THAT Meme

You know the one. And I’ve been tagged.

1. Professor Bhaer from Little Women – He is kind, good, masculine, and thoroughly resistant to pomposity. My heart was in my throat the first time he knocked on the Marches’ door and thought Jo had married Laurie. He was so vulnerable and strong all at once. Sniff.

When I first fell for Az the Husband, he reminded me of Bhaer (and also the man born blind from John 9). When I saw the movie version I was utterly disgusted that Gabriel Byrne played Bhaer as a beardless man. If he doesn’t have a beard, he IS NOT Mr. Bhaer.

2. Lord Peter Wimsey – He’s clever and classy, deceptively strong and devilishly attractive. All the women swoon for him, and I would be one of them.

3. Mervyn Bunter – I suspect he has a hidden rakish side, and I would like to know more.

Of course, he is Wimsey’s closest friend so maybe I should not snog them both, but they both are firm believers that a gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell, so I think I could pull it off.

4. T.H. White’s Galahad – I admire his good qualities, but he is so serious and boring. If ever a man needed a good snog, it’s this one.

5. Allan Quatermain – He has a certain adventurous manliness I find appealing, combined with a wistful longing for lost love. I suspect, though, that he is strictly a one-woman man, and since the woman he loves usually dies, I hesitate to become one. Maybe instead of snogging we can share lots of lingering glances, filled with a longing for a love that cannot be.

6. Eve and BubandPie mentioned characters from the Lord of the Rings, but none of them appeal to me. Aragorn has that whole eternal love thing going with someone else, and Legolas, well, I think an elf would make me feel like a bearded dwarfwoman. Faramir is a little too perfect. But Beorn from The Hobbit – now there’s a man for me. There is something about the gruff and growly/nurturing and compassionate combo that I find sexy. I’d even become a vegetarian if he asked very, very nicely.

7. Jacob Witting from Sarah, Plain and Tall – He is hard-working and a loving father. His courtship of Sarah is eager but patient, certain he and his family are worth loving, but uncertain whether Sarah will consider them worth the loss of her beloved ocean. The story is tersely told, but I can happily fill in many details, and Jacob is definitely a good kisser.

8. Laurie King’s Sherlock Holmes – Intellect and passion carefully disciplined. He would make a lousy father, but not a bad snog.

9. Remus Lupin – Am I the only one who finds werewolves more than a little intriguing? A werewolf who has managed to control his transformations, who knows his own terrible weaknesses and fights them – that is a man I want to know better.

10. Tennyson’s Arthur – Lancelot was a schmuck. If I had been Guenivere, it would have been Arthur all the way.

I share a similar theme in my choices to BubandPie’s. Strength carefully molded into compassion, passion funneled into faithfulness and patience – it’s like Anne of Green Gables said, “I don’t want someone who is truly wicked, just someone who could be wicked – but won’t.” That’s not an exact quote but you get the idea. Add a few hypermasculine qualities like hairiness and skill at hunting or fighting, and I am hooked.

And if you think that tells you something about Az the Husband, then oh yes it does, sister.