1.
James VI and I
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James VI and I was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciary, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, James succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother Mary was compelled to abdicate in his favour. Four different regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, in 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died without issue. He continued to reign in all three kingdoms for 22 years, a period known after him as the Jacobean era, until his death in 1625 at the age of 58. After the Union of the Crowns, he based himself in England from 1603, only returning to Scotland once in 1617 and he was a major advocate of a single parliament for England and Scotland. In his reign, the Plantation of Ulster and British colonization of the Americas began, at 57 years and 246 days, Jamess reign in Scotland was longer than those of any of his predecessors. He achieved most of his aims in Scotland but faced difficulties in England, including the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. James himself was a scholar, the author of works such as Daemonologie, The True Law of Free Monarchies. He sponsored the translation of the Bible that would later be named after him, Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed the wisest fool in Christendom, an epithet associated with his character ever since. Since the latter half of the 20th century, historians have tended to revise Jamess reputation and treat him as a serious, James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Both Mary and Darnley were great-grandchildren of Henry VII of England through Margaret Tudor, Marys rule over Scotland was insecure, and she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion by Protestant noblemen. James was born on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle, and as the eldest son and heir apparent of the monarch automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and he was baptised Charles James or James Charles on 17 December 1566 in a Catholic ceremony held at Stirling Castle. His godparents were Charles IX of France, Elizabeth I of England, Mary refused to let the Archbishop of St Andrews, whom she referred to as a pocky priest, spit in the childs mouth, as was then the custom. The subsequent entertainment, devised by Frenchman Bastian Pagez, featured men dressed as satyrs and sporting tails, Jamess father, Darnley, was murdered on 10 February 1567 at Kirk o Field, Edinburgh, perhaps in revenge for Rizzios death. James inherited his fathers titles of Duke of Albany and Earl of Ross, Mary was already unpopular, and her marriage on 15 May 1567 to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely suspected of murdering Darnley, heightened widespread bad feeling towards her. In June 1567, Protestant rebels arrested Mary and imprisoned her in Loch Leven Castle and she was forced to abdicate on 24 July 1567 in favour of the infant James and to appoint her illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, as regent. The care of James was entrusted to the Earl and Countess of Mar, to be conserved, nursed, and upbrought in the security of Stirling Castle
2.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
3.
Scots language
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Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language which was restricted to most of the Highlands. The language developed during the Middle English period as a distinct entity, although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects do exist, these often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a linguistic continuum. Scots is often regarded as one of the ancient varieties of English, alternatively, Scots is sometimes treated as a distinct Germanic language, in the way Norwegian is closely linked to, yet distinct from, Danish. In the 2011 Scottish census, a question on Scots language ability was featured, native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots or use a dialect name such as the Doric, or the Buchan Claik. The old-fashioned Scotch, an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Northern Ireland, the term Lallans, a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands, is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form. Scots in Ireland is known in circles as Ulster-Scots or Ullans. Scots is a contraction of Scottis, the Older Scots and northern version of late Old English Scottisc, before the end of the 15th century, English speech in Scotland was known as English, whereas Scottish referred to Gaelic. From 1495 the term Scottis was increasingly used to refer to the Lowland vernacular and Erse, meaning Irish, the Gaelic of Scotland is now usually called Scottish Gaelic. Northumbrian Old English had been established in what is now southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the seventh century and it remained largely confined to this area until the thirteenth century, continuing in common use while Gaelic was the language of the Scottish court. Scots also includes loan words resulting from contact with Gaelic, Early medieval legal documents include a body of Gaelic legal and administrative loans. Contemporary Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as ceilidh, loch, from the thirteenth century Early Scots spread further into Scotland via the burghs, proto-urban institutions which were first established by King David I. The growth in prestige of Early Scots in the century. By the sixteenth century Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England, from 1610 to the 1690s during the Plantation of Ulster large numbers of Scots-speaking Lowlanders, some 200,000, settled there. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one, Modern Scots is used to describe the language after 1700 when southern Modern English was generally adopted as the literary language though Scots remained the vernacular. In Scotland, Scots is spoken in the Scottish Lowlands, the Northern Isles, Caithness, Arran, in Ulster it is spoken in the Counties of Down, Antrim, Londonderry and Donegal. Dialects include Insular Scots, Northern Scots, Central Scots, Southern Scots, many speakers are either diglossic and/or able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation in which they find themselves
4.
