1.
Garden gnome
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Garden gnomes are lawn ornament figurines of small humanoid creatures known as gnomes or dwarfs that are typically males wearing red pointy hats. First created in 19th-century Germany, garden gnomes spread to countries in Europe in the 1840s and became particularly popular in France. In ancient Rome, small stone statues depicting the Greco-Roman fertility god Priapus, also a protector of plants, Garden gnomes were first described during the Renaissance period by Swiss alchemist Paracelsus as diminutive figures two spans in height who did not like to mix with humans. During this period, stone grotesques, which were typically garishly painted, among the figures depicted were gobbi. In particular, Jacques Callot produced 21 versions of gobbi, which he engraved and printed in 1616, by the late 1700s, gnome-like statues made of wood or porcelain called house dwarfs became popular household decorations. The area surrounding town of Brienz in Switzerland was known for their production of wooden house dwarfs, in Germany, these garden figurines became conflated with their traditional stories and superstitions about the little folk or dwarfs that they believed helped around the mines and on the farm. Nicknamed Lampy, the only gnome of the batch to survive is on display at Lamport Hall. The manufacturing of gnomes spread across Germany, with other large and small manufacturers coming in and out of the business. From around 1860 onwards, many statues were made in Gräfenroda, tom Major-Ball was the most notable producer at that time with his company Majors Garden Ornaments. World War II and the following were also hard on the industry. Garden gnomes saw a resurgence in popularity again in the 1970s with the creation of more types of gnomes. Philip Griebels descendants are still producing garden gnomes in Germany, as of 2008, there were an estimated 25 million garden gnomes in Germany. A subplot in the 2001 French movie Amélie revolves around a garden gnome, gnomeo and Juliet is a 2011 British-American CGI film that is inspired by the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet featuring garden gnomes as the characters. The Social Democratic Party of Austria used garden gnomes, which they called Coolmen and it was intended as an ironic pun since the SPÖ historically performed poorly in elections in this part of Austria and considered itself to be a political dwarf. The campaign placed 20,000 Coolmen holding small posters with short slogans along highly frequented roads, the party made a police report after 400 of them went missing, drawing attention from the international media. The 2010 video game Fable III includes a mission where a collection of garden gnomes are given magical properties. Garden gnomes are typically males, often bearded, usually wear red phrygian caps and they are made in various poses and shown pursuing various pastimes, such as fishing or napping. The ban was lifted during 2013 to mark the shows centenary, Gnome enthusiasts have accused the organisers of snobbery as garden gnomes are popular in the gardens of working class and suburban households
2.
Alchemy
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Alchemy is a philosophical and protoscientific tradition practiced throughout Europe, Egypt and Asia. It aimed to purify, mature, and perfect certain objects, the perfection of the human body and soul was thought to permit or result from the alchemical magnum opus and, in the Hellenistic and western tradition, the achievement of gnosis. In Europe, the creation of a stone was variously connected with all of these projects. In English, the term is limited to descriptions of European alchemy, but similar practices existed in the Far East, the Indian subcontinent. In Europe, following the 12th-century Renaissance produced by the translation of Islamic works on science, Islamic and European alchemists developed a structure of basic laboratory techniques, theory, terminology, and experimental method, some of which are still in use today. However, they continued antiquitys belief in four elements and guarded their work in secrecy including cyphers and their work was guided by Hermetic principles related to magic, mythology, and religion. The latter interests historians of esotericism, psychologists, and some philosophers, the subject has also made an ongoing impact on literature and the arts. The word alchemy was borrowed from Old French alquemie, alkimie, taken from Medieval Latin alchymia, the Arabic word is borrowed from Late Greek chēmeía, chēmía, with the agglutination of the Arabic definite article al-. This ancient Greek word was derived from the early Greek name for Egypt, Chēmia, based on the Egyptian name for Egypt, the Medieval Latin form was influenced by Greek chymeia meaning ‘mixture’ and referring to pharmaceutical chemistry. Alchemy covers several philosophical traditions spanning some four millennia and three continents and these traditions general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and genetic relationships. It is still a question whether these three strands share a common origin, or to what extent they influenced each other. Here, elements of technology, religion, mythology, and Hellenistic philosophy, each with their own much longer histories, Zosimos of Panopolis wrote the oldest known books on alchemy, while Mary the Jewess is credited as being the first non-fictitious Western alchemist. They wrote in Greek and lived in Egypt under Roman rule, mythology – Zosimos of Panopolis asserted that alchemy dated back to Pharaonic Egypt where it was the domain of the priestly class, though there is little to no evidence for his assertion. Alchemical writers used Classical figures from Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology to illuminate their works and these included the pantheon of gods related to the Classical planets, Isis, Osiris, Jason, and many others. The central figure in the mythology of alchemy is Hermes Trismegistus and his name is derived from the god Thoth and his Greek counterpart Hermes. Hermes and his caduceus or serpent-staff, were among alchemys principal symbols, according to Clement of Alexandria, he wrote what were called the forty-two books of Hermes, covering all fields of knowledge. The Hermetica of Thrice-Great Hermes is generally understood to form the basis for Western alchemical philosophy and practice and these writings were collected in the first centuries of the common era. Technology – The dawn of Western alchemy is sometimes associated with that of metallurgy, Many writings were lost when the emperor Diocletian ordered the burning of alchemical books after suppressing a revolt in Alexandria
3.
Paracelsus
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Paracelsus, born Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, was a Swiss German philosopher, physician, botanist, astrologer, and general occultist. He is credited as the founder of toxicology and he is also a famous revolutionary for utilizing observations of nature, rather than referring to ancient texts, something of radical defiance during his time. He is credited for giving zinc its name, calling it zincum, modern psychology often also credits him for being the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological conditions. Paracelsus most important legacy is likely his critique of the methods in medicine, science. Much of his work does not withstand modern scientific thought. Paracelsus was born and raised in the village of Einsiedeln in Switzerland and his father, Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim, was a Swabian chemist and physician. His mother was Swiss and probably a bondswoman of the abbey of Einsiedeln in Switzerland where he was born, in 1502 the family moved to Villach, Carinthia where Paracelsus father worked as a physician, attending to the medical needs of the pilgrims and inhabitants of the cloister. Paracelsus was educated by his father in botany, medicine, mineralogy, mining and he also received a profound humanistic and theological education from local clerics and the convent school of St. Pauls Abbey in the Lavanttal. He specifically accounts for being tutored by Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Sponheim, at the age of 16 he started studying medicine at the University of Basel, later moving to Vienna. He gained his degree from the University of Ferrara in 1515 or 1516. He was employed as a surgeon in the Venetian service in 1522. His wanderings as an itinerant physician and sometime journeyman miner took him through Germany, France, Spain, Hungary, Paracelsus was well known as a difficult man. He gained a reputation for being arrogant and soon garnered the anger of other physicians in Europe, some even claim he was a habitual drinker. He was prone to outbursts of abusive language, abhorred untested theory. He held the chair of medicine at the University of Basel and he angered his colleagues by lecturing in German instead of Latin in order to make medical knowledge more accessible to the common people. He is credited as the first to do so and he was the first to publicly condemn the medical authority of Avicenna and Galen and threw their writings into a bonfire on St. Johns Day in 1527. In 1526 he bought the rights of citizenship in Strasbourg to establish his own practice, but soon after he was called to Basel to the sickbed of Johann Froben or Frobenius, a successful printer and publisher. Based on historical accounts, Paracelsus cured Frobenius and he was a contemporary of Copernicus, Leonardo da Vinci and Martin Luther
4.
Humanoid
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A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The earliest recorded use of the term, in 1870, referred to indigenous peoples in areas colonized by Europeans, by the 20th century, the term came to describe fossils which were morphologically similar, but not identical, to those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, American psychologist and Dinosaur intelligence theorist Harry Jerison suggested the possibility of sapient dinosaurs. In a 1978 presentation at the American Psychological Association, he speculated that dromiceiomimus could have evolved into an intelligent species like human beings. In his book, Wonderful Life, Stephen Jay Gould argues that if the tape of life were re-wound and played back, over geologic time, Russell noted that there had been a steady increase in the encephalization quotient or EQ among the dinosaurs. Russell had discovered the first Troodontid skull, and noted that, while its EQ was low compared to humans, if the trend in Troodon evolution had continued to the present, its brain case could by now measure 1,100 cm3, comparable to that of a human. Troodontids had semi-manipulative fingers, able to grasp and hold objects to a certain degree, Russell proposed that this Dinosauroid, like most dinosaurs of the troodontid family, would have had large eyes and three fingers on each hand, one of which would have been partially opposed. As with most modern reptiles, he conceived of its genitalia as internal, Russell speculated that it would have required a navel, as a placenta aids the development of a large brain case. However, it would not have possessed mammary glands, and would have fed its young, as birds do and he speculated that its language would have sounded somewhat like bird song. Russells thought experiment has been met with criticism from other paleontologists since the 1980s, gregory S. Paul and Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. A humanoid robot does not necessarily look convincingly like a real person, an android or gynoid is a humanoid robot designed to look as much like a real person as possible, although these words are frequently perceived to be synonymous with humanoid. While there are many humanoid robots in fictional stories, some humanoid robots have been developed since the 1990s. Similarly to robots, virtual avatars may also be called humanoid when resembling humans, deities are often imagined in human shape, sometimes as hybrids. In animism in general, the spirits innate in certain objects are typically depicted in human shape, e. g. spirits of trees, of the woodlands, of wells or waterways, many aliens in television and science fiction films are presented as humanoid. This is usually attributed to budget constraints, as human actors can more easily portray human-like aliens, in much of science fiction, the reason for the abundance of humanoid aliens is not explained and usually requires suspension of disbelief. In some cases, however, explanations have been offered for this, in the field of ufology, humanoid refers to any of the claimed extraterrestrials which abduct human victims, such as the Greys, the Reptilians, Nordics, and Martians. In fantasy settings the term humanoid is used to refer to a fantastical creature, such as a dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, goblin, troll, orc or an ogre. Animals that are humanoid are also shown in fantasy, humanoids are also used in some old horror movies, for example in Creature From the Black Lagoon, made in 1954 by Jack Arnold
5.
