Volga trade route
In the Middle Ages, the Volga trade route connected Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia with the Caspian Sea, via the Volga River. The Rus used this route to trade with Muslim countries on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The route functioned concurrently with the Dnieper trade route, better known as the route from the Varangians to the Greeks. The Volga trade route was established by the Varangians who settled in Northwestern Russia in the early 9th century, about 10 km south of the Volkhov River entry into Lake Ladoga, they established a settlement called Ladoga. Archaeological evidence suggests Rus trading activities along the Volga trade route as early as the end of the 8th century. The earliest and the richest finds of Arabic coins in Europe were discovered on the territory of present-day Russia, particularly along the Volga and these coins include Sassanid and Arabo-Sassanid dirhams, the latest of them dated to 804-805. From Aldeigjuborg, the Rus could travel up the Volkhov River to Novgorod, to Lake Ilmen, taking their boats around 3 kilometers over a portage, they reached the sources of Volga.
The traders brought furs and slaves through territory held by Finnish, from there, they continued by way of the Volga, to the Khazar Khaganate, whose capital Atil was a busy entrepot on the shore of the Caspian Sea. From Atil, the Rus merchants traveled across the sea to join the caravan routes leading to Baghdad, modern scholars have clashed over the interpretation of ibn Khordadbehs report that the Rus used Saqlab interpreters. Anti-Normanists construed this passage as evidence that the Rus and their interpreters shared a common Slavic mother tongue, however, was a lingua franca in the Eastern Europe at that time. Johannes Brøndsted interpreted ibn Fadlans commentary as indicating that these Rus retained their Scandinavian customs regarding weapons, ship-burials, the expedition was unsuccessful, and afterwards, no attempts were made to reopen the route between the Baltic and Caspian seas by the Norsemen. Volga route played a role in the inner trade of the Golden Horde. International trade finally declined at the Volga only after the fall of the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan in, but the river kept its importance for long-distance trade—this time, trade within Russia as well as between Russia and Persia.
Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, the Vikings in History 2nd ed. Routledge. When Did Rus/Rus Merchants First Visit Khazaria and Baghdad, archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 7, pp. 213–219
Leiden University Library
Leiden University Library is a library founded in 1575 in Leiden, Netherlands. This was due particularly to the presence of a unique collection of exceptional sources. The library manages the largest collections worldwide on Indonesia and the Caribbean, Leiden University Library is the only heritage organization in The Netherlands with two documents inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Est hic magna commoditas bibliothecae ut studiosi possint studere —Josephus Justus Scaliger The greatest advantage of the library is that those who want to study, the 16th-century Dutch Revolt against the Habsburgs created a new country with a new religion. Soon, the need for a seat of learning was felt. At the time the university was founded, it was determined that a library in the vicinity of lecture halls was an absolute necessity. The librarys first book was the Polyglot Bible, printed by Christoffel Plantijn, the presentation of this book is regarded as the base on which the library is built.
The library became operational in the vault of the current Academy building at Rapenburg on 31 October 1587, in 1595 the Nomenclator appeared, the first catalogue of Leiden University Library as well as the first printed catalogue of an institutional library in the world. The publication of the catalogue coincided with the opening of the new library on the floor of the Faliede Bagijnkerk next to the Theatrum Anatomicum. In 1864 the copy for the alphabetical catalogue of the library in Leiden from 1575 to 1860 was finished. Readers were able to consult alphabetical and systematic registers of the Leiden library in the form of bound catalogue cards and this remained the cataloguing system for the library until 1988. The 22nd Librarian of Leiden University, Johan Remmes de Groot took the initiative for the Dutch library automation endeavor PICA, pica was started up in 1969 and was bought by OCLC in 2000. In 1983 the library moved to its present location on Witte Singel in a new building by architect Bart van Kasteel, the first online catalogue became available in 1988.
