Yesterday, I ran a little social survey on my Facebook page, and the result was pretty much what I expected. I asked a simple question: “When you hear the surname MacLeod, what first name immediately comes to mind?”
As I thought, the majority of answers were “Duncan.” In fact, some people even asked what other answer I could possibly have expected. And that’s exactly what makes it so interesting.
(illustration from IMDb.com)
Of course, when we talk about MacLeod, we immediately think of the story of the Highlander — the near-immortal warrior who can only die if his head is cut off. The whole bit about transferring power between immortals after such a victory isn’t really important in the context of what I’m saying here.
What is important is this: it turns out that many people don’t realize there were actually two Highlanders! Yes, both were called Highlanders, and both carried the MacLeod name.
It all began with the release of the film Highlander in 1986. According to the story, the MacLeods are a Scottish clan, and in 1518, Connor MacLeod (played by Christopher Lambert) was born. In 1536, Connor was killed in battle — only to resurrect, learning that he was one of the immortals. The film follows his life, his training with the immortal mentor Ramirez (played by Sean Connery), and his constant battles with other immortals, all the way up to the modern day.
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