1.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
2.
Uppland
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Uppland is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland and it is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea. It has a short and strangely shaped land border with Åland. The name literally means up land, a name which is encountered in especially older English literature. Its Latinised form, which is used, is Uplandia. The traditional provinces of Sweden serve no administrative or political purposes, the corresponding administrative county, or län, is Uppsala County, which occupies the larger part of the territory. The bulk of the population, however, is within Stockholm County, minor parts of the province are also in Västmanland County, Gävleborg County and Södermanland County. Upplands arms were granted in 1560, distinctive in its depiction of a Globus cruciger, historically, Uppland ranked as a duchy and the coat of arms is represented with a ducal coronet. Blazoned thus, Gules, a Royal Orb Or gemmed of the field, despite the fact that the Uppsala län has a different name and a smaller territory it was granted the same coat of arms in 1940. Uppland was historically divided into chartered cities and districts, within Roslagen they were called skeppslag, and in the rest of the province hundreds. The abovementioned districts and cities have no administrative function today, the provincial population corresponds to the different overlapping counties as follows, Uppland is the birth place of Saint Brigitta of Sweden. The earliest unambiguous mention of the province of Uppland comes from the 1296, the Swedish capital of Stockholm is divided between two provinces. The southern half lies in Södermanland and the half in Uppland. Prince Waldemar Princess Ingiburga, his wife Prince Gustav Prince Sigvard Uppsala is the seat of the archbishop of the Lutheran Church of Sweden. The archaeological site Birka and the castle of Drottningholm are UNESCO World Heritage sites, football in the province is administered by Upplands Fotbollförbund. Uppland - Tourist site Uppland - Tourist information
3.
Runemaster
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A runemaster or runecarver is a term for a specialist in making runestones. More than 100 names of runemasters are known from Viking Age Sweden with most of them from 11th century eastern Svealand, many anonymous runestones have more or less securely been attributed to these runemasters. During the 11th century, when most runestones were raised, there were a few professional runemasters and they and their apprentices were contracted to make runestones and when the work was finished, they sometimes signed the stone with the name of the runemaster. Many of the runic inscriptions have likely been completed by non-professional runecarvers for the practical purposes of burial rites or record-keeping. Due to the depictions of life, many of the nonprofessional runecarvers could have been anything from pirates to soldiers, merchants. The layout of Scandinavian towns provided centers where craftspeople could congregate, after the spread of Christianity in these regions, and the increase in runic literacy that followed, runes were used for record-keeping and found on things like weapons, ivory, and coins. Most early medieval Scandinavians were probably literate in runes, and most people probably carved messages on pieces of bone, however, it was difficult to make runestones, and in order to master it one also needed to be a stonemason. A number of historians have theorized that there may be a connection between the word erulaR, in the priesthood and the old Norse title jarl. This suggests that it is possible that those who were versed in runic arts formed their own secular upper class of learned runemasters. This claim is corroborated by the distribution of runestones throughout Eastern Norway. This continued with the prominence of runestones that accompanied the rise of Christianity. Many of the runic inscriptions carved during this time were done so for the pleasure of God, runes were often erected by long-distance explorers seeking to document their visits or memorialize their fallen comrades. Runecarvers on commission or on their own carved memorials and gravestones more than anything else, in addition, memorial runes could provide additional details about an individuals death with more accuracy than oral tradition. Additionally, based on the texts recovered, it appears that the families who raised runestones often had as many as six sons. This is most likely due to the practice of female infanticide, notable runemasters of the 11th to early 12th centuries include, Åsmund Kåresson Balle Fot Frögärd i Ösby Gunnborga Halvdan Öpir Torgöt Fotsarve Ulf of Borresta Visäte
4.
Runic transliteration and transcription
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Every step has its challenges, but most Younger Futhark inscriptions are quite easy to interpret. Most Scandinavians can learn to read runic inscriptions with a little training, the Elder Futhark inscriptions, however, are much more challenging and they demand a great deal of knowledge in historical linguistics. Standard works such as Sveriges runinskrifter contain extensive presentations of the inscriptions have been interpreted throughout the centuries. It is practically impossible to render the runes in all the ways that they appear in the inscriptions. Transliteration means that the runes are represented by a corresponding Latin letter in bold, no consideration is given to the sound the rune represented in the actual inscription, and a good example of this is the ansuz rune, which could vary greatly in shape. In the oldest Younger Futhark inscriptions, it represented a nasal a, as in French an. However, some continued to use the ansuz rune for an a phoneme. Sometimes the runes are dotted which means that a dot has been added, dotted u, k and i are transliterated as y, g and e though they are rather variations of the non-dotted runes than runes in their own right. Bind runes are marked with an arch, some bind runes look in a way that makes it impossible to know which rune preceded the other, and then the scholar has to test the various combinations that give a comprehensible word. Thus all transliterations of bind runes are scholarly interpretations, runes that are known from older depictions but that have since disappeared are rendered within square brackets. The runes are transcribed into normalized spellings of the languages the runes were written in, since a single rune may represent several different phonemes, normalizations can differ greatly from transliterations. The þ rune can represent both the Old Norse letter ð or þ
5.
