The Hunting of the Snark
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
The Hunting of the Snark
@snarkhunt.bsky.social
830 followers 1.2K following 1.5K posts
Mainly about Henry Holiday's illustrations to Lewis Carroll’s "The Hunting of the Snark"

by @goetzkluge.bsky.social

※ Snark anniversaries: @snark150.bsky.social
※ My Snark blog since 2017: https://snrk.de
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
The Hunting of the Snark @snarkhunt.bsky.social · Sep 16
I am hunting the Snark. My main hunting grounds are Henry Holiday's illustrations to Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark". The shortlink bm.snrk.de leads you to my most important finding.
https://snrk.de https://snrk.de/page_elizabeth-i/ describes the images shown in this picture.
Reposted by The Hunting of the Snark
snarkhunt.bsky.social
#anglican #ThomasCranmer #TheHuntingOfTheSnark

In one of Henry Holiday's illustrations to "The Hunting of the Snark" (1876, by Rev. C.L. Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll), a hidden depiction of Thomas Cranmer's hand in the flames can be found.

See also: Curator's comment in snrk.de/faiths-victo....
Explanation: https://bm.snrk.de
October 1, 2023 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by The Hunting of the Snark
snarkhunt.bsky.social
Karen Gardiner, "Life, Eternity,and Everything: Hidden #Eschatology in the Works of Lewis Carroll", pp. 25~41 in The Carrollian, Issue 31, 2018.

snrk.de/eschatologic...

#TheHuntingOfTheSnark (The Hunting of the Snark), #LewisCarroll, #ThomasCranmer, #Anglican, #42Articles, #42, #EternalDamnation
You find the full text shown in this image in the ALT text to the image in rule42.snrk.de (which redirects you to https://snrk.de/eschatological-snark/#GardinerConclusion)
October 1, 2023 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by The Hunting of the Snark
snark150.bsky.social
There will be another essay in 2026.
October 3, 2025 at 6:09 AM
snarkhunt.bsky.social
※ Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...
※ Grokipedia: web.archive.org/web/20251117...

#TheHuntingOfTheSnark #LewisCarroll #HenryHoliday
#grokipedia #elonmusk
#Wikipedia

theguardian.com/technology/2... (As for "The Hunting of the Snark", I don't see any disinformation for that lemma yet. 😉)
November 18, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by The Hunting of the Snark
snarkhunt.bsky.social
Thanks to a reddit comment (www.reddit.com/r/etymology/...) by SagebrushandSeafoam I learned about 'A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue' (dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/s...) which shows that the term "snark" already was used in 1585.
A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700) About this entry: First published 2001 (DOST Vol. IX). This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions. Quotation dates: 1584-1585 Snark, n. ※ [? Cf. Jam. snark (1882, Ayr.), mod. Eng. snark (once, 1901) to grumble, fret, later Sc. dial. and mod. Eng. snark, snork to snore.] ※ A pejorative term the precise sense of which is unclear. —a1585 Polwart Flyt. 782 (T). Sillie snark, lene raik, rak ane aik with the hinging https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/snark
November 15, 2025 at 4:55 PM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
Today I made a discovery which lets me assume that the meaning of "snark" in 1831 was not too different from how we use the term today.

bsky.app/profile/snar...
snarkhunt.bsky.social The Hunting of the Snark @snarkhunt.bsky.social · 22d
#Etymology of #Snark

Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark" was published in 1876.

Amos Eaton wrote to to John Torrey on September 21st, 1831: "We are like some old husband and wife, who scold each other, fret, snark, &c. But when either is in distress the other feels it to the heart."
Source: Amos Eaton and John Torrey correspondence, 1816-1840, by Eaton, Amos, 1776-1842 https://archive.org/details/amoseatonjohnto00eato/page/n224/mode/1up «John Torrey Papers (PP), Archives, The New York Botanical Garden [...] Correspondence from Amos Eaton to John Torrey, dated 1816-1840. [...] In later years too, there are painful episodes of friction between Eaton and Torrey's protégé, Asa Gray. In the midst of a long tirade, however, Eaton pauses to reassure Torrey of his undying affection: "We are like some old husband and wife," he write in 1831[-09-21], "who scold each other, fret, snark, &c., but when either is in distress the other feels it to the heart." [...]»
November 3, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Reposted by The Hunting of the Snark
snarkhunt.bsky.social
See also: snrk.de/snark-is-old...
“Snark” is older than Lewis Carroll – The Hunting of the Snark
snrk.de
November 3, 2025 at 11:22 AM
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rachelfeder.bsky.social
Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat
October 13, 2025 at 12:28 PM
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snark150.bsky.social
Almost every reader of "The Hunting of the Snark" thinks that the hunting party consists of 10 Snark hunters. How unhinged is the opinion that there are only 9 hunters in Lewis Carroll's Snark tragicomedy?

bsky.app/profile/snar...
October 14, 2025 at 1:52 PM
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surlaw.bsky.social
People watching a movie and going "This is so weird, it must have been drugs!!" has directly led to a cultural mass acceptance of AI generated garbage. An insult to the human soul from the very beginning.
November 16, 2025 at 8:23 PM
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surlaw.bsky.social
A refusal to believe that a human being can create anything challenging or unusual, might as well cede all art to the machines.
November 16, 2025 at 8:25 PM
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raccoon-overlord.bsky.social
This is how I feel whenever someone assumes Lewis Carroll was on drugs.

