title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The picture stone Smiss I from Gotland, dated around 700, appears to depict a version of the legend of Hildr: a woman stands between two groups of warriors, one of which is arriving on a ship, and seems to seek to mediate between the two sides. This corresponds to a version of the legend known from 12th-century Germany, in which Hildr () seeks - ultimately unsuccessfully - to mediate between her father, Hagene, and the man who seized her for marriage, Hetel. The later Norse versions, in which the battle is called the Hjaðningavíg, instead portray Hildr as egging on the combatants, Hǫgni and Heðinn.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The Gotland Image stone Ardre VIII, which has been dated to the 8th c., shows two decapitated bodies, a smithy, a woman, and a winged creature which is interpreted as Wayland flying away from his captivity. Another one, Stora Hammars III, shows a man transformed into a bird who meets a woman, but this one may instead refer to Odin stealing the mead of poetry, in "Skáldskaparmál". Several small objects of winged people have also been found, but gods, and some giants, are known to be able to transform into birds in Norse mythology, and Viking Age artwork with human-animal transformations is common.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: A number of the runic inscriptions display the deeds accomplished by the young Sigurd, namely his killing of the dragon Fafnir and acquisition of the hoard of the Nibelungs. The Ramsund carving was probably illustrated with the Sigurd saga due to being carved in memory of a man named Sigfried ("Sigrøðr", from *"Sigi-freðuz"). In the carving, Odin, Hœnir and Loki have killed Ótr (6), and paid his wergild. Ótr's brother Fafnir has murdered his own father to have the gold for himself, but when the third brother Regin wanted his share, Fafnir turned into a dragon to protect the hoard. Regin was a skilled smith who crafted the sword Gram and asked his foster-son Sigurd to kill Fafnir (5). Regin then asked Sigurd to cook the dragon's heart for him. Sigurd touched the heart to see if it was done but burnt his finger on it, and put it in his mouth (1). He tasted dragon blood and learnt the language of the birds (2), who told him that Regin had no intention of sharing the treasure with him, but instead planned to kill him. They advised Sigurd to kill Regin who lies beheaded among his smithy tools (3). Sigurd then loaded his horse with the treasure (4). This inscription and others show that the story was known in early 11th c. Sweden and they match details found in the Eddic poems and later sources on the Sigurd legend.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Parts of the legend of Sigurd are also depicted on several 10th-century stone crosses from the British Isles, including several on the Isle of Man, as well as several from England dating to the time of the Danelaw (1016-1042). Several Norwegian stave churches built around 1200 contain carved depictions of the Sigurd legend, including the Hylestad Stave Church and the Vegusdal Stave Church.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The Kirk Andreas cross on the Isle of Man probably contains the only image of the hero Gunnarr from outside Scandinavia: the hero is shown dying in a snake pit while playing a harp. He is also found on the picture stone Södermanland 40, from Västerljung, Sweden. The scene of Gunnarr in the snake pit is also found on several church portals and baptismal fonts from Norway or areas formerly under Norwegian control, mostly from after 1200.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Elements of the legends of Theodoric the Great/Dietrich von Bern appear in some high medieval images. The church portal of San Zeno Maggiore in Verona (c. 1140) appears to depict a legend according to which Dietrich rode to Hell on an infernal horse, a story contained in the "Þiðreks saga" and alluded to elsewhere. The image of a man freeing another that has been half-devoured by a dragon is also found on a column in the Basel Minster (c. 1185) and on a church facade from the Alsatian abbey of Andlau (c. 1130/40?). This may depict a scene told in one variant in the "Þiðreks saga" and in another in the epic "Virginal" in which Dietrich or Hildebrand similarly rescues a man from being swallowed by a dragon. These images may also simply illustrate an allegory of the salvation of the soul from the maw of evil.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Runkelstein Castle outside Bozen in South Tirol was decorated with frescoes depicting courtly and heroic figures, around 1400. The decorations include depictions of triads of figures, among them the heroes Dietrich, Siegfried, and Dietleib von Steiermark, as well as three giants and three giantesses labeled with names from heroic epics. Wildenstein castle in Swabia was decorated with images from the epic "Sigenot" in the 16th century. Emperor Maximilian I's decision to have Theodoric the Great, together with Charlemagne and King Arthur, be one of the four bronze sculptures on his tomb in Innsbruck was probably influenced by Maximilian's documented interest in the heroic poems.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: German manuscripts of heroic epics were generally not illuminated until the 15th century, when a small number of illuminated manuscripts begin to appear. The manuscripts all vary widely in their iconography, showing that there was no tradition of depicting heroic events. The first illuminated manuscript of the "Nibelungenlied" is manuscript "b", also known as the (c. 1436–1442, in Augsburg), which contains a cycle of 14 illuminations on the events of the poem. A number of manuscripts include an illumination at the beginning of each epic, usually illustrating an important event from the poem such as Siegfried's murder or Ortnit's fight with a dragon. Other manuscripts include cycles of illustrations, such as one of the "Rosengarten zu Worms" and another of "Virginal". Notable is a manuscript of the Dietrich epic "Sigenot" which was produced c. 1470 for Margaret of Savoy, containing 20 miniatures of very high quality. Printed editions of the poems frequently contained woodcuts.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Detailed attestations of heroic traditions are only found in writing. These written attestations cannot be assumed to be identical to the oral tradition, but represent adaptations of it, undertaken by a particular author at a particular time and place. No surviving text of Germanic legend appears to have been "oral," but rather all appear to have been conceived as written texts. The oral tradition also continued outside and alongside of the written medium. More recent written compositions can thus contain very old material or legendary variants; conversely, older texts do not necessarily convey an older or more authentic version of the tradition.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Written versions of heroic legend are not confined to a single genre, but appear in various formats, including the heroic lay, in the form of epic, as prose sagas, as well as theatrical plays and ballads. Its written attestations also come from various places and time periods, including the 9th century Carolingian Empire, Anglo-Saxon England in the 8th and 9th centuries, Scandinavia in the 13th century, and what is now Germany from the 12th to the 16th centuries. Heiko Uecker comments that the preserved attestations should not be considered "Germanic," but rather Old English, Old Norse, or Middle High German.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The Early Middle Ages produced only a few written heroic texts, as the majority of writing was on religious subjects, including in the vernacular. The 7th-century Pforzen buckle, discovered in 1992 in an Alemannic warrior's grave in southern Germany, has a short runic inscription that may refer to Egil and Ölrun, two figures from the legend of Wayland the smith. An early source in Latin is the "Historia Langobardorum" (c. 783–796) of Paul the Deacon: it recounts legends told among the Lombards about their king Alboin. The Frankish Emperor Charlemagne (748-814) may have collected heroic poetry. His biographer Einhard wrote that:


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: It has traditionally been supposed that this represented a written collection of heroic poetry, and interest in heroic poetry at Charlemagne's court seems likely. However it is also possible that it was royal praise poetry of the type preserved in the Old High German "Ludwigslied". In any case, none of the purported collection has survived, unless it included the earliest extant vernacular heroic text, the "Hildebrandslied". The poem tells of the battle of the hero Hildebrand with his own son Hadubrand and alludes to many of the traditions that will later surround Theodoric the Great/Dietrich von Bern. Some potential references to written heroic poems are found in 9th-century monastic library catalogues, and the chronicler Flodoard of Reims (c.893–966) mentions a written narrative about Ermanaric.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Viking Age Scandinavia is traditionally believed to have produced a number of poems on heroic subjects in this period, but they were not written down until the 13th century. Although more recent scholarship has challenged the age of most of the surviving written poems, it remains likely that precursors to extant poems existed in the Viking Age. A single stanza on the 9th-century Rök runestone from Östergötland, Sweden, also mentions Dietrich/Theodoric.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Anglo-Saxon England, which had a larger written culture than the continent, also produced several texts on heroic subjects, including the only vernacular heroic epic of the time period, "Beowulf". "Beowulf" deals with the legends of the Scyldings, the ancestors of the Danish royal house, although it is debated whether Beowulf himself is a traditional or invented figure. The poem "Widsið" is the first person narrator of a "scop" who describes his travels. The lay is attested in the 10th century Exeter book; it has traditionally been dated to the 7th century but this early dating has been questioned. The lay presents a catalogue of the names of 180 rulers and tribes from heroic legend, occasionally providing some details of a narrative, such as that of the Scyldings and of Eormanric (Ermanaric). Another poem by a fictional , "Deor", presents itself as the narrative of Deor, who has lost his position at court to the Heorrenda, a famous singer from the legend of Hildr, and contains several other allusions to heroic material, such as to the legend of Wayland the Smith. The legend of Walter of Aquitaine is told in the fragmentary "Waldere", which also includes mentions of the fights of the heroes Ðeodric (Dietrich von Bern) and Widia (Witege), son of Wayland, against giants. The Finnesburg Fragment tells a story, also relayed in "Beowulf" of a surprise attack led by the Frisian king Finn on visiting Danes led by his brother-in-law, the Danish king Hnæf. It is not clear if Finnesburg Fragment is an old poem or a recent composition, nor how long it originally was.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: A number of brief mentions in Latin ecclesiastical texts indicate the popularity of heroic traditions among the early medieval clergy while simultaneously condemning it as a distraction from salvation. This popularity led to the writing of the Latin epic "Waltharius" (9th or 10th century) in the area around Lake Constance, which reworked the legend of Walter of Aquitaine. A number of early medieval Latin chronicles also contain material from the heroic tradition. Widukind of Corvey's "The Deeds of the Saxons" contains what is commonly taken to be a lost legend about the last independent king of the Thuringians, Hermanafrid, and his death at the hands of his vassal Iring at the instigation of Theuderic I, king of the Franks. The Annals of Quedlinburg (early 11th century), includes legendary material about Dietrich von Bern, Ermanaric, and Attila in the guise of history.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Some of the oldest written Scandinavian sources relate to the same heroic matter as found in "Beowulf", namely "Langfeðgatal" (12th c.), the "Lejre Chronicle" (late 12th c.), "Short History of the Kings of Denmark" (c. 1188), and the "Gesta Danorum" by Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200). At this time in Iceland, the now lost "Skjöldunga saga" was written, c. 1200, and like parts of "Gesta Danorum" and "Beowulf" it dealt with the legendary Danish Scylding (Skjöldung) dynasty, and it would be the main source for future sagas on the Danish Scylding dynasty's relations with its Swedish Scylfing (Yngling) counterpart. Sometime c. 1220–1230, Snorri Sturluson finished writing the "Heimskringla", a history of the Norwegian kings, having previously spent two years in Norway and Sweden (1218–20). In the saga, Snorri fleshes out the skaldic poem "Ynglingatal" with Scandinavian heroic legends relating to the Norse kings, such as the 6th c. Swedish king Aðils, about whom it includes native legends related to some of those found in "Beowulf". Snorri is also the author of the "Prose Edda" (c. 1220–1241). It contains a part called "Skáldskaparmál" that has a list of kennings and heitis for young poets, and he provided it with narratives to provide background for them.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The "Poetic Edda" is a collection of Old Norse mythological and heroic poems that was probably first compiled in the mid-13th century in Iceland and is known from two major manuscripts today, of which the Codex Regius (c. 1270) is the most important. The Codex Regius groups mythological poems into a first section and a series of 19 heroic poems into a second; scholars believe that the two sections of poems likely come from two originally separate written collections. Although the legends in Poetic Edda are very old, the poems themselves come from different times, and some may have been written in the 13th century: normally the poems "Völundarkviða" and "Atlakviða" are believed to be from the Viking Age, while the three lays concerning Gudrun, the "Atlamál", and "Helreið Brynhildar" are thought to be very recent. Some poems, such as "Hamðismál", are judged to be old by some scholars and recent by others. The heroic poems open with 3 concerning Sigurd's half brother Helgi Hundingsbane, continue with a group of lays about Sigurd, followed by a group about the destruction of the Burgundians, and close with lays about Svanhildr and Jörmunrekkr (Ermanaric), all loosely connected via short prose passages and through the figures of Sigurd and Gudrun.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: In the mid-13th century, legendary sagas () began to be written in the Old Norse vernacular, some of which derive from Scandinavian and Germanic heroic legends. Those sagas which contain older heroic legend are given the German name ("heroic sagas") in modern scholarly usage. Much of the content of these sagas is derived from Eddic poems, and other elements likely derive from then current oral tradition. Some may be additions of the saga authors. Traditionally, six sagas are counted as : "Völsunga saga", "Norna-Gests þáttr", "Hervarar saga", "Hrólfs saga kraka", "Sǫgubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum", and "Ásmundar saga kappabana". The best-known today, the "Völsunga saga", was probably written in Norway and shows knowledge of the "Þiðreks saga" (see below): it narrates the story of Sigurd and his ancestors, the destruction of the Burgundians, and the death of Jörmunrekr (Ermanaric), moving their location to Scandinavia and including many mythological elements. The "Hrólfs saga kraka" may be the second best-known legendary saga. It was popular in the Middle Ages, and it still is, but its modern popularity among scholars is due to it being a "Beowulf" analogue, with which it shares at least eight legendary characters. The "Hervarar saga" combines several different stories that are united by the handing down of the cursed sword Tyrfing through generations. It preserves what is considered to be one of the oldest heroic lays, the "Battle of the Goths and Huns", and poetry such as the "Waking of Angantýr", the "Riddles of Gestumblindi" and the "Samsey poetry".