Old Norse
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Old Norse was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during about the 9th to 13th centuries. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century, Old Norse was divided into three dialects, Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Gutnish. Old West and East Norse formed a continuum, with no clear geographical boundary between them. For example, Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway, although Old Norwegian is classified as Old West Norse, most speakers spoke Old East Norse in what is present day Denmark and Sweden. Old Gutnish, the more obscure dialectal branch, is included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations. It developed its own features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders and Danes spoke the same language, another term used, used especially commonly with reference to West Norse, was norrœnt mál. In some instances the term Old Norse refers specifically to Old West Norse, the Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Kievan Rus, eastern England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language, in Kievan Rus, it survived the longest in Veliky Novgorod, probably lasting into the 13th century there. Norwegian is descended from Old West Norse, but over the centuries it has heavily influenced by East Norse. Old Norse also had an influence on English dialects and Lowland Scots and it also influenced the development of the Norman language, and through it and to a smaller extent, that of modern French. Various other languages, which are not closely related, have heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman dialects, Scottish Gaelic. The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi, of the modern languages, Icelandic is the closest to Old Norse. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system, contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which varies slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the phonemes, has changed at least as much as in the other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, although Swedish, Danish and the Norwegian languages have diverged the most, they still retain asymmetric mutual intelligibility. Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, the languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders
6.
Runestone
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A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, most runestones are located in Scandinavia, but there are also scattered runestones in locations that were visited by Norsemen during the Viking Age. Runestones are often memorials to dead men, Runestones were usually brightly coloured when erected, though this is no longer evident as the colour has worn off. The tradition of raising stones that had runic inscriptions first appeared in the 4th and 5th century, in Norway and Sweden, the earliest Danish runestones appeared in the 8th and 9th centuries, and there are about 50 runestones from the Migration Period in Scandinavia. Most runestones were erected during the period 950-1100 CE, and then they were raised in Sweden. —The Ynglinga saga What may have increased the spread of runestones was an event in Denmark in the 960s, King Harald Bluetooth had just been baptised and in order to mark the arrival of a new order and a new age, he commanded the construction of a runestone. The runestone has three sides of two are decorated with images. On one side, there is an animal that is the prototype of the animals that would be commonly engraved on runestones. Shortly after this stone had been made, something happened in Scandinavias runic tradition, scores of chieftains and powerful Norse clans consciously tried to imitate King Harald, and from Denmark a runestone wave spread northwards through Sweden. In most districts, the fad died out after a generation, but, in the central Swedish provinces of Uppland and Södermanland, there are about 3,000 runestones among the about 6,000 runic inscriptions in Scandinavia. The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia, Denmark has 250 runestones, Sweden has as many as between 1,700 and 2,500 depending on definition. The Swedish district of Uppland has the highest concentration with as many as 1,196 inscriptions in stone, outside of Scandinavia, the Isle of Man stands out with its 30 runestones from the 9th century and early 11th century. Scattered runestones have also found in England, Ireland, Scotland. Runestones were placed on selected spots in the landscape, such as locations, roads, bridge constructions. In medieval churches, there are often runestones that have been inserted as construction material, in southern Scania, runestones can be tied to large estates that also had churches constructed on their land. In the Mälaren Valley, the appear to be placed so that they mark essential parts of the domains of an estate, such as courtyard, grave field. Runestones usually appear as single monuments and more rarely as pairs, in some cases, they are part of larger monuments together with other raised stones. However, although scholars know where 95% of all runestones were discovered, the remainder have been found in churches, roads, bridges, graves, farms, and water routes
7.
