Francis Drake: Part II

I finished reading the Francis Drake book I mentioned a few posts ago. Towards the end of it I found another interesting titbit.

The following is a verse about Drake penned by Robert Hayman, a Devon man who became Governor of Britaniola (Newfoundland). The verse was inspired by a chance encounter Hayman had with Drake when he was a child.

He asked me whose I was. I answered him.

He asked if his good friend were within.

A fair red orange in his hand he had.

He gave it me, whereof I was right glad.

Takes and kissed me and prays, God bless my boy,

Which I recall in comfort to this day.

The verse may seem incidental to most, however the mention of a "fair red orange" struck me as being quite in keeping with something I've mentioned on this blog before. Namely the possible relationship between oranges (and pumpkins), Protestantism and red hair.

Drake was said to be a devout Protestant and he was instrumental in Protestant England's successful defiance of Catholic Spain. As we mentioned in the last post about him he was also said to have red hair. The poem of course could quite easily be a simple retelling of a chance encounter the writer had with the great man. However, it could also be a symbolic apocryphal story hiding a deeper meaning - the orange representing a symbolic handing down of the Protestant chalice to future generations.

Red-Haired Thor :)

Thanks to Emanuela I've recently discovered that the Norse god Thor was a redhead. I've heard this claim made before but have never seen any real vindication until now.

According to Wikipedia Thor is generally described as "fierce-eyed, red-haired and red-bearded." And in The Prologue to the Prose Edda his hair was described as "more beautiful than gold."

Wikipedia also mentions a Frisian curse referring to Thor;

diis ruadhiiret donner regiir! - "let red-haired thunder see to that!"

Red Hair and Scarlet Caps

Another miscellany of redheads in art now courtesy of Emanuela :D

First up this beautiful image by the Italian artist Lorenzo di Credi. It's titled A Boy in a Scarlet Cap.

Next a portrait of Gian Giacomo Caprotti, the pupil of Leonardo da Vinci. Also known by the nickname Salaì, meaning devil.

And finally a painting by the Flemish artist Bernard van Orley (for which we can't find the name xD). The painting appears to show a red-haired Mary and child Jesus, along with several other reddish-haired children. To add to the apparent redness the baby Jesus appears to be reaching for an orange.

Elizabethan Redhead; Sir Francis Drake

I've recently discovered another red-haired discoverer; the explorer and privateer Sir Francis Drake. In a book titled Sir Francis Drake by George Malcolm Thomson it states that he was;

a sturdy boy, rather under the average height, with bold bright eyes and reddish hair

There are also a few portraits that show him with red hair, most notably this one, that is thought to show Drake in his mid-thirties (with a very ginger complexion indeed).

Interestingly, according to various on-line sources it's said that Drake recorded seeing "red-haired giants" in the Americas that were over nine feet tall.

His nickname was El Draque/Draco - "The Dragon". Another red hair/serpentine link.

Fortean Times and Threes

I noticed a few mentions of red hair in this months Fortean Times (Oct 2015 issue).

As ever these things come in threes.

Firstly on page 11 in their round up of peculiar news stories they have a sideline piece titled "Ginger Nut". I'll quote it in full;

Mark Colborne, 37, felt "belittled" because of his ginger hair and stockpiled the ingredients to make cyanide so that he could spray the deadly poison at non-Aryans to publicise his racist beliefs and put "a major dent in England". He also planned to shoot Prince Charles and William so that red-haired Harry could be king. The fascist agoraphobic, who lived with his mother in Southampton, was shopped by his half-brother. D Telegraph, D.Mail, 13 May; Eve. Standard, 14 May 2015.

I hope we're not seeing gingers being linked with terrorism! If any gingers are reading this violence is not the answer. The key is just to arrogantly assume you're better than everyone else - that's what I do ;)

The second mention of red hair comes on page 52 in an article about cryptozoology. It mentions a campfire story that inspired a book titled Goatman: Flesh or Folklore by J Nathan Couch. It concerns the tale of a recently married couple whose wagon had broken down on a treacherous stretch of road. Whilst the young groom went for help the bride came face to face with a hideous creature;

"a terrible form stood in the moonlight. It was a creature covered in coarse red hair standing on two legs like a man, but with the horned head and long muzzle of a goat."

In terror she hid herself in the wagon and eventually drifted off to sleep. The tale has a gruesome ending however, as the next day the woman wakes to find her beloved killed by the strange beast;

"On the ground she found large cloven-hooved tracks ...[S]he looked up to find the mutilated remains of the man she'd just married dangling from a gnarled limb."

Grisly.

The final mention of red hair is a little inadvertent and comes in a book review. On page 62, whilst reviewing a book titled The Whispering Swarm the writer produces the following line;

..Michael [the book's narrator] is introduced to Captain Turpin, Colonel Cody and Prince Rupert. And he meets the feisty Moll Midnight, with violet eyes and red-gold curls.

 :)

Giordano Bruno - Red-Haired Heretic ??

Another great find from Emanuela today :D

In previous posts we've mentioned how Galileo, Tycho Brahe and possibly Copernicus were all redheads. Now Emanuela has found a page suggesting that the famed philosopher Giordano Bruno may also have been a redhead. It describes him as "short, thin, [with] red hair and combative".

http://www.athame.it/in-memoria-di-giordano-bruno-martire/

Bruno lived from 1548 to 1600 and was burnt at the stake for heresy by the Inquisition (another redhead burnt for heresy :p). Wikipedia says this about him;

He is celebrated for his cosmological theories, which went even further than the then novel Copernican model. He proposed that the stars were just distant suns surrounded by their own exoplanets and raised the possibility that these planets could even foster life of their own (a philosophical position known as cosmic pluralism). He also insisted that the universe is in fact infinite and could have no celestial body at its "center".

Quite timely given that the Internet is currently abuzz with Flat Earth theory - a theory that calls for the end of this now universally accepted world model. I guess these things come in cycles. Yesterday's heresy now today's orthodoxy.

It's said Giordano Bruno also believed in the transmigration of souls - what we would call reincarnation. Maybe in his latest incarnation Bruno is a Flat Earther :)

Whenever the powers that be seek to limit the imagination of man, men like Bruno will stand as a light against the enclosing darkness. In this case maybe bright with red hair.

Some Beautiful Paintings Today :)

The following were all brought to my attention by Emanuela.

The first four are by the American painter and printmaker Mary Cassatt.

(The Family)

(Maternal Kiss)

(Nurse Reading to a Little Girl)

(Young Woman with Auburn Hair in a Pink Blouse)

This next one is by the English artist Luke Fildes. I'm not sure what its title is, but it's very beautiful nonetheless.

And this final, equally beautiful painting, is by the artist William Llewellyn, and is titled Girl with Pigtails.