title: Vinland

text: The main sources of information about the Norse voyages to Vinland are two Icelandic Sagas: the "Saga of Erik the Red" and the "Saga of the Greenlanders", which are known collectively as the Vinland Sagas. These stories were preserved by oral tradition until they were written down some 250 years after the events they describe. The existence of two versions of the story shows some of the challenges of using traditional sources for history, because they share a large number of story elements but use them in different ways. A possible example is the reference to two different men named Bjarni who are blown off course. A brief summary of the plots of the two sagas, given at the end of this article, shows other examples.


title: Vinland

text: The sagas report that a considerable number of Vikings were in parties that visited Vinland. Thorfinn Karlsefni's crew consisted of 140 or 160 people according to the Saga of Erik the Red, 60 according to the Saga of the Greenlanders. Still according to the latter, Leif Ericson led a company of 35, Thorvald Eiriksson a company of 30, and Helgi and Finnbogi had 30 crew members.


title: Vinland

text: According to the Saga of Erik the Red, Þorfinnr "Karlsefni" Þórðarson and a company of 160 men, going south from Greenland traversed an open stretch of sea, found Helluland, another stretch of sea, Markland, another stretch of sea, the headland of "Kjalarnes", the Wonderstrands, Straumfjörð and at last a place called "Hóp", a bountiful place where no snow fell during winter. However, after several years away from Greenland, they chose to turn back to their homes when they realized that they would otherwise face an indefinite conflict with the natives.


title: Vinland

text: This saga references the place-name Vinland in four ways. First, it is identified as the land found by Leif Erikson. Karlsefni and his men subsequently find "vín-ber" near the Wonderstrands. Later, the tale locates Vinland to the south of Markland, with the headland of "Kjalarnes" at its northern extreme. However, it also mentions that while at Straumfjord, some of the explorers wished to go in search for Vinland west of "Kjalarnes".


title: Vinland

text: In "Grænlendinga saga" or the 'Saga of the Greenlanders', Bjarni Herjólfsson accidentally discovered the new land when traveling from Norway to visit his father, in the second year of Erik the Red's Greenland settlement (about 986 CE). When he managed to reach Greenland, making land at Herjolfsness, the site of his father's farm, he remained there for the rest of his father's life and didn't return to Norway until about 1000 CE. There, he told his overlord (the Earl, also named Erik) about the new land and was criticized for his long delay in reporting this. On his return to Greenland he retold the story and inspired Leif Eriksson to organize an expedition, which retraced in reverse the route Bjarni had followed, past a land of flat stones (Helluland) and a land of forests (Markland). After having sailed another two days across open sea, the expedition found a headland with an island just off the shore, with a nearby pool, accessible to ships at high tide, in an area where the sea was shallow with sandbanks. Here the explorers landed and established a base which can plausibly be matched to L'Anse aux Meadows; except that the winter was described as mild, not freezing. One day an old family servant, Tyrker, went missing and was found mumbling to himself. He eventually explained that he found grapes/currants. In the spring, Leif returned to Greenland with a shipload of timber, towing a boatload of grapes/currants. On the way home, he spotted another ship aground on the rocks, rescued the crew and later salvaged the cargo. A second expedition, one ship of about 40 men led by Leif's brother Thorvald, sets out in the autumn after Leif's return and stayed over three winters at the new base ("Leifsbúðir" (-budir), meaning Leif's temporary shelters), exploring the west coast of the new land during the first summer, and the east coast during the second, running aground and losing the ship's keel on a headland they christen Keel Point ("Kjalarnes"). Further south, at a point where Thorvald wanted to establish a settlement, the Greenlanders encountered some of the local inhabitants ("Skrælings") and killed them, following which they were attacked by a large force in hide boats, and Thorvald died from an arrow-wound. After the exploration party returned to base, the Greenlanders decided to return home the following spring.


title: Vinland

text: Thorstein, Leif's brother, married Gudrid, widow of the captain rescued by Leif, then led a third expedition to bring home Thorvald's body, but drifted off course and spent the whole summer sailing the Atlantic. Spending the winter as a guest at a farm on Greenland with Gudrid, Thorstein died of disease, reviving just long enough to make a prophecy about her future as a Christian. The next winter, Gudrid married a visiting Icelander named Thorfinn Karlsefni, who agreed to undertake a major expedition to Vinland, taking livestock. On arrival, they soon found a beached whale which sustained them until spring. In the summer, they were visited by some of the local inhabitants who were scared by the Greenlanders' bull, but happy to trade goods for milk and other products. In autumn, Gudrid gave birth to a son, Snorri. Shortly after this, one of the local people tried to take a weapon and was killed. The explorers were then attacked in force, but managed to survive with only minor casualties by retreating to a well-chosen defensive position, a short distance from their base. One of the local people picked up an iron axe, tried it, and threw it away.


title: Vinland

text: The explorers returned to Greenland in summer with a cargo of grapes/currants and hides. Shortly thereafter, a ship captained by two Icelanders arrived in Greenland, and Freydis, daughter of Eric the Red, persuaded them to join her in an expedition to Vinland. When they arrived to Vinland, the brothers stored their belongings in Leif Eriksson's houses, which angered Freydis and she banished them. She then visited them during the winter and asked for their ship, claiming that she wanted to go back to Greenland, which the brothers happily agreed to. Freydis went back and told her husband the exact opposite, which led to the killing, at Freydis' order, of all the Icelanders, including five women, as they lay sleeping. In the spring, the Greenlanders returned home with a good cargo, but Leif found out the truth about the Icelanders. That was the last Vinland expedition recorded in the saga.


title: Vinland

text: In the other version of the story, "Eiríks saga rauða" or the "Saga of Erik the Red", Leif Ericsson accidentally discovered the new land when traveling from Norway back to Greenland after a visit to his overlord, King Olaf Tryggvason, who commissioned him to spread Christianity in the colony. Returning to Greenland with samples of grapes/currants, wheat and timber, he rescued the survivors from a wrecked ship and gained a reputation for good luck; his religious mission was a swift success. The next spring, Thorstein, Leif's brother, lead an expedition to the new land, but drifted off course and spent the whole summer sailing the Atlantic. On his return, he met and married Gudrid, one of the survivors from a ship which made land at Herjolfsnes after a difficult voyage from Iceland. Spending the winter as a guest at a farm on Greenland with Gudrid, Thorstein died of disease, reviving just long enough to make a prophecy about her future as a far-traveling Christian. The next winter, Gudrid married a visiting Icelander named Thorfinn Karlsefni, who, with his business partner Snorri Thorbrandsson, agreed to undertake a major expedition to the new land, taking livestock with them. Also contributing ships for this expedition were another pair of visiting Icelanders, Bjarni Grimolfsson and Thorhall Gamlason, and Leif's brother and sister Thorvald and Freydis, with her husband Thorvard. Sailing past landscapes of flat stones (Helluland) and forests (Markland) they rounded a cape where they saw the keel of a boat (Kjalarnes), then continued past some extraordinarily long beaches ("Furðustrandir") before they landed and sent out two runners to explore inland. After three days, the pair returned with samples of grapes/currants and wheat. After they sailed a little farther, the expedition landed at an inlet next to an area of strong currents (Straumfjörð), with an island just off shore (Straumsey), and they made camp. The winter months were harsh, and food was in short supply. One day an old family servant, Thorhall the Hunter (who had not become Christian), went missing and was found mumbling to himself. Shortly afterwards, a beached whale was found, which Thorhall claimed had been provided in answer to his praise of the pagan gods. The explorers found that eating it made them ill, so they prayed to the Christian God, and shortly afterwards the weather improved.


title: Vinland

text: When spring arrived, Thorhall Gamlason, the Icelander, wanted to sail north around Kjalarnes to seek Vinland, while Thorfinn Karlsefni preferred to sail southward down the east coast. Thorhall took only nine men, and his vessel is swept out into the ocean by contrary winds; he and his crew never returned. Thorfinn and Snorri, with Freydis (plus possibly Bjarni), sailed down the east coast with 40 men or more and established a settlement on the shore of a seaside lake, protected by barrier islands and connected to the open ocean by a river which was navigable by ships only at high tide. The settlement was known as "Hóp", and the land abounded with grapes/currants and wheat. The teller of this saga was uncertain whether the explorers remained here over the next winter (said to be very mild) or for only a few weeks of summer. One morning they saw nine hide boats; the local people ("Skrælings") examined the Norse ships and departed in peace. Later a much larger flotilla of boats arrived, and trade commenced (Karlsefni forbade the sale of weapons). One day, the local traders were frightened by the sudden arrival of the Greenlanders' bull, and they stayed away for three weeks. They then attacked in force, but the explorers managed to survive with only minor casualties, by retreating inland to a defensive position, a short distance from their camp. Pregnancy slowed Freydis down, so she picked up the sword of a fallen companion and brandished it against her bare breast, scaring the attackers into withdrawal. One of the local people picked up an iron axe, tried using it, but threw it away. The explorers subsequently abandoned the southern camp and sailed back to Straumsfjord, killing five natives they encountered on the way, lying asleep in hide sacks.


title: Vinland

text: Karlsefni, accompanied by Thorvald Eriksson and others, sailed around Kjalarnes and then south, keeping land on their left side, hoping to find Thorhall. After sailing for a long time, while moored on the south side of a west-flowing river, they were shot at by a one-footed man, and Thorvald died from an arrow-wound. Once they reached Markland, the men encountered five natives, of whom they kidnapped two boys, baptizing them and teaching them their own language. The explorers returned to Straumsfjord, but disagreements during the following winter lead to the abandonment of the venture. On the way home, the ship of Bjarni the Icelander was swept into the Sea of Worms (Maðkasjár in Skálholtsbók, Maðksjár in Hauksbók) by contrary winds. The marine worms destroyed the hull, and only those who escaped in the ship's worm-proofed boat survived. This was the last Vinland expedition recorded in the saga.


