1.
Ivan Kramskoi
–
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi was a Russian painter and art critic. He was a leader of the Russian democratic art movement in 1860-1880. Kramskoi came from an impoverished petit-bourgeois family and he became one of the main founders and ideologists of the Company of Itinerant Art Exhibitions. In 1863–1868 he taught at the school of a society for the promotion of applied arts. Kramskois democratic ideals found their brightest expression in his portraits of peasants, in one of Kramskoi’s most well known paintings, Christ in the Desert, he continued Alexander Ivanovs humanistic tradition by treating a religious subject in moral–philosophical terms. He imbued his image of Christ with dramatic experiences in a psychological and vital interpretation. Aspiring to expand the ideological expressiveness of his images, Kramskoi created art that existed on the cusp of portraiture and these paintings disclose their subjects complex and sincere emotions, their personalities and fates. Ivan Kramskois gallery and biography Ivan Kramskoi Gallery at MuseumSyndicate Долгополов, Игорь Викторович Мастера и шедевры, В3 т
Ivan Kramskoi
–
Portrait of Kramskoi by
Ilya Repin, 1882.
Ivan Kramskoi
–
Self portrait, 1867
Ivan Kramskoi
–
The Mermaids, 1871
Ivan Kramskoi
–
Old man with a crutch, 1872
2.
Russian language
–
Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
Russian language
–
Russian language street sign in
Russia.
Russian language
–
Russian minimarket in
Limassol, Cyprus; translation: "Teremok market. Russian goods. Phone number: 96 74 19 63"
Russian language
–
This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter
П.
Russian language
–
The
Ostromir Gospels of 1056 is the second oldest
East Slavic book known, one of many medieval
illuminated manuscripts preserved in the
Russian National Library.
3.
Romanization of Russian
–
Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic script into the Latin alphabet. Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System, is a system that has used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST, OST8483 was the first Soviet standard on romanization of Russian, introduced in 16 October 1935. This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as a standard of the COMECON. GOST7. 79-2000 System of Standards on Information, Librarianship and it is the official standard of both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Machine readable passports is an adoption of an ICAO stadards for travel documents and it was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013. The standard was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, ISO/R9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968, was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization. It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages, ISO9,1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R9,1968, which it deprecates, for Russian, the UNGEGN, a Working Group of the United Nations, in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71. It may be found in some international cartographic products, American Library Association and Library of Congress romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in the British Library since 1975. The formal, unambiguous version of the system requires some diacritics and two-letter tie characters, British Standard 2979,1958 is the main system of the Oxford University Press, and a variation was used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975. The BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce, the portion of the system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947. In Soviet international passports, transliteration was based on French rules, in 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passports, a diacritic-free English-oriented system was established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but this system was also abandoned in 2010. In 2006, GOST52535. 1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports, in 2010, the Federal Migratory Service of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST52535. 1-2006. The standard was abandoned in 2013, finally in 2013, Order No.320 of the Federal Migratory Service of Russia came into force. It states that all names in the passports must be transliterated using the ICAO system. This system differs from the GOST52535. 1-2006 system in two things, ц is transliterated into ts, ъ is transliterated into ie, Scholarly ¹ Some archaic letters are transcribed in different ways
Romanization of Russian
–
Sergei Gonchar (Cyrillic: Сергей Гончар), an NHL and international ice hockey player, wearing a sweater with Roman characters
Romanization of Russian
–
A street sign in Russia with the name of the street shown in Cyrillic and Latin characters
4.
Polish language
–
Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations
Polish language
–
The oldest printed text in Polish – Statuta synodalia Episcoporum Wratislaviensis printed in 1475 in
Wrocław by Kasper Elyan.
Polish language
–
Polish
Polish language
–
The
Jakub Wujek Bible in Polish, 1599 print
5.
Naiad
–
In Greek mythology, the Naiads are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from gods, who embodied rivers. Arethusa, the nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus, the Greek word is Ναϊάς, plural Ναϊάδες It derives from νάειν, to flow, or νᾶμα, running water. Naiad has several English pronunciations, /ˈneɪæd/, /ˈneɪəd/, /ˈnaɪæd/, /ˈnaɪəd/ and they were often the object of archaic local cults, worshipped as essential to humans. Boys and girls at coming-of-age ceremonies dedicated their childish locks to the local naiad of the spring, in places like Lerna their waters ritual cleansings were credited with magical medical properties. Oracles might be situated by ancient springs, Naiads could be dangerous, Hylas of the Argos crew was lost when he was taken by naiads fascinated by his beauty. The naiads were also known to exhibit jealous tendencies, salmacis forced the youth Hermaphroditus into a carnal embrace and, when he sought to get away, fused with him. The loves and rapes of Zeus, according to Graves readings, so, in the back-story of the myth of Aristaeus, Hypseus, a king of the Lapiths, married Chlidanope, a naiad, who bore him Cyrene. Aristaeus had more than ordinary mortal experience with the naiads, when his bees died in Thessaly and his aunt Arethusa invited him below the waters surface, where he was washed with water from a perpetual spring and given advice. St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans was formerly known as Nyades Street, and is parallel to Dryades Street. Crinaeae Eleionomae Limnades or Limnatides Pegaeae Potameides Bibliotheca 2.95,2.11,2.21,2.23,1.61,1.81,1.7.6 Homer. Odyssey 13.355,17.240, Iliad 14.440,20.380 Ovid, theogony Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion, Harvard University Press,1985. Robert Graves, The Greek Myths 1955 Edgar Allan Poe, Sonnet to Science 1829 The Naiades Naiad Nymphs
Naiad
–
A Naiad by
John William Waterhouse, 1893; a water nymph approaches the sleeping
Hylas.
Naiad
–
Undine, by
John William Waterhouse
Naiad
–
Gioacchino Pagliei - The Naiads, 1881
Naiad
–
Fountain of the Naiads,
Piazza della Repubblica, Rome, Italy
6.
Spirit
–
The English word spirit, from Latin spiritus breath, has many different meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body. It can also refer to a subtle as opposed to gross material substance, the word spirit is often used metaphysically to refer to the consciousness or personality. e. A manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person, the term may also refer to any incorporeal or immaterial being, such as demons or deities. In the Bible, the Spirit, specifically denotes the Holy Spirit, the English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning breath, but also spirit, soul, courage, vigor, ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European *peis. It is distinguished from Latin anima, soul, in Greek, this distinction exists between pneuma, breath, motile air, spirit, and psykhē, soul. The word spirit came into Middle English via Old French, the distinction between soul and spirit also developed in the Abrahamic religions, Arabic nafs opposite rūħ, Hebrew neshama or nephesh נֶ֫פֶשׁ nép̄eš opposite ruach. In a lecture delivered to the literary Society of Augsburg, October 20,1926, on the theme of “Nature and Spirit, the mistrust of verbal concepts, inconvenient as it is, nevertheless seems to me to be very much in place in speaking of fundamentals. Spirit and Life are familiar enough words to us, very old acquaintances in fact, pawns that for thousands of years have pushed back. It can scarcely be an accident onomatopoeic words like ruach, ruch, roho mean ‘spirit’ no less clearly than the Greek πνεύμα and the Latin spiritus”. In spiritual and metaphysical terms, spirit has acquired a number of meanings, An incorporeal but ubiquitous, unlike the concept of souls a spirit develops and grows as an integral aspect of a living being. This concept of the individual spirit occurs commonly in animism, note the distinction between this concept of spirit and that of the pre-existing or eternal soul, belief in souls occurs specifically and far less commonly, particularly in traditional societies. One might more properly term this type/aspect of spirit life or aether rather than spirit, people usually conceive of a ghost as a wandering spirit from a being no longer living, having survived the death of the body yet maintaining at least vestiges of mind and consciousness. In religion and spirituality, the respiration of a human has for obvious reasons become seen as linked with the very occurrence of life. A similar significance has become attached to human blood, Spirit, in this sense, means the thing that separates a living body from a corpse—and usually implies intelligence, consciousness, and sentience. Latter-day Saint prophet Joseph Smith Jr. taught that the concept of spirit as incorporeal or without substance was incorrect, all spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes. In some Native American spiritual traditions the Great Spirit or Wakan Tanka is a term for the Supreme Being, individual spirits envisaged as interconnected with all other spirits and with The Spirit. This concept relates to theories of a unified spirituality, to universal consciousness, the experience of such a connection can become a primary basis for spiritual belief. Christian spiritual theology can use the term Spirit to describe God, or aspects of God — as in the Holy Spirit, Spirit forms a central concept in pneumatology
Spirit
–
Theodor von Holst, Bertalda, Assailed by Spirits, c. 1830
7.
Slavic mythology
–
Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation. Unlike ancient Greek, Hindu, Chinese or Egyptian mythology, there are no records for the study of Slavic mythology. It has not been proven that the Slavs had any sort of writing system before the arrival of Saints Cyril, fragments of old mythological beliefs and pagan festivals survive up to this day in folk customs, songs, stories and folk-tales of all the Slavic nations. Although Herodotus is himself not convinced by this rumour, he stresses that he has heard some swear it, the identification of Neuri with Proto-Slavs remains controversial, however. According to Procopius, these Slavs worshipped a single deity, who crafted lightning, though not named explicitly, it can be deduced this is a reference to the deity known as Perun in later historic sources, as in many Slavic languages today. Perun simply means thunder or lightning bolt and he also mentions the belief in various demons and nymphs, but does not mention any other names. The Slavic Primary Chronicle is a work with many valuable references to the pagan beliefs of Eastern Slavs. The chronicle treats the history of the early Eastern Slavic state, even though the manuscript was compiled at the beginning of the 12th century, it contains references to and copies of older documents, and describes events predating the Baptism of Kiev. Two deities, Perun and Veles/Volos, are mentioned in the text of the early 10th century peace treaties between pagan rulers of East Slavs and Byzantine Emperors, later, Nestor the Chronicler describes a state pantheon introduced by Prince Vladimir in Kiev in 980 CE. Vladimirs pantheon included Perun, Hors, Dažbog, Stribog, Simargl, the Hypatian Codex of the Primary Chronicle also mentions Svarog, compared to Greek Hephaestus. Also very interesting are the passages in the East Slavic epic The Tale of Igors Campaign referring to Veles, Dažbog, the original epic has been dated to the end of the 12th century, although there are marginal disputes over the authenticity of this work. The most numerous and richest written records are of West Slavic paganism, particularly of Wendish and Polabian tribes, the German missionaries and priests who criticized pagan religion left extensive records of old mythological systems they sought to overcome. However, they restrained themselves from pious lies, claiming pagan Slavs were idolatrous. As none of those missionaries learned any Slavic language, their records are confused and exaggerated, major works include a chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg from the beginning of the 11th century, who described a temple in the city of Riedegost where the great deity Zuarasic was worshipped. According to Thietmar, this was the most sacred place in the land of pagan Slavs, another very valuable document is the Chronica Slavorum written in the late 12th century by Helmold, a German priest. Saxo meticulously described the worship of Svantevit, the associated with it. He also mentioned multi-headed deities of other Slavic tribes, Rugievit, Porewit, according to the manuscript, the most important Slavic deity was Triglav, whose temples in the city of Szczecin were respected oracles. In the cities of Wolgast and Havelberg, the war god Gerovit was worshiped, a corruption of Jarovit
Slavic mythology
–
Many generations of Slavic artists were inspired by their national folklore:
Ilya Yefimovich Repin,
Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom (1876)
Slavic mythology
–
A Slavic temple
Slavic mythology
–
Pagan cult wall (8th-9th century BC) in
Łysa Góra, Poland
Slavic mythology
–
Artistic representation of Saxo Grammaticus
8.
Mermaid
–
A mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, Africa. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transformed herself into an out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes associated with events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks. In other folk traditions, they can be benevolent or beneficent, the male equivalent of the mermaid is the merman, also a familiar figure in folklore and heraldry. Although traditions about and sightings of mermen are less common than those of mermaids, some of the attributes of mermaids may have been influenced by the Sirens of Greek mythology. Historical accounts of mermaids, such as reported by Christopher Columbus during his exploration of the Caribbean, may have been inspired by manatees. While there is no evidence that mermaids exist outside of folklore, reports of mermaid sightings continue to the present day, including 21st century examples from Israel and Zimbabwe. Mermaids have been a subject of art and literature in recent centuries. They have subsequently been depicted in operas, paintings, books, films, the word mermaid is a compound of the Old English mere, and maid. The equivalent term in Old English was merewif and they are conventionally depicted as beautiful with long flowing hair. Sirenia is an order of aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit rivers, estuaries, coastal marine waters, swamps. They look ponderous and clumsy but are actually fusiform, hydrodynamic and highly muscular, sirenomelia, also called mermaid syndrome, is a rare congenital disorder in which a child is born with his or her legs fused together and small genitalia. This condition is about as rare as conjoined twins, affecting one out of every 100,000 live births and is fatal within a day or two of birth because of kidney and bladder complications. Four survivors were known as of July 2003, many folklorists and mythographers deem that the origin of the mythic mermaid is the dugong, posing a theory that mythicised tales have been constructed around early sightings of dugongs by sailors. The first known mermaid stories appeared in Assyria c.1000 BC, the goddess Atargatis, mother of Assyrian queen Semiramis, loved a mortal and unintentionally killed him. Ashamed, she jumped into a lake and took the form of a fish, the Greeks recognized Atargatis under the name Derketo. Sometime before 546 BC, Milesian philosopher Anaximander postulated that mankind had sprung from an animal species
Mermaid
–
A Mermaid by
John William Waterhouse
Mermaid
–
The Fisherman and the Syren, by
Frederic Leighton, c. 1856–1858
Mermaid
–
A dried
skate, or
Jenny Haniver.
