1.
Lady Godiva
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The name Peeping Tom for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom watched her ride and was struck blind or dead. Godiva was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia and they had one known son, Aelfgar. The modern era Kingsbury family have claimed descent from Lady Godiva, Godivas name occurs in charters and the Domesday survey, though the spelling varies. The Old English name Godgifu or Godgyfu meant gift of God, since the name was a popular one, there are contemporaries of the same name. If she is the same Godiva who appears in the history of Ely Abbey, both Leofric and Godiva were generous benefactors to religious houses. In 1043 Leofric founded and endowed a Benedictine monastery at Coventry on the site of a nunnery destroyed by the Danes in 1016, writing in the 12th century, Roger of Wendover credits Godiva as the persuasive force behind this act. In the 1050s, her name is coupled with that of her husband on a grant of land to the monastery of St. Mary, Worcester and she and her husband are commemorated as benefactors of other monasteries at Leominster, Chester, Much Wenlock, and Evesham. She gave Coventry a number of works in metal by the famous goldsmith Mannig. The church there has a 20th-century stained glass window representing them and her signature, Ego Godiva Comitissa diu istud desideravi, appears on a charter purportedly given by Thorold of Bucknall to the Benedictine monastery of Spalding. However, this charter is considered spurious by many historians, even so, it is possible that Thorold, who appears in the Domesday Book as sheriff of Lincolnshire, was her brother. After Leofrics death in 1057, his widow lived on until sometime between the Norman Conquest of 1066 and 1086 and she is mentioned in the Domesday survey as one of the few Anglo-Saxons and the only woman to remain a major landholder shortly after the conquest. By the time of this survey in 1086, Godiva had died. Thus, Godiva apparently died between 1066 and 1086, the place where Godiva was buried has been a matter of debate. According to the Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham, or Evesham Chronicle, she was buried at the Church of the Blessed Trinity at Evesham, William Dugdale says that a window with representations of Leofric and Godiva was placed in Trinity Church, Coventry, about the time of Richard II. According to the version of the story, Lady Godiva took pity on the people of Coventry. Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband, who refused to remit the tolls. At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would strip naked and ride on a horse through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word, and after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair
2.
Jules Joseph Lefebvre
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Jules Joseph Lefebvre was a French figure painter, educator and theorist. Lefebvre was born in Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, on 14 March 1836 and he entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1852 and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet. He won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1861, between 1855 and 1898, he exhibited 72 portraits in the Paris Salon. In 1891, he became a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts and he was professor at the Académie Julian in Paris. Lefebvre is chiefly important as an excellent and sympathetic teacher who numbered many Americans among his 1500 or more pupils, tarbell, who became an American Impressionist painter. Another pupil was the miniaturist Alice Beckington, many of his paintings are single figures of beautiful women. Among his best portraits were those of M. L. Reynaud, Lefebvre died in Paris on 24 February 1911. org 42 images by Jules Joseph Lefebvre Art Renewal Centre – Lefebvre Gallery Paintingiant art--Jules Joseph Lefebvre
3.
Anachronism
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An anachronism is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of person, events, objects, or customs from different periods of time. An anachronism may be intentional or unintentional. Intentional anachronisms may be introduced into a literary or artistic work to help a contemporary audience engage more readily with a historical period, Anachronism can also be used for purposes of rhetoric, comedy, or shock. Unintentional anachronisms may occur when a writer, artist, or performer is unaware of differences in technology, language, customs, attitudes, a parachronism is anything that appears in a time period in which it is not normally found. They may be objects or ideas which were common, but are now considered rare or inappropriate. They can take the form of technology or outdated fashion. Examples of parachronisms could include a suburban housewife in the United States around 1960 using a washboard for laundry, often, parachronism is identified when a work based on a particular eras state of knowledge is read within the context of a later era—with a different state of knowledge. Parachronism differs from prochronism, in which the object or idea has not yet been invented when the situation takes place, a prochronism occurs when an item appears in a temporal context in which it could not yet be present. The intentional use of older, often obsolete cultural artifacts may be regarded as anachronistic, for example, it could be considered anachronistic for a modern-day person to wear a top hat, write with a quill, or carry on a conversation in Latin. Such choices may reflect an eccentricity, or an aesthetic preference, some writings and works of art promoting a political, nationalist or revolutionary cause use anachronism to depict an institution or custom as being more ancient than it actually is. These flags date only from the 1830s, here anachronism promotes legitimacy for the unification of Moldavia and Wallachia into the Kingdom of Romania at the time the painting was made. Anachronism is used especially in works of imagination that rest on a historical basis and they vary from glaring inconsistencies to scarcely perceptible misrepresentation. It is only since the close of the 18th century that this kind of deviation from historical reality has jarred on a general audience. Nothing becomes obsolete like a vision of an older period, writes Anthony Grafton. Come in and practice your piano now and we are jerked from our suspension of disbelief by what was intended as a means of reinforcing it, and plunged directly into the American bourgeois world of the filmmaker. Anachronism can also be an aesthetic choice, anachronisms abound in the works of Raphael and Shakespeare, as well as in those of less celebrated painters and playwrights of earlier times. Anachronisms can exist in ancient texts, carol Meyers says that these anachronisms can be used to better understand the stories by asking what the anachronism represents. Repeated anachronisms and historical errors can become an part of popular culture
4.
Mediaeval
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
5.
Miracle
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A miracle is an event not explicable by natural or scientific laws. Such an event may be attributed to a supernatural being, magic, a miracle worker, other such miracles might be, survival of an illness diagnosed as terminal, escaping a life-threatening situation or beating the odds. Some coincidences may be seen as miracles, a true miracle would, by definition, be a non-natural phenomenon, leading many rational and scientific thinkers to dismiss them as physically impossible or impossible to confirm by their nature. The former position is expressed for instance by Thomas Jefferson and the latter by David Hume, theologians typically say that, with divine providence, God regularly works through nature yet, as a creator, is free to work without, above, or against it as well. The possibility and probability of miracles are then equal to the possibility and probability of the existence of God, a miracle is a phenomenon not explained by known laws of nature. Criteria for classifying an event as a miracle vary, often a religious text, such as the Bible or Quran, states that a miracle occurred, and believers may accept this as a fact. British mathematician J. E. Littlewood suggested that individuals should statistically expect one-in-a-million events to happen to them at the rate of one per month. By Littlewoods definition, seemingly miraculous events are actually commonplace, the Aristotelian view of God does not include direct intervention in the order of the natural world. Jewish neo-Aristotelian philosophers, who are influential today, include Maimonides, Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon. Directly or indirectly, their views are still prevalent in much of the religious Jewish community, in his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus Spinoza claims that miracles are merely lawlike events whose causes we are ignorant of. We should not treat them as having no cause or of having a cause immediately available, rather the miracle is for combating the ignorance it entails, like a political project. According to the philosopher David Hume, a miracle is a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent. According to the Christian theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher every event, even the most natural and usual, james Keller states that The claim that God has worked a miracle implies that God has singled out certain persons for some benefit which many others do not receive implies that God is unfair. If God intervenes to save life in a car crash. Thus an all-powerful, all-knowing and just God, as predicated in Christianity, the Haedong Kosung-jon of Korea records that King Beopheung of Silla had desired to promulgate Buddhism as the state religion. However, officials in his court opposed him, in the fourteenth year of his reign, Beopheungs Grand Secretary, Ichadon, devised a strategy to overcome court opposition. Ichadon schemed with the king, convincing him to make a proclamation granting Buddhism official state sanction using the royal seal, Ichadon told the king to deny having made such a proclamation when the opposing officials received it and demanded an explanation. Instead, Ichadon would confess and accept the punishment of execution, Ichadon prophesied to the king that at his execution a wonderful miracle would convince the opposing court faction of Buddhisms power
6.