title: Vinland

text: The oldest commonly acknowledged surviving written record of Vinland appears in "Descriptio insularum Aquilonis" by Adam of Bremen written in about 1075. Adam was told about "islands" discovered by Norse sailors in the Atlantic by the Danish king Svend Estridsen.


title: Vinland

text: The nearby Norse outpost of Markland was mentioned in the writings of Galvano Fiamma in his book, "Cronica universalis". He is believed to be the first Southern European to write about the New World.""


title: Vinland

text: The earliest map of Vinland was drawn by Sigurd Stefansson, a schoolmaster at Skalholt, Iceland, around 1570, which placed Vinland somewhere that can be Chesapeake Bay, St. Lawrence, or Cape Cod Bay.


title: Vinland

text: In the early 14th Century, a geography encyclopedia called "Geographica Universalis" was compiled at Malmesbury Abbey in England, which was in turn used as a source for one of the most widely circulated medieval English educational works, "Polychronicon" by Ranulf Higden, a few years later. Both these works, with Adam of Bremen as a possible source, were confused about the location of what they called "Wintland"—the Malmesbury monk had it on the ocean east of Norway, while Higden put it west of Denmark but failed to explain the distance. Copies of "Polychronicon" commonly included a world map on which "Wintland" was marked in the Atlantic Ocean near Iceland, but again much closer to the Scandinavian mainland than in reality. The name was explained in both texts as referring to the savage inhabitants' ability to tie the wind up in knotted cords, which they sold to sailors who could then undo a knot whenever they needed a good wind. Neither mentioned grapes, and the Malmesbury work specifically states that little grows there but grass and trees, which reflects the saga descriptions of the area round the main Norse expedition base.


title: Vinland

text: More geographically correct were Icelandic texts from about the same time, which presented a clear picture of the northern countries as experienced by Norse explorers: north of Iceland a vast, barren plain (which we now know to be the Polar ice-cap) extended from "Biarmeland" (northern Russia) east of the White Sea, to Greenland, then further west and south were, in succession, Helluland, Markland and Vinland. The Icelanders had no knowledge of how far south Vinland extended, and they speculated that it might reach as far as Africa.


title: Vinland

text: The "Historia Norwegiae" (History of Norway), compiled around 15th–16th century, does not refer directly to Vinland and tries to reconcile information from Greenland with mainland European sources; in this text Greenland's territory extends so that it is "almost touching the African islands, where the waters of ocean flood in".


title: Vinland

text: Icelandic chronicles record another attempt to visit Vinland from Greenland, over a century after the saga voyages. In 1121, Icelandic bishop Eric Gnupsson, who had been based on Greenland since 1112, "went to seek Vinland". Nothing more is reported of him, and three years later another bishop, Arnald, was sent to Greenland. No written records, other than inscribed stones, have survived in Greenland, so the next reference to a voyage also comes from Icelandic chronicles. In 1347, a ship arrived in Iceland, after being blown off course on its way home from Markland to Greenland with a load of timber. The implication is that the Greenlanders had continued to use Markland as a source of timber over several centuries.


title: Vinland

text: The definition of Vinland is somewhat elusive. According to a 1969 article by Douglas McManis in the "Annals of the Association of American Geographers",


title: Vinland

text: This leads him to conclude that "there is not a Vinland, there are many Vinlands". According to a 1970 reply by Matti Kaups in the same journal,


title: Vinland

text: In geographical terms, Vinland is sometimes used to refer generally to all areas in North America beyond Greenland that were explored by the Norse. In the sagas Vinland is sometimes indicated to not include the territories of Helluland and Markland, which appear to also be located in North America beyond Greenland. Moreover, some sagas establish vague links between Vinland and an island or territory that some sources refer to as "Hvítramannaland".


title: Vinland

text: Another possibility is to interpret the name of Vinland as not referring to one defined location, but to every location where vínber could be found, i.e. to understand it as a common noun, vinland, rather than a toponym, Vinland. The Old Norse and Icelandic languages were, and are, very flexible in forming compound words.


title: Vinland

text: Sixteenth century Icelanders realized that the "New World" which European geographers were calling "America" was the land described in their Vinland Sagas. The Skálholt Map, drawn in 1570 or 1590 but surviving only through later copies, shows "Promontorium Winlandiae" ("promontory/cape/foreland of Vinland") as a narrow cape with its northern tip at the same latitude as southern Ireland. (The scales of degrees in the map margins are inaccurate.) This effective identification of northern Newfoundland with the northern tip of Vinland was taken up by later Scandinavian scholars such as bishop Hans Resen.


title: Vinland

text: Although it is generally agreed, based on the saga descriptions, that Helluland includes Baffin Island, and Markland represents at least the southern part of the modern Labrador, there has been considerable controversy over the location of the actual Norse landings and settlement. Comparison of the sagas, as summarized below, shows that they give similar descriptions and names to different places. One of the few reasonably consistent pieces of information is that exploration voyages from the main base sailed down both the east and west coasts of the land; this was one of the factors which helped archaeologists locate the site at L'Anse aux Meadows, at the tip of Newfoundland's long northern peninsula.


title: Vinland

text: Erik Wahlgren examines the question in his book 'The Vikings and America', and points out clearly that L'Anse aux Meadows cannot be the location of Vínland, as the location described in the sagas has both salmon in the rivers and the 'vínber' (meaning specifically 'grape', that according to Wahlgren the explorers were familiar with and would have thus recognized), growing freely.


title: Vinland

text: Charting the overlap of the limits of wild vine and wild salmon habitats, as well as nautical clues from the sagas, Wahlgren indicates a location in Maine or New Brunswick. He hazards a guess that Leif Erikson camped at Passamaquoddy Bay and Thorvald Erikson was killed in the Bay of Fundy.


title: Vinland

text: Other clues appear to place the main settlement farther south, such as the mention of a winter with no snow and the reports in both sagas of grapes being found. A very specific indication in the Greenlanders' Saga of the latitude of the base has also been subject to misinterpretation. This passage states that in the shortest days of midwinter, the sun was still above the horizon at "dagmal" and "eykt", two specific times in the Norse day. Carl Christian Rafn, in the first detailed study of the Norse exploration of the New World, "Antiquitates Americanae" (1837), interpreted these times as equivalent to 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., which would put the base a long way south of Newfoundland. According to the 1880 Sephton translation of the saga, Rafn and other Danish scholars placed "Kjalarnes" at Cape Cod, Straumfjörð at Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, and Straumsey at Martha's Vineyard.


title: Vinland

text: An Icelandic law text gives a very specific explanation of "eykt", with reference to Norse navigation techniques. The eight major divisions of the compass were subdivided into three hours each, to make a total of 24, and "eykt" was the end of the second hour of the south-west division. In modern terms this would be 3:30 p.m. for "Dagmal", the "day-meal." It is specifically distinguished from the earlier "rismal" (breakfast), which would thus be about 8:30 a.m. The sun is indeed just above the horizon at these times on the shortest days of the year in northern Newfoundland - but not much farther north.


title: Vinland

text: A 2012 article by Jónas Kristjánsson in the scientific journal "Acta Archeologica", which assumes that the headland of "Kjalarnes" referred to in the Saga of Erik the Red is at L'Anse aux Meadows, suggests that Straumfjörð refers to Sop's Arm, Newfoundland, as no other fjord in Newfoundland was found to have an island at its mouth. Kent Budden (1962-2008) a resident of Sop's Arm, did extensive exploration in the area, contacted Jonas to show him some artifacts, including an axe head that Jonas said had a twin in the Icelandic Museum. Kent believed he had confirmed Kristjansson's theory.


title: Vinland

text: Newfoundland marine insurance agent and historian William A. Munn (1864–1939), after studying literary sources in Europe, suggested in his 1914 book "Location of Helluland, Markland & Vinland from the Icelandic Sagas" that the Vinland explorers "went ashore at Lancey Meadows, as it is called to-day". In 1960, the remains of a small Norse encampment were discovered by Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad at that exact spot, L'Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland, and excavated during the 1960s and 1970s. It is most likely this was the main settlement of the sagas, a "gateway" for the Norse Greenlanders to the rich lands farther south. Many wooden objects were found at L'Anse aux Meadows, and radiocarbon dating confirms the site's occupation as being confined to a short period around 1000 CE. In addition, small pieces of jasper, known to have been used in the Norse world as fire-strikers, were found in and around the different buildings. When these were analyzed and compared with samples from jasper sources around the North Atlantic area, it was found that two buildings contained only Icelandic jasper pieces, while another contained some from Greenland; a single piece from the east coast of Newfoundland was found. These finds appear to confirm the saga claim that some Vinland exploration ships came from Iceland and that they ventured down the east coast of the new land. In 2021, wood from the site was shown to have been cut in 1021, using metal blades, which the local indigenous people did not have.


title: Vinland

text: Although it is now generally accepted that L'Anse aux Meadows was the main base of the Norse explorers, the southernmost limit of Norse exploration remains a subject of intense speculation. Samuel Eliot Morison (1971) suggested the southern part of Newfoundland; Erik Wahlgren (1986) Miramichi Bay in New Brunswick; and Icelandic climate specialist Pall Bergthorsson (1997) proposed New York City. The insistence in all the main historical sources that grapes were found in Vinland suggests that the explorers ventured at least to the south side of the St. Lawrence River, as Jacques Cartier did 500 years later, finding both wild vines and nut trees. Three butternuts were found at L'Anse aux Meadows, another species which grows only as far north as the St. Lawrence.


title: Vinland

text: The vinviðir (wine wood) the Norse were cutting down in the sagas may refer to the vines of "Vitis riparia", a species of wild grape that grows on trees. As the Norse were searching for lumber, a material that was needed in Greenland, they found trees covered with "Vitis riparia" south of L'Anse aux Meadows and called them vinviðir.


title: Vinland

text: L'Anse Aux Meadows was a small and short-lived encampment; perhaps it was primarily used for timber-gathering forays and boat repair, rather than permanent settlements like Greenland.


