#ancestry

I get anxious. That lovely Jewish guilt that comes with ancestry. ↗

— Maya Rudolph

#anxious #comes #get #guilt #i

Maybe if I go far enough back into my ancestry, I have African roots or something. I've got no idea. ↗

— Mick Taylor

#ancestry #back #enough #far #go

I know my father and my mother, but beyond that I cannot go. My ancestry is blurred. ↗

— V. S. Naipaul

#beyond #blurred #cannot #father #go

Long ago, when faeries and men still wandered the earth as brothers, the MacLeod chief fell in love with a beautiful faery woman. They had no sooner married and borne a child when she was summoned to return to her people. Husband and wife said a tearful goodbye and parted ways at Fairy Bridge, which you can still visit today. Despite the grieving chief, a celebration was held to honor the birth of the newborn boy, the next great chief of the MacLeods. In all the excitement of the celebration, the baby boy was left in his cradle and the blanket slipped off. In the cold Highland night he began to cry. The baby’s cry tore at his mother, even in another dimension, and so she went to him, wrapping him in her shawl. When the nursemaid arrived, she found the young chief in the arms of his mother, and the faery woman gave her a song she insisted must be sung to the little boy each night. The song became known as “The Dunvegan Cradle Song,” and it has been sung to little chieflings ever since. The shawl, too, she left as a gift: if the clan were ever in dire need, all they would have to do was wave the flag she’d wrapped around her son, and the faery people would come to their aid. Use the gift wisely, she instructed. The magic of the flag will work three times and no more. As I stood there in Dunvegan Castle, gazing at the Fairy Flag beneath its layers of protective glass, it was hard to imagine the history behind it. The fabric was dated somewhere between the fourth and seventh centuries. The fibers had been analyzed and were believed to be from Syria or Rhodes. Some thought it was part of the robe of an early Christian saint. Others thought it was a part of the war banner for Harald Hardrada, king of Norway, who gave it to the clan as a gift. But there were still others who believed it had come from the shoulders of a beautiful faery maiden. And that faery blood had flowed through the MacLeod family veins ever since. Those people were the MacLeods themselves. ↗

— Signe Pike

#clan-macleod #faery-blood #fairy-flag #folklore #love

We were kids without fathers, so we found our fathers on wax and on the streets and in history, and in a way, that was a gift. We got to pick and choose the ancestors who would inspire the world we were going to make for ourselves. ↗

— Jay-Z

#ancestry #art #fathers #inspiration #art

Ever since I watched 'Roots,' I've dreamed of tracing my African ancestry and helping other people do the same. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#ancestry #dreamed #ever #helping #i

Character is better than ancestry, and personal conduct is of more importance than the highest. ↗

— Thomas John Barnardo

#better #character #conduct #highest #importance

After all, what is every man? A horde of ghosts – like a Chinese nest of boxes – oaks that were acorns that were oaks. Death lies behind us, not in front – in our ancestors, back and back until... ↗

— Walter de La Mare

#death #death

Our names were made for us in another century. ↗

— Richard Brautigan

#freedom #names #time #freedom

And, you know, the fact is, if you believe in evolution, we all have a common ancestor, and we all have a common ancestry with the plant in the lobby. This is what evolution tells us. And, it's true. It's kind of unbelievable. ↗

— Jeff Hawkins

#believe #common #evolution #fact #kind