Donald Trump gets attacked by an eagle.
This eagle truly represents America. What a majestic symbol.
It’s only fitting that this gets reblogged today
This is the only eagle that deserves reblogging on the 4th
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"

JVL

if i look back, i am lost
Sade Olutola
🪼
Stranger Things
DEAR READER
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
Acquired Stardust
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@theartofmadeline

oozey mess
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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Not today Justin

blake kathryn

titsay
taylor price
Claire Keane
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seen from United States

seen from Malaysia

seen from United Kingdom
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seen from Germany

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@snailfrog
Donald Trump gets attacked by an eagle.
This eagle truly represents America. What a majestic symbol.
It’s only fitting that this gets reblogged today
This is the only eagle that deserves reblogging on the 4th
Did Alcuin speak the Frankish language? Or did he and Charlemagne communicate in Latin or some other language?
Frank was still a quite Germanic language. a bit akin to the Scandinavian languages which are cousins. Do not forget Franks in the 6thC were but the grand children of a generation which had seen Hengest and Horsa sail to Britain while their para-Frisian relatives had gone South toward Tournai. Merovee fought against Attila in 451 when Hengest was having a word with Vortingern.
A cliche about medieval battles is the brave king or prince fighting to the end and charging into certain death. If a king or prince claimed he was going to fight to the death, would his servants and bodyguards always obey that command? Or are there historical examples of a king's servants or bodyguards forcefully dragging him away from the battle for his own survival?
TBH no idea but Early medieval retainers aka elite aristocratic warriors fought to the death along their leader. It was an era where petty politicking was not ‘the thing’. To high deeds went great awards, great thanks which implied lands, riches, local power. It was worth it to fight. To die an honorable death would mean your children would be co-opted in the king close circle. Some things never change.
Alright Thespians and art enthusiasts. This one’s for you.
Better known for his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) wrote, in 1891, Salomé-Drame en un acte; or in English, Salome-A Tragedy in One Act. The play is a portrayal of the Biblical story of Salome, the stepdaughter of Herod, who, after her performance of the Dance of the Seven Veils for Herod and his friends, requests the head of Jokanaan the Prophet (John the Baptist) on a silver platter.
Rehearsals for the play’s debut began in 1892, but because it was illegal to portray biblical characters on the stage at the time, the performance was banned.
The play finally received its debut on 11 February 1896 in Paris at the Comédie-Parisienne; unfortunately, Wilde was in prison at the time.
Within his play, special attention is paid to the Dance of the Seven Veils (named by Wilde), which, according to an analytical quote by Carmen Skaggs in her book, Modernity Revision of the Dancing Daughter: The Salome Narrative of Wilde and Strauss, gives Salome more depth of character and modernity. She writes,
“Wilde, as a Decadent writer in the nineteenth century, develops the themes of Orientalism and counter-cultural ethics. He enters the chasm of human emotion and reveals both the savage and noble heights to which humanity ascends. He explores the deeply ingrained gender ideologies of modernity and the sexual perversities of modern culture.”
and,
“By focusing the narrative upon the dancing daughter and empowering her sexuality, Wilde brings new dimension to her character.”
What a great feminist close read! Nothing wrong with a sprinkle of feminism, right?
Anyway, Wilde originally wrote his play in French and this edition was first published in 1893. Earlier in 1892 for the Pall Mall Gazette, Wilde explained his reasoning for writing his play en français:
“I have one instrument that I know I can command, and that is the English language. There was another instrument to which I had listened all my life, and I wanted once to touch this new instrument to see whether I could make any beautiful thing out of it. […] Of course, there are modes of expression that a Frenchman of letters would not have used, but they give a certain relief or colour to the play. A great deal of the curious effect that Maeterlinck produces comes from the fact that he, a Flamand by grace, writes in an alien language. The same thing is true of Rossetti, who, though he wrote in English, was essentially Latin in temperament.”