title: Vinland

text: The main resources that the people of Vinland relied on were wheat, berries, wine and fish. However, the wheat in the Vinlandic context is sandwort and not traditional wheat, and the grapes mentioned are native North American grapes, because the European grape ("Vitis vinifera") and wheat ("Triticum" sp.) existing in the New World before the Viking arrival in the tenth century is highly unlikely. Both the sagas reference a river and a lake that had an abundance of fish. The sagas specifically mention salmon, and note how the salmon that was encountered was larger than any salmon they had seen before.


title: Vinland

text: Before arriving in Vinland, the Norsemen imported their lumber from Norway while in Greenland and had occasional birch trees for firewood. Therefore, the timber they acquired in North America increased their supply of wood.


title: Vinland

text: An authentic late-11th-century Norwegian silver penny, with a hole for stringing on a necklace, was found in Maine. Its discovery by an amateur archaeologist in 1957 is controversial; questions have been raised whether it was planted as a hoax. Numerous artifacts attributed to the Norse have been found in Canada, particularly on Baffin Island and in northern Labrador.


title: Vinland

text: Other claimed Norse artifacts in the area south of the St. Lawrence include a number of stones inscribed with runic letters. The Kensington Runestone was found in Minnesota, but is generally considered a hoax. The authenticity of the Spirit Pond runestones, recovered in Phippsburg, Maine, is also questioned. Other examples are the Heavener Runestone, the Shawnee Runestone, and the Vérendrye Runestone. The age and origin of these stones is debated, and so far none has been firmly dated or associated with clear evidence of a medieval Norse presence. In general, script in the runic alphabet does not in itself guarantee a Viking age or medieval connection, as it has been suggested that Dalecarlian runes have been used until the 20th century.


title: Vinland

text: Point Rosee, on the southwest coast of Newfoundland, was thought to be the location of a possible Norse settlement. The site was discovered through satellite imagery in 2014 by Sarah Parcak. In their November 8, 2017, report, which was submitted to the Provincial Archaeology Office in St. John's, Newfoundland, Sarah Parcak and Gregory "Greg" Mumford wrote that they "found no evidence whatsoever for either a Norse presence or human activity at Point Rosee prior to the historic period" and that "None of the team members, including the Norse specialists, deemed this area as having any traces of human activity."


title: Chicory

text: Common chicory ("Cichorium intybus") is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant of the family Asteraceae, usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Native to the Old World, it has been introduced to North America and Australia. Many varieties are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons (blanched buds), or roots (var. "sativum"), which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and food additive. In the 21st century, inulin, an extract from chicory root, has been used in food manufacturing as a sweetener and source of dietary fiber.


title: Chicory

text: Chicory is grown as a forage crop for livestock. "Chicory" is also the common name in the United States for curly endive ("Cichorium endivia"); these two closely related species are often confused.


title: Chicory

text: When flowering, chicory has a tough, grooved, and more or less hairy stem. It can grow to tall. The leaves are stalked, lanceolate and unlobed; they range from in length (smallest near the top) and wide. The flower heads are wide, and usually light blue or lavender; it has also rarely been described as white or pink. Of the two rows of involucral bracts, the inner is longer and erect, the outer is shorter and spreading. It flowers from March until October. The seed has small scales at the tip.


title: Chicory

text: Substances which contribute to the plant's bitterness are primarily the two sesquiterpene lactones, lactucin and lactucopicrin. Other components are aesculetin, aesculin, cichoriin, umbelliferone, scopoletin, 6,7-dihydrocoumarin, and further sesquiterpene lactones and their glycosides. Around 1970, it was discovered that the root contains up to 20% inulin, a polysaccharide similar to starch.


title: Chicory

text: Common chicory is also known as blue daisy, blue dandelion, blue sailors, blue weed, bunk, coffeeweed, cornflower, hendibeh, horseweed, ragged sailors, succory, wild bachelor's buttons, and wild endive. (Note: "cornflower" is commonly applied to "Centaurea cyanus".) Common names for varieties of var. "foliosum" include endive, radicchio, radichetta, Belgian endive, French endive, red endive, sugarloaf, and witloof (or witlof).


title: Chicory

text: Chicory is native to western Asia, North Africa, and Europe. It lives as a wild plant on roadsides in Europe. The plant was brought to North America by early European colonists. It is also common in China, and Australia, where it has become widely naturalized. It thrives in areas with abundant rain.


title: Chicory

text: Raw chicory leaves are 92% water, 5% carbohydrates, 2% protein, and contain negligible fat (table). In a 100 gram (3½ oz) reference amount, raw chicory leaves provide and significant amounts (more than 20% of the Daily Value) of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, some B vitamins, and manganese. Vitamin E and calcium are present in moderate amounts. Raw endive is 94% water and has low nutrient content.


title: Chicory

text: Root chicory ("Cichorium intybus" var. "sativum") has long been cultivated in Europe as a coffee substitute. The roots are baked, roasted, ground, and used as an additive, especially in the Mediterranean region (where the plant is native). As a coffee additive, it is also mixed in Indian filter coffee, and in parts of Southeast Asia, South Africa, and the southern United States, particularly in New Orleans. In France a mixture of 60% chicory and 40% coffee is sold under the trade name Ricoré. It has been more widely used during economic crises such as the Great Depression in the 1930s and during World War II in Continental Europe. Chicory, with sugar beet and rye, was used as an ingredient of the East German "Mischkaffee" (mixed coffee), introduced during the "East German coffee crisis" of 1976–79. It is also added to coffee in Spanish, Greek, Turkish, Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian cuisines.


title: Chicory

text: Some beer brewers use roasted chicory to add flavor to stouts (commonly expected to have a coffee-like flavor). Others have added it to strong blond Belgian-style ales, to augment the hops, making a "witloofbier", from the Dutch name for the plant.


title: Chicory

text: While edible raw, wild chicory leaves usually have a bitter taste, especially the older leaves. The flavor is appreciated in certain cuisines, such as in the Ligurian and Apulian regions of Italy and also in the southern part of India. In Ligurian cuisine, wild chicory leaves are an ingredient of "preboggion" and in the Apulian region, wild chicory leaves are combined with fava bean puree in the traditional local dish "fave e cicorie selvatiche". In Albania, the leaves are used as a spinach substitute, mainly served simmered and marinated in olive oil, or as ingredient for fillings of "byrek". In Greece a variety of wild chicory found in Crete and known as "stamnagathi (spiny chicory)" is used as a salad served with olive oil and lemon juice.


title: Chicory

text: By cooking and discarding the water, the bitterness is reduced, after which the chicory leaves may be sautéed with garlic, anchovies, and other ingredients. In this form, the resulting greens might be combined with pasta or accompany meat dishes.


title: Chicory

text: Chicory may be cultivated for its leaves, usually eaten raw as salad leaves. Cultivated chicory is generally divided into three types, of which there are many varieties:


title: Chicory

text: Although leaf chicory is often called "endive", true endive ("Cichorium endivia") is a different species in the genus, distinct from Belgian endive.


title: Chicory

text: Inulin is mainly found in the plant family Asteraceae as a storage carbohydrate (for example Jerusalem artichoke, dahlia, yacon, etc.). It is used as a sweetener in the food industry with a sweetening power 10% that of sucrose and is sometimes added to yogurts as a 'prebiotic'.


title: Chicory

text: Chicory root contains essential oils similar to those found in plants in the related genus "Tanacetum". In alternative medicine, chicory has been listed as one of the 38 plants used to prepare Bach flower remedies.


title: Chicory

text: Chicory is highly digestible for ruminants and has a low fiber concentration. Chicory roots are an "excellent substitute for oats" for horses due to their protein and fat content. Chicory contains a low quantity of reduced tannins that may increase protein utilization efficiency in ruminants.


title: Chicory

text: Some tannins reduce intestinal parasites. Dietary chicory may be toxic to internal parasites, with studies of ingesting chicory by farm animals having lower worm burdens, leading to its use as a forage supplement. Although chicory might have originated in France, Italy and India, much development of chicory for use with livestock has been undertaken in New Zealand.


title: Chicory

text: The plant has a history reaching back to ancient Egypt. In ancient Rome, a dish called "puntarelle" was made with chicory sprouts. It was mentioned by Horace in reference to his own diet, which he describes as very simple: ""Me pascunt olivae, me cichorea, me malvae"" ("As for me, olives, endives, and mallows provide sustenance"). Chicory was first described as a cultivated plant in the 17th century. When coffee was introduced to Europe, the Dutch thought that chicory made a lively addition to the bean drink.


title: Chicory

text: In 1766, Frederick the Great banned the importation of coffee into Prussia, leading to the development of a coffee substitute by Brunswick innkeeper Christian Gottlieb Förster (died 1801), who gained a concession in 1769–70 to manufacture it in Brunswick and Berlin. By 1795, 22 to 24 factories of this type were in Brunswick. Lord Monboddo describes the plant in 1779 as the "chicoree", which the French cultivated as a pot herb. In Napoleonic Era France, chicory frequently appeared as an adulterant in coffee, or as a coffee substitute. Chicory was also adopted as a coffee substitute by Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War, and has become common in the United States. It was also used in the United Kingdom during the Second World War, where Camp Coffee, a coffee and chicory essence, has been on sale since 1885.


title: Chicory

text: In the U.S., chicory root has long been used as a coffee substitute in prisons. By the 1840s, the port of New Orleans was the second-largest importer of coffee (after New York). Louisianans began to add chicory root to their coffee when Union naval blockades during the American Civil War cut off the port of New Orleans, thereby creating a long-standing tradition.


title: Chicory

text: Chicory is mentioned in certain silk-growing texts. The primary caretaker of the silkworms, the "silkworm mother", should not eat or even touch it.


title: Chicory

text: The chicory flower is often seen as inspiration for the Romantic concept of the Blue Flower (e.g. in German language "Blauwarte" ≈ blue lookout by the wayside). Similar to the springwort and moonwort, it could open locked doors, according to European folklore. However, the plant must be gathered at noon or midnight on St. James's Day and cut with gold while being silent, or else one would die afterwards.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Half-Life is a 1998 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Valve and published by Sierra Studios for Windows. It was Valve's debut product and the first game in the "Half-Life" series. Players assume the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist who must escape the Black Mesa Research Facility after it is invaded by aliens. The gameplay consists of combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Unlike other games of the time, the player has almost uninterrupted control of the player character, and the story is told mostly in scripted sequences rather than cutscenes. Valve co-founder Gabe Newell said that the team was disappointed with the lack of innovation in the FPS genre, and aimed to create an immersive world rather than a "shooting gallery". Valve developed using GoldSrc, a heavily modified version of the "Quake" engine, licensed from id Software. The science fiction novelist Marc Laidlaw was hired to shape the story and assist with design.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: "Half-Life" received acclaim for its graphics, gameplay, and narrative, and won over 50 PC "Game of the Year" awards. It is considered one of the most influential FPS games and one of the best video games ever made. By 2008, it had sold over nine million copies. It was followed by the expansion packs "" (1999) and "" (2001), developed by Gearbox Software. It was ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2001, along with the expansion "", and to OS X and Linux in 2013. Valve ported "Half-Life" to its Source engine as "Half-Life: Source" in 2004. In 2020, Crowbar Collective released an unofficial remake, "Black Mesa".