Renaissance Latin
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They looked to golden age Latin literature, and especially to Cicero in prose and Virgil in poetry, as the arbiters of Latin style. They abandoned the use of the sequence and other forms of metre. The humanists condemned the large body of medieval Latin literature as Gothic—for them, some 16th-century Ciceronian humanists also sought to purge written Latin of medieval developments in its orthography. They insisted, for example, that ae be written out in full wherever it occurred in classical Latin, therefore, the first generations of humanists did not dedicate much care to the orthography till the late sixteenth and seventeenth century. The humanist plan to remake Latin was largely successful, at least in education, schools taught the humanistic spellings, and encouraged the study of the texts selected by the humanists, to the large exclusion of later Latin literature. Genealogia deorum gentilium by Giovanni Boccaccio 1425, de elegantiis Latinæ linguæ by Lorenzo Valla 1442. Historia Florentini populi by Leonardo Bruni 1444, historia de duobus amantibus by Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, Pope Pius II1452. De re ædificatoria by Leone Battista Alberti 1471, contra amores by Bartolomeo Platina 1479. De inventione dialectica by Rodolphus Agricola 1481, introductiones Latinæ by Antonio de Nebrija 1486. De hominis dignitate by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 1491, nutricia by Poliziano Theologia Platonica de immortalitate animæ by Marsilio Ficino Francesco Filelfo An Analytic Bibliography of On-line Neo-Latin Titles. René Hoven, Lexique de la prose latine de la Renaissance, dictionary of Renaissance Latin from prose sources, with the collaboration of Laurent Grailet, Leiden, Brill,2006,683 p. The Centre for Neo-Latin Studies, focusing on Irish Renaissance Latin
6.
Nysa, Poland
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Nysa is a town in southwestern Poland on the Nysa Kłodzka river, situated in the Opole Voivodeship. With 43,220 inhabitants, it is the capital of Nysa County and it comprises the urban portion of the surrounding Gmina Nysa. Historically the town was part of Lower Silesia, Nysa is one of the oldest towns in Silesia. It was probably founded in the 10th century and afterwards became the capital of a principality of its name, the towns fortifications from 1350 served to defend against the Hussites in 1424. The town and the duchy was part of Lands of the Bohemian Crown in years 1342 -1742, during the Thirty Years War it was besieged three times. The first Silesian War ended Austrian sovereignty over Silesia and left the town in the hands of King Frederick II of Prussia, on 25 August 1769 Neisse was the site of a meeting between Frederick II and Emperor Joseph II, co-regent in the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria. During the Napoleonic Wars, Neisse was taken by the French in 1807 and it retained its mostly Catholic character within the predominantly Protestant province of Silesia in the Kingdom of Prussia. Because of its many churches from the Gothic and Baroque periods the town was nicknamed the Silesian Rome, from 1816-1911, the town was the seat of the Neisse District, after which it became an independent city. After World War I, Neisse became part of the new Province of Upper Silesia, conquered by the Red Army during World War II, the town was placed under Polish administration according to the Potsdam Agreement and renamed to the Polish Nysa. The towns German population was evacuated or forcibly expelled and replaced with Poles. A list of the monuments of Nysa is seen on page Nysas monuments Until recently, the town was home to metal works, machinery production, agricultural produce and construction materials. The year 2002 saw the closure of the van company ZSD, the company constructed delivery vehicles, namely the ZSD Nysa, FSO Polonez and up until recently the Citroën C15 and Berlingo. In modern days, the Wałbrzych Special Economic Zone is located by Dubois Street and Krapacka Street, largely revolving around agricultural goods and produce, NKS Nysa - mens volleyball team playing in Polish Volleyball League, 7th place in 2003/04 season. KŻ Nysa - sailing club with seat on Nysas lake, max Warmbrunn & Alfred Jahn, Gedruckt bei Druckhaus Nürnberg GmbH,1966 Map c1600 Neise in Silesia, Germany Jewish Community in Nysa on Virtual Shtetl
7.
Oxford English Dictionary
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The Oxford English Dictionary is a descriptive dictionary of the English language, published by the Oxford University Press. The second edition came to 21,728 pages in 20 volumes, in 1895, the title The Oxford English Dictionary was first used unofficially on the covers of the series, and in 1928 the full dictionary was republished in ten bound volumes. In 1933, the title The Oxford English Dictionary fully replaced the name in all occurrences in its reprinting as twelve volumes with a one-volume supplement. More supplements came over the years until 1989, when the edition was published. Since 2000, an edition of the dictionary has been underway. The first electronic version of the dictionary was available in 1988. The online version has been available since 2000, and as of April 2014 was receiving two million hits per month. The third edition of the dictionary will probably appear in electronic form, Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press. As a historical dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary explains words by showing their development rather than merely their present-day usages, therefore, it shows definitions in the order that the sense of the word began being used, including word meanings which are no longer used. The format of the OEDs entries has influenced numerous other historical lexicography projects and this influenced later volumes of this and other lexicographical works. As of 30 November 2005, the Oxford English Dictionary contained approximately 301,100 main entries, the dictionarys latest, complete print edition was printed in 20 volumes, comprising 291,500 entries in 21,730 pages. The longest entry in the OED2 was for the verb set, as entries began to be revised for the OED3 in sequence starting from M, the longest entry became make in 2000, then put in 2007, then run in 2011. Despite its impressive size, the OED is neither the worlds largest nor the earliest exhaustive dictionary of a language, the Dutch dictionary Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal is the worlds largest dictionary, has similar aims to the OED and took twice as long to complete. Another earlier large dictionary is the Grimm brothers dictionary of the German language, begun in 1838, the official dictionary of Spanish is the Diccionario de la lengua española, and its first edition was published in 1780. The Kangxi dictionary of Chinese was published in 1716, trench suggested that a new, truly comprehensive dictionary was needed. On 7 January 1858, the Society formally adopted the idea of a new dictionary. Volunteer readers would be assigned particular books, copying passages illustrating word usage onto quotation slips, later the same year, the Society agreed to the project in principle, with the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. He withdrew and Herbert Coleridge became the first editor, on 12 May 1860, Coleridges dictionary plan was published and research was started
8.
Pygmy (Greek mythology)
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The Pygmies were a tribe of diminutive humans in Greek mythology. According to the Iliad, they were involved in a constant war with the cranes, one story describes the origin of the age-old battle, speaking of a Pygmy Queen named Gerana who offended the goddess Hera with her boasts of superior beauty, and was transformed into a crane. In art the scene was popular with little Pygmies armed with spears and slings, riding on the backs of goats, the 2nd-century BC tomb near Panticapaeum, Crimea shows the battle of human pygmies with a flock of herons. The Pygmies were often portrayed as pudgy, comical dwarfs, in another legend, the Pygmies once encountered Heracles, and climbing all over the sleeping hero attempted to bind him down, but when he stood up they fell off. The story was adapted by Jonathan Swift as a template for Lilliputians, later Greek geographers and writers attempted to place the Pygmies in a geographical context. Sometimes they were located in far India, at times near the Ethiopians of Africa. The Pygmy bush tribes of central Africa were so named after the Greek mythological creatures by European explorers in the 19th century, on Fairies, London,1831, ISBN 1-4021-4753-8 Theoi Project - Pygmaioi
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Elemental
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From the classical Paracelsusian perspective there are four elemental categories, gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders. These correspond to the Classical elements of antiquity, earth, water, air, aether was not assigned an elemental. Terms employed for beings associated with alchemical elements vary by source, the Paracelsian concept of elementals draws from several much older traditions in mythology and religion. Common threads can be found in folklore, animism, and anthropomorphism, examples of creatures such as the Pygmy were taken from Greek mythology. The elements of earth, water, air, and fire, were classed as the building blocks of nature. This system prevailed in the Classical world and was influential in medieval natural philosophy. Although Paracelsus uses these foundations and the preexisting names of elemental creatures. The homunculus is another example of a Paracelsian idea with roots in earlier alchemical, scientific, in his 16th-century alchemical work Liber de Nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris et de caeteris spiritibus, Paracelsus identified mythological beings as belonging to one of the four elements. Part of the Philosophia Magna, this book was first printed in 1566 after Paracelsus death and he wrote the book to describe the creatures that are outside the cognizance of the light of nature, how they are to be understood, what marvellous works God has created. He states that there is more bliss in describing these divine objects than in describing fencing, court etiquette, cavalry, Paracelsus gave common names for the elemental types, as well as correct names, which he seems to have considered somewhat more proper, recht namen. He also referred to them by purely German terms which are equivalent to water people, mountain people. In De Meteoris he referred to the elementals collectively as Sagani and he noted that undines are similar to humans in size, while sylphs are rougher, coarser, longer, and stronger. Gnomes are short, while salamanders are long, narrow, the elementals are said to be able to move through their own elements as human beings move through air. Gnomes, for example, can move through rocks, walls, sylphs are the closest to humans in his conception because they move through air like we do, while in fire they burn, in water they drown, and in earth, they get stuck. Paracelsus states that each one stays healthy in its particular chaos, as he terms it, Paracelsus conceived human beings to be composed of three parts, an elemental body, a sidereal spirit, and an immortal divine soul. Elementals lacked this last part, the immortal soul, however, by marriage with a human being, the elemental and its offspring could gain a soul. However, he did not give names for the classes, In like manner they distribute these into more orders, so as some are fiery, some watery, some aerial. Agrippa did however give an extensive list of mythological beings of this type
10.
Span (unit)
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A span is the distance measured by a human hand, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger. In ancient times, a span was considered to be half a cubit, sometimes the distinction is made between the great span and little span. Ancient Greek texts show that the span was used as a measure in ancient Greece since at least archaic period. See also, English unit 1 span =9 inches =0.2286 m In Arabic and it is used in Modern Standard Arabic and classical Arabic, as well as in modern-day dialects. In Slavic languages, the analogue of the span is various words derived from Proto-Slavic *pędь, in various Slavic languages it is the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger or index finger. For example, Slovenian velika ped = great span, mala ped = little span, Russian piad =4 vershoks =17.8 cm, see Obsolete Russian weights and measures. In Swahili, the equivalent of the span is the shubiri or shibiri while the little span is the morita or futuri. The term arasz, used by itself without a modifier, is understood as referring to the large arasz. In Hindi-Urdu and other languages of Northern India and Pakistan, the span is used as an informal measure. In Malay, it is called jengkal, in Nepal, where this method of measurement is still used in informal context, a span is called Bhitta. In Tamil, it is called saaN and its commonly used as traditional and informal measure. In Mongolia, the span is called as tuu, depending on the use of index or middle finger and the placement of the thumb, the span is named differently as tuu and mukhar tuu etc. The old Portuguese customary unit analogue to the span was the palmo de craveira or simply palmo,1 palmo de craveira =8 polegadas = 1/5 varas =0.22 m Anthropic units Hand List of unusual units of measurement Units of measure Lyle V. Jones. In, Robert L. Thorndike, Educational Measurement, 2nd ed. Washington, DC, American Council on Education, pp. 335–355
11.
