I studied languages in college, including German. Hauke Haien is the main character of the novel Der Schimmelreiter (The White Horse Rider) by Theodor Storm. The story is set in northern Germany, in the area where, much like the Netherlands, much of the land has been reclaimed from the sea by building dikes. Hauke wants to become the dikemaster, the person who oversees construction of the dikes and determines where and how they should be built, but he's poor and has no way to pay for the schooling. He gets a set of books from the old dikemaster, and teaches himself. He eventually achieves his goal, although there's a high cost. I really liked the book and the character and I've been using the name on the Net ever since 1999, when I first read the book.
--Scott
"MacDonald the piper stood up in the pulpit,
He made the pipes skirl out the music divine."
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