Realism (arts)
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Realism in the arts is the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. Realism has been prevalent in the arts at many periods, and is in part a matter of technique and training. In the visual arts, illusionistic realism is the depiction of lifeforms, perspective. Realist works of art may emphasize the mundane, ugly or sordid, such as works of realism, regionalism. There have been various movements in the arts, such as the opera style of verismo, literary realism, theatrical realism. The realism art movement in painting began in France in the 1850s, the realist painters rejected Romanticism, which had come to dominate French literature and art, with roots in the late 18th century. Realism is the precise, detailed and accurate representation in art of the appearance of scenes. Realism in this sense is also called naturalism, mimesis or illusionism, realistic art was created in many periods, and it is in large part a matter of technique and training, and the avoidance of stylization. It becomes especially marked in European painting in the Early Netherlandish painting of Jan van Eyck, however such realism is often used to depict, for example, angels with wings, which were not things the artists had ever seen in real life. It is the choice and treatment of matter that defines Realism as a movement in painting. The development of increasingly accurate representation of the appearances of things has a long history in art. It includes elements such as the depiction of the anatomy of humans and animals, of perspective and effects of distance. Ancient Greek art is recognised as having made great progress in the representation of anatomy. Pliny the Elders famous story of birds pecking at grapes painted by Zeuxis in the 5th century BC may well be a legend, roman portraiture, when not under too much Greek influence, shows a greater commitment to a truthful depiction of its subjects. The art of Late Antiquity famously rejected illusionism for expressive force, scientific methods of representing perspective were developed in Italy and gradually spread across Europe, and accuracy in anatomy rediscovered under the influence of classical art. As in classical times, idealism remained the norm, intriguingly, having led the development of illusionic painting, still life was to be equally significant in its abandonment in Cubism. The depiction of ordinary, everyday subjects in art also has a history, though it was often squeezed into the edges of compositions. However these objects are at least largely there because they carry layers of complex significance, pieter Bruegel the Elder pioneered large panoramic scenes of peasant life
7.
Brothers Grimm
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Their first collection of folk tales, Childrens and Household Tales, was published in 1812. The brothers spent their formative years in the German town of Hanau and their fathers death in 1796 caused great poverty for the family and affected the brothers for many years after. They both attended the University of Marburg where they developed a curiosity about German folklore, which grew into a dedication to collecting German folk tales. The rise of romanticism during the 19th century revived interest in folk stories. With the goal of researching a scholarly treatise on folk tales, between 1812 and 1857, their first collection was revised and republished many times, growing from 86 stories to more than 200. The popularity of the Grimms best folk tales has endured well, Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was born on 4 January 1785 and his brother Wilhelm Carl Grimm on 24 February 1786. They were the second- and third-eldest surviving siblings in a family of nine children, in 1791, the family moved to the countryside town of Steinau, when Philipp was employed there as district magistrate. The family became prominent members of the community, residing in a home surrounded by fields. Biographer Jack Zipes writes that the brothers were happy in Steinau, the children were educated at home by private tutors, receiving strict instruction as Lutherans that instilled in both a lifelong religious faith. In 1796, Philipp Grimm died of pneumonia, plunging his family into poverty, Dorothea depended on financial support from her father and sister, first lady-in-waiting at the court of William I, Elector of Hesse. Jacob was the eldest living son, and he was forced at age 11 to assume adult responsibilities for the two years. The two boys adhered to the advice of their grandfather, who continually exhorted them to be industrious, the brothers left Steinau and their family in 1798 to attend the Friedrichsgymnasium in Kassel, which had been arranged and paid for by their aunt. By then, they were without a provider, forcing them to rely entirely on each other. The two brothers differed in temperament, Jacob was introspective and Wilhelm was outgoing, sharing a strong work ethic, they excelled in their studies. In Kassel, they became aware of their inferior social status relative to high-born students who received more attention. Still, each brother graduated at the head of his class, Jacob in 1803, after graduation from the Friedrichsgymnasium, the brothers attended the University of Marburg. The university was small with about 200 students and there they became aware that students of lower social status were not treated equally. They were disqualified from admission because of their standing and had to request dispensation to study law
8.
Folklore
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Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. These include oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes and they include material culture, ranging from traditional building styles to handmade toys common to the group. Folklore also includes customary lore, the forms and rituals of celebrations like Christmas and weddings, folk dances, each one of these, either singly or in combination, is considered a folklore artifact. Just as essential as the form, folklore also encompasses the transmission of these artifacts from one region to another or from one generation to the next, for folklore is not taught in a formal school curriculum or studied in the fine arts. Instead these traditions are passed along informally from one individual to another either through verbal instruction or demonstration, the academic study of folklore is called folkloristics. To fully understand folklore, it is helpful to clarify its component parts and it is well-documented that the term was coined in 1846 by the Englishman William Thoms. He fabricated it to replace the contemporary terminology of popular antiquities or popular literature, the second half of the compound word, lore, proves easier to define as its meaning has stayed relatively stable over the last two centuries. Coming from Old English lār instruction, and with German and Dutch cognates, it is the knowledge and traditions of a particular group, the concept of folk proves somewhat more elusive. When Thoms first created this term, folk applied only to rural, frequently poor, a more modern definition of folk is a social group which includes two or more persons with common traits, who express their shared identity through distinctive traditions. Folk is a concept which can refer to a nation as in American folklore or to a single family. This expanded social definition of folk supports a view of the material, i. e. the lore. These now include all things people make with words, things they make with their hands, Folklore is no longer circumscribed as being chronologically old or obsolete. The folklorist studies the traditional artifacts of a group and how they are transmitted. Transmission is a part of the folklore process. Without communicating these beliefs and customs within the group over space and time, for folklore is also a verb. These folk artifacts continue to be passed along informally, as a rule anonymously, the folk group is not individualistic, it is community-based and nurtures its lore in community. As new groups emerge, new folklore is created… surfers, motorcyclists, in direct contrast to high culture, where any single work of a named artist is protected by copyright law, folklore is a function of shared identity within the social group. Having identified folk artifacts, the professional folklorist strives to understand the significance of these beliefs, customs, for these cultural units would not be passed along unless they had some continued relevance within the group
9.
Ogier the Dane
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Ogier the Dane is a legendary character who first appears in an Old French chanson de geste, in the cycle of poems Geste de Doon de Mayence. The 12th-century Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus was not familiar with the character, a chronicle from St Martins monastery in Cologne claims that the monastery had been pillaged by the Saxons in 778, but that it was rebuilt by Olgerus, dux Daniæ, with the help of Charlemagne. Ogier the Dane first appears as one of Charlemagnes knights, in Chanson de Roland and he plays only a minor part in this poem, and his only link to Denmark seems to be his name, Ogier le Danois. Ogier becomes the character in the poem La Chevalerie Ogier de Danemarche. Here he is the son of the Danish king Geoffrey, who is the enemy of Charlemagne, Ogier grows into a heroic character, who begets a son who was slain by Charlot, son of Charlemagne. Seeking revenge, Ogier kills Charlot and is prevented from killing Charlemagne. They eventually make peace and Ogier goes to fight at Charlemagnes side against the Saracens, after this poem was written Ogier becomes increasingly popular in European literature. Ogier the Dane had a sword named Cortana or Curtana, according to the legend, the weapon bore the inscription, My name is Cortana, of the same steel and temper as Joyeuse and Durendal. The 13th-century Prose Tristan states that Ogier inherited the sword of the Arthurian knight Tristan, shortening it and this suggests a connection to Henry III of Englands coronation sword Curtana, which was said to have been Tristans sword, and which had its end cut off. The sword remains in use in the coronation of the British monarchs, in 1515, Kristiern Pedersen was living in Paris, and there he translated a prose novel based on the rhyming chronicles into the Danish Olger Danskes krönike, which was printed in 1534. Pedersen made Ogier into the son of a Danish king named Godfred who leaves Ogier as hostage to Charlemagne and this translation quickly became popular in Denmark. Like Frederick Barbarossa, Saint Wenceslas and King Arthur, in Danish legend Ogier becomes a king in the mountain, he is said to dwell in the castle of Kronborg, his beard grown down to the floor. He will sleep there until some day when the country of Denmark is in peril, at time he will rise up. The largest World War II Danish resistance group, Holger Danske, was named after the legend, in some versions, Morgue le Faye takes him to Avalon, from where he returns after two hundred years to save France. According to the guides of Kronborg Castle, legend has it that Holger sat down in his present location after walking all the way from his complete battles in France. On Rönneberga slopes, outside Landskrona in south Sweden, there is a burial mound named Holger Danske mound, the 1789 opera Holger Danske, composed by F. L. Æ. Kunzen with a libretto by Jens Baggesen, had a impact on Danish nationalism in the late 18th century. It spawned the literary Holger feud, which revealed the increasing dissatisfaction among the native Danish population with the German influence on Danish society, amongst others, the Danish intellectual Peter Andreas Heiberg joined the feud by writing a satirical version entitled Holger Tyske ridiculing Baggesens lyrics
10.
