Following on from recent previous postings regarding the arguably freemasonic, certainly ceremonious, French State visit to the UK and messages encoded in maritime nautical disasters:
This time a trawler, the archipelago Iles de la Madeleine based L'Arcadien, capsized on March 29th, the second day of the annual Canadian seal hunt in Newfoundland - tragically with the loss of four seal clubbers lives.
From the wikipedia Magdalen Islands entry (as linked above):
In 1755, the islands were inhabited by French-speaking Acadians. When the British expelled the Arcadians from the rest of what is now the Maritime Provinces of Canada, they did not come as far as the Magdalen Islands.
And the Acadians, from where the ship took her name:
"In the Great Expulsion of 1755, around 4000 to 5000 Acadians were deported from Acadia under the direction of British colonial officers and New England legislators and militia; many later settled in Lousiana, where they became known as Cajuns. Later on many Acadians returned to the Maritime provinces of Canada, most specifically New Brunswick. During the British conquest of New France the French colony of Acadia was renamed Nova Scotia (meaning New Scotland)."
"Historian John Mack Faragher has used the contemporary term, "ethnic cleansing," to describe the British actions."
And Acadia ?
From your dictionary - Arcadien
"Aca·dia (ə kā′dē ə)
region & former French colony (1604-1713) on the NE coast of North America, including what are now the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, plus parts of Quebec and parts of Maine
Etymology: Fr Acadia, prob. < Archadia, name given by Giovanni da Verrazano (1524), after Arcadia, place of rural peace.
Arcadia, the seemingly "proverbial" land where we note, again from the wikipedia entry:
"Subsequently it has become a poetic byword for an idyllic vision of unspoiled wilderness filled with the bounties of nature and inhabited by shepherds (having more or less the same connotation as Utopia), and as a concept originated in Renaissance mythology. The inhabitants were often regarded as having continued to live after the manner of the Golden Age, without the pride and avarice that corrupted other regions.""The Libertines, especially Pete Doherty and Carl Barât, use Arcadia as the destination their ship Albion is sailing towards. " It is thought of as a place without rules or authority, where cigarettes grow on trees"
cheers
Scotsman article
Canadian Press article
5 comments:
Nice article. I happen to be dialoguing with a person from the Canadian maritime provinces this week. Thanks for the concise background on Can-Adians, Arcadians, Cajuns and Albion. Droll headline - one of your best?
Thanks very much Michael. Was a bit unsure about the headline but seemed apt.
Went to Canada a few+ years ago, got the greyhound at some point, drunk guy in a kilt turned up at bus station, singing etc .
Was surreal, but was a friendly place, especially Montreal.
cheers
I have recently come across another Akkadia - a region in Sumeria, and from whence comes the Akkadian language.
Interestingly I found a site that claims that the word 'mariner' goes back to the Akkadian language (although it seems they borrowed it from the Sumerians)
Hiya W.W., I had a quick sketch on wiki, interesting co-ordinate ?
Incidentally, they found some remains at the bottom of Edinburgh Castle Rock today, dating them to 1300BC or so - tbc. Before this, they thought only 200 or so BC.
cheers
Edinburgh is in vetical alignment with Bristol, where they also recently excavated an old hill fort (iron age I think); the Wessex area being very much linked with King Arthur legends, and Edinburgh being home to the volcanic rock with the Arthurs Seat feature.
There's a Louisiana link to the (French)Canadian Acadians; I forget the exact nature of it but it was something I had looked into a few years ago.
As regards 'et in Arcadia ego' it's also translated as "and in Arcadia I.." & "I am also in Arcadia".
Alba is an old name for the same area as Scotland - have you ever looked into the red Lion Rampart and the twin-headed bird on the Albanian flag?
There's some histories that say the Albanians are Illyrian descendants - usually a tall dark-haired peoples. Scotland lost a lot of its tall dark-haired men during WW1.
There's of course the well-known links between France and Scotland historically (not just from Templars escaping France to there). You should see the size of William Wallace's claymore - he must have been very tall. I'm sure it wasn't exagerated; the one I'm meaning is held at the Stirling Monument.
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