1.
Tristan and Iseult
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It has become an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with many variations. The tragic story is of the love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult. While the details of the story differ from one author to another, there are two main traditions of the Tristan legend. The early tradition comprised the French romances of two poets from the half of the twelfth century, Thomas of Britain and Béroul. Later traditions come from the Prose Tristan, which was different from the earlier tales written by Thomas. The Prose Tristan became the medieval tale of Tristan and Iseult that would provide the background for the writings of Sir Thomas Malory, the English author. The story and character of Tristan vary from poet to poet, even the spelling of his name varies a great deal, although Tristan is the most popular spelling. Most versions of the Tristan story follow the general outline. After defeating the Irish knight Morholt, Tristan goes to Ireland to bring back the fair Iseult for his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, along the way, they ingest a love potion which causes the pair to fall madly in love. In the courtly version, the effects last a lifetime, in the common versions. In some versions, they ingest the potion accidentally, in others, the potions maker instructs Iseult to share it with Mark, although Iseult marries Mark, she and Tristan are forced by the potion to seek one another as lovers. While the typical noble Arthurian character would be shamed by such an act, the kings advisors repeatedly endeavour to have the pair tried for adultery, but the couple continually use trickery to preserve their façade of innocence. In Bérouls version, the love potion eventually wears off, as with the Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere love triangle, Tristan, King Mark, and Iseult all hold love for each other. Tristan honors, respects, and loves King Mark as his mentor and adopted father, Iseult is grateful that Mark is kind to her, but every night, each has horrible dreams about the future. Tristans uncle eventually learns of the affair and seeks to entrap his nephew, also present is the endangerment of a fragile kingdom, the cessation of war between Ireland and Cornwall. Mark acquires what seems proof of their guilt and resolves to punish them, Tristan by hanging and Iseult by burning at the stake, Tristan escapes on his way to the gallows. He makes a leap from a chapel and rescues Iseult. The lovers escape into the forest of Morrois and take shelter there until discovered by Mark and they make peace with Mark after Tristans agreement to return Iseult to Mark and leave the country
2.
Round Table
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The Round Table is King Arthurs famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status, the table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of Arthurs fabulous retinue. The symbolism of the Round Table developed over time, by the close of the 12th century it had come to represent the order associated with Arthurs court. The Round Table first appears in Waces Roman de Brut, a Norman language adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouths Historia Regum Britanniae finished in 1155, Wace says Arthur created the Round Table to prevent quarrels among his barons, none of whom would accept a lower place than the others. Layamon added to the story when he adapted Waces work into the Middle English Brut in the early 13th century, in response a Cornish carpenter built an enormous but easily transportable Round Table to prevent further dispute. Wace claims he was not the source of the Round Table, some scholars have doubted this claim, while others believe it may be true. Though the Round Table itself is not mentioned until Wace, the concept of Arthur having a court made up of many prominent warriors is much older. Geoffrey of Monmouth says that after establishing peace throughout Britain, Arthur increased his personal entourage by inviting very distinguished men from far-distant kingdoms to join it, though no Round Table appears in the early Welsh texts, Arthur is associated with various items of household furniture. A henge at Eamont Bridge near Penrith, Cumbria is known as King Arthurs Round Table, the still-visible Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon has been associated with the Round Table. and has been suggested as a possible source for the legend. The Round Table takes on new dimensions in the romances of the late 12th and early 13th century, where it becomes a symbol of the famed order of chivalry which flourishes under Arthur. In Robert de Borons Merlin, written around the 1190s, the wizard Merlin creates the Round Table in imitation of the table of the Last Supper and of Joseph of Arimatheas Holy Grail table. This table, here made for Arthurs father Uther Pendragon rather than Arthur himself, has twelve seats and this seat must remain empty until the coming of the knight who will achieve the Grail. The Didot Perceval, a continuation of Roberts work, takes up the story. The prose cycles of the 13th century, the Lancelot-Grail cycle, here it is the perfect knight Galahad, rather than Percival, who assumes the empty seat, now called the Siege Perilous. Galahads arrival marks the start of the Grail quest as well as the end of the Arthurian era, in these works the Round Table is kept by King Leodegrance of Cameliard after Uthers death, Arthur inherits it when he marries Leodegrances daughter Guinevere. Other versions treat the Round Table differently, for instance Italian Arthurian works often distinguish between the Old Table of Uthers time and Arthurs New Table, during the Middle Ages, festivals called Round Tables were celebrated throughout Europe in imitation of Arthurs court. These events featured jousting, dancing, and feasting, and in some cases attending knights assumed the identities of Arthurs entourage, the earliest of these was held in Cyprus in 1223 to celebrate a knighting. Round Tables were popular in various European countries through the rest of the Middle Ages and were at times very elaborate, René of Anjou even erected an Arthurian castle for his 1446 Round Table
3.
Iseult
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Iseult, alternatively Isolde, Iseo, Yseult, Isode, Isoude, Izolda, Esyllt, Isotta, is the name of several characters in the Arthurian story of Tristan and Iseult. The most prominent is Iseult of Ireland, wife of Mark of Cornwall and her mother, the Queen of Ireland, is also named Iseult. The third is Iseult of the White Hands, the daughter of Hoel of Brittany, sister of Sir Kahedin, the Irish princess, Iseult of Ireland, is the daughter of King Anguish of Ireland and Queen Iseult the Elder. She is a character in the Tristan poems of Béroul, Thomas of Britain. Iseult is first seen as a princess who heals Tristan from wounds he received fighting her uncle. When his identity is revealed, Tristan flees back to his own land, later, Tristan returns to Ireland to gain Iseults hand in marriage for his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. She is betrothed to a steward who claims to have killed a dragon. On the journey back to Cornwall, Iseult and Tristan accidentally drink a potion prepared for her and Mark by Iseult the elder and guarded by Brangaine. The two fall hopelessly in love, and begin an affair that ends when Mark banishes Tristan from Cornwall, Mark is much less sympathetic in these versions, and the adulterers eventually flee from his wrath. Lancelot gives them refuge in his estate Joyous Garde, and they engage in further adventures. In the prose versions, the end comes when Mark finds them as Tristan plays the harp for Iseult beneath a tree. The cruel king stabs his nephew in the back, and Tristan, at Iseults request, one of her rumored burial sites is Chapelizod in Dublin, Ireland. After King Mark learns of the love affair between Tristan and Iseult, he banishes Tristan to Brittany, never to return to Cornwall. There, Tristan is placed in the care of Hoel of Brittany after receiving a wound and he meets and marries Hoels daughter, Iseult Blanchmains, because she shares the name of his former lover. They never consummate the marriage because of Tristans love for Iseult of Ireland, during one adventure in Brittany, Tristan suffers a poisoned wound that only Iseult of Ireland, the worlds most skilled physician, can cure. He sends a ship for her, asking that its crew fly white sails on the return if Iseult is aboard, Iseult agrees to go, and the ship races home, white sails high. However, Tristan is too weak to look out his window to see the signal, in a moment of jealousy, Iseult of the White Hands tells him the sails are black, and Tristan expires immediately of despair. When the Irish Iseult arrives to find her dead, grief overcomes her
4.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
5.
Welsh language
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Welsh is a member of the Brittonic branch of the Celtic languages. It is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, historically it has also been known in English as the British tongue, Cambrian, Cambric and Cymric. The United Kingdom Census 2011 counted 3.1 million residents of Wales, 27% of whom had been born outside Wales, and 73% of whom reported having no Welsh language skills. Of residents of Wales aged three and over, 19% reported being able to speak Welsh, and 77% of these were able to speak, read and this can be compared with the 2001 Census, in which 20. 8% of the population reported being able to speak Welsh. 787,854 of residents in Wales aged three and over had one or more skills in Welsh, in surveys carried out between 2004 and 2006, 57% of Welsh speakers described themselves as fluent in the written language. An estimated 110,000 to 150,000 people speak Welsh in England, Welsh emerged in the 6th century from Common Brittonic, the common ancestor of Welsh, Breton, Cornish and the extinct language known as Cumbric. The Middle Welsh period is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the Modern Welsh period began, the name Welsh originated as an exonym given to its speakers by the Anglo-Saxons, meaning foreign speech. The native term for the language is Cymraeg, and for the name of the country of Wales it is Cymru, Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic, the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons. Classified as Insular Celtic, the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth. During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, evolving into Welsh and it is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Kenneth H. Jackson suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around 550, Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or Early Poets – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was composed in the Hen Ogledd, raising further questions about the dating of the material. An 8th century inscription in Tywyn shows the language already dropping inflections in the declension of nouns, the next main period, somewhat better attested, is Old Welsh, poetry from both Wales and Scotland has been preserved in this form of the language. Both the works of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin were in this era, Middle Welsh is the label attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law manuscripts, Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The famous cleric Gerald of Wales tells, in his Descriptio Cambriae, during one of the Kings many raids in the 12th century, Henry asked an old man of Pencader, Carmarthenshire whether the Welsh people could resist his army
6.
