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The Oldest Love Poem.
The Oldest Love Poem. The world’s oldest known love poem. According to the Sumerian belief, it was a sacred duty for the king to marry every year a priestess of Inanna, the goddess of fertility and sexual love, in order to make the soil and …
Watts Chapel
Watts Chapel is a stunningly beautiful building situated in the village of Compton, Surrey, near Guildford.
Easter preparations in Lüdge
Easter preparations in Lüdge: For the Osterrad straw stuffed into double wooden wheels. When Osterrad often means with straw or twigs stuffed oak wheels. These wheels can weigh up to 300 kg and in addition hold 120 kg of straw. Depending on the length and …
Etruscan charioteer
Etruscan charioteer. Etruscans, who lived in Etruria, were known as Tyrrhenians by the Greeks. They were at their height in Italy from the 8th to the 5th century BCE. Herodotus (c. 450 BCE.) reports, as a theory of their origin, that the Etruscans came from Asia Minor. The Etruscans lived in what is modern Tuscany , in the area bounded by the Tiber and Arno rivers, the Apennines and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Wind-Weaver
According to Fjölsvinnsmál, Víðópnir or Víðófnir (Old Norse, possibly “wide-open” or “wind-weaver”) is a rooster that sits at the top of Mímameiðr, a tree often taken to be identical with the World Tree Yggdrasil. They appear in Norse Mythology, although the name does not otherwise occur in medieval sources.
The tale is a part of Fjölswidlied Svipdagsmál and comes from a manuscript in the late pagan period. It is estimated to be from the 13th Century and is interpreted as pure poetry in the style of the Edda songs.
The cock is golden in colour and shines like a thunderstorm. As a virtually immortal guard, he watches over the integrity of this world. He is generally a symbol of sun and fire. His crowing at dawn stands for vigilance and for the victory of light over darkness. Thus he is a symbol of a returning life, and is considered among the Germans as a spiritual guide.
Karl Joseph Simrock suggested the name Widofnir in the sense of Windofnir (Weaver of the wind), being Windofnir the name of the skies of Vanir, regarded as the Norse deity of fertility.
Below: This tree from the Viking Age Överhogdal tapestries, is believed to show Yggdrasill with Víðópnir.