1.
John Duncan (painter)
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John Duncan was a Scottish painter. Duncan was born in the Hilltown area of Dundee in 1866, John, however, had no interest in the family business and preferred the visual arts. By the age of 15 he was submitting cartoons to the local magazine The Wizard of the North and was taken on as an assistant in the art department of the Dundee Advertiser. At the same time he was also a student at the Dundee School of Art, in 1887-88 he worked in London as a commercial illustrator, then travelled to the continent to study at Antwerp Academy under Charles Verlat and the Düsseldorf Art Academy. In 1889 Duncan returned to Dundee and exhibited in the new Victoria Art Galleries extension of the Albert Institute, the following year he became one of the founder members of the Dundee Graphic Arts Association. Most of his income at this time was derived from portrait commissions, including jute merchant John L Luke, in 1892 Duncan moved to Edinburgh to work with the sociologist, botanist and urbanist Patrick Geddes, whom Duncan had met in Dundee. As part of the Celtic Revival movement, Duncan painted murals for Geddess halls of residence at Ramsay Garden and he also became the principal artist for Geddes 1895-97 seasonal magazine The Evergreen. The magazine also featured work by Dundee artist Nell Baxter and the decorative artist Robert Burns. Among other subjects, Duncan depicts Bacchus and Silenus in a mythical scene, Duncan also acted as director of Geddess short-lived Old Edinburgh School of Art. In 1897 Duncan returned to Dundee and exhibited Celtic and symbolist paintings at the Graphic Arts Association as well as the Royal Scottish Academy and it was at this time that he painted The Glaive of Light now in the University of Dundees collection. He continued to teach art and design, at the Dundee YMCA, the University, thanks to Patrick Geddess influence, in 1900 Duncan was appointed as a Professor at the Chicago Institute founded by Francis Wayland Parker. His stay there was not a one, and after Parkers death he returned to Scotland and settled in Edinburgh. Duncans last major work was entitled Mary Queen of Scots at Fotheringhay, the work was commissioned and is now held by the University of St Andrews. The painting was completed in spite of the critical antagonisms Duncan was facing at the time, a smaller scale replica is held in the Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle
2.
Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
3.
Supernatural
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One complicating factor is that there is disagreement about the definition of natural and the limits of naturalism. Concepts in the domain are closely related to concepts in religious spirituality. Sometimes we understand by nature the established course of things, as when we say that nature makes the night succeed the day, nature hath made respiration necessary to the life of men. Sometimes we take nature for the universe, or system of the works of God, as when it is said of a phoenix, or a chimera. And sometimes too, and that most commonly, we would express by nature a semi-deity or other kind of being. Parapsychologists use the term psi to refer to a unitary force underlying the phenomena they study. Views on the supernatural vary, for example it may be seen as, from this perspective, some events occur according to the laws of nature, and others occur according to a separate set of principles external to known nature. For example, in Scholasticism, it was believed that God was capable of performing any miracle so long as it didnt lead to a logical contradiction, others believe that all events have natural and only natural causes. They believe that human beings ascribe supernatural attributes to purely natural events, such as lightning, rainbows, floods, the supernatural is a feature of the philosophical traditions of Neoplatonism and Scholasticism. In contrast, the philosophy of Metaphysical naturalism argues for the conclusion that there are no supernatural entities, objects, most religions include elements of belief in the supernatural while also often featuring prominently in the study of the paranormal and occultism. Process theology is a school of thought influenced by the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. It is not possible, in process metaphysics, to conceive divine activity as an intervention into the “natural” order of events. Process theists usually regard the distinction between the supernatural and the natural as a by-product of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, in process thought, there is no such thing as a realm of the natural in contrast to that which is supernatural. On the other hand, if “the natural” is defined more neutrally as “what is in the nature of things, in Whiteheads words, “It lies in the nature of things that the many enter into complex unity”. It is tempting to emphasize process theisms denial of the supernatural, dreams as a Source of Supernatural Agent Concepts. Riekki T, Lindeman M, Raij T. T, Supernatural Believers Attribute More Intentions to Random Movement than Skeptics, An fMRI Study. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Purzycki Benjamin G, the Minds of Gods, A Comparative Study of Supernatural Agency. Unresolved Mourning, Supernatural Beliefs and Dissociation, A Mediation Analysis, vail K. E, Arndt J, Addollahi A
4.
Irish mythology
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The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity. However, much of it was preserved in medieval Irish literature and this literature represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology. There are also a number of extant mythological texts that do not fit any of the cycles. Additionally, there are a number of recorded folk tales that, while not strictly mythological. Despite the dates of these sources, most of the material they contain predates their composition, the earliest of the prose can be dated on linguistic grounds to the 8th century, and some of the verse may be as old as the 6th century. The first of these part of the earliest known version of the Táin Bó Cúailnge and is housed in Trinity College. The other three are in the Royal Academy, when using these sources, it is, as always, important to question the impact of the circumstances in which they were produced. There was also a tendency to rework Irish genealogies to fit into the known schema of Greek or Biblical genealogy and it was once unquestioned that medieval Irish literature preserved truly ancient traditions in a form virtually unchanged through centuries of oral tradition back to the ancient Celts of Europe. A consensus has emerged which encourages the critical reading of the material, the Mythological Cycle, comprising stories of the former gods and origins of the Irish, is the least well preserved of the four cycles. The most important sources are the Metrical Dindshenchas or Lore of Places, Other manuscripts preserve such mythological tales as The Dream of Aengus, The Wooing Of Étain and Cath Maige Tuireadh, The Battle of Magh Tuireadh. One of the best known of all Irish stories, Oidheadh Clainne Lir, Lebor Gabála Érenn is a pseudo-history of Ireland, tracing the ancestry of the Irish back to before Noah. They faced opposition from their enemies, the Fomorians, led by Balor of the Evil Eye, Balor was eventually slain by Lug Lámfada at the second battle of Magh Tuireadh. With the arrival of the Gaels, the Tuatha Dé Danann retired underground to become the people of later myth. The Metrical Dindshenchas is the great work of early Ireland. It includes a lot of important information on Mythological Cycle figures and stories, including the Battle of Tailtiu, in which the Tuatha Dé Danann were defeated by the Milesians. It is important to note that by the Middle Ages the Tuatha Dé Danann were not viewed so much as gods as the shape-shifting magician population of an earlier Golden Age Ireland. Texts such as Lebor Gabála Érenn and Cath Maige Tuireadh present them as kings and heroes of the distant past, however, there is considerable evidence, both in the texts and from the wider Celtic world, that they were once considered deities. Even after they are displaced as the rulers of Ireland, characters such as Lug, a poem in the Book of Leinster lists many of the Tuatha Dé, but ends Although enumerates them, he does not worship them
5.