The French edition was illustrated by André Derain (1880-1954), co-founder of the modern art movement, Fauvism. The first English edition of Salome was published one year later in 1894 and was illustrated by Audrey Bearsley (1872-1898). It was his striking illustrations that caught my eye and that I felt I should share with you all. Bearsley was a leading figure in the Aesthetic (along with Wilde himself) and Art Nouveau movements. His illustrations were created under the influence of the Japanese-style wood cuts, and, “emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic.”
Signed copies of both the French and English editions of Oscar Wilde’s Salome are housed in MU Special Collections and Rare Books Department.
-Olivia M.
Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900. Salome : a tragedy in one act, translated from the French of Oscar Wilde / by Alfred Douglas and illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley ; with a new introduction by Holbrook Jackson. London : Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1938. Rare Folio PR5820 .S15 1938b (ENGLISH) Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900. Salomé : drama en un acte / Oscar Wilde ; illustrations par André Derain. Paris : Imprimé pour les membres de The Limited Editions Club, 1938. Rare Folio PR5820 .S15 1938b (FRENCH)
Goodbye Vikings
Hirst said the show was about the boys, so I could understand killing off the older generation, but then he kills one of the boys for no reason. He said: "This is a drama not a documentary." Actually the show was based on the sagas which are a type of myth. THen there are the dangling storylines: what happened to Harbard? Bjorn's daughter????? pointless characters like Astrid, Tanaruz...
Show jumped the shark, so I am off.
Springfield Missouri Republican, Missouri, September 9, 1922
My paternal grandmother cut her hair to a bob after her wedding. The hairdresser refused to proceed unril my dashing grandfather turned up to his shop and supported his wife. Better he drove her through town in their car to show how proud of her he was.
Way to go my dear grandparents.
Some men are morons. Not all men are morons.
Real Vikings. Real history. No fake writer.
Dear Michael Hirst, for what you have done to these utterly amazing sagas, the day you die Valhalla is going to open its gates...
And the sons of Ragnar - the real sons of Ragnar - will ride across Bifrost to meet you. And you will truly receive Aella’s fate for the injustice your TV show is doing them.
And for what you did to Normandy, the dukes and princesses of the line of Rollo will welcome you in the afterlife with a good sword blow. May you pay for your arrogance!
Ladies, Retribution is on its way.
Served by the descendants of the descendants of the real Vikings.
Watch, Enjoy.
Norse people as they were. Not puppets. To follow a delusional agenda.
@laure-demontety, @seersaw, @princessgisla, @princessefanda, @hviitserk, @stripesandpolkadot, @stripesandpolkadot, @reviewsandme, @kingeccbert, @snailfrog, @strangestviking, @snakeeyewarrior, @princeubbe, @zoesongs, @princessgisla
@theaethelwulf, @ingeborgeysteinnsdottir
This scene reminds me a lot of Blade Runner scene. Where Roy Batty meets his Maker Dr Tyrell and all goes to pot. As in Wessex.
Roy meets a reluctant unloving father. Who believes having given life is plenty enough just like Egbert believes that his son eternal duty is to be his puppet where love and respect do not come into the pulling of strings.
All Egbert has to mutter is nonsense about Athelstan and Ragnar (on par in real life to the pitiful gospel Hirst is trying to force-feed his audience: Athelstan a supposed man of God ungodly enough to mess up with the royal blood line along Saint Ragnar who suffers a cruel death via snake bite. Such a dastardly martyrdom compared - let’s say - to a blood eagle torture. Cue: laughter of the medical community. Compare and contrast poison against having your lungs ripped out of the rib cage.
Ragnar was a good father who believed a vague prayer was enough to show him missing his daughter. Who did not bother taking news of his eldest son for 4 years. Who tried to kill his disabled youngest. And certainly abandoned all of his sons during 6 or 7 years because he was ashamed to have been outsmarted by his brother.
Yes. A man of God as an humble monk. Relaps, turned Pagan who killed his countrymen and suffered retribution. Who believed so much in God he was spitting out the Holy Wafer and later fucked his king’s daughter-in-law so said king could in turn cuckold his very own son.
