Here There Be Hedgehogs
by Lady Scholastica Joycors
I recently ran across an article at the Medieval Manuscripts blog about hedgehogs, and it made me chuckle. I mean I have seen hedgehogs in so many manuscripts I thought that a little adventure into this Bestiary favorite might be fun. The hedgehog is one of the English language's more picturesquely named animals: the name hedgehog came into use around the year 1450, derived from the Middle English heyghoge, from heyg, hegge ("hedge"), because it frequents hedgerows, and hoge, hogge ("hog"), from its piglike snout.[1] Other names include urchin, hedgepig and furze-pig. It is not that the hedgehog did not exist in period but for most of it's existence it had been called an 'urchin', a term which is still used in some dialects, but most commonly associated today with the spiky little sea urchin: literally a 'sea hedgehog'.[2] Hedgehogs, however they were named, were familiar animals, finding their place in the standard medieval bestiary between the mole and the ant.
The Ancient Persians saw the hedgehog as sacred to Ahura Mazda because of its dedication to destroying agricultural pests: "the dog with the prickly back and the long, thin muzzle...from midnight to morning it kills thousands of the creatures of the Evil One". [8] Is it any wonder that in medieval times and even later people kept them to eat bugs in their houses. When they managed to eat all the bugs in their owner's house, the owner would loan them to their neighbors for a bit. Hedgehogs will eat plants, bugs, small vermin, etc. They have even been observed snagging pheasants taking flight by the leg and dragging them down. Hedgehogs are also immune to most poison and venoms, natural or man-made. [9]
Hedgehogs were said to creep into vineyards when the grapes were ripe, to climb the vines and shake the fruit down to the ground. Then, rather than eating this bounty on the spot, they would turn onto their backs and roll around, impaling the grapes with their sharp quills. They could then trundle off back to their burrows, carrying the grapes on their spines, as a meal for their young (see image above). {3]. It is said by some that the fruit the hedgehog carries away actually an apple or fig. [4]
In Religion
There are many other interesting facts about hedgehogs and their purpose St. Antony of Padua (12th-13th century CE Sermons) said that "Sinners are compared to hedgehogs. Note that the hedgehog is altogether full of prickles; and if any one tries to take it, it rolls itself up, and becomes as it were a ball in the hand of the holder. Its head and its mouth are set low down, and inside its mouth are five teeth. The hedgehog is the obstinate sinner, covered all over with the prickles of sins. If you endeavour to convince him of the sin he has committed, he immediately rolls himself up, and hides, by excusing, his fault. And thus, it may be said that his head and mouth are set low down. By the head, we understand, the thoughts; by the mouth, the words. While the sinner excuses himself with respect to the sin he has done, what else is it than that he bows his mind and his words down to the ground? Whence also he is said to have five teeth in his mouth, which are the five kinds of excuses that are found in the mouth of the obstinate. For, when he is blamed, he excuses himself either by ignorance or chance, or the suggestion of the devil, or the frailty of his flesh, or the occasion given by his neighbour".[4]
It seems that hedgehogs like many other animals were used as symbols to help teach a lesson either for religious purposes or teach a common lesson. To continue my point the oldest, know bestiary text, the second-century-AD Physilogus, describes the deeds of the hedgehog as metaphor for allowing "that most wicked spirit"—temptation—"to climb up into your place...thus he [the devil] has deceived you with the barbs of death in order to divide your plunder among hostile powers."[5]
For the most part bestiaries considered hedgehogs as snaggle-toothed thieves who represented sinful looting of the goods produced through honest productivity. I suspect that it mostly reflected only on the fact that they were foragers and a general nuisance, regardless the hedgehog was just doing whatever it took to be a good parent and survive.