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: "Half-Life" inspired numerous fan-made mods, some of which became standalone games, such as "Counter-Strike", "Day of Defeat" and "Sven Co-op". It was followed by "Half-Life 2" (2004), "" (2006), "" (2007) and "" (2020).


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: "Half-Life" is a first-person shooter (FPS) that requires the player to perform combat tasks and puzzle solving to advance through the game. Unlike most of its peers at the time, "Half-Life" uses scripted sequences, such as a Vortigaunt ramming down a door, to advance major plot points. Compared to most first-person shooters of the time, which relied on cut-scene intermissions to detail their plotlines, "Half-Life"s story is told mostly using scripted sequences (bar one short cutscene), keeping the player in control of the first-person viewpoint. In line with this, the player rarely loses the ability to control the player character, who never speaks and is never actually seen in the game; the player sees "through his eyes" for the entire length of the game. "Half-Life" has no levels; it instead divides the game into chapters, whose titles flash on the screen as the player moves through the game. Progress through the world is continuous, except for short pauses for loading.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: The game regularly integrates puzzles, such as navigating a maze of conveyor belts or using nearby boxes to build a small staircase to the next area the player must travel to. Some puzzles involve using the environment to kill an enemy, like turning a valve to spray hot steam at their enemies. There are few bosses in the conventional sense, where the player defeats a superior opponent by direct confrontation. Instead, such organisms occasionally define chapters, and the player is generally expected to use the terrain, rather than firepower, to kill the boss. Late in the game, the player receives a "long jump module" for the HEV suit, which allows the player to increase the horizontal distance and speed of jumps by crouching before jumping. The player must rely on this ability to navigate various platformer-style jumping puzzles in Xen toward the end of the game.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: For the most part, the player battles through the game alone, but is occasionally assisted by non-player characters; specifically security guards and scientists who help the player; the guards will fight alongside the player, and both guards and scientists can assist in reaching new areas and impart relevant plot information. An array of alien enemies populate the game, including headcrabs, bullsquids, and headcrab zombies. The player also faces human opponents including the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit (HECU) Marines and black ops assassins.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman arrives late for work at the Black Mesa Research Facility. As part of an experiment, he pushes an unusual crystal into a machine, called the anti-mass spectrometer, for analysis. The spectrometer explodes, creating a "resonance cascade" that severely damages the facility and opens a portal to another dimension, Xen. Surviving scientists urge Gordon to head to the surface, where he defends himself against hostile Xen creatures and the HECU (Hazardous Environment Combat Unit), a special unit of United States Marines sent to cover up the incident by killing all of the hostile aliens and any Black Mesa personnel they find.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Heading to the surface, Gordon learns that scientists from the Lambda Complex may have found a way to close the portal. Gordon travels to the other end of the facility to assist them. Along the way, he activates a rocket engine test facility to destroy a giant tentacled creature and uses a disused railway system to reach and launch a satellite rocket. After he is captured by the marines and left for dead in a garbage compactor, he escapes and makes his way to an older part of the facility. There, he discovers Xen specimens collected before the incident. Overwhelmed by the alien forces, the HECU Marines pull out of Black Mesa and begin airstrikes. Scaling cliffs, navigating destroyed buildings, and traversing through underground water channels, Gordon arrives at the Lambda Complex, where scientists learn the portal is being forced open on the other side by a mighty entity. They have developed teleportation technology that allows Gordon to travel to Xen, where he is tasked to stop the entity.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: In Xen, Gordon encounters the remains of researchers who ventured there before him and Gordon defeats the Gonarch, a huge egg-laying headcrab. At a factory creating alien soldiers, he enters a portal that sends him to a vast cave. There, Gordon confronts the Nihilanth, the entity maintaining the rift, and destroys it. Gordon is summoned by the mysterious G-Man, who has been watching his progress in Black Mesa and praises him. The G-Man explains his "employers" wish to employ Gordon. If Gordon refuses, he is teleported to an area full of alien soldiers to be killed immediately. If Gordon accepts, the G-Man congratulates him and places him into stasis to await his next assignment.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Valve, based in Kirkland, Washington, was founded in 1996 by the former Microsoft employees Mike Harrington and Gabe Newell. For its first product, Valve settled on a concept for a horror first-person shooter (FPS) game using the "Quake" engine licensed from id Software. They also licensed the "Quake II" engine, and combined code from both engines with their own, adding skeletal animation and Direct3D support; Newell estimated that around 75% of the final engine code was by Valve. As the project expanded, Valve cancelled development of a fantasy role-playing game, "Prospero", and the "Prospero" team joined the "Half-Life" project.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: "Half-Life" was inspired by FPS games "Doom" (1993) and "Quake" (1996), Stephen King's 1980 novella "The Mist", and a 1963 episode of "The Outer Limits" titled "The Borderland". According to the designer Harry Teasley, "Doom" was a major influence, and the team wanted "Half-Life" to "scare you like "Doom" did". The project had the working title "Quiver", after the Arrowhead military base from "The Mist". The name "Half-Life" was chosen because it was evocative of the theme, not clichéd, and had a corresponding visual symbol: the Greek letter λ (lower-case lambda), which represents the "decay constant" in the half-life equation. According to designer Brett Johnson, the level design was inspired by environments in the manga series "Akira".


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Valve struggled to find a publisher, as many believed the game was too ambitious for a first-time developer. Sierra On-Line signed Valve for a one-game deal as it was interested in making a 3D action game, especially one based on the "Quake" engine. Valve first showed "Half-Life" in early 1997; it was a success at E3 that year, where Valve demonstrated the animation and artificial intelligence. Novel features of the artificial intelligence included fear and pack behavior.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Valve aimed for a November 1997 release to compete with "Quake II". By September 1997, the team found that while they had built some innovative aspects in weapons, enemies, and level design, the game was not fun and there was little design cohesion. The company postponed the release and reworked every level. They took a novel approach of assigning a small team to build a prototype level containing every element in the game and then spent a month iterating on the level. When the rest of the team played the level, which the designer Ken Birdwell described as ""Die Hard" meets "Evil Dead"", they agreed to use it as a baseline. The team developed three theories about what made the level fun. First, it had several interesting things happen in it, all triggered by the player rather than a timer so that the player would set the pace of the level. Second, the level responded to any player action, even for something as simple as adding graphic decals to wall textures to show a bullet impact. Finally, the level warned the player of imminent danger to allow them to avoid it, rather than killing the player with no warning.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: To move forward with this unified design, Valve sought a game designer but found no one suitable. Instead, Valve created the "cabal", initially a group of six individuals from across all departments that worked primarily for six months straight in six-hour meetings four days a week. The cabal was responsible for all elements of design, including level layouts, key events, enemy designs, narrative, and the introduction of gameplay elements relative to the story. The collaboration proved successful, and once the cabal had come to decisions on types of gameplay elements that would be needed, mini-cabals from other departments most affected by the choice were formed to implement these elements. Membership in the main cabal rotated since the required commitment created burnout.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: The cabal produced a 200-page design document detailing nearly every aspect of the game. They also produced a 30-page document for the narrative, and hired the science fiction novelist Marc Laidlaw to help manage the script. Laidlaw said his contribution was to add "old storytelling tricks" to the team's ambitious designs: "I was in awe of [the team]. It felt to me like I was just borrowing from old standards while they were the ones doing something truly new." Rather than dictate narrative elements "from some kind of ivory tower of authorial inspiration", he worked with the team to improvise ideas, and was inspired by their experiments. For example, he conceived the opening train ride after an engineer implemented train code for another concept.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Within a month of the cabal's formation, the other team members started detailed game development, and within another month began playtesting through Sierra. The cabal was intimately involved with playtesting, monitoring the player but otherwise not interacting. They noted any confusion or inability to solve a game's puzzles and made them into action items to be fixed on the next iteration. Later, with most of the main adjustments made, the team included means to benchmark players' actions. They then collected and interpreted statistically to fine-tune levels further. Between the cabal and playtesting, Valve identified and removed parts that proved unenjoyable. Birdwell said that while there were struggles at first, the cabal approach was critical for "Half-Life"s success, and was reused for "Team Fortress 2" from the start.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Much of the detail of "Half-Life" development has been lost; according to the Valve employee Erik Johnson, two or three months before release, their Visual SourceSafe source control system "exploded". Logs of technical changes from before the final month of development were lost, and code had to be recovered from individual computers.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: "Half-Life" saw fervent support from independent game developers, due in no small part to support and encouragement from Valve. Worldcraft, the level-design tool used during the game's development, was included with the game software. Printed materials accompanying the game indicated Worldcraft's eventual release as a retail product, but those plans never materialized. Valve also released a software development kit, enabling developers to modify the game and create mods. Both tools were significantly updated with the release of the version 1.1.0.0 patch. Supporting tools (including texture editors, model editors, and level editors such as the multiple engine editor QuArK) were either created or updated to work with "Half-Life".