Mashhad Museum, Iran
Mermaid
–
16th century
Zennor mermaid chair
9.
Vladimir Propp
–
Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. Vladimir Propp was born on April 17,1895 in Saint Petersburg to a German family and he attended Saint Petersburg University, majoring in Russian and German philology. Upon graduation he taught Russian and German at a secondary school and his Morphology of the Folktale was published in Russian in 1928. His character types are used in education and can be applied to almost any story, be it in literature, theatre, film, television series, games. In 1932, Propp became a member of Leningrad University faculty, after 1938, he chaired the Department of Folklore until it became part of the Department of Russian Literature. Propp remained a faculty member until his death in 1970, Morphology of the Tale was translated into English in 1958 and 1968. It was also translated into Italian and Polish in 1966, French and Romanian in 1970, Spanish in 1971, historical Roots of the Wonder Tale was translated into Italian in 1949 and 1972, Spanish in 1974, and French, Romanian and Japanese in 1983. Oedipus in the light of folklore was translated into Italian in 1975, Russian Agrarian Feasts was translated into French in 1987. Vladimir Propp broke up fairy tales into sections, through these sections he was able to define the tale into a series of sequences that occurred within the Russian fairytale. Usually there is a situation, after which the tale usually takes the following 31 functions. Vladimir Propp used this method to decipher Russian folklore and fairy tales, first of all, there seems to be at least two distinct types of structural analysis in folklore. If a tale consists of elements A to Z, the structure of the tale is thus delineated in the same sequence, the other type of analysis is termed paradigmatic, and describes instead the underlying pattern of the folkloric text, independent of chronology. Elements of the plot may be out of their given order. Respectively equivalent to syntagmatic and paradigmatic are the terms diachronic and synchronic, diachronic covers the sort of analysis that conveys a sense of traversing the highs and lows of a story, like riding the pattern of a sine wave. The second term, synchronic, is where the story is instead absorbed as a whole, most literary analyses are synchronic, offering a greater sense of unity among the components of a story. Although both structural analyses convey partial information about the story, each angle of analysis delivers a different set of information. After the initial situation is depicted, the tale takes the following sequence of 31 functions, ABSENTATION and this may be the hero themselves, or it may be some other relation that the hero must later rescue. This division of the cohesive family injects initial tension into the storyline and this may serve as the Heros introduction, typically portraying them as an ordinary person
Vladimir Propp
–
Vladimir Propp in 1928.
10.
Pagan
–
Paganism is a term that derives from Latin word pagan, which means nonparticipant, one excluded from a more distinguished, professional group. The term was used in the 4th century, by early Christian community, the term competed with polytheism already in use in Judaism, by Philo in the 1st century. Pagans and paganism was a pejorative for the same polytheistic group, Paganism has broadly connoted religion of the peasantry, and for much of its history a derogatory term. Alternate terms in Christian texts for the group was hellene. In and after the Middle Ages, paganism was a pejorative that was applied to any non-Abrahamic or unfamiliar religion, there has been much scholarly debate as to the origin of the term paganism, especially since no one before the 20th century self-identified as a pagan. In the 19th century, paganism was re-adopted as a self-descriptor by members of various artistic groups inspired by the ancient world. Forms of these religions, influenced by various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe, exist today and are known as contemporary or modern paganism, while most pagan religions express a worldview that is pantheistic, polytheistic, or animistic, there are some monotheistic pagans. It is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practised, the notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition, as such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense. The term pagan is from Late Latin paganus, revived during the Renaissance and it is related to pangere and ultimately comes from Proto-Indo-European *pag-. The evolution occurred only in the Latin west, and in connection with the Latin church, elsewhere, Hellene or gentile remained the word for pagan, and paganos continued as a purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace. However, this idea has multiple problems, first, the words usage as a reference to non-Christians pre-dates that period in history. Second, paganism within the Roman Empire centered on cities, the concept of an urban Christianity as opposed to a rural paganism would not have occurred to Romans during Early Christianity. Third, unlike words such as rusticitas, paganus had not yet acquired the meanings used to explain why it would have been applied to pagans. Paganus more likely acquired its meaning in Christian nomenclature via Roman military jargon, Early Christians adopted military motifs and saw themselves as Milites Christi. As early as the 5th century, paganos was metaphorically used to persons outside the bounds of the Christian community. In response, Augustine of Hippo wrote De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos, in it, he contrasted the fallen city of Man to the city of God of which all Christians were ultimately citizens. Hence, the invaders were not of the city or rural
Pagan
–
The
Venus of Arles, depicting the goddess
Venus holding the apple of
Hesperides.
Pagan
–
Reconstruction of the
Parthenon, on the
Acropolis of Athens,
Greece.
Pagan
–
Some
megaliths are believed to have religious significance.
Pagan
–
Children standing with The Lady of Cornwall in a neopagan ceremony in England.
11.
Unclean spirit
–
In English translations of the Bible, unclean spirit is a common rendering of Greek pneuma akatharton, which in its single occurrence in the Septuagint translates Hebrew ruaḥ tumah. The Greek term appears 21 times in the New Testament in the context of demonic possession and it is also translated into English as spirit of impurity or more loosely as evil spirit. The Latin equivalent is spiritus immundus, some scholarship seeks to differentiate between unclean spirit and evil spirit or demon. In the Christian scriptures, the pneuma is used variously for the human soul, angelic or demonic spirits. For those who practiced the religions of antiquity, possession by a pneuma could be a desired state of visionary trance. References to a spirit of impurity or a spirit are found in the Hebrew Bible, in Rabbinic literature. The se’irim or śa‘ir are goat-demons or hairy demons associated with other supernatural beings and with ruins. The demonic figure Azazel, depicted with goat-like features and in one instance as a bird, is consigned to desert places as impure. To pneuma to akatharton appears in the Septuagint at Zechariah 13,2 and this occurrence of unclean spirit is unique in the Tanakh, the Hebrew is rûah hattum’â. The spell concludes with a protracted insufflation, exorcism is the most thoroughly attested Jewish magical practice of the Second Temple period. The exorcism of demons or unclean spirits is one of the categories of miracles attributed to Jesus. In the Greek New Testament,20 occurrences of pneuma akatharton are found in the Synoptic Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and the Book of Revelation. The phrase may be used instead of daimonion or a form of daimonizesthai, to be possessed by a demon or to be or act as a demoniac. Throughout The Gospel of Mark, the pneuma and daimonion seem to be equivalent. Mental illness, however, was the most common result and he touched those who were in ritual terms unclean, including lepers, and healed them. Jesus is said to have granted his 12 disciples the power to cast out unclean spirits. Elsewhere, Jesus appoints 72 missionaries who also have the power to cast out demons, the attribution of animal-like qualities to demons continues from the Jewish tradition, like demons, animals may be classified as unclean. Revelation 16,13 describes three unclean spirits like frogs, frogs are unclean as animals for food in the Jewish dietary code
Unclean spirit
–
Jesus drives out a demon or unclean spirit, from the 15th-century
Très Riches Heures
Unclean spirit
–
The Hebrew se’irim, or "hairy demon," is sometimes translated "
satyr," as depicted here in a
Roman mosaic.
Unclean spirit
–
Judean desert, a
liminal space thought hospitable to unclean spirits (Matthew 12:43)
Unclean spirit
–
Frogs of the
amphibian class Batrachia (
Haeckel, 1904);
Revelation compares three pneumata to
frogs (Greek batrachoi), an
unclean animal
12.
Dmitry Zelenin (ethnographer)
–
Dmitry Konstantinovich Zelenin was a Russian linguist and ethnographer. He led the European Brigade of the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography, in November 2004 the Antropologicheskii forum of St Petersburg honoured him with some readings dedicated to him Mezhdunarodnyi iazyk nauki i kulturnykh snoshenii, Moscow,1901. Russische Volkskunde, Berlin und Leipzig, de Gruyter,1927, kult ongonov v Sibiri, Moscow,1936. Le culte des idoles en Sibérie, Paris, Payot,1952, acta Eurasica, Issue #1,2005 Empire of Nations, Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union by Francine Hirsch, Cornell University Press,2005
Dmitry Zelenin (ethnographer)
–
Dmitrii Zelenin
13.
Soul
–
In many religious, philosophical and mythological traditions, the soul is the incorporeal essence of a living being. Depending on the system, a soul can either be mortal or immortal. In Judeo-Christianity, only human beings have immortal souls, for example, the Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas attributed soul to all organisms but argued that only human souls are immortal. Other religions hold that all organisms have souls, as did Aristotle, while some teach that even non-biological entities possess souls. The latter belief is called animism, Greek philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, understood that the soul must have a logical faculty, the exercise of which was the most divine of human actions. Anima mundi is the concept of a world soul connecting all living organisms on planet Earth, the Modern English word soul, derived from Old English sáwol, sáwel, was first attested in the 8th-century poem Beowulf v.2820 and in the Vespasian Psalter 77.50. Further etymology of the Germanic word is uncertain, the Koine Greek word ψυχή psychē, life, spirit, consciousness, is derived from a verb meaning to cool, to blow, and hence refers to the breath, as opposed to σῶμα, meaning body. Vulgate, et nolite timere eos qui occidunt corpus animam autem non possunt occidere sed potius eum timete qui potest et animam et corpus perdere in gehennam. Authorized King James Version And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, vulgate Creavitque Deus cete grandia, et omnem animam viventem atque motabilem. KJV And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, Paul of Tarsus used ψυχή and πνεῦμα specifically to distinguish between the Jewish notions of נפש nephesh and רוח ruah. The ancient Greeks used the word alive for the concept of being ensouled, the soul was considered the incorporeal or spiritual breath that animates the living organism. Francis M. Cornford quotes Pindar by saying that the soul sleeps while the limbs are active, but when one is sleeping, the soul is active and reveals an award of joy or sorrow drawing near in dreams. Erwin Rohde writes that an early pre-Pythagorean belief presented the soul as lifeless when it departed the body, drawing on the words of his teacher Socrates, Plato considered the psyche to be the essence of a person, being that which decides how we behave. He considered this essence to be an incorporeal, eternal occupant of our being, Socrates says that even after death, the soul exists and is able to think. He believed that as bodies die, the soul is reborn in subsequent bodies and Plato believed this as well, however. Thymos is located near the chest region and is related to anger, eros is located in the stomach and is related to ones desires. Plato also compares the three parts of the soul or psyche to a caste system. According to Platos theory, the soul is essentially the same thing as a states class system because, to function well
Soul
–
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of
The School of Athens, a
fresco by
Raphael.
Soul
–
The souls of Pe and
Nekhen towing the royal bargue on a relief of
Ramesses II 's temple in Abydos.
Soul
–
Soul carried to Heaven by
William Bouguereau
Soul
–
The Damned Soul. Drawing by
Michelangelo Buonarroti c. 1525
14.
Undead
–
The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if alive. A common example of an undead being is a corpse re-animated by supernatural forces, by the application of the deceaseds own life force, the undead may be incorporeal like ghosts, or corporeal like vampires and zombies. The undead are featured in the systems of most cultures. Bram Stoker considered using the title The Un-Dead for his novel Dracula, the word does appear in English before Stoker but with the more literal sense of alive or not dead, for which citations can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary. In one passage, nosferatu is given as an Eastern European synonym for un-dead, Stokers use of the term refers only to vampires, and the extension to other types of supernatural beings arose later. Most commonly, it is now taken to refer to beings which had at one time been alive and continue to display some aspects of life after death. In Bram Stokers novel Dracula, Van Helsing describes the Un-Dead as the following, ‘Before we do any-thing and it is out of the lore and experience of the ancients and of all those who have studied the powers of the UnDead. When they become such, there comes with the change the curse of immortality and they cannot die, but must go on age after age adding new victims and multiply-ing the evils of the world. For all that die from the preying of the Undead become themselves Undead, and so the circle goes on ever widening, like as the ripples from a stone thrown in the water. But of the most blessed of all, when this now UnDead be made to rest as true dead, instead of working wickedness by night and growing more debased in the assimilating of it by day, she shall take her place with the other Angels. So that, my friend, it will be a hand for her that shall strike the blow that sets her free. Later notable 19th-century stories about the avenging undead included Ambrose Bierces The Death of Halpin Frayser, in the Harry Potter series, Lord Voldemort uses reanimated dead bodies that are placed under his control by his dark magic powers as his guardians
Undead
–
The ghost of
Barbara Radziwiłł by
Wojciech Gerson: ghosts are a common form of the undead in
folklore.
