Ekke Nekkepenn

In Hansen's 1858 composite narrative, Ekke Nekkepenn arises from two separate local traditions that the collector combined: an older water-man legend about a being living beneath the North Sea with a wife named Rahn, and a North Frisian variant of the Rumpelstiltskin tale that hinges on learning the supernatural being's name. Later scholarship (notably Willy Krogmann, as summarized in the sources) argues Hansen's linkage and etymological identifications with older Norse sea-deities were mistaken, so the commonly cited figure largely reflects Hansen's 19th-century compositional method rather than a single, continuous ancient archetype.

Descriptions vary by nineteenth-century author. In Christian Peter Hansen's 1858 tale, Ekke Nekkepenn is a sea-being who lives on the seabed and can assume the outward form of a handsome sailor when appearing onshore. In Theodor Storm's 1866 use of a similar name (Eckeneckenpen), the figure is cast as a little man of fire who brings blight to fields. These differing portrayals come from distinct literary treatments rather than a single consistent physical type in the recorded tradition.

In Hansen's narrative the being participates in plot events: he and his wife Rahn are said to be able to produce a destructive vortex (the tale describes Rahn 'grinding salt' leading to a powerful vortex that draws a ship and crew under), he can appear ashore as a handsome sailor, can place a ring/chain and claim a human girl as his bride, and can be foiled when his name is learned (the Rumpelstiltskin motif). The same tale also recounts he gives gold and silver and that a woman taken to the sea-bottom later assisted in childbirth and returned safely. In Storm's separate story the name is applied to a small fiery being who casts spells that make fields wither. The sources present these actions as narrative events rather than as catalogued, generalized powers.