Irish language
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Irish, also referred to as Gaelic or Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people. Irish enjoys constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland and it is also among the official languages of the European Union. The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island of Ireland and it has the oldest vernacular literature in Western Europe. The fate of the language was influenced by the power of the English state in Ireland. Elizabethan officials viewed the use of Irish unfavourably, as being a threat to all things English in Ireland and its decline began under English rule in the 17th century. In the latter part of the 19th century, there was a decrease in the number of speakers. Irish-speaking areas were hit especially hard, by the end of British rule, the language was spoken by less than 15% of the national population. Since then, Irish speakers have been in the minority, efforts have been made by the state, individuals and organisations to preserve, promote and revive the language, but with mixed results. Around the turn of the 21st century, estimates of native speakers ranged from 20,000 to 80,000 people. In the 2011 Census, these numbers had increased to 94,000 and 1.3 million, there are several thousand Irish speakers in Northern Ireland. It has been estimated that the active Irish-language scene probably comprises 5 to 10 per cent of Irelands population, there has been a significant increase in the number of urban Irish speakers, particularly in Dublin. In Gaeltacht areas, however, there has been a decline of the use of Irish. Údarás na Gaeltachta predicted that, by 2025, Irish will no longer be the language in any of the designated Gaeltacht areas. Survey data suggest that most Irish people think highly of Irish as a marker of identity. It has also argued that newer urban groups of Irish speakers are a disruptive force in this respect. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil the name of the language is Gaeilge, before the spelling reform of 1948, this form was spelled Gaedhilge, originally this was the genitive of Gaedhealg, the form used in Classical Irish. Older spellings of this include Gaoidhealg in Classical Irish and Goídelc in Old Irish, the modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent dh in the middle of Gaedhilge, whereas Goidelic languages, used to refer to the language family including Irish, comes from Old Irish
5.
Occult
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The occult is knowledge of the hidden. In common English usage, occult refers to knowledge of the paranormal, as opposed to knowledge of the measurable, the terms esoteric and arcane can also be used to describe the occult, in addition to their meanings unrelated to the supernatural. Occultism is the study of practices, including magic, alchemy, extra-sensory perception, astrology, spiritualism, religion. Alchemy was common among important seventeenth-century scientists, such as Isaac Newton, Newton was even accused of introducing occult agencies into natural science when he postulated gravity as a force capable of acting over vast distances. By the eighteenth century these unorthodox religious and philosophical concerns were well-defined as occult, inasmuch as they lay on the outermost fringe of accepted forms of knowledge and they were, however, preserved by antiquarians and mystics. Occult science is the research into or formulation of occult concepts in a manner that resembles the way natural science researches or describes phenomena. In his 1871 book Primitive Culture, the anthropologist Edward Tylor used the term occult science as a synonym for magic, Occult qualities are properties that have no known rational explanation, in the Middle Ages, for example, magnetism was considered an occult quality. Newtons contemporaries severely criticized his theory that gravity was effected through action at a distance, some religions and sects enthusiastically embrace occultism as an integral esoteric aspect of mystical religious experience. This attitude is common within Wicca and many other modern pagan religions, some other religious denominations disapprove of occultism in most or all forms. They may view the occult as being anything supernatural or paranormal which is not achieved by or through God, monistic in contrast to Christian dualistic beliefs of a separation between body and spirit, Gnostic i. e. Walker, Benjamin. Encyclopedia of the Occult, the Esoteric and the Supernatural, harold W. Percival, Joined the Theosophical Society in 1892. Blavatsky, Occultism versus the Occult Arts, Lucifer, May 1888 Bardon, true to His Ways, Purity & Safety in Christian Spiritual Practice, ISBN 1-932124-61-6. ISBN 1-57863-150-5 Forshaw, Peter, The Occult Middle Ages, in Christopher Partridge, The Occult World, London, Routledge,2014 Gettings, Fred, Vision of the Occult, ISBN 0-7126-1438-9 Kontou, Tatiana – Willburn, Sarah. The Ashgate Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism and the Occult, ISBN 978-0-7546-6912-8 Martin, W. Rische, J. Rische, K. & VanGordon, K. W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.201 p. N. B, the scope of this study also embraces the occult. ISBN 0-8028-0262-1 Partridge, Christopher, The Occult World, London, the Tree of Life, An Illustrated Study in Magic. Newton, Isaac, Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John by Sir Isaac Newton Rogers, L. W. Hints to Young Students of Occultism. Albany, NY, The Theosophical Book Company, joseph H. Peterson, Twilit Grotto, Archives of Western Esoterica Occult Science and Philosophy of the Renaissance
6.
Religion
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Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has considered a source of religious beliefs. There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, about 84% of the worlds population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion. With the onset of the modernisation of and the revolution in the western world. The religiously unaffiliated demographic include those who do not identify with any religion, atheists. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs, about 16% of the worlds population is religiously unaffiliated. The study of religion encompasses a variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, Religion is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possible interpretation traced to Cicero, connects lego read, i. e. re with lego in the sense of choose, go over again or consider carefully. The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders, we hear of the religion of the Golden Fleece, of a knight of the religion of Avys. In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religio was understood as a virtue of worship, never as doctrine, practice. In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern translations and it was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Confucianism first emerged. Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, what is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law. Some languages have words that can be translated as religion, but they may use them in a different way. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of power. There is no equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities
7.
