1.
The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon
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The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon is a painting by Edward Burne-Jones, started in 1881. The massive painting measures 279 cm ×650 cm, and is considered to be Burne-Joness magnum opus. The painting was commissioned from Burne-Jones by his patron George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle. Howard shared Burne-Joness affection for the Arthurian legend and left the choice of topic to the artist, Burne-Jones started working on it in 1881 and continued for 17 years. Within this period, he designed the stage set for the play King Arthur by J. Comyns Carr that premiered in London in January 1895. The 1880s brought the deaths of Burne-Joness close friends, as they died, the artist experienced mounting isolation and painful awareness of his own mortality. Immersed in his work, Burne-Jones identified himself with Arthur and even adopted Arthurs pose when he himself slept, Howard agreed to cancellation and never requested his downpayment back. Nevertheless, Burne-Jones returned to the grand painting, and worked on it for the remaining thirteen years of his life. Arthur became increasingly autobiographical for the artist as he withdrew into himself, how is it you are in Avalon, where I have striven to be with all my might — and how did you get there and how does Arthur the King. However, Debra Mancoff argues that there is no record of Morris posing as Arthur, Morris died in 1896, Burne-Jones lived for two more years and died before the painting was complete. Just one day before his death Burne-Jones continued work on Arthur, towards the end of his life he wrote, I need nothing but my hands and my brain to fashion myself a world to live in that nothing can disturb. In my own land I am king of it and his widow described Arthur as a task of love to which put no limit of time or labor. Ferré, a politician and founder of the Ponce Museum of Art who would later become Governor of Puerto Rico, Burne-Jones was out of fashion at this time so its export was allowed despite some objections. The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon is owned by the Ponce Museum of Art in Puerto Rico, however, it was shown for a short time at the Tate Britain in London while the Ponce museum underwent restoration in 2009-2010. The painting was on view at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Victorian Painting from The Museo de Arte de Ponce. Burne-Jones, An Illustrated Life of Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Sleep, Death and Awakening in Late Works by Edward Burne-Jones. Biographical Passages, Essays in Victorian and Modernist Biography, wildman, Stephen, Edward Burne-Jones, Victorian artist-dreamer, Metropolitan Museum of Art,1998, ISBN 0-87099-859-5
2.
Edward Burne-Jones
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Burne-Joness early paintings show the heavy inspiration of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but by the 1860s Burne-Jones was discovering his own artistic voice. In 1877, he was persuaded to show eight oil paintings at the Grosvenor Gallery and these included The Beguiling of Merlin. The timing was right, and he was taken up as a herald, Edward Coley Burne Jones was born in Birmingham, the son of a Welshman, Edward Richard Jones, a frame-maker at Bennetts Hill, where a blue plaque commemorates the painters childhood. He attended Birminghams King Edward VI grammar school from 1844 and the Birmingham School of Art from 1848 to 1852, before studying theology at Exeter College, at Oxford he became a friend of William Morris as a consequence of a mutual interest in poetry. The members of the Brotherhood read John Ruskin and Tennyson, visited churches, at this time Burne-Jones discovered Thomas Malorys Le Morte dArthur which was to be so influential in his life. In February 1857, Rossetti wrote to William Bell Scott In 1856 Burne-Jones became engaged to Georgiana Georgie MacDonald and she was training to be a painter, and was the sister of Burne-Joness old school friend. The couple married in 1860, after which she made her own work in woodcuts, Georgiana bore a son, Philip, in 1861. A second son, born in the winter of 1864 while Georgiana was gravely ill with scarlet fever, the family soon moved to 41 Kensington Square, and their daughter Margaret was born there in 1866. In 1867 Burne-Jones and his family settled at the Grange, an 18th-century house set in a garden in North End, Fulham. During these difficult years Georgiana developed a friendship with Morris. Morris and Georgie may have been in love, but if he asked her to leave her husband, in the end, the Burne-Joneses remained together, as did the Morrises, but Morris and Georgiana were close for the rest of their lives. His troubled son Philip, who became a portrait painter. His adored daughter Margaret married John William Mackail, the friend and biographer of Morris and their children were the novelists Angela Thirkell and Denis Mackail. In an edition of the magazine, Chums, an article on Burne-Jones stated that. his pet grandson used to be punished by being sent to stand in a corner with his face to the wall. One day on being sent there he was delighted to find the wall prettily decorated with fairies, flowers, birds and his indulgent grandfather had utilised his talent to alleviate the tedium of his favourites period of penance. Burne-Jones once admitted that after leaving Oxford he found himself at five-and-twenty what he ought to have been at fifteen and he had had no regular training as a draughtsman, and lacked the confidence of science. Many are pen-and-ink drawings on vellum, exquisitely finished, of which his Waxen Image is one of the earliest and best examples, although the subject, medium and manner derive from Rossettis inspiration, it is not the hand of a pupil merely, but of a potential master. This was recognized by Rossetti himself, who before long avowed that he had nothing more to teach him
3.
Historia Regum Britanniae
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Historia regum Britanniae, originally called De gestis Britonum, is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It is one of the pieces of the Matter of Britain. Although credited uncritically well into the 16th century, it is now considered to have no value as history, when events described, such as Julius Caesars invasions of Britain, can be corroborated from contemporary histories, Geoffreys account can be seen to be wildly inaccurate. Yet the deeds of men were such that they deserve to be praised for all time. He also cites Gildas and Bede as sources, then follows a dedication to Robert, earl of Gloucester and Waleran, count of Meulan, whom he enjoins to use their knowledge and wisdom to improve his tale. The Historia itself begins with the Trojan Aeneas, who according to Roman legend settled in Italy after the Trojan War and his great-grandson Brutus is banished, and, after a period of wandering, is directed by the goddess Diana to settle on an island in the western ocean. Brutus lands at Totnes and names the island, then called Albion, Brutus defeats the giants who are the only inhabitants of the island, and establishes his capital, Troia Nova, on the banks of the Thames, after his time it is renamed London. When Brutus dies, his three sons, Locrinus, Kamber and Albanactus, divide the county between themselves, the three kingdoms are named Loegria, Kambria and Albany. The story then progresses rapidly through the reigns of the descendants of Locrinus, including Bladud, bladuds son Leir reigns for sixty years. He has no sons, so upon reaching old age he decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia, to decide who should get the largest share, he asks his daughters how much they love him. Goneril and Regan give extravagant answers, but Cordelia answers simply and sincerely, angered, Goneril and Regan are to share half the island with their husbands, the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall. Cordelia marries Aganippus, King of the Franks, and departs for Gaul, soon Goneril and Regan and their husbands rebel and take the whole kingdom. After Leir has had all his attendants taken from him, he begins to regret his actions towards Cordelia, Cordelia receives him compassionately and restores his royal robes and retinue. Aganippus raises a Gaulish army for Leir, who returns to Britain, defeats his sons-in-law, Leir rules for three years and then dies, Cordelia inherits the throne and rules for five years before Marganus and Cunedagius, her sisters sons, rebel against her. They imprison Cordelia, grief-stricken, she kills herself, Marganus and Cunedagius divide the kingdom between themselves, but soon quarrel and go to war with each other. Cunedagius eventually kills Marganus in Wales and retains the whole kingdom and he is succeeded by his son. A later descendant of Cunedagius, King Gorboduc, has two sons called Ferreux and Porrex and they quarrel and both are eventually killed, sparking a civil war. This leads to Britain being ruled by five kings, who keep attacking each other, dunvallo Molmutius, the son of the King of Cornwall, becomes pre-eminent
4.
