1.
Elemental
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From the classical Paracelsusian perspective there are four elemental categories, gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders. These correspond to the Classical elements of antiquity, earth, water, air, aether was not assigned an elemental. Terms employed for beings associated with alchemical elements vary by source, the Paracelsian concept of elementals draws from several much older traditions in mythology and religion. Common threads can be found in folklore, animism, and anthropomorphism, examples of creatures such as the Pygmy were taken from Greek mythology. The elements of earth, water, air, and fire, were classed as the building blocks of nature. This system prevailed in the Classical world and was influential in medieval natural philosophy. Although Paracelsus uses these foundations and the preexisting names of elemental creatures. The homunculus is another example of a Paracelsian idea with roots in earlier alchemical, scientific, in his 16th-century alchemical work Liber de Nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris et de caeteris spiritibus, Paracelsus identified mythological beings as belonging to one of the four elements. Part of the Philosophia Magna, this book was first printed in 1566 after Paracelsus death and he wrote the book to describe the creatures that are outside the cognizance of the light of nature, how they are to be understood, what marvellous works God has created. He states that there is more bliss in describing these divine objects than in describing fencing, court etiquette, cavalry, Paracelsus gave common names for the elemental types, as well as correct names, which he seems to have considered somewhat more proper, recht namen. He also referred to them by purely German terms which are equivalent to water people, mountain people. In De Meteoris he referred to the elementals collectively as Sagani and he noted that undines are similar to humans in size, while sylphs are rougher, coarser, longer, and stronger. Gnomes are short, while salamanders are long, narrow, the elementals are said to be able to move through their own elements as human beings move through air. Gnomes, for example, can move through rocks, walls, sylphs are the closest to humans in his conception because they move through air like we do, while in fire they burn, in water they drown, and in earth, they get stuck. Paracelsus states that each one stays healthy in its particular chaos, as he terms it, Paracelsus conceived human beings to be composed of three parts, an elemental body, a sidereal spirit, and an immortal divine soul. Elementals lacked this last part, the immortal soul, however, by marriage with a human being, the elemental and its offspring could gain a soul. However, he did not give names for the classes, In like manner they distribute these into more orders, so as some are fiery, some watery, some aerial. Agrippa did however give an extensive list of mythological beings of this type
2.
Angel
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An angel, especially according to Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism, is a spiritual being superior to humans in power and intelligence. Most of them either as intermediaries between Heaven and Earth, or as guardian spirits. They are studied in the doctrine of angelology. In Christian Science, the angel is used to refer to an inspiration from God. In fine art, angels are depicted as having the shape of human beings of extraordinary beauty, they are often identified using the symbols of bird wings, halos. The word angel in English is a blend of Old English engel, both derive from Late Latin angelus messenger, which in turn was borrowed from Late Greek ἄγγελος ángelos. According to R. S. P. Beekes, ángelos itself may be an Oriental loan, the words earliest form is Mycenaean a-ke-ro attested in Linear B syllabic script. The ángelos is the default Septuagints translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mal’ākh denoting simply messenger without specifying its nature. In the Latin Vulgate, however, the meaning becomes bifurcated, if the word refers to some supernatural being, the word angelus appears. Such differentiation has been taken over by later vernacular translations of the Bible, early Christian and Jewish exegetes, in Zoroastrianism there are different angel-like figures. For example, each person has one guardian angel, called Fravashi and they patronize human beings and other creatures, and also manifest Gods energy. In the commentaries of Proclus on the Timaeus of Plato, Proclus uses the terminology of angelic, according to Aristotle, just as there is a First Mover, so, too, must there be spiritual secondary movers. The Torah uses the terms מלאך אלהים, מלאך יהוה, בני אלהים and הקודשים to refer to beings traditionally interpreted as angels, later texts use other terms, such as העליונים. The term מלאך is also used in books of the Tanakh. Depending on the context, the Hebrew word may refer to a messenger or to a supernatural messenger. Daniel is the first biblical figure to refer to individual angels by name, mentioning Gabriel in Daniel 9,21 and these angels are part of Daniels apocalyptic visions and are an important part of all apocalyptic literature. One of these is hāšāṭān, a figure depicted in the Book of Job, philo of Alexandria identifies the angel with the Logos inasmuch as the angel is the immaterial voice of God. The angel is something different from God himself, but is conceived as Gods instrument, in post-Biblical Judaism, certain angels took on particular significance and developed unique personalities and roles
3.
Fairy
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A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature in European folklore, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural, or preternatural. According to Thomas Keightley, the word derives from the Latin fata. Other forms are the Italian fata, and the Provençal fada, in old French romance, fee was a woman skilled in magic, and who knew the power and virtue of words, of stones, and of herbs. Faierie became fairy, but with that now almost exclusively referring to one of the legendary people. The word fairy was used to represent an illusion, or enchantment, to the word faie was added the suffix -erie, used to express either a place where something is found or a trade or typical activity engaged in. In later usage it applied to any kind of quality or activity associated with a particular type of person. In the sense land where fairies dwell, the distinctive and archaic spellings Faery, the latinate fay is not to be confused with the unrelated fey, meaning fated to die. Various folkloristic traditions refer to them euphemistically, by such as wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair folk. Sometimes the term fairy is used to any magical creature, including goblins or gnomes, at other times. Fairies have their origin in the conflation of Celtic traditions in the Middle French medieval romances. Fairie was in origin used adjectivally, meaning enchanted, but was used as a name for enchanted creatures from as early as the Late Middle English period. In English literature of the Elizabethan era, elves became conflated with the fairies of Romance culture, the Victorian and Edwardian eras saw an increase in interest in fairies. The Celtic Revival viewed them as part of Irelands cultural heritage, carole Silvers and others suggest that the fascination of English antiquarians arose from a reaction to greater industrialization, and loss of folkways. Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers, even with these small fairies, however, their small size may be magically assumed rather than constant. Some fairies though normally quite small were able to dilate their figures to imitate humans, on Orkney they were described as short in stature, dressed in dark grey, and sometimes seen in armour. Wings, while common in Victorian and later artwork of fairies, are rare in the folklore, even very small fairies flew with magic. Nowadays, fairies are depicted with ordinary insect wings or butterfly wings. In some folklore, fairies have green eyes, some depictions of fairies either have them wearing some sort of footwear and other depictions of fairies are always barefoot
4.
Paracelsus
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Paracelsus, born Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, was a Swiss German philosopher, physician, botanist, astrologer, and general occultist. He is credited as the founder of toxicology and he is also a famous revolutionary for utilizing observations of nature, rather than referring to ancient texts, something of radical defiance during his time. He is credited for giving zinc its name, calling it zincum, modern psychology often also credits him for being the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological conditions. Paracelsus most important legacy is likely his critique of the methods in medicine, science. Much of his work does not withstand modern scientific thought. Paracelsus was born and raised in the village of Einsiedeln in Switzerland and his father, Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim, was a Swabian chemist and physician. His mother was Swiss and probably a bondswoman of the abbey of Einsiedeln in Switzerland where he was born, in 1502 the family moved to Villach, Carinthia where Paracelsus father worked as a physician, attending to the medical needs of the pilgrims and inhabitants of the cloister. Paracelsus was educated by his father in botany, medicine, mineralogy, mining and he also received a profound humanistic and theological education from local clerics and the convent school of St. Pauls Abbey in the Lavanttal. He specifically accounts for being tutored by Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Sponheim, at the age of 16 he started studying medicine at the University of Basel, later moving to Vienna. He gained his degree from the University of Ferrara in 1515 or 1516. He was employed as a surgeon in the Venetian service in 1522. His wanderings as an itinerant physician and sometime journeyman miner took him through Germany, France, Spain, Hungary, Paracelsus was well known as a difficult man. He gained a reputation for being arrogant and soon garnered the anger of other physicians in Europe, some even claim he was a habitual drinker. He was prone to outbursts of abusive language, abhorred untested theory. He held the chair of medicine at the University of Basel and he angered his colleagues by lecturing in German instead of Latin in order to make medical knowledge more accessible to the common people. He is credited as the first to do so and he was the first to publicly condemn the medical authority of Avicenna and Galen and threw their writings into a bonfire on St. Johns Day in 1527. In 1526 he bought the rights of citizenship in Strasbourg to establish his own practice, but soon after he was called to Basel to the sickbed of Johann Froben or Frobenius, a successful printer and publisher. Based on historical accounts, Paracelsus cured Frobenius and he was a contemporary of Copernicus, Leonardo da Vinci and Martin Luther
5.
Robert Alfred Vaughan
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Robert Alfred Vaughan was an English Congregationalist minister and author. The eldest child of Robert Vaughan, he was born at Worcester on 18 March 1823 and his father began his education, and he entered University College school, London, in 1836 at age 13. Passing on to University College, he graduated B. A. at the age of 19 with classical honours, in 1843 he became a student at the Lancashire Independent College, under his fathers presidency. Having finished his course in Manchester, and become engaged to be married, Vaughan spent a session at the University of Halle, coming under the influence of Julius Müller and August Tholuck. At this time he thought his main object should be a series of ecclesiastical dramas to illustrate church history, between June and October 1847 he travelled in Italy with his father. Early in 1848 he became assistant to William Jay at Argyle Chapel and he expected to be ordained as colleague and successor to Jay, and resigned when difficulties were made about this, his engagement ended on 24 March 1850. Accepting a call from Ebenezer Chapel, Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham and he was learning Spanish and Dutch to gain access to writings of mystics, and was contributing constantly to the British Quarterly. In the autumn of 1854 he visited Glasgow but declined a call to succeed Ralph Wardlaw, returned home ill, in the spring of 1855 symptoms of pulmonary disease were apparent, he resigned his charge, preaching his last sermon on 24 June. Vaughan was an invalid at Bournemouth, St. Johns Wood and he died at 19 Alexander Street, Westbourne Park, on 26 October 1857. Vaughans first publication was The Witch of Endor, and other Poems,1844 and his father set him on reading Origen for an article for the British Quarterly, when published it won praise from Sir James Stephen and Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd. To the London University Magazine he contributed in 1846 a dramatic piece Edwin, while at Bath Vaughan wrote articles for the British Quarterly on Schleiermacher and Savonarola, and planned from 1849 his work on the mystics. In 1857 Vaughan was still contributing articles to Frasers Magazine and the British Quarterly and his Essays and Remains were published in 1858,2 vols. Some of his letters are in Positive Religion,1857, edited by Edward White, about 1848 Vaughan married the only child of James Finlay of Newcastle upon Tyne. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Lee, Sidney, ed. Vaughan
6.
