1.
Icelandic name
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Icelandic names differ from most current Western family name systems by being patronymic or occasionally matronymic, they indicate the father of the child and not the historic family lineage. Iceland shares a cultural heritage with the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden. Icelanders, however, unlike other Scandinavians, have continued to use their traditional name system, the Icelandic system is thus not based on family names. Generally, a persons last name indicates the first name of their father or in some cases mother, some family names do exist in Iceland, most commonly adaptations from last name patronyms Icelanders took up when living abroad, usually Denmark. Since 1925, one cannot adopt a name unless one explicitly has a legal right to do so through inheritance. First names not previously used in Iceland must be approved by the Icelandic Naming Committee before being used, the criterion for acceptance of names is whether or not they can be easily incorporated into the Icelandic language. A man named Jón Einarsson has a son named Ólafur, Ólafur’s last name will not be Einarsson like his father’s, it will become Jónsson, literally indicating that Ólafur is the son of Jón. The same practice is used for daughters, Jón Einarssons daughter Sigríður’s last name would not be Einarsson but Jónsdóttir. Again, the name literally means Jón’s daughter, in some cases, an individual’s surname is derived from a parents middle name instead of the first name. For example, if Jón is the son of Hjálmar Arnar Vilhjálmsson he may either be named Jón Hjálmarsson or Jón Arnarsson, the reason for this may be that the parent prefers to be called by the middle name instead of the first name, this is fairly common. It may also be that the middle name seems to fit the child’s first name better. This practice has now become common, but features conspicuously in the Icelandic sagas. The vast majority of Icelandic last names carry the name of the father, some women use it as a social statement while others simply choose it as a matter of style. In all of these cases, the convention is the same, Ólafur, one well-known Icelander with a matronymic name is football player Heiðar Helguson, another is novelist Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir. One medieval example is the poet Eilífr Goðrúnarson, in the Icelandic film Bjarnfreðarson the title characters name is the subject of some mockery for his having a womans name – as Bjarnfreðurs son – not his fathers. In the film this is connected to her radical feminism and shame over his paternity, some people have both a matronymic and a patronymic, for example, Dagur Bergþóruson Eggertsson, the current mayor of Reykjavík. Another example is the girl Blær mentioned above, her name is Blær Bjarkardóttir Rúnarsdóttir. In Iceland, listings such as the directory are alphabetised by first name rather than surname
2.
Christian Krohg
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For the politician of the same name, see Christian Krohg. Christian Krohg was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author, Krohg was the son of lawyer and statesman Georg Anton Krohg and the grandson of Christian Krohg who was a government minister. Krohg studied law at the University of Oslo and was educated in Germany at the Baden School of Art in Karlsruhe under Hans Gude, inspired by the ideas of the realists he chose motives primarily from everyday life – often its darker or socially inferior sides. Particularly well known are his pictures of prostitutes, prostitution is also the subject of his novel Albertine, which caused a scandal when first published, and was confiscated by the police. Krohg’s style made him a figure in the transition from romanticism to naturalism. Through his periodic residence at Skagen, where he arrived for the first time in 1879, he had influence on Anna and Michael Ancher. Krohg was the editor of the Bohemian journal, Impressionisten. He then became a journalist for the Oslo newspaper Verdens Gang, later he became a professor director at the The Norwegian Academy of Arts 1909-1925. He was married to artist Oda Krohg and was the father of muralist Per Lasson Krohg, there are notable paintings by Christian Krohg in the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo and at Skagens Museum in Denmark. Clicking on the thumbnail will give you the full image and information concerning it
3.
Icelandic Commonwealth
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With the probable exception of Papar, Iceland was an uninhabited island until around 870. The medieval Icelandic state had a unique judicial structure, the first settlers of Iceland were greatly influenced by their Norwegian roots when creating their own form of government. The most powerful and elite leaders in Iceland were the chieftains, the office of the goði was called the goðorð. The goðorð was not delimited by strict geographical boundaries, thus, a free man could choose to support any of the goðar of his district. The supporters of the goðar were called Þingmenn, in exchange for the goði protecting his interests, the Þingmaðr would provide armed support to his goði during feuds or conflicts. The Þingmenn were also required to attend regional and national assemblies, on a regional level, the goðar of the thirteen district assemblies convened meetings every spring to settle local disputes. The goðar also served as the leaders of the Alþingi, the assembly of Iceland. Today, the Alþingi is the oldest parliamentary institution in existence and it began with the regional assembly at Kjalarness established by Þorsteinn Ingólfsson, son of the first settler. The leaders of the Kjalarnessþing appointed a man named Úlfljótr to study the laws in Norway and he spent three years in Norway and returned with the foundation of Úlfljótr’s Law, which would form the basis for Icelands national assembly. Sections of his law code are preserved in the Landnámabók, the first Alþingi assembly convened around the year 930 at Þingvellir. The Alþingi served as a gathering at which people from all over the country met for two weeks every June. The Alþingi revolved around the Lögrétta, the council of the assembly. The Lögrétta comprised the 39 goðar and their advisors and they also appointed a Lawspeaker once every three years. The Lawspeaker recited and clarified laws at Lögberg, located at the center of Þingvellir, the descendants of Ingólfr Arnarson, the first settler of Iceland, held the ceremonial position of allsherjargoði and had the role of sanctifying the Alþingi each year. Iceland was divided into four administrative regions called fjörðungar, each of these was ruled by nine goðar. The Alþingi was made up of the four Quarter Courts and this judicial body of Iceland consisted of 36 judges, each appointed by one of the goðar. These courts tried individual cases and served as a judicial authority to the regional courts. The rulings of the judges had to be virtually unanimous
4.
Reykholt, Western Iceland
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Reykholt is a village in the valley of the river Reykjadalsá, called Reykholtsdalur. It is part of Borgarfjörður, Western Region, Reykholt was at one time one of the intellectual centers of the island and had for many years one of the most important schools of the country. The poet and politician Snorri Sturluson lived in Reykholt during the Middle Ages, sturlesons records of the Old Norse language and mythology of medieval Iceland are invaluable to modern scholars. Remains of his farm and a bathroom with hot pot and a tunnel between the bath and the house can still be visited. The Snorrastofa Cultural / Research Centre was established in Reykholt on September 6,1988 with opening ceremonies attended by Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland, today, the village has 60 inhabitants, a school centre and a library concentrating on the works of Snorri Sturluson. A statue of Snorri by Gustav Vigeland can be found here, archeologists are still working here and finding medieval remains. In the vicinity, Japanese scientists are doing research on the wonders of the aurora borealis, about 20 km from Reykholt, there are the lava waterfalls Hraunfossar, one of the most interesting natural wonders on the island. It is also possible to go there to the caves Surtshellir in the lava field Hallmundarhraun. On the way to Borgarnes, people pass by the hot springs of Deildartunguhver and they exceed all the other hot springs of the country in their output of hot water,180 litres/second at 97 °C. is Media related to Reykholt at Wikimedia Commons
5.
Iceland
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Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 332,529 and an area of 103,000 km2, the capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active, the interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence still keeps summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate. According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in the year 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, emigrated to Iceland, the island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the Althing, one of the worlds oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, Iceland thus followed Norways integration to that Union and came under Danish rule after Swedens secession from that union in 1523. In the wake of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars, Icelands struggle for independence took form and culminated in independence in 1918, until the 20th century, Iceland relied largely on subsistence fishing and agriculture, and was among the poorest in Europe. Industrialisation of the fisheries and Marshall Plan aid following World War II brought prosperity, in 1994, it became a part of the European Economic Area, which further diversified the economy into sectors such as finance, biotechnology, and manufacturing. Iceland has an economy with relatively low taxes compared to other OECD countries. It maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. Iceland ranks high in economic, political and social stability and equality, in 2013, it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index. Iceland runs almost completely on renewable energy, some bankers were jailed, and the economy has made a significant recovery, in large part due to a surge in tourism. Icelandic culture is founded upon the nations Scandinavian heritage, most Icelanders are descendants of Germanic and Gaelic settlers. Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is descended from Old Norse and is related to Faroese
6.
