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Menia And Fenia
Menia (fl. c. 500) was the queen of the Thuringians by marriage and the earliest named ancestor of the Gausian dynasty of the Lombards. She became a legendary figure after her death, strongly associated with gold and wealth. Only one other person is known by the name Menia, from a 9th-century polyptych of the Abbey of Saint-Remi. In origin it is probably a Germanic name, signifying collar, ring or necklace, and by extension treasure.Wolfram Brandes, "Das Gold der Menia: Ein Beispiel transkulturellen Wissenstransfers", ''Millennium'' 2 (2005): 175–226, esp. 181ff. Menia's marriage is recorded only in the '' Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani''. According to that source, she was the wife of King Pissa, usually identified as Bisinus, king of the Thuringians. The same source and the other Lombard chronicles make Bisinus the father of Raicunda, first wife of Wacho, king of the Lombards. She may have been the daughter of Menia. Frankish sources, such as Venantius Fortunatus, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thuringians
The Thuringii, or Thuringians were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who lived in the kingdom of the Thuringians that appeared during the late Migration Period south of the Harz Mountains of central Germania, a region still known today as Thuringia. The Thuringian kingdom came into conflict with the Merovingian Franks, and it later came under their influence and Frankish control as a stem duchy. The name is still used for one of modern Germany's federal states (''Bundesland (Germany), Bundesländer''). First appearances The Thuringians do not appear in classical Roman texts under that name, but some have suggested that they were the remnants of the Suebic Hermanduri, the last part of whose name (''-duri'') could represent the same sound as (''-thuri'') and the Germanic suffix ''-ing'', suggests a meaning of "descendants of (the [Herman]duri)". This people were living near the Marcomanni. Tacitus, in his ''Germania (book), Germania'', describes their homeland as being where the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baderic
Baderic, Baderich, Balderich or Boderic ( 480 – 529), son of Bisinus and Menia, was a co-king of the Thuringii. He and his brothers Hermanfrid and Bertachar, Berthar succeeded their father Bisinus. After Hermanfrid defeated Berthar in battle, he invited King Theuderic I of Metz to help him defeat Baderic in return for half of the kingdom. Theuderic I agreed and Baderic was defeated and killed in 529. Hermanfrid became the sole king. Notes * 6th-century Germanic people 480s births 529 deaths Early Germanic warriors Kings of the Thuringians 6th-century monarchs in Europe Year of birth uncertain {{Europe-royal-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th centuryAD, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The term 'Byzantine Empire' was coined only after its demise; its citizens used the term 'Roman Empire' and called themselves 'Romans'. During the early centuries of the Roman Empire, the western provinces were Romanization (cultural), Latinised, but the eastern parts kept their Hellenistic culture. Constantine the Great, Constantine I () legalised Christianity and moved the capital to Constantinople. Theodosius I, Theodosius I () made Christianity the state religion and Greek gradually replaced Latin for official use. The empire adopted a defensive strategy and, throughout its remaining history, expe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenning
A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech, a figuratively-phrased compound term that is used in place of a simple single-word noun. For instance, the Old English kenning () means , as does (). A kenning has two parts: a base-word (also known as a head-word) and a determinant. So in ''whale's road'', ''road'' is the base-word, and ''whale's'' is the determinant. This is the same structure as in the modern English term ''skyscraper''; the base-word here would be ''scraper'', and the determinant ''sky''. In some languages, kennings can recurse, with one element of the kenning being replaced by another kenning. The meaning of the kenning is known as its referent (in the case of ''whale's road'', ''sea'' is the referent). Note that ''skyscraper'' is not a kenning, as it is not a circumlocution for a simpler term; it just means . Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English alliterative verse. They continued to be a feature of Icelandic poe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sigurðarkviða Hin Skamma
''Sigurðarkviða hin skamma'' or the ''Short Lay of Sigurd'' is an Old Norse poem belonging to the heroic poetry of the ''Poetic Edda''. It is one of the longest eddic poems and its name derives from the fact that there was once a longer ''Sigurðarkviða'', but this poem only survives as the fragment '' Brot af Sigurðarkviðu'' (see the Great Lacuna). According to Henry Adams Bellows, the poem was mainly composed for "vivid and powerful characterization" and not for the telling of a story with which most of the listeners of his time were already quite familiar. Bellows notes that the story telling is closer to the German tradition (found in the ''Nibelungenlied'') than it is to the Scandinavian tradition, and that this is because the matter of Sigurd existed in many and varied forms in Northern Europe c. 1100 when the poem was probably composed. Synopsis The poem begins with the victorious young Sigurd the Völsung's arrival at the court of Gjúki and it informs that he swore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grottasöngr
''Grottasǫngr'' (or ''Gróttasǫngr''; Old Norse: 'The Mill's Songs', or 'Song of Grótti') is an Old Norse poem, sometimes counted among the poems of the ''Poetic Edda'' as it appears in manuscripts that are later than the ''Codex Regius''. The tradition is also preserved in one of the manuscripts of Snorri Sturluson's ''Prose Edda'' along with some explanation of its context. The myth has also survived independently in modified forms in northern European folklore. ''Gróttasǫngr'' had social and political impact in Sweden during the 20th century as it was modernized in the form of ''Den nya Grottesången'' by Viktor Rydberg, which described conditions in factories using the mill of ''Grottasǫngr'' as a literary backdrop. ''Poetic Edda'' Though not originally included in the ''Codex Regius'', ''Gróttasǫngr'' is included in many later editions of the ''Poetic Edda''. ''Gróttasǫngr'' is the work song of two young slave girls bought in Sweden by the Danish King Frodi (cf. ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poetic Edda