Cornwall
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Cornwall is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area of England within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, Cornwall has a population of 551,700 and covers an area of 3,563 km2. Cornwall forms the westernmost part of the south-west peninsula of the island of Great Britain, and this area was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. It continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age peoples, there is little evidence that Roman rule was effective west of Exeter and few Roman remains have been found. In the mid-19th century, however, the tin and copper mines entered a period of decline, subsequently, china clay extraction became more important and metal mining had virtually ended by the 1990s. Traditionally, fishing and agriculture were the important sectors of the economy. Railways led to a growth of tourism in the 20th century, however, the area is noted for its wild moorland landscapes, its long and varied coastline, its attractive villages, its many place-names derived from the Cornish language, and its very mild climate. Extensive stretches of Cornwalls coastline, and Bodmin Moor, are protected as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Cornwall is the homeland of the Cornish people and is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, retaining a distinct cultural identity that reflects its history. Some people question the present constitutional status of Cornwall, and a nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the United Kingdom in the form of a devolved legislative Cornish Assembly. On 24 April 2014 it was announced that Cornish people will be granted minority status under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The modern English name Cornwall derives from the concatenation of two ancient demonyms from different linguistic traditions, Corn- records the native Brythonic tribe, the Cornovii. The Celtic word kernou is cognate with the English word horn. -wall derives from the Old English exonym walh, the Ravenna Cosmography first mentions a city named Purocoronavis in the locality. This is thought to be a rendering of Duro-cornov-ium, meaning fort of the Cornovii. The exact location of Durocornovium is disputed, with Tintagel and Carn Brea suggested as possible sites, in later times, Cornwall was known to the Anglo-Saxons as West Wales to distinguish it from North Wales. The name appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 891 as On Corn walum, in the Domesday Book it was referred to as Cornualia and in c.1198 as Cornwal. Other names for the county include a latinisation of the name as Cornubia, the present human history of Cornwall begins with the reoccupation of Britain after the last Ice Age. The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods and it continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age people. The Common Brittonic spoken at the time developed into several distinct tongues
7.
Mark of Cornwall
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Mark of Cornwall was a king of Kernow in the early 6th century. He is most famous for his appearance in Arthurian legend as the uncle of Tristan and husband of Iseult, Mark sent Tristan as his proxy to fetch his young bride, the Princess Iseult, from Ireland. Tristan and Iseult fall in love, and, with the help of a magic potion, Mark suspects the affair and eventually his suspicions are confirmed. In some versions, he sends for Tristan to be hanged, Tristan escapes the hanging and rescues Marks bride from her confinement, later to be discovered by Mark. Mark eventually forgives them, with Iseult returning to Mark and Tristan leaving the country, the story is cyclical with Mark suspecting Tristan and Iseult of adultery and then believing they were innocent. This happened again and again in the story, in the Beroul version, Tristan and Iseult are never in grave danger due to the narrators declaration that he himself and God were on their side. King Mark, in the role of husband, is not portrayed as idealistic as other kings in Arthurian literature who were portrayed in the role of king. In the Prose Tristan, Marks character deteriorates from a sympathetic cuckold to a downright villain and he rapes his niece and then murders her when she produces his son, Meraugis. He murders his brother Baldwin as well, in earlier versions of the story, Tristan dies in Brittany, far away from Mark, but in the Prose Tristan, Mark stabs Tristan while he plays the harp under a tree for Iseult. In these legends, Mark is usually seen as ruling Cornwall from Tintagel Castle, Mark has become associated with a Celtic variant of the story of Midas and his donkey ears from Greek mythology. In a Welsh tale, Mark has the ears of a horse – a pun on his name, March, Marie de Frances Breton lai Chevrefoil tells a partial story from the Tristan and Iseult tale. The lai begins with an explanation that Mark was enraged with Tristans affair with his wife, Tristan spends a year in his own land of South Wales, pining away for Isoude. Eventually, his sorrow grew so great that he went against Marks order and hid in the woods of Cornwall, eventually Tristan comes to hear that Mark plans to hold a feast for Pentecost, and that Isoude would be riding through the forest to attend. He finds the path the queen is most likely to take, Isoude recognizes the sign and stops her party to rest, sneaking away with her maid Brangwaine to see Tristan. During this illicit meeting, Isoude helps Tristan to construct a plan to win back the favor of King Mark, King Mark takes on a much more gruesome role in Alfred, Lord Tennysons poetry cycle Idylls of the King. While Arthur and many of his knights are away taking on the court of the Red Knight, the tournament quickly becomes a mockery, full of insults and broken rules. Tristram is the winner of the tournament, winning all of the rubies from the necklace, Tristram then breaks tradition in presenting the rubies to a woman present, saying instead This day my Queen of Beauty is not here. This enrages the crowd, with saying that All courtesy is dead
8.
Gaelic Ireland
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Gaelic Ireland was the Gaelic political and social order, and associated culture, that existed in Ireland from the prehistoric era until the early 17th century. Before the Norman invasion of 1169, Gaelic Ireland comprised the whole island, thereafter, it comprised that part of the country not under foreign dominion at a given time. For most of its history, Gaelic Ireland was a hierarchy of territories ruled by a hierarchy of kings or chiefs. Warfare between these territories was common, occasionally, a powerful ruler was acknowledged as High King of Ireland. Society was made up of clans and, like the rest of Europe, was structured according to class. Throughout this period, the economy was mainly pastoral and money not used. A Gaelic Irish style of dress, music, dance, sport, architecture, Gaelic Ireland was initially pagan and had an oral culture. Inscription in the alphabet began in the protohistoric period, perhaps as early as the 1st century. The conversion to Christianity accompanied the introduction of literature, and much of Irelands rich pre-Christian mythology and sophisticated law code were preserved, in the Early Middle Ages, Ireland was an important centre of learning. Irish missionaries and scholars were influential in western Europe, and helped to spread Christianity to much of Britain, in the 9th century, Vikings began raiding and founding settlements along Irelands coasts and waterways, which became its first large towns. Over time, these settlers were assimilated and became the Norse-Gaels, after the Norman invasion of 1169–71, large swathes of Ireland came under the control of Norman lords, leading to centuries of conflict with the native Irish. The King of England claimed sovereignty over this territory – the Lordship of Ireland –, however, the Gaelic system continued in areas outside Anglo-Norman control. The territory under English control gradually shrank to a known as the Pale and, outside this. In 1542, Henry VIII of England declared the Lordship a Kingdom, the English then began to conquer the island. By 1607, Ireland was fully under English control, bringing the old Gaelic political and social order to an end, Gaelic Ireland had a rich oral culture and appreciation of deeper and intellectual pursuits. Filí and draoithe were held in high regard during Pagan times and orally passed down the history, later, many of their spiritual and intellectual tasks were passed on to Christian monks, after said religion prevailed from the 5th century onwards. However, the continued to hold a high position. Poetry, music, storytelling, literature and other art forms were highly prized and cultivated in both pagan and Christian Gaelic Ireland, hospitality, bonds of kinship and the fulfilment of social and ritual responsibilities were highly important
9.
Potion
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A potion is a magical medicine, drug or poison in liquid form. In mythology and literature, a potion is made by a magician, dragon. It is used for various motives including the healing, bewitching or poisoning of people, for example, love potions for those who wish to fall in love with another, sleeping potions to cause long-term or eternal sleep, and elixirs to heal/cure any wound/malady. Creations of potions of different kinds were a common practice of alchemy, during the 19th century, it was common in certain countries to see wandering charlatans offering curative potions. These were eventually dismissed as quackery, apothecary Concoction Elixir Extract Herbal tea Spagyric Tincture Poisoning in the Middle Ages
10.
Celtic mythology
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Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and it is mostly through contemporary Roman and Christian sources that their mythology has been preserved. The Celtic peoples who maintained either their political or linguistic identities left vestigial remnants of their ancestral mythologies, however, from what has survived of Celtic mythology, it is possible to discern commonalities which hint at a more unified pantheon than is often given credit. Indeed, many Gaelic myths were first recorded by Christian monks, the oldest body of myths stemming from the Heroic Age is found only from the early medieval period of Ireland. As Christianity began to take over, the gods and goddesses were slowly eliminated as such from the culture, the Tuatha Dé represent the functions of human society such as kingship, crafts and war, while the Fomorians represent chaos and wild nature. The leader of the gods for the Irish pantheon appears to have been the Dagda, the Dagda was the figure on which male humans and other gods were based because he embodied ideal Irish traits. Celtic gods were considered to be a clan due to their lack of specialization. Irish tales depict the Dagda as a figure of power, armed with a club, in Dorset there is a famous outline of an ithyphallic giant known as the Cerne Abbas Giant with a club cut into the chalky soil. While this was produced in relatively modern times, it was long thought to be a representation of the Dagda. In Gaul, it is speculated that the Dagda is associated with Sucellus, the Morrígan was a tripartite battle goddess of the Celts of Ancient Ireland. She was known as the Morrígan, but the different sections she was divided into were also referred to as Nemain, Macha and she is most commonly known for her involvement in the Táin Bó Cúailnge. The god appearing most frequently in the tales is Lugh, the most famous of these are the cities of Lugdunum, Lugdunum Batavorum and Lucus Augusti. Lug is described in the Celtic myths as the last to be added to the list of deities, in Ireland a festival called the Lughnasadh was held in his honour. Other important goddesses include Brigid, the Dagdas daughter, Aibell, Áine, Macha, notable is Epona, the horse goddess, celebrated with horse races at the summer festival. Significant Irish gods include Nuada Airgetlám, the first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Goibniu, the smith and brewer, Dian Cecht, the patron of healing, less is known about the pre-Christian mythologies of Britain than those of Ireland. Important reflexes of British mythology appear in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, especially in the names of characters, such as Rhiannon, Teyrnon. The children of Llŷr in the Second and Third Branches, and the children of Dôn in the Fourth Branch are major figures, indeed, though there is much in common with Irish myth, there may have been no unified British mythological tradition per se. Whatever its ultimate origins, the material has been put to good use in the service of literary masterpieces that address the cultural concerns of Wales in the early
11.
