49. My garments in a fieldAn unrelated thought: the Berserkers were so-called because they wore 'bare skin' i.e. no clothing, because a berserker is the mascline frenzied raw unrefined energy that only scrutinizes and is not scrutinized at all (even by the presence, sensation of clothing on the skin).
I gave away
to two wooden men:
heroes they seemed to be,
when they got cloaks:
exposed to insult is a naked man.
(Source: http://heathengods.com/havamal/thorpe.htm)
48. Liberal and brave men live best,
they seldom cherish sorrow;
but a base-minded man
dreads everything;
the niggardly is uneasy even at gifts.
(Source: http://heathengods.com/havamal/thorpe.htm)
 |
| Tadeusz Kościuszko |
Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko ([taˈdɛuʂ kɔɕˈt͡ɕuʂkɔ] (listen); February 4 or 12,[a] is a national hero of Poland, Belarus, Lithuania and the United States and fought in the American Revolution and the Polish uprising against Russia.[2] He was born in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[..] He was a firm believer in human rights and was a friend and admirer of Thomas Jefferson and his enlightenment ideals of inalienable rights and the American Revolution.
Kościuszko was Polish (sometimes described as Polish-Lithuanian)[5] He led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia as Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Forces.[6] He graduated from the Corps of Cadets School in Warsaw. Kościuszko moved to France during the outbreak of a civil war in Poland to pursue further studies. He returned to Poland in 1774, two years after the First Partition of Poland, and took a position as a private tutor. He left for France again due to financial difficulties. Upon learning of the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War while in France, Kościuszko moved to the United States in 1776 and participated in the fighting as a colonel in the Continental Army. While in New York he helped design and supervised the construction of the garrisons at West Point, New York. In 1783, in recognition of his dedicated service, he was brevetted by the Continental Congress to the rank of brigadier general. Kościuszko was also an accomplished architect and artist and painted portraits including one of Thomas Jefferson.
Following his return to Poland in 1784, Kościuszko became a major general of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's Army. After the Polish–Russian War of 1792 resulted in the Second Partition of Poland, Kościuszko organized an uprising against the Russians two years later, serving as Naczelnik. However, he was captured by Russian forces at the Battle of Maciejowice. The defeat of the uprising resulted in the Third Partition of Poland, which ended the existence of the country as an independent state.
In 1796, Kościuszko was pardoned by Tsar Paul I of Russia and emigrated to the United States.
Kościuszko eventually returned to Europe and lived in Switzerland until his death in 1817.
47. I was once young,The Nordic equivalent of the biblical story of the prodigal son? After all it's about a man who became lost and then had the experience of finding others again. And it is certainly much shorter!
I was journeying alone,
and lost my way;
rich I thought myself,
when I met another.
Man is the joy of man.
(Source: http://heathengods.com/havamal/thorpe.htm)
John Rarey, 1860 (aged 33)
John Solomon Rarey (1827–1866) was one of the nineteenth century horse whisperers, an important figure in the rehabilitation of abused and vicious horses during the 1850s. Originally from Groveport, Ohio, Rarey trained his first horse at the age of twelve. (His method of rehabilitating horses is discussed in the article entitled Rarey technique.)
An excerpt from The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans:
The horse they found was Cruiser, a horse kept for breeding but said to be the fiercest horse ever seen.
- Word of his gift spread and in 1858 he was summoned to Windsor Castle in England to calm a horse of Queen Victoria. The Queen and her entourage watched astonished as Rarey put his hands on the animal and laid it down on the ground before them. Then he lay down beside it and rested his head on its hooves. The queen chuckled with delight and gave Rarey a hundred dollars. He was a modest, quiet man, but now he was famous and the press wanted more. The call went out to find the most ferocious horse in all England.
Nicholas Evans writes:
- Against all advice, Rarey let himself into the stable where no one else dared venture and shut the door. He emerged three hours later leading Cruiser, without his muzzle and gentle as a lamb. The owners were so impressed they gave him the horse. Rarey brought him back to Ohio, where Cruiser died on July 6, 1875, outliving his new master by a full nine years. Rarey left instructions for the care of Cruiser in his will. Upon Rarey's death, Cruiser's temper returned.
