1.
Longhouse
–
A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building built by peoples in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from timber and often represent the earliest form of permanent structure in many cultures, the Neolithic long house type was introduced with the first farmers of central and western Europe around 5000 BCE—7000 years ago. These were farming settlements built in groups of six to twelve and were home to large extended families. The longhouse is a way of shelter. Located along a slope, a single passage gives access to human and animal shelter under a single roof. The old Frisian Langhuis that developed into the Frisian farmhouse which probably influenced the development of the Gulf house, with these house types the wooden posts originally rammed into the ground were replaced by posts supported on a base. The large and well-supported attic enabled large quantities of hay or grain to be stored in dry conditions and this development may have been driven because the weather became wetter over time. Good examples of houses have been preserved, some dating back to the 16th century. The longhouse was 50 to 60 feet long, the longhouse had a 3 metres -wide central aisle and 2 metres -wide compartments, about 6 to 7 metres long, down each side. The end compartments were used for storage. Hearths were spaced about 6 to 7 metres apart down the aisle and it is possible to infer the population of an Iroquois town from the size and number of longhouses it contained. In South America, the Tucano people of Colombia and northwest Brazil traditionally combine a household in a long house. The Xingu peoples of central Brazil build a series of longhouses in circular formations forming round villages, the ancient Tupi people of Brazilian Coast used to do this as well. The Yanomami people of Brazil and Venezuela build a hut with a thatched roof that has a hole in the middle, called shabono. In Daepyeong, a site of the Mumun pottery period in Korea. Their layout seems to be similar to those of the Iroquois, in these, several fireplaces were arranged along the longitudinal axis of the building. Later, the ancient Koreans started raising their buildings on stilts, so that the inner partitions, the size of the buildings and their placement within the settlements may point to buildings for the nobles of their society or some sort of community or religious buildings. In Igeum-dong, a site in South Korea, the large longhouses,29 and 26 meters long, are situated between the megalithic cemetery and the rest of the settlement
2.
Scandinavia
–
Scandinavia /ˌskændᵻˈneɪviə/ is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe characterized by a common ethnocultural North Germanic heritage and mutually intelligible North Germanic languages. The term Scandinavia always includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are usually not seen as a part of Scandinavia, nor is Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark. This looser definition almost equates to that of the Nordic countries, in Nordic languages, only Denmark, Norway and Sweden are commonly included in the definition of Scandinavia. In English usage, Scandinavia sometimes refers to the geographical area, the name Scandinavia originally referred vaguely to the formerly Danish, now Swedish, region Scania. Icelanders and the Faroese are to a significant extent descended from the Norse, Finland is mainly populated by Finns, with a minority of approximately 5% of Swedish speakers. A small minority of Sami people live in the north of Scandinavia. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish languages form a continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages—all of which are considered mutually intelligible with one another. Faroese and Icelandic, sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages, are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages only to a limited extent, Finnish and Meänkieli are closely related to each other and more distantly to the Sami languages, but are entirely unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Apart from these, German, Yiddish and Romani are recognized minority languages in Scandinavia, the southern and by far most populous regions of Scandinavia have a temperate climate. Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle, but has mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream. Much of the Scandinavian mountains have a tundra climate. There are many lakes and moraines, legacies of the last glacial period, Scandinavia usually refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Some sources argue for the inclusion of the Faroe Islands, Finland and Iceland, though that broader region is known by the countries concerned as Norden. Before this time, the term Scandinavia was familiar mainly to classical scholars through Pliny the Elders writings, and was used vaguely for Scania, as a political term, Scandinavia was first used by students agitating for Pan-Scandinavianism in the 1830s. After a visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism, the term is often defined according to the conventions of the cultures that lay claim to the term in their own use. More precisely, and subject to no dispute, is that Finland is included in the broader term Nordic countries, various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries in the United States serve to promote market and tourism interests in the region. The official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, Norways government entered one year later. All five Nordic governments participate in the joint promotional efforts in the United States through the Scandinavian Tourist Board of North America, Scandinavia can thus be considered a subset of the Nordic countries
3.