Kingdom of Brittany
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The Kingdom of Brittany was a short-lived vassal-state of the Frankish Empire that emerged during the Norman invasions. Its history begins in 851 with Erispoes claim to kingship, in 856, Erispoe was murdered and succeeded by his cousin Salomon. The kingdom fell into a period of turmoil caused by Norman invasions, pascwetens brother, Alan, called the Great, was the third and last to be recognized as king of Brittany. After his death, Brittany fell under Norman occupation, when Alan Twistedbeard, Alan the Greats grandson, reconquered Brittany in 939, Brittany became a duchy until its union with France in 1532. At the end of the Antiquity period, Celtic Britons, fleeing the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, settled the western part of Armorican peninsula and the region was renamed Brittany. As a result, Celtic culture was revived in the Gallo-Roman Armorica and independent petty kingdoms arose in this region, namely Cornouaille, Domnonée, from 801 to 837, the adjacent Frankish Empire tried several times to subdue the Briton tribes without success. In order to bring Brittany into the Empires sphere of influence, Louis the Pious appointed Nominoe, titled missus imperatoris by the Emperor, he was in charge of the administration of the province on his behalf. Following the death of Louis the Pious and taking advantage of the Norman invasions destabilizing the Frankish Empire, the peace treaty that followed allowed Nominoe to increase his autonomy towards Charles the Bald, the successor of Louis the Pious on the Imperial throne. In 850, the Britons briefly occupied the Frankish Breton March, seeking revenge, Charles the Bald attacked Erispoe, Nominoes son and successor, at the Battle of Jengland. As the Britons decisively defeated the Franks, Brittany became a kingdom of the Frankish Empire. In 856, the Kingdom of Brittany and the Frankish Empire allied themselves to counter the Norman invasions, but Erispoe was murdered the same year by his cousin Salomon who took the throne of Brittany and allied himself with the Normans to capture the Frankish city of Le Mans. Charles the Bald bought peace with the Britons by giving away the provinces of Cotentin, in 874, Salomon was murdered in a conspiracy involving Pascweten and Gurvand, but a civil war ensued between them. Both claimants died in 876, but war continued between their respective successors Alan and Judicael, in a momentary truce, Alan and Judicael allied themselves to counter Norman attacks. In one of those attacks in Questembert in 888, Judicael died, Alan died in 907 and was succeeded, after a disputed succession, by Gourmaëlon who did not claim the title of king. Little is known about his reign as Norman raids increased dramatically and it was probably during one of these attacks that Gourmaëlon died in 913. From 919, Brittany was completely occupied by the Normans, monasteries and cities were looted, in 935, Alan Twistedbeard, who had fled to England a few years earlier, disembarked on the shores of Brittany in order to reconquer his domain. By 937, he had reconquered most of Brittany and the Normans retreated to their stronghold of Trans-la-Forêt, in 939, a combined army of Frankish and Briton soldiers attacked the forteress and eliminate the Norman threat in Brittany. During this period Brittany was also threatened by the Breton March, mathuedoi was a king in exile but never crowned
12.
Dumnonia
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Dumnonia is the Latinised name for the Brythonic kingdom in Sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries, in what is now the more westerly parts of South West England. The spelling Damnonia is sometimes encountered, but is used for the land of the Damnonii, later part of the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Domnonia also occurs and shares a relationship with the Breton region of Domnonée, Breton. The kingdom is named after the Dumnonii, a British Celtic tribe living in the southwest at the time of the Roman invasion of Britain, according to Ptolemys Geography. Variants of the name Dumnonia include Domnonia and Damnonia, the latter being used by Gildas in the 6th century as a pun on damnation to deprecate the areas contemporary ruler Constantine, the name has etymological origins in the proto-Celtic root word *dubno-, meaning both deep and world. Groups with similar names existed in Scotland and Ireland, later, the area became known to the English of neighbouring Wessex as the kingdom of West Wales, and its inhabitants were also known to them as Defnas. In Welsh, and similarly in the Southwestern Brythonic languages, it was Dyfneint, historian Barbara Yorke has speculated that the Dumnonii may have seen the end of the Roman empire as an opportunity to establish control in new areas. In the Roman period there was a boundary between the area governed from Exeter and those governed from Dorchester and Ilchester. Julius Caesars Comentarii de Bello Gallico, Book III notes the close trading, in the post Roman period the eastern boundary of Dumnonia is unclear. The boundary may have formed by the West Wansdyke, Selwood Forest. Thus Dumnonia would have included later Cornwall, Devon, west Somerset, if so Dumnonia would have included places such as Glastonbury and South Cadbury and may have included continental holdings in Armorica. The people of Dumnonia would have spoken a Brythonic dialect, the ancestor of modern Cornish, apart from fishing and agriculture, the main economic resource of the Dumnonii was tin mining, the tin having been exported since ancient times from the port of Ictis. Tin working continued throughout Roman occupation and appears to have reached a peak during the 3rd century AD, the area maintained trade links with Gaul and the Mediterranean after the Roman withdrawal, and it is likely that tin played an important part in this trade. Post-Roman imported pottery has been excavated from sites across the region. An apparent surge in late 5th century Mediterranean imports is thought to be related to the trade in metals from Cornwall, christianity seems to have survived in Dumnonia after the Roman departure from Britain, with a number of late Roman Christian cemeteries extending into the post-Roman period. In the 5th and 6th centuries the area was evangelised by the children of Brychan and saints from Ireland, like Saint Piran. Sporadically, Cornish bishops are named in records until they submitted to the See of Canterbury in the mid-9th century. Parish organisation was a development of fully Normanised times
13.
Cornish language
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Cornish is a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language native to Cornwall. The language has undergone a revival in recent decades and is considered to be an important part of Cornish identity, culture and heritage. It is a minority language of the United Kingdom, protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Along with Welsh and Breton, Cornish is descended directly from the Common Brittonic language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate. A process to revive the language was begun in the early 20th century, in 2010 UNESCO announced that its former classification of the language as extinct was no longer accurate. Since the revival of the language, many Cornish textbooks and works of literature have been published, recent developments include Cornish music, independent films, and childrens books. A small number of people in Cornwall have been brought up to be native speakers. The first Cornish language crèche opened in 2010, Cornish is one of the Brittonic languages, which constitute a branch of the Insular Celtic section of the Celtic language family. Brittonic also includes Welsh, Breton and the Cumbric language, the last is extinct, scottish Gaelic, Irish and Manx are part of the separate Goidelic branch of Insular Celtic. Cornish evolved from the Common Brittonic spoken throughout Britain south of the Firth of Forth during the British Iron Age, as a result of westward Anglo-Saxon expansion, the Britons of the southwest were separated from those in modern-day Wales and Cumbria. Some scholars have proposed that this took place after the Battle of Deorham in about 577. The area controlled by the southwestern Britons was progressively reduced by the expansion of Wessex over the few centuries. The earliest written record of the Cornish language comes from period, a 9th-century gloss in a Latin manuscript of De Consolatione Philosophiae by Boethius. The phrase means it hated the gloomy places, a much more substantial survival from Old Cornish is a Cornish-Latin glossary containing translations of around 300 words. The manuscript was thought to be in Old Welsh until the 1700s when it was identified as Cornish. The Cornish language continued to flourish well through the Middle Cornish period, reaching a peak of about 39,000 speakers in the 13th century and this period provided the bulk of traditional Cornish literature, which was used to reconstruct the language during its revival. Most important is the Ordinalia, a cycle of three plays, Origo Mundi, Passio Christi and Resurrexio Domini. Together these provide about 20,000 lines of text, various plays were written by the canons of Glasney College, intended to educate the Cornish people about the Bible and the Celtic saints
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Breton language
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Breton /ˈbrɛtən/ is a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Brittany. Breton is most closely related to Cornish, both being Southwestern Brittonic languages, Welsh and the extinct Cumbric are the more distantly related Brittonic languages. The other regional language of Brittany, Gallo, is a langue doïl, Gallo is consequently close to French, although not mutually intelligible, and a Romance language descended from Latin. However, the number of children attending bilingual classes has risen 33% between 2006 and 2012 to 14,709, Breton is spoken in West Brittany, roughly to the west of a line linking Plouha and La Roche-Bernard. It comes from a Brittonic language community that extended from Great Britain to Armorica and had even established a toehold in Galicia. Old Breton is attested from the 9th century and it was the language of the upper classes until the 12th century, after which it became the language of commoners in Lower Brittany. The nobility, followed by the bourgeoisie, adopted French, the written language of the Duchy of Brittany was Latin, switching to French in the 15th century. There exists a tradition of Breton literature. Some Old Breton vocabulary remains in the present day as philosophical, during the French Revolution, the government introduced policies favouring French over the regional languages, which it pejoratively referred to as patois. The revolutionaries assumed that reactionary and monarchist forces preferred regional languages to try to keep the peasant masses underinformed, in 1794, Bertrand Barère submitted his report on the patois to the Committee of Public Safety in which he said that federalism and superstition speak Breton. Teachers humiliated students for using their regional languages, and such practices prevailed until the late 1960s, the majority of todays speakers are more than 60 years old, and Breton is now classified as an endangered language. At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the population of Lower Brittany knew only Breton, by 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons, and this rapid decline has continued, with likely no monolingual speakers left today. A statistical survey in 1997 found around 300,000 speakers in Lower Brittany, few 15- to 19-year-olds spoke Breton. In 1925, Professor Roparz Hemon founded the Breton-language review Gwalarn, during its 19-year run, Gwalarn tried to raise the language to the level of a great international language. Its publication encouraged the creation of literature in all genres. In 1946, Al Liamm replaced Gwalarn, other Breton-language periodicals have been published, which established a fairly large body of literature for a minority language. In 1977, Diwan schools were founded to teach Breton by immersion and they taught a few thousand young people from elementary school to high school. See the education section for more information, the Asterix comic series has been translated into Breton
15.
