Owen Red Hanrahan
Encyclopedia
Owen Red Hanrahan is a fictional character who appears in several works by William Butler Yeats
.
Yeats based the character largely on the real-life bard
Owen Roe O'Sullivan
(Eoghan Ruadh Ó Súilleabháin). In his first appearances, in fact, Hanrahan's name is O'Sullivan the Red, with Yeats later altering the name to Hanrahan the Red and ultimately Owen "Red" Hanrahan and making him more of an amalgam of the bardic tradition and a heavily folkloric
character. Hanrahan first appears in Yeats's work in the mid 1890s as the author of various poems and songs. He is the central figure of a half-dozen short stories, collectively titled Stories of Red Hanrahan, in 1897.
In the first of these short stories, Hanrahan is described at the outset as "the hedge schoolmaster, a tall, strong, red-haired young man," who first appears as he enters a "barn where some of the men of the village were
sitting on Samhain Eve." This description identifies Hanrahan with Irish folklore in several ways; schoolmasters were often nationalistic poets; red-headed men often possess magical powers; and supernatural occurrences often take place on Samhain
. In the following stories, Hanrahan, in his wandering, is confounded both by women and by several supernatural experiences.
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
.
Yeats based the character largely on the real-life bard
Bard
In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...
Owen Roe O'Sullivan
Owen Roe O'Sullivan
Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin , anglicized as Owen Roe O'Sullivan , was an Irish poet.Ó Súilleabháin is known as one of the last great Gaelic poets...
(Eoghan Ruadh Ó Súilleabháin). In his first appearances, in fact, Hanrahan's name is O'Sullivan the Red, with Yeats later altering the name to Hanrahan the Red and ultimately Owen "Red" Hanrahan and making him more of an amalgam of the bardic tradition and a heavily folkloric
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
character. Hanrahan first appears in Yeats's work in the mid 1890s as the author of various poems and songs. He is the central figure of a half-dozen short stories, collectively titled Stories of Red Hanrahan, in 1897.
In the first of these short stories, Hanrahan is described at the outset as "the hedge schoolmaster, a tall, strong, red-haired young man," who first appears as he enters a "barn where some of the men of the village were
sitting on Samhain Eve." This description identifies Hanrahan with Irish folklore in several ways; schoolmasters were often nationalistic poets; red-headed men often possess magical powers; and supernatural occurrences often take place on Samhain
Samhain
Samhain is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularised as the "Celtic New Year" from the late 19th century, following Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer...
. In the following stories, Hanrahan, in his wandering, is confounded both by women and by several supernatural experiences.
External links
See also
- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Principles of the Mind": Continuity in Yeats's Poetry," MLN, Vol. 83, No. 6, Comparative Literature (Dec., 1968), pp. 882-899