Trends: Redheaded Heroes, Anyone?

So I wrote in my post "The Female/Male Swap" that I would be wirting about trends in books and movies or things relating to them. Today I'm writing about something I was thinking about the other day when I was trying to find a blasted picture for a book cover I'm working on and that is: Why are there no redheaded heroes?

You know, the handsome knight rides up to save the lady, he leaps off his horse, rips his helmet off and flips back his BLOND hair.

Or then you have the dark brooding heroes with angst who have the piercing eyes and the BLACK hair.

But you never see redheads. Who are they? The sidekicks, the funny guy, the best friend, but never the hero. Sure, there's always redheaded heroines. Why are redheaded women always considered beautiful but redheaded guys can never be handsome enough to be cast as heroes?

Occasionally you might get a redheaded hero in a book but I can't name a movie where you see one. There is no reason redheads should be less hero material than anyone else. In fact, though I have nothing against blonds in general, I just don't think they can be quite as epic as dark haired characters or, redheads! (Sorry Arthur Pendragon)

Anyway, so the reason I thought about this is that my next novel "By Blood and By Bond" features a redheaded hero, a young Celt named Caolan. Yes, he is a Celt so that might be what you would call 'stereotypical' but it's not actually, it's the truth. Actually I have two redheaded characters because I have a gingery Frank as well (No, his name isn't frank, it's Theodard, he's a Frank as in the old Germanic people). Caolan is in no way a funny character, he's pretty angsty, and redheads CAN be angsty. I'll prove it to you when you read my book ;)

So that gets us to another point I want to make... I'm in need of a little help. Because apperently redheads are not quite so popular, I've had a REALLY hard time finding a picture of someone who looks like my character who is not an actor *coughJamieBellcough* (Not that he has red hair, but I couldn't shake him as Esca) I'm trying something different with my book covers and not doing my own art (as you can see with "To Save a Life"). I've not yet decided that's a good idea or not yet, obviously. I've searched literally everywhere I could think of, but if anyone might be able to find a picture of a redheaded young man who looks Celtic and is dressed in Celtic to Medieval period clothing, please let me know! But MAKE SURE it's either purchasable or public domain, because if you get me in trouble, I'm bringing you down with me! If you find or know of anything that might work, please email me at sirwilliamssquire@gmail.com

So, anyway, support redheaded heroes! (And I really hope you can help me find a picture ;-)

Slainte, Hazel