Mead
–
Mead is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alcoholic content ranges from about 8% ABV to more than 20%, the defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the beverages fermentable sugar is derived from honey. It may be still, carbonated, or naturally sparkling, dry, semi-sweet, Mead was produced in ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. Mead has played an important role in the beliefs and mythology of some peoples, one such example is the Mead of Poetry, a mead of Norse mythology crafted from the blood of the wise being Kvasir which turns the drinker into a poet or scholar. The terms mead and honey-wine often are used synonymously, some cultures, though, differentiate honey-wine from mead. For example, Hungarians hold that while mead is made of honey, water and beer-yeast, pottery vessels dating from 6500–7000 BC discovered in northern China have shown chemical signatures consistent with the presence of honey, rice, and organic compounds associated with fermentation. In Europe, it is first attested in residual samples found in the ceramics of the Bell Beaker Culture. The earliest surviving description of mead is in the hymns of the Rigveda, one of the books of the historical Vedic religion. During the Golden Age of Ancient Greece, mead was said to be the preferred drink, the Hispanic-Roman naturalist Columella gave a recipe for mead in De re rustica, about 60 AD. Take rainwater kept for years, and mix a sextarius of this water with a pound of honey. For a weaker mead, mix a sextarius of water with nine ounces of honey, the whole is exposed to the sun for 40 days, and then left on a shelf near the fire. If you have no water, then boil spring water. There is a poem attributed to the Brythonic-speaking bard Taliesin, who lived around 550 AD, in the Old English epic poem Beowulf, the Danish warriors drank mead. In both Insular Celtic and Germanic cultures mead was the primary heroic drink in poetry, later, taxation and regulations governing the ingredients of alcoholic beverages led to commercial mead becoming a more obscure beverage until recently. The English word mead derives from the Old English meodu, from Proto-Germanic meduz, slavic med / miod, which means both honey and mead, and Baltic medus honey/midus mead, also derive from the same Proto-Indo-European root. In Finland, a mead called sima is still an essential seasonal fermented product connected with the Finnish Vappu festival. It is usually spiced by adding both the pulp and rind of a lemon, however, the sugar used in modern practice is typically brown sugar, not honey. Ethiopian mead is called tej and is usually home-made and it is flavored with the powdered leaves and bark of gesho, a hop-like bittering agent which is a species of buckthorn
4.
Eating
–
Eating is the ingestion of food, typically to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and to allow for growth. Fungi digest organic matter outside of their bodies as opposed to animals that digest their food inside their bodies, for humans, eating is an activity of daily living. Some individuals may limit their amount of nutritional intake and this may be a result of a lifestyle choice, due to hunger or famine, as part of a diet or as religious fasting. Many homes have an eating room or outside kitchen area devoted to preparation of meals and food. Some trains have a dining car, most societies also have restaurants, food courts, and food vendors so that people may eat when away from home, when lacking time to prepare food, or as a social occasion. At their highest level of sophistication, these places become theatrical spectacles of global cosmopolitanism, at picnics, potlucks, and food festivals, eating is in fact the primary purpose of a social gathering. At many social events, food and beverages are available to attendees. Dishware, silverware, drinkware, and cookware come in an array of forms. People usually have two or three meals a day regularly, snacks of smaller amounts may be consumed between meals. Some propose not snacking, instead advocating three meals a day with four to six hours between, having three well-balanced meals will then account to some 1800–2000 kcal, which is the average requirement for a regular person. The issue of healthy eating has long been an important concern to individuals, among other practices, fasting, dieting, and vegetarianism are all techniques employed by individuals and encouraged by societies to increase longevity and health. Some religions promote vegetarianism, considering it wrong to consume animals, Eating can also be a way of making money. In jurisdictions under sharia law, it may be proscribed for Muslim adults during the hours of Ramadan. Newborn babies do not eat adult foods and they survive solely on breast milk or formula. Small amounts of pureed food are sometimes fed to infants as young as two or three months old, but most infants do not eat adult food until they are between six and eight months old. Young babies eat pureed baby foods because they have few teeth, between 8 and 12 months of age, the digestive system improves, and many babies begin eating finger foods. Their diet is limited, however, because most babies lack molars or canines at this age. By 18 months, babies often have teeth and a sufficiently mature digestive system to eat the same foods as adults
5.
Middle Ages
–
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
6.