Old French
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Old French was the Gallo-Romance dialect continuum spoken from the 9th century to the 14th century. In the 14th century, these came to be collectively known as the langues doïl. The mid-14th century is taken as the period to Middle French. The areal of Old French in contemporary terms corresponded to the parts of the Kingdom of France, Upper Burgundy. As part of the emerging Gallo-Romance dialect continuum, the langues doïl were contrasted with the langue doc, in these examples, we notice a clear consequence of bilingualism, that sometimes even changed the first syllable of the Latin words. Pope estimated that perhaps still 15% of the vocabulary of modern French derives from Germanic sources, at the third Council of Tours in 813, priests were ordered to preach in the vernacular language, since the common people could no longer understand formal Latin. The second-oldest document in Old French is the Eulalia sequence, which is important for reconstruction of Old French pronunciation due to its consistent spelling. The Capetians langue doïl, the forerunner of modern standard French, did not begin to become the common speech of all of France, however, until after the French Revolution. In the Late Middle Ages, the Old French dialects diverged into a number of distinct langues doïl, during the Early Modern period, French now becomes established as the official language of the Kingdom of France throughout the realm, also including the langue doc-speaking territories in the south. Old French gives way to Middle French in the mid-14th century, the earliest extant French literary texts date from the ninth century, but very few texts before the 11th century have survived. The first literary works written in Old French were saints lives, the Canticle of Saint Eulalie, written in the second half of the 9th century, is generally accepted as the first such text. The first of these is the area of the chansons de geste. More than one hundred chansons de geste have survived in three hundred manuscripts. The oldest and most celebrated of the chansons de geste is The Song of Roland, a fourth grouping, not listed by Bertrand, is the Crusade cycle, dealing with the First Crusade and its immediate aftermath. Jean Bodels other two categories—the Matter of Rome and the Matter of Britain—concern the French romance or roman, around a hundred verse romances survive from the period 1150–1220. From around 1200 on, the tendency was increasingly to write the romances in prose, the most important romance of the 13th century is the Romance of the Rose which breaks considerably from the conventions of the chivalric adventure story. The Occitan or Provençal poets were called troubadours, from the word trobar to find, lyric poets in Old French are called trouvères. By the late 13th century, the tradition in France had begun to develop in ways that differed significantly from the troubadour poets
11.
Medieval Latin
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Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors, medieval Latin should not be confused with Ecclesiastical Latin. There is no consensus on the exact boundary where Late Latin ends. Medieval Latin had a vocabulary, which freely borrowed from other sources. Greek provided much of the vocabulary of Christianity. The various Germanic languages spoken by the Germanic tribes, who invaded southern Europe, were major sources of new words. Germanic leaders became the rulers of parts of the Roman Empire that they conquered, other more ordinary words were replaced by coinages from Vulgar Latin or Germanic sources because the classical words had fallen into disuse. Latin was also spread to such as Ireland and Germany. Works written in the lands, where Latin was a language with no relation to the local vernacular, also influenced the vocabulary. English words like abstract, subject, communicate, matter, probable, the high point of the development of medieval Latin as a literary language came with the Carolingian renaissance, a rebirth of learning kindled under the patronage of Charlemagne, king of the Franks. On the other hand, strictly speaking there was no form of medieval Latin. Every Latin author in the period spoke Latin as a second language, with varying degrees of fluency, and syntax, grammar. For instance, rather than following the classical Latin practice of placing the verb at the end. Unlike classical Latin, where esse was the auxiliary verb, medieval Latin writers might use habere as an auxiliary, similar to constructions in Germanic. The accusative and infinitive construction in classical Latin was often replaced by a clause introduced by quod or quia. This is almost identical, for example, to the use of que in similar constructions in French. In every age from the late 8th century onwards, there were learned writers who were familiar enough with classical syntax to be aware that these forms and usages were wrong, however the use of quod to introduce subordinate clauses was especially pervasive and is found at all levels. That resulted in two features of Medieval Latin compared with Classical Latin. First, many attempted to show off their knowledge of Classical Latin by using rare or archaic constructions
12.
Protestantism
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Protestantism is a form of Christianity which originated with the Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. Although there were earlier breaks from or attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Protestants reject the notion of papal supremacy and deny the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Five solae summarize the reformers basic differences in theological beliefs, in the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states, and Iceland. Reformed churches were founded in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by such reformers as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, the political separation of the Church of England from Rome under King Henry VIII brought England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement. Protestants developed their own culture, which made major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, some Protestant denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of families, Adventism, Anglicanism, Baptist churches, Reformed churches, Lutheranism, Methodism. Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic, independent and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, the edict reversed concessions made to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier. During the Reformation, the term was used outside of the German politics. The word evangelical, which refers to the gospel, was more widely used for those involved in the religious movement. Nowadays, this word is still preferred among some of the historical Protestant denominations in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions in Europe, above all the term is used by Protestant bodies in the German-speaking area, such as the EKD. In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either a Lutheran or a Calvinist, the German word evangelisch means Protestant, and is different from the German evangelikal, which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism. The English word evangelical usually refers to Evangelical Protestant churches, and it traces its roots back to the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism originated, and then was brought to the United States. Protestantism as a term is now used in contradistinction to the other major Christian traditions, i. e. Roman Catholicism. Initially, Protestant became a term to mean any adherent to the Reformation movement in Germany and was taken up by Lutherans. Even though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or Evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ, French and Swiss Protestants preferred the word reformed, which became a popular, neutral and alternative name for Calvinists
13.
Saint
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A saint, also historically known as a hallow, is a term used for a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness or likeness to God. Depending on the context and denomination, the term also retains its original Christian meaning, as any believer who is in Christ and in whom Christ dwells, whether in Heaven or on Earth. Depending on the religion, saints are recognized either by official ecclesiastical declaration, the English word saint comes from the Latin sanctus. The word translated the Greek ἅγιος, which derives from the verb ἁγιάζω, the word ἅγιος appears 229 times in the Greek New Testament, and its English translation 60 times in the corresponding text of the King James Version of the Bible. In the New Testament, saint did not denote the deceased who had recognized as especially holy or emulable. Many religions also use similar concepts to venerate persons worthy of some honor, the anthropologist Lawrence Babb in an article about Sathya Sai Baba asks the question Who is a saint. These saintly figures, he asserts, are the points of spiritual force-fields. They exert powerful attractive influence on followers but touch the lives of others in transforming ways as well. In the Bible, only one person is called a saint, They envied Moses also in the camp. The apostle Paul declared himself to be less than the least of all saints in Ephesians 3,8, in the Catholic Church, a saint is anyone in Heaven, whether recognized on Earth or not. There are many persons that the Church believes to be in Heaven who have not been formally canonized, sometimes the word saint also denotes living Christians. They remind us that the Church is holy, can never stop being holy and is called to show the holiness of God by living the life of Christ, the Catholic Church teaches that it does not make or create saints, but rather recognizes them. Proofs of heroicity required in the process of beatification will serve to illustrate in detail the general principles exposed above upon proof of their holiness or likeness to God. On 3 January 993, Pope John XV became the first pope to proclaim a person a saint, on the petition of the German ruler, before that time, the popular cults, or venerations, of saints had been local and spontaneous. Pope John XVIII subsequently permitted a cult of five Polish martyrs, walter of Pontoise was the last person in Western Europe to be canonized by an authority other than the Pope, Hugh de Boves, the Archbishop of Rouen, canonized him in 1153. Thenceforth a decree of Pope Alexander III in 1170 reserved the prerogative of canonization to the Pope, one source claims that there are over 10,000 named saints and beatified people from history, the Roman Martyrology and Orthodox sources, but no definitive head count. Alban Butler published Lives of the Saints in 1756, including a total of 1,486 saints, the latest revision of this book, edited by Rev. Herbert Thurston, SJ and British author Donald Attwater, contains the lives of 2,565 saints. Monsignor Robert Sarno, an official of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints of the Holy See, expressed that it is impossible to give an exact number of saints
14.
