Hedgehogs in culture

Hedgehogs have appeared widely in popular and folk culture.

Europe

As animals native to Europe and Africa, hedgehogs hold a place in European folklore.[1][2]

In most European countries, hedgehogs are believed to be a hard-working no-nonsense animal. This partially results from the folk belief that hedgehogs collect apples and mushrooms and carry them to their secret storage.

It is unclear exactly how old this belief is, though the Roman author Pliny the Elder mentions hedgehogs gathering grapes by this method in his Naturalis Historia. In medieval bestiaries and other illuminated manuscripts dating from at least the 13th century onwards, hedgehogs are shown rolling on and impaling fruit to carry back to their dens. In fact, however, hedgehogs do not gather food to store for later consumption, relying on their deposited fat to survive hibernation. Nor is apple included in their usual diet (it has been suggested, however, that the hedgehogs may use juice of wild apples in order to get rid of parasites, similar to anting). The image remains an irresistible one to modern illustrators. Therefore, hedgehogs are often portrayed carrying apples – partially, to make them look cuter.

Hedgehogs are often pictured as fond of milk; as late as the 19th century, some English villagers even believed that these creatures would suck milk out of cows' udders.[3] In reality, however, hedgehogs are lactose-intolerant.

Hedgehogs are also often seen in pictures with an autumn-themed background, since the animal hibernates in piles of leaves. This also adds to the cute reputation of hedgehogs. In Great Britain, however, the human habit of lighting bonfires to celebrate Bonfire Night on 5 November has led to an increased risk to hedgehogs, who often choose to sleep in the piles of wood accumulated in gardens and parks beforehand. Television messages now remind viewers who might be lighting bonfires to check them first for the presence of hibernating hedgehogs.

During the 1970s and 1980s, hedgehogs were one of the poster animals for environment activists through Europe. A lot of hedgehogs were killed by traffic, and since the hedgehog already had an aura of a cute little friendly animal, the choice was nearly perfect.

In a Veps legend, the (female) hedgehog appears in a creation myth. According to it, early on, there was no dry land; the entire world was just a big lake. It was a giant hedgehog who brought soil and sand with its needles, creating dry land.[1]

A hedgehog plays a role in a Lithuanian and Latvian creation story as well: when God made heaven and earth, he did not take good measurements, so the earth was made larger than the heaven; on the hedgehog's wise suggestion, God squeezed the earth, so that it would fit into the heaven. (In some version of the legend, the process of "shrinking" the earth resulted in the creation of mountain ranges.) To reward the clever hedgehog, God equipped him with a suite of needles.[1] A similar legend is attested among the Banat Bulgarians and among Romanians as well.[2] [4]

The wisdom of the hedgehog is presented in other folk legend in the Balkans as well. In a Bulgarian legend, the Sun decided to marry the Moon, and invited all the animals to the wedding. The hedgehog was the only one who failed to appear. The Sun went to look for the hedgehog, and found him gnawing on a stone. When the Sun inquired what he was doing, the hedgehog explained: "I am learning to eat stones. Once you marry, you'll have many Sun children born to you, and when they all shine in the sky, everything will burn, and there will be nothing to eat". The Sun then decided to call off the wedding, and the world's inhabitants were saved from starvation.[2][5]

In the Balkan Slavic and Belarusian folklore, the wise hedgehog (along with the tortoise) sometimes appears as the animal capable of finding the raskovnik, a magic plant that could be used to open locks and to find hidden treasures.[2] [4] [6]

In a number of Balkan (Bulgarian,[7] Macedonian,[8] [9] Greek[10]) folk songs the (male) hedgehog often appears romantically interested in a (female) tortoise. His advances are usually unwelcome, the tortoises often resorting to legal means to deal with the harasser.[7] [11]

Jihlava – The city's German name, Iglau, is derived from the German word for hedgehog, Igel, hence the hedgehog on the coat of arms.

United States

The common American holiday Groundhog Day originated in Ancient Rome as Hedgehog Day and is still celebrated as such through much of the world. There are no native hedgehogs in the United States, so the early settlers chose the groundhog as a substitute.

Hedgehogs remain largely unseen in modern-day American culture. On a number of occasions British educational programs have been revoiced to refer to hedgehogs as porcupines (at least one of such examples being Bob the Builder). The Wacky Wheels video game makes humorous use of hedgehogs as projectiles, and they are also seen reading the newspaper while sitting on the toilet in the middle of the race course.

One notable exception is Sonic the Hedgehog, the video game character created by SEGA.

May has been designated Hedgehog Month by the International Hedgehog Association.

Oceania

New Zealand's McGillicuddy Serious Party were unsuccessful in their attempt to get a hedgehog elected to Parliament.

Also in New Zealand, hedgehogs feature in the Bogor cartoon by Burton Silver, via which they also appeared on a postage stamp.

Technology

A hedgehog transformer is an early type of electrical transformer designed to work at audio frequencies (AF). They resemble hedgehogs in size, color and shape, and were used in the first part of the 20th century. (See http://www.telephonecollecting.org/hedgehog.html)

Cuisine

Pork hedgehogs, with slivered almond quills

In some supermarkets in the UK, a type of speciality loaf named Hedgehog Bread can be found for sale. The loaf has a hard top crust shaped before baking into a series of small spikes, resembling a hedgehog.

