The Monstrefact Redux: The Hooden Horse of Kent

In this special holiday episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the Hoden or Hooden Horse of British winter ritual… (originally published 12/14/2022)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the
Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Your Mind, focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters.
In time, the winter holidays have arrived once more. It's
a time for festive foods by the fire, a time

(00:31):
for the giving of gifts, and of course, a time
for parading through the streets with the head of a
dead horse. I speak of the hooden horse or holden
a tradition from Kent in southeast England that dates back
to at least the eighteen hundreds, but with likely roots
to much older pre Christian traditions. I first read about

(00:52):
this practice in the nineteen eighty seven Enchanted World volume
The Book of Christmas, which features a beautiful illus by
visual artist Matt Mahurn that depicts a ghostly humanoid horse
stamping and prancing down a misty street. The book describes
the Christmas Eve tradition in which a man in a

(01:13):
sheet or horse blanket brandishes a wooden horsehead or an
actual horse skull, and proceeds down the street. Children might
cower inside their homes at the hoden's approach, but the
braver kids might run out and try to mount the horse.
Adults would come out and watch, or perhaps throw sweets

(01:33):
or money before the creature or into its mouth for
good luck. Jeff and fran Dole explore the tradition in
depth in their excellent two thousand and nine book Folklore
of Kent. They mentioned that the name Hooden might be
a reference to the hooded or disguised aspect of the creature,
but with possible connections to wooden horses, twelfth century Germanic chieftains,

(01:56):
or even the Germanic god Woden. In this respect, many
crimes have pointed out a likely connection to much older
traditions of animal sacrifice involving the horse. Many of the
accounts the authors share in this book involve a wooden
puppet head for the horse, articulated to snap it onlookers
and gobble up their offerings, well except for the beer,

(02:19):
of course, speaking of offerings of beer. The practice of
the hooden horse is reminiscent of various wahsail traditions and
even of Christmas caroling, though the procession seems to have
involved no songs or set words, just as the hoden
horse's origins are lost to the fog of history, the

(02:40):
practice might well have vanished into the fog of modernity
if it were not for the work of Percy Mayleem
in the late nineteenth century. He investigated, photographed, and chronicled
the surviving hooden horse traditions, and together with surviving hooden
horse heads of wood, the work has helped to inform
the practice's twenty eight century revival. And so this Christmas Eve,

(03:04):
listen for the sound of prancing hoofs in the street
and the snapping of wooden jaws. The hoodeners might be
coming with their strange horse, their grooms, their drivers, their
wagoneers and jockeys, their musicians and mollies, all in attendance.
Bring forth your sweets, your coins, your beer, for the

(03:24):
hooden Horse has come to you. Merry Christmas. Tune in
for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week. As always,
you can email us at contact It's Stuff to Blow
Your Mind dot com.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
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