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RedFraggle
Mohicanite
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 13 2006
Status: offline
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 Posted - April 22 2011 : 6:48:13 PM
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I've been working on reading through Cooper's Leatherstocking series, partly for fun, partly because I'm interested in the "biography" of Natty Bumppo (aka Hawkeye) over the course of the series. I recently started The Pioneers, and was surprised to find a (rare!) detailed physical description of our hero . . . well, in his original, intended form, anyway. Take a look at how Cooper envisioned him. For the record, this is Natty in 1793, long after the saga at Ft. Wm. Henry:
"He was tall and so meager as to make him seem above even the six feet that he actually stood in his stockings. On his head, which was covered with lank, sandy hair, he wore a cap made of foxskin. . . . His face was skinny and thin almost to emaciation; but it yet bore no signs of disease---on the contrary, it had every indication of the most robust and enduring health. The cold and the exposure had, together, given it a color of uniform red. His gray eyes were glancing under a pair of shaggy brows that overhung them in long hairs of gray mingled with their natural hue; his scraggy neck was bare and burnt to the same tint with his face. . . ."
He is also described as having a "huge" mouth that shows off a single, yellow tooth when he opens it to laugh.
Not much of a romantic lead, eh? And certainly no DDL! 
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Wilderness Woman
Watcher of the Wood
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
November 27 2002
Status: offline
Donating Member |
 Posted - April 23 2011 : 06:35:14 AM
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| Oh dear me... one hopes that he at least had teeth in his F&I War days. |
"It is more deeply stirring to my blood than any imaginings could possibly have been." |
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Fitzhugh Williams
Mohicanland Statesman
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
July 17 2005
Status: offline
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Posted - April 23 2011 : 09:21:29 AM
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I guess the next 36 years were kind of rough on the old boy. How old was he supposed to be at Fort WH? 25? 30? That plus 36 would make him . . . lets see now . . . . younger than me!!!  |
"Les deux pieds contre la muraille et la tete sous le robinet" |
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richfed
Sachem
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
May 13 2002
Status: offline
Administrator |
Posted - April 23 2011 : 10:16:30 AM
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| Makes ME feel better! I still have all my teeth! |
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IWLFNDU
Colonial Settler
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
May 08 2010
Status: offline
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Posted - April 23 2011 : 12:45:20 PM
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All I can say is thank goodness for artistic license. I can't seem to picture sandy hair on dear ol' Mr. Poe. 
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''Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned, and the last fish has been caught, will we realize that we cannot eat money.''
~ Cree Proverb |
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susquesus
Mad Hermit of the North Woods
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
September 03 2003
Status: offline
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Posted - April 23 2011 : 9:22:53 PM
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He would have been in his 70's at this point in the cycle. I think he was supposed to be 36-38 in LOTM. Pathfinder is the same age/period as LOTM, in his 80's during The Prairie. My favorite is still Deerslayer which I think is supposed to take place in the summer of 1744 while Hawkeye and Chingachgook are young uns on their first warpath and involved with their first loves. |
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![The Mohican Board! [Bumppo's Redux!]](images/wwwboard.gif "The Mohican Board! [Bumppo's Redux!]")
Certainly no DDL . . .