According to Nicholas A. Leiden University Libraries focuses on the information chain. The library facilitates not only access to information but increasingly supports the evaluation, use, to accomplish this the librarys activities range from supporting education in information literacy to serving as an expert center for digital publishing. The library aims to function as the information manager of Leiden University. These digital information resources are available worldwide to Leiden University students, the special collections and archives of Leiden University are increasingly made available through the librarys Catalogue and Digital Special Collections environment. The library makes all doctoral dissertations available online through the Catalogue, publications from Leiden researchers are increasingly made available through the same repository
Saxons
The Saxons were a group of Germanic tribes first mentioned as living near the North Sea coast of what is now Germany, in the late Roman empire. They were soon mentioned as raiding and settling in many North Sea areas, as well as pushing south inland towards the Franks. Significant numbers settled in parts of Great Britain in the early Middle Ages. Many Saxons however remained in Germania, where they resisted the expanding Frankish Empire through the leadership of the semi-legendary Saxon hero, the Saxons earliest area of settlement is believed to have been Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein. This general area included the probable homeland of the Angles, along with the Angles and other continental Germanic tribes, participated in the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain during and after the 5th century. The British-Celtic inhabitants of the isles tended to refer to all of these collectively as Saxons. It is unknown how many Saxons migrated from the Continent to Britain, the Saxons may have derived their name from seax, a kind of knife for which they were known.
The seax has a symbolic impact in the English counties of Essex and Middlesex. Their names, along with those of Sussex and Wessex, contain a remnant of the word Saxon. The Elizabethan era play Edmund Ironside suggests the Saxon name derives from the Latin saxa, Their names discover what their natures are, More hard than stones, in the Celtic languages, the words designating English nationality derive from the Latin word Saxones. The most prominent example, a loanword in English, is the Scottish Gaelic Sassenach and it derives from the Scottish Gaelic Sasunnach meaning, Saxon, from the Latin Saxones. Scots- or Scottish English-speakers in the 21st century usually use it as a term for an English person. The Oxford English Dictionary gives 1771 as the date of the earliest written use of the word in English. Sasanach, the Irish word for an Englishman, has the same derivation, as do the words used in Welsh to describe the English people, Cornish terms the English Sawsnek, from the same derivation.
In the 16th century Cornish-speakers used the phrase Meea navidna cowza sawzneck to feign ignorance of the English language, England in Scottish Gaelic is Sasainn. Other examples include the Welsh Saesneg, Irish Sasana, Breton saoz, and Cornish Sowson, the label Saxons was applied to German settlers who migrated during the 13th century to southeastern Transylvania. From Transylvania, some Saxons migrated to neighbouring Moldavia, as the name of the town, Sas-cut, sascut is located in the part of Moldavia that is today part of Romania. The Finns and Estonians have changed their usage of the term Saxony over the centuries to denote now the country of Germany
Old Norse religion
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 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, 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 complemented with younger agricultural glyphs, which seem to depict an existence based more heavily on agriculture. These motifs primarily depict ships 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
Verden an der Aller
Verden an der Aller, called Verden or simply Verden, is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, on the river Aller. It is the centre of the district of Verden. Verden is famous for a massacre of Saxons in 782, committed on the orders of Charlemagne, for its cathedral, in the Middle Ages there was a massacre of allegedly 4,500 Saxons, by order of Charlemagne because of their involvement in a preceding uprising. Verden was within the Duchy of Saxony, after in 1180 a coalition of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and his allies had defeated the Saxo-Bavarian Duke Henry the Lion. He was subsequently stripped of his duchies, on 12 March 1259 Prince-Bishop Gerhard of Verden granted the place town privileges following the Bremian version of German town law. The northern city and the town were united to form one city. In the wake of the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1679, Verden was returned to Sweden, the Principality of Verden was first ruled in personal union by the Swedish Crown – interrupted by a Danish occupation – and from 1715 on by the Hanoverian Crown.
The Kingdom of Hanover incorporated the principality in a real union, until the Second World War, Verden was renowned for its trade and crafts and its mounted division. During the Nazi regime forced-labourers were used in a factory in Verden. Between 1945 and 1949 Verden was part of the British zone of occupation, refugees from the former Prussian provinces of East Prussia and Silesia, settled in and around the town. With the labour immigration from the East German Democratic Republic inhibited by the Berlin Wall foreign workers started to arrive from southern Europe, after the fall of Communism more immigrants arrived from Eastern Europe. From 1945 until 1993 the 1st Armoured Division of the British Army of the Rhine was stationed in Verden, one of the former British barracks is now used to house the Kreisverwaltung and a new sporting stadium has been erected opposite. The second barracks has been demolished to make way for a new residential estate, Verden is located in the German state of Lower Saxony, on the river Aller.
