title: Denis Healey

text: Healey was returned unopposed as deputy leader to Foot, but the next year was challenged by Tony Benn under the new election system, one in which individual members and trades unions voted alongside sitting members of parliament. The contest was seen as a battle for the soul of the Labour Party, and long debate over the summer of 1981 ended on 27 September with Healey winning by 50.4% to Benn's 49.6%. The narrowness of Healey's majority can be attributed to the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) delegation to the Labour Party conference. Ignoring its members, who had shown two-to-one majority support for Healey, it cast the union's block vote (the largest in the union section) for Benn. A significant factor in Benn's narrow loss, however, was the abstention of 20 MPs from the left-wing Tribune Group, which split as a result. Healey attracted just enough support from other unions, Constituency Labour Parties, and Labour MPs to win.


title: Denis Healey

text: Healey was Shadow Foreign Secretary during most of the 1980s, a job he coveted. He believed Foot was initially too willing to support military action after the Falkland Islands were invaded by Argentina in April 1982. He accused Thatcher of "glorying in slaughter", and had to withdraw the remark (he later claimed he had meant to say "conflict"). Healey was retained in the shadow cabinet by Neil Kinnock, who succeeded Foot following the disastrous 1983 general election, when the Conservatives bolstered their majority and Labour suffered their worst general election result in decades.


title: Denis Healey

text: His views on nuclear weapons conflicted with the unilateral nuclear disarmament policy of the Labour Party. After the 1987 general election, he retired from the Shadow Cabinet, and in 1992 stood down after 40 years as a Leeds MP. In that year he received a life peerage as "Baron Healey, of Riddlesden in the County of West Yorkshire". Healey was regarded by some – especially in the Labour Party – as "the best Prime Minister we never had". He was a founding member of the Bilderberg Group. He was interviewed on his role as a co-founder of the Bilderberg Group by Jon Ronson for the book "."


title: Denis Healey

text: During an interview with Nick Clarke on BBC Radio 4, Healey was the first Labour politician to publicly declare his wish for the Labour leadership to pass to Tony Blair in 1994, following the death of John Smith. Healey later became critical of Blair. He publicly opposed Blair's decision to use military force in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In the spring of 2004, and again in 2005, he publicly called on Blair to stand down in favour of Gordon Brown. In July 2006 he argued, "Nuclear weapons are infinitely less important in our foreign policy than they were in the days of the Cold War", and, "I don't think we need nuclear weapons any longer".


title: Denis Healey

text: In March 2013 during an interview with the "New Statesman", Healey said that if there was a referendum on British membership of the EU, he would vote to leave. In May, he further said: "I wouldn't object strongly to leaving the EU. The advantages of being members of the union are not obvious. The disadvantages are very obvious. I can see the case for leaving – the case for leaving is stronger than for staying in".


title: Denis Healey

text: Following the death of Alan Campbell, Baron Campbell of Alloway, in June 2013, Healey became the oldest sitting member of the House of Lords. Following the death of John Freeman on 20 December 2014, Healey became the surviving former MP with the earliest date of first election, and the second-oldest surviving former MP, after Ronald Atkins.


title: Denis Healey

text: Healey's notably bushy eyebrows and piercing wit earned him a favourable reputation with the public. When the media were not present, his humour was equally caustic but more risqué. The popular impressionist Mike Yarwood coined the catchphrase "Silly Billy", and incorporated it into his shows as a supposed "Healey-ism". Healey had never said it until that point, but he adopted it and used it frequently. Healey's direct speech made enemies. "At a meeting of the PLP I accused Ian Mikardo of being 'out of his tiny Chinese mind' – a phrase of the comedienne Hermione Gingold, with which I thought everyone was familiar. On the contrary, when it leaked to the press, the Chinese Embassy took it as an insult to the People's Republic." The controversy may have contributed to a poor performance when he fought for the Labour leadership following Harold Wilson's resignation.


title: Denis Healey

text: His long-serving deputy at the Treasury, Joel Barnett, in response to a remark by a third party that "Denis Healey would sell his own grandmother", quipped, "No, he would get me to do it for him". On 14 June 1978, Healey likened being attacked by the mild-mannered Sir Geoffrey Howe in the House of Commons to being "savaged by a dead sheep". Nevertheless, Howe appeared and paid warm tribute when Healey was featured on "This Is Your Life" in 1989. The two remained friends for many years, and Howe died only six days after Healey.


title: Denis Healey

text: Healey married Edna May Edmunds on 21 December 1945, the two having met at Oxford University before the war. The couple had three children, one of whom is the broadcaster and writer Tim Healey. Edna Healey died on 21 July 2010, aged 92. They were married for almost 65 years and lived in Alfriston, East Sussex. In 1987, Edna underwent an operation at a private hospital – this event drawing media attention as being seemingly at odds with Healey's pro-NHS beliefs. Challenged on the apparent inconsistency by the presenter Anne Diamond on TV-am, Healey became critical and ended the interview. He then jabbed journalist Adam Boulton.


title: Denis Healey

text: Healey was an amateur photographer for many years; he also enjoyed music, painting and reading crime fiction. He sometimes played popular piano pieces at public events. In a May 2012 interview for "The Daily Telegraph", Healey reported that he was swimming 20 lengths a day in his outdoor pool. Healey was interviewed in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.


title: Denis Healey

text: After a short illness Healey died in his sleep at his home in Alfriston, Sussex, on 3 October 2015, at the age of 98. He was buried alongside his wife in the graveyard of St Andrew's Church, Alfriston. In 2017, his personal archives were deposited at the Bodleian Library.


title: Denis Healey

text: Healey is credited with popularising in the UK a proverb which became known as Healey's First law of holes. This is a minor adaptation of a saying often attributed to Will Rogers.


title: Denis Healey

text: Healey is the only Chancellor Of The Exchequer to have appeared on BBC One's "Morecambe and Wise Show". In 1986 he appeared in series one of "Saturday Live". He was portrayed by David Fleeshman in the 2002 BBC production of Ian Curteis's "The Falklands Play". He appeared on "The Dame Edna Experience" in the song and dance number "Style" alongside actor Roger Moore.


title: Denis Healey

text: Healey was satirised in the ITV series "Spitting Image", his caricature mainly focusing on his famous eyebrows, with the real Healey appearing in the twelfth episode of the programme's first series in 1984 briefly noting the show was late covering that year's European elections. The iconic eyebrows were similarly parodied in the 1977 serial "The Sun Makers" from the British science fiction television series "Doctor Who", in which the antagonist known as the Collector is distinguished by having similarly bushy eyebrows to Healey.


title: Denis Healey

text: In 1994, Healey appeared in a TV advertisement for Visa Debit cards. This was banned by the Independent Television Commission as it contained a reference to a scandal, subsequently revealed to be a fabrication, involving Norman Lamont's personal life. Healey had appeared in an advert for Sainsbury's in the previous year.


title: Denis Healey

text: During Led Zeppelin's 1975 and 1977 concert tours, Robert Plant facetiously dedicated the song "In My Time of Dying" to Healey for the tax exile issues the band was facing. During Yes's recording of what was to become the album "Tormato" (1978), there was an outtake called "Money", on which the Yes keyboardist at the time, Rick Wakeman, provides a satirical voice-over parodying Healey.


title: Denis Healey

text: Healey's publications include: "Healey's Eye" (photography, 1980), "The Time of My Life" (his autobiography, 1989), "When Shrimps Learn to Whistle" (1990), "My Secret Planet" (an anthology, 1992), "Denis Healey's Yorkshire Dales" (1995) and "Healey's World" (2002).


title: Sudev Nair

text: Sudev Nair is an Indian actor and model working in Malayalam films best known for his performance in the 2014 film "My Life Partner", for which he was awarded the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor in 2014. He also starred in the 2019 Hindi film "India's Most Wanted" in the title role opposite Arjun Kapoor.


title: Sudev Nair

text: His other works include the Hindi film "Gulaab Gang" (2014) and the Malayalam film "Anarkali" (2015). He also played a notable role in the film "Karinkunnam 6'S. He also played the title character in the film "Ezra".


title: Sudev Nair

text: He is also well known for writing, directing and starring in India's first Mockumentary web series "Not Fit" (The Viral Fever and Dice Media) which won many international awards and was also featured at the MAMI in 2016.


title: Sudev Nair

text: Sudev, whose family hails from Palakkad, Kerala, was born and brought up in Mumbai, Maharashtra, with his early schooling completed at Sulochanadevi Singhania High School, Thane. He completed his 11th and 12th at V.G Vaze College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mulund. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur in 2007. Sudev also holds a post graduation in Acting from Film and Television Institute of India, Pune.


title: Sudev Nair

text: Trained in break dancing and parkour, Sudev has also learnt Kathakali from Kerala Kalamandalam on a scholarship from SPIC MACAY during his course at the Pune Film Institute. He is also trained in combat arts such as Boxing, Karate, Judo and Kalari Payattu. He is a Bronze Medal holder in High Jump at the Under 16 National Games in the year 2001.


title: Sudev Nair

text: Despite being placed in the routine campus placements after Engineering, his passion for cinema drove him towards his Post graduation at the Pune Film Institute. The inception of his film-making career began with various short films in various genres, which participated in competitions and festivals at National and International levels. His short ad for Mountain Dew soft drink was shortlisted to the finals at the MOFILM Barcelona Ad Film Fest in 2010.


title: Sudev Nair

text: His acting career began with the Hindi film "Gulaab Gang" (2014), directed by Soumik Sen. Set with a plot on the struggle of Indian Women, "Gulaab Gang" had an ensemble star cast including Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla. The movie was praised by critics garnering positive response for the acting performances. Sudev then went on to star in debutant M. B. Padmakumar's "My Life Partner", which dealt with the emotional relationship between two men. The movie became a controversy and faced issues with its release. Sudev played the role of Kiran, for which he went on to win the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor 2014.


title: Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi

text: Owaisi's father was Abdul Wahed Owaisi, who was the president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen till his death. In 1976, Salahuddin Owaisi took over the presidency of the Majlis after his father's death. Owaisi was the father of three sons. His eldest son, Asaduddin Owaisi, succeeded his father as president of the Majlis and has also retained his father's pocket-borough of Hyderabad since 2004 (when Owaisi retired). Owaisi's second son, Akbaruddin Owaisi, is a member of the Telangana Legislative Assembly from the Chandrayangutta Assembly Constituency.


title: Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi

text: Salahuddin Owaisi stepped into politics in 1958 at a very early age and was active when his father was jailed in the same year.


title: Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi

text: Salahuddin Owaisi, also known as "Salar-e-Millat", repeatedly alleged in his speeches that the Indian state had "abandoned" the Muslims to their fate. Therefore, "Muslims should stand on their own feet, rather than look to the State for help", he argued.


title: Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi

text: Owaisi was considered to be the strongest person in Hyderabad politics as his power extended till the borders of Andhra Pradesh. Muslims in the State rallied behind him and he was considered to be the man who could tilt the Muslim vote bank in Andhra Pradesh to whichever Party he felt like supporting. He was considered to be the most prominent Muslim Leader in Hyderabad.


title: Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi

text: To work for the economic development and educational advancement of the minorities; Owaisi established minority Engineering College, Medical College, Pharmacy, Degree College and Colleges for hospital management, MBA, MCA and Nursing, a Co-operative Bank, an Industrial Training Institute, and two Hospitals and Urdu Newspaper Etemaad; evinced keen interest in espousing the cause of promotion and protection of Urdu language, literature and culture.


title: Mocha Dick

text: Mocha Dick (; died 1838) was a male sperm whale that lived in the Pacific Ocean in the early 19th century, usually encountered in the waters near Mocha Island, off the central coast of Chile. American explorer and author Jeremiah N. Reynolds published his account, "Mocha Dick: Or The White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal" in 1839 in "The Knickerbocker". Mocha Dick was an albino and partially inspired Herman Melville's 1851 novel "Moby-Dick".


title: Mocha Dick

text: Mocha Dick survived many skirmishes (by Reynolds' account at least 100) with whalers before he was eventually killed. He was large and powerful, capable of wrecking small craft with his fluke. Explorer Jeremiah N. Reynolds gathered first-hand observations of Mocha Dick and published his account, "Mocha Dick: Or The White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal", in the May 1839 issue of "The Knickerbocker". Reynolds described Mocha Dick as "an old bull whale, of prodigious size and strength... "white as wool". According to Reynolds, Mocha Dick's head was covered with barnacles, which gave him a rugged appearance. The whale also had a peculiar method of spouting:


title: Mocha Dick

text: Mocha Dick was most likely first encountered and attacked sometime before 1810 off Mocha Island. His survival of the first encounters coupled with his unusual appearance quickly made him famous among Nantucket whalers. Many captains attempted to hunt him after rounding Cape Horn. Mocha Dick was quite docile, sometimes swimming alongside the ship, but once attacked he retaliated with ferocity and cunning, and was widely feared by harpooners. When agitated he would sound and then breach so aggressively that his entire body would sometimes come completely out of the water.


title: Mocha Dick

text: In Reynolds' account, Mocha Dick was killed in 1838, after he appeared to come to the aid of a distraught cow whose calf had just been slain by the whalers. His body was 70 feet long and yielded 100 barrels of oil, along with some ambergris—a substance used in the making of perfumes and at times worth more per ounce than gold. He also had twenty harpoons in his body.


title: Mocha Dick

text: A decade later, "The Knickerbocker" reported another sighting of Mocha Dick in the Arctic Ocean, concluding "Vive Mocha Dick!".


title: Mocha Dick

text: Mocha Dick was not, apparently, the only white whale in the sea. A Swedish whaler claimed to have taken a very old white whale off the coast of Brazil in 1859. In 1902, the New Bedford whaling bark "Platina", captained by Thomas McKenzie, harpooned and killed an albino sperm whale near the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean, using a harpoon tipped with an explosive device. Amos Smalley harpooned the white whale and recounted his experience to "Reader's Digest". He remembers Captain McKenzie estimating by the wear on the whale's teeth that it was "at least a hundred years old, maybe two hundred". Smalley was a guest at the premiere of John Huston's film "Moby Dick", 1956, where he was introduced as "the man who killed Moby Dick".


title: Mocha Dick

text: In 1952, "Time" magazine reported the harpooning of a white whale off the coast of Peru. Since 1991, there have been sightings reported of a white humpback whale near Australia, nicknamed Migaloo. In 2012, a white humpback, nicknamed Willow the White Whale, was filmed off the coast of Norway. Sightings of white sperm whales have been recorded off Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea in 2006 and 2015.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Seven and the Ragged Tiger is the third studio album by English new wave band Duran Duran, released on 21 November 1983 through EMI and Capitol Records. It was co-produced by Alex Sadkin, Ian Little and the band. Following their decision to record outside the United Kingdom as tax exiles, recording sessions took place across studios in France, the Caribbean and Australia between April and October 1983. Unlike their previous two studio albums, the sessions were marred by a lack of productivity and tensions rose between the band members over its direction.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Wanting a change in direction from their previous studio album "Rio" (1982), "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" is a synth-pop and dance-driven record, with emphasis on synthesiser-based textures. The lyrics are ambiguous and cover a wide variety of topics; lead vocalist Simon Le Bon described the album as "an adventure story about a little commando team". The title refers to the five band members and their two managers; the "ragged tiger" meaning success. The cover artwork was shot at the State Library of New South Wales and designed by Malcolm Garrett.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Despite scathing reviews from music critics, "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" was a commercial success, becoming the band's first and only UK number-one album. It also peaked at number eight in the United States, eventually going double platinum. A remix of "The Reflex" by Nile Rodgers was a UK and US number-one single. A worldwide concert tour, which yielded several concert films and a live album, ran from November 1983 to April 1984. It was the band's last studio album with the original line-up until 2004's "Astronaut". In later decades, "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" has received mixed reactions, with critics finding weaker songwriting compared to their first two records. It was reissued by EMI in 2010.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: By the start of 1983, Duran Duran had established themselves as one of the biggest bands in the world. They were enjoying commercial success following the release of "Rio" (1982) but received hate from the press and their musical peers; tabloids painted them as, in the words of biographer Steve Malins, "silly playboys living absurdly lavish lifestyles, imprisoned by the screams of even sillier teenage girls and apparently hated by almost everyone else." In March 1983, Duran Duran issued the non-album single "Is There Something I Should Know?", which debuted at number one in the United Kingdom and remained there for three weeks. To capitalise on its success, Capitol Records reissued the band's 1981 self-titled debut studio album in the United States with an updated sleeve photo and replacing "To the Shore" with the new single. From March to April, Duran Duran underwent an exhaustive press tour and live performances before recording commenced on their third studio album.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: At the decision of their managers, Paul and Michael Berrow, Duran Duran opted to spend a year away from the UK as tax exiles to avoid paying the very high tax rates successful UK musicians were required to pay. To record their third studio album, the band moved into a three-story château in Valbonne, France on the Côte d'Azur in April 1983, installing a 24-track mobile studio that was rented from North London's RAK Studios. According to author Stephen Davis, the idea was for work to ensue amidst the lavender-scented hills above the city. They almost immediately attracted tabloid criticism. In an interview with "The Times" in 1995, bassist John Taylor stated:


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Despite the criticism, Duran Duran managed to escape some of the large media hype surrounding them, which their photographer, Denis O'Regan, attributed to the château's relaxed atmosphere. The band had ended their partnership with the producer of their first two studio albums, Colin Thurston, so Ian Little, who had co-produced "Is There Something I Should Know?", was brought in to produce the sessions. At the château, the instruments were set up in a large empty room upstairs and wired to the recording equipment outside, meaning the musicians were forced to travel back and forth in between takes to verify it was taping properly. The group spent three months working out demos and ideas. Like their previous studio albums, the rhythm tracks were recorded first, with lyrics written and taped at a later date.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: The sessions began timidly but productivity quickly decreased due to a lack of new material; John later said that all their material had been used up for the first two studio albums. The musicians were burned out, so creativity was at an all-time low. Little later verified that "nothing had been written in advance, so the biggest starting point they'd ever have would be another song." Workdays did not start until 4 p.m. due to the antics of the band members, particularly John, and only lasted a couple of hours. On one instance, the musicians briefly visited the music video set of Elton John's "I'm Still Standing" at Cannes; its director was Russell Mulcahy, who had directed Duran Duran's videos. Additionally, the band members individually flew back to the UK for other commitments on several occasions. Reflecting on the times in his 2008 memoir, guitarist Andy Taylor stated that "it was the start of the megadamage" due to the acceleration of his and John's cocaine addictions. "We were living the high life to the full, and soon we were partying in Cannes every night."


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Throughout the recording days, Duran Duran primarily wrote through jam sessions, receiving feedback from Little on which parts were worth developing further. The producer gave the band a songwriting method he had learned working with Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry and Phil Manzanera, wherein he would create a groove using a programmed drum with effects on top. "Bryan would then vamp on the keyboard and produce what he called a 'moody synth' sound, which was like a pad sound with plenty of movement and character. That would enable him to get a lot of feeling out of a couple of chords, and Duran Duran did the same thing." By the end, the group had yielded what Malins calls several "embryonic ideas", a demo of "Union of the Snake" and an unreleased track titled "Seven and the Ragged Tiger", parts of which evolved into "The Seventh Stranger". According to John's 2012 memoir, the band devised sketches of the tracks "Of Crime and Passion", "(I'm Looking for) Cracks in the Pavement", "I Take the Dice" and "Spidermouse", which became "New Moon on Monday", during their time in France.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: As a means to increase their concentration amid tabloid scrutiny and paparazzi bombardment, Duran Duran relocated to George Martin's AIR Studios on the Caribbean island of Montserrat to resume recording. According to John, the group viewed a BBC documentary chronicling the recording of the Police's fifth and final studio album "Synchronicity" (1983) at AIR and felt it would be a good fit for Duran Duran. Believing Little's inexperience as a producer was slowing down progress, EMI brought in the mixer of "Is There Something I Should Know?", Alex Sadkin, to replace Little before the new producer intervened, finding Little was important to the band's writing process. Little later said he contributed several ideas despite not receiving any writing credits on the finished album.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Duran Duran spent five to six weeks recording in Montserrat. Peter Wade-Schwier acted as engineer during these sessions. Tracks produced at AIR included "The Reflex" and "Union of the Snake" by mid-June 1983, as well as the chorus of "New Moon on Monday". Chic backing vocalists Michelle Cobbs and B. J. Nelson were flown in from New York City to provide backing vocals for "The Reflex". The group's time at AIR proved irritating due to encountering numerous technical problems. Keyboardist Nick Rhodes later said that the tape machines failed to run at the correct speeds. Little elaborated: "Anything that was in tune at the beginning was out of tune by the time we got to the end." When the producers complained to the local studio engineers about the faulty equipment, the engineers passed them off as whiny and unprofessional. With a deadline of a Christmas release, the band members were worried the album would not be delivered on time.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Duran Duran also encountered personal conflicts at AIR. Their massive success led to rising tensions between the band members, primarily due to inflated egos and the presence of the members' girlfriends. Paul Berrow later said of the period: "At first it was military—videos, tour, album, tour—but what do you do when you get there? [You] get a girlfriend, and a demanding one almost certainly—and then the whole entity changes. The band comes together for just work and then goes away again to a new set of friends. There's conflict among the merry men." Recording faced a minor setback when Rhodes, suffering from exhaustion, stress and sun burning, collapsed one night and had to be airlifted to a hospital in Miami, Florida. Newspapers reported it was due to an episode of paroxysmal tachycardia, or an abnormally fast heartbeat. After the incident, the keyboardist started taking his health much more seriously, laying off drugs and limiting himself to red wine.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: On 20 July 1983, Duran Duran briefly halted the sessions to play at the Prince's Trust concert with Dire Straits at the Dominion Theatre in London, with Prince Charles and Princess Diana in attendance. Having not performed live in several months, Duran Duran were under-rehearsed, leading to a poor performance amidst technical problems, but spoke briefly with the royal couple afterwards. A photograph taken of Diana with singer Simon Le Bon, John and Andy made headlines the following day. Three days later, the band played a charity concert at Aston Villa's football stadium, Villa Park, in Birmingham before returning back to Montserrat.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Upon their return to Montserrat, Duran Duran supporter Steve Sutherland of "Melody Maker" briefly visited the sessions to check on progress. According to Malins, the band played him eight new songs "in various states of disarray". Sutherland predicted "Union of the Snake" would be the first single, while opining that "['The Reflex'] is sharper and more brutal than anything they've recorded before." The writer was informed by Sadkin that the album was far from completion amidst the studio's technical problems. Sadkin had a hard time producing the record overall and later said he was surprised at how little material the band had.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: With tensions rising in Montserrat, Sadkin suggested a change of location to his home base at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, the Bahamas, but the members grew tired of being on "deserted islands"; according to John, Duran Duran were "now completely turned off the idea of 'getting away from it all'. We wanted to get "to" it." They settled in Sydney, Australia at the end of August 1983 as they felt their relationship with the country was special following their previous tours and commercial success there. There, Duran Duran recorded and mixed the rest of the album, now called "Seven and the Ragged Tiger", at Studios 301 throughout September. The studio was inferior to AIR, but superior to the mobile studio in France; the producers found technical problems could be resolved easier. Phil Thornalley, Sadkin's personal engineer, assumed the role for these sessions.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: With the majority of the rhythm tracks cut, the band primarily used 301 to record lyrics, synthesiser and guitar overdubs, and Andy Hamilton's saxophone parts. Le Bon, suffering from writer's block, composed melody lines after listening back to the rhythm parts and wrote lyrics based on those later. Little later felt that he was the "least involved" and the "least active" of the five members. Meanwhile, Rhodes used a new Fairlight CMI digital sampling synthesizer to help change the band's sound, as he wanted "Seven" to be a more "sophisticated pop album full of minutiae and multiple textures".


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Other band members also experimented during the sessions: John used a different technique for his bass playing, playing fewer notes as a way to "get more feel" out of the instrument; drummer Roger Taylor worked with Sadkin to create a more natural sound compared to the "machine-like, rigid beats" of the first two studio albums; and Andy used a more melodic style of playing compared to his "usual cut-and-thrust". Rafael de Jesus and Mark Kennedy also contributed percussion, which Malins felt helped create a "more exciting, dynamic foundation for the songs". Nevertheless, the tracks did not come together easily, going through different versions regularly. By this time, the band members grew tired of the album's long recording process and tensions rose over its direction. Andy later described its recording as a "laborious plod", while Rhodes said:


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Sadkin and Rhodes discarded several of the rhythm tracks during mixing and received backlash from John and Andy over rerecording their parts. Reflecting in his memoir, John acknowledged the period as the beginning of a split in the band that only grew worse over the next year: "[It was] Andy and I on one side. Simon, Nick and the Berrows on the other. Roger did a balancing act." Alongside growing tensions in the studio, the band members were forced to relocate from their hotels due to the constant barrage of fans. Rhodes and Sadkin ultimately worked 15-hour days with Little to mix "Seven and the Ragged Tiger", which lasted into October 1983. By the time the first single, "Union of the Snake", was being mixed, Rhodes and Sadkin only had 24 hours to write and record its B-side, "Secret Oktober", which Malins describes as a "moody electronic-carousel".


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Commentators have recognised "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" as a departure from Duran Duran's first two studio albums. Richard Buskin of "Sound on Sound" observed more of a "synth-dance sound", while author Annie Zaleski wrote that "Seven" is "indebted less to guitar-driven post-punk and more the sleeker synth-pop sounds popular at the time". Writing for AllMusic, Mike DeGagne found that the album's content has the band "moving ever so slightly into a danceclub arena", with "their ability to produce a sexier sound" favouring electronics and instrumentation over "a firm lyrical and musical partnership". Malins agrees, referring to "Seven" as a "very detailed, technology-based record".


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: AllMusic's Stewart Mason described the opening track, "The Reflex", as sounding like "an underwritten exercise in art-funk", drawing comparisons to "Rio" "Hold Back the Rain". "New Moon on Monday" and "Union of the Snake" showcase the band's influences: the former boasts an echo of Roxy Music, while the latter was written based on the bass drum pattern for David Bowie's "Let's Dance" (1983). Discussing the up-tempo tracks "Of Crime and Passion" and "Shadows on Your Side", Malins finds the two tracks evoke feelings of insomnia and hysteria. Davis describes "(I'm Looking for) Cracks in the Pavement" as sounding like an homage to the Police with a "carnival vibe". The album also features an atmospheric, electronic-based instrumental, "Tiger Tiger", which Davis dubs a "pastoral drone, evoking a jungle painted by Rousseau with hidden tribes playing rattles and sticks". The final track, "The Seventh Stranger", Malins and Davis deem a "moody finale" and a "tepid ballad", respectively.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Described by Le Bon as "an adventure story about a little commando team", the album's lyrics are ambiguous and cover a wide variety of topics, including the dark side of fame the band were experiencing ("Shadows on Your Side"), living based on pure instinct ("The Reflex"), being "dragged by a passionate undertow" ("Of Crime and Passion") and changing identities as a means of escape ("The Seventh Stranger"). According to Malins, almost every track portrays a character in a "manic, slightly deranged state", naming "Union of the Snake", "I Take the Dice", "Shadows on Your Side" and "(I'm Looking for) Cracks in the Pavement". In "Union of the Snake", the words visualise a dreamlike revolution being led by music, while "New Moon on Monday" presents a character's attempt to flatter a shy potential lover. According to Davis, the lyrics took influence from Le Bon's relationship uncertainties and "romantic ambivalences" with his then-girlfriend Claire.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: The album's title was devised by Le Bon and taken from the unreleased track of the same name. The "seven" refers to the five band members and their two managers, while the "ragged tiger" is success: "Seven people running after success. It's ambition. That's what it's about." Rhodes disliked the title, stating in 1983: "It seems to me like the name of a kids' book, not so much the Famous Five, more sort of piratey." According to Malins, the keyboardist still refers to the LP simply as "the third album".


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: The album cover was shot during a lavish photoshoot with photographer Rebecca Blake at the State Library of New South Wales. Sleeve designer Malcolm Garrett was flown in from the UK, as well as a live Bengal tiger from Melbourne to be pictured on both the album cover and upcoming tour programme. Surrounded by crew members, local journalists, TV cameramen and fans, Duran Duran were dressed in all-black attire: Rhodes donned a "black lizard suit", John and Roger in "evening dress", while Le Bon and Andy wore suede and leather; John later quipped in his memoir that "we all looked like successful young men". The shoot reportedly cost upwards of £65,000.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: According to Paul Berrow, the plan was to shoot a promo in Kashmir involving the tiger but Andy and Rhodes vetoed the idea. Another idea involving the use of smoke bombs was scrapped when the tiger was spooked by them. Garrett's final sleeve design solely features the tiger's eye and a small portion of its fur. Against the caramel-coloured artwork are various logos, including the band's new D"D" logo, a crescent moon, a triple-X glyph and a Chinese-style antique map depicting snowy mountains and rivers; Davis says this represents the trips Duran Duran would venture on during their upcoming tour. Malins finds the map suggests secrets that are waiting to be unfolded, offering a visual representation of Le Bon's "soul-searching on the album through [the] admittedly ambiguous lyrics".


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: The music video for "Union of the Snake", featuring the band members in a cave with serpent-like dancers and Le Bon as a Mad Max-type road warrior, was sent to MTV by Capitol a full week before the single was set to release to radio, which drew backlash from radio stations who found the move unfair. The band later expressed distaste for the video. Upon its release as a single on 17 October 1983, "Union of the Snake" peaked at number three in both the UK and the US. However, the placement earned disenchantment from the band who were expecting another number one following "Is There Something I Should Know?"; Le Bon confessed to its poor release in 1984. Additionally, the group's failure to hit number one led some critics to conclude Duran Duran had hit their peak.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: The simultaneous worldwide release of "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" followed a month later on 21 November 1983, shortly after the band commenced a worldwide tour. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, becoming the band's first number-one album. Nevertheless, the LP's sales fell off after the first week at a faster pace than EMI had expected. Upon debuting on the US "Billboard" Top LPs & Tape chart on 10 December, both "Rio" and the reissued "Duran Duran" were still high on the chart. It reached number eight and within months achieved platinum status with sales of one million units, eventually going double platinum. Elsewhere, "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" topped the chart in the Netherlands and reached number two in Australia, three in Finland, seven in Canada, 11 in Austria and New Zealand, 12 in Italy, 14 in Norway, 16 in Switzerland, 17 in Germany and 19 in Sweden.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: "New Moon on Monday" was issued as the second single on 14 January 1984, backed by "Tiger Tiger". Its ambitious video, directed by Mulcahy's colleague Brian Grant, contained images of a medieval French town and was shot during a two-day shoot in Paris before the tour resumed in Japan. Although hated by the band members, the video received heavy airplay on MTV. The single itself stalled at number nine in the UK and number ten in the US. With both singles performing below the label's expectations, EMI executives grew concerned that Sadkin lacked the skill to produce a great single for Duran Duran.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: The third single, a remix of "The Reflex" by Chic member Nile Rodgers, was released on 16 April 1984. The B-side was a live rendition of "Rio" "New Religion" in the US and a live version of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel's "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" in the UK. While in Australia on tour, John Taylor had heard a prerelease copy of the INXS single "Original Sin", produced by Rodgers and engineered by Jason Coruso, and felt a remix of "The Reflex" would perform well as a single. For the remix, Rodgers made the song more dance-oriented, adding looping vocals, additional percussion, increased the tempo and cut the runtime. It initially received backlash from EMI and Capitol, who felt it was "too black" for Duran Duran. Executives were eventually convinced and upon release, the remixed song became the band's first US and second UK number-one single. Its success also boosted sales for "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" five months after its release. The single's accompanying video was shot by Mulcahy over two days at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto; John wanted the video to be taken from a live show as a way to showcase their strength as a live band and to dismiss interviewers who referred to Duran Duran solely as a "video band".


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Despite its commercial success, reviews for "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" were predominantly negative upon release. Critics cited poor lyrics and found the group utilised their musical influences in unoriginal ways. "Record Mirror" Jim Reid, in particular, felt the record marked the first chapter in the band's decline, deeming the music "no more than a sub-art school mix of plagiarism" and the lyrics "chickenfeed mysteries that neither say or mean anything". Reid ultimately found the LP "bad as in pathetic, useless, no good" and a "painful [listening] experience" that showcases the band's "mediocre talent". Ira Robbins was also negative in "Trouser Press", describing "Seven" as "a harmless, useless mishmash of old riffs and weak songs that undoes all the progress evidenced on "Rio"". Unlike Reid, Robbins concluded the band were "too talented to be satisfied with such a dismal showing". In an extremely negative review, "Sounds" dubbed the record ""Seven and the Rancid Ravings"", arguing that it is "so assuredly awful it breaks new ground in badness", and concluding: ""Seven" is more redolent of illness – a nervous disorder of people near to cracking up – than it is of just being an amusingly dreadful recording." In "NME", Paolo Hewitt argued that pop stars are only interested in themselves, with Duran Duran being "perhaps the most striking example". Hewitt found the lyrics "fail gloriously" at "attempting to add drama and shade" to the material's "already weak structures".


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Nevertheless, "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" did receive some positive reviews. "Melody Maker" Michael Oldfield found the album a bold move at this stage of the band's career, in which they solidify the 1980s dancefloor sound while simultaneously putting an end to their "wimpish image". He also said that "Seven" "restores danger and menace to a band that was veering dangerously close to the insipid." Meanwhile, "Billboard" considered the LP a "well-crafted set that refines their new-pop style without risking any major shifts in direction. Here, that yields fresh bursts of their now familiar choral sound, more playful eroticism and, throughout, plenty of dance-oriented rhythmic momentum for their club fans," giving particular recognition to the production. Peter Martin of "Smash Hits" wrote: "The arrangements are watertight, the melodies are razor-sharp and every number is drenched with the mystique of a James Bond theme. A classy concoction, it should ensure they'll be around for quite a while yet." In a more mixed review, Robert Christgau of "The Village Voice" stated that "as public figures and maybe as people, these imperialist wimps are the most deplorable pop stars of the post-punk if not post-Presley era," calling the lyrics "obtuse at best," and said "if you'd sooner listen to a machine sing than Simon Le Bon, what are you going to do with both?" However, he praised the album's singles as being "twice as pleasurable as anything Thomas Dolby is synthesizing these days."


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: To support "Seven and the Ragged Tiger", Duran Duran embarked on a world tour that covered shows in Australia, Japan, England, the US and Canada. Dubbed the Sing Blue Silver Tour after a lyric in "Rio" "The Chauffeur", the tour was documented by a film crew, who were directed by Mulcahy. It commenced in Canberra, Australia in mid-November 1983 before returning to the UK for concerts in London in early December. The short Japanese leg of seven dates occurred throughout mid-to-late January 1984. While there, Duran Duran played at larger venues than they were used to; audiences screamed so loud they could not hear themselves play. Throughout the tour, the ensemble displayed a harder and heavier sound compared to the supporting album. Roger Taylor stated: "The guitar is more upfront. We go for more power and everyone projects a lot. It's basically a rock show. We're not a synthesiser band."


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: The North American leg commenced at the end of January 1984; according to Malins, the band members were on an "adrenaline-charged 'voyage of discovery during this time. While on the road in February, the band won two Grammy Awards in the new Best Long Form and Best Short Form music video categories, and appeared on the cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine, who dubbed them the "Fab Five" in comparison to the Beatles.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: Although the tour was massively successful, including through the selling of merchandise, the non-stop touring schedule took a toll on the band members by the end of February 1984. Additionally, the cold weather, the constant use of drugs and alcohol and the presence of members' girlfriends led to increased tensions and fights amongst the players. Their egos were inflated to new proportions; video collaborator Marcello Anciano recalled Andy's party behaviour getting rampant on several occasions. Throughout March, Duran Duran continued playing in the northeastern US and Canada before playing two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden, achieving their goal they had made when they signed to EMI in 1981.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: The Sing Blue Silver Tour continued through late March and April 1984 around the US. By the final dates in California, John was doing drugs on stage. Footage from the shows at Oakland, California were compiled for the concert film "Arena" (1985). The tour concluded in San Diego in mid-April. A planned European leg was cancelled due to the band's exhaustion. It was the final tour of the 1980s with the original line-up. Following its end, the band filmed more material using studio sets for the "Arena" concert film, which was released in late 1984 along with a documentary about the tour, "Sing Blue Silver". Live recordings from across the tour, along with a new studio song, the Rodgers-produced "The Wild Boys", were compiled and released by EMI on a live album, also titled "Arena", in late 1984.


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" was Duran Duran's final studio album with the original five-piece line-up until 2004's "Astronaut". The band members mostly collaborated on different projects from 1984 to 1985: Andy and John worked with singer Robert Palmer and former Chic drummer Tony Thompson as the Power Station, while Le Bon, Rhodes and Roger recorded a studio album, "So Red the Rose" (1985), as Arcadia. Duran Duran briefly regrouped to record the title song of the James Bond film "A View to a Kill" (1985) before Andy and Roger departed the band shortly before the recording of their Rodgers-produced fourth studio album "Notorious" (1986).


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: The album continues to receive mixed reactions in later decades. In a retrospective review, DeGagne found "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" fails to match the "unrestrained pop/rock ebullience" of "Rio" with weaker songwriting, as well as favouring synthesisers over Andy's guitar stylings, but still displays strong singles and enough musicality to equal a "bright, energetic and effectual" record. Writing for "The Daily Telegraph" in 2010, Thomas H. Green described "Seven" as "opulently produced", with "their new romantic origins blooming into lush decadent pop". On the other hand, Chris Gerard found the album more uneven in "Metro Weekly" but also stated "Seven" predicted the musical direction of both Arcadia's "So Red the Rose" (1985) and "Notorious" (1986).


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: In his biography of the band, Malins wrote that the album's primary flaw is a "lack of punch and power", and its "frenzied, chaotic bluster" lacks the effectiveness of "Rio" (1982). Davis also opined that good lyrics were "hard-earned" as Le Bon's "beatnik muse" had vanished. The band as a whole were not satisfied with it musically. John, in particular, felt "Seven" was anticlimactic after "Rio" (1982), writing in his memoir: ""Seven and the Ragged Tiger" is a beautifully textured record, but it didn't hit you viscerally in the way the earlier albums had."


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: EMI re-released "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" in 2010 in two configurations: a two-disc digipak and a three-disc box set (consisting of two CDs and one DVD). The latter includes on the DVD the first official release of the "As the Lights Go Down" video. Like the reissue of their self-titled debut released the same year, the remastering had a negative reaction from fans as a victim of the loudness war. Andy Taylor (who had left the band) criticised the remaster, saying that it "sounds like it was done down the pub" and condemning EMI for promoting the demos as bonus tracks: "they should be gifting them to fans after 30 years of support...shame on all involved". EMI refused to recall the reissue because complaints about its sound quality were "by far in the minority".


title: Seven and the Ragged Tiger

text: All songs written and composed by Simon Le Bon, Andy Taylor, John Taylor, Roger Taylor and Nick Rhodes.


title: Tate Taylor

text: Tate Taylor (born June 3, 1969) is an American filmmaker and actor. Taylor is best known for directing "The Help" (2011), "Get on Up" (2014), and "The Girl on the Train" (2016).


title: Tate Taylor

text: Taylor worked for 15 years in New York City and Los Angeles. Though he debuted as a feature film director in "Pretty Ugly People" (2008), he was primarily an actor for most of his career, in films such as "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" (1997) and "Winter's Bone" (2010), and on television in series such as "Charmed", "Six Feet Under", and "The Drew Carey Show".


title: Tate Taylor

text: Taylor achieved mainstream success when he directed the film "The Help" (2011), based on Kathryn Stockett's novel of the same title. Stockett gave him rights to make the film adaptation in June 2008, before the book was published. In addition to receiving generally positive reviews, the film was a major commercial success, earning more than $200 million worldwide, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Tate Taylor has been nominated for and received industry awards including the 2013 Vail Film Festival Vanguard Award, the 2012 BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, the 2012 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the 2012 Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, the 2012 NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture and for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture, and the 2011 Chicago Film Critics Association nomination. Taylor next directed the James Brown biopic "Get on Up" (2014), which starred Chadwick Boseman. Though the film was a critical success, it commercially underperformed. His next project "The Girl on the Train", an adaption of the book by Paula Hawkins, was released to mixed reviews from critics, but was a box office success.


title: Tate Taylor

text: In August 2018, Taylor was announced to be directing Jessica Chastain in action thriller film "Ava". Taylor replaced original director Matthew Newton, who stepped down after controversy over allegations of domestic violence and assault.


title: Tate Taylor

text: In May 2019, Taylor released psychological horror film "Ma", starring frequent collaborator Octavia Spencer. The film, produced by Jason Blum through his Blumhouse Productions banner, was a critical and commercial success. That same month, Fox ordered Taylor's first television project, "Filthy Rich", to series. An American adaption of the New Zealand series starring Kim Cattrall, it premiered in September 2020 and was cancelled after one season.


title: Tate Taylor

text: Taylor's most recent film is "Breaking News in Yuba County", starring frequent collaborator Allison Janney, was released on February 12, 2021.


title: Tate Taylor

text: Taylor is openly gay and is in a relationship with producer John Norris. He resides on the Wyolah Plantation, an Antebellum plantation in Church Hill, Mississippi.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: "Born Again" is a 1986 comic book story arc that appeared in the Marvel Comics series "Daredevil". Written by Frank Miller, and drawn by David Mazzucchelli, the storyline first appeared in "Daredevil" #227–231. It was later reprinted in graphic novel format along with the previous issue #226, and a follow-up story arc from "Daredevil" #232–233, which resolves some loose ends from the original story arc. Because of this, this follow-up story arc has become generally considered part of "Born Again".


title: Born Again (comics)

text: The story details Daredevil's descent into insanity and destitution at the Kingpin's hands, as well as a subsequent struggle to build a new life for himself. The storyline (amalgamated with "Guardian Devil") was loosely adapted as the 2018 third season of the Netflix Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) streaming television series "Daredevil".


title: Born Again (comics)

text: Karen Page, the former secretary of the Nelson & Murdock law offices in New York City and ex-girlfriend of Matt Murdock, had left years earlier to pursue an acting career. After a brief period of success, she became a heroin addict and was reduced to starring in pornographic films in Mexico. Strapped for cash, she sells the information that Matt is Daredevil for a shot of heroin. This information is sold upward to the Kingpin. Over the next six months, the Kingpin uses his influence to have the IRS freeze Murdock's accounts, the bank foreclose on his apartment, and police lieutenant Nicholas Manolis testifies that he saw Murdock pay a witness to perjure himself. By coincidence, Murdock's girlfriend Glorianna O'Breen breaks up with him and turns to dating his law partner and best friend Foggy Nelson on the rebound.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: Daredevil's initial investigations uncover that Manolis is helping to frame Murdock in exchange for medical treatments for his son. Still, he is unable to find who is behind the frame-up and is unwilling to turn Manolis in to the authorities. An exceptional legal defense by Nelson saves Murdock from a prison sentence, though he is barred from practicing law. With his initial plan foiled, the Kingpin has Murdock's apartment firebombed. He also gives out the order to kill anyone else who handled the information on Daredevil's identity. Karen eludes the Kingpin's assassins and makes her way to New York to find Murdock.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: Now homeless, suffering from paranoia and growing increasingly aggressive, Murdock is continuously followed by the Kingpin's subordinates, providing the Kingpin with frequent updates on Murdock's mental state, as he has become obsessed with the fruits of his scheme to destroy Murdock. Driven by thoughts of revenge, Murdock confronts the Kingpin in his office and is brutally beaten by the crime lord. To avert investigation into his death, the unconscious Murdock is drenched in whiskey and strapped into a stolen taxi cab, which is then pushed into the East River. Murdock regains consciousness, breaks out of the cab, and swims to safety. Badly injured, he stumbles through Hell's Kitchen, eventually finding his way to the gym where his father trained as a boxer. There he is found by his mother Maggie who, having not been in Matt's life for decades, has become a nun at a local Catholic church. She nurses him back to health.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: Meanwhile, "Daily Bugle" reporter Ben Urich is investigating his confidant's plight and stands vigil with Manolis as his son is taken in for surgery. When his son dies, Manolis confesses to Urich about the frame-up and his suspicions that the Kingpin was behind it. Nurse Lois, an enforcer assigned by the Kingpin to monitor Manolis, responds by breaking Urich's fingers and beating Manolis nearly to death. The unintimidated Manolis calls Urich from his hospital bed; however, Lois breaks into his room and strangles him, laying the receiver on his bed so Urich can hear his murder. Rather than cowing him, this goads Urich to come forward with his investigation, alerting his paper and the authorities of the situation.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: Karen arrives in New York, having hitched a ride with pornography fanatic Paulo Scorcese who supplies her with heroin in exchange for sexual favors. She contacts Foggy to ask about Murdock's whereabouts. When he realizes that Paulo has been beating her, Foggy insists on taking her into his home.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: Increasingly obsessed with killing Murdock, Kingpin uses his military connections to procure America's super soldier Nuke. To draw Murdock out of hiding, he arranges for a violent mental patient to be released from an asylum, dress up as Daredevil, and kill Nelson. Nurse Lois is ordered to relocate so that she cannot be implicated, but she rebels and attempts to kill Urich. Murdock, who has been shadowing Urich since hearing of the articles he is writing on the Kingpin, knocks out Lois and leaves her for the authorities. He then overhears a phone call that tips him off to the plot to kill Nelson. Meanwhile, Page spots Scorcese stalking Nelson's apartment building. While she tries to prevent him from killing Nelson, the two are attacked by assassins who the Kingpin has ordered to kill anyone who emerges from the building. Murdock beats up the impostor Daredevil and saves Page, who confesses to being the one who gave away his secret identity. Murdock forgives her. Now back together, they move into a derelict apartment, where Murdock helps her through heroin withdrawal while supporting them as a diner chef.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: Nurse Lois offers to testify against the Kingpin in exchange for a reduced sentence, but he has her killed by a "Daily Bugle" reporter sent to interview her. Having failed to draw Murdock out of hiding, the Kingpin orders Nuke to fly to Hell's Kitchen and make a general assault. From a helicopter, Nuke shoots dozens of civilians and destroys the diner where Murdock works. Appearing as Daredevil for the first time since his apartment was destroyed, he is left with no choice but to kill both Nuke and his pilot to avoid further civilian deaths. However, Nuke survives his attack, and the Avengers take him into custody.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: Captain America, disturbed that Nuke has a U.S. flag tattooed on his face, investigates his background. When the military authorities give him evasive answers, he breaks into top-secret records and discovers Nuke is the only surviving test subject of several attempts to recreate Project: Rebirth, the project that enhanced the Captain's own body. Nuke breaks free from custody in the same base. Captain America stops him, but the Kingpin gives the order to kill Nuke. The military shoots nuke. Having heard word of Nuke's escape while stealing money from Kingpin's drug importers to rebuild the diner, Daredevil grabs Nuke from Captain America and takes him to the "Daily Bugle", hoping to get him to testify about the Kingpin. He is not fast enough, and Nuke dies before he can provide any evidence.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: Trying to get Nuke back from Daredevil, Captain America stumbles upon one of the hitmen sent to kill Nuke. The hitman names the Kingpin as being behind Nuke's assault on Hell's Kitchen, setting off a wave of lawsuits. Although the Kingpin is able to fight off most of the charges, his public image as an honest and respectable businessman is shattered, and his lieutenants lose confidence in him. His obsession unabated, he disregards Captain America's role and plans for revenge on Murdock instead. As for Murdock, he lives happily in Hell's Kitchen with Karen and continues to fight for justice in his neighborhood.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: With regular writer Dennis O'Neil preparing to leave the series, long-running "Daredevil" editor Ralph Macchio called up Frank Miller and asked if he would be interested in returning to the series. Miller, whose first stint as writer had brought "Daredevil" from the brink of cancellation to the top-sellers lists, agreed under the condition that artist David Mazzucchelli would work from full scripts. Contrary to rumor, Mazzucchelli did not draw over layouts by Miller; the artwork on the story is entirely Mazzucchelli's.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: "Born Again" makes heavy use of Christian symbolism, primarily from Roman Catholicism, and the title invokes the Catholic teaching on Baptism. The phrase itself is spoken by Jesus in the 3rd chapter of the Gospel of John to indicate that one's old life must come to an end for new life to begin. While the story is set during the Christmas season, it follows Easter themes almost exclusively.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: The splash pages of the first four chapters all show Matt Murdock lying down. In chapters 2 and 3 he is in a fetal position, followed by him assuming the pose of the crucified Jesus Christ in chapter 4. The splash page of chapter 5 shows him standing, representative of the risen Jesus. In chapter 3, his wandering through Hell's Kitchen parallels Jesus's walk to Golgotha, including the three falls represented in the Stations of the Cross, before culminating in the image of the Pietà. Sister Maggie takes the role of the Virgin Mary and the dove (traditionally used in Christian artwork to represent the Holy Spirit) is posed above her. All the chapter titles, excluding those of the story arc in #232–233, are names of Christian concepts.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: Between 2009 and 2010, Marvel reprinted Born Again in hardcover () and trade paperback () as part of Marvel Premiere Classic. The hardcover variant edition () was limited to only 1229 copies.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: In 2012, IDW Publishing published the Artist's Edition () of the story in a 200-page hardcover. Unlike the usual graphic novels, this format features printing of the original artworks in a way to mimic the experience of a comic book artist viewing comic art. The size of the artwork papers were originally at the dimension of 11 x 17 inches (including the editorial notes and bleed lines seen on the papers) and were all colored. Artist's Edition is designed to print exactly the same dimension and in black and white palette to show the details of pasteovers, zip-a-tone technique, and blue pencils. Mazzucchelli personally supplied all of the artworks for scanning and supervised the process of the development for approval. The 250 copies limited edition () was exclusively available only for pre-ordering; this version includes a colorful slipcase, a variant design of the front cover, and Mazzucchelli's personal signature printed in an interior page. Mazzucchelli appeared at the Midtown Comics signing event on June 28, 2012. The signing was preceded by a discussion with fellow creator Chip Kidd and a Q&A session with fans in attendance. The trade paperback known as Artisan Edition () was published on 2019. This version, however, is scaled down to the standard size of a graphic novel despite retaining the same content as the regular version.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: In regard to the rise of "Daredevil" comic popularity during Frank Miller's run in the 1980s, Born Again is considered one of, if not the best storyline within the "Daredevil" mythos, with praise for Miller's and Mazzucchelli's artwork, storyline and religious narrative mirroring Matt Murdock's arc from fall and rise. Fans and critics see "Born Again" to be an influential period during the start of the Modern Age of Comic Books.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: The "Last Rites" story arc in "Daredevil" #297–300, though written and drawn by an entirely different set of creators (except for colorist Christie Scheele), is to an extent a thematic sequel to "Born Again". The plot of "Last Rites" is centered on Daredevil systematically destroying the Kingpin's reputation and worldly possessions, much as the Kingpin did to him in "Born Again". In an explicit acknowledgement of this parallel, a deranged Kingpin mutters "born again..." in the final installment. The story also sees Murdock finally unraveling the frame job from "Born Again", winning back his attorney's license.


title: Born Again (comics)

text: In an ongoing subplot of "Born Again", the Kingpin hires Foggy Nelson for one of his firms. When writer Frank Miller left the series, this plot thread was temporarily abandoned, before finally being resolved in "Daredevil" #248–256.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The Sutton Hoo helmet is a decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet found during a 1939 excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. It was buried around 625 and is widely associated with King Rædwald of East Anglia; its elaborate decoration may have given it a secondary function akin to a crown. The helmet was both a functional piece of armour that would have offered considerable protection if ever used in warfare, and a decorative, prestigious piece of extravagant metalwork. It is described as "the most iconic object" from "one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries ever made", and perhaps the most important known Anglo-Saxon artefact.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The visage contains eyebrows, a nose, and moustache, creating the image of a man joined by a dragon's head to become a soaring dragon with outstretched wings. It has become a symbol of the Early Middle Ages and "of Archaeology in general". It was excavated as hundreds of rusted fragments, and was first displayed following an initial reconstruction in 1945–46, and then in its present form after a second reconstruction in 1970–71.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The helmet and the other artefacts from the site were determined to be the property of Edith Pretty, owner of the land on which they were found. She donated them to the British Museum, where the helmet is on permanent display in Room 41.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The helmet was buried among other regalia and instruments of power as part of a furnished ship-burial, probably dating from the early seventh century. The ship had been hauled from the nearby river up the hill and lowered into a prepared trench. Inside this, the helmet was wrapped in cloths and placed to the left of the head of the body. An oval mound was constructed around the ship. Long afterwards, the chamber roof collapsed violently under the weight of the mound, compressing the ship's contents into a seam of earth.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: It is thought that the helmet was shattered either by the collapse of the burial chamber or by the force of another object falling on it. The fact that the helmet had shattered meant that it was possible to reconstruct it. Had the helmet been crushed before the iron had fully oxidised, leaving it still pliant, the helmet would have been squashed, leaving it in a distorted shape similar to the Vendel and Valsgärde helmets.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Attempts to identify the person buried in the ship-burial have persisted since virtually the moment the grave was unearthed. The preferred candidate, with some exceptions when the burial was thought to have taken place later, has been Rædwald; his kingdom, East Anglia, is believed to have had its seat at Rendlesham, upriver from Sutton Hoo. The case for Rædwald, by no means conclusive, rests on the dating of the burial, the abundance of wealth and items identified as regalia, and, befitting a king who kept two altars, the presence of both Christian and pagan influences.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: What scant information is known about King Rædwald of East Anglia, according to the Anglo-Saxon historian Simon Keynes, could fit "on the back of the proverbial postage stamp." Almost all that is recorded comes from the eighth-century "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum" by the Benedictine monk Bede, leaving knowledge of Rædwald's life, already poorly recorded, at the mercy of such things as differing interpretations of Ecclesiastical Latin syntax. Bede writes that Rædwald was the son of Tytila and grandson of Wuffa, from whom the East Anglian Wuffingas dynasty derived its name. In their respective works "Flores Historiarum" and "Chronica Majora", the thirteenth-century historians Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris appear to place Tytila's death, and Rædwald's presumed concurrent succession to the throne, in 599. Yet as reasonable as this date sounds, these historians' demonstrated difficulty with even ninth-century dates leaves ample room for doubt.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Rædwald would have at least ascended to power by 616, around when Bede records him as raising an army on behalf of Edwin of Northumbria and defeating Æthelfrith in a battle on the east bank of the River Idle. According to Bede, Rædwald had almost accepted a bribe from Æthelfrith to turn Edwin over, before Rædwald's wife persuaded him to value friendship and honour over treasure. After the ensuing battle, during which Bede says Rædwald's son Rægenhere was slain, Rædwald's power was probably significant enough to merit his inclusion in a list of seven kings said by Bede to have established rule over all of England south of the River Humber, termed an "imperium"; the ninth-century "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" expanded Bede's list to eight and applied the term bretwalda or brytenwalda, literally "ruler of Britain" or "ruler of the Britains".


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Bede records Rædwald converting to Christianity while on a trip to Kent, only to be dissuaded by his wife upon his return; afterwards he kept a temple with two altars, one pagan and one Christian. In the likely event that this was during Æthelberht's rule of Kent, it would have been sometime before Æthelberht's death around 618. Rædwald's own death can be conservatively dated between 616 and 633 if using Bede, whose own dates are not unquestioned. Anything more specific relies on questionable post-Conquest sources. Roger of Wendover claims without attribution that Rædwald died in 624. The twelfth-century "Liber Eliensis" places the death of Rædwald's son Eorpwald, who had by then succeeded his father, in 627, meaning Rædwald would have died before then. If relying solely on Bede, all that can be said is that Rædwald died sometime between his circa 616 defeat of Æthelfrith along the River Idle, and 633, when Edwin, who after Rædwald died converted Eorpwald to Christianity, died.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: A precise date for the Sutton Hoo burial is needed for any credible attempt to identify its honoree. Thirty-seven gold Merovingian coins found alongside the other objects offer the most objective means of dating the burial. The coins—in addition to three blanks, and two small ingots—were found in a purse, and are themselves objects of considerable interest. Until 1960, and largely on the basis of numismatic chronologies established during the 19th century, the Sutton Hoo coins were generally dated to 650–660 AD. With this range the burial was variously attributed to such monarchs as Æthelhere, Anna, Æthelwald, Sigeberht, and Ecgric, all of whom ruled and died in or around the given period.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The proposed range of years, and accordingly the regal attributions, was modified by later studies that took the specific gravity of some 700 Merovingian gold coins, which with some predictability were minted with decreasing purity over time, to estimate the date of a coin based on the fineness of its gold. This analysis suggests that the latest coins in the purse were minted between 613 and 635 AD, and most likely closer to the beginning of this range than the end. The range is a tentative "terminus post quem" for the burial, before which it may not have taken place; sometime later, perhaps after a period of years, the coins were collected and buried. These dates are generally consistent, but not exclusive, with Rædwald.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The presence of items identified as regalia has been used to support the idea that the burial commemorates a king. Some jewellery likely had significance beyond its richness. The shoulder-clasps suggest a ceremonial outfit. The weight of the great gold buckle is comparable to the price paid in recompense for the death of a nobleman; its wearer thus wore the price of a nobleman's life on his belt, a display of impunity that could be associated with few others besides a king. The helmet displays both wealth and power, with a modification to the sinister eyebrow subtly linking the wearer to the one-eyed Norse god Odin.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Two other items, a "wand" and a whetstone, exhibit no practical purpose, but may have been perceived as instruments of power. The so-called wand or rod, surviving only as a gold and garnet strip with a ring at the top, associated mountings, and traces of organic matter that may have been wood, ivory, or bone, has no discernible use but as a symbol of office. On the other hand, the whetstone is theoretically functional as a sharpening stone, but exhibits no evidence of such use. Its delicate ornamentation, including a carved head with a modified eye that parallels the possible allusion to Odin on the helmet, suggests that it too was a ceremonial object, and it has been tentatively identified as a sceptre.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Further evidence for the burial's association with Rædwald has been adduced from the presence of items with both Christian and pagan significance. The burial is in most respects emphatically pagan; as a ship-burial, it is the manifestation of a pagan practice predating the Gregorian reintroduction of Christianity into Britain, and may have served as an implicit rejection of the encroaching Frankish Christianity. Three groups of items, however, have clear Christian influences: two scabbard bosses, ten silver bowls, and two silver spoons. The bowls and scabbard bosses each display crosses, the former with chasing and the latter with cloisonné. The spoons are even more closely associated with the Catholic Church, inscribed as they are with a cross, and the names ΠΑΥΛΟΣ (Paulos) and ΣΑΥΛΟΣ (Saulos), both of which were used by Paul the Apostle. Even if not baptismal spoons, invoking the conversion of Paul—a theory which has been linked to Rædwald's conversion at Kent—they are unmistakably associated with Christianity.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Rædwald may be the easiest name to attach to the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, but for all the attempts to do so, these arguments have been made with more vigour than persuasiveness. The desire to link a burial with a known name, and a famous one, outstrips the evidence. The burial is certainly a commemorative display of both wealth and power, but does not necessarily memorialise Rædwald, or a king; theoretically, the ship-burial could have even been a votive offering. The case for Rædwald depends heavily on the dating of the coins, yet the current dating is only precise within two decades, and Merovingian coin chronologies have shifted before.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The case for Rædwald depends on the assumption that modern conceptions of Middle Age wealth and power are accurate. The wealth of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial is astonishing because there are no contemporaneous parallels, but the lack of parallels could be a quirk of survival just as much as it could be an indicator of Rædwald's wealth. Many other Anglo-Saxon barrows have been ploughed over or looted, and so just as little is known about contemporary kingliness, little is known about contemporary kingly graves; if there was any special significance to the items termed regalia, it could have been religious instead of kingly significance, and if anything of kingly graves is known, it is that the graves of even the mere wealthy contained riches that any king would be happy to own. Distinguishing between graves of chieftains, regents, kings, and status-seeking arrivistes is difficult. When Mul of Kent, the brother of King Cædwalla of Wessex, was killed in 687, the price paid in recompense was equivalent to a king's weregild. If the lives of a king and his brother were equal, their graves might be equally hard to tell apart.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Rædwald thus remains a possible but uncertain identification. As the British Museum's former director Sir David M. Wilson wrote, while Rædwald may have been buried at Sutton Hoo, "the little word "may" should be brought into any identification of Rædwald. After all it "may" or even "might" be Sigeberht who died in the early 630s, or it might be his illegitimate brother if he had one (and most people did), or any other great man of East Anglia from 610 to 650."


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The Sutton Hoo helmet, weighing an estimated , was made of iron and covered with decorated sheets of tinned bronze. Fluted strips of moulding divided the exterior into panels, each of which was stamped with one of five designs. Two depict figural scenes, another two zoophormic interlaced patterns; a fifth pattern, known only from seven small fragments and incapable of restoration, is only known to occur once on an otherwise symmetrical helmet and may have been used to replace a damaged panel.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The existence of these five designs has been generally understood since the first reconstruction, published in 1947. The succeeding three decades gave rise to an increased understanding of the designs and their parallels in contemporary imagery, allowing possible reconstructions of the full panels to be advanced, and through the second reconstruction their locations on the surface of the helmet to be redetermined. As referred to below, the designs are numbered according to Rupert Bruce-Mitford's 1978 work.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The core of the helmet was constructed of iron and consisted of a cap from which hung a face mask and cheek and neck guards. The cap was beaten into shape from a single piece of metal. On either side of it were hung iron cheek guards, deep enough to protect the entire side of the face, and curved inward both vertically and horizontally. Two hinges per side, possibly made of leather, supported these pieces, allowing them to be pulled flush with the face mask and fully enclose the face.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: A neck guard was attached to the back of the cap and made of two overlapping pieces: a shorter piece set inside the cap, over which attached a "broad fan-like portion" extending downwards, "straight from top to bottom but curved laterally to follow the line of the neck." The inset portion afforded the neck guard extra movement, and like the cheek guards was attached to the cap by leather hinges. Finally, the face mask was riveted to the cap on both sides and above the nose. Two cutouts served as eye openings, while a third opened into the hollow of the overlaid nose, thereby facilitating access to the two nostril-like holes underneath; though small, these holes would have been among the few sources of fresh air for the wearer.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Atop the foundational layer of iron were placed decorative sheets of tinned bronze. These sheets, divided into five figural or zoomorphic designs, were manufactured by the "pressblech" process. Preformed dies similar to the Torslunda plates were covered with thin metal which, through applied force, took up the design underneath; identical designs could thus be mass-produced from the same die, allowing for their repeated use on the helmet and other objects. Fluted strips of white alloyed moulding—possibly of tin and copper, and possibly swaged—divided the designs into framed panels, held to the helmet by bronze rivets. The two strips running from front to back alongside the crest were gilded. The edges of the helmet were further protected by U-shaped brass tubing, fastened by swaged bronze clips and themselves further holding in place the "pressblech" panels that shared edges with the helmet.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: A final layer of adornments added to the helmet a crest, eyebrows, nose and mouth piece, and three dragon heads. A hollow iron crest ran across the top of the cap and terminated at front and back. It was made of D-sectioned tubing and consisted of two parts, an inverted U-shaped piece into the bottom of which a flat strip was placed. As no traces of solder remain, the crest may have been either forged or shrunk on to the cap. From either end of the crest extended an iron tang, to each of which was riveted a gilded dragon head. That on the front was made of cast bronze, while the one on the rear was made of another alloy, and has now mostly degraded into tin oxide.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: A third dragon head, cast in bronze, faced upwards on the front of the helmet and broke the plane between face mask and cap; its neck rested on the face mask, while under its eyes it was held to the cap by a large rivet shank. To either side of the neck projected a hollow cast bronze eyebrow, into each of which was inlaid parallel silver wires. Terminal boar heads were gilded, as were the undersides of the eyebrows, where individual bronze cells held square garnets. The eyebrows were riveted on, both to the cap at their outer ends and to the tang of a nose and mouth piece which extended upwards underneath the neck of the dragon head. This tang was itself riveted to the cap, one of five attachment points for the cast bronze nose and mouth piece.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Both sides of the nose featured "two small round projecting plates," connected by fluted and swaged strips, and concealing rivets. An inlaid strip of wire extended the length of the nasal ridge, next to which the "background was punched down" and filled with niello or another metallic inlay, leaving "triangles in relief" that were silvered. A tracer (a "rather blunt chisel . . . used chiefly for outlining") was used to provide a grooved border on each side. Running horizontally aside the nasal bridge were three punched circles per side, inlaid with silver and possibly surrounded by niello.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Beneath these circles, also running horizontally from the centre of the nose to its sides were chased "alternate rows of plain flutings and billeted strips which run obliquely between the central strip and a billeted lower edge." This same pattern is repeated in vertical fashion on the moustache. The curve along the bevelled lower lip, in turn, repeats the circled pattern used on the nasal bridge. Excepting the portions covered by the eyebrows and dragon head, or adorned with silver or niello, the nose and mouth piece was heavily gilded, which is suggested by the presence of mercury to have been done with the fire-gilding method.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Breaking the symmetry of the helmet are subtle differences in the two eyebrows, and in the methods employed to fashion the cloisonné garnets. The dexter and sinister eyebrows, though at first glance identical, may have been "manufactured in different ways while being intended to look essentially the same." The dexter brow is approximately 5 millimetres shorter than the sinister, and contained 43 rather than 46 inlaid silver wires and one or two fewer garnets. Gilding on the dexter eyebrow was "reddish in colour" against the "yellowish" hue of the sinister, while the latter contains both trace amounts of mercury and a tin corrosion product which are absent from its counterpart. Moreover, while the individual bronze cells into which the garnets are set, both on the dexter brow and on three of the four remaining dragon eyes, are underlain by small pieces of "hatched gold foil," those on the sinister side, and the sinister eye of the upper dragon head, have no such backing. The gold backing served to reflect light back through the garnets, increasing their lustre and deepening their colour. Where this backing was missing on the sinister eyebrow and one dragon eye, the luminosity of the garnets may have been dimmed by direct placement against the bronze.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Three dragon heads are represented on the helmet. Two bronze-gilt dragon heads feature on either end of the iron crest running from the front to the rear of the skull cap. The third sits at the junction between the two eyebrows, facing upward and given fuller form by the eyebrows, nose and moustache to create the impression of a dragon in flight. The dragon soars upwards, its garnet-lined wings perhaps meant to convey a fiery contrail, and in the dramatic focal point of the helmet, bares its teeth at the snake-like dragon flying down the crest.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: To the extent that the helmet is jewelled, such decoration is largely confined to the elements associated with the dragons. Convex garnets sunk into the heads give the dragons red eyes. The eyebrows are likewise inlaid with square garnets on their under edges, continuing outwards on each side to where they terminate in gilded boars' heads; in addition to their secondary decorative function as wings, the eyebrows may therefore take on a tertiary form as boars' bodies. The subtle differences between the eyebrows, the sinister of which lacks the gold foil backing employed on the dexter, may suggest an allusion to the one-eyed god Odin; seen in low light, with the garnets of only one eye reflecting light, the helmet may have itself seemed to have only one eye.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: More gold covers the eyebrows, nose and mouth piece, and dragon heads, as it does the two fluted strips that flank the crest. The crest and eyebrows are further inlaid with silver wires. Combined with the silvery colour of the tinned bronze, the effect was "an object of burnished silvery metal, set in a trelliswork of gold, surmounted by a crest of massive silver, and embellished with gilded ornaments, garnets and nielloin its way a magnificent thing and one of the outstanding masterpieces of barbaric art."