A "hedgehog cake" recipe appears in English cookbooks as early as the 18th century.[12]

"Hedgehogs" may also be created by moulding ground meat in a teardrop shape, embedding pastry slivers or slivered almonds in the surface to resemble quills, and adding eyes and ears of peppercorns, olives, or whole almonds. The technique dates back to at least 1390,[13] and was referenced in an episode of Two Fat Ladies.

Hedgehogs in popular culture

In books

In other media

Hedgehog in the Fog commemorated on a Soviet postage stamp

References

  1. 1 2 3 Civjan, Tatjana; Razauskas, Dainius (2004), "Еж в космогонических преданиях (Балто-балканский ареал) / Hedgehog in Cosmogonic and Etiological Legends of the Balto-Balcanic Area", Folklore studies XXI: 79–91. English abstract also available separately.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Gura, A.V. (А.В. Гура) (1999), "Еж [Hedgehog]", in Tolstoy, Nikita (Никита Толстой), Славянские древности: этнолингвистический словарь в пяти томах [Slavic Antiquities: Ethnolinguistic Dictionary in Five Volumes] (in Russian) 2, Международные отношения, pp. 181–182, ISBN 5713309827
  3. "Hedgehogs" in: Simpson, Jacqueline; Roud, Stephen (2000), A Dictionary of English Folklore, Oxford University Press, pp. 472–473, ISBN 019210019X
  4. 1 2 Slovenska mitologija: enciklopedijski recnik, Beograd: Zepter BookWorld, 2001, pp. 245–246, ISBN 8674940250, quoted in: Tales From The Past – Folklore, Fairy Tales, Mythology and Magic
  5. One version of this story, called СОНЧЕВАТА ЖЕНИДБА (The Sun's Wedding), was collected by Marko Cepenkov in the 19th century, in what is today Republic of Macedonia; in it, the hedgehog (who rides a donkey) offers stones to his donkey to eat. In another version of the story, it is a tortoise rather than a hedgehog who warns the sun about the consequences of the wedding; in yet another version, it is an old man who offers a piece of quartz to his donkey. These other two versions can be found e.g. in Predanija i Legendi, ed. Kiril Penuševski, Skopje, 1969.
  6. "Raskovnik" (Расковник) in: Агапкина, Т. А (2009), Славянские древности: этнолингвистический словарь в пяти томах [Slavic Antiquities: Ethnolinguistic Dictionary in Five Volumes] (in Russian), Volume 4, Международные отношения, p. 396, ISBN 5713307034
  7. 1 2 Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, ed. (1896), "Желва и еж (Tortoise and Hedgehog)", Sbornik za narodni umotvorenii͡a︡ i narodopis ... (in Bulgarian) 13, Bŭlgarskata akademii͡a︡ na naukite., pp. 38–39
  8. Stefanovski, Božo (БОЖО СТЕФАНОВСКИ), ed. (1995), "Кинисала мома желка (The Girl Turtle went out)", Цут цутила черешвица. Македонски народни песни од Мариово [A Cherry Tree Was Blooming. Macedonian folk songs from Mariovo] (in Macedonian), Skopje
  9. Song no. 28 ("Свадба отъ ракови-те' [Lobsers' Wedding]) in the Bulgarian Folk Songs. Edited by the Miladinov brothers. Zagreb, 1861. (Bulgarian)
  10. Stuart Glennie, John S., ed. (1885), "Nursery Rhyme No. VI", Greek folk-songs from the Turkish provinces of Greece, 'Η δουλη 'Ελλασ: Albania, Thessaly (not yet wholly free), and Macedonia: literal and metrical translations by Lucy M. J. Garnett, classified, revised, and edited with an historical introduction on the survival of Paganism, by John S. Stuart Glennie, p. 173, based on Song no. 195 from Panagiotis Aravantinos' "Συλλογή δημωδών ασμάτων της Ηπείρου" (Athens, 1880)
  11. Shapkarev, Kuzman (1891), "No. 1236, Ежовите и жельките (The hedgehogs and the tortoises)", Sbornik ot bŭlgarski narodni umotvorenii͡a, Volume 3, Issues 1–2 (in Bulgarian), Pechatnitsa na "Liberalniĭ klub,", p. 137
  12. Ayto, John (2012), The Diner's Dictionary: Word Origins of Food and Drink, Oxford University Press, p. 170, ISBN 0199640246
  13. "The Forme of Cury, A Roll of Ancient English Cookery, Compiled, about A.D. 1390, by the Master-Cooks of King Richard II, Presented afterwards to Queen Elizabeth, by Edward Lord Stafford", contains a recipe for sausages "made after an urchoun [i.e., hedgehog] withoute legges" with "smale prikkes of gode past [pastry]". http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Forme-of-Cury2.html
  14. Dann, Colin (1979). "Chapter 26: The Motorway". The Animals of Farthing Wood (2006 ed.). London: William Heinemann Ltd. p. 239.
  15. "Between Two Evils". The Animals of Farthing Wood. Series One. Episode Ten. 10 March 1993. 19:32 minutes in. BBC.
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