A RED-HEADED MAN
Also known as The Bonfire Carol, this is an English spring song collected by Ruth L. Tongue in 1916 for her book The Chime Child. Although Tongue claimed the songs in the book were traditional tunes she had heard around Somerset in the early 20th century, many commentators believe that Tongue wrote some of them herself.
The lyrics allude to the ancient custom in the area of making twelve fires of hedge cuttings with one set apart for green weeds and rubbish, coupled with a local superstition that red-haired men were demons or Vikings.
Variations of this ginger aversion have been around for centuries. Red-heads were outsiders to be mistrusted or even despised. In Greco-Roman theatre, red wigs were designated for the role of lowly slaves in the comedies. Even the ancient Egyptians associated red hair with the evil god Seth.
With this legacy, it should come as no surprise that Judas has often been depicted as be a red-headed man. European artists of the Middle Ages and Renaissance frequently rendered Judas with red hair, both to make him stand out from the crowd and to evoke suspicion in the viewer. In literature we see a red-headed Judas in Shakespeare's As You Like It and in the work of Dickens, Dryden and Tenyson. More recently, the world's biggest sperm bank closed its doors to red-headed donors because demand for ginger children is so low.
Recordings of the song are very rare. The version by English vocal group The Devil's Interval is worth a listen.
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Sources:
"Judas' red hair and the Jews" by Ruth Mellinkoff, in the Journal of Jewish Art, Vol. 9 1982
"Costuming the Shakespearean Stage" by Robert I Lublin, Ashgate Publishing, Surrey 2011
"Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music"[http://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/] accessed November 11, 2013
"World's biggest sperm bank rejects redheads" by Alison Godfrey in Herald Sun, September 19 2011
The lyrics allude to the ancient custom in the area of making twelve fires of hedge cuttings with one set apart for green weeds and rubbish, coupled with a local superstition that red-haired men were demons or Vikings.
Variations of this ginger aversion have been around for centuries. Red-heads were outsiders to be mistrusted or even despised. In Greco-Roman theatre, red wigs were designated for the role of lowly slaves in the comedies. Even the ancient Egyptians associated red hair with the evil god Seth.
With this legacy, it should come as no surprise that Judas has often been depicted as be a red-headed man. European artists of the Middle Ages and Renaissance frequently rendered Judas with red hair, both to make him stand out from the crowd and to evoke suspicion in the viewer. In literature we see a red-headed Judas in Shakespeare's As You Like It and in the work of Dickens, Dryden and Tenyson. More recently, the world's biggest sperm bank closed its doors to red-headed donors because demand for ginger children is so low.
Recordings of the song are very rare. The version by English vocal group The Devil's Interval is worth a listen.
NEXT
Sources:
"Judas' red hair and the Jews" by Ruth Mellinkoff, in the Journal of Jewish Art, Vol. 9 1982
"Costuming the Shakespearean Stage" by Robert I Lublin, Ashgate Publishing, Surrey 2011
"Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music"[http://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/] accessed November 11, 2013
"World's biggest sperm bank rejects redheads" by Alison Godfrey in Herald Sun, September 19 2011
