Friar Rush

During the 16th and 17th centuries, numerous High German, Scandinavian (Danish and Swedish), Dutch and English translations and adaptations in Volksbuch or chap book form were printed.

Rush throws the cook into a boiling cauldron and takes his place, working to the satisfaction of the monks for seven years, but constantly causing strife among them.

Both were apparently helpful household spirits that accepted offerings of cream, according to a misreading of Samuel Harsnett (1603) A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures by past commentators.

In fact, Kittredge argues, Harsnett was not speaking of any folkloric supernatural "friar" lurking in the kitchen, but polemically blaming actual flesh-and-blood clergymen (led inside homes at appointed hours) and dairy-maids as being the real-life culprits who made the cream offerings to home-sprites disappear.

[a][9] Kittredge however credited Reginald Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) for recognizing a parallel between Rush and the kobold Hödeken (spelt Hudgin or Hutgin).