Uncommon Folk 31 Days of Winter- Père Fouettard

Uncover the chilling origins of Père Fouettard, the sinister sidekick to St. Nicholas, whose terrifying tale is sure to send shivers down your spine. Known as Father Whipper, this dark figure of French folklore was a malevolent butcher who, along with his wife, abducted and murdered children, only to be thwarted by a miraculous intervention from St. Nicholas. We unravel the grim details of how this character evolved through history, including a bizarre connection to the Siege of Metz and an eerie transformation into Father Flog or Spanky in the United States. Journey with us as we explore the unsettling side of holiday tradition, where lumps of coal and beatings served as deterrents for childhood misdeeds.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Per Foutard. Now, this is a particularly grim and gruesome one, so if you're not into that, please turn off now. Per Foutard, he was a butcher and according to folklore, he and his wife kidnapped, robbed and killed the children of wealthy people and then carved up their bodies and hid them in salting barrels. And hid them in salting barrels. St Nicholas discovered the crime and brought the children back to life. As St Nicholas Something I didn't know about St Nicholas he could resurrect the dead, but as punishment he forced Père Foutard to be his eternal cannibal manservant. So he follows St Nicholas around and he is the one who basically sorts out all the problem.

Speaker 1: 1:09

Children. There's a lot of this, a lot of very interesting. You see, like Krampus, you see, lots of different societies have this sort of, this darker version who follows around with the deals with the naughty children. But Pierre Foutard, which is French for Father Whipper or Old man Whipper, he's a character who follows St Nicholas around. He dispenses lumps of coal and beatings to naughty children Obviously, not so much of the beatings nowadays, but he would give a beating to the naughty children. He was also said to bring a whip with him for the really naughty children, not just to beat him with his hands, use a whip.

Speaker 1: 2:03

There's a really popular story, um, about him, which was first told, uh, in the year 1252, when he captured three boys who appeared to be wealthy at least, uh, they were on their way to enroll in a, in a boarding school, a religious boarding school at that. So, along with his wife, he, he killed the children in order to rob them. I mean, I'm sure he could have overpowered the children and got their welfare, but he killed them. And they drugged the children, slit their throats, cut them into pieces and put them in a barrel. Now, this is where St Nicholas came along and discovered the crime, resurrected the children, despite the fact that they were in pieces. That is quite a miracle there. So he repented. I would say that he was more punished into following St Nicholas around, but if he repented, that's fine.

Speaker 1: 3:04

There's a different version of it. The story that states during the Siege of Metz, which is a city in Eastern France, in 1552, there was an effigy of King Charles V was burnt, dragged through the city. Meanwhile, an association of tanners created this grotesque character, who was also a tanner and armed with a whip and bound in chains, who punished children. I don't know what the association of King Charles V and this grotesque character was. So after the city was liberated, the charred effigy of Charles V and this character created by the tanners basically assimilated and became known as Père Foutade. So events around the city's liberation and the burning of the effigy coincided with the passage of St Nicholas, so that's why he became the sort of like the counterpart, the bad cop, if you will.

Speaker 1: 4:08

Now his name has been slightly changed in the United States and I'm not sure about these names, but he's been translated under the name from the 1930s, father Flog or Spanky. Not a great name really. He's pretty much identical to the French personification. But Father Flog or Spank had nothing to do with Christmas. He also had a female accomplice, just like his wife. In the original she was called Mother Flog. The two gave out very specific punishments for very specific childhood crimes, for example. Example if someone lied they might cut out their tongues. They stole they might cut off their hands, that sort of thing. Very specific punishments. So he's described as being a man with a very sinister face, dressed in dark robes, very unkempt hair and a long beard, armed with a whip, a big stick and a bundle of switches. So he's got options on how he beats the children. Some say that he had a wicker backpack, much like Krampus, in which children could be placed and carried away, and sometimes he's got a large bundle of sticks on his back. So that is Pierre Foutard.