46. But of him yet further,Another guide for dealing with those whom you mis-trust.
whom thou little trustest,
and thou suspectest his affection;
before him thou shouldst laugh,
and contrary to thy thoughts speak:
requital should the gift resemble.
(Source: http://heathengods.com/havamal/thorpe.htm)
45. If thou hast another,Each to their own according to their manner, depending on what you want from them.
whom thou little trustest,
yet wouldst good from him derive,
thou shouldst speak him fair,
but think craftily,
and leasing pay with lying.
(Source: http://heathengods.com/havamal/thorpe.htm)
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| Stephen the III of Moldavia |
Stephen III of Moldavia (also known as Stefan the Great, Romanian: Ștefan cel Mare, pronounced [ʃteˈfan t͡ʃel ˈmare] or Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt, "Stefan the Great and Holy"; 1433 – July 2, 1504) was Prince of Moldavia between 1457 and 1504 and the most prominent representative of the House of Mușat.
During his reign, he strengthened Moldavia and maintained its independence against the ambitions of Hungary, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire, which all sought to subdue the land. Stephen achieved fame in Europe for his long resistance against the Ottomans. He was victorious in 46 of his 48 battles, and was one of the first to gain a decisive victory over the Ottomans at the Battle of Vaslui, after which Pope Sixtus IV deemed him verus christianae fidei athleta (true Champion of Christian Faith). He was a man of religion and displayed his piety when he paid the debt of Mount Athos to the Porte, ensuring the continuity of Athos as an autonomous monastical community.Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_the_Great
Early life and rise to power
Stephen was born in Borzești and was a member of the ruling House of Mușat. His father Bogdan II had ruled Moldavia for two years (1449 to 1451) before being killed in a stealthy raid led by Stephen's uncle, Petru Aron. Bogdan II was attending a wedding of one of his boyars – who apparently was in collusion with Petru Aron – and the surprise was complete. Stephen barely escaped with his life, but his father was captured and beheaded on the spot by his stepbrother Petru Aron. Between 1451 and 1457, Moldavia was in turmoil from the civil war between Petru Aron and Alexăndrel – a nephew of Alexander the Good.
Following the outbreak of the conflict, Stephen took refuge in Transylvania, seeking the protection of military commander John Hunyadi. After that, he moved to the court of his first cousin Vlad III Dracula and, in 1457, managed to receive 6,000 horsemen as military assistance, putting them to use in a victorious battle against Petru Aron at Doljești, near Roman. Following another lost battle at Orbic, Aron fled to Poland, while Stephen was crowned Prince. Two years later, he led an incursion into Poland in search of Aron, but was met with resistance. Instead, a treaty was signed between Moldavia and Poland, through which Stephen recognized King Kazimierz IV Jagiellon as his suzerain, while Aron was banned from entering Moldavia.
Rule
Menaced by powerful neighbours, he successfully repelled an invasion by the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, defeating him in the Battle of Baia (in 1467), crushed an invading Tatar force at Lipnic and invaded Wallachia in 1471 (the latter had by then succumbed to Ottoman power and had become its vassal). When the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II launched a retaliatory attack on Moldavia, Stephen defeated the invaders at the Battle of Vaslui in 1475, a victory which temporarily halted the Turkish advance.
[..]
Stephen's search for European assistance against the Turks met with little success, even though he had "cut off the pagan's right hand" – as he put it in a letter.
[..]
From 1484[..]Stephen had to face not only new Turkish onslaughts which he defeated again on November 16, 1485 at Catlabuga Lake and at Șcheia on the Siret River in March 1486, but also the Polish designs on Moldavian independence. Finally on August 20, 1503[1] he concluded a treaty with Sultan Beyazid II that preserved Moldavia's self-rule, at the cost of an annual tribute to the Turks.
From the 16th century on, the Principality of Moldavia would spend three hundred years as an Ottoman vassal. In his late years, he dealt successfully with a Polish invasion, defeating the Poles at the Battle of the Cosmin Forest.
[..]
