Hystorical intrests
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Karlamagnús
Karlamagnús var konungur franka og keisari vestursins. Hann hafði mikill áhrif á lögun og eðli miðalda Evrópu og stjórnaði karlamagnúsa endureisnini.
Karlamagnús var fæddur í seinni part 740 nálagt liége í núverandi Belgíu sonur Pepin hinum stutta franka konun. Þegar Pepin dó árið 748 var konungsdæminu sundrað á milli tveggja sona hans í þrjú ár ríkti hann með yngri bróðir sínum Karlóman. Þegar Karlóman dó skyndilega árið 771, varð Karlamagnús einvaldur.
Karlamagnús eyddi fyrri hluta veldistímans í fjölda herferða til að stækka konugsdæmið sitt. Hann réðst inní Saxland árið 772 og á endanum tókst honum að ná algjörum sigri og gerði þá kristna. Einnig stækaði hann land sitt suður með innrás á konugsdæmi Langarða í norður Ítalíu. Árið 778 réðst hann inní norðu spán því réðu márar. Milli 780 og 800 bætti Karlamagnús bæheimi í keisaraveldi sitt og einnig braut niður Avari í miðju dónáar til að búa til leppa ríkji fyrir austur landamæri keisaraveldisins.
Árið 800 hófst uppreisn gegn páfanum Leo III. Karlamagnús fór til hjálpar hans í róm og barði niður uppreisina. Sem þakklætis tákn kríndi Leo karlamagnús á jóladag það ár, lýsti karlagnús sem keisara rómverja. Þótt þetta gaf honum enginn raunveruleg völd jók þetta lögmæti hans yfir Ítölsku landsvæðunum og hann reyndi að endurlífga keisaralegar hefðir vestur Rómvesku keisarana.
Hin gríðastóru landsvæði sem Karlamagnús réði varð þekkt sem karlamagnúsa Keisaravelið (Heilaga Rómverska Keisaradæmið). Karlamagnús kynti til sögunar stjórnsýslulegar endurbætur um öll lönd sín setjandi menn í lykilhlutverk íhvert landsvæði og hélt allsherjarþing í hirð sinni í Aachen. Hann staðlaði þyngdir, mælieinigar og tolla sem hjálpaði jók viðskipti og hóf mikilvægar lagabreytingar. Einning reyndi hann að sameina kristinna menn um allt Keisaraveldið. Hann samfærði marga framúrskarandi fræðimenn til að koma í hirð hans og hann stofnaði nýtt bóksafn af kristinnum og klassískum fræðum.
Karlamagnús dó árið 814. Arftakar hans skortuðu sjón hans og yfirvald, Keisaveldi hans lifði ekki mikkið lengra en hann
Which ancient sources tell the myth of Europe?
In the oldest preserved poems of acient Greece there is a refrence to the myth of Europe, they are affiliated to ancient leading poets Homer and Hesiod. In a preserved poem on the origin of the gods, Hesiod considers Europe among the offspring’s of the god Okeanosus. They were put a step lower than the Olympus god’s in the hierarchy of Greek mythology. This concept seems to have accumulated favour with the populace. In the writings of the scholar Androns of Halicarnassus from the fourth centure Bc, he names four daughters of Okeanosus Asia Libya Europe and Thrace. The connections with the countries of the world are obvious however they point to smaller countries rather than whole continents. In the oldest notion about the concept of Asia in Greek sources, they for example predict it’s a land that serves one king.
In Homer´s Iliad Europe wasn’t mention however there is a notion of the Phoenicians king daughter who gave Zeus two sons Minos and the Godlike Rhadamantys. There is another tale in a different text from Hesiodosus poem Catalogue of women. According to this account Europa was a daughter of the king Phoenicius. Zeus took a form of a white bull and kidnaped Europa and moved here to the continent witch was named after her. Then Zeus raped her and afterwards she gave birth to their sons Minos, Rhadamantis and Sarpedon. Later she was married to Asterion king of Crete. The name Phoenicius indicates to Phoenicia witch laid at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. This area is not mentioned in the oldest accounts.