Rosicrucianism
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The manifestos do not elaborate extensively on the matter, but clearly combine references to Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and Christianity. The Rosicrucian Manifestos heralded a universal reformation of mankind, through a science allegedly kept secret for decades until the climate might receive it. In 1616, Johann Valentin Andreae famously designated it as a ludibrium, by promising a spiritual transformation at a time of great turmoil, the manifestos tempted many figures to seek esoteric knowledge. Seventeenth-century occult philosophers such as Michael Maier, Robert Fludd, according to historian David Stevenson, it was influential to Freemasonry as it was emerging in Scotland. In later centuries, many societies have claimed to derive from the original Rosicrucians. Rosicrucianism is symbolized by the Rosy Cross or Rose Cross, between 1607 and 1616, two anonymous manifestos were published, first in Germany and later throughout Europe. These were the Fama Fraternitatis RC and the Confessio Fraternitatis, the Fama Fraternitatis presented the legend of a German doctor and mystic philosopher referred to as Frater C. R. C. The year 1378 is presented as being the year of our Christian Father. After studying in the Middle East under various masters, possibly adhering to Sufism, instead, he gathered a small circle of friends/disciples and founded the Rosicrucian Order. During Rosenkreuzs lifetime, the order was said to consist of no more than eight members, each a doctor, each member undertook an oath to heal the sick without payment, to maintain a secret fellowship, and to find a replacement for himself before he died. Three such generations had passed between c.1500 and c. 1600, a time when scientific, philosophical and religious freedom had grown so that the public benefit from the Rosicrucians knowledge. The manifestos were and are not taken literally by many but rather regarded either as hoaxes or as allegorical statements, the invitation to the royal wedding in the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz opens with Dees philosophical key, the Monas Hieroglyphica symbol. The writer also claimed the brotherhood possessed a book that resembled the works of Paracelsus and their literature announced them as moral and religious reformers. They used the techniques of chemistry and of the sciences generally as media through which to publicize their opinions, in his autobiography, Johann Valentin Andreae claimed that the anonymously published Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz was one of his works, and he subsequently described it as a ludibrium. In his later works, he makes alchemy an object of ridicule and places it along with music, art, theater, according to some sources, his role in the origin of the Rosicrucian legend is controversial. However, it was accepted according to others. Wars of politics and religion ravaged the continent, the works were re-issued several times, followed by numerous pamphlets, favorable or otherwise
7.
Portmanteau
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In linguistics, a portmanteau is defined as a single morph that represents two or more morphemes. A portmanteau also differs from a compound, which not involve the truncation of parts of the stems of the blended words. For instance, starfish is a compound, not a portmanteau, of star and fish, whereas a hypothetical portmanteau of star and fish might be stish. Humpty Dumpty explains the practice of combining words in various ways by telling Alice, for instance, take the two words fuming and furious. Make up your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first … if you have the rarest of gifts, in then-contemporary English, a portmanteau was a suitcase that opened into two equal sections. The etymology of the word is the French porte-manteau, from porter, to carry, in modern French, a porte-manteau is a clothes valet, a coat-tree or similar article of furniture for hanging up jackets, hats, umbrellas and the like. It has also used especially in Europe as a formal description for hat racks from the French words porter. An occasional synonym for portmanteau word is frankenword, an autological word exemplifying the phenomenon it describes, blending Frankenstein, many neologisms are examples of blends, but many blends have become part of the lexicon. In Punch in 1896, the word brunch was introduced as a portmanteau word, in 1964, the newly independent African republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar chose the portmanteau word Tanzania as its name. Similarly Eurasia is a portmanteau of Europe and Asia, a scientific example is a liger, which is a cross between a male lion and a female tiger. Jeoportmanteau. is a category on the American television quiz show Jeopardy. The categorys name is itself a portmanteau of the words Jeopardy, responses in the category are portmanteaus constructed by fitting two words together. The term gerrymander has itself contributed to portmanteau terms bjelkemander and playmander, oxbridge is a common portmanteau for the UKs two oldest universities, those of Oxford and Cambridge. Many portmanteau words receive some use but do not appear in all dictionaries, for example, a spork is an eating utensil that is a combination of a spoon and a fork, and a skort is an item of clothing that is part skirt, part shorts. On the other hand, turducken, a made by inserting a chicken into a duck. Similarly, the word refudiate was first used by Sarah Palin when she misspoke, though initially a gaffe, the word was recognized as the New Oxford American Dictionarys Word of the Year in 2010. The business lexicon is replete with newly coined portmanteau words like permalance, advertainment, advertorial, infotainment, a company name may also be portmanteau as well as a product name. By contrast, the public, including the media, use portmanteaux to refer to their favorite pairings as a way to. giv people an essence of who they are within the same name and this is particularly seen in cases of fictional and real-life supercouples
8.
Aeneid
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The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter, the hero Aeneas was already known to Greco-Roman legend and myth, having been a character in the Iliad. The Aeneid is widely regarded as Virgils masterpiece and one of the greatest works of Latin literature, the Aeneid can be divided into two halves based on the disparate subject matter of Books 1–6 and Books 7–12. These two halves are commonly regarded as reflecting Virgils ambition to rival Homer by treating both the Odysseys wandering theme and the Iliads warfare themes and this is, however, a rough correspondence, the limitations of which should be borne in mind. Virgil begins his poem with a statement of his theme and an invocation to the Muse and he then explains the reason for the principal conflict in the story, the resentment held by the goddess Juno against the Trojan people. This is consistent with her throughout the Homeric epics. Also in the manner of Homer, the story begins in medias res, with the Trojan fleet in the eastern Mediterranean. The fleet, led by Aeneas, is on a voyage to find a second home and it has been foretold that in Italy, he will give rise to a race both noble and courageous, a race which will become known to all nations. Juno is wrathful, because she had not been chosen in the judgment of Paris, also, Ganymede, a Trojan prince, was chosen to be the cup bearer to her husband, Jupiter—replacing Junos daughter, Hebe. Juno proceeds to Aeolus, King of the Winds, and asks that he release the winds to stir up a storm in exchange for a bribe, Aeolus does not accept the bribe, but agrees to carry out Junos orders, the storm then devastates the fleet. The fleet takes shelter on the coast of Africa, where Aeneas rouses the spirits of his men, There, Aeneass mother, Venus, in the form of a hunting woman very similar to the goddess Diana, encourages him and recounts to him the history of Carthage. At a banquet given in honour of the Trojans, Aeneas sadly recounts the events that occasioned the Trojans arrival. He begins the tale shortly after the war described in the Iliad, Cunning Ulysses devised a way for Greek warriors to gain entry into the walled city of Troy by hiding in a large wooden horse. The Greeks pretended to sail away, leaving a warrior, Sinon, to inform the Trojans that the horse was an offering and that if it were taken into the city, the Trojans would be able to conquer Greece. The Trojan priest Laocoön saw through the Greek plot and urged the horses destruction, then, in what would be seen by the Trojans as punishment from the gods, two serpents emerged from the sea and devoured Laocoön, along with his two sons. The Trojans then took the horse inside the walls, and after nightfall the armed Greeks emerged from it. In a dream, Hector, the fallen Trojan prince, advised Aeneas to flee with his family, Aeneas awoke and saw with horror what was happening to his beloved city. At first he tried to fight the enemy, but soon he lost his comrades and was alone to fend off the Greeks
9.
Jacob Grimm
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Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was a German philologist, jurist, and mythologist. Jacob Grimm was born in Hanau, in Hesse-Kassel and his father, Philipp Grimm, was a lawyer, but he died while Jacob was a child, and his mother was left with very small means. His mothers sister was lady of the chamber to the Landgravine of Hesse, Jacob was sent to the public school at Kassel in 1798 with his younger brother Wilhelm. In 1802, he proceeded to the University of Marburg where he studied law and his brother joined him at Marburg a year later, having just recovered from a long and severe illness, and likewise began the study of law. Up to this time, Jacob Grimm had been driven only by a general thirst for knowledge, savignys lectures also awakened in him a love for historical and antiquarian investigation, which forms the structure of all his work. In the beginning of 1805, he received an invitation from Savigny, Grimm passed a very happy time in Paris, strengthening his taste for the literatures of the Middle Ages by his studies in the Paris libraries. Towards the close of the year, he returned to Kassel, where his mother and Wilhelm had settled, the next year, he obtained a position in the war office with the very small salary of 100 thalers. One of his grievances was that he had to exchange his stylish Paris suit for a stiff uniform, but he had full leisure for the pursuit of his studies. In 1808, soon after the death of his mother, he was appointed superintendent of the library of Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia. Bonaparte appointed him an auditor to the council, while Grimm retained his superintendent post. His salary was increased in a period of time from 2000 to 4000 francs. After the expulsion of Bonaparte and the reinstatement of an elector, Grimm was appointed Secretary of Legation in 1813, accompanying the Hessian minister to the headquarters of the allied army. In 1814, he was sent to Paris to demand restitution of books carried off by the French, upon his return from Vienna, he was sent to Paris a second time to secure book restitutions. Meanwhile, Wilhelm had received an appointment to the Kassel library, consequently, they moved the following year to Göttingen, where Jacob received the appointment of professor and librarian, and Wilhelm that of under-librarian. Jacob Grimm lectured on legal antiquities, historical grammar, literary history, and diplomatics, explained Old German poems, during this period, he is described as small and lively in figure, with a harsh voice, speaking a broad Hessian dialect. Grimm joined other academics who signed a protest against the King of Hanovers abrogation of the constitution which had established some years before. As a result, he was dismissed from his professorship and banished from the Kingdom of Hanover in 1837 and he returned to Kassel with his brother, who had also signed the protest. Jacob was not under any obligation to lecture and he seldom did so, during their time in Kassel, Jacob regularly attended the meetings of the academy, where he read papers on widely varied subjects
10.
