1.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
2.
Georgia (country)
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Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi, Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres, and its 2016 population is about 3.72 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy, during the classical era, several independent kingdoms became established in what is now Georgia. The kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia adopted Christianity in the early 4th century, a unified Kingdom of Georgia reached the peak of its political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the 12th and early 13th centuries. Thereafter the kingdom declined and eventually disintegrated under hegemony of various powers, including the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire. Russian rule over Georgia was eventually acknowledged in various treaties with Iran. Since the establishment of the modern Georgian republic in April 1991, post-communist Georgia suffered from civil, the countrys Western orientation soon led to the worsening of relations with Russia, culminating in the brief Russo-Georgian War in August 2008. Georgia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and it contains two de facto independent regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which gained limited international recognition after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. Georgia and a part of the international community consider the regions to be part of Georgias sovereign territory under Russian military occupation. Georgia probably stems from the Persian designation of the Georgians – gurğān, in the 11th and 12th centuries adapted via Syriac gurz-ān/gurz-iyān, starting with the Persian word gurğ/gurğān, the word was later adopted in numerous other languages, including Slavic and West European languages. This term itself might have established through the ancient Iranian appellation of the near-Caspian region. The self-designation used by ethnic Georgians is Kartvelebi, the medieval Georgian Chronicles present an eponymous ancestor of the Kartvelians, Kartlos, a great-grandson of Japheth. However, scholars agree that the word is derived from the Karts, the name Sakartvelo consists of two parts. Its root, kartvel-i, specifies an inhabitant of the core central-eastern Georgian region of Kartli, ancient Greeks and Romans referred to early western Georgians as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians. Today the full, official name of the country is Georgia, before the 1995 constitution came into force the countrys name was the Republic of Georgia. The territory of modern-day Georgia was inhabited by Homo erectus since the Paleolithic Era, the proto-Georgian tribes first appear in written history in the 12th century BC. The earliest evidence of wine to date has found in Georgia. In fact, early metallurgy started in Georgia during the 6th millennium BC, the classical period saw the rise of a number of early Georgian states, the principal of which was Colchis in the west and Iberia in the east
3.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
4.
Ingvar runestones
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The Ingvar Runestones is the name of c.26 Varangian Runestones that were raised in commemoration of those who died in the Swedish Viking expedition to the Caspian Sea of Ingvar the Far-Travelled. The Ingvar expedition was the single Swedish event that is mentioned on most runestones, and in number, they are surpassed by the c.30 Greece Runestones. It was an expedition taking place between 1036 and 1041 with many ships. The Vikings came to the shores of the Caspian Sea. Few returned, as many died in battle, but most of them, including Ingvar, beside the Tillinge Runestone in Uppland and a rune stone on Gotland, the Ingvar Runestones are the only remaining runic inscriptions that mention Serkland. Below follows a presentation of the runestones, but additional runestones that are associated with the expedition are, Sö360, U513, U540, U785, Vs 1-2, Vs 18 and it was located at Steninge Palace, but it is now lost. Johan Bureus, one of the first prominent Swedish runologists, visited Steninge on May 8,1595, only 50 years later it had disappeared and in a letter written in 1645 it was explained that the stone had been used in the construction of a new stone jetty. The inscription contained an Old Norse poem, Ingvar, the leader of the expedition, has a name meaning the god Ings warrior. This runestone is attributed to the runemaster Äskil, latin transliteration, Old Norse transcription, Hærlæif ok Þorgærðr letu ræisa stæin þenna at Sæbiorn, faður sinn. Es styrði austr skipi með Ingvari a Æistaland/Særkland, English translation, Herleif and Þorgerðr had this stone raised in memory of Sæbjôrn, their father, who steered a ship east with Ingvarr to Estonia/Serkland. This runestone in style Fp is located at Ekilla bro and it is raised in memory of the same man as U654, below. The same family also raised the runestone U643 and which reports the death of Andvéttr, omeljan Pritsak suggests that he may have died in Vladimir of Novgorods attack on Constantinople in 1043. The monument is more than 2 metres high, and it was mentioned for the first time in the 17th century during the revision of historic monuments. It was at the time lying under the bridge that crossed the river north of Ekilla. It would remain lying there until 1860, when it was moved with great difficulty by Richard Dybeck, after one failed attempt a crew of 12 men managed to move it out of the water and raise it 25 metres north of the bridge, where it still remains. Next to it, there are two barrows and a monument of raised stones, there were formerly two other runestones at the bridge, but they were moved to Ekolsund in the early 19th century. One of them speaks of the family as U644. The inscription is finished with a Christian prayer, which shows that the family was Christian and it is of note that andinni is in the definite form, as this is a grammatic category that appears in Old Norse at the end of the Viking Age
5.
