(variously spelled Hödeken, ,Johannes Trithemius (1495–1503). Chronicon Hirsaugiense and , etc.) is a kobold (house spirit) of German folklore. The name, a diminutive meaning "Little Hat", refers to the pileus hat he wears,Grimm, J., & Grimm, W. (1816). Deutsche Sagen (No. 74, "Hütchen"). Reimer. a style which was common in Ancient Greece and later various parts of Europe.
Hödekin is known for haunting the castle of Bishop Bernard (Bernhardus), Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim, located in Lower Saxony. In some versions of the legend, the spirit inhabits Winzenburg, a county which he helped the bishopric obtain.
Though Hödekin did not initiate harm, he was murderously vindictive. He dismembered a kitchen boy after the boy habitually insulted him and poured kitchen filth upon him. When the cook (who hadn't controlled the misbehaving boy) griped, the sprite tainted the meat for the bishop with toad blood and venom. When the cook remained unfazed, Hödekin pushed him into a ditch from a great height, killing him.Grimm, J., & Grimm, W. (1816). Deutsche Sagen (No. 74, "Hütchen"). Reimer.
Hödekin's actions weren't always malicious. He once helped a man by fiercely protecting his wife. When the man jokingly entrusted his wife to Hödekin during his absence, the sprite took it seriously and chased off every man who called on the adulterous wife. He also helped an idiot clerk appointed to the synod by giving him a ring made of laurel leaves that granted him knowledge and intelligence. Ultimately, the spirit's time in Hildesheim ended when the bishop exorcised him with ecclesiastical incantations and drove him out of the city.Keightley, T. (1850). The Fairy Mythology, Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries.
Sources The earlier known account of the story was told in Johannes Trithemius's Chronicon Hirsaugiense (1495–1503), who places the story in the context of historical events which Trithemius dates to c. 1132. The story gained immense popularity after its inclusion in the 1586 German edition of Johann Weyer's De praestigiis daemonum (it wasn't included in the original edition from 1563, in Latin). Joseph Ritson (published 1831; written 1800) translated Trithemius via Weyer.
The legend was retold by the Brothers Grimm in Deutsche Sagen as No. 74 "Hütchen", based on multiple sources, including Weyer, Johannes Praetorius (1666), Erasmus Francisci (1690) and unspecified oral sources. A full English translation of the Grimms' retelling was provided by Thomas Roscoe (1826), titled "The Domestic Goblin Hutchen".
An abridged account of the "Hödeken" was provided in English by Thomas Keightley (1828). Heinrich Heine also discussed the story in his 1834 Deutschland, where he copied from Dobeneck, who had provided a German translation of the original account by Trithemius. Heine's essay is also available in English translation.
Johann Conrad Stephan Hölling (1687–1733), in his Einleitung [etc.] des Hoch=Stiffts Hildesheim ("Introduction [etc.] to the Hochstift of Hildesheim", 1730) writes that he took his first ten chapters from Johannes Letzner's Chronicon monasterium hildesiense, including an account of the Hödecken, which he says resided in Winzenburg.
An oral version which places a spirit named "Hans with the little hat" at Winzenburg was recorded by Kuhn & Schwartz as "", and includes the kitchen boy's murder (cf. ; )., "", pp. 251–252
Nomenclature The spirit is called "the capped [one]" () in the Latin prose, with the German form given as , and the "Saxon form" as . The "Saxon form" is spelt by Weyer, and Lower Saxon form by Francisci, who lists and as normalized forms.
Praetorius provides the form "Hödekin". Grimm used the form "Hödeken" attested in a Lower Saxon dialect poem. Keightley also employed the form "Hödeken" (further anglicised as "Hatekin" or "Little Hat"),; but the name in the index was emended to "Hödekin" in Keightley's 1850 edition., index only, p. 558
Sources consistently explain that the sprite wears peasant's clothing and a hat on its head. For this reason, he is called "Hüdekin" (also spelled "Hedeckin"; or "Hödekin" (in German) explaining that it is ("capped" in Latin), it is called "Hödekin" in Saxon. In the preceding page he calls the sprite "Hütgin".) in the Saxon dialect. Wyl glosses the Latin noun form, deriving from the adjective , as meaning "felt cap".. , mistyped "Pilateum". Grimm's Deutsche Sagen retelling concurs and described the headgear it wears as a "felt hat". ; also
The forms given by Hölling (1730) are various: Hödecken; Heidecke, Hoidecke, Hödecke, Heideke, Hödeke, Heideken. The Chronicon Luneburgicum (written up to 1421) records "VVinsenberch Hoideke", while 's Chronica Brunswicenses (1489) gives "Bodecke" as the sprite's name.
Historic background The Hütchen's haunt is placed at the ,, Index, Das IV. Register, "" ostensibly the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim. There, where the office held court (), the spirit appeared and foretold to Bishop Bernhard of impending dangers. The Bishop of Hildesheim subsequently overtook Winzenburg, in Hildesheim (district), thanks in part to the sprite delivering new about the upheaval there, whereas the Grimms gave a fictive version of what happened (cf. below).