Anglo-Norman language
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Anglo-Norman, also known as Anglo-Norman French, is a variety of the Norman language that was used in England and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period. One of these was Old Norman, also known as Old Northern French, other followers spoke varieties of the Picard language or western French. It was spoken in the law courts, schools, and universities and, in due course, in at least some sections of the gentry and the growing bourgeoisie. Private and commercial correspondence was carried out in Anglo-Norman or Anglo-French from the 13th to the 15th century though its spelling forms were often displaced by continental spellings. Social classes other than the nobility became keen to learn French, manuscripts containing materials for instructing non-native speakers still exist, although Anglo-Norman and Anglo-French were eventually eclipsed by modern English, they had been used widely enough to influence English vocabulary permanently. Thus, many original Germanic words, cognates of which can still be found in Nordic, German, other such examples are heir apparent, court martial, and body politic. The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom still features in French the mottos of both the British Monarch, Dieu et mon droit and the Order of the Garter, Honi soit qui mal y pense. Dieu et mon droit was first used by Richard I in 1198, the motto appears below the shield of the Royal Coat of Arms. Anglo-Norman was never the administrative language of England, Latin was the major language of record in legal. There is evidence, too, that foreign words often entered English via Anglo-Norman, by the late 15th century, however, what remained of insular French had become heavily anglicised, see Law French. It continued to be known as Norman French until the end of the 19th century even though, philologically, among important writers of the Anglo-Norman cultural commonwealth is Marie de France. Much of the earliest recorded French is in fact Anglo-Norman French, Latin did not disappear in medieval England either, it was used by the Church, the royal government and much local administration, as it had been before 1066, in parallel with Middle English. The early adoption of Anglo-Norman as a written and literary language probably owes something to this history of bilingualism in writing, thus, typically, local records are rather different from continental French, with diplomatic and international trade documents closest to the emerging continental norm. English remained the vernacular of the people throughout this period. The resulting virtual trilinguism in spoken and written language was one of medieval Latin, diverse French varieties, from the conquest until the end of the 14th century, French was the language of the king and his court. During this period, marriages with French princesses reinforced the French status in the royal family, nevertheless, during the 13th century, intermarriages with English nobility became more frequent. French became progressively a second language among the upper classes, moreover, with the Hundred Years War and the growing spirit of English nationalism, the status of French diminished. French was the tongue of every English king from William the Conqueror until Henry IV
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Gottfried von Strassburg
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Gottfried von Strassburg is the author of the Middle High German courtly romance Tristan, an adaptation of the 12th-century Tristan and Iseult legend. Gottfrieds work is regarded, alongside Wolfram von Eschenbachs Parzival and the Nibelungenlied and he is probably also the composer of a small number of surviving lyrics. His work became a source of inspiration for Richard Wagners opera Tristan und Isolde, other than an origin in or close association with Strasbourg, nothing is known of his life. Tristan ends abruptly, and according to the testimony of Ulrich von Türheim and Heinrich von Freiberg, references in the work suggest it was written during the first decade of the 13th century, and 1210 is taken, conventionally, as the date of Gottfrieds death. His thorough familiarity with Latin literature and rhetorical theory suggest someone who had enjoyed a level of monastic education. He also shows detailed knowledge of music and hunting, far beyond anything found in the works of his contemporaries. Gottfried draws more on the tradition of medieval humanism than on the chivalric ethos shared by his major literary contemporaries. He also appears to have influenced by the writings of contemporary Christian mystics. Although he was educated, it is almost certain that he was not a priest. Of this his occasional sneers at the clergy are perhaps a better proof than the morality of much of his work, Gottfrieds rhetorical style is very distinct among his contemporaries. It is incredibly complex, marked by the use of symmetrical structure in his organization of Tristan as a whole. Gottfried also uses detailed word and sound patterns, playing with things as rhyme, alliteration. See Batts for a detailed analysis, one of the greatest hallmarks of Gottfrieds style is his skillful use of irony, to both humorous and tragic effects. He may also have relied on irony to disguise his criticisms of society in order to avoid censure. Gottfried states that the Tristan of Thomas of Britain, an Anglo-French work of around 1160, was the source of his work, unfortunately, Thomass work, too, is fragmentary and there is little overlap with Gottfrieds poem, making it difficult to evaluate Gottfrieds originality directly. However, Thomass Tristan was the source of a number of other versions and it is clear that while Gottfrieds statement of his reliance on and debt to Thomas is correct, he both expanded on his source and refined the story psychologically. Thomass source, in turn, is a now lost Old French Tristan story, reconstructed by Joseph Bédier, the text of Tristan is 19,548 lines long, and is written, like all courtly romances, in rhyming couplets. The first section of the prologue is written in quatrains and is referred to as the prologue, while pairs of quatrains, of sententious content
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Chivalric romance
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As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric or burlesque intent. Still, the image of medieval is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word medieval evokes knights, distressed damsels, dragons. Originally, romance literature was written in Old French, Anglo-Norman, Occitan, and Provençal, during the early 13th century, romances were increasingly written as prose. In later romances, particularly those of French origin, there is a tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love. Unlike the later form of the novel and like the chansons de geste, the earliest forms were invariably in verse, but the 15th century saw many in prose, often retelling the old, rhymed versions. Many influences are clear in the forms of chivalric romance, the epics of Charlemagne, unlike such ones as Beowulf, already had feudalism rather than the tribal loyalties, this was to continue in romances. The romance form is distinguished from the epics of the Middle Ages by the changes of the 12th century. This occurred regardless of congruity to the material, Alexander the Great featured as a fully feudal king. Chivalry was treated as continuous from Roman times, historical figures reappeared, reworked, in romance. The entire Matter of France derived from known figures, and suffered somewhat because their descendents had an interest in the tales that were told of their ancestors, unlike the Matter of Britain. Hereward the Wakes early life appeared in chronicles as the embellished, romantic adventures of an exile, complete with rescuing princess, fulk Fitzwarin, an outlaw in King Johns day, has his historical background a minor thread in the episodic stream of romantic adventures. The earliest medieval romances dealt heavily with themes from folklore, which diminished over time, morgan le Fay never loses her name, but in Le Morte dArthur, she studies magic rather than being inherently magical. Still, fairies never completely vanished from the tradition, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late tale, but the Green Knight himself is an otherworldly being. In Italy there is the story called Il Bel Gherardino and it is the most ancient prototype of an Italian singing fairy tale by an anonymous Tuscan author. It tells the story of a young Italian knight, depleted for its magnanimitas, other examples of Italian poetry tales are Antonio Puccis literature, Gismirante, Il Brutto di Bretagna or Brito di Bretagna and Madonna Lionessa. Another work of a second anonymous Italian author that is worth mentioning is Istoria di Tre Giovani Disperati e di Tre Fate, some romances, such as Apollonius of Tyre, show classical pagan origins. Tales of the Matter of Rome in particular may be derived from such works as the Alexander Romance
18.