Runes
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The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark or fuþark, the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc or fuþorc. Runology is the study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, runestones, runology forms a specialised branch of Germanic linguistics. The earliest runic inscriptions date from around 150 AD, the characters were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianisation, by approximately 700 AD in central Europe and 1100 AD in northern Europe. However, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes in northern Europe, until the early 20th century, runes were used in rural Sweden for decorative purposes in Dalarna and on Runic calendars. The three best-known runic alphabets are the Elder Futhark, the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, and the Younger Futhark, the Younger Futhark is divided further into the long-branch runes, short-branch or Rök runes, and the stavlösa or Hälsinge runes. The Younger Futhark developed further into the Medieval runes, and the Dalecarlian runes, historically, the runic alphabet is a derivation of the Old Italic scripts of antiquity, with the addition of some innovations. Which variant of the Old Italic family in particular gave rise to the runes is uncertain, suggestions include Raetic, Venetic, Etruscan, or Old Latin as candidates. At the time, all of these scripts had the same angular letter shapes suited for epigraphy, the process of transmission of the script is unknown. The oldest inscriptions are found in Denmark and northern Germany, not near Italy, a West Germanic hypothesis suggests transmission via Elbe Germanic groups, while a Gothic hypothesis presumes transmission via East Germanic expansion. The runes were in use among the Germanic peoples from the 1st or 2nd century AD, no distinction is made in surviving runic inscriptions between long and short vowels, although such a distinction was certainly present phonologically in the spoken languages of the time. Similarly, there are no signs for labiovelars in the Elder Futhark The term runes is used to distinguish these symbols from Latin and it is attested on a 6th-century Alamannic runestaff as runa and possibly as runo on the 4th-century Einang stone. The name comes from the Germanic root run-, meaning secret or whisper, in Old Irish Gaelic, the word rún means mystery, secret, intention or affectionate love. Similarly in Welsh and Old English, the word rhin and rūn respectively means mystery, secret, secret writing, or sometimes in the sense of the word. Ogham is a Celtic script, similarly carved in the Norse manner, the root run- can also be found in the Baltic languages, meaning speech. In Lithuanian, runoti means both to cut and to speak, according to another theory, the Germanic root comes from the Indoeuropean root *reuə- dig. The Finnish term for rune, riimukirjain, means scratched letter, the Finnish word runo means poem and comes from the same source as the English word rune, it is a very old loan of the Proto-Germanic *rūnō. The runes developed centuries after the Old Italic alphabets from which they are historically derived. The formation of the Elder Futhark was complete by the early 5th century, specifically, the Raetic alphabet of Bolzano is often advanced as a candidate for the origin of the runes, with only five Elder Futhark runes having no counterpart in the Bolzano alphabet
8.
Runology
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This article is about the philological discipline, not to be confused with occultist concepts like runosophy. Runology is the study of the Runic alphabets, Runic inscriptions, runology forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics. Runology was initiated by Johannes Bureus who was interested in the linguistics of the Geatish language. However, he did not look at the runes as just an alphabet, the study of runes was continued by Olof Rudbeck Sr and presented in his collection Atlantica. The physicist Anders Celsius further extended the science of runes and travelled around the whole of Sweden to examine the bautastenar, another early treatise is the 1732 Runologia by Jón Ólafsson of Grunnavík. The various runic scripts were well understood by the 19th century, wilhelm Grimm published his Ueber deutsche Runen in 1821, where among other things he discussed the Marcomannic runes. In 1828 he published a supplement, titled Zur Literatur der Runen, sveriges runinskrifter was published from 1900. The dedicated journal Nytt om runer has been published by the Runic Archives of the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo from 1985, the Rundata project, aiming at a machine-readable catalogue of runic inscriptions, was initiated in 1993. Runic transliteration and transcription List of runologists
9.
Runestone styles
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The term runestone style in the singular may refer to the Urnes style. The style or design of runestones varied during the Viking Age, the early runestones were simple in design, but towards the end of the runestone era they became increasingly complex and made by travelling runemasters such as Öpir and Visäte. A categorization of the styles was developed by Anne-Sophie Gräslund in the 1990s and her systematization is considered to have been a break-through and is today a standard. The styles are RAK, Fp, Pr1, Pr2, Pr3, Pr4 and Pr5, and they cover the period 980-1130, which was the period during which most runestones were made. The styles Pr1 and Pr2 correspond to the Ringerike style, whereas Pr3, Pr4, below follows a brief presentation of the various styles by showing sample runestones according to Rundatas annotation. RAK is the oldest style and covers the period 980-1015 AD and this style has no dragon heads and the ends of the runic bands are straight. This style is from the period c and it is characterized by runic bands that end with animal heads seen from above. In the styles called Pr1, Pr2, Pr3, Pr4 and Pr5 and this style is contemporary with FP dated to c. 1010- c.1050 when it was succeeded by Pr3 and this style is only somewhat younger than the previous style and it is dated to c. 1050, and it was succeeded by Pr3. This style succeeded FP, Pr1 and Pr2 and is dated to c and this style appeared somewhat later c. This style was the last one before runestones stopped being raised and this style is used by the Rundata project, although it does not attribute it to Gräslunds model. The style is common in western Södermanland and it is characterized by bordered crosses, norse art Runemaster Anglo-Saxon art Rundata Edberg, Rune. Runriket Täby-Vallentuna – en Handledning Fuglesang, Signe Horn, swedish Runestones of the Eleventh Century, Ornament and Dating, Runeninschriften als Quellen Interdisziplinärer Forschung. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings
10.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
11.
Viking Age
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The Viking Age is the period from the late 8th century to the mid-11th century in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, following the Germanic Iron Age. It is the period of history when Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade, raids, colonisation and conquest. Three Viking ships had beached in Weymouth Bay four years earlier, the Viking devastation of Northumbrias Holy Island was reported by the Northumbrian scholar Alcuin of York, who wrote, Never before in Britain has such a terror appeared. Vikings were portrayed as violent and bloodthirsty by their enemies. The chronicles of medieval England portrayed them as rapacious wolves among sheep, the first challenges to the many anti-Viking images in Britain emerged in the 17th century. Pioneering scholarly works on the Viking Age reached a readership in Britain. Archaeologists began to dig up Britains Viking past, linguistics traced the Viking-Age origins of rural idioms and proverbs. New dictionaries of the Old Norse language enabled more Victorians to read the Icelandic Sagas, the Vikings who invaded western and eastern Europe were chiefly pagans from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They also settled in the Faroe Islands, Ireland, Iceland, peripheral Scotland, Greenland and their North Germanic language, Old Norse, became the mother-tongue of present-day Scandinavian languages. By 801, a central authority appears to have been established in Jutland. In Norway, mountainous terrain and fjords formed strong natural boundaries, communities there remained independent of each other, unlike the situation in Denmark which is lowland. By 800, some 30 small kingdoms existed in Norway, the sea was the easiest way of communication between the Norwegian kingdoms and the outside world. It was in the 8th century that Scandinavians began to build ships of war, the North Sea rovers were traders, colonisers and explorers as well as plunderers. There are various theories concerning the causes of the Viking invasions, for people living along the coast, it would seem natural to seek new land by the sea. Another reason was that during this period England, Wales and Ireland, the Franks, however, had well-defended coasts and heavily fortified ports and harbours. Pure thirst for adventure may also have been a factor, a reason for the raids is believed by some to be over-population caused by technological advances, such as the use of iron, or a shortage of women due to selective female infanticide. Although another cause could well have been caused by the Frankish expansion to the south of Scandinavia. Consequently, these Vikings became raiders, in search of subsistence, There is ongoing debate among scholars as to why the Scandinavians began to expand during the 8th through 11th centuries
12.
Memorial
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A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, the most common type of memorial is the gravestone or the memorial plaque. Also common are war memorials commemorating those who have died in wars, memorials in the form of a cross are called intending crosses. Online memorials and tributes are becoming popular especially with the increase in natural burial where the laying of gravestones. When somebody has died, the family may request that a gift be given to a designated charity. Those temporary or makeshift memorials are also called grassroots memorials, sometimes, when a high school student has died, the memorials are placed in the form of a scholarship, to be awarded to high-achieving students in future years
13.
Uppsala County
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Uppsala County is a county or län on the eastern coast of Sweden. It borders the counties of Dalarna, Stockholm, Södermanland, Västmanland, Gävleborg, for History, Geography and Culture see, Uppland The province of Uppland encompasses Uppsala County. The County Administrative Board is a Government Agency headed by a Governor, the County Council of Uppsala or Landstinget i Uppsala län, which is appointed by the electorate of the county, is primarily responsible for health care and public transportation. Älvkarleby Tierp Östhammar Uppsala Enköping Håbo Knivsta Heby The County of Uppsala inherited its coat of arms from the province of Uppland, when it is shown with a royal crown it represents the County Administrative Board. Uppsala County Administrative Board Uppsala County Council Regional Association of Uppsala Hotels in Uppsala
14.
Balingsta Church
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Balingsta Church is a Lutheran church in the Archdiocese of Uppsala in Uppsala County, Sweden. It is one of the best preserved Romanesque churches in the province of Uppland, not far from the church is the Böksta Runestone. The oldest parts of Balingsta Church, the nave, choir and apse, a few years later the tower was added to the church. The vestry was built in the 15th century, and during the century the church ceiling was remade into a vaulted ceiling, decorated with frescos. In the 16th century the tower was heightened and a church porch added. The church was rebuilt in the 18th century, when new and larger windows were inserted. The church has remained more or less unchanged since, during the 19th century, the church was in a state of decay and in 1872 the congregation moved out of the church into a new church not far away. The medieval church was left abandoned, in 1934, the 19th-century church was pulled down. The church is built of partly whitewashed fieldstone and it is a hall church ending in a choir with an apse. On the south façade the church porch protrudes and on the north, inside, the church still has some iron chandeliers dating from the Middle Ages. Media related to Balingsta Church at Wikimedia Commons
15.
Moose
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The moose or elk, Alces alces, is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the broad, flat antlers of the males, Moose typically inhabit boreal forests and temperate broadleaf and mixed forests of the Northern Hemisphere in temperate to subarctic climates. Hunting and other activities have caused a reduction in the size of the mooses range over time. Moose have been reintroduced to some of their former habitats, currently, most moose are found in Canada, Alaska, New England, Fennoscandia, Latvia, Estonia and Russia. Their diet consists of terrestrial and aquatic vegetation. The most common predators are the gray wolf along with bears. Unlike most other species, moose are solitary animals and do not form herds. Although generally slow-moving and sedentary, moose can become aggressive and move quickly if angered or startled and their mating season in the autumn features energetic fights between males competing for a female. Alces alces is called a moose in North American English, and that same word elk in North American English refers to a completely different species of deer, the Cervus canadensis, also called the wapiti. A mature male moose is called a bull, a female a cow. The word elk originated from Proto-Germanic languages, from which Old English evolved, the British English word elk has cognates in other Indo-European languages, for example elg in Danish/Norwegian, älg in Swedish, alnis in Latvian, Elch in German, and łoś in Polish. In the continental-European languages, these forms of the word elk almost always refer to the Alces alces, the word moose first entered English by 1606 and is borrowed from the Algonquian languages, and possibly involved forms from multiple languages mutually reinforcing one another. The term moose is a name of North American origin, the animal is known in British English as the elk. The moose became extinct in Britain during the Bronze Age, long before the Europeans discovery of America, the youngest bones were found in Scotland and are roughly 3900 years old. Dictionaries of the 18th century simply described elk as a deer that was as large as a horse, confusingly, the word elk is used in North America to refer to a different animal, Cervus canadensis, which is also called by the Algonkian indigenous name, wapiti. The British began colonizing America in the 17th century, and found two common species of deer for which they had no names, the wapiti appeared very similar to the red deer of Europe although it was much larger and was not red. The moose was a rather strange-looking deer to the colonists, the wapiti is very similar to the red deer of central and western Europe, although it is distinctly different behaviorally and genetically. Early European explorers in North America, particularly in Virginia where there were no moose, called the wapiti elk because of its size, the moose resembled the German elk, which was less familiar to the British colonists
16.
Falconry
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Falconry is the hunting of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. There are two terms used to describe a person involved in falconry, a falconer flies a falcon. In modern falconry, the hawk, the Harriss hawk. Many contemporary practitioners still use words in their original meaning. In early English falconry literature, the word referred to a female falcon only. A male hawk or falcon was referred to as a tiercel as it was one third less than the female in size. Evidence suggests that the art of falconry may have begun in Mesopotamia, There are also some raptor representations in the northern Altai, western Mongolia. The falcon was a bird of ancient Mongol tribes. There is some disagreement about whether such early accounts document the practice of falconry or are misinterpreted depictions of humans with birds of prey, during the Turkic Period of Central Asia, concrete figures of falconer on horseback were described on the rocks in Kyrgyz. Falconry was probably introduced to Europe around AD400, when the Huns and Alans invaded from the East, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen is generally acknowledged as the most significant wellspring of traditional falconry knowledge. He is believed to have obtained firsthand knowledge of Arabic falconry during wars in the region and he obtained a copy of Moamyns manual on falconry and had it translated into Latin by Theodore of Antioch. Frederick II himself made corrections to the translation in 1241 resulting in De Scientia Venandi per Aves, King Frederick II is most recognized for his falconry treatise, De arte venandi cum avibus. Written himself toward the end of his life, it is accepted as the first comprehensive book of falconry. De arte venandi cum avibus incorporated a diversity of traditions from east to west. Historically, falconry was a sport and status symbol among the nobles of medieval Europe, the Middle East. Many historical illustrations left in Rashid al Dins Compendium chronicles book described falconry of the centuries with Mongol images. Falconry was largely restricted to the classes due to the prerequisite commitment of time, money. In art and in aspects of culture such as literature
17.
Viking art
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Viking art has many design elements in common with Celtic, Germanic, the later Romanesque and Eastern European art, sharing many influences with each of these traditions. The alternative name for the Viking people, Norse or Norsemen, Viking raiders attacked wealthy targets on the north-western coasts of Europe from the late 8th until the mid-11th century CE. Pre-Christian traders and sea raiders, the Vikings first enter recorded history with their attack on the Christian monastic community on Lindisfarne Island in 793, the Vikings initially employed their longships to invade and attack European coasts, harbours and river settlements on a seasonal basis. Evidence exists for Vikings reaching Newfoundland well before the voyages of Christopher Columbus discovered the New World. Trading and merchant activities were accompanied by settlement and colonisation in many of these territories, importantly, it was the English archaeologist David M. Together these scholars have combined authority with accessibility to promote the understanding of Viking art as a cultural expression. The artistic record therefore, as it has survived to the present day, ongoing archaeological excavation and opportunistic finds, of course, may improve this situation in the future, as indeed they have in the recent past. Wood was undoubtedly the primary material of choice for Viking artists, being easy to carve, inexpensive. The same is true of the textile arts, although weaving. Subsequently, and likely influenced by the spread of Christianity, the use of carved stone for permanent memorials became more prevalent, jewellery was worn by both men and women, though of different types. Married women fastened their overdresses near the shoulder with matching pairs of large brooches, modern scholars often call them tortoise brooches because of their domed shape. The shapes and styles of womens paired brooches varied regionally, women often strung metal chains or strings of beads between the brooches, or suspended ornaments from the bottom of the brooches. Men wore rings on their fingers, arms and necks, and held their cloaks closed with penannular brooches and their weapons were often richly decorated on areas such as sword hilts. Decorated metalwork of a nature is frequently recovered from Viking period graves. The deceased was dressed in their best clothing and jewellery, and was interred with weapons, tools, a non-visual source of information for Viking art lies in skaldic verse, the complex form of oral poetry composed during the Viking Age and passed on until written down centuries later. Several verses speak of painted forms of decoration that have but rarely survived on wood, the 9th century skald poet Bragi Boddason, for example, cites four apparently unrelated scenes painted on a shield. One of these depicted the god Thors fishing expedition, which motif is also referenced in a 10th-century poem by Úlfr Uggason describing the paintings in a newly constructed hall in Iceland. The art historian Bernhard Salin was the first to systematise Germanic animal ornament, the latter two were subsequently subdivided by Arwidsson into three further styles, Style C, flourishing during the 7th century and into the 8th century, before being largely replaced by Style D
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Ullr
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The medieval Norse word was Latinized as Ollerus. The Modern Icelandic form is Ullur, in the mainland Scandinavian languages the modern form is Ull. The Thorsberg chape bears an Elder Futhark inscription, one of the earliest known altogether, owlþuþewaz / niwajmariz The first element owlþu, for wolþu-, means glory, glorious one, Old Norse Ullr, Old English wuldor. The second element, -þewaz, means slave, servant, the whole compound is a personal name or title, servant of the glorious one, servant/priest of Ullr. Ollerus ruled under the name Odin for ten years until the true Odin was called back, Ullr is mentioned in the poem Grímnismál where the homes of individual gods are recounted. The English versions shown here are by Thorpe, the name Ýdalir, meaning yew dales, is not otherwise attested. The yew was an important material in the making of bows, and it seems likely that the name Ýdalir is connected with the idea of Ullr as a bow-god. Another strophe in Grímnismál also mentions Ullr, the strophe is obscure but may refer to some sort of religious ceremony. It seems to indicate Ullr as an important god, the last reference to Ullr in the Poetic Edda is found in Atlakviða, Both Atlakviða and Grímnismál are often considered to be among the oldest extant Eddic poems. It may not be a coincidence that they are the ones to refer to Ullr. Again we seem to find Ullr associated with some sort of ceremony, this time that of swearing an oath by a ring, Snorri informs his readers that Ullr can be called ski-god, bow-god, hunting-god and shield-god. In turn a shield can be called Ullrs ship, despite these tantalising tidbits Snorri relates no myths about Ullr. It seems likely that he didnt know any, the god having faded from memory, while the origin of this kenning is unknown it could be connected with the identity of Ullr as a ski-god. Early skis, or perhaps sleds, might have been reminiscent of shields, a late Icelandic composition, Laufás-Edda, offers the prosaic explanation that Ullrs ship was called Skjöldr, Shield. The name of Ullr is also common in warrior kennings, where it is used as other god names are, Ullrs name appears in several important Norwegian and Swedish place names. This indicates that Ullr had at some point a religious importance in Scandinavia that is greater than what is apparent from the scant surviving textual references. It is also significant that the placenames referring to this god are often found close to placenames referring to another deity, Njörðr in Sweden. Some of the Norwegian placenames have a variant form, Ullinn and it has been suggested that this is the remnant of a pair of twin gods and further that there may have been a female Ullin, on the model of divine pairs such as Fjörgynn and Fjörgyn
19.