Lawspeaker
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A lawspeaker or lawman is a unique Scandinavian legal office. It has its basis in a common Germanic oral tradition, where people were asked to recite the law. Two of the most famous lawspeakers are Snorri Sturluson and Þorgnýr the Lawspeaker, in Sweden, this office was the most important one of regional governments, where each lagsaga was the jurisdiction of a lawspeaker who was subordinate to the lawspeaker of Tiundaland. The lawspeaker presided over the Things, worked as a judge, the lawspeaker was obliged to memorize the law and to recite it at the Thing. It was the lawspeaker who, on the behalf of the people, however, after the establishment of the province laws, ca 1350, he would participate at the Stone of Mora with twelve companions from his jurisdiction. The office was not hereditary, but he was selected from the more powerful families. The first Swedish lawspeaker for whom we have substantial biographical information is Eskil, from the mid-13th century and onwards, the lawspeakers became more attached to the king, and it was common that lawspeakers were members of the kings council. King Magnus Eriksson decided that the king would influence the appointment of the lawspeakers, six nobles and six yeomen would in consultation with two clergymen appoint three men from the jurisdiction among whom the king would select the one he deemed to be most fit. This procedure would be in effect until the 16th century when the process of selection was transferred to the king. Still, the appointment remained restricted to noblemen until 1723, by then, the functions of the office had become restricted to that of a judge, a function which also became less important by time. In 1849, the office was abolished, but the title remained occasionally in use as a title of honour for governors, in 1947, the title of lagman was reintroduced for senior judges, namely the presidents of divisions of the courts of appeal. Since reform in 1969, presidents of the courts are lagmän. Correspondingly, presidents of the administrative courts also carry the title of lagman. Finland being governed by Swedish law wholly until 1809, the events were the same as in Sweden, however, the lagman offices were terminated and lagman became an honorific title only in 1868. In the 1993 reform, laamanni and lagman were reintroduced as the title of the judge of a district court or a senior judge in a court of appeal. In Norway, the lawspeakers remained counselors versed in the law until king Sverre I of Norway made them into his officials, in the laws of Magnus VI of Norway, they were given the right to function as judges and to preside at the lagtings. The lagtings and the office of lawspeaker were abolished in 1797, in Iceland, the office was introduced in 930, when the Althing was established. He was elected for three years, besides his function as the president of the thing, his duties were restricted to counselling and to reciting the law
7.
Althing
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The Alþingi is the national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest extant parliamentary institutions in the world, the Althing was founded in 930 at Þingvellir, the assembly fields or Parliament fields, situated approximately 45 kilometres east of what later became the countrys capital, Reykjavík. This event marked the beginning of the Icelandic Commonwealth, even after Icelands union with Norway in 1262, the Althing still held its sessions at Þingvellir until 1799, when it was discontinued for 45 years. It was restored in 1844 and moved to Reykjavík, where it has resided ever since, the present parliament building, the Alþingishús, was built in 1881, of hewn Icelandic stone. The constitution of Iceland provides for six electoral constituencies with the possibility of an increase to seven, the constituency boundaries are fixed by legislation. A party must have won at least five per cent of the vote in order to be eligible for these proportionally distributed seats. Political participation in Iceland is very high, usually over 80 per cent of the electorate casts a ballot, the current president of the Althing is Unnur Brá Konráðsdóttir. The Althingi is one of the oldest extant parliamentary institutions in the world and its establishment, as an outdoor assembly or thing held on the plains of Þingvellir from about the year 930 AD, laid the foundation for an independent national existence in Iceland. To begin with, the Althing was an assembly of the Icelandic Commonwealth. Those attending the assembly dwelt in temporary camps during the session, the centre of the gathering was the Lögberg, or Law Rock, a rocky outcrop on which the Lawspeaker took his seat as the presiding official of the assembly. His responsibilities included reciting aloud the laws in effect at the time and it was his duty to proclaim the procedural law of Althing to those attending the assembly each year. Public addresses on matters of importance were delivered at the Law Rock and there the assembly was called to order, the Lögrétta, the legislative section of the assembly, was its most powerful institution. It comprised the 39 district goðar plus nine additional members and the Lawspeaker, as the legislative section of Althing, the Lögrétta took a stand on legal conflicts, adopted new laws and granted exemptions to existing laws. Althing of old also performed a function and heard legal disputes in addition to the spring assemblies held in each district. After the country had divided into four quarters around 965 AD. Another court was established early in the 11th century and it served as a supreme court of sorts, and assumed the function of hearing cases left unsettled by the other courts. It comprised 48 judges appointed by the goðar of Lögrétta, when the Icelanders submitted to the authority of the Norwegian king by the terms of the Old Covenant in 1262, the function of Althing changed. The organization of the came to an end and the rule of the country by goðar disappeared
8.
Prose Edda
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The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorris Edda or, historically, simply as Edda, is an Old Norse work of literature written in Iceland in the early 13th century. The work is assumed to have been written, or at least compiled, by the Icelandic scholar. It begins with a euhemerized Prologue, a section on the Norse cosmogony, pantheon and this is followed by three distinct books, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál and Háttatal. Seven manuscripts, dating from around 1300 to around 1600, have independent textual value, Sturluson planned the collection as a textbook. It was to enable Icelandic poets and readers to understand the subtleties of alliterative verse, at that time, versions of the Edda were well known in Iceland, but scholars speculated that there once was an Elder Edda which contained the poems which Snorri quotes in his Edda. The etymology of Edda remains uncertain, there are many hypotheses, and little agreement. Some argue that the word derives from the name of Oddi, Edda could therefore mean book of Oddi. However, this assumption is generally rejected, Faulkes in his English translation of the Prose Edda commented that this is unlikely, both in terms of linguistics and history since Snorri was no longer living at Oddi when he composed his work. Another connection was made with the word óðr, which means poetry or inspiration in Old Norse, Edda also means great-parent, a word used by Snorri himself in the Skáldskaparmál. That is, with the meaning, the name of a character in the Rigsthula. A final hypothesis is derived from the Latin edo, meaning I write and it relies on the fact that the word kredda is certified and comes from the Latin credo, I believe. It seems likely Snorri would have been able to invent the word, Edda in this case could be translated as Poetic Art. This is the meaning that the word was given in the Middle Ages. The name Sæmundar Edda was given by the Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson to the collection of poems contained in the Codex Regius, many of which are quoted by Snorri. Brynjólfur, along many others of his time incorrectly believed that they were collected by Sæmundr fróði. Seven manuscripts of the Edda have survived, six compositions of the Middle Ages, no one manuscript is complete, and each has variations. In addition to three fragments, the four manuscripts are Codex Regius, Codex Wormianus, Codex Trajectinus. Codex Upsaliensis, was composed in the first quarter of the century and is the oldest manuscript preserved of the Edda of Snorri
9.
Gylfaginning
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Gylfaginning, is the first part of Snorri Sturlusons Prose Edda after Prologue. The Gylfaginning deals with the creation and destruction of the world of the Norse gods, the second part of the Prose Edda is called the Skáldskaparmál and the third Háttatal. This is why he journeys to Asgard, but on the way he is tricked by the gods and arrives in some other place, inside the palace he encounters a man who asks Gylfis name and so king Gylfi introduces himself as Gangleri. Gangleri then is taken to the king of the palace and comes upon three men, High, Just-As-High, and Third, Gangleri is then challenged to show his wisdom by asking questions, as is the custom in many Norse sagas. Each question made to High, Just-As-High, and Third is about an aspect of the Norse mythology or its gods, in the end all the palace and its people just vanish and Gylfi is left standing on empty ground. It is then implied that as Gylfi returns to his nation and it can be argued that Snorri used this narrative device as a means of being able to safely document a vanishing and largely oral tradition within a Christian context. Gylfaginning in Old Norse at heimskringla. no Text of all original manuscripts The text with modern Icelandic spelling English translation
10.
Norse mythology
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The cosmos in Norse mythology consists of Nine Worlds that flank a central cosmological tree, Yggdrasil. Units of time and elements of the cosmology are personified as deities or beings, various forms of a creation myth are recounted, where the world is created from the flesh of the primordial being Ymir, and the first two humans are Ask and Embla. These worlds are foretold to be reborn after the events of Ragnarök, there the surviving gods will meet, and the land will be fertile and green, and two humans will repopulate the world. Norse mythology has been the subject of scholarly discourse since the 17th century, by way of comparative mythology and historical linguistics, scholars have identified elements of Germanic mythology reaching as far back as Proto-Indo-European mythology. In the modern period, the Romanticist Viking revival re-awoke an interest in the subject matter, the myths have further been revived in a religious context among adherents of Germanic Neopaganism. The majority of these Old Norse texts were created in Iceland and this occurred primarily in the 13th century. The Prose Edda was composed as a manual for producing skaldic poetry—traditional Old Norse poetry composed by skalds. Originally composed and transmitted orally, skaldic poetry utilizes alliterative verse, kennings, the Prose Edda presents numerous examples of works by various skalds from before and after the Christianization process and also frequently refers back to the poems found in the Poetic Edda. The Poetic Edda consists almost entirely of poems, with some prose narrative added, in comparison to skaldic poetry, Eddic poetry is relatively unadorned. Numerous further texts, such as the sagas, provide further information, the saga corpus consists of thousands of tales recorded in Old Norse ranging from Icelandic family histories to Migration period tales mentioning historic figures such as Attila the Hun. By way of historical linguistics and comparative mythology, comparisons to other attested branches of Germanic mythology may also lend insight, wider comparisons to the mythology of other Indo-European peoples by scholars has resulted in the potential reconstruction of far earlier myths. Of the mythical tales and poems that are presumed to have existed during the Middle Ages, Viking Age, Migration Period, numerous gods are mentioned in the source texts. In the mythology, Thor lays waste to numerous jötnar who are foes to the gods or humanity, the god Odin is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts. One-eyed, wolf and raven-flanked, and spear in hand, Odin pursues knowledge throughout the worlds, Odin has a strong association with death, Odin is portrayed as the ruler of Valhalla, where valkyries carry half of those slain in battle. Odins wife is the powerful goddess Frigg who can see the future but tells no one, and together they have a beloved son, Baldr. After a series of dreams had by Baldr of his death, his death is engineered by Loki, and Baldr thereafter resides in Hel. Odin must share half of his share of the dead with a powerful goddess and she is beautiful, sensual, wears a feathered cloak, and practices seiðr. She rides to battle to choose among the slain, and brings her chosen to her afterlife field Fólkvangr, Freyja weeps for her missing husband Óðr, and seeks after him in far away lands
11.