Philosophy
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Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. The term was coined by Pythagoras. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument and systematic presentation, classic philosophical questions include, Is it possible to know anything and to prove it. However, philosophers might also pose more practical and concrete questions such as, is it better to be just or unjust. Historically, philosophy encompassed any body of knowledge, from the time of Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to the 19th century, natural philosophy encompassed astronomy, medicine and physics. For example, Newtons 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy later became classified as a book of physics, in the 19th century, the growth of modern research universities led academic philosophy and other disciplines to professionalize and specialize. In the modern era, some investigations that were part of philosophy became separate academic disciplines, including psychology, sociology. Other investigations closely related to art, science, politics, or other pursuits remained part of philosophy, for example, is beauty objective or subjective. Are there many scientific methods or just one, is political utopia a hopeful dream or hopeless fantasy. Major sub-fields of academic philosophy include metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, logic, philosophy of science, since the 20th century, professional philosophers contribute to society primarily as professors, researchers and writers. Traditionally, the term referred to any body of knowledge. In this sense, philosophy is related to religion, mathematics, natural science, education. This division is not obsolete but has changed, Natural philosophy has split into the various natural sciences, especially astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and cosmology. Moral philosophy has birthed the social sciences, but still includes value theory, metaphysical philosophy has birthed formal sciences such as logic, mathematics and philosophy of science, but still includes epistemology, cosmology and others. Many philosophical debates that began in ancient times are still debated today, colin McGinn and others claim that no philosophical progress has occurred during that interval. Chalmers and others, by contrast, see progress in philosophy similar to that in science, in one general sense, philosophy is associated with wisdom, intellectual culture and a search for knowledge. In that sense, all cultures and literate societies ask philosophical questions such as how are we to live, a broad and impartial conception of philosophy then, finds a reasoned inquiry into such matters as reality, morality and life in all world civilizations. Socrates was an influential philosopher, who insisted that he possessed no wisdom but was a pursuer of wisdom
8.
Thesis
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A thesis or dissertation is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the authors research and findings. In some contexts, the thesis or a cognate is used for part of a bachelors or masters course, while dissertation is normally applied to a doctorate, while in other contexts. The term graduate thesis is used to refer to both masters theses and doctoral dissertations. The required complexity or quality of research of a thesis or dissertation can vary by country, university, or program, the word dissertation can at times be used to describe a treatise without relation to obtaining an academic degree. The term thesis is used to refer to the general claim of an essay or similar work. The term thesis comes from the Greek θέσις, meaning something put forth, Dissertation comes from the Latin dissertātiō, meaning path. A thesis may be arranged as a thesis by publication or a monograph, with or without appended papers, an ordinary monograph has a title page, an abstract, a table of contents, comprising the various chapters, and a bibliography or a references section. They differ in their structure in accordance with the different areas of study. In a thesis by publication, the chapters constitute an introductory, Dissertations normally report on a research project or study, or an extended analysis of a topic. The structure of the thesis or dissertation explains the purpose, the research literature which impinges on the topic of the study, the methods used. Degree-awarding institutions often define their own style that candidates have to follow when preparing a thesis document. Other applicable international standards include ISO2145 on section numbers, ISO690 on bibliographic references, some older house styles specify that front matter uses a separate page-number sequence from the main text, using Roman numerals. They therefore avoid the traditional separate number sequence for front matter, however, strict standards are not always required. Most Italian universities, for example, have only general requirements on the size and the page formatting. A thesis or dissertation committee is a committee that supervises a students dissertation, the committee members are doctors in their field and have the task of reading the dissertation, making suggestions for changes and improvements, and sitting in on the defense. Sometimes, at least one member of the committee must be a professor in a department that is different from that of the student, all the dissertation referees must already have achieved at least the academic degree that the candidate is trying to reach. At English-speaking Canadian universities, writings presented in fulfillment of undergraduate coursework requirements are normally called papers, a longer paper or essay presented for completion of a 4-year bachelors degree is sometimes called a major paper. High-quality research papers presented as the study of a postgraduate consecutive bachelor with Honours or Baccalaureatus Cum Honore degree are called thesis
9.
Newes from Scotland
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It describes the infamous North Berwick witch trials in Scotland and the confessions given before the King. During his examination, he confessed to be the register of the witches under the service of Satan but afterwards he renounced his compact with Satan and he also testified that Satan came to him the same day to convince him to uphold his original pact. Fian stated that he renounced Satan to his face and it was the next day when he confessed what happened that he managed to steal a key to his cell from one of the guards and escaped his imprisonment. After he was recaptured, he was tortured to obtain his confession and his torture, most notably by the boot used to crush his feet, the pilliwinks, and by having his nails forcibly extracted. The pamphlet contains virtually the only contemporary illustrations of Scottish witchcraft, original copies are kept at Glasgow University, and in the Bodleian Library at Oxford
10.
