Ekke Nekkepenn
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Ekke Nekkepenn (also Eke Nekepen, besides other various spellings) is a North Frisian legendary figure. In the middle of the 19th century, the local researcher, folklorist, and graphic artist Christian Peter Hansen (1803–1879) portrayed Ekke Nekkepenn as a merman who lives with his wife Rahn at the bottom of the North Sea and plays mischievous tricks on seafarers and residents of the North Frisian Islands. In Theodor Storm’s 1866 published fairy tale "The Rain Maiden", a little man of fire with the name Eckeneckenpen appears and casts evil spells to make the fields wither.
Today's well-known depiction of Ekke Nekkepenn goes back to Christian Peter Hansen, who retold various legends from the island of Sylt in his 1858 book Frisian Tales And Legends. One of the stories is titled "The Merman Ekkehard Nekkepenn."
The story begins when Ekke Nekkepenn asks the captain, whose England-bound ship runs into a storm, to help with the birth of his child. The beautiful and helpful wife of the captain is led by the merman to his home at the bottom of the North Sea, where his wife Rahn was. After a successful birth, she is returned to the surface of the sea, bringing gold and silver. The captain and his wife continue their journey and later, arrive safe and sound to their home of Rantum on Sylt. Several years later, Ekke Nekkepenn remembered this incident and decides – now that Rahn has become "old and wrinkly" – to take the captain's wife as his own. When he sees the Rantumer Captain's ship one day, he persuades Rahn, who's sitting on the seabed, to grind salt, and the resulting powerful vortex pulls down the Sylt ship along with its crew.
On the way to the captain's wife, Ekke Nekkepenn, who has turned into a handsome sailor, meets their young daughter Inge at Rantum's beach. Against her will, he places a gold ring on each of her fingers, hangs a gold chain around her neck, and declares her his bride. When the girl tearfully asks him to release her, he replies that he could do this only if she could tell him his name the next night. But no one on the island knows the stranger. As Inge walks along the beach in despair the next evening, she hears at the southern time at Hörnum a voice from the mountain, who sings:
- Today I want to brew;
- Tomorrow I will bake;
- The day after tomorrow the wedding I’ll make.
- My name’s Ekke Nekkepenn,
- My bride is Inge Rantum,
- And no one knows when I’m alone.
In Styl Fresian:
- Delling skel ik Bruu;
- Miaren skel ik baak;
- Aurmiaren ik wel Bröllep maak.
- Ik jit Ekke Nekkepenn,
- Min Brid it Inge fan Raantem,
- En di tweet ik nemmen üs aliining.
Then she returns to the arranged meeting place and calls the arriving stranger: "Your name is Ekke Nekkepenn and I remain Inge from Rantum." Because of this, the foolhardy merman cherishes a rage against the residents at Styl and lets loose whenever he feels like it.