The best known myths about Europe is in the latin epic poem Metamorphoses written by Publius Ovidius Naso. Europe is there the daughter of Agenor king in the city of Tyre in Phoenicia. Zeus in bull form kidnaps her and among her sons were Minos who later became king in Crete. That particular son of Europe is also considerably involved with the story of Metamorphoses. It’s not clear how ancient the story’s depiction is but that can be found in the Ovidius poem, however somewhere around the seventh century Bc, King Phoenicius has Changed to Agenor. Then it seems that the location of Phoenicia is ancient and it can be determent from historical texts from the fifth Century that country had already been a part of the story.
http://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=66131
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I choose this text mostly because there are few articles that have this particular length and about my subject in Icelandic. Greek mythology is one of my favourite subjects. I read the text over and convert it without changing the structure to much.
Hvaða fornu heimildir segja frá goðsögunni um Evrópu?
Vísað er til goðsagnar um Evrópu í elstu varðveittu hetjuljóðum Grikkja, sem eignuð eru hinum fornu höfuðskáldum Homer og Hesíodosi. Í varðveittu kvæði um uppruna guðanna telur Hesíodos Evrópu meðal afkvæma guðsins Okeanosar. Þau voru sett skör lægra en Ólympsguðir í stigveldi grískrar goðafræði. Þessi hugmynd virðist hafa notið nokkurrar hylli. Í riti fræðimannsins Androns frá Halikarnassos frá 4. öld f.Kr. eru nefndar fjórar dætur Okeanosar, Asía, Lybía, Evrópa og Þraike. Tengingin við lönd heimsins er greinileg en þó virðist fremur vísað til smærri landa heldur en heimshluta. Elstu heimildir um hugtakið Asíu í grískum heimildum gera til dæmis ráð fyrir að það sé land sem lúti einum konungi.
Í Ilionskviðu Hómers er Evrópa ekki nefnd en þó er þar vísað í dóttur Fönix konungs sem ól Seifi Mínos og hinn goðumlíka Rhadamanþys. Sú sögn er til í broti sem mun vera úr öðru riti eftir Hesíodos, Kvennaskrá (Τυναικων Κατάλογος).5 Samkvæmt þessari sögn var Evrópa dóttir konungsins Fönix. Seifur brá sér í nautslíki og rændi Evrópu og flutti hana til álfunnar sem fékk nafn hennar. Síðan nauðgaði hann henni og voru synir þeirra Mínos, Rhadamanþys og Sarpedon. Eftir það var hún gift Asteriosi konungi á Krít. Nafn Fönix virðist vísa til Fönikíu fyrir botni Miðjarðarhafsins (þar sem nú er Líbanon) en það svæði er þó ekki nefnt í þessum elstu heimildum.
Evrópa og nautið á grískum vasa frá því um 480 f.Kr. Vasinn er varðveittur er á Tarquinia-safninu á Ítalíu.
Kunnasta endursögn goðsagnarinnar um Evrópu er í hinu latneska epíska kvæði Ummyndanir (Metamorphoses) eftir Publius Ovidius Naso (43 f.Kr. – 17 e.Kr.). Evrópa er þar sögð dóttir Agenors, konungs í borginni Tyros í Fönikíu. Seifur í nautslíki rændi henni og meðal sona hennar var Mínos sem síðar varð konungur á Krít. Sá „sonur Evrópu“ kemur einnig töluvert við sögu íUmmyndunum.7 Ekki er ljóst hversu forn sú birtingarmynd sögunnar er sem finna má í kvæði Ovidiusar en einhvern tíma frá því á 7. öld f.Kr. hefur Fönix breyst í Agenor. Þá virðist staðsetningin í Fönikíu vera allforn og má ætla af sagnaritum frá 5. öld að hún hafi þá þegar verið hluti af sögunni.
Stalin the court of the Red Tsar
Simon Sebag Montefiore.
Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar.
Published in 2003, Weidenfeld and Nicolson ISBN 1-842-12726-8
720 pages.
This is a fascinating account of Stalin´s dictatorship. The author provides an incredible picture of the man and of his inner circle that helped him rule he gives us an unprecedented glimpse into his early and personal life. How he and his government tortured and killed more people then Hitler with starvation disease and poverty. Difference between this book and other accounts and articles about Stalin is that this book gives you an additional view on his private affairs that l never seen before of the man who terrorised millions.
The book is written mostly in third person however parts of it is written in first person example: ´I (Stalin) consider Serog´s actions the behaviour of a hooligan. How can you have let him have his way?