Echo
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In audio signal processing and acoustics, echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is proportional to the distance of the surface from the source. Typical examples are the echo produced by the bottom of a well, by a building, or by the walls of an enclosed room, a true echo is a single reflection of the sound source. The word echo derives from the Greek ἠχώ, itself from ἦχος, echo in the folk story of Greek is a mountain nymph whose ability to speak was cursed, only able to repeat the last words anyone spoke to her. Some animals use echo for location sensing and navigation, such as cetaceans, acoustic waves are reflected by walls or other hard surfaces, such as mountains and privacy fences. The reason of reflection may be explained as a discontinuity in the propagation medium and this can be heard when the reflection returns with sufficient magnitude and delay to be perceived distinctly. When sound, or the echo itself, is reflected multiple times from multiple surfaces, the human ear cannot distinguish echo from the original direct sound if the delay is less than 1/15 of a second. The velocity of sound in dry air is approximately 343 m/s at a temperature of 25 °C, therefore, the reflecting object must be more than 17. 2m from the sound source for echo to be perceived by a person located at the source. When a sound produces an echo in two seconds, the object is 343m away. In nature, canyon walls or rock cliffs facing water are the most common settings for hearing echoes. The strength of echo is frequently measured in dB sound pressure level relative to the transmitted wave. Echoes may be desirable or undesirable, in music performance and recording, electric echo effects have been used since the 1950s. The Echoplex is a delay effect, first made in 1959 that recreates the sound of an acoustic echo. Designed by Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s and was used by most of the guitar players of the era. While Echoplexes were used heavily by guitar players, many recording studios used the Echoplex. Beginning in the 1970s, Market built the solid-state Echoplex for Maestro, in the 2000s, most echo effects units use electronic or digital circuitry to recreate the echo effect. Hamilton Mausoleum, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, Its high stone holds the record for the longest echo in the world, gol Gumbaz of Bijapur, India, Any whisper, clap or sound gets echoed repeatedly. The gazebo of Napier Museum in Trivandrum, Kerala, India, listen to Duck echoes and an animated demonstration of how an echo is formed
11.
Jan Baptist van Helmont
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Jan Baptist van Helmont was a Flemish chemist, physiologist, and physician. He worked during the years just after Paracelsus and iatrochemistry, and is considered to be the founder of pneumatic chemistry. Van Helmont is remembered largely for his ideas on spontaneous generation, his 5-year tree experiment. Van Helmont was the youngest of five children of Maria Stassaert and Christiaen van Helmont, a prosecutor and Brussels council member. He was educated at Leuven, and after ranging restlessly from one science to another and finding satisfaction in none and he interrupted his studies, and for a few years he traveled through Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany, and England. Returning to his own country, van Helmont obtained a degree in 1599. He practiced at Antwerp at the time of the plague in 1605. In 1609 he finally obtained his degree in medicine. The same year he married Margaret van Ranst, who was of a noble family. Van Helmont and Margaret lived in Vilvoorde, near Brussels, and had six or seven children, the inheritance of his wife enabled him to retire early from his medical practice and occupy himself with chemical experiments until his death on 30 December 1644. Van Helmont is regarded as the founder of chemistry, as he was the first to understand that there are gases distinct in kind from atmospheric air. He perceived that his gas sylvestre given off by burning charcoal, was the same as that produced by fermenting must, for Van Helmont, air and water were the two primitive elements. Fire he explicitly denied to be an element, and earth is not one because it can be reduced to water, on the one hand, Van Helmont was a disciple of Paracelsus, a mystic and alchemist. On the other hand, he engaged in the new learning based on experimentation that was producing men like William Harvey, Galileo Galilei and Francis Bacon. Van Helmont was an observer of nature, it can be inferred that from his analysis of data gathered in his experiments suggested he had a concept of the conservation of mass. He performed an experiment to determine where plants get their mass and he grew a willow tree and measured the amount of soil, the weight of the tree and the water he added. After five years the plant had gained about 164 lbs, since the amount of soil was basically the same as it had been when he started his experiment, he deduced that the trees weight gain had come from water. Since it had received nothing but water and the soil weighed practically the same as at the beginning, he argued that the weight of wood, bark
12.
Wild man
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The defining characteristic of the figure is its wildness, from the 12th century they were consistently depicted as being covered with hair. The image of the man survived to appear as supporter for heraldic coats-of-arms, especially in Germany. Renaissance engravers in Germany and Italy were particularly fond of men, wild women. The first element of woodwose is usually explained as from wudu wood, the second element is less clear. It has been identified as a hypothetical noun *wāsa being, from the verb wesan, wosan to be, the Old English form is unattested, but it would have been *wudu-wāsa or *wude-wāsa. It may also mean a forlorn or abandoned person, cognate with the German Waise, terminology in the Middle Ages was more varied. In Middle English, there was the term woodwose, wodwos occurs in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Old High German had schrat, scrato or scrazo, which appear in glosses of Latin works as translations for fauni, silvestres, or pilosi, some of the local names suggest connections with figures from ancient mythology. Common in Lombardy and the Italian-speaking parts of the Alps is the term salvan or salvang, which derives from the Latin Silvanus, the name of the Roman tutelary god of gardens and the countryside. Similarly, folklore in Tyrol and German-speaking Switzerland into the 20th century included a woman known as Fange or Fanke, which derives from the Latin fauna. Various languages and traditions include names suggesting affinities with Orcus, a Roman, for many years people in Tyrol called the wild man Orke, Lorke, or Noerglein, while in parts of Italy he was the orco or huorco. The French ogre has the same derivation, as do modern literary orcs, importantly, Orcus is associated with Maia in a dance celebrated late enough to be condemned in a 9th- or 10th-century Spanish penitential. The term was replaced in literature of the Early Modern English period by classically derived equivalents, or wild man. Wild man and its cognates is the term for the creature in most modern languages, it appears in German as wilder Mann, in French as homme sauvage. Figures similar to the European wild man occur worldwide from very early times, the earliest recorded example of the type is the character Enkidu in the ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. The portrayal of Nebuchadnezzar II in the Book of Daniel greatly influenced the medieval European concepts, Daniel 4 depicts God humbling the Babylonian king for his boastfulness, stricken mad and ejected from human society, he grows hair on his body and lives like a beast. This image was popular in medieval depictions of Nebuchadnezzar, similarly, late medieval legends of Saint John Chrysostom portray the saints asceticism as making him so isolated and feral that hunters who capture him cannot tell if he is man or beast. The medieval wild-man concept also drew on lore about similar beings from the Classical world such as the Roman faun, several folk traditions about the wild man correspond with ancient practices and beliefs
13.
Genius (mythology)
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In Roman religion, the genius is the individual instance of a general divine nature that is present in every individual person, place, or thing. Much like an angel, the genius would follow each man from the hour of his birth until the day he died. For women it was the Juno spirit that would accompany each of them, the Greeks called their genii daemons, and believed in them from the earliest times. The rational powers and abilities of human being were attributed to their soul. Each individual place had a genius and so did powerful objects, the concept extended to some specifics, the genius of the theatre, of vineyards, and of festivals, which made performances successful, grapes grow, and celebrations succeed, respectively. It was extremely important in the Roman mind to propitiate the appropriate genii for the major undertakings, although the term genius might apply to any divinity whatsoever, most of the higher-level and state genii had their own well-established names. Genius applied most often to places or people not generally known. Houses, doors, gates, streets, districts, tribes, the supreme hierarchy of the Roman gods, like that of the Greeks, was modelled after a human family. It featured a father, Jupiter, who was also the divine unity. These supreme unities were subdivided into genii for each family, hence. The male function was a Jupiter, for example, to protect infants one propitiated a number of deities concerned with birth and childrearing, Cuba, Cunina and Rumina. Certainly, if those genii did not perform their proper function well, hundreds of lararia, or family shrines, have been discovered at Pompeii, typically off the atrium, kitchen or garden, where the smoke of burnt offerings could vent through the opening in the roof. A lararium was distinct from the penus, another shrine where the penates, each lararium features a panel fresco containing the same theme, two peripheral figures attend on a central figure or two figures who may or may not be at an altar. In the foreground is one or two serpents crawling toward the genius through a meadow motif, campania and Calabria preserved an ancient practice of keeping a propitious house snake, here linked with the genius. Etymologically genius has the same derivation as nature from gēns from the Indo-European root *gen- and it is the indwelling nature of an object or class of objects or events that act with a perceived or hypothesized unity. Philosophically the Romans did not find the paradox of the one being many confusing, multiple events could therefore be attributed to the same and different divinities and a person could be the same as and different from his genius. They were not distinct, as the guardian angels. This point of view is not attributable to any one civilization, the Etruscans had such beliefs at the beginning of history, but then so did the Greeks, the native Italics and many other peoples in the Near and Middle East
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Classical element
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Ancient cultures in Egypt, Babylonia, Japan, Tibet, and India had similar lists, sometimes referring in local languages to air as wind and the fifth element as void. The Chinese Wu Xing system lists Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and these different cultures and even individual philosophers had widely varying explanations concerning their attributes and how they related to observable phenomena as well as cosmology. Sometimes these theories overlapped with mythology and were personified in deities, some of these interpretations included atomism but other interpretations considered the elements to be divisible into infinitely small pieces without changing their nature. Centuries of empirical investigation have proven that all the ancient systems were incorrect explanations of the physical world. It is now known that atomic theory is an explanation, and that atoms can be classified into more than a hundred chemical elements such as oxygen, iron. These elements form chemical compounds and mixtures, and under different temperatures and pressures, the concept of the five elements formed a basis of analysis in both Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hinduism, particularly in a context, the four states-of-matter describe matter. Similar lists existed in ancient China and Japan, in Buddhism the four great elements, to which two others are sometimes added, are not viewed as substances, but as categories of sensory experience. A Greek text called the Kore Kosmou ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, names the four fire, water, air. And, on the contrary, again some are made enemies of fire, and some of water, some of earth, and some of air, and some of two of them, and some of three, and some of all. For instance, son, the locust and all flies flee fire, the eagle and the hawk and all high-flying birds flee water, fish, air and earth, the snake avoids the open air. Not that some of the animals as well do not love fire, for instance salamanders and it is because one or another of the elements doth form their bodies outer envelope. Each soul, accordingly, while it is in its body is weighted and constricted by these four. According to Galen, these elements were used by Hippocrates in describing the body with an association with the four humours, yellow bile, black bile, blood. Medical care was flexible and primarily about helping the patient stay in or return to his/her own personal natural balanced state. In other Babylonian texts these phenomena are considered independent of their association with deities, though they are not treated as the component elements of the universe, the five elements are associated with the five senses, and act as the gross medium for the experience of sensations. The basest element, earth, created using all the elements, can be perceived by all five senses – hearing, touch, sight, taste. The next higher element, water, has no odor but can be heard, felt, seen, next comes fire, which can be heard, felt and seen
15.
