Welsh Word of the Day: Draenog (hedgehog)

One of the best anrhegion (presents) I’ve ever received was something I didn’t even know existed until I opened it! My rhieni yng nghyfraith (parents in law) gave me a hedgehog house – basically a little shelter to put in yr ardd (the garden) along with food, to help out hedgehogs in the cold gaeaf (winter). I’ve not spotted any yet, but I’m hopeful that they’re using it to keep cynnes (warm).

The Welsh word for a hedgehog is draenog, or draenogod (hedgehogs) for more than one of these prickly friends.

Here’s how it mutates:

It’s unlikely that you’ll ever need to use draenoges (a female hedgehog) – perhaps if you’re a bywyd gwyllt (wildlife) expert, but even then I’m not sure! But it is interesting that it pluralises differently, becoming draenogesau.

Since draenoges is technically the term for the female, draenog is a masculine noun. This has two important consequences: the hedgehog is y draenog, with no mutation, and similarly, adjectives used to describe a draenog don’t mutate. For example, y draenog pigog (the prickly hedgehog) or y draenog ciwt (the cute hedgehog).

But technically the prickly female hedgehog would be y ddraenoges bigog! I just give it as an example of the different mutation rules; as I say, you’ll probably never need to use this word. I don’t think I’ve ever worried about a hedgehog’s gender…

Draenog is derived from the word drain, which means thorns. The suffix –og in Welsh is interesting here because it’s usually used for adjectives, not nouns. So literally, the name draenog kind of just means thorny. And back in the day people used to extend it and call them draenog y coed (the thorny one of the wood).

It’s definitely an appropriate name for these lovely little anifeiliaid (animals), but it’s not the only one. Some people instead call them moch y coed (pigs of the wood), though this can get confusing because it’s got a variety of different meanings too. I’ve mostly heard it used to refer to woodlice, but it’s been recorded as a description for wild pigs, badgers and even pinecones!

And in a completely different kind of habitat to coed (woodland / trees), draenog, draenog y môr (sea hedgehog), or draenogyn dŵr (little water hedgehog) can be used to refer to the pysgodyn (fish) that we call perch in English, presumably because of their spiny esgyll (fins). Swap the words around and you get môr–ddraenog (sea urchin), also a very appropriate name.

A porcupine is not referred to as a kind of draenog – which is good, because they aren’t related at all! While a ballasg (porcupine) is a cnofil (rodent), a draenog is actually much closer genetically to a twrch daear (mole) or llyg (shrew).

There are plenty of coeliau (beliefs, generally false ones) about draenogod that have been held in Ewrop (Europe), including the UK and Wales, for hundreds of years.

For example, it was thought for a long time that would steal agricultural produce, like llaeth (milk) which they were said to sugno (suck) from the udders of buchod (cows). Even today a lot of people think that you should feed llaeth to draenogod, though in reality it isn’t good for them as it gives them diarrhoea.

Another coel (belief) was that they stole wyau (eggs), and a particularly far-fetched myth was that they were able to kill nadroedd (snakes). Hence the Welsh proverb mae draenog i bob neidr (there’s a hedgehog for every snake), meaning that everything that seems fearsome and frightening can itself still be defeated.

Today, draenogod are generally perceived as friendly, cute anifeiliaid, and people are increasingly careful to check before lighting a coelcerth (bonfire) that there isn’t a draenog sleeping in the pile of brigau (sticks), as that’s exactly the kind of place they like to gaeafgysgu (hibernate).

Of course, the most famous trait of a draenog is their propensity to curl up in a ball when frightened, defending themselves with their pigau (spikes). Poet Alan Llwyd composed a verse about this very sweet (and useful!) habit.

I’ve given my own translation – trying to capture the spirit and meaning of the extract rather than going word-for-word. That being said, here is some of the key vocabulary from this verse to help you get the idea yourself!

• brys = a rush, a haste – in the poem mutated to frys
• cogio = to fake, to pretend, to cheat
• chwim = swift
• arafwch = slowness, from araf (slow)
• cau = to close
• dwrn = a fist
• gwasgu = to press – in the poem mutated to wasgu
• asgwrn = a bone

I think it’s a great description of this unique feature of draenogod. It’s certainly a very good defence mechanism – though for lovers like me of bywyd gwyllt (wildlife), it’s a shame that it makes it harder to stroke them!