Chthonic
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The translation of meaning discusses deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in Greek religion. The Greek word khthon is one of several for earth, it refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the land. These include, but are not strictly limited to, Demeter. Nocturnal ritual sacrifice was a practice in many chthonic cults. When the sacrifice was a creature, the animal was placed in a bothros or megaron. In some Greek chthonic cults, the animal was sacrificed on a raised bomos, offerings were usually burned whole or buried rather than being cooked and shared among the worshippers. C. He does, however, note that this may be somewhat of an overgeneralization, the myths associating the underworld chthonic deities and fertility were not exclusive. Myths about the later Olympian deities also described an association with the fertility, thus Demeter and Persephone both watched over aspects of the fertility of land, yet Demeter had a typically Olympian cult while Persephone had a chthonic one. Also, Demeter was worshiped alongside Persephone with identical rites, and yet occasionally was classified as an Olympian in late poetry, the absorption of some earlier cults into the newer pantheon versus those that resisted being absorbed is suggested as providing the later myths. The categories Olympian and chthonic were not, however, completely separate, some Olympian deities, such as Hermes and Zeus, also received chthonic sacrifices and tithes in certain locations. The deified heroes Heracles and Asclepius might be worshipped as gods or chthonic heroes, depending on the site, moreover, a few deities are not easily classifiable under these terms. Hecate, for instance, was typically offered puppies at crossroads—a practice neither typical of an Olympian sacrifice nor of a sacrifice to Persephone or the heroes. Because of her roles, Hecate is generally classed as chthonic. As well, the chthonic has connotations with regard to gender, in cultural anthropology, men associated with the above, the sky, and women associated with the below, with the earth, water of the underground, and the chthonic deities. This was by no means universal, in Ancient Egypt the main deity of the earth was the male god Geb, his consort was Nut. The term allochthon in structural geology is used to describe a large block of rock which has moved from its original site of formation. From the Greek allo meaning other and chthon designating the process of the mass being moved under the earth. Chthonic law Earth mother Geomancy Life-death-rebirth deities Sky father The dictionary definition of chthonic at Wiktionary
12.
Germanic peoples
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The Germanic peoples are an ethno-linguistic Indo-European group of Northern European origin. They are identified by their use of Germanic languages, which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age, the term Germanic originated in classical times when groups of tribes living in Lower, Upper, and Greater Germania were referred to using this label by Roman scribes. Tribes referred to as Germanic by Roman authors generally lived to the north, in about 222 BCE, the first use of the Latin term Germani appears in the Fasti Capitolini inscription de Galleis Insvbribvs et Germ. This may simply be referring to Gaul or related people, the term Germani shows up again, allegedly written by Poseidonios, but is merely a quotation inserted by the author Athenaios who wrote much later. Somewhat later, the first surviving detailed discussions of Germani and Germania are those of Julius Caesar, from Caesars perspective, Germania was a geographical area of land on the east bank of the Rhine opposite Gaul, which Caesar left outside direct Roman control. This usage of the word is the origin of the concept of Germanic languages. In other classical authors the concept sometimes included regions of Sarmatia, also, at least in the south there were Celtic peoples still living east of the Rhine and north of the Alps. Caesar, Tacitus and others noted differences of culture which could be found on the east of the Rhine, but the theme of all these cultural references was that this was a wild and dangerous region, less civilised than Gaul, a place that required additional military vigilance. Caesar used the term Germani for a specific tribal grouping in northeastern Belgic Gaul, west of the Rhine. He made clear that he was using the name in the local sense and these are the so-called Germani Cisrhenani, whom Caesar believed to be closely related to the peoples east of the Rhine, and descended from immigrants into Gaul. Caesar described this group of both as Belgic Gauls and as Germani. Gauls are associated with Celtic languages, and the term Germani is associated with Germanic languages, but Caesar did not discuss languages in detail. It has been claimed, for example by Maurits Gysseling, that the names of this region show evidence of an early presence of Germanic languages. The etymology of the word Germani is uncertain, the likeliest theory so far proposed is that it comes from a Gaulish compound of *ger near + *mani men, comparable to Welsh ger near, Old Irish gair neighbor, Irish gar- near, garach neighborly. Another Celtic possibility is that the name meant noisy, cf. Breton/Cornish garm shout, however, here the vowel does not match, nor does the vowel length ). Others have proposed a Germanic etymology *gēr-manni, spear men, cf. Middle Dutch ghere, Old High German Ger, Old Norse geirr. However, the form gēr seems far too advanced phonetically for the 1st century, has a vowel where a short one is expected. The term Germani, therefore, probably applied to a group of tribes in northeastern Gaul who may or may not have spoken a Germanic language
13.
Dwarf (mythology)
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In Germanic mythology, a dwarf is a being that dwells in mountains and in the earth, and is variously associated with wisdom, smithing, mining, and crafting. Dwarfs are often described as short and ugly, although some scholars have questioned whether this is a later development stemming from comical portrayals of the beings. The concept of the dwarf has had influence in popular culture. The modern English noun dwarf descends from the Old English dweorg and it has a variety of cognates in other Germanic languages, including Old Norse dvergr and Old High German twerg. According to Vladimir Orel, the English noun and its cognates ultimately descend from Proto-Germanic *đwerȝaz, beyond the Proto-Germanic reconstruction, the etymology of the word dwarf is highly contested. Competing etymologies include a basis in the Indo-European root *dheur-, the Indo-European root *dhreugh, modern English has two plurals for the word dwarf, dwarfs and dwarves. Dwarfs remains the most commonly employed plural, regarding the plural, Tolkien wrote in 1937, I am afraid it is just a piece of private bad grammar, rather shocking in a philologist, but I shall have to go with it. Norse mythology provides different mythical origins for the beings, as recorded in the Poetic Edda, the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá details that the dwarfs were the product of the primordial blood of the being Brimir and the bones of Bláinn. The Prose Edda, however, describes dwarfs as beings similar to maggots that festered in the flesh of Ymir before being gifted with reason by the gods. The Poetic Edda and Prose Edda contain over 100 dwarf names, while the Prose Edda gives the four dwarfs Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri a cosmological role, they hold up the sky. In addition, scholars have noted that the Svartálfar appear to be the same beings as dwarfs, one dwarf named Alvíss claimed the hand of Thors daughter Þrúðr in marriage, but he was kept talking until daybreak and turned to stone, much like some accounts of trolls. After the Christianization of the Germanic peoples, tales of dwarfs continued to be told in the folklore of areas of Europe where Germanic languages were spoken, in the late legendary sagas, dwarfs demonstrate skill in healing as well as in smithing. In the early Norse sources, there is no mention of their short, in the legendary sagas, however, they are small. Anatoly Liberman suggests that dwarfs may have originally been thought of as supernatural beings. Old Norse dwarf names include Fullangr and Hár, whereas Anglo-Saxon glosses use dweorg to render Latin terms such as nanus and pygmaeus, dwarfs in folklore are usually described as old men with long beards. Female dwarfs are hardly ever mentioned, however, in the Swedish ballad Herr Peder och Dvärgens Dotter, the role of supernatural temptress is played by a dwarfs daughter. The Anglo-Saxon charm Wið Dweorh appears to relate to sleep disturbances, in the Old English Herbal, it translates Latin verrucas, warts. Lotte Motz theorized that the Germanic dwarfs, particularly as smiths and gatekeepers, there were seven dwarfs in the Brothers Grimms fairy tale Snow White
14.
Chalybes
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The Chalybes or Chaldoi were a people mentioned by Classical authors as living in Pontus and Cappadocia in northern Anatolia during Classical Antiquity. Their territory was known as Chaldia, extending from the Halys to Pharnakeia and Trabzon in the east, the Chaldoi/Chalybes, Mossynoikoi, and Tubal/Tabal/Tibareni, are counted among the first ironsmith nations by classical authors. Χάλυψ, the name in Greek, means tempered iron, steel. Sayce derived the Greek name Chalybe from Hittite Khaly-wa, land of Halys, more than an identifiable people or tribe, Chalybes was a generic Greek term for peoples of the Black Sea coast who trade in iron. The main sources for the history of the Chaldoi are accounts from classical authors, including Homer, Strabo, in Roman times, the Chaldaei and Chalybes are mentioned by Plutarch as settled in Pontus and Cappadocia, or the Pontus Cappadocicus section of the Roman province of Pontus. Halizones Giorgi Leon Kavtaradze, Probleme der historischen Geographie Anatoliens und Transkaukasiens im ersten Jahrtausend v. Chr. in, Orbis Terrarum 2 S. 191-216 David Marshall Lang, Грузины
15.
Alexander Pope
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Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations after Shakespeare, Alexander Pope was born to Alexander Pope Senior, a linen merchant of Plough Court, Lombard Street, London, and his wife Edith, who were both Catholics. Ediths sister Christiana was the wife of the miniature painter Samuel Cooper. Pope was taught to read by his aunt, and went to Twyford School in about 1698/99 and he then went to two Catholic schools in London. Such schools, while illegal, were tolerated in some areas, in 1700, his family moved to a small estate at Popeswood in Binfield, Berkshire, close to the royal Windsor Forest. This was due to strong anti-Catholic sentiment and a statute preventing Catholics from living within 10 miles of either London or Westminster, Pope would later describe the countryside around the house in his poem Windsor Forest. He also studied languages and read works by English, French, Italian, Latin. After five years of study, Pope came into contact with figures from the London literary society such as William Wycherley, William Congreve, Samuel Garth, William Trumbull, at Binfield, he also began to make many important friends. One of them, John Caryll, was twenty years older than the poet and had many acquaintances in the London literary world. He introduced the young Pope to the ageing playwright William Wycherley and to William Walsh, a minor poet and he also met the Blount sisters, Teresa and Martha, both of whom would remain lifelong friends. From the age of 12, he suffered health problems, such as Potts disease. His tuberculosis infection caused other problems including respiratory difficulties, high fevers, inflamed eyes. He grew to a height of only 1.37 m. Pope was already removed from society because he was Catholic, although he never married, he had many female friends to whom he wrote witty letters. Allegedly, his lifelong friend Martha Blount was his lover, in May,1709, Popes Pastorals was published in the sixth part of Tonsons Poetical Miscellanies. This brought Pope instant fame, and was followed by An Essay on Criticism, published in May 1711, around 1711, Pope made friends with Tory writers John Gay, Jonathan Swift, Thomas Parnell and John Arbuthnot, who together formed the satirical Scriblerus Club. The aim of the club was to satirise ignorance and pedantry in the form of the fictional scholar Martinus Scriblerus and he also made friends with Whig writers Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. In March 1713, Windsor Forest was published to great acclaim, during Popes friendship with Joseph Addison, he contributed to Addisons play Cato, as well as writing for The Guardian and The Spectator
16.
