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Three Witches
The Three Witches, also known as the Weird Sisters or Wayward Sisters, are characters in William Shakespeare's play ''Macbeth'' (c. 1603–1607). The witches eventually lead Macbeth to his demise, and they hold a striking resemblance to the three Fates of classical mythology. Their origin lies in Holinshed's ''Chronicles'' (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland. Other possible sources, aside from Shakespeare, include British folklore, contemporary treatises on witchcraft as King James VI of Scotland's '' Daemonologie'', the Witch of Endor from the Bible, the Norns of Norse mythology, and ancient classical myths of the Fates: the Greek Moirai and the Roman Parcae. Shakespeare's witches are prophets who hail Macbeth early in the play, and predict his ascent to kingship. Upon killing the king and gaining the throne of Scotland, Macbeth hears them ambiguously predict his eventual downfall. The witches, and their "filthy" trappings and supernatural activities, set a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macbeth
''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I, ''Macbeth'' most clearly reflects his relationship with King James, patron of Shakespeare's acting company. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy. A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darraðarljóð
''Darraðarljóð'' is a skaldic poem in Old Norse found in chapter 157 of ''Njáls saga''. The song, which is seen in a vision by a man named Dorrud, the song consists of 11 stanzas, and within it twelve :valkyries weave and choose who is to be slain at the Battle of Clontarf (fought outside Dublin in 1014). Their loom uses human entrails as warp and woof, swords as treadles, an arrow as the batten and men's heads as weights. Of the twelve valkyries weaving, six of their names are given: Hildr, Hjörþrimul, Sanngriðr, Svipul, Guðr, and Göndul. Stanza 9 of the song reads: :Now awful it is to be without, :as blood-red rack races overhead; :is the welkin gory with warriors' blood :as we valkyries war-songs chanted.Hollander (1980:68). At the end of the poem, the valkyries sing "start we swiftly with steeds unsaddled—hence to battle with brandished swords!" The poem may have influenced the concept of the Three Witches in Shakespeare's ''Macbeth''.Simek (2007:57). Darrað ... [...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 ska ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their 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'' or ''Old West Nordic'' (often referred to as ''Old Norse''), ''Old East Norse'' or ''Old East Nordic'', and '' Old Gutnish''. Old West Norse and Old East Norse formed a dialect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three Witches, MacBeth, By James Henry Nixon, British Museum, 1831
3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 novel by Maksim Gorky * ''Three'', a 1946 novel by William Sansom * ''Three'', a 1970 novel by Sylvia Ashton-Warner * ''Three'' (novel), a 2003 suspense novel by Ted Dekker * ''Three'' (comics), a graphic novel by Kieron Gillen. * ''3'', a 2004 novel by Julie Hilden * ''Three'', a collection of three plays by Lillian Hellman * ''Three By Flannery O'Connor'', collection Flannery O'Connor bibliography Brands * 3 (telecommunications), a global telecommunications brand ** 3Arena, indoor amphitheatre in Ireland operating with the "3" brand ** 3 Hong Kong, telecommunications company operating in Hong Kong ** Three Australia, Australian telecommunications company ** Three Ireland, Irish telecommunications company ** Three UK, British telec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Of Denmark
Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until her death in 1619. The second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark and Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, Anne married James at age 14. They had three children who survived infancy: Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, who predeceased his parents; Princess Elizabeth, who became Queen of Bohemia; and James's future successor, Charles I. Anne demonstrated an independent streak and a willingness to use factional Scottish politics in her conflicts with James over the custody of Prince Henry and his treatment of her friend Beatrix Ruthven. Anne appears to have loved James at first, but the couple gradually drifted and eventually lived apart, though mutual respect and a degree of affection survived. In En ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Berwick Witch Trials
The North Berwick witch trials were the trials in 1590 of a number of people from East Lothian, Scotland, accused of witchcraft in the St Andrew's Auld Kirk in North Berwick on Halloween night. They ran for two years, and implicated over seventy people. These included Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, on charges of high treason. The "witches" allegedly held their covens on the Auld Kirk Green, part of the modern-day North Berwick Harbour area. The confessions were extracted by torture in the Old Tolbooth, Edinburgh. One source for these events is a 1591 pamphlet '' Newes from Scotland''. King James VI wrote a dissertation on witchcraft and necromancy titled '' Daemonologie'' in 1597. The North Berwick trials were among the more well known of the large number of witch trials in early modern Scotland between the early sixteenth century and the mid-eighteenth century. The Danish connection This was the first major witchcraft persecution in Scotland, and began with a sensatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newes From Scotland
''Newes from Scotland - declaring the damnable life and death of Dr. Fian, a notable sorcerer'' is a pamphlet printed in London in 1591, and likely written by James Carmichael, who later advised King James VI on the writing of his book '' Daemonologie''. It describes the North Berwick witch trials in Scotland and the confessions given before the king, and was published in ''Daemonologie'' by King James in 1597. Content Included in the pamphlet is an account of the alleged witches Agnes Sampson, known as the Wise Wife of Keith, and the principal accuser Geillis Duncan. It also described the death of Archibald Douglas, 8th Earl of Angus who was said to have been bewitched to death in a disease so strange his physician could find no cure or remedy. The pamphlet details the initial events leading up to the trials, how each of the suspected witches were found out and captured. This led to the eventual apprehension of Dr. John Fian who was declared a notable sorcerer, under compac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James VI And I
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death in 1625. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a great-great-grandson of Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, and thus a potential successor to all three thrones. He succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother was compelled to abdicate in his favour. Four different regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, though he did not gain full control of his government until 1583. In 1603, he succeeded Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, who died childless. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macbeth Of Scotland
Macbeth ( – 15 August 1057) was King of Scots from 1040 until his death. He ruled over the Kingdom of Alba, which covered only a portion of present-day Scotland. Little is known about Macbeth's early life, although he was the son of Findláech of Moray and may have been a grandson of Malcolm II. He became Mormaer of Moray – a semi-autonomous province – in 1032, and was probably responsible for the death of the previous mormaer, Gille Coemgáin. He subsequently married Gille Coemgáin's widow, Gruoch, but they had no children together. In 1040, Duncan I launched an attack into Moray and was killed in action by Macbeth's troops. Macbeth succeeded him as King of Alba, apparently with little opposition. His 17-year reign was mostly peaceful, although in 1054 he was faced with an English invasion, led by Siward, Earl of Northumbria, on behalf of Edward the Confessor. Macbeth was killed at the Battle of Lumphanan in 1057 by forces loyal to the future Malcolm III. He w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Duncan
King Duncan is a fictional character in Shakespeare's ''Macbeth.'' He is the father of two youthful sons ( Malcolm and Donalbain), and the victim of a well-plotted regicide in a power grab by his trusted captain Macbeth. The origin of the character lies in a narrative of the historical Donnchad mac Crinain, King of Scots, in Raphael Holinshed's 1587 '' The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland,'' a history of Britain familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Unlike Holinshed's incompetent King Duncan (who is credited in the narrative with a "feeble and slothful administration"), Shakespeare's King Duncan is crafted as a sensitive, insightful, and generous father-figure whose murder grieves Scotland and is accounted the cause of turmoil in the natural world. Analysis King Duncan is a father-figure who is generous and kind. Duncan is also firm ("No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive / Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death / And with his former ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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