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: The "Half-Life" software development kit served as the development base for many multiplayer mods, including the Valve-developed "Team Fortress Classic" and "Deathmatch Classic" (a remake of "Quake"s multiplayer deathmatch mode in the GoldSrc engine). Other mods such as "Counter-Strike" and "Day of Defeat" ("DOD") began life as the work of independent developers (self-termed "modders") who later received aid from Valve. Other multiplayer mods include "Action Half-Life", "Firearms", "Science and Industry", "The Specialists", "Pirates, Vikings and Knights", "Natural Selection" and "Sven Co-op".


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Numerous single-player mods have also been created. Notable examples include "USS Darkstar" (1999, a futuristic action-adventure on board a zoological research spaceship), "They Hunger" (2000–2001, a survival horror total conversion trilogy involving zombies), "Poke646" (2001, a follow-up to the original "Half-Life" story with improved graphics), and "Someplace Else" (2002, a side-story to the original "Half-Life").


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: In 2003, Valve's network was infiltrated by hackers. Among the stolen files were the unreleased "Half-Life" modification "Half-Life: Threewave", a canceled remake of the mod "Threewave CTF" from "Quake". The files were later found by independent reporter Tyler McVicker of "Valve News Network" on a Vietnamese FTP server in February 2016, and were unofficially released to the public in September 2016.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Some "Half-Life" modifications eventually landed on retail shelves. "Counter-Strike" was the most successful, having been released in six different editions: as a standalone product (2000), as part of the "Platinum Pack" (2000), as an Xbox version (2003), and as a single-player spin-off titled "" (2004), as well as in two versions using the Source engine. "Team Fortress Classic", "Day of Defeat", "Gunman Chronicles" (2000, a futuristic Western movie-style total conversion with emphasis on its single-player mode) and "Sven Co-op" were also released as standalone products. "Half-Life" is also the subject of the YouTube improv roleplaying series "Half-Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware" and "Freeman's Mind".


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: "Half-Life" was released in November 1998. The revised version of "Half-Life" shown at E3 1998 was given Game Critics Awards for "Best PC Game" and "Best Action Game". Valve released two demos for "Half-Life." The first, "Half-Life: Day One", contained the first fifth of the game and was distributed with certain graphic cards. The second demo, "Half-Life: Uplink", was released on February 12, 1999, and featured original content. A short film based on "Half-Life," also titled "Half-Life: Uplink", was developed by Cruise Control, a British marketing agency, and released on February 11, 1999. The film's protagonist is a journalist who infiltrates the Black Mesa Research Facility, trying to discover what has happened there.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: "Half-Life" was censored in Germany to comply with the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (BPjM by its German abbreviation), which regulates depictions of violence against humans. Valve replaced the human characters in the game with robots, replacing blood with oil and body parts with gears, among other changes. In 2017, BPjM removed "Half-Life" from its list; to acknowledge this, Valve released "Half-Life Uncensored", a free downloadable content pack, that reverts the censorship.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Captivation Digital Laboratories and Gearbox Software developed a port of "Half-Life" for the Dreamcast, with new character models and textures and an exclusive expansion, "". Following the cancellations of several third-party Dreamcast games in the wake of Sega's decision to discontinue the console in March 2001, Sierra cancelled the port weeks before its scheduled release in June, citing "changing marketing conditions". "Blue Shift" was ported to Windows. The Dreamcast port became the basis of the "Half-Life" port for PlayStation 2, released in late 2001. This version added competitive play and a co-op expansion, "." A late build of the Dreamcast version was eventually leaked onto the internet.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: A version of "Half-Life" for Mac OS 9, ported by Logicware, was announced but never released. On January 29, 2013, Valve released beta versions of ports for OS X and Linux. Valve finalized them on February 14, 2013.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: In 2004, Valve released "Half-Life: Source", a version of "Half-Life" created in their new game engine, Source. It includes no new graphical elements, but adds new physics and water effects, and 5.1 surround sound. "Black Mesa", a third-party remake of "Half-Life" developed by Crowbar Collective in the Source engine, was published as a free mod in September 2012. It was then approved by Valve for a commercial release. The full version was released on March 6, 2020, for Windows and Linux.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: "Half-Life" was followed by an expansion pack, "", on November 1, 1999, developed by Gearbox Software. Players control US Marine corporal Adrian Shephard, who fights a new group of aliens and black operations units. Gearbox developed a second expansion pack, "", in which players control Barney Calhoun, a security guard at Black Mesa. It was developed as a bonus campaign for the Dreamcast port of "Half-Life"; however, the port was cancelled and "Blue Shift" was instead released for Windows on June 12, 2001. Gearbox created a cooperative multiplayer expansion pack, "," exclusively for the PlayStation 2 port of "Half-Life".


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: "Half-Life" has a score of 96 out of 100 on aggregate review website Metacritic. "Computer Gaming World"s Jeff Green said that the game "is not just one of the best games of the year. It's one of the best games of any year, an instant classic that is miles better than any of its immediate competition, and – in its single-player form – is the best shooter since the original "Doom"". "IGN" described it as "a tour de force in game design, the definitive single player game in a first-person shooter". "GameSpot" said it was the "closest thing to a revolutionary step the genre has ever taken".


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: "Next Generation" reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it five stars out of five, and stated that "It is fast paced, it is dramatic, and it brings the very idea of adventure on a PC out of the dark ages and into a 3D world. All that and not a single Orc in sight."


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Several reviewers cited the level of immersion and interactivity as revolutionary. AllGame said, "It isn't everyday that you come across a game that totally revolutionizes an entire genre, but Half-Life has done just that." Hot Games commented on the realism, and how the environment "all adds up to a totally immersive gaming experience that makes everything else look quite shoddy in comparison". Gamers Depot found the game engaging, stating that they have "yet to play a more immersive game period". "The Electric Playground" said that "Half-Life" was an "immersive and engaging entertainment experience", but noted that this only lasted for the first half of the game, explaining that the game "peaked too soon".


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: The final portion of the game, taking place in the alien world of Xen, was generally considered the weakest. Besides introducing a wholly new and alien setting, it also featured a number of low-gravity jumping puzzles. The GoldSrc engine did not provide as much precise control for the player during jumping, making these jumps difficult and often with Freeman falling into a void and the player restarting the game. "Wired" Julie Muncy called the Xen sequence "an abbreviated, unpleasant stop on an alien world with bad platforming and a boss fight against what appeared, by all accounts, to be a giant floating infant".


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: During the 2nd Annual AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards (now known as the D.I.C.E. Awards), "Half-Life" won the awards for "Computer Game of the Year" and "Computer Action Game of the Year", along with nominations for "Game of the Year", "Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics", "Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story Development", "Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design" and "Outstanding Achievement in Software Engineering".


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "It may be getting old, but there's still a surprising amount of life in "Half-Life"". the PlayStation 2 version of "Half-Life" was a nominee for "The Electric Playground"s 2001 Blister Awards for "Best Console Shooter Game", but lost to "" for Xbox.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: In the November 1999, October 2001, and April 2005 issues of "PC Gamer", "Half-Life" was named the best PC game of all time. In 2004, "GameSpy" readers voted "Half-Life" the best game of all time. "Gamasutra" gave it their Quantum Leap Award in the FPS category in 2006. GameSpot inducted "Half-Life" into their Greatest Games of All Time list in May 2007. In 2007, "IGN" described "Half-Life" as one of the most influential video games, and in 2013 wrote that the history of the FPS genre "breaks down pretty cleanly into pre-"Half-Life" and post-"Half-Life" eras". In 2021, "the Guardian" ranked "Half-Life" the third-greatest game of the 1990s, writing that it "helped write the rulebook for how games tell their stories without resorting to aping the conventions of film".


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: According to Newell, "Half-Life" was budgeted with the expectation of lifetime sales of around 180,000 copies. However, it was a surprise hit. In the United States, "Half-Life" debuted at #8 on PC Data's weekly PC game sales chart for the November 15–21 period, with an average retail price (ARP) of $49. It rose to sixth place the following week, before dropping to position 10 for the week ending December 5. During the December 6–12 period, the game climbed back to sixth place; by this time, its ARP had dropped to $36. It placed between sixth and eighth on PC Data's weekly charts through the end of December, and its ARP rose back to $45 by the week ending January 2. PC Data declared "Half-Life" November's sixth-best-selling PC game in the United States, a position it held for the month of December. While its US sales were below 100,000 copies by November 30, by 1999 it had sold 212,173 copies and earned revenues of $8.6 million in the United States by the end of 1998.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: In January 1999, "Half-Life" debuted at #3 on Chart-Track's PC game sales rankings for the United Kingdom, and remained in PC Data's weekly top 10 for the entire month, peaking at #4. By January 19, after two full months of availability, global sales of "Half-Life" surpassed 500,000 units. In the United States, it was the fifth-best-selling PC game for the month of January. On PC Data's weekly charts, it rose to #2 from February 7–20, with an ARP of $35. Holding a position in the weekly top 10 for the rest of February, it climbed to fourth for the month. The game remained in PC Data's weekly top 10 until the week of March 21 and dropped to position 11 for March as a whole. In the United Kingdom, it placed second in February—behind the debut of "Baldur's Gate"—and fifth in March. In April, it claimed #3 on Chart-Track's rankings and dropped to #16 on those of PC Data. On April 23, Sierra announced that global sales of "Half-Life" had reached almost 1 million copies.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: After maintaining the 16th place for May in the US, "Half-Life" exited PC Data's monthly top 20 in June. "Half-Life" became the fifth-bestselling PC game of the first half of 1999 in the US. Its domestic sales during 1999 reached 290,000 copies by the end of September. During 1999, it was the fifth-best-selling PC game in the US, with sales of 445,123 copies. These sales brought in revenues of $16.6 million, the sixth-highest gross that year for a PC game in the US. The following year, it was the 16th-bestselling PC game in the US, selling another 286,593 copies and earning $8.98 million.