John Foxe
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Widely owned and read by English Puritans, the book helped mould British popular opinion about the Catholic Church for several centuries. Foxe was born in Boston, in Lincolnshire, England, of a prominent family and seems to have been an unusually studious. In about 1534, when he was sixteen, he entered Brasenose College, Oxford, where he was the pupil of John Hawarden. In 1535 Foxe was admitted to Magdalen College School, where he may either have been improving his Latin or acting as a junior instructor and he became a probationer fellow in July 1538 and a full fellow the following July. Foxe took his bachelors degree on 17 July 1537, his masters degree in July 1543, by the time he was twenty-five, he had read the Latin and Greek fathers, the schoolmen, the canon law, and had acquired no mean skill in the Hebrew language. Foxe resigned from his college in 1545 after becoming a Protestant, Foxe may have been forced from the college in a general purge of its Protestant members although college records state that he resigned of his own accord and ex honesta causa. Foxes change of opinion may have temporarily broken his relationship with his stepfather. Foxe personally witnessed the burning of William Cowbridge in September 1538, after being forced to abandon what might have been a promising academic career, Foxe experienced a period of dire need. Hugh Latimer invited Foxe to live with him, but Foxe eventually became a tutor in the household of Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, before leaving the Lucys, Foxe married Agnes Randall on 3 February 1547. Foxes prospects, and those of the Protestant cause generally, improved after the accession of Edward VI in January 1547, in the middle of or at the end of 1547, Foxe moved to London and probably lived in Stepney. There, he completed three translations of Protestant sermons published by the stout Protestant Hugh Singleton, Foxe lived in the duchesss London household at Mountjoy House and later at Reigate Castle, and the duchesss patronage facilitated Foxes entry into the ranks of Englands Protestant elite. During his stay at Reigate, Foxe helped suppress a cult that had arisen around the shrine of the Virgin Mary at Ouldsworth and he also worked unsuccessfully to prevent the two burnings for religion that occurred during the reign of Edward VI. On the accession of Mary I in July 1553, Foxe lost his tutorship when the childrens grandfather, Foxe walked warily as befitted one who had published Protestant books in his own name. As the political climate worsened, Foxe believed himself personally threatened by Bishop Stephen Gardiner, just ahead of officers sent to arrest him, he sailed with his pregnant wife from Ipswich to Nieuwpoort. He then traveled to Antwerp, Rotterdam, Frankfurt and Strasbourg, in Strasbourg Foxe published a Latin history of the Christian persecutions, the draft of which he had brought from England and which became the first shadowy draft of his Acts and Monuments. In the autumn of 1554, Foxe moved to Frankfurt, where he served as a preacher for the English church ministering to refugees in the city, there, he was unwillingly drawn into a bitter theological controversy. One faction favored the church polity and liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer while the other advocated Reformed models promoted by John Calvins Genevan church, the latter group, led by John Knox, was supported by Foxe, the former was led by Richard Cox. Eventually, Knox. who seems to have acted with more magnanimity, was expelled, although Foxe clearly favored Knox, he was irenic by temperament and expressed his disgust at the violence of the warring factions
15.
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
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The Actes and Monuments, popularly known as Foxes Book of Martyrs, is a work of Protestant history and martyrology by John Foxe, first published in English in 1563 by John Day. It includes an account of the sufferings of Protestants under the Catholic Church. The book was influential in those countries and helped shape lasting popular notions of Catholicism there. The book went through four editions in Foxes lifetime and a number of editions and abridgements. The book was produced and illustrated with over sixty distinctive woodcut impressions and was to time the largest publishing project ever undertaken in England. Their product was a single book, a bit over a foot long. Foxes own title for the first edition, is Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, the page count went from approximately 1,800 pages in 1563 to over 2,300 folio pages. The number of woodcuts increased from 60 to 150, as Foxe wrote about his own living contemporaries, the illustrations could not be borrowed from existing texts, as was commonly practiced. Foxes title for the edition is quite different from the first edition where he claimed his material as these latter days of peril. touching on matters of the Church. In 1570, Foxes book is an Ecclesiastical History containing the acts and monuments of thynges passed in every kynges tyme in this realm and it describes persecutions, horrrible troubles, the suffering of martyrs, and other such thinges incident. In England and Scotland, and all other forreine nations, the second volume of the 1570 edition has its own title page and, again, an altered subject. Again leaving the reference, to church, uncertain, the title concludes in this realm of England and Scotland as partly also to all other forrine nations apparteynyng. Actes and Monuments for almost all its existence has popularly been called the Book of Martyrs, the linking of titles is an expected norm for introducing John Foxes sixteenth century work. William Haller observed that Edmund Grindal called it a book of martyrs, and it may have contained Grindals book of English martyrs, but it was not John Foxes. Dismayed by the misconception, Foxe tried to correct the error in the second edition. That his appeal was ineffective in his own time is not surprising, continuing this practice in academic analyses is being questioned, particularly in light of Foxes explicit denial. I wrote no such booke bearying the title Booke of Martyrs, I wrote a booke called the Acts and Monumentes. Wherin many other matters be contayned beside the martyrs of Christ, the final book treated the reign of Queen Mary and the Marian Persecutions
16.
Chronicle
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A chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events and this is in contrast to a narrative or history, which sets selected events in a meaningful interpretive context and excludes those the author does not see as important. Some made use of materials, charters, letters, or the works of earlier chroniclers. Still others are tales of such unknown origins so as to hold mythical status, copyists also affected chronicles in creative copying, making corrections or in updating or continuing a chronicle with information not available to the original author. The reliability of a chronicle is an important determination for modern historians. In modern times various contemporary newspapers or other periodicals have adopted chronicle as part of their name, various fictional stories have also adopted chronicle as part of their title, to give an impression of epic proportion to their stories. A chronicle which traces world history is called a universal chronicle, scholars categorize the genre of chronicle into two subgroups, live chronicles, and dead chronicles. A dead chronicle is one where the author gathers his list of events up to the time of his writing, a live chronicle is where one or more authors add to a chronicle in a regular fashion, recording contemporary events shortly after they occur. Because of the immediacy of the information, historians tend to value live chronicles, such as annals, the earliest medieval chronicle to combine both retrospective and contemporary entries, is the Chronicle of Ireland, which spans the years 431 to 911. Chronicles are the predecessors of modern time lines rather than analytical histories, if the chronicles deal with events year by year, they are often called annals. Unlike the modern historian, most chroniclers tended to take their information as they found it, the point of view of most chroniclers is highly localised, to the extent that many anonymous chroniclers can be sited in individual abbeys. Later 16th century Scottish chronicles, written after the Reformation, shape history according to Catholic or Protestant viewpoints. It is impossible to say how many chronicles exist, as the many ambiguities in the definition of the make it impossible to draw clear distinctions of what should or should not be included. However, the Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle lists some 2,500 items written between 300 and 1500 AD
17.
Jacob Grimm
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Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was a German philologist, jurist, and mythologist. Jacob Grimm was born in Hanau, in Hesse-Kassel and his father, Philipp Grimm, was a lawyer, but he died while Jacob was a child, and his mother was left with very small means. His mothers sister was lady of the chamber to the Landgravine of Hesse, Jacob was sent to the public school at Kassel in 1798 with his younger brother Wilhelm. In 1802, he proceeded to the University of Marburg where he studied law and his brother joined him at Marburg a year later, having just recovered from a long and severe illness, and likewise began the study of law. Up to this time, Jacob Grimm had been driven only by a general thirst for knowledge, savignys lectures also awakened in him a love for historical and antiquarian investigation, which forms the structure of all his work. In the beginning of 1805, he received an invitation from Savigny, Grimm passed a very happy time in Paris, strengthening his taste for the literatures of the Middle Ages by his studies in the Paris libraries. Towards the close of the year, he returned to Kassel, where his mother and Wilhelm had settled, the next year, he obtained a position in the war office with the very small salary of 100 thalers. One of his grievances was that he had to exchange his stylish Paris suit for a stiff uniform, but he had full leisure for the pursuit of his studies. In 1808, soon after the death of his mother, he was appointed superintendent of the library of Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia. Bonaparte appointed him an auditor to the council, while Grimm retained his superintendent post. His salary was increased in a period of time from 2000 to 4000 francs. After the expulsion of Bonaparte and the reinstatement of an elector, Grimm was appointed Secretary of Legation in 1813, accompanying the Hessian minister to the headquarters of the allied army. In 1814, he was sent to Paris to demand restitution of books carried off by the French, upon his return from Vienna, he was sent to Paris a second time to secure book restitutions. Meanwhile, Wilhelm had received an appointment to the Kassel library, consequently, they moved the following year to Göttingen, where Jacob received the appointment of professor and librarian, and Wilhelm that of under-librarian. Jacob Grimm lectured on legal antiquities, historical grammar, literary history, and diplomatics, explained Old German poems, during this period, he is described as small and lively in figure, with a harsh voice, speaking a broad Hessian dialect. Grimm joined other academics who signed a protest against the King of Hanovers abrogation of the constitution which had established some years before. As a result, he was dismissed from his professorship and banished from the Kingdom of Hanover in 1837 and he returned to Kassel with his brother, who had also signed the protest. Jacob was not under any obligation to lecture and he seldom did so, during their time in Kassel, Jacob regularly attended the meetings of the academy, where he read papers on widely varied subjects
18.
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
19.