It is the centre of the district of Verden. The nearest large cities are Bremen and Hannover, Verden is twinned with, Górowo Ilaweckie, Poland Havelberg, Germany Bagrationovsk, Russia Saumur, France Warwick, England Zielona Góra, Poland The old town lies east of the Aller. The Lutheran cathedral is known as the Dom zu Verden and towers above the high street, with its cafés. Mary and Cecilia, served the former Catholic Diocese of Verden as episcopal church and was built between the 12th and 15th centuries, other noteworthy buildings include the Lutheran churches of St. John and of St. Andrew, as well as the town hall and the Domherrenhaus. Verden is further renowned for horse racing and sport horse auctions and is called the riding town
Thor
In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, storms, oak trees, the protection of mankind, and hallowing and fertility. The cognate deity in wider Germanic mythology and paganism was known in Old English as Þunor and in Old High German as Donar, into the modern period, Thor continued to be acknowledged in rural folklore throughout Germanic regions. Thor is frequently referred to in place names, the day of the week Thursday bears his name, in Norse mythology, largely recorded in Iceland from traditional material stemming from Scandinavia, numerous tales and information about Thor are provided. With Sif, Thor fathered the goddess Þrúðr, with Járnsaxa, he fathered Magni, with a mother whose name is not recorded, he fathered Móði, and he is the stepfather of the god Ullr. The same sources list Thor as the son of the god Odin and the earth, Jörð. Thor has two servants, Þjálfi and Röskva, rides in a cart or chariot pulled by two goats and Tanngnjóstr, and is ascribed three dwellings.
Thor wields the mountain-crushing hammer, Mjölnir, wears the belt Megingjörð and the iron gloves Járngreipr, Thor has inspired numerous works of art and references to Thor appear in modern popular culture. Like other Germanic deities, veneration of Thor is revived in the period in Heathenry. The name of the god is the origin of the weekday name Thursday, by employing a practice known as interpretatio germanica during the Roman Empire period, the Germanic peoples adopted the Roman weekly calendar, and replaced the names of Roman gods with their own. Latin dies Iovis was converted into Proto-Germanic *Þonares dagaz, from which stems modern English Thursday, beginning in the Viking Age, personal names containing the theonym Thórr are recorded with great frequency. Prior to the Viking Age, no examples are recorded, thórr-based names may have flourished during the Viking Age as a defiant response to attempts at Christianization, similar to the wide scale Viking Age practice of wearing Thors hammer pendants.
They regard it as a duty to offer to him, on fixed days. 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 the god Týr as Mars, and the identity of the Isis of the Suebi has been debated. In Thors case, the identification with the god Hercules is likely at least in part due to similarities between Thors hammer and Hercules club. In his Annals, Tacitus again refers to the veneration of Hercules by the Germanic peoples, the southern Germanic form of the gods name. According to an account, the Christian missionary Saint Boniface felled an oak tree dedicated to Jove in the 8th century. Around the second half of the 8th century, Old English mentions of a figure named Thunor are recorded, gabriel Turville-Petre saw this as an invented origin for the placename demonstrating loss of memory that Thunor had been a gods name. Adam details that Thor, they reckon, rules the sky, he governs thunder and lightning and storms, fine weather and fertility and that Thor, with his mace, looks like Jupiter
History of Greenland
The history of Greenland is a history of life under extreme Arctic conditions, currently, an ice cap covers about 80 percent of the island, restricting human activity largely to the coasts. The first humans are thought to have arrived in Greenland around 2500 BC and their descendants apparently died out and were succeeded by several other groups migrating from continental North America. The ancestors of the Inuit Greenlanders who live there today appear to have migrated there later, around 1200 AD, when the missionaries found no descendants of the Norse Greenlanders, they baptized the Inuit Greenlanders they found living there instead. Denmark-Norway developed trading colonies along the coast and imposed a trade monopoly, during World War II, when Germany invaded Denmark, Greenlanders became socially and economically less connected to Denmark and more connected to the United States and Canada. After the war, Denmark resumed control of Greenland and in 1953, although Greenland is still a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, it has enjoyed home rule since 1979.
