Etymology.

The name "Ramayana" means "Rama" + "Aayana", where as Rama is name of Lord or God and Aayana means Path or Way. The literal meaning of

Textual history and structure.

According to Indian tradition, and the "Ramayana" itself, the epic belongs to the genre of "itihasa" like "Mahabharata". The definition of "itihāsa" is a narrative of past events ("purāvṛtta") which includes teachings on the goals of human life. According to Hindu tradition, "Ramayana" takes place during a period of time known as Treta Yuga.  In its extant form, Valmiki's "Ramayana" is an epic poem of some 24,000 verses. The text survives in several thousand partial and complete manuscripts, the oldest of which is a palm-leaf manuscript found in Nepal and dated to the 11th century CE. A Times of India report dated 18 December 2015 informs about the discovery of a 6th-century manuscript of the "Ramayana" at the Asiatic Society library, Kolkata. The "Ramayana" text has several regional renderings, recensions and sub

Period.

In terms of narrative time, the action of the "Ramayana" predates the "Mahabharata". However, the general cultural background of the "Ramayana" is one of the post-urbanization periods of the eastern part of north India, while the "Mahabharata" reflects the Kuru areas west of this, from the Rigvedic to the late Vedic period.  By tradition, the text belongs to the Treta Yuga, second of the four eons (Yuga) of Hindu chronology. Rama is said to have been born in the Treta Yuga (869000 years ago) to king Dasharatha in the Ikshvaku dynasty.  The names of the characters (Rama, Sita, Dasharatha, Janaka, Vashista, Vishwamitra) are all known only in the late Vedic literature. For instance, a king named Janaka appears in a lengthy dialogue in the "Brihadaranyaka Upanishad " with

Synopsis.

"Bala Kanda".

This "Sarga" (section) details the stories of Rama's childhood and events related the time-frame. Dasharatha was the King of Ayodhya. He had three wives: Kaushalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra. He was childless for a long time and anxious to have an heir, so he performs a fire sacrifice known as "Putra-kameshti Yajna". As a consequence, Rama was first born to Kaushalya, Bharata was born to Kaikeyi, Lakshmana and Shatrughna were born to Sumitra. These sons are endowed, to various degrees, with the essence of the Supreme Trinity Entity Vishnu; Vishnu had opted to be born into mortality to combat the demon Ravana, who was oppressing the gods, and who could only be destroyed by a mortal. The boys were reared as the princes of the realm, receiving instructions from the scriptures and in warfare from Vashistha. When Rama was 16 years old, sage

"Ayodhya Kanda".

After Rama and Sita have been married for twelve years, an elderly Dasharatha expresses his desire to crown Rama, to which the Kosala assembly and his subjects express their support. On the eve of the great event, Kaikeyi – her jealousy aroused by Manthara, a wicked maidservant – claims two boons that Dasharatha had long ago granted her. Kaikeyi demands Rama to be exiled into the wilderness for fourteen years, while the succession passes to her son Bharata. The heartbroken king, constrained by his rigid devotion to his

"Aranya Kanda".

After thirteen years of exile, Rama, Sita and Lakshmana journey southward along the banks of river Godavari, where they build cottages and live off the land. At the Panchavati forest they are visited by a rakshasi named Shurpanakha, sister of Ravana. She tries to seduce the brothers and, after failing, attempts to kill Sita. Lakshmana stops her by cutting off her nose and ears. Hearing of this, her brothers Khara and Dushan organise an attack against the princes. Rama defeats Khara and his raskshasas.  When the news of these events reach Ravana, he resolves to destroy Rama by capturing Sita with the aid of the "rakshasa" Maricha. Maricha, assuming the form of a golden deer, captivates Sita's attention. Entranced by the beauty of the deer, Sita pleads with Rama to capture it. Rama, aware that this is the ploy of the demons, cannot dissuade Sita from her desire and chases the

"Kishkindha Kanda".

"Kishkindha Kanda" is set in the ape ("Vanara") citadel Kishkindha. Rama and Lakshmana meet Hanuman, the biggest devotee of Rama, greatest of ape heroes and an adherent of Sugriva, the banished pretender to the throne of Kishkindha. Rama befriends Sugriva and helps him by killing his elder brother Vali thus regaining the kingdom of Kishkindha, in exchange for helping Rama to recover

"Sundara Kanda".

"Sundara Kand" forms the heart of Valmiki's Ramyana and consists of a detailed, vivid account of Hanuman's adventures. After learning about Sita, Hanuman assumes a gargantuan form and makes a colossal leap across the sea to Lanka. On the way he meets with many challenges like facing a Gandharva kanya who comes in the form of a demon to test his abilities. He encounters a mountain named Mainakudu who offers Hanuman assistance and offers him rest. Hanuman refuses because there is little time remaining to complete the search for Sita.  After entering into Lanka, he finds a demon, Lankini, who protects all of Lanka. Hanuman fights with her and subjugates her in order to get into Lanka. In the process Lankini, who had an earlier vision/warning from the gods that the end

"Yuddha Kanda".

Also known as "Lanka Kanda", this book describes the war between the army of Rama and the army of Ravana. Having received Hanuman's report on Sita, Rama and Lakshmana proceed with their allies towards the shore of the southern sea. There they are joined by Ravana's renegade brother Vibhishana. The apes named Nala and Nila construct a floating bridge (known as Rama Setu) across the sea, using stones that floated on water because they had Ram's name written on them. The princes and their army cross over to Lanka. A lengthy war ensues. During a battle, Ravana's son Indrajit hurls a powerful weapon

"Uttara Kanda".

Uttara Kanda is the last book of Ramayana. It is a book of made up of conversations between Kakbhusundi and Garud. This book was added by Tulsidas after hearing it from Kakbhusundi and Garud. It depicts Ram's reign of Ayodhya, birth of Luv and Kush, the Ashvamedha yajna and last

"Luv kush Kanda".

This is a book (kanda) which was not written neither in the original Valmiki Ramayan nor by Tulsidas. This is totally an chapter added afterwards and no authentication of this chapter is seen in original Ramayana of Tulsidas and Valmiki. In this chapter, as time passes in reign of Rama, spies start getting rumours that people are questioning Sita's purity as she stayed in the home of another man for a year without her husband. The common folk start gossiping about Sita and question Ram's decision to make her Queen. Rama is extremely distraught on hearing the news, but finally tells Lakshmana that the purity of the Queen of Ayodhya has to be above any gossip and rumour. He instructs him to take Sita to a forest outside Ayodhya and leave her there. Further, to tell her not to identify herself as the Queen of Ayodhya as that would be an insult to our forefathers. Lakshmana reluctantly drops Sita in a forest for another exile.  Sita finds refuge in Sage Valmiki's ashram, where she gives birth to twin boys, Luv and Kush.

Versions.

As in many oral epics, multiple versions of the "Ramayana" survive. In particular, the "Ramayana" related in north India differs in important respects from that preserved in south India and the rest of southeast Asia. There is an extensive tradition of oral storytelling based on "Ramayana" in Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam and Maldives.

India.

There are diverse regional versions of the "Ramayana" written by various authors in India. Some of them differ significantly from each other. During the 12th century, Kamban wrote Ramavataram, known popularly as Kambaramayanam in Tamil, but references to Ramayana story appear in Tamil literature as early as 300 BC. A Telugu version, Ranganatha Ramayanam, was written by Gona Budda Reddy in the 14th century. The earliest translation to a regional Indo-Aryan language is the early 14th century Saptakanda Ramayana in Assamese by Madhava Kandali. Valmiki's "Ramayana" inspired Sri Ramacharit Manas by Tulsidas in 1576, an epic Awadhi (a dialect of Hindi) version with a slant more grounded in a different realm of Hindu literature, that of bhakti; it is an acknowledged masterpiece of India, popularly known as "Tulsi-krita Ramayana". Gujarati poet Premanand wrote a version of the "Ramayana" in the 17th century. Other versions include

Early references in Tamil literature.

Even before Kambar wrote the Ramavataram in Tamil in the 12th century AD, there are many ancient references to the story of Ramayana, implying that the story was familiar in the Tamil lands even before the Common Era. References to the story can

Buddhist version.

In the Buddhist variant of the "Ramayana" (Dasharatha Jataka), Dasharatha was king of Benares and not Ayodhya. Rama (called Rāmapaṇḍita in this version) was the son of Kaushalya, first wife of Dasharatha. Lakṣmaṇa (Lakkhaṇa) was a sibling of Rama and son of Sumitra, the second wife of Dasharatha. Sita was the wife of Rama. To protect his children from his wife Kaikeyi, who wished to

Jain version.

Jain versions of the "Ramayana" can be found in the various Jain agamas like Ravisena's Padmapurana (story of Padmaja and Rama, Padmaja being the name of Sita), Hemacandra's Trisastisalakapurusa charitra (hagiography of 63 illustrious persons), Sanghadasa's "Vasudevahindi" and "Uttarapurana" by Gunabhadara. According to Jain cosmology, every half time cycle has nine sets of Balarama, Vasudeva and prativasudeva. Rama, Lakshmana and Ravana are the eighth baladeva, vasudeva and prativasudeva respectively. Padmanabh Jaini notes that, unlike in the Hindu Puranas, the names Baladeva and Vasudeva are not restricted to Balarama and Krishna in Jain Puranas. Instead they serve as names of two distinct classes of mighty brothers, who appear nine times in each half time cycle and jointly rule half the earth as half-chakravartins. Jaini traces the origin of this list of brothers to the "jinacharitra" (lives of jinas) by Acharya Bhadrabahu (3d–4th century BCE).  In the Jain epic of "Ramayana", it is not Rama who kills Ravana as told in the Hindu version. Perhaps this is because

Sikh version.

In Guru Granth Sahib, there is a description of two types of "Ramayana". One is a spiritual "Ramayana" which is the actual subject of Guru Granth Sahib, in which Ravana is ego, Sita is "budhi" (intellect), Rama is inner soul and Laxman is "mann" (attention, mind). Guru Granth Sahib also believes in the existence of Dashavatara who were kings of their times which tried their best to restore order to the world. King Rama (Ramchandra) was one of those who is not covered in Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Granth Sahib states: This version of the "Ramayana" was written by Guru Gobind Singh, which is part of Dasam Granth.  He also said that the almighty, invisible, all prevailing God created great numbers of Indras, Moons and Suns, Deities, Demons and sages, and also numerous saints and Brahmanas (enlightened people). But they too were caught in the noose of death (Kaal) (transmigration of the soul). This is similar to the explanation in Bhagavad Gita which is part of the "Mahabharata".

Nepal.

Besides being the site of discovery of the oldest surviving manuscript of the "Ramayana", Nepal gave rise to two regional variants in mid 19th – early 20th century. One, written by Bhanubhakta Acharya, is considered the first epic of Nepali language, while the other, written by

Southeast Asian.

Cambodia.

The Cambodian version of the "Ramayana", Reamker ( - "Glory of Ram"), is the most famous story of Khmer literature since the Kingdom of Funan era. It adapts the Hindu concepts to Buddhist themes and shows the balance of good and evil in the world. The Reamker has several differences

Indonesia.

There are several Indonesian adaptations of Ramayana, including the Javanese "Kakawin Ramayana" and Balinese "Ramakavaca". The first half of "Kakawin Ramayana" is similar to the original Sanskrit version, while the latter half is very different. One of the recognizable modifications is the inclusion of the indigenous Javanese guardian demigod, Semar, and his sons, Gareng, Petruk, and Bagong who make up the numerically significant four Punokawan or "clown servants". "Kakawin Ramayana" is believed to have been written in Central Java circa 870 AD during the reign of Mpu Sindok in the Medang Kingdom. The Javanese "Kakawin Ramayana" is not based on Valmiki's epic, which was then the most famous version of Ram's story, but based on "Ravanavadha" or the "Ravana massacre", which is the sixth or seventh century poem by Indian poet

Laos.

Phra Lak Phra Lam is a Lao language version, whose title comes

Malaysia.

The Hikayat Seri Rama of Malaysia

Myanmar.

Yama Zatdaw is the Burmese version of Ramayana. It is also considered the unofficial national epic of Myanmar. There are nine known pieces of the Yama Zatdaw in Myanmar. The Burmese name

Philippines.

The "Maharadia Lawana", an epic poem of the Maranao people of the Philippines, has been regarded as an indigenized version of the Ramayana since it was documented and translated into English by Professor Juan R. Francisco and Nagasura Madale in 1968. The poem, which had not been written down before Francisco and Madale's translation, narrates the adventures of the monkey-king, Maharadia Lawana, whom the Gods have gifted with immortality.  Francisco, an indologist from the University of the

Thailand.

Thailand's popular national epic Ramakien (Thai:รามเกียรติ์., from Sanskrit "rāmakīrti", "glory of Ram") is derived from the Hindu epic. In Ramakien, Sita is the daughter of Ravana and Mandodari ("thotsakan" and "montho"). Vibhishana ("phiphek"), the astrologer brother of Ravana, predicts the death of Ravana from the horoscope of Sita. Ravana has thrown her into the water, but she is later rescued by Janaka ("chanok"). While the main story is identical to that of "Ramayana", many other aspects were transposed into a Thai context, such as the clothes, weapons, topography and elements of nature, which are described as being Thai in style. It has an expanded role for Hanuman and he is portrayed as a lascivious character. Ramakien can be seen in an elaborate illustration at Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok.

Critical edition.

A critical edition of the text was compiled in India in the 1960s and 1970s, by the Oriental Institute at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda,

Influence on culture and art.

One of the most important literary works of ancient India, the "Ramayana" has had a profound impact on art and culture in the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia with the lone exception of Vietnam. The story ushered in the tradition of the next thousand years of massive-scale works in the rich diction of regal courts and Hindu temples. It has also inspired much secondary literature in various languages, notably Kambaramayanam by Tamil poet Kambar of the 12th century, Telugu language "Molla Ramayanam" by poet Molla and Ranganatha Ramayanam by poet Gona Budda Reddy, 14th century Kannada poet Narahari's Torave Ramayana and 15th century Bengali poet Krittibas Ojha's Krittivasi Ramayan, as well as the 16th century Awadhi version, Ramacharitamanas, written by Tulsidas.  Ramayanic scenes have also been depicted through terracottas, stone sculptures, bronzes and paintings. These include the stone panel at Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh depicting Bharata's

Religious significance.

Rama, the hero of the "Ramayana", is one of the most popular deities worshipped in the Hindu religion. Each year, many devout pilgrims trace their journey through India and Nepal, halting at each of the holy sites along the way. The poem is not seen as just a literary monument,

In popular culture.

Multiple modern, English-language adaptations of the epic exist, namely Rama Chandra Series by Amish Tripathi, Ramayana Series by Ashok Banker and a mythopoetic novel, "Asura: Tale of the Vanquished" by Anand Neelakantan. Another Indian author, Devdutt Pattanaik, has published three different retellings and commentaries of Ramayana titled "Sita", "The Book Of Ram" and "Hanuman's Ramayan". A number of plays, movies and television serials have also been produced based upon the "Ramayana".  In Indonesia, "Ramayana" department store is named after the epic. The company which owns it is known as "PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa" founded in 1978 with its main office located in Jakarta.

Stage.

Starting in 1978 and under the supervision of Baba Hari Dass, Ramayana has been performed every year by Mount Madonna School in Watsonville, California. Currently, it is the largest yearly, Western version of the epic being performed. It takes the form of a colorful musical with custom costumes, sung and spoken dialog, jazz-rock orchestration and dance. This performance takes place in a large audience theater setting usually in June, in San Jose,

Ramayana (;, Rāmāyaṇam ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the "Mahābhārata". Along with the "Mahābhārata", it forms the Hindu Itihasa.

Rámájana (v sanskrtu रामायण, "Rāmāyaṇa"; v překladu „Příběh života Rámova“ či „Putování Rámovo“) je starověký indický epos, za jehož autora je považován legendární mudrc Válmíki. Tvoří důležitou část hinduistického kánonu "smrti", společně s "Mahábháratou" je jedním z nejvýznamnějších děl indické epické literatury. Je nejoblíbenějším textem višnuistů.


Location.

Murrayfield is located next to Murrayfield Ice Rink, Murrayfield Curling Rink, and is close to Edinburgh Zoo. It is named after the area of Edinburgh it is located in, Murrayfield. There are two cricket pitches in the immediate vicinity at Roseburn Park used by "Murrayfield DAFS CC" (formed from mergers between several local teams) and also four rugby pitches owned by the SRU which were used by teams including the amateur club Murrayfield Wanderers RFC - they and their predecessors had played there since 1902 but were asked to vacate in 2018 as the governing body had plans to develop the land. Wanderers moved their training base to Roseburn but continued to hire the Murrayfield pitches for some matches.

Transport.

Buses.

The stadium is served by Lothian Bus services 12, 22, 26, 31 and the Airlink(100) along Corstorphine Road. Post-match traffic congestion is common along this route.

Rail.

Despite the line running adjacent to the stadium, the closest railway station to the stadium is, which lies a mile to the East.  Interchange with the Edinburgh Trams is available at Haymarket and stations. is a short walk from the St Andrew Square tram stop.

Tram.

Murrayfield Stadium tram stop is located adjacent to the stadium entrance turnstiles on Roseburn Street. Access to the platform is by a flight of stairs or lift. As part of crowd-management measures, ticketing machines are situated at the bottom of the staircase and not the platform.

History.

The SRU identified 19 acres of land at Murrayfield, purchasing this from Edinburgh Polo Club at Murrayfield, having raised money through debentures. A stand and three embankments were constructed, which took two years. Previous internationals had been played at Inverleith. On 21 March 1925 were the first team to visit Murrayfield, with 70,000 people watching beat them to win their first Five Nations Championship Grand Slam.  During the Second World War the ground at Murrayfield was offered to the nation and was taken over by the Royal Army Service Corps and used as a supply depot. During the war years the armed forces sports authorities managed to arrange two Scotland v. England services internationals each year, on a home-and-away basis. Scotland's home matches were played at Inverleith for the first two years with a return to Murrayfield in 1944 after that ground's derequisition.  Murrayfield's record attendance of 104,000 was set on 1 March 1975 when Scotland defeated 12–10 during the 1975 Five Nations Championship. This attendance stood as a world record until 1999.  The East stand was built in 1983.  In October 1991 another debenture scheme was launched, to finance a more comprehensive redevelopment of the West Stand. The new West Stand was designed with a 48-metre cantilever roof. The old West Stand housed a museum, but this was not replaced and plans for a new visitor centre were shelved when the game turned professional. The first phase was completed in January 1993 with the new north and south stands opening. In February 1994 the centre section of the new West Stand opened. In 1994, Murrayfield completed a £50-million renovation where floodlights were installed for the first time.  In October 2012, SRU chief executive Mark Dodson told the BBC that it was actively seeking a name sponsor for Murrayfield:The single biggest piece of our inventory is our national stadium. We would like to see if we can monetise that. It would be crazy for us not to look at using our single biggest piece of inventory to drive revenue. We want to get the right price for it. In addition, Dodson indicated that the SRU was actively seeking a site for a completely new stadium with a capacity of 10,000 to 15,000 as a future home for Edinburgh Rugby. The pitch was damaged by nematodes in the lead up to the 2013 autumn internationals. This led the SRU to replace the grass with a Desso surface from the start of the 2014 season. A naming rights deal with BT was agreed in May 2014, resulting in the stadium being officially named as the BT Murrayfield Stadium.

Uses.

Rugby union.

Murrayfield is used for most Scottish international rugby union matches, with all Scotland's Six Nations home games being played in the stadium. The stadium also hosted all of Edinburgh's matches between 1996 and January 2017. (For Pro14 matches, only the lower tier of the East Stand is typically used.) Since February 2018 all Edinburgh matches are once again held at Murrayfield; with work on-going on the construction of a new 7,800 capacity stadium on the back pitches to host Edinburgh Rugby from the start of the 2020/21 season.

 From 2007 to 2011, Murrayfield hosted the Edinburgh 7s, then the final event in the annual IRB Sevens World Series in rugby sevens, but that tournament was moved to Glasgow starting in 2012 due to low attendance. Murrayfield hosted select matches from the 2007 Rugby World Cup. The stadium also hosted the Heineken Cup Final in 2005, when Toulouse beat Stade Français 18–12, and again in 2009, with Leinster defeating Leicester 19–16.

Rugby World Cup.

Murrayfield hosted matches of the 1991, 1999 and 2007 Rugby World Cups.

Rugby league.

Although primarily a rugby union stadium, Murrayfield hosted the Rugby League Challenge Cup Finals of 2000 and 2002. The stadium hosted rugby league's Super League Magic Weekend in 2009. The record for a rugby league attendance at the stadium is 67,247 for the 2000 Challenge Cup

Association football.

Murrayfield has also hosted Association football matches. In December 2003, the SRU board agreed to let local Scottish Premier League side Heart of Midlothian F.C. (Hearts) lease the stadium for match days. Later that month, UEFA confirmed that Hearts' own ground, Tynecastle did not meet the minimum criteria for European matches from the 2004–05 season. Hearts used Murrayfield as their home venue for European matches for three years until Hearts made adjustments to Tynecastle that made it compliant with UEFA regulations. Additionally, both Hearts and Edinburgh neighbours Hibernian have played preseason friendlies against FC Barcelona at Murrayfield. Almost 58,000 people attended to watch Hearts play Barcelona in July 2007, recording the largest crowd at a football match in Edinburgh for 51 years.  In 2014, Glasgow club Celtic played two qualifying matches at the stadium due to Celtic Park being unavailable because of Glasgow's hosting of the Commonwealth Games. Hearts again used the stadium for home games during the 2017–18 Scottish Premiership, due to the delays in construction of a new main stand at Tynecastle. Murrayfield hosted one of the 2018–19 Scottish League Cup semi-finals, played between Hearts and Celtic, in October 2018. That match attracted an attendance of 61,161, the second-largest ever recorded for a football match in Edinburgh. In July 2019, Murrayfield hosted a pre-season friendly between Liverpool and Napoli, that attracted a crowd of 65,442 which was the highest attendance of fans at a football match in Scotland since the 1989 Scottish Cup Final.

American football.

Murrayfield has played host to American football and was one of two home venues for the now defunct Scottish Claymores in the NFL Europa between 1995 and 2004, the other being Hampden Park in Glasgow. Additionally, it hosted World Bowl '96 on 23 June 1996. It has been mentioned as a potential future host site for the NFL International Series, should the National Football League add future games outside the series' current permanent home, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. (From 2007 to 2018 the permanent home of the NFL International Series was Wembley Stadium also in London.)

Music.

David Bowie played to a capacity crowd of 47,000 people in 28 June 1983. On 30 June 1996, Tina Turner played at Murrayfield as part of her Wildest Dreams Tour. In September 1997 U2 played at Murrayfield as part of their Popmart Tour. On 3 June 1999, The Rolling Stones played to 51,000 on their No Security Tour. On 8 July 1999 Celine Dion performed her Let's Talk About Love World Tour as she sold out the full venue of 67,000, on her first ever show in Scotland. In July 2005, Murrayfield hosted the final Live 8 concert, Edinburgh 50,000 – The Final Push, with performances including James Brown, Texas and The Proclaimers. Oasis played a sold-out show on 17 June 2009, as part of their world tour. Some antisocial behaviour at this event affected the stadium's licensing arrangements when they were reviewed a few months later. This was the last time Oasis would play a concert in Scotland and the second time they had played the stadium, the first being on their Standing on the Shoulder of Giants Tour in 2000.  Bon Jovi performed at the stadium on 22 June 2011 as part of their tour. Madonna performed to a sell-out crowd of 52,160 on 21 July 2012 as part of her MDNA Tour. On 3 June 2014, One Direction performed to over 64,000 fans at Murrayfield as part of their Where We Are Stadium Tour. Foo Fighters performed at Murrayfield Stadium as part of their Sonic Highways World Tour on 8 September 2015. The band were originally supposed to play Murrayfield on 23 June 2015 but this was cancelled and rescheduled after Dave Grohl broke his foot at European Festival that same month. The Spice Girls performed to over 55,000 fans on 8 June 2019 as part of their Spice World tour, it was their first Scottish concert in 21 years.

Notes and references.

Murrayfield Stadium (known as BT Murrayfield Stadium for sponsorship reasons, or popularly as Murrayfield) is a sports stadium located in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has a seating capacity of 67,144 making it the largest stadium in Scotland and the fifth largest in the United Kingdom.

Murrayfield je jméno stadionu ležícího ve stejnojmenné části města Edinburgh, ve Skotsku. Stadion je domovem pro skotský národní ragbyový tým, ale kromě ragby se na něm pořádá mnoho jiných sportovních akcí. Toto sportovní zařízení pojme 67 800 diváků.


Mythology.

Amphitryon was a Theban general, who was originally from Tiryns in the eastern part of the Peloponnese. He was friends with Panopeus.  Having accidentally killed his father-in-law Electryon, king of Mycenae, Amphitryon was driven out by Electryon's brother, Sthenelus. He fled with Alcmene to Thebes, where he was cleansed from the guilt of blood by Creon, king of Thebes.  Alcmene, who was pregnant and had been betrothed to Amphitryon by her father, refused to marry him until he had avenged the death of her brothers, all but one of whom had fallen in battle against the Taphians. It was on his return from this expedition that Electryon had been killed. Amphitryon accordingly took the field against the Taphians, accompanied by Creon, who had agreed to assist him on condition that he slew the Teumessian fox which had been sent by Dionysus to ravage the country.  The Taphians, however, remained invincible until Comaetho, the king's daughter, out of love for Amphitryon cut off her father's golden hair, the possession of which rendered him immortal. Having defeated the enemy, Amphitryon put Comaetho to death and handed over the kingdom of the Taphians to Cephalus. On his return to Thebes, he married Alcmene, who gave birth to twin sons, Iphicles and Heracles. Only the former was the son of Amphitryon because Heracles was the son of Zeus, who had visited Alcmene during Amphitryon's absence. Zeus, disguised as Amphitryon, described the victory over the sons of Pterelaus in such convincing detail that Alcmene accepted him as her husband. He and Alcmene also had a daughter named Laonome.  He fell in battle against the Minyans, against whom he had undertaken an expedition, accompanied by the youthful Heracles, to deliver Thebes from a disgraceful tribute. In the play "Heracles" by Euripides, Amphitryon survives to witness the murders of Heracles' children and wife.

Amphitryon (; Ancient Greek: Ἀμφιτρύων, "gen".: Ἀμφιτρύωνος; usually interpreted as "harassing either side", Latin: Amphitruo), in Greek mythology, was a son of Alcaeus, king of Tiryns in Argolis. His mother was named either Astydameia, the daughter of Pelops and Hippodamia, or Laonome, daughter of Guneus, or else Hipponome, daughter of Menoeceus. Amphitryon was the brother of Anaxo (wife of Electryon), and Perimede, wife of Licymnius. He was a husband of Alcmene, Electryon's daughter, and stepfather of the Greek hero Heracles.

Amfitryón (řecky Ἀμφιτρύων, latinsky "Amphitryon") je v řecké mytologii synem krále Alkaia a jeho nástupcem na tírynthském trůnu. Je nevlastním otcem hrdiny Hérakla.


History.

Origins (1980s–1991).

Former Carnivore frontman Peter Steele, along with childhood friends Sal Abruscato, Josh Silver, and Kenny Hickey, formed Type O Negative and signed to Roadrunner Records. Shortly after signing in 1991 the band released their debut, "Slow, Deep and Hard".

"Slow, Deep and Hard" and "The Origin of the Feces" (1991–1992).

Type O Negative's first album, "Slow Deep and Hard", incorporated dragging Black Sabbath-esque dirge riffs, maniacal hardcore outbursts, and droning industrial and gothic atmospheres. The songs were long, multi-part theatrical epics, with lyrics loosely surrounding a story involving a man enacting revenge on a cheating girlfriend before ultimately contemplating his actions and committing suicide.  They began creating a new album that was supposed to be live. The subsequent 1992 album was entitled "The Origin of the Feces" and a warning label was put on the album cover: "Not Live at Brighton Beach". The album contains faux-live recordings of songs from "Slow, Deep and Hard", as well as previously unreleased songs such as "Are You Afraid" and "Hey Pete" (a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe" with altered lyrics) and Black Sabbath's "Paranoid".

"Bloody Kisses" and "October Rust" (1993–1998).

Type O Negative's third album, "Bloody Kisses", was released in 1993 to critical and listener acclaim, and eventually became the first record for Roadrunner to reach certified Platinum status in the US.  "Bloody Kisses" mostly addressed loneliness and heartbreak, with songs like "Too Late: Frozen", "Blood & Fire" and "Can't Lose You". The organ-driven "Set Me on Fire" is vintage 1960s garage rock, while "Summer Breeze" covered the 1972 Seals and Crofts hit. "Christian Woman" and "Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)" became the most popular tracks, after having been edited down to radio-friendly lengths (the album versions were 9 and 11 minutes long respectively). In order to promote the album, Type O Negative embarked on a two-year world tour. During this time, the band was featured on MTV, VH1, and in "Rolling Stone". In the midst of this media blitz, drummer Sal Abruscato quit the band to join another Brooklyn quartet, Life of Agony. Johnny Kelly, the band's drum technician, was therefore hired as a full-fledged member. "Bloody Kisses" was re-released a year after the original release in a limited-edition Digipak form, including eight of the musical tracks from the original (omitting the "filler" tracks) and the previously unreleased "Suspended in Dusk".  Type O's "October Rust" picked up where "Bloody Kisses" left off, exploring themes of sex, nature and sensuality, first in a humorous sense on the single "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend" and then taken much darker with "Love You to Death". This record also saw a cover of Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" as well as the fan favorite, semi-serene "Green Man". While not quite as successful as "Bloody Kisses", the album was certified Gold in the US, and was the first Type O Negative album to enter the top half of the Billboard Top 200, debuting at No. 42.

"World Coming Down" and "The Least Worst of Type O Negative" (1999–2001).

With the completion of another successful world tour, writing for a fifth album began. In the period immediately following the release of "October Rust", resulting in 1999's "World Coming Down" (working titles included "Prophets of Doom" and "Aggroculture")."World Coming Down" debuted at No. 39 on the Billboard Top 200 charts. "World Coming Down" featured a much darker, bleak tone than its predecessors, having been written after a series of deaths in frontman Peter Steele's family.  A best of album followed in 2000, entitled "The Least Worst of Type O Negative." Although most songs appear on previous albums, many are unreleased remixes or B-sides of previously released singles. Along with these songs are some unreleased numbers from the "World Coming Down" sessions, the band's cover of "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath (Peter Steele's version with different lyrics, written from the perspective of Satan), and a cleaner version of "Hey Pete" (originally released on the mock live album "The Origin of the Feces").

"Life Is Killing Me" and "Dead Again" (2002–2009).

Type O Negative's sixth studio album, "Life Is Killing Me" (originally called "The Dream Is Dead" after the closing song), was released in 2003. For this album, the band picked up the pace of their sound from the dirgeful slowness of "World Coming Down". Songs such as "Todd's Ship Gods (Above All Things)", "(We Were) Electrocute", and "I Don't Wanna Be Me" convey the band's classic elements of melody, though the song lengths were much shorter on this outing, the longest being the 7 and a half-minute "How Could She?", a list of female character names from television shows. The album includes a humorous cover of the song "Angry Inch" from the musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," detailing a sex change operation gone terribly wrong.  Type O then left Roadrunner for SPV Records and released "Dead Again" in 2007. "Dead Again" debuted at No. 27 in the United States, the band's highest chart debut to date. They also continued to tour through October of that year, including a performance at the "Rock am Ring" festival in Nürburgring, Germany.

Peter Steele's death and the end of Type O Negative (2010).

On April 14, 2010, frontman and bassist Peter Steele died, reportedly from heart failure. The following statement concerning Steele was released April 15 on the band's official website:  In a November 2010 interview with Rock Hard magazine, Johnny Kelly and Kenny Hickey confirmed that following Steele's death, Type O Negative had split-up.  Roadrunner Records released a box set of all the band's albums (with the exception of "Dead Again") for Back to Black Friday 2011, a spinoff of Record Store Day, on November 25, 2011. Each vinyl cover has no text and "The Origin of the Feces" uses its original cover art. The box set also contains various bumper stickers related to the band.

Influences.

Steele cited Black Sabbath and the Beatles as main influences on Type O Negative. Other influences are Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, and AC/DC, and gothic rock/post-punk bands such as Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, Christian Death, Bauhaus, The Sisters of Mercy, Killing Joke, and Dead Can Dance.

Soundtracks and covers.

Type O Negative's songs have appeared in numerous motion pictures, including "Blood and Fire (Out of the Ashes Remix)" on the 1995 "Mortal Kombat" movie soundtrack (also on the bonus CD of "Life is Killing Me"), "Love You to Death" in "Bride of Chucky," "Everyone I Love Is Dead" in, "(We Were) Electrocute" in "Freddy vs. Jason," and "Summer Breeze" in "I Know What You Did Last Summer". As a result of Howard Stern being a self-professed fan, "" contains "Pictures of Matchstick Men" with the band playing music and Ozzy Osbourne on vocals. "Haunted" also appears on "The Blair Witch Project" "soundtrack CD" (the album's concept was to contain songs from "a tape that was found in the woods with the students' gear"). In 1998, Arrow Videos made their own version of the 1922 classic horror film "Nosferatu", by simply overdubbing the silent film with a soundtrack consisting entirely of Type O Negative tracks, taken from the first four albums. This version is now on DVD from DigiView Entertainment, a company that makes budget-priced DVDs. It also has an introduction by actor David Carradine.  In other media, the computer game "Descent 2" features a shortened, instrumental version of the track "Haunted". Additionally, "" contains a full-length version of the instrumental; the compilation "Duke Nukem: Music to Score By" features "Cinnamon Girl (Extended Depression Mix)"; "Love You to Death" in the computer game "Blood"; "Out of the Fire" from the "Life is Killing Me" bonus CD was a theme created for wrestler Kane, but was never used. Recently, the opening two seconds of "I Don't Wanna Be Me" were used as a frequent sample in "Grand Theft Auto IV," on the Liberty Rock Radio Station. Most recently, the 2012 video game "The Darkness II" features Type O Negative's "Black No. 1" in its multiplayer lobby, played at random amongst other songs.  Type O Negative performed and recorded numerous covers. The Doors' "Light My Fire" has been covered live numerous times, mostly during the 1990s. Steele has described the song as "probably the greatest song ever written" before apologizing for having "destroyed it". Seals and Crofts' "Summer Breeze" appears on "Bloody Kisses", and Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" appears on "October Rust". The tongue-in-cheek "Angry Inch" (from "Hedwig and the Angry Inch") appears on "Life is Killing Me". "World Coming Down" includes a Beatles medley consisting of "Day Tripper", "If I Needed Someone", and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Other covers include a rendition of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and "N.I.B."; Status Quo's "Pictures of Matchstick Men" with Ozzy Osbourne, two versions of "Black Sabbath" (one with the original lyrics and one rewritten by Peter Steele to be from Satan's perspective), Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe" (rewritten as "Hey Pete"); the Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R.", Deep Purple's "Highway Star" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising". A medley of Santana's "Evil Ways", "Oye Como Va", and "Black Magic Woman" are also available on the CD accompanying the DVD "Symphony for the Devil". The 2007 tour song set started with a cover of "Magical Mystery Tour" from the Beatles.  "In the Flesh", originally written by Pink Floyd from their album "The Wall", is another song that Type O Negative covered, used to open their 1999 World Tour. This version can be seen on the live DVD, "Symphony for the Devil". Also on the same DVD, in "Too Late: Frozen", the intro began with Jethro Tull's "Aqualung".

Type O Negative was an American gothic metal band formed in Brooklyn, New York in 1989, by Peter Steele (lead vocals, bass), Kenny Hickey (guitar, co-lead vocals), Josh Silver (keyboards, backing vocals), and Sal Abruscato (drums, percussion), who was later replaced by Johnny Kelly. Their lyrical emphasis on themes of romance, depression, and death resulted in the nickname "the Drab Four" (in homage to the Beatles' "Fab Four" moniker). The band went Platinum with 1993's "Bloody Kisses," and Gold with 1996's "October Rust", and gained a fanbase through seven studio albums, two best-of compilations, and concert DVDs.

Type O Negative byla gothic metalová kapela z Brooklynu v New Yorku v USA. Kapela vznikla ze skupiny Carnivore. Skupina Type O negative je z Brooklynu, New York. Vznikla v roce 1990. Kenny Hickey (kytara), Josh Silver (klávesy) a za bicími sedí Johnny Kelly ale původním bubeníkem skupiny byl Sal Abruscato.


Benefits.

References increase flexibility in where objects can be stored, how they are allocated, and how they are passed between areas of code. As long as one can access a reference to the data, one can access the data through it, and the data itself need not be moved. They also make sharing of data between different code areas easier; each keeps a reference to it.  The mechanism of references, if varying in implementation, is a fundamental programming language feature common to nearly all modern programming languages. Even some languages that support no direct use of references have some internal or implicit use. For example, the call by reference calling convention can be implemented with either explicit or implicit use of references.

Examples.

Pointers are the most primitive type of reference. Due to their intimate relationship with the underlying hardware, they are one of the most powerful and efficient types of references. However, also due to this relationship, pointers require a strong understanding by the programmer of the details of memory architecture. Because pointers store a memory location's address, instead of a value directly, inappropriate use of pointers can lead to undefined behavior in a program, particularly due to dangling pointers or wild pointers. Smart pointers are opaque data structures that act like pointers but can only be accessed through particular methods.  A handle is an abstract reference, and may be represented in various ways. A common example are file handles (the FILE data structure in the C standard I/O library), used to abstract file content. It usually represents both the file itself, as when requesting a lock on the file, and a specific position within the file's content, as when reading a file.  In distributed computing, the reference may contain more than an address or identifier; it may also include an embedded specification of the network protocols used to locate and access the referenced object, the way information is encoded or serialized. Thus, for example, a WSDL description of a remote web service can be viewed as a form of reference; it includes a complete specification of how to locate and bind to a particular web service. A reference to a live distributed object is another example: it is a complete specification for how to construct a small software component called a "proxy" that will subsequently engage in a peer-to-peer interaction, and through which the local machine may gain access to data that is replicated or exists only as a weakly consistent message stream. In all these cases, the reference includes the full set of instructions, or a recipe, for how to access the data; in this sense, it serves the same purpose as an identifier or address in memory.

Formal representation.

More generally, a reference can be considered as a piece of data that allows unique retrieval of another piece of data. This includes primary keys in databases and keys in an associative array. If we have a set of keys "K" and a set of data objects "D", any well-defined (single-valued) function from "K" to "D" ∪ {null} defines a type of reference, where "null" is the image of a key not referring to anything meaningful.  An alternative representation of such a function is a directed graph called a reachability graph. Here, each datum is represented by a vertex and there is an edge from "u" to "v" if the datum in "u" refers to the datum in "v". The maximum out-degree is one. These graphs are valuable in garbage collection, where they can be used to separate accessible from inaccessible objects.

External and internal storage.

In many data structures, large, complex objects are composed of smaller objects. These objects are typically stored in one of two ways:  Internal storage is usually more efficient, because there is a space cost for the references and dynamic allocation metadata, and a time cost associated with dereferencing a reference and with allocating the memory for the smaller objects. Internal storage also enhances locality of reference by keeping different parts of the same large object close together in memory. However, there are a variety of situations in which external storage is preferred:  Some languages, such as Java, Smalltalk, Python, and Scheme, do not support internal storage. In these languages, all objects are uniformly accessed through references.

Language support.

In assembly languages, the first languages used, it is typical to express references using either raw memory addresses or indexes into tables. These work, but are somewhat tricky to use, because an address tells you nothing about the value it points to, not even how large it is or how to interpret it; such information is encoded in the program logic. The result is that misinterpretations can occur in incorrect programs, causing bewildering errors.  One of the earliest opaque references was that of the Lisp language cons cell, which is simply a record containing two references to other Lisp objects, including possibly other cons cells. This simple structure is most commonly used to build singly linked lists, but can also be used to build simple binary trees and so-called "dotted lists", which terminate not with a null reference but a value.  Another early language, Fortran, does not have an explicit representation of references, but does use them implicitly in its call-by-reference calling semantics.  The pointer is still one of the most popular types of references today. It is similar to the assembly representation of a raw address, except that it carries a static datatype which can be used at compile-time to ensure that the data it refers to is not misinterpreted. However, because C has a weak type system which can be violated using casts (explicit conversions between various pointer types and between pointer types and integers), misinterpretation is still possible, if more difficult. Its successor C++ tried to increase type safety of pointers with new cast operators and smart pointers in its standard library, but still retained the ability to circumvent these safety mechanisms for compatibility.  A number of popular mainstream languages today such as Eiffel, Java, C#, and Visual Basic have adopted a much more opaque type of reference, usually referred to as simply a "reference". These references have types like C pointers indicating how to interpret the data they reference, but they are typesafe in that they cannot be interpreted as a raw address and unsafe conversions are not permitted.

Fortran.

A Fortran reference is best thought of as an "alias" of another object, such as a scalar variable or a row or column of an array. There is no syntax to dereference the reference or manipulate the contents of the referent directly. Fortran references can be null. As in other languages, these references facilitate the processing of dynamic structures, such as linked lists, queues, and trees.

Functional languages.

In all of the above settings, the concept of mutable variables, data that can be modified, often makes implicit use of references. In Standard ML, OCaml, and many other functional languages, most values are persistent: they cannot be modified by assignment. Assignable "reference cells" serve the unavoidable purposes of mutable references in imperative languages, and make the capability to be modified explicit. Such reference cells can hold any value, and so are given the polymorphic type codice_1, where codice_2 is to be replaced with the type of value pointed to. These mutable references can be pointed to different objects over their lifetime. For example, this permits building of circular data structures. The reference cell is functionally equivalent to an array of length 1.  To preserve safety and efficient implementations, references cannot be type-cast in ML, nor can pointer arithmetic be performed. It is important to note that in the functional paradigm, many structures that would be represented using pointers in a language like C are represented using other facilities, such as the powerful algebraic datatype mechanism. The programmer is then able to enjoy certain properties (such as the guarantee of immutability) while programming, even though the compiler often uses machine pointers "under the hood".

Symbolic references.

Some languages, like Perl, support symbolic references, which are just string values that contain the names of variables. When a value that is not a regular reference is dereferenced, Perl considers it to be a symbolic reference and gives the variable with the name given by the value. PHP has a similar feature in the form of its codice_3 syntax.

References in object oriented languages.

Many object oriented languages make extensive use of references. They may use references to access and assign objects. References are also used in function/method calls or message passing, and reference counts are frequently used to perform garbage collection of unused objects.

In computer science, a reference is a value that enables a program to indirectly access a particular datum, such as a variable's value or a record, in the computer's memory or in some other storage device. The reference is said to refer to the datum, and accessing the datum is called dereferencing the reference.

Reference je v informatice pojem používaný v programování, který označuje odkaz na proměnnou nebo instanci objektu. Reference je abstraktnější variantou ukazatele, která navenek neobsahuje žádnou informaci o uložení objektu v operační paměti.


Background.

In the story's worldline there exists a magical realm beneath the surface of all things—referred to as the Twilight (or "Gloom" in other translations). The action in the novel centers on a group of people referred to as "the Others" —human beings who tapped into the Twilight and gained supernormal abilities. "The Others" were the humans (shamans, soothsayers, and wisemen) from long ago who figured out how to step into the Twilight. However, "the Others" are different from humans, they are born as "Others". Humans are not able (at least in the first part of the cycle) to become "Others". The Twilight does not offer its gifts freely; it feeds off the strength of those "Others" who enter it. If sufficiently weakened, they are consumed, never to return to the ordinary world. The aura of any Other, or emotional state at the time of their first entry into the Twilight, determines whether or not the Other will become a 'Light' or 'Dark' Other. Furthermore, once determined either Light or Dark, an Other must choose what specific powers they will borrow from the Twilight. Variations such as vampires, magicians, and healers are all possible, each with their own benefits and restrictions. Often, the choice is made by the state of mind but if choosing Light or Dark during Initiation, a Watch can attempt to steer the powers of someone into what they need at the time. "Initiation" refers to the process of an Other choosing not Light or Dark but choosing to officially be a part of the Night Watch (Light Others) or Day Watch (Dark Others). An Other can exist without being initiated as part of a Watch, still independently capable of entering the Twilight and becoming Light or Dark. The choice of becoming light or dark, even what specific powers you gain is usually final.  The division of Light and Dark had always existed between "the Others". Those of the Light believed it was their duty to help the weak and the helpless. Those of the Dark shunned all obligations. They did what they wanted, regardless of morals and consequences. For many millennia, the two sides fought a vicious battle. Both were willing to use any means necessary to achieve victory. Eventually they realized that if they continued their battle, neither side would survive. The leaders of both sides forged the Grand Treaty—a set of laws to govern the way "the Others" used their powers. The Light Others created the Night Watch, the Dark Others the Day Watch, to ensure that neither side would violate the Treaty. The Inquisition, a group composed of both Dark and Light Others, was created to arbitrate.  If they spend them too quickly, "the Others" can use the feelings and emotions of the humans surrounding them to recharge their powers. "The Dark Others" use negative emotions such as pain or anger, "the Light Others" use positive emotions such as joy. Feeding on pain causes pain to increase, feeding on joy causes joy to wane. Because negative emotions are much easier to achieve in humans, this arrangement creates a situation where the powers of the Dark Others are easier to recharge and are much more readily available than those of the Light Others.  Since the signing of the Treaty, the Night Watch and the Day Watch have kept their eyes on each other, diligently policing every violation. The old leaders continue to plot, using humanity and the Others as their pawns. Only time will tell which side will prevail.

Structure and style.

The novel is divided into three stories - "Destiny", "Among His Own Kind", and "All for My Own Kind". Each story is subdivided into a prologue followed by eight chapters in the first story, and seven chapters in each of the following stories. Except for the prologues, the majority of the events in each story are written in a first person narrative using the voice of the Light Magician character Anton Gorodetsky, a member of the Night Watch. Events in each of the prologues, as well as intermittent other events in the stories, are written in a third person narrative and take place entirely outside of Gorodetsky's presence. The entire novel is written in the past tense.

Plot.

Destiny.

A Mage recently reassigned to field work in the Night Watch, Anton Gorodetsky, is tasked with tracking vampires who have been hunting and killing humans without a licence. As he follows a young boy (Egor), who has been magically lured by two vampires through the Metro, he notices a young woman, Svetlana, who has a huge vortex of damnation above her. Trying to free her from the vortex he uses up the power of an amulet he has been given to use against the vampires, but only succeeds in temporarily reducing the curse upon her. He finds the vampires who have been calling Egor, and in the struggle to arrest them, because he has used up the amulet trying to do good elsewhere, is forced to kill one while the other (a female) gets away.  He returns to the Night Watch headquarters, where his boss, Boris Ignatievich, informs him that he could be in danger as Zabulon (head of the Day Watch) might want revenge for his actions in killing Dark Others and gives him an owl called Olga, to be his Watch partner. Anton initially rejects the offer, then finds Olga in his apartment and reluctantly agrees. The next day he carelessly and illegally uses his powers for good (by changing a person's morality, a spell called "remoralization") and clashes with a Dark Other from the Day Watch, Alisa Donnikova. They agree that Alisa can use her power to do a minor evil act of her choice in compensation for his own act of goodness. As events unfold he discovers that Olga can speak and appear briefly as a human, and is a sorceress trapped in an owl's body as a punishment.  Anton goes to Egor's apartment to protect him from the vampire, then nearly loses him as Egor inadvertently slips into the Twilight for the first time. It transpires he is also an Other, with the potential for magical powers himself. Meanwhile, Boris Ignatievich sends an incubus, Ignat, to the cursed woman, Svetlana Nazarova, as an undercover agent to try to help her and discover who could have cursed her, but to no avail. Anton, who is still involved in trying to calm Egor and persuade him to join the forces of light, is urgently called away to assist with Svetlana, and in the meantime, the vampiress again calls to Egor who joins her on the roof.  Anton manages to find out that Svetlana is another unaware Other who had unknowingly cursed herself because of guilt for something she did to her mother, and manages to defuse the situation. He returns to Egor's roof to find the vampiress and Egor, as well as other Light and Dark operatives, including Anton's neighbour, Kostya Saushkin, who is a vampire. Zabulon joins them and attacks Anton. But when he does, one of the minor Light Mages, Ilya, reveals himself to be Boris, who'd swapped their bodies, and blocks Zabulon's efforts. While Zabulon's plans seem compromised, and Egor is still considering his choice for Light or Dark, Alisa uses her agreement with Anton to perform a spell on him making him tell Egor everything. Anton reveals to Egor that he was a pawn used by both Boris Ignatievich and Zabulon in their intrigues. Angered, Egor leaves the roof, feeling misused but veering towards the dark.

Among His Own Kind.

A Dark Other, Galina Rogova, is killed by Maxim, a mysterious murderer using an enchanted wooden dagger, referring to himself as "The Judge". Boris Ignatievich announces that the Day Watch suspects one of the Night Watch operatives of this and previous murders. Everyone seems to have an alibi except Anton. Boris Ignatievich thinks that Anton has been set up by the Day Watch, and uses his powers to swap Anton and Olga's bodies so that anyone tracking him will be misled about his true whereabouts, and ensure any future murders will take place when he has a firm alibi. In Olga's body, Anton then goes with Svetlana to her apartment to hide, where he reveals that he is in fact Anton, making Svetlana furious as she just told "Olga" she loved Anton.  They go to a restaurant so as to have clear witnesses of their whereabouts and there spot an inoffensive Dark Other with his family. The Dark Other goes to the toilet, where Maxim was waiting and kills him. Anton, curious why the Dark Other had not returned from the toilet, briefly leaves Svetlana and discovers the body. An investigation ensues involving police and both Dark and Light forces, where Svetlana is able to give Boris a telepathic image of Maxim's wife's aura, but is unable to recall Maxim, who had also been dining in the restaurant. Zabulon recognises Anton in Olga's body, charging him with the murder. Anton flees, pursued by Zabulon and grabs a lift from a passing car whose driver sees the magical events as a gangland shooting. What Anton doesn't know is that the couple in the car are Maxim and his wife. Walking home, Anton calls Olga and asks to switch back bodies.  Waiting in the subway for Olga, Anton stumbles upon Egor and has a brief conversation with him. Olga arrives and Anton and Olga switch bodies using an incantation that reveals Boris's real name as Gesar. While talking to Olga, Anton realizes that the Day Watch is only chasing him in order to make Svetlana angry and use her powers illegally, which would allow them to use the law to neutralize her as an agent of Light. There is no crime in the Dark eliminating its own agents, only if the light does so. Anton then takes a ride in the metro where he is chased by a dark other. An apparition indicates that he should go to the Ostankino Tower, but Anton cannot tell whether it means to help or harm him. He kills the Dark mage chasing him and disguises himself as the mage. Arriving at the tower he finds that the Day Watch has established their temporary headquarters there. Secretly penetrating inside, he sees a bunch of incompetent Dark mages directing the search for him. Suspicious that Zabulon is taking revenge on him by setting him up still more, he leaves the tower and goes to Egor's house.  Meanwhile, Maxim feels the presence of a Dark being and goes on a hunt. He finally finds the Dark being and is astonished when he discovers it is young Egor. Anton spots them and talks with Maxim, explaining the Treaty between Light and Dark, but Maxim doesn't comply, pointing out that Egor will grow up to be a dark mage, and it's better to kill him now. Anton intervenes when Maxim tries to kill Egor, and they fight in the Twilight. Anton realizes that killing Maxim would mean that all witnesses proving his innocence would be dead, and is stabbed by Maxim. Gesar then comes over and suggests that Maxim should become a member of the Inquisition, and when Anton brags about how he outwitted Zabulon again, Gesar reveals that Zabulon has nothing to do with it and that all of this was planned by the Night Watch to raise Svetlana's magical level.

All for My Own Kind.

An old man arrives from Uzbekistan and is intercepted by a team of Dark Others led by Alisa, who attacks him thinking he possesses a coveted artifact. As they fight, his son slips away unnoticed with the artifact.  All of the Night Watch operatives go to Tiger Cub's house to relax, but Anton doesn't manage to have fun, as he is concerned with Svetlana's growing powers influencing their relationship and the reason Gesar sent them off. He finally leaves, and when he gets back to his apartment, he discovers Zabulon calmly reading a newspaper and waiting for him. Zabulon reveals that Alisher, the young man from Uzbekistan, brought with him an artifact, a piece of chalk. Anton's research suggests that it is the Chalk of Fate and that it could be used by the Light to rewrite destiny, allowing someone to change the world to establish a new world order. Discussions with Olga and later Gesar reveal that Svetlana in fact is to use the Chalk to rewrite a destiny.  Walking outside, Anton drains the Light power from all of the passers-by he sees, taking their joy away. Anton joins Gesar, Svetlana, Zabulon, Egor, and Maxim on a rooftop where Svetlana prepares to rewrite a destiny, while a storm is gathering around them. Svetlana then opens the book of destiny. Gesar supposes Anton could use all the energy he has drained to stop the storm, but Anton uses it instead on himself via a simple remoralization spell. Astonished, Svetlana stops rewriting Egor's destiny and asks Anton for advice, but Anton says that she must decide what to write herself. The Book disappears, and Gesar notices she didn't write anything, she only erased things. Egor reverts from a potential Dark Other back to an unaffiliated state. Zabulon notices that their planned operation failed because of Svetlana's indecisiveness and, triumphant, leaves. Anton then notices the Chalk Svetlana used is not whole. Gesar reveals that Svetlana rewriting Egor's destiny was just a distraction, and in the meantime, Olga rewrote the destiny of someone later revealed. Gesar reveals the true nature of this plan was to save his love of Olga. Without her full powers, their love was doomed.

Races.

Within the Night Watch universe there are several different races with different characteristics and levels of power.

The Twilight (The Gloom).

Note: Bromfield's English translation translates the Russian word ""sumrak"" as "twilight", although "sumrak" actually refers to a state of coming darkness in singular (visible in one place, not the whole sky); ""sumerki"", which would usually be translated as "twilight", is its plural form. "The gloom" is the translation used in the movies based on the novel. Note that the Russian word sumrak does not have the negative emotional connotation of the English word gloom; sumrak has a lighter connotation, characterised by Nabokov as a "not infrequently pleasurable and poetical gloom."

Properties.

The Twilight, although a realm of existence beneath the human or ordinary world and therefore not sentient, indiscriminately absorbs energy from whomever enters it. An Other enters the Twilight by stepping into their own shadow, it then starts to drain their strength. The only way to survive in the Twilight is to slowly feed it energy. The skill required to stay (or even enter) into the Twilight for an extended period of time is acquired through formal training. Others who lack this skill yet still manage to enter the Twilight are at an increased risk of being completely drained of their life and energy.  The nature of Twilight is not fully elucidated in the first novel. It is composed of seven levels, each layer requires geometrically more power to enter and remain in. Each layer is quite different from the layer above it. Most powerful Others can't make it past the 3rd layer, a higher magician can penetrate down to the 5th layer. A Magician beyond classification such as Gesar or Zabulon can get to the 6th layer. Only a zero point magician can get to the 7th. Zero point magicians have come into being only once every thousand years or so.  There are stories of magicians who have been lost to the Twilight either because they exhausted their energy in battle (within the Twilight), or because they were careless. Novices have also been lost to the Twilight because they have allowed it to take too much energy; they lack the skill to "feed" the Twilight. Some greatly powerful Others decide to fade into Twilight when they have grown tired of the world.  "Regular" laws of physics, that is, the laws of physics present in the ordinary (human) world do not apply in the Twilight. Unless enchanted, physical objects can only affect beings on the first level. A nuclear blast extends all the way down, through every level. This is why the Watches have done everything in their power to prevent nuclear wars.  Others' auras have color in the Twilight as do their emotions and the magic that they manifest. The colors present in or around an Other in the Twilight can be read in order to gauge their feelings.  The Twilight imbues the Others with most of their magical powers. It is also responsible for giving them their unnaturally (in human terms) long lives. Due to the Twilight, Others can live to be hundreds, possibly even thousands, of years old. This is because, unlike regular humans, they absorb rather than produce magic. The process of absorbing magic also extends their life. The more powerful the Other the less magic they produce, and the more they must absorb from regular humans.  The Others have a twilight form that they can take on in or out of the Twilight. Most Dark Others take on the form of a demon like figure. Zabulon takes on the form of a red, rock-skinned demon with horns and a tail, also with slits for eyes and a forked tongue. Many Light Others take the form of white glowing Angels.

Levels.

The Twilight itself is divided into several levels. Each level is harder to get to and accessible only to powerful Others; this is due in large part to the fact that the Twilight drains energy much more quickly and greedily in deeper levels. In order to access the lower levels of the Twilight, an Other must step through their shadow at each successive level.  At the first level the Twilight is a gray or sepia-toned version of the human world where time runs much more slowly than in the human world; this means that you can do more in the Twilight in less time than it would take in the human world. In this level remnants of the human world still exist and can be seen. For instance, humans can be seen but they are sepia-toned and are moving at a much slower rate due to the time difference between the two realms. This level is inhabited by a parasite, a blue moss feeding on energy, which doesn't seem to do any harm to those who enter the Twilight, and is easy to eradicate. Contrary to what we see in the movie, there are no mosquitoes in this level of Gloom.  The second level is even less like the human world—all human buildings and people disappear, but all magically built buildings change into a different version of itself. It is described as being darker, and having a consistency that is comparable to clouds. There are also three moons.  The third and deeper levels are not explored in the first book.

Inhabitants.

The Twilight is accessible only to Others (both living and dead), particular magical objects, and certain animals. Others access the Twilight by raising their shadow, increasing its volume and density, then stepping through it.  As mentioned before, particular magical objects can enter the Twilight. However, it is not so much that they can enter the Twilight as that they exist on multiple levels of reality. For example, a copper amulet in the human world may be seen existing in the Twilight as a small ball of fire.  "Night Watch" hinted that animals do not always follow the same rules as humans or Others when it comes to the Twilight. In the first book of "Night Watch" entitled "Story One: Destiny", Anton explains that "For cats there is no [human] world or Twilight—they live in all the worlds at once."  There is only one natural inhabitant in the Twilight, a dark blue moss that grows along many surfaces of the sepia-toned human world in the first level of the Twilight. It feeds off of the emotional energy of Others who enter into the Twilight and of humans in the ordinary world. There is a theory mentioned in the books that states that large colonies of dark blue moss can unbalance the human psyche and cause psychosis but it has not been proven. Nonetheless, the protagonist of the "Night Watch"—Anton—occasionally feels compelled to utilize magic to burn off the blue moss at points in the story.

Mysteries.

The Twilight is still largely an unknown. This may be because there are very few truly powerful magicians who can successfully navigate its levels. "Night Watch" mentions that the deepest levels have been navigated by Zabulon (see character descriptions below) but at the cost of great energy expenditure even to him.  When an Other dies of natural causes, is killed, or dematerialised (executed) their "soul" or "essence" is passed into the Twilight where it remains for all eternity. Since Others are 'born' in the Twilight it would make sense for them to return there upon their death but the reason for this is never stated in "Night Watch". They become spectral-like figures, cloudy silhouettes of their former physical selves. It remains a mystery whether or not they retain any memory or feeling as they hardly communicate with living Others who enter the Twilight.  In the second part of the Night Watch, what is assumed to be a dematerialised Other in the Twilight seemingly communicates with Anton as it points him towards the TV tower where the Day Watch has set up its field headquarters as it searches for Anton (who is being framed for killing Dark Others). Anton is unsure if it is a dematerialised Other, or if it is simply a part of a trap put into place by Zabulon.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations.

Two films based on the novel, 2004's "Night Watch" and the 2006 follow-up "Day Watch", have been produced. (The "Day Watch" film is based on the second and the third part of the novel, not the follow-up novel "Day Watch".) In 2005, Nival Interactive released the video game "Night Watch", based on both the novel and film adaptation.

Night Watch () is the first fantasy novel by the Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko to feature his fictional world of the Others. Lukyanenko wrote the story in 1998 and the book was first published in Russia by AST in 1998. The story revolves around a confrontation between two opposing supernatural groups (known as "Others"): the Night Watch, an organization dedicated to policing the actions of the Dark Others—and the Day Watch, which polices the actions of the Light Others.

Noční hlídka () je román žánru fantasy od ruského spisovatele Sergeje Lukjaněnka. Je první částí "série Hlídky" a volným pokračováním jsou knihy "Denní hlídka", "Šerá hlídka", "Poslední hlídka", "Nová hlídka a Šestá hlídka". S "Hlídkami" souvisí i kniha "Temná hlídka" od Vladimira Vasiljeva. Na motivy knihy byl v roce 2004 natočen film, který zaznamenal rekordní návštěvnost.


Origin.

A cryptic story in the Babylonian Talmud states that "On the eve of every Shabbat, Judah HaNasi's pupils, Rab Hanina and Rab Hoshaiah, who devoted themselves especially to cosmogony, used to create a delicious calf by means of the "Sefer Yetzirah", and ate it on the Sabbath." Mystics assert that the biblical patriarch Abraham used the same method to create the calf prepared for the three angels who foretold Sarah's pregnancy in the biblical account at Genesis 18:7. All the miraculous creations attributed to other rabbis of the Talmudic era are ascribed by rabbinic commentators to the use of the same book.  "Sefer Yetzirah"'s appendix (vi. 15) declares that Abraham was the recipient of the divine revelation of mystic lore; so that the rabbis of the classical rabbinic era (see Hai Gaon in the responsum cited in ""Kerem Ḥemed"," viii. 57), and philosophers as Saadia, Donnolo, and Judah HaLevi (""Kuzari"," iv. 25) never doubted that Abraham was the author of the book. In "Pardes Rimonim", Moses ben Jacob Cordovero (Ramak) mentions a minority opinion that Rabbi Akiva authored it, and takes it to mean Abraham wrote it and Akiva redacted it to its current form. Jewish Lore attributes it to Adam, and that "[f]rom Adam it passed over to Noah, and then to Abraham, the friend of God."  According to modern historians, the origin of the text is unknown, and hotly debated. Some scholars believe it might have an early medieval origin, while others emphasize earlier traditions appearing in the book. Most contemporary scholars date the text's authorship to the Talmudic period.  The division of the letters into the three classes of vowels, mutes, and sonants also appears in Hellenic texts. The historical origin of the "Sefer Yetzirah" was placed by Reitzenstein ("Poimandres", p. 291) in the 2nd century BCE. According to Christopher P. Benton, the Hebrew grammatical form places its origin closer to the period of the Mishna, around the 2nd century CE.  In a manuscript in the British Museum (see Margoliouth, ""Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts of the British Museum"," part II., p. 190), the "Sefer Yetzirah" is called the "Hilkot Yetzirah" and declared to be esoteric lore not accessible to anyone but the really pious (compare ib. p. 255, where it is mentioned as being used by Naḥmanides for Kabbalistic purposes).

Date.

The essential elements of the book are characteristic of the 3rd or 4th century; for a work of this nature, composed in the Geonic period could have been cast only in the form of Jewish gnosis, which remained stationary after the 4th century, if indeed it had not already become extinct.  The historical origin of the "Sefer Yetzirah" was placed by Reitzenstein ("Poimandres", p. 291) in the 2nd century BCE. According to Christopher P. Benton, the Hebrew grammatical form places its origin closer to the period of the Mishna, around the 2nd century CE.  The date and origin of the book can not be definitely determined so long as there is no critical text of it. The "editio princeps" (Mantua, 1562) contains two recensions, which were used in the main by the commentators of the book as early as the middle of the 10th century. The shorter version (Mantua I.) was annotated by Dunash ibn Tamim or by Jacob b. Nissim, while Saadia and Donnolo wrote commentaries on the longer recension (Mantua II.). The shorter version was also used by most of the later commentators, such as Judah b. Barzillai and Nahmanides, and it was, therefore, published in the ordinary editions. The longer recension, on the other hand, was little known, the form given in the "editio princeps" of the "Sefer Yetzirah" being probably a copy of the text found in Donnolo's commentary. In addition to these two principal recensions of the text, both versions contain a number of variant readings which have not yet been examined critically.  As regards the relation of the two recensions, it may be said that the longer form contains entire paragraphs which are not found in the shorter, while the divergent arrangement of the material often modifies the meaning essentially. Although the longer recension doubtless contains additions and interpolations which did not form part of the original text, it has many valuable readings which seem older and better than the corresponding passages in the shorter version, so that a critical edition of the text must consider both recensions.

Manuscripts.

The "Sefer Yetzirah" exists in multiple versions, including:  The differences among these versions tend to be minor.  The Short Version comprises about 1300 words while the Long Version about twice that. In the 13th century, Abraham Abulafia noted the existence of both of them.  In the 10th century, Saadia Gaon wrote his commentary based on a manuscript which was a reorganized copy of the Longer Version, now called the "Saadia Version".  In the 16th century, Isaac Luria redacted the Short Version to harmonize it with the "Zohar", and then in the 18th century, the Vilna Gaon (known as "the Gra") further redacted it. This text is called the "Gra Version".

Influence.

The "Sefer Yetzirah" is devoted to speculations concerning God's creation of the world. The ascription of its authorship to the biblical patriarch Abraham shows the high esteem which it enjoyed for centuries. It may even be said that this work had a greater influence on the development of the Jewish mind than almost any other book after the completion of the Talmud.  The "Sefer Yetzirah" is exceedingly difficult to understand on account of its obscure style. The difficulty is rendered still greater by the lack of a critical edition, the present text being much interpolated and altered. Hence there is a wide divergence of opinion regarding the age, origin, contents, and value of the book.

Jewish study.

The history of the study of the "Sefer Yetzirah" is one of the most interesting in the records of Jewish literature. With the exception of the Bible, scarcely any other book has been the subject of so much annotation.  An intimate relation exists between the "Sefer Yetzirah" and the later mystics; and although there is a marked difference between the later Kabbalah and the "Sefer Yetzirah" (for instance, the "Sefirot" of the Kabbalists do not correspond to those of the "Sefer Yetzirah"), the system laid down in the latter is the first visible link in the development of Kabbalistic ideas. Instead of the immediate creation "ex nihilo", both works postulate a series of emanations of mediums between God and the universe; and both consider God as the first cause only, and not as the immediate efficient cause of the world.  A book of the same name was circulated among the Chassidei Ashkenaz Rhineland mystics between the eleventh and 13th centuries, for whom it became a source of magical speculation. This book seems to be a mystic work on the six days of creation, and corresponded in part to the small Midrash "Seder Rabbah de-Bereshit".

Teachings.

Structure.

"Sefer Yetzirah" describes how the universe was created by the "God of Israel" (a list of all of God's Hebrew names appears in the first sentence of the book) through "32 wondrous ways of wisdom": These divisions correspond to Jewish concepts such as the 3 letters making up God's name ("yud", "he", and "vav"), the 7 days of the Jewish week, the 12 tribes of Israel, and the 12 months of the Hebrew calendar, as well as to early "scientific" or philosophical ideas such as the 4 elements (fire, water, air, earth), the 7 planets, 10 directions, the 12 zodiacal constellations, various human physical functions, and a list of the parts of the human body. The book describes how God used the 10 sefirot and the 22 Hebrew letters in various combinations, and finally (as described in the closing section of the book), how he revealed this secret to Abraham as a covenant with him. God's covenant with Abraham is described as being two-fold: The last sentence describes how God "connects" the 22 letters of the Torah to Abraham's tongue, and reveals its secret to Abraham.

Themes.

Both the macrocosm (the universe) and the microcosm (man) are viewed in this system as products of the combination and permutation of these mystic characters, and such a use of the letters by the Jews for the formation of the Holy Name for thaumaturgical purposes is attested by magic papyri that quote an "Angelic Book of Moses," which was full of allusions to biblical names.  The linguistic theories of the author of the "Sefer Yetzirah" are an integral component of its philosophy, its other parts being astrological and Gnostic cosmogony. The three letters Aleph, Mem, Shin, are not only the three "mothers" from which the other letters of the alphabet are formed, but they are also symbolical figures for the three primordial elements, the substances which underlie all existence.  According to the "Sefer Yetzirah", the first emanation from the spirit of God was the "ruach" ( "rúaħ" "spirit," "air") that produced water, which, in its turn, formed the genesis of fire. In the beginning, however, these three substances had only a potential existence, and came into actual being only by means of the three letters Aleph, Mem, Shin; and as these are the principal parts of speech, so those three substances are the elements from which the cosmos has been formed.  The cosmos consists of three parts, the world, the year (or time), and man, which are combined in such a way that the three primordial elements are contained in each of the three categories. The water formed the earth; heaven was produced from the fire; and the "ruach" produced the air between heaven and earth. The three seasons of the year, winter, summer, and the rainy season, correspond to water, fire, and "ruach" in the same way as man consists of a head (corresponding to fire), torso (represented by "ruach"), and the other parts of the body (equivalent to water).  The seven double letters produced the seven planets, the "seven days," and the seven apertures in man (two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and one mouth). Again, as the seven double letters vary, being pronounced either hard or soft, so the seven planets are in continuous movement, approaching or receding from the earth. The "seven days," in like manner, were created by the seven double letters because they change in time according to their relation to the planets. The seven apertures in man connect him with the outer world as the seven planets join heaven and earth. Hence these organs are subject to the influence of the planets, the right eye being under Saturn, the left eye under Jupiter, and the like.  The twelve "simple" letters created the twelve signs of the zodiac, whose relation to the earth is always simple or stable; and to them belong the twelve months in time, and the twelve "leaders" in man. The latter are those organs which perform functions in the body independent of the outside world, being the hands, feet, kidneys, gall, intestines, stomach, liver, pancreas, and spleen; and they are, accordingly, subject to the twelve signs of the Zodiac.  In its relation to the construction of the cosmos, matter consists of the three primordial elements; they are not chemically connected with one another, but modify one another only physically. Power (δύναμις) emanates from the seven and the twelve heavenly bodies, or, in other words, from the planets and the signs of the zodiac. The "dragon" rules over the world (matter and the heavenly bodies); the sphere rules time; and the heart rules over the human body. The author sums up this explanation in a single sentence: "The dragon is like to a king on his throne, the sphere like a king traveling in his country, and the heart like a king at war."

Creation.

To harmonize the biblical statement of the creation ""ex nihilo"" with the doctrine of the primordial elements, the "Sefer Yetzirah" assumes a double creation, one ideal and the other real.  Their name is possibly derived from the fact that as numbers express only the relations of two objects to each other, so the ten "Sefirot" are only abstractions and not realities. Again, as the numbers from two to ten are derived from the number one, so the ten Sefirot are derived from one "their end is fixed in their beginning, as the flame is bound to the coal" (i. 7). Hence the "Sefirot" must not be conceived as emanations in the ordinary sense of the word, but rather as modifications of the will of God, which first changes to air, then becomes water, and finally fire, the last being no further removed from God than the first. The Sefer Yetzirah shows how the sephirot are a creation of God and the will of God in its varied manifestations.  Besides these abstract ten "Sefirot", which are conceived only ideally, the twenty-two letters of the alphabet produced the material world, for they are real, and are the formative powers of all existence and development. By means of these elements the actual creation of the world took place, and the ten "Sefirot", which before this had only an ideal existence, became realities. This is, then, a modified form of the Talmudic doctrine that God created heaven and earth by means of letters (Berachot 58a). The explanation on this point is obscure since the relation of the twenty-two letters to the ten "Sefirot" is not clearly defined.  The first sentence of the book reads: "Thirty-two paths, marvels of wisdom, hath God engraved...," these paths being then explained as the ten "Sefirot" and the twenty-two letters. While the "Sefirot" are expressly designated as "abstracts", it is said of the letters: "Twenty-two letters: God drew them, hewed them, combined them, weighed them, interchanged them, and through them produced the whole creation and everything that is destined to come into being" (ii. 2).  The letters are neither independent substances nor yet as mere forms. They seem to be the connecting-link between essence and form. They are designated as the instruments by which the real world, which consists of essence and form, was produced from the "Sefirot", which are merely formless essences.

Theories of contrast in nature.

In addition to the doctrine of the "Sefirot" and the letters, the theory of contrasts in nature, or of the syzygies ("pairs"), as they are called by the Gnostics, occupies a prominent place in the "Sefer Yetzirah". This doctrine is based on the assumption that the physical as well as the spiritual world consist of pairs mutually at war, but equalized by the unity, God. Thus in the three prototypes of creation the contrasting elements fire and water are equalized by air; corresponding to this are the three "Rulers" among the letters, the mute Mem contrasting with the hushing Shin, and both being equalized by Aleph.  Seven pairs of contrasts are enumerated in the life of man: From these premises the "Sefer Yezirah" draws the important conclusion that "good and evil" have no real existence, for since everything in nature can exist only by means of its contrast, a thing may be called good or evil according to its influence over man by the natural course of the contrast.  The book teaches that man is a free moral agent, and therefore a person is rewarded or punished for his or her actions. While the ideas of heaven and hell are left unmentioned in the book, it teaches that the virtuous man is rewarded by a favorable attitude of nature, while the wicked man finds it hostile to him.

The phonetic system.

The philological is discussed first, since it is necessary for an elucidation of the philosophical speculations of the work. The twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are classified both with reference to the position of the vocal organs in producing the sounds, and with regard to sonant intensity. In contrast to the Jewish grammarians, who assumed a special mode of articulation for each of the five groups of sounds, the "Sefer Yetzirah" says that no sound can be produced without the tongue, to which the other organs of speech merely lend assistance. Hence the formation of the letters is described as follows:  The letters are distinguished, moreover, by the intensity of the sound necessary to produce them, and are accordingly divided into: Besides these three letters, which are called "mothers," a distinction is also drawn between the seven "double" letters, which have two different sounds according to inflection, and the twelve "simple" letters, the remaining characters of the alphabet which represent only one sound each.

Gnostic elements.

"Sefer Yetzirah" is similar to various Gnostic systems. As the "Sefer Yetzirah" divides the Hebrew alphabet into three groups, so the Gnostic Marcus divided the Greek letters into three classes, regarded by him as the symbolic emanations of the three powers which include the whole number of the upper elements.  Both systems attach great importance to the power of the combinations and permutations of the letters in explaining the genesis and development of multiplicity from unity. The Clementine writings present another form of gnosis which agrees in many points with the "Sefer Yetzirah". As in the latter, God is not only the beginning but also the end of all things, so in the former He is the ἀρχή (= ראשית) and τέλος (= תכלית) of all that exists; and the Clementine writings furthermore teach that the spirit of God is transformed into πνεῦμα (= רוח), and this into water, which becomes fire and rocks, thus agreeing with the "Sefer Yetzirah", where the spirit of God, רוח (= πνεῦμα), air, water, and fire are the first four "Sefirot".  The remaining six "Sefirot", or the limitations of space by the three dimensions in a twofold direction, are also found in the Clementina, where God is described as the boundary of the universe and as the source of the six infinite dimensions.  The "dragon" (תלי "tli", perhaps meaning "curled one" as a coiled serpent) which plays such an important part in the astrology of the book, is probably an ancient Semitic figure; at all events its name is not Arabic, as scholars have hitherto assumed, but either Aramaic or possibly a Babylonian loan-word. The "dragon" is often understood as the starry constellation Draco and by extension it represents the cosmic axis (equivalent to the north/south pole) because this constellation coils around the North Star and thus around the celestial axis, as it intersects the northernmost part of the celestial sphere.

References in popular culture and other religions.

In Islam.

The Quran speaks of a holy book by the name of Suhuf Ibrahim (the Scrolls of Abraham). Although most Muslims believe this book to have long perished it is speculated that this may be a reference to "Sefer Yetzirah" as Jewish tradition generally ascribes authorship of that book to Abraham.

Thelemic references.

Frater Achad, in his book called "The Anatomy of The Body of God" has written interpretations of this book in Thelema.

Sefer Yetzirah ( "Sēpher Yəṣîrâh", "Book of Formation", or "Book of Creation") is the title of the earliest extant book on Jewish mysticism, although some early commentators treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory as opposed to Kabbalah. "Yetzirah" is more literally translated as "Formation"; the word "Briah" is used for "Creation". The book is traditionally ascribed to the patriarch Abraham, although others attribute its writing to Rabbi Akiva. Modern scholars have not reached consensus on the question of its origins. According to Rabbi Saadia Gaon, the objective of the book's author was to convey in writing how the things of our universe came into existence.

Sefer Jecira (, doslova „Kniha stvoření“ či „utváření“) je krátký pozdně starověký kabalistický spis pocházející z oblasti Blízkého východu. Odhady na stáří "Sefer Jeciry" se podle různých vědců různí, pohybují se od 2. do 10. století. Podle židovské tradice je autorství sice připisováno Abrahámovi, skutečný autor či autoři jsou však neznámí. Spis je přesto jedním z nejstarších textů týkajících se židovské mystiky a prvním, který začíná operovat s pojmem sefirot. I když samotný termín "Sefer Jecira" se objevuje již v Talmudu, přesto se má za nepravděpodobné, že by Talmud měl na mysli spis, který je v současnosti znám a vydáván pod tímto označením. Spíše se předpokládá, že spisek zmíněný v Talmudu byl až dodatečně ztotožněn s později vytvořeným textem. Nicméně podle řady učenců z gaonského období, mezi něž řadíme například Sa'adja Ga'ona, byl Abrahám nezpochybnitelným autorem spisku, podle Mošeho Cordovery byl Abrahám autorem a rabi Akiva finálním redaktorem díla.