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Game Of The Gods
In Norse mythology, the Game of the Gods is a motif associated with the golden age of the Æsir early in the mythic time cycle and with the survival of the new race of gods following the endtime of Ragnarök. The relevant passages are found in ''Völuspá'', the first at stanza 8 occurring after the creation of the universe during a time of peace and prosperity: ::In their dwellings at peace they played at tables ::Of gold no lack did the gods then know Here the playing at tables refers to Tafl, a family of ancient Germanic board games somewhat resembling chess, although which variant of Tafl is being played or its rules are not known. At this point a long period of struggle and conflict begins with the arrival of three powerful giant maidens from Jötunheim, possibly the three great Norns. What follows in the ''Völuspá'' is a synopsis of the entire mythology until the gods and the universe are destroyed during the final conflict of Ragnarök. However, a new earth is reborn f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norse Mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The North Germanic languages, northernmost extension of Germanic mythology and stemming from Proto-Germanic folklore, Norse mythology consists of tales of various deities, beings, and heroes derived from numerous sources from both before and after the pagan period, including medieval manuscripts, archaeological representations, and folk tradition. The source texts mention numerous gods such as the thunder-god Thor, the Huginn and Muninn, raven-flanked god Odin, the goddess Freyja, and List of Germanic deities, numerous other deities. Most of the surviving mythology centers on the plights of the gods and their interaction with several other beings, such as humanity and the jötnar, beings who may be friends, lovers, foes, or family members of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motif (literature)
A motif ( ) is any distinctive feature or idea that recurs across a story; often, it helps develop other narrative elements such as theme or mood. A narrative motif can be created through the use of imagery, structural components, language, and other elements throughout literature. The flute in Arthur Miller's play '' Death of a Salesman'' is a recurrent sound motif that conveys rural and idyllic notions. Another example from modern American literature is the green light found in the novel '' The Great Gatsby'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Narratives may include multiple motifs of varying types. In Shakespeare's play ''Macbeth'', he uses a variety of narrative elements to create many different motifs. Imagistic references to blood and water are continually repeated. The phrase "fair is foul, and foul is fair" is echoed at many points in the play, a combination that mixes the concepts of good and evil. The play also features the central motif of the washing of hands, on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the Golden Race of humanity ( ''chrýseon génos'') lived. After the end of the first age was the Silver age, Silver, then the Bronze Age (mythology), Bronze, after this the Greek Heroic Age, Heroic age, with the fifth and current age being Iron Age (mythology), Iron. By extension, "Golden Age" denotes a period of primordial peace, harmony, ecological stability, stability, and prosperity. During this age, peace and harmony prevailed in that people did not have to work to feed themselves for the earth provided food in abundance. They lived to a very old age with a youthful appearance, eventually dying peacefully, with spirits living on as "guardians". Plato in ''Cratylus (dialogue), Cratylus'' (397 e) recounts the golden race of humans ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Æsir
Æsir (Old Norse; singular: ) or ēse (Old English; singular: ) are deities, gods in Germanic paganism. In Old Nordic religion and Nordic mythology, mythology, the precise meaning of the term "" is debated, as it can refer either to the gods in general or specifically to one of the main families of gods, in contrast to the Vanir, with whom the Æsir Æsir–Vanir War, waged war, ultimately leading to a joining of the families. The term can further be applied to local gods that were believed to live in specific features in the landscape - such as fells. The Old English medical text Wið færstice refers to the Ēse, along with elves, as harmful beings that could cause a stabbing pain, although exactly how they were conceived of by the author of the text is unclear. and its cognate forms feature in many Germanic names, such as Oswald (given name), Oswald and , and in some place-names in Norway and Sweden. The Æsir further likely give their name to the Ansuz (rune), A-rune, atte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ragnarök
In Norse mythology, (also Ragnarok; or ; ) is a foretold series of impending events, including a great battle in which numerous great Norse mythological figures will perish (including the Æsir, gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdall, and Loki); it will entail a catastrophic series of natural disasters, including the burning of the world, and culminate in the submersion of the world underwater. After these events, the world will rise again, cleansed and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors, Líf and Lífþrasir. is an important event in Norse mythology and has been the subject of scholarly discourse and theory in the history of Germanic studies. The event is attested primarily in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the ''Prose Edda'', written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In the ''Prose Edda'' and in a single poem in the ''Poetic Edda'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Völuspá
