|
Gefion Fountain
The Gefion Fountain ( da, Gefionspringvandet) is a large fountain on the harbour front in Copenhagen, Denmark. It features a large-scale group of oxen pulling a plow and being driven by the Norse goddess Gefjon. It is located in Nordre Toldbod area next to Kastellet and immediately south of Langelinie. History The fountain was donated to the city of Copenhagen by the Carlsberg Foundation on the occasion of the brewery's 50-year anniversary. It was originally supposed to be located in the main town square outside city hall, but it was decided instead to build it near the Øresund in its current location near Kastellet ("The Citadel"). It was designed by Danish artist Anders Bundgaard, who sculpted the naturalistic figures 1897–99. The basins and decorations were completed in 1908. The fountain was first activated on July 14, 1908. The fountain underwent extensive renovations starting in 1999. The fountain was out of commission for many years, and was re-inaugurated in Septe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gefion Fountain, Copenhagen, Copenhagen
Gefion is an alternative spelling for Gefjon of Norse mythology. It may also refer to: * Gefion Fountain, a fountain in Copenhagen, Denmark * Gefion family, a grouping of asteroids in the intermediate main belt ** 1272 Gefion 1272 Gefion, provisional designation , is a stony asteroid and parent body of the Gefion family from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 10 October 1931, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth ..., a main-belt asteroid * SMS Gefion, a light cruiser of the Kaiserliche Marine {{Disambiguation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skald
A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditionally composed on one occasion, sometimes extempore, and include both extended works and single verses ('' lausavísur''). They are characteristically more ornate in form and diction than eddic poems, employing many kennings and heiti, more interlacing of sentence elements, and the complex '' dróttkvætt'' metre. More than 5,500 skaldic verses have survived, preserved in more than 700 manuscripts, including in several sagas and in Snorri Sturluson's '' Prose Edda'', a handbook of skaldic composition that led to a revival of the art. Many of these verses are fragments of originally longer works, and the authorship of many is unknown. The earliest known skald from whom verses survive is Bragi Boddason, known as Bragi the Old, a Norwegian skal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knýtlinga Saga
''Knýtlinga saga'' (''The Saga of Cnut's Descendants'') is an Icelandic kings' saga written in the 1250s, which deals with the kings who ruled Denmark since the early 10th century.Ármann Jakobsson, "Royal biography", p. 397-8 There are good reasons to assume that the author was Óláfr Þórðarson (d. 1259), nicknamed ''hvítaskáld'' "the White Poet", who was a nephew of Snorri Sturluson. Óláfr is also known for having written the '' Third Grammatical Treatise''. He stayed with the Danish ruler Valdemar II of Denmark in 1240–1241, and Valdemar provided the saga's author with "a great deal of information" and "outstanding accounts".''Nationalencyklopedin'' The work is modelled on the ''Heimskringla'', Snorri's work on the Norwegian kings.Lönnroth, Ólason and Piltz, "Literature", in ''Cambridge History of Scandinavia'', vol 1, p. 503 Like Snorri, the author makes frequent use of skaldic poetry as documentary sources. The saga covers the history of the Danish rulers from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agnafit
Agnafit (Old Norse: ) or ''Agnefit'' was the name of a location where Lake Mälaren met the Baltic Sea. In the 14th century, an addition to the '' Historia Norwegiae'' described Agnafit as being where Stockholm had been founded. Some say that it was a fishing village located on the island Stadsholmen, before Stockholm was founded in 1252. It is moreover mentioned by Snorri Sturluson in the ''Heimskringla'' (''Ynglinga saga'') as the location where the Swedish king Agne was hanged by his captive bride Skjalf in his golden torc. She had been captured by Agne in Finland, and after Agne's execution she escaped with her thralls. Later in the ''Heimskringla'' (the ''Saga of Olaf Haraldsson''), Snorri writes that king Olaf Haraldsson was captured by the Swedes in Mälaren and had to dig a channel at Agnafit to escape into the Baltic Sea. Snorri attributes the name to king Agne and ''fit'' ("wet meadow"), but toponymists have suggested that ''Agne''- can be derived from the practic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ásmundar Saga Kappabana
''Ásmundar saga kappabana'' is the saga of Asmund the Champion-Killer, a legendary saga from Iceland, first attested in the manuscript Stockholm, Royal Library, Holm. 7, 4to, from the first half of the fourteenth century.Ciklamini, M., ‘The Combat Between Two Half-Brothers; A Literary Study of the Motif in Ásmundar saga kappabana and Saxonis gesta Danorum’, Neophilologus, 50 (1966), 269–279, 370–79 DOI 10.1007/BF01515206, 10.1007/BF01515217. It is essentially an adaptation of the German ''Hildebrandslied'', but it has assimilated matter from the Tyrfing Cycle. Synopsis The saga relates that Hildebrand, the king of the Huns had a son named Helgi, who was married to Hild, the daughter of the Swedish king Budli. Helgi and Hild had a son who was raised by his grandfather and named Hildebrand after him. Hildebrand became a great warrior and was called the ''Hunnish champion''. When his father Helgi had fallen in a war, his maternal grandfather, the Swedish king Budli, was k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mälaren