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Another important source for heroic legend was the "Þiðreks saga", a compilation of heroic material mostly from northern Germany, composed in Bergen, Norway in the mid 13th century. By its own account, it was composed from oral German sources, although it is possible that some written materials were used as well. The "Þiðreks saga" is not a purely legendary saga, but also contains material about King Arthur and Apollonius of Tyre. It is probably part of the tradition of chivalric sagas - translations of courtly material - initiated by king Haakon IV of Norway. The core of the saga is the biography of the hero Dietrich von Bern (). The saga appears to assemble all of the heroic material from the continent and is thus a valuable attestations of which heroic legends were being told on the continent in the 13th century, including several that are otherwise lost.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: From the 11th to the 12th centuries, heroic legend on the continent is mentioned only in brief allusions. This includes a tradition of criticizing the legendary life of Dietrich von Bern as not according with the life of the historical Theodoric the Great, found in works such as the of Frutolf of Michelsberg (c. 1100), the (1134-1136) of Otto von Freising, and the vernacular "Kaiserchronik" (after 1146). Allusions to heroic legends are also found in a number of vernacular literary works of courtly romance and poetry from the 12th century, including by Walther von der Vogelweide, Heinrich von Veldeke, and Wolfram von Eschenbach.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: From the 13th to 16th centuries, many heroic traditions enter writing in Germany and enjoy great popularity. Werner Hoffmann defined five subjects of heroic epics in medieval Germany: the Nibelungen (Burgundians and Siegfried), the lovers Walther and Hildegund, the maiden Kudrun, kings Ortnit and Wolfdietrich, and Dietrich von Bern. He found the heroic epics to be closely related to another genre, the so-called "Spielmannsdichtung" ("minstrel poetry"). The anonymous authorship of the Middle High Germans heroic poems forms an important distinction from other poetic genres, such as romance, but is shared with "Spielmannsdichtung". Although these epics all appear to be written compositions, the amount of differences between manuscripts indicates that their texts were not fixed and that redactors could insert additional material from the oral tradition and otherwise edit the epics.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Heroic poetry begins to be composed in writing in Germany with the "Nibelungenlied" (c. 1200), which updated the heroic legends with elements of the popular literary genre of its time, courtly romance. The epics written after the "Nibelungenlied" maintain this hybrid nature. For this reason Middle High German heroic poetry is also called "late heroic poetry" (). The "Nibelungenlied" narrates the wooing of Kriemhild (Gudrun) by the hero Siegfried, his aid to king Gunther in the latter's wooing of Brünhild (Brunhild), Siegfried's murder at the hands of Gunther's vassal Hagen, and Kriemhild's treacherous revenge on Hagen and her brothers after inviting them to the hall of Kriemhild's new husband, Etzel (Attila). A direct reaction to the heroic nihilism of the "Nibelungenlied" is found in the "Kudrun" (1230?), in which material also found in Old English and Old Norse about the heroine Hildr serves as the prologue to the - likely invented - story of her daughter, Kudrun.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: From 1230 onward, several heroic epics, of which 14 are known to us, were written concerning the hero Dietrich von Bern, forming a literary cycle comparable to that around King Arthur (the Matter of Britain) or Charlemagne (the Matter of France). These texts are typically divided into "historical" and "fantastical" epics, depending on whether they concern Dietrich's battles with Ermenrich (Ermanaric) and exile at the court of Etzel (Attila) or his battles with mostly supernatural opponents such as dwarfs, dragons, and giants. The "historical" Dietrich epic "Rabenschlacht" (c. 1280) narrates the death of the sons of Etzel (Attila) and of Dietrich's brother Diether at the hands of his traitorous vassal, Witege and may have origins in the Battle of Nedao (454). The "fantastical" Dietrich epics are typically thought to be later material, possibly invented on the basis of earlier motifs in the 13th century, although Dietrich's battles with giants are already mentioned in the Old English "Waldere" fragment. The earliest attested of the "fantastical" epics is the "Eckenlied", of which a single stanza is contained in the Codex Buranus (c. 1230). Closely connected to the Dietrich epics, the combined epics "Ortnit" and "Wolfdietrich" (both c. 1230) have unclear connections to the Migration Period and may be inventions of the thirteenth century, although Merovingian origins are also suggested for "Wolfdietrich".


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Almost all of the texts originate in the Bavarian-speaking areas of Bavaria and Austria, with several texts about Dietrich von Bern having origins in Tirol; a few others seem to have originated in the Alemannic dialect area in modern south-west Germany and Switzerland. Evidence for the continued existence of heroic legends in what is now Northern Germany and the Low Countries is provided by the "Þiðreks saga" on the one hand, and the early modern ballad "Ermenrichs Tod" (printed 1560 in Lübeck) on the other. The latter tells a garbled version of the killing of Ermenrich (Ermanaric) also found in early medieval Latin sources and the Eddic poem "Hamðismál".


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Very few new heroic poems, and no new heroic epics, were written after 1300, although the existing ones remained popular. Beginning in the 14th century, heroic poems come to be collected together in so-called Heldenbücher ("books of heroes"); the of Diebolt von Hanau (after 1475) contains a text known as the which provides a brief history of the entire heroic world. Possibly originating in the 14th century but only attested in 1530, the "Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid" recorded a number of details about the hero Siegfried absent in the "Nibelungenlied" but attested in Old Norse tradition. The ballad the "Jüngeres Hildebrandslied" (c. 1450) concerns the same material as the early medieval "Hildebrandslied". Finally, a number of heroic texts were adopted as carnival plays (), including by the Nuremberg poet Hans Sachs (1494-1564).


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: There is disagreement about the relationship between heroic lay and heroic epic in current scholarship. According to the influential model developed by Andreas Heusler (1905), Germanic heroic poetry mostly circulated in heroic lays (): relatively short pieces, of similar length to the Eddic poems, that had fixed wording and were memorized. These poems could then later be expanded into full-sized epics in writing. "Neo-Heuslerians" continue to follow this model with some adjustments, emphasizing in particular that the common Germanic form was short, as found in the Scandinavian examples. Hermann Reichert argues that only the "Hildebrandslied" is a genuine example of an early heroic lay, discounting the age of Norse examples that are generally dated early, such as "Atlakviða".


