Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 19

[cahn]

Yuletide nominations:

18th Century CE Federician RPF
Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria
Voltaire
Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Ernst Ahasverus von Lehndorff
Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Anna Amalie von Preußen | Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723-1787)
Catherine II of Russia
Hans Hermann von Katte
Peter Karl Christoph von Keith
Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf
August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758)

Circle of Voltaire RPF
Emilie du Chatelet
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson (Madame de Pompadour)
John Hervey (1696-1743)
Marie Louise Mignot Denis
Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu
Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu (1696-1788)
Francesco Algarotti

Comments

[zdenka]

I know this is completely irrelevant to anything, but right now I am stuck on "why would you name your kid ('s middle name) after Ahasuerus?"
(Still on phone, still no computer internet, just peeking in)

[mildred_of_midgard]

We also wondered about that! And we found out!

selenak: I also found out where the name "Ahasverus" came into the family. This was the fault of one Gerhard (Ahasverus) von Lehndorff, this guy, a passionate 17th century traveller (and writer of travel books) who got himself even involved with pirates once. He was actually renamed himself Ahasverus, not after Xerxes but according to his wiki entry after the eternal Jew. Being a fellow world traveller and all.

mildred_of_midgard: Per Wikipedia: "At least from the 17th century the name Ahasver has been given to the Wandering Jew, apparently adapted from Ahasuerus 'Xerxes,' the Persian king in the Book of Esther, who was not a Jew, and whose very name among medieval Jews was an exemplum of a fool. This name may have been chosen because the Book of Esther describes the Jews as a persecuted people, scattered across every province of Ahasuerus' vast empire, similar to the later Jewish diaspora in countries whose state and/or majority religions were forms of Christianity."

[zdenka]

Oh wow, that's great! I didn't expect my semi-rhetorical question to have an answer, much less a well-researched and interesting one. Thank you! :D

[mildred_of_midgard]

I can hear cahn laughing, because this is SO typical for us. No minutia is too minute for the Frederician fandom!

[cahn]

(Hi!!)

I KNOW RIGHT?? I had exactly the same question!! And you can see from the dates that I was working on the Esther fic at the time, so I was even more whaaaaat about it than usual :)

(If you parent up, it looks like he wasn't very thrilled with the name either :) )

[zdenka]

Hee. :)
My life has just gotten Complicated again, so I probably won't have computer internet for another week. But I am looking forward to being properly communicable-with again.
From my glimpses of it, the Frederician fandom looks delightful. :D

[cahn]

Oh dear, I hope it's good complicated and not bad complicated? Anyway hope all is going well, and I look forward to your triumphant return to communicability :) (And glad you have a phone so you can communicate at least a bit :D )