Hunters, there are over about 13.7 million of them in the U.S. and 12.7 of them use firearms. Now that I got my fun fact out of the way I can begin the synopsis of my research. This was a rigorous process trying to find information on this word. About three sentences into typing this paper I began to question why I chose it. Sure I could have chosen war or heaven or even ocean for all that matters. But to say the least, I feel I did a pretty decent job for such a specific noun. When I came into difficulty with interpreting a section I would usually have to refer to the verb hunt to get my point across. Finding my sources for this paper involved many trips to the library because I was limited for time so I could only get one or two done in one trip. But the hardest source to find was a good article. I searched probably a better half of an hour looking for something that wasn’t some statistics chart or update on sports hunting.
Ultimately typing the paper came along relatively quickly when my thoughts became organized and or I was allowed to input my own opinion on whatever it was. At times I did find myself changing my sources due to lack of information because I did not want to deliver little to no information and a giant reflection. It was not easy finding information on the word hunter and I felt myself multiple times squeezing out every last drop of information, again this goes back to my poor word choice. Although the search was tiresome at some points and some had me wanting to bang my head against a wall, it was an insightful journey. Enough talk how this paper came to be, let’s begin.
The Hunters in the Snow is an artwork created by artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1565. It is an oil painting done on wooden paneling. The scene depicts some hunters and their dogs returning from a hunt during the winter. The hunt appears to have been successful but all of them, dogs included, look worn out and extremely tired. The overall weather looks rather still and little to no clouds are present in the sky. Buildings line what seems to be a frozen river where villagers are playing traditional hockey and ice-fishing. Off in the distance, a mountain range stretches across the flat-bottomed valley for what looks to be miles. Trees lack their leaves due to the cold and forests in the background visualize this more. On the left, there are villagers huddling around a fire doing what I assume is cooking. A variety of structures in the work is made with brick including the houses, the bridge, and the water mill. The overall color scheme for this oil painting is cool and uses a lot of white along with various shades of brown.
The 1560s was a time of religious revolution and what Bruegel might be trying to depict is an ideal country or what they wished it had been. I personally really like the piece, it reminds me of my house during the winter. This cool color scheme is my favorite arrangement of colors and I use it often in my own work. It appears Bruegel has also used a warm color scheme for the villagers, the dogs, and the buildings contrasting off the cold atmosphere to show heat/warmth. The expansive valley looks similar to my ‘happy place’ or the place I go mentally when my thoughts drift or I need to relax. The detail in this piece is incredible and it is prevalent throughout until you get towards the very distant background which he did intentionally to differentiate the foreground from the background. I think this painting sums up the life of a hunter well because of the people\’s expressions and the season which it takes place. Winter was the most stressful time of the year for any huntsman and it meant life or death for him and his family.
The Stubborn Hunter is a short story with a moral about how killing innocent animals is a sin and a punishable act. The story has no real author or at least one listed which leads me to believe it is a story passed down through time. It begins with a hunter who really enjoys hunting rabbits for their meat and seeks the creature all the time. His friends advise him to stop being so cruel to the animals and generally tells him to give up hunting. The hunter naturally retorts that he knows what he is doing and becomes annoyed. One day a saint happens to pass by while the hunter is planning out and preparing for his next expedition. The saint asks him if he is planning to catch an animal and the hunter tells him yes, and that it is a rabbit. The saint then asks him what he plans to do with the rabbit when he catches it. The hunter explains that he is going to cut its throat, roast it, and then finally eat it. He also asks if the saint intends to stop him but the saint informs him that he was only going to tell him that killing innocent animals is a sin, and all sinners get punished one day. Before leaving in anger the hunter acclaims, “let me see who comes to punish me.” He returned to the saint later that day holding a rabbit in his hands and began to reach for his knife so he could cut the rabbit’s throat once again acclaiming that no one will punish him. While raising his knife, it slipped out of his hands and landed directly on his foot. Meanwhile, the rabbit escaped from his grip and the hunter was left only with a bleeding foot. The hunter realized what had taken place was divine punishment and recognized his stubbornness. The huntsman told the saint he was going to give up hunting entirely and thanked him for his wise words. The saint was happy with the hunter, and the hunter went on to become a righteous and civilized man.