Manuscript
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A manuscript is any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to being mechanically printed or reproduced in some automated way. More recently, it is understood to be a written, typed, or word-processed copy of a work. Before the arrival of printing, all documents and books were manuscripts, manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, explanatory figures or illustrations. Manuscripts may be in form, scrolls or in codex format. Illuminated manuscripts are enriched with pictures, border decorations, elaborately embossed initial letters or full-page illustrations. The traditional abbreviations are MS for manuscript and MSS for manuscripts, while the forms MS. ms or ms. for singular, and MSS. mss or mss. for plural are also accepted. The second s is not simply the plural, by an old convention, it doubles the last letter of the abbreviation to express the plural, just as pp. means pages. Before the invention of printing in China or by moveable type in a printing press in Europe. Historically, manuscripts were produced in form of scrolls or books, manuscripts were produced on vellum and other parchment, on papyrus, and on paper. In Russia birch bark documents as old as from the 11th century have survived, in India, the palm leaf manuscript, with a distinctive long rectangular shape, was used from ancient times until the 19th century. Paper spread from China via the Islamic world to Europe by the 14th century, when Greek or Latin works were published, numerous professional copies were made simultaneously by scribes in a scriptorium, each making a single copy from an original that was declaimed aloud. Manuscripts in Tocharian languages, written on leaves, survived in desert burials in the Tarim Basin of Central Asia. Volcanic ash preserved some of the Roman library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, ironically, the manuscripts that were being most carefully preserved in the libraries of antiquity are virtually all lost. Originally, all books were in manuscript form, in China, and later other parts of East Asia, woodblock printing was used for books from about the 7th century. The earliest dated example is the Diamond Sutra of 868, in the Islamic world and the West, all books were in manuscript until the introduction of movable type printing in about 1450. Manuscript copying of books continued for a least a century, as printing remained expensive, private or government documents remained hand-written until the invention of the typewriter in the late 19th century. In the Philippines, for example, as early as 900AD, specimen documents were not inscribed by stylus and this type of document was rare compared to the usual leaves and bamboo staves that were inscribed. However, neither the leaves nor paper were as durable as the document in the hot
6.
Vikings
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The term is also commonly extended in modern English and other vernaculars to the inhabitants of Viking home communities during what has become known as the Viking Age. Facilitated by advanced seafaring skills, and characterised by the longship, Viking activities at times also extended into the Mediterranean littoral, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. A romanticized picture of Vikings as noble savages began to emerge in the 18th century, current popular representations of the Vikings are typically based on cultural clichés and stereotypes, complicating modern appreciation of the Viking legacy. One etymology derives víking from the feminine vík, meaning creek, inlet, various theories have been offered that the word viking may be derived from the name of the historical Norwegian district of Viken, meaning a person from Viken. According to this theory, the word simply described persons from this area, however, there are a few major problems with this theory. People from the Viken area were not called Viking in Old Norse manuscripts, in addition, that explanation could only explain the masculine and ignore the feminine, which is a serious problem because the masculine is easily derived from the feminine but hardly vice versa. The form also occurs as a name on some Swedish rune stones. There is little indication of any negative connotation in the term before the end of the Viking Age and this is found in the Proto-Nordic verb *wikan, ‘to turn’, similar to Old Icelandic víkja ‘to move, to turn’, with well-attested nautical usages. In that case, the idea behind it seems to be that the rower moves aside for the rested rower on the thwart when he relieves him. A víkingr would then originally have been a participant on a sea journey characterized by the shifting of rowers, in that case, the word Viking was not originally connected to Scandinavian seafarers but assumed this meaning when the Scandinavians begun to dominate the seas. In Old English, the word wicing appears first in the Anglo-Saxon poem, Widsith, in Old English, and in the history of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen written by Adam of Bremen in about 1070, the term generally referred to Scandinavian pirates or raiders. As in the Old Norse usages, the term is not employed as a name for any people or culture in general, the word does not occur in any preserved Middle English texts. The Vikings were known as Ascomanni ashmen by the Germans for the ash wood of their boats, Lochlannach by the Gaels, the modern day name for Sweden in several neighbouring countries is possibly derived from rōþs-, Ruotsi in Finnish and Rootsi in Estonian. The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians, Scandinavian bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as the Varangian Guard. The Franks normally called them Northmen or Danes, while for the English they were known as Danes or heathen. It is used in distinction from Anglo-Saxon, similar terms exist for other areas, such as Hiberno-Norse for Ireland and Scotland. The period from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 is commonly known as the Viking Age of Scandinavian history, Vikings used the Norwegian Sea and Baltic Sea for sea routes to the south. The Normans were descended from Vikings who were given feudal overlordship of areas in northern France—the Duchy of Normandy—in the 10th century, in that respect, descendants of the Vikings continued to have an influence in northern Europe
7.
