Redhorn is one of the major spirits who descended to earth to aid the human race against its spiritual enemies. Originally, he was held in disrepute in his native village, where he was called "Struck with Deer Lungs," since the rumor had it that his eldest brother always threw deer lungs at him. Humans came to know him as "Redhorn," but among the spirits he is known by the name "Human Heads as Earrings." [1] The former name derives from his long red hair, and the latter from the most unusual feature of any spirit's anatomy: where each of his earlobes ought to be he has instead a living miniature head. These two heads are of a humorous disposition, and frequently wink at people or stick their tongues out at them. [2] Another strange feature of this spirit is his inherent multiplicity. One myth says that Human Heads as Earrings is the father of Redhorn, even though these are two names for the same spirit. [3] In another myth the son of Redhorn is not only called "Redhorn" himself, but is clearly identified as a form of his own father. [4] Redhorn and his sons are important enough to be the subject of a whole cycle of myths that form a short epic (The Redhorn Cycle). [5]

Of what is Redhorn the spirit? What are the meanings of his peculiar attributes? The answer to these questions seems to have been a species of esoteric knowledge, as nothing explicit is said of the matter in the myths. In India we have a parallel to Redhorn's earlobe heads in the attributes of the epic hero Karna, an avatar of Sûrya (the Sun), who is born with two golden earrings. His very name means "Ear." The ear represents the cardinal points, since sound has a single defining point of origin and emanates in every direction. [6] Light has this same property, and the sun is used both in India and America to define the directions. So the cardinal points are usually connected with solar attributes as well as aural ones. Therefore it is likely that Redhorn's two auricular heads represent the rising and setting sun; and red hair, represents their common solar color and the associated reddening of the sky in sunrises and sunsets. The deer lungs represent sound and centrality, the lungs not only having a central location in the body, but Deer Spirits are central in their spiritual situation (see Deer Spirits). The legs of deer have a mystical identity with the four quarters. If a Deer clansman were to suddenly move a limb, it would either kill someone or cause the sudden appearence of a strong wind (see The Deer Clan Origin Myth). The race that Redhorn wins is around the edge of the world, and the arrow is the means by which he wins it. He is the arrow which he directs, he is directionality itself. Everything is mirrored in Redhorn: two earlobe heads, two twin sons, two wives, a wife having the same hair as his own, the same man existing through multiple generations, the two brothers who are given his same kind of hair, and two identical friends. These reflect the duality of direction. Since there are six directions, and therefore three axes, there are triads in the Redhorn Cycle: Redhorn and the two brothers whom he makes like himself; Redhorn and his two wives; Redhorn and his two sons; the three generations of Redhorns. Since offerings are made to spirits through the cardinal points, we see a great deal of supplication in the Redhorn Cycle. This evidence points to Redhorn being the spirit of the cardinal directions, and in particular the east-west axis, the path of the sun. This line of analysis is continued with respect to the Redhorn waikâ Redhorn's Father (qv).

In another waikâ, Redhorn is said to be the Chief of the Herok'a, and his son, who is also called Herok'a, is the Chief of the Little Children Spirits. In the Herok'a stories, Redhorn marries a woman who is from among the race of the Forked Men, beings who have two bodies joined at the waist, and who are red on one side of their bodies. The Herok'a intermarry with them. When Redhorn is killed in the Herok'a stories, it is by the eldest of these Forked Men. He takes Redhorn's living head and roasts it perpetually in his fireplace, while his body roams headless in the wilderness. There he is known as "the Red Man." When Redhorn is restored, he punishes his brother-in-law by turning him into an owl. [7] In the story Wears White Feathers, the grandfather of the Forked Man is a hîdja owl. This would make him the same as the man who killed Redhorn. The old man meets his brother on an island, a brother who is the progenitor of the race known as the Tcarutcge, the "Head Eaters," or "Deer Eaters." When they are confronted with a giant red man who stands opposite the island in the ocean, they kill him, and then eat his head. This man is undoubtably a form of Redhorn. [8]

Links: The Sons of Earthmaker, Sons of Redhorn, Little Children Spirits, Herok'a, The Cardinal Points, The Cave of Herok'a, Pretty Woman, Spirits, Turtle, Celestial Spirits, Storms as He Walks, Fishers, Wonaghire Wankcik (Hawk), Wolf & Dog Spirits, Otter, Owl, Giants, Iron Spirits, Bird Spirits, Eagle (I), Buffalo Spirits, The Twins, Hare, Deer Spirits, Wildcats (Bobcats), Beavers, Leeches, The Twins, Gottschall.

Stories: mentioning Redhorn: The Redhorn Cycle, Redhorn's Sons, Îtcorúcika and His Brothers, The Mission of the Five Sons of Earthmaker, Redhorn's Father, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Twins Join Redhorn's Warparty, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Morning Star and His Friend, The Spirit of Gambling, The Green Man, The Hotcâgara Contest the Giants, cp. The Cosmic Ages of the Hotcâgara, Herok'a, Redman, The Cave of Herok'a.

Themes: a spirit has faces on each earlobe: Redhorn Contests the Giants, The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father, Redhorn's Father, Îtcorúcika and His Brothers, Morning Star and His Friend, The Hotcâgara Contest the Giants; a being has red hair: Redhorn's Sons, Redhorn's Father, Hare Retrieves a Stolen Scalp (vv. 1 & 2), The Hotcâgara Contest the Giants, Redhorn Contests the Giants, The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father, He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle.

Notes:

[1] Paul Radin, Winnebago Hero Cycles: A Study in Aboriginal Literature (Baltimore: Waverly Press, 1948) 117-118.

[2] Radin, Winnebago Hero Cycles, 124. Thomas Foster, Foster's Indian Record and Historical Data (Washington, D. C.: 1876-1877) vol. 1, #3: p. 3 col. 1. Told by Little Decorah [picture], a member of the Thunderbird Clan. Kathleen Danker and Felix White, Sr., The Hollow of Echoes (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978) 24-25. Informant: Felix White, Sr. W. C. McKern, "A Winnebago Myth," Yearbook, Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee, 9 (1929): 215-230.

[3] McKern, "A Winnebago Myth," 215-230.

[4] Radin, Winnebago Hero Cycles, 135-136.

[5] Radin, Winnebago Hero Cycles, 115-136.

[6] Rig Veda 10.90; Chandogya Upanishad 3.18.6; Aitareya Upanishad 1.4-2.4; Shatapatha Brahmana 8.1.2.5; see Bruce Lincoln, Myth, Cosmos, and Society: Indo-European Themes of Creation and Destruction (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986) 3, 32-35.

[7] Paul Radin, "The Chief of the Heroka," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (American Philosophical Society Library) #33, pp. 1-66. Paul Radin, "The Red Man," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (American Philosophical Society Library) #6, pp. 1-72.

[8] Paul Radin, "Wears White Feathers on His Head," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (American Philosophical Society Library) #4, pp. 1-50.