Hoch-Deutsches History

         Welcome to the April A to Z Blog Challenge!  My theme this year is Relief Printed Alphabet Squared, an alphabet of alphabets, all  illustrated with relief block prints.  Find the master list of participating blogs here.

       I begin today with an alphabet that is not in English, but is a Hoch-Deutsches ABC.  That means that the English words don’t necessarily match up with the letters, and in this little book H is for Hund and Hahn, which would most accurately be translated “dog” and “rooster.”  But if we just call these pictures Hound and Hen, it works perfectly well for us.  (And yes, those German-English pairs are cognates: words that came from the same ancient root before splitting into their separate languages.)  I really like the little woodcuts in this alphabet.   They have quite a bit of detail, and are carved with a confident hand.  For my favorite I’m actually giving you an entire page, which includes all the words for T (Tod - death, Tiger - which looks more like a jaguar), U (Uhr - clock, Urne - urn), and V (Veilchen - violet, Vogelnest - birds’ nest).  The clock is especially handsome, and Death is certainly not a choice you’d be likely to see in a modern alphabet for children.  (And stay tuned for one more from this alphabet at the grand finale.)

        Next is My Own Alphabet of History, and in a twist of history it was actually published in the same year, 1840, as today’s other featured alphabet.  This one includes a personage of historical significance for each letter, and since it’s a British book, we’re talking British historical significance.  For H they have chosen Henry V, and for my favorite I have chosen D, which is Sir Francis Drake.  As we’ve seen in several of the previous alphabets, the wood block prints are fairly detailed, but the hand-coloring is not done with nearly as much care.  Most of the time I’d just as soon they hadn’t slopped the paint on at all.

        Today we do have a bonus alphabet.  I previously wrote about the alphabet of birds by Angela Harding, and there you can see B, K, V, and X.  The Kingfisher is my favorite, but for today here’s H which is House Sparrow.  (I’ll confess that the house sparrows are terrible pests at my feeder, where they’re an invasive species, but I remind myself that they have every right to be honored with one of Harding’s delightful wood engravings of British birds.)  I’ve thrown in her G for Goldfinch, as well.  This is another with a British twist, as the European goldfinch is a different bird from the American goldfinch I enjoy in my garden.

        Finally, you can revisit “A was an Archer” from 1820’s The Hobby-Horse, or the High Road to Learning.  I posted the alphabet in its entirety here.

        The moral of H is of course that those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

        And also, “Men of few words are the best men.”  (This line comes from Henry V by Shakespeare, famous for being a man of more words than just about any other.  So take it with a grain of salt.)

        What epoch or niche of history is of particular interest to you?

[Pictures: Hund, Hahn, T-V, wood block prints from Hoch-Deutsches Lutherisches ABC, 1840 (Images from Goethe Universität);

Henry 5th, Admiral Drake, hand-colored wood block prints from My Own Alphabet of History, 1840 (Images from Toronto Public Library);

House Sparrow, Goldfinch, wood engravings by Angela Harding (Images from AngelaHarding.co.uk).]