As I said earlier, I am reading "The Virginian" by Owen Wister, which is about a Wyoming cowboy, or cow-puncher, as the narrator calls him. I was wondering why the book is titled that, and why the taciturn stranger is called just The Virginian. Ostensibly, it's because he has a southern accent, but I think there's something more to it. Virginia was named for Elizabeth I, the unmarried Queen of England. She was called a virgin because she remained unmarried (I hope everyone has seen the outstanding movie Elizabeth, which explains all this, or the recent miniseries starring Helen Mirrin) and that is the traditional definition of the word virgin "an unmarried woman." Virgins of old were not necessarily chaste; in fact they were often the opposite. The vestal virgins of ancient Greece were priestesses in charge of secret sexual rites paying homage to the Goddess. But what does all this have to do with the Virginian? Perhaps nothing. But for me, personally, the Virginian, like Ennis, is a young untested man who subjects himself to the power of nature, or should we say, Mother Nature, which has a lifelong influence on him. It has a mythical resonance for me.
Now, the word Wyoming... I will have to deal with the meanings inherent in that word next. Or not!!....