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Skaufalabálkur
''Skaufalabálkur'' is a Middle Icelandic beast epic, the only surviving one from the Middle Ages. Its title may be translated 'The Lay of Shaggy-Tail' or 'The Poem of Sheaf-Tail'. The title character is an old fox and the poem describes his final hunting trip in a mock heroic style. After killing a sheep, the fox is chased by a man and a dog. He escapes but is mortally wounded. In his den, he relates the story of his life before dying. ''Skaufalabálkur'' is a satire of the ''fornaldarsögur'' (legendary sagas). It is written in alliterative ''fornyrðislag'' metre. In the final stanza, it is referred to as ''barngælur'' (children's verses). The longest part of the poem, over half its total length, is the '' ævikviða'', the dying hero's autobiographical poem. There are contradictory authorial attributions of ''Skaufalabálkur''. It is attributed in various sources to Einar fóstri, Sigurður fóstri or Svartur Þórðarson. Sources generally agree that the author also wrote ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Björn Einarsson Jórsalafari
Björn (or Bjørn) Einarsson ( – 1415), called ''Jórsalfari'' (Jerusalem-farer), was a traveller, trader, pilgrim and government agent from Iceland. Family Björn was a native of Hvalfjörður. He lived at his estate at Vatnsfjord. His wife's name was Solveig. Jón lærði Guðmundsson records that the author of the '' Skaufalabálkur'' and '' Skíðaríma'' was Björn's poet, Einar fóstri. This identification is a result of confusion between Björn and his grandson and namesake, Björn Þorleifsson. ''Skaufalabálkur'' was written by a poet in the service of the latter, although Einar fóstri may still be the author of ''Skíðaríma''. Greenland travels In 1384 or 1385, Björn led a fleet of four ships that was driven off course by a storm while on the way from Norway to Iceland. He spent the next two winters in Greenland (1385–1387). The Greenlanders made him a tax collector (''syslu'') in Eiriksfjord, where he received 260 cured legs of mutton. The other crews probably ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Icelandic
The history of the Icelandic language began in the 9th century when the settlement of Iceland, mostly by Norwegians, brought a dialect of Old Norse to the island. The oldest preserved texts in Icelandic were written around 1100, the oldest single text being Íslendingabók followed by Landnámabók. Some of the poetry, such as the Eddas, that were written down a little later nevertheless contain older language because poetic language was kept in memory unchanged over sometimes a remarkably long time. The most famous of these, written in Iceland from the 12th century onward, are without doubt the Icelandic Sagas, the historical writings of Snorri Sturluson, and the ''Poetic Edda''. The language of the era of the sagas is called Old Icelandic, a dialect of (Western) Old Norse, the common Scandinavian language of the Viking Age. The Danish rule of Iceland from 1380 to 1918 had little effect on the evolution of Icelandic, which remained in daily use among the general population: Da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthropomorphic Foxes
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions, and natural forces, such as seasons and weather. Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters. People have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioral traits to wild as well as domesticated animals. Etymology Anthropomorphism and anthropomorphization derive from the verb form ''anthropomorphize'', itself derived from the Ancient Greek language, Greek ''ánthrōpos'' (, "human") and ''morphē'' (, "form"). It is first attested in 1753, originally in reference to the heresy of applying a human form to the Christianity, Christian God the Father, God.''Oxford English Dictionary'', 1s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foxes In Literature
The fox appears in the folklore of many cultures, but especially European and East Asian, as a figure of cunning, trickery, or as a familiar animal possessed of magic powers, and sometimes associated with transformation. Literature, film, television, games, music, and other forms of cultural expression may reflect the folklore image and reputation. The term "foxy" in English ("having the qualities of a fox") can also connote attractiveness, sexiness, or being red-haired. The term "to outfox" means "to beat in a competition of wits", similarly to "outguess", "outsmart", and "outwit". In folklore and wisdom Africa In Dogon mythology, the fox is reported to be either the trickster god of the desert, who embodies chaos or a messenger for the gods. There is a Tswana riddle that says that ''"Phokoje go tsela o dithetsenya'' nly the muddy fox livesmeaning that, in a philosophical sense, 'only an active person who does not mind getting muddy gets to progress in life.' Europe K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humorous Poems
Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as "humours" (Latin: ', "body fluid"), controlled human health and emotion. People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. Most people are able to experience humour—be amused, smile or laugh at something funny (such as a pun or joke)—and thus are considered to have a ''sense of humour''. The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humour would likely find the behaviour to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by subjective personal taste, the extent to which a person finds something humorous depends on a host of variables, including geographical location, culture, maturity, level of education, intelligence and context. For example, young children may favour slapstick such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mock-heroic Poems
Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature. Typically, mock-heroic works either put a fool in the role of the hero or exaggerate the heroic qualities to such a point that they become absurd. History Historically, the mock-heroic style was popular in 17th-century Italy, and in the post- Restoration and Augustan periods in Great Britain. The earliest example of the form is the '' Batrachomyomachia'' ascribed to Homer by the Romans and parodying his work, but believed by most modern scholars to be the work of an anonymous poet in the time of Alexander the Great. A longstanding assumption on the origin of the mock-heroic in the 17th century is that epic and the pastoral genres had become used up and exhausted,Griffin, Dustin H. (1994) ''Satire: A Critical Reintroduction'p. 135/ref> and so they got parodically reprised. In the 17th century the epic genre was heavily critici ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Norse Poetry
Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in the Old Norse language, during the period from the 8th century to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Old Norse poetry is associated with the area now referred to as Scandinavia. Much Old Norse poetry was originally preserved in oral culture, but the Old Norse language ceased to be spoken and later writing tended to be confined to history rather than for new poetic creation, which is normal for an extinct language. Modern knowledge of Old Norse poetry is preserved by what was written down. Most of the Old Norse poetry that survives was composed or committed to writing in Iceland, after refined techniques for writing (such as the use of vellum, parchment paper, pens, and ink) were introduced—seemingly contemporaneously with the introduction of Christianity: thus, the general topic area of Old Norse poetry may be referred to as Old Icelandic poetry in literature. There are also around 122 verses preserved in S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Copenhagen (1807)
The Second Battle of Copenhagen (or the Bombardment of Copenhagen) (16 August – 7 September 1807) was a British bombardment of the Danish capital, Copenhagen, in order to capture or destroy the Dano-Norwegian fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. The incident led to the outbreak of the Anglo-Russian War of 1807, which ended with the Treaty of Örebro in 1812. The attack on Denmark, a neutral country, was heavily criticized internationally. Britain's first response to Napoleon's Continental System was to launch a major naval attack on Denmark. Although neutral, Denmark was under French pressure to pledge its fleet to Napoleon. In September 1807, the Royal Navy bombarded Copenhagen, seizing the Danish fleet and assured use of the sea lanes in the North Sea and Baltic Sea for the British merchant fleet. A consequence of the attack was that Denmark did join the Continental System and the war on the side of France, but without a fleet it had little to offer. The attack gave rise t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shelfmark
A shelfmark is a mark in a book or manuscript that denotes the cupboard or bookcase where it is kept as well as the shelf and possibly even its location on the shelf. The closely related term pressmark (from press, meaning cupboard) denotes only the cupboard or case. It is distinct from a call number, which is the code under which a book or manuscript is registered and which is used to identify it when ordering it. Sometimes a shelfmark or pressmark may be used as a call number, but in other cases the call number contains no information about the book's physical location. In certain American institutions, shelfmark and call number are combined to create a long code containing information on location, classification, size, binding, author and date.Peter Beal (ed.), ''A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology, 1450–2000'' (Oxford University Press, 2008), s.v"shelf-mark" [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skarð, Iceland
Skarð () is a small farm and a church parish in southwestern Iceland in the Rangárþing ytra municipality (before 2002: Landsveit), Rangárvallasýsla county, and Southern Region, along road 26 (Landvegur), northwest of Hekla. The present Skarð church was built in 1931. The parish shares a priest with four other church parishes (Árbæjar, Haga, Kálfholts, Marteinstungu) under the name Fellsmúlaprestakall. This parish and church is called "Skarðskirkja á Landi" to disambiguate from other places named Skarð. The original Roman Catholic church was devoted to archangel Michael Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second .... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