Undead
–
The deceased lovers, ca. 1470 (
Frauenhausmuseum (de))
Undead
–
Utagawa Yoshiiku, Specter frightening a young woman
15.
Ivan Bilibin
–
Throughout his career, he was inspired by Slavic folklore. Ivan Bilibin was born in Tarkhovka, a suburb of St. Petersburg and he studied in 1898 at Anton Ažbe Art School in Munich, then under Ilya Repin in St. Petersburg. After graduating in May 1900 he went to Munich, where he completed his training with the painter Anton Ažbe, in 1902–1904 Bilibin travelled in the Russian North, where he became fascinated with old wooden architecture and Russian folklore. He published his findings in the monograph Folk Arts of the Russian North in 1904, another influence on his art was traditional Japanese prints. Artistic design of magazines such as Dog Rose and expenditure of the Moscow publishing house followed. Bilibin gained renown in 1899, when he released his illustrations of Russian fairy tales, during the Russian Revolution of 1905, he drew revolutionary cartoons, especially for the magazine Župel, which in 1906 became prohibited. He would further serve as the designer for the 1909 première production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakovs The Golden Cockerel, after the October Revolution in 1917, he left Russia after the revolution proved alien to him. After brief stints in Cairo and Alexandria, he settled in Paris in 1925 and he still longed for his homeland and, after decorating the Soviet Embassy in 1936, he returned to Soviet Russia, delivering lectures at the Russian Academy of Arts until 1941. Bilibin died during the Siege of Leningrad and was buried in a collective grave, in 1902 he Bilibin married his former student, the painter Marija Jakovlevna Tschembers. They had two sons, Alexander and Ivan, in 1912 he again married a former student, the art school graduate Renée Rudolfowna OKonnel. In 1923 he married the painter Alexandra Vasilyevna Schtschekatichina-Potozkaja, with whom he had a joint exhibition in Amsterdam in 1929, works of Ivan Bilibin at Cascadia Graphics Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin at the Wayback Machine at www. scumdog. demon. co. uk
Ivan Bilibin
–
Portrait of Ivan Bilibin by
Boris Kustodiev, 1901.
Ivan Bilibin
–
Stage-set for the opera
The Little Golden Cockerel 1909
Ivan Bilibin
–
Tsar Dadon meets the
Shemakha tsarevna (illustration to
The Tale of the Little Golden Cockerel, 1906)
Ivan Bilibin
–
The Tale of Igor's Campaign
16.
Circle Dance
–
Circle dance, or chain dance, is a style of dance done in a circle or semicircle to musical accompaniment, such as rhythm instruments and singing. Circle dancing is probably the oldest known dance formation and was part of community life from when people first started to dance, dancing in a circle is an ancient tradition common to many cultures for marking special occasions, rituals, strengthening community and encouraging togetherness. The dance can also be enjoyed as a group experience or as part of a meditation. Circle dances are choreographed to many different styles of music and rhythms, unlike line dancing, circle dancers are in physical contact with each other, the connection is made by hand-to-hand, finger-to-finger or hands-on-shoulders. It is a type of dance where anyone can join in without the need of partners, generally, the participants follow a leader around the dance floor while holding the hand of the dancers beside them. The dance can be gentle or energetic, modern circle dance mixes traditional folk dances, mainly from European or Near Eastern sources, with recently choreographed ones to a variety of music both ancient and modern. There is also a growing repertoire of new dances to classical music. Modern circle dancing is found in cultures, including Arabic, Israeli, Assyrian, Kurdish, Turkish, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Maltese. It is also used, in its more meditative form, in worship within various religious traditions including, the Church of England, thousands of medieval tombstones called Stećci were found in Bosnia and Hercegovina and neighboring areas. They dated from the end of the 12th century to the 16th century and they bear inscription and figures which look like dancers in a chain. Men and women are portrayed dancing together holding hands at shoulder level, in Macedonia, near the town of Zletovo, the murals on the monastery of Lesnovo, which date from the 14th century, show a group of young men linking arms in a round dance. A chronicle from 1344 urges the people of the city of Zadar to sing, however, a reference comes from Bulgaria, in a manuscript of a 14th-century sermon, which calls chain dances devilish and damned. The circle dance of Germany was called Reigen, which dates from the 10th century, dancing around the church or a fire was frequently denounced by church authorities which only underscores how popular it was. One of the frescos in Tyrol, at Runkelstein Castle, depicts Elisabeth of Poland, Circle dances were also found in Czech Republic, dating to the 15th century. Dancing was primarily done around trees on the village green, in Poland as well the earliest village dances were in circles or lines accompanied by the singing or clapping of the participants. In the 14th century Giovanni Boccaccio describes men and women dancing to their own singing or accompanied by musicians. One of the frescos in Siena by Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted in 1338-40 show a group of women doing a bridge figure while accompanied by another woman playing the tambourine, there are the accounts of two western European travelers to Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. In Denmark, old ballads mention a closed circle dance which can open into a chain dance, a fresco in Ørslev church in Zealand from about 1400 shows nine people, men and women, dancing in a line
Circle Dance
–
A
Shop horo of
Bulgaria.
Circle Dance
–
Children's Dances (a
Ring a Ring o' Roses dance), by
Hans Thoma.
Circle Dance
–
Laz dancers in
Armenia, circa 1911
Circle Dance
–
Old postcard from
Greece depicting the
Syrtos dance.
17.
Summer
–
Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, falling between spring and autumn. At the summer solstice, the days are longest and the nights are shortest, the date of the beginning of summer varies according to climate, tradition and culture. When it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, a variable seasonal lag means that the meteorological center of the season, which is based on average temperature patterns, occurs several weeks after the time of maximal insolation. Under meteorological definitions, all seasons are set to start at the beginning of a calendar month. This meteorological definition of summer also aligns with the commonly viewed notion of summer as the season with the longest days of the year, the meteorological reckoning of seasons is used in Australia, Austria, Denmark, the former Soviet Union and Japan. It is also used by many in the United Kingdom, in Ireland, the summer months according to the national meteorological service, Met Éireann, are June, July and August. However, according to the Irish Calendar, summer begins on 1 May, school textbooks in Ireland follow the cultural norm of summer commencing on 1 May rather than the meteorological definition of 1 June. Reckoning by hours of daylight alone, summer solstice marks the midpoint, not the beginning, midsummer takes place over the shortest night of the year, which is the summer solstice, or on a nearby date that varies with tradition. Where a seasonal lag of half a season or more is common, by this method, in North America, summer is the period from the summer solstice to the autumn equinox. The similar Canadian tradition starts summer on Victoria Day one week prior and ends, as in the United States, on Labour Day. In Chinese astronomy, summer starts on or around 5 May, with the known as lìxià, i. e. establishment of summer. In Australia and New Zealand, summer begins on 1 December. Summer is traditionally associated with hot or warm weather, in the Mediterranean regions, it is also associated with dry weather, while in other places it is associated with rainy weather. The wet season is the period of vegetation growth within the savanna climate regime. Where the wet season is associated with a shift in the prevailing winds. In the northern Atlantic Ocean, a tropical cyclone season occurs from 1 June to 30 November. The statistical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is 10 September, the Northeast Pacific Ocean has a broader period of activity, but in a similar time frame to the Atlantic. The Northwest Pacific sees tropical cyclones year-round, with a minimum in February and March, in the North Indian basin, storms are most common from April to December, with peaks in May and November
Summer
–
A field during summer in
Belgium
Summer
–
Wet season
thunderstorm at night in
Darwin, Australia.
Summer
–
Image of
Hurricane Lester from late August 1992.
Summer
18.
Ukraine
–
Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
Ukraine
–
Gold
Scythian pectoral, or neckpiece, from a royal
kurgan in
Ordzhonikidze, dated to the 4th century BC
Ukraine
–
Flag
Ukraine
–
Principalities of
Kievan Rus', 1054-1132
Ukraine
–
The baptism of the Grand Prince Vladimir led to the adoption of Christianity in
Kievan Rus'.
19.
Belarus
–
Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% of its 207,600 square kilometres is forested and its strongest economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Belarus declared independence as the Belarusian Peoples Republic, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922 and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland after the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921, during WWII, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years, in 1945 the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR. The parliament of the declared the sovereignty of Belarus on 27 July 1990. Alexander Lukashenko has served as the president since 1994. Belarus has been labeled Europes last dictatorship by some Western journalists, Lukashenko continued a number of Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of large sections of the economy. Though not directly espousing communism like the five remaining communist countries of China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea, in 2000 Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation, with some hints of forming a Union State. Over 70% of Belaruss population of 9.49 million resides in urban areas, more than 80% of the population is ethnic Belarusian, with sizable minorities of Russians, Poles and Ukrainians. Since a referendum in 1995, the country has had two official languages, Belarusian and Russian, the Constitution of Belarus does not declare any official religion, although the primary religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Belarus is the only European country to retain capital punishment in both law and practice, the name Belarus is closely related with the term Belaya Rus, i. e. White Rus. There are several claims to the origin of the name White Rus, an alternate explanation for the name comments on the white clothing worn by the local Slavic population. A third theory suggests that the old Rus lands that were not conquered by the Tatars had been referred to as white, other sources claim that, before 1267, the land not conquered by the Mongols was considered White Rus. The name Rus is often conflated with its Latin forms Russia and Ruthenia, in some languages, including German and Dutch, the country is generally called White Russia to this day. The Latin term Alba Russia was used again by Pope Pius VI in 1783 to recognize the Society of Jesus there, exclaiming Approbo Societatem Jesu in Alba Russia degentem, approbo, approbo. The first known use of White Russia to refer to Belarus was in the century by Englishman Sir Jerome Horsey. During the 17th century, the Russian tsars used White Rus to describe the lands added from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Belarus
–
Stamp with the
Cross of St. Euphrosyne from 1992
Belarus
–
Flag
Belarus
–
Principalities of Kievan Rus'
Belarus
–
Khatyn Memorial. The Nazis murdered civilians in 5,295 different localities in
occupied Soviet Belarus.
20.
Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
Russia
–
Kievan Rus' in the 11th century
Russia
–
Flag
Russia
–
The
Baptism of Kievans, by
Klavdy Lebedev
Russia
–
Sergius of Radonezh blessing
Dmitry Donskoy in
Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the
Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by
Ernst Lissner
21.
Amazons
–
In Greek mythology, the Amazons were a tribe of women warriors. The Scythian women may have inspired the myth, apollonius Rhodius, at Argonautica, mention that Amazons were the daughters of Ares and Harmonia. They were brutal and aggressive, and their concern in life was war. Later, he says, they established Mitylene a little way beyond the Caïcus, Aeschylus, at Prometheus Bound, places the original home of the Amazons in the country about Lake Maeotis and they later moved to Themiscyra on the Thermodon. Homer tells that the Amazons were sought and found somewhere near Lycia, Diodorus mention that the Amazons traveled from the Libya under Queen Myrina. Amazon warriors were often depicted in battle with Greek warriors in amazonomachies in classical art, the Amazons have become associated with many historical people throughout the Roman Empire period and Late Antiquity. In Roman historiography, there are accounts of Amazon raids in Anatolia. From the early period, their name has become a term for female warriors in general. Greeks also used epithets for them. Herodotus used the Androktones and Androleteirai, in Iliad they also called Antianeirai and Aeschylus in his work, Prometheus Bound, the origin of the word is uncertain. Πέρσαι», where it appears together with the Indo-Iranian root *kar- make, alternatively, a Greek derivation from *ṇ-mṇ-gw-jon-es manless, without husbands has been proposed, an explanation deemed unlikely by Hjalmar Frisk. 19th century scholarship also connected the term to the ethnonym Amazigh, a further explanation proposes Iranian *ama-janah virility-killing as source. The Hittite researcher Friedrich Cornelius assumes that there had been the land Azzi with the capital Chajasa in the area of the Thermodon-Iris Delta on the coast of the Black Sea and he brings its residents in direct relation to the Amazons, namely based on its name and its customs. The location of land as well as his conclusions are controversial. There is no indication of such a practice in ancient works of art, adrienne Mayor suggests the origin of this myth was due to the words etymology. Herodotus and Strabo placed them on the banks of the Thermodon, later, he says, they established Mitylene a little way beyond the Caïcus. Aeschylus, at Prometheus Bound, places the home of the Amazons in the country about Lake Maeotis. According to Pseudo-Plutarch, the Amazons lived in and about the Tanais river, formerly called the Amazonian or Amazon river, the Amazons later moved to Themiscyra on the River Thermodon
Amazons
–
Wounded Amazon of the Capitol, Rome.
Amazons
–
Amazon preparing for a battle (Queen Antiop or Armed Venus), by
Pierre-Eugène-Emile Hébert 1860 (
National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.).
Amazons
–
Amazon wearing trousers and carrying a shield with an attached patterned cloth and a quiver.
Ancient Greek Attic white-ground
alabastron, c. 470 BCE,
British Museum, London.
Amazons
–
Thalestris, Queen of the Amazons, visits
Alexander (1696)
22.