Romanticist
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Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was embodied most strongly in the arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, Romanticism assigned a high value to the achievements of heroic individualists and artists, whose examples, it maintained, would raise the quality of society. It also promoted the individual imagination as a critical authority allowed of freedom from classical notions of form in art, there was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a Zeitgeist, in the representation of its ideas. In the second half of the 19th century, Realism was offered as a polar opposite to Romanticism, the decline of Romanticism during this time was associated with multiple processes, including social and political changes and the spread of nationalism. Defining the nature of Romanticism may be approached from the point of the primary importance of the free expression of the feelings of the artist. The importance the Romantics placed on emotion is summed up in the remark of the German painter Caspar David Friedrich that the feeling is his law. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others believed there were laws that the imagination—at least of a good creative artist—would unconsciously follow through artistic inspiration if left alone. As well as rules, the influence of models from other works was considered to impede the creators own imagination, so that originality was essential. The concept of the genius, or artist who was able to produce his own work through this process of creation from nothingness, is key to Romanticism. This idea is called romantic originality. Not essential to Romanticism, but so widespread as to be normative, was a strong belief, however, this is particularly in the effect of nature upon the artist when he is surrounded by it, preferably alone. Romantic art addressed its audiences with what was intended to be felt as the voice of the artist. So, in literature, much of romantic poetry invited the reader to identify the protagonists with the poets themselves. In both French and German the closeness of the adjective to roman, meaning the new literary form of the novel, had some effect on the sense of the word in those languages. It is only from the 1820s that Romanticism certainly knew itself by its name, the period typically called Romantic varies greatly between different countries and different artistic media or areas of thought. Margaret Drabble described it in literature as taking place roughly between 1770 and 1848, and few dates much earlier than 1770 will be found. In English literature, M. H. Abrams placed it between 1789, or 1798, this latter a very typical view, and about 1830, however, in most fields the Romantic Period is said to be over by about 1850, or earlier
17.
Fairy tale
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Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables. The term is used for stories with origins in European tradition and, at least in recent centuries. In less technical contexts, the term is used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness. Colloquially, a tale or fairy story can also mean any far-fetched story or tall tale, it is used especially of any story that not only is not true. Legends are perceived as real, fairy tales may merge into legends, Fairy tales are found in oral and in literary form, the name fairy tale was first ascribed to them by Madame dAulnoy in the late 17th century. Many of todays fairy tales have evolved from stories that have appeared, with variations. The history of the tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive. Still, according to researchers at universities in Durham and Lisbon, such stories may date back thousands of years, Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today. Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways, the Aarne-Thompson classification system and the morphological analysis of Vladimir Propp are among the most notable. Other folklorists have interpreted the significance, but no school has been definitively established for the meaning of the tales. It moves in a world without definite locality or definite creatures and is filled with the marvelous. In this never-never land, humble heroes kill adversaries, succeed to kingdoms, a fairy tale with a tragic rather than a happy end is called an anti-fairy tale. Although the fairy tale is a genre within the larger category of folktale. The term itself comes from the translation of Madame DAulnoys conte de fées, Vladimir Propp, in his Morphology of the Folktale, criticized the common distinction between fairy tales and animal tales on the grounds that many tales contained both fantastic elements and animals. Were I asked, what is a fairytale, I should reply, Read Undine, that is a fairytale. of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful. As Stith Thompson points out, talking animals and the presence of magic seem to be common to the fairy tale than fairies themselves. However, the presence of animals that talk does not make a tale a fairy tale, especially when the animal is clearly a mask on a human face. Steven Swann Jones identified the presence of magic as the feature by which fairy tales can be distinguished from other sorts of folktales, davidson and Chaudri identify transformation as the key feature of the genre
18.
Goblin
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A goblin is a monstrous creature from European folklore, first attested in stories from the Middle Ages. They are ascribed various and conflicting abilities, temperaments and appearances depending on the story and country of origin and they are almost always small and grotesque, mischievous or outright evil, and greedy, especially for gold and jewelry. They often have magical abilities similar to a fairy or demon, similar creatures include brownies, dwarves, gnomes, imps, and kobolds. Alternative spellings include gobblin, gobeline, gobling, goblyn, and it may be related both to German kobold and to Medieval Latin cabalus, or *gobalus, itself from Greek κόβαλος, rogue, knave, imp, goblin. Moreover, these names are not from Normandy, where the word gobelin. German Kobold contains the Germanic root kov- which means originally a hollow in the earth, the word is probably related to Dial. Norman gobe hollow in a cliff, with simple suffix -lin or double suffixation -el-in The Welsh coblyn, a Pukwudgie is a type of Goblin from Wamponoag folklore as well as Cryptozoology A Redcap is a type of Goblin who dyes its hat in Human Blood in Anglo-Scottish border folklore. Kallikantzaros are Goblins from Southeastern European and Anatolian folklore, hobgoblins are Friendly Trickster Goblins from English, Scottish, and Pilgrim folklore and literature. The Benevolent Goblin, from Gesta Romanorum The Erlking is a malevolent goblin from German legend, the Goblin Pony, from The Grey Fairy Book The Goblins at the Bath House, from A Book of Ghosts and Goblins The Goblins Turned to Stone. King Gobb Mill Goblins appear in Norwegian folklore, Goblins are featured in the Hans Christian Andersen Fairy tales, The Elf Mound, The Goblin and the Grocer, and The Goblin and the Woman. Many Asian lagyt creatures have been likened to, or translated as and they are especially important mythical creatures in Korean folklore. They usually appear in childrens books, in Bangladesh, Santal people belief in Gudrobonga which is very similar to goblins. The Gap of Goeblin, a hole and underground tunnel in Mortain, cow is an old Scots word for Goblin, while cad means nasty. Dens and lairs refers to goblin homes, the Goblins, a comedy play by Sir John Suckling The Goblins Who Stole A Sexton is a short story by Charles Dickens where goblins torment a gravedigger for being cruel on Christmas. Goblin Market, a poem by Christina Rossetti The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald depicts the Goblins as grotesque humanoids, vulnerable to sunlight, song, and pressure on their feet. Davy and the Goblin by Charles E. Carryl J. R. R. Tolkien generally used the terms goblin and orc synonymously in The Hobbit and these works, featuring goblins of almost-human stature, generally informed the depiction of goblins in later fiction and games. Thompson adds that, in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien has abandoned all pretence at depicting goblins in a comic light, Goblins are also present as the first tier creature in the Orc faction in Heroes of Might and Magic V, Tribes of the East. Goblins are recurring enemies in the Final Fantasy franchise, where they usually appear near the beginning of each game
19.
Fairy
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A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature in European folklore, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural, or preternatural. According to Thomas Keightley, the word derives from the Latin fata. Other forms are the Italian fata, and the Provençal fada, in old French romance, fee was a woman skilled in magic, and who knew the power and virtue of words, of stones, and of herbs. Faierie became fairy, but with that now almost exclusively referring to one of the legendary people. The word fairy was used to represent an illusion, or enchantment, to the word faie was added the suffix -erie, used to express either a place where something is found or a trade or typical activity engaged in. In later usage it applied to any kind of quality or activity associated with a particular type of person. In the sense land where fairies dwell, the distinctive and archaic spellings Faery, the latinate fay is not to be confused with the unrelated fey, meaning fated to die. Various folkloristic traditions refer to them euphemistically, by such as wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair folk. Sometimes the term fairy is used to any magical creature, including goblins or gnomes, at other times. Fairies have their origin in the conflation of Celtic traditions in the Middle French medieval romances. Fairie was in origin used adjectivally, meaning enchanted, but was used as a name for enchanted creatures from as early as the Late Middle English period. In English literature of the Elizabethan era, elves became conflated with the fairies of Romance culture, the Victorian and Edwardian eras saw an increase in interest in fairies. The Celtic Revival viewed them as part of Irelands cultural heritage, carole Silvers and others suggest that the fascination of English antiquarians arose from a reaction to greater industrialization, and loss of folkways. Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers, even with these small fairies, however, their small size may be magically assumed rather than constant. Some fairies though normally quite small were able to dilate their figures to imitate humans, on Orkney they were described as short in stature, dressed in dark grey, and sometimes seen in armour. Wings, while common in Victorian and later artwork of fairies, are rare in the folklore, even very small fairies flew with magic. Nowadays, fairies are depicted with ordinary insect wings or butterfly wings. In some folklore, fairies have green eyes, some depictions of fairies either have them wearing some sort of footwear and other depictions of fairies are always barefoot
20.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, to Nathaniel Hathorne and his ancestors include John Hathorne, the only judge involved in the Salem witch trials who never repented of his actions. Nathaniel later added a w to make his name Hawthorne in order to hide this relation and he entered Bowdoin College in 1821, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1824, and graduated in 1825. Hawthorne published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828, he tried to suppress it. He published several stories in periodicals, which he collected in 1837 as Twice-Told Tales. The next year, he engaged to Sophia Peabody. He worked at the Boston Custom House and joined Brook Farm, the couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels, a political appointment as consul took Hawthorne and family to Europe before their return to Concord in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19,1864, and was survived by his wife, much of Hawthornes writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically and his themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. His published works include novels, short stories, and a biography of his college friend Franklin Pierce, Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4,1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, his birthplace is preserved and open to the public. William Hathorne, the authors great-great-great-grandfather, a Puritan, was the first of the family to emigrate from England, first settling in Dorchester, Massachusetts, before moving to Salem. There he became an important member of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and held political positions including magistrate and judge. Williams son and the authors great-great-grandfather, John Hathorne, was one of the judges who oversaw the Salem witch trials. Hawthornes father, Nathaniel Hathorne, Sr. was a sea captain who died in 1808 of yellow fever in Suriname, he had been a member of the East India Marine Society. After his death, young Nathaniel, his mother, and two sisters moved in with relatives, the Mannings, in Salem, where they lived for 10 years. In 1819, he was sent back to Salem for school and soon complained of homesickness and being too far from his mother and sisters. In spite of his homesickness, for the sake of having fun, he distributed seven issues of The Spectator to his family in August, the homemade newspaper was written by hand
21.
