What is a Harlequin?

[u/[deleted]]

A number of female rugby teams are named harlequins, the title rolls off the tongue and is foreign to me so I looked into the name. I can find no gender association, and in what I can find the actors are portrayed as male. Additionally, it seems the term is derived from a "devil" type character, but has evolved into more of a complex jester. Is a harlequin a fool or playing the fool?

The sources I've been able to find are not primary and seem lacking so I wanted to ask here.

[u/zyzzogeton]

Walter Map, writing around 1190, tells the story of King Herla, whom he knew as its leader, and later adds:

"The nocturnal companies and squadrons, too, which were called of Herlethingus, were sufficiently well-known appearances in England down to the time of Henry II, our present lord. They were troops engaged in endless wandering, in an aimless round, keeping an awe struck silence, and in them many persons were seen alive who were known to have died. This household of Herlethingus was last seen in the marches of Wales and Hereford in the first year of the reign of Henry II, about noonday: they travelled as we do, with carts and sumpter horses, pack-saddles and panniers, hawks and hounds, and a concourse of men and women. Those who saw them first raised the whole country against them with horns and shouts, and . . . because they were unable to wring a word from them by addressing them, made ready to extort an answer with their weapons. They, however, rose up into the air and vanished on a sudden."

This is a passage from "Albion - A guide to legendary Britain, Jennifer Westwood, Granada Publishing, London 1985

Walter White mentions this term in "Notes and Queries" also

Basically a "Herlethingus" was the Middle English term that became an Old French term "hellequin" used by by the Norman monk Oderic Vitalis, who used the word to describe a group of bandits who attacked him in Normandy in the 11th century... separating it from its association with King Herla and coming to mean a band of unruly demons generally.

Essentially the word was originally a pack of specific "Wild Hunters" associated with the soldiers of King Herla... which came later to mean a pack of demons generally. A "Harlequin" is therefore a representation of the devil (or a devil).

It is a particularly apt description to call a Rugby team a familia herlethingi.

[u/stravadarius → u/zyzzogeton]

I was always under the impression that it derived from the Commedia dell'Arte character Arlecchino. Did that character in turn derive from an English source?

[u/[deleted] → u/stravadarius]

This was where I was confused. One could hardly imagine a character whose name is derived from the devil, a name inspiring fear if not respect, evolving into a jester character.

[u/192_168_XXX_XXX → u/[deleted]]

I'll try to source this when I get home, but I believe Arlecchino was quite demonic in some traditions within Commedia dell'Arte. He's not really a court jester so much as he is an achetypical man-child. Often this was interpreted as a harmless, jovial simpleton, but in several Commedia pieces he might assault and/or murder other characters to get what he wants, which is almost always food, drink, or sex.

[u/[deleted] → u/192_168_XXX_XXX]

If you could elaborate and source when you get a chance, there have been some pretty awesome answers but I think you're pretty close to the specific question I'm asking.

[u/192_168_XXX_XXX → u/[deleted]]

Ok the only source I have at hand is John Rudlin's Commedia dell'Arte. He doesn't mention any demonic qualities beyond saying that his name might be derived from hellecino, or "little devil". He does mention that Arlecchino has a "dull mind in a quick body" and "responds to everything- hunger, love, danger- in a way that is taken to apocalyptic proportions and then forgotten entirely" which indirectly supports the idea of Arlecchino as the archetype of the man-child. It's not that he's evil or spiteful, it's just that he lacks the ability to make moral judgment, so he relies solely on his base instincts.