In Myth and Legend
Beyond the religious symbolism of hedgehogs there were also many tales and fables about hedgehogs like the fable by Aesop called the Fox and the Hedgehog which supports the Ancient Greek saying of, “The fox knows many tricks, the hedgehog only one; but that is the best one of all”. The Speculum sapientiae, or Mirror of Wisdom, was a Latin text that included a large number of beast fables. In one of the fables, a goat came upon its own reflection in a pond. The goat, seeing the horns on his head and his long goat beard, thought himself very handsome indeed, and began to bleat, boasting of his horny 'crown' and hairy 'necklace'. A passing hedgehog, however, was less than impressed. If the goat had impressive horns and beard, he also had an unsightly tail and a foul temper. A profound humility, the hedgehog reproached, not vain boasting, was what made an animal truly noble. The hedgehog here is chosen as a symbol not of diabolical trickery, but of an appropriate Christian modesty. [2]
In the Balkins there are many myths and legends concerning hedgehogs in Bulgarian legend they often speak of the wisdom of the hedgehog. It is said that, 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.
Tales of the hedgehog have continued on even into today’s literature such as, Alice in Wonderland where the Queen of Hearts use the flamingos and hedgehogs to play croquet or Beatrix Potter’s book Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, Terry Prichard’s Discworld novels or Brian Joacques book series Redwall just to mention a few, even Shakespeare references hedgepigs and urchins in The Tempest and Midsummer’s Night Dream. So, while religion uses them as representatives of sin and thievery many more represent them as wise or industrious.
In Cuisine and Medicine
Beyond the obvious I am hungry, let’s eat that goes along with most animals the hedgehog was traded throughout Eurasia and Africa for traditional medicine and witchcraft. In the Middle East and especially among the Beodouins, hedgehog meat is considered medicinal, and thought to cure rheumatism and arthritis. In Morocco, inhaling the smoke of the burnt skin or bristles is a inhaling the smoke of the burnt skin or bristles is a purported remedy for fever, male impotence, and urinary illnesses. The blood is sold as a cure for ringworm, cracked skin and warts and the flesh is eaten as a remedy for witchcraft. [10] One reference I found states that the meat of a hedgehog was food for lepers. “Those who dry its intestines and grind them to a powder and eat a little of that are made to piss, even if they cannot do so otherwise”.[6]
In cuisine in the 1390s a popular dish called Hedgehogs was made by molding ground meat, usually pork, into a teardrop shape mound and embedding it with pastry or almonds slivers on the surface to resemble quills and then adding eyes and ears of peppercorns, olives or whole almonds. [7]
According to the book Le Ménagier de Paris, “Hedgehog should have its throat cut, be singed and gutted, then trussed like a pullet, then pressed in a towel until very dry; and then roast it and eat with cameline sauce, or in pastry with wild duck sauce. Note that if the hedgehog refuses to unroll, put it in hot water, and then it will straighten itself.” [6]
Some traveling communities have traditional recipes for roasting hedgehogs in which they would roll the hogs in clay and baked them in a fire. When the clay was cracked off after cooking, the spines and hair would also be removed.[11]
The hedgehog is seen in a different light depending on where you lived and who you were, if you were a member of the clergy you saw them in a bad light as a helper of the devil, some thought of them as witches in disguise. but others saw them as industrious, devoted to their families, and wise. These small spiny creatures can be seen on amulets in Egyptian tombs, on heraldry, in numerous illuminated manuscripts, and in literature since the times of the Greek with Aesop and are still found in our stories today. Whether you find them cute or an annoyance we still have a fascination with hedgehogs.
Bibliography:
[1] Oxford English Dictionary, Online edition. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
[5] https://brewminate.com/the-hardworking-homemaking-hedgehog-of-the-medieval-bestiary/ ; posted 16 May 2018.
[7] 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
[8] Vendidad in A R Burn, Persia and the Greeks (Stanford 1984) p. 67
[10] Qumsiyeh, Mazin B. (1996). Mammals of the Holy Land. Texas Tech UP. p. 64
©2020 MyLinda Butterworth (scholastica.ppa@gmail.com) This article first appeared in The Yeoman - April 2020
Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited and receives a copy.
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