Twice-Told Tales
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Twice-Told Tales is a short story collection in two volumes by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The first was published in the spring of 1837, and the second in 1842, the stories had all been previously published in magazines and annuals, hence the name. Hawthorne was encouraged by friend Horatio Bridge to collect these previously anonymous stories, many had been published in The Token, edited by Samuel Griswold Goodrich. When the works became popular, Bridge revealed Hawthorne as the author in a review he published in the Boston Post. The title, Twice-Told Tales, was based on a line from William Shakespeares The Life and Death of King John, Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, / Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man. The quote referenced may also be Hawthornes way of acknowledging a belief that many of his stories were ironic retellings of familiar tropes, the book was published by the American Stationers Company on March 6,1837, its cover price was one dollar. Hawthorne had help in promoting the book from Elizabeth Peabody and she sent copies of the collection to William Wordsworth as well as to Horace Mann, hoping that Mann could get Hawthorne a job writing stories for schoolchildren. After publication, Hawthorne asked a friend to check with the bookstore to see how it was selling. After noting the expenses for publishing had not been met, he complained. By June, between 600 and 700 copies were sold but sales were halted by the Panic of 1837. On October 11,1841, Hawthorne signed a contract with publisher James Munroe to issue a new,1,000 copies were published in December of that year with a cover price of $2.25, Hawthorne was paid 10 percent per copy. Hawthorne complained that he struggled financially. Editor John L. OSullivan suggested Hawthorne buy back unsold copies of Twice-Told Tales so that they could be reissued through a different publisher, at the time of this suggestion,1844, there were 600 unsold copies of the book. Hawthorne lamented, I wish Heaven would make me enough to buy the copies for the purpose of burning them. After the success of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, Twice-Told Tales was reissued with the help of publisher James Thomas Fields. In a new preface, Hawthorne wrote that the stories may be understood and felt by anybody, who will give himself the trouble to read it, and will take up the book in a proper mood. About a week after the publication of the book, Hawthorne sent a copy to his classmate from Bowdoin College, Longfellow had given a speech at their commencement calling for notable contributions to American literature. By this time, Longfellow was working at Harvard University and was becoming popular as a poet, in his 14-page critique in the April issue of the North American Review, Longfellow praised the book as a work of genius
22.
Elf
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An elf is a type of supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Reconstructing the early concept of an elf depends almost entirely on texts in Old English or relating to Norse mythology, later evidence for elves appears in diverse sources such as medical texts, prayers, ballads, and folktales. Legends of álfar may have been changing and were perhaps always heterogeneous so it might be argued that any particular source will only reflect the state of affairs at one given time. However, the character of beliefs in elves across the Germanic-speaking world has varied considerably across time, space. In Old Norse mythological texts, elves seem at least at times to be counted among the gods, in medieval German texts they seem more consistently monstrous. Elves are prominently associated with sexual threats, seducing people and causing them harm, for example, a number of early modern ballads in the British Isles and Scandinavia, originating in the medieval period, describe human encounters with elves. In English literature of the Elizabethan era, elves became conflated with the fairies of Romance culture, German Romanticist writers were influenced by this notion of the elf, and reimported the English word elf in that context into the German language. In Scandinavia, probably through a process of euphemism, elves often came to be conflated with the called the huldra or huldufólk. Meanwhile, German folklore has tended to see the conflation of elves with dwarfs, the Christmas elves of contemporary popular culture are of relatively recent tradition, popularized during the late nineteenth-century in the United States. Elves entered the high fantasy genre in the wake of works published by authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, for which. The English word elf is from the Old English word most often attested as ælf, although this word took a variety of forms in different Old English dialects, these converged on the form elf during the Middle English period. During the Old English period, separate forms were used for female elves, the main medieval Germanic cognates of elf are Old Norse alfr, plural alfar, and Old High German alp, plural alpî, elpî. These words must come from Common Germanic, the ancestor-language of English, German, and the Scandinavian languages, Germanic *ɑlβi-z~*ɑlβɑ-z is generally agreed to be cognate with the Latin albus, Old Irish ailbhín, Albanian elb, and Germanic words for ‘swan’ such as Modern Icelandic álpt. These all come from an Indo-European base *albh-, and seem to be connected by whiteness, the Germanic word presumably originally meant white person, perhaps as a euphemism. Jakob Grimm thought that whiteness implied positive moral connotations, and, noting Snorri Sturlusons ljósálfar and this is not necessarily the case, however. Compare descriptions such as ‘swan white’ to describe the beauty of fair complexion, Norse cultural values view masculinity as an ideal of beauty, which the Alfr personifies. For example, the Norse Eddas similarly celebrate the beauty of Baldr. Icelandic Sagas celebrate the beauty of the giants, and certain warrior kings that descend from them
23.
William Cullen Bryant
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William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post. Bryant was born on November 3,1794, in a log cabin near Cummington, Massachusetts and he was the second son of Peter Bryant, a doctor and later a state legislator, and Sarah Snell. The genealogies of both of his parents back to passengers on the Mayflower, his mothers to John Alden. He was also a nephew of Charity Bryant, a Vermont seamstress who is the subject of Rachel Hope Clevess 2014 book Charity and Sylvia, Bryant and his family moved to a new home when he was two years old. The William Cullen Bryant Homestead, his home, is now a museum. After just one year at Williams College, he hoped to transfer to Yale and his father counseled a legal career as his best available choice, and the disappointed poet began to study law in Worthington and Bridgewater in Massachusetts. He was admitted to the bar in 1815 and began practicing law in nearby Plainfield, on one of these walks, in December 1815, he noticed a single bird flying on the horizon, the sight moved him enough to write To a Waterfowl. Bryant developed an interest in early in life. Under his fathers tutelage, he emulated Alexander Pope and other Neo-Classic British poets, the Embargo, a savage attack on President Thomas Jefferson published in 1808, reflected Dr. Bryants Federalist political views. The first edition sold out — partly because of publicity attached to the poets young age. A second, expanded edition included Bryants translation of classical verse, during his collegiate studies and his reading for the law, he wrote little poetry, but encounters with the Graveyard Poets and then Wordsworth regenerated his passion for the witchery of song. Thanatopsis is Bryants most famous poem, which Bryant may have been working on as early as 1811, Bryant, he submitted them along with his own work. The editor of the Review, Edward Tyrrel Channing, read the poem to his assistant, Richard Henry Dana, who immediately exclaimed, That was never written on this side of the water. Someone at the North American joined two of the sons discrete fragments, gave the result the Greek-derived title Thanatopsis, mistakenly attributed it to the father, after clarification of the authorship, the sons poems began appearing with some regularity in the. To a Waterfowl, published in 1821 was the most popular, on January 11,1821, Bryant, still striving to build a legal career, married Frances Fairchild. As it would in all collections he subsequently issued, The Ages led the volume, also entitled Poems, for that book, he added sets of lines at the beginning and end of Thanatopsis that changed the poem. His poetry has been described as being of a thoughtful, meditative character, with the encouragement of a distinguished and well-connected literary family, the Sedgwicks, he quickly gained a foothold in New York Citys vibrant cultural life. His first employment, in 1825, was as editor of the New-York Review, from Assistant Editor he rose to Editor-in-Chief and co-owner of the newspaper that had been founded by Alexander Hamilton
24.
Modest Mussorgsky
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Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as The Five. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period and he strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music. Many of his works were inspired by Russian history, Russian folklore, such works include the opera Boris Godunov, the orchestral tone poem Night on Bald Mountain and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. For many years Mussorgskys works were known in versions revised or completed by other composers. Many of his most important compositions have posthumously come into their own in their original forms, the spelling and pronunciation of the composers name has occasioned some confusion. The family name derives from a 15th- or 16th-century ancestor, Roman Vasilyevich Monastyryov, who appears in the Velvet Book, Roman Vasilyevich bore the nickname Musorga, and was the grandfather of the first Mussorgsky. The composer could trace his lineage to Rurik, the legendary 9th-century founder of the Russian state, in Mussorgsky family documents the spelling of the name varies, Musarskiy, Muserskiy, Muserskoy, Musirskoy, Musorskiy, and Musurskiy. The baptismal record gives the name as Muserskiy. In early letters to Mily Balakirev, the composer signed his name Musorskiy, the g made its first appearance in a letter to Balakirev in 1863. Mussorgsky used this new spelling to the end of his life, the addition of the g to the name was likely initiated by the composers elder brother Filaret to obscure the resemblance of the names root to an unsavory Russian word, мусoр — n. m. The first syllable of the originally received the stress, and does so to this day in Russia. The mutability of the vowel in the versions of the name mentioned above gives evidence that this syllable did not receive the stress. Doubling the consonant thus reinforces its voiceless sibilant /s/ sound, Mussorgsky was born in Karevo, Toropets Uyezd, Pskov Governorate, Russian Empire,400 km south of Saint Petersburg. His wealthy and land-owning family, the family of Mussorgsky, is reputedly descended from the first Ruthenian ruler, Rurik. At age six Mussorgsky began receiving lessons from his mother. His progress was sufficiently rapid that three years later he was able to perform a John Field concerto and works by Franz Liszt for family, at 10, he and his brother were taken to Saint Petersburg to study at the elite German language Petrischule. While there, Modest studied the piano with the noted Anton Gerke, in 1852, the 12-year-old Mussorgsky published a piano piece titled Porte-enseigne Polka at his fathers expense. Mussorgskys parents planned the move to Saint Petersburg so that both their sons would renew the tradition of military service
25.
Pictures at an Exhibition
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Pictures at an Exhibition is a suite of ten pieces composed for the piano by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. The suite is Mussorgskys most famous composition and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists. It has become known through various orchestrations and arrangements produced by other musicians and composers. It was probably in 1868 that Mussorgsky first met artist, architect, both men were devoted to the cause of an intrinsically Russian art and quickly became friends. They likely met in the home of the influential critic Vladimir Stasov, according to Stasovs testimony, in 1868, Hartmann gave Mussorgsky two of the pictures later featured in Pictures at an Exhibition. In 1870, Mussorgsky dedicated the song of the cycle The Nursery to Hartmann. Stasov remarked that Hartmann loved Mussorgskys compositions, and particularly liked the Scene by the Fountain in his opera Boris Godunov. Mussorgsky abandoned the scene in his original 1869 version, but at the requests of Stasov and Hartmann, the years 1873–74 are associated with the staging of Boris Godunov, the zenith of Mussorgskys career as a composer—at least from the standpoint of public acclaim. The composers triumph was overshadowed, however, by the critical drubbing he received in the press, other circumstances conspired to dampen Mussorgskys spirits. Golenishchev-Kutuzov wrote, banner was held by Mussorgsky alone, all the members had left it. Hartmanns sudden death on 4 August 1873 from an aneurysm shook Mussorgsky along with others in Russias art world, the loss of the artist, aged only 39, plunged the composer into deep despair. Stasov helped organize an exhibition of over 400 Hartmann works in the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in February. Mussorgsky lent to the exhibition the two pictures Hartmann had given him, and viewed the show in person, I am writing the 4th No. —the transitions are good. I want to more quickly and steadily. My physiognomy can be seen in the interludes, so far I think its well turned. The music depicts his tour of the exhibition, with each of the ten numbers of the serving as a musical illustration of an individual work by Hartmann. Five days after finishing the composition, he wrote on the page of the manuscript a tribute to Vladimir Stasov. One month later, he added an indication that he intended to have it published, in music for these illustrations, as Mussorgsky called them, he represented, children, Baba Yaga in her wooden house on chicken legs, catacombs, gates, and even rattling carts
26.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
27.
