Literary notes about Brindled (AI summary)
The term "brindled" has been used in literature to evoke images of variegated, mixed coloration that adds a wild or exotic quality to both animals and even human features. For instance, it describes the wild-cat’s mottled hide in a vivid natural setting in Walter Scott’s work [1], while also highlighting the striking appearance of white-breasted greyhounds with their subtly patterned coats in the Mabinogion [2]. In literary portraits of men, such as the beard of the young Count Fathom, “brindled” suggests a complexity of hues that imbue his character with an aged, layered quality despite his youth [3]. The term further enriches mythical imagery, as seen in the depiction of a bull combined with yellow hues to underscore its uncommon appearance [4], and it even finds a home in the portrayal of a lone, enigmatic cat in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights [5].
- The MS. reads: "There hung the wild-cat's brindled hide, Above the elk's branched brow and skull, And frontlet of the forest bull.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott - Before him were two brindled white-breasted greyhounds, having strong collars of rubies about their necks, reaching from the shoulder to the ear.
— from The Mabinogion - Though his age did not exceed thirty years, his beard, which was of a brindled hue, flowed down, like Aaron's, to his middle.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. Smollett - “Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get; the yellow and the brindled bull yoked together do I require.”
— from The Mabinogion - Nothing was stirring except a brindled, grey cat, which crept from the ashes, and saluted me with a querulous mew.
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
