Hedgehogs in culture
This article discusses hedgehogs in culture, either in popular or folk culture.
Europe
As animals native to Europe, hedgehogs hold a rightful place in European folklore. Since the mammal did not possess any "righteous" qualities, it never made it to the court art; however, its relationship with fairy tales has been a long and fruitful one.
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, while in reality, they are lactose-intolerant.
They 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 November 5 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.
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.
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
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.
"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,[1] and was referenced in an episode of Two Fat Ladies.
Hedgehogs in popular culture
In books
- Hans My Hedgehog is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. A wealthy but childless merchant wishes he had a child, even a hedgehog, and comes home to find that his wife has given birth to a baby boy that is a hedgehog from the waist up. After many trials Hans My Hedgehog marries a princess and becomes a handsome young man.
- The French author the Comtesse de Ségur devotes a chapter in the children's classic Les petites filles modèles (in French) to a story featuring hedgehogs. A mother hedgehog and her three offspring are killed by a caretaker because, as he explains it, they destroy little rabbits and partridges, to the great consternation of the children in the story.
- Jan Brett has featured a hedgehog as the main character in many of her books, including The Mitten and Hedgie's Surprise.
- Dick King-Smith has written a story for younger children about a family of hedgehogs threatened by traffic, The Hodgeheg.
- In The Animals of Farthing Wood by British author Colin Dann, several hedgehogs were part of the group of animals that travelled from Farthing Wood to the nature reserve White Deer Park. The oldest two hedgehogs were run over on a motorway near the end of the journey.[2] The rest of the hedgehogs safely made it to White Deer Park and appeared sporadically in the remainder of the series. In the television adaptation only two hedgehogs were part of the group. As in the novel, both were killed on the motorway.[3]
In other media
- Sonic the Hedgehog is Sega's anthropomorphic corporate mascot and one of the stars of the video game series of the same name, four TV series, OVA, and four comic series, one published in the USA and one in the UK. Aside from being bipedal and cobalt blue, he resembles a real hedgehog, having large spines, a long nose, and a penchant for curling into a spiky ball. Among his many co-stars are three more hedgehogs: Amy Rose, Shadow, and Silver. Other hedgehogs in the TV Series were Sonia, Manic, Queen Aleena and Uncle Chuck.
- Lindsfarne Dewclaw, from the online comic strip Kevin and Kell is a hedgehog. She is highly intelligent, and is studying to be a scientist, fascinated with genetics, astronomy and spaceflight. She has recently graduated from university with her bachelor's degree and married her high school sweetheart Fenton Fuscus, a bat.
- Jeż Jerzy (George the Hedgehog in English) is a Polish comic book title written by Rafał Skarżycki and drawn by Tomasz Lew Leśniak.
- Igel Ärgern is a popular German board game, first published in 1990 by Doris Matthaus & Frank Nestel (the makers of Ursuppe). The title roughly translates as "Hedgehog Irking," but the game is usually called "Hedgehogs in a Hurry" in English. In the game, each player races a team of four hedgehogs across a track, avoiding mud pits and occasionally piling atop one another.
- In a 1970 episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, there was a fake news profile of a crime lord named Dinsdale Piranha, a notorious criminal known for nailing people's heads to floors. Piranha believed a giant invisible hedgehog named "Spiny Norman" was following him everywhere, and when he came to believe Spiny Norman was hiding out in an aeroplane hangar, he blew the hangar up with a nuclear bomb. During the closing credits of the show, Spiny Norman is seen stalking London and shouting "Dinsdale!" A link to the script can be found here.
- In the Israeli version of Sesame Street, Rechov Sumsum, one of the main characters was a pink human-sized, orange spiked hedgehog named "Kippy Ben Kippod " (Kippy Hedgehogson). The same character later appeared in the Israeli/Palestinian co-production of the series, Rechov Sumsum Shara'a Simsim
- In the Spanish version of Sesame Street, one of the main characters was a pink human-sized hedgehog called "Espinete" (little spine).
- In Anime Meimi Haneoka pet cutie Saint Tail, one of the main characters with and when Tiny Hedgehog is name Ruby Female hedgehog talking you along hedgehog called "Ruby" (Red)
- Harry Hedgehog is an enemy in Yoshi's Island. He is an enemy that runs around and extends his quills when Yoshi gets near.
- Megaman 3 on the NES had a robotic hedgehog enemy in Needleman's stage, referred to as "Needle Harry" in Nintendo Power. In Megaman II on the Gameboy, this enemy returns along with Needleman, and in "list of enemies" at the end is referred to as "Hari Harry" (note that in Japanese a hedgehog is a "Hari Nezumi" or literally a "needle mouse") It attacks by firing its spines, and can also roll, during which it is invulnerable.
- In the "Timeless Time" episode of the BBC television show One Foot in the Grave, Victor, on his way back into the house in the early morning hours of returning from turning off his faulty car alarm, accidentally steps into a rotting hedgehog and walks it into the house, like a slipper.
- In the final episode of the second series of Bottom Richie mistakingly believes that Red indians eat hedgehogs and Eddie Hitler mistakes a hedgehog for a womble
- The Incredible String Band has a song called 'The Hedgehog's Song' in their album The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion. It was written by Mike Heron.
References
- ^ "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
- ^ Dann, Colin (1979). "Chapter 26: The Motorway". The Animals of Farthing Wood (2006 ed.). London: William Heinemann Ltd. p. 239.
- ^ "Between Two Evils". The Animals of Farthing Wood. BBC. 10 March 1993. No. Ten, series One. 19:32 minutes in.