''Völuspá'' (also ''Vǫluspá'', ''Vǫlospá'', or ''Vǫluspǫ́''; Old Norse: 'Prophecy of the völva, a seeress') is the best known poem of the ''Poetic Edda''. It dates back to the tenth century and tells the story from Norse Mythology of the creation of the world, its coming end, and its subsequent rebirth that is related to the audience by a völva addressing Odin. Her name is given twice as Heiðr. The poem is one of the most important primary sources for the study of Norse mythology. Parts of the poem appear in the ''Prose Edda'', but the earliest known wholly-preserved version of the poem is in the Codex Regius and Hauksbók manuscripts. Preservation Many of stanzas of ''Völuspá'' appear first in the Prose Edda (composed , of which the oldest extant manuscript dates from the beginning of the fourteenth century () in which the stanzas are quoted or paraphrased. The full poem is found in the Icelandic Codex Regius manuscript () and in the Haukr Erlendsson ''Hauk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tafl
Tafl games (), also known as hnefatafl games, are a family of ancient Northern European strategy board games played on a checkered or latticed gameboard with two armies of uneven numbers. Names of different variants of tafl include hnefatafl, tablut, tawlbwrdd, brandubh, Ard Rí, and alea evangelii. Games in the tafl family were played in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Britain, Ireland, and Sápmi. Tafl gaming was eventually supplanted by chess in the 12th century, Murray 1951, pp. 56–57. but the tafl variant of the Sámi people, tablut, was in play until at least the 18th century. The rules for tablut were written down by the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus in 1732, and these were translated from Latin to English in 1811. All modern tafl games are based on the 1811 translation, which had many errors. New rules were added to amend the issues resulting from these errors, leading to the creation of a modern family of tafl games. In addition, tablut is now also played in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germanic Peoples
The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of the Roman Empire, but also all Germanic speaking peoples from this era, irrespective of where they lived, most notably the Goths. Another term, ancient Germans, is considered problematic by many scholars since it suggests identity with present-day Germans. Although the first Roman descriptions of ''Germani'' involved tribes west of the Rhine, their homeland of ''Germania'' was portrayed as stretching east of the Rhine, to southern Scandinavia and the Vistula in the east, and to the upper Danube in the south. Other Germanic speakers, such as the Bastarnae and Goths, lived further east in what is now Moldova and Ukraine. The term ''Germani ''is generally only used to refer to historical peoples from the 1st to 4th centuries CE. Different ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Board Games
A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the term "board game" are between the 1840s and 1850s. While game boards are a necessary and sufficient condition of this genre, card games that do not use a standard deck of cards, as well as games that use neither cards nor a game board, are often colloquially included, with some referring to this genre generally as "table and board games" or simply "tabletop games". Eras Ancient era Board games have been played, traveled, and evolved in most cultures and societies throughout history Board games have been discovered in a number of archaeological sites. The oldest discovered gaming pieces were discovered in southwest Turkey, a set of elaborate sculptured stones in sets of four designed for a chess-like game, which were created during t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The players, referred to as White and Black in chess, "White" and "Black", each control sixteen Chess piece, pieces: one king (chess), king, one queen (chess), queen, two rook (chess), rooks, two bishop (chess), bishops, two knight (chess), knights, and eight pawn (chess), pawns, with each type of piece having a different pattern of movement. An enemy piece may be captured (removed from the board) by moving one's own piece onto the square it occupies. The object of the game is to "checkmate" (threaten with inescapable capture) the enemy king. There are also several ways a game can end in a draw (chess), draw. The recorded history of chess goes back to at least the emergence of chaturanga—also thought to be an ancesto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586. It is the second-oldest university press after Cambridge University Press, which was founded in 1534. It is a department of the University of Oxford. It is governed by a group of 15 academics, the Delegates of the Press, appointed by the Vice Chancellor, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. The Delegates of the Press are led by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative on other university bodies. Oxford University Press has had a similar governance structure since the 17th century. The press is located on Walton Street, Oxford, Walton Street, Oxford, opposite Somerville College, Oxford, Somerville College, in the inner suburb of Jericho, Oxford, Jericho. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jötunn
A (also jotun; plural ; in the normalised scholarly spelling of Old Norse, ; or, in Old English, , plural ) is a type of being in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, are often contrasted with gods (the Æsir and Vanir) and with other non-human figures, such as dwarf (mythology), dwarfs and elf, elves, although the groupings are not always mutually exclusive. The entities included in the category are referred to by several other terms, including , (or ) and if male and or if female. The typically dwell across boundaries from the gods and humans in lands such as . The are frequently attested throughout the Old Norse records, with also featuring in the Old English epic poem ''Beowulf''. The usage of the terms is dynamic, with an overall trend that the beings become portrayed as less impressive and more negative as Christianity becomes more influential over time. Although the term "giant" is sometimes used to gloss the word "" and its apparent synonyms in some transl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