Tale of Ragnar's Sons
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The Tale of Ragnars sons is an Old Norse story about Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons. When Sigurd Hring dies, Ragnar succeeds him as the king of Sweden, many foreign kings come to take parts of his kingdom as they think Ragnar is too young to defend it. Herrauðr, the earl of Götaland and one of Ragnars vassals had a daughter, Þóra Borgarhjǫrtr, who was very beautiful. He gave her a lindworm, but after time, it encircles her tower and threatens anyone who approaches it. At his symbel, Herrauðr promises his daughter to the man who kills the serpent, when Ragnar hears of this, he goes to Västergötland and dresses himself in shaggy clothes that he had treated with tar and sand. He took a spear and approached the serpent which blew poison at him, Ragnar protected himself with his shield. He speared the serpent through its heart and he then cut off the serpents head, and when the people found out what had happened, he married Thora. Then, he proceeded to liberate his kingdom. Ragnar and Thora had two sons, Eric and Agnar, and after a few years Thora dies of illness and he then married Aslaug, also known as Randalin, the daughter of Sigurd and Brynhildr. They had 3 sons, Ivar the Boneless, Hvitserk, and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, Ragnars sons grow up and in order to show themselves the equals of their father, they war far and wide. They conquer Zealand, Reidgotaland, Gotland, Öland and all the small islands, Ivar, the eldest and cleverest, is their leader and he installs himself at Lejre. As Ragnar does not want his sons to him, he appoints Eysteinn Beli as the king of Sweden. One summer when Ragnar is pillaging in the Baltic region, his sons Eric and they send a messenger to Gamla Uppsala asking Eysteinn to meet them. They then demand that Eysteinn be their vassal and that he give his daughter Borghild as wife to Eric, Eysteinn consults the Swedish chieftains and they decide to attack Eric and Agnar. After a long battle against overwhelming numbers, Eric is captured, Eysteinn wants peace and offers his daughter to Eric and as much of Uppsala öd as he wanted. Eric declares that such a defeat he does not wish to live. When Aslaug and her sons hear the news in Zealand, they decide to avenge the dead brothers, Aslaug calls herself Randalin and rides with 1500 warriors across land, while her sons go in ships. After a long battle Eysteinn dies and Eric and Agnar were avenged, Ragnar is not happy that his sons have taken revenge without his help, and decides to conquer England with only two knarrs, in order to show himself a better warrior than his sons. The ships are built in Vestfold as his kingdom reached Dovre and Lindesnes, Aslaug does not approve of the idea as the English coast was not fit for such ships, only for longships, but Ragnar does not listen to her advice
8.
