Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures,
Speaker 1: ideas and monsters. In time, the winter holidays have arrived
Speaker 1: once more. It's a time for festive foods by the fire,
Speaker 1: a time for the giving of gifts, and of course,
Speaker 1: a time for parading through the streets with the head
Speaker 1: of a dead horse. I speak of the hooden horse
Speaker 1: or hoden, a tradition from Kent in southeast England that
Speaker 1: dates back to at least the eighteen hundreds, but with
Speaker 1: likely roots to much older pre Christian traditions. I first
Speaker 1: read about this practice in the seven Enchanted World volume
Speaker 1: The Book of Christmas, which features a beautiful illus ration
Speaker 1: by visual artist Matt Mhor that depicts a ghostly humanoid
Speaker 1: horse stamping and prancing down a misty street. The book
Speaker 1: describes the Christmas Eve tradition in which a man in
Speaker 1: a sheet or horse blanket brandishes a wooden horsehead or
Speaker 1: an actual horse skull and proceeds down the street. Children
Speaker 1: might cower inside their homes at the Hodan's approach, but
Speaker 1: the braver kids might run out and try to mount
Speaker 1: the horse. Adults would come out and watch, or perhaps
Speaker 1: throw suites or money before the creature or into its
Speaker 1: mouth for good luck. Jeff and Frandol explore the tradition
Speaker 1: in depth in their excellent two thousand and nine book
Speaker 1: Folklore of Kent. They mentioned that the name Hooden might
Speaker 1: be a reference to the hooded or disguised aspect of
Speaker 1: the creature, but with possible connections to wooden horses, twelfth
Speaker 1: century Germanic chieftains, or even the Germanic god Woden. In
Speaker 1: this respect, many crime the clers have pointed out a
Speaker 1: likely connection to much older traditions of animal sacrifice involving
Speaker 1: the horse. Many of the accounts the author's share in
Speaker 1: this book involved a wooden puppet head for the horse,
Speaker 1: articulated to snap it onlookers and gobble of their offerings,
Speaker 1: well except for the beer, of course, speaking of offerings
Speaker 1: of beer. The practice of the hooden horse is reminiscent
Speaker 1: of various wahsale traditions and even of Christmas caroling, though
Speaker 1: the procession seems to have involved no songs or set words,
Speaker 1: just as the hoden horse's origins are lost to the
Speaker 1: fog of history. The practice might well have vanished into
Speaker 1: the fog of modernity if it were not for the
Speaker 1: work of Percy Maleem in the late nineteenth century. He investigated,
Speaker 1: photographed and chronicle of the surviving hooden horse traditions, and
Speaker 1: together with surviving hooden horse heads of wood, the work
Speaker 1: has helped to inform the practices twenty century revival. And
Speaker 1: so this Christmas Eve, listen for the sound of prancing
Speaker 1: hoofs in the street and the snapping of wooden jaws.
Speaker 1: The Hoodeners might be coming with their strange horse, their grooms,
Speaker 1: their drivers, their wagon ears and jockeys, their musicians and
Speaker 1: Molly's all in attendance. Bring forth your suits, your coins,
Speaker 1: your beer, for the hooden Horse has come to you.
Speaker 1: Merry Christmas. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster
Speaker 1: Fact each week. As always, you can email us at
Speaker 1: contact It's Stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com. Stuff
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