h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Jolly Roger - A711866
Author: Hell - U171578

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
- Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)

What do the esteemed peers think?

typo: ......invented (on can name ......

just a thought( which is not really relevant but i thought i'd butt in anyway)
have you thought about other uses of skulls etc at the time. they were used heavily on grave stones and in churches etc and carved in great detail, inlcuding worms coming out the eyes and everything.

FABT

oh yeah, really like it byt the way

FABT

Glad you liked it.

The typo is gone.

I have considered including the skull usage of the time, maybe in a footnote. On the other hand, the skull and the skeleton are very old and straightforward symbols for death, so I thought it needn't be mentioned.

HELL

it's just that the medieval/early modern theological social opinions of death igonography are different to todays and I thought this might be worth pointing out. sounds like you've thought it through well though so I'll shut up.

good work

FABT

No, don't shut up, please... Tell me more.

From memory I recall that people have been using skeletons and skulls as symbols for death ever since Roman times. I might have to do some more research to find out if this symbology is even older.

There are of course all the cemetery ornaments - quite spooky, I happen to like 'em - in some regions it's still going on today. Not here in Europe - I guess - one would never put a skull on one's tombstone. People have become somewhat soft over here...

HELL

i forget all the detail, it was several years ago when i studied it, but basically:

people used to believe that there would be a day of judgement wher we would be errrrrrr..............judged. then they believed that if you did good stuff you could cancel out the bad stuff you did. then they believed if you preyed for someone who wwas dead that that would cancel out the bad stuff they did. whyich lead to lots and lotsa of rich people creating religious houses to prey for them while they themselves carried on doing evil things.
this lead to a various changes in funerary ornaments and practice which i forget the details of......but there was one tomb i remeber seeing slides of which has a traditional person lying in state with sword, draped clothes etc. carved in stone on the lid, and then underneath this is a carving of a decaying corpse in great detail.

all various ways of the church of telling people who humble they wre and how much they should prey so they wouldnt go to hell etc.

i have an essay SOMEWHERE in the loft that covered some of this stuff, i think. If you really want i could go look for it, but no promises its even uo there, i may have lost it over the years.


or, the best books to read on this subject if you do get interested are suprisingly arcaeology based ones. these tend to be better than the historical books because they are based on the material culture not soley on the documentary evidence and they tend to present it in a more accessable way.

i know a lot of this is a pile of old but i just find it quite interesting that the portrail of death ahs changed greatly over the years and altough it is fairly safe to assume that a skull on a flag is always a scarey site, it is still true that perhaps it would not always have the exact same conotations that it has today. some skulls are thought to be on grave stones to scare away evil sprits for example.


your entry is great, ignore me, i'm just waffling

fABT

Great

You've spelt officially wrong in the fourth paragraphy down (...Oficially they told Spain the sad sad story about being powerless...)

Also, the Designs section is great, but quite a bit of what you've said is a repetition of a previous paragraph - too much , I think. Could you maybe edit the previous section? Otherwise the Design section loses some impact, which is a shame because it's good.

Maybe use the lists tags for the final list?

Anyhow, great article

Well, I'm glad you all liked it.

FABT: I think that you have enough material for another entry altogether. I'd love to see it in the guide. Very interesting stuff, really!

Hey ya Old Closet Gargoyle. You found the secret typo, there are probably many more in there (). I'll take a look at the repetitive part you mention. The LIST-tag I'll leave for the editors if you don't mind. But thanks pointing out.

Cheerio,

H

Hell,

I would recommend deleting the whole first paragraph after the subheading "Pirates." It's somewhat funny, but you don't need to explain the concept of theft or trade or commodities in order to explain the Jolly Roger.

Also there was a spot that seemed to indicate that "buccaneers" were French. I know the word is derived from "boucanier" (spelling?) which was supposed to mean a way of grilling or cooking meat, but I don't think most or all buccaneers were French. The word was originally applied to European sailors who mingled or settled with the natives on some of the Caribbean isles, cooking their food in the native way instead of a more "civilized" way. So the word is French, but I don't know if those people given the name were mostly French.

Just thought I'd add this:
Under the flag descriptions, the phrase "Christopher Condent - A long black banner with three classic skull and crossbones in a row"
could be modified to read a bit easier by adding "of the" in between the words "three" and "classic". The result would be:
"Christopher Condent - A long black banner with three of the classic skull and crossbones in a row"

Maybe I'm stepping out of line, but I stumbled over that phrase twice before I got it.

Amazing how people make a living off the wellfare of other. That's why I'm going into law.
Good Job.

Mystrunner

Hey-hi-ho-hi...

How's everything people?

Subcom: Deleting the first paragraph. Well, Okay you might be right, it's a bit OT there and seems a little far fetched. And yes IIRC, the buccaneers were at first quite French. The first non-spanish to be sent to the Caribbean were French protestants (AKA calvinists AKA huguenottes) plus whole piracy thing started with the French, so I think it can stay in there in this way. Of course later on the term 'buccaneers' was also used by other Nations, but that was later.

Mystrunner: You're right. Consider it done.

Thanks a lot everybody.

H

This is an interesting entry. I didn't know that the Pirates were sponsored by the government, although it doesn't surprise me.

Here are some points about the entry:

advertence --> warning
is best explained --> are best explained
new-world --> new world
anyways --> anyway
oficially --> officially
in an 'official' privateering mission --> on an 'official' privateering mission
pirate-ship --> pirate ship
signalize --> signal
usage red and black flags --> usage of the red and black flags
Pirates in the net --> Pirates on the net

In the section "The Name", you use the word "mutate" too often. Try using "change" or "evolve" for some of these.

The section "The Name" talks about the usage of the flags and the fact that they were black with white symbols. This is then repeated in the next section "The Design". Tidy these up so that there is no repetition.

You might consider using a table with a BORDER="1" for the list of the pirates and their flags.

Yes, Gnomon! Of course, Gnomon! Will be done, Gnomon!

Oh, and, thank you, again, Gnomon...

H

All in all a very good read. I quite enjoyed it.

A 'jolly' entry, Hell.

Congratulations - the powers have accepted my recommendation that this entry is added to the edited guide
Great article - I'm looking forwards to seeing it on the front page.

I suspect you may not need an explanation of what happens next

FABT

Har,har,har...

H