Affinity (medieval)
–
Bastard feudalism is a somewhat controversial term invented by modern historians to characterize the form feudalism took in the Late Middle Ages, primarily in England. Its distinctive feature is the rendering by middle-ranking figures of military, political, legal, or domestic service in return for money, office, or influence. The gentry began to think of themselves as the men of their lord rather than of the king, individually they are known as retainers, the historian Charles Plummer coined the term bastard feudalism in 1885. Plummer blamed bastard feudalism for the disorder and instability of the Wars of the Roses in the fifteenth century, however, bastard feudalism as a concept is primarily associated with Plummers contemporary William Stubbs. Thus, instead of vassals rendering military service required by the lord. In turn the lord would supplement the military service with hired retainers. McFarlane presented a challenge to the ideas of Stubbs. McFarlane stripped the term bastard feudalism of any negative connotation, to him, bastard feudalism centred not the financial aspect but on the concept of service in exchange for good favour. In a society governed on a basis, service to a lord was the best way to obtain favour in the form of offices, grants. Lords would retain administrators and lawyers, as well as recruiting local gentry into their affinities, by offering money instead of land, lords could afford to retain more followers. In return for becoming retainers, the gentry would expect to rely on their lords influence in local and national politics and this practice was known as maintenance. The retainer might wear his lords livery badge or the form, a livery collar. Under a weak king, such as Henry VI, the rivalries of magnates might spill over from the courtroom to armed confrontations, since the crown and the nobility essentially had the same interests at heart, military commissioning of great magnates was not in itself disruptive to society. The civil wars of the 15th century were caused by personal factors, recent historical research has shown that payment for military service goes back much further than the reign of Edward I, further discrediting the ideas of Stubbs. As of 2014 historians consider the concept of feudalism problematic, the term is therefore used only with caution, although it is not a dead concept. Most historians today would view it as a social system that was open to abuse. Provided that a king could control the lords, bastard feudalism could provide a way of organising local society. Lacking standing armies, kings relied on noble retinues for the forces they required to conduct wars or to crush internal rebellions
7.
Portuguese language
–
Portuguese is a Romance language and the sole official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe. It also has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, and has kept some Celtic phonology. Portuguese is also termed the language of Camões, after Luís Vaz de Camões, one of the greatest literary figures in the Portuguese language and author of the Portuguese epic poem, the museum is the first of its kind in the world. In 2015 the museum was destroyed in a fire, but there are plans to reconstruct it, when the Romans arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in 216 BCE, they brought the Latin language with them, from which all Romance languages descend. Between 409 CE and 711 CE, as the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe, Portuguese evolved from the medieval language, known today by linguists as Galician-Portuguese, Old Portuguese or Old Galician, of the northwestern medieval Kingdom of Galicia. It is in Latin administrative documents of the 9th century that written Galician-Portuguese words and this phase is known as Proto-Portuguese, which lasted from the 9th century until the 12th-century independence of the County of Portugal from the Kingdom of León, by then reigning over Galicia. In the first part of the Galician-Portuguese period, the language was used for documents. For some time, it was the language of preference for poetry in Christian Hispania. Portugal became an independent kingdom in 1139, under King Afonso I of Portugal, in the second period of Old Portuguese, in the 15th and 16th centuries, with the Portuguese discoveries, the language was taken to many regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas. The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century, some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal. The end of the Old Portuguese period was marked by the publication of the Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de Resende, Most literate Portuguese speakers were also literate in Latin, and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing—and eventually speech—in Portuguese. Portuguese is the language of the majority of people in Brazil and Portugal, perhaps 75% of the population of Angola speaks Portuguese natively, and 85% are fluent. Just over 40% of the population of Mozambique are native speakers of Portuguese, Portuguese is also spoken natively by 30% of the population in Guinea-Bissau, and a Portuguese-based creole is understood by all. No data is available for Cape Verde, but almost all the population is bilingual, there are also significant Portuguese speaking immigrant communities in many countries including Andorra, Bermuda, Canada, France, Japan, Jersey, Namibia, Paraguay, Macau, Switzerland, Venezuela. In some parts of former Portuguese India, namely Goa and Daman and Diu, in 2014, an estimated 1,500 students were learning Portuguese in Goa. Equatorial Guinea made an application for full membership to the CPLP in June 2010. In 2011, Portuguese became its official language and, in July 2014. Portuguese is a subject in The school curriculum in Uruguay
8.