Irony
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Irony, in its broadest sense, is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event in which what appears, on the surface, to be the case, differs radically from what is actually the case. Irony may be divided into such as verbal, dramatic. Verbal, dramatic, and situational irony are often used for emphasis in the assertion of a truth, other forms, as identified by historian Connop Thirlwall, include dialectic and practical irony. Also, Eric Partridge, in Usage and Abusage, writes that Irony consists in stating the contrary of what is meant, the use of irony may require the concept of a double audience. The term is used as a synonym for incongruous and applied to every trivial oddity in situations where there is no double audience. The American Heritage Dictionarys secondary meaning for irony, incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs and this sense, however, is not synonymous with incongruous but merely a definition of dramatic or situational irony. It is often included in definitions of irony not only that incongruity is present, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, The term irony has its roots in the Greek comic character Eiron, a clever underdog who by his wit repeatedly triumphs over the boastful character Alazon. The Socratic irony of the Platonic dialogues derives from this comic origin. e, the word came into English as a figure of speech in the 16th century as similar to the French ironie. It derives from the Latin ironia and ultimately from the Greek εἰρωνεία eirōneía, meaning dissimulation, Romantic irony, A self-aware and self-critical form of fiction. Cosmic irony, A contrast between the absolute and the relative, the general and the individual, which Hegel expressed by the phrase, when the audience knows that the character will die before morning. It is most often used when the author causes a character to speak or act erroneously, in tragic irony, the audience knows the character is making a mistake, even as the character is making it. Verbal irony is distinguished from situational irony and dramatic irony in that it is produced intentionally by speakers, for instance, if a man exclaims, Im not upset. But reveals an upset emotional state through his voice while truly trying to claim hes not upset, but if the same speaker said the same words and intended to communicate that he was upset by claiming he was not, the utterance would be verbal irony. This distinction illustrates an important aspect of verbal irony—speakers communicate implied propositions that are contradictory to the propositions contained in the words themselves. Were left in no doubt as to whos ambitious and whos honourable, the literal truth of whats written clashes with the perceived truth of whats meant to revealing effect, which is irony in a nutshell. Ironic similes are a form of verbal irony where a speaker intends to communicate the opposite of what they mean, a fair amount of confusion has surrounded the issue of the relationship between verbal irony and sarcasm. Fowlers A Dictionary of Modern English Usage states, Sarcasm does not necessarily involve irony and irony has often no touch of sarcasm and this suggests that the two concepts are linked but may be considered separately. 2 a, a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, the psychologist Martin, in The Psychology of Humour, is quite clear that irony is where the literal meaning is opposite to the intended and sarcasm is aggressive humor that pokes fun
20.
Urban legend
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These legends can be used for entertainment purposes, as well as for semi-serious explanations for random events such as disappearances and strange objects. Despite its name, an urban legend does not necessarily originate in an urban area, rather, the term is used to differentiate modern legend from traditional folklore of pre-industrial times. For this reason, sociologists and folklorists prefer the contemporary legend. Because people frequently allege that such tales happened to a friend of a friend, Urban legends are spread by any media, including newspapers, e-mail and social media. In America in 1938 a radio dramatization of The War of the Worlds supposedly caused mass panic, in 2005, a widespread legend claimed that a large percentage of people have a biological father who is not their assumed father. Some urban legends have passed through the years only minor changes to suit regional variations. More recent legends tend to reflect modern circumstances, like the story of people ambushed and anesthetized, who awaken minus one kidney, the term urban legend, as used by folklorists, has appeared in print since at least 1968. Jan Harold Brunvand, professor of English at the University of Utah, many urban legends are framed as complete stories with plot and characters. The compelling appeal of an urban legend is its elements of mystery, horror. Often they serve as cautionary tales, some urban legends are morality tales that depict someone, usually a child, acting in a disagreeable manner, only to wind up in trouble, hurt, or dead. As Jan Brunvand points out antecedent legends including some of the motifs, themes, the teller of an urban legend may claim it happened to a friend, which serves to personalize, authenticate and enhance the power of the narrative while distancing the teller. Many urban legends depict horrific crimes, contaminated foods, or other situations which would affect many people. Anyone believing such stories might feel compelled to warn loved ones, not seldom, news organizations, school officials and even police departments have issued warnings concerning the latest threat. A fax received at the Nassau County, Florida fire department was forwarded to police, even the Minister of Defence for Canada was taken in by the same legend, he forwarded an urgent security warning to all Ontario Members of Parliament. Many urban legends are essentially extended jokes, told as if they were true events, persistent urban legends often maintain a degree of plausibility, for instance a serial killer deliberately hiding in the back seat of a car. One such example since the 1970s has been the rumor that the Procter & Gamble Company was associated with Satan-worshippers because of details within its nineteenth-century trademark. The legend interrupted the companys business to the point that it stopped using the trademark, the coinage leads in turn to the terms FOAFlore and FOAFtale. Here the authors make a connection between urban legends and popular folklore, such as Grimms Fairy Tales where similar themes and motifs arise
21.
Hagiography
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A hagiography /ˌhæɡiˈɒɡrəfi/ is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader. The term hagiography may be used to refer to the biography of a saint or highly developed spiritual being in any of the spiritual traditions. Hagiographic works, especially those of the Middle Ages, can incorporate a record of institutional and local history, and evidence of popular cults, customs, and traditions. Hagiography constituted an important literary genre in the early Christian church, providing some informational history along with the inspirational stories. A hagiographic account of a saint can consist of a biography, a description of the saints deeds and/or miracles. The genre of lives of the saints first came into being in the Roman Empire as legends about Christian martyrs were recorded, the dates of their deaths formed the basis of martyrologies. In Western Europe hagiography was one of the important vehicles for the study of inspirational history during the Middle Ages. The Golden Legend of Jacob de Voragine compiled a great deal of medieval hagiographic material, Lives were often written to promote the cult of local or national states, and in particular to develop pilgrimages to visit relics. The bronze Gniezno Doors of Gniezno Cathedral in Poland are the only Romanesque doors in Europe to feature the life of a saint. The life of Saint Adalbert of Prague, who is buried in the cathedral, is shown in 18 scenes, the Bollandist Society continues the study, academic assembly, appraisal and publication of materials relating to the lives of Christian saints. Many of the important hagiographical texts composed in medieval England were written in the vernacular dialect Anglo-Norman, with the introduction of Latin literature into England in the 7th and 8th centuries the genre of the life of the saint grew increasingly popular. When one contrasts it to the heroic poem, such as Beowulf. Both genres then focus on the figure, but with the distinction that the saint is of a spiritual sort. Imitation of the life of Christ was then the benchmark against which saints were measured, in Anglo-Saxon and medieval England, hagiography became a literary genre par excellence for the teaching of a largely illiterate audience. Hagiography provided priests and theologians with classical handbooks in a form that allowed them the tools necessary to present their faith through the example of the saints lives. Of all the English hagiographers no one was more prolific nor so aware of the importance of the genre as Abbot Ælfric of Eynsham and his work The Lives of the Saints comprises a set of sermons on saints days, formerly observed by the English Church. The text spans the entire year and describes the lives of many saints, there are two known instances where saints lives were adapted into vernacular plays in Britain. These are the Cornish-language works Beunans Meriasek and Beunans Ke, about the lives of Saints Meriasek and Kea, Irish hagiographers wrote primarily in Latin while some of the later saints lives were written in the hagiographers native vernacular Irish
22.
Supernatural
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One complicating factor is that there is disagreement about the definition of natural and the limits of naturalism. Concepts in the domain are closely related to concepts in religious spirituality. Sometimes we understand by nature the established course of things, as when we say that nature makes the night succeed the day, nature hath made respiration necessary to the life of men. Sometimes we take nature for the universe, or system of the works of God, as when it is said of a phoenix, or a chimera. And sometimes too, and that most commonly, we would express by nature a semi-deity or other kind of being. Parapsychologists use the term psi to refer to a unitary force underlying the phenomena they study. Views on the supernatural vary, for example it may be seen as, from this perspective, some events occur according to the laws of nature, and others occur according to a separate set of principles external to known nature. For example, in Scholasticism, it was believed that God was capable of performing any miracle so long as it didnt lead to a logical contradiction, others believe that all events have natural and only natural causes. They believe that human beings ascribe supernatural attributes to purely natural events, such as lightning, rainbows, floods, the supernatural is a feature of the philosophical traditions of Neoplatonism and Scholasticism. In contrast, the philosophy of Metaphysical naturalism argues for the conclusion that there are no supernatural entities, objects, most religions include elements of belief in the supernatural while also often featuring prominently in the study of the paranormal and occultism. Process theology is a school of thought influenced by the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. It is not possible, in process metaphysics, to conceive divine activity as an intervention into the “natural” order of events. Process theists usually regard the distinction between the supernatural and the natural as a by-product of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, in process thought, there is no such thing as a realm of the natural in contrast to that which is supernatural. On the other hand, if “the natural” is defined more neutrally as “what is in the nature of things, in Whiteheads words, “It lies in the nature of things that the many enter into complex unity”. It is tempting to emphasize process theisms denial of the supernatural, dreams as a Source of Supernatural Agent Concepts. Riekki T, Lindeman M, Raij T. T, Supernatural Believers Attribute More Intentions to Random Movement than Skeptics, An fMRI Study. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Purzycki Benjamin G, the Minds of Gods, A Comparative Study of Supernatural Agency. Unresolved Mourning, Supernatural Beliefs and Dissociation, A Mediation Analysis, vail K. E, Arndt J, Addollahi A
23.