Frithiof's Saga
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Friðþjófs saga hins frœkna is a legendary saga from Iceland which in its present form is from ca 1300. It is a continuation from The Saga of Thorstein Víkingsson and it takes place principally in Norway during the 8th century. King Beli of Sogn had two sons and a daughter named Ingeborg, Helgi was his first son, and Halfdan his second. On the other side of the fjord, lived the kings friend Thorstein whose son Frithjof was called the bold, Frithiof was the tallest, strongest and he was the bravest among men. When the kings children were but young their mother died, a goodman of Sogn named Hilding, prayed to have the kings daughter to foster. Frithjof was the foster-brother to the daughter as he was also raised together with Ingeborg by their foster-father Hilding. Both Beli and Þorsteinn died in war whereupon Helgi and Halfdan took over the kingdom, the two kings were jealous of Frithjofs excellent qualities and so they denied him Ingeborgs hand. They took her to Baldrs sacred enclosure Baldrshagi where no one dared hurt another, still Frithjof visited Ingeborg and they continued to love each other. This caused Helgi and Halfdan to send Frithjof away to Orkney to take tribute and while he was away they burnt down his homestead and married Ingeborg to King Ring, the aged king of Ringerike. When Frithjof returned with the tribute, he burnt down Baldrs temple in Baldrshagi, after three years, he came to King Ring and spent the winter with him. Just before the old king died, Frithjofs identity was apparent to everybody and so the king appointed Frithjof earl. When Ring had died, Frithjof and Ingeborg married and he became the king of Ringerike, then he declared war on Ingeborgs brothers, killed one of them and made the second one his vassal. Frithjofs Saga is said to have been translated twenty-two times into English, twenty times into German, the Norwegian translation from the Icelandic by Ivar Aasen acted precisely on this saga. Frithiofs Saga had first been translated into Swedish in 1737, in 1820, Swedish writer Esaias Tegnér published fragments in form of epic poetry in Iduna, the journal of the Geatish Society. In 1822, he composed five more cantos, in 1825 he published the entire poem Frithiofs Saga. This romantic paraphrase of an ancient saga was composed in twenty-four cantos, kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany had a statue of Fridtjof raised in the village of Vangsnes in Vik in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. The Statue of Fridtjof is a landmark which towers 22.5 metres over the hilltop and it stands in a park overlooking the Sognefjord. The statue was sculpted by the German sculptor and art professor Max Unger and was erected in July 1913, Wilhelm II also ordered in 1890 that a coastal defense ship be named Frithjof after the Norse hero
9.
Legendary saga
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A legendary saga or fornaldarsaga is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders sagas, takes place before the colonization of Iceland. There are some exceptions, such as Yngvars saga víðförla, which place in the 11th century. The sagas were probably all written in Iceland, from about the middle of the 13th century to about 1400, although it is possible that some may be of a later date, such as Hrólfs saga kraka. In terms of form, fornaldarsögur are similar to various other saga-genres, like sagas in other genres, many quote verse, but in the fornaldarsögur that verse is almost invariably in the metre of Eddaic verse. There are also very often mythological elements, such as dwarves, elves, giants, in centuries past, they were considered to be reliable historic sources by Scandinavian scholars, but since the 19th century, they have been considered to contain very little historic material. e. Iceland in the later Middle Ages and they may also be treated in a comic or parodic vein. In the case of Hervarar saga, it conveys names of places in Ukraine during the period c. 150-450, and the last part of the saga is used as a source for Swedish history. Other sagas deal with such as Ragnar Lodbrok, Hrólf Kraki. In these respects, then, the overlap in genre. They are also of value for scholars studying medieval Scandinavian ballads, particularly the Faroese kvæði. Moreover, they are very important for the study of Scandinavian and Germanic heroic legends together with Saxo Grammaticus Gesta Danorum which was based on the same heroic poetry. Philologists have generally held the legendary sagas in less esteem, in terms of their literary value, the content is often less realistic, the characters more two-dimensional, and the sagas often borrow themes from each other, and from folk tales. In these aspects of style and reception, the fornaldarsögur tend to overlap with the Chivalric sagas, the legendary sagas have influenced later writers, for instance the Swede Esaias Tegnér, who wrote Frithiofs saga, based on the Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna. Áns saga bogsveigis Ásmundar saga kappabana - A saga based on the German Lay of Hildebrand, bósa saga ok Herrauðs - like Beowulf it has Geatish heroes. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks - a saga which may be of Swedish origin containing Swedish, Geatish and this saga still serves as a source for Swedish historians. Hjálmþés saga ok Ölvis Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar - A saga about a Swedish warrior princess who is won by a Geatish prince, Hrólfs saga kraka, A saga which is related to the Old English poem Beowulf. Hrómundar saga Gripssonar Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra A saga of the traditional fairy tale kind