Salamanders in folklore and legend
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The legendary salamander is often depicted as a typical salamander in shape, with a lizard-like form, but is usually ascribed an affinity with fire, sometimes specifically elemental fire. This legendary creature embodies the qualities that ancient and medieval commentators ascribed to the natural salamander. Many of these qualities are rooted in verifiable traits of the natural creature, a large body of legend, mythology, and symbolism has developed around this creature over the centuries. Pliny recounts several other traits which are less credible, such as the ability to fire with the frigidity of their bodies. These substances are often excreted when the animal is threatened, which has the effect of deterring predators. The salamander is also mentioned in the Talmud as a creature that is a product of fire, rashi, the primary commentator on the Talmud, describes the salamander as one which is produced by burning a fire in the same place for seven years. According to Sahih Bukhari, Muhammad said that salamanders are mischief-doers, saint Augustine in the City of God used the example of salamanders to argue for the possibility of humans being punished by being burned in eternal flame in Purgatory. A frequently-cited illustration of a salamander is presented in an influential 20th-century occult work by Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages, in which it is attributed to Paracelsus. This illustration appears to originate in a 1527 anti-papal tract by Andreas Osiander and Hans Sachs, descriptions of the legendary form are more likely to use stylized depictions. In Medieval European bestiaries, fanciful depictions of salamanders include a creature in a circular wooden tub, a worm penetrating flames, a winged dog. Compared to Medieval depictions, Renaissance depictions are more realistic. Of all the traits ascribed to salamanders, the relating to fire have stood out most prominently. This connection probably originates from a common to many species of salamander, hibernating in. When wood was brought indoors and put on the fire, the creatures mysteriously appeared from the flames, the 16th-century Italian artist Benvenuto Cellini famously recalled witnessing just such an appearance as a child in his autobiography. This tradition is first found in the Hieroglyphica of Horapollo, leonardo da Vinci wrote the following on the salamander, This has no digestive organs, and gets no food but from the fire, in which it constantly renews its scaly skin. The salamander, which renews its scaly skin in the fire, later, Paracelsus suggested that the salamander was the elemental of fire, which has had substantial influence on the role of salamanders in the occult. Paracelsus, contrary to the prevalent view of the time, considered them to be not devils, francis I of France used the salamander as his symbol. The salamander is found throughout French folklore, although in differing form, in addition or sometimes instead of its fire symbolism, it was attributed a powerful poison
16.
Undine
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Undines /ˈʌnˌdiːn, ˌʌnˈdiːn/ are a category of elemental beings associated with water, first named in the alchemical writings of Paracelsus. Similar creatures are found in literature, particularly Ovids Metamorphoses. Later writers developed the undine into a nymph in its own right. Undines are almost invariably depicted as being female, and are found in forest pools and waterfalls. The group contains many species, including nereides, limnads, naiades, although resembling humans in form they lack a human soul, so to achieve immortality they must acquire one by marrying a human. Such a union is not without risk for the man, because if he is unfaithful he is fated to die, Undine is a term that appears in the alchemical writings of Paracelsus, a Renaissance alchemist and physician. Ondine is a spelling, and has become a female given name. He describes these elementals as the invisible, spiritual counterparts of visible Nature, many resembling human beings in shape, and inhabiting worlds of their own, unknown to man because his undeveloped senses were incapable of functioning beyond the limitations of the grosser elements. Undines are almost invariably depicted as being female, which is consistent with the ancient idea that water is a female element and they are usually found in forest pools and waterfalls, and their beautiful singing voices are sometimes heard over the sound of water. The group contains many species, including oreades, nereides, limnads, naiades, mermaids, what undines lack, compared to humans, is a soul. Marriage with a human shortens their lives on Earth, but earns them a human soul. The offspring of a union between an undine and a man are human with a soul, but also some kind of aquatic characteristic. Moses Binswanger, the protagonist in Hansjörg Schneiders Das Wasserzeichen, has a cleft in his throat, for instance, the ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles was the first to propose that the four classical elements were sufficient to explain everything present in the world. The philosophy of nature spirits was also familiar to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, celtic languages scholar Henry Jenner has argued that the elementals grew out of the folklore that preceded them, The subdivisions and elaborations. Resembles the theory of these mystics in its outlines, and was probably what suggested it to them. Later writers embellished Paracelsus undine classification by developing it into a nymph in its own right. Ondine was the title of one of the poems in Aloysius Bertrands collection Gaspard de la Nuit of 1842 and this poem inspired the first movement of Maurice Ravels 1908 piano suite Gaspard de la nuit. The myth of the undine was one of the inspirations behind the French play Pelléas et Mélisande written by Maurice Maeterlinck, the composer Claude Debussy was in the audience, and he used the plays text as the libretto for his opera of the same name
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Hermeticism
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Hermeticism, also called Hermetism, is a religious, philosophical, and esoteric tradition based primarily upon writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. These writings have influenced the Western esoteric tradition and were considered to be of great importance during both the Renaissance and the Reformation. The tradition claims descent from a prisca theologia, a doctrine that affirms the existence of a single, true theology that is present in all religions, st. Thomas Aquinas reported that Trismegistus arrived at something akin to the doctrine of the Trinity. The three parts of the wisdom are alchemy, astrology, and theurgy, the Poimandres, from which Marsilio Ficino formed his opinion, states that They called him Trismegistus because he was the greatest philosopher and the greatest priest and the greatest king. The Suda states that He was called Trismegistus on account of his praise of the trinity, much of the importance of Hermeticism arises from its connection with the development of science during the time from 1300 to 1600 AD. Consequently, it was the practical aspects of Hermetic writings that attracted the attention of scientists, Isaac Newton placed great faith in the concept of an unadulterated, pure, ancient doctrine, which he studied vigorously to aid his understanding of the physical world. The term Hermetic is from the medieval Latin hermeticus, which is derived from the name of the Greek god, in English, it has been attested since the 17th century, as in Hermetic writers. The word Hermetic was used by Dr. Everard in his English translation of The Pimander of Hermes, Mary Anne Atwood mentioned the use of the word Hermetic by Dufresnoy in 1386. The synonymous term Hermetical is also attested in the 17th century, sir Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici of 1643 wrote, Now besides these particular and divided Spirits, there may be a universal and common Spirit to the whole world. It was the opinion of Plato, and is yet of the Hermeticall Philosophers, Hermes Trimegistus supposedly invented the process of making a glass tube airtight using a secret seal. Hence, the term completely sealed is implied in hermetically sealed, in Late Antiquity, Hermetism emerged in parallel with early Christianity, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, the Chaldaean Oracles, and late Orphic and Pythagorean literature. These doctrines were characterized by a resistance to the dominance of either rationality or doctrinal faith. The books now known as the Corpus Hermeticum were part of a renaissance of syncretistic and these post-Christian Greek texts dwell upon the oneness and goodness of God, urge purification of the soul, and defend pagan religious practices such as the veneration of images. Their predominant literary form is the dialogue, Hermes Trismegistus instructs a perplexed disciple upon various teachings of the hidden wisdom, many lost Greek texts and many surviving vulgate books contained discussions of alchemy clothed in philosophical metaphor. One of these, known as The Asclepius, contained a prophecy of the end of Roman rule in Egypt. Plutarchs mention of Hermes Trismegistus dates back to the 1st century AD, and Tertullian, Iamblichus, after centuries of falling out of favor, Hermeticism was reintroduced to the West when, in 1460, a man named Leonardo de Candia Pistoia brought the Corpus Hermeticum to Pistoia. He was one of agents sent out by Pistoias ruler, Cosimo de Medici. In 1614, Isaac Casaubon, a Swiss philologist, analyzed the Greek Hermetic texts for linguistic style and he concluded that the writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus were not the work of an ancient Egyptian priest but in fact dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD
18.