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: The PlayStation 2 version received a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. "Half-Life"s global sales reached 2.5 million units by July 2001. "Edge" noted in 2003 that "a significant number of the 7.5m copies of the PC version were bought because the game offered such potential for community-driven expansion". As of November 16, 2004, eight million copies of the game had been sold, by 2008, 9.3 million copies had been sold at retail. "Guinness World Records" awarded "Half-Life" the world record for Best-Selling First-Person Shooter of All Time (PC) in the "Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008".


title: Half-Life (video game)

text: "Half-Life 2" was announced at E3 2003 and released in 2004. The player controls Freeman 20 years after the Black Mesa incident in the dystopian City 17, where he joins a rebellion against an alien regime. It was followed by the episodic games "" (2006) and "" (2007). After cancelling a series of other "Half-Life" projects, Valve released "" in 2020.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: Reece James (born 8 December 1999) is an English professional footballer who plays as a right-back for club Chelsea and the England national team.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: James joined the Chelsea academy as a youth and turned professional in 2017, a season where he captained the under-18s to victory in the FA Youth Cup and was named Academy Player of the Season. A productive loan spell with Wigan Athletic of the Championship saw him promoted to the Chelsea first team upon his return in 2019.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: After representing England at various youth levels, James was called up to the full international side for the first time in October 2020, earning his first cap against Wales.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: James was born in Redbridge, Greater London, and attended Isleworth and Syon School. He is from a family all involved in football. His sister Lauren is also a professional footballer and signed for Chelsea Women in July 2021. Their father Nigel is a football coach. He is of Jamaican descent through his father.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: James began training with Chelsea at the age of six, but had a short spell at West London rivals Fulham when he was seven. He turned professional with Chelsea in March 2017. During the 2017–18 season he captained the under-18s to win the FA Youth Cup and was named Academy Player of the Season. He signed a new four-year contract with the club in June 2018.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: In June 2018, James joined Championship club Wigan Athletic on loan for the 2018–19 season. He made his first-team debut on 4 August, starting in Wigan's first game of the season, helping his side to a 3–2 home victory over Sheffield Wednesday. He scored his first goal for Wigan on 4 November, scoring the first goal with a free kick in the sixth minute of a 2–1 home loss to Leeds United. In March 2019, he was selected to the 2018–19 Championship Team of the Season. He won three awards at Wigan Athletic's end of season awards, including Player of the Year.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: On 25 September 2019, James made his debut for Chelsea after returning from injury. He scored his first goal and assisted two in a 7–1 win over Grimsby Town in the third round of the 2019–20 EFL Cup. James became Chelsea's youngest ever goalscorer in the UEFA Champions League when he scored the fourth goal of their 4–4 comeback draw with Ajax on 5 November. He signed a long-term contract extension with Chelsea on 16 January 2020.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: On 14 September 2020, James scored his first Premier League goal, in a 3–1 win for Chelsea against Brighton & Hove Albion. On 5 December, James made his 50th appearance for Chelsea in all competitions in the club's 3–1 league win over Leeds United.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: In January 2021, James was subject to racist abuse online. In March, he deleted his Instagram account in response to the abuse he received. On 29 May, James won his first-ever Champions League as Chelsea won 1–0 against Manchester City in the final in Porto.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: On 28 August 2021, James was sent off at the end of the first half of a 1–1 draw against Liverpool due to a handball incident. He scored two goals in the second half of a 3–0 win over Newcastle United at St James' Park on 30 October. At the end of the season James was nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year award.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: On 5 September 2022, James signed a new six-year contract with Chelsea, committing to the club until June 2028. His performances were praised in October 2022, although later that month he suffered a knee injury, and had to see a specialist doctor.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: James has represented England at youth level from under-18 up to under-21. In May 2017, James was included in the under-20 squad for the 2017 Toulon Tournament. He started in the final as England beat the Ivory Coast to retain their title. In July, James was part of the under-19 squad that won the 2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. He started in the semi-final against the Czech Republic.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: James was a member of the under-20 squad that travelled to the 2019 Toulon Tournament and was carried off on a stretcher with ankle ligament damage during the first half of the final group game defeat to Chile on 7 June 2019. On 4 October, James was included in the under-21 squad for the first time. He made his under-21 debut during the 3–0 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification victory away to Albania on 15 November.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: On 5 October 2020, James was called up for the first time to the senior team by manager Gareth Southgate following an injury to Raheem Sterling. He made his debut on 8 October at Wembley Stadium, coming on as a 58th-minute substitute for Kieran Trippier in a 3–0 win over Wales. He was sent off for dissent after the final whistle in his second start, against Denmark. James was named in the 26-man England squad for Euro 2020. At Euro 2020, James started in the 0–0 draw against Scotland.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: In November 2021, he said that he was in the best form of his career, and that he hoped to become England's first-choice right-back.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: In October 2022, following a knee injury sustained playing for Chelsea in the Champions League against AC Milan, James was ruled out of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He later stated he was "devastated" to be excluded from the England squad.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: In August 2020, James made a personal donation and posted a link on his social media accounts to a Crowdfunder site which was looking to boost Wigan's funds; in a bid to save his former loan club. He wrote in the post 'Come on let's help @laticsofficial out' in a bid to encourage others to follow.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: In January 2021, Marcus Rashford praised James along with his fellow teammate Mason Mount for their "amazing" charitable work. James had spent the past 18 months volunteering with a London-based charity, The Felix Project.


title: Reece James (footballer, born 1999)

text: His former manager at Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel, described him as "strong and influential" during an interview with Chelsea TV. He had a wing-back partnership with Ben Chilwell at both club and international level.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: Medici () is a historical drama television series created by Frank Spotnitz and Nicholas Meyer. The series was produced by Italian companies Lux Vide and Rai Fiction, in collaboration with Frank Spotnitz's Big Light Productions.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: The series premiered in Italy on Rai 1 on 18 October 2016. The series follows the Medici family, bankers of the Pope, during Renaissance Florence. Each season follows the events of a particular moment of the family history exploring the political and artistic landscape of Renaissance Italy.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: The first season, titled "Medici: Masters of Florence", takes place in 1429, the year Giovanni de' Medici, head of the family, died. His son Cosimo de' Medici succeeds him as head of the family bank, the richest bank of Europe at that time, and fights to preserve his power in Florence. The second season, titled "Medici: The Magnificent", takes place 35 years later and tells the story of Cosimo's grandson Lorenzo de' Medici (known as the Magnificent). A third, which completes the story of Lorenzo, premiered on Rai 1 in Italy on 2 December 2019.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: The series reached between four and eight million viewers on original airings. According to Italian ratings compiler Auditel, the broadcast of the first episode attracted a record 8.04 million viewers.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: The series is broadcast in 190 countries worldwide, including on Netflix in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland and India, and on SBS in Australia.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: Florence, 1429. Giovanni de' Medici is a rich banker who also represents one of the most important political forces of Florence's Signoria. He has a plan to increase his family's power by making an agreement with the Church of Rome. The election of a new Pope is about to take place and Giovanni sends his sons Cosimo and Lorenzo to Rome in order to encourage the election of a Pope close to his family. In Rome, Cosimo, fascinated by the beauty of ancient architecture and art, meets Donatello and one of his models Bianca. Cosimo falls in love with her but is then forced to leave her and marry Contessina de Bardi, a political marriage arranged by Giovanni and Contessina's father. The Medici's candidate gets elected, which assures the bank of the Medici of an unparalleled economic power. Twenty years later, Giovanni is mysteriously murdered and Cosimo and Lorenzo try secretly to investigate his death. Meanwhile, the political situation in the city is troubled by plots against the Medici family's power, and their vision of the future of Florence - which will then lead to the Renaissance - is in danger. Cosimo's dream is to complete the Duomo of Florence, but no architect seems to have a feasible solution due to the shape of the base created for the cathedral. Finally, Filippo Brunelleschi introduces himself to Cosimo and shows him plans for the dome. Cosimo decides to trust Brunelleschi and the construction of the cathedral starts, bringing jobs and people to Florence. Meanwhile, the mystery surrounding the death of Giovanni thickens and Rinaldo Albizzi, Cosimo's main opponent in the Signoria, tries to block the construction and to incite the people to rise up against the Medicis.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: Twenty years have passed since the events of the first season. Piero, Cosimo's son, and his wife Lucrezia are now at the head of the family. The power of the Medici has consolidated over time, but an assassination attempt on Piero brings to light his mismanagement of the family bank. The Sforza family are the largest debtors of the bank, but come to an agreement with Piero to erase it. The solution proposed by Sforza would also bring about the invasion of Florence. To prevent this, Piero's son Lorenzo takes over the role of his father both in the government of the Signoria and as head of the family. Although he has a relationship with a married woman, Lucrezia Donati, Lorenzo accepts marriage to a religious Roman noblewoman, Clarice Orsini (who initially wanted to be a nun but is obliged to give up her dream for the marriage). Their marriage goes through a turbulent time as their interests differ, but he soon falls in love with her and they start living happily. His brother Giuliano and his dear friend Sandro Botticelli, both meet and fall in love with Simonetta, although in different ways. Botticelli's interest is an artistic one and leads to the painting of Venus and Mars in which Simonetta is represented alongside Giuliano.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: The Pazzi family, led by Jacopo Pazzi and his nephew Francesco, join forces with the Pope to increase the Church's control of nearby territories and mines, in opposition to the Medici's policy. This argument will eventually lead to a conspiracy against Lorenzo in an attempt to put an end to his power and his dream of a peaceful and culturally alive Florence.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: This season starts immediately after the previous one. With his brother's death, Lorenzo has grown into a cruel determined man and vows revenge. He soon has three children with Clarice and a miscarried child as well that leads to Clarice's death, and they also raise Giulio (Giuliano's illegitimate son) after his father's death. Following the breakdown of the Pazzi conspiracy, Lorenzo must still face a military coalition from the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples, led by the ambitious Girolamo Riario. He undertakes a diplomatic journey to Naples and succeeds in negotiating a separate peace.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: Sergio Mimica-Gezzan directed all eight episodes in the first season. The show's world premiere took place in Florence at Palazzo Vecchio on the 14 October 2016, ahead of its premiere airing on RAI 1 on October 18.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: During an interview at the Roma Fest panel in 2015, Spotnitz stated, "the season will be more thriller than historical saga... we begin the show with a 'what if' because we don't know how Giovanni de' Medici died. One of the questions that haunts Cosimo, is whether his father was murdered".


