Saturday, March 15, 2014

Speaking of sprites

Hodekin the helpful kobold

Looking at the mess in my storeroom got me to wishing I had a helpful house sprite. Quite the opposite, I have four very mean spirited house imps. Be that as it may, I recalled that kobolds, unlike in the game, not necessarily evil sword wielding, backstabbing, underground freak shows.

They could be helpful.

So there is tis kobold, Hodekin, who lives with the Bishop of Hildesheim. He has some adventures and such but the one or two in particular is when a boy in he kitchen pesters Hodekin. The kobold asks eh chef to chastise e boy, but the chef refuses. Hodekin, angered, catches the boy, cuts him to bitty bits and serves him in the stew. Hodekin was chastised for this. Hodekin in turn kicks the Bishops meat offa wall an into the moat. He was then exercised from the premises.

He was kicked out for kicking the meat in the moat, not dismembering a child. Ha.

Anyway, it was suggested by a turn of the century scholar tat Robin Hood is actually derived from a variant of Hodekin ( meaning little hood) . Another suggested that Robin Hood is derived from another sprite collectively called pucks or, a famous nickname for one or more is Robin Goodfellow.

Robin Hodekin.

Robin e little Hood.

And there you have it. Another delightful romp through Wikipedia.

And off course, I do not vouch for the accuracy of any of it.

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