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Atlakviða
''Atlakviða'' (''The Lay of Atli'') is one of the heroic poems of the ''Poetic Edda''. One of the main characters is Atli who originates from Attila the Hun. It is one of the most archaic Eddic poems, possibly dating to as early as the 9th century. Owing to its stylistic similarity to ''Hrafnsmál'' it has been suggested that the poem might have been composed by Þorbjörn Hornklofi.Genzmer, Felix. 1926. ‘Der Dichter der Atlakviða’. ANF 42, 97-134. It is preserved in the Codex Regius and the same story is related in the ''Völsunga saga''. In the manuscript the poem is identified as Greenlandic but most scholars believe that this results from a confusion with ''Atlamál''. The metre of the poem alternates irregularly between ''málaháttr'' and ''fornyrðislag''. This may be an indication that two or more original poems have been merged or that the short and long lines were not felt as constituting two different metres at the time the poem was composed. Historical background ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baltic Region
The terms Baltic Sea Region, Baltic Rim countries (or simply the Baltic Rim), and the Baltic Sea countries/states refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea, mainly in Northern Europe. The term " Baltic states" refers specifically to one such grouping. Etymology The first to name it the ''Baltic Sea'' ( la, Mare Balticum) was 11th century German chronicler Adam of Bremen. Denotation Depending on the context the ''Baltic Sea Region'' might stand for: * The countries that have shorelines along the Baltic Sea: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. * The group of countries that are members of the inter-governmental ''Baltic Assembly'' and ''Baltic Council of Ministers'', and generally referred to by the shorthand, Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. * Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, exclaved from the remainder of Russia.«The Balt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ursula Dronke
__NOTOC__ Ursula Miriam Dronke (née Brown, 3 November 1920 – 8 March 2012Heather O'Donoghue"Ursula Dronke obituary: Inspirational teacher of Old Norse literature specialising in the sagas and poetry of medieval Iceland" ''The Guardian'' 25 March 2012.) was a medievalist and former Vigfússon Reader in Old Norse at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow of Linacre College. She also taught at the University of Munich and in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University. Biography Born in Sunderland and raised in Newcastle upon Tyne, where her father was a lecturer at Newcastle University, Ursula Brown began her studies as an undergraduate at the University of Tours in 1939, returning to England and enrolling in Somerville College, University of Oxford, after the outbreak of war. She then worked for the Board of Trade until 1946, when she returned to Somerville as a graduate student in Old Norse and beginning in 1950 was a fellow and tutor in Engl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norns
The Norns ( non, norn , plural: ) are deities in Norse mythology responsible for shaping the course of human destinies.'' Nordisk familjebok'' (1907) In the ''Völuspá'', the three primary Norns Urðr (Wyrd), Verðandi, and Skuld draw water from their sacred well to nourish the tree at the center of the cosmos and prevent it from rot.The article Nornor' in '' Nordisk familjebok'' (1913). These three Norns are described as powerful maiden giantesses ( Jotuns) whose arrival from Jötunheimr ended the golden age of the gods. The Norns are also described as maidens of Mögþrasir in the ''Vafþrúðnismál''. Beside the three Norns tending Yggdrasill, pre-Christian Scandinavians attested to Norns who visit a newborn child in order to determine the person's future. These Norns could be malevolent or benevolent: the former causing tragic events in the world while the latter were kind and protective. Etymology The origin of the name ''norn'' is uncertain; it may derive from a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guðrúnarhvöt
Guðrúnarhvöt is one of the Germanic heroic legend, heroic poems of the ''Poetic Edda''. Gudrun had been married to the hero Sigurd and with him she had the daughter Svanhild. Svanhild had married the Goths, Gothic king Ermanaric (''Jörmunrekkr''), but betrayed him with the king's son, Randver. Furious Ermanaric hanged his own son and had Svanhild trampled to death by horses. Gudrun wants to avenge her daughter and she agitates her sons Hamdir and Sörli, her Jonakr's sons, sons with King Jonakr by telling them about her fate. They depart for their fateful vengeance, a story that is told in the ''Hamðismál'', the last poem of the ''Poetic Edda''. Sources and historic basis The legend of Jörmunrek appears in the ''Poetic Edda'' as ''Hamðismál'' and ''Guðrúnarhvöt''. It also appears in Bragi Boddason's ''Ragnarsdrápa'', in the ''Völsunga saga'' and in ''Gesta Danorum''. Jordanes wrote in 551 that the Gothic king Ermanaric was upset with the attack of a subordinate king ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Filicide