Franz Hartmann
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Franz Hartmann was a German medical doctor, theosophist, occultist, geomancer, astrologer, and author. His works include books on esoteric studies and biographies of Jakob Böhme. He translated the Bhagavad Gita into German and was the editor of the journal Lotusblüten and he was at one time a co-worker of Helena Blavatsky at Adyar. In 1896 he founded a German Theosophical Society, according to Theodor Reuss he was one of the original founders of the magical order that would later be known as Ordo Templi Orientis, along with Reuss and Carl Kellner. The Life of Jehoshua, the prophet of Nazareth - full text Digital edition of Beitrag zur Litteratur über die Wirkung des Chloroforms by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
28.
Materialism
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Materialism is closely related to physicalism, the view that all that exists is ultimately physical. Thus the term physicalism is preferred over materialism by some, while others use the terms as if they are synonymous, philosophies contradictory to materialism or physicalism include idealism, pluralism, dualism, and other forms of monism. Materialism belongs to the class of monist ontology, as such, it is different from ontological theories based on dualism or pluralism. For singular explanations of the reality, materialism would be in contrast to idealism, neutral monism. To idealists, spirit or mind or the objects of mind are primary, to materialists, matter is primary, and mind or spirit or ideas are secondary, the product of matter acting upon matter. The materialist view is perhaps best understood in its opposition to the doctrines of immaterial substance applied to the mind historically, famously by René Descartes, however, by itself materialism says nothing about how material substance should be characterized. In practice, it is assimilated to one variety of physicalism or another. Jerry Fodor influentially argues this view, according to which empirical laws, a lot of vigorous literature has grown up around the relation between these views. Modern philosophical materialists extend the definition of other scientifically observable entities such as energy, forces, however philosophers such as Mary Midgley suggest that the concept of matter is elusive and poorly defined. Materialism typically contrasts with dualism, phenomenalism, idealism, vitalism and its materiality can, in some ways, be linked to the concept of determinism, as espoused by Enlightenment thinkers. Later Marxists, such as Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky developed the notion of dialectical materialism which characterized later Marxist philosophy, Materialism developed, possibly independently, in several geographically separated regions of Eurasia during what Karl Jaspers termed the Axial Age. In Ancient Indian philosophy, materialism developed around 600 BC with the works of Ajita Kesakambali, Payasi, Kanada, Kanada became one of the early proponents of atomism. The Nyaya–Vaisesika school developed one of the earliest forms of atomism, though their proofs of God, buddhist atomism and the Jaina school continued the atomic tradition. Xunzi developed a Confucian doctrine centered on realism and materialism in Ancient China, Ancient Greek philosophers like Thales, Anaxagoras, Epicurus and Democritus prefigure later materialists. The Latin poem De Rerum Natura by Lucretius reflects the philosophy of Democritus and Epicurus. According to this view, all that exists is matter and void, De Rerum Natura provides mechanistic explanations for phenomena such as erosion, evaporation, wind, and sound. Famous principles like nothing can touch body but body first appeared in the works of Lucretius, chinese thinkers of the early common era said to be materialists include Yang Xiong and Wang Chong. Later Indian materialist Jayaraashi Bhatta in his work Tattvopaplavasimha refuted the Nyaya Sutra epistemology, the materialistic Cārvāka philosophy appears to have died out some time after 1400
29.
Untersberg
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The Untersberg is a massif of the Berchtesgaden Alps, a prominent northern spur that straddles the border between Berchtesgaden, Germany and Salzburg, Austria. The highest peak of the mountain is the Berchtesgaden Hochthron at 1,973 metres. The distinctive, lopsided peak gained international fame as the mountain featured at the beginning, the Untersberg rises at the rim of the Northern Limestone Alps, immediately at the Salzburg Basin and the broad Salzach Valley. Neighbouring peaks are the Hoher Göll in the southeast and Mt. Watzmann in the south, in the northwest, the Saalach Valley with Bad Reichenhall separates it from the Hochstaufen mountain range. About two-thirds of the area, including the Berchtesgaden Hochthron, is located in Germany, several trails lead to the top, though most people prefer the Untersbergbahn cable car. The first recorded ascent was in the first half of the 12th century, by Eberwein, the mountain lends its name to an 1829 opera, Der Untersberg, by Johann Nepomuk von Poißl. The Karst topography of the limestone includes numerous caves, so far, more than 400 have been explored—including the Schellenberg ice cave at an elevation of 1,570 m, a show cave since 1925, and the Kolowrat Cave with a 300 m high dome. The Riesending cave with a depth of 1,059 m, there also is a lake at 930 m depth. An expedition in August 2008 revealed that its lowest point had not yet been reached, the Untersberger marble ball mills are located in Marktschellenberg in Berchtesgaden, at the opening of the Almbachklamm valley. The Kügelmühlen were established in 1683, once popular childrens toys, these marbles were shipped all over the world. Through Rotterdam and London, marble shipping was directed toward the East and West Indies, marbles were welcome as cargo in sailing ships, as they were suitable as ballast because of their high density. The last marbles went from Untersberg to London in 1921, as late as the 1850s, the Almbach valley had 40 ball mills with another 90 in the surrounding region, worked mainly by poor mountain farmers. Today, a ball mill operates primarily as a tourist attraction. The ball mills were driven by the waters of the Almbach river, the lower fixed grinding stones are made of hard sandstone and the upper turntables from beech wood. Grinding of the balls varies from two to eight days according to their size, after course grinding on the sandstone, the marble balls underwent sanding and a polish. Untersberg marble also forms the facade of buildings such as the Salzburg Cathedral, according to a king in the mountain legend, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa is asleep inside Mt. Untersberg until his resurrection. His beard is said to be growing longer and longer around a round table, myth says that when the beard has grown three times around the table the end of the world has come. When Frederick leaves the mountain, there will be no further Holy Roman Emperor and the last great battle of humankind will be fought on the Walserfeld, there is a similar legend for the Kyffhäuser Mountain in Thuringia
30.
Little people (mythology)
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Little people have been part of the folklore of many cultures in human history, including Ireland, Greece, the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands, Flores Island, Indonesia, and Native Americans. Often described as hairy-faced dwarfs in stories, petroglyph illustrations show them with horns on their head, Native legends often talk of the little people playing pranks on people, such as singing and then hiding when an inquisitive person searches for the music. It is often said that the people love children and would take them away from bad or abusive parents or if the child was without parents. From tribe to tribe there are variations of what the little peoples mannerisms were like, one of the common beliefs is that the little people create distractions to cause mischief. They were believed to be gods by some, one North American Native tribe believed that they lived in nearby caves. The caves were never entered for fear of disturbing the little people, a graveyard unearthed in the 1830s in Coshocton County, Ohio, was believed to contain skeletons belonging to a pygmy race. In fact, the graves were bone burials containing disarticulated or bent bones packed together, the Pryors are famous for their fairy rings and strange happenings. Some members of the Crow tribe consider the people to be sacred ancestors. Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, J. H. Tewdai & Sons,1903. The World of the Crow Indians, As Driftwood Lodges
31.
Brownie (folklore)
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A brownie/brounie or urisk or brùnaidh, ùruisg, or gruagach is a mythical household spirit from English and Scottish folklore. Brownies are especially popular in the North, in this region, brownies are commonly conflated with hobs. A brownie is the Scottish and Northern English counterpart of the Scandinavian tomte, the Slavic domovoi, in folklore, a brownie resembles the hob, similar to a hobgoblin. Thomas Keightley describes the brownie as a personage of small stature, wrinkled visage, covered with short brown hair. Brownies are said to inhabit houses and aid in tasks around the house, however, they do not like to be seen and will only work at night, traditionally in exchange for small gifts of food. Among food, they especially enjoy porridge and honey and they usually abandon the house if their gifts are called payments, or if the owners of the house misuse them. Brownies make their homes in a part of the house, often in attics. Every manor house had its ùruisg, and in the kitchen, close by the fire was a seat, Brownies seldom spoke with humans, but they held frequent and affectionate conversations with one another. They had general assemblies as well, usually held on a remote, in a certain district of the Scottish Highlands, Peallaidh an Spùit, Stochdail a’ Chùirt, and Brùnaidh an Easain were names of note at those congresses. According to Scottish toponymist William J. Watson, every stream in Breadalbane had an ùruisg once and it may be the case, that ùruisg was conflated with some water sprite, or that ùruisg were originally water sprites conflated with brownies. Another name by which the spirit was known in some parts of Scotland was Shellycoat. The ùruisg enjoyed solitude at certain seasons of the year, around the end of the harvest, he became more sociable, and hovered around farmyards, stables and cattle-houses. He particularly enjoyed dairy products, and tended to intrude on milkmaids and he was usually seen only by those who possessed second sight, though there were instances when he made himself visible to ordinary people as well. He is said to have been jolly and personable, with flowing hair, wearing a broad blue bonnet. Anglo-Scottish Border folklore also included a figure, Billy Blind or Billy Blin, much like the brownie, a hob came from the Scottish Borders and north of England, while the lubber fiend, lob or lob lie-by-the-fire was a variant from England. The Killmoulis is a creature that is often said to inhabit mills. The fenodyree is a household spirit featured in folklore from the Isle of Man with similar attributes to the brownie, the fenodyree, however, is somewhat different from the brownie because it is usually described as being covered from head-to-toe in thick, woolly hair. Jack o the bowl is a spirit from Swiss folklore that is very similar to the brownie
32.