Alexander Pope
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Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations after Shakespeare, Alexander Pope was born to Alexander Pope Senior, a linen merchant of Plough Court, Lombard Street, London, and his wife Edith, who were both Catholics. Ediths sister Christiana was the wife of the miniature painter Samuel Cooper. Pope was taught to read by his aunt, and went to Twyford School in about 1698/99 and he then went to two Catholic schools in London. Such schools, while illegal, were tolerated in some areas, in 1700, his family moved to a small estate at Popeswood in Binfield, Berkshire, close to the royal Windsor Forest. This was due to strong anti-Catholic sentiment and a statute preventing Catholics from living within 10 miles of either London or Westminster, Pope would later describe the countryside around the house in his poem Windsor Forest. He also studied languages and read works by English, French, Italian, Latin. After five years of study, Pope came into contact with figures from the London literary society such as William Wycherley, William Congreve, Samuel Garth, William Trumbull, at Binfield, he also began to make many important friends. One of them, John Caryll, was twenty years older than the poet and had many acquaintances in the London literary world. He introduced the young Pope to the ageing playwright William Wycherley and to William Walsh, a minor poet and he also met the Blount sisters, Teresa and Martha, both of whom would remain lifelong friends. From the age of 12, he suffered health problems, such as Potts disease. His tuberculosis infection caused other problems including respiratory difficulties, high fevers, inflamed eyes. He grew to a height of only 1.37 m. Pope was already removed from society because he was Catholic, although he never married, he had many female friends to whom he wrote witty letters. Allegedly, his lifelong friend Martha Blount was his lover, in May,1709, Popes Pastorals was published in the sixth part of Tonsons Poetical Miscellanies. This brought Pope instant fame, and was followed by An Essay on Criticism, published in May 1711, around 1711, Pope made friends with Tory writers John Gay, Jonathan Swift, Thomas Parnell and John Arbuthnot, who together formed the satirical Scriblerus Club. The aim of the club was to satirise ignorance and pedantry in the form of the fictional scholar Martinus Scriblerus and he also made friends with Whig writers Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. In March 1713, Windsor Forest was published to great acclaim, during Popes friendship with Joseph Addison, he contributed to Addisons play Cato, as well as writing for The Guardian and The Spectator
19.
Humorism
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It is also present in the Indian Ayurveda system of medicine. The four humors of Hippocratic medicine are black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood, a humor is also referred to as a cambium. The humoralist system of medicine was highly individualistic, for individual patient was said to have their own unique humoral composition. Moreover, it resembled a holistic approach to medicine as the link between mental and physical processes were emphasized by this framework, Ayurveda, which is known to have been practiced in the 6th century C. E, names three elemental substances, the doshas. Ayurveda is still practiced in India. The concept has not been used in medicine since then, the theory holds that the human body is filled with four basic substances, called humors, which are in balance when a person is healthy. Diseases and disabilities supposedly resulted from an excess or deficit of one of four humors. Disease could also be the result of the corruption of one or more of the humors and these deficits were thought to be caused by vapors inhaled or absorbed by the body. The four humors are black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and these terms only partly correspond to the modern medical terminology, in which there is no distinction between black and yellow bile, and in which phlegm has a very different meaning. It was believed that these were the basic substances from which all liquids in the body were made, when a patient was suffering from a surplus or imbalance of one of these four fluids, then said patients personality and or physical health could be negatively affected. Paired qualities were associated with humor and its season. The word humor is a translation of Greek χυμός, chymos, at around the same time, ancient Indian Ayurveda medicine had developed a theory of three humors, which they linked with the five Hindu elements. The following table shows the four humors with their elements, seasons, sites of formation. Excess of yellow bile was thought to produce aggression, and excess anger reciprocally gave rise to liver derangement, the word melancholy derives from Greek μέλαινα χολή meaning black bile, from the belief that an excess of black bile caused depression. Phlegm was thought to be associated with behavior, as preserved in the word phlegmatic /flɛgˈmatɪk/. The phlegm of humorism is far from the thing as phlegm as it is defined today. What can we say of this classification of humours into four groups. Although advances in cellular pathology and chemistry discredited humoralism by the nineteenth century, only in some instances did the theory of humoralism wane into obscurity
20.
Prospero
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Prospero is a fictional character and the protagonist of William Shakespeares play The Tempest. Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, whose usurping brother, Prospero and Miranda survived and found exile on a small island. He has learned sorcery from books, and uses it while on the island to protect Miranda and control the other characters. - Act V, scene 1. On the island, Prospero becomes master of the monster Caliban, Ariel is beholden to Prospero after he is freed from his imprisonment inside the pine tree. At the end of the play, Prospero intends to drown his book, the final soliloquy and epilogue in The Tempest is considered to be one of the most memorable speeches in Shakespearean literature. In it, Prospero states his loss and his continuing imprisonment if the audience is not pleased, many feel that since The Tempest was the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone, Prosperos feelings echo Shakespeares own, or perhaps may even have been his retirement speech. Sir Michael Redgrave played Prospero in a BBC Play of the Month production in 1968, heathcote Williams played Prospero in Derek Jarmans 1979 film version of The Tempest. Sir Michael Hordern played Prospero in a 1980 production for BBC television, a Stratford Shakespeare Festival production was videotaped and broadcast on television in 1983, starring Len Cariou as Prospero. In Peter Greenaways film Prosperos Books, Prospero is played by John Gielgud, in Julie Taymors 2010 film adaptation of the play, Prospero is played by Helen Mirren and is now named Prospera. David Warner played Prospero in the BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3 production of The Tempest, broadcast as part of the Shakespeare Unlocked series on the BBC, richard Cox portrays Prospero in the second season of the TNT series The Librarians. This version of Prospero is a Fictional, a character brought to life by magic, after regaining his book and obtaining the Staff of Zarathustra, he imprisons the Librarians within his illusions, but his servant Ariel rebels and frees them. Prospero subsequently begins to reshape the world in his image, while also possessing his creator Shakespeare in order to change the past, the Librarians destroy his staff and exorcise him from Shakespeares body, banishing him back to his original story. Patrick Stewart portrayed Prospero on a Broadway version of The Tempest and he later participated as Prospero in Rupert Goolds very loose interpretation with The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. Paul Prospero, the protagonist of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, is named after Prospero, in John Bellairss novel The Face in the Frost, Prospero is one of the protagonists. T. S. Eliots poem The Waste Land references Prospero, in the The Horus Heresy series, several books take place on a planet called Prospero. The citizens of the planet are versed in sorcery and psychic powers, earning them the suspicion and ire of the rest of the Imperium of Man. Melon Cauliflower, by NZ playwright Tom McCrory, is about a man Prospero, in his late sixties, Data who is in turn played by the actor Brent Spiner during the beginning of Season 7 Episode 23 entitled Emergence. He recites some lines of Prosperos speech before asking Captain Picard as played by Patrick Stewart to provide insight into the character of Prospero
21.
Ariel (The Tempest)
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Ariel /ˈæriəl/ is a spirit who appears in William Shakespeares play The Tempest. Ariel is bound to serve the magician Prospero, who rescued him from the tree in which he was imprisoned by Sycorax, Prospero greets disobedience with a reminder that he saved Ariel from Sycoraxs spell, and with promises to grant Ariel his freedom. The source of Ariels name and character is unknown, although critics have pointed out his similarities to the Ariel mentioned in Isaiah chapter 29 in the Bible. The name means Lion of God, in this sense, Ariel may also be a simple play on the word aerial. Since the stage directions in The Tempest are so precise, critics, also, a line by Ariel in Act IV brings other scholars to ask questions as to whether the original actor for Ariel played the part for Ceres as well, due to a shortage of boy actors. Ariel is widely viewed as a character, although this view has wavered over the years, especially in the Restoration. Whenever Caliban desired not to obey the command of Prospero, Ariel would persuade him to do the work, either by using magical powers or by using force. Ariel first appears in the scene of the play to report to Prospero on his success in carrying out his command to shipwreck the King of Naples. Ariel adds that, as commanded, he saw none of the group were harmed. After being praised by Prospero, Ariel pleads for his freedom from the service in return. Prospero declines, reminding him of the state he was in before Prospero rescued him, after 12 years of pain, Ariel was released from his prison by Prospero, who pressed the spirit into his service. The magician denies Ariels request for freedom at this time, but promises that on the condition he follows the rest of his commands, he will grant his wish in two days. For the rest of the play, Ariel is Prosperos eyes and ears—spying on the sailors in invisible form. In the second act Ariel briefly appears to stop a conspiracy to kill Alonso, King of Naples, whose brother, Sebastian, Ariel sings in the ear of Gonzalo, a councillor to Alonso, to wake him and foils the plot. Ariel also appears in Act Three to foil Calibans plot to turn the sailors against Prospero and murder him. Later in the act, he appears with a clap of thunder and rebukes those who were involved in the plot to banish Prospero to the island. He is later called on to gather the spirits of the island before Miranda and Ferdinand, and to bring Trinculo, Stephano, in the final act, Ariel releases the prisoners of Prospero and awakens what is left of the crew of the ship from a deep slumber. Thanks to Ariels work, Ferdinand and Miranda have fallen in love, Prospero is so impressed by Ariels matchmaking that he says that he would set Ariel free for that one act
22.
Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
23.