Green week
–
Green Week traditionally takes place at the beginning of the year in the exhibition halls under the Funkturm and is open to the general public. In 2010 it had around 400,000 visitors and that same year, the Paris International Agricultural Show had 650,000 visitors. The fair is accompanied every year by protests themed We are fed up, since to 2011 between 15,000 and 30,000 people join the demonstrations against industrial livestock production and for more sustainable farming. Green Week owes its name to the green felt coats worn by German foresters and farmers, after the devastation of World War II, Green Week resumed in 1948. After a break in 1951 due to major construction, the fair was held again in 1951. Participation of foreign exhibitors increased continuously, by 1963 they accounted two-thirds of exhibitors, after German reunification in the 1990s, Green Week grew substantially. Special shows on topics such as German Cheese and since 2005 a technical program of over 250 lectures, seminars, German Trade Fairs Official Website Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, Online-Dossier zur Internationalen Grünen Woche
Green week
–
International Green Week in Berlin, the entrance to the fairgrounds, 2006
Green week
Green week
–
One of the exhibition halls, 2013
Green week
–
Green Week in 1930
23.
Semik
–
Green week is an ancient Slavic fertility festival celebrated in early June and closely linked with the cult of the dead and the spring agricultural rites. It usually fell upon the Thursday of the Green Week and its name is derived from the Slavic word for seven, because the Green Week was the seventh week after Easter. The end of Semik inaugurated the celebrations of the Trinity Sunday, the Rusalki were believed to be at their most dangerous during the Green Week, and were supposed to have left their watery depths in order to swing on branches of birch and willow trees at night. Peasant women sometimes hung offerings to appease them, a cross, a magic circle, incense, garlic, wormwood, a pin or poker and verbal charms were used to render the rusalki harmless. Swimming was strictly forbidden, lest mermaids would drag the swimmer down to the river floor, on Semik, funeral services were held for those who had not received a proper burial. Peasants decorated the insides and outsides of their houses with birch branches, the birch was usually left in the forest, but was sometimes brought into the village. The birch was seen as a symbol of power and stood as a focal point for girls singing and dancing. Vows of eternal friendship were made here, like Kostroma during Maslenitsa, this fertility symbol was destroyed at the end of the festivities. Usually, it was drowned in order to provide the rainfall for the sprouting crops. There is a holiday celebrating Pentecost in Romania, called Rusalii. Also in Germanic tradition there is a tradition, for example. In modern-day Poland it is celebrated along with Pentecostal Sunday as Zielone Świątki, holy Trinity Day or Svyata Triytsya and Green Holidays in Ukraine
Semik
–
Semik. Russian
lubok. 19th century
24.
Mikhail Lermontov
–
His influence on later Russian literature is still felt in modern times, not only through his poetry, but also through his prose, which founded the tradition of the Russian psychological novel. Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was born in Moscow into a noble family. He had been captured by the Russian troops in Poland in the early 17th century, family legend asserted that George Learmonth descended from the famed 13th-century Scottish poet Thomas the Rhymer. Lermontovs father, Yuri Petrovich Lermontov, like his father before him, having moved up the ranks to captain, he married the sixteen-year-old Maria Mikhaylovna Arsenyeva, a wealthy young heiress of a prominent aristocratic Stolypin family. Lermontovs maternal grandmother, Elizaveta Arsenyeva, regarded their marriage as a mismatch, on October 15,1814, in Moscow where the family temporarily moved to, Maria gave birth to her son Mikhail. The marriage proved ill-suited and the couple grew apart. There is no evidence as to what had precipitated the quarrels theyve had. An earlier biographer, Pavel Viskovatov, suggested the discord might have been caused by Yuris affair with a woman named Yulia. Apparently it was her husbands violent, erratic behavior and the stresses that accounted for Maria Mikhaylovnas early demise. Her health quickly deteriorated, she developed tuberculosis and died on 27 February 1817, nine days after Marias death a final row broke out in Tarkhany and Yuri rushed away to his Kropotovo estate in Tula Governorate where his five sisters resided. Yelizaveta Arsenyeva launched a formidable battle for her grandson, promising to disinherit him if his father took the boy away. Eventually the two agreed that the boy should stay with his grandmother until the age of 16. Father and son separated and, at the age of three, Lermontov began a spoilt and luxurious life with his grandmother and numerous relatives. This bitter family feud formed a plot of Lermontovs early drama Menschen und Leidenschaften, in June 1817 Yelizaveta Alekseyevna moved her grandson to Penza. In 1821 they returned to Tarkhany and spent the six years there. The doting grandmother spared no expense to provide the young Lermontov with the best schooling and he received an extensive home education, became fluent in French and German, learned to play several musical instruments and proved a gifted painter. While living with the grandmother, Mikhail hardly met with his father, but the boys health was fragile, he suffered from scrofula and rickets and was kept under close surveillance of a French doctor, Anselm Levis. Colonel Capet, a Napoleon army prisoner-of-war who settled in Russia after 1812, was the boys first, a German pedagogue, Levy, who succeeded Capet, introduced Mikhail to Goethe and Schiller
Mikhail Lermontov
–
Mikhail Lermontov in 1837
Mikhail Lermontov
–
Signature
Mikhail Lermontov
–
Maria Mikhaylovna Lermontova (1795–1817), the mother of the poet
Mikhail Lermontov
–
Yuri Petrovich Lermontov (1787–1831), the poet's father
25.
Rusalka (Dargomyzhsky)
–
Rusalka is an opera in four acts, six tableaux, by Alexander Dargomyzhsky, composed during 1848-1855. The Russian libretto was adapted by the composer from Pushkins incomplete dramatic poem of the same name and it premiered on 4 May 1856 at the Theatre-circus, conducted by Konstantin Lyadov, choreographed by Marius Petipa and Nikolay Goltz, but was badly received predominantly by the aristocracy. In 1859, the opera was presented at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, but it was not until 1865, when it was staged at the Mariinsky Theatre. The conductor was Eduard Nápravník, the Prince was sung by Fyodor Petrovich Komissarzhevsky, the Princess by Darya Leonova, Miller by Osip Petrov and this type of recitative consists of lyrical utterances which change continuously according to the dramatic situation, with likewise varied accompaniment in the orchestra. Dargomyzhsky was to apply this technique of composition on a small scale in his songs and on a large scale in his final opera. The opera was translated into English by Leonard & Emily R. Lehrman in 1986, excerpts from that translation were performed in concerts in France in 1989,1990,1992,1994, and 1996, and in New York in 2015. The entire work was performed in English for the first time at Queens College, the action takes place by the Dnieper River The plot tells of a maiden who, after being jilted by a prince, drowns herself. The last act of the opera, which features a ballet, is unusual in that a 12-year-old rusalka speaks her lines over the music. The bank of the Dnieper River, scene 2, The bank of the Dnieper River. Scene 1, The bottom of the Dnieper, the underwater palace of the Rusalki. Scene 2, The bank of the Dnieper River, act 1 Aria, Oh, its just that all you young girls. «Ох, то-то все вы, девки молодые. » Other operas featuring rusalki as characters include Rimsky-Korsakovs May Night, naroditskaya, Inna, Russian Rusalkas and Nationalism, Music of the Sirens, Indiana University Press. Russian libretto in HTML Russian libretto in zip file for Word
Rusalka (Dargomyzhsky)
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Alexander Dargomyzhsky
26.
Alexander Dargomyzhsky
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Alexander Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky was a 19th-century Russian composer. He bridged the gap in Russian opera composition between Mikhail Glinka and the generation of The Five and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Dargomyzhsky was born in Troitsko village, Belyovsky District, Tula Governorate and he was already known as a talented musical amateur when in 1833 he met Mikhail Glinka and was encouraged to devote himself to composition. His last opera, The Stone Guest, is his most famous work and it was premiered in 1872, but never became a lasting standard operatic repertoire item. Dargomyzhsky also left some unfinished projects, among them an attempted setting of Pushkins Poltava. Besides operas, his compositions include numerous songs, piano pieces. He died in Saint Petersburg in 1869, aged 55, richard Taruskin, Opera and Drama in Russia As Preached and Practiced in the 1860s. New ed. Rochester, University of Rochester Press,1993, thurston, H. T. Colby, F. M. eds. article name needed
Alexander Dargomyzhsky
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Alexander Dargomyzhsky (Portrait by
Konstantin Makovsky, 1869)
27.
Henri Duparc (composer)
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Eugène Marie Henri Fouques Duparc was a French composer of the late Romantic period. Son of Charles Fouques-Duparc and Amélie de Guaita, Henri Fouques-Duparc was born in Paris. He studied piano with César Franck at the Jesuit College in the Vaugirard district, following military service in the Franco-Prussian War, he married Ellen MacSwinney, from Scotland, on 9 November 1871. In the same year, he joined Saint-Saëns and Romain Bussine to found the Société Nationale de Musique Moderne, Duparc is best known for his 17 mélodies, with texts by poets such as Baudelaire, Gautier, Leconte de Lisle and Goethe. A mental illness, diagnosed at the time as neurasthenia, caused him abruptly to cease composing at age 37 and he devoted himself to his family and his other passions, drawing and painting. But increasing vision loss after the turn of the century led to total blindness. He destroyed most of his music, leaving fewer than 40 works to posterity, Duparc is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. A square in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, near the rue de Levis, is named in his honor, César Franck pendant le Siège de Paris, in « Revue musicale », Paris, December 1922. Souvenirs de la Société Nationale, in « Revue de la Société internationale de Musique », Paris, lettre à Chausson, in « Revue musicale », December 1925. Duparc Henri, Une Amitié mystique, daprès ses lettres à Francis Jammes, lettres de Henri Duparc à Ernest Chausson, in « Revue de Musicologie »1956, p.125. Vincent d’Indy, Henri Duparc, Albert Roussel, lettres à Auguste Sérieyx,124 pp. Von der Elst, N. Henri Duparc, l’homme et son oeuvre. Paris, Université de Paris,1972, & Utrecht,1972, fabre, M. Limage de Henri Duparc dans sa correspondence avec Jean Cras. Lieder français, Henri Duparc, in « Revue Musicale de Lyon », chantavoine, J. Henri Duparc, in « La Revue Hebdomadaire », Paris,5 May 1906. Henri Duparc, in « La vie musicale de Lausanne », lAmour, les Muses et la Chasse, in « Mercure de France », Paris,1922, p.172 et al. Imbert, M. Henri Duparc, in « La Petite Maîtrise », Schola Cantorum de París, un émouvant témoignage sur la destinée dHenri Duparc, in « Revue Musicale », Paris, April 1933. Bréville, P. Henri Fouques Duparc 1848-1933, in « La Musique Française », Paris, merle, F. Psychologie et Pathologie dun artiste, Henri Duparc. Oulmont, C. Henri Duparc, ou de LInvitation au Voyage à la Vie éternelle, Paris, Desclée de Brouwer & Cie,1935. Un Duparc inconnu, in « Revue musicale », Paris, stricker, R. Henri Duparc et ses mélodies
Henri Duparc (composer)
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Henri Duparc in 1880.
28.
Rusalka (opera)
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Rusalka, Op.114, is an opera by Antonín Dvořák. The Czech libretto was written by the poet Jaroslav Kvapil based on the tales of Karel Jaromír Erben. A Rusalka is a sprite from Slavic mythology, usually inhabiting a lake or river. Rusalka is one of the most successful Czech operas, and represents a cornerstone of the repertoire of Czech opera houses, Dvořák had played viola for many years in pit orchestras in Prague. He thus had direct experience of a range of operas by Mozart, Weber, Rossini, Lortzing, Verdi, Wagner. Rusalka was the ninth opera Dvořák composed, in recent years it has been performed more regularly by major opera companies. In the five seasons from 2008 to 2013 it was performed by companies worldwide far more than all of Dvořáks other operas combined. The most popular excerpt from Rusalka is the Song to the Moon from act 1 and it has also been arranged for violin and used on film sound tracks. Kvapils libretto, based on Erbens and Božena Němcovás work, was written before he had any contact with the composer, the libretto was completed by 1899, when Kvapil began looking for composers interested in setting his text. His composer friends were engaged with other works, but mentioned that Dvořák was looking for a project. The composer, always interested in Erbens stories, read the libretto and composed his opera quite rapidly, with the first draft begun on 22 April 1900, Rusalka was first performed in Prague on 31 March 1901, with Růžena Maturová as the first Rusalka. It became a success in Czech lands, and soon gained success also abroad. The first performance outside Czechoslovakia took place in Ljubljana, the opera was given in Vienna by a Czech company in 1910, in German translation it was given in Stuttgart in 1935. The UK stage premiere was at Sadlers Wells Theatre in 1959, the United States premiere of the opera was presented by the San Diego Opera in 1975 with Kathryn Bouleyn in the title role. Rusalka was first performed in New York at the Metropolitan Opera in 1993, a meadow by the edge of a lake Three wood-sprites tease the Water-Gnome, ruler of the lake. Rusalka, the Water-Nymph, tells her father she has fallen in love with a human Prince who comes to hunt around the lake and he tells her it is a bad idea, but nonetheless steers her to a witch, Ježibaba, for assistance. Rusalka sings her Song to the Moon, asking it to tell the Prince of her love, Rusalka agrees to the terms and drinks a potion. The Prince, hunting a doe, finds Rusalka, embraces her
Rusalka (opera)
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Antonín Dvořák
Rusalka (opera)
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Růžena Maturová as the first Rusalka
Rusalka (opera)
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Poster for the premiere of Rusalka in Prague, 31 March 1901
29.