Mälaren ( , , or ), historically referred to as Lake Malar in English, is the third-largest freshwater lake in Sweden (after Vänern and Vättern). Its area is 1,140 km2 and its greatest depth is 64 m. Mälaren spans 120 kilometers from east to west. The lake drains, from south-west to north-east, into the Baltic Sea through its natural outlets Norrström and Söderström (as it flows around Stadsholmen island) and through the artificial Södertälje Canal and Hammarbyleden waterway. The easternmost bay of Mälaren, in central Stockholm, is called Riddarfjärden. The lake is located in Svealand and bounded by the provinces of Uppland, Södermanland and Västmanland. The two largest islands in Mälaren are Selaön (91 km2) and Svartsjölandet (79 km2). Mälaren is low-lying and mostly relatively shallow. Being a quite narrow and shallow lake, Mälaren has bridge crossings between Eskilstuna and Västerås with two crossings on the western end at Kvi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately 1 million people live in the Stockholm Municipality, municipality, with 1.6 million in the Stockholm urban area, urban area, and 2.4 million in the Metropolitan Stockholm, metropolitan area. The city stretches across fourteen islands where Mälaren, Lake Mälaren flows into the Baltic Sea. Outside the city to the east, and along the coast, is the island chain of the Stockholm archipelago. The area has been settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC, and was founded as a city in 1252 by Swedish statesman Birger Jarl. The city serves as the county seat of Stockholm County. Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the country's Gross d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fornsigtuna
Signhildsberg (historically Fornsigtuna, where ''forn'' means ''ancient'', Old Sigtuna, ''Sithun'', ''Signesberg'') is a manor that formerly was a royal estate ( Uppsala öd), located in the parish of Håtuna approximately west of the modern town of Sigtuna, by Lake Mälaren in Sweden. Although the location is nearly forgotten, it has a central role in Norse mythology, according to which it was founded by the Norse god Odin. Etymology The name ''Sigtuna'' is contested. According to one theory, it is a compound name where the second element is -''tuna'' and the first one is either of two closely related dialectal words, viz. ''sig'' meaning "seeping water" or "swamp" or ''sik'' meaning "swamp". As a basis for this intpretation, a brook south of Signhildsberg has been mentioned, or the fact that the estate was surrounded by marshy terrain.Entry ''Sigtuna'' in Svenskt ortnamnslexikon. Ed. Mats Wahlberg. Institutet för språk och folkminnen, Uppsala 2003. Another theory consi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scania
Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne County, created in 1997. Like the other former provinces of Sweden, Scania still features in colloquial speech and in cultural references, and can therefore not be regarded as an archaic concept. Within Scania there are 33 municipalities that are autonomous within the Skåne Regional Council. Scania's largest city, Malmö, is the third-largest city in Sweden, as well as the fifth-largest in Scandinavia. To the north, Scania borders the former provinces of Halland and Småland, to the northeast Blekinge, to the east and south the Baltic Sea, and to the west Öresund. Since 2000, a road and railway bridge, the Öresund Bridge, bridges the Sound and connects Scania with Denmark. Scania forms part of the transnational Øresund Region ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxen
An ox ( : oxen, ), also known as a bullock (in BrE, AusE, and IndE), is a male bovine trained and used as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration inhibits testosterone and aggression, which makes the males docile and safer to work with. Cows (adult females) or bulls (intact males) may also be used in some areas. Oxen are used for plowing, for transport (pulling carts, hauling wagons and even riding), for threshing grain by trampling, and for powering machines that grind grain or supply irrigation among other purposes. Oxen may be also used to skid logs in forests, particularly in low-impact, select-cut logging. Oxen are usually yoked in pairs. Light work such as carting household items on good roads might require just one pair, while for heavier work, further pairs would be added as necessary. A team used for a heavy load over difficult ground might exceed nine or ten pairs. Domestication Oxen are thought to have first been harness ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gylfi
In Norse mythology, Gylfi (Old Norse: ), ''Gylfe'', ''Gylvi'', or ''Gylve'' was the earliest recorded king in Scandinavia. He often uses the name Gangleri when appearing in disguise. The traditions on Gylfi deal with how he was tricked by the gods and his relations with the goddess Gefjon. The creation of Zealand The '' Ynglinga saga'' section of Snorri's '' Heimskringla'' and the Eddic poem '' Ragnarsdrápa'' tell a legend of how Gylfi was seduced by the goddess Gefjon to give her as much land as she could plow in one night. Gefjon transformed her four sons into oxen and took enough land to create the Danish island of Zealand, leaving the Swedish lake Vänern. Meeting the Æsir ''Gylfaginning'' in the '' Prose Edda'' and the ''Ynglinga saga'' tell how the supposedly historic (non-deified version) Odin and his people the Æsir and Vanir In Norse mythology, the Vanir (; Old Norse: , singular Vanr ) are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, and the ability to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heimskringla
''Heimskringla'' () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorre Sturlason (1178/79–1241) 1230. The name ''Heimskringla'' was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts (''kringla heimsins'', "the circle of the world"). ''Heimskringla'' is a collection of sagas about Swedish and Norwegian kings, beginning with the saga of the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings, followed by accounts of historical Norwegian rulers from Harald Fairhair of the 9th century up to the death of the pretender Eystein Meyla in 1177. The exact sources of the Snorri's work are disputed, but they include earlier kings' sagas, such as Morkinskinna, Fagrskinna and the 12th-century Norwegian synoptic histories and oral traditions, notably many skaldic poems. He explicitly names the now lost work '' Hryggjarstykki'' as his source for the events of the mid-12th century. Alth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Mälaren")
