1.
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
–
Sleeping Beauty is an American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney based on The Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault. The 16th Disney animated feature film, it was released to theaters on January 29,1959 and it features the voices of Mary Costa, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy, Barbara Jo Allen, Bill Shirley, Taylor Holmes, and Bill Thompson. Along with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinskys music composition was also popular in the film, however, unlike the previous feature-films, this was the first Disney feature-film that did not have the same background animation material, but instead with new background animation material. The film was presented in Super Technirama 70 and 6-channel stereophonic sound in first-run engagements, after many childless years, King Stefan and Queen Leah happily welcome the birth of their daughter, the Princess Aurora. Among the guests are three good fairies called Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, who have come to bless the child with gifts, beauty, before Merryweather is able to give her blessing, the evil fairy Maleficent appears, only to be told she was unwanted. Merryweather uses her blessing to weaken the curse so that instead of dying, King Stefan, still fearful for his daughters life, orders all spinning wheels in the kingdom to be burned. The fairies do not believe that will be enough to keep Aurora safe, years later, Aurora, renamed Briar Rose, has grown into a beautiful teenage girl. On the day of her birthday, the three fairies ask Rose to gather berries in the forest so they can prepare a surprise party for her. While singing in the forest, Rose attracts the attention of Prince Phillip and they instantly fall in love, unaware of being betrothed years ago. Rose asks Phillip to come to her cottage that evening, while she is out, Flora and Merryweather argue about the color of Auroras ballgown. They fight, attracting the attention of Maleficents raven and revealing the location of Aurora, back at home, the fairies tell Aurora the truth about her heritage, and she cannot meet the man again. Meanwhile, Phillip tells his father of a peasant girl he met, King Hubert fails to convince him otherwise, leaving Hubert in equal disappointment. The fairies take Aurora back to the castle, Maleficent then appears and magically lures Aurora away from the fairies and tricks the princess into touching an enchanted spinning wheel. Aurora pricks her finger, completing the curse, from King Huberts conversation with King Stefan, the fairies realize that Prince Phillip is the man with whom Aurora has fallen in love. However, he is kidnapped by Maleficent and she shows Phillip the peasant girl he fell in love with is the now-sleeping princess. She tells him she plans to keep him locked away until hes an old man on the verge of death, then release him to meet his love, the fairies find and release the prince, arming him with the magical Sword of Truth and the Shield of Virtue. Maleficent tries to stop Phillip with thorns but fails and she then transforms into a gigantic dragon to battle the prince herself. Ultimately, Phillip throws the sword, blessed by the magic, directly into Maleficents heart
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
–
Original theatrical poster
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
–
Theatre
2.
Henry Meynell Rheam
–
Henry Meynell Rheam was a painter from England. Rheam was born in Birkenhead and studied in Germany and at the Académie Julian in Paris before settling in Newlyn and he is known for his pre-raphaelite paintings. Henry Meynell Rheam in the RKD Henry Meynell Rheam in the Cornwall artists website
Henry Meynell Rheam
–
Girl In Blue
3.
French language
–
French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
French language
–
The
"arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in
Canada while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.
French language
–
Regions where French is the main language
French language
–
Town sign in
Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of
Rechmaya in
Lebanon.
French language
–
An obsolete 100
Lebanese pound note with the French language inscriptions "Banque du Liban" and "Cent livres".
4.
Charles Perrault
–
Charles Perrault was a French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new genre, the fairy tale. The best known of his tales include Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, Cendrillon, Le Chat Botté, La Belle au bois Dormant, some of Perraults versions of old stories have influenced the German versions published by the Brothers Grimm more than 100 years later. The stories continue to be printed and have adapted to opera, ballet, theatre. Perrault was a figure in the 17th-century French literary scene, and was the leader of the Modern faction during the Quarrel of the Ancients. Perrault was born in Paris to a bourgeois family, the seventh child of Pierre Perrault. He attended very good schools and studied law before embarking on a career in government service and he took part in the creation of the Academy of Sciences as well as the restoration of the Academy of Painting. In 1654, he moved in with his brother Pierre, who had purchased a post as the tax collector of the city of Paris. When the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres was founded in 1663, Perrault was appointed its secretary and served under Jean Baptiste Colbert, Jean Chapelain, Amable de Bourzeys, and Jacques Cassagne were also appointed. His design was chosen over designs by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and François Mansart, in 1668, Perrault wrote La Peinture to honor the kings first painter, Charles Le Brun. He also wrote Courses de tetes et de bague, written to commemorate the 1662 celebrations staged by Louis for his mistress, Louise-Françoise de La Baume le Blanc, Perrault was elected to the Académie française in 1671. He married Marie Guichon, age 19, in 1672, she died in 1678, in 1669 Perrault advised Louis XIV to include thirty-nine fountains each representing one of the fables of Aesop in the labyrinth of Versailles in the gardens of Versailles. The work was carried out between 1672 and 1677, water jets spurting from the animals mouths were conceived to give the impression of speech between the creatures. There was a plaque with a caption and a written by the poet Isaac de Benserade next to each fountain. Perrault produced the guidebook for the labyrinth, Labyrinte de Versailles, printed at the press, Paris, in 1677. Philippe Quinault, a family friend of the Perraults, quickly gained a reputation as the librettist for the new musical genre known as opera. He was on the side of the Moderns and wrote Le Siècle de Louis le Grand, Le Siècle de Louis le Grand was written in celebration of Louis XIVs recovery from a life-threatening operation. Perrault argued that because of Louiss enlightened rule, the present age was superior in respect to ancient times
Charles Perrault
–
Portrait (detail) by
Philippe Lallemand, 1672
Charles Perrault
–
Perrault in an early 19th-century engraved frontispiece
Charles Perrault
–
Theatre
5.
German language
–
German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
German language
–
Old Frisian (Alt-Friesisch)
German language
–
The widespread popularity of the
Bible translated into German by
Martin Luther helped establish modern German
German language
–
Examples of German language in
Namibian everyday life
German language
–
German-language newspapers in the U.S. in 1922
6.
Fairy tale
–
Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables. The term is used for stories with origins in European tradition and, at least in recent centuries. In less technical contexts, the term is used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness. Colloquially, a tale or fairy story can also mean any far-fetched story or tall tale, it is used especially of any story that not only is not true. Legends are perceived as real, fairy tales may merge into legends, Fairy tales are found in oral and in literary form, the name fairy tale was first ascribed to them by Madame dAulnoy in the late 17th century. Many of todays fairy tales have evolved from stories that have appeared, with variations. The history of the tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive. Still, according to researchers at universities in Durham and Lisbon, such stories may date back thousands of years, Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today. Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways, the Aarne-Thompson classification system and the morphological analysis of Vladimir Propp are among the most notable. Other folklorists have interpreted the significance, but no school has been definitively established for the meaning of the tales. It moves in a world without definite locality or definite creatures and is filled with the marvelous. In this never-never land, humble heroes kill adversaries, succeed to kingdoms, a fairy tale with a tragic rather than a happy end is called an anti-fairy tale. Although the fairy tale is a genre within the larger category of folktale. The term itself comes from the translation of Madame DAulnoys conte de fées, Vladimir Propp, in his Morphology of the Folktale, criticized the common distinction between fairy tales and animal tales on the grounds that many tales contained both fantastic elements and animals. Were I asked, what is a fairytale, I should reply, Read Undine, that is a fairytale. of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful. As Stith Thompson points out, talking animals and the presence of magic seem to be common to the fairy tale than fairies themselves. However, the presence of animals that talk does not make a tale a fairy tale, especially when the animal is clearly a mask on a human face. Steven Swann Jones identified the presence of magic as the feature by which fairy tales can be distinguished from other sorts of folktales, davidson and Chaudri identify transformation as the key feature of the genre
Fairy tale
–
1865 illustration of
Tom Thumb and the
Giant
Fairy tale
–
From
The Facetious Nights of Straparola by
Giovanni Francesco Straparola
Fairy tale
–
A picture by
Gustave Doré of
Mother Goose reading written (literary) fairy tales
Fairy tale
–
Ivan Bilibin 's illustration of the Russian fairy tale about
Vasilisa the Beautiful
7.
