending danger of the ship sinking.

The Klabautermann helps in shipbuilding by sealing the ship's deck. On board he makes himself noticeable through rumbling and other noises. It is said: “If he knocks, he stays, if he planes, he goes.” His appearance is that of a sailor - with a hammer and a pipe, sometimes with a sea chest, with red hair and green teeth. Some sailors claim he doesn't leave the ship until it sinks; others, however, say that he occasionally disembarks to announce the ship's arrival at the captain's house. According to an old sailor custom, every ship has a chicken on board to deter the Klabautermann.