Hödekin
Encyclopedia
Hödekin is a kobold
(house spirit) of German folklore
. According to the legend recorded by folklorist Thomas Keightley in 1850, Hödekin always wore a felt hat down over his face; his name means "Little Hat". Hödekin lived with the bishop of Hildesheim
and was a helpful sprite. He kept the watch awake at night, and he warned the bishop and others about problems in the future. One inhabitant of Hildesheim asked Hödekin to guard his wife while he was away. "My good fellow, just keep an eye on my wife while I am away, and see that all goes on right.". When the wife was visited by several paramours Hödekin leapt between them and assumed terrible shapes, or threw them to the floor to scare them away before the wife could be unfaithful. When the husband returned, Hödekin complained,
Hödekin was easily angered. A kitchen servant often threw dirt and unclean water on him. Hödekin asked the head cook to chastise the boy, but the cook chided the kobold for fearing a child. The sprite replied, "Since you won't punish the boy, I will, in a few days, let you see how much afraid of him I am." When the boy went to sleep, Hödekin strangled him, cut him to pieces, and put his flesh in a pot over the fire. The cook rebuked the kobold for this behaviour, which prompted Hödekin to squeeze toads over the bishop's meat and punt the cook into the castle moat. The incident prompted the bishop to exorcise
the kobold from the premises.
A connection between Hödekin and Friar Rush
, a rascally devil in the guise of a friar, who murderously subverts the abbot's household while seeming to make himself useful in the kitchen and with chores, was suggested by the Shakespeare scholar George Lyman Kittredge
, who noted the connection has been made in Reginald Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584.
Sir Sidney Lee
(1859–1926), editing the entry for Robin Hood
in the DNB
suggested that the name Robin Hood originally belonged to a forest-elf, and that "in its origin the name was probably a variant of 'Hodekin', the title of a sprite or elf in Teutonic folk-lore". He took his cue from the scholarly tradition, expressed by T. Crofton Croker in 1833, that Hood, "the title assumed by, or applied to the famous outlaw, was no other than one which had been appropriated to a denizen of fairy land— Hudikin or Hodekin, that is little hood, or cowl, being a Dutch or German spirit, so called from the most remarkable part of his dress, in which also the Norwegian Nis and Spanish Duende
were believed to appear." Croker's and Lee's proposed connection with the woodland sprite Robin Goodfellow, in the absence of traces of magic in the Robin Hood ballads, has not been taken up by modern scholars.
Kobold
The kobold is a sprite stemming from Germanic mythology and surviving into modern times in German folklore. Although usually invisible, a kobold can materialise in the form of an animal, fire, a human being, and a candle. The most common depictions of kobolds show them as humanlike figures the size...
(house spirit) of German folklore
German folklore
German folklore shares many characteristics with Scandinavian folklore and English folklore due to their origins in a common Germanic mythology. It reflects a similar mix of influences: a pre-Christian pantheon and other beings equivalent to those of Norse mythology; magical characters associated...
. According to the legend recorded by folklorist Thomas Keightley in 1850, Hödekin always wore a felt hat down over his face; his name means "Little Hat". Hödekin lived with the bishop of Hildesheim
Bishopric of Hildesheim
The Diocese of Hildesheim is a diocese or ecclesiastical territory of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in Germany. Founded in 815 as a missionary diocese by King Louis the Pious, his son Louis the German appointed the famous former archbishop of Rheims, Ebbo, as bishop...
and was a helpful sprite. He kept the watch awake at night, and he warned the bishop and others about problems in the future. One inhabitant of Hildesheim asked Hödekin to guard his wife while he was away. "My good fellow, just keep an eye on my wife while I am away, and see that all goes on right.". When the wife was visited by several paramours Hödekin leapt between them and assumed terrible shapes, or threw them to the floor to scare them away before the wife could be unfaithful. When the husband returned, Hödekin complained,
Your return is most grateful to me, that I may escape the trouble and disquiet that you had imposed upon me. . . . To gratify you I have guarded [your wife] this time, and kept her from adultery, though with great and incessant toil. But I beg of you never more to commit her to my keeping; for I would sooner take charge of, and be accountable for, all the swine in SaxonySaxonyThe Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
than for one such woman, so many were the artifices and plots she devised to blink me.
Hödekin was easily angered. A kitchen servant often threw dirt and unclean water on him. Hödekin asked the head cook to chastise the boy, but the cook chided the kobold for fearing a child. The sprite replied, "Since you won't punish the boy, I will, in a few days, let you see how much afraid of him I am." When the boy went to sleep, Hödekin strangled him, cut him to pieces, and put his flesh in a pot over the fire. The cook rebuked the kobold for this behaviour, which prompted Hödekin to squeeze toads over the bishop's meat and punt the cook into the castle moat. The incident prompted the bishop to exorcise
Exorcism
Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...
the kobold from the premises.
A connection between Hödekin and Friar Rush
Friar Rush
Friar Rush is the title of a medieval Low German legend, surviving in a 1488 edition in verse form. During the 16th and 17th centuries, numerous High German, Scandinavian , Dutch and English translations and adaptations in Volksbuch or chap book form were printed...
, a rascally devil in the guise of a friar, who murderously subverts the abbot's household while seeming to make himself useful in the kitchen and with chores, was suggested by the Shakespeare scholar George Lyman Kittredge
George Lyman Kittredge
George Lyman Kittredge was a celebrated professor and scholar of English literature at Harvard University. His scholarly edition of the works of William Shakespeare' as well as his writings and lectures on Shakespeare and other literary figures made him one of the most influential American...
, who noted the connection has been made in Reginald Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584.
Sir Sidney Lee
Sidney Lee
Sir Sidney Lee was an English biographer and critic.He was born Solomon Lazarus Lee at 12 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London and educated at the City of London School and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in modern history in 1882. In the next year he became assistant-editor of the...
(1859–1926), editing the entry for Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
in the DNB
DNB
DNB is short for:* De Nederlandsche Bank, the Dutch central bank* Den norske Bank, a Norwegian bank * Departure from nucleate boiling in boiling heat transfer* Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, the German national library...
suggested that the name Robin Hood originally belonged to a forest-elf, and that "in its origin the name was probably a variant of 'Hodekin', the title of a sprite or elf in Teutonic folk-lore". He took his cue from the scholarly tradition, expressed by T. Crofton Croker in 1833, that Hood, "the title assumed by, or applied to the famous outlaw, was no other than one which had been appropriated to a denizen of fairy land— Hudikin or Hodekin, that is little hood, or cowl, being a Dutch or German spirit, so called from the most remarkable part of his dress, in which also the Norwegian Nis and Spanish Duende
Duende (mythology)
A duende is a fairy- or goblin-like mythological creature from Iberian, Latin American and Filipino folklore. While its nature varies throughout Spain, Portugal, Spanish and Portuguese-speaking America and the Philippines, analogues from other cultures include the Danish-Norwegian Nisse, the...
were believed to appear." Croker's and Lee's proposed connection with the woodland sprite Robin Goodfellow, in the absence of traces of magic in the Robin Hood ballads, has not been taken up by modern scholars.