Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of the Herring

aka The Herripedia

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The ENCYCLOPAEDIA

A work in progress with no end in sight

A one-stop shop for beautiful information about the King of Fishes, each entry accessible alphabetically and by theme – history, science, culture, fishing and food.

Suggestions and corrections always welcome.

The PODCAST

Travels through the herriverse

Explore the world of strange wonders that’s revealed at the interfaces between mankind and the herring. Six, monthly episodes take you where few other podcasts venture.

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A-Z Entries

DUTCH GRAND FISHERY

The rise and fall of the 'Groote Visserye', its role in the Dutch War of Independence and in various wars with England and Scotland

ETYMOLOGY

On the derivation of the word herring and the uncertainty attached to it, along with that, similarly uncertain, of the kipper

EUPHEMISMS

Some of the names given to herrings together with the associated logics and a brief digression on the subject of Bombay duck

EYVIND SKÁLDASPILLIR

The earliest herring poet and the two earliest herring poems, together with the difficulties of dealing with kings

FARTING

The herring's squeak or fart, from C17th Lübeck to 1980s Soviet submarine incursions into Swedish waters and a 2003 Ig Nobel Award

FASTING

On herrings and fasting, fish-based fasting on Fridays and in Lent and its origins in earlier religions, cults and/or alien contact

FEEDING

On when herrings feed, their favourite foods at different points in their life cycle and the effect of what they eat on their own oiliness

FIFIE

On the development, nature and adaptability of the sailing and steam drifters, the Fifie; its unsurprising origins on the Fife coast

FISH FINGERS

Birdseye Frozen Foods, Clarence Birdseye, Captain Birdseye and the original herring prototype for fish fingers

FLEAS

A brief, possibly unnattractive account of fleas and their use in a Norfolk fisherman's ability to predict herring catches

GERMAN SPIES

An dubious account of the use of herrings to identify German spies pretending to be Dutch during World War II

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