title: Medici (TV series)

text: The creators took significant liberties with sets, often showing interior decorations, works of art, and exterior landscapes that were created many years after the events described in the series which occur in the mid-1430s. For example, the Medici Palazzo was built in 1440s–1480s and the Benozzo Gozzoli frescoes of Magi Chapel shown in the Cosimo study were executed in 1459–61. The Lorenzo rooms are decorated with the Giulio Romano fresco "Mars and Venus" which was painted in the 1520s in Palazzo Te in Mantova. During the episode exile in Venice, the church of Santa Maria della Salute built in the 1630s is repeatedly shown as part of the Venice city landscape. Villa Medici contains "Fortitude and Temperance with Six Antique Heroes" by Perugino, painted in 1497.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: "Medici: Masters of Florence" was originated in 4k video and broadcast in this format on the free Italian satellite service Tivu whilst on the Italian Digital Terrestrial service DVB-T2 it was broadcast in Full-HD 1920×1080.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: Two audio tracks were broadcast: Rai TV gave satellite and terrestrial viewers the option to watch the series in Italian or English.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: The series is broadcast in 190 countries worldwide, including on SBS in Australia, on Fox Premium in Argentina, SFR's premium SVOD service Zive in France, Sky 1 in Germany, on RTP1 in Portugal, and on RTS2 in Serbia. It was also sold in Japan, Israel, and New Zealand.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: The second season was also released in Blu-Ray (Region B) on the 24 January 2019. Both Italian editions have the original audio track in English and the Italian-dubbed audio track.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: On the 16 October 2018, a novelisation of the events told in the second season titled "I Medici - Lorenzo il Magnifico" was published in Italy by Michele Gazo.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: The soundtrack for the series was composed by Paolo Buonvino. The opening theme song "Renaissance" was produced with the collaboration of Skin. A video clip for the song was also published the day before the series premiered in Italy.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: The opening theme song for the second season changed. Skin and Buonvino collaborated on a variation of the original opening sequence song titled "Revolution Bones". Ian Arber composed additional music for the second season.


title: Medici (TV series)