Now this story is really interesting because all throughout history hunting has been essential to mankind’s survival. Even in the Bible hunting, and sacrifices being made but this story is trying to tell us it is a sin. Looking at the context of the story words like innocent and cruel are repeated hinting that this is not regular hunting. Also not to mention this hunter is specifically targeting rabbits because he loves their meat, it does not say anything about this being critical to his survival. What I inferred from this was that the hunter is hunting for sport, not because he has to, making it a sin in accordance with Church.
A hunter, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a man who hunts. Branching off of this it gives other sub-definitions such as, “one who hunts or searches eagerly for something; a seeker.” Although this sub-definition is mainly used with keywords such as fortune-hunter or place-hunter. Hunter can be used as another name for a dog or a horse used in hunting. It can also be used to describe an animal that chases it’s prey, for example, the hunting spider. The OED seems to give a more general definition of the word whereas the Unabridged Dictionary is straightforward and to the point. The OED is built more towards the etymology of the word and where and how it is used throughout history. I personally like the Unabridged Dictionary more because it is so much more concise and easier to read. The OED is a very useful tool when put under the correct circumstances and it does describe hunter well.
In Bartlett’s Quotations, I found a quote by William Sharp (pen name: Fiona Macleod) from his story The Lonely Hunter.
“My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill”
This quote is very deep in its meaning and takes a little bit to understand. William Sharp was into romantic stories and this one, in particular, The Lonely Hunter, is about a girl who mourns her dead lover. The girl is so distraught with sadness she even considers joining him. Just by looking at the context of the story we can see it is a sad and dreary tale and this quote probably has a similar connotation. This simile most likely refers to the fact that the heart is always seeking things and it is always hunting and it can seem like we are alone whilst doing so. It also can feel like we are searching for things that are not there, hence the hunter on a lonely hill. In reference to the story, it is simply stressing how alone and forlorn the girl is feeling at her current state having lost her lover.
I personally really appreciate the depth in this quote because there are so many different ways to go about it. Being a teenager, I get weird thoughts from hormones and changes in my body and sometimes these type changes can cause a feeling of loneliness. Although I cannot empathize with this girl, in particular, I do feel like I can relate in some ways to what she is feeling. I do not think this quote necessarily has to refer to losing a lover but it can be a loved one or a friend. Or it doesn’t have to relate to losing someone at all, It could just simply be that feeling of solitude. I know many times before it has felt like I was just living a secluded life, in my own secluded world and that was how it was going to stay. The time period in which this was written involved many tragic love stories and it does not surprise me one ounce that the girl is considering suicide. No way, shape, or form would you see in today’s day and age with suicide being such a sensitive topic. The connection to a hunter in this quote is well thought out and valid here because it directly relating to the fact the girl is longing/seeking to be with her lover again.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary describes a hunter very similarly to the OED, it describes a hunter as, “one who hunts.” Various of the other sub-definitions are the same as the OED or are closely related to; “a dog that scents game” or “a horse used in the chase.” One definition that is slightly different from the OED is, “in zoology, a hunting spider, or a spider which hunts it\’s prey.” which is noticeably more specific than it’s counterpart. The word hunter started off in Old English as huntian which means “chase game.” The word hunter probably came from hunta which is related to hentan which means “to seize” which comes from Proto-Germanic huntojan. The verb hunt seems to have developed from hunting rather than the normal infinitive form. I was really surprised by the fact that the early meanings of the verb used a more basic approach when defining the word like “chase game.” One of the definitions of a hunter is “a Jamaican cuckoo,” whether or not that has any relation to the origin of the word I am unsure.
In the Thesaurus, under hunter, I found the synonym huntsman with a number of related words that pertain to different branches of hunting. Some of the related words include: sportsman/woman, archer, gunner, falconer, hawker, trapper, poacher, and the list goes on. Let us take falconer and archer for example. A falconer is a hunter that trains and cares for a falcon which in return the bird of prey assists him/her in hunting. Like I stated before, most of these related words are just subcategories. An archer, however, was a medieval soldier that used a bow and arrow or sometimes even a crossbow. The bow and arrow were the most advanced hunting tools of it’s time when it was first invented and it is still used commonly today. So some of the words don’t have a direct correlation with their base word but it is still linked.