The Tempest
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The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on an island, where the sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place using illusion. He conjures up a storm, the eponymous tempest, to lure his usurping brother Antonio, there, his machinations bring about the revelation of Antonios lowly nature, the redemption of the King, and the marriage of Miranda to Alonsos son, Ferdinand. In addition, one of Gonzalos speeches is derived from Montaignes essay Of the Canibales, the masque in Act 4 may have been a later addition, possibly in honour of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V in 1613. The play was first published in the First Folio of 1623, the story draws heavily on the tradition of the romance, and it was influenced by tragicomedy, the courtly masque and perhaps the commedia dellarte. It differs from Shakespeares other plays in its observation of a stricter, H. Gonzalo, Alonsos counselor, had secretly supplied their boat with some food, fresh water, rich garments, linens, stuffs and necessaries, and volumes that Prospero prizes. Prospero maintains Ariels loyalty by promising to release the airy spirit from servitude. Sycorax had been exiled from Algiers to the island for wreaking havoc with her magic, Sycorax son, Caliban, a deformed monster and the only non-spiritual inhabitant before the arrival of Prospero, was initially adopted and raised by him. He taught Prospero how to survive on the island, while Prospero and Miranda taught Caliban religion, in slavery, Caliban has come to view Prospero as a usurper and has grown to resent him and his daughter. Prospero and Miranda in turn view Caliban with disappointment, contempt, Prospero only performs one act of magic himself directly on stage, he disarms Ferdinand, causing his nerves to become in their infancy again. The rest of his magic is through controlling spirits, which is how magicians of the time were believed to operate, Prospero, having divined that his brother Antonio is on a nearby ship, has raised a tempest that causes the passengers to believe they are shipwrecked and marooned. Also on the ship are Antonios friend and fellow conspirator, King Alonso of Naples, Alonsos brother and son and Alonsos trusted counselor, all these passengers are returning from the wedding of Alonsos daughter Claribel and the King of Tunis. Prospero contrives to separate the shipwreck survivors into several groups by his spells, three plots then alternate through the play. In one, Caliban falls in with Stephano and Trinculo, two drunkards, believing Stephano to be a god who bears celestial liquor. They attempt to raise a coup against Prospero, which ultimately fails, in the third subplot, Antonio and Sebastian conspire to kill Alonso and Gonzalo so that Sebastian can become King. Ariel thwarts them, at Prosperos command, Ariel appears to the three men of sin as a harpy, reprimanding them for their betrayal of Prospero. Prospero, who has witnessed this, leaves to visit Ferdinand, the three guilty nobles run off, distracted and in a frenzy, and Gonzalo and the attendant lords chase after to prevent them from doing what this ecstasy may now provoke them to. Prospero then explains that he tested Ferdinand, and betroths a willing Miranda to him and he then asks Ariel to bring some other spirits and create a masque to entertain the young couple
24.
Terry Brooks
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Terence Dean Terry Brooks is an American writer of fantasy fiction. He writes mainly epic fantasy, and has written two movie novelizations. He has written 23 New York Times bestsellers during his writing career and he is one of the biggest-selling living fantasy writers. Brooks was born in the rural Midwestern town of Sterling, Illinois and he is an alumnus of Hamilton College, earning his B. A. in English literature in 1966. He later obtained a law degree from Washington and Lee University and he was a practicing attorney before becoming a full-time author. Brooks had been a writer since high school, writing mainly in the genres of fiction, western, fiction. One day, in his college life, he was given a copy of J. R. R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings. With this inspiration, he made his debut in 1977 with The Sword of Shannara. After finishing two sequels to The Sword of Shannara, Brooks moved on to the series which would become known as the Landover novels, Brooks then wrote a four-book series titled The Heritage of Shannara. For the next fourteen years, he wrote more Landover books, then went on to write The Word, continuing the Shannara series, Brooks wrote the prequel to The Sword of Shannara, titled First King of Shannara. He then wrote two series, The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara and High Druid of Shannara and recently finished a third, Genesis of Shannara, the sixth book in the Landover series, A Princess of Landover, was released in August 2009. Returning to Shannara, a duology, Legends of Shannara, taking place after the events of Genesis of Shannara, was written next. The first book, entitled Bearers of the Black Staff, was released in August 2010 and he next completed a trilogy entitled The Dark Legacy of Shannara. The three books are, Wards of Faerie, Bloodfire Quest, and Witch Wraith and he followed this with the trilogy Defenders of Shannara, which include The High Druids Blade, The Darkling Child, and The Sorcerers Daughter. According to his website, he is working on the final. The first book in the tetralogy is The Black Elfstone and is scheduled for release June 13,2017, a television series based on the Shannara works, entitled The Shannara Chronicles began showing on MTV in January 2016. The show starts with the book of the original series, Elfstones. The series was renewed for a season as of April 2016 Brooks resides in northwestern Oregon with his wife
25.
Magic Kingdom of Landover
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The location of the novels centers in a fictional world known as Landover that is populated with numerous magical and fairy creatures. It takes its name from a reference to The Wizard of Oz. It is a world, surrounded on all sides by fairy mists which connect it to many other worlds. Their rulers, while answerable to the king, are allowed a degree of autonomy. Also inhabiting the land are the dragon Strabo and the witch Nightshade, Landover is protected by the Paladin, a magical knight who is a projection of its rulers. In the absence of a ruler, the Paladin disappears and Landover falls prey to a physical decay known as the Tarnish. The Paladins is one of the few magics in the land that can stand up against that of Strabo or Nightshade, the first novel is about the main character, Ben Holiday, and his discovery of an ad offering the kingship of a magic kingdom named Landover. He is soon crowned king, but must deal with a host of problems to solidify his throne, in the second novel, Holiday is disguised, supposedly by magic used by the evil wizard Meeks. He must figure out how to restore himself to the throne, Abernathy is accidentally transported to Earth by one of Questors ill-conceived spells. Meanwhile, an imp is unleashed upon Landover, Ben and his friends must find a way to get back Abernathy. An inept conjurer/conman, Horris Kew, accidentally releases upon Landover an evil creature called the Gorse, the creature soon imprisons Ben, the dragon Strabo, and the witch Nightshade in a device known as the Tangle Box. They must find a way out while Bens allies find a way to handle the new threat from the Gorse, a usurper who claims to be from another world calls for Bens abdication from the throne, and begins to send evil, magic creatures against him. Meanwhile, Nightshade kidnaps Ben and Willows daughter, Mistaya, in a attempt to subvert her. Meanwhile, Questor and Abernathy are stuck back in Earth to meet up with an old friend, leaving Ben, Ben Holiday, Chicago lawyer and mere mortal turned monarch of enchanted Landover, has grappled with scheming barons, fire-breathing beasts, diabolical conjurers, and extremely wicked witches. None of whom have prepared him for the most daunting of challengers, sent by Ben and his beloved sylph bride, Willow, to an exclusive girls prep school, headstrong Mistaya Holiday has found life in the natural world a less-than-perfect fit. A seventh novel is planned that will be the novel in the series. As of 2015 it is untitled, once a successful trial lawyer in Chicago, Bens life takes a dramatic change when his wife Annie and their unborn child are killed in a traffic accident. Ben sinks into depression and no longer gains fulfillment through the law firm he established with his best friend, seeing a Christmas catalog advertising a fairytale kingdom for sale, he purchases it for $1,000,000 in a desperate hope to find something meaningful again
26.
Marie Taglioni
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Marie Taglioni was a ballet dancer of the Romantic ballet era, a central figure in the history of European dance. She is credited with being the first ballerina to dance en pointe. Her brother, Paul, was also a dancer and an influential choreographer, Taglioni was married to Comte Auguste Gilbert de Voisins on 14 July 1832, but separated in 1836. The couple had one daughter, Eugenie-Marie Edwige, Taglioni moved to Vienna with her family at a very young age where she began her ballet training under the direction of her father. In Vienna, Marie danced her first ballet choreographed by her father titled La Reception dune Jeune Nymphe à la Cour de Terpsichore, Taglioni rose to fame as a danseuse at the Paris Opéra when her father created the ballet La Sylphide for her. In 1827 Taglioni left the Ballet of Her Majestys Theatre to take up a contract in Saint Petersburg with the Imperial Ballet. Pas de Quatre was originally choreographed to be presented to Queen Victoria, Taglioni retired from performing in 1847, for a time she took up residence at the Ca dOro on the Grand Canal in Venice. When the ballet of the Paris Opéra was reorganized on stricter, more professional lines and her only choreographic work was Le papillon for her student Emma Livry, who is remembered for dying in 1863 when her costume was set alight by a gas lamp used for stage lighting. Johann Strauss II composed the Marie Taglioni Polka in honour of Marie Taglionis niece, Marie Paul Taglioni, the two women, having the same name, have often been conflated, or confused with each other. Later in England, she taught dance and ballroom to children and society ladies in London. She resided at #14 Connaught Square, London from 1875 to 1876, Taglioni died in Marseille on 22 April 1884, the day before her 80th birthday. Women in dance Wurzbach, Constantin von, media related to Marie Taglioni at Wikimedia Commons Marie Taglioni, A life on toe tip
27.
La Sylphide
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La Sylphide is a romantic ballet in two acts. There were two versions of the ballet, the original one choreographed by Filippo Taglioni in 1832, Bournonvilles is the only version known to have survived and thus is one of the worlds oldest surviving ballets. Taglioni designed the work as a showcase for his daughter Marie, Marie was known for shortening her skirts in the performance of La Sylphide, which was considered highly scandalous at the time. The ballets libretto was written by tenor Adolphe Nourrit, the first Robert in Meyerbeers Robert Le Diable, Emma Livry, one of the last ballerinas of the Romantic ballet era, made her debut with the Paris Opera Ballet as the sylph in an 1858 production of La Sylphide. When Marie Taglioni saw Livry in the role, she stayed on in Paris to teach the girl, in 1892, Marius Petipa mounted a revival of Taglionis original La Sylphide for the Imperial Ballet, with additional music by Riccardo Drigo. In 1972, a revival of the Taglioni version was staged by Pierre Lacotte for the Paris Opera Ballet, since Taglionis choreography has been irretrievably lost, Lacottes choreography is based on prints, notes, drawings, and archival materials from the era of the ballets premiere. Lacottes choreography is in the style of the period but entirely new and has been criticised by some as inauthentic, interpreters of the role of Lacottes version at the Opera National de Paris include Ghislaine Thesmar and Aurelie Dupont. Both artists have recorded their work on DVD and video, in the end, Bournonville mounted his own production of La Sylphide based on the original libretto, with music by Herman Severin Løvenskiold. The premiere took place on November 28,1836, with the prodigy Lucile Grahn, the Bournonville version has been danced in its original form by the Royal Danish Ballet ever since its creation and remains one of Bournonvilles most celebrated works. Modern interpreters of Bournonvilles version include Eva Evdokimova and Lis Jeppesen, in the hall of a Scottish farmhouse, James Ruben, a young Scotsman, sleeps in a chair by the fireside. A sylph gazes lovingly upon him and dances about his chair and she kisses him and then vanishes when he suddenly wakes. James rouses his friend Gurn from sleep, and questions him about the sylph, Gurn denies having seen such a creature and reminds James that he is shortly to be married. James dismisses the incident and promises to forget it, James bride-to-be, Effie, arrives with her mother and bridesmaids. James dutifully kisses her, but is startled by a shadow in the corner, thinking his sylph has returned, he rushes over, only to find the witch, Old Madge, kneeling at the hearth to warm herself. James is furious with the disappointment, Effie and her friends beg Old Madge to tell their fortunes, and the witch complies. She gleefully informs Effie that James loves someone else and she will be united with Gurn and he forces Madge from the hearth and throws her out of the house. Effie is delighted that James would tangle with a witch for her sake, Effie and her bridesmaids hurry upstairs to prepare for the wedding, and James is left alone in the room. As he stares out the window, the sylph materializes before him and she weeps at his apparent indifference
28.
