Geniscus
Geniscus is a deity who appears in a sermon of Saint Eligius along with Neptune, Orcus, Minerva and Diana. These are all, the Christian homilist says, "demons" who should not be believed in or invoked. The warning implies cult activity for these deities in the northern parts of Merovingian Gaul into the 7th century. Geniscus may be a form of reference to the Genius, the Roman tutelary deity; in Gaul, the Genius is often hooded ("Genius Cucullatus") and appears either singly or in a group of three. In another sermon in the same period, the Geniscus appears in the  company of witches ("striae") and other entities in whom "rustics" believe: 19th century. The 19th-century fascination for folklore, antiquarianism, the supernatural, and lost religions drew attention to even the obscure Geniscus. The Irish folklorist Thomas Crofton Croker accepted a derivation of "geniscus" from Latin "genius" and in his chapter on elves declared the "geniscus" "a real Elf, or spirit of light." Croker further connected "geniscus" to the "geniciales feminae" named by Hincmar, a 9th-century archbishop of Reims, who identified the "geniciales" as "lamiae". During the same period Jacob Grimm classed the "geniciales" among the "daemonic elvish beings, who  appeared in woman's shape and did men kindnesses," and who participated in elf-dance: "To christian zealots all "dancing" appeared sinful and heathenish, and sure enough it often was derived from pagan rites, like other harmless pleasures and customs of the common people, who would not easily part with their diversion at great festivals." Grimm connects these dances to bonfires. Geniscus is mentioned in the 1876 historical fiction "Dante and Beatrice from 1282 to 1290: A Romance" by Elizabeth Kerr Coulson, writing under the pseudonym Roxburghe Lothian. Coulson recounts at length the Christian prohibitions that a friar called The  Hermit must enforce, then segues into practices deemed tolerable: Whether she used the "Vita" of St. Eligius directly or another source such as Croker, Coulson preserves the collocation of Geniscus with Minerva and Orcus (here Ouragus). She either innovates or draws on traditions pertaining to the cult of the "Genii" by making Geniscus the "helper" of Orcus.