It is said that he built 44 churches and monasteries (see List of churches established by Stephen III of Moldavia), one for each battle that he won (44 out of a total of 48).
44. Know, if thou has a friendMeet generosity with generosity. Treasure honest friends, for they are valuable. There seems to be an underlaying sense of 'like attracts like' and that 'like should be met with like'.
whom thou fully trustest,
and from whom thou woulds’t good derive,
thou shouldst blend thy mind with his,
and gifts exchange,
and often go to see him.
(Source: http://heathengods.com/havamal/thorpe.htm)
43. To his friendTreat people who have wilfully chosen to be friends of yours in a friendly manner, and people who have wilfully chosen to be enemies of yours in a hostile manner.
a man should be a friend,
to him and to his friend;
but of his foe
no man shall
the friend’s friend be.
(Source: http://heathengods.com/havamal/thorpe.htm)
George Petrovich (aka Black George), 1816 (aged 59)
Đorđe Petrović OSA (Serbian Cyrillic: Ђорђе Петровић, Serbian pronunciation: [dʑôːrdʑe pětroʋitɕ], Anglicized: George Petrovich), known as Karađorđe (Карађорђе, [kâradʑoːrdʑe], Black George[a]; 3 November 1768[citation needed] – 24 July 1817), founded modern Serbia as the elected leader of the First Serbian Uprising (part of the Serbian Revolution) that aimed at liberating Serbia from the Ottoman Empire (1804–1813); he personally led armies against the Ottomans in several battles, which resulted in a short-lived state which he would administer as Grand Leader (Veliki Vožd) from 14 February 1804 to 21 September 1813, alongside the newly founded Narodna Skupština (People's Assembly) and the Praviteljstvujušči Sovjet (Governing Council), simulating a wholly functional state government in war-time.
Born into a poor family in Šumadija, part of the Sanjak of Smederevo (modern central Serbia), Đorđe began working as a servant for affluent Serbs and Turks, but after having killed a Turk, his family fled across the Sava into Syrmia, a Habsburg-controlled area. He rose to prominence in the Austrian army, participating in the liberation of the sanjak, which resulted in the short-lived Kingdom of Serbia (1788). He received a medal of honour for his efforts, and when the Austrian army was forced to retreat, and the Ottomans re-occupied Šumadija, he joined the Hajduks. He commanded a unit and fought the Ottomans until 1794, when he returned to his family.
In the following years the local janissaries grew stronger and seized the sanjak from the Sultan, imposing greater taxes and perpetrating violence against the population; as the janissaries feared the Sultan's retaliation as a possible task given to the Serbs, they executed hundreds of prominent Serbs in what would be known as the Slaughter of the Dukes (1804). Some 300 nobility assembled and elected Karađorđe as leader; by the end of the year the janissaries were defeated, and the Sultan praised the Serbs. However, when the pasha arrived in Serbia to take over the governance, he was killed. The struggle continued as a wide-scale revolt, the First Serbian Uprising, in which several battles were successfully fought against the Ottomans; a government was established, and Karađorđe abolished feudalism.
After the suppression of activities in 1813, Karađorđe and other leaders went into exile, while in 1815 Miloš Obrenović, a fellow rebel leader, initiated the Second Serbian Uprising. The second uprising ended in 1817, when Obrenović signed a treaty with the Ottomans and became the Prince of Serbia. Obrenović (who saw a threat in the possible return of popular Petrović) and the Ottomans (who despised him and feared more fighting) conspired and planned the assassination of Karađorđe. When Karađorđe returned in 1817 to start yet another uprising, he was deceived by a friend and killed; his head was sent to Istanbul and Obrenović retained his leadership.
Karađorđe founded the House of Karađorđević, the Serbian royal family, which would later gain the Serbian crown after the deposing of the rival House of Obrenović.
[..]Exile, Death and aftermath
42. To his friendTreat people who have wilfully chosen to be friends of yours in a friendly manner, and people who have wilfully chosen to be enemies of yours in a hostile manner.
a man should be a friend,
and gifts with gifts requite.
Laughter with laughter
men should receive,
but leasing with lying.
(Source: http://heathengods.com/havamal/thorpe.htm)
