NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Folklore. It's defined as traditional customs, tales, sayings, dances, or art forms preserved among a people.
There's this one bit of folklore that Michele Mazzu and Maggie Sidlinger have taken to student at the Academy of Make-Up and Arts, Kathleen Carter.
We have to start with this question.
What's a knoblin?
This is some of that folklore. Mazzu and Sidlinger say it's based around this area of Donelson called Todd's Knob.
"A Knoblin is a fun, mythical creature that lives right over there on Todd's Knob," Mazzu explained.
"Early 1800s was the first piece of lore we found," Sidlinger added.
"The Knoblin is a bunch of different things, depending on who you talk to," said Carter.
"He's a shape shifter," Sidlinger continued. "Sometimes with horns, sometimes not."
"What you see doesn't match his shadow," Mazzu added. "Fins, feathers, scales."
"He's described as an owl with deer antlers or a catfish face on a mountain lion," Carter said.
The folklore goes that the knoblin would take things.
"Maybe he found it, maybe he stole it," Carter explained. "We don't really know. It would be some doorknobs or some keys possibly."
Well, it's nice to have hobbies.
"They would leave offerings for him; corn, peaches, apples, things like that," Sidlinger said.
"This is a swatch of what the knoblin's skin is going to look like," Carter said, holding up a piece of greenish material.
Carter's assembled a team to create a full suit, so that the knoblin can appear at the event Mazzu and Sidlinger are co-directing, Knoblin Fest.
It's a free music and arts festival on October 3rd with 80 vendors and many Donelson musicians and artists.
"It's going to be along Old Lebanon Pike and Donelson Station Blvd.," Sidlinger said.
Mazzu and Sidlinger said their Donelson community is growing, so they wanted a festival that's unique, something rooted in folklore.
"There's always been lore about unexplained things in southern culture," Mazzu said.
"There's always ghost stories, noises in the night, things like that," Sidlinger added.
The knoblin's staff has been 3-D printed.
"This probably took 30 hours to print," Carter said.
His wardrobe is also being styled.
Carter's crew at Academy of Make-Up and Arts will keep working until...it's alive.
Come October 3rd, the knoblin arrives. Watch your keys just in case.
For more on Knoblin Fest, visit here.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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