Geoffrey of Monmouth
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Geoffrey of Monmouth was a British cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle The History of the Kings of Britain and it was credited, uncritically, well into the 16th century, but is now considered historically unreliable. Geoffrey was probably some time between 1100 and 1110 in Wales or the Welsh Marches. He must have reached the age of majority by 1129, when he is recorded as witnessing a charter. In his Historia, Geoffrey refers to himself as Galfridus Monemutensis, Geoffrey of Monmouth, which indicates a significant connection to Monmouth, Wales, Geoffreys works attest to some acquaintance with the place-names of the region. To contemporaries, Geoffrey was known as Galfridus Artur or variants thereof, the Arthur in these versions of his name may indicate the name of his father, or a nickname based on Geoffreys scholarly interests. Earlier scholars assumed that Geoffrey was Welsh or at least spoke Welsh and it has been argued, by Frank Stenton among others, that Geoffreys parents may have been among the many Bretons who took part in William Is Conquest and settled in the southeast of Wales. Monmouth had been in the hands of Breton lords since 1075 or 1086 and he may have served for a while in a Benedictine priory in Monmouth, but most of his adult life appears to have been spent outside Wales. Between 1129 and 1151 his name appears on six charters in the Oxford area and he was probably a secular canon of St. Georges college. All the charters signed by Geoffrey are also signed by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, another frequent co-signatory is Ralph of Monmouth, a canon of Lincoln. On 24 February 1152, at Lambeth, Archbishop Theobald consecrated Geoffrey as Bishop of St Asaph, there is no evidence that he ever visited his see, writes Lewis Thorpe, and indeed the wars of Owain Gwynedd make this most unlikely. He appears to have died between 25 December 1154 and 24 December 1155, in 1155 according to Welsh chronicles, when his apparent successor, Richard, Geoffrey wrote several works of interest, all in Latin, the language of learning and literature in Europe during the medieval period. His major work was The History of the Kings of Britain, modern historians have dismissed this claim. The History of the Kings of Britain is now acknowledged as a work of national myth containing little reliable history. Other contemporaries were similarly unconvinced by Geoffreys History, Geoffreys major work was nevertheless widely disseminated across the whole of Medieval Western Europe, Acton Griscom listed 186 extant manuscripts in 1929, and others have been identified since. Where it was accepted as a true account. It consists of a series of obscure prophetic utterances attributed to Merlin, the Historys effect on the legend of King Arthur was so vast that Arthurian works have been categorised as pre- or post-Galfridian depending on whether or not they were influenced by him. The third work attributed to Geoffrey is another hexameter poem Vita Merlini, the story is set long after the timeframe of the Historys Merlin, but the author tries to synchronise the works with references to the mad prophets previous dealings with Vortigern and Arthur
5.
Arthurian legend
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It could be said that the legendary history of Britain was created in part to form a body of patriotic myth for the country. Several agendas thus can be seen in this body of literature, the Historia Brittonum, the earliest known source of the story of Brutus of Troy, may have been devised to create a distinguished genealogy for a number of Welsh princes in the 9th century. Traditionally attributed to Nennius, its actual compiler is unknown, it exists in several recensions, as such, this material could be used for patriotic mythmaking just as Virgil linked the founding of Rome to the Trojan War in The Æneid. Geoffrey of Monmouth also introduced the fanciful claim that the Trinovantes, reported by Tacitus as dwelling in the area of London, had a name he interpreted as Troi-novant, New Troy. More speculative claims link Welsh mythology with several of the rulers and it has been suggested, for instance, that Leir of Britain, who later became Shakespeares King Lear, was originally the Welsh sea-god Llŷr. Various Celtic deities have been identified with characters from Arthurian literature as well, many of these identifications come from the speculative comparative religion of the late 19th century, and have been questioned in more recent years. William Shakespeare was interested in the history of Britain, and was familiar with some of its more obscure byways. Shakespeares plays contain several tales relating to these kings, such as King Lear. It has been suggested that Shakespeares Welsh schoolmaster Thomas Jenkins introduced him to this material and these tales also figure in Raphael Holinsheds The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which also appears in Shakespeares sources for Macbeth. Other early authors also drew from the early Arthurian and pseudo-historical sources of the Matter of Britain, the Scots, for instance, formulated a mythical history in the Picts and the Dál Riata royal lines. While they do eventually become factual lines, unlike those of Geoffrey, their origins are vague, the story of Gabrán mac Domangairt especially incorporates elements of both those histories. The Arthurian literary cycle is the best known part of the Matter of Britain and it has succeeded largely because it tells two interlocking stories that have intrigued many later authors. One concerns Camelot, usually envisioned as a utopia of chivalric virtue, undone by the fatal flaws of Arthur. The other concerns the quests of the knights to achieve the Holy Grail, some succeed. Finally, the relationships between the characters invited treatment in the tradition of love, such as Lancelot and Guinevere, or Tristan. In more recent years, the trend has been to attempt to link the tales of King Arthur and his knights with Celtic mythology, usually in highly romanticized, early 20th century reconstructed versions. Additionally, it is possible to read the Arthurian literature in general, derek Pearsall, Arthurian Romance, a short introduction, Blackwell, Oxford,2005 D
6.
King Arthur
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King Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD. The details of Arthurs story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, the sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthurs name also occurs in early sources such as Y Gododdin. Arthur is a figure in the legends making up the so-called Matter of Britain. The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouths fanciful, how much of Geoffreys Historia was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown. Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul. The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot, in these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table. Arthurian literature thrived during the Middle Ages but waned in the centuries that followed until it experienced a resurgence in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the lives on, not only in literature but also in adaptations for theatre, film, television, comics. The historical basis for the King Arthur legend has long debated by scholars. These culminate in the Battle of Badon, where he is said to have single-handedly killed 960 men, recent studies, however, question the reliability of the Historia Brittonum. The other text that seems to support the case for Arthurs historical existence is the 10th-century Annales Cambriae, the Annales date this battle to 516–518, and also mention the Battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut were both killed, dated to 537–539. These details have often used to bolster confidence in the Historias account. Problems have been identified, however, with using this source to support the Historia Brittonums account, the latest research shows that the Annales Cambriae was based on a chronicle begun in the late 8th century in Wales. Additionally, the textual history of the Annales Cambriae precludes any certainty that the Arthurian annals were added to it even that early. They were more likely added at point in the 10th century. The Badon entry probably derived from the Historia Brittonum and this lack of convincing early evidence is the reason many recent historians exclude Arthur from their accounts of sub-Roman Britain. These modern admissions of ignorance are a recent trend, earlier generations of historians were less sceptical
7.
Morgan le Fay
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Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fay or sorceress. To the former, in early chivalric romances by Chrétien de Troyes and her character may be partially derived from that of the Welsh goddess Modron and other myths. She is often said to be the daughter of Arthurs mother Lady Igraine and her first husband Gorlois, so that Arthur, the son of Igraine and Uther Pendragon, is her half-brother. She becomes an apprentice of Merlin and an adversary of Arthur. In Thomas Malorys Le Morte dArthur and elsewhere, she is married to King Urien, with whom she has the son Ywain. She is also wanton and sexually aggressive, with many lovers including Merlin and Accolon, the earliest spelling of the name is Morgen, which is likely derived from Old Welsh or Old Breton Morgen, meaning Sea-born. The name is not to be confused with the Modern Welsh masculine name Morgan, while later works make her specifically human, she retains her magical powers. Inspiration for her character came from earlier Welsh mythology and literature. Additional speculation sometimes connects Morgan with the Irish goddess Morrígan, though there are few similarities between the two beyond the spelling of their names. Morgan has been more substantially linked with the goddess Modron, a derived from the continental Dea Matrona. Arthurian legends version of Urien is Morgan le Fays husband in the continental romances, the hystorical Urien had a treacherous ally named Morcant Bulc who plotted to assassinate him, similar to how Morgan attempts to kill Urien in the later version of Arthurian myth. This is similar to Avalon, the Isle of Apples with which Morgan le Fay has been associated since her earliest appearances. According to the chronicler Gerald of Wales, Morganis was a cousin of King Arthur who carried him to her island of Avalon. Writing in his Latin encyclopedic work Otia Imperialia, around the time and with similar derision for this belief. Morgan first appears by name in Vita Merlini, written by Norman-Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth about 1150, purportedly an account of the wizard Merlins later adventures, it elaborates some episodes from Geoffreys more famous earlier work, Historia Regum Britanniae. In Historia, Geoffrey relates how King Arthur, seriously wounded by Mordred at the Battle of Camlann, is taken off to the blessed Isle of Apple Trees, Avalon and her sisters names are Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, Thiten and Thiton. Prior to the cyclical Old French prose, the appearances of Morgan are few, the 12th-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes mentions her in his first romance Erec and Enide, completed around 1170. In it, a love of Morgan is Guinguemar, the Lord of the Isle of Avalon and a nephew of King Arthur and she is later mentioned in the same poem when Arthur provides the wounded hero Erec with a healing balm made by his sister Morgan
8.