Messina
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Messina is the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is located near the northeast corner of Sicily, at the Strait of Messina, opposite Villa San Giovanni on the mainland, according to Eurostat the FUA of the metropolitan area of Messina has, in 2014,277,584 inhabitants. The citys main resources are its seaports, cruise tourism, commerce, the city has been a Roman Catholic Archdiocese and Archimandrite seat since 1548 and is home to a locally important international fair. The city has the University of Messina, founded in 1548 by Ignatius of Loyola, Messina has a light rail system, Tranvia di Messina, that was opened on 3 April 2003. This line is 7.7 kilometres and links the central railway station with the city centre. The city is home to a significant Greek-speaking minority, rooted in its history, founded by Greek colonists in the 8th century BC, Messina was originally called Zancle, from the Greek ζάγκλον meaning scythe because of the shape of its natural harbour. A comune of its Metropolitan City, located at the entrance of the Strait of Messina, is to this day called Scaletta Zanclea. In the early 5th century BC, Anaxilas of Rhegium renamed it Messene in honour of the Greek city Messene, the city was sacked in 397 BC by the Carthaginians and then reconquered by Dionysius I of Syracuse. In 288 BC the Mamertines seized the city by treachery, killing all the men, the city became a base from which they ravaged the countryside, leading to a conflict with the expanding regional empire of Syracuse. Hiero II, tyrant of Syracuse, defeated the Mamertines near Mylae on the Longanus River, carthage assisted the Mamertines because of a long-standing conflict with Syracuse over dominance in Sicily. When Hiero attacked a second time in 264 BC, the Mamertines petitioned the Roman Republic for an alliance, although initially reluctant to assist lest it encourage other mercenary groups to mutiny, Rome was unwilling to see Carthaginian power spread further over Sicily and encroach on Italy. Rome therefore entered into an alliance with the Mamertines, in 264 BC, Roman troops were deployed to Sicily, the first time a Roman army acted outside the Italian Peninsula. At the end of the First Punic War it was a city allied with Rome. In Roman times Messina, then known as Messana, had an important pharos, Messana was the base of Sextus Pompeius, during his war against Octavian. In 1548 St. Ignatius founded there the first Jesuit college in the world, the Christian ships that won the Battle of Lepanto left from Messina, the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, who took part in the battle, recovered for some time in the Grand Hospital. The city reached the peak of its splendour in the early 17th century, under Spanish domination, in 1674 the city rebelled against the foreign garrison. A massive fortress was built by the occupants and Messina decayed steadily, in 1743,48,000 died of plague in the city. In 1783, an earthquake devastated much of the city, and it took decades to rebuild, in 1847 it was one of the first cities in Italy where Risorgimento riots broke out
24.
Genevieve of Brabant
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Genevieve of Brabant is a heroine of medieval legend. Her story is an example of the widespread tale of the chaste wife falsely accused and repudiated. Genovefa of Brabant was said to be the wife of the palatine Siegfried of Treves, sentenced to death, she was spared by the executioner and lived for six years with her son in a cave in the Ardennes nourished by a roe. Siegfried, who had found out Golos treachery, was chasing the roe when he discovered her hiding-place. Her story is said to rest on the history of Marie of Brabant, wife of Louis II, Duke of Bavaria, Marie of Brabant was suspected of infidelity and subsequently tried by her husband, found guilty and beheaded on 18 January 1256. When the verdict was shown to be mistaken, Louis had to do penance for the beheading, the change in name from Marie to Genevieve may be traced back to a cult of St Genevieve, patroness of Paris. Genovefas history may be compared to the Scandinavian ballads of Ravengaard og Memering and these deal with the history of Gunild, the wife of Henry Duke of Brunswick and Schleswig. When Duke Henry went to the war he left his wife in charge of Ravengaard, Gunild is cleared by the victory of her champion Memering, the smallest of Christian men. The Scottish ballad of Sir Aldingar is a version of the same story, the heroine Gunhilda is said to have been the daughter of Canute the Great and Emma. In 1036 she married King Henry, afterwards the emperor Henry III, and there was nothing in her history to warrant the legend. She was called Cunigund after her marriage, and perhaps was confused with St Cunigund, in the Karlamagnus-saga the innocent wife is Oliva, sister of Charlemagne and wife of King Hugo, and in the French Carolingian cycle the emperors wife Sibille or Blanchefleur. In Marcel Prousts In Search of Lost Time, the narrator remembers a magic lantern he had in his room, in Combray, that showed the image of Golo riding his horse towards Genevieves castle. In Chapter II of Volume One of his Reminiscences, Carl Schurz recalls the play of “Die Schöne Genovefa” which he used to see performed in his youth. Its plot is an adaptation of the tale of Genevieve of Brabant, german poet Maler Müllers tale Golo und Genoveva is an adaptation of Genevieve of Brabants tale. See F. J. Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, vol. ii. 1886), Sir Aldingar, S. Grundtvig, Danske Kaempeviser, “Sir Triamore, ” in Bishop Percys Folio MS. ed. Hales and Furnivall, vol. ii. The Romance of Octavian, ed. E. M. Goldsmid, The Erl of Toulous, seuffert, Die Legende von der Pfalzgräfin Genovefa, B. Golz, Pfalzgräfin Genovefa in der deutschen Dichtung, R. Köhler, Die deutschen Volksbücher von der Pfalzgräfin Genovefa, in Zeitschr
25.
Trier
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Trier, formerly known in English as Treves, is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. Trier lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the west of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, near the border with Luxembourg and within the important Moselle wine region. Founded by the Celts in the late-4th century BC as Treuorum, it was conquered by the Romans in the late-1st century BC. Trier may be the oldest city in Germany and it is also the oldest seat of a bishop north of the Alps. In the Middle Ages, the Archbishop-Elector of Trier was an important prince of the church, the Archbishop-Elector also had great significance as one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Empire. With an approximate population of 105,000, Trier is the fourth-largest city in its state, after Mainz, Ludwigshafen, the nearest major cities are Luxembourg, Saarbrücken, and Koblenz. It is one of the five places of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. A medieval inscription on the façade of the Red House in Trier market stated, trebetas parents were said to have been Ninus, a legendary King of Assyria invented by the ancient Greeks, and an unknown mother who was Ninuss wife before Semiramis. Semiramis took control of the kingdom upon his fathers death and Trebeta was forced into exile and his body was said to have been cremated on Petrisberg. The historical record describes the Roman Empire subduing the Treveri in the 1st century BC, the name distinguished it from the empires many other cities honoring the first emperor Augustus. The city later became the capital of the province of Belgic Gaul, after the Diocletian Reforms, it became the capital of the prefecture of the Gauls, overseeing much of the Western Roman Empire. In the 4th century, Trier was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire with a population around 75,000, the Porta Nigra dates from this era. A residence of the Western Roman Emperor, Roman Trier was the birthplace of Saint Ambrose, sometime between 395 and 418, probably in 407 the Roman administration moved the staff of the Praetorian Prefecture about 2000 from the city to Arles. The city continued to be inhabited but was not as prosperous as before, northern Gaul was held by the Romans along a line from north of Cologne to the coast at Boulogne through what is today southern Belgium until 460. South of this line, Roman control was firm, as evidenced by the operation of the imperial arms factory at Amiens. The Franks seized Trier from Roman administration in 459, in 870, it became part of Eastern Francia, which developed into the Holy Roman Empire. Relics of Saint Matthias brought to the city initiated widespread pilgrimages, the bishops of the city grew increasingly powerful and the Archbishopric of Trier was recognized as an electorate of the empire, one of the most powerful states of Germany. The University of Trier was founded in the city in 1473, in the 17th century, the Archbishops and Prince-Electors of Trier relocated their residences to Philippsburg Castle in Ehrenbreitstein, near Koblenz
26.