Heimskringla
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Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet, the name Heimskringla was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts. Snorri had himself visited Norway and Sweden, for events of the mid-12th century, Snorri explicitly names the now lost work Hryggjarstykki as his source. The composition of the sagas is Snorris, the earliest parchment copy of the work is referred to as Kringla. It voyaged from Iceland to Bergen, Norway and was moved to Copenhagen, at that time it had lost the first page, but the second starts Kringla heimsins, the Earths circle of the Laing translation. In the 17th century copies were made by Icelanders Jon Eggertson, eggertsons copy went to the Royal Library at Stockholm. The Copenhagen manuscript was among the many destroyed in the Copenhagen Fire of 1728. Only one leaf of the manuscript survived and it is now kept in the National, by the mid-16th century, the Old Norse language was unintelligible to Norwegian, Swedish or Danish readers. At that time several translations of extracts were made in Norway into the Danish language, the first complete translation was made around 1600 by Peder Claussøn Friis, and printed in 1633. This was based on a known as Jofraskinna. This edition also included the first printing of the text in Old Norse, a new Danish translation with the text in Old Norse and a Latin translation came out in 1777-1783. An English translation by Samuel Laing was finally published in 1844, in the 19th century, as Norway was achieving independence after centuries of union with Denmark and Sweden, the stories of the independent Norwegian medieval kingdom won great popularity in Norway. Heimskringla, although written by an Icelander, became an important national symbol for Norway during the period of romantic nationalism, Heimskringla consists of several chapters, each one individually called a saga, which can be literally translated as tale. The subsequent sagas are devoted to individual rulers, starting with Halfdan the Black, the stories are told with a life and freshness, giving a picture of human life in all its reality. A version of the Óláfs saga helga, which is about the saint Olaf II of Norway, is the main part and his 15-year-long reign takes up about one third of the entire work. This saga is an epic in prose, and is also of particular relevance to the history of England. The first part of the Heimskringla is rooted in Norse mythology, as it advances, fable and fact all curiously intermingle, the value of Heimskringla as a historical source has been estimated in different ways during recent times. The historians of mid-19th century put great trust in the truth of Snorris narrative
12.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
13.
Ynglinga saga
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Ynglinga saga is a legendary saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson about 1225. It is the first section of his Heimskringla and it was first translated into English and published in 1844 by Samuel Laing. Snorri Sturluson based his work on an earlier Ynglingatal which is attributed to the Norwegian 9th century skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, and it tells the most ancient part of the story of the House of Ynglings. Snorri described the descent of the kings of Norway from this house of Sweden. Ynglinga saga is the first part of Snorris history of the ancient Norse kings, Snorris work covers the history of the Norwegian kings from the mythical prehistoric age until the year 1177, with the death of the pretender Eystein Meyla. Interwoven in this narrative are a number of references to important historical events, the saga deals with the arrival of the Norse gods to Scandinavia and how Freyr founded the Swedish Yngling dynasty at Uppsala. Then the saga follows the line of Swedish kings until Ingjald, after which the descendants settled in Norway, the river divides Sweden the Great, a concession to the Viking point of view. It is never called that prior to the Vikings, the river lands are occupied by the Vanir and are called Vanaland or Vanaheim. It is unclear what people Snorri thinks the Vanes are, whether the proto-Slavic Venedi or the east Germanic Vandals and he does not say, however, the Germanic names of the characters, such as Njord, Frey and Vanlandi, indicate he had the Vandals in mind. Odin is the chief of Ásgarðr, from there he conducts and dispatches military expeditions to all parts of the world. He has the virtue of never losing a battle, when he is away, his two brothers, Vili and Vé, rule Ásaland from Ásgarðr. On the border of Sweden is a range running from northeast to southwest. South of it are the lands of the Turks, where Odin had possessions, thus, on the north are the uninhabitable fells, which must be the tundra/taiga country. Apparently the Vikings did not encounter the Urals or the Uralics of the region, Snorri evidences no knowledge of them. There also is no mention of Troy, which was not far from Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine empire and militarily beyond the reach of the Vikings. Troy cannot have been Asagarth, Snorri realizes, the reason being that the Æsir in Ásaland were unsettled by the activities of the Romans. As a result, Odin led a section of the Æsir to the looking for new lands in which to settle. They used the Viking route up the Don and the Volga through Garðaríki, from there they went to Saxland and to the lands of Gylfi in Scandinavia
14.
History of Scandinavia
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The history of Scandinavia is the history of the region of northern Europe comprising Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Finland and Iceland are at times considered part of Scandinavia, one important collection that exists, however, is a widespread and rich collection of stone drawings known as petroglyphs. As the ice receded, Reindeer grazed on the lands of Denmark. This was the land of the Ahrensburg culture, tribes who hunted over vast territories, there was little forest in this region except for arctic white birch and rowan, but the taiga slowly appeared. In the 7th millennium BC, when the reindeer and their hunters had moved for northern Scandinavia, the Maglemosian culture lived in Denmark and southern Sweden. To the north, in Norway and most of southern Sweden, lived the Fosna-Hensbacka culture, the northern hunter/gatherers followed the herds and the salmon runs, moving south during the winters, moving north again during the summers. During the 6th millennium BC, southern Scandinavia was covered in temperate broadleaf, fauna included aurochs, wisent, moose and red deer. The Kongemose culture was dominant in this time period and they hunted seals and fished in the rich waters. North of the Kongemose people lived other hunter-gatherers in most of southern Norway and Sweden called the Nøstvet and Lihult cultures, descendants of the Fosna, near the end of the 6th millennium BC, the Kongemose culture was replaced by the Ertebølle culture in the south. During the 5th millennium BC, the Ertebølle people learned pottery from neighbouring tribes in the south and they too started to cultivate the land, and by 3000 BC they became part of the megalithic Funnelbeaker culture. During the 4th millennium BC, these Funnelbeaker tribes expanded into Sweden up to Uppland, the Nøstvet and Lihult tribes learnt new technology from the advancing farmers and became the Pitted Ware cultures towards the end of the 4th millennium BC. At least one settlement appears to be mixed, the Alvastra pile-dwelling and this new people advanced up to Uppland and the Oslofjord, and they probably provided the language that was the ancestor of the modern Scandinavian languages. They were cattle herders, and with them most of southern Scandinavia entered the Neolithic, during this period Scandinavia gave rise to the first known advanced civilization in this area following the Nordic Stone Age. The Scandinavians adopted many central European and Mediterranean symbols at the time that they created new styles. Mycenaean Greece, the Villanovan Culture, Phoenicia and Ancient Egypt have all identified as possible sources of influence in Scandinavian artwork from this period. The foreign influence is believed to originate with amber trade, several petroglyphs depict ships, and the large stone formations known as stone ships indicate that shipping played an important role in the culture. Several petroglyphs depict ships which could possibly be Mediterranean, from this period there are many mounds and fields of petroglyphs, but their signification is long since lost. There are also artifacts of bronze and gold
15.
