Re: Richard III

[edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com (Alfredo el Bufon)]

Poster: edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com (Alfredo el Bufon)

If Richard III did have a withered arm, he would be described
in Spanish as "un manco"; it's usually translated as "one-armed
man", but it also covers someone who has lost the _use_ of one
hand.  For example Miguel de Cervantes was called "el Manco de Lepanto"
after he lost the use of his right hand at the Battle of Lepanto.
(But in the movie version of "Man of La Mancha", Peter O'Toole
plays Cervantes using both hands, even though the movie clearly
takes place after Lepanto (but then again, they call him "Mee-gwell"
throughout the movie, too))

Isn't it strange that Spanish has one short word for the phrase
"one-armed man"?  There's another word for "one-eyed man" (I think
it's something like "tuerto" but I'm not sure) which makes the old
proverb "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" a
little bit pithier in Spanish.

I saw a movie about Vikings that featured both a one-eyed man
(played by Kirk Douglas) and a one-handed man (played by Tony
Curtiss) and I wonder if there were single words them in Norse.

But I digress.

-- Alfredo
 
Alfredo el Bufon
Elvegast, Windmaster's Hill, Atlantia
edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com
______________________________________

Mens regnum bona possidet (A good mind possesses a kingdom).
                    --Seneca: Thyestes, ii. 380.

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