Mythology
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Mythology refers variously to the collected myths of a group of people or to the study of such myths. Myths are the people tell to explain nature, history. Myth is a feature of every culture, mythologizing continues, as shown in contemporary mythopoeia such as urban legends and the expansive fictional mythoi created by fantasy novels and comics. A cultures collective mythology helps convey belonging, shared and religious experiences, behavioral models, the study of myth began in ancient history. Rival classes of the Greek myths by Euhemerus, Plato and Sallustius were developed by the Neoplatonists, the nineteenth-century comparative mythology reinterpreted myth as a primitive and failed counterpart of science, a disease of language, or a misinterpretation of magical ritual. Recent approaches often view myths as manifestations of psychological, cultural, or societal truths, the term mythology predates the word myth by centuries. It first appeared in the fifteenth-century, borrowed from the Middle French term mythologie, the word mythology, comes from Middle French mythologie, from Late Latin mythologia, from Greek μυθολογία mythología from μῦθος mythos and -λογία -logia. The word mythología appears in Plato, but was used as a term for fiction or story-telling of any kind, combining mỹthos. From Lydgate until the seventeenth or eighteenth-century, mythology was similarly used to mean a moral, fable, from its earliest use in reference to a collection of traditional stories or beliefs, mythology implied the falsehood of the stories being described. It came to be applied by analogy with similar bodies of traditional stories among other cultures around the world. The Greek loanword mythos and Latinate mythus both appeared in English before the first example of myth in 1830, in present use, mythology usually refers to the collected myths of a group of people, but may also mean the study of such myths. For example, Greek mythology, Roman mythology and Hittite mythology all describe the body of myths retold among those cultures, dundes defined myth as a sacred narrative that explains how the world and humanity evolved into their present form. Lincoln defined myth as ideology in narrative form, scholars in other fields use the term myth in varied ways. In a broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story, due to this pejorative sense, some scholars opted for the term mythos. Its use was similarly pejorative and now commonly refers to its Aristotelian sense as a plot point or to a collective mythology. The term is distinguished from didactic literature such as fables. Main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods or supernatural humans, however, many exceptions or combinations exist, as in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid. Myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and are linked to religion or spirituality
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
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Written while Irving was living abroad in Birmingham, England, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was first published in 1820. A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, the story is set in 1790 in the countryside around the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow is renowned for its ghosts and the atmosphere that pervades the imaginations of its inhabitants. Some residents say this town was bewitched during the days of the Dutch settlement. Other residents say an old Native American chief, the wizard of his tribe, Crane, a Yankee and an outsider, sees marriage to Katrina as a means of procuring Van Tassels extravagant wealth. Bones, the hero, vies with Ichabod for Katrinas hand, playing a series of pranks on the jittery schoolmaster. The tension between the three is soon brought to a head, on a placid autumn night, the ambitious Crane attends a harvest party at the Van Tassels homestead. He dances, partakes in the feast, and listens to ghostly legends told by Brom and the locals, after having failed to secure Katrinas hand, Ichabod rides home heavy-hearted and crestfallen through the woods between Van Tassels farmstead and the Sleepy Hollow settlement. As he passes several purportedly haunted spots, his imagination is engorged by the ghost stories told at Baltus harvest party. After nervously passing under a lightning-stricken tulip tree purportedly haunted by the ghost of British spy Major André, unsettled by his fellow travelers eerie size and silence, the teacher is horrified to discover that his companions head is not on his shoulders, but on his saddle. However, to Cranes horror, the ghoul clambers over the bridge, rears his horse, the next morning, Ichabod has mysteriously disappeared from town, leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones, who was said to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related. Indeed, the relics of the schoolmasters flight are his wandering horse, trampled saddle, discarded hat. Although the nature of the Headless Horseman is left open to interpretation, Irving wrote The Sketch Book during a tour of Europe, and parts of the tale may also be traced to European origins. Usually viewed as omens of ill-fortune for those who chose to disregard their apparitions, one particularly influential rendition of this folktale was recorded by the German folklorist Karl Musäus. During the height of the American Revolutionary War, Irving writes that the country surrounding Tarry Town was one of those places which abound with chronicle. The British and American line had run near it during the war, it had, therefore, been the scene of marauding, and infested with refugees, cow-boys, and all kinds of border chivalry. After the Battle of White Plains in October 1776, the south of the Bronx River was abandoned by the Continental Army. The Americans were fortified north of Peekskill, leaving Westchester County a 30-mile stretch of scorched and desolated no-mans land, vulnerable to outlaws, raiders, besides droves of Loyalist rangers and British light infantry, Hessian Jägers—renowned sharpshooters and horsemen—were among the raiders who often skirmished with Patriot militias
28.
Washington Irving
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Washington Irving was an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving served as the U. S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846. He made his debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle. After moving to England for the business in 1815, he achieved international fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. He continued to publish regularly—and almost always successfully—throughout his life, and just eight months before his death, Irving was also admired by some European writers, including Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Thomas Campbell, Francis Jeffrey, and Charles Dickens. Washington Irvings parents were William Irving, Sr. originally of Quholm, Shapinsay, Orkney and they married in 1761 while William was serving as a petty officer in the British Navy. They had eleven children, eight of whom survived to adulthood and their first two sons, each named William, died in infancy, as did their fourth child, John. Their surviving children were, William, Jr. Ann, Peter, Catherine, Ebenezer, John Treat, Sarah, and Washington. At age six, with the help of a nanny, Irving met his namesake, the president blessed young Irving, an encounter Irving later commemorated in a small watercolor painting, which still hangs in his home today. The Irvings lived at 131 William Street at the time of Washington Irvings birth, the family later moved across the street to 128 William St. An uninterested student, Irving preferred adventure stories and drama and and it was in Tarrytown that Irving became familiar with the nearby town of Sleepy Hollow, with its quaint Dutch customs and local ghost stories. Irving made several trips up the Hudson as a teenager, including an extended visit to Johnstown, New York, where he passed through the Catskill mountain region. F all the scenery of the Hudson, Irving wrote later, the 19-year-old Irving began writing letters to the New York Morning Chronicle in 1802, submitting commentaries on the citys social and theater scene under the name of Jonathan Oldstyle. The name, which evoked the writers Federalist leanings, was the first of many pseudonyms Irving would employ throughout his career. The letters brought Irving some early fame and moderate notoriety, concerned for his health, Irvings brothers financed an extended tour of Europe from 1804 to 1806. Irving bypassed most of the sites and locations considered essential for the development of an upwardly mobile young man, William wrote that, though he was pleased his brothers health was improving, he did not like the choice to gallop through Italy. Leaving Florence on your left and Venice on your right, instead, Irving honed the social and conversational skills that would later make him one of the worlds most in-demand guests. I endeavor to take things as they come with cheerfulness, Irving wrote, while visiting Rome in 1805, Irving struck up a friendship with the American painter Washington Allston, and nearly allowed himself to be persuaded into following Allston into a career as a painter
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Gothic fiction
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Gothic fiction, which is largely known by the subgenre of Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, the effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpoles novel. It originated in England in the half of the 18th century and had much success in the 19th, as witnessed by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Another well known novel in this genre, dating from the late Victorian era, is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the name Gothic refers to the -medieval buildings, emulating Gothic architecture, in which many of these stories take place. This extreme form of romanticism was very popular in England and Germany, the English Gothic novel also led to new novel types such as the German Schauerroman and the French Georgia. The novel usually regarded as the first Gothic novel is Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpoles declared aim was to combine elements of the medieval romance, which he deemed too fanciful, and the modern novel, which he considered to be too confined to strict realism. Walpole published the first edition disguised as a romance from Italy discovered and republished by a fictitious translator. When Walpole admitted to his authorship in the edition, its originally favourable reception by literary reviewers changed into rejection. A romance with elements, and moreover void of didactical intention, was considered a setback. Walpoles forgery, together with the blend of history and fiction, contravened the principles of the Enlightenment and associated the Gothic novel with fake documentation. Clara Reeve, best known for her work The Old English Baron, set out to take Walpoles plot, the question now arose whether supernatural events that were not as evidently absurd as Walpoles would not lead the simpler minds to believe them possible. Ann Radcliffe developed the technique of the supernatural in which every seemingly supernatural intrusion is eventually traced back to natural causes. Among other elements, Ann Radcliffe introduced the figure of the Gothic villain. Radcliffes novels, above all The Mysteries of Udolpho, were best-sellers, however, along with most novels at the time, they were looked down upon by many well-educated people as sensationalist nonsense. Radcliffe also provided an aesthetic for the genre in an influential article On the Supernatural in Poetry, Romantic literary movements developed in continental Europe concurrent with the development of the Gothic novel. The roman noir appeared in France, by writers as François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil, Baculard dArnaud. In Germany, the Schauerroman gained traction with writers as Friedrich Schiller, with novels like The Ghost-Seer and these works were often more horrific and violent than the English Gothic novel. Matthew Gregory Lewiss lurid tale of debauchery, black magic