Scottish mythology
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It was the belief that Beira, the Queen of Winter, had a firm hold on the country by raising storms during January and February thus preventing greenery to emerge. She was considered a tough and brutal old woman who stirred the deadly spiraling action of Corryvreckan, ushering snow, even the creation of lochs and mountains were attributed to her. Scottish mythology is not like the Greek and Roman myths as it deals with aspects of nature. In this context the most powerful and feared goddess representing winter is Beira who rules winter for its entire duration, immediately, the following season she readily concedes to Dual Lord and Lady who then enjoy equal power during the ensuing season. This myth is akin to the myth of the Mayans and deals with female power in the creation. However, Donald Mackenzie in his book Scottish Wonder Tales from Myth and Legend states that the goddesses of the Scottish myths are not glorified, Scottish mythology is dominated by goddesses, and according to Donald Mackenzie they are greater and stronger than the gods. The Celtic goddesses were authoritative and were associated with female fertility as related to female divinity, in olden times the Celtics land and national societies were both linked with the body of the goddess and her representative on earth was the queen. Another ambivalent character in Scottish myths was the hag, the Goddess, the Gaelic Cailleach, and the Giantess, the hag is also considered a healer and helpful during childbirth and is divine and said to have long ancestry and incredible longevity. She is also known as at once creator and destroyer, gentle and fierce, several origin legends for the Scots arose during the historical period, serving various purposes. One Scottish origin legend, or pseudo-historical account of the foundation of the Scottish people, as they roamed through Ireland, from Clonmacnoise, Armagh and Kildare to Cork, and finally, to Bangor, they were continually engaged at war with the Pictanei. After some time, they crossed the Irish Sea to invade Caledonia North of Roman Britain, successively capturing Iona, the latter places are echoed by the appearance of Cinnrígmonaid and Cinnbelathoir in the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba. The territory so conquered was then named Scotia after Scota, the Egyptian wife of Spartan commander Nél or Niul, once the Picts adopted Gaelic culture and their actual characteristics faded out of memory, folkloric elements filled the gaps of history. In the eighteenth century the Picts were co-opted as a Germanic race, in the Celtic domains of Scotland, also known as Gaelteached, there were ancient pre-Christian structures. These are the Ulaid, or people of the North-Eastern corner of Ireland, the Ulaid had close links with Gaelic Scotland, where Cúchulainn is said to have learned the arts of war. These stories are written for the most part in prose, the centrepiece of the Ulster Cycle is the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Other important Ulster Cycle tales include The Tragic Death of Aifes only Son, Fled Bricrenn Bricrius Feast and this cycle is, in some respects, close to the mythological cycle of the rest of the Gaelic speaking world. Some characters from the latter reappear, and the sort of shape-shifting magic is much in evidence, side by side with a grim. Scottish Gaelic adaptations of Ulster Cycle tales appear in the Glenmasan manuscript, the stories of Finn mac Cumhaill and his band of soldiers the Fianna, appear to be set around the 3rd century in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland
6.
Fairy
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A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature in European folklore, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural, or preternatural. According to Thomas Keightley, the word derives from the Latin fata. Other forms are the Italian fata, and the Provençal fada, in old French romance, fee was a woman skilled in magic, and who knew the power and virtue of words, of stones, and of herbs. Faierie became fairy, but with that now almost exclusively referring to one of the legendary people. The word fairy was used to represent an illusion, or enchantment, to the word faie was added the suffix -erie, used to express either a place where something is found or a trade or typical activity engaged in. In later usage it applied to any kind of quality or activity associated with a particular type of person. In the sense land where fairies dwell, the distinctive and archaic spellings Faery, the latinate fay is not to be confused with the unrelated fey, meaning fated to die. Various folkloristic traditions refer to them euphemistically, by such as wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair folk. Sometimes the term fairy is used to any magical creature, including goblins or gnomes, at other times. Fairies have their origin in the conflation of Celtic traditions in the Middle French medieval romances. Fairie was in origin used adjectivally, meaning enchanted, but was used as a name for enchanted creatures from as early as the Late Middle English period. In English literature of the Elizabethan era, elves became conflated with the fairies of Romance culture, the Victorian and Edwardian eras saw an increase in interest in fairies. The Celtic Revival viewed them as part of Irelands cultural heritage, carole Silvers and others suggest that the fascination of English antiquarians arose from a reaction to greater industrialization, and loss of folkways. Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers, even with these small fairies, however, their small size may be magically assumed rather than constant. Some fairies though normally quite small were able to dilate their figures to imitate humans, on Orkney they were described as short in stature, dressed in dark grey, and sometimes seen in armour. Wings, while common in Victorian and later artwork of fairies, are rare in the folklore, even very small fairies flew with magic. Nowadays, fairies are depicted with ordinary insect wings or butterfly wings. In some folklore, fairies have green eyes, some depictions of fairies either have them wearing some sort of footwear and other depictions of fairies are always barefoot
7.
Elf
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An elf is a type of supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Reconstructing the early concept of an elf depends almost entirely on texts in Old English or relating to Norse mythology, later evidence for elves appears in diverse sources such as medical texts, prayers, ballads, and folktales. Legends of álfar may have been changing and were perhaps always heterogeneous so it might be argued that any particular source will only reflect the state of affairs at one given time. However, the character of beliefs in elves across the Germanic-speaking world has varied considerably across time, space. In Old Norse mythological texts, elves seem at least at times to be counted among the gods, in medieval German texts they seem more consistently monstrous. Elves are prominently associated with sexual threats, seducing people and causing them harm, for example, a number of early modern ballads in the British Isles and Scandinavia, originating in the medieval period, describe human encounters with elves. In English literature of the Elizabethan era, elves became conflated with the fairies of Romance culture, German Romanticist writers were influenced by this notion of the elf, and reimported the English word elf in that context into the German language. In Scandinavia, probably through a process of euphemism, elves often came to be conflated with the called the huldra or huldufólk. Meanwhile, German folklore has tended to see the conflation of elves with dwarfs, the Christmas elves of contemporary popular culture are of relatively recent tradition, popularized during the late nineteenth-century in the United States. Elves entered the high fantasy genre in the wake of works published by authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, for which. The English word elf is from the Old English word most often attested as ælf, although this word took a variety of forms in different Old English dialects, these converged on the form elf during the Middle English period. During the Old English period, separate forms were used for female elves, the main medieval Germanic cognates of elf are Old Norse alfr, plural alfar, and Old High German alp, plural alpî, elpî. These words must come from Common Germanic, the ancestor-language of English, German, and the Scandinavian languages, Germanic *ɑlβi-z~*ɑlβɑ-z is generally agreed to be cognate with the Latin albus, Old Irish ailbhín, Albanian elb, and Germanic words for ‘swan’ such as Modern Icelandic álpt. These all come from an Indo-European base *albh-, and seem to be connected by whiteness, the Germanic word presumably originally meant white person, perhaps as a euphemism. Jakob Grimm thought that whiteness implied positive moral connotations, and, noting Snorri Sturlusons ljósálfar and this is not necessarily the case, however. Compare descriptions such as ‘swan white’ to describe the beauty of fair complexion, Norse cultural values view masculinity as an ideal of beauty, which the Alfr personifies. For example, the Norse Eddas similarly celebrate the beauty of Baldr. Icelandic Sagas celebrate the beauty of the giants, and certain warrior kings that descend from them
8.
Parallel universe (fiction)
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A parallel universe is a hypothetical self-contained reality co-existing with ones own. A specific group of parallel universes are called a multiverse, although this term can also be used to describe the parallel universes that constitute reality. The term parallel universe is more general, without any connotations implying a relationship, or lack of relationship, the actual quantum-mechanical hypothesis of parallel universes is universes that are separated from each other by a single quantum event. Fantasy has long borrowed an idea of world from myth, legend. Heaven, Hell, Olympus, and Valhalla are all alternative universes different from the material realm. Plato reflected deeply on the realities, resulting in Platonism. The lower reality is similar but with flaws, modern fantasy often presents the concept as a series of planes of existence where the laws of nature differ, allowing magical phenomena of some sort on some planes. This concept was found in ancient Hindu mythology, in texts such as the Puranas. S. Lewis or even the beyond-the-reflection travel in the two works of Lewis Carroll. P. Lovecraft and the Doom computer game series, or Warhammer/40K miniature, in such stories, the nature of this other reality is often left mysterious, known only by its effect on our own world. One of the first Sci-Fi examples is Murray Leinsters Sidewise in Time, while this is a common treatment in Sci-Fi, it is by no means the only presentation of the idea, even in hard science fiction. One motif is that the way time flows in a parallel universe may be very different, picking a genre becomes less a matter of setting, and more a matter of theme and emphasis, the parts of the story the author wishes to explain and how they are explained. Narnia is clearly a fantasy, and the TV series Sliders is clearly science fiction, while technically incorrect, and looked down upon by hard science-fiction fans and authors, the idea of another dimension has become synonymous with the term parallel universe. The usage is common in movies, television and comic books. The idea of a world was first introduced in comic books with the publication of The Flash #123. In written science fiction, new dimensions more commonly – and more accurately – refer to coordinate axes. By proposing travel along these axes, which are not normally perceptible. Abbott wrote the seminal novel exploring this concept called Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions, isaac Asimov, in his foreword to the Signet Classics 1984 edition, described Flatland as The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions
9.