Egil's Saga
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Egils Saga or Egills saga is an Icelandic saga on the lives of the clan of Egill Skallagrímsson, an Icelandic farmer, viking and skald. The saga spans the years c, 850–1000 and traces the family history from Egils grandfather to his offspring. Its oldest manuscript dates back to 1240 AD, and comprises the sole source of information on the exploits of Egil, stylistic and other similarities between Egils Saga and Heimskringla have led many scholars to believe that they were the work of the same author, Snorri Sturluson. The work is referred to as Egla by Icelandic scholars. The saga begins in Norway around 850, with the life of Egils grandfather Ulf aka Kveldulf or Evening Wolf, strife with the royal house drive the family out of the country, and they settle in Iceland. The brothers Egil and Throlf Skallagrimsson are born and they have a tenuous tenure in Norway, but Egil is outlawed and they roam Scandinavia and serve the king of England. Egil tries to reclaim property back in Norway, but this is blocked, the saga ends around the year 1000 and spans many generations. Ulf had Hallbjorn Halftroll as his uncle, and was known for his surpassing size. He had accrued land and property from viking raids, and was a man of wisdom, extreme personal traits like these are manifested by his son Skallagrim and his grandson Egil as well. King Harald Fairhair was warring to unite all of Norway, Kveldulf refused to assist the local king of Fjordane, but rebuffed Haralds overtures as well, incurring his wrath. A compromise was mediated by Olvir Hnufa, Kveldulfs brother-in-law and Haralds court poet, Skallagrim was to send his elder son Thorolf, Thorolf served the king well, but suspicion fell on him due to his becoming overly successful, exacerbated by words of slanderers. Thorolf was killed by the king who led a band of warriors, Skallagrim journeyed to Haralds court seeking compensation for the death of his brother Thorolf, but offended the king and had to make a hasty exit empty-handed. Skallagrim and Kveldulf then recaptured a boat that had seized from Thorolf. In the battle, Kveldulf displayed his frenzy, which left him severely weakened, when the family emigrated to Iceland, Kveldulf did not survive the trip, and his coffin was set adrift. Near the spot where the coffin washed ashore in Iceland, Skallagrim established his settlement and he took up a peaceful livelihood as a farmer and blacksmith, and raised his sons, Thorolf, and Egil. The saga then proceeds to describe the lives of Thorolf and Egil Skallagrimsson, born in Iceland, Thorolf visited Skallagrims old friend in Norway, Thorir the Hersir. Here Thorolf befriended Prince Eirik Bloodaxe, Haralds favourite son and Thorirs fosterling and he approached the prince with a gift of a painted warship that Eirik was admiring, on advice of Bjorn, Thorirs brother-in-law. Afterwards Eirik Bloodaxe was crowned co-king, and as Thorolf headed home to Iceland, Skallagrim abused the axe and shattered it, reciting an insulting poem about it to Thorolf and handing back what was left of the axe, a sooty handle with a rusted blade
16.
Sturlungar
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The Sturlungs were a powerful family clan in medieval mid-13th century Iceland, in the time of the Icelandic Commonwealth. Their story is told in Sturlunga saga, and members of the clan were significant participants in the civil war of the Age of the Sturlungs. The Sturlungs were a wealthy and influential clan and they controlled Western Iceland, the Westfjords and North Eastern Iceland. The patriarch of the Sturlungs was Sturla Þórðarson, whom scholars believe was born around 1115 and he inherited his Goðorð from his father Þórður Gilsson. Sturla quarrelled extensively with Einar Þorgilsson of Staðarhóll and many other chieftains, Jón Loftsson, a well-respected man, mediated in one of these disputes. Following this, he was entrusted with the upbringing of Sturlas son Snorri Sturluson, who became the most influential of the Sturlungs. Snorri had two brothers, Þórður Sturluson and Sighvatur Sturluson, the descendants of Sturla played an important role in the Age of the Sturlungs civil war, most notably his sons Snorri and Sighvatur, and Sighvaturs son Þórður kakali Sighvatsson. Another notable Sturlung was Sturla Þórðarson, son of Þórður Sturluson and he wrote Íslendinga saga, the longest part of Sturlunga saga, and Hákonar saga gamla, the story of Haakon IV of Norway. Some scholars also attribute to him the authorship of Kristni saga, the writing of the Icelandic sagas began with the Sturlungs, and many of those written before 1280 were their work, or were written at their behest. Árni Daníel Júlíusson, Jón Ólafur Ísberg, Helgi Skúli Kjartansson Íslenskur sögu atlas,1
17.
Sighvatr Sturluson
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Sighvatr Sturluson was a skaldic poet, goði and member of the Icelandic Sturlungar clan. His parents were Sturla Þórðarson of Hvammur and Guðný Böðvarsdóttir and his younger brother, the famous poet and historian Snorri Sturluson, grew up away from home, in Oddi, while Sighvatr and his elder brother Þórðr were brought up in Hvammur. Nothing is known about his education and he married Kolbeinn Tumason’s sister Halldóra Tumadóttir, with whom he had a son, Sturla Sighvatsson. He figures in the Sturlunga saga, one of the sources which cites his poetry, the Role of Skaldic Verse in Icelandic Textual Culture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Toronto, University of Toronto Press,2001, lausavísur, Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages
18.
Sibling
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A sibling is one of two or more individuals having one or both parents in common. A male sibling is a brother, and a sibling is a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings often grow up together, the emotional bond between siblings is often complicated and is influenced by factors such as parental treatment, birth order, personality, and personal experiences outside the family. However, there are cases where siblings grow up in separate homes and it is known that both nature and nurture figure in development, researchers are attempting to ascertain just which one plays the larger role. Identical twins share 100% of their DNA, full siblings are first-degree relatives and, on average, share 50% of their genes out of those that vary among humans. Half-siblings are second-degree relatives and have, on average, a 25% overlap in their genetic variation. Full siblings have the same parents and are 50% related. Identical twins by definition are 100% related, there are two types of twins, identical and fraternal. Identical twins have exactly the same genes, fraternal twins are no more similar than regular siblings, often, twins with a close relationship will develop a twin language from infanthood, a language only shared and understood between the two. Studies suggest that identical twins appear to display more twin talk than fraternal twins, at about 3 years of age, twin talk usually ends. Researchers were interested in subjects who were in the years of life. They knew that past studies suggested that genetics played a role in ones personality in the earlier years of their life. However, they were curious about whether or not this was later on in life. They gathered subjects with an age of 59, who included 99 pairs of identical twins. They also gathered twins who were reared together,160 pairs of identical twins and they studied the most heritable traits in regard to personality, which are emotionality, activity level and sociability, also known as EAS. This study found that identical twins resembled each other twice as much as fraternal twins, furthermore, environment influences personality substantially, however, it has little to do with whether they are reared together or apart. This study also suggests that heritability is substantial, but not as substantial as for younger subjects, half-siblings are people who share one parent but not both. They may share the same mother but different fathers, or they may have the same father and they share only one parent instead of two as full siblings do and are on average 25% related
19.
Oddi
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Oddi at Rangárvellir was a center of learning in South Iceland during the Middle Ages. For centuries it was the home of the powerful family. The two best known leaders in Oddi were Sæmundur Sigfússon the Learned and his grandson Jón Loftsson, the famous historian Snorri Sturluson was brought up and educated in Oddi by Jón Loftsson. It has been suggested that the name of the Edda is derived from Oddi
20.
Odin
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In Germanic mythology, Odin is a widely revered god. In the modern period, Odin continued to be acknowledged in the folklore of Germanic Europe. Forms of his name appear frequently throughout the Germanic record, though narratives regarding Odin are mainly found in Old Norse works recorded in Iceland and these texts make up the bulk of modern understanding of Norse mythology. In Old Norse texts, Odin is depicted as one-eyed and long-bearded, frequently wielding a spear named Gungnir, and wearing a cloak, Odin is attested as having many sons, most famously the god Baldr with Frigg, and is known by hundreds of names. Odin has an association with Yule, and mankinds knowledge of both the runes and poetry is also attributed to him. In Old Norse texts, Odin is given primacy over female beings associated with the battlefield—the valkyries—and oversees Valhalla, where he receives half of those who die in battle, the other half are chosen by the goddess Freyja for her afterlife location, Fólkvangr. In later folklore, Odin appears as a leader of the Wild Hunt and he has also been associated with charms and other forms of magic, particularly in Old English and Old Norse texts. Odin has been a frequent subject of study in Germanic studies, in the modern period, Odin has inspired numerous works of poetry, music, and other forms of media. He is venerated in most forms of the new religious movement Heathenry, together with other gods venerated by the ancient Germanic peoples, some branches focus particularly on him. The Old Norse theonym Óðinn and its cognates, including Old English Wōden, Old Saxon Wōden, the masculine noun *wōđanaz developed from the Proto-Germanic adjective *wōđaz, related to Latin vātēs and Old Irish fáith, both meaning seer, prophet. Adjectives stemming from *wōđaz include Gothic woþs possessed, Old Norse óðr, mad, frantic, furious, additionally the Old Norse noun æði rage, fury and Old High German wuotī madness derive from the feminine noun *wōđīn, from *wōđaz. Over 170 names are recorded for the god Odin and these names are variously descriptive of attributes of the god, refer to myths involving him, or refer to religious practices associated with the god. This multitude of names makes Odin the god with the most names known among the Germanic peoples, the weekday name Wednesday derives from Old English wōdnesdæg. Cognate terms are found in other Germanic languages, such as Middle Low German wōdensdach, all of these terms derive from Proto-Germanic *Wodensdag, itself a Germanic interpretation of Latin Dies Mercurii. However, in Old High German, the derived from Odins was replaced by a translation of Church Latin media hebdomas. The earliest records of the Germanic peoples were recorded by the Romans and they regard it as a religious duty to offer to him, on fixed days, human as well as other sacrificial victims. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of the permitted kind, in this instance, Tacitus refers to the god Odin as Mercury, Thor as Hercules, and Týr as Mars, and the identity of the Isis of the Suebi has been debated. But their rankings in their respective religious spheres may have very different
21.
