RE: Talmud and Heroquesting in the Jewish Tradition (2)

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_rubberducky.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2003 00:05:49 -0700

> Ladies and Gents, here is the full post... Thanks Michi for your
> kind words.
>
> NB. The original context of the question was the alleged tradition of
> King David having red hair. I'm not sure that this in fact is a
> Jewish tradition at all. Michi?

I remember having heard it long ago. But now that I poke around, I'm having trouble authenticating it. David is described in the bible as "admoni" [1 Sam. 6:12], and that word seems generally to be translated as "ruddy", but apparently some people have interpreted it as (at least possibly) meaning "red-haired"--the same word is applied to Esau/Edom at his birth (Gen. 25:25). But I don't know how far back the "red-haired" reading goes.

Anyway, since all that the Greg said was (a) that he doesn't see the Heortlings as being "white", but (b) he's using "white" in the sense of Northern European, I don't think there's too much to sweat about. If Heortlings are as dark as, say, modern Arabs/Persians/Sephardim, that is quite consistent with there being *occasional* blonde and red-headed Heortlings, even leaving out the magical cases.

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