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Fable
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A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind. Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished, a person who writes fables is a fabulist. The fable is one of the most enduring forms of literature, spread abroad, modern researchers agree. Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country, epicharmus of Kos and Phormis are reported as having been among the first to invent comic fables. Many familiar fables of Aesop include The Crow and the Pitcher, The Tortoise and the Hare and The Lion and the Mouse. The need of instructors to teach, and students to learn, African oral culture has a rich story-telling tradition. As they have for thousands of years, people of all ages in Africa continue to interact with nature, including plants, animals and earthly structures such as rivers, grandparents enjoy enormous respect in African societies and fill the new role of story-telling during retirement years. Children and, to some extent, adults are mesmerized by good story-tellers when they become animated in their quest to tell a good fable, India has a rich tradition of fabulous novels, mostly explainable by the fact that the culture derives traditions and learns qualities from natural elements. Most of the gods are some form of animals with ideal qualities, also hundreds of fables were composed in ancient India during the first millennium BC, often as stories within frame stories. Indian fables have a mixed cast of humans and animals, the dialogues are often longer than in fables of Aesop and often witty as the animals try to outwit one another by trickery and deceit. In Indian fables, man is not superior to the animals, the Indian fable adhered to the universally known traditions of the fable. The best examples of the fable in India are the Panchatantra, ben E. Perry has argued controversially that some of the Buddhist Jataka tales and some of the fables in the Panchatantra may have been influenced by similar Greek and Near Eastern ones. Earlier Indian epics such as Vyasas Mahabharata and Valmikis Ramayana also contained fables within the main story, the most famous fables from the Middle East were the One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Nights. Fables had a long tradition through the Middle Ages. During the 17th century, the French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine saw the soul of the fable in the moral — a rule of behavior. Starting with the Aesopian pattern, La Fontaine set out to satirize the court, the church, in modern times, while the fable has been trivialized in childrens books, it has also been fully adapted to modern adult literature. Felix Saltens Bambi is a Bildungsroman — a story of a protagonists coming-of-age — cast in the form of a fable, władysław Reymonts The Revolt, a metaphor for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, described a revolt by animals that take over their farm in order to introduce equality. George Orwells Animal Farm similarly satirized Stalinist Communism in particular, and totalitarianism in general, in the guise of animal fable
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Talking animal
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A talking animal or speaking animal is any non-human animal that can produce sounds or gestures resembling those of a human language. e. Researchers have been successful in teaching some animals to make similar to sign language. However, these fail to reach one or more of the criteria accepted as defining language. The term refers to animals which can imitate human speech, parrots, for example, repeat things nonsensically through exposure. It is an anthropomorphism to call this human speech, as it has no semantic grounding, clever Hans was a horse that was claimed to have been able to perform arithmetic and other intellectual tasks. After formal investigation in 1907, psychologist Oskar Pfungst demonstrated that the horse was not actually performing these mental tasks, but was watching the reaction of his human observers. The horse was responding to cues in the body language of his trainer or other people who asked the horse questions. A formal language requires a communication with a syntax as well as semantics and it is not sufficient for one to communicate information or even use symbols to communicate ideas. Researchers have attempted to teach great apes spoken language with poor results, however, even the best communicating great ape has shown an inability to grasp the idea of syntax and grammar, instead communicating at best at the same level as a pidgin language in humans. They are expressive and communicative, but lack the formality that remains unique to human speech, the statement that syntax is the key difference between human and animal language is dubious. Research done by Dr. Irene Pepperberg indicates that parrots are capable of speaking in context, one of Pepperbergs parrots, Alex, an African grey parrot, demonstrated the ability to assemble words out of letters. An owner hears a dog making a sound that resembles a phrase says the phrase back to the dog, eventually the dog learns a modified version of the original sound. Dogs have limited vocal skills, so these sounds usually need to be shaped by selective attention. A dog on Americas Funniest Home Videos named Fluffy, made noises that to some viewers resembled I want my momma after being asked Do you want your momma. Other videos showed other dogs making noises which to some viewers resembling Run around, I want it, I love momma, odie, a pug who produced noises resembling I love you on demand, made appearances on several television shows. Paranormal researcher Charles Fort wrote in his book Wild Talents of several alleged cases of dogs that could speak English, Fort took the stories from contemporary newspaper accounts. A husky which produces vocalisations that to some viewers sound like no has appeared in the Daily Mail, the Mirror and the Huffington Post, amongst others. Footage of this cat, nicknamed Oh Long Johnson from one of the spoken, was featured on Americas Funniest Home Videos in 1998
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Aesop
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Aesop was a Greek fabulist and story teller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesops Fables. Many of the tales are characterized by animals and inanimate objects that speak, solve problems, scattered details of Aesops life can be found in ancient sources, including Aristotle, Herodotus, and Plutarch. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope, depictions of Aesop in popular culture over the last 2500 years have included many works of art and his appearance as a character in numerous books, films, plays, and television programs. The name of Aesop is as known as any that has come down from Graeco-Roman antiquity it is far from certain whether a historical Aesop ever existed. In the latter part of the fifth century something like a coherent Aesop legend appears, the earliest Greek sources, including Aristotle, indicate that Aesop was born around 620 BCE in Thrace at a site on the Black Sea coast which would later become the city Mesembria. A number of writers from the Roman imperial period say that he was born in Phrygia. The 3rd-century poet Callimachus called him Aesop of Sardis, and the later writer Maximus of Tyre called him the sage of Lydia. Before this fatal episode, Aesop met with Periander of Corinth, where Plutarch has him dining with the Seven Sages of Greece, sitting beside his friend Solon, whom he had met in Sardis. Like The Alexander Romance, The Aesop Romance became a folkbook, a work that belonged to no one, multiple, sometimes contradictory, versions of this work exist. Scholars long dismissed any historical or biographical validity in The Aesop Romance, in The Aesop Romance, Aesop is a slave of Phrygian origin on the island of Samos, and extremely ugly. After interpreting a portent for the people of Samos, Aesop is given his freedom, later he travels to the courts of Lycurgus of Babylon and Nectanabo of Egypt – both imaginary rulers – in a section that appears to borrow heavily from the romance of Ahiqar. The story ends with Aesops journey to Delphi, where he angers the citizens by telling insulting fables, is sentenced to death and, Aesop may not have written his fables. Scholars speculate that there existed in the fifth century a written book containing various fables of Aesop. Sophocles in a poem addressed to Euripides made reference to Aesops fable of the North Wind, Socrates while in prison turned some of the fables into verse, of which Diogenes Laertius records a small fragment. The early Roman playwright and poet Ennius also rendered at least one of Aesops fables in Latin verse, the body of work identified as Aesops Fables was transmitted by a series of authors writing in both Greek and Latin. Demetrius of Phalerum made a collection in ten books, probably in prose for the use of orators, next appeared an edition in elegiac verse, cited by the Suda, but the authors name is unknown. Phaedrus, a freedman of Augustus, rendered the fables into Latin in the 1st century CE, at about the same time Babrius turned the fables into Greek choliambics. A 3rd-century author, Titianus, is said to have rendered the fables into prose in a now lost
33.
Parable of the Prodigal Son
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The Parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the parables of Jesus and appears in Luke 15, 11–32. Jesus Christ shares it with his disciples, the Pharisees and others, in the story, a father has two sons. The younger son asks for his inheritance and after wasting his fortune and he returns home with the intention of begging his father to be made one of his hired servants, expecting his relationship with his father is likely severed. The father welcomes him back and celebrates his return, the older son refuses to participate. The father reminds the older son that one day he will inherit everything, but, they should still celebrate the return of the younger son because he was lost and is now found. It is the third and final part of a cycle on redemption, following the Parable of the Lost Sheep, in the Eastern Orthodox Church it is read on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. The parable begins with a man, the younger of two sons, who asks his father to give him his share of the estate. The implication is the son could not wait for his fathers death for his inheritance, the father agrees and divides his estate between both sons. Upon receiving his portion of the inheritance, the younger son travels to a distant country, immediately thereafter, a famine strikes the land, he becomes desperately poor and is forced to take work as a swineherd. When he reaches the point of envying the food of the pigs he is watching, he comes to his senses. The older son, who was at work in the fields, hears the sound of celebration and he is not impressed, and becomes angry. The fathers joy described in the parable reflects divine love, the mercy of God. The request of the son for his share of the inheritance is brash. His actions do not lead to success, and he becomes an indentured servant, with the degrading job of looking after pigs. The mention of the longing to eat with the swine in Luke 15,16 could refer to how the Pharisees viewed the sinners in Luke 15,2. The Pharisees, caught up in their ideas of ritual cleanliness, on the sons return, the father treats him with a generosity far more than he has a right to expect. Some have suggested that this mirrors what Christians should do after sinning, feel contrition and return to their Heavenly Father, the older son, in contrast, seems to think in terms of law, merit, and reward, rather than love and graciousness. He may represent the Pharisees who were criticizing Jesus, emphasizing that God the Father is rich in mercy and always ready to forgive, he stated that reconciliation is a gift on his part