Les Sylphides
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Les Sylphides is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc. Its original choreography was by Michel Fokine, with music by Frédéric Chopin orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov, Glazunov had already set some of the music in 1892 as a purely orchestral suite, under the title Chopiniana, Op.46. In that form it was introduced to the public in December 1893, the ballet, described as a romantic reverie, is frequently cited as the first ballet to be simply about mood and dance. Les Sylphides has no plot, but instead consists of several white-clad sylphs dancing in the moonlight with the poet or young man dressed in white tights, identifying the premiere of the fuller ballet poses a challenge. One might say that it premiered in 1907 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg as Rêverie Romantique, however, this also formed the basis of a ballet, Chopiniana, which took different forms, even in Fokines hands. As Les Sylphides, what we consider the work was premiered by Sergei Diaghilevs Ballets Russes on 2 June 1909 at Théâtre du Châtelet, the Diaghilev premiere is the most famous, as its soloists were Tamara Karsavina, Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, and Alexandra Baldina. The London premiere, in the first season of the Diaghilev Ballets Russes, was at the Royal Opera House, with more sylph-like elusiveness, the North American premiere might be dated by an unauthorized version in the Winter Garden, New York, on 14 June 1911. However, its premiere on that continent, by Diaghilev Ballets Russes, was at the Century Theater, New York City,20 January 1916. Nijinsky danced it with that company at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 April 1916, Fokine also set the ballet for several other companies, and he and his wife, Vera Fokina, danced its leading roles themselves for some years. Chopiniana, staged by Fokine, had a different musical composition, also, Chopiniana was originally a compilation of dramatic or character dances set to Chopins piano music. Polonaise in A major, Op.40, No.1 Nocturne in F major, Op.15, No.1 Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op.50, No.3 Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op.64, No. 2, as added by Michel Fokine Tarantella in A-flat major and this version, now titled Les Sylphides, was first staged at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 2 June 1909. The New York City Ballet produced its own staging of the version, omitting the Polonaise in A major, under the original title. The NYCB premiere was staged by Alexandra Danilova and took place 20 January 1972, at the New York State Theater, the original cast included Karin von Aroldingen, Susan Hendl, Kay Mazzo, and Peter Martins. A number of musicians have orchestrated the Chopin pieces for major companies, including Benjamin Britten, Alexander Gretchaninov, Roy Douglas. The Britten orchestration was considered lost but a thought to be his was found in 2013 in the archives of the American Ballet Theatre. Roy Douglass version has been recorded a number of times, and has largely supplanted the earlier versions and it was written in 1936, to replace what Douglas called very bad orchestrations of Chopins music
29.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
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A Midsummer Nights Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six actors who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeares most popular works for the stage and is performed across the world. The play opens with Hermia, who is in love with Lysander, resistant to her father Egeus demand that she wed Demetrius, Helena meanwhile pines unrequitedly for Demetrius. Enraged, Egeus invokes an ancient Athenian law before Duke Theseus, whereby a daughter must marry the suitor chosen by her father, Theseus offers her another choice, lifelong chastity while worshipping the goddess Artemis as a nun. Quince reads the names of characters and bestows them to the players, nick Bottom, who is playing the main role of Pyramus, is over-enthusiastic and wants to dominate others by suggesting himself for the characters of Thisbe, the Lion, and Pyramus at the same time. He would also rather be a tyrant and recites some lines of Ercles, Bottom is told by Quince that he would do the Lion so terribly as to frighten the duchess and ladies enough for the Duke and Lords to have the players hanged. Quince ends the meeting with at the Dukes oak we meet, in a parallel plot line, Oberon, king of the fairies, and Titania, his queen, have come to the forest outside Athens. Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until she has attended Theseus, Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his knight or henchman, since the childs mother was one of Titanias worshippers. Oberon seeks to punish Titanias disobedience, when the concoction is applied to the eyelids of a sleeping person, that person, upon waking, falls in love with the first living thing they perceive. He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower with the hope that he might make Titania fall in love with an animal of the forest and thereby shame her into giving up the little Indian boy. He says, And ere I take this charm from off her sight, /As I can take it with another herb, Hermia and Lysander have escaped to the same forest in hopes of eloping. Helena, desperate to reclaim Demetriuss love, tells Demetrius about the plan, Helena continually makes advances towards Demetrius, promising to love him more than Hermia. However, he rebuffs her with cruel insults against her, observing this, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the magical juice from the flower on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, not having seen either before. Helena, coming across him, wakes him while attempting to determine whether he is dead or asleep, upon this happening, Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena. Oberon sees Demetrius still following Hermia and is enraged, when Demetrius goes to sleep, Oberon sends Puck to get Helena while he charms Demetrius eyes
30.
Fantasy
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Fantasy is a fiction genre set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Most fantasy uses magic or other elements as a main plot element, theme. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds, in popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy works by many writers, artists, filmmakers. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, history. The identifying trait of fantasy is the reliance on imagination to create narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that whereas realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, an author applies his or her imagination to come up with characters, plots, and settings that are impossible in reality. Fantasy has often compared with science fiction and horror because they are the major categories of speculative fiction. Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements, a science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seeming possible through logical scientific and/or technological extrapolation, whereas fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. The imagined elements of fantasy do not need an explanation to be narratively functional. Authors have to rely on the suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment. Despite both genres heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable, horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. Beginning perhaps with the earliest written documents, mythic and other elements that would come to define fantasy. MacDonald was an influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, lord Dunsany established the genres popularity in both the novel and the short story form. Many popular mainstream authors also began to write fantasy at this time, including H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Indeed, juvenile fantasy was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, intended for children, though works for adults only verged on fantasy. Political and social trends can affect a societys reception towards fantasy, in the early 20th century, the New Culture Movements enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature
31.
Apsara
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An Apsara is a female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. An Apsara, is known as Vidhya Dhari or Tep Apsar in Khmer, Accharā or A Bố Sa La Tư, Bidadari, Biraddali, Hapsari or Widadari. English translations of the word Apsara include nymph, celestial nymph, in Indian mythology, Apsaras are beautiful, supernatural female beings. They are youthful and elegant, and superb in the art of dancing and they are often wives of the Gandharvas, the court musicians of Indra. They dance to the music made by the Gandharvas, usually in the palaces of the gods, entertain and sometimes seduce gods and men. As ethereal beings who inhabit the skies, and are often depicted taking flight, or at service of a god, Apsaras are said to be able to change their shape at will, and rule over the fortunes of gaming and gambling. Urvasi, Menaka, Rambha, Tilottama and Ghritachi are the most famous among them, Apsaras are sometimes compared to the muses of ancient Greece, with each of the 26 Apsaras at Indras court representing a distinct aspect of the performing arts. They are associated with fertility rites, there are two types of Apsaras, Laukika, of whom thirty-four are specified, and Daivika, of which there are ten. The Bhagavata Purana also states that the Apsaras were born from Kashyapa, the Rigveda tells of an Apsara who is the wife of Gandharva, however, the Rigveda also seems to allow for the existence of more than one Apsara. The only Apsara specifically named is Urvashi, an entire hymn deals with the colloquy between Urvashi and her mortal lover Pururavas. Later Hindu scriptures allow for the existence of numerous Apsaras, who act as the handmaidens of Indra or as dancers at his celestial court, in many of the stories related in the Mahabharata, Apsaras appear in important supporting roles. The epic contains several lists of the principal Apsaras, which lists are not always identical, a story type or theme appearing over and over again in the Mahabharata is that of an Apsara sent to distract a sage or spiritual master from his ascetic practices. One story embodying this theme is that recounted by the epic heroine Shakuntala to explain her own parentage, once upon a time, the sage Viswamitra generated such intense energy by means of his asceticism that Indra himself became fearful. Deciding that the sage would have to be distracted from his penances, Menaka trembled at the thought of angering such a powerful ascetic, but she obeyed the gods order. As she approached Viswamitra, the wind god Vayu tore away her garments, seeing her thus disrobed, the sage abandoned himself to lust. Nymph and sage engaged in sex for some time, during which Viswamitras asceticism was put on hold, as a consequence, Menaka gave birth to a daughter, whom she abandoned on the banks of a river. That daughter was Shakuntala herself, the narrator of the story, the term Bidadari is a Malay-Indonesian word that equates refer Indian concept, as heavenly maidens living in the svargaloka or in celestial palace of Indra, described in Balinese dedari dance. It is usually seen as an offer to those who lived a lifestyle in service to and pleasing to God, after death
32.