In the book of Jeremiah in the Bible (Jer 16:16) hunters are used to describe God’s wrath being bestowed upon sinners.
“But, the LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all of the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send many fishers*, saith the LORD, and they shall fish for them; and after I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.”
What the prophet Jeremiah seems to be getting across here is that sinners cannot hide from God. The Lord liveth, the Lord is present, and He is the same God that brought up Israel from the north, the same God that promised their descendants the holy land. No sinner is going to be overlooked by God’s judgment. He will destroy them by fraud like fishermen, and by force like hunters. He will hunt down every last one of them that has not sought out forgiveness from Him. The nations have often known the power of God in his wrath, but they shall know him as the strength of his people, and their refuge in their time of need.
This passage does not focus entirely on hunters and what it means to hunt, but the simile of God’s wrath was too good to pass up. Our God has always been seen as benevolent, slow to anger and rich in kindness. A God-fearing person is a faithful one and realizes His potential during periods of rage. This passage reminds me of the literature story Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards which we read in class. It is about a sermon that Jonathan Edwards preached to his own congregation about the wrath of God. Using descriptive details and destructive metaphors, he attempted to scare the people into repentance. I feel that it is similar to what is going on here in this passage. The message, repent and be saved, is the same in both contexts but also is a running statement throughout the whole Bible. We could compare a lot of things in the Bible to a hunter, like the Israelites, the Egyptians, or even God Himself. Just like God is hunting for sinners and the unjust, He is also hunting for people to join/rejoin His Kingdom of Heaven, His Family of God. God is like the hunter that lays down a trap for us to wander into, but instead of Him causing us pain, He will embrace us with His love.
In the Shakespearean play, The Merry Wives of Windsor hunter is mention in relation to a specific character, Herne.
“Mrs. Ford. Devise but how you’ll use him
when he comes,
Mrs. Page. There is an old tale goes that
Herne the Hunter,
Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest,
Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight,
Walk round about an oak, with great ragg’d horns;
And there he blasts the tree and takes the cattle
And makes milch-kine yield blood and shakes a
chain
In a most hideous and dreadful manner:
You have heard of such a spirit, and well you
know
The superstitious idle-headed eld
Received and did deliver to our age
This tale of Herne the Hunter for a truth.
Page. Why, yet there want not many that do
fear”
To summarize this wordy description of Herne the Hunter, he is a ghost associated with the Windsor Forest and he is most recognizable due to the antlers upon his head. There are two stories connected with Herne that do not relate to the play that explain his origin. The first one tells that he was a hunter under King Richard II that many became jealous of and accused him of poaching on the King’s land. Herne was falsely charged with treason and he drifted away from his once friends. Becoming an outcast he fell into despair and hung himself on an oak which later became known as Herne’s Oak. The second story is a bit different and tells of how Herne protected King Richard and was fatally wounded by a stag. He was cured by a stranger who also tied the antlers of a dead stag to his forehead. The stranger then demanded all of Herne’s skill in venery (hunting). Herne became so afflicted by the loss of his talent he ran into the forest and hung himself, although every night he comes out once again to chase game.
The importance of Herne the Hunter in reference to the whole play of The Merry Wives of Windsor is not very crucial. Herne’s Oak, however, seems to be the location of topic in this story. The purpose of Herne the Hunter being mentioned here was to give some backstory on Windsor Forest. Encountering this fallen huntsman was said to be a bad omen, especially to those of the royal family. Herne, to me, was an excellent hunter who was wronged in his days alive because of others jealousy. This legend is very unique to any kind of folklore I’ve heard before, and it ties together realistic events with non-realistic ones making a hybrid of a story that is interesting to read. His role of hunter here is not very essential to the plot but it does convey a little bit about what type of person he was.
A Hunter’s Poem by Lemuel T. Ward tells the tale of a hunter who shoots two birds out of the sky but then regrets his decision.