Lady of the Lake
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Lady of the Lake is the name of the ruler of Avalon in the Arthurian legend. She plays a role in many stories, including giving King Arthur his sword Excalibur, enchanting Merlin. Different writers and copyists give the Arthurian character the name Nimue, Viviane, Vivien, Elaine, Ninianne, Nivian, Nyneve, or Evienne, among other variations. The Lancelot-Grail Cycle provides a backstory for the Lady of the Lake, Viviane, in the prose Merlin section, though Merlin, through his power of foresight knows beforehand that this will happen, he is unable to counteract Viviane because of the truth this ability of foresight holds. He decides to do nothing for his situation other than to continue to teach her his secrets until she takes the opportunity to entrap and entomb him in a tree, a stone or a cave. Sir Thomas Malory also uses both Ladies of the Lake in his Le Morte dArthur, he leaves the first one unnamed, Malorys original Lady is presented as an early benefactor of King Arthur who grants him Excalibur when his original sword is damaged. She is later beheaded by Sir Balin as a result of a kin feud between them and a dispute over an enchanted sword, according to the Vulgate Merlin, it was the goddess Dianas enchantment, given to Dyonas, that caused Viviane to be so alluring to Merlin. The Vulgate Lancelot tells us that she was the Queen of Sicily, the continuation post-vulgata Merlin describes how she killed her lover to be with another man, but then she was beheaded by this man to be a murderess. This story was transferred to a lake in France, and was later called the Lake of Diana. In Sir Thomas Malorys text, Le Morte DArthur, he refers to Nimue as one of two Ladies of the Lake, without Nimue the Arthurian tale would not be as potent as it is with her. Malorys Nimue does not conform to the stereotypes surrounding her role, firstly, it is not Nimues hand that juts out the lake to hand Excalibur to Arthur. According to Malory, this belongs to the other Lady of the Lake. In Malorys text, Nimues character evolves from the dependent maiden to a woman who takes charge in order to help. She is married to Sir Pelleas and outwardly acts as an obedient wife, Nimue is a different kind of woman, one who does not shrink behind the male figures in her life. Instead, she is pragmatic, unflappable, and knowledgeable, similarly, Malory also introduces a character named Nyneve. This woman is another character for whom the title Lady of the Lake fits, similar to Nymue, Nyneve is sympathetic to Arthur and also marries Pelleas. She heavily stresses justice based on the greater good, in Malorys text, Nyneve is loosely related to Arthur receiving Excalibur. In Le Morte DArthur this king receives Excalibur three times, Once from the stone, once from the unidentified Lady of the Lake and once in a battle from Nyneve
9.
Old French
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Old French was the Gallo-Romance dialect continuum spoken from the 9th century to the 14th century. In the 14th century, these came to be collectively known as the langues doïl. The mid-14th century is taken as the period to Middle French. The areal of Old French in contemporary terms corresponded to the parts of the Kingdom of France, Upper Burgundy. As part of the emerging Gallo-Romance dialect continuum, the langues doïl were contrasted with the langue doc, in these examples, we notice a clear consequence of bilingualism, that sometimes even changed the first syllable of the Latin words. Pope estimated that perhaps still 15% of the vocabulary of modern French derives from Germanic sources, at the third Council of Tours in 813, priests were ordered to preach in the vernacular language, since the common people could no longer understand formal Latin. The second-oldest document in Old French is the Eulalia sequence, which is important for reconstruction of Old French pronunciation due to its consistent spelling. The Capetians langue doïl, the forerunner of modern standard French, did not begin to become the common speech of all of France, however, until after the French Revolution. In the Late Middle Ages, the Old French dialects diverged into a number of distinct langues doïl, during the Early Modern period, French now becomes established as the official language of the Kingdom of France throughout the realm, also including the langue doc-speaking territories in the south. Old French gives way to Middle French in the mid-14th century, the earliest extant French literary texts date from the ninth century, but very few texts before the 11th century have survived. The first literary works written in Old French were saints lives, the Canticle of Saint Eulalie, written in the second half of the 9th century, is generally accepted as the first such text. The first of these is the area of the chansons de geste. More than one hundred chansons de geste have survived in three hundred manuscripts. The oldest and most celebrated of the chansons de geste is The Song of Roland, a fourth grouping, not listed by Bertrand, is the Crusade cycle, dealing with the First Crusade and its immediate aftermath. Jean Bodels other two categories—the Matter of Rome and the Matter of Britain—concern the French romance or roman, around a hundred verse romances survive from the period 1150–1220. From around 1200 on, the tendency was increasingly to write the romances in prose, the most important romance of the 13th century is the Romance of the Rose which breaks considerably from the conventions of the chivalric adventure story. The Occitan or Provençal poets were called troubadours, from the word trobar to find, lyric poets in Old French are called trouvères. By the late 13th century, the tradition in France had begun to develop in ways that differed significantly from the troubadour poets
10.
Welsh language
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Welsh is a member of the Brittonic branch of the Celtic languages. It is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, historically it has also been known in English as the British tongue, Cambrian, Cambric and Cymric. The United Kingdom Census 2011 counted 3.1 million residents of Wales, 27% of whom had been born outside Wales, and 73% of whom reported having no Welsh language skills. Of residents of Wales aged three and over, 19% reported being able to speak Welsh, and 77% of these were able to speak, read and this can be compared with the 2001 Census, in which 20. 8% of the population reported being able to speak Welsh. 787,854 of residents in Wales aged three and over had one or more skills in Welsh, in surveys carried out between 2004 and 2006, 57% of Welsh speakers described themselves as fluent in the written language. An estimated 110,000 to 150,000 people speak Welsh in England, Welsh emerged in the 6th century from Common Brittonic, the common ancestor of Welsh, Breton, Cornish and the extinct language known as Cumbric. The Middle Welsh period is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the Modern Welsh period began, the name Welsh originated as an exonym given to its speakers by the Anglo-Saxons, meaning foreign speech. The native term for the language is Cymraeg, and for the name of the country of Wales it is Cymru, Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic, the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons. Classified as Insular Celtic, the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth. During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, evolving into Welsh and it is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Kenneth H. Jackson suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around 550, Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or Early Poets – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was composed in the Hen Ogledd, raising further questions about the dating of the material. An 8th century inscription in Tywyn shows the language already dropping inflections in the declension of nouns, the next main period, somewhat better attested, is Old Welsh, poetry from both Wales and Scotland has been preserved in this form of the language. Both the works of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin were in this era, Middle Welsh is the label attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law manuscripts, Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The famous cleric Gerald of Wales tells, in his Descriptio Cambriae, during one of the Kings many raids in the 12th century, Henry asked an old man of Pencader, Carmarthenshire whether the Welsh people could resist his army
11.
Excalibur
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Excalibur or Caliburn is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are said to be the same weapon, the sword was associated with the Arthurian legend very early. In Welsh, the sword is called Caledfwlch, in Cornish, the sword is called Calesvol, in Breton, Kaledvoulch, the name Excalibur ultimately comes from the Welsh Caledfwlch which is a compound of caled hard and bwlch breach, cleft. Caledfwlch appears in several early Welsh works, including the poem Preiddeu Annwfn and the prose tale Culhwch and Olwen, the name was later used in Welsh adaptations of foreign material such as the Bruts, which were based on Geoffrey of Monmouth. They suggest instead that both names may have arisen at a very early date as generic names for a sword. Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his Historia Regum Britanniae, Latinised the name of Arthurs sword as Caliburnus, most Celticists consider Geoffreys Caliburnus to be derivative of a lost Old Welsh text in which bwlch had not yet been lenited to fwlch. In Old French sources this then became Escalibor, Excalibor and finally the familiar Excalibur, Geoffrey Gaimar, in his Old French LEstoire des Engles, mentions Arthur and his sword, this Constantine was the nephew of Arthur, who had the sword Caliburc. In Waces Roman de Brut, an Old French translation and versification of Geoffrey of Monmouths Historia Regum Britanniae, the sword is called Calabrum, Callibourc, Chalabrun and it is from this fanciful etymological musing that Thomas Malory got the notion that Excalibur meant cut steel. In Arthurian romance, a number of explanations are given for Arthurs possession of Excalibur, in Robert de Borons Merlin, Arthur obtained the British throne by pulling a sword from a stone. In this account, the act could not be performed except by the king, meaning the divinely appointed king or true heir of Uther Pendragon. This sword is thought by many to be the famous Excalibur and this version also appears in the 1938 Arthurian novel The Sword in the Stone by British author T. H. White, and the Disney adaptation. They both quote the line from Thomas Malory in the 15th century, Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of all England. The challenge of drawing a sword from a stone also appears in the Arthurian legends of Galahad, however, in what is called the Post-Vulgate Cycle, Excalibur was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake sometime after he began to reign. She calls the sword Excalibur, that is as to say as Cut-steel, in the Vulgate Mort Artu, Arthur orders Griflet to throw the sword into the enchanted lake. Malory records both versions of the legend in his Le Morte dArthur, naming both swords as Excalibur, in Welsh legend, Arthurs sword is known as Caledfwlch. In Culhwch and Olwen, it is one of Arthurs most valuable possessions and is used by Arthurs warrior Llenlleawg the Irishman to kill the Irish king Diwrnach while stealing his magical cauldron, Irish mythology mentions a weapon Caladbolg, the sword of Fergus mac Róich. Caladbolg was also known for its power and was carried by some of Irelands greatest heroes. The name, which can also mean hard cleft in Irish, appears in the plural, caladbuilc, as a term for great swords in Togail Troi
12.