Prose Edda
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The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorris Edda or, historically, simply as Edda, is an Old Norse work of literature written in Iceland in the early 13th century. The work is assumed to have been written, or at least compiled, by the Icelandic scholar. It begins with a euhemerized Prologue, a section on the Norse cosmogony, pantheon and this is followed by three distinct books, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál and Háttatal. Seven manuscripts, dating from around 1300 to around 1600, have independent textual value, Sturluson planned the collection as a textbook. It was to enable Icelandic poets and readers to understand the subtleties of alliterative verse, at that time, versions of the Edda were well known in Iceland, but scholars speculated that there once was an Elder Edda which contained the poems which Snorri quotes in his Edda. The etymology of Edda remains uncertain, there are many hypotheses, and little agreement. Some argue that the word derives from the name of Oddi, Edda could therefore mean book of Oddi. However, this assumption is generally rejected, Faulkes in his English translation of the Prose Edda commented that this is unlikely, both in terms of linguistics and history since Snorri was no longer living at Oddi when he composed his work. Another connection was made with the word óðr, which means poetry or inspiration in Old Norse, Edda also means great-parent, a word used by Snorri himself in the Skáldskaparmál. That is, with the meaning, the name of a character in the Rigsthula. A final hypothesis is derived from the Latin edo, meaning I write and it relies on the fact that the word kredda is certified and comes from the Latin credo, I believe. It seems likely Snorri would have been able to invent the word, Edda in this case could be translated as Poetic Art. This is the meaning that the word was given in the Middle Ages. The name Sæmundar Edda was given by the Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson to the collection of poems contained in the Codex Regius, many of which are quoted by Snorri. Brynjólfur, along many others of his time incorrectly believed that they were collected by Sæmundr fróði. Seven manuscripts of the Edda have survived, six compositions of the Middle Ages, no one manuscript is complete, and each has variations. In addition to three fragments, the four manuscripts are Codex Regius, Codex Wormianus, Codex Trajectinus. Codex Upsaliensis, was composed in the first quarter of the century and is the oldest manuscript preserved of the Edda of Snorri
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Old Norse religion
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Norse religion refers to the religious traditions of the Norsemen prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, specifically during the Viking Age. Norse religion is a folk religion and it was the northern variation of the religion practiced in the lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes across most of Northern and Central Europe prior to Roman and Holy Roman incursions. However, it was not formalized nor categorized as a subset of Germanic paganism until it was described by outsiders who came into contact with native practitioners. The Norse - or people of Scandinavia - have always had contact with cultures outside Scandinavia. They were well aware of foreign religions and they traded, intermarried and sometimes worked as henchmen for other cultures, including the Romans. Most titles bestowed upon Norse religion are the ones which were used to describe the religion in a competitive manner, some of these terms were hedendom, Heidentum, Heathenry or Pagan. A more romanticized name for Norse religion is the medieval Icelandic term Forn Siðr or Old Custom, knowledge about Norse religion has been gathered from archaeological discoveries and from literature produced after the Christianization of Scandinavia. The literary sources that reference Norse paganism were written after the religion had declined, the vast majority of this came from 13th-century Iceland, where Christianity had taken longest to gain hold because of its remote location. The key literary texts for the study of Norse religion are the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus and the Poetic Edda, by an unknown writer or writers. Saga literature informs us of the not only of the literate elite. Sagas are categorized on the basis of events described in the saga took place. Though Sagas are often mythical in nature, the ambitions are to give a realistic description of past events. Many sites in Scandinavia have yielded information about early Scandinavian culture. The oldest extant cultural examples are petroglyphs or helleristninger/hällristningar and these are usually divided into two categories according to age, hunting-glyphs and agricultural-glyphs. The hunting glyphs are the oldest and are found in Northern Scandinavia. These finds seem to indicate an existence based on hunting and fishing. These motifs were gradually subsumed by glyphs with more zoomorphic, or perhaps religious, the glyphs from the region of Bohuslän are later complemented with younger agricultural glyphs, which seem to depict an existence based more heavily on agriculture. These later motifs primarily depict ships, solar and lunar motifs, geometrical spirals and anthropomorphic beings and these finds shows several signs of rituals in a seemingly religious context, including some strong indications of human sacrifice such as the case of the Tollund Man bog body