Irish language
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Irish, also referred to as Gaelic or Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people. Irish enjoys constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland and it is also among the official languages of the European Union. The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island of Ireland and it has the oldest vernacular literature in Western Europe. The fate of the language was influenced by the power of the English state in Ireland. Elizabethan officials viewed the use of Irish unfavourably, as being a threat to all things English in Ireland and its decline began under English rule in the 17th century. In the latter part of the 19th century, there was a decrease in the number of speakers. Irish-speaking areas were hit especially hard, by the end of British rule, the language was spoken by less than 15% of the national population. Since then, Irish speakers have been in the minority, efforts have been made by the state, individuals and organisations to preserve, promote and revive the language, but with mixed results. Around the turn of the 21st century, estimates of native speakers ranged from 20,000 to 80,000 people. In the 2011 Census, these numbers had increased to 94,000 and 1.3 million, there are several thousand Irish speakers in Northern Ireland. It has been estimated that the active Irish-language scene probably comprises 5 to 10 per cent of Irelands population, there has been a significant increase in the number of urban Irish speakers, particularly in Dublin. In Gaeltacht areas, however, there has been a decline of the use of Irish. Údarás na Gaeltachta predicted that, by 2025, Irish will no longer be the language in any of the designated Gaeltacht areas. Survey data suggest that most Irish people think highly of Irish as a marker of identity. It has also argued that newer urban groups of Irish speakers are a disruptive force in this respect. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil the name of the language is Gaeilge, before the spelling reform of 1948, this form was spelled Gaedhilge, originally this was the genitive of Gaedhealg, the form used in Classical Irish. Older spellings of this include Gaoidhealg in Classical Irish and Goídelc in Old Irish, the modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent dh in the middle of Gaedhilge, whereas Goidelic languages, used to refer to the language family including Irish, comes from Old Irish
10.
Mound
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A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, a mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher elevation on any surface. Artificial mounds have been created for a variety of reasons throughout history, including ceremonial, burial, in the archaeology of the United States and Canada, a mound is a deliberately constructed elevated earthen structure or earthwork, intended for a range of potential uses. In European and Asian archaeology, the word tumulus may be used as a synonym for an artificial hill, while the term mound may be applied to historic constructions, most mounds in the United States are pre-Columbian earthworks, built by Native American peoples. Native Americans built a variety of mounds, including flat-topped pyramids or cones known as mounds, rounded cones. Some mounds took on unusual shapes, such as the outline of cosmologically significant animals and these are known as effigy mounds. Some mounds, such as a few in Wisconsin, have rock formations, or petroforms within them, on them, while these mounds are perhaps not as famous as burial mounds, like their European analogs, Native American mounds also have a variety of other uses. While some prehistoric cultures, like the Adena culture, used preferentially for burial, others used mounds for other ritual and sacred acts. The platform mounds of the Mississippian culture, for example, may have supported temples, the houses of chiefs, council houses, other mounds would have been part of defensive walls to protect a certain area. The Hopewell culture used mounds as markers of complex astronomical alignments related to ceremonies, mounds and related earthworks are the only significant monumental construction in pre-Columbian Eastern and Central North America. Mounds are given different names depending on which culture they strive from and they can be located all across the world in spots such as Asia, Europe and the Americas. Mound builders have more commonly associated with the mounds in the Americas. They all have different meanings and sometimes are constructed as animals, kankali Tila is a famous mound located at Mathura in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. A Jain stupa was excavated here in 1890-91 by Dr. Fuhrer, mound, as a technical term in archaeology, is not generally in favor in the rest of the world. More specific local terminology is preferred, and each of these terms has its own article
11.
Secondary source
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In scholarship, a secondary source is a document or recording that relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere. However, as discussed in detail in the section below on classification, secondary sources involve generalization, analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or evaluation of the original information. Primary and secondary are relative terms, and some sources may be classified as primary or secondary, depending on how they are used. A third level, the source, such as an encyclopedia or dictionary, resembles a secondary source in that it contains analysis. Many sources can be considered either primary or secondary, depending on the context in which they are used, moreover, the distinction between primary and secondary sources is subjective and contextual, so that precise definitions are difficult to make. Other examples in which a source can be primary and secondary include an obituary or a survey of several volumes of a journal counting the frequency of articles on a certain topic. Whether a source is regarded as primary or secondary in a context may change. Attempts to map or model scientific and scholarly communication need the concepts of primary, secondary, one such model is the UNISIST model of information dissemination. Within such a model these concepts are defined in relation to other. Some other modern languages use more than one word for the English word source, German usually uses Sekundärliteratur for secondary sources for historical facts, leaving Sekundärquelle to historiography. A Sekundärquelle is a source which can tell about a lost Primärquelle, such as a letter quoting from minutes which are no longer known to exist, in general, secondary sources are self-described as review articles or meta-analysis. Primary source materials are defined as original research papers written by the scientists who actually conducted the study. An example of source material is the Purpose, Methods, Results. A survey of work in the field in a primary peer-reviewed source is secondary source information. This allows secondary sourcing of recent findings in areas where full review articles have not yet been published, a book review that contains the judgment of the reviewer about the book is a primary source for the reviewers opinion, and a secondary source for the contents of the book. A summary of the book within a review is a secondary source, secondary sources in history and humanities are usually books or scholarly journals, from the perspective of a later interpreter, especially by a later scholar. In the humanities, a reviewed article is always a secondary source. The delineation of sources as primary and secondary first arose in the field of historiography, in scholarly writing, an important objective of classifying sources is to determine the independence and reliability of sources
12.
W. B. Yeats
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William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, Yeats was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others. He was born in Sandymount, Ireland and educated there and in London and he spent childhood holidays in County Sligo and studied poetry from an early age when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the 20th century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display Yeatss debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, from 1900, his poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, in 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Of Anglo-Irish descent, William Butler Yeats was born at Sandymount in County Dublin and his father, John Butler Yeats, was a descendant of Jervis Yeats, a Williamite soldier, linen merchant, and well-known painter who died in 1712. Benjamin Yeats, Jerviss grandson and Williams great-great-grandfather, had in 1773 married Mary Butler of a family in County Kildare. Following their marriage, they kept the name Butler in the family name, Mary was a descendant of the Butler of Ormond family from the Neigham Gowran branch of the family. They were descendants of the first Earls of Ormond, by his marriage, Williams father John Yeats was studying law but abandoned his studies to study art at Heatherleys Art School in London. His mother, Susan Mary Pollexfen, came from a merchant family in Sligo. Yeats was raised a member of the Protestant Ascendancy, which was at the time undergoing a crisis of identity. In 1997, his biographer R. F. Foster observed that Napoleons dictum that to understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty is manifestly true of W. B. Y. Yeatss childhood and young adulthood were shadowed by the power-shift away from the minority Protestant Ascendancy, the 1880s saw the rise of Charles Stewart Parnell and the home rule movement, the 1890s saw the momentum of nationalism, while the Catholics became prominent around the turn of the century. These developments had an effect on his poetry, and his subsequent explorations of Irish identity had a significant influence on the creation of his countrys biography. In 1867, the moved to England to aid their father, John. At first the Yeats children were educated at home and their mother entertained them with stories and Irish folktales. John provided an education in geography and chemistry, and took William on natural history explorations of the nearby Slough countryside
13.