“A hunter shot at a flock of geese
That flew within his reach,
Two were stopped in their rapid flight
And fell on the sandy beach.
The male bird lay at the water’s edge
And just before he died,
He faintly called to his wounded mate
And she dragged herself to his side.She bent her head and crooned to him
In a way distressed and wild,
Caressing her one and only mate
As a mother would a child.
Then covering him with her broken wing
And gasping with failing breath,
She laid her head against his breast
A feeble honk… then death.This story is true though crudely told,
I was the man in this case,
I stood knee deep in snow and cold
And the hot tears burned my face.
I buried the birds in the sand where they lay,
Wrapped in my hunting coat,
And I threw my gun and belt in the bay
When I crossed in the open boat.
Hunters will call me a right poor sport
And scoff at the thing I did,
But that day something broke in my heart …
And shoot again??? God forbid!!!”
Nothing about this poem is not very cryptic so it is easy to understand what is being described here. He starts off in the third person to allow the reader to think a little bit instead of laying down all the information right at the beginning. It does not say exactly that he shot the birds but it is easily inferred that it happened. Next, comes the tragic deaths of the two geese which go into details that I don’t think I need to comment on. The author then switches to the first person, identifying himself as the hunter in question. He then tells of the anguish he experienced for what he did. The ruined huntsman gave the aviary proper burials and then cast his belt and rifle into the bay, not caring what the other hunters though of him.
This poem tells a story more than anything and it is a sad one at that. This piece actually made me quite sad and it made me feel such sorrow for the birds because of the incredible amount of detail in their last moments. Even though this poem is very simplistic in its nature it gets across a whole bunch of emotion. The dark side of being a hunter is very apparent here and not even a morsel of information was spared from being written when illustrating the situation. This is where hunters get a bad reputation because some communities rely upon hunting for their main food source, but people associate sports hunting and regular hunting together. People who hunt for sport choose to hunt, those who hunt for meat do it because they have to not because they want to.
In the article Galaxy Hunters, Ron Cowen talks about the formation of our universe/galaxy, where it came from, and how everything began. He starts off by proposing the idea of an empty universe, just a sea of matter. After the Big Bang the universe fell into darkness, but then something miraculous happened that sparked the formation of everything we see today. What Ron and many other scientists are trying to figure out is what that force was that began it all. New steps are being taken in the right direction to solve this mystery like supercomputer simulations and giant telescopes. What we know about the universe is very different from a century ago and our view is changing on it rapidly. According to the various simulations, they believe that multitudes of gasses piled up and cooled on top of each other and then that compression became the first star. this process had started all throughout the universe creating beads of light in the darkness. This along with the heavy elements gave way to the beginnings of life in our universe. The article goes on to things like dark matter and the actual formation of the galaxies themselves so I don’t think it’s necessary
This article can be challenging to understand for someone who does not appreciate science, but I love space and the universe as a whole so this was interesting to me. Where it seems like the word hunter has no relation whatsoever to this article it actually describes the entire reading. It may just be used in the title but hunter’s general meaning of “one who hunts” still stands. This team of scientists and researchers are hunting for a complete understanding of how life came to be within our universe. Sure it has nothing to do with the actual information inside the body of the article but it does summarize what is ensuing in this article.
This project was a long and grueling one, it took many days of formation and many trips to the library. Although after all that time lost, I would be lying if I said I didn’t learn anything. Did I learn maybe a little bit too much on the word hunter? Yes, without a doubt, but do I regret it? Not at all. Every part of this paper has been a learning experience whether it was how to effectively research, use my time wisely, or even how to approach a paper as threatening as this one. Because in all honestly this paper is extremely daunting at first glance but in reality, it isn’t that bad. When you have all your information and your sources organized it goes pretty fast. I actually enjoyed using the library of all things, I don’t know why but it was fun to do research in a book rather than digitally. I was frustrated this entire paper and this whole process because nobody has ever challenged me to write a paper of this grandeur before. Am I proud of completing a paper of this size? Of course, this is something I will look back on and continue to improve upon for years to come.
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