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Saxon Wars
The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the thirty-three years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of tribesmen was defeated. In all, 18 campaigns were fought, primarily in what is now northern Germany. They resulted in the incorporation of Saxony into the Frankish realm and their forcible conversion from Germanic paganism to Christianity. The Saxons were divided into four subgroups in four regions. Nearest to the ancient Frankish kingdom of Austrasia was Westphalia, and farthest was Eastphalia. In between the two kingdoms was that of Engria (or Engern), and north of the three, at the base of the Jutland peninsula, was Nordalbingia. Despite repeated setbacks, the Saxons resisted steadfastly, returning to raid Charlemagne's domains as soon as he turned his attention elsewhere. Their main leader, Widukind, was a resilient and resourceful opponent, but eventually was defeated and bapti ...
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Old Saxony
Old Saxony was the homeland of the Saxons who fought the Frankish empire during the Early Middle Ages, until they conquered it and converted it into a Carolingian stem duchy in the 8th century, the Duchy of Saxony. Contemporary authors such as Bede and the author of the ''Ravenna Cosmography'' used the term "Old Saxons" to distinguish them from the Saxons living in Britain, also known as Anglo-Saxons, who they believed had migrated from Old Saxony. Roman sources as far back as the fourth century had described these continental Saxons, as northern neighbours of the Franks, who lived near the Lower Rhine. They do not appear to have been politically unified, although they sometimes worked together to fight the Franks. Bede described them as ruled by "satraps". Old Saxony, like the later duchy of Saxony, included the inland regions later known as Eastphalia, Westphalia and Angria (or Angaria), between the Rhine and Elbe rivers. They possibly also already lived in Nordalbingia, ...
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Germanic Paganism
Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological dating, chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the British Isles, modern Germany, the Netherlands, and at times other parts of Europe, the beliefs and practices of Germanic paganism varied. Scholars typically assume some degree of continuity between the beliefs and practices of the Roman era and those found in Norse paganism, as well as between Germanic religion and reconstructed Indo-European religion and post-conversion folklore, though the precise degree and details of this continuity are subjects of debate. Germanic religion was influenced by neighboring cultures, including that of the Celts, the Roman people, Romans, and, later, by Christianity. Very few sources exist that were written by pagan adherents themselves; instead, most were written by outsiders and can thus present problems for ...
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Yggdrasil
Yggdrasil () is an immense and central sacred tree in Norse cosmology. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds. Yggdrasil is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'' compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and in the ''Prose Edda'' compiled in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both sources, Yggdrasil is an immense ash tree that is central to the cosmos and considered very holy. The gods go to Yggdrasil daily to assemble at their traditional governing assemblies. The branches of Yggdrasil extend far into the heavens, and the tree is supported by three roots that extend far away into other locations; one to the well Urðarbrunnr in the heavens, one to the spring Hvergelmir, and another to the well Mímisbrunnr. Creatures live within Yggdrasil, including the dragon Níðhöggr, the squirrel Ratatoskr, the hawk Veðrfölnir, and the stags Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór. Scholars generally consider '' Hoddmímis holt'', '' Mímam ...
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Nordic Countries
The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; the autonomous administrative division, autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland; and the autonomous region of Åland. The Nordic countries have much in common in their way of life, History of Scandinavia, history, religion and Nordic model, social and economic model. They have a long history of political unions and other close relations but do not form a singular state or federation today. The Scandinavism, Scandinavist movement sought to unite Denmark, Norway and Sweden into one country in the 19th century. With the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden (Norwegian independence), the independence of Finland in the early 20th century and the 1944 Icelandic constitution ...
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Eresburg
The Eresburg is the largest, well-known (Old) Saxon refuge castle (''Volksburg'') and was located in the area of the present German village of Obermarsberg in the borough of Marsberg in the county of Hochsauerlandkreis. It was a hill castle built on the plateau of a low table hill, known as the ''Eresberg'', at a height of 130–150 metres above the Diemel, a tributary of the Weser, in the extreme south of the Saxon Gau of Engern on the border with the Duchy of Franconia. History There is evidence that indicates the hill was settled even in prehistoric times. Pieces of pottery from the Michelsberg culture have also been found here. Excavations in the vicinity of the present-day collegiate church have revealed traces of ditches, ramparts and posts. Radio carbon dating points to their origin in the pre-Roman Iron Age. In addition the wooden posts were made from trees that can be dated to between 420 and 370 B.C. Earlier research viewed the Eresburg as a border ...
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Paderborn
Paderborn (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn (district), Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader (river), Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for the source of a river. The river Pader originates in more than 200 springs near Paderborn Cathedral, where St. Liborius is buried. History Paderborn was founded as a bishopric by Charlemagne in 795, although its official history began in 777 when Charlemagne built a castle near the Paderborn springs.Ed. Heribert Zelder, Tourist Information Services, ''Welcome to Paderborn'', Stadt Paderborn: Paderborn, Germany, 2009. In 799 Pope Leo III fled his enemies in Rome and reached Paderborn, where he met Charlemagne, and stayed there for three months. It was during this time that it was decided that Charlemagne would be crowned emperor. Charlemagne reinstated Leo in Rome in 800 and was crow ...