Milesians (Irish)
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In the Lebor Gabála Érenn, a medieval Irish Christian pseudo-history, the Milesians are the final race to settle in Ireland. The Milesians are Gaels who sail to Ireland from Hispania after spending hundreds of years travelling the earth, when they land in Ireland they contend with the Tuatha Dé Danann, who represent the pagan gods. The two groups agree to divide Ireland between them, the Milesians take the world above, while the Tuath Dé take the world below and they are named after the character Míl Espáine, which is the Irish form of the Latin Miles Hispaniae. Scholars believe that the tale is mostly an invention of medieval Christian writers, the Lebor Gabála, which was probably first written in the 11th century AD by Christian monks, purports to be a history of Ireland and the Irish. It tells us that all mankind is descended from Adam through the sons of Noah, Fénius, a prince of Scythia, is described as one of 72 chieftains who built the Tower of Babel. His son Nel weds Scota, daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh, Goídel crafts the Goidelic language from the original 72 languages that arose after the confusion of tongues. Goídels offspring, the Goidels, leave Egypt at the time as the Israelites. Eventually, they reach Hispania by sea and conquer it, there, Goídels descendant Breogán founds a city called Brigantia, and builds a tower from the top of which his son Íth glimpses Ireland. Brigantia refers to Corunna in modern-day Galicia, in Spain, and Breogáns tower is based on the Tower of Hercules. Íth sails to the island with a group of men and he is welcomed by its three kings, Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht and Mac Gréine. These three are members of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who ruled Ireland at the time, evidence suggests that Tuath Dé were the main pagan gods of Ireland. Íth is then killed by unnamed attackers and his men return to Iberia, the eight sons of Íths brother Míl Espáine, lead an invasion force to avenge his death and take Ireland. After they land, they fight against the Tuath Dé and make for Tara, on the way, they are met on three mountains by Banba, Fódla and Ériu – the wives of Irelands three kings. They are believed to have been a trio of land goddesses, each woman says that the Gaels will have good fortune if they name the land after her. One of the Gaels, Amergin, promises that it shall be so, at Tara, they meet the three kings, who defend their claim to the joint kingship of the land. They ask that there be a truce, during which the Gaels must stay a distance of nine waves from land. The Gaels agree, but once their ships are nine waves from Ireland, however, Amergin calms the wind by reciting a verse. The surviving ships return to land and the two agree to divide Ireland between them
14.
Fairy ring
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A fairy ring, also known as fairy circle, elf circle, elf ring or pixie ring, is a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms. The rings may grow to over 10 metres in diameter, and they become stable over time as the fungus grows and they are found mainly in forested areas, but also appear in grasslands or rangelands. Fairy rings are detectable by sporocarps in rings or arcs, as well as by a necrotic zone, fungus mycelium is present in the ring or arc underneath. Fairy rings are the subject of folklore and myth worldwide—particularly in Western Europe. While they are seen as hazardous or dangerous places, they can sometimes be linked with good fortune. The mycelium of a growing in the ground absorbs nutrients by secretion of enzymes from the tips of the hyphae. This breaks down molecules in the soil into smaller molecules that are then absorbed through the walls of the hyphae near their growing tips. The mycelium will move outward from the center, and when the nutrients in the center are exhausted, there are two theories regarding the process involved in creating fairy rings. One states that the ring is begun by a spore from the sporocarpus. The underground presence of the fungus can also cause withering or varying colour or growth of the grass above, if they make an arc or a ring, they continuously grow about the centre of this object. One of the manifestations of fairy ring growth is a necrotic zone—an area in which grass or other plant life has withered or died and these zones are caused by the mycelia which, during a very dry year, coat the roots of grasses and other herbs in meadows. After some time they are removed by biotic factors from the ground, patterns other than the basic ring or arc are also possible, circles, doubled arcs, sickle-shaped arcs, and other complicated formations are also formed by this process. Fungi can deplete the soil of readily available such as nitrogen. Some fungi also produce chemicals which act like hormones called gibberellins, long-term observations of fairy rings on Shillingstone Hill in Dorset, England, further suggested that the cycle depended on the continuous presence of rabbits. Chalky soils on higher elevations in the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset in southern England used to support many meadow-type fairy rings, rabbits crop grass very short in open areas and produce nitrogen-rich droppings. Mushrooms need more soil nitrogen than grass does, a ring can start from only a few spores from which the mycelium develops, the fruiting bodies of the mushrooms only appearing later, when sufficient mycelial mass has been generated to support them. Subsequent generations of fungi grow only outwards, because the parent generations have depleted their local nitrogen levels, meanwhile, rabbits keep cropping the grass, but do not eat the fungi, allowing them to grow through their competition to tower, relatively, above the grass. It is unclear whether these were metabolites or pollutants, brominated compounds are unknown as metabolites from terrestrial fungi
15.
Crataegus monogyna
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Crataegus monogyna, known as common hawthorn or single-seeded hawthorn, is a species of hawthorn native to Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia. It has been introduced in other parts of the world. It can be an invasive weed, other common names include may, mayblossom, maythorn, quickthorn, whitethorn, motherdie, and haw. This species is one of several that have been referred to as Crataegus oxyacantha, the common hawthorn is a shrub or small tree 5–14 metres tall, with a dense crown. The bark is brown with vertical orange cracks. The younger stems bear sharp thorns, approximately 12. 5mm long, the leaves are 20 to 40mm long, obovate and deeply lobed, sometimes almost to the midrib, with the lobes spreading at a wide angle. The upper surface is green above and paler underneath. The flowers are pollinated by midges, bees and other insects, the haw is a small, oval dark red fruit about 10mm long, berry-like, but structurally a pome containing a single seed. Haws are important for wildlife in winter, particularly thrushes and waxwings, however they are inter-fertile and hybrids occur frequently, they are only entirely distinct in their more typical forms. Crataegus monogyna is one of the most common species used as the hawthorn of traditional herbalism, the plant parts used are usually sprigs with both leaves and flowers, or alternatively the fruit. Hawthorne has been investigated by evidence-based medicine for treating cardiac insufficiency, Crataegus monogyna is a source of antioxidant phytochemicals, especially extracts of hawthorn leaves with flowers. Common hawthorn is extensively planted as a plant, especially for agricultural use. Its spines and close branching habit render it effectively stock- and human-proof, the traditional practice of hedge laying is most commonly practised with this species. It is a good fire wood which burns with a good heat, numerous hybrids exist, some of which are used as garden shrubs. The most widely used hybrid is C. × media, of several cultivars are known. The fruit of hawthorn, called haws, are edible raw but are made into jellies, jams. Botanically they are pomes, but they look similar to berries, a haw is small and oblong, similar in size and shape to a small olive or grape, and red when ripe. Haws develop in groups of 2-3 along smaller branches and they are pulpy and delicate in taste
16.
Loch
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Loch is the Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Scots word for a lake or for a sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, some lochs could also be called firths, fjords, estuaries, straits or bays. The word is Indo-European in origin, cf. Latin lacus, lowland Scots orthography, like Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Irish, represents /x/ with ch, so the word was borrowed with identical spelling. English borrowed the word separately from a number of loughs in the previous Cumbric language areas of Northumbria and Cumbria, earlier forms of English included the sound /x/ as gh. However, by the time Scotland and England joined under a single parliament and this form was therefore used when the English settled Ireland. The Scots convention of using ch remained, hence the modern Scottish English loch, the Goidelic lo being taken into Scottish Gaelic by the gradual replacement of much Brittonic orthography with Goidelic orthography in Scotland. Many of the loughs in Northern England have also previously been called such as the Black Lough in Northumberland. However, reference to the latter as loughs, rather than as lakes, inlets, although there is no strict size definition, a small loch is often known as a lochan. Perhaps the most famous Scottish loch is Loch Ness, although there are other examples such as Loch Awe, Loch Lomond. Examples of sea lochs in Scotland include Loch Long, Loch Fyne, Loch Linnhe, Loch Eriboll, Loch Tristan, Trisloch. Some new reservoirs for hydroelectric schemes have been given names faithful to the names for bodies of water - for example, the Loch Sloy scheme. Other expanses are simply called reservoirs, e. g. Blackwater Reservoir above Kinlochleven, Scotland has very few bodies of water called lakes. Until the 19th century the body of water was known as the Loch of Menteith, the Lake of the Hirsel, Pressmennan Lake and Lake Louise are man-made bodies of water in Scotland known as lakes. The word loch is used as a shibboleth to identify natives of England. As loch is a common Gaelic word, it is found as the root of several Manx placenames, the United States naval port of Pearl Harbor, on the south coast of the main Hawaiian island of Oahu, is one of a complex of sea inlets. Several are named as lochs, including South East Loch, Merry Loch, East Loch, Middle Loch, Loch Raven Reservoir is a reservoir in Baltimore County, Maryland. Brenton Loch in the Falkland Islands is a sea loch, near Lafonia, in the Scottish settlement of Glengarry County in present-day Eastern Ontario, there is a lake called Loch Garry. Loch Garry was named by those who settled in the area, Clan MacDonell of Glengarry after the well-known loch their clan is from, Loch Garry in Scotland
17.
