A while back I spent a fair amount of time researching the history of the Harlequin (not the Invisibles one, the historical one).
I came across some wild associations.
Some French sources call the Wild Hunt "The family of Harlequin". One possible derivation is that Harlequin is actually "Herla Cynig", or King Herla, an ancient king of the Britons. King Herla was cursed to endlessly wandering on his horse, along with his knights, after spending time in the land of Faerie. (If he dismounts, he'll die, much like Ossian, the Irish hero.
But who was Herla? One of the titles of Odin (also a leader of the Wild Hunt) is believed to be "Herjan", which means "Lord of Warriors" (see the related "Einherjar", which literally translates as "those of one army", tho probably not "One Army Corps"  )
I dug a bit further, and found that the root word "her-", also found in words like "hero" and "Herr", goes back through Greek Mythology ("Hera" is a female form) all the way to "Hr/Heru/Horus", the Egyptian god.
Of course, the wildest bit is that as a child god, he was given the name Harpocrates, and believed (incorrectly) to be the god of silence.
And in pantomime, Harlequin is a silent clown with magical powers. The greatest silent clown in the modern era?
Harpo Marx.  |