Medieval philosophy
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Modern historians consider the medieval era to be one of philosophical development, heavily influenced by Christian theology. However, their theology used the methods and logical techniques of the ancient philosophers to address theological questions. Thomas Aquinas, following Peter Damian, argued that philosophy is the handmaiden of theology, the two principles that underlie all their work are, The use of logic, dialectic, and analysis to discover the truth, known as ratio. Respect for the insights of ancient philosophers, in particular Aristotle, the obligation to co-ordinate the insights of philosophy with theological teaching and revelation. One of the most heavily debated topics of the period was that of faith versus reason, avicenna and Averroes both leaned more on the side of reason. Augustine stated that he would never allow his philosophical investigations to go beyond the authority of God, Anselm attempted to defend against what he saw as partly an assault on faith, with an approach allowing for both faith and reason. The Augustinian solution to the problem is to believe. The boundaries of the medieval period are a matter of controversy. After the collapse of the Roman empire, Western Europe lapsed into the so-called Dark Ages, in later periods, monks were used for training administrators and churchmen. Early Christian thought, in particular in the period, tends to be intuitional and mystical. It also places emphasis on the sometimes-mystical doctrines of Plato. Much of the work of Aristotle was unknown in the West in this period, two Roman philosophers had a great influence on the development of medieval philosophy, Augustine and Boethius. Augustine is regarded as the greatest of the Church Fathers and he is primarily a theologian and a devotional writer, but much of his writing is philosophical. His themes are truth, God, the soul, the meaning of history, the state, sin. For over a thousand years, there was hardly a Latin work of theology or philosophy that did not quote his writing, some of his writing had an influence on the development of early modern philosophy, such as that of Descartes. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius was a Christian philosopher born in Rome to an ancient and he became consul in 510 in the kingdom of the Ostrogoths. His influence on the medieval period was also marked. He intended to translate all the works of Aristotle and Plato from the original Greek into Latin, and translated many of Aristotle’s logical works, such as On Interpretation, and he wrote commentaries on these works, and on the Isagoge by Porphyry
11.
Necromancy
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Early necromancy was related to – and most likely evolved from – shamanism, which calls upon spirits such as the ghosts of ancestors. Classical necromancers addressed the dead in a mixture of high-pitch squeaking and low droning, Necromancy was prevalent throughout Western antiquity with records of its practice in ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Greece and Rome. The Babylonian necromancers were called manzazuu or shaetemmu, and the spirits they raised were called etemmu, the oldest literary account of necromancy is found in Homer’s Odyssey. He wishes to invoke and question the shade of Tiresias in particular, however, practices such as these, varying from the mundane to the grotesque, were commonly associated with necromancy. Rituals could be elaborate, involving magic circles, wands, talismans. Some necromancers even went so far as to part in the mutilation and consumption of corpses. These ceremonies could carry on for hours, days, or even weeks, frequently they were performed in places of interment or other melancholy venues that suited specific guidelines of the necromancer. Additionally, necromancers preferred to summon the recently departed based on the premise that their revelations were spoken more clearly and this timeframe was usually limited to the twelve months following the death of the physical body, once this period elapsed, necromancers would evoke the deceased’s ghostly spirit instead. While some cultures considered the knowledge of the dead to be unlimited, ancient Greeks, the apparent value of their counsel may have been based on things they knew in life or knowledge they acquired after death. Ovid writes in his Metamorphoses of a marketplace in the underworld where the dead convene to exchange news, there are also several references to necromancers – called bone-conjurers among Jews of the later Hellenistic period – in the Bible. 12For all who do these things are an abomination unto the LORD, though Mosaic Law prescribed the death penalty to practitioners of necromancy, this warning was not always heeded. One of the foremost examples is when King Saul had the Witch of Endor invoke the Spirit of Samuel, a judge and prophet, from Sheol using a ritual conjuring pit. However, the witch was shocked at the presence of the real spirit of Samuel for in I Sam 28,12 it says. Samuel questioned his reawakening asking, Why hast thou disquieted me, Saul did not receive a death penalty but he did receive it from God himself as prophesied by Samuel during that conjuration. Caesarius of Arles entreats his audience to put no stock in any demons or gods other than the Christian God and he states that demons only act with divine permission and are permitted by God to test Christian people. Caesarius does not condemn man here, he states that the art of necromancy exists. On the other hand, some Christians believe that necromancy is real, many medieval writers believed that resurrection required the assistance of God. They saw the practice of divination as conjuring demons who took the appearance of spirits, the practice became known explicitly as demonic magic, and the Catholic Church condemned it
12.
Divination
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Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Divination can be seen as a method with which to organize what appear to be disjointed. Fortune-telling, on the hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Particular divination methods vary by culture and religion, divination is dismissed by the scientific community and skeptics as being superstition. Psychologist Julian Jaynes categorized divination into the four types, Omens. Chinese history offers scrupulously documented occurrences of births, the tracking of natural phenomena. Chinese governmental planning relied on this method of forecasting for long-range strategies and it is not unreasonable to assume that modern scientific inquiry began with this kind of divination, Joseph Needhams work considered this very idea. This consists of the casting of lots, or sortes, whether with sticks, stones, bones, beans, coins, modern playing cards and board games developed from this type of divination. This ranks a set of given possibilities and it can be qualitative, for example, dowsing developed from this type of divination. The Romans, in times, used Etruscan methods of augury such as hepatoscopy. Augury is normally considered to refer to divination by studying the flight patterns of birds. An unconstrained form of divination, free from any particular medium, the answer comes from whatever object the diviner happens to see or hear. Some religions use a form of bibliomancy, they ask a question, riffle the pages of their holy book, other forms of spontaneous divination include reading auras and New Age methods of feng shui such as intuitive and fuzion. In this practice, the examines the hands of a person for whom they are divining for indications of their future. The Oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis was made famous when Alexander the Great visited it after delivering Egypt from Persian rule in 332 BC, deuteronomy 18, 10-12 or Leviticus 19,26 can be interpreted as categorically forbidding divination. However, some would claim that divination is indeed practiced in the Bible, such as in Exodus 28, communicating with God through prayer is not the same as divination, though both are open, typically two-way conversations with God. Both oracles and seers in ancient Greece practiced divination, oracles were the conduits for the gods on earth, their prophecies were understood to be the will of the gods verbatim. Because of the demand for oracle consultations and the oracles’ limited work schedule
13.