Samhain
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Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the darker half of the year. Traditionally, it is celebrated from 31 October to 1 November, as the Celtic day began and this is about halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbolc, Bealtaine, historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Similar festivals are held at the time of year in other Celtic lands, for example the Brythonic Calan Gaeaf, Kalan Gwav. Samhain is believed to have Celtic pagan origins and there is evidence it has been an important date since ancient times, the Mound of the Hostages, a Neolithic passage tomb at the Hill of Tara, is aligned with the Samhain sunrise. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain and it was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures and when livestock were slaughtered for the winter. As at Bealtaine, special bonfires were lit and these were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers and there were rituals involving them. Like Bealtaine, Samhain was seen as a time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld could more easily be crossed. This meant the Aos Sí, the spirits or fairies, could easily come into our world. Most scholars see the Aos Sí as remnants of the pagan gods, at Samhain, it was believed that the Aos Sí needed to be propitiated to ensure that the people and their livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink were left outside for them, the souls of the dead were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend, mumming and guising were part of the festival, and involved people going door-to-door in costume, often reciting verses in exchange for food. The costumes may have been a way of imitating, and disguising oneself from, divination rituals and games were also a big part of the festival and often involved nuts and apples. In the late 19th century, Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer suggested that it was the Celtic New Year, in the 9th century AD, Western Christianity shifted the date of All Saints Day to 1 November, while 2 November later became All Souls Day. Over time, Samhain and All Saints/All Souls merged to create the modern Halloween, historians have used the name Samhain to refer to Gaelic Halloween customs up until the 19th century. Since the later 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Samhain, or something based on it, Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere often celebrate Samhain at the other end of the year. In Modern Irish the name is Samhain, in Scottish Gaelic Samhainn/Samhuinn and these are also the names of November in each language, shortened from Mí na Samhna, Mì na Samhna and Mee Houney. The night of 31 October is Oíche Shamhna, Oidhche Shamhna and Oie Houney,1 November, or the whole festival, may be called Lá Samhna, Là Samhna and Laa Houney, all meaning Samhain day
18.
Beltane
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Beltane is the anglicised name for the Gaelic May Day festival. Most commonly it is held on 1 May, or about halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Irish the name for the day is Lá Bealtaine, in Scottish Gaelic Là Bealltainn. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals—along with Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and it is associated with important events in Irish mythology. It marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures, rituals were performed to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers, the people and their cattle would walk around the bonfire or between two bonfires, and sometimes leap over the flames or embers. All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire and these gatherings would be accompanied by a feast, and some of the food and drink would be offered to the aos sí. Doors, windows, byres and the cattle themselves would be decorated with yellow May flowers, in parts of Ireland, people would make a May Bush, a thorn bush decorated with flowers, ribbons and bright shells. Holy wells were visited, while Beltane dew was thought to bring beauty. Many of these customs were part of May Day or Midsummer festivals in other parts of Great Britain, Beltane celebrations had largely died out by the mid-20th century, although some of its customs continued and in some places it has been revived as a cultural event. Since the late 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Beltane, or something based on it, Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere often celebrate Beltane at the other end of the year. Beltane was one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals, Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, Beltane marked the beginning of the pastoral summer season, when livestock were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were held at time to protect them from harm. There were also rituals to protect crops, dairy products and people, the aos sí were thought to be especially active at Beltane and the goal of many Beltane rituals was to appease them. Most scholars see the aos sí as remnants of the pagan gods, Beltaine was a spring time festival of optimism during which fertility ritual again was important, perhaps connecting with the waxing power of the sun. Beltane and Samhain are thought to have been the most important of the four Gaelic festivals, thus, he suggests that halving the year at 1 May and 1 November dates from a time when the Celts were mainly a pastoral people, dependent on their herds. The earliest mention of Beltane is in Old Irish literature from Gaelic Ireland, according to the early medieval texts Sanas Cormaic and Tochmarc Emire, Beltane was held on 1 May and marked the beginning of summer. The texts say that, to cattle from disease, the druids would make two fires with great incantations and drive the cattle between them
19.
Midsummer
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The exact dates vary between different cultures. The Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian martyr St John the Baptist, and these are commemorated by many Christian denominations. In Sweden the Midsummer is such an important festivity that there have been discussions to make the Midsummers Eve into the National Day of Sweden. It may also be referred to as St. Hans Day, european midsummer-related holidays, traditions, and celebrations are pre-Christian in origin. The fire festival or Litha – Summer solstice – is a tradition for many neopagans, Solstice celebrations still centered on the day of the astronomical summer solstice. Some choose to hold the rite on June 21, even when this is not the longest day of the year, and some celebrate June 24, in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Quebec, the traditional Midsummer day, June 24, is a public holiday. So it was also in Sweden and Finland, but in these countries it was, in the 1950s. In Wicca, practitioners celebrate on the longest day and shortest night of the year which has not had a set date since the retirement of the 13-month Celtic calendar, the celebration of Midsummers Eve was from ancient times a festival of the summer solstice. Bonfires were lit to protect against evil spirits which were believed to roam freely when the sun was turning southward again, in later years, witches were also thought to be on their way to meetings with other powerful beings. The solstice itself has remained a special moment of the cycle of the year since Neolithic times. In Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Estonia, Midsummers Eve is the greatest festival of the year, comparable only with Walpurgis Night, Christmas Eve, Ancient Romans would hold a festival to honor the god Summanus on June 20. In the 7th century, Saint Eligius warned the recently converted inhabitants of Flanders against the pagan solstice celebrations. According to the Vita by his companion Ouen, hed say, on St. Johns Eve in certain regions the boys collect bones and certain other rubbish, and burn them, and therefrom a smoke is produced on the air. They also make brands and go about the fields with the brands, thirdly, the wheel which they roll. The fires, explained the monk of Winchcombe, were to drive away dragons, on St Johns Day 1333 Petrarch watched women at Cologne rinsing their hands and arms in the Rhine so that the threatening calamities of the coming year might be washed away by bathing in the river. In Austria the midsummer solstice is celebrated each year with a procession of ships down the Danube River as it flows through the wine-growing Wachau Valley just north of Vienna. Up to 30 ships sail down the river in line as fireworks erupt from the banks and hill tops while bonfires blaze, lighted castle ruins also erupt with fireworks during the 90-minute cruise downstream. This nationwide festival, called Festa Junina, or São João, rural life is celebrated through typical clothing, food, and dance
20.
Tumulus
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A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or kurgans, a cairn, which is a mound of stones built for various purposes, may also originally have been a tumulus. Tumuli are often categorised according to their external apparent shape, in this respect, a long barrow is a long tumulus, usually constructed on top of several burials, such as passage graves. A round barrow is a tumulus, also commonly constructed on top of burials. The internal structure and architecture of both long and round barrows has a range, the categorization only refers to the external apparent shape. The method of inhumation may involve a dolmen, a cist, a mortuary enclosure, examples of barrows include Duggleby Howe and Maeshowe. The funeral of Patroclus is described in book 23 of the Iliad, Patroclus is burned on a pyre, and his bones are collected into a golden urn in two layers of fat. The barrow is built on the location of the pyre, achilles then sponsors funeral games, consisting of a chariot race, boxing, wrestling, running, a duel between two champions to the first blood, discus throwing, archery and spear throwing. Beowulfs body is taken to Hronesness, where it is burned on a funeral pyre, during cremation, the Geats lament the death of their lord, a widows lament being mentioned in particular, singing dirges as they circumambulate the barrow. Afterwards, a mound is built on top of a hill, overlooking the sea, a band of twelve of the best warriors ride around the barrow, singing dirges in praise of their lord. Parallels have also drawn to the account of Attilas burial in Jordanes Getica. Jordanes tells that as Attilas body was lying in state, the best horsemen of the Huns circled it, as in circus games. An Old Irish Life of Columcille reports that every funeral procession halted at a mound called Eala, whereupon the corpse was laid, archaeologists often classify tumuli according to their location, form, and date of construction. Some British types are listed below, Bank barrow Bell barrow Bowl barrow D-shaped barrow - round barrow with a flat edge at one side often defined by stone slabs. Disc barrow Fancy barrow - generic term for any Bronze Age barrows more elaborate than a hemispherical shape. Long barrow Oval barrow - a Neolithic long barrow consisting of an elliptical, platform barrow - The least common of the recognised types of round barrow, consisting of a flat, wide circular mound that may be surrounded by a ditch. They occur widely across southern England with a concentration in East and West Sussex. Pond barrow - a barrow consisting of a circular depression, surrounded by a bank running around the rim of the depression
21.