Egbert has no word of regrets, shows no display of affection. He may be now the senile version of his former self but his way does not include the word Sorry.
Justice would have Aethelwulf killing him and deservedly. A bad father, a betrayer of friends. Tyrell offers only and Death only to his heir. Death for Death, Roy chooses to go his way.
Will Aethelwulf do take the same path?
Egbert is a lot of things. A good father he is not. Should he die? Yes. I like Linus acting but the character needs to leave the stage. His guilty plea rings hollow as he states he is sorry for Ragnar (the man he has delivered to Aelle) and for Athelstan (the man he wanted to keep while Ragnar would leave to probably put him to death along the Viking farmer colony). But sorry to have been an excuse of a father to his own son? NO. Never.
His hate is vigilant. His despise against the child who took his mother’s life is always constant. He cannot understand his son need for love just like Tyrell does not get Roy wants a real life. A lifespan on par to normal people.
There is nothing creepy in Aethelwulf desire for Love just like Roy wish to live this short life of us humans is pretty reasonable. Crushing his maker head will save other replicants from this absurd life span of 4 years, killing his father is reasonable in this light. The real father rejoices at the return of the prodigal son while evil fathers deserve to be shamed.
I doubt Aethelwulf will rise to this expectation. Hirst is a writer known to pander to his most rabid and - let us be clear about them - silly fans. Elegance is not a word he understands.
Thus I shall let you dream of an alternate end for Aethelwulf. Who will die as true kings do. Doing their duty. Another historical accuracy missing in Hirst dictionary.
Somewhere in the awful mess which is now Vikings, we are left to dream about what we should have seen and were deprived of. Time to die.
They shoot Vikings, don’t they. And it will be called merciful killing when this show is at long last cancelled
Treasures from 2,600-year-old grave of Celtic princess in Germany reveal their secrets
The grave of an aristocratic woman and child in the south of Germany has been dated to 583 BCE, making it 2,600 years old. The grave site, which was moved to a lab in Stuttgart in its entirety in order for the burial chamber to be studied, contains the remains of a woman adorned in gold, bronze, amber and jet jewellery, and about half a metre away from her, the remains of a girl thought to have been between two and three years old. The woman was buried with gold, bronze, jet and amber jewellery and armour for a horse’s head.
Close similarities between the gold broaches worn by the woman and the child suggest that there may have been a familial relationship between the woman and child, archaeologists have reported in a paper published in the journal Antiquity.
“The broaches are very similar in decoration and style,” study author Dirk Krausse of the State Office for Cultural Heritage, Baden-Wuerttemberg, told IBTimes UK. “By typology and ornamentation decoration, they are from the same period – probably from the same goldsmiths.” Read more.
Lost Dark Age Kingdom Uncovered in Scotland
Archaeologists may have finally found the lost kingdom of Rheged, the most elusive of all the sixth century kingdoms of Dark Age Britain.
The mysterious kingdom was pre-eminent in northern Britain in the sixth century, but faded into obscurity after it was deliberately destroyed in the beginning of the following century.
Historians had speculated that the kingdom was headquartered in Cumbria, a county in north west England, but no evidence of it was ever found. Then digs carried in 2012 at Trusty’s Hill, which overlooks the Fleet valley in Galloway in south-west Scotland, revealed clues of the presence of a royal stronghold. Read more.
From a preview clip, we can see Floki holding a torch and ready to burn several scrolls and parchments. And I was reminded of King Alfred's lament about how the Viking attacks had devastated knowledge and literacy in England.
And rightly you were. So many Merovingian and Carolingian scrolls were destroyed by Norse raiders. Number beggars belief.
After Bjorn and all the other Vikings rejected Rollo's offer, Helga says a friendly goodbye to him. And Rollo says he will not forget. Do you think this means anything?
Two ways to read it: he will not forget Helga kindness just like he will not forget his nephews attitude. Rollo is patient but they will pay. If they ever decide to settle, there will be no land for them in Normandy.
What are your thoughts on Rollo in the latest episode?