Black magic
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Black magic or dark magic has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes. With respect to the path and right-hand path dichotomy, black magic is the malicious. In modern times, some find that the definition of magic has been convoluted by people who define magic or ritualistic practices that they disapprove of as black magic. Like its counterpart white magic, the origins of magic can be traced to the primitive, ritualistic worship of spirits as outlined in Robert M. Places 2009 book, Magic. During the Renaissance, many magical practices and rituals were considered evil or irreligious and by extension, Witchcraft and non-mainstream esoteric study were prohibited and targeted by the Inquisition. While natural magic became popular among the educated and upper classes of the 16th and 17th century, ritualistic magic, summers also highlights the etymological development of the term nigromancer, in common use from 1200 to approximately 1500, broadly one skilled in the black arts. In a modern context, the line between magic and black magic is somewhat clearer and most modern definitions focus on intent rather than practice. There is also an extent to which many modern Wicca and witchcraft practitioners have sought to distance themselves from those intent on practising black magic, the influence of popular culture has allowed other practices to be drawn in under the broad banner of black magic including the concept of Satanism. While the invocation of demons or spirits is an part of black magic. Those lines, though, continue to be blurred by the inclusion of spirit rituals from otherwise white magicians in compilations of work related to Satanism. Dees rituals themselves were designed to contact spirits in general and angels in particular, laVeys Bible, however, is a complete contradiction of Dees intentions but offers the same rituals as a means of contact with evil spirits and demons. LaVeys Church of Satan, officially denies the efficacy of ritual but affirms the subjective, psychological value of ritual practice. LaVey himself was more specific, The latter quote, though, Voodoo, too, has been associated with modern black magic, drawn together in popular culture and fiction. In fact, Voodoo tradition makes its own distinction between black and white magic, with sorcerers like the Bokor known for using magic and rituals of both. But their penchant for magic associated with curses, poisons and zombies means they, the links and interaction between black magic and religion are many and varied. Beyond black magics links to organised Satanism or its historical persecution by Christianity and its inquisitions, the Black Mass, for example, is a sacrilegious parody of the Catholic Mass. Likewise, a saining, though primarily a practice of magic, is a Wiccan ritual analogous to a christening or baptism for an infant. 17th century priest, Étienne Guibourg, is said to have performed a series of Black Mass rituals with alleged witch Catherine Monvoisin for Madame de Montespan, in Islam, al-Fatiha al-Falaq, al-Nas and other Surahs are recited to protect against sorcery
14.
Demonology
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Demonology is the study of demons or beliefs about demons, especially the methods used to summon and control them. The original sense of demon, from the time of Homer onward, was a benevolent being, the word demonology is from Greek δαίμων, daimōn, divinity, divine power, god, and -λογία, -logia. According to some societies, all the affairs of life are supposed to be under the control of spirits, each ruling a certain element or even object, and themselves in subjection to a greater spirit. For example, the Inuit are said to believe in spirits of the sea, earth and sky, the winds, every cove of the seashore, every point, every island and prominent rock has its guardian spirit. All are potentially of the malignant type, to be propitiated by an appeal to knowledge of the supernatural, traditional Korean belief posits countless demons inhabit the natural world, they fill household objects and are present in all locations. By the thousands they accompany travelers, seeking them out from their places in the elements, in ancient Babylon, demonology had an influence on even the most mundane elements of life, from petty annoyances to the emotions of love and hatred. The numerous demonic spirits were given charge over various parts of the body, one for the head, one for the neck. Many religions and cultures believe, or once believed, that what is now known as soothsaying, was, or is, the ascription of malevolence to the world of spirits is by no means universal. In Central Africa, the Mpongwe believe in spirits, just as do the Inuit. Demons are generally classified as spirits which are believed to enter into relations with the human race. As such the term includes, angels in the Judeo-Christian tradition that fell from grace, human souls regarded as genii or familiars, such as receive a cult, excluded are souls conceived as inhabiting another world. The incubi and Succubi of the Middle Ages are sometimes regarded as spiritual beings, belief in demons goes back many millennia. The Zoroastrian faith teaches that there are 3,333 Demons, some with specific dark responsibilities such as war, starvation, sickness, in Babylonian mythology, the seven evil deities were known as shedu, or storm-demons. It was from Chaldea that the name came to the Israelites. They also spoke of the destroyer as a Lord who will strike down the Egyptians, in II Samuel xxiv,16 and II Chronicles xxi.15 the pestilence-dealing angel, that is spirit, called the destroying angel. The followers of Mara were also called mara, the devils, the mara became fully assimilated into the Chinese worldview, and were called mo. D. Demonic forces had attained power in the world. Medieval Chinese Buddhist demonology was heavily influenced by Indian Buddhism, in his autobiography, The Blazing Splendor, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, a prominent Tibetan Buddhist master of the 20th century describes encounters with such beings
15.