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The dancing warriors scene is known from six fragments and occurs four times on the helmet. It appears on the two panels immediately above the eyebrows, accounting for five of the fragments. The sixth fragment is placed in the middle row of the dexter cheek guard, on the panel closest to the face mask; the generally symmetrical nature of the helmet implies the design's position on the opposite side as well. None of the six pieces shows both warriors, although the "key fragment" depicts their crossed wrists. A full reconstruction of the scene was inferred after the first reconstruction, when Rupert Bruce-Mitford spent six weeks in Sweden and was shown a nearly identical design on the then unpublished Valsgärde 7 helmet.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Design 1 pictures two men "in civilian or ceremonial dress" perhaps engaged in a spear or sword dance "associated with the cult of Odin, the war-god." Their outer hands each hold two spears, pointed towards their feet, while their crossed hands grip swords. The depiction suggests "intricate measures," "rhythm," and an "elasticity of . . . dance steps." Their trailing outer legs and curved hips imply movement towards each other, and they may be in the climax of the dance.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The prevalence of dance scenes with a "similarity of the presentation of the scheme of movement" in contemporary Scandinavian and Northern art suggests that ritual dances "were well-known phenomena." Sword dances in particular were recorded among the Germanic tribes as early as the first century AD, when Tacitus wrote of "[n]aked youths who practice the sport bound in the dance amid swords and lances," a "spectacle" which was "always performed at every gathering." Whatever the meaning conveyed by the Sutton Hoo example, the "ritual dance was evidently no freak of fashion confined to a particular epoch, but was practised for centuries in a more or less unchanged form."


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: While many contemporary designs portray ritual dances, at least three examples show scenes exceptionally similar to that on the Sutton Hoo helmet and contribute to the understanding of the depicted sword dance. The same design—identical but for a different type of spears held in hand, a different pattern of dress, and a lack of crossed spears behind the two men—is found on the Valsgärde 7 helmet, while a small fragment of stamped foil from the eastern mound at Gamla Uppsala is "so close in every respect to the corresponding warrior on the Sutton Hoo helmet as to appear at first glance to be from the same die," and may even have been "cut by the same man."


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The third similar design is one of the four Torslunda plates, discovered in Öland, Sweden, in 1870. This plate, which is complete and depicts a figure with the same attributes as on design 1, suggests the association of the men in the Sutton Hoo example with "the cult of Odin." The Torslunda figure is missing an eye, which laser scanning revealed to have been removed by a "sharp cut, probably in the original model used for the mould." Odin too lost an eye, thus evidencing the identification of the Torslunda figure as him, and the Sutton Hoo figures as devotees of him.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Eight fragments and representations comprise all known instances of the second design, It is thought to have originally appeared twelve times on the helmet, although this assumes that the unidentified third design, which occupies one of the twelve panels, was a replacement for a damaged panel. Assuming so, the pattern occupied eight spaces on the lowest row of the skull cap (i.e., all but the two showing design 1), and two panels, one atop the other rising towards the crest, in the centre of each side. All panels showing design 2 appear to have been struck from the same die. The horse and rider thus move in a clockwise direction around the helmet, facing towards the rear of the helmet on the dexter side, and towards the front on the sinister side.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: As of the substantial sections of design 2 are missing, significantly from the "central area," reconstruction relies in part on continental versions of the same scene. In particular, similar scenes are seen on the Valsgärde 7 and 8 helmets, the Vendel 1 helmet, and on the Pliezhausen bracteate. The latter piece, in particular, is both complete and nearly identical to the Sutton Hoo design. Although a mirror image, and lacking in certain details depicted in design 2 such as the sword carried by the rider and the scabbard worn by the fallen warrior, it suggests other details such as the small shield held by the kneeling figure.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Design 2 shows a mounted warrior, spear held overhead, trampling an enemy on the ground. The latter leans upwards and, grasping the reins in his left hand, uses his right hand to thrust a sword into the chest of the horse. Atop the horse's rump kneels a "diminutive human, or at least anthropomorphic figure." The figure is stylistically similar to the horseman. Its arms and legs are positioned identically, and, together with the rider, it clutches the spear with its right hand.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The iconography underlying design 2 is unknown. It may derive from Roman models, which frequently depicted images of warriors trampling vanquished enemies. The subsequent development of the design, which has been found in England, Sweden, and Germany, suggests that it carried a unique meaning broadly understood in Germanic tradition. Whereas the Roman examples show riders in moments of unqualified victory, in Germanic representations the scene is ambiguous.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The symbolism is unclear, and elements of victory are combined with elements of defeat: the rider directs his spear straight forward at an invisible enemy, not down at the visible enemy on the ground; though the enemy is trampled, the rider's horse is dealt a fatal wound; and a small and possibly divine figure hovers behind the rider, its body taking the form of a victorious swastika while it seemingly guides the spear. An overarching theme of the design may therefore be that of fate. In this understanding the divine figure, possibly Odin, guides the warrior in battle, but does not completely free him from the deadly threats he faces. The gods are themselves subject to the whims of fate, and can provide only limited help against the rider's enemies.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Seven small fragments suggest a third figural scene somewhere on the Sutton Hoo helmet. They are nevertheless too small and ambiguous to allow for the reconstruction of the scene. Its presence is suggested "not more than four times, and perhaps only once"; because other fragments demonstrate the occurrence of design 1 or design 2 on all seven available panels on the sinister side of the helmet, and on the forwardmost two panels on the dexter side (in addition to on the highest dexter panel), placement of design 3 "must have occurred towards the rear of the helmet" on the dexter side.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: That which remains of design 3 may suggest that a "variant rider scene" was employed to fix damage to a design 2 panel, similar to how a unique "pressblech" design on the Valsgärde 6 helmet was likely used in repair. Fragment (a) for example shows groups of parallel raised lines running in correspondence "with changes of angle or direction in the modelled surface, which on the analogy of the Sutton Hoo and other rider scenes in Vendel art, strongly suggest the body of a horse." Though smaller, fragment (d) shows similar patterns and suggests a similar interpretation. Fragment (b), meanwhile, shows "two concentric raised lines two millimetres apart," and "appears to be a segment of the rim of a shield which would be of the same diameter as that held by the rider in design 2."


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The theory of design 3 as a replacement panel gains some support from damage towards the back of the helmet, but is contradicted by the placement of fragment (c). The crest, complete for from front to back, is missing above the rear dragon head. This head is itself mostly missing, and is absent from the 1945–46 reconstruction. These missing portions are offered by Bruce-Mitford as a possible indication that the helmet at one time suffered damage necessitating the restoration of at least one design 2 panel with a new equestrian scene.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: This theory does not explain why the rear crest and dragon head would not have been themselves repaired, however, and it is not helped by fragment (c). This fragment is an edge piece placed in the 1970–71 reconstruction on the dexter rear of the helmet at the bottom left of a panel where either design 2 or design 3 is expected, yet is "an isolated element quite out of context with any other surviving fragment and with what appears to be the subject matter of the design 3 panel." Bruce-Mitford suggests that as it is an edge piece it may have originally been a scrap placed under another piece to fill a gap, for it is "otherwise inexplicable."


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Occurring on the cheek guards, the neck guard and the skull cap, the larger interlace pattern was capable of a complete reconstruction. Unlike the two identified figural scenes, partial die impressions of design 4 were used in addition to full die impressions. Blank spaces on the skull cap and neck guard, devoid of decorative designs, allowed for impressions of design 4 that are nearly or entirely complete. On the cheek guards, by contrast, which are irregularly shaped and fully decorated, the interlace designs appear in partial, and sometimes sideways, fashion.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Design 4 depicts a single animal, or quadruped, in ribbon style, and has a billeted border on all sides. The head of the animal is located in the upper centre of the panel. The eye is defined by two circles; the rest of the head, comprising two separate but intertwined ribbons, surrounds it. A third ribbon, representing the jaws and mouth, is beneath the head. On the left it begins as a small billeted ribbon that descends into a pellet-filled twist, passes under itself, and emerges as a larger billeted ribbon.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Circling counterclockwise, it passes over and then under a separate ribbon that represents the body, under it again, then over and under one of the ribbons representing the head. It emerges as a second pellet-filled twist, again forms a billeted ribbon, and terminates in a shape resembling a foot. A fourth ribbon, forming the animal's neck, starts from the head and travels downwards, under and over a ribbon forming a limb, and terminating in a pellet-filled twist, at the bottom right corner, representing the front hip. Two limbs leave from the hip. One immediately terminates in the border; the second travels upwards as a billeted ribbon, under and over the neck, and ends in another hip ("illogically", per Bruce-Mitford).


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: Another short limb, filled with pellets, emerges from this hip and terminates in a foot. The animal's body, meanwhile, is formed by another billeted ribbon that connects the front hip in the lower right, with the rear hip, in the top left. From right to left it travels under, under, and over the jaws and mouth, under a billeted ribbon representing legs, and then connects to the rear hip. The rear hip, like the front hip, is connected to two limbs. One is a small, pellet-filled twist. The other travels downwards as a billeted ribbon to the bottom left corner, where it terminates in another hip that connects to a pellet-filled limb, and then a foot.


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The smaller interlace pattern covered the face mask, was used prominently on the neck guard, and filled in several empty spaces on the cheek guards. It is a zoomorphic design, like the larger interlace, and shows "two animals, upside down and reversed in relation to each other, whose backward-turning heads lie towards the centre of the panel."


title: Sutton Hoo helmet

text: The Sutton Hoo helmet was both a functional piece of battle equipment and a symbol of its owner's power and prestige. It would have offered considerable protection if ever used in battle, and as the richest known Anglo-Saxon helmet, indicated its owner's status. As it is older than the man with whom it was buried, the helmet may have been an heirloom, symbolic of the ceremonies of its owner's life and death; it may further be a progenitor of crowns, known in Europe since around the twelfth century, indicating both a leader's right to rule and his connection with the gods.