Kobold
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The kobold is a sprite stemming from Germanic mythology and surviving into modern times in German folklore. Although usually invisible, a kobold can materialize in the form of an animal, fire, a human being, the most common depictions of kobolds show them as humanlike figures the size of small children. Kobolds who live in human homes wear the clothing of peasants, those who live in mines are hunched and ugly, legends tell of three major types of kobolds. Most commonly, the creatures are house spirits of ambivalent nature, while they sometimes perform domestic chores, famous kobolds of this type include King Goldemar, Heinzelmann, Hödekin. In some regions, kobolds are known by names, such as the Galgenmännlein of southern Germany. Another type of kobold haunts underground places, such as mines, a third kind of kobold, the Klabautermann, lives aboard ships and helps sailors. Kobold beliefs are evidence of the survival of pagan customs after the Christianisation of Germany, belief in kobolds dates to at least the 13th century, when German peasants carved kobold effigies for their homes. Kobold beliefs mirror legends of creatures in other regions of Europe. This may indicate an origin for these creatures, or it may represent cultural borrowings. Similarly, subterranean kobolds may share their origins with creatures such as gnomes and dwarves, Kobold beliefs represent the survival of pagan customs into the Christian and modern eras and offer hints of how pagan Europeans worshipped in the privacy of their homes. Religion historian Otto Schrader has suggested that kobold beliefs derive from the tradition of worshipping household deities thought to reside in the hearth fire. Alternatively, Nancy Arrowsmith and George Moorse have said that the earliest kobolds were thought to be tree spirits, according to 13th-century German poet Conrad of Würzburg, medieval Germans carved kobolds from boxwood and wax and put them up in the room for fun. Mandrake root was another material used, people believed that the wild kobold remained in the material used to carve the figure. These kobold effigies were 30 to 60 cm high and had colourful clothing, one example, known as the monoloke, was made from white wax and wore a blue shirt and black velvet vest. The 17th century expression to laugh like a kobold may refer to dolls with their mouths wide open. These kobold effigies were stored in glass and wooden containers, German mythologist Jacob Grimm has traced the custom to Roman times and has argued that religious authorities tolerated it even after the Germans had been Christianised. Several competing etymologies for kobold have been suggested, in 1908, Otto Schrader traced the word to kuba-walda, meaning the one who rules the house. According to this theory, the root of the word is chubisi, the Old High German word for house, building, or hut, the suffix -old means to rule
33.
Leprechaun
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A leprechaun is a type of fairy in Irish folklore. They are usually depicted as bearded men, wearing a coat and hat. They are solitary creatures who spend their time making and mending shoes and have a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If captured by a human, they often grant three wishes in exchange for their freedom, like other Irish fairies, leprechauns may be derived from the Tuatha Dé Danann. Leprechaun-like creatures rarely appear in Irish mythology and only became prominent in later folklore, modern depictions of leprechauns are largely based on derogatory 19th-century caricatures and stereotypes of the Irish. The name leprechaun is derived from the Irish word leipreachán, defined by Patrick Dinneen as a pigmy, a sprite, or leprechaun. The further derivation is less certain, according to most sources, the word is thought to be a corruption of Middle Irish luchrupán, from the Old Irish luchorpán, a compound of the roots lú and corp. The root corp, which was borrowed from the Latin corpus, the alternative spelling leithbrágan stems from a folk etymology deriving the word from leith and bróg, because of the frequent portrayal of the leprechaun as working on a single shoe. Alternative spellings in English have included lubrican, leprehaun, and lepreehawn, Some modern Irish books use the spelling lioprachán. The earliest known reference to the leprechaun appears in the tale known as the Echtra Fergus mac Léti. The text contains an episode in which Fergus mac Léti, King of Ulster, falls asleep on the beach and he captures his abductors, who grant him three wishes in exchange for release. The leprechaun is said to be a creature, whose principal occupation is making and mending shoes. According to William Butler Yeats, the wealth of these fairies comes from the treasure-crocks, buried of old in war-time. According to David Russell McAnally the leprechaun is the son of an evil spirit, the leprechaun originally had a different appearance depending on where in Ireland he was found. Prior to the 20th century, it was held that the leprechaun wore red. Samuel Lover, writing in 1831, describes the leprechaun as, quite a beau in his dress, notwithstanding, for he wears a red square-cut coat, richly laced with gold, and inexpressible of the same, cocked hat, shoes and buckles. According to Yeats, the fairies, like the leprechaun, wear red jackets. The leprechauns jacket has seven rows of buttons with seven buttons to each row, round his neck is an Elizabethan ruff, and frills of lace are at his wrists
34.
Household deity
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A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a belief in pagan religions as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. The second type of household deities are those that are not one singular deity, but a type, or species of animistic deity, who usually have lesser powers than major deities. This type was common in the religions of antiquity, such as the Lares of ancient Roman religion, the Gashin of Korean shamanism and these survived Christianisation as fairy-like creatures existing in folklore, such as the Anglo-Scottish Brownie and Slavic Domovoi. Household deities were usually worshipped not in temples but in the home and they could also be found on domestic objects, such as cosmetic articles in the case of Tawaret. The more prosperous houses might have a shrine to the household god. The gods would be treated as members of the family and invited to join in meals, or be given offerings of food, in many religions, both ancient and modern, a god would preside over the home. Certain species, or types, of household deities existed, an example of this was the Roman Lares. Many European cultures retained house spirits into the modern period, because of their immediacy they had arguably more influence on the day-to-day affairs of men than the remote gods did. For centuries Christianity fought a war against these lingering minor pagan deities. For example, Martin Luthers Tischreden have numerous quite serious references to dealing with kobolds, drawing the picture with broader strokes. Under these conditions, the spirits of the family-ancestors only are worshipped, --each family propitiating its own dead, finally, with the union of all the clans or tribes under one supreme head, there is developed the custom of propitiating the spirits of national, rulers. This third form of the cult becomes the obligatory religion of the country, but it does not replace either of the preceding cults, the three continue to exist together. As stated in the Wikipedia article on Shinto, Whenever a child is born in Japan, after death an ujiko becomes a family spirit, or family kami. Many Japanese houses still have a shrine (kamidana where offerings are made to ancestral kami, Edward Burnett Tylor, one of the main founders of the discipline of cultural anthropology, spoke of survivals, vestiges of earlier evolutionary stages in a cultures development. He also coined the term animism, in contradistinction to both Herbert Spencer and Edward Burnett Tylor, who defended theories of animistic origins of ancestor worship, Émile Durkheim saw its origin in totemism. Freud preferred to emphasize the implications of the reification of metaphysical forces. This emphasis underscores, rather than weakens, the ancestral component, the doyen of European folklorists Jacob Grimm did not hesitate to equate the Roman lar familiaris to the brownie
35.
Fantasy
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Fantasy is a fiction genre set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Most fantasy uses magic or other elements as a main plot element, theme. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds, in popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy works by many writers, artists, filmmakers. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, history. The identifying trait of fantasy is the reliance on imagination to create narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that whereas realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, an author applies his or her imagination to come up with characters, plots, and settings that are impossible in reality. Fantasy has often compared with science fiction and horror because they are the major categories of speculative fiction. Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements, a science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seeming possible through logical scientific and/or technological extrapolation, whereas fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. The imagined elements of fantasy do not need an explanation to be narratively functional. Authors have to rely on the suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment. Despite both genres heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable, horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. Beginning perhaps with the earliest written documents, mythic and other elements that would come to define fantasy. MacDonald was an influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, lord Dunsany established the genres popularity in both the novel and the short story form. Many popular mainstream authors also began to write fantasy at this time, including H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Indeed, juvenile fantasy was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, intended for children, though works for adults only verged on fantasy. Political and social trends can affect a societys reception towards fantasy, in the early 20th century, the New Culture Movements enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature
36.
L. Frank Baum
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Lyman Frank Baum, better known by his pen name L. Frank Baum, was an American author chiefly known for his childrens books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen novel sequels, nine other novels, and a host of other works. Baum was born in Chittenango, New York in 1856 into a devout Methodist family and he had German, Scots-Irish, and English ancestry, and was the seventh of nine children of Cynthia Ann and Benjamin Ward Baum, only five of whom survived into adulthood. Lyman was the name of his fathers brother, but he disliked it. Benjamin Baum succeeded in many businesses, including barrel-making, oil drilling in Pennsylvania, L. Frank Baum grew up on his parents expansive estate called Rose Lawn, which he fondly recalled as a sort of paradise. Rose Lawn was located in Mattydale, New York, Frank was a sickly, dreamy child, tutored at home with his siblings. Baum started writing early in life, possibly prompted by his father buying him a printing press. He had always close to his younger brother Henry Clay Baum. The brothers published several issues of the journal, which included advertisements, at 20, Baum took on the national craze of breeding fancy poultry. He specialized in raising the Hamburg, Baum had a flair for being the spotlight of fun in the household, including during times of financial difficulties. His selling of fireworks made the Fourth of July memorable and his skyrockets, Roman candles, and fireworks filled the sky, while many people around the neighborhood would gather in front of the house to watch the displays. Baum dressed as Santa Claus for the family and his father would place the Christmas tree behind a curtain in the front parlor so that Baum could talk to everyone while he decorated the tree without people managing to see him. He maintained this tradition all his life, Baum embarked on his lifetime infatuation—and wavering financial success—with the theater. A local theatrical company duped him into replenishing their stock of costumes on the promise of leading roles coming his way, disillusioned, Baum left the theater — temporarily — and went to work as a clerk in his brother-in-laws dry goods company in Syracuse. This experience may have influenced his story The Suicide of Kiaros, a fellow clerk one day was found locked in a store room dead, probably from suicide. Baum could never stay away long from the stage and he performed in plays under the stage names of Louis F. Baum and George Brooks. In 1880, his father built him a theater in Richburg, New York, the Maid of Arran proved a modest success, a melodrama with songs based on William Blacks novel A Princess of Thule. Baum wrote the play and composed songs for it, and acted in the leading role and his aunt Katharine Gray played his characters aunt
37.