Suspended animation in fiction
–
Suspended animation in fiction is the temporary halting of life processes of fictional characters followed by their later revival. The process often serves as a device and is used in innumerable science fiction stories as a means to transport a character from the past into the future or to aid interstellar space travel. The mechanisms for the suspension and revival can vary widely, early stories tend to use magical enchantment that induces a long sleep. Many modern stories attempt to portray it as suspended animation or cryonics, while glossing over. In the fictional versions, all the cells are usually viable, many stories feature accidental freezing and use technobabble to explain how the characters survived the process. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are classic fairy tales that use suspended animation as a central theme, in Shakespeare, several tales employ plot devices of a drug which induces a suspended animation state which is indistinguishable from death. He then falls asleep for 20 years, and returns to his village in what is now the United States, finding his home town, the story has become a prototype for social dislocation tales of the type. In the 20th century science fiction includes the notable V. Mayakovskys Klop, lovecrafts Cool Air, and Edgar Rice Burroughs The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw. The character of Buck Rogers was introduced in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. Clarkes 3001, The Final Odyssey reveals that Frank Poole, murdered by HAL9000 in 2001, A Space Odyssey was cryopreserved by his exposure to space, relatively few stories have been published concerning the primary objective and definition of cryonics, which is medical time travel. In the Edgar Allan Poe story mentioned above, the electrically-revived mummy mentions that his Egyptian civilization uses mummification for time travel, the most in-depth novel based on contemporary cryonics is national best-seller The First Immortal by James L. Halperin. Movies featuring suspended animation include Late for Dinner, Forever Young, Demolition Man, Idiocracy, Sexmission, the 1984 film Iceman centered on a prehistoric man who was found and revived after being frozen for 40,000 years. Played dramatically in that film, the concept was used for comedic effect in the 1992 film Encino Man. In Iceman, the examining the caveman before his thaw speculate that something in his diet acted as a natural antifreeze to prevent cell crystallization. Suspended animation is used during space travel in the James Cameron films Aliens, cryosleep was also used in Christopher Nolans Interstellar. The Empire Strikes Back involves the test freezing of Han Solo as proof of concept for suspension, on television, suspended animation has appeared occasionally since the 1960s. In the original series of Star Trek, in the episode Space Seed,72 humans are found adrift in space in a state of suspended animation. Their leader, Khan Noonien Singh, is played by Ricardo Montalbán who reprised the role in the film Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan
Suspended animation in fiction
–
A 1965 press photo of actors portraying the Robinson Family being placed in suspended animation for their space voyage, in Lost in Space.
Suspended animation in fiction
–
An 1852 depiction of Snow White laid in a glass coffin during her period of magically induced suspended animation.
8.
Brothers Grimm
–
Their first collection of folk tales, Childrens and Household Tales, was published in 1812. The brothers spent their formative years in the German town of Hanau and their fathers death in 1796 caused great poverty for the family and affected the brothers for many years after. They both attended the University of Marburg where they developed a curiosity about German folklore, which grew into a dedication to collecting German folk tales. The rise of romanticism during the 19th century revived interest in folk stories. With the goal of researching a scholarly treatise on folk tales, between 1812 and 1857, their first collection was revised and republished many times, growing from 86 stories to more than 200. The popularity of the Grimms best folk tales has endured well, Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was born on 4 January 1785 and his brother Wilhelm Carl Grimm on 24 February 1786. They were the second- and third-eldest surviving siblings in a family of nine children, in 1791, the family moved to the countryside town of Steinau, when Philipp was employed there as district magistrate. The family became prominent members of the community, residing in a home surrounded by fields. Biographer Jack Zipes writes that the brothers were happy in Steinau, the children were educated at home by private tutors, receiving strict instruction as Lutherans that instilled in both a lifelong religious faith. In 1796, Philipp Grimm died of pneumonia, plunging his family into poverty, Dorothea depended on financial support from her father and sister, first lady-in-waiting at the court of William I, Elector of Hesse. Jacob was the eldest living son, and he was forced at age 11 to assume adult responsibilities for the two years. The two boys adhered to the advice of their grandfather, who continually exhorted them to be industrious, the brothers left Steinau and their family in 1798 to attend the Friedrichsgymnasium in Kassel, which had been arranged and paid for by their aunt. By then, they were without a provider, forcing them to rely entirely on each other. The two brothers differed in temperament, Jacob was introspective and Wilhelm was outgoing, sharing a strong work ethic, they excelled in their studies. In Kassel, they became aware of their inferior social status relative to high-born students who received more attention. Still, each brother graduated at the head of his class, Jacob in 1803, after graduation from the Friedrichsgymnasium, the brothers attended the University of Marburg. The university was small with about 200 students and there they became aware that students of lower social status were not treated equally. They were disqualified from admission because of their standing and had to request dispensation to study law
Brothers Grimm
–
Wilhelm Grimm (left) and Jacob Grimm in an 1855 painting by
Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann
Brothers Grimm
–
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm lived in this house in
Steinau from 1791 to 1796.
Brothers Grimm
–
Jacob Grimm lecturing (illustration by
Ludwig Emil Grimm, c. 1830)
Brothers Grimm
–
The graves of the Brothers Grimm in
Schöneberg, Berlin (St. Matthäus Kirchhof Cemetery)
9.
Sun, Moon, and Talia
–
Sun, Moon, and Talia is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone. Charles Perrault retold this fairy tale in 1697 as The Sleeping Beauty and it is Aarne-Thompson type 410, other tales of this type include The Glass Coffin and The Young Slave. After the birth of a lords daughter named Talia, wise men and astrologers cast the childs horoscope. To protect his daughter, the commands that no flax would ever be brought into his house. Years later, Talia sees an old woman spinning flax on a spindle. She asks the woman if she can stretch the flax herself, but as soon as she begins to spin, a splinter of flax goes under her fingernail, and she drops to the ground, apparently dead. Unable to stand the thought of burying his child, Talias father, some time later, a king, hunting in nearby woods, follows his falcon into the house. He finds Talia, overcome by her beauty, he tries unsuccessfully to wake her and he lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love. Afterwards, he leaves the girl on the bed and returns to his own city, still deep in sleep, she gives birth to twins. One day, the girl find her mothers breast, and instead she begins to suck on Talias finger. She names them Sun and Moon and lives with them in the house, the king returns and finds Talia is awake – and a mother of twins. He calls out the names of Talia, Sun and Moon in his sleep, and his wife and she forces the kings secretary to tell her everything, and then, using a forged message, has Talias children brought to court. She orders the cook to kill the children and serve them to the king, but the cook hides them, and cooks two lambs instead. The queen taunts the king while he eats, then the queen has Talia brought to court. She commands that a fire be lit in the courtyard. Talia asks to take off her fine garments first, Talia undresses and utters screams of grief with each piece of clothing. His wife tells him that Talia would be burned and that he had eaten his own children. The king commands that his wife, his secretary, and the cook be thrown into the fire instead, the cook explains how he had saved Sun and Moon
Sun, Moon, and Talia
–
Theatre
10.