Werewolf
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Early sources for belief in lycanthropy are Petronius and Gervase of Tilbury. From the early period, werewolf beliefs also spread to the New World with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages, during the early period, accusations of lycanthropy were mixed with accusations of wolf-riding or wolf-charming. The case of Peter Stumpp led to a significant peak in both interest in and persecution of supposed werewolves, primarily in French-speaking and German-speaking Europe, the trappings of horror literature in the 20th century became part of the horror and fantasy genre of modern pop culture. The word werewolf continues a late Old English werwulf, a compound of were man, the only Old High German testimony is in the form of a given name, Weriuuolf, although an early Middle High German werwolf is found in Burchard of Worms and Berthold of Regensburg. The word or concept does not occur in medieval German poetry or fiction, Middle Latin gerulphus Anglo-Norman garwalf, Old Frankish *wariwulf. Old Norse had the cognate varúlfur, but because of the importance of werewolves in Norse mythology. In modern Scandinavian also kveldulf evening-wolf, presumably after the name of Kveldulf Bjalfason, use of lycanthropy for supposed shape-shifting is much later, introduced ca. Slavic uses the term vlko-dlak, literally wolf-skin, paralleling the Old Norse ulfhéðinn, however, the word is not attested in the medieval period. The Slavic term was loaned into modern Greek as Vrykolakas, baltic has related terms, Lithuanian vilkolakis and vilkatas, Latvian vilkatis and vilkacis. The name vurdalak for the Slavic vampire is a due to Alexander Pushkin. Tolstoy in his novella The Family of the Vourdalak, Greek λυκάνθρωπος and Germanic werewulf are parallel inasmuch as the concept of a shapeshifter becoming a wolf is expressed by means of a compound wolf-man or man-wolf. Their underlying common origin can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European mythology and this is reflected in Iron Age Europe in the Tierkrieger depictions from the Germanic sphere, among others. The standard comparative overview of this aspect of Indo-European mythology is McCone, such transformations of men into wolves in pagan cult were associated with the devil from the early medieval perspective. In his Man into Wolf, Robert Eisler tried to cast the Indo-European tribal names meaning wolf or wolf-men in terms of the European transition from fruit gathering to predatory hunting, a few references to men changing into wolves are found in Ancient Greek literature and mythology. In the second century BC, the Greek geographer Pausanias related the story of Lycaon, in accounts by the Bibliotheca and Ovid, Lycaon serves human flesh to Zeus, wanting to know if he is really a god. Lycaons transformation, therefore, is punishment for a crime, considered variously as murder, cannibalism, Ovid also relates stories of men who roamed the woods of Arcadia in the form of wolves. In addition to Ovid, other Roman writers also mentioned lycanthropy, virgil wrote of human beings transforming into wolves
16.
Vampire
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A vampire is a being from folklore who subsists by feeding on the life essence of the living. In European folklore, vampires were undead beings that often visited loved ones and they wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from todays gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism. In modern times, however, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, porphyria was also linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but has since been largely discredited. However, it is Bram Stokers 1897 novel Dracula which is remembered as the vampire novel. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, the vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre. Vampires had already discussed in French and German literature. After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, officials noted the practice of exhuming bodies. These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity, among the proposed proto-Slavic forms are *ǫpyrь and *ǫpirь. Another, less widespread theory, is that the Slavic languages have borrowed the word from a Turkic term for witch. Czech linguist Václav Machek proposes Slovak verb vrepiť sa, or its hypothetical anagram vperiť sa as an etymological background, and thus translates upír as someone who thrusts, bites. An early use of the Old Russian word is in the anti-pagan treatise Word of Saint Grigoriy, dated variously to the 11th–13th centuries, the notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires. It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour, these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. Indeed, blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin and its left eye was often open. It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, although vampires were generally described as undead, some folktales spoke of them as living beings. The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore, in Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead
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Magic (paranormal)
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Magic or sorcery is the use of rituals, symbols, actions, gestures, and language with the aim of exploiting supernatural forces. The term magic has a variety of meanings, and there is no agreed upon definition of what it is or how it can be used. Religious scholars have defined magic in many different ways, one approach, associated with the anthropologists Edward Tylor and James G. Frazer, has magic and science be opposites. Many scholars of religion have rejected the utility of the term magic, the term magic comes from the Old Persian magu, a word that applied to a form of religious functionary about which little is known. This meaning of the term was adopted by Latin in the first century BCE. The concept was incorporated into Christian theology during the first century CE. This concept was pervasive throughout the Middle Ages, although in the modern period Italian humanists reinterpreted the term in a positive sense to establish the idea of natural magic. Both negative and positive understandings of the term were retained in Western culture over the following centuries, throughout Western history, there have been examples of individuals claiming to be practitioners of magic and referring to themselves as magicians. This trend has proliferated in the period, with a growing number of magicians appearing within the esoteric milieu. Scholars of religion have failed to agree on a definition of magic is. The subject has one of intense dispute, with some scholars criticizing the validity of the term in the first place. Even among those throughout history who have described themselves as magicians, there has been some debate among scholars as to whether to use the term magic at all. The scholar of religion Jonathan Z. Smith for example argued that it had no utility as a term that scholars should use. Religious historian Wouter Hanegraaff agreed, stating that the magic is an important object of historical research. Since the 1990s its usage among scholars has declined, within Western culture, magic has been linked to the idea of the Other. Using the term magic when discussing non-Western cultures or pre-modern forms of Western society raises problems, alternately, this term implies that all categories of magic are ethnocentric and that such Western preconceptions are an unavoidable component of scholarly research. Magic is one of the most heavily theorized concepts in the study of religion, the intellectualist approach to defining magic is associated with two prominent British anthropologists, Edward Tylor and James G. Frazer. This was an approach that viewed magic as being the theoretical opposite of science, in his 1871 book Primitive Culture, Tylor characterized magic as beliefs based on the error of mistaking ideal analogy for real analogy
18.
