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💬🌳🏛🖼️📜 Quotes, nature, architecture, art and history about our homeland, Europe.
For the ancient Romans, January was significant because it was the month dedicated to the god Janus (hence Ianuarius, which means January in Latin).
According to Roman mythology, Janus is the two-faced god, associated with beginnings and endings, as well as transitions and passages.
Farmer and farmer's wife working in the hayloft, 1960 - by W.L. Stuifbergen, Dutch
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"The very purpose of a knight is to fight on behalf of a lady."
— Thomas Malory
Cenomani gold coin 5 to 1st century BCE French Gaul
The Cenomani was an ancient tribe of the Cisalpine Gauls, who occupied the tract north of the Padus (modern Po River), between the Insubres on the west and the Veneti on the east.
Their territory appears to have extended from the river Addua (or perhaps the Ollius, the modern Oglio) to the Athesis (modern Adige).
Etruscan pendant with swastika symbols Bolsena Italy 700 BCE to 650 BCE.
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"You are nothing, your people are everything"
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Statue of Juno Sospita
📸 Rome, Vatican Museums
When the Hangman Ruled, from 'The Story of France', 1974
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The Vyne Ring or the Ring of Silvianus
Thought to be fourth-century, it is made of 12g of gold and comes with an intriguing tale. It was discovered in 1785 by a farmer in a field at Silchester (the Roman town Calleva Atrebatum), in Hampshire, not far from The Vyne. No one knows how the ring came to The Vyne Tudor house, but there it has stayed.
Moving on to the early 19th century, and, 100 miles away, at Lydney in Gloucestershire (once the site of a Roman temple), a small leaden tablet, also from the fourth century, was found. On it was engraved a curse imprecating woe on the person – one Senicianus – who had taken this very ring. The curse named the owner of the ring as Silvianus, and in the text he called upon the god Nodens, a Celtic deity adopted by the Romans, for help.
In the 1920s the archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler was directing excavations at Lydney. Aware of the tablet (now in private hands) and its connection to the ring, he asked JRR Tolkien, scholar of Old and Middle English at Oxford, to look into ‘Nodens’. ‘Did Tolkien see the ring?’ asks Dominique Shembry, house steward at The Vyne. ‘We can’t be sure, but he was clearly aware of its connection to the tablet and its curse.’
The ring comes with unanswered questions. It is engraved with a primitive face and the word ‘VENVS’ is inscribed on the reverse. But is it Venus? ‘It could be a lion’s head,’ Dominique explains, ‘or the profile of a Celtic tribal chief, wearing a headband of feathers, or perhaps boar’s bristles, which were a symbol of fertility and strength. The ring is large, a modern size T, so it must have been worn on the thumb, or over a glove.’
What is known is that the curse clearly failed: Silvianus never had his piece returned. Yet the tale of a ring and a curse, thanks to Tolkien, lives on.
Silver leaf disc dedicated to the sun-god Sol Invictus, 3rd century CE,
📸 The British Museum, London
“Victory“, 1861, by Christian Daniel Rauch.
Placed in Osborne House, the family house of Queen Victoria in the Isle of Wight, UK.
A bracteate discovered on the island of Funen, Denmark features incomprehensible and meaningful text. The bracteate is housed with many others at the National Museum of Denmark. The transcription reads:
ᚺᛟᚢᚨᛉ
houaz
ᛚᚨᚦᚢ
laþu
ᚨᚨᛞᚢᚫᚫᚫᛚᛁᛁᚨ
aaduaaaliia
ᚨ--
a--
What is transcribed as a-- above has been tentatively read as alu. The word houaz has been interpreted as corresponding to Old Norse hávi "the high one", a name of Odin.
Sainte-Chappelle, Paris, France
Situated in the Ile-de-la-Cité, the Sainte-Chapelle is part of the Palais de la Cite, the residence of the royalty during the 10th to the 14th century.
Anglo-Saxon glass drinking-horn, VII c. Excavated in Rainham, London
Drinking horns are attested from Viking Age Scandinavia. In the Prose Edda, Thor drank from a horn that unbeknown to him contained all the seas. They also feature in Beowulf, and fittings for drinking horns were also found at the Sutton Hoo burial site. Carved horns are mentioned in Guðrúnarkviða II, a poem composed about 1000 AD and preserved in the Poetic Edda.
📸 The British Museum
Wahnfried House, Bayreuth, Germany
Wahnfried was the name given by Richard Wagner to his villa in Bayreuth. The name is a German compound of Wahn (delusion, madness) and Fried(e) (peace, freedom).
"The Magdalen Holding the Crown of Thorns" by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)
📸 The Schorr Collection
Florentine Cabinet, Favorite Schloss, Rastatt, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany,
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Duck’s foot pistol
Commonly known as a “Duck’s Foot” pistol, this example made by G. Goodwin & Company of London was designed for use by British naval officers. Its four barrels fired simultaneously, a distinct advantage if its user was attacked. The “Duck’s Foot” guns were also known as “volley” guns.
📸 Winchester Arms Collection
"Christmas Eve at the Grave", by Otto Hesselbom, 1896
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Old Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
Is the main library of Oxford University, one of the oldest libraries in Europe and the UK and the second largest library with more than 12 million books.
The god Víðarr "The silent". stands in the jaws of Fenrir and swings his sword.
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“Theseus and the Minotaur“ by Edward Burne-Jones
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Stained glass with Imperial coat of arms for the City of Nuremburg, Germany, dated 1508
📸 The State Museums of Berlin
"Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided but by iron and blood"
— Otto Von Bismarck
📸 Pic: bearded Otto Von Bismarck, 1880’s-90’s
The Gold bust of Septimius Severus (194–197 AD)
It was found in 1965 in Greece and it is now kept in the Archaeological Museum of Komotini, in the town of Komotini. It is one of the only two surviving gold busts of a Roman Emperor today, the other being the Golden Bust of Marcus Aurelius.
📸 Archaeological Museum of Komotin, Greece