text: On December 20, 2019 the full soundtrack "I Medici (Music from the Original TV Series)" was released by Sugar Music with a total of 47 tracks composed by Paolo Buonvino.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Ryan Joseph Fitzpatrick (born November 24, 1982) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons. During his career, Fitzpatrick started at quarterback for nine different teams, the most in league history. He is also the only NFL player to have a passing and rushing touchdown with eight different teams.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Fitzpatrick played college football at Harvard, where he was the school's first quarterback to have over 1,000 rushing yards, and was selected by the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round of the 2005 NFL Draft. His longest stint was with the Buffalo Bills for four seasons, while his only two winning seasons were with the 2015 New York Jets and the 2020 Miami Dolphins. As a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2018, he also became the first NFL quarterback to throw for over 400 yards in three consecutive games.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Due to his competitive, but inconsistent performances, Fitzpatrick received the nicknames "Fitzmagic" and "Fitztragic". He holds the most career passing yards and passing touchdowns among NFL quarterbacks without a postseason appearance.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: While an economics student at Harvard University, Fitzpatrick had five starts for the Crimson during the 2001 and 2002 seasons, working as the backup for Neil Rose. In 2002, he recorded 1,155 yards with eight touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran for five touchdowns and 523 yards that year.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Fitzpatrick took over the starting job in 2003 following Rose's graduation. Fitzpatrick finished his junior campaign with 1,770 yards, 16 touchdowns, and eight interceptions in seven games. Additionally, he ran for 430 yards and six rushing touchdowns, leading his team to a 7–3 record.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: In 2004, Fitzpatrick was named the Ivy League Player of the Year and winner of the George H. "Bulger" Lowe Award, as he accumulated 1,986 yards with 13 touchdowns and six interceptions. He also led Harvard to a 10–0 record, thus winning the Ivy League Championship. He ranked second on the team with 448 rushing yards and five scores.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: For his career, Fitzpatrick connected on 384 of 641 passes (59.9 percent) for 5,234 yards, 39 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. He collected 1,487 yards with 16 scores on 365 carries (4.1 avg.) and totaled 6,721 yards, an average of 224.0 yards per game, while seeing action in 30 contests. He ranks second on Harvard's career list for pass completions, touchdowns, yards passing and pass completion percentage, topped only by Neil Rose (5,949 yards, 41 touchdowns, 455 completions, 62.4 percent, 1998–2002). His 641 pass attempts rank fourth in school history. His 1,006 total plays for 6,721 yards in total offense broke the old school career records of 1,005 plays by Mike Giardi (1991–1993) and 6,519 yards by Rose. He was also the school's first quarterback to rush for over 1,000 career yards.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Like most incoming NFL rookies, Fitzpatrick took the Wonderlic test. Fitzpatrick completed the test in nine minutes, with rumors indicating that he obtained a perfect score of 50. However, a 2005 "The Wall Street Journal" report said that Fitzpatrick scored a 48, which is still considered exceptionally high. While his actual score is unknown, Fitzpatrick has acknowledged leaving at least one question blank, making 49 his highest possible score. To date, Fitzpatrick has the highest reported Wonderlic test score achieved among NFL quarterbacks. The only player to earn a verified perfect score on the Wonderlic was also a Harvard graduate: wide receiver/punter Pat McInally, who played his entire career with the Cincinnati Bengals.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: The St. Louis Rams selected Fitzpatrick in the seventh round (250th overall) of the 2005 NFL Draft. Fitzpatrick was the last of 14 quarterbacks drafted in 2005.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: On July 18, 2005, the Rams signed Fitzpatrick to a three-year, $953,000 contract. Throughout training camp, Fitzpatrick competed for a roster spot against Jeff Smoker to be the Rams' third-string quarterback. Head coach Mike Martz named Fitzpatrick the third-string quarterback on the depth chart to begin his rookie season, behind Marc Bulger and Jamie Martin. Fitzpatrick was upgraded to the primary backup role in Week 6 after Bulger sustained a shoulder injury and was placed on injured reserve.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: On November 27, 2005, Fitzpatrick made his professional regular season debut after entering the game in the second quarter against the Houston Texans to replace injured veteran journeyman Jamie Martin. Fitzpatrick led the Rams from a 24–3 halftime deficit to a 33–27 overtime win, throwing for 310 yards and three touchdowns, completing 63.3% of his passes and 117.4 QB rating for the game. He earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his effort. This made Fitzpatrick one of only eight players who passed for more than 300 yards in their NFL debut. The win earned him the next three starts, making Fitzpatrick the first Harvard quarterback to start an NFL game. Fitzpatrick was unable to duplicate his debut performance in the games he started with the Rams coming two weeks later in a 27–13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in which he threw for 235 yards, no touchdowns, and five interceptions for a QB rating of 32.4 for the game. He was replaced by Martin after halftime the following week, after struggling in a home game against the Philadelphia Eagles in which he completed just 41.7% of his passes for a total of 69 yards. He finished his rookie season with 76 pass completions of 135 pass attempts (56.3%) for 777 passing yards with four touchdowns and eight interceptions in four games with three starts.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: In 2006, Fitzpatrick appeared in only one game, appearing late in the season finale against the Minnesota Vikings in relief of Marc Bulger, and ran out the clock in the 41–21 victory.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: On September 1, 2007, Fitzpatrick was traded to the Bengals for a seventh-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: A restricted free agent in the 2008 offseason, Fitzpatrick signed his one-year tender offer from the Bengals on April 17. Due to an elbow injury to starting quarterback Carson Palmer, Fitzpatrick made his first Bengals start on September 28, 2008, against the Cleveland Browns. Fitzpatrick was not only the leading passer but also the leading rusher in the Bengals' 20–12 loss. Palmer returned the next week to start against the Dallas Cowboys, but once again had to sit the following week to rest his sore elbow. On October 12, 2008, Fitzpatrick got the start against the New York Jets, and every other game for the remainder of that season.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: During the 2008 season, Fitzpatrick ranked third in rushing yards among quarterbacks with 304, finishing behind Tyler Thigpen and David Garrard.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: On February 27, 2009, Fitzpatrick signed a three-year, $7.4 million contract with the Buffalo Bills. He made his first appearance on October 18, 2009, against the New York Jets when starter Trent Edwards went down with an injury, leading the Bills to a 16–13 overtime win, while throwing for 116 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Fitzpatrick started the following two games, resulting in a win over the Carolina Panthers and loss to the Houston Texans.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: On November 18, 2009, he was named the starting quarterback of the Buffalo Bills by interim head coach Perry Fewell who took over the coaching duties after former head coach Dick Jauron was fired. He went 3–3 as a starter under Fewell, throwing seven touchdowns, six interceptions and 1,060 yards. Overall, Fitzpatrick went 5–4 in games in which he had a majority of the playing time for a team that finished with a 6–10 record. In Week 11 of the 2009 season in a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Fitzpatrick threw a 98-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Owens, the longest touchdown reception and pass for both Owens and Fitzpatrick, also setting the team record for the longest touchdown pass. The Bills went on to lose to the Jaguars 18–15. Overall, in the 2009 season, Fitzpatrick finished with 1,422 passing yards, nine touchdowns, and ten interceptions.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Despite the strong showing, new head coach Chan Gailey decided to go with Trent Edwards as the starter for the 2010 season, relegating Fitzpatrick to the backup role. On September 20, 2010, Fitzpatrick was named the new starting quarterback following the Bills 0–2 start.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: In a 49–31 comeback win over the Cincinnati Bengals, Fitzpatrick threw for 316 yards and four touchdowns, including three to Stevie Johnson. Despite the Bills finishing at 4–12 (4–9 with him at quarterback), Fitzpatrick had a breakout season in 2010, recording at least one touchdown pass in 13 consecutive games and becoming the first Bills quarterback to pass for at least 3,000 yards in a season since J. P. Losman in 2006.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: During Week 2 in the 2011 season, Fitzpatrick led the Bills to touchdown drives on five straight possessions in the second half to rally past the Oakland Raiders. It was the first time in league history a team had scored offensive touchdowns on five straight possessions in the second half. In the 2011 season, Fitzpatrick was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Month for September. On October 28, 2011, Fitzpatrick signed a six-year, $59 million contract extension including a $10 million signing bonus with the Bills. He had three 300-yard performances in the 2011 season, with a season-high 369 yards against the New England Patriots. After the 2011 season, it was revealed that Fitzpatrick had broken his ribs in a game against the Washington Redskins, which was presumably a factor in his decline in play over the rest of the season. Fitzpatrick finished the 2011 season with 3,832 yards and 24 touchdowns, but threw a league-leading 23 interceptions.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Fitzpatrick returned as the Bills' starter during the 2012 season, throwing for 3,400 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions. Following Chan Gailey's firing after the season, the Bills opted not to hold on to Fitzpatrick, releasing him on March 12, 2013.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: On March 18, 2013, Fitzpatrick signed a two-year contract with the Tennessee Titans. He replaced Jake Locker for the Titans in Week 4 due to an injury in the third quarter. Fitzpatrick completed 3 of his 8 passes for 108 yards, which included a 77-yard touchdown pass to Nate Washington, in a 38–13 win against the New York Jets.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Fitzpatrick played in 11 games and started 9 of them. He finished the season with a 3–6 record as the starting quarterback, beating division rivals the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans in the final two games of the season. He completed the season throwing for 2,454 yards with 14 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: On March 18, 2014, Fitzpatrick signed a two-year contract with the Houston Texans. He was named the Texans' starting quarterback by new head coach Bill O'Brien on June 17, but was demoted to second on the Texans' depth chart on November 5, 2014, being replaced by Ryan Mallett.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: On November 23, 2014, Mallett tore his pectoral muscle and Fitzpatrick was renamed the starter. On November 30, in a 45–21 win against the Tennessee Titans in Week 13, Fitzpatrick threw for a franchise-record six touchdowns and 358 yards with no interceptions and a 147.5 passer rating. He earned AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his effort against the Titans.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: On December 14, 2014, during the second quarter against the Indianapolis Colts, Fitzpatrick scrambled for a two-yard gain, was tripped up, and ended up with a fractured left tibia, ending his season. He was replaced by rookie Tom Savage, who also received a minor injury, and the Texans lost 17–10. Despite his season-ending injury, Fitzpatrick had a solid season, throwing for 2,483 yards with 17 touchdowns and 8 interceptions for a then career-high 95.3 passer rating. He finished the season with a 6–6 record as the starting quarterback for the Texans.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: On March 11, 2015, Fitzpatrick was traded to the New York Jets for a late-round conditional draft pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. The move reunited Fitzpatrick with his former head coach Chan Gailey, who was hired during the off-season as the Jets offensive coordinator and play-caller. Following an incident in the locker room, in which starting quarterback Geno Smith suffered a broken jaw after being punched by linebacker IK Enemkpali, Fitzpatrick was tentatively named the Week 1 starter for the Jets.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Making his first start for the Jets on September 13, in Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns, Fitzpatrick threw for 179 yards with two touchdowns and an interception in the 31–10 victory. During "Monday Night Football" against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 2, Fitzpatrick threw for 244 yards with two touchdowns and an interception as the Jets won 20–7. During Week 3 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Fitzpatrick threw for 283 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions as the Jets lost 17–24. In Week 4 against the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium, Fitzpatrick had 218 passing yards with a touchdown and an interception as the Jets won 27–14. In Week 6 against the Washington Redskins, Fitzpatrick rushed for a touchdown on 31 rushing yards and passed for 253 yards with two touchdowns and an interception in the 34–20 victory. In Week 7 against the New England Patriots, Fitzpatrick threw for 295 yards with two touchdowns but the Jets lost 23–30. In Week 8 against the Oakland Raiders, Fitzpatrick suffered torn ligaments in his left thumb while scrambling and did not play for the remainder of the game. Geno Smith relieved him for the rest of the game as the Jets would go on to lose 20–34. Fitzpatrick underwent thumb surgery two days later and stated that he would still start. During Week 9 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Fitzpatrick threw for 272 yards with 2 touchdowns as the Jets won 28–23. During "Thursday Night Football" against the Buffalo Bills in Week 10, Fitzpatrick threw for 193 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions as the Jets lost 17–22. In Week 11 against the Houston Texans, Fitzpatrick threw for 216 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions as the Jets lost 17–24.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: During a Dolphins rematch in Week 12, Fitzpatrick made his 100th career start by throwing for 277 yards with 4 touchdowns in the 38–20 victory. In Week 13 against the interconference-rival New York Giants, Fitzpatrick threw for 390 yards with 2 touchdowns as the Jets won 23–20 in overtime. In Week 14 against the Tennessee Titans, Fitzpatrick threw for 263 yards with three touchdowns in a 30–8 victory to earn AFC Offensive Player of the Week. During Saturday Night Football against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 15, Fitzpatrick threw for 299 yards with a touchdown and an interception in the 19–16 victory. This was Fitzpatrick's ninth win of the season as a starter, securing his first winning season as a starting quarterback. During a Patriots rematch in Week 16, Fitzpatrick threw for 296 yards with three touchdowns, including an overtime drive that gave the Jets a game-winning touchdown for a 26–20 victory. For his effort against the Patriots, he earned another AFC Offensive Player of the Week. In the rematch against the Bills during the season finale in Week 17, Fitzpatrick threw for 181 yards and two touchdowns, but he also threw 3 costly interceptions, all of which were in the fourth quarter. The Jets not only lost 17–22, but were also eliminated from playoff contention after the Steelers' win over the Browns, despite finishing the year with a 10–6 record.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Having started in all 16 games of the 2015 season, Fitzpatrick finished with his best year as a pro with 3,905 passing yards, 31 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions, breaking Vinny Testaverde's 1998 franchise record for most touchdown passes in a season.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Fitzpatrick, a free agent after the conclusion of the 2015 season, signed a one-year fully guaranteed $12 million contract with the Jets on July 27, 2016.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Opening the season against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1, Fitzpatrick had 189 passing yards, two touchdowns, and an interception, and the Jets lost a close game, 22–23. During "Thursday Night Football" against the Buffalo Bills in Week 2, Fitzpatrick improved gradually with 374 passing yards and a touchdown, leading the Jets to a 37–31 victory to earn AFC Offensive Player of the Week. During Week 3 against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Jets committed 8 turnovers, including Fitzpatrick throwing 6 interceptions. Fitzpatrick finished with 188 passing yards as the Jets lost 24–3. In a week 6 matchup against the Arizona Cardinals, Fitzpatrick was benched in favor of Geno Smith after going 16-for-31 for 174 yards with no touchdowns and an interception and the Jets trailing 28–3.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Smith was then named the starter for the next game against the Baltimore Ravens. However, Smith suffered a season-ending injury during the game and was replaced by Fitzpatrick in the second quarter. Fitzpatrick then started the team's next two games against the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins before sitting out against the Los Angeles Rams due to injury. Bryce Petty started in his place even though Fitzpatrick was still active for the game as the backup. Fitzpatrick then returned from his injury to start the next two games against the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts. However, during the Colts game, he was benched in favor of Petty to start the second half.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: Petty was then named the starter for the final four games of the season. Jets head coach Todd Bowles said, "The plan was for us to start him the last four games anyway, so we just started a half early." Petty then started the next three games against the San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins, and New England Patriots. During the Dolphins game, Fitzpatrick relieved Petty due to injury early in the fourth quarter. Petty also suffered an injury in the Patriots game and was replaced by Fitzpatrick in the second quarter. Due to Petty's injury, Fitzpatrick started in the season finale on January 1, 2017, completing 20 of 30 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns as the Jets beat the Bills by a score of 30–10. In 14 games (11 starts) of 2016, Fitzpatrick finished with 2,710 passing yards, 12 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions.


title: Ryan Fitzpatrick

text: On May 19, 2017, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed Fitzpatrick to a one-year, $3 million contract. During Week 6 against the Arizona Cardinals, Fitzpatrick entered the game after starter Jameis Winston suffered a shoulder injury in the second quarter. He completed 22 of 32 passes for 290 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions as the Buccaneers lost by a score of 38–33. During Week 9 against the New Orleans Saints, Fitzpatrick entered the game after Winston suffered a shoulder injury. He completed 8 of 15 passes for 68 yards and a touchdown as the Buccaneers lost by a score of 30–10. On November 6, head coach Dirk Koetter said that Winston would miss at least two weeks to rest his shoulder. Fitzpatrick started the Week 10 game against the New York Jets, throwing for 187 yards, a touchdown, and an interception as the Buccaneers won 15–10. In Week 11, he threw for 275 yards and two touchdowns as the Buccaneers beat the Miami Dolphins by a score of 30–20. He also started the team's Week 12 34–20 loss to the Atlanta Falcons before Winston returned in Week 13. Overall, in the 2017 season, Fitzpatrick had 1,103 passing yards, seven touchdowns, and three interceptions.