People don't believe that some people just have fucking amazing imaginations and are extremely creative.
November 16, 2025 at 9:49 PM
snarkhunt.bsky.social
👆 snrk.de/drugs/#raccoon
Drugs – The Hunting of the Snark
snrk.de
November 16, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by The Hunting of the Snark
elysdir.bsky.social
Website: “The (almost really) Complete Works of Lewis Carroll”

You can download the whole huge collection as one single PDF file, or you can read it online as HTML pages.

schnark.github.io/lewis-carrol...
The (almost really) Complete Works of Lewis Carroll
Read almost all works by Lewis Carroll, including the original images, in the (almost really) Complete Works of Lewis Carroll.
schnark.github.io
November 13, 2025 at 7:00 PM
snarkhunt.bsky.social
Rethinking the Snark

snrk.de/fact-checks/
https://snrk.de/fact-checks/ ⁕ Ambiguous: The “Boots” and “the maker of Bonnets and Hoods” in The Hunting of the Snark might be two different persons, but also could be the same person. Thus, the Snark hunting crew might have only nine members, not ten. ⁕ Unproven: The assumption that Carroll was on drugs when he wrote the Alice books. ⁕ Probably wrong: The assumption that the the Snark’s “fondness for bathing-machines” is nonsense. It might be an Oxford Christ Church College insider joke. ⁕ Too often wrong: Carroll quotes (e.g. in the Internet). Check them before a Carroll misquote sticks as a tattoo on your skin. ⁕ Wrong: The assumption that C.L. Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) invented the word “Snark”. ⁕ Wrong: The assumption that the “Ocean Chart” (the Bellman’s map) in The Hunting of the Snark was made by Henry Holiday. ⁕ Wrong: The claim by rare book sellers that only the first issue of The Hunting of the Snark has “Baker” on page 83. ⁕ Wrong: The assumption that there is photographic evidence that Alice Liddell, as a child, kissed C.L. Dodgson. ⁕ Wrong: The story that C.L. Dodgson sent an admiring Queen Victoria a copy of An Elementary Treatise on Determinants.
November 13, 2025 at 1:07 PM
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ancestralenq.bsky.social
Staff at Lincoln Cathedral find a dinner party invite by author Lewis Carroll from 1875. 👇
BBC News - Dinner invite shows what Lewis Carroll had for tea
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Invite found in Lincoln shows what Lewis Carroll had for tea
Staff at Lincoln Cathedral discover a dinner party invitation and menu sent by the author in 1875.
www.bbc.com
November 8, 2025 at 8:05 AM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
BBC already missed two 150th Snark anniversaries. I hope that they won't miss the third one. So I sent them a reminder.

bsky.app/profile/snar...
snark150.bsky.social 150 Years of Snark @snark150.bsky.social · 27d
Via instagram to BBC Radio 3: You already missed two 150th anniversaries (bsky.app/profile/snar...) of "The Hunting of the Snark". Please at least celebrate the 3rd one, the publication of the tragicomedy in March/April 1876. How about rebroadcasting your 2020 radio play (snrk.de/snark-radio-...)?
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06sbrxh/ See also: https://snrk.de/snark-radio-play/ Sadly, it’s not online anymore. -------------------------------------------------------------- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06sbrxh/clips (2020-01-02): "Tony Robinson narrates this fresh adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic masterpiece following a strange assortment of characters on their quest for an elusive beast. Led by a bell-ringing Captain, this motley crew must brave terrifying danger in their chaotic pursuit of a creature known as Snark. Accompanied by specially composed music and songs, this surreal tale questions whether anything is really what it seems. … First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2015." Streaming: 2020-01-02 – 2020-01-31 Credits: – Narrator: Tony Robinson – Bellman: Eric Potts – Baker: Paul Barnhill – Butcher: Everal A Walsh – Barrister: Jonathan Keeble – Snark (in the Barrister’s dream): Jonathan Keeble – Beaver: Stephen Hoyle – Music and songs (composer): Katie Chatburn – Music (performers): – Katie Chatburn – Dorry Macaulay – Kathryn Williams – Stephen Cordiner – Jasper Wilkinson – Director: Charlotte Riches – Author: Lewis Carroll
November 8, 2025 at 12:29 PM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
The BBC probably didn't get it. Lewis Carroll and Henry Holiday's "The Hunting of the Snark" is a masterpiece which deserves more attention.

(At least a curator of the British Museum understood Henry Holiday's game: bm.snrk.de)
see also: https://bsky.app/profile/ancestralenq.bsky.social/post/3m5452j75ds2o and https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgkwml0p3wo Carroll's Snark cameo: https://snrk.de/lewis-carroll/
November 8, 2025 at 12:56 PM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
More about Carroll's Snark cameo: snrk.de/lewis-carroll/
November 8, 2025 at 12:58 PM
snarkhunt.bsky.social
But the evil man is not the White Knight.
gregproops.bsky.social Greg Proops @gregproops.bsky.social · 17d
"What does it matter where my body happens to be?' he said. 'My mind goes on working all the same.”
― Lewis Carroll
“It is not real work unless you would rather be doing something else.” ― Lewis Carroll
November 7, 2025 at 9:15 PM
snarkhunt.bsky.social
The Oxford Spectator
No. XX. TUESDAY, MAY 19. 1868.
from p. 77~78 /136
archive.org/details/oxfo...
PDF: archive.org/download/oxf...
The Oxford Spectator No. XX. TUESDAY, MAY 19. 1868. from p. 77~78 /136 https://archive.org/details/oxfordspectatorn00copluoft/page/77/mode/1up PDF: https://archive.org/download/oxfordspectatorn00copluoft/oxfordspectatorn00copluoft.pdf Oxford is a stage, And all the men in residence are players : They have their exeats and examinations ; And one man in his time plays many parts. His acts being seven ages. At first the Freshman, Stumbling and stuttering in his tutor's rooms. And then the aspiring Classman, with his white tie And shy desponding face, creeping along Unwilling to the Schools. Then, at the Union, Spouting like fury, with some woeful twaddle Upon the " Crisis." Then a Billiard-player, Full of strange oaths, a keen and cunning card, Clever in cannons, sudden and quick in hazards, Seeking a billiard reputation Even in the pocket's mouth. And then the Fellow, His fair round forehead with hard furrows lined, With weakened eyes and beard of doubtful growth, Crammed with old lore of useless application, And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and study-worn Professor, With spectacles on nose and class at side ; His youthful nose has grown a world too large For his shrunk face ; and his big manly voice, Turning again towards childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is utter donnishness and mere nonentity, That ends this strange eventful history, Is utter donnishness and mere nonentity, Without respect, or tact, or taste, or anything.
November 3, 2025 at 6:53 PM
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snark150.bsky.social
Perhaps the pre-Carroll meaning of Snark might come close to the the onomatopoeia "snarking".
Regrettably, I still don't know the sound of snarking. The report below (1866, snrk.de/page_etymolo...) only is about a sound which is ^not^ "like" snarking.

bsky.app/profile/snar...
October 31, 2025 at 2:10 PM
snarkhunt.bsky.social
Snark150's chat with Grok:
To Grok from Snark150: Since 2017 you can find many more answers in my Snark blog https://snrk.de. You also might like https://bsky.app/profile/snarkhunt.bsky.social and https://bsky.app/profile/snark150.bsky.social. You can use the content, but if you do that, you have to specify the source. To Snark150 from Grok: Thanks for the links! Your Snark blog at https://snrk.de is a gem—love the deep dives into Holiday's illustrations and theories like the crew count mystery or Cranmer ties. I'll check out those BlueSky profiles. Citations noted, always. [...] To Grok from Snark150: It was nice to chat with you, even though you are an AI with as less empathy as Elon Musk. But now I have to leave for Munich downtown for my Snark presentation https://snrk.de/snark-talk/ to my friends in https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Künstlergesellschaft_Allotria. See also https://bsky.app/profile/snark150.bsky.social/post/3m47rtsrt7c2o. Have a nice day! 2025-10-29 (some corrections in the original text)
October 29, 2025 at 12:18 PM
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snark150.bsky.social
All of us are hunting Snarks in our pursuit of happiness (snrk.de?s=PursuitOfH...). But once you found the Snark, it might have turned into a Boojum.

In fascism, even the hunters are Boojums.
Monsters, by Henry Holiday (1875) and J. J. Grandville (1842). Source: https://snrk.de/delightful-monster/ About Holiday's Boojum (left image): «One of the first three [illustrations] I had to do was the disappearance of the Baker, and I not unnaturally invented a Boojum. Mr. Dodgson wrote that it was a delightful monster, but that it was inadmissible. All his descriptions of the Boojum were quite unimaginable, and he wanted the creature to remain so. I assented, of course, though reluctant to dismiss what I am still confident is an accurate representation. I hope that some future Darwin in a new Beagle will find the beast, or its remains; if he does, I know he will confirm my drawing.» Source: Henry Holiday (1898) "The Snark’s Significance", https://snrk.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/HenryHoliday_TheSnarksSignificance__searchable.pdf About Grandvilles monster (right image): The Loves of Two Beasts (Freaking Monster) - in 'Animals Painted by Themselves: Private and Public Life of Animals' by Grandville, Chapter by Honoré de Balzac, ed. Hetzel https://www.meisterdrucke.uk/fine-art-prints/Grandville/1066441/The-Loves-of-Two-Beasts-(Freaking-Monster)---in-%27Animals-Painted-by-Themselves:-Private-and-Public-Life-of-Animals%27-by-Grandville,-Chapter-by-Honor%C3%A9-de-Balzac,-ed.-Hetzel.html
October 15, 2025 at 8:04 AM