Haakon IV of Norway
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Haakon Haakonsson, sometimes called Haakon the Old in contrast to his son with the same name, and known in modern regnal lists as Haakon IV, was the King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 years, longer than any Norwegian king since Harald I, Haakon was born into the troubled civil war era in Norway, but his reign eventually managed to put an end to the internal conflicts. At the start of his reign, during his minority, his later rival Earl Skule Bårdsson served as regent, as a king of the birkebeiner faction, Haakon defeated the uprising of the final bagler royal pretender, Sigurd Ribbung, in 1227. He put an end to the civil war era when he had Skule Bårdsson killed in 1240. Haakon thereafter formally appointed his own son as his co-regent, under Haakons rule, medieval Norway is considered to have reached its zenith or golden age. His reputation and formidable naval fleet allowed him to maintain friendships with both the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, despite their conflict. He was at different points offered the Imperial Crown by the Pope, the Irish High Kingship by a delegation of Irish kings, and the command of the French crusader fleet by the French king. He amplified the influence of European culture in Norway by importing and translating contemporary European literature into Old Norse, the main source of information concerning Haakon is the Saga of Haakon Haakonsson which was written in the immediate years following his death. Commissioned by his son Magnus, it was written by the Icelandic writer, having come into conflict with the royal representative in Iceland, Sturla came to Norway in 1263 in an attempt to reconcile with Haakon. When he arrived, he learned that Haakon was in Scotland, while Magnus initially took an unfriendly attitude towards Sturla, his talents as a story-teller and skald eventually won him the favour of Magnus and his men. It is nonetheless written openly in support of the program of the House of Sverre. Haakon was born in Folkenborg to Inga of Varteig in the summer of 1204, Haakon Sverresson was dead by the time his son Haakon was born, but Ingas claim was supported by several of Haakon Sverressons followers. Haakon was born in bagler-controlled territory, and his mothers claim placed them in a dangerous position. While the bagler started hunting Haakon, a group of birkebeiner warriors fled with the child in the winter of 1205/06, heading for King Inge Bårdson, the new birkebeiner king in Nidaros. As the party was struck by a blizzard, two of the best birkebeiner skiers, Torstein Skevla and Skjervald Skrukka, carried on with the child over the mountain from Lillehammer to Østerdalen. They eventually managed to bring Haakon to safety with King Inge, in the saga, Haakon is described as bright and witty, and as being small for his age. When he was three years old, Haakon was captured by the bagler but refused to call the bagler king Philip Simonsson his lord and he subsequently identified his attorney as God and Saint Olaf. Haakon was notably the first Norwegian king to receive education at a school
22.
Skara
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Skara is a locality and the seat of Skara Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 18,580 inhabitants in 2013. Despite its small size, it is one of the oldest cities in Sweden, one of Swedens oldest high schools, Katedralskolan, is situated in Skara. Skara is located by the E20 motorway, about 130 km northeast of Gothenburg and its proximity to Kattegat and lake Vänern contributes to summers being slightly cooler than areas to the north-east, and winter temperatures mostly hover around the freezing point. According to local legend, Skara was founded in AD988 and it was one of only two cities in what was to become Västergötland, the other being Lödöse. Skara was the location for the assembly, the Thing of all Geats. With the Christianization of Sweden, around 1000 AD, Skara became the seat for the bishop, there have been bishops of Skara in an unbroken succession to this day. Many important assemblies were held in Skara in medieval times, examples include the important Swedish chancellor meeting in 1326. A meeting of Swedish, Danish and Norwegians in 1458, decided upon the later Kalmar Union, in the ensuing medieval centuries, monasteries and other churches were completed in the town. The first monastery was for the Dominican order, called the monastery of Saint Olaf, opened in 1234, the foundations of the Skara Cathedral are believed to stem from around 1050. The current cathedral was inaugurated in 1150, but findings during the last 50 years show it must be at least a century older and its current appearance, however, stems from renovations in the 1880s by Helgo Zettervall, who also renovated the Cathedral of Uppsala. Medieval artifacts have been found in or near the Skara cathedral, a chalice from bishop Adalvard the Elder, dead in 1064, was found in his grave in the 18th century. For a while the Adalvardskalken was used in the Holy Communion, some 44 pages of a book containing texts and hymns of 11th-century Catholic rituals, the Skara Missal, is held and exhibited in Skara. Other ancient objects have found during excavations of the monasteries and churches. There is a branch of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Skara, there are several music and entertainment artists in Skara, giving it a notable spot among the cities. The Skara Sommarland is an amusement park with a reputation well known throughout the nation. Most notable is its park with water chutes, artificial rafts. The official museum of Västergötland is in Skara, radviliškis, Lithuania Diocese of Skara Norra Härene Runestone Nordisk Familjebok, see link below. Skara Tourist Office Skara - Official site Skara, in Nordisk familjebok
23.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
24.
Aristocracy of Norway
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Aristocracy of Norway refers to modern and medieval aristocracy in Norway. Additionally, there have been economical, political, and military élites that—relating to the lines of Norways history—are generally accepted as nominal predecessors of the aforementioned. Since the 16th century, modern aristocracy is known as nobility, the very first aristocracy in todays Norway appeared during the Bronze Age. This bronze aristocracy consisted of several regional élites, whose earliest known existence dates to c.1500 BC, via similar structures in the Iron Age, these entities would reappear as petty kingdoms before and during the Age of Vikings. Beside a chieftain or a petty king, each kingdom had its own aristocracy, between 872 and 1050, during the so-called unification process, the first national aristocracy began to develop. Regional monarchs and aristocrats who recognised King Harald Halfdanson as their high king and those who refused, were defeated or chose to migrate to Iceland, establishing an aristocratic, clan-ruled state there. The subsequent lendman aristocracy in Norway—powerful feudal lords and their families—ruled their respective regions with great independence and their status was by no means equal to that of modern nobles, they were nearly half royal. For example, Ingebjørg Finnsdottir of the Arnmødling dynasty was married to King Malcolm III of Scotland, during the civil war era the old lendmen were severely weakened, and many disappeared. This aristocracy was ultimately defeated by King Sverre Sigurdsson and the Birchlegs, Kingdoms, city states, and other types of entities, for example the Kingdom of Dublin, were established or possessed either by Norwegians or by native vassals. Other territories, for example Shetland and the Orkney Islands, were absorbed into the Kingdom of Norway. For example, the Earl of Orkney was a Norwegian nobleman, the nobility—known as hird and then as knights and squires—was institutionalised during the formation of the Norwegian state in the 13th century. Originally granted an advisory function as servants of the King, the nobility grew into becoming a political factor. Their land and their forces, and also their legal power as members of the Council of the Realm. At its height, the Council had the power to recognise or choose inheritors of or pretenders to the Throne, in 1440, they dethroned King Eric III. The Council even chose its own leaders as regents, among others Sigurd Jonsson of Sudreim and this aristocratic power, which also involved the Church, lasted until the Reformation, when the King illegally abolished the Council in 1536. This removed nearly all of the political foundation, leaving them with mainly administrative. Subsequent immigration of Danish nobles would further marginalise the position of natives, in the 17th century, the old nobility consisted almost entirely of Danes. After 1661, when monarchy was introduced, the old nobility was gradually replaced by a new
25.
