Seventh son of a seventh son
The seventh son of a seventh son is a concept from folklore regarding special powers given to, or held by, such a son. The seventh son must come from an unbroken line with no female children born between, and be, in turn, born to such a seventh son.[1] The number seven has a long history of mystical and religious associations: seven deadly sins, seven sleepers, seven-league boots, seven ages of man, seven days of creation, seven hills of Rome, seven lucky gods of Japanese mythology, the Seven Sages, seven sisters, seven stars, seven wonders of the world, etc. In this case, it refers to a man who is the seventh son of a man who is himself a seventh son.
In some beliefs, the special powers are inborn, inherited simply by virtue of his birth order; in others the powers are granted to him by God or gods because of his birth order.
The seventh son of a seventh son is also widely believed to have a direct link to Satan in some areas, and is thus granted with other "special abilities."
Regional variations
Ireland
The seventh son of a seventh son is gifted as a healer. There are several alleged cases of an Irish healer in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Paul Joseph Cawley was a seventh son of a seventh son and was known in this coal mining town for allegedly healing many skin diseases. The seventh son of a seventh son is part of a more general phenomenon known as the "cure" (sometimes also called the "charm")[2]
UK
It is believed that the seventh son of a seventh will be born with magic powers.
Paraguay, Argentina and Latin America
It is commonly believed that he will be a werewolf, luisón or "lobison".
Pop culture references
Music
- 7th Son by Reamonn
- "Seventh Son," Willie Dixon
- Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (song and album), Iron Maiden
- "Bad Boy Boogie" (song), AC/DC
- "Love Is Stronger than Justice," Sting
- "Ball and Biscuit," The White Stripes
- "Seventh son of a seventh son," Rory Gallagher
- "Hoot Mon," Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (from the 1952 film Road to Bali)
- "Highway 61 Revisited," Bob Dylan
- "Raoul and the Kings of Spain," Tears for Fears
- "The Seventh Son," Mose Allison
- "Poor Tom," Led Zeppelin
- "Seventh Son," Johnny Rivers
- "A Little Bit Of What You Fancy," Saxon
- "Seven," Boondox
- "Untold/Unwritten," Boondox
- "Mother, Father," Journey
- "Heathen," Boondox
- "Weatherman," The Bobs
- "My Grandfather, The Cubist," Joy Electric
- "Here in Arkansas," Robert Earl Keen
- "You Could Have Been With Me," Sheena Easton
- "Rich Man's War," Steve Earle
- "Dang Me," Roger Miller
- "Mojo Navigator," Country Joe And The Fish
- "Seventh Son," Climax Blues Band
- "7th Son," Born Ruffians
- "Birth of the Three - The Unification," Orphaned Land
- Seventh Sons New York City folk-raga band that recorded on ESP Records
- "Gypsy Love Songs" - Richard Thompson
- "Rock'n'Roll is Where I Hide" - Dave Graney
Television
- In The Twilight Zone episode titled "Still Valley," the character Paradine receives a book of witchcraft from an old man claiming to be the seventh son of a seventh son as was the old man's father.
- In the Doctor Who episode titled "Terror of the Zygons," Angus, the landlord, is a seventh son of a seventh son and claims the power of second sight.
- In the WB television series Charmed, for the episode "That Old Black Magic" in which the Seventh Son is called The Chosen One.
- In the NBC soap opera Days of our Lives, the somewhat gothic and mystical international crime boss Stefano DiMera, who called himself "the Phoenix" and has "come back from the dead" (or rather, faked his death) countless times, has claimed to be the seventh son of a seventh son.
- In the television series The Storyteller episode "The Luck Child" an evil king sets out to kill the seventh son of a seventh son who is prophesied to become king.
- In the movie The Seeker, a boy, who is the seventh son of a seventh son, is charged with the duty of saving the world from being overtaken by darkness.
Literature
- In the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, magical properties are attributed to the number eight rather than seven. Traditionally on the Discworld, an eighth son of an eighth son becomes a wizard. A wizard's eighth son—the eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son (an unlikely and deliberately discouraged event)—is a Sourcerer, a dangerously powerful wizard. In the novel Equal Rites the situation is only averted due to the birth of a daughter rather than son. The daughter then receives the wizarding powers normally given to the eighth son. This causes problems as females are supposed to be witches, and males wizards. The powers associated with each title are not interchangeable. The novel Sourcery centers on the unlikely story of a wizard's eighth son – the Sourcerer.
- In Susan Cooper's Arthurian fantasy sequence The Dark Is Rising, the main protagonist Will Stanton is the seventh son of a seventh son.
- Orson Scott Card's novel series The Tales of Alvin Maker (Alvin is the seventh son of a seventh son).
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison has a character named Wheatstraw who is the seventh son of a seventh son.
- In the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, Septimus Heap is the seventh son of a seventh son, and as such is an extremely gifted wizard.
- In Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba's adoptive father, Frex, is the seventh son of a seventh son.
- Comic book superhero Johnny Thunder obtained his magical birthright by virtue of being the seventh son of a seventh son. He was also born at 7 am on July 7 (the seventh day of the seventh month), 1917.
- In The Wardstone Chronicles series by Joseph Delaney, only a seventh son of a seventh son can become a Spook, the man who's in charge of ridding the countryside of witches, boggarts and other things that go bump in the night. Twelve-year-old Tom, the last apprentice, triumphs over various scary circumstances and hardships on his way to fulfilling his destiny as a Spook.
- In Robert A. Heinlein's novel I Will Fear No Evil, the protagonist, Johann Sebastian Bach Smith, at one point refers to himself as "the seventh son of a seventh son, born under a caul."
- In Groosham Grange written by Anthony Horowitz, the main character, David Eliot, is the seventh son of a seventh son.
- In The Penguins of Doom by Greg R. Fishbone, the main protagonist, Septina Nash, is the seventh child of two seventh children and has magical powers as a result.
- In N.D. Wilson's 100 Cupboards trilogy, the main character Henry York is a seventh son of a seventh son, and as such has a second sight.
- In Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You by Holly Black it states that the seventh son of a seventh son (or the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter) will be born with "The Sight" which allows him or her to see into faery.
- In The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott, Perenelle Flamel, Nicholas' wife, claims to be a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, which allows her to see and hear ghosts.
- In The Red Scarf by Kate Furnivall there are 3 sevenths of sevenths (an old gypsy man, a young woman who is the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter, and also a young boy). In this novel, the so-called seventh-of-sevenths allegedly have powers of hypnotic-like mind-control.
- In the Frontier Magic trilogy by Patricia Wrede, the character Lan is the seventh son of a seventh son, and as a result has very strong magical abilities.
Other
- Seventh Son Virus – a computer virus affecting COM files, the words "seventh son of a seventh son" appear in infected files.[3]
Real-life seventh sons of seventh sons
References
- Parman, Susan. "Curing Beliefs and Practices in the Outer Hebrides." Folklore, Vol. 88, No. 1 (1977), pp. 107–109.
External links