Joan of Arc’s wild card
QUESTION The Age of Empires computer game features a giant French soldier called La Hire. Was he a genuine historical figure?
Etienne de Vignolles (born in Gascony in 1390) was Joan of Arc’s most fearsome military commander. He spent his adult life as a soldier fighting the English.
He might have been at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and was definitely fighting for the cause of Charles Vii by 1418, and he participated in all of Joan of Arc’s major battles.
Vignolles was boisterous, vulgar and illtempered. His nickname might be a corruption of Ira Dei — ‘wrath of God’ — which became ‘the Hire-God’ or La Hire.
He first fought with Joan of Arc during the relief of Orleans and became her right-hand man in all her major battles.
At Patay (1429), he led the French vanguard in an audacious cavalry charge against the English. this action saw the virtual destruction of the English field army and the loss of many of their veteran commanders.
During the following weeks the French, facing negligible resistance, swiftly retook swathes of territory to the south, east and north of Paris, and crowned Charles Vii King of France in Reims on July 17.
Joan seems to have been a moralising influence upon La Hire. the Gascon’s preferred prayer hitherto had been: ‘May God do for La Hire what God would have La Hire do for Him if God were La Hire and La Hire were God.’ But Joan persuaded him to go to confession and he eventually encouraged those in his company to do likewise.
At the end of Joan’s life, La Hire — along with her other great lieutenant Jean Poton de Xaintrailles — became the only Frenchman to attempt to rescue her from her imprisonment in Rouen. But he was captured in the attempt and imprisoned by the English.
He eventually obtained his release through payment of a ransom and continued fighting the English, helping in Charles Vii’s re-conquest of normandy. He was made Captain General of normandy in 1438.
La Hire died in around 1443. His fate is uncertain; 19th-century U.S. author A. B. Paine romantically described the end of his life thus: ‘La Hire, wild, heroic, always half- mythical, went fighting down through the years and somewhere vanished in the mists of battle.’ As a lasting memorial, it is believed that the classic depiction of the Jack of Hearts is based on la Hire.
Paul Murtagh, Worcester.
QUESTION A common misconception is that sushi mans ‘raw fish’. In fact, it means ‘sour rice’. What other words are commonly mistranslated?
There are a number of ‘false friends’ in French, words that sound similar to English counterparts, but have different meanings and are often mistranslated. Assister does not mean ‘assist’ but to ‘attend an event’ e.g. ‘ Joanna assiste au concert’ — ‘Joanne attends the concert.’ Deception doesn’t mean ‘deception’ but ‘disappointment’ e. g. ‘ une immense deception’ — ‘a huge disappointment.’ in English, sympathetic is an adjective based on the noun sympathy. in French sympathique means nice or friendly. Demander means ‘ask for’, exiger means to demand; habit means outfit, habitude means habit; place means seat, endroit means place; resumer means to summarise, reprendre is to resume; trouble means indistinct or murky, probleme or difficulte means trouble. Watch out for excite — this usually means excited in a sexual sense! Go with anime e.g. ‘ Jeanne est toute animee a cause de la parrure’ — ‘Jeanne is very excited about the necklace’.
Mary Wilson, London SW7. Ancient religious texts are a source for many translation errors. One famous example is the belief that the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden was an apple. this originates from a mistranslation of the Latin word malum, meaning both ‘apple’ and ‘evil’. Ian Peel, Bray, Berks.
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