Knight
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A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch or other political leader for service to the monarch or country, especially in a military capacity. Historically, in Europe, knighthood was conferred upon mounted warriors, during the High Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class of lower nobility. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, often, a knight was a vassal who served as a fighter for a lord, with payment in the form of land holdings. The lords trusted the knights, who were skilled in battle on horseback, since the early modern period, the title of knight is purely honorific, usually bestowed by a monarch, as in the British honours system, often for non-military service to the country. The modern female equivalent in the United Kingdom is Dame, furthermore, Geoffroi de Charnys Book of Chivalry expounded upon the importance of Christian faith in every area of a knights life. This novel explored the ideals of knighthood and their incongruity with the reality of Cervantes world, in the late medieval period, new methods of warfare began to render classical knights in armour obsolete, but the titles remained in many nations. Some orders of knighthood, such as the Knights Templar, have become the subject of legend, each of these orders has its own criteria for eligibility, but knighthood is generally granted by a head of state or monarch to selected persons to recognise some meritorious achievement. This linkage is reflected in the etymology of chivalry, cavalier, the special prestige accorded to mounted warriors finds a parallel in the furusiyya in the Muslim world, and the Greek hippeus and Roman eques of classical antiquity. The word knight, from Old English cniht, is a cognate of the German word Knecht and this meaning, of unknown origin, is common among West Germanic languages. Middle High German had the phrase guoter kneht, which also meant knight, the Anglo-Saxon cniht had no connection to horsemanship, the word referred to any servant. A rādcniht, riding-servant, was a servant delivering messages or patrolling coastlines on horseback, a narrowing of the generic meaning servant to military follower of a king or other superior is visible by 1100. The specific military sense of a knight as a warrior in the heavy cavalry emerges only in the Hundred Years War. The verb to knight appears around 1300, and, from the same time, an Equestrian was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. This class is often translated as knight, the medieval knight, both Greek ἳππος and Latin equus are derived from the Proto-Indo-European word root ekwo-, horse. In the later Roman Empire, the classical Latin word for horse, equus, was replaced in common parlance by the vulgar Latin caballus, sometimes thought to derive from Gaulish caballos. From caballus arose terms in the various Romance languages cognate with the English cavalier, Italian cavaliere, Spanish caballero, French chevalier, Portuguese cavaleiro, the Germanic languages have terms cognate with the English rider, German Ritter, and Dutch and Scandinavian ridder. These words are derived from Germanic rīdan, to ride, in turn derived from the Proto-Indo-European root reidh-, in ancient Rome there was a knightly class Ordo Equestris from which European knighthood may have been derived. Some portions of the armies of Germanic peoples who occupied Europe from the 3rd century AD onward had been mounted, in the Early Medieval period any well-equipped horseman could be described as a knight, or miles in Latin
26.
Guerrilla
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The term, the diminutive form of war in Spanish, is usually translated as little war, and the word, guerrilla, has been used to refer to the concept since the 18th century, and perhaps earlier. In correct Spanish usage, a person who is a member of a guerrilla is a guerrillero if male, the term guerrilla was used in English as early as 1809, to refer to the fighters, and also to denote a group or band of such fighters. However, in most languages guerrilla still denotes the style of warfare. The use of the diminutive evokes the differences in number, scale, guerrillas usually carries positive connotations, and is often used by such fighters themselves and by their sympathizers, while their foes in many cases call them terrorists. Making an objective definition of the difference between a guerrilla and a terrorist has proven a difficult task, the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare tend to focus around the use of a small, mobile force competing against a larger, more unwieldy one. The Guerrilla focuses on organizing in small units, depending on the support of the local population, tactically, the guerrilla army would avoid any confrontation with large units of enemy troops, but seek and eliminate small groups of soldiers to minimize losses and exhaust the opposing force. Not limiting their targets to personnel, enemy resources are preferred targets. All of that is to weaken the strength, to cause the enemy eventually to be unable to prosecute the war any longer. It is often misunderstood that guerrilla warfare must involve disguising as civilians to cause enemy troops to fail in telling friend from foe, however, this is not a primary feature of a guerrilla war. This type of war can be practiced anywhere there are places for combatants to cover themselves, at least one author credits the ancient Chinese work The Art of War with providing instruction in such tactics to Mao. The Chinese general and strategist Sun Tzu, in his The Art of War or 600 BC to 501 BC, was the earliest to propose the use of guerrilla warfare and this directly inspired the development of modern guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla tactics were employed by prehistoric tribal warriors against enemy tribes. Evidence of conventional warfare, on the hand, did not emerge until 3100 BC in Egypt. Since the Enlightenment, ideologies such as nationalism, liberalism, socialism, because of the innovative tactics he used during his command, he made himself the name of Terror Romanorum. A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency operation involves actions taken by the government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it. Counter-insurgency operations are common during war, occupation and armed rebellions, the two most influential of scholars of counter-insurgency have been Westerners whose job it had been to fight insurgents. Robert Thompson fought during the Malayan Emergency and David Galula fought during the Algerian War, together these officers advocated multi-pronged strategies to win over the civilian population to the side of the counter-insurgent. The widely distributed and influential work of Sir Robert Thompson, counter-insurgency expert of the Malayan Emergency, thompsons underlying assumption was that the counter-insurgent was committed to improving the rule of law and bettering local governance
27.
Age of the Sturlungs
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The Age of the Sturlungs or the Sturlung Era was a 42–44 year period of internal strife in mid-13th century Iceland. It may have been the bloodiest and most violent period in Icelandic history and it is documented in the Sturlunga saga. This period is marked by the conflicts of powerful chieftains, goðar, who amassed followers and did battle, and is named for the Sturlungs, at the end of the era, the Icelandic Commonwealth ceased to exist and Iceland became a vassal of Norway. Historians generally regard the year 1220 as the first year of the Age of the Sturlungs, Power in the country had consolidated within the grasp of a few family clans. Many Icelandic chieftains became his vassals and were obliged to do his bidding—in exchange they received gifts, followers, consequently, the greatest Icelandic chieftains were soon affiliated with the King of Norway in one way or the other. In the Icelandic Commonwealth, power was mostly in the hands of the goðar, Iceland was effectively divided into farthings. Within each farthing were nine Goði-dominions, the North farthing had an additional three dominions due to its size. The Goði-chieftains protected the farmers in their territory, and exacted compensation or vengeance if their followers rights were violated, in exchange, the farmers pledged their support to the Goði, both by voting in his favor in the Alþingi parliament and by taking up arms against his enemies. The powers of the Goði-chieftains, however, were neither permanent nor inherited and this status came about by a combination of respect, honour, influence and wealth. The chieftains constantly had to demonstrate their qualities as leaders, either by giving gifts to their followers or by holding great feasts, if the chieftain was seen as failing in any respect, his followers could simply choose another, more qualified Goði to support. The greatest chieftains of the 12th and 13th century started amassing great wealth and this may be one of the causes of the civil war. The Age of Sturlungs began in 1220, when Snorri Sturluson, chieftain of the Sturlung clan and one of the great Icelandic saga writers, the king insisted that Snorri help him bring Iceland under the sovereignty of Norway. Snorri returned home, and although he became the countrys most powerful chieftain. According to one historian, we do not know whether inactivity was due to lack of will or his conviction that the case was hopeless, in 1235, Snorris nephew Sturla Sighvatsson also accepted vassalage under the king. Sturla was more aggressive, He sent his back to Norway. However, Sturla and his father Sighvatur were soundly defeated by Gissur Þorvaldsson, the chief of the Haukdælir, the Battle of Örlygsstaðir was the largest armed conflict in the history of Iceland—the Sturlungs had 1000 armed men and the Ásbirningar had 1200 armed men. More than 50 people were killed, after this crushing defeat, Gissur and Kolbeinn became the most powerful chieftains in the country. Snorri Sturluson returned home to Iceland, having fallen out of favor with the due to his support for Earl Skúli in an attempted coup
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Cipher runes
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Cipher runes, or cryptic runes, are the cryptographical replacement of the letters of the runic alphabet. The knowledge of runes was best preserved in Iceland, and during the 17th. The most notable of these is the manuscript Runologia by Jón Ólafsson and it thoroughly treats numerous cipher runes and runic ciphers, and it is now preserved in the Arnamagnæan Institute in Copenhagen. Jón Ólafssons treatise presents the Younger Futhark in the Viking Age order, in the runic alphabet, the runes have their special order and are divided into groups. In the Younger Futhark, which has 16 letters, they are divided into three groups, the Icelandic tradition calls the first group Freyrs ætt, the second group Hagals ætt and the third group Tyr’s ætt. However, in order to make the inscription even harder to decipher, Freyrs ætt, there are numerous forms of cipher runes, but they are all based on the principle of giving the number of the ætt and the number of the rune within the ætt. The branch runes are similar, the strokes being attached to a vertical stem, strokes on the left indicate the ætt, and strokes on the right the order within the ætt. There are variants of these two schemes, such as inverting the numbers, tree runes and hook runes are like branch runes, with the strokes pointing downward diagonally and curving downward, respectively. These may be mixed, in the phrase ek vitki at left, ek is written in straightforward branch runes, but vitki is written with the ætts as hooks, there are several runestones using such devices of obscuring the inscription, especially found on Orkney. A comparable system of letter modification is that of the Ogham scales recorded in the Ogam Tract, bind rune Ogham Enoksen, Lars Magnar, Runor, historia, tydning, tolkning, Falun, Historiska Media, ISBN 91-88930-32-7