Vodyanoy
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Vodník in Czech fairy tales is the same creature as the Wassermann or nix of German fairy tales. In many such languages the word is used to mean the Aquarius zodiac sign. Vodyanoy is said to appear as an old man with a frog-like face, greenish beard. He has webbed paws instead of hands, a fishs tail and he usually rides along his river on a half-sunk log, making loud splashes. Consequently, he is often dubbed grandfather or forefather by the local people, local drownings are said to be the work of the vodyanoy. When angered, the vodyanoy breaks dams, washes down water mills and he would drag down people to his underwater dwelling to serve him as slaves. Their overall dress and appearance is weird, sometimes resembling a vagrant, patchy shirts. They can withstand lingering for hours outside their ponds, when they do so, one can tell them unequivocally by their wet coat-tails from which water is dripping under all circumstances. The vodníks face is unshaven and it is not uncommon for a vodník to have a large, wet. Czech, Slovenian and Slovak tales have both evil and good vodníci who do try to drown people when they happen to swim in their territory, vodníci would store the souls of the drowned in porcelain lid-covered cups. They consider their cups as the most valuable heritage and display their work, when the lid of such a cup is removed, the soul within will escape and be liberated. Except for fish, they do not have servants, otherwise, vodníci spend their time by running their territory or – in their spare time – playing cards, smoking pipes or just sitting at the water surface and loitering. Fishermen ask the vodník for help by placing a pinch of tobacco in the water and saying, Heres your tobacco, Lord Vodník, now give me a fish. In Czech, Slovak and Slovene tales vodníci live in ponds or rivers, there is no mention of a particular dwelling, there are almost no references to vodníci in connection with sea water, which it is supposed would be dangerous, even deadly for them. It was based on a story from The Glory of Carniola, about a dance at Old Square in Ljubljana in July 1547, prešeren wrote it due to his unfulfilled love towards Zalika Dolenc. In the first publication of the poem Urška was named Zalika, vodyanoy is one of the best known characters of the Soviet cartoons. In the Soviet animated film The Flying Ship, he sings about his loneliness, david Wiltshires novel Child of Vodyanoi used the water spirit as a metaphor for a miniature Russian submarine. Composer Antonín Dvořák wrote a poem entitled Vodník about this creature
Vodyanoy
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Vodyanoy by
Ivan Bilibin, 1934
Vodyanoy
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Typical projection of vodník in Czech or Slovak folklore
Vodyanoy
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Czech Vodník in Peklo u
Nové Město nad Metují
30.
Tatar
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The Tatars are a Turkic people living in Asia and Europe who were one of the five major tribal confederations in the Mongolian plateau in the 12th century CE. The name Tatar first appears in form on the Kul Tigin monument as
Tatar
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Persian miniature of the
Szigetvár campaign showing Ottoman troops and
Tatars as vanguard.
Tatar
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Contemporary distribution of
Kipchak languages: Kipchak–Bolgar Kipchak–Cuman Kipchak–Nogay and Kyrgyz–Kipchak
Tatar
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Map of Tartaria (1705)
Tatar
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Drawing of Mongols of the
Golden Horde outside
Vladimir presumably demanding submission, before sacking the city.
31.
Nikolai Medtner
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Nikolai Karlovich Medtner was a Russian composer and pianist. A younger contemporary of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, he wrote a number of compositions. His 38 Skazki for piano solo contain some of his most original music, the youngest of five children, Nikolai Medtner was born in Moscow on Christmas Eve 1879, according to the Julian calendar then in use in Russia. The Gregorian calendar, in use in the West at the time, Medtner first took piano lessons from his mother until the age of ten. He also had lessons from his mothers brother Fyodor Goedicke, then he entered the Moscow Conservatory. He graduated in 1900 at the age of 20, taking the Anton Rubinstein prize, having studied under Pavel Pabst, Wassily Sapellnikoff, Vasily Safonov, despite his conservative musical tastes, Medtners compositions and his pianism were highly regarded by his contemporaries. Among his students in this period was Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov, during the years leading up to the 1917 Russian Revolution, Medtner lived at home with his parents. During this time Medtner fell in love with Anna Mikhaylovna Bratenskaya, a respected violinist, later, when World War I broke out, Emil was interned in Germany where he had been studying. He generously gave Anna the freedom to marry his brother, Medtner and Anna were married in 1918. Unlike his friend Rachmaninoff, Medtner did not leave Russia until well after the Revolution, Rachmaninoff secured Medtner a tour of the United States and Canada in 1924, his recitals were often all-Medtner evenings consisting of sonatas interspersed with songs and shorter pieces. Medtner never adapted himself to the aspects of touring and his concerts became infrequent. Esteemed in England, he and Anna settled in London in 1936, at the outbreak of the Second World War, Medtners income from German publishers disappeared, and during this hardship ill-health became an increasing problem. His devoted pupil Edna Iles gave him shelter in Warwickshire where he completed his Third Piano Concerto, in 1949 a Medtner Society was founded in London by His Highness Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Bahadur, the Maharajah of Mysore. The Maharajah was an honorary Fellow of Trinity College of Music, London, in 1945 and also the first president of the Philharmonia Concert Society and he founded the Medtner Society to record all of Medtners works. Medtner, already in declining health, recorded his three Piano Concertos and some sonatas, chamber music, numerous songs and shorter works before his death in London in 1951. In one of these recordings he partnered Benno Moiseiwitsch in his work entitled Russian Round-Dance, Op 58. 1, in another he accompanied Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in several of his lieder, including The Muse, in gratitude to his patron, Medtner dedicated his Third Piano Concerto to the Maharajah of Mysore. Medtner died at his home,69 Wentworth Road, Golders Green, London in 1951, the First Piano Sonata in F minor, Op.5, is a four-movement work from 1901–3 suggesting the style of Scriabin or Rachmaninoff, but nonetheless original
Nikolai Medtner
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Nikolai Medtner, postcard (1910)
32.
Rusalka (book)
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Rusalka is a fantasy novel by American science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. It was first published in October 1989 in the United States in an edition by Ballantine Books under its Del Rey Books imprint. Rusalka is book one of Cherryhs three-book Russian Stories trilogy set in medieval Russia in forests along the Dnieper river near Kiev in modern-day Ukraine, the novel draws on Slavic folklore and concerns the fate of a girl who has drowned and become a rusalka. It is also an exploration of magic and the development of a young wizard, Rusalka was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1990 and was a third-place runner-up. Cherryh self-published a revised edition of Rusalka in e-book format in October 2010 at Closed Circle Publications, — Rusalka, page 226 Sasha is a 15-year-old downtrodden stable boy living with his aunt and uncle at an inn they run in the town of Vojvoda. Sashas parents had killed in a house fire that he was accused of starting through wizardry. Pyetr is one of the towns young men, and one day he is attacked and wounded by old Yurishev for having a liaison with his young wife. Pyetr escapes, but later learns that Yurishev is dead, Pyetr hides in the stables at the inn, and Sasha helps him leave the town. With no future for himself in Vojvoda, Sasha accompanies the wounded Pyetr, Pyetr and Sasha walk for days through fields and into a dead forest. Sasha does not believe he is a wizard, but finds he sometimes has the ability to wish for things. Pyetr does not believe in wizards at all, and laughs at Sashas wishing, exhausted and without food, the pair find a cottage by a river. Its occupant, a wizard named Uulamets, heals Pyetr and agrees to let them stay on condition that they help him find his daughter, Eveshka, Pyetr is suspicious of Uulamets and does not believe in rusalkas. Later, while the three of them are searching for Eveshka, she makes herself visible to Pyetr, overpowers him, Rusalkas are renowned for drowning men they have chosen, but Eveshka abandons Pyetr and disappears again. Uulamets and Sasha find Pyetr unharmed, but are attacked by Hwiuur, Uulamets traps Hwiuur and threatens to kill it. The creature pleads for its life and admits to drowning Eveshka, but blames Chernevog, Eveshka had fallen in love with Chernevog and run off with him, but Chernevog had used his newly acquired wizardry to control her, and then handed her over to Hwiuur. Even as a rusalka Chernevog still controls Eveshka and will not let her return to her father, Uulamets agrees to let Hwiuur go on condition that he helps them find Chernevog. While searching for Chernevog, Pyetr spots Eveshka and chases after her, Sasha wants to follow Pyetr to protect him, but Uulamets wills Sasha to stay. Uulamets had recognised Sashas potential for wizardry and taught him how to use his talents, but stressed the dangers of unchecked wishing and the importance of considering their consequences first
Rusalka (book)
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Del Rey hardcover first edition, 1989
33.
Fantasy literature
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Fantasy literature is the body of written works that employ the motifs, themes, and stylistic approaches expected in the fantasy genre. Historically, most works of fantasy were written pieces of literature, since the 1960s, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music and painting. Stories involving paranormal magic and terrible monsters have existed in spoken forms before the advent of printed literature, homers Odyssey satisfies the definition of the fantasy genre with its magic, gods, heroes, adventures and monsters. Fantasy literature as a distinct type emerged in Victorian times, with the works of such as Mary Shelley, William Morris. J. R. R. Tolkien played a role in the popularization and accessibility of the fantasy genre with his highly successful publications The Hobbit. Rarely does one consider modern fantasy without conjuring the memory and image of Tolkien, Tolkien was largely influenced by an ancient body of Anglo-Saxon myths, particularly Beowulf, as well as modern works such as The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison. Tolkiens close friend C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, the tradition established by these predecessors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has continued to thrive and be adapted by new authors. Tolkiens fiction has—particularly over the genre of high fantasy—prompted backlash, at the turn of the millennium, the Harry Potter novels of J. K. Rowling achieved widespread popularity. R. Martin in 2005, and 2011, Neil Gaiman in 2005, authors often engage in worldbuilding, constructing a framework or entire world against which the narrative plays out. Symbolism often plays a significant role in literature, often through the use of archetypal figures inspired by earlier texts or folklore. Some argue that fantasy literature and its archetypes fulfill a function for individuals and society, le Guin, in her essay From Elfland to Poughkeepsie, presented the idea that language is the most crucial element of high fantasy, because it creates a sense of place. She analyzed the misuse of a formal, olden-day style, saying that it was a trap for fantasy writers because it was ridiculous when done wrong. Brian Peters writes that in various forms of fantasy, even the villains language might be inappropriate if vulgar. The fantastical details of the series fade away by the installment, revealing that the wizarding community of the Harry Potter books is just as bad, if not worse. Farah Mendlesohn argues the world of literature is broken up into four categories, the portal quest, the immersive, the intrusive. How the fantastic enters the world is what determines how a story fits into these categories. In a portal quest such as C. S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch, in the intrusion fantasies like Bram Stokers Dracula, the fantastic invades the fictional world. With liminal fantasy, for example Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife, tolkiens The Hobbit for example, allows the reader no escape from the fantastic
Fantasy literature
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Fantasy
34.
The Russian Stories (C. J. Cherryh)
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The Russian Stories, also known as the Russian Series, the Russian Trilogy and the Rusalka Trilogy, are a series of fantasy novels by science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. The stories are set in medieval Russia along the Dnieper river, in an alternate history of Kievan Rus. The three books in the series are Rusalka, Chernevog, and Yvgenie, Rusalka was nominated for a Locus Award in 1990. The stories draw heavily from Slavic mythology and concerns the fate of a girl who has drowned, for example, a Rusalka is a type of life-draining Slavic fairy that haunts a river or lake. And Chernevog is a spelling of Chernobog, a mysterious Slavic deity. Other creatures in the derived from Slavic folklore include Bannik, Leshy. How magic operates in these books sets them apart from other Cherryh works of fantasy, wizards are presented as especially dangerous in these novels because even their most casual desires, if expressed, may set into action a course of events with unpredictable outcomes. Wizards in the series therefore must carefully attend to what they think lest they accidentally set loose magical forces that could result in negative outcomes and they are best described as historical fantasy, although they also borrow elements from the horror fiction genre. Each characters experience with magic is subjective as they never get to see the complete picture, bogstad calls the story a kind of science of magics because of the way in which the characters explore of this phenomena. Science fiction and fantasy writer Roland J. Green described Cherryhs Russian series as her most significant work of fantasy, latin language literature scholar, Mildred Leake Day called the Russian Stories the very best of the books of sorcery. Cherryh self-published revised editions of Rusalka, Chernevog and Yvgenie in e-book format at Closed Circle Publications between 2010 and 2012, authorship of the e-book edition of Chernevog is credited to C. J. Cherryh and Jane Fancher because of Fanchers contributions to the revisions. Bogstad, Janice M. Shifting Ground, Subjectivities in Cherryhs Slavic Fantasy Trilogy, encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Readers Advisory, The Librarians Guide to Cyborgs, Aliens, Rusalka series series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
The Russian Stories (C. J. Cherryh)
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Chernevog, the second book in the "Russian" series
35.