King Arthur
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King Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD. The details of Arthurs story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, the sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthurs name also occurs in early sources such as Y Gododdin. Arthur is a figure in the legends making up the so-called Matter of Britain. The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouths fanciful, how much of Geoffreys Historia was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown. Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul. The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot, in these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table. Arthurian literature thrived during the Middle Ages but waned in the centuries that followed until it experienced a resurgence in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the lives on, not only in literature but also in adaptations for theatre, film, television, comics. The historical basis for the King Arthur legend has long debated by scholars. These culminate in the Battle of Badon, where he is said to have single-handedly killed 960 men, recent studies, however, question the reliability of the Historia Brittonum. The other text that seems to support the case for Arthurs historical existence is the 10th-century Annales Cambriae, the Annales date this battle to 516–518, and also mention the Battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut were both killed, dated to 537–539. These details have often used to bolster confidence in the Historias account. Problems have been identified, however, with using this source to support the Historia Brittonums account, the latest research shows that the Annales Cambriae was based on a chronicle begun in the late 8th century in Wales. Additionally, the textual history of the Annales Cambriae precludes any certainty that the Arthurian annals were added to it even that early. They were more likely added at point in the 10th century. The Badon entry probably derived from the Historia Brittonum and this lack of convincing early evidence is the reason many recent historians exclude Arthur from their accounts of sub-Roman Britain. These modern admissions of ignorance are a recent trend, earlier generations of historians were less sceptical
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Holy Grail
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The Holy Grail is a vessel that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Different traditions describe it as a cup, dish or stone with miraculous powers that provide happiness, a grail, wondrous but not explicitly holy, first appears in Perceval, le Conte du Graal, an unfinished romance written by Chrétien de Troyes around 1190. Here, it is a processional salver used to serve at a feast, in the late 12th century, Robert de Boron wrote in Joseph dArimathie that the Grail was Jesuss vessel from the Last Supper, which Joseph of Arimathea used to catch Christs blood at the Crucifixion. The word graal, as it is earliest spelled, comes from Old French graal or greal, cognate with Old Provençal grazal and Old Catalan gresal, meaning a cup or bowl of earth, wood, or metal. The most commonly accepted etymology derives it from Latin gradalis or gradale via a form, cratalis, a derivative of crater or cratus. Late medieval writers came up with an etymology for sangréal. In Old French, san graal or san gréal means Holy Grail, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia this is a false etymology. After the cycle of Grail romances was well established, later used this alternative etymology. Since then, Sang real is sometimes employed to lend a medievalising air in referring to the Holy Grail and this connection with royal blood bore fruit in a modern bestseller linking many historical conspiracy theories. The Grail was considered a bowl or dish when first described by Chrétien de Troyes, hélinand of Froidmont described a grail as a wide and deep saucer, other authors had their own ideas. Robert de Boron portrayed it as the vessel of the Last Supper, the Welsh romance Peredur had no Grail per se, presenting the hero instead with a platter containing his kinsmans bloody, severed head. The authors of the Vulgate Cycle used the Grail as a symbol of divine grace, Galahad and the interpretation of the Grail involving him were picked up in the 15th century by Sir Thomas Malory in Le Morte dArthur and remain popular today. The Grail is first featured in Perceval, le Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes, in this incomplete poem, dated sometime between 1180 and 1191, the object has not yet acquired the implications of holiness it would have in later works. First comes a man carrying a bleeding lance, then two boys carrying candelabras. Finally, a young girl emerges bearing an elaborately decorated graal. Chrétien refers to this not as The Grail but as a grail, showing the word was used, in its earliest literary context. Perceval, who had warned against talking too much, remains silent through all of this. He later learns that if he had asked the questions about what he saw, he would have healed his maimed host
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Thomas Malory
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Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author or compiler of Le Morte dArthur. Since the late century, he has generally been identified as Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire, a knight, land-owner. Previously, it was suggested by antiquary John Leland and John Bale that he was Welsh, the name could also be rooted in Irish & Scottish Gaelic and mean follower of the king, as in maol and ry or ree. Maol or Máel is a root of indigenous names and is found in the name Malmesbury which was founded by the Irish scholar Máel Dub meaning the dark follower. Arthurian literature originates in the Irish & Scottish Gaelic traditions as Norman interpretation and translation, occasionally, other candidates are put forward for authorship of Le Morte dArthur, but the supporting evidence for their claim has been described as no more than circumstantial. Most of what is known about Malory stems from the accounts describing him in the found in the Winchester Manuscript. He is described as a knyght presoner, distinguishing him from the six individuals also bearing the name Thomas Malory in the 15th century when Le Morte dArthur was written. At the end of the Tale of King Arthur is written, For this was written by a knight prisoner Thomas Malleorre, that God send him good recovery. At the end of The Tale of Sir Gareth, And I pray you all that readeth this tale to pray for him that this wrote, that God send him good deliverance soon and hastily. At the conclusion of the Tale of Sir Tristram, Here endeth the second book of Sir Tristram de Lyones, which was drawn out of the French by Sir Thomas Malleorre, knight, as Jesu be his help. Finally, at the conclusion of the book, The Most Piteous Tale of the Morte Arthure Sanz Gwerdon par le shyvalere Sir Thomas Malleorre, knight. For this book was ended the year of the reign of King Edward the Fourth by Sir Thomas Maleore, knight, as Jesu help him for his great might. The author was educated, as some of his material was drawn out of the French, a claimants age must also fit the time of writing. By far the likeliest candidate for the authorship is Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire, H. Oskar Sommer first proposed this identification in his edition of Le Morte dArthur published in 1890, and George Lyman Kittredge, a professor at Harvard, provided the evidence in 1896. Kittredge showed Malory as a soldier and a member of Parliament, Helen Cooper referred to his life as one that reads more like an account of exemplary thuggery than chivalry. Malory was born to Sir John Malory of Winwick, Northamptonshire, who had served as a Justice of the Peace in Warwickshire and as a member of Parliament, and Lady Phillipa Malory, heiress of Newbold. He was born after 1415 and before 1418, judging by the fact that he attained his majority between 1434 and 1439. He was knighted before 8 October 1441, became a soldier, and served under the Duke of Warwick—but all dates are vague
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Le Morte d'Arthur
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Le Morte dArthur is a reworking of traditional tales by Sir Thomas Malory about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table. Malory interprets existing French and English stories about these figures and adds original material, Le Morte dArthur was first published in 1485 by William Caxton, and is today perhaps one of the best-known works of Arthurian literature in English. Many modern Arthurian writers have used Malory as their source, including T. H. White in his popular The Once and Future King. Sir Thomas inherited the estate in 1434 after his father died and is believed to have engaged in a life of crime punctuated with long periods of imprisonment. Although in 1450 he was a member of Parliament and he was imprisoned in Coleshill but escaped and soon after robbed the Cistercian monastery. Malory was once arrested in 1454, but two years later he was released through a royal pardon. His exact date of birth and early years are obscure, and his name does not enter clear historical record until 1439, Sir Thomas Malory died in prison on 14 March 1471, with Le Morte dArthur published posthumously by William Caxton on 31 July 1485. He called the full work The hoole booke of kyng Arthur & of his noble knyghtes of the rounde table, modernized editions update the late Middle English spelling, update some pronouns, and repunctuate and reparagraph the text. Others furthermore update the phrasing and vocabulary to contemporary Modern English, here is an example in Middle English and then in Modern English, Doo after the good and leve the evyl, and it shal brynge you to good fame and renomme. Do after the good and leave the evil, and it shall bring you to good fame, the Middle English of Le Morte DArthur is much closer to Early Modern English than the Middle English of Chaucers Canterbury Tales. If the spelling is modernized, it reads almost like Elizabethan English, the first printing of Malorys work was made by Caxton in 1485. Only two copies of original printing are known to exist, in the collections of the Morgan Library & Museum. It proved popular and was reprinted in 1498 and 1529 with some additions, three more editions were published before the English Civil War, William Coplands, Thomas Easts, and William Stansbys, each of which contained additional changes and errors. Davisons 1817 edition was promoted by Robert Southey and was based on Caxtons 1485 edition or on a mixture of Caxton, davison was the basis for subsequent editions until the discovery of the Winchester Manuscript. Caxton separated Malorys eight books into 21 books, subdivided each book into a total of 507 chapters, added a summary of each chapter, in some parts, the story ventures farther afield, to Rome and Sarras, and recalls Biblical tales from the ancient Near East. Winchester College headmaster W. F. Oakeshott discovered an unknown manuscript copy of the work in June 1934. Newspaper accounts announced that what Caxton had published in 1485 was not exactly what Malory had written, Oakeshott published The Finding of the Manuscript in 1963, chronicling the initial event and his realization that this indeed was Malory, with startling evidence of revision in the Caxton edition. It is hypothesized that Caxtons text and the Winchester manuscript are both derived from an earlier copy, the Winchester Manuscript is believed to be closer on the whole to Malorys original
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Chertsey Abbey