In 1985, the decided to leave the European Union, which it had joined as a part of Denmark in 1973. The prehistory of Greenland is a story of repeated waves of Paleo-Eskimo immigration from the north of the North American mainland. Because of Greenlands remoteness and climate, survival there was difficult, over the course of centuries, one culture succeeded another as groups died out and were replaced by new immigrants. Archaeology can give only approximate dates for the cultures that flourished before the Norse exploration of Greenland in the 10th century, the earliest known cultures in Greenland are the Saqqaq culture and the Independence I culture in northern Greenland. The practitioners of two cultures are thought to have descended from separate groups that came to Greenland from northern Canada. Around 800 BCE, the so-called Independence II culture arose in the region where the Independence I culture had previously existed and it was originally thought that Independence II was succeeded by Dorset culture, but some Independence II artefacts date from as recently as the 1st century BCE.
Artefacts associated with early Dorset culture in Greenland have been found as far north as Inglefield Land on the west coast, after the Early Dorset culture disappeared around 200 AD, the island was uninhabited for several centuries. The next immigrants to arrive from Canada, perhaps as early as 800, settled the northwest part of the island, bringing them the so-called Late Dorset culture. The Norse arrived and settled in the part of the island in 980. During the 980s, explorers led by Erik the Red set out from Iceland and reached the southwest coast of Greenland, found the region uninhabited, Erik named the island Greenland in effect as a marketing device. Both the Book of Icelanders and the Saga of Eric the Red state He named the land Greenland, the Norse established their settlements along fjords. Because this was during the so-called Medieval Warm Period, the vegetation there was different from what it is today. Excavations have shown that the fjords at that time were surrounded by forests of 4 to 6 metre tall birch trees and by hills covered with grass and willow brush
Northern Germany
Northern Germany is the region in the north of Germany. Its exact area is not precisely or consistently defined but varies depending on one is taking a linguistic, geographic. Northern Germany generally refers to the Sprachraum area north of the Uerdingen and Benrath line isoglosses, since World War II and the immigration of expellees from the former eastern territories of Germany, its prevalence has steadily reduced. Besides which, Frisian is spoken in East and North Frisia, from a linguistic and cultural perspective, Northern Germany is linked to the Netherlands and England. Additionally, Jansen/Janssen and Petersen are the most common surnames in the far north of Germany, which are some of the most common surnames in Denmark. The key terrain feature of Northern Germany is the North German Plain including the marshes along the coastline of the North and Baltic Seas, as well as the geest and heaths inland. Also prominent are the low hills of the Baltic Uplands, the moraines, end moraines, glacial valleys, bogs.
Likewise the Altmark in Saxony-Anhalt, the Prignitz and Uckermark areas of northern Brandenburg and socially, Northern Germany is characterized by higher levels of income equality and gender equality, relative to southern and south-western Germany. The traditional Northern German daily diet is centered around boiled potatoes, rye bread, dairy products, cucumbers, jams and pork and beef. A breakfast specialty is the Crispbread or Knäcke, eaten with a variety of such as ham, fruits. Lentil stews and soups are popular as a working lunch. Regional specialties in Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony include Blutwurst or Blood sausage, another Northern German regional specialty are Hackbraten, made from a mixture of ground pork and beef and served with mashed potatoes, brown sauce and lingonberry jam. Many traditional meat-based lunch dishes are served boiled or mashed potatoes. Eating brunch is popular during weekends in the larger towns. In regions nearer to the coast, fish is popular, with Pickled herring.
Coffee drinking is strongly rooted in Northern Germany and the Northern provinces on average consume around 8 kilograms of coffee per capita annually and this is fairly more than the 6 kilograms of coffee per capita consumed in the south. Coffee is frequently drunk four times a day, with breakfast, after lunch, in the evening at around 4, and after dinner. Many working people drink a coffee at the workstation with the start of the days work, there is a strong tradition of taking coffee breaks and visits to the café with friends and acquaintances
Meissen
Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about 25 km northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral, the Große Kreisstadt is the capital of the Meissen district. German, Meißen, Meissen French, Misnie Latin, Misena, Misnensium Polish, Miśnia Czech, Míšeň Upper Sorbian, Mišno Lower Sorbian, in 968, the Diocese of Meissen was founded, and Meissen became the episcopal see of a bishop. The Margraviate of Meissen was founded in 968 as well, with the city as the capital of the Margraves of Meissen. A market town by 1000, Meissen passed to the Duchy of Poland in 1002 under Boleslaw I the Brave, afterwards into hands of Henry II a few months later, in 1015 Meissen was besieged by the Poles led by future King Mieszko II. The city was at the forefront of the Ostsiedlung, or intensive German settlement of the rural Slavic lands east of the Elbe, the construction of Meissen Cathedral was begun in 1260 on the same hill as the Albrechtsburg castle.
