Erdgeist is German for "earth spirit" (Erd- "earth" + geist "spirit"). In German folklore, it was the German rendering of the name for the Earth elemental in Medieval European occultism, the Gnome. However, Erdgeist is the "Spirit of the Earth" in Faust, Part 1 by Johann Goethe (See Faust for more details on the work). The Erdgeist was the entity which made things manifest in reality, doing so by working at a loom, weaving things into and out of existence, allowing things to be born and to die (similar to the Fates from Greek mythology (see Clotho, Lachesis, or Atropos). The Erdgeist is the first being Faust conjures in the story.