Battle of Camlann
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The Battle of Camlann is reputed to have been the final battle of King Arthur, in which he either died or was fatally wounded, fighting either with or against Mordred who is also said to have died. The earliest known reference to the battle of Camlann is an entry in the 10th-century Annales Cambriae and it mentions Mordred, but it does not specify that he and Arthur fought on opposite sides. Gueith camlann in qua Arthur et Medraut corruerunt, andrew Breeze writes, Last of all, what can we conclude about Camlan itself. Can we say anything at all on its location, significance, here we may recall the views expressed by Padel, Dark, Dumville, and Higham. The status of the entry for 537 is therefore now clear, on the one hand it is presented as sober fact and appears in the context of persons known to history. On the other, we cannot be certain that it is old, the historical Arthur thus becomes little more than a wisp of air. Unless unexpected evidence turns up, the only honest answer we can give here is that of Kenneth Jackson, that We do not know, the location described as Camlann is unknown. The name may derive from a Brittonic *Cambo-landa, or *Cambo-glanna, later accounts of the battle, much embroidered, appear in Geoffrey of Monmouths Historia Regum Britanniae and the Alliterative Morte Arthure. Some sources state that the battle was caused by King Arthurs return to Camelot, King Arthur had learned of Guinevere and Sir Lancelots affair, and Sir Lancelot fled to France. Arthur pursued him in an effort to get revenge, and his enemy, Mordred, when Arthur returned and tried to take back his kingdom, Mordred refused. A battle erupted, and Arthur was severely wounded and he journeyed to the isle of Avalon, which is said to have magical properties, in hope that he could be healed. Some say he died there, and some say his wounds healed, welsh triads offer clues to the alleged cause of the Battle of Camlann. Triad 51 reflects Geoffrey of Monmouth, Medrawd rebels against Arthur while the latter is campaigning on the Continent and usurps the throne, instigating the battle of Camlann. Triad 53 lists a slap Gwenhwyvach gave to her sister Gwenhwyfar, wife of Arthur, as one of the Three Harmful Blows of the Island of Britain, calling Camlann one of Britains Three Futile Battles, Triad 84 also mentions this dispute between sisters. Triad 54 describes Medrawd raiding Arthurs court, throwing Gwenhwyfar to the ground, other Triads in which Camlann is mentioned include numbers 30,59,84. Battle of Badon Alistair Moffat, The Faded Map - Lost Kingdoms of Scotland
13.
Glastonbury Tor
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Glastonbury Tor is a hill near Glastonbury in the English county of Somerset, topped by the roofless St Michaels Tower, a Grade I listed building. The whole site is managed by the National Trust, and has designated a scheduled monument. The conical hill of clay and Blue Lias rises from the Somerset Levels and it was formed when surrounding softer deposits were eroded, leaving the hard cap of sandstone exposed. The slopes of the hill are terraced, but the method by which they were formed remains unexplained, artefacts from human visitation have been found, dating from the Iron Age to Roman eras. Several buildings were constructed on the summit during the Saxon and early periods, they have been interpreted as an early church. The head of a cross dating from the 10th or 11th century has been recovered. The original wooden church was destroyed by an earthquake in 1275, and its tower remains, although it has been restored and partially rebuilt several times. Archaeological excavations during the 20th century sought to clarify the background of the monument and church, the Tor is mentioned in Celtic mythology, particularly in myths linked to King Arthur, and has a number of other enduring mythological and spiritual associations. The origin of the name Glastonbury is unclear, but when the settlement was first recorded in the late 7th, of the latter name, Glestinga is obscure, and may derive from an Old English word or Celtic personal name. It may derive from a person or kindred group named Glast, the second half of the name, -burg, is Anglo-Saxon in origin and could refer to either a fortified place such as a burh or, more likely, a monastic enclosure. Tor is an English word referring to a rock or a hill. The Celtic name of the Tor was Ynys Wydryn, or sometimes Ynys Gutrin, at this time the plain was flooded, the isle becoming a peninsula at low tide. The Tor is in the middle of the Summerland Meadows, part of the Somerset Levels, the plain is reclaimed fen above which the Tor is clearly visible for miles around. It has been described as an island but actually sits at the end of a peninsula washed on three sides by the River Brue. The Tor is formed from rocks dating from the early Jurassic Period, the uppermost of these, forming the Tor itself, are a succession of rocks assigned to the Bridport Sand Formation. These rocks sit upon strata forming the hill on which the Tor stands, the various layers of the Beacon Limestone Formation. The Bridport Sands have acted as a caprock protecting the lower layers from erosion, the low-lying damp ground can produce a visual effect known as a Fata Morgana when the Tor appears to rise out of the mist. This optical phenomenon occurs because rays of light are bent when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in a steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed
14.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
15.
Breton language
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Breton /ˈbrɛtən/ is a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Brittany. Breton is most closely related to Cornish, both being Southwestern Brittonic languages, Welsh and the extinct Cumbric are the more distantly related Brittonic languages. The other regional language of Brittany, Gallo, is a langue doïl, Gallo is consequently close to French, although not mutually intelligible, and a Romance language descended from Latin. However, the number of children attending bilingual classes has risen 33% between 2006 and 2012 to 14,709, Breton is spoken in West Brittany, roughly to the west of a line linking Plouha and La Roche-Bernard. It comes from a Brittonic language community that extended from Great Britain to Armorica and had even established a toehold in Galicia. Old Breton is attested from the 9th century and it was the language of the upper classes until the 12th century, after which it became the language of commoners in Lower Brittany. The nobility, followed by the bourgeoisie, adopted French, the written language of the Duchy of Brittany was Latin, switching to French in the 15th century. There exists a tradition of Breton literature. Some Old Breton vocabulary remains in the present day as philosophical, during the French Revolution, the government introduced policies favouring French over the regional languages, which it pejoratively referred to as patois. The revolutionaries assumed that reactionary and monarchist forces preferred regional languages to try to keep the peasant masses underinformed, in 1794, Bertrand Barère submitted his report on the patois to the Committee of Public Safety in which he said that federalism and superstition speak Breton. Teachers humiliated students for using their regional languages, and such practices prevailed until the late 1960s, the majority of todays speakers are more than 60 years old, and Breton is now classified as an endangered language. At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the population of Lower Brittany knew only Breton, by 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons, and this rapid decline has continued, with likely no monolingual speakers left today. A statistical survey in 1997 found around 300,000 speakers in Lower Brittany, few 15- to 19-year-olds spoke Breton. In 1925, Professor Roparz Hemon founded the Breton-language review Gwalarn, during its 19-year run, Gwalarn tried to raise the language to the level of a great international language. Its publication encouraged the creation of literature in all genres. In 1946, Al Liamm replaced Gwalarn, other Breton-language periodicals have been published, which established a fairly large body of literature for a minority language. In 1977, Diwan schools were founded to teach Breton by immersion and they taught a few thousand young people from elementary school to high school. See the education section for more information, the Asterix comic series has been translated into Breton
16.
