Finding
socks and gloves along the sidewalk this time of year is not unusual. Litter of all kinds is being revealed by
melting snow.
Still,
a playing card huddled in the grass caught my attention and I stopped to check
it out.
It
was the King of Hearts. Hearts mean love
and life; a good omen. But this card is
also known as the Suicide King because he appears to be stabbing himself in the
head with his sword. Not a good omen.
By
the time I got home I was really wondering what that was all about. Knowing I could end up in a muddle of
information, I Googled the question anyway.
I
was right. I could have spent all day
reading theories and opinions posted on the internet about the origin of the
Suicide King.
Most
agreed the kings on the deck of cards used today are supposed to represent four
specific kings in history. Diamonds is believed
to be rich Caesar, Alexander the Great is symbolize by clubs, and spades is
supposed to be King David. Some say the king of hearts is either Charlemagne,
the “Father of Europe” who died of a lung infection in 814 or Charles VII
of France who died of a combination of illnesses in 1461.
From
there the information got pretty confusing about why the King of Hearts is
shown apparently stabbing himself in the head.
Some say he was insane and committed suicide. Some say the hand with the sword doesn’t match
his other hand and that he was being murdered.
The version
I liked best can be found on the site The World of Playing Cards which
basically said card designers originally gave the King of Diamonds and the King
of Hearts an axe and the other two kings held swords. Then the design changed from a full body drawing
of the kings to a two-headed reverse image of their upper body. The king of hearts originally held his axe
behind his head but over time the handle of the axe was confused for a sword
which evolved to a raised sword and then the tip disappeared making things look
like the king was stabbing himself in the ear.
As
one who has spent years working in graphic design I can see how this could easily
happen. So often I was expected to take
a tiny muddy reproduction of a logo clipped from the Yellow Pages and clean it
up to make art ready to be printed full size on the chest of an order of tee
shirts. If I didn’t have another point
of reference I could certainly confuse the handle of a sword and the handle of
an axe.
People
can read what they want to into the hands and swords and eyes and colors of the
King of Hearts. I’m just thinking artists were dealing with a copy of a copy of a copy when the design was finalized.
Origin
of the Suicide King http://www.wopc.co.uk/cards/suicide-king.html
