Search Results: Ballad

In Norse mythology, the Sun and the Moon appear as personified siblings pulling the heavenly bodies and chased by wolves, or as plain objects. Written sources, such as the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, have surprisingly little to say about...

Sir William Wallace (c. 1270-1305) was a Scottish knight and national hero who fought for his country's independence from England. Wallace famously led the Scots to victory against a larger English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in...

Tyr (Old Norse: Týr) is one of the battle-gods of Norse mythology, according to the main sources on the topic, the literary works called the Eddas. He takes part in two adventures, one involving a monster to whom he sacrifices his hand, and...

Geoffrey Chaucer (l. c. 1343-1400 CE) was a medieval English poet, writer, and philosopher best known for his work The Canterbury Tales, a masterpiece of world literature. The Canterbury Tales is a work of poetry featuring a group of pilgrims...

Captain William Kidd (c. 1645-1701) was a Scottish privateer turned pirate who, despite only ever capturing one significant prize ship, has become legendary thanks to the persistent rumour he buried a fantastic treasure that nobody has yet...

Edda is a term used to describe two Icelandic manuscripts that were copied down and compiled in the 13th century CE. Together they are the main sources of Norse mythology and skaldic poetry that relate the religion, cosmogony, and history...

Hoenir or Hönir (Old Norse: Hœnir or Hønir) is a very shadowy god figure in Norse mythology, who joins the gods Loki and Odin on a couple of occasions in the old texts. He seems to have attributes of creation and prophecy, and his name might...

The legend of Mulan, now world-famous thanks to the Disney films of 1998 and 2020, is the story of a young girl who disguises herself as a man to take her aged father's place as a conscript in the army and so preserve the family honor...

Ancient Egypt is defined as the civilization which flourished in North Africa between c. 6000-30 BCE – from the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. 6000 - c. 3150 BCE) through the Ptolemaic Dynasty (323-30 BCE) before Egypt became a province...

The literature of ancient Egypt is as rich and varied as any other culture. From the inscriptions of the Old Kingdom of Egypt (c. 2613-2181 BCE) through the Love Poems of the New Kingdom (c. 1570 - c. 1069 BCE) the Egyptian scribes produced...