Old Cornish
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Cornish is a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language native to Cornwall. The language has undergone a revival in recent decades and is considered to be an important part of Cornish identity, culture and heritage. It is a minority language of the United Kingdom, protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Along with Welsh and Breton, Cornish is descended directly from the Common Brittonic language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate. A process to revive the language was begun in the early 20th century, in 2010 UNESCO announced that its former classification of the language as extinct was no longer accurate. Since the revival of the language, many Cornish textbooks and works of literature have been published, recent developments include Cornish music, independent films, and childrens books. A small number of people in Cornwall have been brought up to be native speakers. The first Cornish language crèche opened in 2010, Cornish is one of the Brittonic languages, which constitute a branch of the Insular Celtic section of the Celtic language family. Brittonic also includes Welsh, Breton and the Cumbric language, the last is extinct, scottish Gaelic, Irish and Manx are part of the separate Goidelic branch of Insular Celtic. Cornish evolved from the Common Brittonic spoken throughout Britain south of the Firth of Forth during the British Iron Age, as a result of westward Anglo-Saxon expansion, the Britons of the southwest were separated from those in modern-day Wales and Cumbria. Some scholars have proposed that this took place after the Battle of Deorham in about 577. The area controlled by the southwestern Britons was progressively reduced by the expansion of Wessex over the few centuries. The earliest written record of the Cornish language comes from period, a 9th-century gloss in a Latin manuscript of De Consolatione Philosophiae by Boethius. The phrase means it hated the gloomy places, a much more substantial survival from Old Cornish is a Cornish-Latin glossary containing translations of around 300 words. The manuscript was thought to be in Old Welsh until the 1700s when it was identified as Cornish. The Cornish language continued to flourish well through the Middle Cornish period, reaching a peak of about 39,000 speakers in the 13th century and this period provided the bulk of traditional Cornish literature, which was used to reconstruct the language during its revival. Most important is the Ordinalia, a cycle of three plays, Origo Mundi, Passio Christi and Resurrexio Domini. Together these provide about 20,000 lines of text, various plays were written by the canons of Glasney College, intended to educate the Cornish people about the Bible and the Celtic saints
17.
Old Breton
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Breton /ˈbrɛtən/ is a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Brittany. Breton is most closely related to Cornish, both being Southwestern Brittonic languages, Welsh and the extinct Cumbric are the more distantly related Brittonic languages. The other regional language of Brittany, Gallo, is a langue doïl, Gallo is consequently close to French, although not mutually intelligible, and a Romance language descended from Latin. However, the number of children attending bilingual classes has risen 33% between 2006 and 2012 to 14,709, Breton is spoken in West Brittany, roughly to the west of a line linking Plouha and La Roche-Bernard. It comes from a Brittonic language community that extended from Great Britain to Armorica and had even established a toehold in Galicia. Old Breton is attested from the 9th century and it was the language of the upper classes until the 12th century, after which it became the language of commoners in Lower Brittany. The nobility, followed by the bourgeoisie, adopted French, the written language of the Duchy of Brittany was Latin, switching to French in the 15th century. There exists a tradition of Breton literature. Some Old Breton vocabulary remains in the present day as philosophical, during the French Revolution, the government introduced policies favouring French over the regional languages, which it pejoratively referred to as patois. The revolutionaries assumed that reactionary and monarchist forces preferred regional languages to try to keep the peasant masses underinformed, in 1794, Bertrand Barère submitted his report on the patois to the Committee of Public Safety in which he said that federalism and superstition speak Breton. Teachers humiliated students for using their regional languages, and such practices prevailed until the late 1960s, the majority of todays speakers are more than 60 years old, and Breton is now classified as an endangered language. At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the population of Lower Brittany knew only Breton, by 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons, and this rapid decline has continued, with likely no monolingual speakers left today. A statistical survey in 1997 found around 300,000 speakers in Lower Brittany, few 15- to 19-year-olds spoke Breton. In 1925, Professor Roparz Hemon founded the Breton-language review Gwalarn, during its 19-year run, Gwalarn tried to raise the language to the level of a great international language. Its publication encouraged the creation of literature in all genres. In 1946, Al Liamm replaced Gwalarn, other Breton-language periodicals have been published, which established a fairly large body of literature for a minority language. In 1977, Diwan schools were founded to teach Breton by immersion and they taught a few thousand young people from elementary school to high school. See the education section for more information, the Asterix comic series has been translated into Breton
18.
Modern Welsh
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The history of the Welsh language spans over 1400 years, encompassing the stages of the language known as Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh. Welsh evolved from British, the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Britons, alternatively classified as Insular Celtic or P-Celtic, it probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was probably spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth. During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, evolving into Welsh and it is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Kenneth H. Jackson suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around 550, Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or Early Poets – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was composed in the Hen Ogledd, raising further questions about the dating of the material. The next main period, somewhat better attested, is Old Welsh, the Book of Aneirin and the Poetry, or Book, of Taliesin belong to this era, though both also include some poems originally written in Primitive Welsh. Middle Welsh is the attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries. This is the language of all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law manuscripts, Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The famous cleric Gerald of Wales tells a story of King Henry II of England, Modern Welsh can be divided into two periods. The first, Early Modern Welsh ran from the early 15th century to roughly the end of the 16th century, late Modern Welsh began with the publication of William Morgans translation of the Bible in 1588. Of course, many changes have occurred since then, the language enjoyed a further boost in the 19th century, with the publication of some of the first complete and concise Welsh dictionaries. Early work by Welsh lexicographic pioneers such as Daniel Silvan Evans ensured that the language was documented as accurately as possible, Modern dictionaries such as the Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, are direct descendants of these dictionaries. In spite of this boost, the use of Welsh was actively discouraged at school under the Welsh Not policy, a stick or plaque was given to any child heard speaking Welsh during school, to be handed on to whoever next spoke the language. The influx of English workers during the Industrial Revolution in Wales from about 1800 led to a dilution of the Welsh-speaking population of Wales. English migrants seldom learnt Welsh and their Welsh colleagues tended to speak English in mixed Welsh–English contexts. The legal status of Welsh was inferior to that of English, an important exception, however, was in the non-conformist churches, which were strongly associated with the Welsh language
19.
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
20.
Lugh
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Lugh or Lug is an important god of Irish mythology. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Lugh is portrayed as a warrior hero. He is associated with skill, crafts and the arts as well as with oaths, truth and he is sometimes interpreted as a sun god, a storm god or a sky god. Lugh is also associated with the harvest festival of Lughnasadh. Lugh is known by the epithets Lámfada, possibly for his skill with a spear or sling, Ildánach, Samildánach, Lonnbéimnech, Macnia, as to ancestry, Lugh is given the matriname mac Ethlenn or mac Ethnenn and the patriname mac Cein. He is the grandson of the Fomorian, Balor, whom Lugh kills in the Battle of Mag Tuired. His foster-father is the sea god Manannán, Lughs son is the hero Cú Chulainn, who is believed to be an incarnation of Lugh. He wields a fiery spear, a sling stone. He also owns a boat named Scuabtuinne, a horse named Enbarr. He is a reflex of the pan-Celtic god Lugus, and his Welsh counterpart is Lleu Llaw Gyffes, Lughs father is Cian of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and his mother is Ethniu, daughter of Balor, of the Fomorians. In Cath Maige Tuired their union is a dynastic marriage following an alliance between the Tuatha Dé and the Fomorians, in the Lebor Gabála Érenn Cian gives the boy to Tailtiu, queen of the Fir Bolg, in fosterage. In the Dindsenchas Lugh, the foster-son of Tailtiu, is described as the son of the Dumb Champion, a folktale told to John ODonovan by Shane ODugan of Tory Island in 1835 recounts the birth of a grandson of Balor who grows up to kill his grandfather. In this tale, Balor hears a prophecy that he will be killed by his own grandson. To prevent this he imprisons his daughter in the Tór Mór of Tory Island, cared for by twelve women. On the mainland, Mac Cinnfhaelaidh owns a cow who gives such abundant milk that everyone, including Balor. While the cow is in the care of Mac Cinnfhaelaidhs brother Mac Samthainn, Balor appears in the form of a little red-haired boy and tricks him into giving him the cow. Looking for revenge, Mac Cinnfhaelaidh calls on a leanan sídhe called Biróg, who transports him by magic to the top of Balors tower, in time she gives birth to triplets, which Balor gathers up in a sheet and sends to be drowned in a whirlpool. The messenger drowns two of the babies, but unwittingly drops one child into the harbour, where he is rescued by Biróg and she takes him to his father, who gives him to his brother, Gavida the smith, in fosterage
21.