C. J. Cherryh
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Carolyn Janice Cherry, better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has written more than 60 books since the mid-1970s, including the Hugo Award-winning novels Downbelow Station and Cyteen and she is known for world building, depicting fictional realms with great realism supported by vast research in history, language, psychology, and archeology. Her series of novels set in the Alliance-Union universe, the Morgaine Stories, have sold in excess of 3 million copies. Cherryh appended a silent h to her name because her first editor, Donald A. Wollheim. Her initials, C. J. were used to disguise the fact that she was female at a time when almost all science fiction authors were male, the author has an asteroid,77185 Cherryh, named after her. Referring to this honor, the asteroids discoverers wrote of Cherryh, Cherryh was the Guest of Honor at FenCon IX in Dallas/Fort Worth on September 21–23,2012. Cherryh was born in 1942 in St. Louis, Missouri and raised primarily in Lawton and she began writing stories at the age of ten when she became frustrated with the cancellation of her favorite TV show, Flash Gordon. In 1964, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin from the University of Oklahoma, with specializations in archaeology, mythology. In 1965, she received a Master of Arts degree in classics from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, after graduation, Cherryh taught Latin, Ancient Greek, the classics, and ancient history at John Marshall High School in the Oklahoma City public school system. While her job was teaching Latin, her passion was the history, religion, during the summers, she would conduct student tours of the ancient ruins in England, France, Spain, and Italy. In her spare time, she would write, using the mythology of Rome, in fact, Cherryh did not consider writing short stories until after she had several novels published. Instead, Cherryh wrote novels in her time away from teaching. Initially, she met little success. In fact, she was forced to some of her early works when various publishers lost the manuscripts she submitted. Retyping from carbon copies of her manuscripts was cheaper than paying for photocopying and her breakthrough came in 1975 when Donald A. Wollheim purchased both manuscripts she had submitted to DAW Books, Gate of Ivrel and Brothers of Earth. It was a set of characters I’d invented when I was, oh, so it was an old favorite of my untold stories, and ended up being the first in print. The two novels were published in 1976, Gate of Ivrel preceding Brothers of Earth by several months, the books won her immediate recognition and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1977. Other companies that have published her novels include Baen Books, HarperCollins, Warner Books and she published six additional novels in the late 1970s
C. J. Cherryh
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Cherryh at
NorWesCon in 2006
C. J. Cherryh
36.
Kitka
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Kitka Womens Vocal Ensemble is an Oakland, California-based all-female vocal ensemble focused on Eastern European women’s vocal traditions. Kitka is a vocal ensemble dedicated to producing concerts, recordings. Kitka also strives to expand the boundaries of music as an expressive art form. Kitka was founded in 1979 as an offshoot of the Westwind International Folk Ensemble, Kitka began as a grassroots group of amateur singers. In 2002, Kitka joined Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares as “international guests of honor” for this choir’s 50th Anniversary Gala at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria. This trip also included a series of performances, international meetings, workshops. Kitka has been invited to return to Ukraine in Spring 2009 by the Les Kurbas Theatre in Lviv, the European premier of the piece will take place at the Giving Voice Festival produced by the Grotowski Institute in Wrocław, Poland. New Folksongs commissions premiered to date include compositions by Pauline Oliveros, Chen Yi, David Lang, Linda Tillery, Janet Kutulas, Daniel Hoffman, Thilo Reinhardt and Roy Whelden. In 2002, Kitka began work The Rusalka Cycle, Songs Between the Worlds, weaving old Slavic mythology together with contemporary themes, The Rusalka Cycle’s premiere performances took place to at Oakland’s Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in November 2005. The premiere performances were followed by the release of the recording in the Fall of 2006. Future performances will take place in Ukraine, Poland and Germany during in April 2009, the Rusalka Cycle was also featured on The Story, from American Public Radio, and on National Geographic’s podcast. A frequently occurring symbolic word in Balkan women’s folksong lyrics, Kitka means “bouquet” in Bulgarian and Macedonian
Kitka
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Kitka singing at the Brava Theater in 2012
37.
Alesana
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Alesana is an American rock band from Raleigh, North Carolina. Formed in 2004, the group is signed to Revival Recordings. Their band name is derived from street named Aliceanna St. which is located in Baltimore where the group originated, the name of the band is inspired from Aliceanna St. which Shawn Milke and Patrick Thompson lived on when playing in Baltimore, MD. Aliceanna St. is located in Fells Point, a neighborhood in Baltimore, in May 2005 they released their debut EP, Try This With Your Eyes Closed. Alesana then toured across the United States, including an appearance at the Cornerstone Festival, in the same year, founding drummer Daniel Magnuson was replaced by Will Anderson. In 2006 the group added a new drummer Jeremy Bryan to replace Will Anderson and they followed with a full-length album, entitled On Frail Wings of Vanity and Wax, produced by Kit Walters, during the summer of 2006. In late 2006 Alesana signed to Fearless Records, which re-released their LP in March 2007 to mixed reviews, in the same year, the song Apology in an acoustic version was featured on the compilation release, Punk Goes Acoustic 2. The group played the entire Warped Tour 2007, but afterwards, the record is also the first to feature Shawn Milkes sister, Melissa Milke, who performs all female vocals. In early 2008, On Frail Wings of Vanity and Waxs charted on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, in 2008, Alesana finished recording their second album, Where Myth Fades to Legend. It was released on June 3,2008, but was leaked on popular torrent sites a month beforehand, where Myth Fades to Legend was also the title of their headlining tour with Sky Eats Airplane, Our Last Night, Lovehatehero, and The Chariot that supported the album. At the time of preparing for the record a year before, on the 2008 Warped Tour, Shane Crump briefly left due to personal matters at home and Jake Campbell, formerly of Twelve Gauge Valentine, became a temporary fill in-bassist. Upon Crumps return, Adam Ferguson and the band parted ways, Shane Crump also took care of all the backing unclean to this point. On January 20,2009 the music video for Seduction, the features a few screams made by Ferguson before he left the band. On March 10,2009 the album Punk Goes Pop 2 was released which includes Alesanas cover of What Goes Around. Comes Around by Justin Timberlake. Alesanas Where Myth Fades to Legend has also charted on the Billboard 200 at #96, in late February, Shawn Milke announced Alesana had started writing new material for their upcoming album. They began recording their studio album, in July 2009, in Portland, Oregon. The album, according to Shawn Milke on The Rave TV, the band had made their progress in the studio viewable to fans through a Twitter account and an official website run by the band themselves. On the Vs. tour, Alesanas set included two new songs titled To Be Scared By An Owl and The Thespian
Alesana
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Alesana's vocalists Shawn Milke and Dennis Lee live in 2010
38.
Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness
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Quest for Glory, Shadows of Darkness is an adventure game/role-playing video game hybrid. It is the installment of the Quest for Glory computer game series by Sierra On-Line. It was the first and only game of the series to drop the numerals from the title, shadow of Darkness follows directly on the events of Quest for Glory III, Wages of War. Upon escaping from the cave mouth, he meets a mysterious young woman named Katrina who assists him again several times in his journey. The Hero helps the townspeople with their problems and he encounters several old foes, including the not-quite-dead Ad Avis and the ogress Baba Yaga, and makes several bizarre new allies. The Hero is ultimately coerced into assisting Ad Avis Dark Master in collecting the Dark Rituals that will allow Avoozl the Dark One to manifest in Mordavias world, naturally, the Hero escapes this control and thwarts their plan, destroying Ad Avis in the process. During the celebration of the Heros somewhat pyrrhic victory, the wizard Erasmus appears, along with his familiar Fenrus, revolving around a dark cult summoning an unfathomably large evil, the game was a far cry from earlier villains such as Baba Yaga. Additionally, the undead and Lovecraftian monsters differed significantly from the monsters of earlier games. The game was inspired by fiction, old horror movies and books about vampires and werewolves. Development for the game ran late, which forced Sierra to ship the game with inadequate testing, the GOG digital re-release has since resolved many of the remaining bugs. According to one of the directors, Corey Cole, Quest for Glory IV was developed with a budget of $750,000. A particularly detailed sequence in the game involved the Gypsy Magda gathering information about the heros future, Shadows of Darkness was developed with SVGA graphics. The CD-ROM version of Quest for Glory IV is the first game in the series to voice actors. The most notable voice actors for the game are John Rhys-Davies as the Narrator, Jennifer Hale as Katrina, according to an InterAction magazine article, John Rhys-Davies part took more than three weeks to record, causing him to refer to the game as the CD-ROM from Hell. Quest for Glory IV was the first video game in which Jennifer Hale voiced dialogue, the dub of a trio of local farmers is conspicuous for its emphasis on quips and banter, and its indifference to what actually reads on their text boxes. The end of Quest for Glory III referred to the game as Quest for Glory IV, the original manuals for the game referred to the game simply as Quest for Glory, Shadows of Darkness. It was later called Quest for Glory IV, Shadows of Darkness in the Quest for Glory Anthology collection manual, Quest for Glory II referred to it as Quest For Glory III, Shadows of Darkness. Initially, the game was released in December 1993 on nine 3.5 floppy diskettes to accommodate gamers who didnt have a CD-ROM drive, pressure to adorn shelves before the holiday season marred the first release with bugs that frustrated the earliest players
Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness
–
Talking with Katrina. Typical gameplay for Quest for Glory IV.
Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness
–
CD Cover art
39.
Paladin
–
The Paladins, sometimes known as the Twelve Peers, were the foremost warriors of Charlemagnes court, according to the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. They first appear in the chansons de geste such as The Song of Roland. The earliest recorded instance of the paladin in the English language dates to 1592. It entered English through the Middle French word paladin, which derived from the Latin palatinus. All these words for Charlemagnes Twelve Peers descend ultimately from the Latin palatinus, the Latin palatinus referred to an official of the Roman Emperor connected to the imperial palace on the Palatine Hill. Over time this came to refer to other high-level officials in the imperial, majestic. The word palatine, used in various European countries in the medieval, by the 13th century words referring specifically to Charlemagnes peers began appearing in European languages, the earliest is the Italian paladino. Modern French has paladin, Spanish has paladín or paladino, while German has Paladin, by extension paladin has come to refer to any chivalrous hero such as King Arthurs Knights of the Round Table. Paladin was also used to refer to the leaders of armies supporting the Protestant Frederick V in the Thirty Years War ending in 1648, in their earliest appearances the paladins were not the companions of Charlemagne, but of his vassal Roland. This Roland is based on the historical figure Hruodland mentioned by Charlemagnes biographer Einhard as a Lord of the Breton March who died in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778, nothing else is known of him. The names of the twelve paladins vary from romance to romance, the number is popular because it resembles the Twelve Apostles giving the king the position of Jesus as a reminder of his holy mission as ruler. Tales of the paladins once rivaled the stories of King Arthur, the paladins figure into many chansons de geste and other tales associated with Charlemagne. In the above-mentioned Fierabras, they retrieve holy relics stolen from Rome by the Saracen giant Fierabras and convert him to Christianity, in Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne they accompany their king on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Constantinople in order to outdo the Byzantine Emperor Hugo. Other characters elsewhere considered part of the twelve appear in the song, such as Archbishop Turpin and their works, Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso, send the paladins on even more fantastic adventures than their predecessors. They list the paladins quite differently, but keep the number at twelve, the Italian Orlandos inspired a number of composers over the next few centuries, who created operas and other musical works on Orlando and the paladins. Afterwards the Charlemagne material went into decline, modern adaptations and reworkings including the Carolingian paladins are few and far between, but the concept of the chivalrous paladin lives on. The dictionary definition of paladin at Wiktionary
Paladin
–
Roland receives the sword
Durandal from
Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne. From a manuscript of a
chanson de geste.
Paladin
–
Roland stürmt den Tempel Mahomets - Roland storms the temple of Muhammad, Codex Palatinus Germanicus, 12th century.
40.
Trading card game
–
A collectible card game, also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a kind of card game that first emerged in 1993 and consists of specially designed sets of playing cards. Successful CCGs typically have upwards of thousands of cards, with the first developed. Typically, a CCG is initially played using a deck, or intro deck. This deck may be expanded or modified with cards from booster packs, One of these cards is a rare or unique card that is much harder to obtain than the remaining cards and often has a higher value than the rest. These values can change over time as distribution changes, cards banned in playing formats. Eventually, with cards, players may create new decks from scratch. Despite the dominance of Magic, The Gathering in the CCG market, Pokémon, and Legend of the Five Rings. Other notable CCGs have come and gone, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Vampire, The Eternal Struggle, Middle-earth, World of Warcraft, Dragon Ball Z, many other CCGs were produced, but had little or no commercial success. More recently, digital collectible card games have gained popularity, spurred by the success of Hearthstone, while players typically start by purchasing a complete preset starter deck so they can play from the onset, additional cards generally come in the form of randomized booster packs. Cards distribution in such packs are set by a rarity system, due to this nature of publishing, CCGs often have expansions that add more potential cards to the games library, creating new card combinations and often shifting the metagame with the CCG community. The exact definition of what makes a CCG is vague as many games are marketed under the collectible card game moniker. The rudimentary definition requires the game to resemble trading cards in shape and function, be mass-produced for trading or collectibility, the definition of CCGs is further refined as being a card game in which the player uses his own deck with cards primarily sold in random assortments. Acquiring these cards may be done by trading with other players or buying card packs, if every card in the game can be obtained by making a small number of purchases, or if the manufacturer does not market it as a CCG, then it is not a CCG. Terms such as collectible and trading are used interchangeably because of copyrights, CCGs can further be designated as live or dead games. Dead games are those CCGs which are no longer supported by their manufacturers and have ceased releasing expansions, live games are those CCGs which continue to be supported by their manufacturers. Usually this means that new expansions are being created for the game, lCGs are card games that share many of the same characteristics as CCGs, but without the randomized booster packs characteristic of trading cards and CCGs. Other similar card games have been marketed or referred to as CCGs, Collectible Common-Deck Card Games are those games where players do not have their own personal deck, and consequently, no customization of decks occur and no trading or metagame is developed. Non-Collectible Customizable Card Games are those games where each player has their own deck, many of these games are sold as complete sets
Trading card game
–
Cards from various collectible card games
Trading card game
–
Players engaged in a game of
Magic: The Gathering.