Giambattista Basile
–
Giambattista Basile was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector. Born in Giugliano to a Neapolitan middle-class family, Basile was a courtier and soldier to various Italian princes, according to Benedetto Croce he was born in 1575, while other sources have February 1566. In Venice he began to write poetry, later he returned to Naples to serve as a courtier under the patronage of Don Marino II Caracciolo, prince of Avellino, to whom he dedicated his idyll L’Aretusa. By the time of his death he had reached the rank of count Conte di Torrone, basiles earliest known literary production is from 1604 in the form of a preface to the Vaiasseide of his friend the Neapolitan writer Giulio Cesare Cortese. The following year his villanella Smorza crudel amore was set to music and it later became known as the Pentamerone. Although neglected for some time, the received a great deal of attention after the Brothers Grimm praised it highly as the first national collection of fairy tales. Many of these tales are the oldest known variants in existence. They include the earliest known versions of Rapunzel and Cinderella, giambattista Basile spent much time in the courts of the nobles of the kingdom of Naples, tales of Pentamerone are set in the woods and castles of the Basilicata, in particular the city of Acerenza. The 2015 film Tale of Tales is a screen adaptation based on his fairy tale collection
Giambattista Basile
–
Giambattista Basile
11.
Folklore
–
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. These include oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes and they include material culture, ranging from traditional building styles to handmade toys common to the group. Folklore also includes customary lore, the forms and rituals of celebrations like Christmas and weddings, folk dances, each one of these, either singly or in combination, is considered a folklore artifact. Just as essential as the form, folklore also encompasses the transmission of these artifacts from one region to another or from one generation to the next, for folklore is not taught in a formal school curriculum or studied in the fine arts. Instead these traditions are passed along informally from one individual to another either through verbal instruction or demonstration, the academic study of folklore is called folkloristics. To fully understand folklore, it is helpful to clarify its component parts and it is well-documented that the term was coined in 1846 by the Englishman William Thoms. He fabricated it to replace the contemporary terminology of popular antiquities or popular literature, the second half of the compound word, lore, proves easier to define as its meaning has stayed relatively stable over the last two centuries. Coming from Old English lār instruction, and with German and Dutch cognates, it is the knowledge and traditions of a particular group, the concept of folk proves somewhat more elusive. When Thoms first created this term, folk applied only to rural, frequently poor, a more modern definition of folk is a social group which includes two or more persons with common traits, who express their shared identity through distinctive traditions. Folk is a concept which can refer to a nation as in American folklore or to a single family. This expanded social definition of folk supports a view of the material, i. e. the lore. These now include all things people make with words, things they make with their hands, Folklore is no longer circumscribed as being chronologically old or obsolete. The folklorist studies the traditional artifacts of a group and how they are transmitted. Transmission is a part of the folklore process. Without communicating these beliefs and customs within the group over space and time, for folklore is also a verb. These folk artifacts continue to be passed along informally, as a rule anonymously, the folk group is not individualistic, it is community-based and nurtures its lore in community. As new groups emerge, new folklore is created… surfers, motorcyclists, in direct contrast to high culture, where any single work of a named artist is protected by copyright law, folklore is a function of shared identity within the social group. Having identified folk artifacts, the professional folklorist strives to understand the significance of these beliefs, customs, for these cultural units would not be passed along unless they had some continued relevance within the group
Folklore
–
Horse and Sulky weathervane, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Folklore
–
Hansel and Gretel,
Arthur Rackham, 1909
Folklore
–
The story of
Jahangir and
Anarkali is popular folklore in the former territories of the
Mughal Empire.
12.
Spindle (textiles)
–
A spindle is a straight spike usually made from wood used for spinning, twisting fibers such as wool, flax, hemp, cotton into yarn. The spindle may also have a hook, groove, or notch at the top to guide the yarn, spindles come in many different sizes and weights depending on the thickness of the yarn one desires to spin. The origin of the first wooden spindle is lost to history because the materials did not survive, whorl-weighted spindles date back at least to Neolithic times, spindle whorls have been found in archaeological digs around the world. A spindle is part of traditional spinning wheels where it is horizontal, such as the Indian charkha. In industrial yarn production, spindles are used as well, see spinning jenny, spinning mule, modern hand spindles fall into two basic categories, drop spindles, and supported spindles. In both, the spindle is vertical and they also permit the spinner to move around while spinning, going about their day. However, there are limits to their size/weight. Drop spindles are commonly available in high-whorl, low-whorl, and centre-whorl versions, in a high-whorl spindle, the whorl sits very close to the top of the shaft which allows the spindle to spin very fast. A hook is placed on the top of the shaft to secure the yarn. In a low-whorl spindle, the whorl sits near the bottom of the shaft, which makes it slower, but more steadily. The newly spun yarn is wound around the shaft just above the whorl, in centre-whorl spindles the cop is usually built above the whorl. Most supported spindles continue to rest with the tip on ones thigh, on the ground, on a table, french spindles are twiddled between the fingers of one hand instead. A familiar sight from history books is a used in conjunction with a distaff. There are many methods for controlling the pre-spun fibre, such as coiling it around ones lower arm, or through a bracelet. Spindles can also be used for plying, intertwining two or more strands of yarn together in order to create a stronger, more balanced. The spindle is closely associated with goddesses, including the Germanic Holda, Norse Frigg and Freya, Egyptian Isis, Greek Artemis. It is often connected with fate, as the Greek Fates, because the spinning wheel was not in common use before the 16th century in Europe, the older stories are certainly referring to hand spinning done on a spindle. Supported spindles spin on such as bowls that are usually ceramic or wooden
Spindle (textiles)
–
Modern top-whorl drop spindles
Spindle (textiles)
–
Modern Turkish spindle
Spindle (textiles)
–
Ancient Greek spindle whorls, 10th century BC,
Kerameikos Archaeological Museum, Athens
Spindle (textiles)
–
Woman spinning. Detail from an
Ancient Greek Attic white-ground
oinochoe, ca. 490 BC, from
Locri, Italy.
British Museum, London.
13.
Alexander Zick
–
Alexander Zick was a German painter and illustrator. Alexander was the greatgrandson of the painter and architect Januarius Zick and he was a student of August Wittig and Eduard Bendemann. In his last years in Berlin Alexander Zick was the designer of 2 German banknotes, the 5 Mark Reichskassenschein 1904, media related to Alexander Zick at Wikimedia Commons
Alexander Zick
–
Illustration by Zick for
Tom Thumb
Alexander Zick
–
Germany 5
Mark 1904
Art Nouveau Banknote, designed by Alexander Zick
14.