Isle of Man
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The Isle of Man, also known simply as Mann, is a self-governing crown dependency in the Irish Sea between England and Northern Ireland. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann, the Lord of Mann is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. Foreign relations and defence are the responsibility of the British Government, the island has been inhabited since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century and the Manx language, in 627, Edwin of Northumbria conquered the Isle of Man along with most of Mercia. In the 9th century, Norsemen established the Kingdom of the Isles, magnus III, King of Norway, was also known as King of Mann and the Isles between 1099 and 1103. In 1266, the became part of Scotland under the Treaty of Perth. After a period of alternating rule by the kings of Scotland and England, the short form often used in English, Mann, is derived from the Manx Mannin, though sometimes the name is written as Man. The earliest recorded Manx form of the name is Manu or Mana, the Old Irish form of the name is Manau or Mano. Old Welsh records named it as Manaw, also reflected in Manaw Gododdin, the name for an ancient district in north Britain along the lower Firth of Forth. The oldest known reference to the calls it Mona, in Latin, in the 1st century CE, Pliny the Elder records it as Monapia or Monabia. Later Latin references have Mevania or Mænavia, and Eubonia or Eumonia by Irish writers and it is found in the Sagas of Icelanders as Mön. The name is cognate with the Welsh name of the island of Anglesey, Ynys Môn, usually derived from a Celtic word for mountain. The name was at least secondarily associated with that of Manannán mac Lir in Irish mythology, later, a Manannán is recorded as the first king of Mann in a Manx poem. The island was cut off from the islands around 8000 BC. The first residents were hunter gatherers and fishermen, examples of their tools are kept at the Manx Museum. There were also the local Ronaldsway and Bann cultures, during the Bronze Age, burial mounds became smaller. Bodies were put in stone-lined graves with ornamental containers, the Bronze Age burial mounds created long-lasting markers around the countryside. The ancient Romans knew of the island and called it Insula Manavia although it is whether they conquered the island
22.
Avallon
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Avallon is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in central-eastern France. Avallon is located 50 km south-southeast of Auxerre, served by a branch of the Paris-Lyon railway and by exit 22 of the A6 motorway. Chance finds of coins and pottery fragments and a head of Minerva are reminders of the Roman settlement carrying the Celtic name Aballo. Two pink marble columns in the church of St-Martin du Bourg have been reused from an unknown temple, the Roman citadel, on a rocky spur overlooking the Cousin valley, has been Christianized as Montmarte. Avallon was in the Middle Ages the seat of a viscounty dependent on the duchy of Burgundy, on the death of Charles the Bold in 1477, the castle, mentioned as early as the seventh century, has utterly disappeared. A theory exists which proposes that the Isle of Avalon mentioned in Arthurian legend is, in fact, geoffrey Ashe first mentioned the French Avallon theory in his 1985 book, The Discovery of King Arthur. This, and other aspects of his reign, made Ashe propose him as a candidate for the historical King Arthur, with Avallon becoming the Arthurian Avalon. In 2007, after many inquiries, the Burgundy Today website commissioned the author and resident of Avallon, Marilyn Floyde, to research all aspects of the French Avallon theory. Her findings were published in 2009 as King Arthurs French Odyssey – Avallon in Burgundy, a second edition was published in 2016, with more about an Island of Avallon located in the vicinity of the town. Its chief building, the collegiate church of Saint-Lazare, dates from the twelfth century. Vestiges of the church were revealed beneath the high altar in an excavation of 1861. The acquisition of a relic of Saint Lazare prompted its rededication and it was the seat of an archdeaconate answering to the bishop of Autun. The two western portals are adorned with sculpture in the Romanesque style, the tower on the left of the facade was rebuilt in the seventeenth century. The Tour de lHorloge, pierced by a gateway through which passes the Grande Rue, is a structure containing a museum on its second floor. Remains of the ancient fortifications, including seven of the towers, are still to be seen. Avallon has a statue of Vauban, the engineer of Louis XIV. The public institutions include the subprefecture, a tribunal of first instance, Avallon is twinned with, Pepinster, Belgium Cochem, Germany Tenterden, United Kingdom Saku, Japan Communes of the Yonne department Parc naturel régional du Morvan Floyde, Marilyn. King Arthurs French Odyssey, Avallon in Burgundy, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Avallon
23.
Mordred
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Mordred or Modred is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded. In earlier literature, he was considered the son of Morgause, also known as Anna. His brothers or half-brothers are Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, the name is ultimately derived from Latin Moderātus. The first surviving mention of Mordred, occurs in the Annales Cambriae entry for the year 537, the strife of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut fell. The Annales themselves were completed between 960 and 970, though their authors drew on older material, the earliest full account of Mordred is found in Geoffrey of Monmouths Historia Regum Britanniae, where he, for the first time in literature, plays the role of traitor to Arthur. During Arthurs absence Mordred crowns himself king and marries Guinevere, forcing Arthur to return to Britain, the Battle of Camlann is fought, and Mordred dies while Arthur is taken to Avalon. A number of Welsh sources also refer to Medraut, usually in relation to Camlann, Medraut is never considered Arthurs son in Welsh texts, only his nephew, though The Dream of Rhonabwy mentions that the king had been his foster father. However, Mordreds later characterization as the kings villainous son has a precedent in the figure of Amr, what connection exists between the stories of Amr and Mordred, if there is one, has never been satisfactorily explained. In Geoffrey and certain other sources such as the Alliterative Morte Arthure, Mordred marries Guinevere, seemingly consensually, after he steals the throne. However, in later writings like the Lancelot-Grail Cycle and Thomas Malorys Le Morte dArthur, Guinevere is not treated as a traitor and she flees Mordreds proposal, adultery is still tied to her role in these later romances, however, but Mordred has been replaced with Lancelot. Geoffrey and the Lancelot-Grail Cycle have Mordred being succeeded by his sons, stories always number them as two, though they are usually not named, nor is their mother. The 18th century Welsh antiquarian Lewis Morris, based on statements made by the Scottish chronicler Hector Boece, suggested that Medrawd had a wife, Cwyllog, another late Welsh tradition was that Medrawds wife was Gwenhwyach, sister of Gwenhwyfar. In Geoffreys version, after the Battle of Camlann, Constantine is appointed Arthurs successor, however, Mordreds two sons and their Saxon allies rise against him. He defeats them, and one of them flees to sanctuary in the Church of Amphibalus in Winchester while the other hides in a London friary, Constantine tracks them down, and kills them before the altars in their respective hiding places. This act invokes the vengeance of God, and three years later Constantine is killed by his nephew Aurelius Conanus, Geoffreys account of the episode may be based on Constantines murder of two royal youths as mentioned by the 6th-century writer Gildas. The elder of Mordreds sons is named Melehan or some derivation in the Lancelot-Grail, in these texts, Lancelot and his men return to Britain to dispatch Melehan and his brother after receiving a letter from the dying Gawain. In the ensuing battle Melehan slays Sir Lionel, son of King Bors the Elder and brother to Sir Bors the Younger, Bors kills him to avenge his brothers death, while Lancelot slays the unnamed younger brother. Virtually everywhere Mordred appears, his name is synonymous with treachery and he appears in Dantes Inferno in the lowest circle of Hell, set apart for traitors, him who, at one blow, had chest and shadow / shattered by Arthurs hand
24.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
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Cornwall
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Cornwall is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area of England within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, Cornwall has a population of 551,700 and covers an area of 3,563 km2. Cornwall forms the westernmost part of the south-west peninsula of the island of Great Britain, and this area was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. It continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age peoples, there is little evidence that Roman rule was effective west of Exeter and few Roman remains have been found. In the mid-19th century, however, the tin and copper mines entered a period of decline, subsequently, china clay extraction became more important and metal mining had virtually ended by the 1990s. Traditionally, fishing and agriculture were the important sectors of the economy. Railways led to a growth of tourism in the 20th century, however, the area is noted for its wild moorland landscapes, its long and varied coastline, its attractive villages, its many place-names derived from the Cornish language, and its very mild climate. Extensive stretches of Cornwalls coastline, and Bodmin Moor, are protected as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Cornwall is the homeland of the Cornish people and is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, retaining a distinct cultural identity that reflects its history. Some people question the present constitutional status of Cornwall, and a nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the United Kingdom in the form of a devolved legislative Cornish Assembly. On 24 April 2014 it was announced that Cornish people will be granted minority status under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The modern English name Cornwall derives from the concatenation of two ancient demonyms from different linguistic traditions, Corn- records the native Brythonic tribe, the Cornovii. The Celtic word kernou is cognate with the English word horn. -wall derives from the Old English exonym walh, the Ravenna Cosmography first mentions a city named Purocoronavis in the locality. This is thought to be a rendering of Duro-cornov-ium, meaning fort of the Cornovii. The exact location of Durocornovium is disputed, with Tintagel and Carn Brea suggested as possible sites, in later times, Cornwall was known to the Anglo-Saxons as West Wales to distinguish it from North Wales. The name appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 891 as On Corn walum, in the Domesday Book it was referred to as Cornualia and in c.1198 as Cornwal. Other names for the county include a latinisation of the name as Cornubia, the present human history of Cornwall begins with the reoccupation of Britain after the last Ice Age. The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods and it continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age people. The Common Brittonic spoken at the time developed into several distinct tongues
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Bretons