41.
Magic: the Gathering
–
Magic, The Gathering is a trading card game created by Richard Garfield. First published in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game produced and it continues to thrive, with approximately twenty million players as of 2015. Each game represents a battle between wizards known as planeswalkers, who employ spells, artifacts, and creatures depicted on individual Magic cards to defeat their opponents, new cards are released on a regular basis through expansion sets. An organized tournament system played at a level and a worldwide community of professional Magic players has developed. Certain Magic cards can be due to their rarity and utility in game play. Richard Garfield was a candidate at University of Pennsylvania when he first started to design the game. During his free time he worked with local volunteer playtesters to help refine the game and he had been brought on as an adjunct professor at Whitman College in 1991 when Peter Adkison first met with Garfield to discuss Garfields new game RoboRally. Adkison saw the game as very promising, but decided that Wizards of the Coast lacked the resources to produce it at that point. He did like Garfields ideas and mentioned that he was looking for a game that could be played in the downtime that frequently occurs at gaming conventions. Garfield returned and presented the general outline of the concept of a card game. Adkison immediately saw the potential of this idea and agreed to produce it, Magic, The Gathering underwent a general release on August 5,1993. While the game was simply called Magic through most of playtesting, mana Clash was instead chosen to be the name used in the first solicitation of the game, however, everybody involved with the game continued to refer to it as Magic. After further consultation with the lawyer, it was decided to rename the game Magic, The Gathering, the patent has aroused criticism from some observers, who believe some of its claims to be invalid. In 2003, the patent was an element of a legal dispute between Wizards of the Coast and Nintendo, regarding trade secrets related to Nintendos Pokémon Trading Card Game. The legal action was settled out of court, and its terms were not disclosed, Magic was an immediate success for Wizards of the Coast. Early on they were reluctant to advertise the game because they were unable to keep pace with existing demand. Initially Magic attracted many Dungeons & Dragons players, but the following included all types of people as well. The success of the game led to the creation of similar games by other companies as well as Wizards of the Coast themselves
Magic: the Gathering
–
Magic: The Gathering' s card back design
Magic: the Gathering
–
Officially sanctioned Magic tournaments attract participants of all ages and are held around the world. These players in
Rostock,
Germany competed for an invitation to a professional tournament in
Nagoya,
Japan.
Magic: the Gathering
–
By winning a yearly Invitational tournament,
Jon Finkel won the right for this card to feature his design and likeness.
Magic: the Gathering
–
The
Alpha version of the
Black Lotus card (here, signed by the artist) is usually considered to be the most valuable non-promotional Magic card ever printed, aside from misprinted cards.
42.
Guildpact
–
Ravnica is a Magic, The Gathering block that consists of three expert-level expansion sets, Ravnica, City of Guilds, Guildpact, and Dissension. Following in the tradition of other Magic blocks, Ravnica takes place in a plane of the multiverse that was unexplored in the games backstory. The world of Ravnica is an ecumenopolis, a vast city that covers the surface of its planet. Much power in Ravnica is held by the ten guilds, political factions that represent a combination of two of Magics five colors. The mythology of Ravnica is loosely derived from Slavic folklore, and this plane was revisited in the Return to Ravnica block. Ravnica was conceived following the success of Invasion, Invasion, released in 2000, emphasized interactions between the colors, and it was one of Magics most popular releases ever. Magics lead designer, Mark Rosewater, wanted to expand on the theme in a new way. Therefore, the design of Ravnica is based around ten two-color pairs, the Ravnica block is functionally different from Invasion block due to the interaction of the multi-colored theme. In the Invasion block, for example, the first two sets centered around friendly colors and the harmony they create when put together, the last set, Apocalypse, emphasized enemy colors and areas where the colors contrast and possibly create powerful effects. However, the Ravnica block features a number of color combinations in every set based on what guilds are present. All the multicolor cards in Ravnica block are associated with one of the ten guilds, each symbol is a circle halved diagonally, in which the top left half is one color and the bottom right half another. A smaller version of the icon appears in the corresponding half. The cards with these symbols have a colored border that fades from left to right, out of one color and into the other. Each of the ten guilds has a new keyword or ability word associated with it, Radiance, Radiance is an ability word that appears on spells and abilities that affect every permanent that shares a color with the target permanent. When played on multi-colored cards, the effect spreads to all that cards colors, Convoke, A player playing a spell with Convoke may tap some of his or her creatures to pay part or all of the cards mana cost. Each creature tapped reduces the cost by one mana of that color, or by one colorless mana. For example, for a card with Dredge 3, you can skip your draw, Transmute, A player may pay three mana of certain colors and discard a card with Transmute from his or her hand. Doing this allows the player to find a card with the same converted mana cost from that library, reveal it
Guildpact
–
tower
43.
Nintendo 3DS
–
The Nintendo 3DS is a portable game console produced by Nintendo. It is capable of displaying stereoscopic 3D effects without the use of 3D glasses or additional accessories, Nintendo announced the device in March 2010 and officially unveiled it at E32010 on June 15,2010. The console succeeds the Nintendo DS, featuring compatibility with older Nintendo DS. Its primary competitor is the PlayStation Vita from Sony, the Nintendo 3DS was first released in Japan on February 26,2011, and worldwide beginning in March 2011. Less than six months later on July 28,2011, Nintendo announced a significant price reduction from US$249 to US$169 amid disappointing launch sales. The company offered ten free Nintendo Entertainment System games and ten free Game Boy Advance games from the Nintendo eShop to consumers who bought the system at the launch price. This strategy was considered a success, and the console has gone on to become one of Nintendos most successfully sold handheld consoles in the first two years of its release. As of September 30,2016, the Nintendo 3DS family of systems combined have sold 61.57 million units. Several redesigns have been made since, the Nintendo 3DS XL, an entry-level version of the console, the Nintendo 2DS, with a fixed slate form factor and lacking autostereoscopic functionality, was released in Western markets in October 2013. Nintendo began experimenting with stereoscopic 3D video game technology in the 1980s, the Famicom 3D System, an accessory consisting of liquid crystal shutter glasses, was Nintendos first product that enabled stereoscopic 3D effects. Although very few titles were released, Nintendo helped design one—called Famicom Grand Prix II, 3D Hot Rally—which was co-developed by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory, the Famicom 3D System failed to garner market interest and was never released outside Japan. Despite the limited success, Nintendo would press ahead with 3D development into the 1990s, gunpei Yokoi, creator of the Game Boy handheld device and popular Metroid video game, developed a new 3D device for Nintendo called the Virtual Boy. It was a portable system consisting of goggles and a controller that used a spinning disc to achieve full stereoscopic monochrome 3D. Released in 1995, the Virtual Boy sold fewer than a million units, spawning only 22 compatible game titles, the failure of the Virtual Boy left many at Nintendo doubting the viability of 3D gaming. Despite this, Nintendo continued to investigate the incorporation of 3D technology into other products, the GameCube, released in 2001, is another 3D-capable system. With an LCD attachment, it could display true stereoscopic 3D, due to the expensive nature of the requisite peripheral technology at the time, the GameCubes 3D functionality was never marketed to the public. Nintendo later experimented with a 3D LCD during development of the Game Boy Advance SP, another attempt was made in preparation for a virtual navigation guide to be used on the Nintendo DS at Shigureden, an interactive museum in Japan. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi encouraged additional 3D research in an effort to use the technology in the exhibition, although the project fell short, Nintendo was able to collect valuable research on liquid crystal which would later aid in the development of the Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo 3DS
–
An Aqua Blue Nintendo 3DS in the open position.
Nintendo 3DS
–
The Nintendo 3DS
E3 2010 unveiling involved an elaborate stage with moving set pieces.
Nintendo 3DS
–
A Nintendo 3DS XL in the open position.
Nintendo 3DS
–
A Black + Blue Nintendo 2DS.
44.
Bravely Default
–
Bravely Default, known in Japan as Bravely Default, Flying Fairy, is a role-playing video game developed by Silicon Studio for the Nintendo 3DS handheld video game console. Bravely Default was originally released in 2012, while an expanded edition titled For The Sequel released in 2013 in Japan, Europe and Australia, Square Enix published the game in Japan, while Nintendo handled publishing duties overseas. The gameplay uses a battle system and job system, in addition to incorporating options to combine job abilities and adjust battle speed. Bravely Default is set in the world of Luxendarc, which is kept in balance by four elemental crystals protected by the Crystal Orthodoxy, Agnès Oblige, vestal of the Wind Crystal, is forced to begin a journey to awaken the crystals after they are consumed by darkness. Allying with Tiz Arrior, the survivor from Norende, amnesiac Ringabel. Starting development as an action role-playing sequel to Final Fantasy, The 4 Heroes of Light, it retained elements from the Final Fantasy series while having its own story, the producer of The 4 Heroes of Light, Tomoya Asano, returned to produce Bravely Default. The storys writer was Naotaka Hayashi, who was brought in from 5pb, due to his work on Steins, Gate. The characters designs were handled by multiple artists, including art director Akihiko Yoshida, the game was influenced by western video games and television series, and individual elements were inspired by aspects of the Dragon Quest series and Higurashi When They Cry. The music, composed by Revo of Sound Horizon, was intended to evoke the feelings of classic series such as Dragon Quest, Bravely Default was first announced in September 2011 as part of Nintendos 2012 lineup for the platform. In the run-up to release, multiple demos were developed, for the Sequel was the version chosen for overseas release, being localized without any subtitle. In both Japan and overseas, Bravely Default met with sales and critical acclaim. Common praise went to the mixture of traditional mechanics and new elements, along with its storyline, graphics. Main points of criticism were its repetitive late-game stages and elements of its social gameplay, Bravely Default spawned multiple media tie-ins and spin-off games. A direct sequel, Bravely Second, End Layer, was released in 2015 in Japan and 2016 overseas, Bravely Default is a role-playing game which features a party of four characters navigating the fantasy world of Luxendarc. Navigation in towns, dungeons and the world map environments are done from an angled, third-person overhead view, the remains still. These environments are displayed on the top screen of the Nintendo 3DS system, while the screen displays maps of environments, party stats. On the world map, a day-night cycle alters the types of enemies present, in all environments, the party can find chests containing items, weapons or equipment. During certain points, a Party Chat option appears, giving players the option of initiating conversations between the party members, during exploration, standard enemies appear through random encounters, outside battle, the counter rate can be adjusted from high to nothing
Bravely Default
–
European cover art
45.
Kelpie
–
Kelpie, or water kelpie, is the Scots name given to a shape-shifting water spirit inhabiting the lochs and pools of Scotland. It has usually been described as appearing as a horse, but is able to adopt human form, almost every sizeable body of water in Scotland has an associated kelpie story, but the most extensively reported is that of Loch Ness. Parallels to the general Germanic neck and the Scandinavian bäckahäst have been observed, more widely, the wihwin of Central America and the Australian bunyip have been seen as counterparts. Kelpies have been portrayed in their various forms in art and literature, the etymology of the Scots word kelpie is uncertain, but it may be derived from the Gaelic calpa or cailpeach, meaning heifer or colt. The place names Kelpie hoall and Kelpie hooll are reported in A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue as appearing in the 1674 burgh records for Kirkcudbright. Douglas Harper, historian and founder of the Online Etymology Dictionary and it is the most common water spirit in Scottish folklore, but the name is attributed to several different forms in narratives recorded throughout the country. Commentators have disagreed over the aquatic habitat. This distinction is not universally applied however, Sir Walter Scott for instance claims that the range may extend to lochs. Mackillops dictionary reconciles the discrepancy, stating that the kelpie was initially thought to inhabit, streams, and later any body of water. Others ascribe the term kelpie to a variety of mythical creatures. Parallels to the general Germanic neck and the Scandinavian bäckahäst have been observed, the wihwin of Central America and the Australian bunyip are seen as similar creatures in other parts of the world. An Aberdeenshire variation portrays the kelpie as a horse with a mane of serpents, whereas the resident equine spirit of the River Spey was white, usually a little boy, he then pets the horse but his hand sticks to its neck. In some variations the lad cuts off his fingers or hand to free himself, he survives but the children are carried off and drowned. The lad does cut his finger off when the event takes place in Thurso, the same tale set at Sunart in the Highlands gives a specific figure of nine children lost, of whom only the innards of one are recovered. The surviving boy is saved by cutting off his finger. Gregorson Campbell considers the creature responsible to have been a horse rather than a kelpie. Kelpie myths usually describe a creature, but a fairy story recorded by John F. Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands has a different perspective. Entitled Of the Drocht na Vougha or Fuoah, which is given the translation of the bridge of the fairies or kelpies, the spirits had set about constructing a bridge over the Dornoch Firth after becoming tired of travelling across the water in cockleshells
Kelpie
–
The Kelpie by
Herbert James Draper, 1913
Kelpie
–
The Kelpie by
Thomas Millie Dow, 1895
Kelpie
–
Pictish beast featured in a line drawing of the
Maiden Stone
46.