Elf
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An elf is a type of supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Reconstructing the early concept of an elf depends almost entirely on texts in Old English or relating to Norse mythology, later evidence for elves appears in diverse sources such as medical texts, prayers, ballads, and folktales. Legends of álfar may have been changing and were perhaps always heterogeneous so it might be argued that any particular source will only reflect the state of affairs at one given time. However, the character of beliefs in elves across the Germanic-speaking world has varied considerably across time, space. In Old Norse mythological texts, elves seem at least at times to be counted among the gods, in medieval German texts they seem more consistently monstrous. Elves are prominently associated with sexual threats, seducing people and causing them harm, for example, a number of early modern ballads in the British Isles and Scandinavia, originating in the medieval period, describe human encounters with elves. In English literature of the Elizabethan era, elves became conflated with the fairies of Romance culture, German Romanticist writers were influenced by this notion of the elf, and reimported the English word elf in that context into the German language. In Scandinavia, probably through a process of euphemism, elves often came to be conflated with the called the huldra or huldufólk. Meanwhile, German folklore has tended to see the conflation of elves with dwarfs, the Christmas elves of contemporary popular culture are of relatively recent tradition, popularized during the late nineteenth-century in the United States. Elves entered the high fantasy genre in the wake of works published by authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, for which. The English word elf is from the Old English word most often attested as ælf, although this word took a variety of forms in different Old English dialects, these converged on the form elf during the Middle English period. During the Old English period, separate forms were used for female elves, the main medieval Germanic cognates of elf are Old Norse alfr, plural alfar, and Old High German alp, plural alpî, elpî. These words must come from Common Germanic, the ancestor-language of English, German, and the Scandinavian languages, Germanic *ɑlβi-z~*ɑlβɑ-z is generally agreed to be cognate with the Latin albus, Old Irish ailbhín, Albanian elb, and Germanic words for ‘swan’ such as Modern Icelandic álpt. These all come from an Indo-European base *albh-, and seem to be connected by whiteness, the Germanic word presumably originally meant white person, perhaps as a euphemism. Jakob Grimm thought that whiteness implied positive moral connotations, and, noting Snorri Sturlusons ljósálfar and this is not necessarily the case, however. Compare descriptions such as ‘swan white’ to describe the beauty of fair complexion, Norse cultural values view masculinity as an ideal of beauty, which the Alfr personifies. For example, the Norse Eddas similarly celebrate the beauty of Baldr. Icelandic Sagas celebrate the beauty of the giants, and certain warrior kings that descend from them
33.
Jinn
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Jinn, also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies, are supernatural creatures in early Arabian and later Islamic mythology and theology. An individual member of the jinn is known as a jinni, djinni and they are mentioned frequently in the Quran and other Islamic texts. The jinn, humans, and angels make up the three known sapient creations of God, like human beings, the jinn can be good, evil, or neutrally benevolent and hence have free will like humans. Jaini were among various creatures believe among pre-Zoroastrian peoples of Persia, Jinn is an Arabic collective noun deriving from the Semitic root JNN, whose primary meaning is to hide. Some authors interpret the word to mean, literally, beings that are concealed from the senses, cognates include the Arabic majnūn, jannah, and janīn. Jinn is properly treated as a plural, with the singular being jinni, the anglicized form genie is a borrowing of the French génie, from the Latin genius, a guardian spirit of people and places in Roman religion. It first appeared in 18th-century translations of the Thousand and One Nights from the French, numerous mentions of jinn in the Quran and testimony of both pre-Islamic and Islamic literature indicate that the belief in spirits was prominent in pre-Islamic Bedouin religion. Julius Wellhausen has observed that such spirits were thought to inhabit desolate, dingy, and dark places, One had to protect oneself from them, but they were not the objects of a true cult. In Islamic theology jinn are said to be creatures with free will, made from fire by God as humans were made of clay. When jinns are called fire spirits it´s does not refer to their current nature, Jinn are mentioned 29 times in the Quran, Surah 72 is named after the jinn, and has a passage about them. Another surah mentions jinn in the last verse, the Quran also mentions that Muhammad was sent as a prophet to both humanity and the jinn, and that prophets and messengers were sent to both communities. Like humans, jinn will also be judged on the Day of Judgment, the social organization of the jinn community resembles that of humans, e. g. they have kings, courts of law, weddings, mourning rituals and practise religion. One common belief in Muslim belief lists five distinct orders of jinn — the Marid, the Ifrit, the Shaitan, the Ghul, and the Jann. A few traditions, divide jinn into three classes, those who have wings and fly in the air, those who resemble snakes and dogs, described them as creatures of different forms, some resembling vultures and snakes, others tall men in white garb. They may even appear as dragons, onagers, or any number of other animals, in addition to their animal forms, the jinn occasionally assume human form to mislead and destroy their human victims. Ibn Taymiyyah, a late medieval theologian whose writings would later become the source of Wahhabism, believed the jinn to be generally ignorant, untruthful, oppressive. In Sūrat Al-Jinn, verses 8–10, Allah narrates concerning the jinn how they touched or sought the limits of the sky and found it full of guards and shooting stars. Seven kings of the Jinn are traditionally associated with days of the week, the notion of a qarin is not universally accepted among all Muslims, but it is generally accepted that Shayṭān whispers in human minds, and he is assigned to each human being
34.
Pixie
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Pixies are mythical creatures of folklore, considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas around Devon and Cornwall, suggesting some Celtic origin for the belief and name. Akin to the Irish and Scottish Aos Sí, pixies are believed to inhabit ancient underground ancestor sites such as circles, barrows, dolmens. Sometimes their eyes are described as being pointed upwards at the temple ends and these, however, are Victorian era conventions and not part of the older mythology. In modern use, the term can be synonymous with fairies or sprites, however, in folklore there is a traditional enmity, even war, between the two races. The origin of the name pixie is uncertain, some have speculated that it comes from the Swedish dialectal pyske meaning wee little fairy. The term Pobel Vian is often used to refer to them collectively, in west Penwith, the area of late survival of the Cornish language, spriggans are distinguished from pixies by their malevolent nature. Closely associated with tin mining in Cornwall are the subterranean ancestral knockers, Pixie mythology is believed to pre-date Christian presence in Britain. In the Christian era they were said to be the souls of children who had died un-baptised. These children would change their appearance to pixies once their clothing was placed in clay pots used in their earthly lives as toys. By 1869 some were suggesting that the name pixie was a remnant of Pictic tribes who used to paint and tattoo their skin blue. This suggestion is still met in contemporary writing, but there is no proven connection, the earliest published version of The Three Little Pigs story is from Dartmoor in 1853 and has three little pixies in place of the pigs. Until the advent of modern fiction, pixie mythology was localised to Britain. Some have noted similarities to northern fairies, Germanic and Scandinavian elves, before the mid-19th century, pixies and fairies were taken seriously in much of Cornwall and Devon. Books devoted to the beliefs of the peasantry are filled with incidents of pixie manifestations. Some locales are named for the associated with them. In Devon, near Challacombe, a group of rocks are named for the said to dwell there. At Trevose Head in Cornwall 600 pixies were said to have gathered dancing and laughing in a circle that had appeared upon the turf until one of their number, named Omfra, in some areas belief in pixies and fairies as real beings persists. In the legends associated with Dartmoor, pixies are said to themselves as a bundle of rags to lure children into their play
35.
Sprite (entity)
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A sprite is a supernatural entity. They are often depicted as creatures or as an ethereal entity. The word sprite is derived from the Latin spiritus, via the French espirit Variations on the term include spright, the term is chiefly used in regard to elves and fairies in European folklore, and in modern English is rarely used in reference to spirits. Has been common in parts of the world, and might to some extent still be found within neo-spiritual and religious movements such as neo-druidism. In some elemental magics, the sprite is often believed to be the elemental of air, a water sprite is a general term for an elemental spirit associated with water, according to alchemist Paracelsus. Water sprites are said to be able to water or air. They are mostly harmless unless threatened and these creatures exist in mythology of various groups. Ancient Greeks knew water nymphs in several such as naiads. Slavic mythology knows them as vilas, water sprites differ from corporeal beings, such as selkies and mermaids, as they are not purely physical and are more akin to local deities than animals
36.
Yakshini
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Yakshini are mythical beings of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain mythology. Yakshini is the counterpart of the male Yaksha, and they are attendees of Kubera. They are the guardians of the hidden in the earth. Yakshinis are often depicted as beautiful and voluptuous, with hips, narrow waists, broad shoulders. In Uddamareshvara Tantra, thirty-six Yakshinis are described, including their mantras, a similar list of Yakshas and Yakshinis are given in the Tantraraja Tantra, where it says that these beings are givers of whatever is desired. Although Yakshinis are usually benevolent, there are also yakshinis with malevolent characteristics in Indian folklore, the ashoka tree is closely associated with the Yakshini mythological beings. As an artistic element, often the tree and the Yakshi are subject to heavy stylization, some authors hold that the young girl at the foot of the tree is based on an ancient fertility symbol of the Indian Subcontinent. Yakshis were important in early Buddhist monuments as an element and are found in many ancient Buddhist archaeological sites. They became Salabhanjikas with the passing of the centuries, a decorative element of both Indian sculpture and Indian temple architecture. The sal tree is often confused with the tree in the ancient literature of the Indian Subcontinent. The position of the Salabhanjika is also related to the position of Queen Māyā of Sakya when she gave birth to Gautama Buddha under a tree in a garden in Lumbini. In Jainism, there are twenty-four yakshis, including Chakreshvari, Ambika, and Padmavati and they are portrayed as alluring men and finally killing them. The following are the prominent fiction characters, one of the most famous legendary stories of Yakshis in Kerala is that of Kalliyankattu Neeli, a powerful demoness who was finally stopped by the legendary Christian priest Kadamattathu Kathanar. The Yakshi theme is the subject of popular Kerala tales, like the legend of the Yakshi of Trivandrum, another lesser known Yakshi is Mangalathu Chiruthevi also known as Kanjirottu Yakshi. She was born into a Padamangalam Nair tharavad by name Mangalathu at Kanjiracode in South Travancore and she was a ravishingly beautiful courtesan who had an intimate relationship with Raman Thampi, son of King Rama Varma and rival of Anizhom Thirunal Marthanda Varma. Mangalathu Chiruthevi was infatuated with one of her servants, Kunjuraman, Kunjuraman, a Pondan Nair, was a fair, tall, well-built and handsome young man. She and her brother Govindan used to ride on Kunjuramans back to nearby places, a predatory sadist, Chiruthevi enjoyed torturing Kunjuraman physically and mentally. She did everything possible to him from his wife