Witch trials in the early modern period
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Those accused of witchcraft were portrayed as being worshippers of the Devil, who engaged in such acts as malevolent sorcery at meetings known as Witches Sabbaths. Many people were accused of being witches, and were put on trial for the crime, with varying punishments being applicable in different regions. Though some of the earliest trials are from the Late Medieval period, an estimated total of 40, 000-60,000 people were executed during the witch trials. Among the best known of these trials were the Scottish North Berwick witch trials, Swedish Torsåker witch trials, among the largest and most notable were the Trier witch trials, the Fulda witch trials, the Würzburg witch trial, the Bamberg witch trials and the Salem witch trials. The sociological causes of the witch-hunts have long been debated in scholarship, the work of Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century was instrumental in developing the new theology which would give rise to the witch hunts. Because sorcery was judged by secular courts, it was not until maleficium was identified with heresy that theological trials for witchcraft could commence. e, the recognition of the existence of witchcraft as a form of Satanic influence, and its classification as a heresy. Early Modern Europe and its North American colonies were replete with a belief in the reality of magic, belief in the witch, an individual who practiced malevolent magic, was not new to Modern Europe. Many Early Modern communities contained professional or semi-professional practitioners of folk magic, in contrast to this low magic was the high magic practiced by learned men of the Renaissance. It was also during the Medieval period that the concept of Satan, in particular, he was often viewed as a goat, or as a human with goat-like features, such as horns, hooves and a tail. As Thurston noted, By about 1200, it would have been difficult to be a Christian, by 1500 scenes of the devil were commonplace in the new cathedrals and small parish churches that had sprung up in many regions. The field of demonology had emerged in Medieval Christendom as certain members of the clergy began to focus in particular on the actions of demons in the world, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the concept of the witch in Christendom underwent a relatively radical change. Instead they became the all-out malevolent Devil-worshiper, who had made a pact with him in which they had to renounce Christianity, as a part of this, they gained, new, supernatural powers that enabled them to work magic, which they would use against Christians. It was believed that they would fly to their meetings, known as the Witches Sabbath. On their death, the souls, which then belonged to the Devil. For many educated Christians in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including theologians and judges, the inquisition had the office of protecting Christian against the internal threat of heresy. An important turning-point was the Black Death of 1348–1350, which killed a large percentage of the European population, Witchcraft had not been considered a heresy during the High Medieval period. Indeed, since the Council of Paderborn of 785, the belief in the possibility of witchcraft itself was considered heretical, the anti-semitic sentiment prevalent in the Medieval era would also influence the later witch trials, with the alleged witches meetings being termed sabbaths and synagogues. The historian Richard Kieckhefer suggested that the late medieval trials paved the way for more dramatic prosecutions to come, there had been a growth in the number of sorcery trials in Europe during the fourteenth century
19.
Canonical law
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Canon law is the body of laws and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. The way that such law is legislated, interpreted and at times adjudicated varies widely among these three bodies of churches. In all three traditions, a canon was originally a rule adopted by a council, these canons formed the foundation of canon law. Greek kanon / Ancient Greek, κανών, Arabic Qanun / قانون, Hebrew kaneh / קנה, straight, a rule, code, standard, or measure, the root meaning in all these languages is reed. In the Fourth century the First Council of Nicaea calls canons the disciplinary measures of the Church, the canon, κανὠν, means in Greek. There is an early distinction between the rules enacted by the Church and the legislative measures taken by the State called leges. The actual subject material of the canons is not just doctrinal or moral in nature, west Syrian Rite which includes the Maronite Church, Syriac Catholic Church and the Syro-Malankara Church. Armenian Rite Church which includes the Armenian Catholic Church, east Syrian Rite Churches which includes the Chaldean Church and Syro-Malabar Church. All of these groups are in full communion with the Supreme Pontiff and are subject to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The history of Latin canon law can be divided into four periods, the jus antiquum, the jus novum, the jus novissimum, in relation to the Code, history can be divided into the jus vetus and the jus novum. The academic degrees in law are the J. C. B. Because of its nature, advanced degrees in civil law or theology are normal prerequisites for the study of canon law. Much of the style was adapted from the Roman Law Code of Justinian. This is in contrast to the form of proceeding found in the common law system of English and U. S. law. The institutions and practices of canon law paralleled the development of much of Europe. Sampel explains that law has significant influence in contemporary society. Canonical jurisprudential theory generally follows the principles of Aristotelian-Thomistic legal philosophy, each had its own special law, in which custom still played an important part. In 1929 Pius XI informed the Eastern Churches of his intention to work out a Code for the whole of the Eastern Church, the publication of these Codes for the Eastern Churches regarding the law of persons was made between 1949 through 1958 but finalized nearly 30 years later
20.
