My Sicilian-American mother in law says that there is a village or town in Sicily where the inhabitants are all blond and blue-eyed from the days of the Viking (Norman) conquests in Sicily. Is there any truth to this? Might you know the name of the village if it exists? We will be traveling to the Island in March 2009.
Thanks,great website! Sally from NJ
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
If there is such a place, I'll bet they are blonde and not blond.
Posted by
Scottsdale, AZ, USA
1127 posts
There are plenty of Sicilians (and Italians) that are blonde with blue eyes but I have never heard of any village with all of the citizens with this coloring. Not everyone has a dark complexion with dark hair/eyes.
Posted by
Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA
606 posts
"If there is such a place, I'll bet they are blonde and not blond."
englishplus.com says...
Blond or Blonde?
The words blond and blonde come from the French and follow somewhat the French pattern. Blond (without the e) is used to describe males, mixed gender, or uncertain gender. Blonde refers to women or female gender.
In modern use, blond is sometimes used for female as well as male, but blonde is preferred for female.
Those experts at Wikipedia say both spellings have an equal number of proponents and there's no preferred spelling these days.
I have a friend in Florida whose parents both came from a village in southern Italy. He has red hair, and he says everybody in his family has red hair, and they'd lived in southern Italy as far back as the family has records.
Sounds like some DNA testing is in order...
Posted by
OP
Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA
2 posts
Thanks Larry, Sam and Patrick:
Yes, perhaps I should "stand corrected", however the "blond" ones sounds very appealing to me.
Sally
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23314 posts
This is off subject but my curiosity is aroused. I always thought Vikings and Normans were different groups in a different time period. However, am currently reading Reston's The Last Apocalypse which deals with the European history in the years around 1000 AD. He does not show the Viking raids reaching Sicily so it could be just folklore about Sicily and the Vikings.
Posted by
Ottawa, Canada
4555 posts
Frank....it's likely references to the Norman conquest of Sicily in the 11th century. The Normans (Norsemen, Men of the north), were descended from the Viking raiders who conquered that area of northern France in the 10th century. However, in this modern day and age, it is unlikely that there is a Sicilian village where everyone has blond hair and blue eyes.....there certainly aren't even any in Normandy any more.
Posted by
dallas, tx, usa
1358 posts
Funny, but I always thought you would find blond and blue eyes everywhere in the world. Not in a majority though.
And after traveling 30 years, I find it true. However, with intermarrying, there certainly can be no village where everyone is.