The Lord of the Rings
–
The Lord of the Rings is an epic high-fantasy novel written by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkiens 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling novels ever written, with over 150 million copies sold. The work was intended by Tolkien to be one volume of a two-volume set, the other to be The Silmarillion. For economic reasons The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955, the three volumes were titled The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Structurally, the novel is divided internally into six books, two per volume, with appendices of background material included at the end of the third volume. Some editions combine the work into a single volume. The Lord of the Rings has since been reprinted numerous times, Tolkiens work has been the subject of extensive analysis of its themes and origins. Although a major work in itself, the story was only the last movement of a larger epic Tolkien had worked on since 1917 and these inspirations and themes have often been denied by Tolkien himself. The Lord of the Rings has inspired, and continues to inspire, artwork, music, films and television, video games, award-winning adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made for radio, theatre, and film. In 2003, it was named Britains best-loved novel of all time in the BBCs The Big Read, Sauron was defeated by an alliance of Elves and Men led by Gil-galad and Elendil, respectively. Isildur, son of Elendil, cut the One Ring from Saurons finger, Isildur claimed the Ring as an heirloom for his line, but when he was later ambushed and killed by the Orcs, the Ring was lost in the River Anduin at Gladden Fields. Over two thousand years later, the Ring was found by one of the river-folk called Déagol and his friend Sméagol fell under the Rings influence and strangled Déagol to acquire it. Sméagol was banished and hid under the Misty Mountains, the Ring gave him long life and changed him over hundreds of years into a twisted, corrupted creature called Gollum. Gollum lost the Ring, his precious, and as told in The Hobbit, meanwhile, Sauron assumed a new form and took back his old realm of Mordor. When Gollum set out in search of the Ring, he was captured and tortured by Sauron, Sauron learned from Gollum that Baggins of the Shire had taken the Ring. Sauron, who needed the Ring to regain his power, sent forth his powerful servants. The story begins in the Shire, where the hobbit Frodo Baggins inherits the Ring from Bilbo Baggins, his cousin, neither hobbit is aware of the Rings nature, but Gandalf the Grey, a wizard and an old friend of Bilbo, suspects it to be Saurons Ring. After Gandalf confirms his suspicions, he tells Frodo the history of the Ring, Frodo leaves the Shire, in the company of his gardener and friend, Samwise Gamgee, and two cousins, Meriadoc Brandybuck, called Merry, and Peregrin Took, called Pippin
9.
Christianization of Scandinavia
–
The Christianization of Scandinavia took place between the 8th and the 12th centuries. The realms of Scandinavia proper, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, established their own Archdioceses, responsible directly to the Pope, in 1104,1154 and 1164, respectively. The conversion to Christianity of the Scandinavian people required more time, the Sami remained unconverted until the 18th century. Although the Scandinavians became nominally Christian, it took longer for actual Christian beliefs to establish themselves among the people. The old indigenous traditions that had provided security and structure were challenged by ideas that were unfamiliar, such as sin, the Incarnation. Thirteenth-century runic inscriptions from the merchant town of Bergen in Norway show little Christian influence, during the early Middle Ages the papacy had not yet manifested itself as the central Roman Catholic authority, so that regional variants of Christianity could develop. Recorded missionary efforts in Denmark started with Willibrord, Apostle to the Frisians, who preached in Schleswig and he went north from Frisia sometime between 710 and 718 during the reign of King Ongendus. Willibrord and his companions had little success, the king was respectful but had no interest in changing his beliefs, agantyr did permit 30 young men to return to Frisia with Willibrord. Perhaps Willibrords intent was to them and recruit some of them to join his efforts to bring Christianity to the Danes. A century later Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims and Willerich, later Bishop of Bremen and he returned to Denmark twice to proselytize but without any recorded success. In 826, the King of Jutland Harald Klak was forced to flee from Denmark by Horik I, Harald went to Emperor Louis I of Germany to seek help getting his lands in Jutland back. Louis I offered to make Harald Duke of Frisia if he would give up the old gods, Harald agreed, and his family and the 400 Danes with him were baptized in Ingelheim am Rhein. When Harald returned to Jutland, Emperor Louis and Ebbo of Rheims assigned the monk Ansgar to accompany Harald, when Harald Klak was forced from Denmark by King Horik I again, Ansgar left Denmark and focused his efforts on the Swedes. Ansgar traveled to Birka in 829 and established a small Christian community there and his most important convert was Herigar, described as a prefect of the town and a counselor to the king. In 831 the Archdiocese of Hamburg was founded and assigned responsibility for proselytizing Scandinavia, Horik I sacked Hamburg in 845 where Ansgar had become the archbishop. The seat of the archdiocese was transferred to Bremen, in the same year there was a pagan uprising in Birka that resulted in the martyrdom of Nithard and forced the resident missionary Bishop Gautbert to flee. Ansgar returned to Birka in 854 and Denmark in 860 to reestablish some of the gains of his first visits, in Denmark he won over the trust of then-King Horik II who gave him land in Hedeby for the first Christian chapel. A second church was founded a few years later in Ribe on Denmarks west coast, a significant step in this direction was the foundation of an archbishopric for the whole of Scandinavia at Lund in 1103-04