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Other scholarship has instead argued that the poems could be of variable length and were improvised with each performance, according to the oral forumulaic theory of oral poetry, According to Edward Haymes, common Germanic heroic poetry appears to have been "oral epic poetry", which made heavy use of repetitions and formula within the metrical scheme of alliterative verse. Some signs of oral epic style in "Beowulf" are inconsistencies from scene to scene, as details, such the presence of objects or individuals, are mentioned or omitted from performance to performance. Nevertheless, no "oral" heroic poetry has survived, as all the written attestations appear to be written compositions.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Eddic poems, including the supposedly oldest, the "Atlakviða", show important differences from typical oral formulaic style and the style of Old English, Old Saxon, and Old High German heroic poetry. Haymes, an adherent of the oral epic, suggests that this means that the Eddic poems were not improvised, but instead memorized verbatim according to Heusler's model, something also suggested by the use of similar techniques in oral traditions such as Somali oral poetry. It is possible that the sort of literal memorization required of Norse skaldic poetry resulted in the loss of oral formulaic improvised poetry in an Old Norse context; Haymes and Samples suggest that this same fixed quality may have driven the change from heroic poetry to prose sagas in Iceland and Scandinavia.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Originally, the Germanic-speaking peoples shared a metrical and poetic form, alliterative verse, which is attested in very similar forms in Old Saxon, Old High German and Old English, and in a modified form in Old Norse. The common form consists of lines of four stressed beats, with a caesura dividing the line in half. At least two beats must alliterate across the caesura, forming what in German is called a ("long line"). The final beat generally receives no alliteration. Any vowel could alliterate with any other vowel. Klaus von See gives the following examples from Old English, Old High German, and Old Norse (stressed syllable underlined, alliteration bolded, and || representing the caesura):


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The poetic forms diverge among the different languages from the 9th century onward. Thus, the Old High German line shows a higher number of unstressed syllables than is typical for Old English or Old Saxon alliterative verse. Eddic poetry is written in stanzas, as opposed to the non-stanzaic form found in Old Saxon, Old High German, and most Old English poetry. The main meter used in the Eddic heroic poems is "Fornyrðislag"; it tends to short lines, with only four syllables in each half-line. Lines with more syllables are called , following Snorri Sturluson, although it was probably not an independent meter.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: In Middle High German, alliterative verse is replaced by stanzas featuring end-rhyme. These stanzas existed in a variety of forms and tend to use a form of of undetermined origin consisting of three stresses, a caesura, and then three stresses. The epics use various stanzaic forms, including the "Nibelungen"-stanza, the "Kudrun"-stanza, the , and the . These stanzas often feature variant . The "Nibelungen" stanza can serve as an example, as its final half-line has an additional stress (|| represents the caesura, an acute accent represents a stressed syllable):


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Many stanzas of the "Nibelungenlied" are constructed in a much less regular manner. The Middle High German rhyming stanzas were meant to be sung, and melodies survive for the , , and .


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: In heroic poetry, the use of poetic epithets, compounds, and formulaic language is frequent. The openings of poems such as the "Hildebrandslied", "Beowulf", and the "Nibelungenlied" all use a similar opening formula referring to the oral nature of the legends. The shorter poems such as the "Hildebrandslied" and the Eddic lays have a fast-paced style that heavily mixes dialogue with action. West Germanic style tends more to have longer lines and sentences with an emphasis on the use of poetic synonyms (), whereas Old Norse poetry tends to be narrated tersely.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Eddic poetry rarely features enjambment across lines. West Germanic heroic poetry tends to use what Andreas Heusler called ("bow style"): sentences are spread across various lines and often begin at the caesura. Middle High German heroic poetry follows a similar style, including occasional enjambment across stanzas.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Written heroic poems are typically anonymous. There is no information as to whether a class of professional singers were responsible for composing heroic poetry in Germanic times. Sources are also vague for most of the Early Middle Ages. By the late 9th century, a figure known in Old English as a "scop", in Old High German as a , and in Latin texts as a or is attested as a type of singer or minstrel resident at the court of a particular lord. A is depicted singing heroic material in "Beowulf". The could also function as a "þyle", a keeper of past knowledge (), and in Scandinavia this term corresponded to "þulr", from Old Norse "þula" ("lay"), which is translated as "reciter", "sage" or "wise-man", or possibly "bard". It is generally assumed that the poem was recited with musical accompaniment.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: In Scandinavia there was also the figure of the "skald". However, skaldic poetry was considered a separate genre from heroic poetry, so that the role of skalds in transmitting or composing heroic poetry is unclear. In any case, knowledge of the heroic tradition was necessary in order to compose and understand skaldic poetry, and skaldic poetry shows a number of stylistic similarities to Norse heroic poetry. Saxo Grammaticus refers to a "Saxon singer" () who sings a heroic song in Denmark.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: For the Middle High German period, it seems likely that heroic poems were transmitted by the same class of minstrels as Spruchdichtung. The Spruchdichter refers in one verse to constantly being asked to sing songs on heroic subjects.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The heroic tradition in England died out with the Norman Conquest, which replaced the Germanic-speaking aristocracy who had cultivated Germanic heroic legend with a Romance-speaking one.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: In Germany, the heroic tradition largely disappears from writing around 1600; it is likely that the oral tradition had been dying out prior to this. The primary audience had already changed from the nobility to the urban bourgeoisie. Some texts continued to be read in the form of "Heldenbücher", while a prose version of the "Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid", in which the original names and most connections to heroic legend were altered, continued to be printed into the 19th century. The "Jüngeres Hildebrandslied" continued to be printed into the 18th century and is found in 19th and 20th century collections of ballads. Versions of the epic "Kudrun" were preserved in the ballads (18th century) and a ballad called , recorded in 1867 from Gottschee, while elements of the legend of Wolfdietrich were also preserved in some popular ballads.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The Gök runestone (c. 1010- c. 1050) has been said to be a case in point of how the older heroic poetry dissolved in Sweden, as it uses the same imagery as the Ramsund carving, but a Christian cross has been added and the images are combined in a way that completely distorts the internal logic of events. The insertion of explanatory prose into some poems of the "Poetic Edda" is argued by Edward Haymes and Susan Samples to represent a similar loss of tradition, showing that audiences no longer understood the poems in their original forms. Victor Millet writes that the heroic tradition in Scandinavia barely survives its literary blossoming in the 13th century. However, the heroic poetry survived in a new form in the Pan-Scandinavian medieval ballads, as the heroic ballads. The medieval ballads stayed popular from their origin in the Middle Ages, until the 20th century, and from the rural illiterate to the middle and upper classes that collected and printed them.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: In 1514, the Danish work "Gesta Danorum" by Saxo Grammaticus was published for the first time, and in 1555, Olaus Magnus published his "Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus".


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: During the late 17th c. and the early 18th, there was a series of first publications of legendary sagas by Swedish scholars, with translations in Latin and Swedish, done in support of Sweden's "noble past" and "Age of Greatness". In 1672, Olaus Verelius published "Hervarar saga" for the first time, and in 1697, Johan Peringskiöld published the "Heimskringla". In 1719, his son Johan Fredrik Peringskiöld published "Sögubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum", and in 1722 "Ásmundar saga kappabana". In 1737, Eric Julius Björner published the collection "Nordiska kämpadater" of legendary sagas, which consisted of sagas such as the "Völsunga saga", "Friðþjófs saga hins frœkna", "Hrólfs saga kraka", "Norna-Gests þáttr", and "Ragnars saga loðbrókar". The "Prose Edda" would be published in Latin by Johan Göransson in 1746.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: In Denmark, in 1665, parts of the newly rediscovered "Poetic Edda" were published by Peder Resen, but these Eddic poems did not cover the heroic matter. The most influential work from this time may have been the Thomas Bartholin's "Antiquitatum Danicarum de causis contempta a Danis adhuc gentilibus mortis" (1689), with long scenes from sagas where heroes are followed while they smiling meet death and earn well-deserved places with Odin in Valhalla.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The period from the late 18th century to the 1830s was characterized by an interest in folklore and folk practice (such as folk ballads), and works that had previously been ignored from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The manuscript of the "Nibelungenlied" was first rediscovered in 1755. It was quickly dubbed the "German Iliad" () by Swiss scholar Johann Jakob Bodmer, who published his own partial adaptation of the second half of the epic. Although the poem had many detractors, it received support from the proto-Romantic Sturm und Drang movement and later from important Romantic thinkers such as August Wilhelm Schlegel. Romantic figures such as Ludwig Tieck, Christian August Vulpius, and Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen worked on producing adaptations or editions of older heroic materials. The "Nibelungenlied" appeared in a popular modern German translation by Karl Simrock in 1827. This translation remains influential today. Simrock also translated other heroic poems such as the "Kudrun", "Alpharts Tod", and the "Rosengarten zu Worms", connecting them as .


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: In Great Britain in 1768, Thomas Gray published "Norse Odes" and in 1770, Thomas Percy published "Five Pieces of Runic Poetry", which included "The Incantation of Hervor" and "The Dying Ode of Regner Lodbrog". Old Norse heroic matter would from then on be a part of the literary circles of Britain.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The first attempt to create a modern edition and translation of the poems of the Poetic Edda was undertaken by the Danish Arnamagnæan Institute in 1787, however only a partial volume was ever produced. The first modern edition was undertaken by Friedrich von der Hagen in 1812; he followed it with a German translation in 1814. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm produced their own edition and translation in 1815. Translations of some heroic poems into English were undertaken by William Herbert. Modern study of heroic legend began in 1829 when Wilhelm Grimm published his , a compilation of various attestations to the heroic tradition that included some reconstructed legends and Grimm's theories on their origins.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: In 1818, Danish scholar Peter Erasmus Müller published a compendium of the legendary sagas, and in 1829–30 Carl Christian Rafn published 31 sagas in "Fornaldarsögur Norðrlanda", which became influential in defining the genre.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The first modern English translation of "Beowulf" appeared in 1833 (Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin having published the first scholarly edition in 1815). It is intrinsically connected to the evolution of romantic nationalism during the 19th century. It was used by early scholars to recover lost cultural memories, and as confirmation of their national identities.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Sir Walter Scott, often considered the originator of the historical novel, often commented that he was inspired by Old Norse sources, and he mainly acquired them from Thomas Bartholin, Olaus Magnus and Torfaeus. He subscribed to the sagas that were printed from 1770 by the Arnamagnæan Institute in Copenhagen, and when he died in 1832, he had an impressive library on the then available Old Norse literature. Some of the elements that he found in Scandinavian legends were dwarfs, magic swords, werewolves, Valkyries, spae wives, and dragons.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: In the romantic period, several plays were written in German on the basis of the "Nibelungenlied", as well as many ballads, such as ("Siegfried's Sword") by Ludwig Uhland. The first German author to adapt Norse sources was the Romantic Friedrich de la Motte-Fouqué, who in 1808-1810 wrote a popular three-part play, ("Sigurd: The Hero of the North"), mostly on the basis of the Latin translations of the "Völsunga saga" and the "Prose Edda".


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: In 1825, Esaias Tegnér published "Frithiof's Saga", a retelling which rose quickly to international fame. It was admired by people like Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Kaiser Wilhelm II, William Morris and Selma Lagerlöf, and it inspired undergraduate textbooks, statues, paintings, engravings, seafaring anthologies, travel literature, children's books, works of theater, operas and musicals. Only during the 19th c. it was translated 15 times into English, and into almost every major language in Europe, where it was of immense popularity. Some of its cultural influence can be found in Longfellow's poetry, bridal quest romance, the Victorian view of Norway, national epics inspired by folklore, and in the history of ice skating.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: From 1843 to 1849, Karl Simrock, who had already translated the "Nibelungenlied" and various other poems, attempted to create a new German national epic in the same meter as the "Nibelungenlied", the "Amelungenlied", based on material about Dietrich von Bern. However, the epic did not become popular with the public. In 19th century Germany, the Nordic tradition with its many mythological elements came to be seen as more original than the German heroic texts, and thus many adaptations relied primarily or partially on Nordic texts. Friedrich Hebbel's three-part tragedy (1861), for instance, added mythical elements from the Norse tradition to the plot of the "Nibelungenlied".


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: William Morris, one of the founders of modern fantasy, became heavily involved with Iceland and its old literature between 1868 and 1876. In collaboration with the Icelander Eiríkur Magnússon (1833-1913), he translated and published Old Norse sagas, some of which had not been published in English before. Some of his sonnets were based on this matter, and addressed to the hero of "Grettis saga". In the 1890s he produced translations of at least five Sagas of Icelanders, and the monumental "Heimskringla". One of his most famous poems is "The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs", which Matthias Teichert describes as the most important English-language work based in the "Nibelungen" legend.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The most famous modern adaptation of Germanic heroic legend is Richard Wagner's operatic cycle "The Ring of the Nibelung" (. It was first performed in 1876, although an earlier version of Wagner's libretto was first published in 1853. The cycle consists of four operas: , , , and . Wagner's opera mixed elements of the "Poetic Edda", the "Völsunga saga", and the "Nibelungenlied", as mediated by the theories, editions, and translations of the brothers Grimm, von der Hagen, Simrock, and other romantics. Klaus Böldl writes that Wagner's work has made a much broader circle of people aware of heroic legend and Norse mythology while at the same time suppressing knowledge of the original mythology. Outside of Germany, most reception of the Nibelungen material has taken place via Wagner.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The second most important German adaptation of the Germanic legend in late 19th century Germany was an epic poem in alliterative verse called , written by Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Jordan. The epic was published in two parts, ("Legend of Sigfrid") in 1868, mostly based on the "Nibelungen" legend, and ("Hildebrand's Home-Coming") in 1874, mostly based on material about Dietrich von Bern. The epic was very popular, experiencing a dozen printings before the First World War, including an abbreviated edition for use in schools.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: The interwar period saw heroic legend enter the world of cinema in Fritz Lang's two part film "Die Nibelungen" (1924/1925). The film adapts the plot of the "Nibelungenlied" as a way to distance itself from Wagner's more heavy reliance on Scandinavian sources. The opening frames of the film dedicate it as inherent to the German people, implying that the film was intended as a form of national epic.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Already in the German Empire, the figure of Siegfried had become an identifying figure for German nationalism. In the First World War, the alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary came to be described as possessing "Nibelungentreue" (Nibelungen loyalty), referring to the loyalty to the death between Hagen and the Burgundians. In the interwar years, the "Nibelungenlied" was heavily employed in anti-democratic propaganda following the defeat of Germany and Austria-Hungary: the epic supposedly showed that the German people were more well suited to a heroic, aristocratic form of life than democracy. The betrayal and murder of Siegfried was explicitly compared to the "stab in the back" that the German army had supposedly received. At the same time, Hagen and his willingness to sacrifice himself and fight to the death made him into a central figure in the reception of the poem. During the Second World War, Hermann Göring would explicitly use this aspect of the "Nibelungenlied" to celebrate the sacrifice of the German army at Stalingrad and compare the Soviets to Etzel's (Attila's) Asiatic Huns.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: As a reaction to the use of heroic legends by the Nazis, engagement with the "Nibelungenlied" and Nordic myth was eliminated from German school curricula and even became somewhat taboo after the fall of the Third Reich. Harald Reinl's two part film "Die Nibelungen" (1966/67) was one of the first commercially successful postwar adaptations, and takes much inspiration from the Nordic versions.


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Perhaps the most influential post-WW2 work inspired by Germanic heroic legends was "The Lord of the Rings", by J.R.R. Tolkien. It was published in three volumes over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955. In a 1941 letter to his son Michael, Tolkien had expressed his resentment at "that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler ... Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light."


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Tom Shippey calls "Beowulf" "the single work which influenced Tolkien most", but he was also inspired by other Germanic legends in many ways and he wished to imitate William Morris. Thus he wrote his own retelling of the Nibelung matter in "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún". To name some of the influence it can be mentioned that in "Hrólfs saga kraka", the hero Beowulf corresponds to the shapeshifting (bear-man) Bǫðvarr Bjarki, the latter of whom inspired the character Beorn, in "The Hobbit". In the Norse accounts of the Nibelung matter, such as the "Völsunga saga", there is a magical but cursed golden ring and a broken sword reforged, called Andvaranaut and Gram. They correspond broadly to the One Ring and the sword Narsil (reforged as Andúril), in "The Lord of the Rings". In the "Hervarar saga", there is the "Hlöðskviða" which provided a source for the horse-riding Rohirrim, in the form of the Goths, as well as the forest Mirkwood, a matter that also had inspired William Morris. Tolkien was influenced by the connection between the Goths and the Geats of "Beowulf" and the "Völsunga saga", who he considered to be among the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons. The "Hervarar saga" and Gestumblindi probably inspired the riddling contest in "The Hobbit".


title: Germanic heroic legend

text: Adaptations of heroic legend continue to be produced. The trilogy "Wodan's Children" (1993-1996), by Diana L. Paxson, narrates the story of the "Nibelungen" from the perspectives of the female characters, and is one of the few English-language adaptations that is based directly on the medieval sources rather than Wagner's "Ring" cycle. Another recent adaptation is Stephan Grundy's "Rhinegold" (1994), which takes Wagner's ring as its basis but introduces many additional - mostly religious and mythical - elements from medieval sources. There have also been films, such as (2004) based on the Nibelungen matter, a 2007 film adaptation of Beowulf, and TV-series, such as Vikings (2013 TV series) which is based on the heroic matter about Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons.


title: Pepper LaBeija

text: Pepper LaBeija (November 5, 1948 – May 14, 2003) was an American drag queen and fashion designer. LaBeija was known as "the last remaining queen of the Harlem drag balls".


title: Pepper LaBeija

text: LaBeija was born in The Bronx. While LaBeija identified as male, she preferred to be referred to by the feminine pronoun "she". In 1981, she took over from Crystal LaBeija as the head of the ball culture House of LaBeija (from which her surname was derived). She remained the head (known as "the Mother") for over 20 years.


title: Pepper LaBeija

text: LaBeija competed in numerous drag balls and was known for her Egyptian-inspired runway performances. Over the course of her career, she won approximately 250 trophies. To earn money, she produced drag balls and taught modeling.


title: Pepper LaBeija

text: LaBeija and her companion Pamela Jackson had a daughter together, and LaBeija devoted much of her time to her family, raising her daughter and stepson. In 1992, William Jackson died. As LaBeija's health declined, her children lived with their maternal grandmother.


title: Pepper LaBeija

text: LaBeija suffered from diabetes mellitus type 2 and had both feet amputated as a result. She was largely bedridden for the last 10 years of her life. On May 14, 2003, LaBeija died of a heart attack at Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan at the age of 54.


title: Pepper LaBeija

text: LaBeija is best known for her appearances in the documentary films "Paris Is Burning" (1990) and "How Do I Look?" (2006).


title: Pepper LaBeija

text: LaBeija also made appearances on "The Joan Rivers Show" (1991), "TV Transvestites" (1982), and "The Queen" (1968).


title: Pepper LaBeija

text: Malcolm McLaren quoted LaBeija in 1989 song and music video "Deep in Vogue", a tribute to the New York gay balls of the 1980s, runway competitions that involved dance, fashion, and attitude.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: Kongu Nadu, also known by various names as Kongu Mandalam and Kongu belt, is a geographical region comprising present day parts of western Tamil Nadu, southeastern Karnataka and eastern Kerala. In the ancient Tamilakam, it was the seat of the Chera kings, bounded on the east by Tondai Nadu, on the south-east by Chola Nadu and on the south by Pandya Nadu regions.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: The region was ruled by the Cheras during Sangam period between c.1st and the 4th centuries CE and it served as the eastern entrance to the Palakkad Gap, the principal trade route between the west coast and Tamil Nadu. The Kosar people mentioned in the second century CE Tamil epic "Silappathikaram" and other poems in Sangam literature is associated with the Coimbatore region. The region was located along an ancient Roman trade route that extended from Muziris to Arikamedu.The Gangas of Talakad ruled it for over 5 centuries. The medieval Cholas conquered the region in the 10th century CE. It came under the rule of the Vijayanagara Empire by the 15th century. After the Vijayanagara Empire fell in the 17th century, the Madurai Nayaks, who were the military governors of the Vijayanagara Empire established their state as an independent kingdom. In the latter part of the 18th century, the region came under the Kingdom of Mysore, following a series of wars with the Madurai Nayak dynasty. After the defeat of Tipu Sultan in the Anglo-Mysore Wars, the British East India Company annexed Kongu Nadu to the Madras Presidency in 1799. The region was hard hit during the Great Famine of 1876–78 resulting in nearly 200,000 famine-related fatalities. The first three decades of the 20th century saw nearly 20,000 plague-related deaths and acute water shortage. The region played a significant role in the Indian independence movement.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: The name Kongunadu draws its origin from the term "Kongu", meaning nectar or honey. Anthropological method traces the name of the area's early residents, who were known as kongar and they were believed to wear a garland made of konganam flowers, which are plentiful in this area. The name Kongu is likewise related to the Tamil word Kangu, which meant 'edge' or 'boundary.' Since this area served as a border to the Pandiya, Chola and Chera dynasties, it was likely given the name kangu, which was eventually transformed to Kongu. Kongu was later called as Kongunadu with the growth of civilization. Kongu Nadu is also believed to have come from "Kongadesam", "Konga" a variant of the term "Ganga", meaning "Land of the Ganges". The area is also known as Kongu Mandalam.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: At various times, the region was known as Kongu Mandalam, Chola-Kerala Mandalam, Adhiraja Mandalam, Ezhukarai Nadu, Veera Chola Mandalam and Onbathukarai Nadu.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: Kongu Nadu was one of the earliest and separate territorial divisions and home of the ancient Tamil people. The river Kaveri flows in southeastern direction through the region. Archaeological data from Kodumanal, a village on the banks of the Noyyal River, suggests the beginning of civilization around 4th century BCE. Kodumanal was situated on the ancient trade route between across the Palghat gap in the Western Ghats and yielded remains belonging to the Sangam age. Tamil Brahmi writings were found on coins, seals and rings obtained from Amaravathi river bed near Karur (also called as Karuvur in olden days), the erstwhile capital of the Cheras. A musical inscription in Tamil Brahmi was found in a cave in Arachalur, dating from the 4th Century CE and Iravatham Mahadevan writes that these are syllables used in dance.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: The Kongu Nadu witnessed the rule of tribal chieftains during the Sangam period. 'Kongu Desa Rajakkal Charitai' mentions some dynasties which ruled this region. It was ruled by the Cheras during Sangam period between c. 1st and the 4th century CE. Chera dominance of the Kongu country began with the rule of the Palyanai Sel Kelu Kuttuvan who is the son of Uthiyan Cheralathan. The successive Chera kings had Karur as the capital of the Kongu country. The location of Karur assumed military significance.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: After the Cheras, Rattas ruled the region. Then Gangas gained ascendancy after the Rattas. From the 7th century CE onwards, the conquest of the Kongu country had been the constant bone of contention between the Gangas and Pandyas.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: The medieval Cholas conquered the region in 10th century CE. The northern part of the Kongu country was brought under the Chola rule by Aditya I. Raja Raja I in 990 CE defeated the Cheras at Kandalursalai and then proceeded against the Pandyas to annex Malai Nadu region which refers to the region of modern Coorg, Mysore and Kongu and the hills surrounding them. North Kongu was directly under the control of the Imperial Cholas till 1064 CE.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: For almost 300 years from 1004 CE, the Kongu Cholas ruled autonomously. Chola monarch Raja Raja's general named, Kalimurka Vikrama was the founder of the dynasty and bore the title Konattar. The rulers of the 'Konattar' line adopted Chola titles and surnames. They came from the Konadu region (Pudukkottai) and ruled as a branch of Tanjore Cholas but were named as Kongu Cholas. The Kongu country came under the control of Vikrama Chola and Rajadhiraja, the two Kongu rulers who served as the later contemporaries of the Imperial Chola King Rajendra I and Kulottunga I, who ruled between 1070 CE and 1120 CE. Vikrama Chola III was the last ruler of the Kongu Chola line. During his time major parts of the Kongu region were under the Pandyas.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: From the 13th century CE, particularly after the death of Vikrama Chola II the Pandyas tried to dominate the Kongu region. They annexed some parts of Kongu Nadu. The inscriptions in the Srirangam temple speaks of the victory of Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan I over the Kongu Nadu. The glorious rule of the Pandyas came to an end with the death of Kulasekara Pandya who ruled Kongu Nadu between 1268 CE and 1318 CE.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: The Hoysalas conquered the Kongu Nadu and extended their rule. The Hoysala King Vira Someshwara had a matrimonial alliance with both Pandyas and Cholas. Vira Ballala III, successor of Vira Someshwara ruled the region. After the decline of the Hoysalas the Kongu region came under the control of the Delhi Sultanate.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: The Vijayanagara rulers in the course of a series of campaigns succeeded in overthrowing the Muslims, and they held the title Mahamandaleshwar and ruled the whole of South India. It was at this time that the Ummathur chieftains were apparently governing the dominion of Vijayanagara in Karnataka and Kongu region. The Umattur chieftains seem to have ruled over the Kongu country from 1446 to 1520 CE more or less peacefully rebuilding ruined temples and rehabilitating ruined towns damaged during the Muslim rule. Their rule ended when Krishnadevaraya (1509 CE–1529 CE) of Tuluva dynasty ascended to power. The first record comes from Kokkarayanpettai (Salem district) which describes him as Rajakkal Tambiranar. In the 1550s, Madurai Nayaks, who were the military governors of the Vijayanagara Empire, took control of the region.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: After the Vijayanagara Empire fell in the 17th century, the Nayaks established their state as an independent kingdom and they introduced the Palayakkarar system. In the latter part of the 18th century, the region came under the Kingdom of Mysore, following a series of wars with the Madurai Nayak dynasty. After the defeat of Tipu Sultan in the Anglo-Mysore Wars, the British East India Company annexed the region to the Madras Presidency in 1799. The region played a prominent role in the Second Poligar War (1801), when it was the area of operations of Dheeran Chinnamalai who fought against the rule of British East India Company.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: Traditionally, people of the Kongu Nadu region upheld the Tirukkural with utmost reverence. The Tirukkural remained the chief administrative text of the region during the medieval period. Several Kural inscriptions and other historical records are found across the Kongu Nadu region. The 15th-century Jain inscriptions in the Ponsorimalai near Mallur in Salem district bear couplet 251 from the "Shunning meat" chapter of the Kural text, "தன்னூன் பெருக்கற்குத் தான்பிறி தூனுண்பா னெங்ஙன மாளு மருள்" ("How can he be kindly who fattens himself on others' fat?"), carved out on a rock in five lines, indicating that the people of the Kongu Nadu region practiced ahimsa and non-killing as chief virtues. The 1617 CE Poondurai Nattar scroll in Kongu Nadu, the 1798 CE Palladam Angala Parameshwari Kodai copper inscriptions in Naranapuram in Kongu Nadu, the 18th-century copper inscriptions found in Kapilamalai near Kapilakkuricchi town in Namakkal district, Veeramudiyalar mutt copper inscriptions in Palani, Karaiyur copper inscription in Kongu Nadu, and the Palayamkottai records are some of the other Kural inscriptions found across the region.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: While many believe that Sati (practice) was confined to northern regions of India, historians have discovered that the ancient region of Kongu Nadu had the largest number of Sati in South India.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: The Kongu region held a prominent place in the history of Saivism owing to the fact that the people and the king offered significant support to Saivism. Vaishnavism has grown steadily in some areas. Due to the general renowned Saiva saints who existed during this time, the kings of the Kongu region leaned more towards Saivism. Because of the complete faith in the effectiveness of Saiva worship and the development of Saivism in the area, the northern half of the area got more impetus in religious history.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: The entire Kongu region has an approximate size of 7,500 square miles and includes present day districts of Tamil Nadu, namely Coimbatore, Erode, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Salem, Namakkal, Karur, Dindigul, Tirupur as well as certain sections of Madurai. It shares its western and northern borders with states of Kerala and Karnataka. Some parts of Palakkad District in the state of Kerala and parts of Chamarajanagar District in the state of Karnataka also fall under the region.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: The Western Ghats mountain range passes through the region with major rivers Kaveri, Bhavani, Amaravati and Noyyal flowing through the region. Palghat Gap, a mountain pass connects the neighbouring state of Kerala to the region.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: Tamil is the sole official language while English is an additional official language for communication purposes. Kongu Tamil (Kongalam or Kongappechu) is the dialect of Tamil language that is spoken in Kongu Nadu, which is the western region of Tamil Nadu. Badaga is spoken by approximately 130,000 people in the Nilgiri Hills of Kongu Nadu region. Toda, Irula, Kota are some of the languages spoken by tribal population of the Nilgiris district. A very small population speaks Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu in some border areas.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: Kongu Nadu had a flourishing economy from ancient times and had trade contacts with foreign nations. Kodumanal was a 2,500-year-old industrial colony discovered by archaeologists. The region was located along an ancient Roman trade route that extended from Muziris to Arikamedu. A Chola highway called "Rajakesari Peruvazhi" ran through the region.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: Kongu Nadu cuisine is predominantly South Indian with rice as its base and a collection of exotic recipes being created by the people residing in the Kongu region. As it is also native to an arid area, the cuisine includes cereals like Cholam, Kambu, Kezhvaragu, and different kinds of pulses and sesame. Food is served over a banana leaf. Eating on a banana leaf is an old custom and imparts a unique flavour to the food and is considered healthy. Idly, dosa, paniyaram and appam are popular dishes. Kongu Nadu cuisine does not involve marination of any raw material and as a result the food has a different taste and unique texture. The best quality turmeric is grown in the region and this is an important ingredient in the cuisine. Turmeric is added into curries, which gives the product a deep yellow colour and an aromatic substance. The traditional Kongu people were mostly vegetarians for religious reason. Opputtu is a variant of Holige made with rice, chickpea, palm or cane jaggery, cardamom and ghee.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: The caste plays an important role in the Kongu region's mythology and history. Common myths and ideas contribute to the formation of a caste identity, which political leaders use to create shared identity.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: Incidents of persecution against Dalits, ranging from violent assault to discrimination based on caste is widespread in the Kongu region. Caste related atrocities are frequently reported from the Kongu region. According to Lakshmanan, a professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, "In comparison to the southern or northern districts, the socio-economic and political divide between Dalits and other intermediary castes is enormous in the Kongu area." Evidence, a Non-governmental organization called the Kongu region the "honour killing capital of Tamil Nadu" and said that the area is disturbingly gaining notoriety for honor Killings.


title: Kongu Nadu

text: There is a demand for the formation of Kongu Nadu, which would include sections of Tamil Nadu's southwest, Karnataka's southeast, and Kerala's east. In 2021 the Bharatiya Janta Party's (BJP) Coimbatore North district decided to separate the area into a new state. Later BJP claimed that have no plans to separate Tamil Nadu. A caste based political outfit Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam and a caste organization Kongu Vellala Goundergal Peravai also supported the demand.


title: Eternal (group)

text: Eternal were a British R&B girl group formed in 1992, with the line-up consisting of Easther Bennett and her older sister Vernie Bennett, with Kéllé Bryan and her friend and classmate Louise Redknapp, who were also recruited into the group by the label. The group became an international success, selling around 10 million records worldwide. Louise Redknapp left the group before the release of their second album to focus on her solo career with the same label. Kéllé Bryan left the group under undisclosed circumstances in 1998. Sisters Easther Bennett and Vernie Bennett were the only members left when they disbanded in 2000. Eternal made a brief comeback in 2013, with Kéllé Bryan returning to the group, only for the group to disband once again in 2014. They were considered the UK's answer to the American girl group En Vogue.


title: Eternal (group)

text: Eternal's 1993 debut album "Always & Forever" peaked at number two on the UK Album Chart and went four-times platinum in the UK. In 1997, they reached number one on the UK Singles Chart with "I Wanna Be the Only One", which won them the 1997 Mobo Award for Best Single. They also received seven Brit Award nominations. In total they achieved 15 UK Top 20 hits between 1993 and 1999, with their other Top 10 hits including "Stay" (1993), "Just a Step from Heaven" (1994), "Oh Baby I..." (1994), "Power of a Woman" (1995), "I Am Blessed" (1995), "Someday" (1996), "Secrets" (1996) and "Don't You Love Me" (1997). The group reformed as a trio without Louise Redknapp in 2013 for the second series of the ITV2 reality show "The Big Reunion", and performed a one-off concert In March 2014.


title: Eternal (group)

text: Eternal were formed in 1992 by music manager Denis Ingoldsby of First Avenue Records, after which Eddie Gordon showed him how the success of En Vogue was built in the United Kingdom. Eternal were quickly signed to EMI Records and released their debut single, "Stay", in September 1993. The song was a success and it reached number four in the UK Singles Chart. Easther and Vernie Bennett were scouted in a nightclub in London and eventually found Louise Nurding. The trio began working together and recording until Louise introduced her longtime friend Kéllé Bryan to the management and joined the group.


title: Eternal (group)

text: Eternal released their debut album, "Always & Forever" in November 1993, and it reached number two in the UK Albums Chart. The album sold over one million copies in the United Kingdom, and confirmed as four times platinum, making it one of 1994's biggest selling albums and the year's biggest-selling debut album. They were named Best Group at the "Smash Hits" Poll Winners Party and were nominated for four Brit Awards. Nurding decided to leave the group before the recording of Eternal's second album, and went on to pursue a successful solo career. In a 2014 interview, Vernie Bennett stated that the group were "gutted" when Nurding announced she was leaving and it was suggested that Bryan also leave to form a duo with Louise, which Bryan stated she did not wish to do.


title: Eternal (group)

text: Following the departure of Louise Nurding, the group decided not to replace her and carried on as a trio. "Power of a Woman" was the first album as a trio, and entered the UK chart at number six. It produced four hit singles, "Power of a Woman", "I Am Blessed" (which they performed for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1995), a remixed version of "Good Thing" and a remixed version of "Secrets". All continued Eternal's tally of Top 10 UK hits.


title: Eternal (group)

text: In 1997, Eternal achieved their first ever UK number one, a duet with BeBe Winans, "I Wanna Be the Only One", which became the second most played song on UK Radio in 1997, and stayed at the top spot for one week. It was taken from their third album "Before the Rain", which also included "Don't You Love Me". The album peaked at number three in the UK.


title: Eternal (group)

text: Eternal's Greatest Hits package was released in the latter part of 1997 and became the highest-selling Greatest Hits package of the year. In 2013, Eternal's Greatest Hits album was confirmed as being the biggest selling "" Best Of"" by a girl group in the UK, it peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart. It featured their last Top 10 single "Angel of Mine", which reached number four. "Angel of Mine" became an EP that featured four different mixes, including a remix by veteran party producer Frankie Cutlass and a cover of Fleetwood Mac's track "Dreams" featuring Grand Puba and Sadat X.


title: Eternal (group)

text: In 1998, a week after their Party in the Park performance, Kéllé Bryan was controversially dismissed by the Bennett Sisters via fax from their solicitor. Their reasons cited "a breakdown in professional relations". A short time later, Bryan was diagnosed with lupus and was forced to abandon plans for a solo career. "What'Cha Gonna Do" was released from their fourth album "Eternal" and hit number 16. With lack of promotion, the album charted at number 87. The next single "I Cry Real Tears" was expected to be released in April 2000, with a new version of the song; however, the single was scrapped due to poor sales of the album and Eternal were released from their recording deal with EMI. Internationally, the track "Free to Live" was released and translated to "Libre para vivir", which had moderate success in some European countries. The last televised performance by Eternal was on "Songs of Praise" in 2000 where Easther and Vernie performed the track "He Is".


title: Eternal (group)

text: In 2006, it was announced that Eternal would be reforming for a live reunion tour alongside other acts including Boyz II Men. Although only Easther Bennett and Kéllé Bryan would be part of the project (Vernie Bennett was pregnant at the time and Louise Redknapp was busy with her solo career). In an interview around the time Kéllé Bryan claimed that the band had been offered numerous record deals over the past few years since the group had split up. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the tour was cancelled. In 2011, Vernie Bennett joined online social networking site Twitter. This news gave hope to many fans that eventually Eternal would be making a comeback at some point in the future.


title: Eternal (group)

text: Eternal officially confirmed in late 2013 that they would be reforming for the ITV2 documentary "The Big Reunion", although original member Louise Redknapp would not be rejoining the group. Eternal is now Managed by ASM Damage (under their Television Roster). Louise Redknapp confirmed in an interview with "The Times" that Eternal was reforming without her. Following the announcement of the group's reformation, their 1997 Greatest Hits album climbed to number 1 on the ITunes hip hop chart in January 2014. Following the group's episode airing, their Greatest Hits album entered at number 27 in the official ITunes chart. The group reformed to perform a concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in March 2014, where they performed alongside BeBe Winans for their hit single "I Wanna Be the Only One".


title: Eternal (group)

text: Louise was the first member of "Eternal" to leave to pursue a solo career, releasing several Top 10 singles and albums and performing two UK tours from 1995 to 2003. She has also presented a number of television shows, including "The Clothes Show", "Something for the Weekend" and "So You Think You Can Dance".


title: Eternal (group)

text: Kéllé experienced minor success after leaving Eternal in the form of a no. 14 single called "Higher Than Heaven" in October 1999, but her debut solo album, "Breakfast in Bed", was never released. A second single, "I Wanna Know", was cancelled due to further health issues. She went on to launch her own artist management company, Red Hot Entertainment and finished as the female runner-up on the reality TV show "Love Island". She also diversified into acting, appearing in the BBC sitcom series "Me and Mrs Jones" (2012) with Neil Morrisey, before joining the British soap opera "Hollyoaks" as series regular Martine Deveraux.


title: Eternal (group)

text: Easther teamed up with reggae band Aswad to record a cover of Diana King's "Shy Guy", which was released as a single in August 2002 and peaked at #62 on the UK Singles Chart. Easther also recorded a solo cover of the classic song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", which appeared on many "Love" themed compilations around 2002/3 including "The All-Time Classic Tearjerkers". She also features on the Peter Cox cover of the Marvin Gaye song "Your Precious Love". Easther then decided to turn to songwriting and has written for many different artists, including Girls Aloud. Easther also sings backing vocals on the Dina Carroll tracks "This Time" and "Don't Be a Stranger" (1993) along with her sister Vernie.


title: Eternal (group)

text: Vernie stepped out of the limelight following the split of Eternal. She went back to finish studying law and, in 2006, gave birth to her first child. In August 2010, Bennett signed with ASM Artist Management. Vernie has performed with Easther at James Ingham's Jog On for Cancer event for Cancer Research UK in 2015. She has also taken her first acting role on stage as Spirit of the Bean and appeared on ITV's "All Star Mr & Mrs" with her husband Bryan.


title: The Trade Desk

text: The Trade Desk (stylized as theTradeDesk) is an American multinational technology company that specializes in real-time programmatic marketing automation technologies, products, and services, designed to personalize digital content delivery to users.


title: The Trade Desk

text: The Trade Desk is headquartered in Ventura, California. It is the largest independent demand-side platform in the world, competing against DoubleClick by Google, Facebook Ads, and others. Unlike traditional marketing, programmatic marketing is operated by real-time, split-second decisions based on user identity, device information, and other data points. It enables highly personalized consumer experiences, and improves return-on-investment for companies and advertisers. Demand-side platforms, like The Trade Desk, work with ad exchanges to deliver such tailored digital experiences.


title: The Trade Desk

text: The company continued to grow since its founding in 2009. As of 2021, it offers a self-service publishing platform for brands & advertisers, a data management platform for advanced analytics & segmentation, and enterprise APIs that enable advanced integrations. It has over 225 partners worldwide, and is responsible for delivering personalized content on Spotify and more.


title: The Trade Desk

text: The Trade Desk has been recognized for its omni-channel approach to programmatic marketing automation, with strong data analytics capabilities, fast response-times, and support for various connected devices, online platforms, and media formats. It reported a 95% customer retention rate for 27 straight quarters in 2020, and an annual revenue of in the same year.


title: The Trade Desk

text: The firm currently employs around 2,000 people in 25 office locations worldwide. It was ranked among the 100 Best Medium Workplaces by Fortune in 2018, and have been continually named in the list since then.


title: The Trade Desk

text: The Trade Desk was co-founded in 2009 by Jeff Green and David Pickles. They met at Microsoft after it had acquired Green's real-time digital advertising auction firm, AdECN, in 2007. By 2012, the company was included as an alpha partner in Facebook’s launch of the real-time bidding (RTB) advertising platform, Facebook Exchange.


title: The Trade Desk

text: In 2015, The Trade Desk was named among the top 10 of America’s Most Promising Companies by "Forbes". Founders Green and Pickles were also named as Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of The Year 2015 in the Greater Los Angeles region.


title: The Trade Desk

text: On September 21, 2016, The Trade Desk became a public company with an initial $18 price target. The company's opening day was reported as a "vote of confidence for the demand-side platform, whose S1 filing revealed healthy financials: Triple digit revenue growth and profitability — rare in a sector that is seeing much of its growth chomped away by the duopoly Google and Facebook." The company continued to experience tremendous growth, and reached a market cap of US$40 billion by 2021.


title: The Trade Desk

text: In 2017, The Trade Desk integrated connected TV buying and measurement directly into its platform; acquired marketing insights firm AdBrain; and partnered with fraud prevention firm White Ops to block fraudulent ad traffic prior to purchase. The firm also improved transparency in programmatic buying by enabling buyers to see all selling or reselling parties to a bid request.


title: The Trade Desk

text: In 2018, the firm began investing heavily into the Asia Pacific region with the launch of its programmatic ad buying platform in China, giving access to Chinese media companies, such as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu Exchange Services. It also launched new AI tools: an AI forecasting engine named Koa, a new user interface, new tools for mapping strategies called The Trade Desk Planner, and a proprietary global user identity resolution tool called Unified ID.


title: The Trade Desk

text: In 2019, Amazon opened connected TV (CTV) Apps integrated with Amazon Publisher Services, enabling the purchase of ad inventory for third-party TV content provider The Trade Desk, through Amazon Fire TV devices.


title: The Trade Desk

text: In September 2019, The Trade Desk launched an advertising campaign, “Media for Humankind,” to position itself as a “more transparent digital advertising” alternative to Google and Facebook.


title: The Trade Desk

text: The Trade Desk raised $2.5 million of venture capital in March, 2010. Investors included venture capital firms Founder Collective and IA Ventures, and angel investors Jerry Neumann and Josh Stylman.


title: The Trade Desk

text: The Trade Desk went public on September 21, 2016, with an initial stock price of $18.00; its IPO closing market price gained to $30.10 per share.


title: The Trade Desk

text: In 2017, revenue rose 52 percent to $308 million, which rose to $477 million in 2018. In 2019, third-quarter revenue was reported as $164 million, attributed to the growth of connected TV advertising. The Trade Desk finished 2019 with a record total spend on the platform of $3.1 billion.


title: Ram tank

text: The Tank, Cruiser, Ram was a cruiser tank designed and built by Canada in the Second World War, based on the U.S. M3 Medium tank chassis. Due to standardization on the American Sherman tank for frontline units, it was used exclusively for training purposes and was never used in combat as a gun tank. The chassis was used for several other combat roles however, such as a flamethrower tank, observation post, and armoured personnel carrier.


title: Ram tank

text: Even before the loss of the majority of the United Kingdom's tank force in France in 1940 after Dunkirk, it was recognised that tank production in the UK at the start of the war was insufficient and capacity in the US was taken for British needs. So it was necessary that if Canada was to equip with tanks they would have to be manufactured locally. In June 1940 the Canadian Pacific Railway's Angus Shops in Montreal, as the only large firm with spare capacity, had received a contract to produce 300 partially fitted out Valentine tanks for the British; this was followed later with one for 488 complete tanks for Canada. However the Valentine was an infantry tank and Canada required a cruiser tank for its recently formed armoured division. In the end 1,420 Valentines were produced by CPR, most of which were supplied to the USSR. Although the Valentine used a number of American produced parts, its reliance on British components, difficulties in adapting its manufacture to North American methods, and other problems such as limitations to the availability of the right type of armour plate affected Valentine production. The Canadian Joint Committee on Tank Development concluded, in September 1940, that its cruiser tank should be based on a US rather than a British design. This would be quicker and allow it to use components already in production for the US design.


title: Ram tank

text: The Canadians were interested in production of the M3 Medium. However the M3 was an interim design; its main armament was in a side sponson, it was tall and under-armoured, and it was clear that it would be unsatisfactory for Canadian and British use. In early 1941 the Canadian Interdepartmental Tank Committee adopted a compromise: to develop a superior design locally but still using the M3 chassis. The British Tank Mission which was involved in the modifications of the M3 for British use contributed a tank expert, L.E. Carr, to design a new hull and turret for the Canadian tank which could take a 6-pounder (57 mm) or 75mm gun while retaining the lower hull of the US M3 Medium.


title: Ram tank

text: The new hull was cast rather than welded or riveted and lower than that of the M3. The pilot model's turret and upper hull casting was produced in the US by General Steel Castings and later they aided the set up of Canadian production. Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) was chosen to make the new Canadian M.3 Cruiser Tank (as it was then known) and was given the funding to set up the "Canadian Tank Arsenal" at Longue Pointe. MLW was a subsidiary of the American Locomotive Company, which had experience in producing large castings and another ALCO subsidiary was producing cast hulls for the M3 Medium.


title: Ram tank

text: Canadian engineers ran into many challenges when developing the tank as Canada had never produced a tank before. Along with the lack of knowledge, it took time for Canadian factories to gear up for the production of many of the Ram's components.


title: Ram tank

text: Initially Canada relied heavily on United States and British materials to complete the construction of the Ram. Most critically the Ram's Continental engine and transmissions were available only in the USA and these were always in short supply. The Ram tank was developed with a turret which unlike the US M3 could traverse the main armament 360 degrees. Its fully cast armoured steel hull gave reinforced protection and, with the driver's seat repositioned to meet British requirements for right-hand drive, lower height; while the U.S.-designed chassis and power train ensured its overall reliability.


title: Ram tank

text: Although it could mount a US 75 mm gun, the preferred armament for the Ram was the QF 6 pounder which had superior armour-piercing capability. As neither the 6 pounder nor the Canadian-designed mounting for it was immediately available, early production (50 tanks) were fitted with the 40 mm QF 2-pounder gun.


title: Ram tank

text: A prototype Ram was completed in June 1941 and general production of the Ram I began in November of the same year. The Ram I and early Ram IIs were fitted with side doors in the hull and an auxiliary machine gun turret in the front. The former weakened the hull and complicated production, and the doors and the machine gun turret were discarded in later modifications. By February 1942 production had switched to the Ram II model with a 6-pounder gun and continued until July 1943. In March 1942 a decision had been made to change production over to the automotively-similar M4A1 Sherman tank for all British and Canadian units. Ram production continued due to delay in starting the new M4 production lines and a reluctance to let the plant lie idle. By July 1943 1,948 vehicles plus 84 artillery observation post (OP) vehicles had been completed.


title: Ram tank

text: The official Canadian history of the war compares the Ram to the Ross rifle as examples of unsuccessful Canadian weapon designs. It states that given the Sherman's superiority, in retrospect it would probably have been better for the United States to produce more tanks, and for Canada to have focused on manufacturing more transport vehicles such as the successful Canadian Military Pattern truck designs. The Sexton self-propelled gun based on the Ram chassis, however, was very successful.


title: Ram tank

text: As built, the Ram was never used in combat as a tank, but was used for crew training in Canada and Great Britain up to mid 1944. The observation post vehicles and Armoured Personnel Carrier, gun tractor, and munitions carrier versions of the Ram saw considerable active service in North West Europe. These tanks were mainly rebuilt by Canadian Army workshops in the United Kingdom. Conversions of Ram tanks with the Wasp II flamethrower gear were used by the 5th Canadian Armoured Brigade in the Netherlands in 1945.


title: Ram tank

text: In 1945 the Royal Netherlands Army got permission from the Canadian government to take free possession of all Ram tanks in army dumps on Dutch territory. Those not already converted into Kangaroos were used to equip the 1st and 2nd Tank Battalion ("1e en 2e Bataljon Vechtwagens"), the very first Dutch tank units. These had a nominal organic strength of 53 each. However it proved to be impossible to ready enough tanks to attain this strength because the vehicles were in a very poor state of maintenance. In 1947 the UK provided 44 Ram tanks from its stocks, that were in a better condition. Forty of these had been rebuilt with the British 75 mm gun; four were OP/Command vehicles with a dummy gun. This brought the operational total for that year to just 73, including two Mark Is. In 1950 only fifty of these were listed as present. The Ram tanks (together with the Sherman tanks of the three other tank battalions, in part simply taken without permission) were replaced by Centurion tanks leased by the U.S. Government in 1952. Some Ram tanks were used in the 1950s as static pillboxes in the IJssel Line, their hulls dug in and embedded within two feet of concrete.


title: Ram tank

text: A Ram tank modified as a Kangaroo serves as a memorial to the 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment in Mill, Netherlands.


title: Ram tank

text: Ram tanks can also be seen at the Canadian War Museum*, in Worthington Park at Canadian Forces Base Borden, in front of the Beatty Street Drill Hall in Vancouver, and at the Bovington Tank Museum (both a tank and a Kangaroo)


title: Ram tank

text: A Ram Tank can also be seen outside of the Armoured Trial and Development Unit based at Bovington Camp.


title: Ram tank

text: In addition, a Ram was used in an attempt to produce a self-propelled QF 3.7 inch AA gun but got no further than testing.


title: Vidadala Rajini

text: Vidadala Rajini is an Indian politician, Minister for Health, Family Welfare & Medical Education in the Government of Andhra Pradesh and a Member of Legislative Assembly from Chilakaluripet (Assembly Constituency) in the state of Andhra Pradesh. She contested her first election to Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly in the year 2019 as a YSR Congress Party Candidate and won the seat by defeating the TDP Candidate Prathipati Pulla Rao.


title: White Panther Party

text: The White Panthers were an anti-racist political collective founded in November 1968 by Pun Plamondon, Leni Sinclair, and John Sinclair. It was started in response to an interview where Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, was asked what white people could do to support the Black Panthers. Newton replied that they could form a White Panther Party. The counterculture era group took the name and dedicated its energies to "cultural revolution.” John Sinclair made every effort to ensure that the White Panthers were not mistaken for a white supremacist group, responding to such claims with "quite the contrary." The party worked with many ethnic minority rights groups in the Rainbow Coalition.


title: White Panther Party

text: The group was most active in Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and included the proto-punk band MC5, which John Sinclair managed for several years before he was incarcerated. From a general ideological perspective, Plamondon and Sinclair defined the White Panthers as "fighting for a clean planet and the freeing of political prisoners." The White Panthers added other elements such as advocating "rock 'n roll, dope, sex in the streets and the abolishing of capitalism." Yippie co-founder Abbie Hoffman praised the WPP in "Steal This Book" and "Woodstock Nation", and John Sinclair often referred to himself as a Yippie as well.


title: White Panther Party

text: The group emerged from the Detroit Artists Workshop, a radical arts collective founded in 1964 near Wayne State University. Among its concerns was the legalization of marijuana; John Sinclair had several arrests for possession. It aligned itself with radical politics, claiming the 12th Street Riot was justifiable under political and economic conditions in Detroit.


title: White Panther Party

text: Plamondon was indicted with John Sinclair in connection to the bombing of a Central Intelligence Agency office in Ann Arbor on September 29, 1968, a year after the founding of the group. Upon hearing on the left-wing alternative radio station WABX that he had been indicted, he fled the U.S. for Europe and Africa, spending time in Algeria with exiled Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver. After secretly re-entering the country, and on his way to a safe house in northern Michigan, he was arrested in a routine traffic stop, joining John Sinclair, who had been sentenced to nine and a half years in jail for violating Michigan's marijuana possession laws, in prison. Plamondon was convicted and was in prison when Sinclair was released on bond in 1971 while appeals were being heard on his case. Sinclair's unexpected release came two days after a large "Free John" benefit concert, with performances from John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Bob Seger, and Stevie Wonder, was held at the University of Michigan's Crisler Arena.


title: White Panther Party

text: The group had a direct role in two important legal decisions. A landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1972 quashed Plamondon's conviction and destroyed the case against John Sinclair. The court ruled warrantless wiretapping was unlawful under the U.S. Constitution, even in the case where national security, as defined by the executive branch, was in danger. The White Panthers had been charged with conspiring to destroy government property and evidence used to convict Plamondon was acquired through wiretaps not submitted to judicial approval. The case "U.S. vs. U.S. District Court (Plamondon et al.)", 407 U.S. 297, commonly known as the Keith Case, held that the Fourth Amendment shielded private speech from surveillance unless a warrant had been granted, and that the "warrant procedure would not frustrate the legitimate purposes of domestic security searches." The judgment freed Plamondon, yet John Sinclair was free only on bond fighting his possession conviction. In 1972, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in the "People v. Sinclair", 387 Mich. 91, 194 N.W.2d 878 (1972) that Michigan's classification of marijuana was unconstitutional, in effect decriminalizing possession until a new law conforming to the ruling was passed by the Michigan Legislature a week later. Sinclair was freed but the cumulative effects of the imprisonment had marked the end of the White Panther Party in Michigan, which renamed itself the Rainbow People's Party while John Sinclair and Plamondon were in prison. The Rainbow People's Party, headquartered in Ann Arbor, disbanded in 1973.


title: White Panther Party

text: The headquarters of the White Panthers in Portland, Oregon were raided by the FBI on December 5, 1970. Two members of the group were arrested and accused of throwing a molotov cocktail through the window of a local Selective Service office.


title: White Panther Party

text: White Panther Party chapters in San Francisco, Marin and Berkeley remained active into the 1980s. The WPP ran a successful 'Food Conspiracy' that provided groceries to about 5,000 Bay Area residents at low cost, due to bulk buying and minimum markup. The White Panthers held "People's Ballroom in the Park" concerts in Golden Gate Park. In 1983, angry because then-Mayor of San Francisco Dianne Feinstein proposed to ban handguns in the city, the San Francisco White Panthers mounted a successful petition drive that forced Feinstein into a recall election, which she won with about 82% of the vote.


title: White Panther Party

text: Author and anarchist Mick Farren, a leader of the United Kingdom Underground, later founded the White Panthers, UK.


title: White Panther Party

text: In November 1968, "Fifth Estate" published the "White Panther State/meant". This manifesto, emulating the Black Panthers, ended with a ten-point program:


title: White Panther Party

text: The ten-point program and "White Panther State/meant" were also published in the Ann Arbor Sun, which was a newspaper founded by John Sinclair in November 1968. The newspaper was originally called the Detroit Warren-Forrest Sun before it was changed to the Ann Arbor Sun when Trans-Love Energies moved to Ann Arbor in 1968. The organization, founded by John Sinclair, his wife Leni Arndt Sinclair and artist Gary Grimshaw in 1967, set up shop at 1510 and 1520 Hill St, where the Ann Arbor Sun was produced and edited by the members of the group. On July 28, 1969, the Ann Arbor Sun printed a revised copy of the White Panther's ten-point program.


title: White Panther Party

text: The newspaper was considered to be the mouthpiece for the White Panther Party for quite some time before the newspaper transitioned to an independent publication spreading views on local issues, left-wing politics, music, and arts. Finally in 1976, the publication of the Ann Arbor Sun was suspended indefinitely.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: Thunderbird (John Proudstar) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, the character first appears in "Giant-Size X-Men" #1 (May 1975). Thunderbird was a short-lived member of the Second Genesis group of X-Men gathered together in this issue, as he died on their second mission.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: An Apache Native American and Human Mutant, John Proudstar possesses superhuman athletic ability. Since his death, the character has been temporarily brought back to life in the Necrosha and Chaos War storylines. His brother, James Proudstar, known first as Thunderbird, and then as Warpath, is also a mutant and X-Men with similar capabilities.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: In addition to his mainstream incarnations, Thunderbird has been depicted in other fictional universes. The most notable alternative version of the character is a member of the original Exiles team. In other media, Thunderbird is one of the main characters adapted to the live-action television series "The Gifted", which debuted in 2017, portrayed by the actor Blair Redford.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: Writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum created Thunderbird for the new X-Men, specifically to be a member of the team who would fail the entrance exam. Having already decided that the previously introduced characters Sunfire and Banshee would fail the exam, Wein and Cockrum felt it would be unrealistic for only older characters to "flunk out", and set about creating a new character to fit this role. After developing Thunderbird, however, they decided that they liked the character — his costume in particular — too much to write him off after only one issue, and decided to keep him on.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: The character debuted in "Giant-Size X-Men" #1 (May 1975). While working on the first issues of the regular series, the creative team realized that having Thunderbird as a regular character was problematic. According to Cockrum, "...we created him as an obnoxious loudmouth, and we already had an obnoxious loudmouth in Wolverine. So one of us decided to kill him off after all, just for shock value." Chris Claremont, who scripted the story, confirms that it was Wein who decided to kill the character, and added, "He figured there are two ways to do this. One, you spend years, if not decades, building up a relationship between the audience and a character, building the emotional bonds between them so when something happens to that character the audience is devastated. Or you do it right off the bat, when no one is expecting it." The story culminating in Thunderbird's death appeared in "X-Men" #94-95.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: In 2000, for the 25th anniversary of the introduction of Thunderbird, writer Scott Lobdell and artist Aaron Lopresti did a two-issue series about the character, with a cover by Art Adams. Marvel Comics never published the series. At the same period, after nine years of absence, Chris Claremont returned to the X-Men to take over the titles. According to Brian Cronin from Comic Book Resources, there were likely two events that lead to the cancellation of this mini-series. Firstly, Claremont introduced a new X-Man character Neal Shaara with the codename Thunderbird. Secondly, Claremont had his own project for the 25th anniversary: "X-Men: Black Sun", which had a spotlight comic on the various members of the All-New, All-Different X-Men, including one on Thunderbird with his partner Wolverine.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: In 2010, the character appeared in the front of a teaser featuring X-Men characters believed to be dead titled "All New, All Different". Thunderbird was one of the feature characters in the 2011 two-issue limited series "Chaos War: X-Men".


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: John Proudstar was born into an Apache tribe on a reservation in Camp Verde, Arizona. As a teenager, he discovered he possessed the mutant abilities of superhuman senses, strength, speed, stamina, and sturdiness.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: Proudstar was drafted into the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War and earned the rank of corporal. He returned to his tribe after the war, but he was unhappy and listless.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: He was then recruited by Professor Charles Xavier to join his third group of X-Men. Eager to prove his prowess, Proudstar agreed and assumed the superhero codename Thunderbird. He assisted the other X-Men in rescuing the original X-Men from Krakoa the mutant island.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: During the weeks of training that followed, the ill-tempered and individualistic Thunderbird often found himself going head to head with the X-Men's leader Cyclops. The new team's second mission took them to Valhalla Base, Colorado, to combat Count Nefaria and the Ani-Men. When Nefaria attempted to make his escape in a jet plane, Proudstar leapt on board. Disregarding Professor X's orders to jump to safety, Thunderbird hammered at it with his bare fists. The plane exploded, killing Proudstar. Count Nefaria is later revealed to have survived the crash.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: Thunderbird's brother James Proudstar has similar powers, although to a much greater degree. He is also an X-Man who first used the codename Thunderbird then switched to Warpath when he joined X-Force team.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: When Warpath goes to visit Thunderbird's grave during the "Necrosha" storyline, he encounters the Demon Bear. After defeating the creature, with the aid of Ghost Rider, he learns that former Purifier Eli Bard has dug up Thunderbird and everyone else buried there. It is revealed that Bard used a version of the Technarch virus to resurrect Thunderbird and the others as his servants. Thunderbird is later seen with Selene's Inner Circle and Caliban being led to the ruins of Genosha, which she dubs Necrosha. Thunderbird fights Warpath, who snaps his neck and then kills Selene. Thunderbird's spirit is seen departing, telling his brother that he "can let go now".


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: During the "Chaos War" storyline, Thunderbird is among the fallen X-Men members (along with Banshee, Moira MacTaggert, Esme and Sophie of the Stepford Cuckoos, and three deceased dupes of Multiple Man) to return from the dead after what happened to the death realms. He remembers the last time he was revived briefly during the events of Necrosha, albeit faintly. Thunderbird leads the revived X-Men members to looking for a diary written by Destiny that might hold the key to defeating Amatsu-Mikaboshi while evading Carrion Crow, Eater of the Dead. Thunderbird called upon the mythical Thunderbird to get him and his group away from the Carrion Crow. He and the group discover that Moira MacTaggert has been possessed by Destiny's ghost. In the aftermath of the defeat of the Chaos King, Thunderbird is returned to the afterlife after reality is restored by Hercules. Thunderbird contemplates that his life finally means something and hopes that next time he was resurrected, it will be with Sophie.


title: Thunderbird (John Proudstar)

text: When the X-Men made Krakoa a mutant paradise, the resurrection protocols brought back many dead mutants including Thunderbird. He was seen at The Green Lagoon watching Dazzler's concert. However, his resurrection is explicitly shown on-panel in the concluding chapter of the "Trial of Magneto" arc (during "Reign of X") as a consequence of the Scarlet Witch's magic.