All started from Rollo getting stressed about humdrum family life and boring work. Because being a ruler/king/duke is not limited to the excitement of the battlefield but importantly the orderly running up of an estate. Making sure all is nicely oiled. Peasants farm in peace. law and order along justice reign. Nobody starves, poor people are taken care of. Buildings are started and completed. Marshes are dried up so new fields are available. Safe navigation on rivers. This is kingship. Doing your duty.
Or like the Poet wrote:
Your soul by study should aspireTo that degree of stoic haughtinessThat I, though feral-born, have yet accessed:To wait, to weep, to pray are futile all;Instead you’d fain your weighty task recall:To take, as I, that path that fate decrees,To live, to suffer, and die wordlessly.
Doing your duty. Not wasting time in idle what ifs and other mid life crisis. Which is what Rollo has chosen to do this season. Up to the murder of peaceful Islamic city dwellers ... and the rape of a few women. As he leaves Algeciras, one can see he does not look right as in does not feel right. Ashamed being the word. Not about the slaves but about betrayed for sheer physical enjoyment something a lot worthier than sex. As he sails up North, tentatively he tries to find a way in the North as if he knows ahead of his come back to Normandy that questions and retribution are waiting for him. But Kattegat door is closed and his ex-brethren in sin and crime are rejecting him. Once a traitor, always a traitor says Hvitserk who owes his life to his uncle in season 2. Too much bad blood says Bjorn who owes same. The Lothbroks do not know forgiveness unless it is unilaterally granted to them exclusively.
Thus, Rollo has no exit left but offer what Ragnar has failed to achieve: safe rich farm lands for peaceful North Men happy to settle South. While Normay and DenMark elites may smirk, a few years of famine in their North may decide humble raiders who are not blood related to Kattegat leading family to sail to Frankia. When your family starves, when you are wounded on a road by robbers, the kind offer of a relapsed Pagan/Christian Norse/Frank trying to find his own way is no different than the mercy of a Samaritan whose faith did not rate high among Jerusalem Pharisees.
While the LothBroks are pouting and the Norwegian brothers express disdain, it remains we know it is Rollo who is right. Times are a-changing and Floki does not see it. From the Norsemen who raided Lindisfarne to historical Rollo ruling over the Nordmanni of the Seine, 120 years. Add another 120 years and we are closing to the Crusades. The Age of the Vikings is over. It ends in fact - delicious irony - with Rollo great grand son in 1066 at Hastings. Could it end when a man born in Frankia certainly not Pagan decides to avenge his great- many times removed paternal uncle by defeating Harold Godwinson. A man who may be (if some historians are to be believed) descended from Alfred the Great's elder brother, King Æthelred I of Wessex. Yes a man whose ancestor is the accursed Egbert King of Wessex.
Ending by Rollo: ashamed of having cheated on his wife, relieved the storm is spared to his children, the man who dared try to throttle his wife because she was not understanding his Viking soul for whatever it is worth ... or not, has no choice but make do and suffer the wrath of a woman of Frankia.
I hope she broke his nose. He deserves it. Let see how the Gods decide his fate.
This past weekend we had our first gathering of the new year. To stay in line with the new year, we cleared our campsite of old clutter and made space for our various plans for this coming year. A few set out into the woods to gather some extra firewood, and then we gathered our strength and set off for a long overdue trollhunt, to instill some fear in those pesky beasts.
Do you think that one of the flaws of season 4 is the fact that it was extended for 20 episodes instead of the usual 10. It seems that Hirst's writing is struggling big time due to this. Seasons 1, 2 & 3 were well written, but in the beginnings with 4a, the characters were inconsistent and the supporting plotlines (Odo, Roland & Therese sex games come to mind) were pointless.
Not the number of episodes but the quality or rather lack of thereof, lack of inventivity, the list is endless og what went wrong.
Along this cheap belief that anything needs to be spiced up by sex. As it had been recently invented. Good grief. The puritanical Anglo-Saxon streak shown through Same of Thrones is on par to the Celebrity addiction of our media. Reality tv is not real and certainly not television but just fodder.
Pointless is not the adjective by demeaning. Failed, reductive, limited and poor. A true disservice to the historical movie genre.
Sir Ian McKellen attended the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in London, Nov 13.
Reblog Fairy Godmother Ian for all your dreams to come true.