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Chertsey Abbey, dedicated to St Peter, was a Benedictine monastery located at Chertsey in the English county of Surrey. It was founded in 666 AD by Saint Erkenwald who was the first abbot, at the same time he founded the abbey at Chertsey Erkenwald founded Barking Abbey, on the Thames east of London, where his sister Saint Ethelburga was the first abbess. Erkenwald and Ethelburga were of royal descent, born in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Lindsey, which today is roughly the county of Lincolnshire). Most of north-west Surrey was granted to the abbey by King Frithuwald of Surrey, Dark Age saints buried here include Saint Beocca, a Dark Ages Catholic Saint from Anglo-Saxon England buried here around 870 AD, and ninth century Saint Edor of Chertsey. In the 9th century it was sacked by the Danes and refounded from Abingdon Abbey by King Edgar of England in 964, in the eleventh century the monks engineered the Abbey River as an offshoot of the River Thames to supply power to the abbeys watermill. In late medieval times, the Abbey became famous as the place of King Henry VI. The abbey was dissolved by the commissioners of King Henry VIII in 1537, the site was given to Sir William Fitzwilliam and now only slight traces remain amongst later buildings, although the abbey is remembered in many local names. Some very fine medieval tiles from the abbey, some depicting the legend of Tristan and Iseult, from the ruins of the abbey, individual letter tiles dating to the second half of the 13th century were recovered. They were assembled to form religious inscription texts on the floor, some illuminated manuscripts from the abbey survive in various collections. 1300, is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, Chertsey Abbey is mentioned in William Shakespeares Richard III, Act I, Scene 2. The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers holds the advowson of St Peters, after Sir William Fitzwilliam, Chertsey Abby was owned Dr John Hammond, physician to the royal household under James I, who purchased the site of Chertsey Abbey in Surrey in 1602. Erkenwald founder and first Abbot of Chertsey Abbey, Abbot Beocca, monastery sacked 875 by Vikings Ordbert of Chertsey 964. Wulfwold, Abbot of Chertsey, died 1084
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Romance languages
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Today, around 800 million people are native speakers worldwide, mainly in Europe, Africa and the Americas, but also elsewhere. Additionally, the major Romance languages have many speakers and are in widespread use as lingua francas. This is especially the case for French, which is in use throughout Central and West Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius. The five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of speakers are Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian. Because of the difficulty of imposing boundaries on a continuum, various counts of the modern Romance languages are given, for example, Dalby lists 23 based on mutual intelligibility. Between 350 BC and 150 AD, the expansion of the Empire, together with its administrative and educational policies, Latin also exerted a strong influence in southeastern Britain, the Roman province of Africa, western Germany and the Balkans north of the Jireček Line. Despite other influences, the phonology, morphology, and lexicon of all Romance languages consist mainly of evolved forms of Vulgar Latin, however, some notable differences occur between todays Romance languages and their Roman ancestor. With only one or two exceptions, Romance languages have lost the system of Latin and, as a result, have SVO sentence structure. From this adverb the noun romance originated, which applied initially to anything written romanice, the word romance with the modern sense of romance novel or love affair has the same origin. In the medieval literature of Western Europe, serious writing was usually in Latin, while popular tales, often focusing on love, were composed in the vernacular, for example, the Portuguese word fresta is descended from Latin fenestra window, but now means skylight and slit. Cognates may exist but have become rare, such as finiestra in Spanish, the Spanish and Portuguese terms defenestrar meaning to throw through a window and fenestrado meaning replete with windows also have the same root, but are later borrowings from Latin. Galician has both fiestra and the frequently used ventá and xanela. As an alternative to lei, Italian has the pronoun ella, a cognate of the words for she. Sardinian balcone comes from Old Italian and is similar to other Romance languages such as French balcon, Portuguese balcão, Romanian balcon, Spanish balcón, Catalan balcó and Corsican balconi. Documentary evidence is limited about Vulgar Latin for the purposes of research. Many of its speakers were soldiers, slaves, displaced peoples, other scholars argue that the distinctions are more rightly viewed as indicative of sociolinguistic and register differences normally found within any language. Both were mutually intelligible as one and the language, which was true until the second half of the 7th century. Central Europe and the Balkans were occupied by the Germanic and Slavic tribes, as well as by the Huns, over the course of the fourth to eighth centuries, Vulgar Latin, by this time highly dialectalized, broke up into discrete languages that were no longer mutually intelligible
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Pictish
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Pictish is the extinct language, or dialect, spoken by the Picts, the people of northern and central Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. Such evidence, however, points to the language being closely related to the Brittonic language spoken prior to Anglo-Saxon settlement in what is now southern Scotland, England and Wales. A minority view held by a few claims that Pictish was at least partially non-Indo-European or that a non-Indo-European. Pictish was replaced by Gaelic in the centuries of the Pictish period. During the reign of Caustantín mac Áeda, outsiders began to refer to the region as the kingdom of Alba rather than the kingdom of the Picts. However, though the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly, a process of Gaelicisation was clearly underway during the reigns of Caustantín, by a certain point, probably during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, and Pictish identity was forgotten. Bede states that Columba, a Gael, used an interpreter during his mission to the Picts, a number of competing theories have been advanced regarding the nature of the Pictish language, Pictish was an Insular Celtic language allied to the P-Celtic language Brittonic. Pictish was an Insular Celtic language allied to the Q-Celtic languages and this theory, while favoured by some in the 19th century, is now rejected. Pictish was a Germanic language allied to Old English, the predecessor to the Scots language and this theory, advanced in the 18th century, has long been rejected. Pictish was a Pre-Indo-European language, a relic of the Bronze Age and this theory was favoured in the mid to late 20th century but is less favoured now. Most scholars agree that Pictish was a branch of the Brittonic language, Pictish came under increasing pressure and influence from Old Irish spoken in Dál Riata from the 5th century until its eventual replacement. Pictish is thought to have influenced the development of modern Scottish Gaelic, the evidence of place names and personal names demonstrates that an Insular Celtic language related to the more southerly Brittonic languages was formerly spoken in the Pictish area. The view of Pictish as a P-Celtic language was first proposed in 1582 by George Buchanan, a compatible view was advanced by antiquarian George Chalmers in the early 19th century. Celtic scholar Whitley Stokes, in a study of the Irish annals. This conclusion was supported by philologist Alexander MacBains analysis of the place, william Forbes Skene argued in 1837 that Pictish was a Goidelic language, the ancestor of modern Scottish Gaelic. He suggested that Columbas use of an interpreter reflected his preaching to the Picts in Latin, forsyth speculates that a period of bilingualism may have outlasted the Pictish kingdom in peripheral areas by several generations. Scottish Gaelic, unlike Irish maintains a substantial corpus of Brittonic loan-words and, moreover, john Rhys, in 1892, proposed that Pictish was a non-Indo-European language. This opinion was based on the apparently unintelligible ogham inscriptions found in historically Pictish areas, a modified version of this theory was advanced in an influential 1955 review of Pictish by Kenneth Jackson
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Swabia
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Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. This territory would include all of the Alemannic German area, but the concept of Swabia is more restricted. Swabians are the natives of Swabia and speakers of Swabian German and their number was estimated at close to 0.8 million by SIL Ethnologue as of 2006, compared to a total population of 7.5 million in the regions of Tübingen, Stuttgart and Bavarian Swabia. Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabias borders are not clearly defined, like all of Southern Germany, Swabia was part of the La Tène culture, and as such has a Celtic substrate. In the Roman era, it was part of the Raetia province, in the third century, it was gradually settled by the Elbe Germanic Suebi and other components that came to make up the Alemanni. The Alemanni were ruled by independent kings throughout the fourth and fifth centuries, Swabia became a duchy under the Frankish Empire in 496, following the Battle of Tolbiac. Swabia was one of the stem duchies of East Francia. Due to the foundation of the important abbeys of St. Gallen and Reichenau, in the following years the original duchy gradually broke up into many smaller units. Rudolf I of Habsburg, elected in 1273 as emperor, tried to restore the duchy, but met the opposition of the higher nobility who aimed to limit the power of the emperor. The rural regions were merged into the Reichslandvogtei of Swabia, which was given as Imperial Pawn to Duke Leopold III of Austria in 1379 and again to Sigismund and he took the title of a Prince of Swabia and integrated the Landvogtei of Swabia in the realm of Further Austria. Charlemagnes family is known to have hailed from Swabia, the major dynasties that arose out of the region were the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns, who rose to prominence in Northern Germany. Also stemming from Swabia are the dynasties of the dukes of Württemberg. The Welf family went on to rule in Bavaria and Hanover, smaller feudal dynasties eventually disappeared, however, for example, branches of the Montforts and Hohenems lived until modern times, and the Fürstenberg survive still. The territory of Swabia as understood today emerges in the modern period. It corresponds to the Swabian Circle established in 1512, the Old Swiss Confederacy was de facto independent from Swabia from 1499 as a result of the Swabian War, while the Margraviate of Baden had been detached from Swabia since the twelfth century. Fearing the power of the princes, the cities and smaller secular rulers of Swabia joined to form the Swabian League in the fifteenth century. The region was divided by the Reformation. In the wake of the reorganization of the empire of 1803 by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss
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Abbey of Saint Gall
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The Abbey of Saint Gall is a Roman Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland of a dissolved abbey. The Carolingian-era monastery has existed since 719 and became an independent principality between 9th and 13th centuries, and was for centuries one of the chief Benedictine abbeys in Europe. It was founded by Saint Othmar on the spot where Saint Gall had erected his hermitage, the library at the Abbey is one of the richest medieval libraries in the world. The city of St. Gallen originated as a settlement of the abbey. Following the secularization of the abbey around 1800 the former Abbey church became a Cathedral in 1848, since 1983 the whole remaining abbey precinct has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Around 613 Gallus, according to tradition an Irish monk and disciple and companion of Saint Columbanus and he lived in his cell until his death in 646. in Arbon. The people kept looking for protection at Gallus cell in time of danger, following Gallus death, Charles Martel appointed Otmar as custodian of St Galls relics. Several different dates are given for the foundation of the monastery, including 719,720,747, during the reign of Pepin the Short, in the 8th century, Othmar founded the Carolingian style Abbey of St Gall, where arts, letters and sciences flourished. The abbey grew fast and many Alemannic noblemen became monks, at the end of abbot Otmars reign, the Professbuch mentions 53 names. Two monks of the Abbey of St Gall, Magnus von Füssen and Theodor, with the increase in the number of monks the abbey grew stronger also economically. Much land in Thurgau, Zürichgau and in the rest of Alemannia as far as the Neckar was transferred to the due to Stiftungen. Under abbot Waldo of Reichenau copying of manuscripts was undertaken and a library was gathered. Numerous Anglo-Saxon and Irish monks came to copy manuscripts, at Charlemagnes request Pope Adrian I sent distinguished chanters from Rome, who propagated the use of the Gregorian chant. In 744, the Alemannic nobleman Beata sells several properties to the abbey in order to finance his journey to Rome, in the subsequent century, St Gall came into conflict with the nearby Bishopric of Constance which had recently acquired jurisdiction over the Abbey of Reichenau on Lake Constance. It was not until Emperor Louis the Pious confirmed in 813 the imperial immediacy of the abbey, the abbey became an Imperial Abbey. King Louis the German confirmed in 833 the immunity of the abbey, in 854 finally, the Abbey of St Gall reached its full autonomy by King Louis the German releasing the abbey from the obligation to pay tithes to the Bishop of Constance. From this time until the 10th century, the abbey flourished and it was home to several famous scholars, including Notker of Liège, Notker the Stammerer, Notker Labeo and Hartker. During the 9th century a new, larger church was built, manuscripts on a wide variety of topics were purchased by the abbey and copies were made
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Lyonesse
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Lyonesse is a country in Arthurian legend, particularly in the story of Tristan and Iseult. Said to border Cornwall, it is most notable as the home of the hero Tristan, in medieval Arthurian legend, there are no references to the sinking of Lyonesse, because the name originally referred to a still-existing place. Lyonesse is an English alteration of French Léoneis or Léonois, a development of Lodonesia, the name was not attached to Cornish legends of lost coastal lands until the reign of Elizabeth I of England, however. However, the legendary lost land between Lands End and Scilly has a distinct Cornish name, Lethowsow and this derives from the Cornish name for the Seven Stones reef, on the reputed site of the lost lands capital and the site of the notorious wreck of the Torrey Canyon. The name means the ones, from the constant white water surrounding the reef. Alfred, Lord Tennysons Arthurian epic Idylls of the King describes Lyonesse as the site of the battle between Arthur and Mordred. The legend of a sunken kingdom appears in both Cornish and Breton mythology, there is a Breton parallel in the tale of the Cité dYs, similarly drowned as a result of its debauchery with a single virtuous survivor escaping on a horse, in this case King Gradlon. The Welsh equivalent to Lyonesse and Ker Ys is Cantrer Gwaelod and it is often suggested that the tale of Lyonesse represents an extraordinary survival of folk memory of the flooding of the Isles of Scilly and Mounts Bay near Penzance. For example, the Cornish name of St Michaels Mount is Karrek Loos yn Koos - literally, Cornish people around Penzance still get occasional glimpses at extreme low water of a sunken forest in Mounts Bay, where petrified tree stumps become visible. The importance of the maintenance of memory can be seen in that it came to be associated with the legendary British hero Arthur. Dicksons The Dragon and the Gnarly King, the book in the Dragon Knight series, and features much more prominently in The Dragon in Lyonesse. In Stephen R. Lawheads Pendragon Cycle, Lyonesse is where refugees from Atlantis settle, in the film First Knight, Lyonnesse is the home of Guinevere, a small land situated between Camelot and Malagants territory. Lyonesse was ruled by Guineveres father until his death, after which Guinevere became the Lady of Lyonesse, the Trevelyan family of Cornwall takes its coat of arms from a local legend, in which a man named Trevelyan escaped the inundation by riding a white horse. To this day the familys shield bears a white horse rising from the waves, to this day the familys shield bears a white horse fully bridled with one foot over the waves. The horse leapt, with Vyvyan aboard, and where it landed, both Thomas Hardy and Sylvia Plath published poems referring to Lyonnesse, the latter taking the mythical lands name as its title. English composer Gerald Finzi set the Hardy poem, When I Set Out for Lyonnesse, to music in his song cycle Earth and Air and Rain. Sam Llewellyn wrote two books set in the sinking Lyonesse, with original Celtic names for the cast of Arthurian legend, Lyonesse, The Well Between The Worlds and Lyonesse. Lyonesse is a song, by Cornish folk composer Richard Gendall, in Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited, the narrator describes the Oxford of his youth as being submerged now and obliterated, irrecoverable as Lyonnesse, so quickly have the waters come flooding in
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Brittany
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Brittany is a cultural region in the north-west of France. Brittany has also referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain. It is bordered by the English Channel to the north, the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and its land area is 34,023 km². Since reorganisation in 1956, the administrative region of Brittany comprises only four of the five Breton departments. The remaining area of old Brittany, the Loire-Atlantique department around Nantes, at the 2010 census, the population of historic Brittany was estimated to be 4,475,295. Of these, 71% lived in the region of Brittany, while 29% lived in the Loire-Atlantique department, in 2012, the largest metropolitan areas were Nantes, Rennes, and Brest. Brittany is the homeland of the Breton people and is recognised by the Celtic League as one of the six Celtic nations. A nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the French Republic, the word Brittany, along with its French, Breton and Gallo equivalents Bretagne, Breizh and Bertaèyn, derive from the Latin Britannia, which means Britons land. This word had been used by the Romans since the 1st century to refer to Great Britain and this word derives from a Greek word, Πρεττανικη or Βρεττανίαι, used by Pytheas, an explorer from Massalia who visited the British Islands around 320 BC. This term probably comes from a Gallic word, aremorica, which close to the sea. Another name, Letauia, was used until the 12th century and it possibly means wide and flat or to expand and it gave the Welsh name for Brittany, Llydaw. Later, authors like Geoffrey of Monmouth used the terms Britannia minor, breton-speaking people may pronounce the word Breizh in two different ways, according to their region of origin. Breton can be divided into two dialects, the KLT and the dialect of Vannes. KLT speakers pronounce it and would write it Breiz, while the Vannetais speakers pronounce it, the official spelling is a compromise between both variants, with a z and an h together. In 1941, efforts to unify the dialects led to the creation of the so-called Breton zh, on its side, Gallo language has never had a widely accepted writing system and several ones coexist. For instance, the name of the region in that language can be written Bertaèyn in ELG script, or Bertègn in MOGA, Brittany has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic. This population was scarce and very similar to the other Neanderthals found in the whole of Western Europe and their only original feature was a distinct culture, called Colombanian. One of the oldest hearths in the world has found in Plouhinec
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Old French
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Old French was the Gallo-Romance dialect continuum spoken from the 9th century to the 14th century. In the 14th century, these came to be collectively known as the langues doïl. The mid-14th century is taken as the period to Middle French. The areal of Old French in contemporary terms corresponded to the parts of the Kingdom of France, Upper Burgundy. As part of the emerging Gallo-Romance dialect continuum, the langues doïl were contrasted with the langue doc, in these examples, we notice a clear consequence of bilingualism, that sometimes even changed the first syllable of the Latin words. Pope estimated that perhaps still 15% of the vocabulary of modern French derives from Germanic sources, at the third Council of Tours in 813, priests were ordered to preach in the vernacular language, since the common people could no longer understand formal Latin. The second-oldest document in Old French is the Eulalia sequence, which is important for reconstruction of Old French pronunciation due to its consistent spelling. The Capetians langue doïl, the forerunner of modern standard French, did not begin to become the common speech of all of France, however, until after the French Revolution. In the Late Middle Ages, the Old French dialects diverged into a number of distinct langues doïl, during the Early Modern period, French now becomes established as the official language of the Kingdom of France throughout the realm, also including the langue doc-speaking territories in the south. Old French gives way to Middle French in the mid-14th century, the earliest extant French literary texts date from the ninth century, but very few texts before the 11th century have survived. The first literary works written in Old French were saints lives, the Canticle of Saint Eulalie, written in the second half of the 9th century, is generally accepted as the first such text. The first of these is the area of the chansons de geste. More than one hundred chansons de geste have survived in three hundred manuscripts. The oldest and most celebrated of the chansons de geste is The Song of Roland, a fourth grouping, not listed by Bertrand, is the Crusade cycle, dealing with the First Crusade and its immediate aftermath. Jean Bodels other two categories—the Matter of Rome and the Matter of Britain—concern the French romance or roman, around a hundred verse romances survive from the period 1150–1220. From around 1200 on, the tendency was increasingly to write the romances in prose, the most important romance of the 13th century is the Romance of the Rose which breaks considerably from the conventions of the chivalric adventure story. The Occitan or Provençal poets were called troubadours, from the word trobar to find, lyric poets in Old French are called trouvères. By the late 13th century, the tradition in France had begun to develop in ways that differed significantly from the troubadour poets
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Lothian
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Lothian is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills. The principal settlement is the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, while other significant towns include Livingston, Linlithgow, Queensferry, Dalkeith, Musselburgh, North Berwick, Dunbar, historically, the term Lothian referred to a province encompassing most of what is now southeastern Scotland. Lothian was annexed to the Kingdom of Scotland around the 10th century, subsequent Scottish history saw the region subdivided into three shires—Mid, East, and West Lothian—leading to the popular term the Lothians. The origin of the name is debated and it perhaps comes from the British *Lugudūniānā meaning country of the fort of Lugus, the latter being the Celtic God of commerce. Alternatively it may take its name from a watercourse which flows through the region, now known as the Lothian Burn, a popular legend is that the name comes from King Lot, who is king of Lothian in the Arthurian legend. The usual Latin form of the name is Laudonia, Lothian was settled by Angles at an early stage and formed part of the Kingdom of Bernicia, which extended south into present-day Northumberland. Many place names in the Lothians and Borders demonstrate that the English language became firmly established in the region from the century onwards. In due course Bernicia united with Deira to form the Kingdom of Northumbria, little is recorded of Lothians history specifically in this time. After the Norse settled in what is now Yorkshire, Northumbria was effectively cut in two, how much Norse influence spread to the English north of the River Tees is uncertain. Bernicia continued as a territory, sometimes described as having a king. Roger of Wendover wrote that Edgar, King of the English granted Laudian to the King of Scots in 973 on condition that he come to court whenever the English king or his successors wore his crown. It is widely accepted by historians that this marks the point at which Lothian came under Scottish control. The River Tweed became the de facto Anglo-Scottish border following the Battle of Carham in 1018, william the Conqueror invaded Lothian and crossed over the River Forth but did not re-annex it. At this time Lothian appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Loðen or Loþen, in the post-Roman period, Lothian was dominated by British speakers whose language is generally called Cumbric and was closely related to Welsh. In Welsh tradition Lothian is part of the Old North, reminders exist in British place-names like Tranent, Linlithgow and Penicuik. The presence of a landowning Gaelic-speaking aristocracy and their followers for something like 150–200 years, over time and due to various factors, the language of Lothian and Northumbria, a northern variety of Middle English, came to displace Gaelic as the language of the Lowlands. The dialects of the modern Lothians are sometimes considered to be part of Central Scots, the Local Government Act 1973 abolished the ancient counties and burghs, replacing them with regions and districts. Lothian Regional Council formally took responsibility from the old county councils in May 1975
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Isles of Scilly
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The Isles of Scilly are an archipelago off the south western tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. It is the southernmost location in England and the United Kingdom, the population of all the islands at the 2011 census was 2,203. Scilly forms part of the county of Cornwall, and some services are combined with those of Cornwall. However, since 1890, the islands have had a local authority. Since the passing of the Isles of Scilly Order 1930, this authority has had the status of a county council, the adjective Scillonian is sometimes used for people or things related to the archipelago. The Duchy of Cornwall owns most of the land on the islands. Tourism is a part of the local economy, along with agriculture — particularly the production of cut flowers. Scilly has been inhabited since the Stone Age, and until the early 20th century its history had been one of subsistence living, farming and fishing continue, but the main industry now is tourism. The islands may correspond to the Cassiterides visited by the Phoenicians, however, the archipelago itself does not contain much tin—it may be that the islands were used as a staging post. It is likely that until recent times the islands were much larger. The word Ennor is a contraction of the Old Cornish En Noer, remains of a prehistoric farm have been found on Nornour, which is now a small rocky skerry far too small for farming. There once was an Iron Age Britain community here that extended into Roman times and this community was likely formed by immigrants from Brittany, probably the Veneti who were active in the tin trade that originated in mining activity in Cornwall and Devon. At certain low tides the sea becomes shallow enough for people to walk between some of the islands and this is possibly one of the sources for stories of drowned lands, e. g. Lyonesse. Ancient field walls are visible below the tide line off some of the islands. Some of the Cornish language place names appear to reflect past shorelines. The whole of southern England has been sinking in opposition to post-glacial rebound in Scotland, this has caused the rias on the southern Cornish coast, e. g. River Fal. Scilly has been identified as the place of exile of two heretical 4th century bishops, Instantius and Tiberianus, who were followers of Priscillian, in 995, Olaf Tryggvason became King Olaf I of Norway. 960, Olaf had raided various European cities and fought in several wars, in 986 he met a Christian seer on the Isles of Scilly
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Roman law
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The historical importance of Roman law is reflected by the continued use of Latin legal terminology in many legal systems influenced by it. After the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, the Roman law remained in effect in the Eastern Roman Empire, from the 7th century onward, the legal language in the East was Greek. Roman law also denotes the legal system applied in most of Western Europe until the end of the 18th century, in Germany, Roman law practice remained in place longer under the Holy Roman Empire. Roman law thus served as a basis for legal practice throughout Western continental Europe, as well as in most former colonies of these European nations, including Latin America, English and North American common law were influenced also by Roman law, notably in their Latinate legal glossary. Eastern Europe was also influenced by the jurisprudence of the Corpus Juris Civilis, especially in such as medieval Romania which created a new system. Also, Eastern European law was influenced by the Farmers Law of the medieval Byzantine legal system. g and it is believed that Roman Law is rooted in the Etruscan religion, emphasising ritual. The first legal text is the Law of the Twelve Tables, terentilius Arsa, proposed that the law should be written, in order to prevent magistrates from applying the law arbitrarily. In 451 BC, according to the story, ten Roman citizens were chosen to record the laws. While they were performing this task, they were given political power. In 450 BC, the decemviri produced the laws on ten tablets, a second decemvirate is said to have added two further tablets in 449 BC. The new Law of the Twelve Tables was approved by the peoples assembly, modern scholars tend to challenge the accuracy of Roman historians. They generally do not believe that a second decemvirate ever took place, the decemvirate of 451 is believed to have included the most controversial points of customary law, and to have assumed the leading functions in Rome. Furthermore, the question on the Greek influence found in the early Roman Law is still much discussed, many scholars consider it unlikely that the patricians sent an official delegation to Greece, as the Roman historians believed. Instead, those scholars suggest, the Romans acquired Greek legislations from the Greek cities of Magna Graecia, the original text of the Twelve Tables has not been preserved. The tablets were probably destroyed when Rome was conquered and burned by the Gauls in 387 BC, the fragments which did survive show that it was not a law code in the modern sense. It did not provide a complete and coherent system of all applicable rules or give legal solutions for all possible cases, rather, the tables contained specific provisions designed to change the then-existing customary law. Although the provisions pertain to all areas of law, the largest part is dedicated to private law, many laws include Lex Canuleia, Leges Licinae Sextiae, Lex Ogulnia, and Lex Hortensia. Another important statute from the Republican era is the Lex Aquilia of 286 BC, however, Romes most important contribution to European legal culture was not the enactment of well-drafted statutes, but the emergence of a class of professional jurists and of a legal science
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Fowey
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Fowey is a small town, civil parish and cargo port at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, England. The town has been in existence since before 1300, the estuary of the River Fowey forms a harbour which enabled the town to become an important trading centre. Privateers also made use of the sheltered harbourage, the Lostwithiel and Fowey Railway brought China clay here for export. The Domesday Book survey at the end of the 11th century records manors at Penventinue and Trenant, circa 1300 the prior granted a charter to people living in Fowey itself. A group of known as the Fowey Gallants were given licence to seize French vessels during the Hundred Years War. In the 14th century the harbour was defended by 160 archers, after these were withdrawn, despite these defences the town was attacked by French forces in 1457. Place House, by the church, was defended against the French. This building still exists, but much remodelled, a small castle was built on St Catherine’s Point, the western side of the harbour entrance, around 1540. The defences proved their worth when a Dutch attack was beaten off in 1667, in August, a Royalist army surrounded Essex’s troops and King Charles I himself viewed Fowey from Hall Walk above Polruan, where he came close to being killed by a musket shot. On 31 August, the Parliamentarian cavalry forced their way through the Royalist lines and retreated towards Saltash, leaving the foot soldiers to be evacuated by sea from Fowey. Essex and some officers did indeed escape, but the majority of the surrendered a few days later near Golant and were then marched to Poole. The fortunes of the harbour became much reduced, with going to Plymouth. Fishing became more important, but local merchants were often appointed as privateers, tin, copper and iron mines, along with quarries and china clay pits became important industries in the area, which led to improvements at rival harbours. West Polmear beach was dug out to become Charlestown harbour circa 1800, Joseph Austen shipped copper from Caffa Mill Pill above Fowey for a while before starting work on the new Par harbour in 1829. Meanwhile, a tower was erected on the Gribben Head by Trinity House to improve navigation into Fowey. The Fowey Harbour Commissioners were established by an Act of Parliament in 1869, to develop, both of these railways initially carried just goods, but on 20 June 1876, a passenger station was opened on the CMR on land reclaimed from Caffa Mill Pill. The Lostwithiel line closed at the end of 1879 but was reopened by the CMR as a standard line in 1895. Passenger trains from Par were withdrawn after 1934 and from Lostwithiel in 1965, the Par line was subsequently converted to a dedicated roadway for lorries bringing china clay from Par after which all trains had to run via Lostwithiel
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Polkerris
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Polkerris is a small village on the south coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It forms part of the parish of Fowey. The village is part of the Rashleigh estate which is commemorated in the name of the pub, the village essentially consists of a single steeply sloping road down to the harbour and beach. There is a sandy beach, with a curved harbour wall. The original translation of the name is obscure. However, the presence of a number of Napoleonic era cannons embedded in the wall, muzzle first. Polkerris is on the west side of the Gribben promontory and on the east side of St Austell Bay and it is two miles west of Fowey and three miles east of St Austell. Polkerris is situated on the South West Coast Path, which follows the coast of south west England from Somerset to Dorset, the path follows the cliff tops from nearby Polmear, goes through the village, and onwards to Fowey via Gribben Head. Fishing, including a fishery for pilchards, was a mainstay of the villages economy from at least the 16th century. The village has been part of the Rashleigh familys Menabilly Estate from the late 16th century, the seine company was in decline in the 1870s and closed. A lifeboat, the Catherine Rashleigh was stationed in Polkerris in November 1859, the station transferred to Fowey in 1922 and the boathouse is currently a restaurant. From the 1950s tourism became significant in the summer, today, the village has restaurants, water sports and some accommodation. The Rashleigh Inn was the setting for the 1972 film Doomwatch, the location of the film is wrongly described as Polperro but the harbour and interior of the pub are clearly seen. This has been confirmed by the existing landlord Jon Spode, some residents of Polkerris also took part in the film as extras
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