William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
21.
Macbeth
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Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, it is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I and it was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is his shortest tragedy. A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland, consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia, forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness, the events of the tragedy are usually associated with the execution of Henry Garnet for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In the backstage world of theatre, some believe that the play is cursed, over the course of many centuries, the play has attracted some of the most renowned actors to the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It has been adapted to film, television, opera, novels, comics, the play opens amidst thunder and lightning, and the Three Witches decide that their next meeting shall be with Macbeth. Macbeth, the Kings kinsman, is praised for his bravery, in the following scene, Macbeth and Banquo discuss the weather and their victory. As they wander onto a heath, the Three Witches enter, though Banquo challenges them first, they address Macbeth, hailing him as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and that he shall be King hereafter. Macbeth appears to be stunned to silence, when Banquo asks of his own fortunes, the witches respond paradoxically, saying that he will be less than Macbeth, yet happier, less successful, yet more. He will father a line of kings though he himself will not be one, while the two men wonder at these pronouncements, the witches vanish, and another thane, Ross, arrives and informs Macbeth of his newly bestowed title, Thane of Cawdor. The first prophecy is fulfilled, and Macbeth, previously skeptical. King Duncan welcomes and praises Macbeth and Banquo, and declares that he spend the night at Macbeths castle at Inverness. Macbeth sends a message ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husbands uncertainty and wishes him to murder Duncan in order to obtain kingship. When Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she overrides all of her husbands objections by challenging his manhood and he and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncans two chamberlains drunk so that they will black out, the next morning they will blame the chamberlains for the murder. They will be defenseless as they remember nothing. While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and he is so shaken that Lady Macbeth has to take charge
22.
Three Witches
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The Norns in Norse mythology are female beings who rule the destiny of gods and men. They roughly correspond to other controllers of humans destiny, the Fates, in Snorri Sturlusons interpretation of the Völuspá, Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld, the three most important of the Norns, come out from a hall standing at the Well of Urðr or Well of Fate. They draw water from the well and take sand that lies around it and these three Norns are described as powerful maiden giantesses whose arrival from Jötunheimr ended the golden age of the gods. They may be the same as the maidens of Mögþrasir who are described in Vafþrúðnismál, beside these three famous Norns, there are many others who appear at a persons birth in order to determine his or her future. In the pre-Christian Norse societies, Norns were thought to have visited newborn children, there were both malevolent and benevolent Norns, the former caused all the malevolent and tragic events in the world while the latter were kind and protective goddesses. The origin of the name norn is uncertain, it may derive from a meaning to twine. Bek-Pedersen suggests that the word norn has relation to the Swedish dialect word norna and this relates to the perception of norns as shadowy, background figures who only really ever reveal their fateful secrets to men as their fates come to pass. It should be noted that wyrd and urðr are etymological cognates, both Urðr and Verðandi are derived from the Old Norse verb verða, to be. While Urðr derives from the past tense, Verðandi derives from the present tense of verða, Skuld is derived from the Old Norse verb skulla, need/ought to be/shall be, its meaning is that which should become, or that needs to occur. There is no distinction between norns, fylgjas, hamingjas and valkyries, nor with the generic term dísir. Moreover, artistic license permitted such terms to be used for women in Old Norse poetry. To quote Snorri Sturlusons Skáldskaparmál on the names used for women. There are a number of surviving Old Norse sources that relate to the norns, the most important sources are the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda. A skaldic reference to the norns appears in Hvinis poem in Ynglingatal 24 found in Ynglingasaga 47 and this reference brings in the phrase norna dómr which means judgment of the nornir. In most cases, when the norns pass judgment, it means death to those who have been judged - in this case, along with being associated with being bringers of death, Bek-Pedersen suggests that this phrase brings in a quasi-legal aspect to the nature of the norns. This legal association is employed quite frequently within skaldic and eddic sources and this phrase can also be seen as a threat, as death is the final and inevitable decision that the norns can make with regard to human life. The Poetic Edda is valuable in representing older material in poetry from which Snorri tapped information in the Prose Edda, like Gylfaginning, the Poetic Edda mentions the existence of many lesser norns beside the three main norns. Moreover, it agrees with Gylfaginning by telling that they were of several races