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The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brittonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain including Cornwall to avoid the invading Germanic peoples and they also descend from the Gauls and in some parts from Vikings. They migrated in waves from the third to ninth century into Armorica, the main traditional language of Brittany is Breton, spoken in Lower Brittany. Today, Breton is spoken by less than 200,000 people, the other principal minority language of Brittany is Gallo, Gallo is spoken only in Upper Brittany, where Breton is less dominant. As one of the Brittonic languages, Breton is related closely to Cornish and more distantly to Welsh, currently, most Bretons native language is standard French. Brittany and its people are counted as one of the six Celtic nations, ethnically, along with the Cornish and Welsh, the Bretons are Celtic Britons. The actual number of ethnic Bretons in Brittany and France as a whole is difficult to assess as the government of France does not collect statistics on ethnicity, the population of Brittany, as of a January 2007 estimate, was 4,365,500. It is said that, in 1914, over 1 million people spoke Breton west of the boundary between Breton and Gallo-speaking regions – roughly 90% of the population of the half of Brittany. In 1945, it was about 75%, and today, in all of Brittany, Brittany has a population of roughly 4 million, including the department of Loire-Atlantique, which the Vichy government separated from historical Brittany in 1941. Three-quarters of the estimated 200,000 to 250,000 Breton speakers using Breton as an everyday language today are over the age of 65, many Breton families have also emigrated to the Americas, predominantly to Canada and the United States. In the late century, large numbers of British auxiliary troops in the Roman army may have been stationed in Armorica. The ninth-century Historia Brittonum states that the emperor Magnus Maximus, who withdrew Roman forces from Britain, nennius and Gildas mention a second wave of Britons settling in Armorica in the following century to escape the invading Anglo-Saxons and Scoti. Modern archaeology also supports a two-wave migration and it is generally accepted that the Brittonic speakers who arrived gave the region its current name as well as the Breton language, Brezhoneg, a sister language to Welsh and Cornish. The Bretons are known for their participation in the Hunt of the Apple of Eden and this took place between 400 and 600 AD. These legends were discovered in Poullia in Italy but have unfortunately been marked as improvable history, as in Cornwall, many Breton towns are named after these early saints. The Irish saint Columbanus was also active in Brittany and is commemorated accordingly at Saint-Columban in Carnac, in the Early Middle Ages, Brittany was divided into three kingdoms — Domnonia, Cornouaille, and Bro Waroch — which eventually were incorporated into the Duchy of Brittany. The first two kingdoms seem to derive their names from the homelands of the tribes in Britain. Neither language has official status under French law, however, some still use Breton as an everyday language, in modern times, a number of schools and colleges have emerged with the aim of providing Breton-medium education or bilingual Breton/French education
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Isidore of Seville
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He was influential in the inner circle of Sisebut, Visigothic king of Hispania. Like Leander, he played a prominent role in the Councils of Toledo, the Visigothic legislation that resulted from these councils influenced the beginnings of representative government. His fame after his death was based on his Etymologiae, an encyclopedia which assembled extracts of many books from classical antiquity that would have otherwise been lost. Isidore was probably born in Cartagena, Spain, a former Carthaginian colony, to Severianus, both Severianus and Theodora belonged to notable Hispano-Roman families of high social rank. His parents were members of a family who were instrumental in the political-religious manoeuvring that converted the Visigothic kings from Arianism to Catholicism. A younger brother, Saint Fulgentius of Cartagena, served as the Bishop of Astigi at the start of the new reign of the Catholic King Reccared and his sister, Saint Florentina, served God as a nun and allegedly ruled over forty convents and one thousand consecrated religious. This claim seems unlikely, however, given the few functioning monastic institutions in Iberia during her lifetime, Isidore received his elementary education in the Cathedral school of Seville. In this institution, the first of its kind in Iberia, a body of learned men including Archbishop Saint Leander of Seville taught the trivium and quadrivium, Saint Isidore applied himself to study diligently enough that he quickly mastered Latin, and acquired some Greek, and Hebrew. Two centuries of Gothic control of Iberia incrementally suppressed the ancient institutions, classic learning, the associated culture entered a period of long-term decline. The ruling Visigoths nevertheless showed some respect for the trappings of Roman culture. Arianism meanwhile took deep root among the Visigoths as the form of Christianity that they received, scholars may debate whether Isidore ever personally embraced monastic life or affiliated with any religious order, but he undoubtedly esteemed the monks highly. After the death of Saint Leander of Seville on 13 March 600 or 601, on his elevation to the episcopate, he immediately constituted himself as protector of monks. He used all available religious resources toward this end and succeeded, Isidore practically eradicated the heresy of Arianism and completely stifled the new heresy of Acephali at its very outset. Archbishop Isidore strengthened religious discipline throughout his See, Archbishop Isidore also used resources of education to counteract increasingly influential Gothic barbarism throughout his episcopal jurisdiction. His quickening spirit animated the educational movement centered on Seville, Saint Isidore introduced Aristotle to his countrymen long before the Arabs studied Greek philosophy extensively. In 619, Saint Isidore of Seville pronounced anathema against any ecclesiastic who in any way should molest the monasteries, through the enlightened statecraft of his two brothers, the Councils of Seville and Toledo emanated Visigothic legislation which influenced the beginnings of representative government. The Acts of the Council fully set forth the nature of Christ, countering the conceptions of Gregory, based on a few surviving canons found in the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, Saint Isidore is known to have presided over an additional provincial council around 624. The council dealt with a conflict over the see of Ecija, and wrongfully stripped bishop Martianus of his see and it also addressed a concern over Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity by Sisebut failing to present their children for baptism
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Etymologiae
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Etymologiae, also known as the Origines and usually abbreviated Orig. is an etymological encyclopedia compiled by Isidore of Seville towards the end of his life. Isidore was encouraged to write the book by his friend Braulio, the Etymologies summarized and organized a wealth of knowledge from hundreds of classical sources, three of its books are derived largely from Pliny the Elders Natural History. Isidore acknowledges Pliny, but not his other principal sources, namely Cassiodorus, Servius and Solinus, the work contains whatever Isidore, an influential Christian bishop, thought worth keeping. Etymologiae covers a range of topics. Etymologiae was the most used textbook throughout the Middle Ages and it was so popular that it was read in place of many of the original classical texts that it summarized, so these ceased to be copied and were lost. It was cited by Dante Alighieri, who placed Isidore in his Paradiso, quoted by Geoffrey Chaucer, among the thousand-odd surviving manuscript copies is the 13th-century Codex Gigas, the earliest surviving manuscript, the Codex Sangallensis, preserves books XI to XX from the 9th century. Etymologiae was printed in at least ten editions between 1472 and 1530, after which its importance faded in the Renaissance, the first scholarly edition was printed in Madrid in 1599, the first modern critical edition was edited by Wallace Lindsay in 1911. Etymologiae is less known in modern times, though the Vatican considered naming its author Isidore the patron saint of the Internet. Scholars recognize its importance both for its preservation of texts and for the insight it offers into medieval thought. Isidore of Seville was born around 560 in Spain, under the rule of the Visigoths after the collapse of the Roman empire. His older brother, Leander, the abbot of a Seville monastery, supervised Isidores education, Leander was a powerful priest, a friend of Pope Gregory, and eventually he became bishop of Seville. Leander also made friends with the Visigothic kings sons, Hermenigild, in 586, Reccared became king, and in 587 under Leanders religious direction he became a Catholic, controlling the choice of bishops. Reccared died in 601, not long after appointing Isidore as bishop of Seville, Isidore helped to unify the kingdom through Christianity and education, eradicating the Arian heresy which had been widespread, and led National Councils at Toledo and Seville. Isidore had a friendship with king Sisebut, who came to the throne in 612, and with another Seville churchman, Braulio. Isidore was widely read, mainly in Latin with a little Greek, the classical encyclopedists had already introduced alphabetic ordering of topics, and a literary rather than observational approach to knowledge, Isidore followed those traditions. Isidore became well known in his lifetime as a scholar and he started to put together a collection of his knowledge, the Etymologies, in about 600, and continued to write until about 625. Etymologiae presents in abbreviated form much of that part of the learning of antiquity that Christians thought worth preserving, Etymologies, often very far-fetched, form the subject of just one of the encyclopedias twenty books, but perceived linguistic similarities permeate the work. An idea of the quality of Isidores etymological knowledge is given by Peter Jones, Isidores vast encyclopedia of ancient learning includes subjects from theology to furniture, and provided a rich source of classical lore and learning for medieval writers
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Canary Islands
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The Canary Islands, also known as the Canaries, are an archipelago and autonomous community of Spain located on the Atlantic Ocean,100 kilometres west of Morocco. The Canaries are among the outermost regions of the European Union proper and it is also one of the eight regions with special consideration of historical nationality recognized as such by the Spanish Government. The main islands are Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, the archipelago also includes a number of islands and islets, La Graciosa, Alegranza, Isla de Lobos, Montaña Clara, Roque del Oeste and Roque del Este. In ancient times, the chain was often referred to as the Fortunate Isles. The Canary Islands is the most southerly region of Spain and the largest and most populated archipelago of the Macaronesia region, the islands have a subtropical climate, with long hot summers and moderately warm winters. The precipitation levels and the level of maritime moderation varies depending on location and elevation, green areas as well as desert exist on the archipelago. Due to their location above the inversion layer, the high mountains of these islands are ideal for astronomical observation. For this reason, two professional observatories, Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, have built on the islands. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been the largest city in the Canaries since 1768, between the 1833 territorial division of Spain and 1927 Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands. In 1927 a decree ordered that the capital of the Canary Islands be shared, the third largest city of the Canary Islands is San Cristóbal de La Laguna on Tenerife. This city is home to the Consejo Consultivo de Canarias. During the time of the Spanish Empire, the Canaries were the main stopover for Spanish galleons on their way to the Americas, who came south to catch the prevailing northeasterly trade winds. The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning Islands of the Dogs, according to the historian Pliny the Elder, the Mauretanian king Juba II named the island Canaria because it contained vast multitudes of dogs of very large size. Another speculation is that the dogs were actually a species of monk seal, critically endangered. The dense population of seals may have been the characteristic that most struck the few ancient Romans who established contact with these islands by sea. Alternatively, it is said that the inhabitants of the island, Guanches, used to worship dogs, mummified them. The ancient Greeks also knew about a people, living far to the west, who are the dog-headed ones, who worshipped dogs on an island. Some hypothesize that the Canary Islands dog-worship and the ancient Egyptian cult of the god, Anubis are closely connected
30.