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Halvdan Koht
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Halvdan Koht was a Norwegian historian and politician representing the Labour Party. Born in the north of Norway to a distinguished family, he soon became interested in politics. Starting his political career in the Liberal Party, he switched to the Labour Party around the turn of the 20th century and he represented that party in the Bærum municipal council for parts of the interwar period. He was never elected a member of Parliament, but served nonetheless as Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1935 to 1941, in the latter capacity he sought to preserve Norways neutrality in the Second World War, an action that garnered him political infamy. Growing discontentment with Kohts political decisions ultimately led to his exit from the cabinet, after the war, however, he returned to an academic career track and wrote major works in the 1950s and 1960s. As an academic he was a professor of history at the Royal Frederick University from 1910 to 1935, having become a fellow in 1900. Among many honors, he held a degree at the University of Oxford. He was a writer, and touched on numerous subjects during his long academic career. He wrote several biographies, his works on Johan Sverdrup and Henrik Ibsen spanned several volumes each and he became known for syntheses on Norwegian history, and emphasised the roles of peasants and wage labourers as historical agents who found their place in an expanding notion of the Norwegian nation. He was also interested in the United States and its history, Kohts views on the Norwegian language also garnered him nationwide academic recognition. He championed the Samnorsk language reform, the aim of which was to consolidate the two standards of written Norwegian. A reform pushing the formal language in this direction was indeed implemented in 1938. A pertinacious and unyielding advocate of peace, Koht was a founding member of the Norwegian Peace Association. As an activist and politician he was described as a strong-willed and individualistic, Halvdan Koht was born on 7 August 1873 in Tromsø, one of the larger cities in Northern Norway. He was the second of four born to Paul Steenstrup Koht, an educator and politician, and Betty Giæver. Through the offspring of his maternal grand-uncle, Halvdan Koht was a cousin of the parliamentarian Ola Krogseng Giæver. In Paul Kohts lineage, Kjeld Stub was a distant ancestor, the name Koht stems from German immigrants to Norway in the 17th century. He was intended to have the name Joachim, but this was stopped on request from Joachim G. Giæver who voiced his dislike for the name and he was then christened Halfdan, changed to Halvdan some years later
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Vinland
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Vinland, Vineland or Winland is the area of coastal North America explored by Norse Vikings, where Leif Erikson first landed in ca. 1000, approximately five centuries prior to the voyages of Christopher Columbus, Vinland was the name given to North America as far as it was explored by the Vikings, presumably including both Newfoundland and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence as far as northeastern New Brunswick. In 1960, archaeological evidence of a Norse settlement in North America was found at LAnse aux Meadows on the tip of the island of Newfoundland. Before the discovery of evidence, Vinland was known only from Old Norse sagas. The 1960 discovery conclusively proved the pre-Columbian Norse colonization of the Americas, LAnse aux Meadows may correspond to the camp Straumfjörð mentioned in the Saga of Erik the Red. Vinland or Winland was the given to part of North America by the Icelandic Norseman Leif Eiríksson. The exact meaning of this Norse toponym has not been established, to write it he visited the King of Denmark, Sweyn II Estridsson who had knowledge of the northern lands. The name contains Old Norse vin which means meadow, there is a long-standing Scandinavian tradition of fermenting berries into wine. The question whether the name refers to actual grapevines or just to berries was addressed in a 2010 excavation report on L’Anse aux Meadows, another proposal for the names etymology, was brought up by Sven Söderberg in 1898. This suggestion involves interpreting the Old Norse name not as vín-land but as vin-land, Old Norse vin has a meaning of meadow, pasture. It was rejected by Einar Haugen, who argued that the vin element had changed its meaning from pasture to farm long before the Old Norse period, names in vin were given in the Proto-Norse period, and they are absent from places colonized in the Viking Age. Haugens basis for rejection has since been challenged, there is a runestone which may have contained a record of the Old Norse name slightly predating Adam of Bremens Winland. The Hønen Runestone was discovered in Norderhov, Norway shortly before 1817 and its assessment depends on a sketch made by antiquarian L. D. Klüwer, now also lost but in turn copied by Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie. The Younger Futhark inscription was dated to c. The stone had been erected in memory of a Norwegian, sophus Bugge read part of the inscription as ᚢᛁᚿ᛫ᛆᛁᚭ᛫ᛁᛌᛆ uin aią isa Vínlandi á ísa from Vinland over ice. This is highly uncertain, the sequence is read by Magnus Olsen as ᚢᛁᚿ᛫ᚴᛆᚭ᛫ᛁᛌᛆ uin kaą isa vindkalda á ísa over the wind-cold ice. The main sources of information about the Norse voyages to Vinland are two Icelandic sagas, the Saga of Eric the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders and these stories were preserved by oral tradition until they were written down some 250 years after the events they describe. The existence of two versions of the shows some of the challenges of using traditional sources for history, because they share a large number of story elements. A possible example is the reference to two different men named Bjarni who are blown off course, a brief summary of the plots of the two sagas, given at the end of this article, shows other examples
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Dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden
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The dissolution of the union between the kingdoms of Norway and Sweden under the House of Bernadotte, was set in motion by a resolution of the Norwegian Parliament on 7 June 1905. Norwegian nationalistic aspirations in 1814 were frustrated by Swedens victory in a brief, the Norwegian constitution was largely kept intact, allowing for an independent Norwegian state with its own parliament, judiciary, and executive powers. Foreign relations were, however, conducted by the King through the Swedish ministry of foreign affairs, there were largely feelings of goodwill between the two peoples, and the common King generally tried to act in the interest of both Kingdoms. However over the years, a divergence of Norwegian and Swedish interests became apparent, in particular, Norwegians felt that their foreign policy interests were inadequately served by Swedens ministry of foreign affairs. Norway had trading and other links with the United Kingdom, whereas Sweden had closer links with Germany, Norway had greater interests outside Europe than Sweden. When free trade between the two countries was restricted in 1895 through the abolition of the Interstate laws, the reasons for the continued union were also diminished. Although both parties made efforts to resolve the issue through negotiations, Norwegian public opinion became more entrenched. In early 1905, Christian Michelsen formed a government consisting of liberals and conservatives. The law was passed by the Norwegian parliament, as expected and probably as planned, King Oscar II refused to accept the laws, and the Michelsen government resigned. When the king declared himself unable to form a cabinet under the present circumstances, initially reacting to this declaration as a rebellious act, the Swedish government indicated an openness to a negotiated end to the union, insisting among other things on a Norwegian plebiscite. However, the Norwegian government had anticipated this, and had scheduled a plebiscite for 13 August—thus avoiding the appearance that it had been called in response to demands from Sweden. Besides internal changes within Norway, a key factor that allowed Norway to break from Sweden was the emerging Swedish social democratic movement. In the early years of the 20th century, Hjalmar Branting led the Social Democrats in opposing a war to keep Norway united with Sweden, when the crisis came in 1905, he coined the slogan Hands off Norway, King. The Social Democrats organized resistance to a call-up of reserves and a strike against a war. The majority of Sweden supported a state of Norway as much as the people of Norway did. The plebiscite was held on 13 August and resulted in an overwhelming 368,208 votes in favour of confirming the dissolution of the union against only 184 opposed and it is one of the most lopsided referenda in history. The government thereby had confirmation of the dissolution,85 percent of Norwegian men had cast their votes, but no women as universal suffrage was not extended to women until 1913. Norwegian feminists however collected 279,878 signatures in favour of dissolution, polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen weighed in heavily for dissolving the union and travelled to the United Kingdom, where he successfully lobbied for British support for Norways independence movement
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Icelanders
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Icelanders are a Germanic ethnic group and nation, native to Iceland. On 17 June 1944, when the Icelandic republic was founded, the language spoken is Icelandic, a North Germanic language, and Lutheranism is the predominant religion. Historical and DNA records indicate that around 60 to 80 percent of the settlers were of Norse origin, Icelanders have had a tumultuous history. Development of the island was due to a lack of interest from the countries controlling it for most of its history, Norway, Denmark–Norway. Through this time, Iceland had relatively little contact with the outside world, the island became independent in union with Denmark in 1918. Since 1944, Iceland has been a republic, and Icelandic society has undergone a modernisation process in the post-independence era. Iceland is a young land mass, having formed an estimated 20 million years ago due to volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic ridge. The first Viking to sight Iceland was Gardar Svavarsson, who went off due to harsh conditions when sailing from Norway to the Faroe Islands. His reports led to the first efforts to settle the island, flóki Vilgerðarson was the first Norseman to sail to Iceland intentionally. His story is documented in the Landnámabók manuscript, and he is said to have named the island Ísland, the first permanent settler in Iceland is usually considered to have been a Norwegian chieftain named Ingólfur Arnarson. He settled with his family in around 874, at a place he named Bay of Smokes and they traveled 1,000 km in their Viking longships to the island of Iceland. These people were primarily of Norwegian, Irish or Gaelic Scottish origin, about 20-25% of the Icelandic paternal gene pool is of Gaelic origin, with the rest being Nordic. In 930, on the plain near Reykjavík, the chieftains and their families met and established the Alþingi. However, the Alþingi lacked the power to enforce the laws it made, in 1262, struggles between rival chieftains left Iceland so divided that King Haakon IV of Norway was asked to step in as a final arbitrator for all disputes, as part of the Old Covenant. This is known as the Age of the Sturlungs, Iceland was under Norwegian leadership until 1380, when the Royal House of Norway died out. At this point, both Iceland and Norway came under the control of the Danish Crown, with the introduction of absolute monarchy in Denmark, the Icelanders relinquished their autonomy to the crown, including the right to initiate and consent to legislation. In particular, the lack of help in defense led to constant raids by marauding pirates along the Icelandic coasts, unlike Norway, Denmark did not need Icelands fish and homespun wool. This created a deficit in Icelands trade, and no new ships were built as a result