Mythology
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Mythology refers variously to the collected myths of a group of people or to the study of such myths. Myths are the people tell to explain nature, history. Myth is a feature of every culture, mythologizing continues, as shown in contemporary mythopoeia such as urban legends and the expansive fictional mythoi created by fantasy novels and comics. A cultures collective mythology helps convey belonging, shared and religious experiences, behavioral models, the study of myth began in ancient history. Rival classes of the Greek myths by Euhemerus, Plato and Sallustius were developed by the Neoplatonists, the nineteenth-century comparative mythology reinterpreted myth as a primitive and failed counterpart of science, a disease of language, or a misinterpretation of magical ritual. Recent approaches often view myths as manifestations of psychological, cultural, or societal truths, the term mythology predates the word myth by centuries. It first appeared in the fifteenth-century, borrowed from the Middle French term mythologie, the word mythology, comes from Middle French mythologie, from Late Latin mythologia, from Greek μυθολογία mythología from μῦθος mythos and -λογία -logia. The word mythología appears in Plato, but was used as a term for fiction or story-telling of any kind, combining mỹthos. From Lydgate until the seventeenth or eighteenth-century, mythology was similarly used to mean a moral, fable, from its earliest use in reference to a collection of traditional stories or beliefs, mythology implied the falsehood of the stories being described. It came to be applied by analogy with similar bodies of traditional stories among other cultures around the world. The Greek loanword mythos and Latinate mythus both appeared in English before the first example of myth in 1830, in present use, mythology usually refers to the collected myths of a group of people, but may also mean the study of such myths. For example, Greek mythology, Roman mythology and Hittite mythology all describe the body of myths retold among those cultures, dundes defined myth as a sacred narrative that explains how the world and humanity evolved into their present form. Lincoln defined myth as ideology in narrative form, scholars in other fields use the term myth in varied ways. In a broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story, due to this pejorative sense, some scholars opted for the term mythos. Its use was similarly pejorative and now commonly refers to its Aristotelian sense as a plot point or to a collective mythology. The term is distinguished from didactic literature such as fables. Main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods or supernatural humans, however, many exceptions or combinations exist, as in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid. Myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and are linked to religion or spirituality
22.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
23.
Hesiod
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Hesiod was a Greek poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded as the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard himself as a persona with an active role to play in his subject. Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs, modern scholars refer to him as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought, archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping. The dating of his life is an issue in scholarly circles. Epic narrative allowed poets like Homer no opportunity for personal revelations, however, Hesiods extant work comprises didactic poems in which he went out of his way to let his audience in on a few details of his life. There are three references in Works and Days, as well as some passages in his Theogony that support inferences made by scholars. Some scholars have seen Perses as a creation, a foil for the moralizing that Hesiod develops in Works and Days. Gregory Nagy, on the hand, sees both Persēs and Hēsiodos as fictitious names for poetical personae. The family association with Cyme might explain his familiarity with eastern myths, evident in his poems, however, while his poetry features some Aeolisms there are no words that are certainly Boeotian—he composed in the main literary dialect of the time, Ionian. Pausanias asserted that Boeotians showed him an old tablet made of lead on which the Works were engraved. If he did write or dictate, it was perhaps as an aid to memory or because he lacked confidence in his ability to produce poems extempore and it certainly wasnt in a quest for immortal fame since poets in his era had no such notions. However, some suspect the presence of large-scale changes in the text. Possibly he composed his verses during idle times on the farm and he was in fact a misogynist of the same calibre as the later poet, Semonides. He resembles Solon in his preoccupation with issues of good versus evil and how a just and he resembles Aristophanes in his rejection of the idealised hero of epic literature in favour of an idealised view of the farmer. Yet the fact that he could eulogise kings in Theogony and denounce them as corrupt in Works, two different—yet early—traditions record the site of Hesiods grave. This tradition follows a familiar ironic convention, the oracle that predicts accurately after all, the other tradition, first mentioned in an epigram by Chersias of Orchomenus written in the 7th century BC claims that Hesiod lies buried at Orchomenus, a town in Boeotia. Eventually they came to regard Hesiod too as their hearth-founder, later writers attempted to harmonize these two accounts. Greeks in the fifth and early 4th centuries BC considered their oldest poets to be Orpheus, Musaeus, Hesiod
24.
Works and Days
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The Works and Days is a didactic poem of some 800 lines written by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod around 700 BCE. At its center, the Works and Days is an almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the agricultural arts. Scholars have seen this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainland Greece, in the poem Hesiod also offers his brother extensive moralizing advice on how he should live his life. In the Works and Days, Hesiod describes himself as the heir of a farm bequeathed to him, however, Perses apparently squandered his wealth and came back for what is owned by Hesiod. Perses went to law and bribed the lords to judge in his favour, the poem contains a sharp attack against unjust judges like those who decided in favour of Perses, they are depicted as pocketing bribes as they render their unfair verdicts. Like the Theogony, the Works and Days begins with an invocation to the Muses, albeit much shorter. The poet invokes the Pierian Muses to sing of their father Zeus, Hesiod then appeals to Zeus to guide his undertaking, Hearken, seeing and hearing, and through justice put straight the laws, and may I speak the truth to Perses. Hesiod begins the poem proper by directly engaging with the content of the Theogony, family business follows, as Hesiod implores his brother to join him in sorting out their fraternal discord through the justice of Zeus. It comes out that they had divided their patrimony. The first lesson is why the immortals keep an easy livelihood hidden from mankind, in the Works and Days Hesiod proceeds directly to the theft of fire and punishment. Zeus instructed the gods to build an evil for mankind, that is, Pandora, whom Prometheus brother Epimetheus accepted from Hermes despite his brothers warnings never to accept gifts from the gods. Before Pandoras arrival, man had lived free from evils, toil and illness, but she had given a jar which contained all these curses. The Myth of the Ages follows, in the Hesiodic scheme there were five ages of mankind, the Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Heroic Age and the present age, that of Iron. Race of gold man lived in the time of Cronus, an age of plenty and peace, for the earth gave for all their needs of its own accord, Golden Age man never aged, and when they died they went as though to sleep. When this age came to an end, its population became guardians of mankind, protecting them from evils, the Silver Age was much worse than the Golden, both in stature and temperament. They lived as children with their mothers for a hundred years, once they came of age, they lived but a brief time, suffering because of their foolishness. They fought with one another and did not mind the gods, angry at their impiety, Zeus destroyed the race, still, they are granted the honor of being called chthonic blessed mortals. The Bronze Race was fearsome and warlike and their weapons were bronze, they lived in bronze houses and worked in bronze, black iron did not exist yet
25.