Nome King
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The Nome King is a fictional character created by American author L. Frank Baum. He is introduced in Baums third Oz book Ozma of Oz and he also appears in many of the continuing sequel Oz novels also written by Baum. Although the character of the Wicked Witch of the West is the most notable and famous Oz villain, katharine M. Rogers, a biographer of L. Frank Baum, has argued that there was a precursor of the Nome King in one of Baums pre-Oz works. In the Adventures in Phynnyland, later known as A New Wonderland, Rogers finds him a convincingly evil villain despite his ridiculous name. His people reportedly live in caves and mines and they dig iron and tin out of the rocks in their environment. They melt these metals into bars and sell them, Scowleyow hates the King of Phunnyland and all his people, because they live so happily and care nothing for money. He decides to destroy Phunnyland and instructs his mechanics to build what is essentially a robot and it is described as a great man built of cast iron, and containing within him machinery. The robot is called the Cast-iron Man, the metallic creature roars, rolls his eyes, and gnashes his teeth. It is set on marching across a valley, destroying trees and houses on its path, Rogers notes the similarities between Scowleyow and the Nome King. They represent the negation of goodwill and happiness and they are associated with the underground and material wealth. Scowleyow is a figure who uses his technological knowledge to create a machine capable only of destruction. And both villains demonstrate the tendency of evil towards self-destruction, the character called the Nome King is originally named Roquat the Red. Later he takes the name Ruggedo, which Baum first used in a stage adaptation, even after Ruggedo loses his throne, he continues to think of himself as king, and the Oz book authors politely refer to him that way. Authors Ruth Plumly Thompson and John R. Neill used the traditional spelling gnome so Ruggedo is the character in Thompsons The Gnome King of Oz. In Baums universe, the Nomes are immortal rock fairies who dwell underground and they hide jewels and precious metals in the earth, and resent the upstairs people who dig down for those valuables. Apparently as revenge, the Nome King enjoys keeping surface-dwellers as slaves—not for their labor, upon seeing Billina, Roquat is terrified, declaring that Eggs are poison to Nomes. He claims that any Nome who contacts an egg will be weakened to the point that they can be easily destroyed, Roquat becomes so angry that he plots revenge in The Emerald City of Oz. He has his subjects dig a tunnel under the Deadly Desert while his general recruits a host of spirits to conquer Oz
38.
Ruth Plumly Thompson
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Between 1921 and 1939, she wrote one Oz book a year. Thompsons contributions to the Oz series are lively and imaginative, featuring a range of colorful. However, one particular theme repeats over and over throughout her novels, the inhabitants of this community then capture the travelers, and force them to participate in this same activity. Another major theme has elderly characters, most controversially, the Good Witch of the North, being restored to marriageable age and she had a greater tendency toward the use of romantic love stories. While Baums child protagonists tended to be girls, Thompsons were boys. Thompsons last Oz story, The Enchanted Island of Oz, was not originally written as an Oz book
39.
C. S. Lewis
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Clive Staples Lewis was a British novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, broadcaster, lecturer, and Christian apologist. He held academic positions at both Oxford University and Cambridge University, Lewis and fellow novelist J. R. R. Tolkien were close friends. They both served on the English faculty at Oxford University, and were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the Inklings, according to Lewiss memoir Surprised by Joy, he was baptised in the Church of Ireland, but fell away from his faith during adolescence. Lewis returned to Anglicanism at the age of 32, owing to the influence of Tolkien and other friends and his faith profoundly affected his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim. In 1956, he married American writer Joy Davidman, she died of cancer four years later at the age of 45, Lewis died on 22 November 1963 from renal failure, one week before his 65th birthday. In 2013, on the 50th anniversary of his death, Lewis was honoured with a memorial in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey, Lewiss works have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold millions of copies. The books that make up The Chronicles of Narnia have sold the most and have been popularised on stage, TV, radio and his works entered the public domain in 2014 in countries where copyright expires 50 years after the death of the creator, such as Canada. Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland, on 29 November 1898 and his father was Albert James Lewis, a solicitor whose father Richard had come to Ireland from Wales during the mid-19th century. His mother was Florence Augusta Lewis, née Hamilton, known as Flora and he had an elder brother, Warren Hamilton Lewis. When he was four, his dog Jacksie was killed by a car, at first, he would answer to no other name, but later accepted Jack, the name by which he was known to friends and family for the rest of his life. When he was seven, his family moved into Little Lea, as a boy, Lewis was fascinated with anthropomorphic animals, he fell in love with Beatrix Potters stories and often wrote and illustrated his own animal stories. He and his brother Warnie created the world of Boxen, inhabited, Lewis loved to read, his fathers house was filled with books, and he felt that finding a book to read was as easy as walking into a field and finding a new blade of grass. Lewis was schooled by tutors before being sent to the Wynyard School in Watford, Hertfordshire, in 1908. Lewiss brother had enrolled there three years previously, the school was closed not long afterwards due to a lack of pupils, the headmaster Robert Oldie Capron was soon after committed to a psychiatric hospital. Lewis then attended Campbell College in the east of Belfast about a mile from his home and he was then sent to the health-resort town of Malvern, Worcestershire, where he attended the preparatory school Cherbourg House, which Lewis calls Chartres in his autobiography. It was during this time that Lewis abandoned his childhood Christian faith and became an atheist, becoming interested in mythology, in September 1913, Lewis enrolled at Malvern College, where he remained until the following June. He found the school socially competitive, after leaving Malvern, he studied privately with William T. Kirkpatrick, his fathers old tutor and former headmaster of Lurgan College. As a teenager, Lewis was wonder-struck by the songs and legends of what he called Northernness and these legends intensified an inner longing he later called joy
40.
The Chronicles of Narnia
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The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven high fantasy novels by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of literature and is the authors best-known work. The books span the history of Narnia, from its creation in The Magicians Nephew to its eventual destruction in The Last Battle. The books have profoundly influenced adult and childrens literature since World War II. Lewiss exploration of themes not usually present in literature, such as religion, as well as the books perceived treatment of issues including race. Although Lewis originally conceived what would become The Chronicles of Narnia in 1939, he did not finish writing the first book The Lion, the Witch, the Magicians Nephew, the penultimate book to be published, but the last to be written, was completed in 1954. Lewis did not write the books in the order in which they were originally published, the original illustrator, Pauline Baynes, created pen and ink drawings for the Narnia books that are still used in the editions published today. Lewis was awarded the 1956 Carnegie Medal for The Last Battle and this picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself, shortly before the start of World War II, many children were evacuated to the English countryside in anticipation of attacks on London and other major urban areas by Nazi Germany. As a result, on 2 September 1939, three girls, Margaret, Mary and Katherine, came to live at The Kilns in Risinghurst. But it is most about Peter who was the youngest and they all had to go away from London suddenly because of Air Raids, and because Father, who was in the Army, had gone off to the War and Mother was doing some kind of war work. They were sent to stay with a kind of relation of Mothers who was an old professor who lived all by himself in the country. In It All Began With a Picture C. S. Lewis continues, but then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. I think I had been having a good many dreams of lions about that time, apart from that, I dont know where the Lion came from or why he came. But once he was there, he pulled the story together. The manuscript for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was complete by the end of March 1949, the name Narnia is based on Narni, Italy, written in Latin as Narnia. Lancelyn Green wrote, When Walter Hooper asked where he found the word Narnia, Lewis showed him Murrays Small Classical Atlas, grundy, which he acquired when he was reading the classics with Mr Kirkpatrick at Great Bookham. On plate 8 of the Atlas is a map of ancient Italy, Lewis had underscored the name of a little town called Narnia, simply because he liked the sound of it
41.
Lady of the Green Kirtle
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The Lady of the Green Kirtle, also called Queen of Underland and Queen of the Deep Realm, is the main antagonist in The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis. She is sometimes called briefly the Green Lady, and she is also as the Emerald Witch, neither name, however. She enslaved Prince Rilian of Narnia and a horde of gnomes by her witchcraft and she is foiled by three friends of Aslan, Eustace Scrubb, Jill Pole, and Puddleglum. The Green Lady has kidnapped Prince Rilian, son of King Caspian X, the Lady plans to conquer Narnia from underground, using the enslaved prince as her general. She understands that Eustace, Jill, and Puddleglum have been sent to rescue Rilian, when the three unexpectedly turn up instead in her own domain, she attempts to dull their senses and critical thinking through hypnotic magic. She very nearly convinces them that neither Narnia nor the Earth truly exist, the story never makes clear who the Green Lady really is or where she comes from. The Silver Chair includes her among several Northern Witches, a group that also includes Jadis. Some readers believe that Jadis and the Lady of The Green Kirtle are the same person, Jadis, however, is slain by Aslan several hundred years earlier in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Lewis never describes her being brought back to life. But in Prince Caspian, when a group of Narnians discuss resurrecting Jadis, the speculation is probably reinforced by the set of character sketches included in some later editions of the books. One sketch describes Jadis as completely evil, even in The Silver Chair, since it is the Lady of the Green Kirtle who appears in The Silver Chair, some conclude that this must refer to the Green Lady. The character sketches, however, are recent additions to the books, they were not written by Lewis, Lewis scholar Peter Schakel even writes that the character sketch states incorrectly that the Queen of Underland is an embodiment of Jadis. The BBC cast the actress for both roles in the TV adaptations, which may have added to the perception that they were the same person or at least connected. This choice was due at least in part to the budget of the TV productions. The mechanics of how Jadis could return are never clear, since she is killed at the end of The Lion, the Witch. In Prince Caspian, Nikabrik and his companions suggest that the White Witch could be resurrected — who ever heard of a witch that really died. In Lewiss text this plan is never put to the test, carina Rumberger-Yanda suggests that the Lady of the Green Kirtle may be associated with the eponymous character of John Keatss Lamia. Like Lamia, the Lady is sometimes a snake, and sometimes a maid / More beautiful than ever and her transformation into a serpent, Her arms appeared to be fastened to her sides. Her legs were intertwined with other, and her feet had disappeared
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J. R. R. Tolkien
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He was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972, after Tolkiens death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his fathers extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term legendarium to the part of these writings. While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien and this has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the father of modern fantasy literature—or, more precisely, of high fantasy. In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945, forbes ranked him the 5th top-earning dead celebrity in 2009. Tolkiens paternal ancestors were middle-class craftsmen who made and sold clocks, watches and pianos in London, the Tolkien family had emigrated from Germany in the 18th century but had become quickly intensely English. According to the tradition, the Tolkiens had arrived in England in 1756. Several families with the surname Tolkien or similar spelling live in northwestern Germany, mainly in Lower Saxony, however, this origin of the name has not been proven. A German writer has suggested that the name is likely to derive from the village of Tolkynen near Rastenburg. Although that village is far from Lower Saxony, its name is derived from the now-extinct Old Prussian language. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State to Arthur Reuel Tolkien, an English bank manager, the couple had left England when Arthur was promoted to head the Bloemfontein office of the British bank for which he worked. Tolkien had one sibling, his brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel. In another incident, a family servant, who thought Tolkien a beautiful child, took the baby to his kraal to show him off. When he was three, he went to England with his mother and brother on what was intended to be a family visit. His father, however, died in South Africa of rheumatic fever before he could join them and this left the family without an income, so Tolkiens mother took him to live with her parents in Kings Heath, Birmingham. Soon after, in 1896, they moved to Sarehole, then a Worcestershire village, Mabel Tolkien taught her two children at home. Ronald, as he was known in the family, was a keen pupil and she taught him a great deal of botany and awakened in him the enjoyment of the look and feel of plants. Young Tolkien liked to draw landscapes and trees, but his lessons were those concerning languages