Historically, the transfer of Winzenburg followed the killing of by Herman I, Count of Winzenburg, around 1130, resulting in Herman's outlawry () and loss of Winzenburg. The sources describe this, stating that the kinsmen of Burchard attacked in reprisal and began looting Winzenburg, but, the story claims, the sprite Hütchen alerted the Bishop of Hildesheim one step ahead, allowing the clergyman to assume control of the county of Winzenburg with the auspices of the Emperor.; ; sourced by , not elaborated on by Keightley.
Legend The spirit named Hütgin had been seen by many in the diocese of Hildesheim, according to Trithemius's version. It would speak familiarly with people, both visibly and invisibly. It appeared in rustic clothing, and of course, the hat. It did not initiate harm, and only reciprocated. But it never forgot injury or insult, and paid back with shame befallen upon the perpetrator.
Acting on Hütgin's tip, Bishop Bernard (Bernhardus) was able to seize Winzenburg (as aforementioned), and annex the county to Church of Hildesheim. Grimm provides a different account, apparently taken from Bothonis Chronica Brunswicenses Picturatum (1489), where Count Herman sleeps with the wife of a knight serving him, and the cuckolded knight sees no other way to redress his shame except by bloodshed, stabbing both the count and his pregnant wife to death, so that Winzenburg is forfeit without heir. This vacancy in the county is delivered as news by the sprite to the bishop, who consequently gains Wintzenburg and nearby Alfeld as added territory.
Kitchen murders
At the "Court" of the Bishop (the tale also refers to the "castle") the spirit would frequently manifest himself in the kitchen doing some sort of service and talking to people familiarly in order to put people at ease. Until, that is, the kitchen staff overstepped the sprite's tolerance by taunting and repeatedly splashing kitchen filth on the sprite. The sprite vowed revenge, and when the kitchen boy went to sleep, Hödekin strangled him, cut him to pieces, and put his flesh in a pot over the fire. The master chef who had not disciplined the boy in the first place, and now rebuked the kobold for the grotesque prank, became the next target. The master chef's response prompted Hödekin to squeeze the blood and poisons of toads over the bishop's meat, and finally cast the cook into the castle's ditch or moat.
According to the sources, it was in the aftermath of these poisonings and serial murders prompt the night guards of the city walls and castle to go on alert. Francisci (also the Grimms) add that there was suspicion the sprite might commit arson ( on the Bishop's residence.: "er mögte des Bischofs Hof und andere Häuser anzünde"; : "it as feared that he might be tempted to set the bishop's house on fire"; : "afraid of his setting fire to the town and palace".
Thus it seems misleading for the Grimms (and Keightely) in an earlier passage to credit the sprite as performing an act of diligence to keeping the night watch alert.: "It diligently watched over the city guards so they wouldn't sleep but stay alert "
The murder of the "Bishop of Hildesheim's Kitchen-boy" is retold in nursery rhyme fashion by American poet M. A. B. Evans (1895).
Wife-guarding A man residing in Hildesheim asked Hödekin (jokingly: "as if by way of joke"; Tristhemius: "") 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 had various strategies for scaring them away. He 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, that safe-guarding the wife from debauchery was more challenging than keeping a giant herd of swine from all of Saxony., tr. ; : 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 Saxony than for one such woman, so many were the artifices and plots she devised to blink me.
This tale is found in the various sources including the Latin. Jakob von Vitry observed that the motif is paralleled by the medieval folktale about "wife-guarding". These stories center men who grow tired of unfaithful wives and leave, commending her to the devil who does the hard work of keeping the male adulterers away
Wisdom ring When a simple-minded clerk got called to the synod, the spirit gave him the miracle of a ring made of laurel leaves and other things, which made the man extremely learned after some time.; tr.
A vague parallel noted is the Lower Lusatian tale of "The ghostly dog and the laurel wreath" (""), though in the latter tale, a man shadowed by the black dog gets rid of it after buying a laurel wreath.
Exorcism Sources state that the Bishop Bernard finally made use of his "ecclesiastical censures" () or spells () to exorcise the kobold from the premises.
Golden nails An episode of the Hütchen giving an impoverished nailsmith a magic piece of iron from which golden nails could be made; the spikes appearing in rolls out of the holes, and could be cut inexhaustibly without diminishing the ore. The Hütchen also gave the smith's daughter a roll of lace which could be meted out inexhaustibly without diminishing the supply.
Oral Winzenburg version The version "" ("") set in Winzenburg is given in three parts. In the first, the spirit's namesake headwear is described, and it is said that only the large red tassel on its hat, or the large red hat itself, was visible on the spirit. A kitchen maid pressed the spirit to show its entire form, and the spirit finally relented, instructing her to go to the cellar, where she found a young child lying in a pool of blood (this is a recurrent motif for kobolds). In the second, a kitchen boy of Winzenburg taunts Hans and suffers the fate of dismemberment. In the third, when the Count of Winzenburg lay dying, the spirit quickly built the (a messenger's road) and delivered the news to the Bishop of Hildesheim, warning him to subjugate Winzenburg before the Braunschweiger forces arrive.
Parallels