Proto-Indo-Europeans
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The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the prehistoric people of Eurasia who spoke Proto-Indo-European, the ancestor of the Indo-European languages according to linguistic reconstruction. Knowledge of them comes chiefly from that reconstruction, along with evidence from archaeology. The Proto-Indo-Europeans likely lived during the late Neolithic, or roughly the 4th millennium BCE, mainstream scholarship places them in the forest-steppe zone immediately to the north of the western end of the Pontic-Caspian steppe in Eastern Europe. Some archaeologists would extend the depth of PIE to the middle Neolithic or even the early Neolithic. They had domesticated horses – *eḱwos, the cow played a central role, in religion and mythology as well as in daily life. A mans wealth would have been measured by the number of his animals, as for technology, reconstruction indicates a culture of the late Neolithic bordering on the early Bronze Age, with tools and weapons very likely composed of natural bronze. Silver and gold were known, but not silver smelting, thus suggesting that silver was imported, sheep were kept for wool, and textiles were woven. The wheel was known, certainly for ox-drawn wagons and they practiced a polytheistic religion centered on sacrificial rites, probably administered by a priestly caste. Important leaders would have been buried with their belongings in kurgans, many Indo-European societies know a threefold division of priests, a warrior class, and a class of peasants or husbandmen. Georges Dumézil has suggested such a division for Proto-Indo-European society, if there was a separate class of warriors, it probably consisted of single young men. They would have followed a separate warrior code unacceptable in the society outside their peer-group, traces of initiation rites in several Indo-European societies suggest that this group identified itself with wolves or dogs. Researchers have made attempts to identify particular prehistoric cultures with the Proto-Indo-European-speaking peoples. The scholars of the 19th century who first tackled the question of the Indo-Europeans original homeland, had essentially only linguistic evidence and they attempted a rough localization by reconstructing the names of plants and animals as well as the culture and technology. In the early 20th century, the question became associated with the expansion of a supposed Aryan race, a fallacy promoted during the expansion of European empires, the question remains contentious within some flavours of ethnic nationalism. A series of major advances occurred in the 1970s due to the convergence of several factors, first, the radiocarbon dating method had become sufficiently inexpensive to be applied on a mass scale. Through dendrochronology, pre-historians could calibrate radiocarbon dates to a higher degree of accuracy. The Kurgan hypothesis, as of 2017 the most widely held theory, depends on linguistic and archaeological evidence and it suggests PIE origin in the Pontic-Caspian steppe during the Chalcolithic. A minority of scholars prefer the Anatolian hypothesis, suggesting an origin in Anatolia during the Neolithic, other theories have only marginal scholarly support
26.
Norse activity in the British Isles
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Norse activity in the British Isles occurred during the Early Medieval period when members of the Norse populations of Scandinavia travelled to Britain and Ireland to settle, trade or raid. These trade links also extended westward into Ireland and the British Isles, the following year they sacked the nearby Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey, and in 795 they attacked again, this time raiding Iona Abbey on Scotlands west coast. During the Early Medieval period, Ireland and Britain were culturally, linguistically and religiously divided into various peoples, the languages of the Celtic Britons and Gaels were descended from the Celtic languages spoken by those of Iron Age Europe. In Ireland, parts of western Scotland, as well as the Isle of Man, in Western Britain, which includes, Cornwall, Cumbria, Wales, and Southwest Scotland, the Celtic Brythonic languages were spoken, with modern descendants such as Welsh and Cornish still being used. In Northern Britain, past the Forth and Clyde rivers which constitutes a portion of modern-day Scotland. However, most inscriptions and place names hint towards the Picts being Celtic in language, most peoples of Britain and Ireland had already predominantly converted to Christianity from their older, pre-Christian polytheistic religions. By the time of the Viking incursions though, Anglo-Saxon England had too become mostly Christian, the Isle of Man had supported its own agrarian population, but it is widely believed that it was Brythonic-speaking before Old Irish spread there. Gaelicisation could have taken place before the Viking age or perhaps during it, in northern Britain, in the area roughly the same of modern-day Scotland, lived three distinct ethnic groups in their own respective kingdoms, the Picts, Scots and Britons. The Pictish cultural group dominated the majority of Scotland, with populations concentrated between the Firth of Forth and the River Dee, as well as in Sutherland, Caithness. The Scots were, according to sources, a tribal group which had crossed to Britain from Dalriada in the north of Ireland during the late 5th century. Archaeologists have not been able to anything that was unique to the kingdom of the Scots. Between half a million and a million lived in England at this time. This class system had a king and his ealdormen at the top, under whom were the thegns, or landholders, beneath all of these was a class of slaves, who may have made up as much as a quarter of the population. The majority of the lived in the countryside, although a few large towns had developed, namely London and York. There was also a number of trading ports, such as Hamwic and Ipswich, society in 8th century Scandinavia was, unlike parts of the British Isles, still pre-literate, existing in the final stages of European prehistory, known to archaeologists as the Iron Age. At the start of the Early Mediaeval period, the Norse populations saw themselves primarily as inhabitants of specific locations, such as Jutland, Vestfold and Hordaland. It would only be in the centuries that the national identities would develop amongst the Scandinavians, dividing them into such national groups as the Danes, Swedes. Scandinavian society was dependent on fishing herring, and when that failed
27.
Changeling
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A changeling is a creature found in folklore and folk religion. A changeling child was believed to be a child that had been left in place of a human child stolen by the fairies. The theme of the child is common in medieval literature and reflects concern over infants thought to be afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders. It is typically described as being the offspring of a fairy, Sometimes the term is also used to refer to the child who was taken. The apparent changeling could also be a stock or fetch, a piece of wood that would soon appear to grow sick. The theme of the child is common among medieval literature and reflects concern over infants thought to be afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders. A human child might be due to many factors, to act as a servant. Most often it was thought that fairies exchanged the children, in rare cases, the very elderly of the Fairy people would be exchanged in the place of a human baby, and then the old fairy could live in comfort, being coddled by its human parents. Simple charms, such as a coat or open iron scissors left where the child sleeps, were thought to ward them off. D. L. Ashliman points out that changeling tales illustrate an aspect of survival in pre-industrial Europe. A peasant familys subsistence frequently depended upon the labor of each member. Changeling tales support other historical evidence in suggesting that infanticide was not infrequently the solution selected, one belief is that trolls thought that it was more respectable to be raised by humans and that they wanted to give their own children a human upbringing. Some people believed that trolls would take unbaptized children, once children had been baptized and therefore become part of the Church, the trolls could not take them. Beauty in human children and young women, particularly blond hair, was said to attract the fairies, in Scottish folklore, the children might be replacements for fairy children in the tithe to Hell, this is best known from the ballad of Tam Lin. According to common Scottish myths, a child born with a caul across his or her face is a changeling, other folklore say that human milk is necessary for fairy children to survive. It is also thought that human midwives were necessary to bring babies into the world. Some stories tell of changelings who forget they are not human, Changelings which do not forget, however, in some stories return to their fairy family, possibly leaving the human family without warning. The human child that was taken may often stay with the family forever
28.
Western Europe
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Western Europe, or West Europe, is the region comprising the western part of Europe. Below, some different geographic and geopolitical definitions of the term are outlined, prior to the Roman conquest, a large part of Western Europe had adopted the newly developed La Tène culture. This cultural and linguistic division was reinforced by the later political east-west division of the Roman Empire. The division between these two was enhanced during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by a number of events, the Western Roman Empire collapsed, starting the Early Middle Ages. By contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire, mostly known as the Greek or Byzantine Empire, survived, in East Asia, Western Europe was historically known as taixi in China and taisei in Japan, which literally translates as the Far West. The term Far West became synonymous with Western Europe in China during the Ming dynasty, the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci was one of the first writers in China to use the Far West as an Asian counterpart to the European concept of the Far East. In his writings, Ricci referred to himself as Matteo of the Far West, the term was still in use in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Post-war Europe would be divided into two spheres, the West, influenced by the United States, and the Eastern Bloc. With the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain, behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Although some countries were neutral, they were classified according to the nature of their political. This division largely defined the popular perception and understanding of Western Europe, the world changed dramatically with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The Federal Republic of Germany peacefully absorbed the German Democratic Republic, COMECON and the Warsaw Pact were dissolved, and in 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Several countries which had part of the Soviet Union regained full independence. Although the term Western Europe was more prominent during the Cold War, it remains much in use, in 1948 the Treaty of Brussels was signed between Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It was further revisited in 1954 at the Paris Conference, when the Western European Union was established and it was declared defunct in 2011, after the Treaty of Lisbon, and the Treaty of Brussels was terminated. When the Western European Union was dissolved, it had 10 member countries, six member countries, five observer countries. The CIA divides Western Europe into two smaller subregions, regional voting blocs were formed in 1961 to encourage voting to various UN bodies from different regional groups. The European Union is an economic and political union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe, some Western and Northern European countries of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are members of EFTA, though cooperating to varying degree with the European Union
29.
