We have studied the effect of the nitrogen on the microstructure, thermomagnetic properties and corrosion resistance of Fe-Hf-C-N nanocrystalline thin films with high permeability and high saturation magnetization. These films were fabricated by reactive sputtering in $Ar+N_{2}$ plasma using an rf magnetron sputtering apparatus. As $P_{N2}$ increases, the microstructure changes from amorphous to crystalline $alpha$-Fe phase and again returns to amorphous one. Spin wave stiffness constant increases with $P_{N2}$ until 5% $P_{N2}$, and then decreases with the further increase. This trend corresponds well with that of the microstructure with increasing $P_{N2}$. The Fe-Hf-C-N films with over 3% $P_{N2}$ show higher corrosion resistance than the N-free Fe-Hf-C films. The Fe-Hf-C-N films are considered to have high potentials for the head core materials suitable for high density recording systems, owing to their excellent soft magnetic properties and corrosion resistance.