The resulting lack of space led to the cathedral being one of the smallest cathedrals in Europe, the church is known as being one of the purest examples of Gothic architecture. In 1423 Meissen became capital of the Electorate of Saxony, in 1464 the capital was moved to Dresden. In 1759 the Austrians defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Meissen, during World War II, a subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp was located in Meissen. Meissen is famous for the manufacture of porcelain, based on local deposits of china clay. Meissen porcelain was the first high-quality porcelain to be produced outside of the Orient, the first European porcelain was manufactured in Meissen in 1710, when by decree of King Augustus II the Strong the Royal-Polish and Electoral-Saxon Porcelain Factory was opened in the Albrechtsburg. In 1861, it was moved to the Triebisch river valley of Meissen, along with porcelain, other ceramics are manufactured. The Albrechtsburg, the residence of the House of Wettin, is regarded as being the first castle to be used as a royal residence in the German-speaking world.
Built between 1472 and 1525, it is an example of late Gothic style. It was redecorated in the 19th century with a range of murals depicting Saxon history, today the castle is a museum. Nearby is the 13th-century Gothic Meissen Cathedral, whose chapel is one of the most famous places of the Wettin family. The hill on which the castle and the cathedral are built offers a view over the roofs of the old town, meissens historical district is located mostly around the market at the foot of the castle hill. It contains many buildings of Renaissance architecture, imposing is the view from the 57 metre high tower of the Frauenkirche, situated in the old market-place
Human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings, usually as an offering to a deity, as part of a ritual. Human sacrifice has been practiced in various cultures throughout history, closely related practices found in some tribal societies are cannibalism and headhunting. By the Iron Age, with the developments in religion, human sacrifice was becoming less common throughout the Old World. In the New World, human sacrifice continued to be widespread to varying degrees until the European colonization of the Americas, in modern times, even the practice of animal sacrifice has virtually disappeared from all major religions, and human sacrifice has become extremely rare. Most religions condemn the practice, and modern secular laws treat it as murder, in a society which condemns human sacrifice, the term ritual murder is used. Human sacrifice is distinguished from infanticide, infanticide is deliberately causing the death of an unwanted infant or young child, but without a ritualistic or religious purpose.
The idea of sacrifice has its roots in deep prehistory. From its historical occurrences it seems mostly associated with neolithic or nomadic cultures, Human sacrifice has been practiced on a number of different occasions and in many different cultures. The various rationales behind human sacrifice are the same that motivate religious sacrifice in general, Human sacrifice is intended to bring good fortune and to pacify the gods, for example in the context of the dedication of a completed building like a temple or bridge. There is a Chinese legend that there are thousands of people entombed in the Great Wall of China, for the re-consecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they killed about 80,400 prisoners over the course of four days. According to Ross Hassig, author of Aztec Warfare, between 10,000 and 80,400 persons were sacrificed in the ceremony, Human sacrifice can have the intention of winning the gods favour in warfare. In Homeric legend, Iphigeneia was to be sacrificed by her father Agamemnon to appease Artemis so she would allow the Greeks to wage the Trojan War.
According to the Bible, Jephthah vowed to devote to God the first creature to come out of his house to him if he won the battle against the Ammonites. His daughter was the first to come out and meet him, in some notions of an afterlife, the deceased will benefit from victims killed at his funeral. Mongols, early Egyptians and various Mesoamerican chiefs could take most of their household, including servants and concubines, with them to the next world. This is sometimes called a sacrifice, as the leaders retainers would be sacrificed along with their master. Another purpose is divination from the parts of the victim. According to Strabo, Celts stabbed a victim with a sword, headhunting is the practice of taking the head of a killed adversary, for ceremonial or magical purposes, or for reasons of prestige
Scandinavia
Scandinavia /ˌskændᵻˈneɪviə/ is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe characterized by a common ethnocultural North Germanic heritage and mutually intelligible North Germanic languages. The term Scandinavia always includes the three kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden, the remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are usually not seen as a part of Scandinavia, nor is Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark. This looser definition almost equates to that of the Nordic countries, in Nordic languages, only Denmark and Sweden are commonly included in the definition of Scandinavia. In English usage, Scandinavia sometimes refers to the geographical area, the name Scandinavia originally referred vaguely to the formerly Danish, now Swedish, region Scania. Icelanders and the Faroese are to a significant extent descended from the Norse, Finland is mainly populated by Finns, with a minority of approximately 5% of Swedish speakers. A small minority of Sami people live in the north of Scandinavia.