Folklore
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Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. These include oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes and they include material culture, ranging from traditional building styles to handmade toys common to the group. Folklore also includes customary lore, the forms and rituals of celebrations like Christmas and weddings, folk dances, each one of these, either singly or in combination, is considered a folklore artifact. Just as essential as the form, folklore also encompasses the transmission of these artifacts from one region to another or from one generation to the next, for folklore is not taught in a formal school curriculum or studied in the fine arts. Instead these traditions are passed along informally from one individual to another either through verbal instruction or demonstration, the academic study of folklore is called folkloristics. To fully understand folklore, it is helpful to clarify its component parts and it is well-documented that the term was coined in 1846 by the Englishman William Thoms. He fabricated it to replace the contemporary terminology of popular antiquities or popular literature, the second half of the compound word, lore, proves easier to define as its meaning has stayed relatively stable over the last two centuries. Coming from Old English lār instruction, and with German and Dutch cognates, it is the knowledge and traditions of a particular group, the concept of folk proves somewhat more elusive. When Thoms first created this term, folk applied only to rural, frequently poor, a more modern definition of folk is a social group which includes two or more persons with common traits, who express their shared identity through distinctive traditions. Folk is a concept which can refer to a nation as in American folklore or to a single family. This expanded social definition of folk supports a view of the material, i. e. the lore. These now include all things people make with words, things they make with their hands, Folklore is no longer circumscribed as being chronologically old or obsolete. The folklorist studies the traditional artifacts of a group and how they are transmitted. Transmission is a part of the folklore process. Without communicating these beliefs and customs within the group over space and time, for folklore is also a verb. These folk artifacts continue to be passed along informally, as a rule anonymously, the folk group is not individualistic, it is community-based and nurtures its lore in community. As new groups emerge, new folklore is created… surfers, motorcyclists, in direct contrast to high culture, where any single work of a named artist is protected by copyright law, folklore is a function of shared identity within the social group. Having identified folk artifacts, the professional folklorist strives to understand the significance of these beliefs, customs, for these cultural units would not be passed along unless they had some continued relevance within the group
30.
Banshee
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A banshee is a female spirit in Irish mythology who heralds the death of a family member, usually by shrieking or keening. Her name is connected to the mythologically-important tumuli or mounds that dot the Irish countryside, the banshee is often described in Gaelic lore as wearing red or green, usually with long, disheveled hair. She can appear in a variety of forms, perhaps most often she is seen as an ugly, frightful hag, but she can also appear young and beautiful if she chooses. In some tales, the figure who first appears to be a banshee or other cailleach is later revealed to be the Irish battle goddess, Morrígan. In Ireland and parts of Scotland, a part of mourning is the keening woman. This keening woman may in some cases be a professional, if someone is about to enter a situation where it is unlikely they will come out of alive she will warn people by screaming or wailing. Hence why a banshee is also known as a wailing woman, one account, however, also included the Geraldines, as they had apparently become more Irish than the Irish themselves. When several banshees appear at once, it indicates the death of great or holy. The tales sometimes recounted that the woman, though called a fairy, was a ghost, often of a murdered woman. The Ua Briain banshee is thought to be named Aibell and the ruler of 25 other banshees who would always be at her attendance and it is possible that this particular story is the source of the idea that the wailing of numerous banshees signifies the death of a great person. Accounts reach as far back as 1380 to the publication of the Cathreim Thoirdhealbhaigh by Sean mac Craith, mentions of banshees can also be found in Norman literature of that time. In some parts of Leinster, she is referred to as the bean chaointe whose wail can be so piercing that it shatters glass. In Scottish folklore, a creature is known as the bean nighe or ban nigheachain or nigheag na h-àth and is seen washing the bloodstained clothes or armour of those who are about to die. In Welsh folklore, a creature is known as the hag of the mist. Prudence Corliss also known as Desirae Turley is a 13th century banshee from the The Corliss Chronicles stories, born in Messina, Italy but after receiving dreams of the cu sith a harbinger of death from Irish folklore moved to Fearnan, Scotland. Cris de vie, cris de mort, Les fées du destin dans les pays celtiques, an encyclopedia of fairies, Hobgoblins, brownies, bogies, and other supernatural creatures. The Fairy-Faith in celtic countries, its origin and nature
31.
Armour
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Personal armour is used to protect soldiers and war animals. Vehicle armour is used on warships and armoured fighting vehicles, a second use of the term armour describes armoured forces, armoured weapons, and their role in combat. After the evolution of armoured warfare, mechanised infantry and their weapons came to be referred to collectively as armour, the word armour began to appear in the Middle Ages as a derivative of Old French. It is dated from 1297 as a mail, defensive covering worn in combat, the word originates from the Old French armure, itself derived from the Latin armatura meaning arms and/or equipment, with the root armare meaning arms or gear. Armour has been used throughout recorded history and it has been made from a variety of materials, beginning with rudimentary leather protection and evolving through mail and metal plate into todays modern composites. For much of history the manufacture of metal personal armour has dominated the technology. Its production was influential in the revolution, and furthered commercial development of metallurgy. Armour was the single most influential factor in the development of firearms, significant factors in the development of armour include the economic and technological necessities of its production. For instance, plate armour first appeared in Medieval Europe when water-powered trip hammers made the formation of plates faster and cheaper, also, modern militaries usually do not equip their forces with the best armour available because it would be prohibitively expensive. The samurai warriors of feudal Japan utilised many types of armour for hundreds of years up to the 19th century, Japanese lamellar armour passed through Korea and reached Japan around the 5th century. These early Japanese lamellar armours took the form of a sleeveless jacket, armour did not always cover all of the body, sometimes no more than a helmet and leg plates were worn. The rest of the body was protected by means of a large shield. Examples of armies equipping their troops in this fashion were the Aztecs, in East Asia many types of armour were commonly used at different times by various cultures including, scale armour, lamellar armour, laminar armour, plated mail, mail, plate armour and brigandine. Around the dynastic Tang, Song, and early Ming Period, cuirasses and plates were also used, the Chinese, during that time used partial plates for important body parts instead of covering their whole body since too much plate armour hinders their martial arts movement. The other body parts were covered in cloth, leather, lamellar, in pre-Qin dynasty times, leather armour was made out of various animals, with more exotic ones such as the rhinoceros. Mail, sometimes called chainmail, made of interlocking iron rings is believed to have first appeared some time after 300 BC and its invention is credited to the Celts, the Romans were thought to have adopted their design. Gradually, small plates or discs of iron were added to the mail to protect vulnerable areas. Hardened leather and splinted construction were used for arm and leg pieces, the coat of plates was developed, an armour made of large plates sewn inside a textile or leather coat
32.
Ulster
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Ulster is a province in the north of the island of Ireland. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a rí ruirech, the definition of the province was fluid from early to medieval times. It took a shape in the reign of King James I of England when all the counties of Ireland were eventually shired. This process of evolving conquest had been under way since the Norman invasion of Ireland, particularly as advanced by the Cambro-Norman magnates Hugh de Lacy, Ulster was a central topic role in the parliamentary debates that eventually resulted in the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Under the terms of the Act, Ireland was divided into two territories, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, with the passing through the province. While these six counties and two boroughs were all in the province of Ulster, three other counties of the province – Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan – were assigned to the Irish Free State. Ulster has no function for local government purposes in either country. However, for the purposes of ISO-3166-2, Ulster is used to refer to the three counties of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan only, which are given country sub-division code IE-U. It has also suggested to have derived from Uladh plus the Norse suffix ster. The Irish name, Cúige Uladh, means the province of the Ulaid, the Ulaidh were a group of tribes who dwelt in the region. Ulaidh has historically been anglicised as Ulagh or Ullagh and Latinised as Ulidia or Ultonia, the latter two have yielded the terms Ulidian and Ultonian. Words that have used in English are Ullish and Ulsterman/Ulsterwoman. Northern Ireland is often referred to as Ulster, despite including only six of Ulsters nine counties and this usage is most common amongst people in Northern Ireland who are unionist, although it is also used by the media throughout the United Kingdom. Most Irish nationalists object to the use of Ulster in this context, Ulster has a population of just over 2 million people and an area of 21,552 square kilometres. About 62% of the area of Ulster is in the UK while the remaining 38% is in the Republic of Ireland. Ulsters biggest city, Belfast, has an population of over half a million inhabitants, making it the second-largest city on the island of Ireland. Three Ulster counties – Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan – form part of the Republic of Ireland, about half of Ulsters population lives in counties Antrim and Down. 8% to 42. 7%. While the traditional counties continue to demarcate areas of government in the Republic of Ireland