Baptism
–
Baptism is a Christian sacrament of admission and adoption, almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally. The canonical Gospels report that Jesus was baptized—a historical event to which a degree of certainty can be assigned. Baptism has been called a sacrament and an ordinance of Jesus Christ. In some denominations, baptism is also called christening, but for others the word christening is reserved for the baptism of infants, Baptism has also given its name to the Baptist churches and denominations. The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the candidate to be immersed, in v.16, Matthew will speak of Jesus coming up out of the water. The traditional depiction in Christian art of John the Baptist pouring water over Jesus head may therefore be based on later Christian practice, other common forms of baptism now in use include pouring water three times on the forehead, a method called affusion. Martyrdom was identified early in Church history as baptism by blood, later, the Catholic Church identified a baptism of desire, by which those preparing for baptism who die before actually receiving the sacrament are considered saved. Today, some Christians, particularly Christian Scientists, Quakers, The Salvation Army, and Unitarians, do not see baptism as necessary, among those that do, differences can be found in the manner and mode of baptizing and in the understanding of the significance of the rite. Most Christians baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, much more than half of all Christians baptize infants, many others hold that only believers baptism is true baptism. Some insist on submersion or at least partial immersion of the person who is baptized, others consider that any form of washing by water, as long as the water flows on the head, is sufficient. The term baptism has also used to refer to any ceremony, trial, or experience by which a person is initiated, purified. The Greek verb baptō, dip, from which the verb baptizo is derived, is in turn hypothetically traced to a reconstructed Indo-European root *gʷabh-, the Greek words are used in a great variety of meanings. John the Baptist, who is considered a forerunner to Christianity, the apostle Paul distinguished between the baptism of John, and baptism in the name of Jesus, and it is questionable whether Christian baptism was in some way linked with that of John. Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism, though whether Jesus intended to institute a continuing, the earliest Christian baptisms were probably normally by immersion, complete or partial. Though other modes may have also been used, at the hour in which the cock crows, they shall first pray over the water. When they come to the water, the water shall be pure and flowing, that is, then they shall take off all their clothes. The children shall be baptized first, all of the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, after this, the men will be baptized
Baptism
–
Masaccio (1425–1426), Baptism of the Neophytes (it),
Brancacci Chapel,
Florence. This painting depicts baptism by
affusion, which continues in the East except for infants, but in the West it had dropped almost completely out of use by the 15th century. The artist may have chosen an archaic form for this depiction of baptism by
St. Peter.
Baptism
–
Catacombs of San Callisto: baptism in a 3rd-century painting
Baptism
–
Christening photograph in
Orthodox Church. The moment of
Catechism.
15.
Fairy
–
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature in European folklore, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural, or preternatural. According to Thomas Keightley, the word derives from the Latin fata. Other forms are the Italian fata, and the Provençal fada, in old French romance, fee was a woman skilled in magic, and who knew the power and virtue of words, of stones, and of herbs. Faierie became fairy, but with that now almost exclusively referring to one of the legendary people. The word fairy was used to represent an illusion, or enchantment, to the word faie was added the suffix -erie, used to express either a place where something is found or a trade or typical activity engaged in. In later usage it applied to any kind of quality or activity associated with a particular type of person. In the sense land where fairies dwell, the distinctive and archaic spellings Faery, the latinate fay is not to be confused with the unrelated fey, meaning fated to die. Various folkloristic traditions refer to them euphemistically, by such as wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair folk. Sometimes the term fairy is used to any magical creature, including goblins or gnomes, at other times. Fairies have their origin in the conflation of Celtic traditions in the Middle French medieval romances. Fairie was in origin used adjectivally, meaning enchanted, but was used as a name for enchanted creatures from as early as the Late Middle English period. In English literature of the Elizabethan era, elves became conflated with the fairies of Romance culture, the Victorian and Edwardian eras saw an increase in interest in fairies. The Celtic Revival viewed them as part of Irelands cultural heritage, carole Silvers and others suggest that the fascination of English antiquarians arose from a reaction to greater industrialization, and loss of folkways. Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers, even with these small fairies, however, their small size may be magically assumed rather than constant. Some fairies though normally quite small were able to dilate their figures to imitate humans, on Orkney they were described as short in stature, dressed in dark grey, and sometimes seen in armour. Wings, while common in Victorian and later artwork of fairies, are rare in the folklore, even very small fairies flew with magic. Nowadays, fairies are depicted with ordinary insect wings or butterfly wings. In some folklore, fairies have green eyes, some depictions of fairies either have them wearing some sort of footwear and other depictions of fairies are always barefoot
Fairy
–
A portrait of a fairy, by
Sophie Gengembre Anderson (1869). The title of the painting is Take the Fair Face of Woman, and Gently Suspending, With Butterflies, Flowers, and Jewels Attending, Thus Your Fairy is Made of Most Beautiful Things - purportedly from a poem by Charles Ede.
Fairy
–
1896 illustration of a fairy from
Ernest Vincent Wright 's The Wonderful Fairies of the Sun
Fairy
–
Classic representation of a small fairy with butterfly wings commonly used in modern times.
Luis Ricardo Falero, 1888.
Fairy
–
A resin statue of a fairy
16.
Godparent
–
A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a childs baptism, although the term has also been used in a legal sense. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother, as early as the 2nd century AD, infant baptism had begun to gain acceptance among Christians for the spiritual purification and social initiation of infants. The requirement for some confession of faith necessitated the use of adults who acted as sponsors for the child and they vocalized the confession of faith and acted as guarantors of the child’s spiritual upbringing. Normally, these sponsors were the parents of a child, as emphasized in 408 by St. Augustine who suggested that they could, it seems exceptionally. Within a century, the Corpus Juris Civilis indicates that parents had been replaced in this role almost completely and this was clarified in 813 when the Council of Munich prohibited natural parents from acting as godparents to their own children. This pattern was marked by the creation of legal barriers to marriage that paralleled those for other forms of kin, as confirmation emerged as a separate rite from baptism from the 8th century, a second set of sponsors, with similar prohibitions, also emerged. Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin preserved infant baptism against the attacks of more radical reformers including Anabaptists, in 888, the Catholic Council of Metz attempted to limit the number to one, but proliferation seems to have continued. In early 14th-century Spain, as many as 20 godparents were being chosen, in England, the Synod of Worcester stipulated three sponsors, and this has remained the norm in the Church of England. The Council of Trent attempted to limit the numbers of godparents to one or two, but practice has differed across the Catholic world. They were abolished in 1644 by the Directory of Public Worship promulgated by the English Civil War Parliamentary regime, after the Restoration in 1660, they were reintroduced to Anglicanism, with occasional objections, but dropped by almost every dissenting church. There is some evidence that the institution had lost some of its social importance as well as its universality. At present, in the Church of England, relatives can stand as godparents, godparents should be both baptized and confirmed, but the requirement for confirmation can be waived. There is no requirement for clergy to baptize those from outside their parishes, as a result, individual clergy have considerable discretion over the qualifications of godparents. Many contemporary Anglican rites likewise require parents and godparents to respond on behalf of infant candidates, the Catholic institution of godparenthood survived the Reformation largely unchanged. Someone who belongs to another Christian church cannot become a godparent, a witness does not have any religious role recognized by the Church. Lutherans follow a similar theology of godparents as Roman Catholics and they believe that godparents help with their Christian upbringing, especially if they should lose their parents. Lutherans, like Roman Catholics, believe that a godparent must be both a baptized and confirmed Christian, some Lutherans also follow the Roman Catholic tradition that a Christian who is not affiliated with the Lutheran denomination may serve as a witness rather than a godparent. The Orthodox institution of godparenthood has been the least affected of the traditions by change
Godparent
–
Detail from the "Baptism Window" at
St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Memphis, Tennessee, showing godparents from the mid-20th century.
