Hird
The hird (also named "HÃ¥ndgangne Menn" in Norwegian), in Scandinavian history, was originally an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls, but came to mean not only the nucleus ('Guards') of the royal army, but also developed into a more formal royal court household. Etymology The term comes from Old Norse ''hirð'', (meaning Herd) again from either Old English ''hir(e)d'' 'household, family, retinue, court'See for instance, 'hirð' in Cleasby-Vigfusson, ''Icelandic-English Dictionary''online copy/ref> or perhaps the old German cognate ''heirat'' 'marriage', both of which can mean "body of men" or more directly linked to the term for hearthguard, or men of one's own home and hearth. History While the term is often used in Norse sagas and law codices, it is a medieval term – the sagas were primarily written down in the 12th century using the language of their own time. There is some uncertainty as to what the term replaced, although the term ''h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hirdskraa
The Hirdskraa (''Hirðskrá''), 'The book of the hird', is a collection of laws regulating many aspects of the royal hird of late 13th century Norway. Compiled somewhere in the first part of the 1270s at the order of King Magnus VI (r. 1263-1280), it was recopied widely in the 14th century. The earliest extant texts, the AM 322 fol. and NkS 1642 4to (in the Royal Library, Copenhagen), date to around 1300. AM 322 fol. is thought to have originated at the court of King Magnus' son HÃ¥kon V's chancellery in Oslo. In the mid-14th century, with the Norwegian kingdom falling into a personal union with first Sweden and then Denmark, the text was copied less in Scandinavia but remained popular in Iceland, where copies exist from as late as the 18th century. The text can be set beside a number of comparable sections in the ''Konungs Skuggsjá''. The Hird The king’s hird (Old Norse ''hirð'', from Old English ''hired'') was more than just a bodyguard and a circle of advisers. Some historia ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hird
The hird, in Scandinavian history, was originally an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls, but came to mean not only the nucleus ('Guards') of the royal army, but also developed into a more formal royal court household. Etymology The term comes from Old Norse ''hirð'', again from either Old English ''hir(e)d'' 'household, family, retinue, court'See for instance, 'hirð' in Cleasby-Vigfusson, ''Icelandic-English Dictionary''online copy/ref> or perhaps the old German cognate ''heirat'' 'marriage', both of which can mean "body of men" or more directly linked to the term for hearthguard, or men of one's own home and hearth. History While the term is often used in Norse sagas and law codices, it is a medieval term – the sagas were primarily written down in the 12th century using the language of their own time. There is some uncertainty as to what the term replaced, although the term ''hlid'' or ''lið'' is used in Danish sources for the warrior fo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their Viking expansion, overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with the Viking Age, the Christianization of Scandinavia and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 7th to the 15th centuries. The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid-to-late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century. Old Norse was divided into three dialects: Old West Norse, ''Old West Norse'' or ''Old West Nordic'' (often referred to as ''Old Norse''), Old East Norse, ''Old East Norse'' or ''Old East Nordic'', and ''Ol ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Volume 2'') as well as the single word "Easter" in books printed i157515841586 also called Pascha (Aramaic, Greek, Latin) or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary . It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus Christ, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. Easter-observing Christians commonly refer to the week before Easter as Holy Week, which in Western Christianity begins on Palm Sunday (marking the entrance of Jesus in Jerusalem), includes Spy Wednesday (on whic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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HÃ¥kon IV Of Norway
Haakon IV Haakonsson ( – 16 December 1263; Old Norse: ''Hákon Hákonarson'' ; Norwegian: ''HÃ¥kon HÃ¥konsson''), sometimes called Haakon the Old in contrast to his namesake son, was King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 years, longer than any Norwegian king since Harald Fairhair. Haakon was born into the troubled civil war era in Norway, but his reign eventually managed to put an end to the internal conflicts. At the start of his reign, during his minority, Earl Skule BÃ¥rdsson served as regent. As a king of the birkebeiner faction, Haakon defeated the uprising of the final bagler royal pretender, Sigurd Ribbung, in 1227. He put a definitive end to the civil war era when he had Skule BÃ¥rdsson killed in 1240, a year after he had himself proclaimed king in opposition to Haakon. Haakon thereafter formally appointed his own son as his co-regent. Under Haakon's rule, medieval Norway is considered to have reached its zenith or golden age. His reputation and fo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Swedish Language
Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic countries overall. Swedish, like the other Nordic languages, is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. Written Norwegian and Danish are usually more easily understood by Swedish speakers than the spoken languages, due to the differences in tone, accent, and intonation. Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Konungs Skuggsjá
''Konungs skuggsjá'' (Old Norse for "King's mirror"; Latin: ''Speculum regale'', modern Norwegian: ''Kongsspegelen'' (Nynorsk) or ''Kongespeilet'' (BokmÃ¥l)) is a Norwegian didactic text in Old Norse from around 1250, an example of speculum literature that deals with politics and morality. It was originally intended for the education of King Magnus Lagabøte, the son of King HÃ¥kon HÃ¥konsson, and it has the form of a dialogue between father and son. The son asks, and is advised by his father about practical and moral matters, concerning trade, the hird, chivalric behavior, strategy and tactics. Parts of ''Konungs skuggsjá'' deals with the relationship between church and state. A study of the relations of the text's manuscripts was undertaken by Ludvig Holm-Olsen, underpinning his 1983 edition, which is presently the standard one. The most important manuscript is AM 243 a fol., copied in Norway (probably Bergen), around 1275.Ludvig Holm-Olsen, 'Konungs skuggsjá', in Pulsiano, P ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also refer more narrowly to the Scandinavian Peninsula (which excludes Denmark but includes part of Finland), or more broadly to include all of Finland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. The geography of the region is varied, from the Norwegian fjords in the west and Scandinavian mountains covering parts of Norway and Sweden, to the low and flat areas of Denmark in the south, as well as archipelagos and lakes in the east. Most of the population in the region live in the more temperate southern regions, with the northern parts having long, cold, winters. The region became notable during the Viking Age, when Scandinavian peoples participated in large scale raiding, conquest, colonization and trading mostl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Norwegian Language
Norwegian ( no, norsk, links=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional varieties; some Norwegian and Swedish dialects, in particular, are very close. These Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as some extinct languages, constitute the North Germanic languages. Faroese and Icelandic are not mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them. While the two Germanic languages with the greatest numbers of speakers, English and German, have close similarities with Norwegian, neither is mutually intelligible with it. Norwegian is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Age. Today there are two official forms of ''written'' Norwegian, (literally ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around the world. A Calendar of saints, feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is preceded by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts Twelve Days of Christmas, twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night (holiday), Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in List of holidays by country, many countries, is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as Christian culture, culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season, holiday season organized around it. The traditional Christmas narrative recounted in the New Testament, known as the Nativity of Jesus, says that Jesus was born in Bet ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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. Although Sno ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Óláfs Saga Helga
''Óláfs saga helga'' or the ''Saga of St. Olaf'', written in several versions, is one of kings' sagas (''konunga sÇ«gur'') on the subject of King Olaf Haraldsson the Saint. List of saga versions *'' Oldest Saga of St. Olaf'', ca. 1190, mostly lost. *''Legendary Saga of St. Olaf'', ca. 1210. *''Óláfs saga helga'' by Styrmir Kárason, ca. 1220, mostly lost. *''Separate Saga of St. Olaf'', by Snorri Sturluson, ca. 1225. *''Óláfs saga helga'' in ''Heimskringla'', by Snorri Sturluson, ca. 1230. *''Óláfs saga helga'' in ''Flateyjarbók'', an expanded version of the ''Separate Saga of St. Olaf''. Overview The saga draws from skaldic poetry and Latin hagiography, with embellishments from popular oral legends. The earliest version, the so-called '' Oldest Saga of St. Olaf'' probably written in Iceland, has not survived except in a few fragments. The next version, commonly known as the ''Legendary Saga of St. Olaf'' (also designated ''Helgisagan um Ólaf digra Haraldsson'' "Holy ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |