Stag  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Revision as of 17:05, 2 March 2010

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Stag might mean one of the following:

• Stag, an adult male deer.
• Stag (film), a pornographic film or blue movie.

Literature and art

• For the role of deer in mythology, see deer in mythology.
• The "Golden Hind" was an English galleon best known for its global circumnavigation between 1577 and 158n 0, captained by Sir Francis Drake.
• The deer plays a large role in Scottish Gaelic poetry (fiadh) of the Highlands of Scotland, where it is seen as a noble creature, and ofter used as a flattering simile or metaphor when used in comparison to a famous warrior, hero or chief. Other animals include the salmon and golden eagle. In Cead deirranach nam beinn by Duncan MacIntyre, the bard has a feeling of sadness due to the fact that the slopes upon which he had hunted the noble deer had gone fo chaoraibh (under sheep: become sheep grazing hills, a animal of derision and metaphor since it was the sheep which replaced many Scottish Highlanders in the glens and straths).
• The book Fire Bringer is a fiction book that is about a young fawn who is born and goes on a quest to save the deer kind who are called the Herla in the novel.
• In Christmas lore (such as in the narrative poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas"), reindeer are often depicted pulling the sleigh of Santa Claus.
• One famous fictional deer is Bambi. In the Disney film Bambi, he is a white-tailed deer, while in Felix Salten's original book Bambi, A Life in the Woods, he is a roe deer.
• The Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 novel The Yearling, written by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, was about a boy's relationship with a baby deer, later adapted to a children's film that was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
• Saint Hubertus saw a stag with a crucifix between its antlers while hunting on Good Friday and was converted to Christianity by the vision. This story was transferred to Hubert from St Eustace, of whom it was originally told.
• In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia series, the adult Pevensies, now kings and queens of Narnia, chase the White Stag on a hunt, as the Stag is said to grant its captor a wish. The hunt is key in returning the Pevensies to their home in England.
• In the Harry Potter series, the Patronus Charm that Harry Potter conjures to repel Dementors is a silver stag. James Potter, Harry's father, had an Animagus form as a stag. Also, Harry's mother Lily Potter, and subsequently Severus Snape's, Patronus form was a doe.
• In one of the stories of Baron Munchhausen, the baron encounters a stag while eating cherries and without ammunition, fires the cherry-pits at the stag with his musket, but it escapes. The next year, the baron encounters a stag with a cherry tree growing from its head; presumably this is the animal he had shot at the previous year.
• A Samurai warrior named Honda Tadakatsu famously adorned deer antlers on his helmet.
• Deer have been a subject in Chinese paintings numerous times as a tranquility symbol.

• In The Animals of Farthing Wood, a deer called The Great White Stag is the leader of all the animal residents of the nature reserve White Deer Park.
• In The Queen, a 14 point "Imperial" stag plays a role in the film.
• The Yaqui deer song (maso bwikam) accompanies the deer dance which is performed by a pascola [from the Spanish 'pascua', Easter] dancer (also known as a deer dancer). Pascolas will perform at religio-social functions many times of the year, but especially during Lent and Easter.
• Deer are depicted in many materials by various pre-Hispanic civilizations in the Andes.
• Several German towns are called "Hirschberg", a name composed of Hirsch (deer) and Berg (hill or mountain).
• The given name "Oscar" is considered to be derived from Gaelic, meaning "deer lover."
• Among East European Jews, "Hirsh"—Yiddish for "stag"—was a common male name, and was among other others the name of several prominent Rabbis; in this community there was, however, no equivalent female name. In contemporary Israel, several Hebrew names for this animal are commonly used as both male and female names. These include "Tzvi" (צבי) and "Eyal"(אייל)—two synonymous words for "stag"; "Tzviya" (צביה) and "Ayala" (איילה)—the respective parallel words for "Hind" or "Doe"; as well as "Ofer" (עופר) and "Ofra"(עפרה), respectively the male and female words for the young of this animal—which are all commonly used as first names among the Israeli population. In addition, there are Israelis having as their first name "Bambi", derived from the well-known Disney animated film.

• Among the native Tlingit of southeast Alaska the deer is a symbol of peace, because a deer does not bite, get angry and is gentle. When peace was to be made a "hostage" from opposing clans would be taken to the opposite clan of those making peace and each opposing faction would have a hostage, called Ghuwukaan in a ceremony lasting several months. The name for [Sitka Blacktail] deer is Ghuwukaan. Making peace is called Ghuwukaan Khuwdzitee or "there will be a peace party." A name given to the "hostage" by his captors would be with the term "ghuwukaan" added such as Aank'weiyi Ghuwukaan (Flag Deer) or Dzagitgayaa Ghuwukaan (Hummingbird Deer).