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Odin
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In Germanic mythology, Odin is a widely revered god. In the modern period, Odin continued to be acknowledged in the folklore of Germanic Europe. Forms of his name appear frequently throughout the Germanic record, though narratives regarding Odin are mainly found in Old Norse works recorded in Iceland and these texts make up the bulk of modern understanding of Norse mythology. In Old Norse texts, Odin is depicted as one-eyed and long-bearded, frequently wielding a spear named Gungnir, and wearing a cloak, Odin is attested as having many sons, most famously the god Baldr with Frigg, and is known by hundreds of names. Odin has an association with Yule, and mankinds knowledge of both the runes and poetry is also attributed to him. In Old Norse texts, Odin is given primacy over female beings associated with the battlefield—the valkyries—and oversees Valhalla, where he receives half of those who die in battle, the other half are chosen by the goddess Freyja for her afterlife location, Fólkvangr. In later folklore, Odin appears as a leader of the Wild Hunt and he has also been associated with charms and other forms of magic, particularly in Old English and Old Norse texts. Odin has been a frequent subject of study in Germanic studies, in the modern period, Odin has inspired numerous works of poetry, music, and other forms of media. He is venerated in most forms of the new religious movement Heathenry, together with other gods venerated by the ancient Germanic peoples, some branches focus particularly on him. The Old Norse theonym Óðinn and its cognates, including Old English Wōden, Old Saxon Wōden, the masculine noun *wōđanaz developed from the Proto-Germanic adjective *wōđaz, related to Latin vātēs and Old Irish fáith, both meaning seer, prophet. Adjectives stemming from *wōđaz include Gothic woþs possessed, Old Norse óðr, mad, frantic, furious, additionally the Old Norse noun æði rage, fury and Old High German wuotī madness derive from the feminine noun *wōđīn, from *wōđaz. Over 170 names are recorded for the god Odin and these names are variously descriptive of attributes of the god, refer to myths involving him, or refer to religious practices associated with the god. This multitude of names makes Odin the god with the most names known among the Germanic peoples, the weekday name Wednesday derives from Old English wōdnesdæg. Cognate terms are found in other Germanic languages, such as Middle Low German wōdensdach, all of these terms derive from Proto-Germanic *Wodensdag, itself a Germanic interpretation of Latin Dies Mercurii. However, in Old High German, the derived from Odins was replaced by a translation of Church Latin media hebdomas. The earliest records of the Germanic peoples were recorded by the Romans and they regard it as a religious duty to offer to him, on fixed days, human as well as other sacrificial victims. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of the permitted kind, in this instance, Tacitus refers to the god Odin as Mercury, Thor as Hercules, and Týr as Mars, and the identity of the Isis of the Suebi has been debated. But their rankings in their respective religious spheres may have very different
22.
Gungnir
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In Norse mythology, Gungnir is the spear of the god Odin. According to the Poetic Edda, the spear was fashioned by the Dwarves, Loki flatters the Dwarves and asks the Spear of them, which they give him. In the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá, the Æsir-Vanir War is described as starting when Odin throws a spear over the heads of an assembly of Vanir gods. Whether or not this was specifically Gungnir is, however, unstated, in Sigrdrífumál, the valkyrie Sigrdrífa advises Sigurd on the magical application of runes. She gives Sigurd advice and shares with him lore, including that runes were carved on the tip of Gungnir and he will then attack the wolf Fenrir with it. In Skáldskaparmál, more information regarding the spear is presented, the spear was fashioned by the dwarves known as the Sons of Ivaldi under the mastery of the blacksmith dwarf Dvalin. The spear was obtained from the dwarves by Loki, the result of a scheme he concocted as a reparation for his cutting of the goddess Sifs hair. The spear is described as being so well balanced that it could strike any target, if the rider on horseback on the image on the Böksta Runestone has been correctly identified as Odin, then Odin is shown carrying Gungnir while hunting an moose. In Wagners opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wotans spear is made from the wood of the world tree Yggdrasil and he uses the spear to break the sword of Siegmund, leading to Siegmunds death. When he tries to bar the eponymous hero of the opera, Siegfried, from awakening Brünnhilde from her magic sleep and it is implied that this is also the end of Wotans power and he never appears onstage again. Bracteate Gae Bolga, the Irish legendary hero Cú Chulainns similar magic spear Migration period spear Orchard, dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Några Reflektioner Angående Bilderna på Balingsta-Stenen i Uppland