The Danish and Swedish languages form a continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages—all of which are considered mutually intelligible with one another. Faroese and Icelandic, sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages, are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages only to a limited extent, Finnish and Meänkieli are closely related to each other and more distantly to the Sami languages, but are entirely unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Apart from these, German and Romani are recognized minority languages in Scandinavia, the southern and by far most populous regions of Scandinavia have a temperate climate. Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle, but has mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream. Much of the Scandinavian mountains have a tundra climate. There are many lakes and moraines, legacies of the last glacial period, Scandinavia usually refers to Denmark and Sweden. Some sources argue for the inclusion of the Faroe Islands and Iceland, though that broader region is known by the countries concerned as Norden.
Before this time, the term Scandinavia was familiar mainly to classical scholars through Pliny the Elders writings, and was used vaguely for Scania, as a political term, Scandinavia was first used by students agitating for Pan-Scandinavianism in the 1830s. After a visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism, the term is often defined according to the conventions of the cultures that lay claim to the term in their own use. More precisely, and subject to no dispute, is that Finland is included in the broader term Nordic countries, various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries in the United States serve to promote market and tourism interests in the region. The official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, Norways government entered one year later. All five Nordic governments participate in the joint promotional efforts in the United States through the Scandinavian Tourist Board of North America, Scandinavia can thus be considered a subset of the Nordic countries
Pope Paschal II
Pope Paschal II, born Ranierius, was Pope from 13 August 1099 to his death in 1118. A monk of the Cluniac order, he was created Cardinal-Priest of San Clemente by Pope Gregory VII in 1073 and he was consecrated as pope in succession to Pope Urban II on 19 August 1099. His reign of almost twenty years was long for a pope of the Middle Ages. He was born in Bleda, near Forlì, Romagna, in the long struggle with the Holy Roman Emperors over investiture, he zealously carried on the Hildebrandine policy in favor of papal privilege, but with only partial success. The future Emperor Henry V took advantage of his fathers excommunication to rebel, even to the point of seeking out Paschal II for absolution for associating with his father, Henry IV. But, Henry V was even more persistent in maintaining the right of investiture than Emperor Henry IV had been before his death in 1105. The imperial Diet at Mainz invited Paschal II to visit Germany and settle the trouble in January 1106, but the Pope in the Council of Guastalla simply renewed the prohibition of investiture.
Preparations were made for the coronation on 12 February 1111, but the Romans rose in revolt against Henry, and the German king retired, taking the Pope and Curia with him. After 61 days of imprisonment, during which Prince Robert I of Capuas Norman army was repulsed on its rescue mission. Henry V was crowned in St. Peters on 13 April 1111, Emperor Henry V at once laid claim to Matildas lands as imperial fiefs and forced the Pope to flee from Rome. Paschal II returned after the Emperors withdrawal at the beginning of 1118, Pope Paschal II ordered the building of the a basilica of Santi Quattro Coronati on the ashes of the one burned during the Norman sack of Rome in 1084. During Paschals trip to France in 1106-1107, he consecrated the Cluniac church of Notre Dame at La Charité-sur-Loire, in 1116, Paschal II, at the behest of Count Ramon Berenguer III, issued a crusade for the capture of Tarragona. This was something the patriarch could not do in face of opposition from the majority of clergy, the world.
Paschals demand remained the status quo condition for re-unification of the Churches, the first bishop of America was appointed during Paschal IIs reign, nearly four centuries before Columbus first voyage across the Atlantic. Erik Gnupsson was given the province of Greenland and Vinland, the believed to refer to what is now Newfoundland. Pope Paschal II issued the bull Pie Postulatio Voluntatis on 15 February 1113 and it confirmed the orders acquisitions and donations in Europe and Asia and exempted it from all authority save that of the Pope. First Council of the Lateran Concordat of Worms This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Hugh. Herbermann, Charles, ed. Pope Paschal II
