Absolutely! The Wandering Jew, a guy named Ahasuerus, was cursed at the Crucifixion and has been damned to walk this Earth ever since. He cannot grow older, he cannot die, he can never settlein any place he can call home, he is always moving. Wherever he goes seven plovers follow him, marking his progress and his position.
I have no doubt that it was he who financed Gilligan's Island and the cast of seven was his way of giving the bird to the birds that dog his weary footsteps.
Thanks Hartfire, but I largely plagiarised Viereck and Eldridge who wrote a trilogy about the wandering Jew in the 1930s. My First 2,000 Years, Salome, and The Invincible Adam. And it wasn't seven plovers, it was five. But I thought that, 80 years after publication, I'd probably get away with cribbing an extra 2.
I read it back in the 1970s and a workmate picked up my copy and said, "What's this about?" So I told him, "It's about a bloke who lived for 2,000 years." And, so help me, he said, "Is it fiction?"
It is a tradition, a kind of convention in stories. Just as there are usually 3 sons seeking their fortune and 3 princessses to be wed in fairytales,
This post was edited by JakobA the unAmerican. at January 16, 2017 1:13 AM MST