Neck (water spirit)
–
The neck, nicor, nixie or nokken are shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore who usually appeared in forms of other creatures. Under a variety of names, they were common to the stories of all Germanic peoples, the related English knucker was generally depicted as a wyrm or dragon, although more recent versions depict the spirits in other forms. Their sex, bynames, and various transformations vary geographically, the German Nix and his Scandinavian counterparts were males. The German Nixe was a female river mermaid, the names are held to derive from Common Germanic *nikwus or *nikwis, derived from PIE *neigw. They are related to Sanskrit nḗnēkti, Greek νίζω nízō and νίπτω níptō, the form neck appears in English and Swedish. The Swedish form is derived from Old Swedish neker, which corresponds to Old Icelandic nykr, in Finnish, the word is näkki. In Old Danish, the form was nikke and in modern Danish, the Icelandic nykur is a horselike creature. In Middle Low German, it was called necker and in Middle Dutch nicker, the Old High German form nihhus also meant crocodile, while the Old English nicor could mean both a water monster like those encountered by Beowulf, and a hippopotamus. The Norwegian Fossegrim and Swedish Strömkarlen are related figures sometimes seen as by-names for the same creature, the Scandinavian version can transform himself into a horse-like kelpie, and is called a Bäckahästen, whilst the Welsh version is called the Ceffyl Dŵr. In the English county of Sussex, there are said to dwell water-wyrms called knuckers, the Word knucker is derived from the Old English nicor. English folklore contains many creatures with similarities to the Nix or Näck and these Necks include Jenny Greenteeth, the Shellycoat, Peg Powler, the Bäckahästen-like Brag, and the Grindylow. The Scandinavian näcken, näkki, nøkk were male water spirits who played enchanted songs on the violin, nøkker are said to grow despondent if they do not have free, regular contact with a water source. The Norwegian Fossegrim or Grim, Swedish strömkarl, is a figure who, if properly approached, will teach a musician to play so adeptly that the trees dance. It is difficult to describe the appearance of the nix. Perhaps he did not have any true shape and he could show himself as a man playing the violin in brooks and waterfalls but also could appear to be treasure or various floating objects or as an animal—most commonly in the form of a brook horse. The modern Scandinavian names are derived from an Old Norse nykr, thus, likely the brook horse preceded the personification of the nix as the man in the rapids. Fossegrim and derivatives were almost always portrayed as beautiful young men. The enthralling music of the nøkk was most dangerous to women and children, especially pregnant women and he was thought to be most active during Midsummers Night, on Christmas Eve and on Thursdays
Neck (water spirit)
–
"The Rhine Maidens Warn Siegfried" (1912) by
Arthur Rackham
Neck (water spirit)
–
In Norway,
Theodor Kittelsen 's Nøkken from 1904 is equally famous.
Neck (water spirit)
–
The Neck and
Ægir's daughters (1850) by
Nils Blommér
Neck (water spirit)
–
Näcken ("The Water Sprite") by
Ernst Josephson, 1884
47.
Ondine (mythology)
–
Undines /ˈʌnˌdiːn, ˌʌnˈdiːn/ are a category of elemental beings associated with water, first named in the alchemical writings of Paracelsus. Similar creatures are found in literature, particularly Ovids Metamorphoses. Later writers developed the undine into a nymph in its own right. Undines are almost invariably depicted as being female, and are found in forest pools and waterfalls. The group contains many species, including nereides, limnads, naiades, although resembling humans in form they lack a human soul, so to achieve immortality they must acquire one by marrying a human. Such a union is not without risk for the man, because if he is unfaithful he is fated to die, Undine is a term that appears in the alchemical writings of Paracelsus, a Renaissance alchemist and physician. Ondine is a spelling, and has become a female given name. He describes these elementals as the invisible, spiritual counterparts of visible Nature, many resembling human beings in shape, and inhabiting worlds of their own, unknown to man because his undeveloped senses were incapable of functioning beyond the limitations of the grosser elements. Undines are almost invariably depicted as being female, which is consistent with the ancient idea that water is a female element and they are usually found in forest pools and waterfalls, and their beautiful singing voices are sometimes heard over the sound of water. The group contains many species, including oreades, nereides, limnads, naiades, mermaids, what undines lack, compared to humans, is a soul. Marriage with a human shortens their lives on Earth, but earns them a human soul. The offspring of a union between an undine and a man are human with a soul, but also some kind of aquatic characteristic. Moses Binswanger, the protagonist in Hansjörg Schneiders Das Wasserzeichen, has a cleft in his throat, for instance, the ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles was the first to propose that the four classical elements were sufficient to explain everything present in the world. The philosophy of nature spirits was also familiar to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, celtic languages scholar Henry Jenner has argued that the elementals grew out of the folklore that preceded them, The subdivisions and elaborations. Resembles the theory of these mystics in its outlines, and was probably what suggested it to them. Later writers embellished Paracelsus undine classification by developing it into a nymph in its own right. Ondine was the title of one of the poems in Aloysius Bertrands collection Gaspard de la Nuit of 1842 and this poem inspired the first movement of Maurice Ravels 1908 piano suite Gaspard de la nuit. The myth of the undine was one of the inspirations behind the French play Pelléas et Mélisande written by Maurice Maeterlinck, the composer Claude Debussy was in the audience, and he used the plays text as the libretto for his opera of the same name
Ondine (mythology)
–
Ondine by
John William Waterhouse (1849–1917), exhibited at the
Society of British Artists in 1872.
48.
Selkie
–
Selkies are mythological creatures found in Irish, Scottish, and Faroese folklore. Similar creatures are described in the Icelandic traditions, Selkies are said to live as seals in the sea but shed their skin to become human on land. The legend is apparently most common in the Northern Isles of Scotland and is similar to those of swan maidens. The word derives from earlier Scots selich and it occurs in various other spellings in Scots such as, selch, sele, selch, selcht, selghe, selquh, saylche, selich, selyh, selck, seall, seleché, seilché and selké. In Gaelic stories, specific terms for selkies are rarely used i. e, the only term which specifically refers to a selkie but which is only rarely encountered is maighdeann-ròin seal maiden. Male selkies are described as being very handsome in their human form and they typically seek those who are dissatisfied with their lives, such as married women waiting for their fishermen husbands. If a woman wishes to make contact with a selkie male, if a man steals a female selkies skin she is in his power and is forced to become his wife. Female selkies are said to make excellent wives, but because their home is the sea. If she finds her skin she will return to her true home. Sometimes, a maiden is taken as a wife by a human man. In these stories, it is one of her children who discovers her sealskin, the selkie woman usually avoids seeing her human husband again but is sometimes shown visiting her children and playing with them in the waves. Stories concerning selkies are generally romantic tragedies, sometimes the human will not know that their lover is a selkie, and wakes to find them returned to their seal form. In other stories the human will hide the skin, thus preventing the selkie from returning to its seal form. A selkie can only contact with one human for a short amount of time before the selkie must return to the sea. The selkie is unable to contact with that human again for seven years, unless the human steals their selkie skin. In the Faroe Islands there are two versions of the story of the Selkie or Seal Wife, a young farmer from the town of Mikladalur on Kalsoy island goes to the beach to watch the selkies dance. He hides the skin of a beautiful selkie maid, so she cannot go back to sea and he keeps her skin in a chest, and keeps the key with him both day and night. One day when out fishing, he discovers that he has forgotten to bring his key, when he returns home, the selkie wife has escaped back to sea, leaving their children behind
Selkie
–
A Faroese stamp
Selkie
–
A seal-woman steps out from her seal coat on the beach
49.
Sihuanaba
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The Sihuanaba, La Siguanaba, Cigua or Cegua is a supernatural character from Central American folklore. It is a spirit that typically takes the form of an attractive. She lures men away into danger before revealing her face to be that of a horse or, alternatively and she likes to lure lone men out late on dark, moonless nights, without letting them see her face at first. She tempts such men away from their planned routes to them in deep canyons. In Guatemala, the Siguanaba appears as a beautiful, seductive woman with long hair. She will not reveal her face until the last moment, when it is revealed as either the face of a horse or, alternatively, if her victim does not die of fear then he is driven mad by the sight. From afar the Siguanaba can imitate the appearance of a girlfriend in order to lead him astray. Traditional methods are said to ward off the Siguanaba, the word siguanaba or sihuanaba has its origin in the indigenous languages of Mesoamerica. Various words have been suggested as its source, in parts of Mexico the Siguanaba is known as macihuatli, a Nahuatl word that can be broken down to two elements, cihuatl and matlatl. This net-woman encompasses the idea of a woman capturing men in her metaphorical net of attraction. Likewise, cigua or cegua, names for the spirit in Honduras and Costa Rica, also have their origin in the Nahuatl word cihuatl, guatemalan historian and folklorist Adrián Recinos gave two possible origins for the word siguanaba. In one of the 20+ languages of Guatemala, he claimed ciguanaba meant naked woman, in another source he claimed that its origin is the Nahuatl ciuanauac or ciguanauac, meaning concubine. In Guatemala the Sihuanaba is known as La Siguanaba, she is known as Cigua in Honduras, Ciguanaba in El Salvador, although the name varies from place to place, the appearance and actions of the Sihuanaba remain unchanged. After marriage, when her husband went to war, she had affairs with other men, sihuehuet was a bad mother, neglecting her son, leaving him alone to meet her lovers. To inherit the throne she concocted a plot to use another magic potion to poison Yeisun during a festival, but the plan worked too well. Yeisun was converted in a giant monster with two heads, who ravaged the attendants to the palaces feast. The guard struggled and defeated the creature, ending Yeisuns life and she was forced to wander the countryside, appearing to men who travelled alone at night. She is supposed to be seen at night in the rivers of El Salvador, washing clothes and always looking for her son, Cipitio, in Guatemala, the Siguanaba is said to be encountered washing her hair with a golden bowl and combing her hair with a golden comb
Sihuanaba
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Sihuanaba
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The Siguanaba is sometimes viewed as a naked woman combing her hair
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Siren (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on small islands called Sirenum scopuli. All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks, although a Sophocles fragment makes Phorcys their father, when Sirens are named, they are usually as daughters of the river god Achelous, with Terpsichore, Melpomene, Sterope, or Chthon. In Euripides play, Helen, Helen in her anguish calls upon Winged maidens, although they lured mariners, the Greeks portrayed the Sirens in their meadow starred with flowers and not as sea deities. Roman writers linked the Sirens more closely to the sea, as daughters of Phorcys, Sirens are found in many Greek stories, notably in Homers Odyssey. Their number is reported as from two to five. In the Odyssey, Homer says nothing of their origin or names, according to Ovid, the Sirens were the companions of young Persephone. They were given wings by Demeter to search for Persephone when she was abducted, however, the Fabulae of Hyginus has Demeter cursing the Sirens for failing to intervene in the abduction of Persephone. Their song is continually calling on Persephone, the term siren song refers to an appeal that is hard to resist but that, if heeded, will lead to a bad conclusion. As Jane Ellen Harrison notes of The Ker as siren, It is strange and beautiful that Homer should make the Sirens appeal to the spirit, not to the flesh. The siren song is a promise to Odysseus of mantic truths, with a promise that he will live to tell them, they sing, Once he hears to his hearts content, sails on. We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured on the plain of Troy when the gods willed it so— all that comes to pass on the fertile earth. They are mantic creatures like the Sphinx with whom they have much in common and their song takes effect at midday, in a windless calm. The end of song is death. That the sailors flesh is rotting away, suggests it has not been eaten and it has been suggested that, with their feathers stolen, their divine nature kept them alive, but unable to provide food for their visitors, who starved to death by refusing to leave. According to Hyginus, sirens were fated to live only until the mortals who heard their songs were able to pass by them, Sirens were believed to combine women and birds in various ways. In early Greek art, Sirens were represented as birds with womens heads, bird feathers. Later, they were represented as female figures with the legs of birds, with or without wings, playing a variety of musical instruments, especially harps
Siren (mythology)
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The Siren,
Edward Armitage, 1888
Siren (mythology)
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The Siren, by
John William Waterhouse (c. 1900), depicted as a fish-chimera
Siren (mythology)
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Roman mosaic: Odysseus and the Sirens (
Bardo National Museum)
Siren (mythology)
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Odysseus and the Sirens, eponymous vase of the
Siren Painter, c. 480–470 BC, (
British Museum)
Media related to Rusalka at Wikimedia Commons