Godparent
–
The
baptismal font at the
Cathedral of Magdeburg.
Godparent
–
Brit Mila—the
sandek holds the baby boy
17.
Wicked fairy godmother
–
Anonymous in her first appearance, she was later named in some variants Carabosse, and as Maleficent in Disneys animated version. The oldest version of Sleeping Beauty that has been preserved is Sun, Moon and this version does not feature any fairy godmothers, Talias fate is prophesied, but Talias fate is not caused by witchcraft. Charles Perrault added the witch to his variant the story of Sleeping Beauty, The Beauty in the Sleeping Wood, published in Histoires ou contes du temps passé1697, the figure of the witch appeared before Perraults tale. At some point, this name was attached to the fairy godmother in Sleeping Beauty. A good fairy mitigates the curse so that the princess will only fall into a sleep. On the princesss fifteenth birthday, the princess meets a woman, pricks her finger on the bodkin. In Marius Petipas ballet Sleeping Beauty with music composed by Tchaikovsky, Carabosse was portrayed as a figure, entering each time to foreboding. Carabosses costumes were designed by Léon Bakst, her medieval-inspired costume gave her the silhouette of a rat, years later when Aurora is in her early twenties, Carabosse has died in exile but her son, Caradoc attempts to exact revenge and seduce Aurora. In the Disney animated version of Sleeping Beauty the character of the fairy is personified in Maleficent. She lays a curse on the princess and the plan to take the princess away. When Maleficent learns that Prince Phillip is in love with the Princess Aurora, she captures him so that he will be too old and feeble to wield a sword when he can finally free Aurora. When the good fairies help him escape, Maleficent takes over the entire palace, Prince Phillip defeats the villainess with his Sword of Truth, killing her by throwing the sword as if it were a spear at the dragon. All that is left of Maleficent is her robe, however, Maleficent starts to care for the child as if she was her own daughter and begins to question her own actions. In the end, it is her kiss of love on the head that frees Aurora from the curse. In The Young Slave, Cilia, the sister, gives her daughter Lisa to the fairies to raise. All of the fairies give gifts to Lisa, but the witch twists her ankle, and curses Lisa to die when she was seven, because her mother, combing her hair, forgot the comb in her hair. In another variant, The Glass Coffin, the role of the witch is taken by a traveler who curses the daughter of a rich count to be imprisoned in a glass coffin after she refuses to marry him. The common knowledge of the witch has made the figure an obvious target for revisionist fairy tales, the wicked fairy godmother is widely spoofed and parodied
Wicked fairy godmother
–
Carabosse as envisaged by
Léon Bakst
Wicked fairy godmother
–
Illustration to
Sleeping Beauty, by
Gustave Doré: the princess about to prick her finger and fulfill the witch's curse.
Wicked fairy godmother
–
Theatre
18.
Red deer
–
The red deer is one of the largest deer species. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, Iran, parts of western Asia and it also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being the only species of deer to inhabit Africa. Red deer have been introduced to areas, including Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Peru, Uruguay, Chile. In many parts of the world, the meat from red deer is used as a food source, Red deer are ruminants, characterized by a four-chambered stomach. Genetic evidence indicates the red deer as traditionally defined is a group, rather than a single species. It is probable that the ancestor of all red deer, including wapiti, originated in central Asia, although at one time red deer were rare in parts of Europe, they were never close to extinction. The red deer is the fourth-largest deer species behind moose, elk and it is a ruminant, eating its food in two stages and having an even number of toes on each hoof, like camels, goats and cattle. European red deer have a long tail compared to their Asian. The deer of Central and Western Europe vary greatly in size, large red deer stags, like the Caspian red deer or those of the Carpathian Mountains, may rival the wapiti in size. Female red deer are smaller than their male counterparts. The male red deer is typically 175 to 250 cm long and weighs 160 to 240 kg, the tail adds another 12 to 19 cm and shoulder height is about 95 to 130 cm. In Scotland, stags average 201 cm in length and 122 cm high at the shoulder. Size varies in different subspecies with the largest, the huge but small-antlered deer of the Carpathian Mountains, weighing up to 500 kg. At the other end of the scale, the Corsican red deer weighs about 80 to 100 kg, European red deer tend to be reddish-brown in their summer coats. The males of many subspecies also grow a short neck mane during the autumn, the male deer of the British Isles and Norway tend to have the thickest and most noticeable manes. Male Caspian red deer and Spanish red deer do not carry neck manes, male deer of all subspecies, however, tend to have stronger and thicker neck muscles than female deer, which may give them an appearance of having neck manes. Red deer hinds do not have neck manes, the European red deer is adapted to a woodland environment. Only the stags have antlers, which growing in the spring and are shed each year
Red deer
–
Red deer
Red deer
Red deer
–
Stag and hinds
Red deer
–
Western European red deer
19.
Arthur Rackham
–
Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator. Rackham was born in Lewisham, then part of Kent as one of 12 children. In 1884, at the age of 17, he was sent on a voyage to Australia to improve his fragile health. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office, in 1892, he left his job and started working for the Westminster Budget as a reporter and illustrator. Book illustrating then became Rackhams career for the rest of his life and this was developed further through the austere years of the Boer War with regular contributions to childrens periodicals such as Little Folks and Cassells Magazine. In 1901 he moved to Wychcombe Studios near Haverstock Hill, edith suffered a miscarriage in 1904, but the couple had one daughter, Barbara, in 1908. M. Barries Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, published by Hodder & Stoughton. Income from the books was greatly augmented by annual exhibitions of the artwork at the Leicester Galleries, Rackham won a gold medal at the Milan International Exhibition in 1906 and another one at the Barcelona International Exposition in 1912. His works were included in exhibitions, including one at the Louvre in Paris in 1914. From 1906 the family lived in Chalcot Gardens, near Haverstock Hill, until moving from London to Houghton, in 1929 the family settled into a newly built property in Limpsfield, Surrey. Arthur Rackham died in 1939 of cancer at his home, during that period, there was a strong market for high quality illustrated books which typically were given as Christmas gifts. Many of Rackhams books were produced in a de luxe limited edition, often vellum bound and sometimes signed, as well as a larger and this was often followed by a more modestly presented octavo edition in subsequent years for particularly popular books. The onset of the war in 1914 curtailed the market for such quality books, arthur Rackhams works have become very popular since his death, both in North America and Britain. His images have been used by the greeting card industry. His original drawings and paintings are keenly sought at the international art auction houses. Rackhams illustrations were based on robust pen and India ink drawings. He would first lightly block in shapes and details of the drawing with a soft pencil, over this he would then carefully work in lines of pen and India ink, removing the pencil traces after the drawing had begun to take form. For colour pictures, he would begin painting by building up multiple thin washes of watercolour creating translucent tints. He would also go on to expand the use of cuts in illustration work, particularly in the period after the First World War, as exemplified by his Sleeping Beauty
Arthur Rackham
–
Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham
–
One of Rackham's illustrations to
Das Rheingold, depicting Fasolt and
Fafner seizing
Freia.
Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham
–
Cinderella silhouette illustration
20.
