The Hedley Kow
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"The Hedley Kow" is an English fairy tale, particular to the village of
Hedley on the Hill Hedley on the Hill is a village in Northumberland, west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located between the valley of the River Derwent, and the watershed to the River Tyne. Despite being close to a major city, Hedley is typically Northumbrian ...
in
Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...
. It was collected by
Joseph Jacobs Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 – 30 January 1916) was an Australian folklorist, translator, literary critic, social scientist, historian and writer of English literature who became a notable collector and publisher of English folklore. Jacobs ...
in ''More English Fairy Tales'' in 1894. The story concerns a shapeshifting
trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story ( god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwi ...
known as the Hedley Kow.


Synopsis

A poor woman finds a pot on the road. She thinks it must have a hole for it to be discarded, but optimistically decides she might find a use for it as a flowerpot. Looking inside she discovers it is full of
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
pieces, and decides to drag it home in her shawl. She drags it for a while, but when she looks back, the pot has become a lump of silver. She decides this is better than gold, as it is less likely to be stolen, and goes on. After a time she turns back again, to find the silver has turned into a chunk of iron. She observes this will be easier to sell, and that the penny pieces it will bring would be safer than either gold or silver. She goes on again, and when she turns back a third time, the iron has become a rock. She exclaims how convenient this will be as a
doorstop A doorstop (also door stopper, door stop or door wedge) is an object or device used to hold a door open or closed, or to prevent a door from opening too widely. The same word is used to refer to a thin slat built inside a door frame to prevent a ...
, and happily goes home. When she reaches her home, the rock transforms again, revealing itself to be the Hedley Kow, a mischievous shapeshifting creature. The creature trots off laughing, leaving the woman staring after it. She proclaims that it was quite a thing to have seen the Hedley Kow for herself, and goes inside to think about her good luck.


Commentary

The Hedley Kow was a kind of
elf An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...
noted for its mischievous habits of shapeshifting. Similar creatures include the Brag, also from
Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...
, and the
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
''Kludde'' and ''Oschaert''.''Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders'' By William Henderson, 2nd ed. pp. 270-3;
note Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...
.
However, the old woman's equanimity in face of the creature's changes distinguishes this tale. The German fairy tale " Hans in Luck" has a similar sequence in which the character believes that every change is for the better.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hedley Kow English fairy tales Fiction about shapeshifting Northumbrian folklore Northumbrian folkloric beings Joseph Jacobs