James Archer (artist)
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James Archer RSA, was a Scottish painter of portraits, genre works, landscapes and historical scenes. Archer was born in Edinburgh, one of the four children of Andrew Archer, a dentist and his sister was Georgina Archer who founded an early college for women in Germany. He was educated at the Royal High School and studied at the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh under Sir William Allan and Thomas Duncan. In 1840 he was accepted as a student at the Royal Scottish Academy and first exhibited there in 1842, with the biblical painting, in 1849 he exhibited his first historical picture The Last Supper at the Royal Scottish Academy. His work after that mostly consisted of scenes taken from literature or legends that were popular at the time, such as Shakespeare, in about 1859 he began to paint a series of Arthurian subjects, including La Morte dArthur and Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. In 1864, he moved to London, in the 1880s, Archer travelled to the USA, where he painted Andrew Carnegies portrait, and to India, where he painted landscapes and people in costume. Archer died in 1904 in Haslemere in Surrey, survived by his son, james Archer online Paintings by Archer Summertime Gloucestershire Cooper, Thompson
31.
Erec and Enide
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Erec and Enide is the first of Chrétien de Troyes five romance poems, completed around 1170. It is one of three completed works by the author, consisting of about 7000 lines of Old French, the poem is one of the earliest known Arthurian romances in any language, predated only by the Welsh prose narrative Culhwch and Olwen. Chrétien de Troyes played a role in the formation of Arthurian romance and is influential up until the latest romances. Erec et Enide features many of the elements of Arthurian romance, such as Arthurian characters, the knightly quest. Many authors explicitly acknowledge their debt to Chrétien, while others, such as the author of Hunbaut, however, these tales are not always precisely true to Chrétiens original poem, such as in Geraint and Enid, in which Geraint suspects Enid of infidelity. Erec and Enide has come down to the present day in seven manuscripts, the poem comprises 6,878 octosyllables in rhymed couplets. A prose version was made in the 15th century, the first modern edition dates from 1856 by Immanuel Bekker, followed by an edition in 1890 by Wendelin Foerster. Approximately the first quarter of Erec and Enide recounts the tale of Erec son of Lac, and his marriage to Enide, an impoverished daughter of a Vavasor from Lalut. An unarmored Erec is keeping Guinevere company while other knights participate in a hunt near Cardigan when a strange knight and his dwarf approach the queen. At the Queens orders, Erec follows the knight, Yder, to a far off town where he meets, Erec defeats Yder, in a contest to win a falcon for the most beautiful lady in the town. Erec defends Enides beauty and she steps forward to take the bird and they return to Enides father, who gives permission for the two to marry. Erec refuses to accept gifts of new clothes for Enide, in spite of her appearance, the courtiers recognise Enides inherent nobility and Queen Guinevere dresses her in one of her own richly-embroidered gowns. The central half of the poem begins some time later when rumors spread that Erec has come to neglect his duties due to his overwhelming love for Enide. He overhears Enide crying over this and orders her to prepare for a journey to parts unknown and he commands her to be silent throughout, but she disobeys several times to warn him of danger. Erec and Enide displays the themes of love and chivalry that Chrétien continues in his later work, tests play an important part in character development and marital fidelity. Erecs testing of Enide is not condemned in the context of the story, especially when his behaviour is contrasted with some of the more despicable characters. Nevertheless, Enides faithful disobedience of his command to silence saves his life, another theme of the work is the Christianity, evidenced by the plots orientation around the Christian Calendar. When Erec first sets off, it is Easter, at Pentecost he marries Enide, furthermore, in the poem, Erec is killed and then resurrected on a Sunday, an allusion to the story of Jesus Christ
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Anglo-Saxons
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The Anglo-Saxons are a people who have inhabited Great Britain from the 5th century. Historically, the Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period in Britain between about 450 and 1066, after their settlement and up until the Norman conquest. The early Anglo-Saxon period includes the creation of an English nation, with many of the aspects that survive today, including government of shires. During this period, Christianity was re-established and there was a flowering of literature, charters and law were also established. The term Anglo-Saxon is popularly used for the language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons in England, in scholarly use, it is more commonly called Old English. The history of the Anglo-Saxons is the history of a cultural identity and it developed from divergent groups in association with the peoples adoption of Christianity, and was integral to the establishment of various kingdoms. Threatened by extended Danish invasions and occupation of eastern England, this identity was re-established, the visible Anglo-Saxon culture can be seen in the material culture of buildings, dress styles, illuminated texts and grave goods. Behind the symbolic nature of these emblems, there are strong elements of tribal. The elite declared themselves as kings who developed burhs, and identified their roles and peoples in Biblical terms, above all, as Helena Hamerow has observed, local and extended kin groups remained. the essential unit of production throughout the Anglo-Saxon period. Use of the term Anglo-Saxon assumes that the words Angles, Saxons or Anglo-Saxon have the meaning in all the sources. Assigning ethnic labels such as Anglo-Saxon is fraught with difficulties and this term began to be used only in the 8th century to distinguish the Germanic groups in Britain from those on the continent. The Old English ethnonym Angul-Seaxan comes from the Latin Angli-Saxones and became the name of the peoples Bede calls Anglorum, Anglo-Saxon is a term that was rarely used by Anglo-Saxons themselves, it is not an autonym. It is likely they identified as ængli, Seaxe or, more probably, also, the use of Anglo-Saxon disguises the extent to which people identified as Anglo-Scandinavian after the Viking age or the conquest of 1016, or as Anglo-Norman after the Norman conquest. The earliest historical references using this term are from outside Britain, referring to piratical Germanic raiders, Saxones who attacked the shores of Britain, procopius states that Britain was settled by three races, the Angiloi, Frisones, and Britons. The term Angli Saxones seems to have first been used in writing of the 8th century. The name therefore seemed to mean English Saxons, the Christian church seems to have used the word Angli, for example in the story of Pope Gregory I and his remark, Non Angli sed angeli. The terms ænglisc and Angelcynn were also used by West Saxon King Alfred to refer to the people, at other times he uses the term rex Anglorum, which presumably meant both Anglo-Saxons and Danes. Alfred the Great used Anglosaxonum Rex, the term Engla cyningc is used by Æthelred
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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
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