Birthday iconography!

I asked for no presents, and, mostly, friends obeyed. But I forgot about cards … I have never had so many! Turning 60 is clearly celebrated!

As the collection of cards in this photograph show, there is a very wide range of hedgehog images out there - and also, some amazing creativity with the homemade ones. I was asked whether I minded being so pigeonholed - I had to point out that what amazed me was that there were over 40 cards that were NOT of hedgehogs!

So what is it about the image of the hedgehog that makes them so popular? Yes, there is the obvious bit about us loving them, about them being a wild animal we have the chance to be close to, with whom we share space. Yes, there are the children’s stories - though it is worth noting that until 1905 hedgehogs were painted very much as a created of omen, or even doom.

And what happened in 1905?

I imagine many of you know the answer … I will make you wait a bit if you don’t!

Back in 2014 I wrote a book about the iconography of the hedgehog. I had just had my first book published, A Prickly Affair, and had had to chop a huge chunk of it out because the editor observed it was not about hedgehogs - but about the idea of hedgehogs … so that is what went into the book from Reaktion. Still available, though I would love the chance to update it - there is so much more hedgehog iconography out there now!

For the Roman’s, hedgehogs were weather prophets’; for Shakespeare, a term of abuse. In the bible they appear in some translations - but in others the word that is hedgehog is translated as bittern. It does make you wonder to the veracity of a book that cannot get those two rather different animals sorted out!

I would love to know more about how hedgehogs were viewed in Ancient Egypt, because there are many ceramic hedgehogs found from then - maybe it was to do with perceived invulnerability to snakes - or that they seemed to ‘die’ and be reborn … though this reincarnation is not thought to be due to hibernation, but aestivation - the summer equivalent. Hedgehogs in the hottest parts of the world can enter a state just like hibernation, shutting down their metabolism to preserve far reserves while their food hides from the heat!

Or maybe they were toys for children?

One of the reasons I have stuck with hedgehogs for now 40 years - yes, 40 years ago I had just returned from my first ever hedgehog fieldwork - six weeks on North Ronaldsay, Orkney - is because they are so everyday - or at least used to be. I wonder whether hedgehogs have become such a thing - it is not just birthday cards that are adorned with hedgehogs - is because of the transition from them being everyday to not … that we are in some way acknowledging the grief of loss through consumption?

Though another reason is very practical - they tend not to bite or run away, so as a study animal, have definite advantages!

Why so much love for this animal? They are so easily recognisable you really know when you have seen a hedgehog - and then there is the undeniable (I recognise this is a word that is not scientific!!!) cute appearance of a face that carries with it so much character! So we can build so many stories, so many aesthetics, on and around the hedgehog.

From the church in Ross-on-Wye, to the misericords in New College, Oxford, to the carving on the wall of Amiens Cathedral, hedgehogs get everywhere. From the children’s books and mugs, t-towels and t-shirts that surround me in my shed - and to the cards - so many cards.

And yet (here comes the answer), until Mrs Tiggy-Winkle - published in 1905 - hedgehogs were not viewed with such an eye. Would we love the hedgehog as much as we do now without Beatrix Potter? Would there have been quite so many amazing birthday cards for me??