Filicide is the deliberate act of a parent killing their own child. The word ''filicide'' is derived from the Latin words and ('son' and 'daughter') and the suffix ''-cide'', meaning to kill, murder, or cause death. The word can refer both to the crime and to the perpetrator of the crime. Statistics A 1999 U.S. Department of Justice study concluded that mothers were responsible for a higher share of children killed during infancy between 1976 and 1997 in the United States, while fathers were more likely to have been responsible for the murders of children aged eight or older. Parents were responsible for 61% of child murders under the age of five. Sometimes, there is a combination of murder and suicide in filicide cases. On average, according to FBI statistics, 450 children are murdered by their parents each year in the United States. An in-depth longitudinal study of 297 cases convicted of filicide and 45 of filicide-suicide in the United Kingdom between 1997 and 2006 show ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rune Poem
Rune poems are poems that list the letters of runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter. Three different poems have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune Poem, and the Icelandic Rune Poem. The Icelandic and Norwegian poems list 16 Younger Futhark runes, while the Anglo Saxon Rune Poem lists 29 Anglo-Saxon runes. Each poem differs in poetic verse, but they contain numerous parallels between one another. Further, the poems provide references to figures from Norse paganism and Anglo-Saxon paganism, the latter included alongside Christianity, Christian references. A list of rune names is also recorded in the ''Abecedarium Nordmannicum'', a 9th-century manuscript, but whether this can be called a poem or not is a matter of some debate. The rune poems have been theorized as having been mnemonic devices that allowed the user to remember the order and names of each letter of the alphabet and may have been a catalog of important c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shield-maiden
A shield-maiden ( non, skjaldmær ) was a female warrior from Scandinavian folklore and mythology. Shield-maidens are often mentioned in sagas such as '' Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks'' and in ''Gesta Danorum''. They also appear in stories of other Germanic peoples: Goths, Cimbri, and Marcomanni.The article ''Sköldmö'' in '''' (1917). The mythical s may have been based on such shield-maidens. Historical existence [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Housecarls
A housecarl ( on, húskarl; oe, huscarl) was a non-servile manservant or household bodyguard in medieval Northern Europe. The institution originated amongst the Norsemen of Scandinavia, and was brought to Anglo-Saxon England by the Danish conquest in the 11th century. They were well-trained, and paid as full-time soldiers. In England, the royal housecarls had a number of roles, both military and administrative, and they fought under Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. Etymology Housecarl is a calque of the original Old Norse term, ''húskarl'', which literally means "house man". ''Karl'' is cognate to the Old English ''churl'', or ''ceorl'', meaning a man, or a non-servile peasant. The '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' uses ''hiredmenn'' as a term for all paid warriors and thus is applied to ''housecarl'', but it also refers to ''butsecarls'' and ''lithsmen''. It is not clear whether these were types of ''housecarl'' or different altogether. In Scandinavia As free mans ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snake Pit
A snake pit is, in a literal sense, a hole filled with snakes. In idiomatic speech, "snake pits" are places of horror, torture and death in European legends and fairy tales. The Viking warlord Ragnar Lodbrok is said to have been thrown into a snake pit and died there, after his army had been defeated in battle by King Aelle II of Northumbria. An older legend recorded in ''Atlakviða'' and ''Oddrúnargrátr'' tells that Attila the Hun murdered Gunnarr, the King of Burgundy, in a snake pit. In a medieval German poem, Dietrich von Bern is thrown into a snake pit by the giant Sigenot – he is protected by a magical jewel that had been given to him earlier by a dwarf. See also * Narcisse Snake Pits The Narcisse Snake Dens is a provincial wildlife management area located in the Rural Municipality of Armstrong about north of Narcisse, Manitoba. The dens are the winter home of tens of thousands of red-sided garter snakes (''Thamnophis sirtal ... References {{DEFAULTSORT:Snake Pit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hagen (legend)
Hagen (German form) or Högni (''Old Norse'' Hǫgni, often anglicized as Hogni, ''Old English'' Hagena, ''Latin'' Hagano) is a Burgundian warrior in Germanic heroic legend about the Burgundian kingdom at Worms, Germany, Worms. Hagen is often identified as a brother or half-brother of King Gunther (Old Norse ''Gunnarr''). In the ''Nibelungenlied'' he is nicknamed "from Tronje". Etymology of the epithet "Tronje" Of the main Nibelungenlied#Manuscript sources, manuscripts of the ''Nibelungenlied'', the chief representatives of versions B and C use the spelling "Tronege": "from Tronege Hagene", "Hagen of Tronege", "geborn of Tronege", "helt of Tronege". The A version usually writes "Trony" (also "Troni" and "Tronie"). "Tronje" is the appropriate modern German form. In the B and C versions, the name is in the dative case, with the nominative being "Troneg"; "Tronje", although common, is therefore a mistake. All attempts to interpret Hagen's name or home are highly speculative. Alt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
