Hagbard Celine
Encyclopedia
Freeman Hagbard Celine, H.M., S.H. is a central protagonist in the Illuminatus trilogy of books by Robert Shea
and Robert Anton Wilson
, named after the legendary Viking hero Hagbard
who died for love. In the Schrödinger's Cat trilogy
, the sequel to Illuminatus!, it is stated that 'Hagbard Celine' is a pseudonym, and his legal name is 'Howard Crane'. However, the trilogy passes through many very different universes.
's character, Captain Nemo
. Both are genius captains aboard a fantastic submarine. Both are rogues who have mostly broken off from society, yet help the oppressed. Some have even theorized that Hagbard Celine is, in fact, Captain Nemo,http://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/wnu6.htm but that seems physically impossible, or at least very unlikely, as Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
is set in the second half of the nineteenth century, which would make Hagbard Celine, if the same character and person as Nemo, over a hundred years old. He is also comparable to a degree to Ragnar Danneskjold, a libertarian pirate in the Ayn Rand
novel Atlas Shrugged
, which receives several mentions in the chronicles. His name can be seen as an homage both to Rand's hero and to Robert Heinlein's character Mike in the novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
, a self-aware computer network that engineers a revolution in a lunar penal colony using the alias Adam Selene. Like Danneskjold, Hagbard participates in the black market, exploiting and resisting governments, and both characters have Norwegian roots.
Hagbard is a notorious prankster and liar (telling one character not to trust anyone with the initials H.C.). This character trait is displayed throughout Illuminatus!, Celine's tends give misinformation about himself and his intentions. Among information that may or may not be true is that he is actually one of the leaders of the Illuminati
, and that he faked an actress' death (strongly implied to be Marilyn Monroe
) in order to train her into becoming an embodiment of the goddess Eris
. Celine subsequently fell in love with the woman and announces his intention to marry her during the trilogy.
A Discordian
anarchist, he fights the Illuminati
from a golden submarine, the Leif Ericson. The Leif Ericson was supposedly designed and built by himself, stolen from the United States Navy
, or a gift from the Mafia
. Despite its size, the equivalent of five city blocks long with a three story high conning tower
, it has so far remained undetected.
He has a Norwegian mother and a Sicilian father, and physically resembles Anthony Quinn
. In a section printed in the introductions of volumes I and II of the trilogy, though not reprinted in the single volume compilation, the narrator mentions that he has a raft of Irish relatives in Ohio named McGee and Marlowe. Wilson also implies in The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles
that Hagbard is related to one of the central characters, Sigismundo Celine.
He speaks Norwegian, Italian, English, German, Latin, Greek and Swahili. He graduated Harvard with the somewhat strange double major of contract law and naval engineering.
A former naturalized
United States citizen, Hagbard supposedly relinquished his citizenship after representing a Mohawk
reservation in court against the Bureau of Indian Affairs
. Though there are not documents to prove this story, Hagbard himself generally told people that he was an engineer building a dam during his time with the Mohawk because he was ashamed at having been a lawyer.
He later became a citizen of Equatorial Guinea
of which Fernando Poo
is a part. Exactly when this happened is uncertain, but he had papers referring to this by the time of the Walpurgisnacht
rock concert. In the appendix to the trilogy, it mentions that Hagbard builds a starship
and leaves to explore Alpha Centauri
in the year 1999.
Hagbard designed a supercomputer called FUCKUP (First Universal Cybernetic Kynetic Ultramicro-Programmer). Among other things, he used FUCKUP to calculate the chances of World War III
starting, which it does by throwing virtual I Ching
sticks.
His manifesto is called Never Whistle While You're Pissing, containing his Definitions and Distinctions, an anarchist interpretation of capitalist concepts.
Robert Shea
Robert Joseph Shea was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy Illuminatus!. It became a cult success and was later turned into a marathon-length stage show put on at the British National Theatre and elsewhere. In...
and Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...
, named after the legendary Viking hero Hagbard
Hagbard
Hagbard , the brother of Haki and son of Hamund, was a famous Scandinavian sea-king in Norse mythology. He is mentioned in Skáldskaparmál, Ynglinga saga, Nafnaþulur, Völsunga saga and Gesta Danorum...
who died for love. In the Schrödinger's Cat trilogy
Schrödinger's Cat trilogy
The Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy is a trilogy of novels by Robert Anton Wilson consisting of The Universe Next Door, The Trick Top Hat, and The Homing Pigeons, each illustrating a different interpretation of quantum physics...
, the sequel to Illuminatus!, it is stated that 'Hagbard Celine' is a pseudonym, and his legal name is 'Howard Crane'. However, the trilogy passes through many very different universes.
Character
Hagbard has parallels to Jules VerneJules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
's character, Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo, also known as Prince Dakkar, is a fictional character featured in Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island ....
. Both are genius captains aboard a fantastic submarine. Both are rogues who have mostly broken off from society, yet help the oppressed. Some have even theorized that Hagbard Celine is, in fact, Captain Nemo,http://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/wnu6.htm but that seems physically impossible, or at least very unlikely, as Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax...
is set in the second half of the nineteenth century, which would make Hagbard Celine, if the same character and person as Nemo, over a hundred years old. He is also comparable to a degree to Ragnar Danneskjold, a libertarian pirate in the Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
novel Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...
, which receives several mentions in the chronicles. His name can be seen as an homage both to Rand's hero and to Robert Heinlein's character Mike in the novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, about a lunar colony's revolt against rule from Earth....
, a self-aware computer network that engineers a revolution in a lunar penal colony using the alias Adam Selene. Like Danneskjold, Hagbard participates in the black market, exploiting and resisting governments, and both characters have Norwegian roots.
Hagbard is a notorious prankster and liar (telling one character not to trust anyone with the initials H.C.). This character trait is displayed throughout Illuminatus!, Celine's tends give misinformation about himself and his intentions. Among information that may or may not be true is that he is actually one of the leaders of the Illuminati
Illuminati
The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...
, and that he faked an actress' death (strongly implied to be Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
) in order to train her into becoming an embodiment of the goddess Eris
Eris (mythology)
Eris is the Greek goddess of strife and discord, her name being translated into Latin as Discordia. Her Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Latin counterpart is Concordia. Homer equated her with the war-goddess Enyo, whose Roman counterpart is Bellona...
. Celine subsequently fell in love with the woman and announces his intention to marry her during the trilogy.
A Discordian
Discordianism
Discordianism is a religion based on the worship of Eris , the Greco-Roman goddess of strife. It was founded circa 1958–1959 after the publication of its holy book the Principia Discordia, written by Malaclypse the Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst after a series of shared hallucinations at a...
anarchist, he fights the Illuminati
Illuminati
The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...
from a golden submarine, the Leif Ericson. The Leif Ericson was supposedly designed and built by himself, stolen from the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, or a gift from the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
. Despite its size, the equivalent of five city blocks long with a three story high conning tower
Conning tower
A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer can con the vessel; i.e., give directions to the helmsman. It is usually located as high on the ship as practical, to give the conning team good visibility....
, it has so far remained undetected.
He has a Norwegian mother and a Sicilian father, and physically resembles Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
. In a section printed in the introductions of volumes I and II of the trilogy, though not reprinted in the single volume compilation, the narrator mentions that he has a raft of Irish relatives in Ohio named McGee and Marlowe. Wilson also implies in The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles
The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles
The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles is a series of three novels by Robert Anton Wilson written after his highly successful The Illuminatus! Trilogy and his 1981 "Masks of the Illuminati"...
that Hagbard is related to one of the central characters, Sigismundo Celine.
He speaks Norwegian, Italian, English, German, Latin, Greek and Swahili. He graduated Harvard with the somewhat strange double major of contract law and naval engineering.
A former naturalized
Naturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
United States citizen, Hagbard supposedly relinquished his citizenship after representing a Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
reservation in court against the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
. Though there are not documents to prove this story, Hagbard himself generally told people that he was an engineer building a dam during his time with the Mohawk because he was ashamed at having been a lawyer.
He later became a citizen of Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...
of which Fernando Poo
Bioko
Bioko is an island 32 km off the west coast of Africa, specifically Cameroon, in the Gulf of Guinea. It is the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea with a population of 124,000 and an area of . It is volcanic with its highest peak the Pico Basile at .-Geography:Bioko has a total area of...
is a part. Exactly when this happened is uncertain, but he had papers referring to this by the time of the Walpurgisnacht
Walpurgis Night
Walpurgis Night is a traditional spring festival on 30 April or 1 May in large parts of Central and Northern Europe. It is often celebrated with dancing and with bonfires. It is exactly six months from All Hallows' Eve.-Name:...
rock concert. In the appendix to the trilogy, it mentions that Hagbard builds a starship
Starship
A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....
and leaves to explore Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus...
in the year 1999.
Hagbard designed a supercomputer called FUCKUP (First Universal Cybernetic Kynetic Ultramicro-Programmer). Among other things, he used FUCKUP to calculate the chances of World War III
World War III
World War III denotes a successor to World War II that would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would be likely nuclear and devastating in nature....
starting, which it does by throwing virtual I Ching
I Ching
The I Ching or "Yì Jīng" , also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes and Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts...
sticks.
His manifesto is called Never Whistle While You're Pissing, containing his Definitions and Distinctions, an anarchist interpretation of capitalist concepts.