This book can be considered a teaching book and a personal portrait of Stalin it´s a narrative writing with some persuasive writing and expository writing.
This is an historical book based entirely on solid sources historical text memoirs of his daughter the author travelled through Russia gathering sources and information for the book.
My copy of the book is paperback there are few black and white photos in it of Stalin’s personal and political life family tree and map of the evolution of the Soviet Union under Stalin rule.
The index of this book is rather to draw you into reading it connection you with other important men for example who were his Himmler. Who was the boy from Georgia who rose to rule the Empire of the Tsars?
After reading this book it affected my view much more than I thought it would I knew Stalin was a calculated mass murderer only Mao Zedong has killed more people with the stroke of his pen. Even in his early years he was a criminal in Siberia however the how conscious he was about many of his decision like when he decided to modernize Russia and made the millions of farmers in Ukraine starve when he started his farm collectivization.
This book gives you an ultimate view of the development of the horror that terrorised Russia between 1922 and 1952 killing tens of millions of people from his rise and fall to birth and death.
Links for the translated articles
The Cyrus Cylinder
This video explains how this object has been used for 2600 years in the politics of the world to try gain favour support and part of getting the various nation to unify the many different people in Iran and Iraq.
And how the image of Cyrus is still the perfect king who ruled with justice freedom and respect of other cultures years of history in one object.
They main objective of the video Is to show how one object can mean so much to so many people through so much time. How the cylinder is the first thing that confirms that there is some historical accuracy in the Hebrew texts and how the text differs from the actual fact.
It says how the Persians king Cyrus brought down the Babylonian empire and entered Babylon without a fight and how the cylinder is the first press released by a victorious army and how he sets all the people Babylon had enslave to go free keep their gods and return to the lands that they lived before the enslavement and re raise they’re altars and re-build the old cities the declaration gave much more real freedom then for example the famous magna carta.
And with the course of the presentation He shows also shows how Cyrus gave his people more religions freedom even more than many present day countries.
The face of Leonardo Da Vinci
This is a short video about the real face of Leonardo Da Vinci how the one of the most known men in the history of the world and how there is no concrete image of him the photo of the old man which is supposed to be him is controversial. The presentation aims to connect his many pictures he draw and finding he’s face among them because drawers often do in their many portraits. He also connects the facial construction of a statue that he modelled in his youth to the pictures that are thought are of him in his later years and with this he connects three portraits together. These three portraits show him in three places of his life-time.
I choose this video even though it’s even too short because this man is the smartest man in the world he was 3 centuries ahead of his time and not only did he excel in art and engineering he also was one of the first men to map the human body like a machine how things worked as a whole. He studied everything he´s thirst for knowledge was greater than any man in the world history with all this said I wrote about this video because he´s my idol the man I look up to.
The Bias of when we know we are going to die
Philosopher Stephen Cave talks about our thoughts about immortality and how we cope with that idea. He speaks of when we first know that we are going to die have scared we got of the abyss the unknown the void and how our parents told us that we would go to heaven. He speaks about the four stories of immortality.
Number one the story of we could avoid death by drinking an elixir of life. This idea still life with us today but only modernised that with new discoveries as hormones and later stem cells we will create immortality witch in fact is just a modernized version of the alchemists who believed in the same idea with their technology. The second idea with we believe when we die we will resurrect and live in another plays in our current form this is centred in many religions. The modernized version of this is that people believe that when they die the can be frozen and resurrected in the future. The third story is how when we die the souls leave our bodies and live on as a soul the modern versions of this is the tough of uploading our minds to a computer. The last story is Legacy that our acts echoes in the future like Achilles when he died for eternal or we believe our legacy can continue in the future with having children.
At last he speaks about how our mind is programed to be worried about death the difference about us and animals is the fact they are scarred of threats but not of dying is because they do not have our curse. Our curse is we intelligent enough to know in the end we will die so we connect it with fear. And our life is like a book it covers make sure it has a beginning and end but we should try to fill in the pages as we can with colourful places and people and when we are close to finishing it we should not be sad we should rather enjoy finishing it and be happy it happen.
I choose this article not because it connected to my written interest but because it´s one of my main concerns = death. Watching this video is hard for me because its make me think of my own death and like most people I try to think as little about it as I can but after watching this video I actually feel better thinking about it. Basically I recommend every one to watch this video it’s about a topic we all think off