Þrúðr, sometimes written as Thrúd, is a daughter of the gods Sif and Thor in Norse mythology. Although her name is mentioned in the "Prose Edda", it gives no direct powers or other information about her. Thrúd is also one of the valkyries described in "Grímnismál" (stanza 36). Thrúd is the goddess of power, of trees, flowers and the grass. Her name means strength in Old Norse.
Hugin and Munin
Hugin and Munin are two ravens, commonly associated with Odin. They bring Odin news from the world, when he sends them out. Their names translate as thought and memory, respectively.
Hel (goddess)
Hel is a goddess of Norse mythology. Her father is Loki, and her mother is Angrboða, a giantess. Her siblings are Jörmungandr and Fenrir. Her task is to reign over the realm of the dead, also called Hel or Neifelheim, where the dead peacefully go to in the afterlife to wait until Ragnarok, the end of the gods and Asgard. The people who go there are those who did not die in battle, but instead died a peaceful death. She watches over those who die, but are not chosen by the Valkyries to go to Valhalla or chosen by Freyja to enter her household.
Hel is half dead and half alive due to complications of her father and her mother. Half of her face is beautiful, like that of her father, while the other half is ugly and difficult to look at like her mother. From the waist up the skin is pink, alive and healthy. Below the waist is dead and rotting. This is the personification of the belief that death can be a good thing or a tragedy. Hel's underworld is not the Christian hell of eternal punishment for all, but a world of rewards or punishment for each as earned in life.
Runestone
A Runestone or Rune stone is a large stone, with runes inscribed on it, dating from the early Middle Ages. Currently, about 6000 such stones are known to exist in Scandinavia. About half of them date from the tenth and eleventh century, and were found in Sweden. Most of them are like grave stones. They announce the life and death of a local person. About 10 percent of the known stones tell about the travels and deaths of persons abroad. Some of these texts are similar to what Scandinavians who travelled to Byzantium have written in Latin.
Balcony
A balcony is a kind of floor at a certain height, which stands out from the building. Usually, there is some kind of balustrade so people do not fall off.
There is a possibility to protect the balcony with a glazing. So called balcony glazings are important for certain areas that are heavily influenced by weather or noise. Assemblers, which create designs and static evaluation for the balcony glazing, are necessary to integrate the glazing conform with regulations and laws. Because if the glazing is assembled in the wrong way, parts could fall off and damage property or persons.
Unlike a terrace, balconies and also their balustrade need a static evaluation, so they don't take damage over time and can permanentely hold their visitors.
Bergstraße Route
Bergstraße ("Mountain Road") is the name of a mountain route, and the area around it, which stretches across the western edge of the Odenwald in southern Hesse and northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
The name "Bergstraße" also refers to the district Kreis Bergstraße, the independent wine-growing region of Hessische Bergstraße and the Badische Bergstraße in the Baden wine-growing area.
The route goes almost straight from north to south at the spot where the Rhine lowlands meet the western edge of the Odenwald. The name comes from the road's route along the foot of the mountains, the Rhine lowlands once being too damp to build a road there.
The route mostly follows the modern B3 road. It begins in Darmstadt and, after passing through Eberstadt, splits into the "Old Bergstraße" and the "New Bergstraße", which goes somewhat farther to the west. The two routes meet again at Zwingenberg.
In Weinheim-Lützelsachsen the route splits into an old and a new Bergstraße again. The new one passes west of the old route as far as Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim, where the two meet once more. The route carrying on after the Neckar from Heidelberg to Wiesloch is still usually known as the Bergstraße, even though the type of country and climate typical of the Bergstraße is no longer as clear.
Caucasus
The Caucasus or Caucasia is a region in Eurasia bordered on the south by Iran, on the southwest by Turkey, on the west by the Black Sea, on the east by the Caspian Sea, and on the north by Russia. The Persian name for the region is "Qafqâz". Caucasia includes the Caucasus Mountains and surrounding lowlands.
The Caucasus Mountains are commonly known as a line between Asia and Europe, and the lands in Caucasia are different considered to be in one or both continents. The northern portion of the Caucasus is known as the Ciscaucasus and the southern portion as the Transcaucasus. The highest peak in the Caucasus is Mount Elbrus (5,642 m) which, in the western Ciscaucasus in Russia, is generally considered the highest point in Europe.
The Biblical Mount Ararat where Noah's Ark landed is known as the landmark of the ancient Armenian realm. The peak of Ararat is seasonally capped with snow. In Greek mythology, the Caucasus or Kaukasos was one of the pillars supporting the world. Prometheus was chained there by Zeus. The Roman poet Ovid placed Caucasus in Scythia and said it was a cold and stony mountain which was the abode of personified hunger.
Hamidian massacres
The Hamidian massacres took place around 1895 until 1897. The estimated number of Armenians killed are around 100,000 - 300,000.
These events are known by the Armenians as the "Great Massacres". The Armenians believed the Hamidian measures showed the extension of the Turkish state to do a systematic policy of murder and plunder against a small population. The Armenian revolutionary groups started around the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1878 and grew with the first introduction of Article 166 of the Ottoman Penal code 166, and the raid of Erzerum Cathedral.
Article 166 was meant to control the possession of arms, but it was used to target Armenians by not letting them possess arms. Local Kurdish tribes were armed to attack the defenseless Armenian population. Some diplomats said that the aim of these groups was to commit massacres so as to show counter-measures, and to invite "foreign powers to intervene," as Istanbul's British Ambassador Sir Philip Currie seen in March 1894. Even some Turkish authors admit the that this was just a pretext for the massacres.
Alfred Pampalon
Alfred Pampalon (24 November 1867 – 30 September 1896) was born in the city of Lévis, Quebec, and died at 28 in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. He was a Redemptorist priest known for having a deep faith in God and a deep love of Mary. He is a patron for people with addictions.
He was known to be a modest, prayerful person, and was thought of as honest and pure by his classmates.
Pampalon was devoted to Mary; before going to a Redemptorists' monastery, he went to a statue of Mary and asked her to pray for the monks to let him join. The Monastery allowed him to join despite his poor health, because they saw his strong desire to become a Redemptorists father. While training to become a Roman Catholic priest his fellow students asked him how he managed to study philosophy so well, and he replied he imagined Mary was asking him the questions. He would make his head touch the floor and pray to her daily, and while dying he would pray to her throughout the day.