The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse poetry. Several versions of the ''Poetic Edda'' exist; especially notable is the medieval Icelandic manuscript '' Codex Regius'', which contains 31 poems. Composition The ''Eddic poems'' are composed in alliterative verse. Most are in ''fornyrðislag'' ("old story metre"), while '' málaháttr'' ("speech form") is a common variation. The rest, about a quarter, are composed in '' ljóðaháttr'' ("song form"). The language of the poems is usually clear and relatively unadorned. Kennings are often employed, though they do not arise as frequently, nor are they as complex, as those found in typical skaldic poetry. Authorship Like most early poetry, the Eddic poems were minstrel poems, passed orally from singer to singer and from poet to po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oral Tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985), reported statements from present generation which "specifies that the message must be oral statements spoken, sung or called out on musical instruments only"; "There must be transmission by word of mouth over at least a generation". He points out, "Our definition is a working definition for the use of historians. Sociologists, linguists or scholars of the verbal arts propose their own, which in, e.g., sociology, stresses common knowledge. In linguistics, features that distinguish the language from common dialogue (linguists), and in the verbal arts features of form and content that define art (folklorists)."Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: "Methodology and African Pre-history", 1990, ''UNESCO International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alboin
Alboin (530s – 28 June 572) was List of kings of the Lombards, king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migration period, migrations by settling in Kingdom of the Lombards, Italy, the northern part of which Alboin conquered between 569 and 572. He had a lasting effect on Italy and the Pannonian Basin; in the former, his invasion marked the beginning of centuries of Lombard rule, and in the latter, his defeat of the Gepids and his departure from Pannonia ended the dominance there of the Germanic peoples. The period of Alboin's reign as king in Pannonia following the death of his father, Audoin, was one of confrontation and conflict between the Lombards and their main neighbours, the Gepids. The Gepids initially gained the upper hand, but in 567, thanks to his alliance with the Avars (Carpathians), Avars, Alboin inflicted a decisive defeat on his enemies, whose lands the Avars subsequently occupied. The increasing power of his new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duchy Of Friuli
The Duchy of Friuli () was a Lombard duchy in present-day Friuli, the first to be established after the conquest of the Italian peninsula in 568. It was one of the largest domains in '' Langobardia Major'' and an important buffer between the Lombard kingdom and the Slavs, Avars, and the Byzantine Empire. The original chief city in the province was Roman Aquileia, but the Lombard capital of Friuli was ''Forum Julii'', modern Cividale. Along with the dukes of Spoleto, Benevento and Trent, the lords of Friuli often attempted to establish their independence from the royal authority seated at Pavia, though to no avail. After the Lombard campaign of Charlemagne and the defeat of King Desiderius in 774, Friuli was incorporated into the Carolingian Empire, but the last Lombard duke Hrodgaud of Friuli was left at his post, until he rebelled in 776, and was deposed. Under Carolingian rule, the duchy gradually expanded into a wast frontier province, since Franks took Istria from th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Audoin
Alduin (Langobardic: ''Aldwin'' or ''Hildwin'', ; also called Auduin or Audoin) was List of kings of the Lombards, king of the Lombards from 547 to 560. Life Audoin was of the Gausian dynasty, Gausi, a prominent Lombard ruling clan, and according to the ''Historia Langobardorum'', the son of Menia, the Lombard wife of Bisinus, Basinus, king of the Thuringii.Wolfram Brandes, "Das Gold der Menia: Ein Beispiel transkulturellen Wissenstransfers", ''Millennium'' 2 (2005): 175–226, esp. 181ff. Audoin was half-brother to Hermanafrid (king of the Thuringii, Thuringii peoples) and Raicunda, the wife of the Lombard king Wacho. According to the ''Decem Libri'' of Gregory of Tours, in 531, Hermanafrid was defeated at the Battle of Unstrut, and so Thuringii, Thuringia was annexed to the Francia, Frankish empire. Hermanafrid traveled under safe conduct to meet with Theuderic at Zülpich. While walking along the city walls with Theuderic, Hermanafrid was thrown from the ramparts to his death. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geats
The Geats ( ; ; ; ), sometimes called ''Geats#Goths, Goths'', were a large North Germanic peoples, North Germanic tribe who inhabited ("land of the Geats") in modern southern Sweden from antiquity until the Late Middle Ages. They are one of the progenitor groups of modern Swedes, along with the tribes of Swedes (tribe), Swedes and Gutes. The name of the Geats also lives on in the Provinces of Sweden, Swedish provinces of and , the western and eastern lands of the Geats, and in many other toponyms. The Swedish dialects spoken in the areas that used to be inhabited by Geats form a distinct group, ''Götamål''. Etymology The etymology of the name ''Geat'' (Old English ', from a Proto-Germanic *''Gautaz'', plural *''Gautōz'') is similar to that of ''Goths'' and ''Gutes'' (*''Gutô'', plural *''Gutaniz''). The names derive from Indo-European ablaut, ablaut grades of the Proto-Germanic word *''geutaną'', meaning "to pour". They have the literal meaning "they who pour their se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