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Icelandic independence movement
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The Icelandic Independence movement was the collective effort made by Icelanders to achieve self-determination and independence from the Kingdom of Denmark throughout the 19th and early 20th century. Iceland received a constitution and limited home rule in 1874, a minister for Icelandic affairs was appointed to the Danish cabinet in 1904. Full independence was granted in 1918 through the Danish-Icelandic Act of Union and this was followed by the severance of all ties to Denmark with the declaration of the republic in 1944. Through the signing of the Old Covenant in 1262, following the strife of the Age of the Sturlungs, Icelanders had relinquished sovereignty to Haakon IV. Iceland remained under Norwegian kingship until 1380, when the death of Olav IV of Norway extinguished the Norwegian male royal line, Norway then became part of the Kalmar Union with Sweden and Denmark, in which Denmark was the dominant power. Unlike Norway, Denmark did not need Icelands fish and homespun wool and this created a dramatic deficit in Icelands trade, and as a result, no new ships for continental trading were built. In the ensuing centuries, Iceland became one of the poorest countries of Europe, while attempts have been made to find evidence of pre-19th century nationalist sentiments, not much comprehensive evidence has been found of nationalism as we understand it today. The most notable of these were the so-called Fjölnismenn—poets and writers for the journal Fjölnir— Brynjólfur Pétursson, Jónas Hallgrímsson, Konráð Gíslason, meanwhile, an independence movement developed under Jón Sigurðsson. In 1843, a royal decree re-established a national parliament, the Althing and it claimed continuity with the Althing of the Icelandic Commonwealth, which had remained for centuries as a judicial body and had been abolished in 1800. The advocates of Icelandic independence pursued their aims peacefully, soliciting Danish officials via legal means, the struggle for independence reached its height in 1851 when the Danes tried to pass new legislation, the requests of which the Icelanders ignored. The Icelandic delegates, under the leadership of Jón Sigurðsson, passed their own proposal, much to the displeasure of the Kings agent and this caused Sigurðsson to rise up with his fellow delegates and utter the phrase Vér mótmælum allir. Icelandic farmers worried that various social restrictions in Icelandic society would be abolished, the Icelandic independence movement was peaceful from its start in the post-Napoleonic period to the accomplishment of independence in 1944. Common explanations for the nature of Icelands independence struggle include. The accommodating responses of Denmark to Icelandic demands, the unwillingness of Denmark to respond violently, in part due to a respect for Icelandic culture but also an unwillingness to shoulder the costs of quelling the Icelandic independence movement. The peaceful trends in the Nordic region after the Napoleonic Wars, in 1874, a thousand years after the first acknowledged settlement, Denmark granted Iceland home rule. By the end of the 19th century, the efforts made on behalf of Iceland had their desired result. The constitution, written in 1874, was revised in 1903, hannes Hafstein served as the first Minister of Iceland from 31 January 1904 until 31 March 1909. The Act of Union, signed on 1 December 1918 by Icelandic and Danish authorities, recognized Iceland as a sovereign state
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Sovereign state
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A sovereign state is, in international law, a nonphysical juridical entity that is represented by one centralized government that has sovereignty over a geographic area. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined territory, one government, and it is also normally understood that a sovereign state is neither dependent on nor subjected to any other power or state. The existence or disappearance of a state is a question of fact, States came into existence as people gradually transferred their allegiance from an individual sovereign to an intangible but territorial political entity, of the state. States are but one of political orders that emerged from feudal Europe, others being city states, leagues. Westphalian sovereignty is the concept of sovereignty based on territoriality. It is a system of states, multinational corporations. Sovereignty is a term that is frequently misused and that position was reflected and constituted in the notion that their sovereignty was either completely lacking, or at least of an inferior character when compared to that of civilised people. Lassa Oppenheim said There exists perhaps no conception the meaning of which is more controversial than that of sovereignty. It is a fact that this conception, from the moment when it was introduced into political science until the present day, has never had a meaning which was universally agreed upon. In the opinion of H. V. Evatt of the High Court of Australia, sovereignty is neither a question of fact, nor a question of law, but a question that does not arise at all. The right of nations to determine their own status and exercise permanent sovereignty within the limits of their territorial jurisdictions is widely recognized. The Westphalian model of sovereignty has increasingly come under fire from the non-west as a system imposed solely by Western Colonialism. What this model did was make religion a subordinate to politics and this system does not fit in the Islamic world because concepts such as separation of church and state and individual conscience are not recognised in the Islamic religion as social systems. Nation denotes a people who are believed to or deemed to share common customs, religion, language, origins, however, the adjectives national and international are frequently used to refer to matters pertaining to what are strictly sovereign states, as in national capital, international law. State refers to the set of governing and supportive institutions that have sovereignty over a definite territory, State recognition signifies the decision of a sovereign state to treat another entity as also being a sovereign state. Recognition can be expressed or implied and is usually retroactive in its effects. It does not necessarily signify a desire to establish or maintain diplomatic relations, There is no definition that is binding on all the members of the community of nations on the criteria for statehood. In actual practice, the criteria are mainly political, not legal, in international law, however, there are several theories of when a state should be recognised as sovereign
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Independence
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Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over the territory. The opposite of independence is a dependent territory, Independence does not necessarily mean freedom. Whether the attainment of independence is different from revolution has long been contested, nation-states have been granted independence without any revolutionary acts. The Russian October Revolution, for example, was not intended to seek national independence, however, the American Revolutionary War was intended to achieve independence from the beginning. Causes for a country or province wishing to seek independence are many, the means can extend from peaceful demonstrations, like in the case of the Indian independence movement, to a violent civil war. Autonomy refers to a kind of independence which has been granted by an authority that itself still retains ultimate authority over that territory. A protectorate refers to a region that depends upon a larger government for its protection as an autonomous region. Declaring independence and attaining it however, are quite different, a well-known successful example is the U. S. Declaration of Independence issued in 1776, the dates of established independence, are typically celebrated as a national holiday known as an independence day
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Sovereignty
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Sovereignty is understood in jurisprudence as the full right and power of a governing body to govern itself without any interference from outside sources or bodies. In political theory, sovereignty is a term designating supreme authority over some polity. It is a basic principle underlying the dominant Westphalian model of state foundation, derived from Latin through French souveraineté, its attainment and retention, in both Chinese and Western culture, has traditionally been associated with certain moral imperatives upon any claimant. The concept of sovereignty has been discussed throughout history, and is still actively debated and it has changed in its definition, concept, and application throughout, especially during the Age of Enlightenment. The current notion of state sovereignty contains four aspects consisting of territory, population, authority, Sovereignty is a hypothetical trade, in which two potentially conflicting sides, respecting de facto realities of power, exchange such recognitions as their least costly strategy. The Roman jurist Ulpian observed that, The imperium of the people is transferred to the Emperor, the Emperor is not bound by the law. Emperor is the law making and abiding force, Ulpian was expressing the idea that the Emperor exercised a rather absolute form of sovereignty, although he did not use the term expressly. Classical Ulpians statements were known in medieval Europe, but sovereignty was an important concept in medieval times, Medieval monarchs were not sovereign, at least not strongly so, because they were constrained by, and shared power with, their feudal aristocracy. Furthermore, both were strongly constrained by custom, Sovereignty existed during the Medieval Period as the de jure rights of nobility and royalty, and in the de facto capability of individuals to make their own choices in life. 1380–1400, the issue of sovereignty was addressed in Geoffrey Chaucers Middle English collection of Canterbury Tales. The story revolves around the knight Sir Gawain granting to Dame Ragnell, his new bride, what is purported to be wanted most by women and we desire most from men, From men both lund and poor, To have sovereignty without lies. For where we have sovereignty, all is ours, Though a knight be ever so fierce and it is our desire to have master Over such a sir. Jean Bodin, partly in reaction to the chaos of the French wars of religion, in his 1576 treatise Les Six Livres de la République Bodin argued that it is inherent in the nature of the state that the sovereign must have both great and perpetual authority. Bodin rejected the notion of transference of sovereignty from people to the ruler, however, although he is often connected with absolutism, Bodin held some moderate opinions on how government should in practice be carried out. Thus, Bodin’s sovereign was restricted by the law of the state. Bodin believed that “the most divine, most excellent, and the form most proper to royalty is governed partly aristocratically and partly democratically”. With his doctrine that sovereignty is conferred by law, Bodin predefined the scope of the divine right of kings. During the Age of Enlightenment, the idea of sovereignty gained both legal and moral force as the main Western description of the meaning and power of a State