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Irminsul
An Irminsul (Old Saxon 'great pillar') was a sacred, Column, pillar-like object attested as playing an important role in the Germanic paganism of the Saxons. Medieval sources describe how an Irminsul was destroyed by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars. A church was erected on its place in 783 and blessed by Pope Leo III. Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, Sacred trees and sacred groves were widely venerated by the Germanic peoples (including Donar's Oak), and the oldest chronicle describing an Irminsul refers to it as a tree trunk erected in the open air.d'Alviella (1891:112). Etymology The Old Saxon word compound means 'great pillar'. The first element, ('great') is cognate with terms with some significance elsewhere in Germanic mythology. Among the North Germanic peoples, the Old Norse form of is , which just like is one of the List of names of Odin, names of Odin. Yggdrasil (Old Norse 'Yggr's horse') is a Norse cosmology, cosmic tree from which Odin ...
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Casus Belli
A (; ) is an act or an event that either provokes or is used to justify a war. A ''casus belli'' involves direct offenses or threats against the nation declaring the war, whereas a ' involves offenses or threats against its ally—usually one bound by a mutual defense pact. Either may be considered an A declaration of war usually contains a description of the ''casus belli'' that has led the party in question to declare war on another party. Terminology The term ''casus belli'' came into widespread use in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through the writings of Hugo Grotius (1653), Cornelius van Bynkershoek (1707), and Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui (1732), among others, and due to the rise of the political doctrine of '' jus ad bellum'' or " just war theory". The term is also used informally to refer to any "just cause" a nation may claim for entering into a conflict. It is used to describe the case for war given before the term came into wide use, and to descri ...
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Deventer
Deventer (; Sallaans dialect, Sallands: ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Salland historical region of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel, Netherlands. In 2020 the municipality of Deventer had a population of 100,913. The city is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, but it also has a small part of its territory on the west bank. In 2005 the municipality of Bathmen (with a population of about 5,000 people) was merged with Deventer as part of a national effort to reduce bureaucracy in the country. Deventer is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands. The place is mentioned in 9th-century sources from the Diocese of Utrecht (695–1580), Diocese of Utrecht. A charter from 877 AD mentions seven farmsteads in ''Daventre portu'' (the Deventer harbor). In 952 AD, Deventer is mentioned as a city in a gift certificate from Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, King Otto I. ...
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Jutland
Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It stretches from the Grenen spit in the north to the confluence of the Elbe and the Sude (river), Sude in the southeast. The historic southern border river of Jutland as a cultural-geographical region, which historically also included Southern Schleswig, is the Eider (river), Eider. The peninsula, on the other hand, also comprises areas south of the Eider (river), Eider: Holstein, the Saxe-Lauenburg, former duchy of Lauenburg (district), Lauenburg, and most of Hamburg and Lübeck. Jutland's geography is flat, with comparatively steep hills in the east and a barely noticeable ridge running through the center. West Jutland is characterised by open lands, heaths, plains, and peat bogs, while East Jutland is more fertile with lakes and lush fore ...
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Engria
Angria or Angaria (, ) is a historical region in the present-day German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. The chronicler Widukind of Corvey in his ''Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres'' denoted it as the central region of the medieval Duchy of Saxony lying along the middle reaches of the Weser river between Westphalia and Eastphalia. Its name was derived from the Germanic Angrivarii tribe which had joined the Saxon tribal confederation, and it was centered on the town of Minden, see of a bishopric since 803. The Angrivarii lands were conquered by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars; according to the ''Royal Frankish Annals'', the Angrian commanders concluded a separate peace agreement with the Carolingian Empire near Bückeburg in 775. In 1180, the Emperor Frederick I deposed the duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion, and divided the duchy into two parts through the so-called Gelnhausen Charter. The Duchy of Westphalia was granted to the Archbishop ...
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Eastphalia
Eastphalia ( �stˈfaːlən Eastphalian: ''Oostfalen'') is a historical region in northern Germany, encompassing the eastern '' Gaue'' (shires) of the historic stem duchy of Saxony, roughly confined by the River Leine in the west and the Elbe and Saale in the east. The territory corresponds with modern southeastern Lower Saxony, western Saxony-Anhalt, and northern Thuringia. Together with Westphalia, Angria, and Nordalbingia, it was one of the four main Saxon administrative regions. Etymology The name ''Ostfalen'' probably means "east plain". ''Falen'' is a Germanic word meaning "flat", "level" and "plain" and is related to the Old Swedish word ''fala'', found today in place names such as Falbygden and Falun, as well as in the northern German town of Fallstedt.Dieter Thierbach''Rätsel des Alltags: Jeder kennt Westfalen – gibt es auch Ostfalen?'', RP-online.de (August 9, 2005). Retrieved February 2, 2011. The North German Plain of Eastphalia and Westphalia, divided by ...
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