Richard Wagner
–
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works and he described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and his advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music, Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, until his final years, Wagners life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century, his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, where his family lived at No. 3, the Brühl in the Jewish quarter and he was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine. Wagners father Carl died of typhus six months after Richards birth, afterwards his mother Johanna lived with Carls friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyers residence in Dresden, until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father, Geyers love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel, in late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzels school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyers death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, at the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Webers opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright and his first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis as WWV1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was influenced by Shakespeare
Richard Wagner
–
Richard Wagner in 1871
Richard Wagner
–
Wagner's birthplace, at 3,
the Brühl, Leipzig
Richard Wagner
–
Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer (1835), by Alexander von Otterstedt
Richard Wagner
–
Wagner c. 1840, by Ernest Benedikt Kietz
21.
Brynhild
–
Brynhildr is a shieldmaiden and a valkyrie in Germanic mythology, where she appears as a main character in the Völsunga saga and some Eddic poems treating the same events. Under the name Brünnhilde she appears in the Nibelungenlied and therefore also in Richard Wagners opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and she may be inspired by the Visigothic princess Brunhilda of Austrasia. The history of Brynhildr includes fratricide, a battle between brothers, and dealings with the Huns. She is also known as Sigrdrífa, as written in the poem Sigrdrífumál, according to the Völsunga saga, Brynhildr is a shieldmaiden and seemingly valkyrie who is the daughter of Budli. She was ordered to decide a fight between two kings, Hjalmgunnar and Agnar, and knew that Odin preferred the older king, Hjalmgunnar, yet she decided the battle for Agnar. The hero Sigurðr Sigmundson, heir to the clan of Völsung and slayer of the dragon Fafnir, entered the castle and awoke Brynhildr by removing her helmet, the two fell in love and Sigurðr proposed to her with the magic ring Andvaranaut. The Völsunga saga also describes a subsequent encounter between Sigurðr and Brynhildr at Hlymdale, the home of Brynhildrs brother-in-law, Heimir, there Sigurðr declared his love for the shieldmaiden after spotting her in her tower. Promising to return and make Brynhildr his bride, Sigurðr then headed for the court of Gjuki, following Sigurðrs departure, Brynhildr was visited by Gudrun, the daughter of Gjuki, who sought her aid in interpreting a dream. This dream presaged Sigurðrs betrayal of Brynhildr and marriage to Gudrun, in the kingdom of the Burgundians, Gjukis wife, the sorceress Grimhild, wanting Sigurðr married to her daughter Gudrun, prepared a magic potion that made Sigurðr forget about Brynhildr. Hearing of Sigurðrs encounter with the valkyrie, Grimhild decided to make Brynhildr the wife of her son Gunnar, Gunnar, having gained the consent of Heimir, then sought to court Brynhild, but was stopped by a ring of fire around the castle. He tried to ride through the flames with his own horse and then with Sigurðrs horse, Grani, Sigurðr then exchanged shapes with him and entered the ring of fire. Sigurðr claimed Brynhildrs hand, and they stayed there three nights, however, Sigurðr laid his sword between them. Sigurðr also took the ring Andvaranaut from her finger and later gave it to Gudrun, Gunnar and Sigurðr soon returned to their true forms, and Brynhildr married Gunnar. However, Gudrun and Brynhild later quarreled over whose husband was greater, Gudrun revealed that it was actually Sigurðr who rode through the ring of fire, and Brynhildr became enraged. Sigurðr, remembering the truth, tried to console her, Brynhildr plotted revenge by urging Gunnar to kill Sigurðr, accusing that he took her virginity on Hidarfjall, which he swore not to do. Gunnar and his brother Hogni were afraid to kill him themselves and they incited their younger brother, Gutthorm, to kill Sigurðr, by giving him a magic potion of enragement, and Gutthorm murdered Sigurðr in his sleep. As he was dying, Sigurðr threw his sword at Gutthorm, Brynhildr herself killed Sigurðrs three-year-old son, and then she willed herself to die. When Sigurðrs funeral pyre was aflame, she threw herself upon it – thus they passed on together to the realm of Hel, however, in some Eddic poems such as Sigurðarkviða hin skamma, Gunnar and Sigurðr lay siege to the castle of Atli, Brynhildrs brother
Brynhild
–
"Brynhild" (1897) by
Gaston Bussière
Brynhild
–
A depiction of Brynhildr (1919) by
Robert Engels.
Brynhild
–
Sigurd and Brynhild's funeral
Brynhild
–
Faroese stamp depicting Brynhild and
Buðli
22.
Hagiography
–
A hagiography /ˌhæɡiˈɒɡrəfi/ is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader. The term hagiography may be used to refer to the biography of a saint or highly developed spiritual being in any of the spiritual traditions. Hagiographic works, especially those of the Middle Ages, can incorporate a record of institutional and local history, and evidence of popular cults, customs, and traditions. Hagiography constituted an important literary genre in the early Christian church, providing some informational history along with the inspirational stories. A hagiographic account of a saint can consist of a biography, a description of the saints deeds and/or miracles. The genre of lives of the saints first came into being in the Roman Empire as legends about Christian martyrs were recorded, the dates of their deaths formed the basis of martyrologies. In Western Europe hagiography was one of the important vehicles for the study of inspirational history during the Middle Ages. The Golden Legend of Jacob de Voragine compiled a great deal of medieval hagiographic material, Lives were often written to promote the cult of local or national states, and in particular to develop pilgrimages to visit relics. The bronze Gniezno Doors of Gniezno Cathedral in Poland are the only Romanesque doors in Europe to feature the life of a saint. The life of Saint Adalbert of Prague, who is buried in the cathedral, is shown in 18 scenes, the Bollandist Society continues the study, academic assembly, appraisal and publication of materials relating to the lives of Christian saints. Many of the important hagiographical texts composed in medieval England were written in the vernacular dialect Anglo-Norman, with the introduction of Latin literature into England in the 7th and 8th centuries the genre of the life of the saint grew increasingly popular. When one contrasts it to the heroic poem, such as Beowulf. Both genres then focus on the figure, but with the distinction that the saint is of a spiritual sort. Imitation of the life of Christ was then the benchmark against which saints were measured, in Anglo-Saxon and medieval England, hagiography became a literary genre par excellence for the teaching of a largely illiterate audience. Hagiography provided priests and theologians with classical handbooks in a form that allowed them the tools necessary to present their faith through the example of the saints lives. Of all the English hagiographers no one was more prolific nor so aware of the importance of the genre as Abbot Ælfric of Eynsham and his work The Lives of the Saints comprises a set of sermons on saints days, formerly observed by the English Church. The text spans the entire year and describes the lives of many saints, there are two known instances where saints lives were adapted into vernacular plays in Britain. These are the Cornish-language works Beunans Meriasek and Beunans Ke, about the lives of Saints Meriasek and Kea, Irish hagiographers wrote primarily in Latin while some of the later saints lives were written in the hagiographers native vernacular Irish
Hagiography
–
Page from the
Vita Sancti Martini by
Sulpicius Severus
Hagiography
–
Calendar entries for January 1st and 2nd of the
Martyrology of Oengus.
Hagiography
–
Example of Greek Orthodox visual hagiography. This is one of the best known surviving Byzantine mosaics in
Hagia Sophia -
Christ Pantocrator flanked by the
Virgin Mary and
John the Baptist made in the 12th century.
23.
Genevieve of Brabant
–
Genevieve of Brabant is a heroine of medieval legend. Her story is an example of the widespread tale of the chaste wife falsely accused and repudiated. Genovefa of Brabant was said to be the wife of the palatine Siegfried of Treves, sentenced to death, she was spared by the executioner and lived for six years with her son in a cave in the Ardennes nourished by a roe. Siegfried, who had found out Golos treachery, was chasing the roe when he discovered her hiding-place. Her story is said to rest on the history of Marie of Brabant, wife of Louis II, Duke of Bavaria, Marie of Brabant was suspected of infidelity and subsequently tried by her husband, found guilty and beheaded on 18 January 1256. When the verdict was shown to be mistaken, Louis had to do penance for the beheading, the change in name from Marie to Genevieve may be traced back to a cult of St Genevieve, patroness of Paris. Genovefas history may be compared to the Scandinavian ballads of Ravengaard og Memering and these deal with the history of Gunild, the wife of Henry Duke of Brunswick and Schleswig. When Duke Henry went to the war he left his wife in charge of Ravengaard, Gunild is cleared by the victory of her champion Memering, the smallest of Christian men. The Scottish ballad of Sir Aldingar is a version of the same story, the heroine Gunhilda is said to have been the daughter of Canute the Great and Emma. In 1036 she married King Henry, afterwards the emperor Henry III, and there was nothing in her history to warrant the legend. She was called Cunigund after her marriage, and perhaps was confused with St Cunigund, in the Karlamagnus-saga the innocent wife is Oliva, sister of Charlemagne and wife of King Hugo, and in the French Carolingian cycle the emperors wife Sibille or Blanchefleur. In Marcel Prousts In Search of Lost Time, the narrator remembers a magic lantern he had in his room, in Combray, that showed the image of Golo riding his horse towards Genevieves castle. In Chapter II of Volume One of his Reminiscences, Carl Schurz recalls the play of “Die Schöne Genovefa” which he used to see performed in his youth. Its plot is an adaptation of the tale of Genevieve of Brabant, german poet Maler Müllers tale Golo und Genoveva is an adaptation of Genevieve of Brabants tale. See F. J. Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, vol. ii. 1886), Sir Aldingar, S. Grundtvig, Danske Kaempeviser, “Sir Triamore, ” in Bishop Percys Folio MS. ed. Hales and Furnivall, vol. ii. The Romance of Octavian, ed. E. M. Goldsmid, The Erl of Toulous, seuffert, Die Legende von der Pfalzgräfin Genovefa, B. Golz, Pfalzgräfin Genovefa in der deutschen Dichtung, R. Köhler, Die deutschen Volksbücher von der Pfalzgräfin Genovefa, in Zeitschr
Genevieve of Brabant
–
Genoveva in the Forest Seclusion by
Adrian Ludwig Richter
24.
Italo Calvino
–
Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known include the Our Ancestors trilogy, the Cosmicomics collection of short stories. Admired in Britain, Australia and the United States, he was the most-translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death, Italo Calvino was born in Santiago de las Vegas, a suburb of Havana, Cuba, in 1923. His father, Mario, was a tropical agronomist and botanist who also taught agriculture and floriculture, born 47 years earlier in Sanremo, Italy, Mario Calvino had emigrated to Mexico in 1909 where he took up an important position with the Ministry of Agriculture. In an autobiographical essay, Italo Calvino explained that his father had been in his youth an anarchist, in 1917, Mario left for Cuba to conduct scientific experiments, after living through the Mexican Revolution. Calvinos mother, Eva Mameli, was a botanist and university professor, a native of Sassari in Sardinia and 11 years younger than her husband, she married while still a junior lecturer at Pavia University. Born into a family, Eva was a pacifist educated in the religion of civic duty. In 1925, less than two years after Calvinos birth, the returned to Italy and settled permanently in Sanremo on the Ligurian coast. Calvinos brother Floriano, who became a distinguished geologist, was born in 1927, the family divided their time between the Villa Meridiana, an experimental floriculture station which also served as their home, and Marios ancestral land at San Giovanni Battista. The vast forests and luxuriant fauna omnipresent in Calvinos early fiction such as The Baron in the Trees derives from this legacy, in an interview, Calvino stated that San Remo continues to pop out in my books, in the most diverse pieces of writing. He and Floriano would climb the tree-rich estate and perch for hours on the branches reading their favorite adventure stories. Both verbose by nature, possessed of an ocean of words, in each others presence we became mute, would walk in silence side by side along the road to San Giovanni. A fan of Rudyard Kiplings The Jungle Book as a child, fascinated by American movies and cartoons, he was equally attracted to drawing, poetry, and theatre. Other legacies include the beliefs in Freemasonry, Republicanism with elements of Anarchism and Marxism. Austere freethinkers with a hatred of the ruling National Fascist Party, Eva. Italo attended the English nursery school St Georges College, followed by a Protestant elementary private school run by Waldensians, the two teenagers formed a lasting friendship, Calvino attributing his political awakening to their university discussions. Seated together on a flat stone in the middle of a stream near our land, he. Eva managed to delay her sons enrolment in the Partys armed scouts, the Balilla Moschettieri, and then arranged that he be excused, as a non-Catholic, from performing devotional acts in Church
Italo Calvino
–
Italo Calvino
25.
Wish
–
A wish is a hope or desire for something. Fictionally, wishes can be used as plot devices, in folklore, opportunities for making a wish or for wishes to come true or be granted are themes that are sometimes used. In fiction a wish is a demand placed on the recipients unlimited request. One can wish on many things for example, wishing wells, dandelions when one blows the seeds or light them on fire, stars and much more. When one wishes in a well he or she throws money in, in the hope his or her wish comes true, the money normally goes to a charity. A template for fictional wishes could be The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, specifically the tale of Aladdin, also, Aladdins demands, while outrageous, were mainly variations on wealth. Classically the wish provider is often a spirit, genie or similar entity, releasing the entity from its constraint, usually by some simple action, allows the objects possessor to make a wish. The subservience of the powerful entity to the wisher can be explained in several ways. The entity may be grateful to be free of its constraint, the entity may be bound to obedience by its prison or some other item that the wisher possesses. The entity may, by its nature, be unable to exercise its powers without an initiator, other wish providers are a wide variety of, more or less, inanimate objects. Jacobs Monkeys Paw is an example of this, some wishes appear to be granted by nothing in particular. This is common in a tale involving a person, male or female, wishing for a child, even one that is a hedgehog, or a sprig of myrtle, the number of wishes granted varies. Aladdin had a number in the original story, but was restricted to three wishes in the 1992 Disney film. As in the Charles Perrault tale The Ridiculous Wishes, three is the most common, but others may be granted to fit the constraints of the tale, several authors have spun variations of the wish for more wishes theme, though some disallow this as cheating. In many stories the wording of the wish is extremely important, for example, characters often say, I wish I was wealthy. This wording could be literally, the wish granted so that at one time the wisher was wealthy but is not any more. Saying, I wish to be wealthy, then because to be refers to either the present or the future, a common problem is the granter of the wish being either extremely literal or through malice granting the request in a manner designed to cause maximum distress. Certain authors have tried an always on approach, the careless use of the word wish in everyday conversation having, often unpleasant
Wish
–
A
fairy offering wishes, illustration by
John Bauer to Alfred Smedberg's The seven wishes
26.
Pentamerone
–
The Pentamerone is a seventeenth-century fairy tale collection by Italian poet and courtier Giambattista Basile. The stories in the Pentamerone were collected by Basile and published posthumously in two volumes by his sister Adriana in Naples, Italy, in 1634 and 1636 under the pseudonym Gian Alesio Abbatutis. These stories were adapted by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. Examples of this are versions of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, while other collections of stories have included stories that would be termed fairy tales, his work is the first collection in which all the stories fit in that single category. He did not transcribe them from the tradition as a modern collector would, instead writing them in Neapolitan. The style of the stories is heavily Baroque, with many metaphorical usages, as an example, the sun is referred to in quite a few different ways, such as. The Sun, like a physician, went out to visit the flowers that are sick. The next morning, as soon as the shades of Night, as soon as the Sun with his golden broom had swept away the dirt of the Night from the fields watered by the dawn. This has been interpreted as a satire on Baroque style, but as Basile praised the style and this drew a great deal of attention to the work. This collection was for a time the best and richest that had been found by any nation. Not only were the traditions at that more complete in themselves, but the author had a special talent for collecting them. The stories are told with hardly any break, and the tone, two-thirds of them are, so far as their principal incidents are concerned, to be found in Germany, and are current there at this very day. The tales of Giambattista Basile are set in Basilicata and Campania, among the places related to the stories we find the city of Acerenza and the Castle of Lagopesole, the latter connected to the fairy tale Rapunzel. Soon to open at the Museum of the fairy tale city of Acerenza, the frame story is that of a cursed, melancholy princess named Zoza. She cannot laugh, no matter what her father does to amuse her, so he sets up a fountain of oil by the door, thinking people slipping in the oil would make her laugh. An old woman tried to gather oil, a boy broke her jug, and the old woman grew so angry that she danced about. The old woman cursed her to only the prince of Round-Field. With some aid from fairies, who give her gifts, Zoza found the prince and the pitcher
Pentamerone
–
Il Pentamerone from a 1788 edition,
Naples
27.
The Young Slave
–
The Young Slave is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone. It is Aarne-Thompson type 410, Sleeping Beauty, other variants include The Glass Coffin and Sun, Moon, girls competed to jump over a rose bush, at last Cilia, the barons sister, did so, but she knocked off a rose petal. To pretend she had cleared it entirely, she swallowed the petal and she bore a daughter, named her Lisa, and gave her to fairies to raise. The fairies gave her gifts, but one twisted her ankle and cursed Lisa to die when she was seven, because her mother, combing her hair and this happened, and the lamenting mother put her in seven crystal coffins and put them in a room. Before she died, she gave her brother the key to the room and he obeyed, but he married, and one day while he hunted, his wife opened the door. Jealous of the beauty, she pulled her out by her hair. The woman beat her and made her a slave, telling her husband that her aunt had sent her a slave, the baron went to the fair and asked everyone for what they wanted. Lisa asked for a doll, a knife, and some pumice-stone and he forgot them, but the river swelled, reminding him. Lisa took them to the kitchen and told her story to the doll, after several days of this, the baron heard this and eavesdropped. When the girl began to whet the knife, he broke into the kitchen, then he put Lisa in the care of a relative, where she regained her health and beauty. The baron brought her to his own home, dismissed his wife back to her relatives, the Sleeping Prince The Maiden with the Rose on her Forehead The Bay-Tree Maiden
The Young Slave
–
Theatre
28.
The Glass Coffin
–
The Glass Coffin is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 163. Andrew Lang included it in The Green Fairy Book as The Crystal Coffin and it is Aarne-Thompson type 410, Sleeping Beauty. Another variant is The Young Slave, a tailors apprentice became lost in a forest. When night came, he saw a shining and followed it to a hut. An old man lived there and, after the tailor begged, allowed him to stay for the night, in the morning, the tailor awoke to witness a fight between a great stag and a bull. After the stag won, it bounded up to him and carried him off in its antlers and it set him down before a wall of stone and pushed him against a door in it, which then opened. Inside the door, he was told to stand on a stone and he did so, and it sank down into a great hall, where the voice directed him to look into a glass chest. The chest contained a beautiful maiden, who asked him to open the chest and free her, the maiden told him her story, She was the daughter of a rich count, and after the death of her parents, she had been raised by her brother. One day, a traveler stayed the night and used magic to get to her in the night and she found the use of magic repellent and rejected his proposal. In revenge the magician then turned her brother into the stag, imprisoned her in the glass chest, the tailor and the maiden emerged from the enchanted hall and found that the stag had been transformed back into her brother. The bull he had killed had been the magician, the tailor and the maiden then married. The Queen Bee The Golden Stag
The Glass Coffin
–
Theatre
29.
Joseph Jacobs
–
Joseph Jacobs was an Australian folklorist, literary critic, social scientist, historian and writer of English literature who became a notable collector and publisher of English folklore. He also edited editions of The Thousand and One Nights and he went on to join The Folklore Society in England and became an editor of the society journal Folklore. Joseph Jacobs also contributed to The Jewish Encyclopedia and he was the sixth surviving son of John Jacobs, a publican who had emigrated from London around 1837, and his wife Sarah, née Myers. Jacobs was educated at Sydney Grammar School and at the University of Sydney and he did not complete his studies in Sydney, but left for England at the age of 18 and entered St Johns College, Cambridge. He graduated with a B. A. in 1876, and in 1877, Jacobs married Georgina Horne and fathered two sons and a daughter. In 1900, when he became revising editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia, based in New York and he died on 30 January 1916 at his home in Yonkers, New York. Jacobs was secretary of the Society of Hebrew Literature from 1878 to 1884 and this led to the formation of the mansion house fund and committee, of which Jacobs was secretary from 1882 to 1900. He was a student of anthropology at the Statistical Laboratory at University College London in the 1880s under Francis Galton and his Studies in Jewish Statistics, Social, Vital and Anthropometric made his reputation as the first proponent of Jewish race science. He wrote many articles for the Athenaeum, which published in 1891 the collection, George Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Browning, Newman, Essays. In the same year appeared his Studies in Jewish Statistics, in 1892, Tennyson and In Memoriam, and in 1893, his important book on The Jews of Angevin England. His historical novel dealing with the life of Jesus, As Others Saw Him, A Retrospective A. D.54, was published anonymously in 1895, in the year his Jewish Ideals. In this year, he was invited to the United States of America to give a course of lectures on the Philosophy of Jewish History, the Story of Geographical Discovery was published towards the end of 1898 and ran into several editions. He had been compiling and editing the Jewish Year Book since 1896, in 1900, he accepted an invitation to become revising editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia, which was then being prepared at New York. He settled permanently in the United States, where he wrote articles for the Jewish Encyclopedia. He then became registrar and professor of English at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, in 1908, he was appointed a member of the board of seven, which made a new English translation of the Bible for the Jewish Publication Society of America. In 1913, he resigned his positions at the seminary to become editor of the American Hebrew, in 1920, Book I of his Jewish Contributions to Civilization, which was practically finished at the time of his death, was published at Philadelphia. Jacobs was also a contributor to the Encyclopædia Britannica, and James Hastings Encyclopaedia of Religion, although he collected many tales under the name of fairy tales, many of them are unusual sorts of tales. Binnorie and Tamlane are prose versions of ballads, The Old Woman and Her Pig is a rhyme, Henny-Penny is a fable
Joseph Jacobs
–
An illustration of the fairy tale A Legend of Knockmany, created by
John D. Batten for Joseph Jacob's collection Celtic Fairy Tales
Texts on Wikisource:
