Troldhaugen is the former home of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg and his wife Nina Grieg. Troldhaugen is located in Bergen, Norway and consists of the Edvard Grieg Museum, Grieg's villa, the hut where he composed music, and his and his wife's gravesite.

 

Background

The building was designed by Grieg's cousin, the architect Schak Bull. The name comes from trold meaning troll and haug from the Old Norse word haugr meaning hill or knoll. Grieg is reputed to have said that the children called the nearby small valley "The Valley of Trolls" and thus gave the name for his building as well. Edvard Grieg himself called the building "my best composition hitherto".

 

Edvard and Nina Grieg finished building Troldhaugen in 1885. Edvard and Nina Grieg lived in Troldhaugen when he was home in Norway, mostly in the summer. Troldhaugen was the home of Edvard Grieg from April 1885 to his death. After the death of her husband in 1907, Nina Grieg moved to Denmark, where she spent the remainder of her life. Grieg's and his wife's ashes rest inside a mountain tomb near the house.

 

Troldhaugen is a typical 19th-century residence with a panoramic tower and a large veranda. Grieg's small composer's hut overlooks Nordås Lake. Grieg immortalized the name of his home in one of his piano pieces, Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, Opus 65, No. 6.

 

Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen

Troldhaugen and its surroundings are now operated as the Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen, which is dedicated to the memory of Edvard Grieg. In 1995, a museum building was added, with a permanent exhibition of Edvard Grieg's life and music, as well as a shop and restaurant. In the villa's living room stands Grieg's own Steinway grand piano, which he was given as a silver wedding anniversary present in 1892. Today the instrument is used for private concerts, special occasions, and intimate concerts held in connection with Bergen International Festival. In addition, the noted Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes has recorded an album of selections from Grieg's ten volumes of Lyric Pieces.

 

Troldsalen, a concert hall, offers concert series in the summer and autumn months, as well as many other concerts and events. Troldsalen, which was completed in 1985, is an elegant and beautiful concert hall, with excellent acoustics. The floor-to-ceiling windows behind the stage provide the audience with a lovely view of the composer's hut and Lake Nordås.

 

Edvard Hagerup Grieg 15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions brought the music of Norway to fame, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius did in Finland and Bedřich Smetana in Bohemia.

 

Grieg is the most celebrated person from the city of Bergen, with numerous statues which depict his image, and many cultural entities named after him: the city's largest concert building (Grieg Hall), its most advanced music school (Grieg Academy) and its professional choir (Edvard Grieg Kor). The Edvard Grieg Museum at Grieg's former home Troldhaugen is dedicated to his legacy

 

Nina Grieg, née Hagerup (24 November 1845 – 9 December 1935) was a Danish–Norwegian lyric soprano.

 

Early life and family

Nina Hagerup was born in Bergen, Norway. Her parents were the malt controller Herman Didrik Hagerup and the actress Luise Adeline Werligh, née Falck. She was the first cousin of composer Edvard Grieg, whom she married in 1867.

 

Bergen, historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. As of 2022, its population was roughly 289,330. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway after national capital Oslo. The municipality covers 465 square kilometres (180 sq mi) and is located on the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen. The city centre and northern neighbourhoods are on Byfjorden, 'the city fjord'. The city is surrounded by mountains, causing Bergen to be called the "city of seven mountains". Many of the extra-municipal suburbs are on islands. Bergen is the administrative centre of Vestland county. The city consists of eight boroughs: Arna, Bergenhus, Fana, Fyllingsdalen, Laksevåg, Ytrebygda, Årstad, and Åsane.

 

Trading in Bergen may have started as early as the 1020s. According to tradition, the city was founded in 1070 by King Olav Kyrre and was named Bjørgvin, 'the green meadow among the mountains'. It served as Norway's capital in the 13th century, and from the end of the 13th century became a bureau city of the Hanseatic League. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to mediate trade between Northern Norway and abroad, and it was the largest city in Norway until the 1830s when it was overtaken by the capital, Christiania (now known as Oslo). What remains of the quays, Bryggen, is a World Heritage Site. The city was hit by numerous fires over the years. The Bergen School of Meteorology was developed at the Geophysical Institute starting in 1917, the Norwegian School of Economics was founded in 1936, and the University of Bergen in 1946. From 1831 to 1972, Bergen was its own county. In 1972 the municipality absorbed four surrounding municipalities and became a part of Hordaland county.

 

The city is an international centre for aquaculture, shipping, the offshore petroleum industry and subsea technology, and a national centre for higher education, media, tourism and finance. Bergen Port is Norway's busiest in terms of both freight and passengers, with over 300 cruise ship calls a year bringing nearly a half a million passengers to Bergen, a number that has doubled in 10 years. Almost half of the passengers are German or British. The city's main football team is SK Brann and a unique tradition of the city is the buekorps, which are traditional marching neighbourhood youth organisations. Natives speak a distinct dialect, known as Bergensk. The city features Bergen Airport, Flesland and Bergen Light Rail, and is the terminus of the Bergen Line. Four large bridges connect Bergen to its suburban municipalities.

 

Bergen has a mild winter climate, though with significant precipitation. From December to March, Bergen can, in rare cases, be up to 20 °C warmer than Oslo, even though both cities are at about 60° North. In summer however, Bergen is several degrees cooler than Oslo due to the same maritime effects. The Gulf Stream keeps the sea relatively warm, considering the latitude, and the mountains protect the city from cold winds from the north, north-east and east.

 

History

Hieronymus Scholeus's impression of Bergen. The drawing was made in about 1580 and was published in an atlas with drawings of many different cities (Civitaes orbis terrarum).

The city of Bergen was traditionally thought to have been founded by king Olav Kyrre, son of Harald Hardråde in 1070 AD, four years after the Viking Age in England ended with the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Modern research has, however, discovered that a trading settlement had already been established in the 1020s or 1030s.

 

Bergen gradually assumed the function of capital of Norway in the early 13th century, as the first city where a rudimentary central administration was established. The city's cathedral was the site of the first royal coronation in Norway in the 1150s, and continued to host royal coronations throughout the 13th century. Bergenhus fortress dates from the 1240s and guards the entrance to the harbour in Bergen. The functions of the capital city were lost to Oslo during the reign of King Haakon V (1299–1319).

 

In the middle of the 14th century, North German merchants, who had already been present in substantial numbers since the 13th century, founded one of the four Kontore of the Hanseatic League at Bryggen in Bergen. The principal export traded from Bergen was dried cod from the northern Norwegian coast, which started around 1100. The city was granted a monopoly for trade from the north of Norway by King Håkon Håkonsson (1217–1263). Stockfish was the main reason that the city became one of North Europe's largest centres for trade.[11] By the late 14th century, Bergen had established itself as the centre of the trade in Norway. The Hanseatic merchants lived in their own separate quarter of the town, where Middle Low German was used, enjoying exclusive rights to trade with the northern fishermen who each summer sailed to Bergen. The Hansa community resented Scottish merchants who settled in Bergen, and on 9 November 1523 several Scottish households were targeted by German residents. Today, Bergen's old quayside, Bryggen, is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.

 

In 1349, the Black Death was brought to Norway by an English ship arriving in Bergen. Later outbreaks occurred in 1618, 1629 and 1637, on each occasion taking about 3,000 lives. In the 15th century, the city was attacked several times by the Victual Brothers, and in 1429 they succeeded in burning the royal castle and much of the city. In 1665, the city's harbour was the site of the Battle of Vågen, when an English naval flotilla attacked a Dutch merchant and treasure fleet supported by the city's garrison. Accidental fires sometimes got out of control, and one in 1702 reduced most of the town to ashes.

 

Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, Bergen remained one of the largest cities in Scandinavia, and it was Norway's biggest city until the 1830s, being overtaken by the capital city of Oslo. From around 1600, the Hanseatic dominance of the city's trade gradually declined in favour of Norwegian merchants (often of Hanseatic ancestry), and in the 1750s, the Kontor, or major trading post of the Hanseatic League, finally closed. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Bergen was involved in the Atlantic slave trade. Bergen-based slave trader Jørgen Thormøhlen, the largest shipowner in Norway, was the main owner of the slave ship Cornelia, which made two slave-trading voyages in 1673 and 1674 respectively; he also developed the city's industrial sector, particularly in the neighbourhood of Møhlenpris, which is named after him. Bergen retained its monopoly of trade with northern Norway until 1789. The Bergen stock exchange, the Bergen børs, was established in 1813.

 

Modern history

Bergen was separated from Hordaland as a county of its own in 1831. It was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality of Bergen landdistrikt was merged with Bergen on 1 January 1877. The rural municipality of Årstad was merged with Bergen on 1 July 1915.

 

During World War II, Bergen was occupied on the first day of the German invasion on 9 April 1940, after a brief fight between German ships and the Norwegian coastal artillery. The Norwegian resistance movement groups in Bergen were Saborg, Milorg, "Theta-gruppen", Sivorg, Stein-organisasjonen and the Communist Party. On 20 April 1944, during the German occupation, the Dutch cargo ship Voorbode anchored off the Bergenhus Fortress, loaded with over 120 tons of explosives, and blew up, killing at least 150 people and damaging historic buildings. The city was subject to some Allied bombing raids, aimed at German naval installations in the harbour. Some of these caused Norwegian civilian casualties numbering about 100.

 

Bergen is also well known in Norway for the Isdal Woman (Norwegian: Isdalskvinnen), an unidentified person who was found dead at Isdalen ("Ice Valley") on 29 November 1970. The unsolved case encouraged international speculation over the years and it remains one of the most profound mysteries in recent Norwegian history.

 

The rural municipalities of Arna, Fana, Laksevåg, and Åsane were merged with Bergen on 1 January 1972. The city lost its status as a separate county on the same date, and Bergen is now a municipality, in the county of Vestland.

 

Fires

The city's history is marked by numerous great fires. In 1198, the Bagler faction set fire to the city in connection with a battle against the Birkebeiner faction during the civil war. In 1248, Holmen and Sverresborg burned, and 11 churches were destroyed. In 1413 another fire struck the city, and 14 churches were destroyed. In 1428 the city was plundered by the Victual Brothers, and in 1455, Hanseatic merchants were responsible for burning down Munkeliv Abbey. In 1476, Bryggen burned down in a fire started by a drunk trader. In 1582, another fire hit the city centre and Strandsiden. In 1675, 105 buildings burned down in Øvregaten. In 1686 another great fire hit Strandsiden, destroying 231 city blocks and 218 boathouses. The greatest fire in history was in 1702, when 90% of the city was burned to ashes. In 1751, there was a great fire at Vågsbunnen. In 1756, yet another fire at Strandsiden burned down 1,500 buildings, and further great fires hit Strandsiden in 1771 and 1901. In 1916, 300 buildings burned down in the city centre including the Swan pharmacy, the oldest pharmacy in Norway, and in 1955 parts of Bryggen burned down.

 

Toponymy

Bergen is pronounced in English /ˈbɜːrɡən/ or /ˈbɛərɡən/ and in Norwegian [ˈbæ̀rɡn̩] (in the local dialect [ˈbæ̂ʁɡɛn]). The Old Norse forms of the name were Bergvin [ˈberɡˌwin] and Bjǫrgvin [ˈbjɔrɡˌwin] (and in Icelandic and Faroese the city is still called Björgvin). The first element is berg (n.) or bjǫrg (n.), which translates as 'mountain(s)'. The last element is vin (f.), which means a new settlement where there used to be a pasture or meadow. The full meaning is then "the meadow among the mountains". This is a suitable name: Bergen is often called "the city among the seven mountains". It was the playwright Ludvig Holberg who felt so inspired by the seven hills of Rome, that he decided that his home town must be blessed with a corresponding seven mountains – and locals still argue which seven they are.

 

In 1918, there was a campaign to reintroduce the Norse form Bjørgvin as the name of the city. This was turned down – but as a compromise, the name of the diocese was changed to Bjørgvin bispedømme.

 

Bergen occupies most of the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen in the district of Midthordland in mid-western Hordaland. The municipality covers an area of 465 square kilometres (180 square miles). Most of the urban area is on or close to a fjord or bay, although the urban area has several mountains. The city centre is surrounded by the Seven Mountains, although there is disagreement as to which of the nine mountains constitute these. Ulriken, Fløyen, Løvstakken and Damsgårdsfjellet are always included as well as three of Lyderhorn, Sandviksfjellet, Blåmanen, Rundemanen and Kolbeinsvarden. Gullfjellet is Bergen's highest mountain, at 987 metres (3,238 ft) above mean sea level. Bergen is far enough north that during clear nights at the solstice, there is borderline civil daylight in spite of the sun having set.

 

Bergen is sheltered from the North Sea by the islands Askøy, Holsnøy (the municipality of Meland) and Sotra (the municipalities of Fjell and Sund). Bergen borders the municipalities Alver and Osterøy to the north, Vaksdal and Samnanger to the east, Os (Bjørnafjorden) and Austevoll to the south, and Øygarden and Askøy to the west.

 

The city centre of Bergen lies in the west of the municipality, facing the fjord of Byfjorden. It is among a group of mountains known as the Seven Mountains, although the number is a matter of definition. From here, the urban area of Bergen extends to the north, west and south, and to its east is a large mountain massif. Outside the city centre and the surrounding neighbourhoods (i.e. Årstad, inner Laksevåg and Sandviken), the majority of the population lives in relatively sparsely populated residential areas built after 1950. While some are dominated by apartment buildings and modern terraced houses (e.g. Fyllingsdalen), others are dominated by single-family homes.

 

The oldest part of Bergen is the area around the bay of Vågen in the city centre. Originally centred on the bay's eastern side, Bergen eventually expanded west and southwards. Few buildings from the oldest period remain, the most significant being St Mary's Church from the 12th century. For several hundred years, the extent of the city remained almost constant. The population was stagnant, and the city limits were narrow. In 1702, seven-eighths of the city burned. Most of the old buildings of Bergen, including Bryggen (which was rebuilt in a mediaeval style), were built after the fire. The fire marked a transition from tar covered houses, as well as the remaining log houses, to painted and some brick-covered wooden buildings.

 

The last half of the 19th century saw a period of rapid expansion and modernisation. The fire of 1855 west of Torgallmenningen led to the development of regularly sized city blocks in this area of the city centre. The city limits were expanded in 1876, and Nygård, Møhlenpris and Sandviken were urbanized with large-scale construction of city blocks housing both the poor and the wealthy. Their architecture is influenced by a variety of styles; historicism, classicism and Art Nouveau. The wealthy built villas between Møhlenpris and Nygård, and on the side of Mount Fløyen; these areas were also added to Bergen in 1876. Simultaneously, an urbanization process was taking place in Solheimsviken in Årstad, at that time outside the Bergen municipality, centred on the large industrial activity in the area. The workers' homes in this area were poorly built, and little remains after large-scale redevelopment in the 1960s–1980s.

 

After Årstad became a part of Bergen in 1916, a development plan was applied to the new area. Few city blocks akin to those in Nygård and Møhlenpris were planned. Many of the worker class built their own homes, and many small, detached apartment buildings were built. After World War II, Bergen had again run short of land to build on, and, contrary to the original plans, many large apartment buildings were built in Landås in the 1950s and 1960s. Bergen acquired Fyllingsdalen from Fana municipality in 1955. Like similar areas in Oslo (e.g. Lambertseter), Fyllingsdalen was developed into a modern suburb with large apartment buildings, mid-rises, and some single-family homes, in the 1960s and 1970s. Similar developments took place beyond Bergen's city limits, for example in Loddefjord.

 

At the same time as planned city expansion took place inside Bergen, its extra-municipal suburbs also grew rapidly. Wealthy citizens of Bergen had been living in Fana since the 19th century, but as the city expanded it became more convenient to settle in the municipality. Similar processes took place in Åsane and Laksevåg. Most of the homes in these areas are detached row houses,[clarification needed] single family homes or small apartment buildings. After the surrounding municipalities were merged with Bergen in 1972, expansion has continued in largely the same manner, although the municipality encourages condensing near commercial centres, future Bergen Light Rail stations, and elsewhere.

 

As part of the modernisation wave of the 1950s and 1960s, and due to damage caused by World War II, the city government ambitiously planned redevelopment of many areas in central Bergen. The plans involved demolition of several neighbourhoods of wooden houses, namely Nordnes, Marken, and Stølen. None of the plans was carried out in its original form; the Marken and Stølen redevelopment plans were discarded and that of Nordnes only carried out in the area that had been most damaged by war. The city council of Bergen had in 1964 voted to demolish the entirety of Marken, however, the decision proved to be highly controversial and the decision was reversed in 1974. Bryggen was under threat of being wholly or partly demolished after the fire of 1955, when a large number of the buildings burned to the ground. Instead of being demolished, the remaining buildings were restored and accompanied by reconstructions of some of the burned buildings.

 

Demolition of old buildings and occasionally whole city blocks is still taking place, the most recent major example being the 2007 razing of Jonsvollskvartalet at Nøstet.

 

Billboards are banned in the city.

 

Culture and sports

Bergens Tidende (BT) and Bergensavisen (BA) are the largest newspapers, with circulations of 87,076 and 30,719 in 2006, BT is a regional newspaper covering all of Vestland, while BA focuses on metropolitan Bergen. Other newspapers published in Bergen include the Christian national Dagen, with a circulation of 8.936, and TradeWinds, an international shipping newspaper. Local newspapers are Fanaposten for Fana, Sydvesten for Laksevåg and Fyllingsdalen and Bygdanytt for Arna and the neighbouring municipality Osterøy. TV 2, Norway's largest private television company, is based in Bergen.

 

The 1,500-seat Grieg Hall is the city's main cultural venue, and home of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1765, and the Bergen Woodwind Quintet. The city also features Carte Blanche, the Norwegian national company of contemporary dance. The annual Bergen International Festival is the main cultural festival, which is supplemented by the Bergen International Film Festival. Two internationally renowned composers from Bergen are Edvard Grieg and Ole Bull. Grieg's home, Troldhaugen, has been converted to a museum. During the 1990s and early 2000s, Bergen produced a series of successful pop, rock and black metal artists, collectively known as the Bergen Wave.

 

Den Nationale Scene is Bergen's main theatre. Founded in 1850, it had Henrik Ibsen as one of its first in-house playwrights and art directors. Bergen's contemporary art scene is centred on BIT Teatergarasjen, Bergen Kunsthall, United Sardines Factory (USF) and Bergen Center for Electronic Arts (BEK). Bergen was a European Capital of Culture in 2000. Buekorps is a unique feature of Bergen culture, consisting of boys aged from 7 to 21 parading with imitation weapons and snare drums. The city's Hanseatic heritage is documented in the Hanseatic Museum located at Bryggen.

 

SK Brann is Bergen's premier football team; founded in 1908, they have played in the (men's) Norwegian Premier League for all but seven years since 1963 and consecutively, except one season after relegation in 2014, since 1987. The team were the football champions in 1961–1962, 1963, and 2007,[155] and reached the quarter-finals of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1996–1997. Brann play their home games at the 17,824-seat Brann Stadion. FK Fyllingsdalen is the city's second-best team, playing in the Second Division at Varden Amfi. Its predecessor, Fyllingen, played in the Norwegian Premier League in 1990, 1991 and 1993. Arna-Bjørnar and Sandviken play in the Women's Premier League.

 

Bergen IK is the premier men's ice hockey team, playing at Bergenshallen in the First Division. Tertnes play in the Women's Premier Handball League, and Fyllingen in the Men's Premier Handball League. In athletics, the city is dominated by IL Norna-Salhus, IL Gular and FIK BFG Fana, formerly also Norrøna IL and TIF Viking. The Bergen Storm are an American football team that plays matches at Varden Kunstgress and plays in the second division of the Norwegian league.

 

Bergensk is the native dialect of Bergen. It was strongly influenced by Low German-speaking merchants from the mid-14th to mid-18th centuries. During the Dano-Norwegian period from 1536 to 1814, Bergen was more influenced by Danish than other areas of Norway. The Danish influence removed the female grammatical gender in the 16th century, making Bergensk one of very few Norwegian dialects with only two instead of three grammatical genders. The Rs are uvular trills, as in French, which probably spread to Bergen some time in the 18th century, overtaking the alveolar trill in the time span of two to three generations. Owing to an improved literacy rate, Bergensk was influenced by riksmål and bokmål in the 19th and 20th centuries. This led to large parts of the German-inspired vocabulary disappearing and pronunciations shifting slightly towards East Norwegian.

 

The 1986 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest took place in Bergen. Bergen was the host city for the 2017 UCI Road World Championships. The city is also a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the category of gastronomy since 2015.

 

Street art

Bergen is considered to be the street art capital of Norway. Famed artist Banksy visited the city in 2000 and inspired many to start creating street art. Soon after, the city brought up the most famous street artist in Norway: Dolk. His art can still be seen in several places in the city, and in 2009 the city council choose to preserve Dolk's work "Spray" with protective glass. In 2011, Bergen council launched a plan of action for street art in Bergen from 2011 to 2015 to ensure that "Bergen will lead the fashion for street art as an expression both in Norway and Scandinavia".

 

The Madam Felle (1831–1908) monument in Sandviken, is in honour of a Norwegian woman of German origin, who in the mid-19th century managed, against the will of the council, to maintain a counter of beer. A well-known restaurant of the same name is now situated at another location in Bergen. The monument was erected in 1990 by sculptor Kari Rolfsen, supported by an anonymous donor. Madam Felle, civil name Oline Fell, was remembered after her death in a popular song, possibly originally a folksong, "Kjenner Dokker Madam Felle?" by Lothar Lindtner and Rolf Berntzen on an album in 1977.

 

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway , is a Nordic , European country and an independent state in the west of the Scandinavian Peninsula . Geographically speaking, the country is long and narrow, and on the elongated coast towards the North Atlantic are Norway's well-known fjords . The Kingdom of Norway includes the main country (the mainland with adjacent islands within the baseline ), Jan Mayen and Svalbard . With these two Arctic areas, Norway covers a land area of ​​385,000 km² and has a population of approximately 5.5 million (2023). Mainland Norway borders Sweden in the east , Finland and Russia in the northeast .

 

Norway is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy , where Harald V has been king and head of state since 1991 , and Jonas Gahr Støre ( Ap ) has been prime minister since 2021 . Norway is a unitary state , with two administrative levels below the state: counties and municipalities . The Sami part of the population has, through the Sami Parliament and the Finnmark Act , to a certain extent self-government and influence over traditionally Sami areas. Although Norway has rejected membership of the European Union through two referendums , through the EEA Agreement Norway has close ties with the Union, and through NATO with the United States . Norway is a significant contributor to the United Nations (UN), and has participated with soldiers in several foreign operations mandated by the UN. Norway is among the states that have participated from the founding of the UN , NATO , the Council of Europe , the OSCE and the Nordic Council , and in addition to these is a member of the EEA , the World Trade Organization , the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and is part of the Schengen area .

 

Norway is rich in many natural resources such as oil , gas , minerals , timber , seafood , fresh water and hydropower . Since the beginning of the 20th century, these natural conditions have given the country the opportunity for an increase in wealth that few other countries can now enjoy, and Norwegians have the second highest average income in the world, measured in GDP per capita, as of 2022. The petroleum industry accounts for around 14% of Norway's gross domestic product as of 2018. Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and gas per capita outside the Middle East. However, the number of employees linked to this industry fell from approx. 232,000 in 2013 to 207,000 in 2015.

 

In Norway, these natural resources have been managed for socially beneficial purposes. The country maintains a welfare model in line with the other Nordic countries. Important service areas such as health and higher education are state-funded, and the country has an extensive welfare system for its citizens. Public expenditure in 2018 is approx. 50% of GDP, and the majority of these expenses are related to education, healthcare, social security and welfare. Since 2001 and until 2021, when the country took second place, the UN has ranked Norway as the world's best country to live in . From 2010, Norway is also ranked at the top of the EIU's democracy index . Norway ranks third on the UN's World Happiness Report for the years 2016–2018, behind Finland and Denmark , a report published in March 2019.

 

The majority of the population is Nordic. In the last couple of years, immigration has accounted for more than half of population growth. The five largest minority groups are Norwegian-Poles , Lithuanians , Norwegian-Swedes , Norwegian-Syrians including Syrian Kurds and Norwegian-Pakistani .

 

Norway's national day is 17 May, on this day in 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was dated and signed by the presidency of the National Assembly at Eidsvoll . It is stipulated in the law of 26 April 1947 that 17 May are national public holidays. The Sami national day is 6 February. "Yes, we love this country" is Norway's national anthem, the song was written in 1859 by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910).

 

Norway's history of human settlement goes back at least 10,000 years, to the Late Paleolithic , the first period of the Stone Age . Archaeological finds of settlements along the entire Norwegian coast have so far been dated back to 10,400 before present (BP), the oldest find is today considered to be a settlement at Pauler in Brunlanes , Vestfold .

For a period these settlements were considered to be the remains of settlers from Doggerland , an area which today lies beneath the North Sea , but which was once a land bridge connecting today's British Isles with Danish Jutland . But the archaeologists who study the initial phase of the settlement in what is today Norway reckon that the first people who came here followed the coast along what is today Bohuslân. That they arrived in some form of boat is absolutely certain, and there is much evidence that they could easily move over large distances.

 

Since the last Ice Age, there has been continuous settlement in Norway. It cannot be ruled out that people lived in Norway during the interglacial period , but no trace of such a population or settlement has been found.

 

The Stone Age lasted a long time; half of the time that our country has been populated. There are no written accounts of what life was like back then. The knowledge we have has been painstakingly collected through investigations of places where people have stayed and left behind objects that we can understand have been processed by human hands. This field of knowledge is called archaeology . The archaeologists interpret their findings and the history of the surrounding landscape. In our country, the uplift after the Ice Age is fundamental. The history of the settlements at Pauler is no more than fifteen years old.

 

The Fosna culture settled parts of Norway sometime between 10,000–8,000 BC. (see Stone Age in Norway ). The dating of rock carvings is set to Neolithic times (in Norway between 4000 BC to 1700 BC) and show activities typical of hunters and gatherers .

 

Agriculture with livestock and arable farming was introduced in the Neolithic. Swad farming where the farmers move when the field does not produce the expected yield.

 

More permanent and persistent farm settlements developed in the Bronze Age (1700 BC to 500 BC) and the Iron Age . The earliest runes have been found on an arrowhead dated to around 200 BC. Many more inscriptions are dated to around 800, and a number of petty kingdoms developed during these centuries. In prehistoric times, there were no fixed national borders in the Nordic countries and Norway did not exist as a state. The population in Norway probably fell to year 0.

 

Events in this time period, the centuries before the year 1000, are glimpsed in written sources. Although the sagas were written down in the 13th century, many hundreds of years later, they provide a glimpse into what was already a distant past. The story of the fimbul winter gives us a historical picture of something that happened and which in our time, with the help of dendrochronology , can be interpreted as a natural disaster in the year 536, created by a volcanic eruption in El Salvador .

 

In the period between 800 and 1066 there was a significant expansion and it is referred to as the Viking Age . During this period, Norwegians, as Swedes and Danes also did, traveled abroad in longships with sails as explorers, traders, settlers and as Vikings (raiders and pirates ). By the middle of the 11th century, the Norwegian kingship had been firmly established, building its right as descendants of Harald Hårfagre and then as heirs of Olav the Holy . The Norwegian kings, and their subjects, now professed Christianity . In the time around Håkon Håkonsson , in the time after the civil war , there was a small renaissance in Norway with extensive literary activity and diplomatic activity with Europe. The black dew came to Norway in 1349 and killed around half of the population. The entire state apparatus and Norway then entered a period of decline.

 

Between 1396 and 1536, Norway was part of the Kalmar Union , and from 1536 until 1814 Norway had been reduced to a tributary part of Denmark , named as the Personal Union of Denmark-Norway . This staff union entered into an alliance with Napoléon Bonaparte with a war that brought bad times and famine in 1812 . In 1814, Denmark-Norway lost the Anglophone Wars , part of the Napoleonic Wars , and the Danish king was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel on 14 January of that year. After a Norwegian attempt at independence, Norway was forced into a loose union with Sweden, but where Norway was allowed to create its own constitution, the Constitution of 1814 . In this period, Norwegian, romantic national feeling flourished, and the Norwegians tried to develop and establish their own national self-worth. The union with Sweden was broken in 1905 after it had been threatened with war, and Norway became an independent kingdom with its own monarch, Haakon VII .

 

Norway remained neutral during the First World War , and at the outbreak of the Second World War, Norway again declared itself neutral, but was invaded by National Socialist Germany on 9 April 1940 .

 

Norway became a member of the Western defense alliance NATO in 1949 . Two attempts to join the EU were voted down in referendums by small margins in 1972 and 1994 . Norway has been a close ally of the United States in the post-war period. Large discoveries of oil and natural gas in the North Sea at the end of the 1960s led to tremendous economic growth in the country, which is still ongoing. Traditional industries such as fishing are also part of Norway's economy.

 

Stone Age (before 1700 BC)

When most of the ice disappeared, vegetation spread over the landscape and due to a warm climate around 2000-3000 BC. the forest grew much taller than in modern times. Land uplift after the ice age led to a number of fjords becoming lakes and dry land. The first people probably came from the south along the coast of the Kattegat and overland into Finnmark from the east. The first people probably lived by gathering, hunting and trapping. A good number of Stone Age settlements have been found which show that such hunting and trapping people stayed for a long time in the same place or returned to the same place regularly. Large amounts of gnawed bones show that they lived on, among other things, reindeer, elk, small game and fish.

 

Flintstone was imported from Denmark and apart from small natural deposits along the southern coast, all flintstone in Norway is transported by people. At Espevær, greenstone was quarried for tools in the Stone Age, and greenstone tools from Espevær have been found over large parts of Western Norway. Around 2000-3000 BC the usual farm animals such as cows and sheep were introduced to Norway. Livestock probably meant a fundamental change in society in that part of the people had to be permanent residents or live a semi-nomadic life. Livestock farming may also have led to conflict with hunters.

 

The oldest traces of people in what is today Norway have been found at Pauler , a farm in Brunlanes in Larvik municipality in Vestfold . In 2007 and 2008, the farm has given its name to a number of Stone Age settlements that have been excavated and examined by archaeologists from the Cultural History Museum at UiO. The investigations have been carried out in connection with the new route for the E18 motorway west of Farris. The oldest settlement, located more than 127 m above sea level, is dated to be about 10,400 years old (uncalibrated, more than 11,000 years in real calendar years). From here, the ice sheet was perhaps visible when people settled here. This locality has been named Pauler I, and is today considered to be the oldest confirmed human traces in Norway to date. The place is in the mountains above the Pauler tunnel on the E18 between Larvik and Porsgrunn . The pioneer settlement is a term archaeologists have adopted for the oldest settlement. The archaeologists have speculated about where they came from, the first people in what is today Norway. It has been suggested that they could come by boat or perhaps across the ice from Doggerland or the North Sea, but there is now a large consensus that they came north along what is today the Bohuslän coast. The Fosna culture , the Komsa culture and the Nøstvet culture are the traditional terms for hunting cultures from the Stone Age. One thing is certain - getting to the water was something they mastered, the first people in our country. Therefore, within a short time they were able to use our entire long coast.

 

In the New Stone Age (4000 BC–1700 BC) there is a theory that a new people immigrated to the country, the so-called Stone Ax People . Rock carvings from this period show motifs from hunting and fishing , which were still important industries. From this period, a megalithic tomb has been found in Østfold .

It is uncertain whether there were organized societies or state-like associations in the Stone Age in Norway. Findings from settlements indicate that many lived together and that this was probably more than one family so that it was a slightly larger, organized herd.

 

Finnmark

In prehistoric times, animal husbandry and agriculture were of little economic importance in Finnmark. Livelihoods in Finnmark were mainly based on fish, gathering, hunting and trapping, and eventually domestic reindeer herding became widespread in the Middle Ages. Archaeological finds from the Stone Age have been referred to as the Komsa culture and comprise around 5,000 years of settlement. Finnmark probably got its first settlement around 8000 BC. It is believed that the coastal areas became ice-free 11,000 years BC and the fjord areas around 9,000 years BC. after which willows, grass, heather, birch and pine came into being. Finnmarksvidda was covered by pine forest around 6000 BC. After the Ice Age, the land rose around 80 meters in the inner fjord areas (Alta, Tana, Varanger). Due to ice melting in the polar region, the sea rose in the period 6400–3800 BC. and in areas with little land elevation, some settlements from the first part of the Stone Age were flooded. On Sørøya, the net sea level rise was 12 to 14 meters and many residential areas were flooded.

 

According to Bjørnar Olsen , there are many indications of a connection between the oldest settlement in Western Norway (the " Fosnakulturen ") and that in Finnmark, but it is uncertain in which direction the settlement took place. In the earliest part of the Stone Age, settlement in Finnmark was probably concentrated in the coastal areas, and these only reflected a lifestyle with great mobility and no permanent dwellings. The inner regions, such as Pasvik, were probably used seasonally. The archaeologically proven settlements from the Stone Age in inner Finnmark and Troms are linked to lakes and large watercourses. The oldest petroglyphs in Alta are usually dated to 4200 BC, that is, the Neolithic . Bjørnar Olsen believes that the oldest can be up to 2,000 years older than this.

 

From around 4000 BC a slow deforestation of Finnmark began and around 1800 BC the vegetation distribution was roughly the same as in modern times. The change in vegetation may have increased the distance between the reindeer's summer and winter grazing. The uplift continued slowly from around 4000 BC. at the same time as sea level rise stopped.

 

According to Gutorm Gjessing, the settlement in Finnmark and large parts of northern Norway in the Neolithic was semi-nomadic with movement between four seasonal settlements (following the pattern of life in Sami siida in historical times): On the outer coast in summer (fishing and seal catching) and inland in winter (hunting for reindeer, elk and bear). Povl Simonsen believed instead that the winter residence was in the inner fjord area in a village-like sod house settlement. Bjørnar Olsen believes that at the end of the Stone Age there was a relatively settled population along the coast, while inland there was less settlement and a more mobile lifestyle.

 

Bronze Age (1700 BC–500 BC)

Bronze was used for tools in Norway from around 1500 BC. Bronze is a mixture of tin and copper , and these metals were introduced because they were not mined in the country at the time. Bronze is believed to have been a relatively expensive material. The Bronze Age in Norway can be divided into two phases:

 

Early Bronze Age (1700–1100 BC)

Younger Bronze Age (1100–500 BC)

For the prehistoric (unwritten) era, there is limited knowledge about social conditions and possible state formations. From the Bronze Age, there are large burial mounds of stone piles along the coast of Vestfold and Agder, among others. It is likely that only chieftains or other great men could erect such grave monuments and there was probably some form of organized society linked to these. In the Bronze Age, society was more organized and stratified than in the Stone Age. Then a rich class of chieftains emerged who had close connections with southern Scandinavia. The settlements became more permanent and people adopted horses and ard . They acquired bronze status symbols, lived in longhouses and people were buried in large burial mounds . Petroglyphs from the Bronze Age indicate that humans practiced solar cultivation.

 

Finnmark

In the last millennium BC the climate became cooler and the pine forest disappears from the coast; pine forests, for example, were only found in the innermost part of the Altafjord, while the outer coast was almost treeless. Around the year 0, the limit for birch forest was south of Kirkenes. Animals with forest habitats (elk, bear and beaver) disappeared and the reindeer probably established their annual migration routes sometime at that time. In the period 1800–900 BC there were significantly more settlements in and utilization of the hinterland was particularly noticeable on Finnmarksvidda. From around 1800 BC until year 0 there was a significant increase in contact between Finnmark and areas in the east including Karelia (where metals were produced including copper) and central and eastern Russia. The youngest petroglyphs in Alta show far more boats than the earlier phases and the boats are reminiscent of types depicted in petroglyphs in southern Scandinavia. It is unclear what influence southern Scandinavian societies had as far north as Alta before the year 0. Many of the cultural features that are considered typical Sami in modern times were created or consolidated in the last millennium BC, this applies, among other things, to the custom of burying in brick chambers in stone urns. The Mortensnes burial ground may have been used for 2000 years until around 1600 AD.

 

Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 1050 AD)

 

The Einangsteinen is one of the oldest Norwegian runestones; it is from the 4th century

 

Simultaneous production of Vikings

Around 500 years BC the researchers reckon that the Bronze Age will be replaced by the Iron Age as iron takes over as the most important material for weapons and tools. Bronze, wood and stone were still used. Iron was cheaper than bronze, easier to work than flint , and could be used for many purposes; iron probably became common property. Iron could, among other things, be used to make solid and sharp axes which made it much easier to fell trees. In the Iron Age, gold and silver were also used partly for decoration and partly as means of payment. It is unknown which language was used in Norway before our era. From around the year 0 until around the year 800, everyone in Scandinavia (except the Sami) spoke Old Norse , a North Germanic language. Subsequently, several different languages ​​developed in this area that were only partially mutually intelligible. The Iron Age is divided into several periods:

 

Early Iron Age

Pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 0)

Roman Iron Age (c. 0–c. AD 400)

Migration period (approx. 400–600). In the migration period (approx. 400–600), new peoples came to Norway, and ruins of fortress buildings etc. are interpreted as signs that there has been talk of a violent invasion.

Younger Iron Age

Merovingian period (500–800)

 

The Viking Age (793–1066)

Norwegian Vikings go on plundering expeditions and trade voyages around the coastal countries of Western Europe . Large groups of Norwegians emigrate to the British Isles , Iceland and Greenland . Harald Hårfagre starts a unification process of Norway late in the 8th century , which was completed by Harald Hardråde in the 1060s . The country was Christianized under the kings Olav Tryggvason , fell in the battle of Svolder ( 1000 ) and Olav Haraldsson (the saint), fell in the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 .

 

Sources of prehistoric times

Shrinking glaciers in the high mountains, including in Jotunheimen and Breheimen , have from around the year 2000 uncovered objects from the Viking Age and earlier. These are objects of organic material that have been preserved by the ice and that elsewhere in nature are broken down in a few months. The finds are getting older as the melting makes the archaeologists go deeper into the ice. About half of all archaeological discoveries on glaciers in the world are made in Oppland . In 2013, a 3,400-year-old shoe and a robe from the year 300 were found. Finds at Lomseggen in Lom published in 2020 revealed, among other things, well-preserved horseshoes used on a mountain pass. Many hundreds of items include preserved clothing, knives, whisks, mittens, leather shoes, wooden chests and horse equipment. A piece of cloth dated to the year 1000 has preserved its original colour. In 2014, a wooden ski from around the year 700 was found in Reinheimen . The ski is 172 cm long and 14 cm wide, with preserved binding of leather and wicker.

 

Pytheas from Massalia is the oldest known account of what was probably the coast of Norway, perhaps somewhere on the coast of Møre. Pytheas visited Britannia around 325 BC. and traveled further north to a country by the "Ice Sea". Pytheas described the short summer night and the midnight sun farther north. He wrote, among other things, that people there made a drink from grain and honey. Caesar wrote in his work about the Gallic campaign about the Germanic tribe Haruders. Other Roman sources around the year 0 mention the land of the Cimbri (Jutland) and the Cimbri headlands ( Skagen ) and that the sources stated that Cimbri and Charyds lived in this area. Some of these peoples may have immigrated to Norway and there become known as hordes (as in Hordaland). Sources from the Mediterranean area referred to the islands of Scandia, Scandinavia and Thule ("the outermost of all islands"). The Roman historian Tacitus wrote around the year 100 a work about Germania and mentioned the people of Scandia, the Sviones. Ptolemy wrote around the year 150 that the Kharudes (Hordes) lived further north than all the Cimbri, in the north lived the Finnoi (Finns or Sami) and in the south the Gutai (Goths). The Nordic countries and Norway were outside the Roman Empire , which dominated Europe at the time. The Gothic-born historian Jordanes wrote in the 5th century about 13 tribes or people groups in Norway, including raumaricii (probably Romerike ), ragnaricii ( Ranrike ) and finni or skretefinni (skrid finner or ski finner, i.e. Sami) as well as a number of unclear groups. Prokopios wrote at the same time about Thule north of the land of the Danes and Slavs, Thule was ten times as big as Britannia and the largest of all the islands. In Thule, the sun was up 40 days straight in the summer. After the migration period , southern Europeans' accounts of northern Europe became fuller and more reliable.

 

Settlement in prehistoric times

Norway has around 50,000 farms with their own names. Farm names have persisted for a long time, over 1000 years, perhaps as much as 2000 years. The name researchers have arranged different types of farm names chronologically, which provides a basis for determining when the place was used by people or received a permanent settlement. Uncompounded landscape names such as Haug, Eid, Vik and Berg are believed to be the oldest. Archaeological traces indicate that some areas have been inhabited earlier than assumed from the farm name. Burial mounds also indicate permanent settlement. For example, the burial ground at Svartelva in Løten was used from around the year 0 to the year 1000 when Christianity took over. The first farmers probably used large areas for inland and outland, and new farms were probably established based on some "mother farms". Names such as By (or Bø) show that it is an old place of residence. From the older Iron Age, names with -heim (a common Germanic word meaning place of residence) and -stad tell of settlement, while -vin and -land tell of the use of the place. Farm names in -heim are often found as -um , -eim or -em as in Lerum and Seim, there are often large farms in the center of the village. New farm names with -city and -country were also established in the Viking Age . The first farmers probably used the best areas. The largest burial grounds, the oldest archaeological finds and the oldest farm names are found where the arable land is richest and most spacious.

 

It is unclear whether the settlement expansion in Roman times, migrations and the Iron Age is due to immigration or internal development and population growth. Among other things, it is difficult to demonstrate where in Europe the immigrants have come from. The permanent residents had both fields (where grain was grown) and livestock that grazed in the open fields, but it is uncertain which of these was more important. Population growth from around the year 200 led to more utilization of open land, for example in the form of settlements in the mountains. During the migration period, it also seems that in parts of the country it became common to have cluster gardens or a form of village settlement.

 

Norwegian expansion northwards

From around the year 200, there was a certain migration by sea from Rogaland and Hordaland to Nordland and Sør-Troms. Those who moved settled down as a settled Iron Age population and became dominant over the original population which may have been Sami . The immigrant Norwegians, Bumen , farmed with livestock that were fed inside in the winter as well as some grain cultivation and fishing. The northern border of the Norwegians' settlement was originally at the Toppsundet near Harstad and around the year 500 there was a Norwegian settlement to Malangsgapet. That was as far north as it was possible to grow grain at the time. Malangen was considered the border between Hålogaland and Finnmork until around 1400 . Further into the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, there was immigration and settlement of Norwegian speakers along the coast north of Malangen. Around the year 800, Norwegians lived along the entire outer coast to Vannøy . The Norwegians partly copied Sami livelihoods such as whaling, fur hunting and reindeer husbandry. It was probably this area between Malangen and Vannøy that was Ottar from the Hålogaland area. In the Viking Age, there were also some Norwegian settlements further north and east. East of the North Cape are the scattered archaeological finds of Norwegian settlement in the Viking Age. There are Norwegian names for fjords and islands from the Viking Age, including fjord names with "-anger". Around the year 1050, there were Norwegian settlements on the outer coast of Western Finnmark. Traders and tax collectors traveled even further.

 

North of Malangen there were Norse farming settlements in the Iron Age. Malangen was considered Finnmark's western border until 1300. There are some archaeological traces of Norse activity around the coast from Tromsø to Kirkenes in the Viking Age. Around Tromsø, the research indicates a Norse/Sami mixed culture on the coast.

 

From the year 1100 and the next 200–300 years, there are no traces of Norwegian settlement north and east of Tromsø. It is uncertain whether this is due to depopulation, whether it is because the Norwegians further north were not Christianized or because there were no churches north of Lenvik or Tromsø . Norwegian settlement in the far north appears from sources from the 14th century. In the Hanseatic period , the settlement was developed into large areas specialized in commercial fishing, while earlier (in the Viking Age) there had been farms with a combination of fishing and agriculture. In 1307 , a fortress and the first church east of Tromsø were built in Vardø . Vardø became a small Norwegian town, while Vadsø remained Sami. Norwegian settlements and churches appeared along the outermost coast in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, perhaps as a result of a decline in fish stocks or fish prices, there were Norwegian settlements in the inner fjord areas such as Lebesby in Laksefjord. Some fishing villages at the far end of the coast were abandoned for good. In the interior of Finnmark, there was no national border for a long time and Kautokeino and Karasjok were joint Norwegian-Swedish areas with strong Swedish influence. The border with Finland was established in 1751 and with Russia in 1826.

 

On a Swedish map from 1626, Norway's border is indicated at Malangen, while Sweden with this map showed a desire to control the Sami area which had been a common area.

 

The term Northern Norway only came into use at the end of the 19th century and administratively the area was referred to as Tromsø Diocese when Tromsø became a bishopric in 1840. There had been different designations previously: Hålogaland originally included only Helgeland and when Norse settlement spread north in the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, Hålogaland was used for the area north approximately to Malangen , while Finnmark or "Finnmarken", "the land of the Sami", lay outside. The term Northern Norway was coined at a cafe table in Kristiania in 1884 by members of the Nordlændingernes Forening and was first commonly used in the interwar period as it eventually supplanted "Hålogaland".

 

State formation

The battle in Hafrsfjord in the year 872 has long been regarded as the day when Norway became a kingdom. The year of the battle is uncertain (may have been 10-20 years later). The whole of Norway was not united in that battle: the process had begun earlier and continued a couple of hundred years later. This means that the geographical area became subject to a political authority and became a political unit. The geographical area was perceived as an area as it is known, among other things, from Ottar from Hålogaland's account for King Alfred of Wessex around the year 880. Ottar described "the land of the Norwegians" as very long and narrow, and it was narrowest in the far north. East of the wasteland in the south lay Sveoland and in the north lay Kvenaland in the east. When Ottar sailed south along the land from his home ( Malangen ) to Skiringssal, he always had Norway ("Nordveg") on his port side and the British Isles on his starboard side. The journey took a good month. Ottar perceived "Nordveg" as a geographical unit, but did not imply that it was a political unit. Ottar separated Norwegians from Swedes and Danes. It is unclear why Ottar perceived the population spread over such a large area as a whole. It is unclear whether Norway as a geographical term or Norwegians as the name of a ethnic group is the oldest. The Norwegians had a common language which in the centuries before Ottar did not differ much from the language of Denmark and Sweden.

 

According to Sverre Steen, it is unlikely that Harald Hårfagre was able to control this entire area as one kingdom. The saga of Harald was written 300 years later and at his death Norway was several smaller kingdoms. Harald probably controlled a larger area than anyone before him and at most Harald's kingdom probably included the coast from Trøndelag to Agder and Vestfold as well as parts of Viken . There were probably several smaller kingdoms of varying extent before Harald and some of these are reflected in traditional landscape names such as Ranrike and Ringerike . Landscape names of "-land" (Rogaland) and "-mark" (Hedmark) as well as names such as Agder and Sogn may have been political units before Harald.

 

According to Sverre Steen, the national assembly was completed at the earliest at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 and the introduction of Christianity was probably a significant factor in the establishment of Norway as a state. Håkon I the good Adalsteinsfostre introduced the leasehold system where the "coastal land" (as far as the salmon went up the rivers) was divided into ship raiders who were to provide a longship with soldiers and supplies. The leidange was probably introduced as a defense against the Danes. The border with the Danes was traditionally at the Göta älv and several times before and after Harald Hårfagre the Danes had control over central parts of Norway.

 

Christianity was known and existed in Norway before Olav Haraldson's time. The spread occurred both from the south (today's Denmark and northern Germany) and from the west (England and Ireland). Ansgar of Bremen , called the "Apostle of the North", worked in Sweden, but he was never in Norway and probably had little influence in the country. Viking expeditions brought the Norwegians of that time into contact with Christian countries and some were baptized in England, Ireland and northern France. Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldson were Vikings who returned home. The first Christians in Norway were also linked to pre-Christian local religion, among other things, by mixing Christian symbols with symbols of Odin and other figures from Norse religion.

 

According to Sverre Steen, the introduction of Christianity in Norway should not be perceived as a nationwide revival. At Mostratinget, Christian law was introduced as law in the country and later incorporated into the laws of the individual jurisdictions. Christianity primarily involved new forms in social life, among other things exposure and images of gods were prohibited, it was forbidden to "put out" unwanted infants (to let them die), and it was forbidden to have multiple wives. The church became a nationwide institution with a special group of officials tasked with protecting the church and consolidating the new religion. According to Sverre Steen, Christianity and the church in the Middle Ages should therefore be considered together, and these became a new unifying factor in the country. The church and Christianity linked Norway to Roman Catholic Europe with Church Latin as the common language, the same time reckoning as the rest of Europe and the church in Norway was arranged much like the churches in Denmark, Sweden and England. Norway received papal approval in 1070 and became its own church province in 1152 with Archbishop Nidaros .

 

With Christianity, the country got three social powers: the peasants (organized through the things), the king with his officials and the church with the clergy. The things are the oldest institution: At allthings all armed men had the right to attend (in part an obligation to attend) and at lagthings met emissaries from an area (that is, the lagthings were representative assemblies). The Thing both ruled in conflicts and established laws. The laws were memorized by the participants and written down around the year 1000 or later in the Gulationsloven , Frostatingsloven , Eidsivatingsloven and Borgartingsloven . The person who had been successful at the hearing had to see to the implementation of the judgment themselves.

 

Early Middle Ages (1050s–1184)

The early Middle Ages is considered in Norwegian history to be the period between the end of the Viking Age around 1050 and the coronation of King Sverre in 1184 . The beginning of the period can be dated differently, from around the year 1000 when the Christianization of the country took place and up to 1100 when the Viking Age was over from an archaeological point of view. From 1035 to 1130 it was a time of (relative) internal peace in Norway, even several of the kings attempted campaigns abroad, including in 1066 and 1103 .

 

During this period, the church's organization was built up. This led to a gradual change in religious customs. Religion went from being a domestic matter to being regulated by common European Christian law and the royal power gained increased power and influence. Slavery (" servitude ") was gradually abolished. The population grew rapidly during this period, as the thousands of farm names ending in -rud show.

 

The urbanization of Norway is a historical process that has slowly but surely changed Norway from the early Viking Age to today, from a country based on agriculture and sea salvage, to increasingly trade and industry. As early as the ninth century, the country got its first urban community, and in the eleventh century we got the first permanent cities.

 

In the 1130s, civil war broke out . This was due to a power struggle and that anyone who claimed to be the king's son could claim the right to the throne. The disputes escalated into extensive year-round warfare when Sverre Sigurdsson started a rebellion against the church's and the landmen's candidate for the throne , Magnus Erlingsson .

 

Emergence of cities

The oldest Norwegian cities probably emerged from the end of the 9th century. Oslo, Bergen and Nidaros became episcopal seats, which stimulated urban development there, and the king built churches in Borg , Konghelle and Tønsberg. Hamar and Stavanger became new episcopal seats and are referred to in the late 12th century as towns together with the trading places Veøy in Romsdal and Kaupanger in Sogn. In the late Middle Ages, Borgund (on Sunnmøre), Veøy (in Romsdalsfjorden) and Vågan (in Lofoten) were referred to as small trading places. Urbanization in Norway occurred in few places compared to the neighboring countries, only 14 places appear as cities before 1350. Stavanger became a bishopric around 1120–1130, but it is unclear whether the place was already a city then. The fertile Jæren and outer Ryfylke were probably relatively densely populated at that time. A particularly large concentration of Irish artefacts from the Viking Age has been found in Stavanger and Nord-Jæren.

 

It has been difficult to estimate the population in the Norwegian medieval cities, but it is considered certain that the cities grew rapidly in the Middle Ages. Oscar Albert Johnsen estimated the city's population before the Black Death at 20,000, of which 7,000 in Bergen, 3,000 in Nidaros, 2,000 in Oslo and 1,500 in Tunsberg. Based on archaeological research, Lunden estimates that Oslo had around 1,500 inhabitants in 250 households in the year 1300. Bergen was built up more densely and, with the concentration of exports there, became Norway's largest city in a special position for several hundred years. Knut Helle suggests a city population of 20,000 at most in the High Middle Ages, of which almost half in Bergen.

 

The Bjarkøyretten regulated the conditions in cities (especially Bergen and Nidaros) and in trading places, and for Nidaros had many of the same provisions as the Frostating Act . Magnus Lagabøte's city law replaced the bjarkøretten and from 1276 regulated the settlement in Bergen and with corresponding laws also drawn up for Oslo, Nidaros and Tunsberg. The city law applied within the city's roof area . Th

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St Mary, Aldham, Suffolk

 

I pass this church often. Traffic rushes along the busy Ipswich to Sudbury road not far off, but there is a quieter, parallel road which not many people seem to know about. It leaves Ipswich via Bramford, and you can get all the way to Sudbury on it, taking in the likes of Burstall, Kersey and Waldingfield on the way. Aldham as a village is little more than a straggle of houses, but they lie along this road, and just beyond a cluster of houses you take a sudden turn to the left, on to a pretty track to Aldham Hall. Down through fruit trees you descend, until the walls become older, and there at the end are the farm buildings. Beyond them, is this pretty church.

 

If the church is pretty, the view from it is doubly so - to the south, the land drops away alarmingly, into a valley full of sheep. You may even think you recognise it, and you could well be right, for the second season of the popular TV series The Detectorists was filmed here, as a small display in the porch of the church reminds you. The church appeared in the opening credits of each programme, the two main characters searching for buried treasure in Aldham Vale below the churchyard.

 

This is lovely, and splendidly English. Nothing could be more peaceful. But beyond, the land rises to a dark sea of trees, the mysteriously named Wolves Wood, now an RSPB reserve. Looking along to the right, the other hilltop is where the Protestant preacher Roland Taylor was burned at the stake in the 1550s, a site of pilgrimage for his many American descendants - and, more unhappily, for extremist protestants. Ian Paisley, the late former leader of the Democratic Ulster Unionists, was a regular visitor. Whatever your reading of the English Reformation, Taylor's burning was a terrible event. One imagines the villagers gathered outside this church, watching the flames and smoke rise.

 

I remembered the first time I came here, back in the 1990s. We arrived on one of those humid, overcast summer days, on our way to the Bildeston Beer Festival. My young children scattered off to play hide and seek with their mother in the precipitous graveyard. An elderly man was pottering about, looking at 19th century graves, so I apologised for my family (as you do). But he seemed genuinely pleased that they were running about like mad things. He was tracing his family, and had come down from Norfolk to look for a particular grave of an ancestor. And he'd found it. He was pretty pleased about that, too. He was also following up a theory that his ancestor had been a Rector of this parish. His address had been Aldham Rectory. Did I have any idea how he could find out? I suggested that the church might have a board of 'Rectors of this Parish'. Many do. These are a pleasant Victorianism, intended to overcome the 16th century breach by claiming a history of the CofE that extended back before the Reformation. We could go inside, and take a look. And we did - the church was militantly open, the inner door wedged wide. We found the board - but the name wasn't there. So, the mystery remained unsolved.

 

This church was derelict by the mid 19th century, and underwent a fairly late restoration, in 1883. The tower was rebuilt, as was the south wall of the nave. The roofs were replaced, giving an overwhelmingly Victorian appearance - although Mortlock detected the Norman, and possibly Saxon, ancestor. The hill itself suggests a very early foundation, perhaps on a site of pagan worship.

 

The architect was W. M. Fawcett, and there was another restoration of the inside in the early 20th century under the eyes of diocesan architect and renowned antiquarian H Munro Cautley. The resulting interior is one of those neat and shiny jobs that is certainly grand, and pleasant enough, but rather dated now. Our early 21st Century spirituality seems to respond more to dusty, ancient interiors than to these Victorian ritualisations. But I had a sense of a church that is much loved, well-cared for, and used regularly.

 

And that is still so today. Now, Aldham parish have gone one further than a wedged-open door, and a big sign has been erected at the bottom of the lane proclaiming that Our Church is Always Open, and so it is easy to step into its prayerful interior. And it is not without its medieval survivals, a couple of which are fascinating. For a start, there is the chancel, with its original roof, some fine windows, and a piscina in the sanctuary. But best of all are two bench ends. These are unlike anything else I've seen in Suffolk, and their primitive quality suggests a local origin. The one to the west apparently shows a bear, or possibly a lion. My first impulse was that it was some kind of heraldic device, but on reflection I thought differently. Note the shaved off object it holds in its mouth. And is the pattern emerging from beneath the head really fur? Back in 1999, my six year old took one look at it and decided that the creature isn't eating the bird, but the bird is flying out of its mouth. Could it be a dove? And could the three objects issuing from beneath the head actually be tongues of fire? In which case, could this be some strange composition representing Pentecost, and the descent of the Holy Spirit?

 

In the spandrel above the bear, or whatever it is, there is a lily, the symbol of the Annunciation. But it is also a symbol of the crucifixion. It calls to mind the rare lily crucifixes, of which just two are known to survive in Suffolk, at Long Melford and Great Glemham. Could this be an unrecorded third? The other bench end is probably easier to read. The crown is obvious enough. The star and crescent are familiar from representations of the crucifixion. The pike is a familiar instrument of the Passion. And, if you look in the spandrel above, you'll see a crown of thorns, so this may well be a composition representing the Passion.

 

A third bench end, to the east, shows just a simple spiked tool, that looks as if it might have been used in thatching. So, what's it all about? They are all a bit of a mystery, really. Coming back in 2019 I found no obvious or easy answers to offer.

 

And what of the font? This is mysterious too. It appears to be Norman, but a second glance finds it too elegant, too finely detailed. The pillars are almost Classical in design, and the whole piece has a touch of the 18th century about it. Was it brought here from somewhere else in the 1880s? Or is it a Victorian recutting of a Norman predecessor? Whatever, the revealed brickwork of the late medieval tower arch looks most fitting behind it. The doors are, presumably, part of the 1930s interior restoration - indeed, they have a touch of Cautley about them.

 

To see Cautley's work in its full glory, step up into the chancel, for the reredos and flanking niches. It looks like something out of a French cathedral. Cautley was usually a safe pair of hands in these churches he loved so well, but I wonder what he had been thinking to impose this triumphalism on this pretty little country church. Alfred Wilkinson's contemporary glass above it suits it well, but even so it is rather hard to imagine the same thing happening today. Postdating it by a couple of decades is a set of arms for Elizabeth II above the south doorway. Unusual, East Anglia has no more than half a dozen sets, and these ones are rather good.

 

Standing in the nave and looking east, the splendour of the reredos imposing itself on our view, it is hard to imagine the real glory that once was here. But John Nunn contacted me, to tell me about a will he has a copy of. In 1525, his ancestor Robert Clifford declared: I bequeath I will have the rood there upon the candlebeam set up higher and Mary & John and two new angels and the breast under the rood korvyn and when that is done I will have all this painted and guilt whatsoever the cost. I will have bought two standards of brass stand in the choir and I will my executors bestow therein 40/-. I will my executors shall buy four candlesticks of brass for the candlebeam, I give six kine unto the church of Aldham to keep my obit with as long as the world stand.

 

What does all this mean? Firstly, you have to remember that England was a devoutly Catholic country in 1525, and the fittings of the church were for the actions of the Catholic liturgy. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, all Suffolk churches had a rood in place. This was a representation of the crucifixion, set above the chancel arch. On the left hand side of the cross always stood the Virgin Mary, and on the other side stood St John. Often, the wall behind was painted. The rood either hung on the wall, or was supported by a beam. However, there was always a beam that ran below it for candles to be lit on. This was called the candlebeam, or rood beam. The candles were placed on it by individuals or gilds as part of the process of prayer - particularly prayer for the souls of the dead. A rood loft ran beside it for access, and the space beneath was infilled with a rood screen. To make the rood even more glorious, the roof above was panelled, and the panels were painted blue, with gold stars, and perhaps Marian monograms. This was called the canopy of honour, or more simply, the coving (rendered delightfully in Suffolk dialect as Korvyn above.)

 

Robert Clifford was paying for a simple rood to be made more glorious. He was going to have it placed higher, with a new canopy of honour. He was paying for brass candlesticks to replace wooden candlestocks.

 

Why? Simply, the medieval economy of grace depended upon the living praying for the dead, and the dead praying for the living. In donating glorious things to his church, Clifford was ensuring that he would be remembered. The roodscreen would have a dedicatory inscription with his name on. He was saying - I won't forget you, don't you forget me. The Catholic liturgy formalised prayers for the dead in the form of obit masses.These were said on the anniversary of someone's death in perpetuity. The proceeds of the sale of the six cows (kine) would be invested, probably in land to be rented, to pay a priest to say these masses - as long as the world shall stand; that is, for ever.

 

Unfortunately, 'for ever' didn't last very long. Prayers for the dead were declared illegal by the protestant reformers in the late 1530s. By 1547, every single rood in the land had been toppled and burned. The rood lofts were hacked down, along with many of the candle beams (although about ten beams survive in Suffolk) and most of the rood screens were also destroyed (about 50 survive in Suffolk).

 

Nothing of Robert Clifford's gifts survive at Aldham. All the gilt would have been stripped, the brass candlesticks melted down, and the proceeds sequestered by the King's commissioners. The collected glory of all the churches of England was squandered by Henry VIII on high living, and on the expensive and pointless siege of Boulogne. A sad thought.

 

When I first came here in 1999, I remember the graveyard was full of wild thyme and especially sorrel, which we gathered in handfuls and ate later in the day with fresh trout and new potatoes. Twenty years have passed since then, and it was too early for the sorrel this year. Instead I just stood, and looked out across the gentle valley, the sheep cropping their way slowly westward. It was easy to recognise the opening of The Detectorists in the vale below. And I looked beyond to Wolves Wood, and the site of Roland Taylor's martyrdom. Hard to imagine such history happening to such a modest little parish.

Maker:

Born: USA

Active: USA

Medium: heliotype

Size: 6 in x 4 in

Location:

 

Object No. 2022.647c

Shelf: PHO-1886

 

Publication: Inspector Thomas Byrnes, Professional Criminals of America, Cassell and Company, New York, 1886

Bonnie Yochelson, Jacob A. Riis, Revealing New York's Other Half, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2015, fig 1.46.1, pg 82

Jennifer Green-Lewis, Framing the Victorians, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1996, pg 209

 

Other Collections:

 

Notes: This is sometimes credited to Jacob Riis because a copy negative of this image was found among his negatives, but he merely used it in his lectures; he did not take it. From a late-nineteenth century rogues gallery of America's foremost murderers, bank robbers, con men, forgers, embezzlers, and pickpockets. Written in 1886, Professional Criminals of America contains biographical sketches, including photographs, of some four hundred of the nation's leading criminals. Each profile details the crimes committed and the circumstances leading up to arrest and conviction. Also included are short, informative chapters on criminal methods, executions, opium addiction, fugitives from justice, and prison commutation laws, along with intriguing chapters on mysterious unsolved murders, adventurers and adventuresses, and a list of every prison and state penitentiary in America at the time of publication. Ruthless and innovative, Thomas Byrnes was the most infamous policeman of his day and the father of the modern day detective department. His Rogue's Gallery, a series of portraits and descriptions of criminals that detectives were expected to memorize, played an important role in revolutionizing the role of photography in crimefighting. His classic text, offered here, includes biographies and photographs of 204 New York City burglars, pickpockets, confidence men, forgers, and sneak thieves. Criminals also include a section of 18 women, numerous Irish Americans and Jewish Americans, and disgraced former South Carolina governor Franklin J. Moses.

 

To view our archive organized by themes and subjects, visit: OUR COLLECTIONS

  

One of the greatest mysteries surrounding a vessel built at Cape Hawke was the gaff rigged ketch Mermaid built by Phillip Munro, in 1878. She was reported missing in February 1879 and never heard of again.

 

Updated March 2024 by Chris Borough, Graham Nicholson and Philip Pope

 

DETAILS

Name: Mermaid

Official Number 79463

Type: Ketch

Launched: 28th February 1878

Registered: Sydney 20th March 1878 (14 in 1878)

Builder: Phillip Munro of Cape Hawke

Length: 71.3 ft

Breadth: 18.8 ft

Depth in Hold: 5.8 ft

Tonnage: n.b. 1 shipping ton = 100 cu. ft or 2,83 cu. metres)

Gross: 47.25 tons

Net (Register): 48.31 tons (136.72 cubic metres)

 

OWNERS

March 1878 – May 1879 George Preddey of Sussex Street, Sydney

 

Mermaid Missing:

In late December 1878 she departed Sydney for Camden Haven but in January 1879, less than 12 months after launch, she was reported missing and had possibly come to grief on Seal Rocks. "News from Cape Hawke states that the ketch Mermaid, from Sydney, is still missing, and is supposed to have come to grief off Seal Rocks, on a dangerous reef off the headland, which is barely visible at low water. Mr. John Wright, of the North Shore saw-mills [Tuncurry], is a heavy loser, as he had goods on board to the value of £300." The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912) - Saturday 1 February 1879.

 

John Wright's Loss

John Wright had only recently set up a sawmill at Tuncurry (North Shore) and relied on chartered vessels to transport his timber products. About 1875 Mr. John Wright, Mr. Alex. Croll and Mr. E. Rogers, of Camden Haven, were in partnership in a sawmill at the Myall Lakes. On dissolving this partnership, somewhere about 1877, Mr. Wright came to Tuncurry — then known as North Shore— and established a sawmill and store. Being a shipwright by trade, the late Mr. Wright started a ship-building yard. To lose the cargo of timber he had consigned to Camden Haven was a substantial loss.

 

After this? Nothing. There is no mention in any newspaper to indicate what may have happened to the Mermaid. The Register indicates that the vessel foundered about 1881 and the Register closed in 1891.

 

This has to be the most unsolved mystery for a long time. The Mermaid is not on the NSW nor the National Shipwrecks Register. There is nothing in the press regarding the fate of the vessel and her crew,

 

Any information on the Mermaid and her fate would be greatly appreciated.

 

Acknowledgements: The assistance of Mori Flapan (Mori Flapan boatregister) by providing access to his extensive database is greatly appreciated.

 

All Images in this photostream are Copyright - Great Lakes Manning River Shipping and/or their individual owners as may be stated above and may not be downloaded, reproduced, or used in any way without prior written approval.

GREAT LAKES MANNING RIVER SHIPPING, NSW - Flickr Group --> Alphabetical Boat Index --> Boat builders Index --> Tags List

   

decluttr

 

Thanks Nick

St Mary, Aldham, Suffolk

 

I pass this church often. Traffic rushes along the busy Ipswich to Sudbury road not far off, but there is a quieter, parallel road which not many people seem to know about. It leaves Ipswich via Bramford, and you can get all the way to Sudbury on it, taking in the likes of Burstall, Kersey and Waldingfield on the way. Aldham as a village is little more than a straggle of houses, but they lie along this road, and just beyond a cluster of houses you take a sudden turn to the left, on to a pretty track to Aldham Hall. Down through fruit trees you descend, until the walls become older, and there at the end are the farm buildings. Beyond them, is this pretty church.

 

If the church is pretty, the view from it is doubly so - to the south, the land drops away alarmingly, into a valley full of sheep. You may even think you recognise it, and you could well be right, for the second season of the popular TV series The Detectorists was filmed here, as a small display in the porch of the church reminds you. The church appeared in the opening credits of each programme, the two main characters searching for buried treasure in Aldham Vale below the churchyard.

 

This is lovely, and splendidly English. Nothing could be more peaceful. But beyond, the land rises to a dark sea of trees, the mysteriously named Wolves Wood, now an RSPB reserve. Looking along to the right, the other hilltop is where the Protestant preacher Roland Taylor was burned at the stake in the 1550s, a site of pilgrimage for his many American descendants - and, more unhappily, for extremist protestants. Ian Paisley, the late former leader of the Democratic Ulster Unionists, was a regular visitor. Whatever your reading of the English Reformation, Taylor's burning was a terrible event. One imagines the villagers gathered outside this church, watching the flames and smoke rise.

 

I remembered the first time I came here, back in the 1990s. We arrived on one of those humid, overcast summer days, on our way to the Bildeston Beer Festival. My young children scattered off to play hide and seek with their mother in the precipitous graveyard. An elderly man was pottering about, looking at 19th century graves, so I apologised for my family (as you do). But he seemed genuinely pleased that they were running about like mad things. He was tracing his family, and had come down from Norfolk to look for a particular grave of an ancestor. And he'd found it. He was pretty pleased about that, too. He was also following up a theory that his ancestor had been a Rector of this parish. His address had been Aldham Rectory. Did I have any idea how he could find out? I suggested that the church might have a board of 'Rectors of this Parish'. Many do. These are a pleasant Victorianism, intended to overcome the 16th century breach by claiming a history of the CofE that extended back before the Reformation. We could go inside, and take a look. And we did - the church was militantly open, the inner door wedged wide. We found the board - but the name wasn't there. So, the mystery remained unsolved.

 

This church was derelict by the mid 19th century, and underwent a fairly late restoration, in 1883. The tower was rebuilt, as was the south wall of the nave. The roofs were replaced, giving an overwhelmingly Victorian appearance - although Mortlock detected the Norman, and possibly Saxon, ancestor. The hill itself suggests a very early foundation, perhaps on a site of pagan worship.

 

The architect was W. M. Fawcett, and there was another restoration of the inside in the early 20th century under the eyes of diocesan architect and renowned antiquarian H Munro Cautley. The resulting interior is one of those neat and shiny jobs that is certainly grand, and pleasant enough, but rather dated now. Our early 21st Century spirituality seems to respond more to dusty, ancient interiors than to these Victorian ritualisations. But I had a sense of a church that is much loved, well-cared for, and used regularly.

 

And that is still so today. Now, Aldham parish have gone one further than a wedged-open door, and a big sign has been erected at the bottom of the lane proclaiming that Our Church is Always Open, and so it is easy to step into its prayerful interior. And it is not without its medieval survivals, a couple of which are fascinating. For a start, there is the chancel, with its original roof, some fine windows, and a piscina in the sanctuary. But best of all are two bench ends. These are unlike anything else I've seen in Suffolk, and their primitive quality suggests a local origin. The one to the west apparently shows a bear, or possibly a lion. My first impulse was that it was some kind of heraldic device, but on reflection I thought differently. Note the shaved off object it holds in its mouth. And is the pattern emerging from beneath the head really fur? Back in 1999, my six year old took one look at it and decided that the creature isn't eating the bird, but the bird is flying out of its mouth. Could it be a dove? And could the three objects issuing from beneath the head actually be tongues of fire? In which case, could this be some strange composition representing Pentecost, and the descent of the Holy Spirit?

 

In the spandrel above the bear, or whatever it is, there is a lily, the symbol of the Annunciation. But it is also a symbol of the crucifixion. It calls to mind the rare lily crucifixes, of which just two are known to survive in Suffolk, at Long Melford and Great Glemham. Could this be an unrecorded third? The other bench end is probably easier to read. The crown is obvious enough. The star and crescent are familiar from representations of the crucifixion. The pike is a familiar instrument of the Passion. And, if you look in the spandrel above, you'll see a crown of thorns, so this may well be a composition representing the Passion.

 

A third bench end, to the east, shows just a simple spiked tool, that looks as if it might have been used in thatching. So, what's it all about? They are all a bit of a mystery, really. Coming back in 2019 I found no obvious or easy answers to offer.

 

And what of the font? This is mysterious too. It appears to be Norman, but a second glance finds it too elegant, too finely detailed. The pillars are almost Classical in design, and the whole piece has a touch of the 18th century about it. Was it brought here from somewhere else in the 1880s? Or is it a Victorian recutting of a Norman predecessor? Whatever, the revealed brickwork of the late medieval tower arch looks most fitting behind it. The doors are, presumably, part of the 1930s interior restoration - indeed, they have a touch of Cautley about them.

 

To see Cautley's work in its full glory, step up into the chancel, for the reredos and flanking niches. It looks like something out of a French cathedral. Cautley was usually a safe pair of hands in these churches he loved so well, but I wonder what he had been thinking to impose this triumphalism on this pretty little country church. Alfred Wilkinson's contemporary glass above it suits it well, but even so it is rather hard to imagine the same thing happening today. Postdating it by a couple of decades is a set of arms for Elizabeth II above the south doorway. Unusual, East Anglia has no more than half a dozen sets, and these ones are rather good.

 

Standing in the nave and looking east, the splendour of the reredos imposing itself on our view, it is hard to imagine the real glory that once was here. But John Nunn contacted me, to tell me about a will he has a copy of. In 1525, his ancestor Robert Clifford declared: I bequeath I will have the rood there upon the candlebeam set up higher and Mary & John and two new angels and the breast under the rood korvyn and when that is done I will have all this painted and guilt whatsoever the cost. I will have bought two standards of brass stand in the choir and I will my executors bestow therein 40/-. I will my executors shall buy four candlesticks of brass for the candlebeam, I give six kine unto the church of Aldham to keep my obit with as long as the world stand.

 

What does all this mean? Firstly, you have to remember that England was a devoutly Catholic country in 1525, and the fittings of the church were for the actions of the Catholic liturgy. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, all Suffolk churches had a rood in place. This was a representation of the crucifixion, set above the chancel arch. On the left hand side of the cross always stood the Virgin Mary, and on the other side stood St John. Often, the wall behind was painted. The rood either hung on the wall, or was supported by a beam. However, there was always a beam that ran below it for candles to be lit on. This was called the candlebeam, or rood beam. The candles were placed on it by individuals or gilds as part of the process of prayer - particularly prayer for the souls of the dead. A rood loft ran beside it for access, and the space beneath was infilled with a rood screen. To make the rood even more glorious, the roof above was panelled, and the panels were painted blue, with gold stars, and perhaps Marian monograms. This was called the canopy of honour, or more simply, the coving (rendered delightfully in Suffolk dialect as Korvyn above.)

 

Robert Clifford was paying for a simple rood to be made more glorious. He was going to have it placed higher, with a new canopy of honour. He was paying for brass candlesticks to replace wooden candlestocks.

 

Why? Simply, the medieval economy of grace depended upon the living praying for the dead, and the dead praying for the living. In donating glorious things to his church, Clifford was ensuring that he would be remembered. The roodscreen would have a dedicatory inscription with his name on. He was saying - I won't forget you, don't you forget me. The Catholic liturgy formalised prayers for the dead in the form of obit masses.These were said on the anniversary of someone's death in perpetuity. The proceeds of the sale of the six cows (kine) would be invested, probably in land to be rented, to pay a priest to say these masses - as long as the world shall stand; that is, for ever.

 

Unfortunately, 'for ever' didn't last very long. Prayers for the dead were declared illegal by the protestant reformers in the late 1530s. By 1547, every single rood in the land had been toppled and burned. The rood lofts were hacked down, along with many of the candle beams (although about ten beams survive in Suffolk) and most of the rood screens were also destroyed (about 50 survive in Suffolk).

 

Nothing of Robert Clifford's gifts survive at Aldham. All the gilt would have been stripped, the brass candlesticks melted down, and the proceeds sequestered by the King's commissioners. The collected glory of all the churches of England was squandered by Henry VIII on high living, and on the expensive and pointless siege of Boulogne. A sad thought.

 

When I first came here in 1999, I remember the graveyard was full of wild thyme and especially sorrel, which we gathered in handfuls and ate later in the day with fresh trout and new potatoes. Twenty years have passed since then, and it was too early for the sorrel this year. Instead I just stood, and looked out across the gentle valley, the sheep cropping their way slowly westward. It was easy to recognise the opening of The Detectorists in the vale below. And I looked beyond to Wolves Wood, and the site of Roland Taylor's martyrdom. Hard to imagine such history happening to such a modest little parish.

www.starnow.co.uk/christopherw33618

 

2017 Reel www.starnow.com/media/778224

 

2016 Reel www.starnow.co.uk/media/623368

 

2015 Reel www.starnow.co.uk/media/500618

 

Crew CV <a crew.mandy.com/uk/crew/profile/chris-christopher-wilson

 

Marcella is a British television crime noir detective series, written, directed and produced by Swedish screenwriter and creator of The Bridge, Hans Rosenfeldt. The series first broadcast on ITV on April 4, 2016, with seven further episodes broadcast on a weekly basis.

 

The series stars Anna Friel as Marcella Backland, a former London detective who is asked to return to work to investigate an unsolved case from eleven years ago involving an unidentified serial killer who appears to have become active again. Marcella also has to deal with a hectic home life, where her husband, Jason (Nicholas Pinnock), has made the decision to leave her and take their two children into his custody. Ray Panthaki, Jamie Bamber and Nina Sosanya are also credited as principal members of the cast.

 

The series was green-lit in June 2015, with location filming taking place in London and the Port of Dover. After their broadcast on ITV, episodes are available to stream on Netflix outside the United Kingdom, although the first Season still appeared on Netflix eventually for UK viewers.

 

The series was released on DVD via Universal Pictures UK on June 20, 2016. On August 26, 2016, ITV announced that a second series had been commissioned, with both writer Hans Rosenfeldt and actress Anna Friel confirmed to be returning. The series premiered on 19 February 2018. The second series is set for release on DVD via Acorn Media on April 16, 2018

 

www.starnow.co.uk/christopherw33618

 

2016 Reel www.starnow.co.uk/media/623368

 

2015 Reel www.starnow.co.uk/media/500618

 

Crew CV <a crew.mandy.com/uk/crew/profile/chris-christopher-wilson

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

Due to increasing tensions in Europe which led to World War 2, AVRO Aircraft started developing combat aircraft, and as a subsidiary of Hawker, they had access to the Hurricane plans. At the time that the Hurricane was developed, RAF Fighter Command consisted of just 13 squadrons, each equipped with either the Hawker Fury, Hawker Demon, or the Bristol Bulldog – all of them biplanes with fixed-pitch wooden propellers and non-retractable undercarriages. After the Hurricane's first flight, Avro started working on a more refined and lighter aircraft, resulting in a similar if not higher top speed and improved maneuverability.

 

The result was Avro’s project 675, also known as the "Swallow". The aircraft’s profile resembled the Hawker Hurricane, but appeared more squatted and streamlined, almost like a race version. Compared with the Hurricane, overall dimensions were reduced and the structure lightened wherever possible. The wings were much thinner, too, and their shape reminded of the Supermarine Spitfire’s famous oval wings. The main landing gear was retractable and had a wide track. The tail wheel was semi-retractable on the prototype, but it was replaced by a simpler, fixed tail wheel on production models.

 

The Swallow made its first flight on 30th December 1937 and the Royal Air Force was so impressed by its performance against the Hurricane that they ordered production to start immediately, after a few minor tweaks to certain parts of the aircraft had been made.

 

On 25 July 1939, the RAF accepted their first delivery of Avro Swallow Mk. Is. The first machines were allocated to No.1 Squadron, at the time based in France, where they were used in parallel to the Hurricanes for evaluation. These early machines were powered by a 1.030 hp (770 kW) Rolls-Royce Merlin Mk II liquid-cooled V-12, driving a wooden two-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller. The light aircraft achieved an impressive top speed of 347 mph (301 kn, 558 km/h) in level flight – the bigger and heavier Hurricane achieved only 314 mph (506 km/h) with a similar engine. Like the Hurricane, the Swallow was armed with eight unsynchronized 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in the outer wings, outside of the propeller disc.

 

In spring 1940, Avro upgraded the serial production Swallow Mk.I's to Mk.IA standard: the original wooden propeller was replaced by a de Havilland or Rotol constant speed metal propeller with three blades, which considerably improved field performance. Many aircraft were retrofitted with this update in the field workshops in the summer of 1940.

 

In parallel, production switched to the Swallow Mk. II: This new version, which reached the front line units in July 1940, received an uprated engine, the improved Rolls-Royce Merlin III, which could deliver up to 1,310 hp (977 kW) with 100 octane fuel and +12 psi boost. With the standard 87 Octane fuel, engine performance did not improve much beyond the Merlin II's figures, though.

A redesigned, more streamlined radiator bath was mounted, too, and altogether these measures boosted the Swallow’s top speed to 371 mph (597 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m). This was a considerable improvement, and the contemporary Hurricane II achieved only 340 mph (547 km/h).

 

However, several fundamental weak points of the Swallow remained unsolved: its limited range could not be boosted beyond 300 miles (500 km) and the light machine gun armament remained unchanged, because the Swallow’s thin wings hardly offered more space for heavier weapons or useful external stores like drop tanks. Despite these shortcomings, the pilots loved their agile fighter, who described the Swallow as an updated Hawker Fury biplane fighter and less as a direct competitor to the Hurricane.

 

Nevertheless, Avro kept on working to improve the Swallow, but with limited success. For instance, in early 1941, a Swallow Mk. II was modified to carry a pair of 20mm Hispano cannons instead of the inner pair of machine guns. Due to the aircraft’s thin wings, this update necessitated bulged fairings and a modified internal structure for the cannons' ammunition drums. The prototype was operationally tested at the home defense front and the additional firepower was warmly welcomed by the pilots who flew it, since the cannons allowed them to stay out of the German bombers’ machine gun range of and added more punch against German escort fighters in dogfights.

 

This innovation directly led to the Swallow Mk. III, introduced in August 1941, the fighter’s final production variant. Beyond the armament changes and the respective structural changes to the wings, the Mk. III was still powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin III from the swallow Mk. II, but the variant introduced clipped wing tips in order to compensate for the slightly higher weight of the airframe and to improve roll characteristics at low and medium altitude. Otherwise, the Mk. III was virtually identical to the earlier Mk. II.

 

Another Mk. II was experimentally converted with a lowered spine and a framed bubble canopy for a better all-around field of view (reminiscent of the Hawker Typhoon's design), but this experiment did not reach production status. The Swallow had already reached its limited development potential and was, by mid-1942, outdated.

 

Since the Supermarine Spitfire had in the meantime proven its worth and promised a much bigger development potential, production of the Avro Swallow already ceased in late 1942 after 435 aircraft had been built. Around the same time, the Swallows were quickly phased out from front-line service, too.

 

Several machines were retained as trainers, messenger aircraft or instructional airframes. 20 late production Mk. IIs were sold to the Irish Air Corps, and a further 50 aircraft were sent to Canada as advanced fighter trainers, where they served until the end of the hostilities in 1945.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 28 ft 1 in (8.57 m)

Wingspan: 33 ft 7 in (10.25 m)

Height: 8 ft 6 in (2.60 m)

Wing area: 153 ft² (16.40 m²)

Empty weight: 3,722 lb (1,720 kg)

Gross weight: 5,100 lb (2,315 kg)

 

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce Merlin III liquid-cooled V-12, rated at 1,310 hp (977 kW) at 9,000 ft (2,700 m)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 366 mph (590 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m)

Range: 320 miles (515 km)

Service ceiling: 36,000 ft (10,970 m)

Rate of climb: 2,780 ft/min (14.1 m/s)

Wing loading: 29.8 lb/ft² (121.9 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.15 hp/lb (0.25 kW/kg)

 

Armament:

2× 0.787” (20mm) Hispano Mk II cannon with 60 RPG

4× 0.303” (7,7mm) Browning Mk. II machine guns with 350 RPG

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is actually a remake of a whif that I have built some time ago for the Battle of Britain Group Build at whatifmodelers.com. This fictional machine – or better: the model – is based on a profile drawing conceived by fellow forum member nighthunter: an Avia B.135, outfitted with a Merlin engine, a ventral radiator in the style of a Hawker Hurricane, and carrying RAF markings.

 

I had another B.35 kit at hand, as well as other ingredients, so I decided to re-create the same aircraft, just in a later variant that differs in some minor details from the first one. The basis is, once again, a vintage KP Models kit of the early B.35 fighter with a fixed landing gear. It’s a sleek and pretty aircraft, but the kit’s quality is rather so-so (the molds date back to 1974). Details are quite good, esp. on the exterior. You get a mix of engraved and raised surface details, but fit is mediocre, there is lots of flash and the interior is quite bleak. But, with some effort, things can be mended.

 

Many donation parts for the Swallow, including the Merlin engine, propeller, landing gear and radiator, were taken from an AZ Models Spitfire Mk. I/II/V, from a Joy Pack, which comes with three of these kits without decals.

 

New landing gear wells had to be carved out of the massive lower wing halves. Since the original Swallow profile did not indicate the landing gear design, I went for an inward-retracting solution, using parts from an early Spitfire. Due to the oil cooler in one of the wing roots, though, the stance ended up a little wide, but it’s still acceptable and I stuck to the same solution as on my first build of the Swallow. But now I know why the real world B.135 prototype had its landing gear retract outwards – it makes more sense.

 

The Merlin fitted very well onto the B.35 fuselage, diameter and shape match very well, even though the Spitfire Merlin and its respective fuselage intersection is a little too deep for the B.35. As a consequence, some light sculpting with putty was necessary under the fuselage – nothing dramatic, though.

 

Inside of the cockpit, this time I used more Spitfire material than during my first Swallow build, namely the floor, seat and rear bulkhead/headrest. Like before, I added a tank behind the seat in order to fill the OOB void there, and used the B.35’s OOB headrest struts, as well as the dashboard.

 

The blurry, single-piece canopy was cut into three pieces for optional open display on the ground, but this was not a smart move since the material turned out to be very thin and, even worse, brittle – cracks were the unfortunate result. L

 

Since one of the B.35’s wing tips was missing (there’s a deep edge at the tips, and one tip had been broken off and got lost), I reduced the span of both wings, resulting in a square shape that resembles a narrow Hawker Tempest wing.

Another change concerns the armament: trying to beef it up, I added a pair of Hispano cannon to the wings, with the barrels protruding from the wings’ leading edges, reminiscent of the Spitfire’s “B” wing – even though I kept the outer machine guns at the Swallow’s original position.

 

Finally, I installed my trademark propeller adapter: a styrene tube inside of the fuselage that holds a long metal axis with the propeller, so that it can spin freely.

  

Painting and markings:

Once again I went for a conservative route, this time I chose the new standard “Day Fighter” camouflage that the RAF introduced in summer 1941: Dark Green/Ocean Grey (using Humbrol 116 and 106, respectively) with Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 64) undersides.

The typical fuselage ID band and the spinner became Sky (Revell 59) and yellow ID bands were added to the outer wings’ leading edges, created with yellow decal sheet material.

 

The roundels were chosen to match the 1941 era, with A.1 roundels on the fuselage, B roundels on top of the wings and Type A underneath, they actually belong to P-40s in RAF service and come, including the fin flash, from a Sky Models sheet. The code letters in Sky come from an Xtradecal sheet, the serial number actually belongs to a contemporary RAF P-40C – I was too lazy to create an individual serial number that actually fills a gap in the RAF’s inventory list.

 

Some light weathering and panel shading was done, as well as some light soot stains around the exhausts and the gun ports on the wings (grinded graphite). Finally, everything sealed under a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and wire antennae (stretched sprue material) added.

  

A simple project, realized in a couple of days – thanks to the experience gathered during the first build of this fictional aircraft. However, the Avro Swallow looked already promising in nighthunter's original profile, almost like a missing link between the sturdy Hurricane and the more glorious Spitfire. The result looks very convincing, and with the clipped wingtips, born as a makeshift solution, it looks even faster than the original build!

I am amazed how good this thing looks overall, with its elegant, slender wings and the sleek fuselage lines. At first glance, it looks like an early Spitfire, but then you notice the different wings, the low canopy and the shorter but deeper tail. Then you can think it was a travestied Yak-3 or LaGG aircraft, but again the details don’t match. It’s a quite subtle creation. Maybe, someday, a third one will join my RAF Swallow duo, but this time in Irish Air Corps colors.

Piles of new textbooks in an abandoned Detroit Public School warehouse.

 

Detroit was once the fourth most populous city in the United States of America and number one in industry and manufacturing. However, since the middle half of the twentieth century it has undergone a radical transformation.

 

In the past ten years alone, the population of Detroit has decreased by twenty-five percent - down to 717,000. That means that since 1950 when the population of the city was at it's height (approx 1.8 million) it has lost over fifty-percent of it's residents in sixty years.

 

Here are some telling statistics:

 

Number 1 most segregated city in America.

Number 1 in unemployment - 28.9%.

Number 3 most dangerous city in America.

 

The City of Detroit is currently carrying between a $150-$300 million dollar budget shortfall.

 

7 out of 10 murders go unsolved.

 

According to investigators, some months see as many as 500 arson fires in city limits.

 

Illiteracy reaches towards fifty percent, while graduation rates sink below forty percent.

 

It isn't a new story either. Read this from Oct. 27, 1961. Before the riots of '67 and the outsourcing of the 1980s.

 

I have received a few emails since I started posting photos and stories of Detroit that sarcastically thank me for giving the city another "black-eye." They say I should be focusing on the positives, not dwelling on the negatives. I read these comments and I instantly think of the three man band playing on the deck of the Titanic as it sinks into the freezing water around them...yes the music is beautiful, but they froze to death in the end.

 

Sure there is "hope" for Detroit. There's hope for everything. But there is also reality. And until America makes a commitment to certain principals, things such as American industry, American energy production, American job creation, American fiscal responsibility - I fear that there will always be bigger problems, bigger issues in the nation (and the world) as a whole that will eclipse the tragedy of Detroit.

 

It seems that in the past Detroit's problems were left for Detroiter's to solve. Without major outside help and a commitment on behalf of the American people (government) to radically alter their priorities and create change, reinvent old industries and create new ones - how far will "Hope" carry Detroit...or America for that matter?

 

*Another in the Detroit Series.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

Due to increasing tensions in Europe which led to World War 2, AVRO Aircraft started developing combat aircraft, and as a subsidiary of Hawker, they had access to the Hurricane plans. At the time that the Hurricane was developed, RAF Fighter Command consisted of just 13 squadrons, each equipped with either the Hawker Fury, Hawker Demon, or the Bristol Bulldog – all of them biplanes with fixed-pitch wooden propellers and non-retractable undercarriages. After the Hurricane's first flight, Avro started working on a more refined and lighter aircraft, resulting in a similar if not higher top speed and improved maneuverability.

 

The result was Avro’s project 675, also known as the "Swallow". The aircraft’s profile resembled the Hawker Hurricane, but appeared more squatted and streamlined, almost like a race version. Compared with the Hurricane, overall dimensions were reduced and the structure lightened wherever possible. The wings were much thinner, too, and their shape reminded of the Supermarine Spitfire’s famous oval wings. The main landing gear was retractable and had a wide track. The tail wheel was semi-retractable on the prototype, but it was replaced by a simpler, fixed tail wheel on production models.

 

The Swallow made its first flight on 30th December 1937 and the Royal Air Force was so impressed by its performance against the Hurricane that they ordered production to start immediately, after a few minor tweaks to certain parts of the aircraft had been made.

 

On 25 July 1939, the RAF accepted their first delivery of Avro Swallow Mk. Is. The first machines were allocated to No.1 Squadron, at the time based in France, where they were used in parallel to the Hurricanes for evaluation. These early machines were powered by a 1.030 hp (770 kW) Rolls-Royce Merlin Mk II liquid-cooled V-12, driving a wooden two-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller. The light aircraft achieved an impressive top speed of 347 mph (301 kn, 558 km/h) in level flight – the bigger and heavier Hurricane achieved only 314 mph (506 km/h) with a similar engine. Like the Hurricane, the Swallow was armed with eight unsynchronized 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in the outer wings, outside of the propeller disc.

 

In spring 1940, Avro upgraded the serial production Swallow Mk.I's to Mk.IA standard: the original wooden propeller was replaced by a de Havilland or Rotol constant speed metal propeller with three blades, which considerably improved field performance. Many aircraft were retrofitted with this update in the field workshops in the summer of 1940.

 

In parallel, production switched to the Swallow Mk. II: This new version, which reached the front line units in July 1940, received an uprated engine, the improved Rolls-Royce Merlin III, which could deliver up to 1,310 hp (977 kW) with 100 octane fuel and +12 psi boost. With the standard 87 Octane fuel, engine performance did not improve much beyond the Merlin II's figures, though.

A redesigned, more streamlined radiator bath was mounted, too, and altogether these measures boosted the Swallow’s top speed to 371 mph (597 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m). This was a considerable improvement, and the contemporary Hurricane II achieved only 340 mph (547 km/h).

 

However, several fundamental weak points of the Swallow remained unsolved: its limited range could not be boosted beyond 300 miles (500 km) and the light machine gun armament remained unchanged, because the Swallow’s thin wings hardly offered more space for heavier weapons or useful external stores like drop tanks. Despite these shortcomings, the pilots loved their agile fighter, who described the Swallow as an updated Hawker Fury biplane fighter and less as a direct competitor to the Hurricane.

 

Nevertheless, Avro kept on working to improve the Swallow, but with limited success. For instance, in early 1941, a Swallow Mk. II was modified to carry a pair of 20mm Hispano cannons instead of the inner pair of machine guns. Due to the aircraft’s thin wings, this update necessitated bulged fairings and a modified internal structure for the cannons' ammunition drums. The prototype was operationally tested at the home defense front and the additional firepower was warmly welcomed by the pilots who flew it, since the cannons allowed them to stay out of the German bombers’ machine gun range of and added more punch against German escort fighters in dogfights.

 

This innovation directly led to the Swallow Mk. III, introduced in August 1941, the fighter’s final production variant. Beyond the armament changes and the respective structural changes to the wings, the Mk. III was still powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin III from the swallow Mk. II, but the variant introduced clipped wing tips in order to compensate for the slightly higher weight of the airframe and to improve roll characteristics at low and medium altitude. Otherwise, the Mk. III was virtually identical to the earlier Mk. II.

 

Another Mk. II was experimentally converted with a lowered spine and a framed bubble canopy for a better all-around field of view (reminiscent of the Hawker Typhoon's design), but this experiment did not reach production status. The Swallow had already reached its limited development potential and was, by mid-1942, outdated.

 

Since the Supermarine Spitfire had in the meantime proven its worth and promised a much bigger development potential, production of the Avro Swallow already ceased in late 1942 after 435 aircraft had been built. Around the same time, the Swallows were quickly phased out from front-line service, too.

 

Several machines were retained as trainers, messenger aircraft or instructional airframes. 20 late production Mk. IIs were sold to the Irish Air Corps, and a further 50 aircraft were sent to Canada as advanced fighter trainers, where they served until the end of the hostilities in 1945.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 28 ft 1 in (8.57 m)

Wingspan: 33 ft 7 in (10.25 m)

Height: 8 ft 6 in (2.60 m)

Wing area: 153 ft² (16.40 m²)

Empty weight: 3,722 lb (1,720 kg)

Gross weight: 5,100 lb (2,315 kg)

 

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce Merlin III liquid-cooled V-12, rated at 1,310 hp (977 kW) at 9,000 ft (2,700 m)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 366 mph (590 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m)

Range: 320 miles (515 km)

Service ceiling: 36,000 ft (10,970 m)

Rate of climb: 2,780 ft/min (14.1 m/s)

Wing loading: 29.8 lb/ft² (121.9 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.15 hp/lb (0.25 kW/kg)

 

Armament:

2× 0.787” (20mm) Hispano Mk II cannon with 60 RPG

4× 0.303” (7,7mm) Browning Mk. II machine guns with 350 RPG

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is actually a remake of a whif that I have built some time ago for the Battle of Britain Group Build at whatifmodelers.com. This fictional machine – or better: the model – is based on a profile drawing conceived by fellow forum member nighthunter: an Avia B.135, outfitted with a Merlin engine, a ventral radiator in the style of a Hawker Hurricane, and carrying RAF markings.

 

I had another B.35 kit at hand, as well as other ingredients, so I decided to re-create the same aircraft, just in a later variant that differs in some minor details from the first one. The basis is, once again, a vintage KP Models kit of the early B.35 fighter with a fixed landing gear. It’s a sleek and pretty aircraft, but the kit’s quality is rather so-so (the molds date back to 1974). Details are quite good, esp. on the exterior. You get a mix of engraved and raised surface details, but fit is mediocre, there is lots of flash and the interior is quite bleak. But, with some effort, things can be mended.

 

Many donation parts for the Swallow, including the Merlin engine, propeller, landing gear and radiator, were taken from an AZ Models Spitfire Mk. I/II/V, from a Joy Pack, which comes with three of these kits without decals.

 

New landing gear wells had to be carved out of the massive lower wing halves. Since the original Swallow profile did not indicate the landing gear design, I went for an inward-retracting solution, using parts from an early Spitfire. Due to the oil cooler in one of the wing roots, though, the stance ended up a little wide, but it’s still acceptable and I stuck to the same solution as on my first build of the Swallow. But now I know why the real world B.135 prototype had its landing gear retract outwards – it makes more sense.

 

The Merlin fitted very well onto the B.35 fuselage, diameter and shape match very well, even though the Spitfire Merlin and its respective fuselage intersection is a little too deep for the B.35. As a consequence, some light sculpting with putty was necessary under the fuselage – nothing dramatic, though.

 

Inside of the cockpit, this time I used more Spitfire material than during my first Swallow build, namely the floor, seat and rear bulkhead/headrest. Like before, I added a tank behind the seat in order to fill the OOB void there, and used the B.35’s OOB headrest struts, as well as the dashboard.

 

The blurry, single-piece canopy was cut into three pieces for optional open display on the ground, but this was not a smart move since the material turned out to be very thin and, even worse, brittle – cracks were the unfortunate result. L

 

Since one of the B.35’s wing tips was missing (there’s a deep edge at the tips, and one tip had been broken off and got lost), I reduced the span of both wings, resulting in a square shape that resembles a narrow Hawker Tempest wing.

Another change concerns the armament: trying to beef it up, I added a pair of Hispano cannon to the wings, with the barrels protruding from the wings’ leading edges, reminiscent of the Spitfire’s “B” wing – even though I kept the outer machine guns at the Swallow’s original position.

 

Finally, I installed my trademark propeller adapter: a styrene tube inside of the fuselage that holds a long metal axis with the propeller, so that it can spin freely.

  

Painting and markings:

Once again I went for a conservative route, this time I chose the new standard “Day Fighter” camouflage that the RAF introduced in summer 1941: Dark Green/Ocean Grey (using Humbrol 116 and 106, respectively) with Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 64) undersides.

The typical fuselage ID band and the spinner became Sky (Revell 59) and yellow ID bands were added to the outer wings’ leading edges, created with yellow decal sheet material.

 

The roundels were chosen to match the 1941 era, with A.1 roundels on the fuselage, B roundels on top of the wings and Type A underneath, they actually belong to P-40s in RAF service and come, including the fin flash, from a Sky Models sheet. The code letters in Sky come from an Xtradecal sheet, the serial number actually belongs to a contemporary RAF P-40C – I was too lazy to create an individual serial number that actually fills a gap in the RAF’s inventory list.

 

Some light weathering and panel shading was done, as well as some light soot stains around the exhausts and the gun ports on the wings (grinded graphite). Finally, everything sealed under a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and wire antennae (stretched sprue material) added.

  

A simple project, realized in a couple of days – thanks to the experience gathered during the first build of this fictional aircraft. However, the Avro Swallow looked already promising in nighthunter's original profile, almost like a missing link between the sturdy Hurricane and the more glorious Spitfire. The result looks very convincing, and with the clipped wingtips, born as a makeshift solution, it looks even faster than the original build!

I am amazed how good this thing looks overall, with its elegant, slender wings and the sleek fuselage lines. At first glance, it looks like an early Spitfire, but then you notice the different wings, the low canopy and the shorter but deeper tail. Then you can think it was a travestied Yak-3 or LaGG aircraft, but again the details don’t match. It’s a quite subtle creation. Maybe, someday, a third one will join my RAF Swallow duo, but this time in Irish Air Corps colors.

A rare reaction from competitive colleagues at the Churchill Club this evening....

 

I had just presented the first trend, and grabbed the camera for the reaction on stage.

 

We each suggest trends, and then vote red or green, which usually leads to a lively debate.

 

I went for a U.S. market trend and a geek trend (and tried not to overlap with last year’s predictions):

 

Trend #1: Demographics are destiny, creating opportunity. Every 11 seconds, a baby boomer turns 60. This Internet-savvy cohort represents an enormous market of time and money, driving new opportunities in “mental exercise”, online education, and eventually, an “eBay for information” that exceeds the market for physical goods.

 

Trend #2: Evolution Trumps Design. Many interesting unsolved problems in computer science, nanotechnology, and synthetic biology require the construction of complex systems. Evolutionary algorithms are a powerful alternative to traditional design, blossoming first in neural networks, now in microbial re-engineering, and eventually in AI.

 

Vinod Khosla:

 

Trend #1: The device that used to be a phone. A mobile phone will turn into a mainstream computer. Beyond email, built in projection screen, and high speed data will make it your virtual credit card, ID (passport), access to new types of presence (IM), payment system, personal information filing system, and much much more.

 

Trend #2: Fossilizing fossil energy. Oil will have increasing difficulty competing with biofuels made from cheap non-food crops for transportation. Coal will become less competitive compared to reliable solar thermal and enhanced geothermal electricity as both oil and coal’s decline will be aided by higher efficiency engines, cars, lighting, appliances.

 

Josh Kopelman:

 

Trend #1: The rise of the “Implicit” Internet. Historically, the web delivered most of its value by satisfying explicit user actions – a user entered a search query on Google, a user entered a review on Yelp, a user added their friends on Facebook.

 

However, as people spend more time online (and perform more of their activities online), they are leaving a trail of “digital breadcrumbs” exposing data about themselves. The result is an immense amount of implicit data on a user. Netflix knows what movies I watch and like. Apple knows what music I purchase and listen to…

 

However, until now that data has existed in silos. There has been no easy way for me (as a user) to access and benefit from that data. The next big wave of Internet value creation will come to those companies that can deliver value based on the implicit use of these data sources - by taking advantage of these existing data repositories in novel ways.

 

Trend #2: Venture Capital 2.0. Venture Capital has underwritten most of the transformative software and Internet companies for the last twenty years. However, changing economics (for both startups and venture funds) combined with changing markets, will have a dramatic impact on the venture capital industry.

 

Joe Schoendorf:

 

Trend #1: Water tech will replace global warming as a global priority.

The world is running out of usable water and this will kill millions more people in our lifetime than global warming.

 

Trend #2: 80% of the world population will carry mobile internet devices within 5-10 years. Mobile internet devices are rapidly becoming THE leading product category.

 

Roger McNamee:

 

Trend #1: The mobile device industry’s migration from feature phones to smart phones will produce even greater disruption than what the PC industry experienced as it moved from character-mode to graphical interfaces. It will disrupt the competitive balance, with big market share shifts. Consumers will benefit from greater choice and lower prices.

 

Trend #2: Within five years, everything that matters to you will be available on a device that fits on your belt or in your purse. This will cause a massive shift in internet traffic from PCs to smaller devices.

 

This is the house where one of the most violent crimes in America took place on June 10, 1912. Still an unsolved mystery even until today.A small town called Villisca in southwest Iowa, where 8 people were bludgeoned to death with an ax while they slept. 6 of them were children. 2 were neighbor children. 4 were killed in the room upstairs where the three windows are.The parents room there is still a mark in the wall where the overhand swinging struch the wall. The house has been restored and is on the historic register. Also tours are given of the house day or night. You can actually stay the night there. There is no electricity. Many paranormal investigations take place with many results. We went last summer and plan to go back and stay the night ourselves this summer. While there in the attic I heard a faint voice resembling a kid outside, but could of been a bird.? We have a similiar murder mystery just 4 miles from us where the Spencer family was murdered with an ax with 5 people. I have been ghosthunting several times and photographing. One place I have several images of mist or ectoplasm on film that I should post some soon.

GAIUS CALIGULA. 37-41 AD. Æ As (11.21 gm). Struck 37/38 AD. C CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS PON M TR POT, bare head left / VESTA, S C across field, Vesta seated left, holding patera and sceptre. RIC I 38; BMCRE 46; Cohen 27. For more on Caligulan Numismatic Articles see: Coins

 

Related Articles of Caligula from American Numismatic Society Library Search

 

Library Catalog Search (Preliminary Version)

Full Record: Barrett, Anthony A. The invalidation of currency in the Roman Empire : the Claudian demonetization of Caligula's AES. (1999)

Full Record: Bost, Jean-Pierre. Routes, cits et ateliers montaires : quelques remarques sur les officines hispaniques entre les rgnes d'Auguste en de Caligula. (1999)

Full Record: Bibliothque Municipale d'Etude et d'Information de Grenoble. Grenoble : Bibliothque Municipale d'Etude et d'Information : catalogue des monnaies. II. Monnaies romaines. Monnaies impriales romaines. 2. Caligula - Neron . Index. / Bernard Rmy, Frdric Bontoux, Virginie Risler. (1998)

Full Record: Gainor, John R. The image of the Julio-Claudian dynasty from coins / by John R. Gainor.

Full Record: Martini, Rodolfo. Monete romane imperiali del Museo G. B. Adriani. Parte 3, Caius (37-41 d.C.) / Rodolfo Martini. (2001)

Full Record: ACCLA privy to presentation by Richard Baker on Caligula. (2002)

Full Record: Wend, David A. Caligula, the emperor as autocrat. Part 1. (2002)

Full Record: Wend, David A. Caligula, the emperor as autocrat. Part 2. (2002)

Full Record: Wend, David A. Caligula, the emperor as autocrat. Part 3. (2002)

Full Record: Kemmers, Fleur. Caligula on the Lower Rhine : Coin finds from the Roman Fort of Albaniana (The Netherlands) / Fleur Kemmers. (2004)

Full Record: Estiot, Sylviane. Le trsor de Meussia (Jura) : 399 monnaies d'argent d'poques rpublicaine et julio-claudienne / Sylviane Estiot, Isabelle Aymar. (2002)

Full Record: Gocht, Hans. Namenstilgungen an Bronzemünzen des Caligula und Claudius / Hans Gocht. (2003)

Full Record: Gomis Justo, Marivi. Ercavica : La emision de Caligula. Estimacion del numero de cunos originales.

Full Record: Sayles, Wayne G. Fakes on the Internet. (2002)

Full Record: Kemmers, Fleur. The coin finds from the Roman fort Albaniana, the Netherlands / Fleur Kemmers . (2005)

Full Record: Lopez Snchez, Fernando. La afirmacion soberana de Caligula y de Claudio y el fin de las acunaciones ciudadanas en occidente / Fernando Lopez Snchez. (2000)

Full Record: Besombes, Paul-Andr. Les monnaies hispaniques de Claude Ier des dpôts de la Vilaine (Rennes) et de Saint-Lonard (Mayenne) : tmoins de quel type de contact entre l'Armorique et la pninsule ibrique ? / Paul-Andr Besombes. (2005)

Full Record: Catalli, Fiorenzo. Le thesaurus de Sora / Fiorenzo Catalli et John Scheid.

Full Record: Giard, Jean-Baptiste. Faux deniers de Caligula de la Renaissance.

Full Record: Vermeule, Cornelius. Faces of Empire (Julius Caesar to Justinian). Part II(B), More young faces : Caligula again and Nero reborn / Cornelius Vermeule. (2005)

Full Record: Geranio, Joe. Portraits of Caligula : the seated figure? / Joe Geranio. (2007)

Full Record: Aguilera Hernandez, Alberto. Acerca de un as de Caligula hallado en Zaragoza / Alberto Aguilera Hernandez. (2007)

Full Record: Butcher, K. E. T. Caligula : the evil emperor. (1985)

Full Record: Fuchs, Michaela. Frauen um Caligula und Claudius : Milonia Caesonia, Drusilla und Messalina. (1990)

Full Record: Faur, Jean-Claude. Moneda de Caligula de Museo Arqueologico Provincial de Tarragona. (1979)

Full Record: British Museum. Dept. of coins and medals. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British museum. Vol. I: Augustus to Vitellius / by Harold Mattingly. (1976)

Full Record: Conrad, Edwin. A Caligula Isotope of Hadrian. (1968)

Full Record: Conrad, Edwin. The Metamorphosis of an Allegad 'As of Hadrian.' (1968)

Full Record: Bendall, Simon. A 'new' gold quinarius of Caligula. (1985)

Full Record: Cortellini, Nereo. Le monete di Caligola nel Cohen.

Full Record: Guey, Julien. Les "bains d'or" de Caligula "Immensi Avreorvm Acervi (Sutone, Cal., 42,3).

Full Record: Guey, J. Les "bains d'or" de Caligula : Sutone, Cal. 42, 3.

Full Record: Curry, Michael R. The Aes Quadrans of Caligula. (1968)

Full Record: Jonas, Elemr. L'emploi dar "damnatio memoriae" sur l'un des "dupondius" de Calgula. (1937)

Full Record: Julian, R. W. The coins of Caligula. (1994)

Full Record: Donciu, Ramiro. Cu privire la activitatea militara a lui Caius (Caligula) in anul 40 e.n. (1983)

Full Record: Hansen, Peter. A history of Caligula's Vesta. (1992)

Full Record: Kaenel, Hans-Markus von. Augustus, Caligula oder Caludius? (1978)

Full Record: Kaenel, Hans-Markus von. Die Organisation der Münzprgung Caligulas. (1987)

Full Record: Johansen, Flemming S. The sculpted portraits of Caligula. (1987)

Full Record: Carter, G. F. Chemical compositions of copper-based Roman coins. V : imitations of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero / G. F. Carter and others. (1978)

Full Record: Giard, Jean-Baptiste. L'atelier de Lyon sous Auguste : Tibre et Caligula. (1979)

Full Record: Giard, Jean-Baptiste. Les missions d'or et d'argent de Caligula dans l'atelier de Lyon. (1976)

Full Record: Giard, Jean-Baptiste. Le monnayage de l'atelier de Lyon des origines au rgne de Caligula (43 avant J.-C. - 41 aprs J.-C.). (1983)

Full Record: Nony, D. Quelques as d'imitation de Caligula trouves a Bordeaux (Gironde). (1981)

Full Record: Levy, Brooks Emmons. Caligula's radiate crown. (1988)

Full Record: Poulsen, Vagn. Un nouveau visage de Caligula. (1972)

Full Record: Price, Martin Jessop. Elephant in Crete? New light ona cistophorus of Caligula. (1973)

Full Record: MacInnis, H. Frank. Ego-driven emperor commits excesses. (1979)

Full Record: McKenna, Thomas P. The case of the curious coin of Caligula : a provincial bronze restruck with legend-only dies. (1994)

Full Record: Mowat, Robert. Bronzes remarquables de Tibre, de son fils, de ses petits-fils et de Caligula. (1911)

Full Record: Koenig, Franz E. Roma, monete dal Tevere : l'imperatore Gaio (Caligola). (1988)

Full Record: Kollgaard, Ron. Caligula's coins profile despot. (1993)

Full Record: Kollgaard, Ron. A numismatic mystery : "the Caligula quadrans." (1994)

Full Record: Martini, Rodolfo. Osservazioni su contromarche ed erosioni su assi de Caligula. (1980)

Full Record: Szaivert, Wolfgang. Moneta Imperii Romani. Band 2 und 3. Die Münzprgung der Kaiser Tiberius und Caius (Caligula) 14/41 / von Wolfgang Szaivert. (1984)

Full Record: Boschung, Dietrich. Die Bildnisse des Caligula. Kaenel, Hans-Markus von. Jucker, Hans. Deutsches Archaologisches Institut. Das Romische Herrscherbild. 1. Abt., Bd. 4, Die Bildnisse des Caligula / Dietrich Boschung ; mit einem Beitrag von Hans-Markus von Kaenel ; auf Grund der Vorarbeiten und Marterialsammlungen von Hans Jucker. (1989)

Full Record: Rosborough, Ruskin R. An epigraphic commentary on Suetonius's life of Gaius Caligula. A thesis...for the...Doctor of Philosophy. (1920)

Full Record: Richard, Jean-Claude. A propos de l'aureus de Caligula dcouvert Saint-Colomban-des-Villards (Savoie). (1982)

Full Record: Richard, Jean-Claude. Un aureus de Caligula dcouvert Saint-Colomban-des-Villards (Savoie). (1982)

Full Record: Ritter, Hans-Werner. Adlocutio und Corona Civica unter Caligula und Tiberius. (1971)

Full Record: Kumpikevicius, Gordon C. A numismatic look at Gaius. (1979)

Full Record: Savio, Adriano. La coerenza di Caligola nella gestione della moneta / Adriano Savio. (1988)

Full Record: Savio, Adriano. Note su alcune monete di Gaio-Caligola. (1973)

Full Record: Stylow, Armin U. Die Quadranten des Caligula als Propaganda-münzen.münzen" aus der stdtischen sammlung zu Osnabrück. (1971)

Full Record: Schwartz, Jacques. Le Monnayage Snatorial entre 37 et 42 P.C. (1951)

Full Record: Rodolfo Martini, ed. Sylloge nummorum Romanorum. Italia. Milano, Civiche Raccolte Numismatiche Vol. 1 Giulio-Claudii / a cura di Rodolfo Martini. (1990)

Full Record: Szaivert, Wolfgang. Zur Julisch-Claudischen Münzprgung. (1979)

Full Record: Vedrianus. The Roman Imperial series. V. Gaius. (1963)

Full Record: Tietze, Christian M. Kaiser Cajus Caesar, genannt Caligula. (1979)

Full Record: Wood, Susan. Diva Drusilla Panthea and the sisters of Caligula / Susan Wood. (1995)

Full Record: Sutherland, Carol Humphrey Vivian. Coinage in Roman imperial policy 31 B.C.-A.D. 68. (1951)

Full Record: Sutherland, C. H. V. The mints of Lugdunum and Rome under Gaius : an unsolved problem. (1981)

Full Record: Trillmich, Walter. Familienpropaganda der Kaiser Caligula und Claudius : Agrippina Maior und Antonia Augusta auf Münzen. (1978)

Full Record: Voirol, August. Eine Warenumsatzsteuer im antiken Rom und der numismatische Beleg inher Aufhebung : Centesima rerum venalium. (1943)

Full Record: Trillmich, Walter. Zur Münzprgung des Caligula von Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza). (1973)

 

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

Due to increasing tensions in Europe which led to World War 2, AVRO Aircraft started developing combat aircraft, and as a subsidiary of Hawker, they had access to the Hurricane plans. At the time that the Hurricane was developed, RAF Fighter Command consisted of just 13 squadrons, each equipped with either the Hawker Fury, Hawker Demon, or the Bristol Bulldog – all of them biplanes with fixed-pitch wooden propellers and non-retractable undercarriages. After the Hurricane's first flight, Avro started working on a more refined and lighter aircraft, resulting in a similar if not higher top speed and improved maneuverability.

 

The result was Avro’s project 675, also known as the "Swallow". The aircraft’s profile resembled the Hawker Hurricane, but appeared more squatted and streamlined, almost like a race version. Compared with the Hurricane, overall dimensions were reduced and the structure lightened wherever possible. The wings were much thinner, too, and their shape reminded of the Supermarine Spitfire’s famous oval wings. The main landing gear was retractable and had a wide track. The tail wheel was semi-retractable on the prototype, but it was later replaced by a simpler, fixed tail wheel on production models.

 

The Swallow made its first flight on 30th December 1937 and the Royal Air Force was so impressed by its performance against the Hurricane that they ordered production to start immediately, after a few minor tweaks to certain parts of the aircraft had been made.

 

On 25 July 1939, the RAF accepted their first delivery of Avro Swallow Mk. Is. The first machines were allocated to No.1 Squadron, at the time based in France, where they were used in parallel to the Hurricanes for evaluation. These early machines were powered by a 1.030 hp (770 kW) Rolls-Royce Merlin Mk II liquid-cooled V-12, driving a wooden two-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller. The light aircraft achieved an impressive top speed of 347 mph (301 kn, 558 km/h) in level flight – the bigger and heavier Hurricane achieved only 314 mph (506 km/h) with a similar engine. Like the Hurricane, the Swallow was armed with eight unsynchronized 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in the outer wings, outside of the propeller disc.

 

In spring 1940, Avro upgraded the serial production Swallow Mk.I's to Mk.IA standard: the original wooden propeller was replaced by a de Havilland or Rotol constant speed metal propeller with three blades, which considerably improved field performance. Many aircraft were retrofitted with this update in the field workshops until summer 1940.

 

In parallel, production switched to the Swallow Mk. II: This new version, which reached the front line units in July 1940, received an uprated engine, the improved Rolls-Royce Merlin III, which could deliver up to 1,310 hp (977 kW) with 100 octane fuel and +12 psi boost. With the standard 87 Octane fuel, engine performance did not improve much beyond the Merlin II's figures, though.

 

A more streamlined radiator bath was fitted, too, and altogether these measures boosted top speed to 371 mph (597 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m). This was a considerable improvement, and the contemporary Hurricane II achieved only 340 mph (547 km/h).

 

Despite this improvement, though, several fundamental weak points of the Swallow remained unsolved: its limited range could not be boosted beyond 300 miles (500 km) and the light machine gun armament remained unchanged, because the Swallow’s thin wings hardly offered more space for heavier weapons or useful external stores like drop tanks.

 

Despite these shortcomings, the pilots loved their agile fighter, which was described as an updated Hawker Fury biplane fighter and less of a direct competitor to the Hurricane. After War had been declared, the crews flew the early Mk.I well against the more experienced Luftwaffe fighters, and many of these aircraft were updated to Mk. IA standard.

 

Since the type was not operated in large numbers, Swallow aces were few. One of them was Flight Lieutenant Killian Murphy, an Irish Volunteer and Pilot of JX-M of RAF No. 1 Squadron. He scored two of his total 24 kills in a Mk. I, and 8 more in a Mk. II from August 1940 on. The initial scores were a Bf 109E and a Ju87, both shot down during the evacuation of Dunkirk. Most of his later victories were scored during the defense of London, before the squadron was completely re-equipped in early 1941 with Hurricane Mk. IIs and later Typhoons, rather focusing on ground attack and interdiction missions on Continental Europe.

 

Some work was done to improve the Swallow, but with limited success. For instance, in early 1941 a Swallow Mk. II was modified to carry a pair of 20mm Hispano cannons instead of the inner pair of machine guns. Due to the thin wings, this option necessitated bulged fairings and a modified internal structure for the cannons' ammunition drums, but the additional firepower was welcomed and led to the Swallow Mk. III, which was introduced in August 1941. It was the final production variant, still powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin III from the swallow Mk. II. Beyond the armament changes, the wing tips were clipped in order to improve roll characteristics at low and medium altitude. Otherwise the Mk. III was virtually identical to the earlier Mk. II.

 

Another Mk. II was experimentally converted with a lowered spine and a framed bubble canopy (reminiscent of the Hawker Typhoon's design), but this experiment did not reach production status. The Swallow had already reached its limited development potential.

 

Since the Supermarine Spitfire had in the meantime proven its worth and promised a much bigger development potential, production of the Avro Swallow already ceased in late 1942 after 435 aircraft had been built. Around the same time, the Swallow was quickly phased out from front-line service, too.

 

Several machines were retained as trainers, messenger aircraft or instructional airframes. 20 late production Mk. IIs were sold to the Irish Air Corps, and a further 50 aircraft were sent to Canada as advanced fighter trainers, where they served until the end of the hostilities in 1945.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 8.57 m (28 ft 1 in)

Wingspan: 10.85 m (35 ft 7 in)

Height: 2.60 m (8 ft 6 in)

Wing area: 17.00 m² (183 ft²)

Empty weight: 1,690 kg (3,726 lb)

Gross weight: 2,200 kg (4,850 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce Merlin III liquid-cooled V-12, rated at 1,310 hp (977 kW) at 9,000 ft (2,700 m)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 371 mph (597 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m)

Range: 320 miles (515 km)

Service ceiling: 36,000 ft (10,970 m)

Rate of climb: 2,780 ft/min (14.1 m/s)

Wing loading: 29.8 lb/ft² (121.9 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.15 hp/lb (0.25 kW/kg)

 

Armament:

8× 0.303” (7,7mm) Browning machine guns with 350 RPG in the outer wings

  

The kit and its assembly:

Another entry to the Battle of Britain Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and this time a collaboration. This fictional machine – or better: the model – is based on a 2D profile conceived by fellow forum member nighthunter: an Avia B.135, outfitted with a Merlin engine, a ventral radiator in the style of a Hawker Hurricane, and carrying RAF markings.

 

Since I had a spare B.35 sans engine left over from the recent Fokker D.XXIII conversion, I used the opportunity to take the virtual design to the hardware stage!

 

The basis is a vintage KP Models kit of the early B.35 fighter with a fixed landing gear. It’s a sleek and pretty aircraft, but the kit’s quality is rather so-so. Details are good, you get a mix of engraved and raised surface details, but fit is mediocre and there is lots of flash. But, with some effort, things can be mended.

 

Many donation parts for the Swallow, including the engine, propeller, landing gear and radiator, come from an AZ Models Spitfire Mk. I/II/V, from a recently bought Joy Pack which comes with three of these kits without decals.

 

New landing gear wells had to be drilled into the massive lower wing halves. Since the original Swallow profile did not indicate the landing gear design, I went for an inward-retracting solution, using parts from an early Spitfire. Due to the oil cooler in one of the wing roots, though, the stance ended up a little wide… The Merlin fitted very well onto the B.35 fuselage, and, inside of the cockpit, I added a tank behind the seat in order to fill the OOB void there.

 

Another internal change I made is the installation of my trademark propeller adapter: a styrene tube inside of the fuselage that holds a long metal axis with the propeller, so that it can spin freely.

  

Painting and markings:

Very conservative, but IMHO a good match for this fictional fighter: Standard RAF colors in Dark Green/Dark Earth (both enamels from the Modelmaster Authentic line), nothing fancy, and I had the profile as benchmark for what I wanted to achieve. Since the plane is placed historically in August 1940, Sky was about to be introduced, but only gradually and sometimes with “different” tones. Therefore, I painted the underside with Humbrol 23, Duck Egg Blue, and also added roundels under the wings.

 

The code letters should have been Medium Sea Grey, but the profile showed white letters – so I stuck with that, and AFAIK there had been exceptions to the rule. The code letters came from an Xtradecal RAF white letter sheet. Roundels and fin flash come from various sources, including a Matchbox Brewster Buffalo and a Trumpeter P-40C. The serial number was improvised, too.

 

As personal markings I painted a green shamrock under the cockpit on port side, while a list of air combat scores came under the starboard cockpit side (in style with the original profile). A green ring on the spinner was added, too, inspired by the real world No. 1 Squadron’s JX-B, flown by Arthur Clowes. His machine carried a bee nose art and a yellow spinner ring: for every victory, the bee would receive a new stripe, and he achieved eight during his career.

 

Some light weathering and panel shading was done, as well as some light soot stains around the exhausts and the gun ports on the wings. Finally, everything sealed under a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Revell), which unfortunately turned white in some seams! :-/

  

The Avro Swallow looked already promising in nighthunter's profile, almost like a missing link between the sturdy Hurricane and the more glorious Spitfire.

A quick build, but a conversion that has to be kept in mind, because the result looks so convincing! Seeing the completed aircraft, I am amazed how good this thing looks overall, with its elegant, oval wings and the sleek fuselage lines. Nice one! :D

The most beautiful women in TV and Movie History now become Barbie Collector Dolls created by acclaimed re-paint Artist Donna Brinkley.

 

Jacquelyn (Jaclyn) Ellen Smith has been known as the world's Most Beautiful Woman, she was born in Houston, Texas, the daughter of Margaret Ellen and Jack Smith, a dentist. She attended Trinity University in San Antonio.

 

After college, Smith moved to New York City with hopes of dancing with the ballet. Her career aspirations shifted to modeling and acting as she found work in television commercials and print ads, including one for Listerene mouthwash. She landed a job as a Breck girl for Breck Shampoo in 1971, and a few years later joined another popular model/actress, Farrah Fawcett, as a spokesmodel for Wella Balsam shampoo.

Charlie's Angels

 

On March 21, 1976, Smith first played Kelly Garrett in Charlie's Angels; the show was aired as a movie of the week, starring Smith, Kate Jackson and Farrah Fawcett (billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors) as private investigators for Townsend Associates, a detective agency run by a reclusive multi-millionaire whom the women had never met. Voiced by John Forsythe, the Charles Townsend character presented cases and dispensed advice via a speakerphone to his core team of three female employees, to whom he referred as Angels. They were aided in the office and occasionally in the field by two male associates, played by character actors David Doyle and David Ogden Stiers. The program earned a huge Nielsen rating, causing the network to air it a second time and okay production for a series, with all of the principal characters save the one played by Stiers. The series formally debuted on September 22, 1976, and ran for five seasons. The show would become a smash success not only in the U.S. but, in successive years, in syndication around the world, spawning a cottage industry of peripheral products, particularly in the show's first three seasons, including several series of bubble gum cards, two sets of fashion dolls, numerous posters, puzzles, and school supplies, novelizations of episodes, toy vans, and a board game, all featuring Smith's likeness. The Angels also appeared on the covers of magazines around the world, from countless fan magazines to TV Guide (four times) to Time Magazine.

 

Fawcett departed at the end of the first season, and Cheryl Ladd was a successful addition to the cast, remaining until the end of the series. Jackson departed at the end of the third season, and proved harder to replace, as first Shelley Hack and then Tanya Roberts were brought in to try re-igniting the chemistry, media attention and ratings success enjoyed by the earlier teams. Smith played her role for all five seasons of Charlie's Angels until 1981, also portraying the Garrett character in a guest appearance in the 1977 pilot episode of The San Pedro Beach Bums, and in a cameo in the 2003 feature film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Christina Chambers portrayed Smith in the television film Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels.

 

Smith's first acting venture outside the Angels mold was the CBS-TV movie of the week Escape from Bogen County (1977). Then came a leading role in Joyce Haber's The Users with Tony Curtis and John Forsythe in 1978. In 1980, Smith starred with Robert Mitchum in the suspense thriller Nightkill. She then starred in the title role of the television movie Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy in 1981, receiving a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination for her performance but lost to Jane Seymour. In 1983, Smith starred as Jennifer Parker in the TV movie Rage of Angels, based on the novel by Sidney Sheldon. The film was the highest rated in the Nielsen ratings the week it aired. Smith reprised the role in the 1986 sequel, Rage of Angels: The Story Continues.

 

In 1988, she appeared with Robert Wagner in Windmills of the Gods. That same year she was offered the chance to star opposite Richard Chamberlain in the adaptation of Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity. Smith was Chamberlain's first choice as his leading lady but she had just wrapped up with the Windmills of the Gods shoot and declined the part. The role was offered to Lesley-Anne Down who wanted her husband to photograph the film. Producers refused and again offered the role to Smith, who then accepted.

 

In 1989, Smith starred in Settle the Score. This film again proved her Nielsen ratings clout. Other television movies and miniseries in which Smith appeared include George Washington, The Night They Saved Christmas, Florence Nightingale, Sentimental Journey, Lies Before Kisses, The Rape of Dr. Willis, In the Arms of a Killer, and several TV versions of Danielle Steel novels, including Kaleidoscope and Family Album. Smith starred in the 1985 feature film Deja Vu, which was directed by her then-husband Tony Richmond. In 1989, she played the title role in Christine Cromwell, a mystery television series based in San Francisco, but which only lasted one season. That same year, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

 

From 2002 to 2004, Smith had a recurring role as Vanessa Cavanaugh in the TV series The District, which starred Craig T. Nelson. She reprised her role as Kelly Garrett for a short cameo in the 2003 Charlie's Angels feature film. Her appearance at the 2006 Emmy telecast led Bravo TV’s producers to cast Smith as the celebrity host of Bravo’s weekly competitive reality series, Shear Genius, which began airing in March 2007. Shear Genius (Season 2) began airing on June 25, 2008.

 

In March 2010, Smith returned to acting after a five year absence with a guest role on the NBC television drama Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. In February 2012, it was announced that Smith would be guest-starring on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, as the mother of David Hodges (played by Wallace Langham).

 

In 1985, Smith entered the business world with the introduction of her collection of women's apparel for Kmart. She pioneered the concept of celebrities developing their own brands rather than merely endorsing others. A season 15 episode of The Simpsons (The Fat and the Furries) lampooned Smith's many business successes, portraying her as having her own line of axe heads. In May 2009, Smith allowed a documentary crew to profile her home life, design philosophy and relationship with Kmart in an online video series sponsored by Kmart. Her foray into home furnishings was extended to Kmart stores in the fall of 2008, with the chain's introduction of its Jaclyn Smith Today product line of bedding and bath accessories.

 

Smith has been married four times. Her first marriage was to actor Roger Davis (1968–1975). She married Dennis Cole, an actor who had appeared on Charlie's Angels in 1977 and 1978. Cole appeared on the show two more times before the couple divorced in 1981. Cole's son from a previous marriage, Joe Cole, with whom Smith had maintained a relationship after her divorce from his father, was murdered in 1991 during a robbery; the case remains unsolved. Smith married filmmaker Tony Richmond in 1981, with whom she had two children, Gaston (born 1982) and Spencer Margaret (born 1985), before divorcing Richmond in 1989. Smith has been married to Houston cardiothoracic surgeon[12] Brad Allen since 1997.

 

Smith battled breast cancer in 2003. In 2010, Smith was featured in 1 a Minute, a documentary about breast cancer.

 

On September 22, 2009, TMZ.com picked up a Honduran newspaper's false online report that Smith had been hospitalized in a private medical center there; TMZ later retracted the story, reporting that Smith was well and at home in California. Smith posted on her Twitter page, denouncing the Honduran newspaper story as false— Jaclyn is safe and home with her family. She is not in Honduras. It is a lie.

 

* A number of style mavens and magazine polls have attested to Smith's popularity and declared her one of the most beautiful women in the world. The difficult-to-please Mr. Blackwell once named her "The World's Best Dressed Woman". In 1979, McCall's ran a poll of "Whose Face Most Women Would Like To Have"; Smith topped the list. Smith has had more #1 acting projects than any other actress in Hollywood, and she has often been called the "Queen of the miniseries".

 

* In 1985, McCall's named her as one of "America's 10 Best Bodies;. People named Smith twice in its annual list of the Most Beautiful People in the World In the April 1984 issue of People, Smith was voted as one of the Ten Great Faces of Our Time. In 1985, Ladies' Home Journal sampled 2,000 men and women in 100 different locations in the United States to determine America's Favorite Women; Smith came in the top of the list as the Most Beautiful Woman in America, with actress Linda Evans coming in second. TV Guide magazine readers voted Smith as the Most Beautiful Woman On Television in 1991.

 

* Comic strip artist Sy Barry modeled the luscious Diana Palmer, wife of The Phantom, after Smith.

 

* The French band Air was inspired by Smith's Charlie's Angels character Kelly Garrett to record the song Kelly Watch the Stars for their critically acclaimed 1998 album Moon Safari, and the track was released as a single.

 

In 2012 beauty critics around the world voted Jaclyn Smith as the Most Beautiful Woman of all time along side Grace Kelly.

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

 

Original copper prints Jacob Xaver Schmuzer (1713-1775) Schmuzer Hand Colored Engraved Print Schmuzer Quadrupèdes QUADRUPÈDES REMARQUABLES vol.VIII.No.46. Fig. 1. La femelle de l'Eléphant allaitant son petit Fig. 2. Le Sukotryo. Vierfüsige Thiere MERKWÜRDIGE VIERFÜSSIGE THIERE Fig. 1. Das fäugende Elephanten-Weibchen Fig. 2. Der Sukotyro 2946 Sch

 

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Justin_Bertuch

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Justin_Bertuch

 

Sukotyro

 

Location: Java.

 

Time: First reported in 1669, described in 1792. Various engravings of it were produced during the 1700s and 1800s.

 

Some “monsters” appear in travellers accounts of exotic animals, and are subsequently never heard about again. Many times, they can be garbled accounts of real animals that are well known today, but occasionally these mysteries go unsolved, the creature not properly resembling a known animal.

 

The Sukotyro is one example, reported in traveller’s tales during their trips to the East Indies (Southeast Asia); it does not readily resemble any known animal. It had a heavy, rhino-like body, with elephantine feet, a pig snout, floppy ears, and a bushy tail, like a horse or cow. Its eyes were set high like a hippo, and projecting just below them, apparently directly from the face, were a pair of large tusks. It was described based on these accounts, in some books on natural history, potentially as related to the elephant. A pair of Sukotyro tusks presented to the British Museum of Natural History turned out to be horns from a water-buffalo. This creature is no more easily explained today as it was back then, it could possibly be a hoax, a made up account with no basis in fact, or it could potentially be loosely based on Indonesian tusked animals, like the Babirusa, or the sometimes hornless Javan Rhino, which does have tusks, but small ones.

 

For our speculative account, we assumed that it indeed had many of the described features, but possibly, the tusks did not erupt from the face directly. The Sukotyro (Sukotyro indicus) despite its decidedly porcine appearance, is actually a kind of rhinoceros. Apparently descended from the Chilotherium, a hornless rhino that had large tusks, The Sukotyro is somewhat larger (almost as big as a white rhino) with bigger tusks that are less curved, and thicker, projecting from the corners of the mouth when closed. It feeds mainly on low-growing plants, as opposed to the grazing diet of its ancestor; the teeth show that it has only recently re-evolved a low-browsing tendency; as a result, the Sukotyro is sometimes a mixed feeder. Frequenting more open areas of forest, where smaller plants have grown due to a gap in the canopy, it also enjoys reeds and shrubs. This animal is extremely rare and elusive, seemingly restricted to Java, but it may have inhabited other parts of Indonesia in the recent past.

 

 

A possible solution to a mystery that baffled the new York police department.

 

A minor, but interesting little mystery that we had read about in Life Magazine several years ago. Date is uncertain.

 

During the fall season, several wealthy female patrons had reported various pieces of valuable jewelry vanishing while in attendance at the Metropolitan Opera. With the hopes of averting bad publicity, management reported it to the police.

 

New York City detectives, using decoys, staked out shows over the next several weekends. Despite the police’s efforts, at least two more pieces of jewelry vanished form it’s female wearer. The jewelry reported missing was never recovered. No logical reason for the missing jewelry was ever established. Police reports concluded it was simply a case of “loss by misadventure”” with no criminal activity apparent?

 

The operation was ended in the fall, after a month went by with no further reports.

 

Similar complaints were also reported at various Broadway shows later that year, but, whatever the cause was, it seemed to end by autumn.

  

There is one interesting sidelight to the story. An unsubstantiated rumor surfaced about an incident that occurred on the first evening of the surveillance. As the audience departed at the end of the show, one of the decoys, a satin clad be gowned debutante, wearing jewels on loan from the police criminal evidence locker, ” lost” one of the diamond bracelets she had been wearing. She had been lost to sight in the swirling crowd, and when contact was regained, the bracelet was gone.

  

We would be interested in obtaining more facts about the above (newspaper articles, magazines, dates, etc) or similar stories.

 

Props courtesy of Chatwick University Theatre

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

DISCLAIMER

All rights and copyrights observed by Chatwick University, Its contributors, associates and Agents

 

The purpose of these chronological photos and accompanying stories, articles is to educate, teach, instruct, and generally increase the awareness level of the general public as to the nature and intent of the underlying criminal elements that have historically plagued humankind.

 

No Part of this can reprinted, duplicated, or copied be without the express written permission and approval of Chatwick University.

 

These photos and stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to people, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

As with any work of fiction or fantasy the purpose is for entertainment and/or educational purposes only, and should never be attempted in real life.

We accept no responsibility for any events occurring outside this website.

 

********************************************************************************

 

All rights and copyrights observed by Chatwick University, Its contributors, associates and Agents

 

The purpose of these chronological photos and accompanying stories, articles is to educate, teach, instruct, and generally increase the awareness level of the general public as to the nature and intent of the underlying criminal elements that have historically plagued humankind.

 

No Part of this can reprinted, duplicated, or copied be without the express written permission and approval of Chatwick University.

These photos and stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to people, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

As with any work of fiction or fantasy the purpose is for entertainment only, and should never be attempted in real life.

We accept no responsibility for any events occurring outside this website.

  

***************************

  

19-year-old Kimberly McAndrew was last seen shortly after 4:21 p.m. on Saturday, August 12, 1989, in the parking lot of this Canadian Tire where she was working on Quinpool Road in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. As of 2019, she is still missing.

 

This is, 30 years later, the store where she was working at 6203 Quinpool Road.

 

Some links.

Dark Poutine Podcast: Episode 020 – The Disappearance of Kimberly McAndrew

Reddit r/UnresolvedMysteries: On the afternoon of August 12th, 1989, shortly after 19 year old Kimberly McAndrew punched out after her shift at a local Canadian Tire store, she vanished, never to be seen or heard from again.

CBC - August 12, 2019: 30 years on, Kimberly McAndrew's disappearance remains unsolved

The Doe Network: Kimberly Anne McAndrew, Case File 29DFNS

Words are the worst way to say what I have to say,

but sometimes you can't play how you want to play to show it well.

And when you're parked over on the wrong side of nowhere

no amount of nothing is going to make it worthwhile.

A touch, subdived, rinsed, and sold, before the hands have a chance to get cold, as an eyelash pries an hour from the schedules of the uninvolved.

And your sills so-called insulation can only sigh at December Sundays, unsolved.

Today you missed her getting up once again. Well boy, you've got to listen to me promise her you'll rise this day next year from this very bed.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz4qK03zoVo

The Smoke—(Cockney slang for London)— is about a cat burglar and jewel thief, called Jethro, in the austere world of 1947 post-war, black-market-riddled England.

 

Brought up in and around one of London's famed street markets, Jethro is as smart as he is street wise, which is just as well, as he always needs all of his wits about him to pull off the perfect job and not get caught.

 

Since the end of the war—having finished service in the Merchant Navy—Jethro has told everybody that he's gone straight and has taken-up as a stagehand around London's many theatres and music halls. (His skill with ropes and pulleys is as easily transferred to going up and down the outside of buildings, as it is to the needs of the theatre fly-floor.) But the truth is, hiding in plain sight in around London's West End is the perfect cover for him to be able to set up his diamond capers in the wealthy areas of Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Belgravia.

 

None of London's top villains—the true life, Jack Spot and Billy Hill—believe that Jethro has gone straight, and neither does Darby Messima, Soho's fearsome crime-lord. And at some time or another everyone wants him to do just one more little job for them.

 

And when, after he's burgled the embassy of a certain, un-named Iron Curtain power, and stolen jewels belonging to the ambassador's wife and daughter, Jethro comes to the attention of His Majesty's Secret Service, even they ask him to burgle the place again to retrieve a code book for them. And the trouble is, if he doesn't agree, then things threaten to go very badly indeed, for him, his family and his friends.

But it's all really a set up for a thief to cat ch a thief, that leads to a deadly game of cat and mouse to see who will get to Jethro first: London's gangsters, MI5, or one of the Soviet's most formidable secret agents.

In The Smoke, author Tony Broadbent captures the heartbeat of London and offers up a thrilling first mystery that marks him as a writer to watch; with two sequels ready to be released.

 

Taken From the Book

 

Every room has its own special interpretation of darkness, and the daughters bedroom was no exception, but even in those first moments as me eyes readjusted , I sensed it was as unique a place of entrapment as anything I had ever seen. It was like something out of a Hollywood film; a palace of silks and satins and lace that enveloped you like a perfume with its promise of delights yet to be revealed.

 

But I had a decision to make, and I had to make it quickly. I could stiffen my resolve and wait for the two of them to ride themselves on into contented sleep. Or I could grasp the moment and go about my business while they were still happily going about theirs. The door into his bedroom wasn’t completely closed, so I knew that whatever I did then I had o be very careful about how I moved. In the end, temptation beckoned her little diamond-encrusted finger at me, and as if in a trance of my own, I moved deeper into the room and became one with the rhythmic sounds of the lovemaking, which had me caught somewhere between a waltz and a tango.

 

Salome had nothing on this one. Her clothes trailed enticelingly across the floor; her satin evening gown and gloves, silk stockings and black underwear all lying in seductive, overlapping curves like the discarded skins of some exotic creature of the night. There was enough lace there to keep the London Palladium’s entire chorus line happy and vry, very grateful for the show’s entire run. It’s all right for some, I thought. It was too, for that’s when I saw her jewellery lying carelessly abandoned on top of her dressing table. The lovely girl had been so impatient for the pleasures yet to come , she hadn’t even bothered to kiss them good night and tuck them all up safely in bed.

 

They curled round my turtles like a lover’s embrace, a beautifully matched set of diamond earrings, necklace, and bracelet, and this time all of it most definitely by Boucheron of Paris. They were classic brilliants, simple and elegant, and even though they flashed a haughty disdain at my unabashed lust for them, they slithered and slid obediently into the empty pockets of my chamois leather bag like so many silk stockings released from their overly stretched suspenders. I smiled, a satisfied smile, and continued on in time with the sound of the movements from the bedroom …………

 

Props courtesy of Chatwick University Theatre

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

DISCLAIMER

All rights and copyrights observed by Chatwick University, Its contributors, associates and Agents

 

The purpose of these chronological photos and accompanying stories, articles is to educate, teach, instruct, and generally increase the awareness level of the general public as to the nature and intent of the underlying criminal elements that have historically plagued humankind.

 

No Part of this can reprinted, duplicated, or copied be without the express written permission and approval of Chatwick University.

 

These photos and stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to people, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

As with any work of fiction or fantasy the purpose is for entertainment and/or educational purposes only, and should never be attempted in real life.

We accept no responsibility for any events occurring outside this website.

 

********************************************************************************

 

All rights and copyrights observed by Chatwick University, Its contributors, associates and Agents

 

The purpose of these chronological photos and accompanying stories, articles is to educate, teach, instruct, and generally increase the awareness level of the general public as to the nature and intent of the underlying criminal elements that have historically plagued humankind.

 

No Part of this can reprinted, duplicated, or copied be without the express written permission and approval of Chatwick University.

These photos and stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to people, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

As with any work of fiction or fantasy the purpose is for entertainment only, and should never be attempted in real life.

We accept no responsibility for any events occurring outside this website.

  

***************************

  

“Whatever happened to D.B. Cooper?”

On the night of November 24, 1971, this very aircraft (Northwest Airlines B-727-051, N467US) left this same airport (Portland International Airport PDX) for a short flight to Seattle, Washington. On board the craft was a slender middle aged man behind dark sun glasses, known only as D.B. Cooper. As the plane reached cruising altitude he handed a stewardess a note that he had a bomb, and would blow up the plane unless he received a large ransom and two parachutes when they reached Seattle. On reaching Seattle, the FBI complied with the demands, and all passengers were released. The craft then left Seattle bound for the southwest, but somewhere over the remote Cascade Mountains he opened the rear door of the craft and parachuted out never to be seen or heard from again. Over the years some of the ransom has been found, still in the original bundles along the Columbia River. The case is still open, and is the only unsolved aircraft hijacking in US history.

Portland, Oregon August 1968

  

Orange Ass Up. Beard In The Snow. South of Eglinton, this orange assed Santa had his guy lines snipped by vandals. Owner told me, enough is enough, and packed him away until next year.

The legend takes place in 15th century Barcelos. Citizens had become upset by an unsolved crime so terrible it had people scared to leave their houses. An impoverished pilgrim had been passing through Barcelos in order to fulfill a promise he made during a Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Despite his explanation for being in Barcelos, he was still arrested and condemned to hang. He refused to go quietly and asked to be taken to the judge who sentenced him to death. The authorities granted his wish and brought him to the magistrate’s house while he was having a banquet with friends.

 

The pilgrim swore his innocence and pointed to a cooked rooster on the table. He claimed that the rooster would crow at the hour of his hanging as proof. The statement caused a large amount of laughter and mockery. The judge ignored the statement of innocence, but still set aside the rooster as he had lost his appetite. When the time for judgment came, the pilgrim went to the gallows to accept his punishment.

 

Right before the executioner could deliver his judgment, the roasted Barcelos rooster appeared and stood upon the table in front of the crowd and crowed just as the pilgrim predicted. The judge realized the mistake he had made and rushed to save the pilgrim. The cord was not correctly tightened and he was able to easily be saved from his death sentence. Later, the pilgrim would return to Barcelos. He sculpted a cross in honor of the Virgin Mary and St. James, who he felt was responsible for saving him with the miracle of the rooster. Today, this cross is referred to as the Cross of the Lord of the Rooster. This statue is still in existence in the Archeological Museum of Barcelos.

Explore 452, 1/25/08

 

This is Fall River, Massachusetts. It's claim to fame is "Lizzie Borden". If you don't know the story, it's an unsolved murder - as the poem goes:

 

Lizzie Borden took an axe

Gave her father 40 wacks

When the job was nicely done

She gave her mother 41

 

The Lizzie Border house is now an inn in Fall River where you can book a night in the room where the murders took place!

Fort Point • Boston, Massachusetts

Location for the filming of the blockbuster movie the Departed

Winner of 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture & Director, Martin Scorsese.

 

qwikLoadr™ Video...

the Departed | Theatrical trailer 2006 • YouTube™

 NOTE: Frank Costello

 

20 Biggest Unsolved Murders ever…

writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/cold-case-2...

 No. 17. Deanna Cremin

 

Google search | Deanna Cremin Tutorials

www.Google.com/search?&q=Deanna+Cremin+Tutorials

____________________________________________

 

See this blog for some Polygonal Lasso Techniques:

Blogger GrfxDziner | Lesson 2B: Rooftops & Skylines…

GrfxDziner.blogspot.com/2010/02/rooftops-and-skylines.html

 

edited in PicMonkey, see comment for original.

GrfxDziner.com | Blogger GrfxzDziner:

Light Effect work from the Deanna Cremin Memorial Foundation...

GrfxDziner.blogspot.com/2009/07/light-effect-work-from-deanna...

 

Tenuous Link: Famous digits

 

NOTE:

Comment from Deanna Cremin's mother, Katherine, see below

_____________________________________________________

 

UPDATE 7-28-2009 Deanna's Mom, Katherine Cremin has received some more New information last week on her daughter's unsolved murder case. The Somerville Police and Detectives are working very hard, as well as the Middlesex County District Attorney's office to solve this....they are very, very close.

 

If you remember ANYthing about Deanna Cremin and/or the night of March 29, 1995 behind the elderly housing project at 125 Jaques Street, Somerville, Massachusetts, Please get in touch with the Somerville Police at: 617-625-1600. If you know anyone from the Somerville/Boston, MA area, please have them read this too. The reward is still available, and the tiny bit of info you provide could be the key.

 

See my last comment for Boston Herald Newspaper articles past and present on Deanna Cremin's murder investigation. Thank you very, very much!!

_________________________________________________________

 

There is NEW information in Deanna's murder case. Please read my comment and if you could copy it and send the information to anyone who lives in Somerville, Massachusetts or the surrounding area.

 

Thank you so much. They need anyone's help.

 

YouTube • A Mother's Quest for Justice

Katherine Cremin' s Quest for resolution (07-27-2006)

 

YouTube • $20,000.00 Reward!

For the assistance in the conviction of Deanna's killer.

 

Justice For Deanna Petition • Please sign, thank you.

 

Justice For Deanna • MySpace Group

i know i'm not the first one posting this, but still:

i'm so happy that nightwing returns, i think he looks awesome an i'm sure i will buy both the set with nightwing and batgirl ( if they're both in one set, that'll be great too. ) now there's only three mysteries unsolved:

-What is the robin in man bat-attack going to look like?

-who are the two other villains in joker's steamroller?

-what is man bat going to look like?

hope we'll find out soon!

Sorry , I know some of you have seen this before but for those that have not , here goes !

Picture taken by my wife back in 2010 when we visited Castle Rising Castle , of particular interest because it was built by her great grandfather umpteen times ( William d'Aubigny sometimes refered to as d'Albini ) back in 1138 . The picture was taken on about the most basic digital cameras which was a give away when buying a printer , I had taken shots of this spot with my pano bridge but I did not capture what she has !!

In the upper section is a protective piece of perspex over some old brickwork causing some reflections of the window opposite ( which please note is far above ground level ) . In the notes on the picture we will start with box 2 - a reflection of a ladies head and please note it is not that of my wife and the chamber was empty other than my daughter who was sitting out of sight . It even looks like the person is looking in through the window from the outside , but remember the window is on an upper level !! This made us look more deeply into the shot and what is worrying is what is in box 1 ( see enlargement in the first comment ) . We had chatted to the then person supervising the Castle on behalf of the owner ( Lord Howard ) and English Heritage and was also quite a paranormalist - it was not something he could explain and was somewhat spooked with it himself .

I leave you to your own conclusions .

  

Castle Rising Castle

One of the largest, best preserved and most lavishly decorated keeps in England, surrounded by 20 acres of mighty earthworks.

 

Building of the castle was begun in 1138 by the Norman lord William d'Albini for his new wife, the widow of Henry I. In the 14th century it became the luxurious residence of Queen Isabella, widow (and alleged murderess) of Edward II.

Castle Rising Castle is one of the most famous 12th Century castles in England. The stone keep, built in around 1140 AD, is amongst the finest surviving examples of its kind anywhere in the country and, together with the massive surrounding earthworks, ensures that Rising is a castle of national importance. In its time Rising has served as a hunting lodge, royal residence, and for a brief time in the 18th century even housed a mental patient.

 

The most famous period in its history was when it came to the mother of Edward III, Queen Isabella, following her part in the murder of her husband Edward II. The castle passed to the Howard family in 1544 and it remains in their hands today, the current owner being a descendant of William D'Albini II, the Norman baron who raised the castle.

Castle Rising Castle is one of the most famous 12th Century castles in England. The stone keep, built in around 1140ad, is amongst the finest surviving examples of its kind anywhere in the country and, together with the massive surrounding earthworks, ensures that Rising is a castle of national importance.

 

In its time Rising has served as a hunting lodge, royal residence, and for a brief time in the 18th century even housed a mental patient. The most famous period in its history was when it came to the mother of Edward III, Queen Isabella, following her part in the murder of her husband Edward II. The castle passed to the Howard family in 1544 and it remains in their hands today, the current owner being a descendant of William D'Albini II, the Norman baron who raised the castle.

 

The great earthworks which form the whole site and extent of the castle cover an area of between 12 and 13 acres, and comprise a main central enclose, or inner bailey, and two lesser outworks respectively to east and west. The central enclosure, in shape something between a circle and an oval about 73m north to south and 64m east to west, has a circumference around its crest of about 320m, and is far and away the strongest, with it banks, even now after the cumulative and combined effects of erosion and in-filling, rising to a height of some 18m.

 

Within the inner bailey can be found the remains of an early Norman Church. Discovered in the early nineteenth century when the bailey was cleared of accumulated sand and soil, it is the earliest building within the site, pre-dating even the castle itself. Dating from around the late eleventh century it is thought to be the first parish church of Rising (no earlier church has been discovered) and was probably replaced by the current twelfth-century church when the castle was founded.

These are from seven winters ago @ our back gate. This shot shows the main streak almost vertical (see other "streak" shots). There are no big bugs flying in the daytime here in January. Leaves? it was windy but the streaks shoot in different directions and some are orbs. Night winter moths?? We see a few.

 

An unsolved January mystery that's never happened again!

****************

  

This would be the 3 and possibly final installment of the trilogy…..If you are interested in reading the storyline complete you may find it enlightening to visit Acts 1 and 2 (respectively) before proceeding any further.

 

Please consider leaving a comment behind that you have (read) the acts. It would be deeply appreciated.

  

Act 3(?)

After the Harvest

*******

 

The inspector arrives in his rather jaunty sports auto. He emerges with his Detective Sargent, approaching a waiting constable.

  

The constable’s partner, Archie, is inside with the police matron.

  

What do we have Constable? The inspector asks quizzically.

  

Apparently we have a husband and wife teem who own and drive a private rental trolley, that then decides to waylay and rob the entire wedding party they were hired to ferry about.

  

Way out here, in the middle of nowhere, Constable?

  

Appears they were going to the Brides summer home to be photographed. The trolley turned down the path to this old deserted manor where they were told there was engine trouble.

  

And they were robbed, by the driver and his wife you say Constable?

  

Them, and two others waiting.

 

4 robbers then,

Who called it in Constable?

  

Received an anonymous tip

  

And just what were they robbed of, Constable? The inspector asked, almost wearily.

  

Stripped of everything down to their bloody knickers, the lot of them. Then handcuffed and left.

  

Language Mate, the inspector chided his constable, looking at his Sargent, taking this all down?

 

Detective Sargent nods

  

Now, he said turning back to the Constable, Just why do you suppose they stripped them of their clothes.

  

The gowns were worth L3000 pounds each, real emeralds, the brides was worth double that, with real diamonds

  

So they were robbed for their expensive clothes, then eh Sargent, the inspector leered.

  

No Sir that was not all the lot were after.

  

The Bride was wearing diamond jewelry worth L100,000 pounds easy, the rest of the girls were wearing matching emeralds sets that the bride paid L32,000 pounds each.

  

Each, The inspector arched an eyebrow.

  

Each of the Bridesmaids, inspector, answered the ridden constable.

  

That’s a great amount of information constable. Just how did you acquire it.

  

The bride sir, she won’t stop squawking on about it. answered the Constable

 

Careful how you talk about your betters, constable, the inspector winked at him.

 

I’m sure the young lady in question has every right to squawk.

  

So let me get this straight constable, a bridal party was Shanghaied and robbed of their possessions by their trolley driver, his wife and two other associates. Then someone cordially calls the station to let us in on the joke?

  

Right sir, no joke though

  

Then why did they leave their trolley here, for evidence against them?

Asked the Inspector, before turning to his Detective Sargent.

  

Sergeant. send a man down to the drivers abode, the information should be acquired from the registration from the plates they so handily left.

  

The Constable cleared his throat, actually my partner Archie already called it in Sir.

  

The inspector raised an eyebrow, Glad to see someone is on the ball.

  

The police radio crackles, the constable goes to answer it.

  

He comes back, standing smartly at attention.

  

Just received a call, they found the husband and wife tied up in their basement.

Apparently two men posing as a postal worker and driver held them up.

  

The ones who robbed the bride and her party? Constable?

  

No sir, apparently the two who brought them here were imposters.

The real uns were held them up at gunpoint, made to strip to their underthings and tied up.

Then Two others, man and woman, took the Trolly to the Manor to “pick up” the Bride and her Bridesmaids.

 

Has a statement been taken? Yes sir, but there is not much.

 

Thieves were disguised as postal workers. House was ransacked, safe looted, wife jewel case cleaned out, the usual.

After burgling their manor, the occupants were stripped to their skivvies, trussed up and locked in their basement cannery.

 

Then a call came in on their telephone, the thieves answered it. After they hung up, the husband heard their phone used to call us, and heard the two thieves leave..

 

Was anything said by the thieves?

 

They only overheard the one thing, something one of the postage men said.

  

Thief posing as one, right constable, don’t want to give anyone a bad rep

  

Yes sir,

it appears that when the thief - wearing the postman’s costume- answered the phone, he repeated a phrase.

  

And what would that phrase have been, constable?

  

Mustard Seed,

  

Mustard seed? Eh.

  

Sergeant, the inspector turned to his detective sergeant. That begs the question, why Mustard seed?

 

The Detective Sergeant mulled it over for a minute. Then offered:

Seed, could be seed money, mustards grow from a small seed into something quite large. This robbery was seed money for something bigger, possibly, sir?

  

Not bad Sargent, will make an inspector of you yet.

  

The inspector turns back to the constable, who has had just about enough of his superiors questions.

He is relieved to now hear what the inspector has to say.

  

Constable, stand pat here while my sergeant and I have a chat with our victims inside,

 

The inspector turned to his Detective Sergeant :

Let’s get this lot sorted out, and then will we’ll head over and see about the driver and his wife…

  

The two made their way up towards the decaying deserted manor house.

  

The Constable, watching them disappear inside, mutters under his breath.

  

That is an awfully big haul just for seed money. I would be happy with what that lot will get for what they stole. I bet the old man is off target on this one. Thieves probably will be out of the country with the loot and have it pawned in the states by the time he gets done with his questions.

 

The constable was closer to the truth than he realized…..

 

Originally the gang planning the heist had meant to carry out the caper then head off to parts unknown with the loot and lay low. During planning the stages of the heist, one of their members infiltrated the group to garner information. Remarks were interestingly overheard by chatting bridesmaids about a lavish affair being staged a fortnight away (only one week after the rehearsal dinner).

 

From the “seed” planted by that helpful bit of overheard gossip, grew the new job the group was now going to carry out very shortly .

Mustard seed become its code name.

  

End of Act 3

 

*****************

 

In addendum

  

Now we break away from the crime scene to visit an occurrence that took place some two hours prior to the phone call that alerted the police to the unfortunate incident related above.

  

The scene: Inside a C. Hoare & Co branch, in a posh end of London..

 

Two ladies, both, opulently dressed in satins and jewels, their thick fur coats have been carefully hung by a smartly dressed lady porter, nearby, had been seated and served. The pair are now alone in a richly furnished private room of the bank. Wine at hand, they are merrily going through a collection of jewelry glistening from an open safe deposit strongbox brought up from the depths of the banks’ vault.

  

The fashionable, long haired daughter is half-heartedly trying on one of several jewel encrusted Tiaras…… Her stylish, bobbed haired mother is admiring the sparkle of a diamond waterfall style necklace; the pricy jewels’ matching mates, (earrings and bracelets and brooch) are laid out next to her.

 

The daughter suddenly lest out a squeal of delight as she spy’s a small sparkling ruby and emerald encrusted diamond cocktail ring , which she grabs and slips on her pinky. She admires the raw, rainbow like fireworks as she moves it under the lights.

 

Mum, can I? it will go ever so nicely with the gown I’m wearing to Polly’s Soiree.

 

Hey, that was my Great Aunts , her Mother yelps grasping at the ring. Almost looking like Defoe’s Sunday dressed Moll Flanders snatching at the colourful trinket worn by a young miss, awed by the passing parade of royals.

 

Unlike that distracted young miss, however, the daughter was able to hold the ring high from the reach of Her mother’s fingertips, giggling as she did so.

 

Now Millicent, her mother lectured, You know we don’t approve of young Lady Pollyanna’s fancy boy, Raul. He would probably manage a way to slip the ring from off your finger.

 

Oh, MaMa, , answered Millicent, I’ll be ever so careful, and please don’t you harp on poor Raul. He really is quite a dear, and the pearls were simply lost, nothing more. Let me wear the ring, and I’ll wear whatever jewelry you pick out for me the weekend, Sagely bargained Millicent.

 

Promise? Her mother asks, relenting in to her daughter’s wishes. It’s just that we don’t you making publicity over getting robbed just before your occasion.

 

Mum, Millicent says soothingly, nothing will happen to me before my Debs Ball, or occasion as you will call it. She bent over and kissed her mother on the forehead, before going back to her admiration of the pretty ring.

 

But innocently enough, pretty Millicent has no idea of the prophetic canniness her naively made promise to her mother would soon foretell.

  

To be continued….

 

To be continued….

 

Please see:

 

Album entitled “Tallie”

For the main story of what the mustard seed turned out to grow into…..

  

*********************************************************************************

  

The narration above is from a play with its roots Derived from a story based on fact.

 

Do to the rather extensive connections of the Families involved: an official report was never released to the public.

 

The case was finally Closed without being resolved to the victims,

 

Apparently the job was perfectly planned and executed by professionals , probably with inside information from never discovered sources.

 

**********************************************************************************

 

Please consider leaving a comment behind that you have (read) the acts. It would be deeply appreciated.

  

************************************************************************************

Courtesy of Chatwick University Archives

All rights and copyrights observed by Chatwick University, Its contributors, associates and Agents

No Part of this can reprinted, duplicated, or copied be without the express written permission and approval of Chatwick University.

These photos and stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to people, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

As with any work of fiction or fantasy the purpose is for entertainment only, and should never be attempted in real life.

We accept no responsibility for any events occurring outside this website.

*************************************************************************************

 

Dolostone from the Paleozoic of Ohio, USA.

 

Sedimentary rocks form by the solidification of loose sediments. Loose sediments become hard rocks by the processes of deposition, burial, compaction, dewatering, and cementation.

 

There are three categories of sedimentary rocks:

1) Siliciclastic sedimentary rocks form by the solidification of sediments produced by weathering & erosion of any previously existing rocks.

2) Biogenic sedimentary rocks form by the solidification of sediments that were once-living organisms (plants, animals, micro-organisms).

3) Chemical sedimentary rocks form by the solidification of sediments formed by inorganic chemical reactions. Most sedimentary rocks have a clastic texture, but some are crystalline.

 

Dolostone (formerly “dolomite”) is a chemical sedimentary rock composed of the mineral dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2 - calcium magnesium carbonate). Like limestone and calcite, dolostone and dolomite will readily bubble in acid, but only when powdered. Dolostone can be jokingly described as the “ultimate non-descript rock”. It often looks like driveway gravel. Well, there’s a reason for this - a lot of driveway gravel is dolostone (at least in the part of the world where I live).

 

Many dolostones are grayish, microcrystalline-textured, and have vuggy porosity. Vugs are irregularly-sized and irregularly-shaped cavities. Some dolostones are fossiliferous. Fossiliferous dolostones usually have poorly-preserved fossil “ghosts”. Rarely, fine-grained dolostones have soft-bodied fossil preservation.

 

Crystalline-textured dolostones appear secondary in origin. They are typically interpreted as chemically-altered fossiliferous limestones. Some dolostones look primary, but how they formed is not entirely clear. Chemically, all that's needed to form dolostone is the addition of magnesium (Mg) to limestone. The details of this chemical change are not fully understood. A few localities on Earth do have dolomite or protodolomite forming now, but the detailed story of the dolomite-forming process is still a significant unsolved problem in sedimentary geology - “the dolomite problem”.

 

The specimen seen here has numerous tiny vugs and no obvious fossils. Angular intraclasts are present, giving it a breccia-like appearance in places.

 

Stratigraphy: unknown

 

Locality: unknown, but probably a quarry in Ohio, USA

 

Dateline: July 22, 2020

 

Merideth Kopit Levien | CEO NY Times...

thehill.com/homenews/media/508504-new-york-times-names-me...

 

qwikLoadr™ Videos...

sunBeam | sparkle [3.27.20] gwennie2006! • YouTube™

 NOTE: Comet NeoWise discovered. re: @ 0:47

bluSunBird | part II wing 'n prayer [11.26.19] gwennie2006! • flickr™

____________________________

oneDay | Comet & Venus [7.23.20] GrfxDziner! • flickr™

 

blogger gwennie2006 | Just for One Day...

gwennie2006.blogspot.com/2020/07/just-for-one-day.html

 

Deanna Cremin Murder Investigation...

www.flickr.com/groups/SomervilleMA/discuss/72157602047189...

according to reports, she was murdered March 29, 1995, her lifeless body was found the morning of March 30, 1995 at 125 Jaques Street, Somerville, behind an elderly housing project there.

 

Ph.Law.D. | novel for Deanna Cremin [chapter 1]...

www.flickr.com/groups/GrfxDziner/discuss/72157685360935812/

 

...in 2012 I got an email that ALL Deanna's Reward money was missin [stolen] and I was to remove the billboards from ALL of the blogs, comments, sites where it was. It took over two months to do that, but I did, and it destroyed the structure of what I had spent years developing for her, fully explained here....

www.flickr.com/groups/DCMemorialFoundation/discuss/721576...

 

NOTE 2: No one ever responded to the emails regarding that stuff in 2010, no one at all, first no one ever responded too, and it was so crucial to her case, which is still unsolved. I since figured out the difference in the URLs in that discussion. It went through email, and the email client truncated the link, causing the ellipsis. They were emailing each other.

 

Three Billboards | Theatrical Trailer Nov. 2017! • YouTube™

 

see comments too

Set: Hollywood House + Unsolved cases + Shoes (1800s) (Finland) + collection: Urban exploration

This scheme shows how classes of typefaces may link to atmosphere values. I based the names of the typeface classes on those I have done for URW++ in 1995 and for the Scangraphic DIgital Type Collection in 1990. In both classifications, the idea was to link DIN 16518, BSA 2961 and ATypI Vox with the Noordzij Cube / Typographic Universe.

 

The aim of these schemes is to link atmosphere values with those typeface classes that include text typefaces. If one would add display typefaces, a linking system like this would provide links that are more obvious than the ones shown here. On the other hand, the obvious links would rather obfuscate the atmosphere value of text faces as display typefaces communicate their ‘values’ much louder than text typefaces. Also, the schemes shown here and here, which include a larger number of atmosphere values and typefaces, already look fairly complicated. Nowadays, tagging provides a solution for linking details and atmosphere values more accurately.

 

The question that remains unsolved is how to design a visual interface which both links values to classes and also shows how smaller visual details and single adjectives relate.

 

This is an updated version of the scheme of 1995

It's an ill wind that blows no one any good, at least not in Leaside. Walked past the house this morning and the owners had righted Santa's gift train and tightened up the guy wires. Midtown Toronto, Ontario CANADA

Damsgård Manor (Norwegian: Damsgård hovedgård) is a landmark manor and estate in Bergen, Norway. It is noted for its distinct rococo style and is possibly the best preserved wooden building from 18th-century Europe.

 

History

The area surrounding the manor was most likely populated during the Viking era or earlier, but literary evidence shows it was a population center in 1427, listed as church property. Following the Reformation in 1536, the estate was taken over by the crown and then sold to foreign interests.

 

The name is most likely derived from Dam Tønneson, who in 1654 inherited the farm from his father Tønnes Klausson, who in turn received it from Frederick II of Denmark due to his service during the Northern Seven Years' War. The oldest sections of the structure, however, are probably from around 1720, when Severin Seehusen (1664-1726) owned the estate. At the time, the buildings were painted bright red and green. An estimate for the main house from 1731 exists and indicates the general layout of the structure. By all accounts, the estate was a year-round farm and a recreational property.

 

Joachim Christian Geelmuyden Gyldenkrantz (1730-1795), later knighted Gyldenkrantz, took over the farm in 1769 and quickly began the Rococo construction that exists to this day. He also rebuilt the main house to face the maritime approach to Bergen. Shortly after Gyldenkrantz died, the property was sold to Herman Didrich Janson, one of the wealthiest men of his time. He only completed minor external changes but thoroughly renovated the interior of the houses. The Janson family maintained ownership of the estate until 1983, when it was taken over by Vestlandske kunstindustrimuseum, which embarked on a 10-year restoration effort, in collaboration with the Directorate for Cultural Heritage in Norway. It was put on the protected list, and Bergen Museum took over the estate.

 

Architecture

Damsgård is one of the few buildings of the rococo architectural style in Norway, and is unusual as a rococo wooden structure in Europe. The facade of the main building exaggerates the dimensions of the house itself, and two windows are painted on to create symmetry. The building's interior layout has been restored to its original, early 18th century plan, and the interior to the different eras of Damsgård's history.

 

The estate has two gardens inside its walls and one outside. The eastern garden, located inside the walls, is known as the "Master's garden", the western garden, also located inside the walls, is known as the "Mistress's garden", while the garden outside the walls is known as the "English garden". After decades of deterioration, the gardens were restored to their 18th century state in 1998. Botanists from the University of Bergen helped decide which vegetables and flowers would be grown to make them as much like the original gardens as possible.

 

The eastern garden, also known as the Lord's garden, is strictly symmetric, with six squares of plants and pathways of white shingle. The western garden, known as the Lady's garden, is far less symmetric, with two ponds and a small statue of Neptune spouting water into one of the ponds. Both these gardens are surrounded by walls. This is not the case with the English garden. Laid out in the 18th century, it only became an English garden around 1830. This garden contains a small stream and a path, and is open all year.

 

Museum

The museum of Damsgård is open to the public by tour only. It is located on Alléen 29, in Laksevåg.

 

Bergen, historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. As of 2022, its population was roughly 289,330. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway after national capital Oslo. The municipality covers 465 square kilometres (180 sq mi) and is located on the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen. The city centre and northern neighbourhoods are on Byfjorden, 'the city fjord'. The city is surrounded by mountains, causing Bergen to be called the "city of seven mountains". Many of the extra-municipal suburbs are on islands. Bergen is the administrative centre of Vestland county. The city consists of eight boroughs: Arna, Bergenhus, Fana, Fyllingsdalen, Laksevåg, Ytrebygda, Årstad, and Åsane.

 

Trading in Bergen may have started as early as the 1020s. According to tradition, the city was founded in 1070 by King Olav Kyrre and was named Bjørgvin, 'the green meadow among the mountains'. It served as Norway's capital in the 13th century, and from the end of the 13th century became a bureau city of the Hanseatic League. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to mediate trade between Northern Norway and abroad, and it was the largest city in Norway until the 1830s when it was overtaken by the capital, Christiania (now known as Oslo). What remains of the quays, Bryggen, is a World Heritage Site. The city was hit by numerous fires over the years. The Bergen School of Meteorology was developed at the Geophysical Institute starting in 1917, the Norwegian School of Economics was founded in 1936, and the University of Bergen in 1946. From 1831 to 1972, Bergen was its own county. In 1972 the municipality absorbed four surrounding municipalities and became a part of Hordaland county.

 

The city is an international centre for aquaculture, shipping, the offshore petroleum industry and subsea technology, and a national centre for higher education, media, tourism and finance. Bergen Port is Norway's busiest in terms of both freight and passengers, with over 300 cruise ship calls a year bringing nearly a half a million passengers to Bergen, a number that has doubled in 10 years. Almost half of the passengers are German or British. The city's main football team is SK Brann and a unique tradition of the city is the buekorps, which are traditional marching neighbourhood youth organisations. Natives speak a distinct dialect, known as Bergensk. The city features Bergen Airport, Flesland and Bergen Light Rail, and is the terminus of the Bergen Line. Four large bridges connect Bergen to its suburban municipalities.

 

Bergen has a mild winter climate, though with significant precipitation. From December to March, Bergen can, in rare cases, be up to 20 °C warmer than Oslo, even though both cities are at about 60° North. In summer however, Bergen is several degrees cooler than Oslo due to the same maritime effects. The Gulf Stream keeps the sea relatively warm, considering the latitude, and the mountains protect the city from cold winds from the north, north-east and east.

 

History

Hieronymus Scholeus's impression of Bergen. The drawing was made in about 1580 and was published in an atlas with drawings of many different cities (Civitaes orbis terrarum).

The city of Bergen was traditionally thought to have been founded by king Olav Kyrre, son of Harald Hardråde in 1070 AD, four years after the Viking Age in England ended with the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Modern research has, however, discovered that a trading settlement had already been established in the 1020s or 1030s.

 

Bergen gradually assumed the function of capital of Norway in the early 13th century, as the first city where a rudimentary central administration was established. The city's cathedral was the site of the first royal coronation in Norway in the 1150s, and continued to host royal coronations throughout the 13th century. Bergenhus fortress dates from the 1240s and guards the entrance to the harbour in Bergen. The functions of the capital city were lost to Oslo during the reign of King Haakon V (1299–1319).

 

In the middle of the 14th century, North German merchants, who had already been present in substantial numbers since the 13th century, founded one of the four Kontore of the Hanseatic League at Bryggen in Bergen. The principal export traded from Bergen was dried cod from the northern Norwegian coast, which started around 1100. The city was granted a monopoly for trade from the north of Norway by King Håkon Håkonsson (1217–1263). Stockfish was the main reason that the city became one of North Europe's largest centres for trade.[11] By the late 14th century, Bergen had established itself as the centre of the trade in Norway. The Hanseatic merchants lived in their own separate quarter of the town, where Middle Low German was used, enjoying exclusive rights to trade with the northern fishermen who each summer sailed to Bergen. The Hansa community resented Scottish merchants who settled in Bergen, and on 9 November 1523 several Scottish households were targeted by German residents. Today, Bergen's old quayside, Bryggen, is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.

 

In 1349, the Black Death was brought to Norway by an English ship arriving in Bergen. Later outbreaks occurred in 1618, 1629 and 1637, on each occasion taking about 3,000 lives. In the 15th century, the city was attacked several times by the Victual Brothers, and in 1429 they succeeded in burning the royal castle and much of the city. In 1665, the city's harbour was the site of the Battle of Vågen, when an English naval flotilla attacked a Dutch merchant and treasure fleet supported by the city's garrison. Accidental fires sometimes got out of control, and one in 1702 reduced most of the town to ashes.

 

Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, Bergen remained one of the largest cities in Scandinavia, and it was Norway's biggest city until the 1830s, being overtaken by the capital city of Oslo. From around 1600, the Hanseatic dominance of the city's trade gradually declined in favour of Norwegian merchants (often of Hanseatic ancestry), and in the 1750s, the Kontor, or major trading post of the Hanseatic League, finally closed. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Bergen was involved in the Atlantic slave trade. Bergen-based slave trader Jørgen Thormøhlen, the largest shipowner in Norway, was the main owner of the slave ship Cornelia, which made two slave-trading voyages in 1673 and 1674 respectively; he also developed the city's industrial sector, particularly in the neighbourhood of Møhlenpris, which is named after him. Bergen retained its monopoly of trade with northern Norway until 1789. The Bergen stock exchange, the Bergen børs, was established in 1813.

 

Modern history

Bergen was separated from Hordaland as a county of its own in 1831. It was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality of Bergen landdistrikt was merged with Bergen on 1 January 1877. The rural municipality of Årstad was merged with Bergen on 1 July 1915.

 

During World War II, Bergen was occupied on the first day of the German invasion on 9 April 1940, after a brief fight between German ships and the Norwegian coastal artillery. The Norwegian resistance movement groups in Bergen were Saborg, Milorg, "Theta-gruppen", Sivorg, Stein-organisasjonen and the Communist Party. On 20 April 1944, during the German occupation, the Dutch cargo ship Voorbode anchored off the Bergenhus Fortress, loaded with over 120 tons of explosives, and blew up, killing at least 150 people and damaging historic buildings. The city was subject to some Allied bombing raids, aimed at German naval installations in the harbour. Some of these caused Norwegian civilian casualties numbering about 100.

 

Bergen is also well known in Norway for the Isdal Woman (Norwegian: Isdalskvinnen), an unidentified person who was found dead at Isdalen ("Ice Valley") on 29 November 1970. The unsolved case encouraged international speculation over the years and it remains one of the most profound mysteries in recent Norwegian history.

 

The rural municipalities of Arna, Fana, Laksevåg, and Åsane were merged with Bergen on 1 January 1972. The city lost its status as a separate county on the same date, and Bergen is now a municipality, in the county of Vestland.

 

Fires

The city's history is marked by numerous great fires. In 1198, the Bagler faction set fire to the city in connection with a battle against the Birkebeiner faction during the civil war. In 1248, Holmen and Sverresborg burned, and 11 churches were destroyed. In 1413 another fire struck the city, and 14 churches were destroyed. In 1428 the city was plundered by the Victual Brothers, and in 1455, Hanseatic merchants were responsible for burning down Munkeliv Abbey. In 1476, Bryggen burned down in a fire started by a drunk trader. In 1582, another fire hit the city centre and Strandsiden. In 1675, 105 buildings burned down in Øvregaten. In 1686 another great fire hit Strandsiden, destroying 231 city blocks and 218 boathouses. The greatest fire in history was in 1702, when 90% of the city was burned to ashes. In 1751, there was a great fire at Vågsbunnen. In 1756, yet another fire at Strandsiden burned down 1,500 buildings, and further great fires hit Strandsiden in 1771 and 1901. In 1916, 300 buildings burned down in the city centre including the Swan pharmacy, the oldest pharmacy in Norway, and in 1955 parts of Bryggen burned down.

 

Toponymy

Bergen is pronounced in English /ˈbɜːrɡən/ or /ˈbɛərɡən/ and in Norwegian [ˈbæ̀rɡn̩] (in the local dialect [ˈbæ̂ʁɡɛn]). The Old Norse forms of the name were Bergvin [ˈberɡˌwin] and Bjǫrgvin [ˈbjɔrɡˌwin] (and in Icelandic and Faroese the city is still called Björgvin). The first element is berg (n.) or bjǫrg (n.), which translates as 'mountain(s)'. The last element is vin (f.), which means a new settlement where there used to be a pasture or meadow. The full meaning is then "the meadow among the mountains". This is a suitable name: Bergen is often called "the city among the seven mountains". It was the playwright Ludvig Holberg who felt so inspired by the seven hills of Rome, that he decided that his home town must be blessed with a corresponding seven mountains – and locals still argue which seven they are.

 

In 1918, there was a campaign to reintroduce the Norse form Bjørgvin as the name of the city. This was turned down – but as a compromise, the name of the diocese was changed to Bjørgvin bispedømme.

 

Bergen occupies most of the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen in the district of Midthordland in mid-western Hordaland. The municipality covers an area of 465 square kilometres (180 square miles). Most of the urban area is on or close to a fjord or bay, although the urban area has several mountains. The city centre is surrounded by the Seven Mountains, although there is disagreement as to which of the nine mountains constitute these. Ulriken, Fløyen, Løvstakken and Damsgårdsfjellet are always included as well as three of Lyderhorn, Sandviksfjellet, Blåmanen, Rundemanen and Kolbeinsvarden. Gullfjellet is Bergen's highest mountain, at 987 metres (3,238 ft) above mean sea level. Bergen is far enough north that during clear nights at the solstice, there is borderline civil daylight in spite of the sun having set.

 

Bergen is sheltered from the North Sea by the islands Askøy, Holsnøy (the municipality of Meland) and Sotra (the municipalities of Fjell and Sund). Bergen borders the municipalities Alver and Osterøy to the north, Vaksdal and Samnanger to the east, Os (Bjørnafjorden) and Austevoll to the south, and Øygarden and Askøy to the west.

 

The city centre of Bergen lies in the west of the municipality, facing the fjord of Byfjorden. It is among a group of mountains known as the Seven Mountains, although the number is a matter of definition. From here, the urban area of Bergen extends to the north, west and south, and to its east is a large mountain massif. Outside the city centre and the surrounding neighbourhoods (i.e. Årstad, inner Laksevåg and Sandviken), the majority of the population lives in relatively sparsely populated residential areas built after 1950. While some are dominated by apartment buildings and modern terraced houses (e.g. Fyllingsdalen), others are dominated by single-family homes.

 

The oldest part of Bergen is the area around the bay of Vågen in the city centre. Originally centred on the bay's eastern side, Bergen eventually expanded west and southwards. Few buildings from the oldest period remain, the most significant being St Mary's Church from the 12th century. For several hundred years, the extent of the city remained almost constant. The population was stagnant, and the city limits were narrow. In 1702, seven-eighths of the city burned. Most of the old buildings of Bergen, including Bryggen (which was rebuilt in a mediaeval style), were built after the fire. The fire marked a transition from tar covered houses, as well as the remaining log houses, to painted and some brick-covered wooden buildings.

 

The last half of the 19th century saw a period of rapid expansion and modernisation. The fire of 1855 west of Torgallmenningen led to the development of regularly sized city blocks in this area of the city centre. The city limits were expanded in 1876, and Nygård, Møhlenpris and Sandviken were urbanized with large-scale construction of city blocks housing both the poor and the wealthy. Their architecture is influenced by a variety of styles; historicism, classicism and Art Nouveau. The wealthy built villas between Møhlenpris and Nygård, and on the side of Mount Fløyen; these areas were also added to Bergen in 1876. Simultaneously, an urbanization process was taking place in Solheimsviken in Årstad, at that time outside the Bergen municipality, centred on the large industrial activity in the area. The workers' homes in this area were poorly built, and little remains after large-scale redevelopment in the 1960s–1980s.

 

After Årstad became a part of Bergen in 1916, a development plan was applied to the new area. Few city blocks akin to those in Nygård and Møhlenpris were planned. Many of the worker class built their own homes, and many small, detached apartment buildings were built. After World War II, Bergen had again run short of land to build on, and, contrary to the original plans, many large apartment buildings were built in Landås in the 1950s and 1960s. Bergen acquired Fyllingsdalen from Fana municipality in 1955. Like similar areas in Oslo (e.g. Lambertseter), Fyllingsdalen was developed into a modern suburb with large apartment buildings, mid-rises, and some single-family homes, in the 1960s and 1970s. Similar developments took place beyond Bergen's city limits, for example in Loddefjord.

 

At the same time as planned city expansion took place inside Bergen, its extra-municipal suburbs also grew rapidly. Wealthy citizens of Bergen had been living in Fana since the 19th century, but as the city expanded it became more convenient to settle in the municipality. Similar processes took place in Åsane and Laksevåg. Most of the homes in these areas are detached row houses,[clarification needed] single family homes or small apartment buildings. After the surrounding municipalities were merged with Bergen in 1972, expansion has continued in largely the same manner, although the municipality encourages condensing near commercial centres, future Bergen Light Rail stations, and elsewhere.

 

As part of the modernisation wave of the 1950s and 1960s, and due to damage caused by World War II, the city government ambitiously planned redevelopment of many areas in central Bergen. The plans involved demolition of several neighbourhoods of wooden houses, namely Nordnes, Marken, and Stølen. None of the plans was carried out in its original form; the Marken and Stølen redevelopment plans were discarded and that of Nordnes only carried out in the area that had been most damaged by war. The city council of Bergen had in 1964 voted to demolish the entirety of Marken, however, the decision proved to be highly controversial and the decision was reversed in 1974. Bryggen was under threat of being wholly or partly demolished after the fire of 1955, when a large number of the buildings burned to the ground. Instead of being demolished, the remaining buildings were restored and accompanied by reconstructions of some of the burned buildings.

 

Demolition of old buildings and occasionally whole city blocks is still taking place, the most recent major example being the 2007 razing of Jonsvollskvartalet at Nøstet.

 

Billboards are banned in the city.

 

Culture and sports

Bergens Tidende (BT) and Bergensavisen (BA) are the largest newspapers, with circulations of 87,076 and 30,719 in 2006, BT is a regional newspaper covering all of Vestland, while BA focuses on metropolitan Bergen. Other newspapers published in Bergen include the Christian national Dagen, with a circulation of 8.936, and TradeWinds, an international shipping newspaper. Local newspapers are Fanaposten for Fana, Sydvesten for Laksevåg and Fyllingsdalen and Bygdanytt for Arna and the neighbouring municipality Osterøy. TV 2, Norway's largest private television company, is based in Bergen.

 

The 1,500-seat Grieg Hall is the city's main cultural venue, and home of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1765, and the Bergen Woodwind Quintet. The city also features Carte Blanche, the Norwegian national company of contemporary dance. The annual Bergen International Festival is the main cultural festival, which is supplemented by the Bergen International Film Festival. Two internationally renowned composers from Bergen are Edvard Grieg and Ole Bull. Grieg's home, Troldhaugen, has been converted to a museum. During the 1990s and early 2000s, Bergen produced a series of successful pop, rock and black metal artists, collectively known as the Bergen Wave.

 

Den Nationale Scene is Bergen's main theatre. Founded in 1850, it had Henrik Ibsen as one of its first in-house playwrights and art directors. Bergen's contemporary art scene is centred on BIT Teatergarasjen, Bergen Kunsthall, United Sardines Factory (USF) and Bergen Center for Electronic Arts (BEK). Bergen was a European Capital of Culture in 2000. Buekorps is a unique feature of Bergen culture, consisting of boys aged from 7 to 21 parading with imitation weapons and snare drums. The city's Hanseatic heritage is documented in the Hanseatic Museum located at Bryggen.

 

SK Brann is Bergen's premier football team; founded in 1908, they have played in the (men's) Norwegian Premier League for all but seven years since 1963 and consecutively, except one season after relegation in 2014, since 1987. The team were the football champions in 1961–1962, 1963, and 2007,[155] and reached the quarter-finals of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1996–1997. Brann play their home games at the 17,824-seat Brann Stadion. FK Fyllingsdalen is the city's second-best team, playing in the Second Division at Varden Amfi. Its predecessor, Fyllingen, played in the Norwegian Premier League in 1990, 1991 and 1993. Arna-Bjørnar and Sandviken play in the Women's Premier League.

 

Bergen IK is the premier men's ice hockey team, playing at Bergenshallen in the First Division. Tertnes play in the Women's Premier Handball League, and Fyllingen in the Men's Premier Handball League. In athletics, the city is dominated by IL Norna-Salhus, IL Gular and FIK BFG Fana, formerly also Norrøna IL and TIF Viking. The Bergen Storm are an American football team that plays matches at Varden Kunstgress and plays in the second division of the Norwegian league.

 

Bergensk is the native dialect of Bergen. It was strongly influenced by Low German-speaking merchants from the mid-14th to mid-18th centuries. During the Dano-Norwegian period from 1536 to 1814, Bergen was more influenced by Danish than other areas of Norway. The Danish influence removed the female grammatical gender in the 16th century, making Bergensk one of very few Norwegian dialects with only two instead of three grammatical genders. The Rs are uvular trills, as in French, which probably spread to Bergen some time in the 18th century, overtaking the alveolar trill in the time span of two to three generations. Owing to an improved literacy rate, Bergensk was influenced by riksmål and bokmål in the 19th and 20th centuries. This led to large parts of the German-inspired vocabulary disappearing and pronunciations shifting slightly towards East Norwegian.

 

The 1986 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest took place in Bergen. Bergen was the host city for the 2017 UCI Road World Championships. The city is also a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the category of gastronomy since 2015.

 

Street art

Bergen is considered to be the street art capital of Norway. Famed artist Banksy visited the city in 2000 and inspired many to start creating street art. Soon after, the city brought up the most famous street artist in Norway: Dolk. His art can still be seen in several places in the city, and in 2009 the city council choose to preserve Dolk's work "Spray" with protective glass. In 2011, Bergen council launched a plan of action for street art in Bergen from 2011 to 2015 to ensure that "Bergen will lead the fashion for street art as an expression both in Norway and Scandinavia".

 

The Madam Felle (1831–1908) monument in Sandviken, is in honour of a Norwegian woman of German origin, who in the mid-19th century managed, against the will of the council, to maintain a counter of beer. A well-known restaurant of the same name is now situated at another location in Bergen. The monument was erected in 1990 by sculptor Kari Rolfsen, supported by an anonymous donor. Madam Felle, civil name Oline Fell, was remembered after her death in a popular song, possibly originally a folksong, "Kjenner Dokker Madam Felle?" by Lothar Lindtner and Rolf Berntzen on an album in 1977.

 

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway , is a Nordic , European country and an independent state in the west of the Scandinavian Peninsula . Geographically speaking, the country is long and narrow, and on the elongated coast towards the North Atlantic are Norway's well-known fjords . The Kingdom of Norway includes the main country (the mainland with adjacent islands within the baseline ), Jan Mayen and Svalbard . With these two Arctic areas, Norway covers a land area of ​​385,000 km² and has a population of approximately 5.5 million (2023). Mainland Norway borders Sweden in the east , Finland and Russia in the northeast .

 

Norway is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy , where Harald V has been king and head of state since 1991 , and Jonas Gahr Støre ( Ap ) has been prime minister since 2021 . Norway is a unitary state , with two administrative levels below the state: counties and municipalities . The Sami part of the population has, through the Sami Parliament and the Finnmark Act , to a certain extent self-government and influence over traditionally Sami areas. Although Norway has rejected membership of the European Union through two referendums , through the EEA Agreement Norway has close ties with the Union, and through NATO with the United States . Norway is a significant contributor to the United Nations (UN), and has participated with soldiers in several foreign operations mandated by the UN. Norway is among the states that have participated from the founding of the UN , NATO , the Council of Europe , the OSCE and the Nordic Council , and in addition to these is a member of the EEA , the World Trade Organization , the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and is part of the Schengen area .

 

Norway is rich in many natural resources such as oil , gas , minerals , timber , seafood , fresh water and hydropower . Since the beginning of the 20th century, these natural conditions have given the country the opportunity for an increase in wealth that few other countries can now enjoy, and Norwegians have the second highest average income in the world, measured in GDP per capita, as of 2022. The petroleum industry accounts for around 14% of Norway's gross domestic product as of 2018. Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and gas per capita outside the Middle East. However, the number of employees linked to this industry fell from approx. 232,000 in 2013 to 207,000 in 2015.

 

In Norway, these natural resources have been managed for socially beneficial purposes. The country maintains a welfare model in line with the other Nordic countries. Important service areas such as health and higher education are state-funded, and the country has an extensive welfare system for its citizens. Public expenditure in 2018 is approx. 50% of GDP, and the majority of these expenses are related to education, healthcare, social security and welfare. Since 2001 and until 2021, when the country took second place, the UN has ranked Norway as the world's best country to live in . From 2010, Norway is also ranked at the top of the EIU's democracy index . Norway ranks third on the UN's World Happiness Report for the years 2016–2018, behind Finland and Denmark , a report published in March 2019.

 

The majority of the population is Nordic. In the last couple of years, immigration has accounted for more than half of population growth. The five largest minority groups are Norwegian-Poles , Lithuanians , Norwegian-Swedes , Norwegian-Syrians including Syrian Kurds and Norwegian-Pakistani .

 

Norway's national day is 17 May, on this day in 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was dated and signed by the presidency of the National Assembly at Eidsvoll . It is stipulated in the law of 26 April 1947 that 17 May are national public holidays. The Sami national day is 6 February. "Yes, we love this country" is Norway's national anthem, the song was written in 1859 by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910).

 

Norway's history of human settlement goes back at least 10,000 years, to the Late Paleolithic , the first period of the Stone Age . Archaeological finds of settlements along the entire Norwegian coast have so far been dated back to 10,400 before present (BP), the oldest find is today considered to be a settlement at Pauler in Brunlanes , Vestfold .

For a period these settlements were considered to be the remains of settlers from Doggerland , an area which today lies beneath the North Sea , but which was once a land bridge connecting today's British Isles with Danish Jutland . But the archaeologists who study the initial phase of the settlement in what is today Norway reckon that the first people who came here followed the coast along what is today Bohuslân. That they arrived in some form of boat is absolutely certain, and there is much evidence that they could easily move over large distances.

 

Since the last Ice Age, there has been continuous settlement in Norway. It cannot be ruled out that people lived in Norway during the interglacial period , but no trace of such a population or settlement has been found.

 

The Stone Age lasted a long time; half of the time that our country has been populated. There are no written accounts of what life was like back then. The knowledge we have has been painstakingly collected through investigations of places where people have stayed and left behind objects that we can understand have been processed by human hands. This field of knowledge is called archaeology . The archaeologists interpret their findings and the history of the surrounding landscape. In our country, the uplift after the Ice Age is fundamental. The history of the settlements at Pauler is no more than fifteen years old.

 

The Fosna culture settled parts of Norway sometime between 10,000–8,000 BC. (see Stone Age in Norway ). The dating of rock carvings is set to Neolithic times (in Norway between 4000 BC to 1700 BC) and show activities typical of hunters and gatherers .

 

Agriculture with livestock and arable farming was introduced in the Neolithic. Swad farming where the farmers move when the field does not produce the expected yield.

 

More permanent and persistent farm settlements developed in the Bronze Age (1700 BC to 500 BC) and the Iron Age . The earliest runes have been found on an arrowhead dated to around 200 BC. Many more inscriptions are dated to around 800, and a number of petty kingdoms developed during these centuries. In prehistoric times, there were no fixed national borders in the Nordic countries and Norway did not exist as a state. The population in Norway probably fell to year 0.

 

Events in this time period, the centuries before the year 1000, are glimpsed in written sources. Although the sagas were written down in the 13th century, many hundreds of years later, they provide a glimpse into what was already a distant past. The story of the fimbul winter gives us a historical picture of something that happened and which in our time, with the help of dendrochronology , can be interpreted as a natural disaster in the year 536, created by a volcanic eruption in El Salvador .

 

In the period between 800 and 1066 there was a significant expansion and it is referred to as the Viking Age . During this period, Norwegians, as Swedes and Danes also did, traveled abroad in longships with sails as explorers, traders, settlers and as Vikings (raiders and pirates ). By the middle of the 11th century, the Norwegian kingship had been firmly established, building its right as descendants of Harald Hårfagre and then as heirs of Olav the Holy . The Norwegian kings, and their subjects, now professed Christianity . In the time around Håkon Håkonsson , in the time after the civil war , there was a small renaissance in Norway with extensive literary activity and diplomatic activity with Europe. The black dew came to Norway in 1349 and killed around half of the population. The entire state apparatus and Norway then entered a period of decline.

 

Between 1396 and 1536, Norway was part of the Kalmar Union , and from 1536 until 1814 Norway had been reduced to a tributary part of Denmark , named as the Personal Union of Denmark-Norway . This staff union entered into an alliance with Napoléon Bonaparte with a war that brought bad times and famine in 1812 . In 1814, Denmark-Norway lost the Anglophone Wars , part of the Napoleonic Wars , and the Danish king was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel on 14 January of that year. After a Norwegian attempt at independence, Norway was forced into a loose union with Sweden, but where Norway was allowed to create its own constitution, the Constitution of 1814 . In this period, Norwegian, romantic national feeling flourished, and the Norwegians tried to develop and establish their own national self-worth. The union with Sweden was broken in 1905 after it had been threatened with war, and Norway became an independent kingdom with its own monarch, Haakon VII .

 

Norway remained neutral during the First World War , and at the outbreak of the Second World War, Norway again declared itself neutral, but was invaded by National Socialist Germany on 9 April 1940 .

 

Norway became a member of the Western defense alliance NATO in 1949 . Two attempts to join the EU were voted down in referendums by small margins in 1972 and 1994 . Norway has been a close ally of the United States in the post-war period. Large discoveries of oil and natural gas in the North Sea at the end of the 1960s led to tremendous economic growth in the country, which is still ongoing. Traditional industries such as fishing are also part of Norway's economy.

 

Stone Age (before 1700 BC)

When most of the ice disappeared, vegetation spread over the landscape and due to a warm climate around 2000-3000 BC. the forest grew much taller than in modern times. Land uplift after the ice age led to a number of fjords becoming lakes and dry land. The first people probably came from the south along the coast of the Kattegat and overland into Finnmark from the east. The first people probably lived by gathering, hunting and trapping. A good number of Stone Age settlements have been found which show that such hunting and trapping people stayed for a long time in the same place or returned to the same place regularly. Large amounts of gnawed bones show that they lived on, among other things, reindeer, elk, small game and fish.

 

Flintstone was imported from Denmark and apart from small natural deposits along the southern coast, all flintstone in Norway is transported by people. At Espevær, greenstone was quarried for tools in the Stone Age, and greenstone tools from Espevær have been found over large parts of Western Norway. Around 2000-3000 BC the usual farm animals such as cows and sheep were introduced to Norway. Livestock probably meant a fundamental change in society in that part of the people had to be permanent residents or live a semi-nomadic life. Livestock farming may also have led to conflict with hunters.

 

The oldest traces of people in what is today Norway have been found at Pauler , a farm in Brunlanes in Larvik municipality in Vestfold . In 2007 and 2008, the farm has given its name to a number of Stone Age settlements that have been excavated and examined by archaeologists from the Cultural History Museum at UiO. The investigations have been carried out in connection with the new route for the E18 motorway west of Farris. The oldest settlement, located more than 127 m above sea level, is dated to be about 10,400 years old (uncalibrated, more than 11,000 years in real calendar years). From here, the ice sheet was perhaps visible when people settled here. This locality has been named Pauler I, and is today considered to be the oldest confirmed human traces in Norway to date. The place is in the mountains above the Pauler tunnel on the E18 between Larvik and Porsgrunn . The pioneer settlement is a term archaeologists have adopted for the oldest settlement. The archaeologists have speculated about where they came from, the first people in what is today Norway. It has been suggested that they could come by boat or perhaps across the ice from Doggerland or the North Sea, but there is now a large consensus that they came north along what is today the Bohuslän coast. The Fosna culture , the Komsa culture and the Nøstvet culture are the traditional terms for hunting cultures from the Stone Age. One thing is certain - getting to the water was something they mastered, the first people in our country. Therefore, within a short time they were able to use our entire long coast.

 

In the New Stone Age (4000 BC–1700 BC) there is a theory that a new people immigrated to the country, the so-called Stone Ax People . Rock carvings from this period show motifs from hunting and fishing , which were still important industries. From this period, a megalithic tomb has been found in Østfold .

It is uncertain whether there were organized societies or state-like associations in the Stone Age in Norway. Findings from settlements indicate that many lived together and that this was probably more than one family so that it was a slightly larger, organized herd.

 

Finnmark

In prehistoric times, animal husbandry and agriculture were of little economic importance in Finnmark. Livelihoods in Finnmark were mainly based on fish, gathering, hunting and trapping, and eventually domestic reindeer herding became widespread in the Middle Ages. Archaeological finds from the Stone Age have been referred to as the Komsa culture and comprise around 5,000 years of settlement. Finnmark probably got its first settlement around 8000 BC. It is believed that the coastal areas became ice-free 11,000 years BC and the fjord areas around 9,000 years BC. after which willows, grass, heather, birch and pine came into being. Finnmarksvidda was covered by pine forest around 6000 BC. After the Ice Age, the land rose around 80 meters in the inner fjord areas (Alta, Tana, Varanger). Due to ice melting in the polar region, the sea rose in the period 6400–3800 BC. and in areas with little land elevation, some settlements from the first part of the Stone Age were flooded. On Sørøya, the net sea level rise was 12 to 14 meters and many residential areas were flooded.

 

According to Bjørnar Olsen , there are many indications of a connection between the oldest settlement in Western Norway (the " Fosnakulturen ") and that in Finnmark, but it is uncertain in which direction the settlement took place. In the earliest part of the Stone Age, settlement in Finnmark was probably concentrated in the coastal areas, and these only reflected a lifestyle with great mobility and no permanent dwellings. The inner regions, such as Pasvik, were probably used seasonally. The archaeologically proven settlements from the Stone Age in inner Finnmark and Troms are linked to lakes and large watercourses. The oldest petroglyphs in Alta are usually dated to 4200 BC, that is, the Neolithic . Bjørnar Olsen believes that the oldest can be up to 2,000 years older than this.

 

From around 4000 BC a slow deforestation of Finnmark began and around 1800 BC the vegetation distribution was roughly the same as in modern times. The change in vegetation may have increased the distance between the reindeer's summer and winter grazing. The uplift continued slowly from around 4000 BC. at the same time as sea level rise stopped.

 

According to Gutorm Gjessing, the settlement in Finnmark and large parts of northern Norway in the Neolithic was semi-nomadic with movement between four seasonal settlements (following the pattern of life in Sami siida in historical times): On the outer coast in summer (fishing and seal catching) and inland in winter (hunting for reindeer, elk and bear). Povl Simonsen believed instead that the winter residence was in the inner fjord area in a village-like sod house settlement. Bjørnar Olsen believes that at the end of the Stone Age there was a relatively settled population along the coast, while inland there was less settlement and a more mobile lifestyle.

 

Bronze Age (1700 BC–500 BC)

Bronze was used for tools in Norway from around 1500 BC. Bronze is a mixture of tin and copper , and these metals were introduced because they were not mined in the country at the time. Bronze is believed to have been a relatively expensive material. The Bronze Age in Norway can be divided into two phases:

 

Early Bronze Age (1700–1100 BC)

Younger Bronze Age (1100–500 BC)

For the prehistoric (unwritten) era, there is limited knowledge about social conditions and possible state formations. From the Bronze Age, there are large burial mounds of stone piles along the coast of Vestfold and Agder, among others. It is likely that only chieftains or other great men could erect such grave monuments and there was probably some form of organized society linked to these. In the Bronze Age, society was more organized and stratified than in the Stone Age. Then a rich class of chieftains emerged who had close connections with southern Scandinavia. The settlements became more permanent and people adopted horses and ard . They acquired bronze status symbols, lived in longhouses and people were buried in large burial mounds . Petroglyphs from the Bronze Age indicate that humans practiced solar cultivation.

 

Finnmark

In the last millennium BC the climate became cooler and the pine forest disappears from the coast; pine forests, for example, were only found in the innermost part of the Altafjord, while the outer coast was almost treeless. Around the year 0, the limit for birch forest was south of Kirkenes. Animals with forest habitats (elk, bear and beaver) disappeared and the reindeer probably established their annual migration routes sometime at that time. In the period 1800–900 BC there were significantly more settlements in and utilization of the hinterland was particularly noticeable on Finnmarksvidda. From around 1800 BC until year 0 there was a significant increase in contact between Finnmark and areas in the east including Karelia (where metals were produced including copper) and central and eastern Russia. The youngest petroglyphs in Alta show far more boats than the earlier phases and the boats are reminiscent of types depicted in petroglyphs in southern Scandinavia. It is unclear what influence southern Scandinavian societies had as far north as Alta before the year 0. Many of the cultural features that are considered typical Sami in modern times were created or consolidated in the last millennium BC, this applies, among other things, to the custom of burying in brick chambers in stone urns. The Mortensnes burial ground may have been used for 2000 years until around 1600 AD.

 

Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 1050 AD)

 

The Einangsteinen is one of the oldest Norwegian runestones; it is from the 4th century

 

Simultaneous production of Vikings

Around 500 years BC the researchers reckon that the Bronze Age will be replaced by the Iron Age as iron takes over as the most important material for weapons and tools. Bronze, wood and stone were still used. Iron was cheaper than bronze, easier to work than flint , and could be used for many purposes; iron probably became common property. Iron could, among other things, be used to make solid and sharp axes which made it much easier to fell trees. In the Iron Age, gold and silver were also used partly for decoration and partly as means of payment. It is unknown which language was used in Norway before our era. From around the year 0 until around the year 800, everyone in Scandinavia (except the Sami) spoke Old Norse , a North Germanic language. Subsequently, several different languages ​​developed in this area that were only partially mutually intelligible. The Iron Age is divided into several periods:

 

Early Iron Age

Pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 0)

Roman Iron Age (c. 0–c. AD 400)

Migration period (approx. 400–600). In the migration period (approx. 400–600), new peoples came to Norway, and ruins of fortress buildings etc. are interpreted as signs that there has been talk of a violent invasion.

Younger Iron Age

Merovingian period (500–800)

 

The Viking Age (793–1066)

Norwegian Vikings go on plundering expeditions and trade voyages around the coastal countries of Western Europe . Large groups of Norwegians emigrate to the British Isles , Iceland and Greenland . Harald Hårfagre starts a unification process of Norway late in the 8th century , which was completed by Harald Hardråde in the 1060s . The country was Christianized under the kings Olav Tryggvason , fell in the battle of Svolder ( 1000 ) and Olav Haraldsson (the saint), fell in the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 .

 

Sources of prehistoric times

Shrinking glaciers in the high mountains, including in Jotunheimen and Breheimen , have from around the year 2000 uncovered objects from the Viking Age and earlier. These are objects of organic material that have been preserved by the ice and that elsewhere in nature are broken down in a few months. The finds are getting older as the melting makes the archaeologists go deeper into the ice. About half of all archaeological discoveries on glaciers in the world are made in Oppland . In 2013, a 3,400-year-old shoe and a robe from the year 300 were found. Finds at Lomseggen in Lom published in 2020 revealed, among other things, well-preserved horseshoes used on a mountain pass. Many hundreds of items include preserved clothing, knives, whisks, mittens, leather shoes, wooden chests and horse equipment. A piece of cloth dated to the year 1000 has preserved its original colour. In 2014, a wooden ski from around the year 700 was found in Reinheimen . The ski is 172 cm long and 14 cm wide, with preserved binding of leather and wicker.

 

Pytheas from Massalia is the oldest known account of what was probably the coast of Norway, perhaps somewhere on the coast of Møre. Pytheas visited Britannia around 325 BC. and traveled further north to a country by the "Ice Sea". Pytheas described the short summer night and the midnight sun farther north. He wrote, among other things, that people there made a drink from grain and honey. Caesar wrote in his work about the Gallic campaign about the Germanic tribe Haruders. Other Roman sources around the year 0 mention the land of the Cimbri (Jutland) and the Cimbri headlands ( Skagen ) and that the sources stated that Cimbri and Charyds lived in this area. Some of these peoples may have immigrated to Norway and there become known as hordes (as in Hordaland). Sources from the Mediterranean area referred to the islands of Scandia, Scandinavia and Thule ("the outermost of all islands"). The Roman historian Tacitus wrote around the year 100 a work about Germania and mentioned the people of Scandia, the Sviones. Ptolemy wrote around the year 150 that the Kharudes (Hordes) lived further north than all the Cimbri, in the north lived the Finnoi (Finns or Sami) and in the south the Gutai (Goths). The Nordic countries and Norway were outside the Roman Empire , which dominated Europe at the time. The Gothic-born historian Jordanes wrote in the 5th century about 13 tribes or people groups in Norway, including raumaricii (probably Romerike ), ragnaricii ( Ranrike ) and finni or skretefinni (skrid finner or ski finner, i.e. Sami) as well as a number of unclear groups. Prokopios wrote at the same time about Thule north of the land of the Danes and Slavs, Thule was ten times as big as Britannia and the largest of all the islands. In Thule, the sun was up 40 days straight in the summer. After the migration period , southern Europeans' accounts of northern Europe became fuller and more reliable.

 

Settlement in prehistoric times

Norway has around 50,000 farms with their own names. Farm names have persisted for a long time, over 1000 years, perhaps as much as 2000 years. The name researchers have arranged different types of farm names chronologically, which provides a basis for determining when the place was used by people or received a permanent settlement. Uncompounded landscape names such as Haug, Eid, Vik and Berg are believed to be the oldest. Archaeological traces indicate that some areas have been inhabited earlier than assumed from the farm name. Burial mounds also indicate permanent settlement. For example, the burial ground at Svartelva in Løten was used from around the year 0 to the year 1000 when Christianity took over. The first farmers probably used large areas for inland and outland, and new farms were probably established based on some "mother farms". Names such as By (or Bø) show that it is an old place of residence. From the older Iron Age, names with -heim (a common Germanic word meaning place of residence) and -stad tell of settlement, while -vin and -land tell of the use of the place. Farm names in -heim are often found as -um , -eim or -em as in Lerum and Seim, there are often large farms in the center of the village. New farm names with -city and -country were also established in the Viking Age . The first farmers probably used the best areas. The largest burial grounds, the oldest archaeological finds and the oldest farm names are found where the arable land is richest and most spacious.

 

It is unclear whether the settlement expansion in Roman times, migrations and the Iron Age is due to immigration or internal development and population growth. Among other things, it is difficult to demonstrate where in Europe the immigrants have come from. The permanent residents had both fields (where grain was grown) and livestock that grazed in the open fields, but it is uncertain which of these was more important. Population growth from around the year 200 led to more utilization of open land, for example in the form of settlements in the mountains. During the migration period, it also seems that in parts of the country it became common to have cluster gardens or a form of village settlement.

 

Norwegian expansion northwards

From around the year 200, there was a certain migration by sea from Rogaland and Hordaland to Nordland and Sør-Troms. Those who moved settled down as a settled Iron Age population and became dominant over the original population which may have been Sami . The immigrant Norwegians, Bumen , farmed with livestock that were fed inside in the winter as well as some grain cultivation and fishing. The northern border of the Norwegians' settlement was originally at the Toppsundet near Harstad and around the year 500 there was a Norwegian settlement to Malangsgapet. That was as far north as it was possible to grow grain at the time. Malangen was considered the border between Hålogaland and Finnmork until around 1400 . Further into the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, there was immigration and settlement of Norwegian speakers along the coast north of Malangen. Around the year 800, Norwegians lived along the entire outer coast to Vannøy . The Norwegians partly copied Sami livelihoods such as whaling, fur hunting and reindeer husbandry. It was probably this area between Malangen and Vannøy that was Ottar from the Hålogaland area. In the Viking Age, there were also some Norwegian settlements further north and east. East of the North Cape are the scattered archaeological finds of Norwegian settlement in the Viking Age. There are Norwegian names for fjords and islands from the Viking Age, including fjord names with "-anger". Around the year 1050, there were Norwegian settlements on the outer coast of Western Finnmark. Traders and tax collectors traveled even further.

 

North of Malangen there were Norse farming settlements in the Iron Age. Malangen was considered Finnmark's western border until 1300. There are some archaeological traces of Norse activity around the coast from Tromsø to Kirkenes in the Viking Age. Around Tromsø, the research indicates a Norse/Sami mixed culture on the coast.

 

From the year 1100 and the next 200–300 years, there are no traces of Norwegian settlement north and east of Tromsø. It is uncertain whether this is due to depopulation, whether it is because the Norwegians further north were not Christianized or because there were no churches north of Lenvik or Tromsø . Norwegian settlement in the far north appears from sources from the 14th century. In the Hanseatic period , the settlement was developed into large areas specialized in commercial fishing, while earlier (in the Viking Age) there had been farms with a combination of fishing and agriculture. In 1307 , a fortress and the first church east of Tromsø were built in Vardø . Vardø became a small Norwegian town, while Vadsø remained Sami. Norwegian settlements and churches appeared along the outermost coast in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, perhaps as a result of a decline in fish stocks or fish prices, there were Norwegian settlements in the inner fjord areas such as Lebesby in Laksefjord. Some fishing villages at the far end of the coast were abandoned for good. In the interior of Finnmark, there was no national border for a long time and Kautokeino and Karasjok were joint Norwegian-Swedish areas with strong Swedish influence. The border with Finland was established in 1751 and with Russia in 1826.

 

On a Swedish map from 1626, Norway's border is indicated at Malangen, while Sweden with this map showed a desire to control the Sami area which had been a common area.

 

The term Northern Norway only came into use at the end of the 19th century and administratively the area was referred to as Tromsø Diocese when Tromsø became a bishopric in 1840. There had been different designations previously: Hålogaland originally included only Helgeland and when Norse settlement spread north in the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, Hålogaland was used for the area north approximately to Malangen , while Finnmark or "Finnmarken", "the land of the Sami", lay outside. The term Northern Norway was coined at a cafe table in Kristiania in 1884 by members of the Nordlændingernes Forening and was first commonly used in the interwar period as it eventually supplanted "Hålogaland".

 

State formation

The battle in Hafrsfjord in the year 872 has long been regarded as the day when Norway became a kingdom. The year of the battle is uncertain (may have been 10-20 years later). The whole of Norway was not united in that battle: the process had begun earlier and continued a couple of hundred years later. This means that the geographical area became subject to a political authority and became a political unit. The geographical area was perceived as an area as it is known, among other things, from Ottar from Hålogaland's account for King Alfred of Wessex around the year 880. Ottar described "the land of the Norwegians" as very long and narrow, and it was narrowest in the far north. East of the wasteland in the south lay Sveoland and in the north lay Kvenaland in the east. When Ottar sailed south along the land from his home ( Malangen ) to Skiringssal, he always had Norway ("Nordveg") on his port side and the British Isles on his starboard side. The journey took a good month. Ottar perceived "Nordveg" as a geographical unit, but did not imply that it was a political unit. Ottar separated Norwegians from Swedes and Danes. It is unclear why Ottar perceived the population spread over such a large area as a whole. It is unclear whether Norway as a geographical term or Norwegians as the name of a ethnic group is the oldest. The Norwegians had a common language which in the centuries before Ottar did not differ much from the language of Denmark and Sweden.

 

According to Sverre Steen, it is unlikely that Harald Hårfagre was able to control this entire area as one kingdom. The saga of Harald was written 300 years later and at his death Norway was several smaller kingdoms. Harald probably controlled a larger area than anyone before him and at most Harald's kingdom probably included the coast from Trøndelag to Agder and Vestfold as well as parts of Viken . There were probably several smaller kingdoms of varying extent before Harald and some of these are reflected in traditional landscape names such as Ranrike and Ringerike . Landscape names of "-land" (Rogaland) and "-mark" (Hedmark) as well as names such as Agder and Sogn may have been political units before Harald.

 

According to Sverre Steen, the national assembly was completed at the earliest at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 and the introduction of Christianity was probably a significant factor in the establishment of Norway as a state. Håkon I the good Adalsteinsfostre introduced the leasehold system where the "coastal land" (as far as the salmon went up the rivers) was divided into ship raiders who were to provide a longship with soldiers and supplies. The leidange was probably introduced as a defense against the Danes. The border with the Danes was traditionally at the Göta älv and several times before and after Harald Hårfagre the Danes had control over central parts of Norway.

 

Christianity was known and existed in Norway before Olav Haraldson's time. The spread occurred both from the south (today's Denmark and northern Germany) and from the west (England and Ireland). Ansgar of Bremen , called the "Apostle of the North", worked in Sweden, but he was never in Norway and probably had little influence in the country. Viking expeditions brought the Norwegians of that time into contact with Christian countries and some were baptized in England, Ireland and northern France. Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldson were Vikings who returned home. The first Christians in Norway were also linked to pre-Christian local religion, among other things, by mixing Christian symbols with symbols of Odin and other figures from Norse religion.

 

According to Sverre Steen, the introduction of Christianity in Norway should not be perceived as a nationwide revival. At Mostratinget, Christian law was introduced as law in the country and later incorporated into the laws of the individual jurisdictions. Christianity primarily involved new forms in social life, among other things exposure and images of gods were prohibited, it was forbidden to "put out" unwanted infants (to let them die), and it was forbidden to have multiple wives. The church became a nationwide institution with a special group of officials tasked with protecting the church and consolidating the new religion. According to Sverre Steen, Christianity and the church in the Middle Ages should therefore be considered together, and these became a new unifying factor in the country. The church and Christianity linked Norway to Roman Catholic Europe with Church Latin as the common language, the same time reckoning as the rest of Europe and the church in Norway was arranged much like the churches in Denmark, Sweden and England. Norway received papal approval in 1070 and became its own church province in 1152 with Archbishop Nidaros .

 

With Christianity, the country got three social powers: the peasants (organized through the things), the king with his officials and the church with the clergy. The things are the oldest institution: At allthings all armed men had the right to attend (in part an obligation to attend) and at lagthings met emissaries from an area (that is, the lagthings were representative assemblies). The Thing both ruled in conflicts and established laws. The laws were memorized by the participants and written down around the year 1000 or later in the Gulationsloven , Frostatingsloven , Eidsivatingsloven and Borgartingsloven . The person who had been successful at the hearing had to see to the implementation of the judgment themselves.

 

Early Middle Ages (1050s–1184)

The early Middle Ages is considered in Norwegian history to be the period between the end of the Viking Age around 1050 and the coronation of King Sverre in 1184 . The beginning of the period can be dated differently, from around the year 1000 when the Christianization of the country took place and up to 1100 when the Viking Age was over from an archaeological point of view. From 1035 to 1130 it was a time of (relative) internal peace in Norway, even several of the kings attempted campaigns abroad, including in 1066 and 1103 .

 

During this period, the church's organization was built up. This led to a gradual change in religious customs. Religion went from being a domestic matter to being regulated by common European Christian law and the royal power gained increased power and influence. Slavery (" servitude ") was gradually abolished. The population grew rapidly during this period, as the thousands of farm names ending in -rud show.

 

The urbanization of Norway is a historical process that has slowly but surely changed Norway from the early Viking Age to today, from a country based on agriculture and sea salvage, to increasingly trade and industry. As early as the ninth century, the country got its first urban community, and in the eleventh century we got the first permanent cities.

 

In the 1130s, civil war broke out . This was due to a power struggle and that anyone who claimed to be the king's son could claim the right to the throne. The disputes escalated into extensive year-round warfare when Sverre Sigurdsson started a rebellion against the church's and the landmen's candidate for the throne , Magnus Erlingsson .

 

Emergence of cities

The oldest Norwegian cities probably emerged from the end of the 9th century. Oslo, Bergen and Nidaros became episcopal seats, which stimulated urban development there, and the king built churches in Borg , Konghelle and Tønsberg. Hamar and Stavanger became new episcopal seats and are referred to in the late 12th century as towns together with the trading places Veøy in Romsdal and Kaupanger in Sogn. In the late Middle Ages, Borgund (on Sunnmøre), Veøy (in Romsdalsfjorden) and Vågan (in Lofoten) were referred to as small trading places. Urbanization in Norway occurred in few places compared to the neighboring countries, only 14 places appear as cities before 1350. Stavanger became a bishopric around 1120–1130, but it is unclear whether the place was already a city then. The fertile Jæren and outer Ryfylke were probably relatively densely populated at that time. A particularly large concentration of Irish artefacts from the Viking Age has been found in Stavanger and Nord-Jæren.

 

It has been difficult to estimate the population in the Norwegian medieval cities, but it is considered certain that the cities grew rapidly in the Middle Ages. Oscar Albert Johnsen estimated the city's population before the Black Death at 20,000, of which 7,000 in Bergen, 3,000 in Nidaros, 2,000 in Oslo and 1,500 in Tunsberg. Based on archaeological research, Lunden estimates that Oslo had around 1,500 inhabitants in 250 households in the year 1300. Bergen was built up more densely and, with the concentration of exports there, became Norway's largest city in a special position for several hundred years. Knut Helle suggests a city population of 20,000 at most in the High Middle Ages, of which almost half in Bergen.

 

The Bjarkøyretten regulated the conditions in cities (especially Bergen and Nidaros) and in trading places, and for Nidaros had many of the same provisions as the Frostating Act . Magnus Lagabøte's city law replaced the bjarkøretten and from 1276 regulated the settlement in Bergen and with corresponding laws also drawn up for Oslo, Nidaros and Tunsberg. The city law applied within the city's roof area . The City Act determined that the city's public streets consisted of wid

These are from seven winters ago @ our back gate. There are no big bugs flying in the daytime here in January. Leaves? it was windy but the streaks shoot in different directions and some are orbs. Night winter moths?? We see a few. An unsolved mystery that's never happened again.

Honey, put on your best, you'll be the bait for the jewel hungry thief

From a Storyline early spring 1952

  

Rip Kirby is a popular American comic strip featuring the adventures of the eponymous lead character, a private detective created by Alex Raymond in 1946. Displaying the talents of more than a dozen writers and illustrators, the strip had a long run, spanning five decades.

 

After World War II, Raymond did not return to work on any of his previous successful comic strips (Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, Secret Agent X-9) but instead began work on a new strip in which ex-Marine Rip Kirby returns from WWII and goes to work as a private detective, sometimes accompanied by his girlfriend, fashion model Judith Lynne "Honey" Dorian. Her given name and nickname were borrowed from the names of Raymond's three daughters.

 

Rip Kirby was based on the suggestion by King Features editor Ward Greene that Raymond try a "detective-type" strip. First published on March 4, 1946, the strip was given a huge promotional boost, even including fully painted promotional art, a rarity in comic strip promotions.[1] The strip enjoyed enormous success, and Raymond received the Reuben Award in 1949.[2]

 

During Raymond's years on the strip, the stories were initially written by Ward Greene and later, following Greene's death, by Fred Dickenson. Some sequences were also written by Raymond.

 

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Characters and story

 

Comics historian Don Markstein noted how the character of Remington "Rip" Kirby broke away from the usual pulp detective archetype:

  

"Circulation rose steadily during the strip's first few years — even though Rip wasn't the kind of private detective they were used to from pulp fiction. This one did more cogitating than fisticuffing, and smoked a leisurely pipe while he did it. He had a frail, balding assistant, Desmond (a former burglar), instead of a two-fisted sidekick. Instead of carrying on with an endless series of female clients, he had a steady girlfriend, Honey Dorian. If that wasn't enough, he even wore glasses! Even Kerry Drake didn't depart so far from the standard. If Rip was more sophisticated and urbane than the average fictional private eye, that's okay, because he was very successful — both for himself and for the people who wrote, drew and distributed him."

 

In 1956, Raymond was killed in a car crash. King Features quickly needed a replacement and found it in John Prentice.

 

Dickenson continued to write the series until the mid-1980s when he was forced to retire for health reasons. Prentice then took over the writing along with others. Prentice kept the strip going until his own death in 1999. The strip ended with Rip's retirement on June 26, 1999. Prentice received the National Cartoonists Society Story Comic Strip Award for 1966, 1967 and 1986 for his work on the strip.

 

Over the years of publication, the strip was ghosted and assisted by many artists and writers, including Frank Bolle (who completed the last episode), Al Williamson, and Gray Morrow

 

The museum label for this exhibit reads:

 

"These rare artifacts are made of rubber. The rubber shoes and bullwhips are some of the only examples known to exist from this period. Their survival is due to the fact that the environment surrounding the sunken Arabia was anaerobic (oxygen free). To ensure their future preservation, this case is pressurized with nitrogen. Nitrogen is an inert gas and will prevent [the objects' destruction by oxidation.]"

---------------------------------------

Manufactured by Ford & Co. (Goodyear's Patent.)

New Brunswick, New Jersey

Metallic Rubber Over Shoes.

The Agent was Breeden & Brother in New York City who wholesaled the shoes- and which St Louis store sold them to the Arabia's consignee is still an unsolved mystery.

steamboatarabiamuseum.blogspot.com/

  

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The Arabia Steamboat Museum is a unique Kansas City attraction: a time capsule of life on the American frontier in the mid-19th century. Visitors have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to experience everyday objects that made life possible for pioneers in the 1800s.

 

Voted “Favorite Kansas City Hidden Gem” by Visit KC, the museum is one of Kansas City’s most popular attractions. It is the largest single collection of pre-Civil War artifacts in the world, featured by National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian Magazine, PBS, Antiques Roadshow, Good Morning America, Southern Living, CNN, the History Channel and many other news and entertainment organizations.

 

​

The Steamboat Arabia was one of many casualties of the perilous Missouri River—the longest river in the United States that claimed nearly 400 other steamboats over its 2,500-mile course.

 

In September 1856, the Arabia was carrying over 200 tons of cargo intended for general stores and homes in 16 midwestern frontier towns.

 

The steamer was still fully loaded when it hit a tree snag and sank just 6 miles west of Kansas City. Due to erosion, the Missouri River changed course over time, and the Arabia was buried underground for over a century – along with all of its precious cargo.

 

Lying 45 feet deep beneath a Kansas cornfield, the Arabia’s payload was protected from light and oxygen and, thus, was remarkably well preserved.

 

In the winter of 1988, five men and their families banded together to begin the adventure of a lifetime … recovering the Steamboat Arabia's long-lost treasure. What they found will astound you.

 

In 1991, the Arabia’s cargo was transformed into the Arabia Steamboat Museum, a top Kansas City attraction and favorite local destination in the historic City Market. From fine china and carpentry tools to children’s toys and the world’s oldest pickles—the Arabia’s artifacts captivate visitors of all ages. The museum accommodates all types of visitors, including walk-ins, families, RV groups and more. It has become a favorite destination for Kansas City field trips year after year.

 

The collection is a work in progress as preservationists continue to clean 60 more tons of artifacts in a preservation lab that’s available for visitors to watch. Come and see what they are working on today. More artifacts and interactive displays are added on an ongoing basis. Whether it’s your first visit to this favorite Kansas City attraction or you come in every year, the treasures of the Steamboat Arabia will connect you to American history in a new and exciting way.

www.1856.com/

A homicide memorial for Jerald Goldsmith a 52 year old mother of 7 who was found brutally murdered on these steps in Buffalo, New York October 1st, 2014. She was the 39th murder victim of 2014 in Buffalo. Her murder remains unsolved. That year Buffalo saw a total of 62 murders in Buffalo, NY in 2014.

  

News link:

 

wivb.com/2014/10/01/womans-body-found-on-stairs-near-mast...

 

Mother of seven found dead on stairs near park

 

Buffalo N.Y. (WIVB) – The body of a woman with seven children was found Wednesday on Masten Avenue at Edna Place, near City Honors School.

 

News 4 spoke to the victim’s family, who tells us 52-year-old Jerald Goldsmith, a mom of seven and a grandmother, worked at the University at Buffalo as an overnight housekeeper, cleaning offices and dorm rooms.

 

Her brother, Harold Goldsmith said, “My sister, she was kind, she helped anybody. She was a clean person. She went to church most of her life.”

 

“My mom, she was a very loving person. She liked to laugh. She was always a good person,” said her son, Phillip Hunt.

 

A man told News 4’s Nalina Shapiro he made the disturbing discovery right when school was starting. The man, who didn’t want to be identified, said he found Jerald Goldsmith’s body around 8 a.m. while on the way to the store. He asked someone at the store to call police.

 

MASTEN

 

The man said she had a lot of trauma to her face. The man also said her pants and shirt were partially pulled off.

 

Her brother, Mark Goldsmith said, “This is not something that just randomly happened. Things built up to this. To leave her the way she was left would be a level of rage. This would be the end of it.”

 

“There is, somewhere in our area, a callous, cold murderer,” said Buffalo Common Council President Darius Pridgen. Pridgen represents the Ellicott District, in which Masten Park is located.

 

“He should be brought to justice. And anyone who knows anything should be bold enough, as bold as he was… to take her life. They should be brought to justice,” Pridgen told News 4 Wednesday night.

 

Buffalo Police Homicide Investigators collected evidence on the stairs leading up to Masten Park, where a lot of kids go to play basketball and hang out after school. One of the top high schools in the area, City Honors, and the growing Buffalo Medical Corridor are just a few blocks away.

 

“This is a neighborhood that, at one, point, had a lot of crime in it and that has really turned itself around,” Pridgen said. “And so for this to happen, to what appears to be an innocent victim, is distressing.”

 

Neighbor Raymond Backey said, “For something like that to happen over here, it’s very shocking.”

 

Backey lives a block away on Dodge. He wasn’t the only person who had concerns about the tall bushes around where the woman was found.

 

“The city don’t clean up, doesn’t make any sense,” said Backey.

 

Neighbor Angie Sullivan said, “It’s a little disconcerting that one side of the stadium is well groomed, but the side facing the neighborhood never gets cut back.”

 

City of Buffalo Spokesperson Mike DeGeorge says the city cuts the grass and bushes several times a year and did just as recently as Monday. A portion was cut back this summer, but a the section outside the Johnnie B. Wiley Sports Pavilion, where the apparent homicide took place, remains overgrown.

 

Backey still thinks more needs to be done. Neighbor Jeremy Powell says the area itself is dangerous.

 

“It’s becoming very serious and dangerous over here. We have girls getting killed and stuff like that and now I’m a little nervous about coming out of my own house,” he said.

 

Pridgen said he checked out Masten Park himself on Wednesday, and could see the overgrowth problems the neighbors are worried about.

 

“I wasn’t aware of it, but we’re going to make sure that within the next 24 hours, that that area, that the brush is cut down,” he promised. “It must be. It should be.”

 

“Tomorrow, I’m going to be meeting with Public Works and asking them to take a look at that area to ensure that it is properly lit,” Pridgen added.

 

Buffalo Police say they are awaiting autopsy results to determine Goldsmith’s cause of death.

 

Wednesday, Backey stood on the street, taking in the sight of the crime scene.

 

“I feel sad for the young lady,” he said. “I wish I was out here last night and I would’ve heard something. I would’ve called the police.”

Please Read and Share if you live in Indiana or Indianapolis or know someone who does. Thanks Greetings,

Please view my YouTube video on youtu.be/z3TT2DVXoLs and also the blog at

 

killertales.com/2020/04/19/the-baffling-murder-of-robert-....

 

This is in regards to the unsolved murder of my brother Robert Aynes in Indianapolis Indiana on November 2nd, 2017

 

Thanks

Steve Aynes

Vintage card. Photo: Warner Bros.

 

American actor Robert Stack (1919-2003) became a star as Deanne Durbin's young lover in Henry Koster's First love (1939). After the war, he had massive success with Douglas Sirk's drama Written on the Wind (1956) for which he was nominated for the Oscar. Internationally, he became famous as Elliot Ness in the TV series The Untouchables (1959-1963).

 

Robert Stack was born Charles Langford Modini Stack in Los Angeles, in 1919. His first name, selected by his mother, was changed to Robert by his father, a professional soldier Robert was the grandson of Marina Perrini, an opera singer at the Scala theatre in Milan. When little Robert was five, his father was transferred to the US embassy in France. Robert went to school in Paris and learnt French rather than his mother tongue. At 11, he returned to America, and at 13, he became a top athlete. His brother and he won the International Outboard Motor Championships, in Venice, Italy, and at age 16, he became a member of the All-American Skeet Team. He played polo, saxophone and clarinet at Southern California University. A broken wrist ended his career as a sports athlete. He took drama classes and made his stage debut at 20. He joined Universal Studios in 1939. In his first film, he starred as Deanne Durbin's young lover in First love (Henry Koster, 1939). He gave the teenage film star her first on-screen kiss. Around this "event," Universal producer Joe Pasternak provided a lot of publicity. Stack established himself as an actor and the following year he appeared as a young Nazi in The Mortal Storm (Frank Borzage, 1940) alongside Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart. Stack was reunited with Durbin in Pasternak's musical Nice Girl? (William A. Seiter, 1941). In 1942 he appeared as a Polish Air Force pilot in Ernst Lubitsch's comedy To Be or Not to Be (1942) starring Carole Lombard and Jack Benny. The plot concerns a troupe of actors in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who use their acting abilities to fool the occupying troops. The film has become recognised as a comedy classic. Stack played another pilot in Eagle Squadron (Arthur Lubin, 1942), a huge hit. Then Stack's career was interrupted by military service. He did duty as a gunnery instructor in the United States Navy during World War II.

 

After World War II, Robert Stack continued his career. He returned to the screen with roles in films such as Fighter Squadron (Raoul Walsh, 1948) with Edmond O'Brien and A Date with Judy (Richard Thorpe, 1948) with Elizabeth Taylor. In 1952 Stack starred in Bwana Devil (Arch Oboler, 1952), the first major film production in 3D. He played the second leading role alongside John Wayne in William A. Wellman's aviation drama It's Always Day (1954). Sam Fuller cast him in the lead of House of Bamboo (1955), shot in Japan. Stack enjoyed one of his greatest successes with Douglas Sirk's drama Written in the Wind (1956). He received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the alcoholic playboy Kyle Hadley. From the late 1950s Stack turned increasingly to television. Internationally, Robert became famous with his role in the television series The Untouchables in which he starred as the clean-cut Chicago police officer Eliot Ness during the Prohibition era. Around 120 episodes were made between 1959 and 1963. Other leading roles followed for Stack in the television series The Name of the Game (1968-1971), Most Wanted (1976) and Strike Force (1981). The multilingual Stack also took the lead role in the German-language film Die Hölle von Macao/The Hell of Macau (James Hill, 1966) alongside Elke Sommer, and he also appeared in French- or Italian-language productions. With advancing age, Stack also frequently took on deadpan comedy roles that lampooned his dramatic on-screen persona in films such as 1941 (Steven Spielberg, 1979), Airplane! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, 1980) or Caddyshack II (Allan Arkush, 1988). Between 1987 and 2002 he was the host of the television series Unsolved Mysteries, which was dedicated to mysterious murder cases. He worked as an actor until his death. In 1956 he married actress Rosemarie Bowe (1932-2019), to whom he was married until the end of his life. The couple had two children. Robert Stack died of pneumonia in 2003 in Beverly Hills at the age of 84 and was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.

 

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

The Hope Diamond

 

•Catalog Number: NMNH G3551-00

•Locality: India

•Weight: 45.52 ct

 

Gift of Harry Winston, Inc in 1958.

 

Over 100 million visitors have experienced the beauty of the Hope Diamond since Harry Winston donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. Learn more about this remarkable gem using the tiles below.

 

Timeline

 

The French Kings: 1668-1792

 

1668-1669: Tavernier’s Diamond

 

King Louis XIV was fond of beautiful and rare gems, especially diamonds. In December of 1668, the explorer Jean-Baptiste Tavernier met with the king to share a collection of diamonds collected on his recently completed trip to India. In February of 1669, King Louis XIV purchased the lot of diamonds, including a large blue diamond weighing 112 3⁄16 old French carats (approximately 115 modern metric carats) for 220,000 livres (Bapst 1889). In recognition of this transaction, the king honored Tavernier with the rank of nobleman (Morel 1988).

 

It is commonly assumed that Tavernier acquired the diamond on his last journey to India (1664-1668) and that it came from the Kollur Mine of the Golconda region. However, evidence for both source and timing is circumstantial, as Tavernier makes no mention of the acquisition of the diamond in the published accounts of his journeys. The Kollur Mine is considered a likely source because it was known for producing large and colored diamonds (Post and Farges 2014), but there were several diamond mines throughout India during the time of Tavernier’s voyages, and the diamond could have come from any one of them. The diamond must at least have originated in India, as India was the only commercial source of diamonds in Tavernier’s time.

 

1669-1672: Creating the French Blue

 

King Louis XIV ordered one of his court jewelers, Jean Pittan the Younger, to supervise the recutting of the 115-carat blue diamond. The king likely ordered the stone recut because of differences between Indian and European tastes in diamonds: Indian gems were cut to retain size and weight, while Europeans prized luster, symmetry and brilliance. It is not known who actually cut the diamond, but the job took about two years to complete. The result was an approximately 69-carat heart-shaped diamond referred to as “the great violet diamond of His Majesty” in the historic royal archives. At that time, “violet” meant a shade of blue. Today, the diamond is most commonly known as the “French Blue” (Post and Farges 2014).

 

An inventory of the French Crown Jewels from 1691 reveals that the French Blue was “set into gold and mounted on a stick.” In 2012, a computer simulation revealed that eight central facets on the pavilion of the French Blue were cut so as to be visible when one looked through the face of the gem (Farges et al. 2012). When the stone was set in gold, the effect would be the appearance of a gold sun in the center of the blue diamond. Post and Farges (2014) proposed that the stone was cut this way to show the colors of the French monarchy, blue and gold, symbolizing the divine standing and power of King Louis XIV, the Sun King. The diamond was not worn as a piece of jewelry or kept with the French Crown Jewels, but rather was stored in the King’s cabinet of curiosities at Versailles, where he could show it to special guests.

 

1749: The Order of the Golden Fleece

 

Louis XIV’s great-grandson, Louis XV, inherited the royal jewels when he ascended to the throne. Around 1749, King Louis XV tasked the Parisian jeweler Pierre-André Jacqumin with creating an emblem of knighthood of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The finished emblem featured a number of spectacular gems, including the French Blue Diamond, the 107-carat Côte de Bretagne spinel (carved into the shape of a dragon and originally thought to be a ruby), and several other diamonds. It was rarely worn, functioning instead as a symbol of the king’s power (Post and Farges 2014).

 

1791: The Capture of Louis XVI

 

Amidst the turmoil of the French Revolution, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette attempted to escape France, but were apprehended and returned to Paris. The French Crown Jewels, including the French Blue Diamond in the Order of the Golden Fleece, were turned over to the revolutionary government and moved to the Garde-Meuble, the Royal Storehouse, where they were put on view for the public once a week until 1792. On visiting days, the doors of the armoires would be opened and a selection of mounted and unmounted jewels could be viewed in special display cases.

 

1792: The Theft of the French Crown Jewels

 

On the night of September 11th, 1792, a group of thieves climbed through the first-floor windows of the Garde-Meuble into the room where the French Crown Jewels were stored and escaped with some of the jewels. At the time, no one in the storehouse even realized that a theft had taken place: The seal on the door to the room had not been broken, and no guards were stationed inside of the room. The thieves returned over the following nights to steal more of the jewels. By the evening of September 17th, the group of thieves had grown to about fifty. Acting loudly and carelessly, they attracted the attention of the patrol, putting an end to one of the most curious thefts in history (Morel 1988).

 

By then, the Order of the Golden Fleece was gone. The French Blue Diamond has not been seen since.

 

From Europe to America: 1812-1958

 

1812: A Blue Diamond Appears in London

 

It is now clear that the French Blue resurfaced in London nearly 20 years later, although no one seems to have recognized it at the time. It had by then been recut to a smaller (though still spectacular) gem, which we know today as the Hope Diamond.

 

The first reference to this diamond is a sketch and description made in 1812 by the London jeweler John Francillon:

 

The above drawing is the exact size and shape of a very curious superfine deep blue Diamond. Brilliant cut, and equal to a fine deep blue Sapphire. It is beauty full and all perfection without specks or flaws, and the color even and perfect all over the Diamond. I traced it round the diamond with a pencil by leave of Mr. Daniel Eliason and it is as finely cut as I have ever seen in a Diamond. The color of the Drawing is as near the color of the Diamond as possible.

Francillon does not mention where the diamond came from or who had cut it, nor does he connect it to the French Blue.

 

Intriguingly, the Francillon Memo is dated just two days after the twenty-year statute of limitations for crimes committed during the French Revolution had passed. The diamond may have resurfaced at this time because the possibility of prosecution and of France reclaiming the diamond was eliminated, making the owner comfortable enough to share the diamond with others (Winters and White 1991).

 

1813-1823: Mr. Eliason’s Diamond

 

Several other British naturalists and gem experts made note of a large blue diamond in London in the years following Francillon’s memo. In the 1813 and 1815 editions of his book, A Treatise on Diamonds and Precious Stones, mineralogist and gem connoisseur John Mawe writes that “there is at this time a superlatively fine blue diamond, of above 44 carats, in possession of an individual in London, which may be considered as matchless, and of course of arbitrary value.” Similarly, James Sowerby, a naturalist known for his illustrations of minerals and other objects, wrote that “Daniel Eliason, Esq. has in London, a nearly perfect blue Brilliant, of 44½ carats, that is superior to any other coloured diamond known” (Sowerby 1817).

 

By 1823, the diamond was no longer in Eliason’s possession. Mawe returned to the subject of the blue diamond in the 1823 edition of his book, writing that:

 

“A superlatively fine blue diamond weighing 44 carats and valued at £30,000, formerly the property of Mr. Eliason, an eminent diamond merchant, is now said to be in the possession of our most gracious sovereign… The unrivaled gem is of a deep sapphire blue, and from its rarity and color, might have been estimated at a higher sum. It has found its most worthy destination in passing into the possession of a monarch, whose refined taste has ever been conspicuous in the highest degree” (Mawe 1823)

 

According to Mawe, then, Eliason had parted with the diamond and it had come into the possession of George IV, the King of England. However, no evidence linking the Hope Diamond to the king has been found in the British royal archives, and we do not know whether George IV ever possessed it as either owner or borrower (Post and Farges 2014).

 

1839: Henry Philip Hope’s Gem Collection

 

Henry Philip Hope (1774-1839) was a wealthy British banker with an affinity for fine art and precious gems. An 1839 catalogue of his gem collection mentions a large blue diamond weighing 45.5 carats. The diamond would take his name, becoming known as “Hope’s Diamond” or the “Hope Diamond.” The catalogue describes the diamond as “a most magnificent and rare brilliant, of a deep sapphire blue, of the greatest purity, and most beautifully cut” (Hertz 1839). It was set in a medallion with smaller, rose-cut, colorless diamonds surrounding it and a pearl that dropped from the bottom of the medallion as a pendant. Unfortunately, Hope does not record when or where he acquired the diamond in his 1839 catalogue.

 

Henry Philip Hope died in 1839, leaving his possessions to his three nephews: Henry Thomas, Adrian, and Alexander. In his will, Henry Philip Hope divided his money and property amongst the brothers, but did not leave instructions for the division of his gem collection. Given the immense value of his collection, the Hope brothers argued for years over who would inherit it. In 1849, after ten years of dispute, the brothers reached an agreement: the property went to Adrian, the Hope Pearl and around 700 precious gemstones went to Alexander, and the Hope Diamond and seven other gems went to Henry Thomas (Kurin 2006).

 

1851: The Great London Exhibition

 

Henry Thomas Hope loaned the Hope Diamond for display at the Crystal Palace during the Great London Exhibition. According to a catalogue from the exhibition, 28 diamonds from the Henry Philip Hope Collection were exhibited. This suggests that the brother of Henry Thomas, Alexander, must have contributed diamonds to the display effort since Henry Thomas had only inherited eight gems from his uncle and Alexander had inherited the rest (Kurin 2006).

 

1858: The French Blue Connection

 

Today, we are certain that the Hope Diamond is the recut French Blue. However, it took 46 years after Francillon described the modern Hope for someone to connect the two diamonds. The French gemologist Charles Barbot was first, speculating in his 1858 book, Traité Complet de Pierres Précieuses, that the Hope Diamond was cut from the French Blue (Post and Farges 2014).

 

Later authors continued in this track. In 1870, Charles W. King wrote about a likely connection between the two blue diamonds in his book, The Natural History of the Precious Stones and of the Precious Metals. On the subject of “Hope’s Blue Diamond” King writes “suspected to be that of the French Regalia (stolen in 1792), and then weighing 67 car., and afterwards re-cut as a brilliant to its present weight of 44½ carat.”

 

In 1882, Edwin Streeter wrote about the diamond’s provenance in his book, The Great Diamonds of the World: Their History and Romance:

 

The disappearance of Tavernier’s rough blue from the French regalia, followed by the unexplained appearance of a cut gem of precisely the same delicate blue tint, and answering in size to the original after due allowance made for loss in cutting, leaves little or no room for doubting the identity of the two stones… It thus appears that the rough un-cut Tavernier, the French “Blue,” lost in 1792, and the “Hope,” are one and the same stone. (Streeter 1882, p. 214).

 

1887: The Extravagant Life of Lord Francis Hope

 

Henry Thomas Hope left his possessions, including the Hope Diamond, to his wife Anne Adéle Hope when he passed away in 1862. Anne, in turn, decided to leave the family treasures not to her daughter, Henrietta (whose husband was careless with money and often on the verge of bankruptcy) but to her grandson, Francis Hope. In her 1876 will, Anne named Francis as heir to the family treasures, stipulating that the estates and heirlooms were to be used during his lifetime and then passed on to another Hope descendant. Anne passed away in 1884, and Francis Hope claimed his inheritance when he turned 21, three years later (Kurin 2006).

 

Lord Francis Hope was less prudent than his grandmother might have hoped. He lived extravagantly, quickly spending his inheritance on traveling, entertainment, and gambling and sinking into tremendous debt. In 1892, he met a showgirl in New York City named May Yohé, a glamorous and charming actress from Pennsylvania. Hope and Yohé married in 1894 and continued to live well beyond their means. To avoid bankruptcy, Hope appealed to his relatives for permission to sell a portion of the family art collection, claiming that he could no longer afford to care for the paintings. After years of litigation, the family finally agreed to allow Hope to sell a selection of the paintings, but the sale was not enough to save him from financial crisis. In 1901, after more litigation with his family, Lord Francis offered the Hope Diamond for sale (Patch 1999).

 

1901-1907: Crossing the Atlantic

 

In 1901, Lord Francis Hope sold the Hope Diamond to London diamond merchant Adolf Weil, who sold the diamond to Joseph Frankel’s Sons & Co. of New York shortly thereafter. Simon Frankel sailed to London from New York to finalize the purchase. One source reported that Frankel paid $250,000 (~6.7 million 2014 dollars) for the diamond (Patch 1999).

 

Frankel brought the Hope Diamond back to New York to try to sell it in America, but received no reasonable offers. By 1907, the market for diamonds had sharply declined due to a slow economy, and Frankel’s company faced the possibility of bankruptcy (Kurin 2006). The Hope Diamond sat locked away in a New York safe deposit box while Frankel tried to find a buyer.

 

1908-1909: Selim Habib and Rumors of a Curse

 

Joseph Frankel’s Sons & Co. finally found a buyer for the Hope Diamond in 1908: Selim Habib, a Turkish diamond collector and merchant who purchased the Hope Diamond for a reported $200,000 (~5 million 2014 dollars). According to the New York Times, Selim Habib soon had financial troubles, and in 1909, he sold his gem collection, including the Hope Diamond (Kurin, 2006). His financial difficulties and a later, incorrect report of his death at sea contributed to the growing myth of a curse on the Hope Diamond.

 

Habib’s collection was put up for auction at the Hotel Drouot in Paris, France on June 24, 1909. Jeweler and gem expert Louis Aucoc oversaw the auction, withdrawing the Hope Diamond from the sale before selling it to jeweler C. N. Rosenau for 400,000 francs (Kurin 2006).

 

1910: Cartier acquired the Hope Diamond

 

Cartier, a French jewelry house, purchased the Hope Diamond from jeweler C.N. Rosenau in 1910. The Hope Diamond arrived in the U.S. on November 23, 1910, where it was valued at $110,000 for customs plus the $10,000 duty for an unmounted gem (Patch 1999).

 

Pierre Cartier took on the responsibility of selling the Hope Diamond. Pierre was a talented salesman: Charming, smooth-talking, and sophisticated, he was experienced in the art of selling to wealthy customers, Americans in particular, having worked at Cartier’s New York office.

 

By this time, the art of developing colorful narratives for famous gems was already well established. Intriguing histories helped with gem sales, and in turn, gave the purchaser an interesting tale to tell admirers at various events. Cartier thus began to fabricate a fanciful story around the Hope Diamond that included a curse, which he would pitch to potential buyers (Kurin 2006).

 

1912: The McLeans buy the Hope Diamond

 

In 1912, Pierre Cartier sold the Hope Diamond to an American couple, Ned and Evalyn Walsh McLean. The sale was the result of two years of work.

 

Pierre identified the McLeans as potential buyers shortly after Cartier purchased the Hope Diamond. Both Evalyn and Ned were heirs to American fortunes, Evalyn’s from mining and Ned’s from newspapers. They were previous, big-spending clients of Cartier, having purchased the 94.8-carat Star of the East Diamond from Cartier in 1908 while they were on their honeymoon. Pierre arranged to meet with them in 1910 while they were on vacation in Paris. He presented his embellished tale of the Hope Diamond’s extraordinary provenance to the McLeans, including the curse that brought bad luck to all who owned it. Evalyn was fascinated with the story and told Pierre that she believed objects that brought bad luck to others would bring good luck to her. Despite her interest, she initially declined to purchase the blue diamond because she did not like its setting (McLean 1936).

 

Pierre, a persistent man, did not let an old-fashioned setting prevent him from securing the sale. He took the Hope Diamond to New York, where he had it reset into a contemporary mounting. In the new mounting (essentially the same mounting it is in today), the Hope was framed by 16 colorless diamonds and could be worn as part of a head ornament or a diamond necklace. Pierre returned to Washington and left the newly set Hope with Evalyn and Ned over a weekend.

 

Pierre’s strategy was successful—Evalyn adored the Hope Diamond, and several months later agreed to purchase it from Cartier, settling on a price of $180,000 (Patch 1999) plus the return of an emerald and pearl pendant with diamond necklace that she no longer wanted (McLean 1936). The Hope Diamond became Evalyn Walsh McLean’s signature in the high society of Washington, D.C. She wore it frequently, layered with her other important gems and jewelry, to events and the lavish parties she hosted. Evalyn would even let her Great Dane, Mike, wear the Hope Diamond on his collar.

 

1947-1949: Evalyn Walsh McLean Passes Away

 

Evalyn Walsh McLean died from pneumonia on April 26, 1947. She dictated in her will that all of her jewelry be held in trust until her youngest grandchild turned twenty-five, at which point her jewels were to be divided equally by all of her grandchildren. Two years after her death, however, the court ordered the sale of her jewelry collection to pay off debts and claims against her estate (Patch 1999). The Hope Diamond, the Star of the East Diamond, and the rest of her jewelry collection were purchased by jeweler Harry Winston of New York.

 

1949-1958: Winston and the Court of Jewels

 

In 1949, Harry Winston purchased the Hope Diamond along with the rest of the Evalyn Walsh McLean’s jewelry collection. Winston incoporated McLean’s jewelry into the Court of Jewels, a traveling exhibition of gems supplemented by a jewelry fashion show. Large and famous diamonds, including the Hope Diamond, the Star of the East Diamond, and the 127-carat Portuguese Diamond (now also part of the Smithsonian’s collection), were featured as part of the show. The exhibit travelled throughout America from 1949 to 1953 to teach the public about precious gems and raise money for civic and charitable organizations (Harry Winston, Inc.). Harry Winston once stated: “I want the public to know more about precious gems. With so much expensive junk jewelry around these days, people forget that a good diamond, ruby, or emerald, however small, is a possession to be prized for generations” (Tupper and Tupper 1947).

 

At the Smithsonian: 1958-Present

 

1958: The Hope Diamond comes to the Smithsonian

 

In 1958, Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution. On November 10th, the Hope arrived at the Smithsonian in a plain brown package shipped by registered mail (and insured for a sum of one million dollars). Mrs. Harry Winston presented the Hope Diamond to Dr. Leonard Carmichael, Secretary of the Smithsonian, and Dr. George S. Switzer, Curator of Mineralogy. The Hope Diamond was exhibited in the Gem Hall at the National Museum of Natural History and almost immediately became its premier attraction.

 

1962: A Visit to France

 

With the encouragement of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, the Hope Diamond was loaned for a month to the Louvre Museum for the exhibition “Ten Centuries of French Jewels.” It was displayed with two famous diamonds, the Regent (a 140.50-carat brilliant cushion cut diamond) and the Sancy (a pale yellow 55.23-carat pear-shaped diamond). Also on display was the Côte de Bretagne, a red spinel carved in the shape of a dragon that, along with the French Blue Diamond, had been part of Louis XV’s elaborate emblem of the Order of the Golden Fleece. This exhibition marked the reunion of these two gems after 170 years. In return, the Louvre’s masterpiece, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, was loaned to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from January 8 to February 3, 1963.

 

1965: At the Rand Easter Show in South Africa

 

The Hope Diamond was loaned to DeBeers and traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa for the Rand Easter Show, one of the largest consumer exhibitions in the world. The Hope Diamond was the main attraction in the jewel box in the Diamond Pavilion. Surrounded by a cluster of diamonds, it was exhibited on a finely woven spider’s web supported by the bare branches of a rose bush and illuminated from above.

 

1982: At the Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

In November 1982, Ronald Winston, son of Harry Winston, hosted 1,200 guests in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Engelhard Court. (Kurin 2006) For the glittering gala, the Hope Diamond was reunited with the Star of the East (a 94.80-carat pear-shaped diamond previously owned by Evalyn Walsh McLean) and the Idol’s Eye (a 70.21-carat rounded pear-shape diamond exhibited at the Rand Easter Show in 1965).

 

1997: The New Harry Winston Gallery

 

The Hope Diamond was put on display in the Harry Winston Gallery of the newly completed Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals in the National Museum of Natural History. The diamond is mounted on a rotating pedestal so that it can be viewed from all four sides of the vault.

 

2009-2010: Celebrating 50 years at the Smithsonian

 

In September 2009, the Hope Diamond was removed from its setting and exhibited unmounted for the first time ever. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian, an online contest was used to select a commemorative necklace from one of three designs submitted by Harry Winston, Inc. The winning entry, “Embracing Hope”, was designed by Maurice Galli. This modern design consisted of three-dimensional ribbons set with baguette-cut diamonds wrapping the Hope Diamond in an exquisite embrace. The Hope Diamond was set in the Embracing Hope necklace and displayed for over a year before being returned to its original Cartier mounting.

 

2017: The Hope Diamond Today

 

Today, the Hope Diamond remains one of the most popular objects at the Smithsonian, attracting millions of visitors every year. Even now, the Hope retains much of its mystery, and Smithsonain scientists continue to study it to better understand its eventful history and rare beauty.

 

Grading the Hope

 

For many years, the weight of the Hope Diamond was not precisely known, with reports of its weight ranging from 44 carats to 45.5 carats. On November 13, 1975, the Hope Diamond was removed from its setting and found to weigh 45.52 carats.

 

Gemologists from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) visited the Smithsonian in 1988 to grade the Hope Diamond. They observed that the gem showed evidence of wear, that it had a remarkably strong phosphorescence, and that its clarity was slightly affected by a whitish graining that is common to blue diamonds. They described its color as fancy dark grayish-blue and its clarity as VS1 (Crowningshield 1989).

 

In 1996, the Hope Diamond necklace was sent to Harry Winston, Inc. for cleaning and minor restoration work. The diamond was removed from its setting and re-examined by the GIA. In this report, the Hope’s color was described as a a natural fancy deep grayish-blue (reflecting a change in GIA’s nomenclature for grading, not a change in the assessment of the diamond).

 

How much is the Hope Diamond worth?

 

We at the Smithsonian like to say that the Hope Diamond is priceless. Its size, color, and eventful history, as well as its long tenure at the heart of the Smithsonian’s gem collection, make it a true American treasure. In any case, it’s not for sale!

 

What can we say about the value of a gem like the Hope, if we’re not going to commit to a specific number? A large part of a gem’s value comes from its physical properties: color, clarity, cut, and carat weight. But other, less tangible factors can also increase the value of a gem. For example, as Pierre Cartier recognized a hundred years ago, an eventful, well-documented history is important, as are the tastes and means of an individual buyer. The price of an individual stone reflects the confluence of these and other factors.

 

Blue diamonds like the Hope are very rare, and the money being spent to purchase them is enormous. Several large blue diamonds have fetched tens of millions of dollars at auction in recent years:

 

•The 9.75 carat, Fancy Vivid Blue Zoe sold at Sotheby’s in 2014 for $32.6 million

•The 13.22 carat, Fancy Vivid Blue Winston Blue sold at Christie’s in 2014 for $24.2 million

•The 35.56 carat, Fancy Deep Grayish Blue Wittelsbach-Graff sold at Christie’s in 2008 for $24.3 million

 

Less well-documented are private sales, where famous stones such as the Heart of Eternity and the Wittelsbach-Graff may have fetched even higher prices.

 

Computer Modeling

 

A computer modeling study of the Tavernier, French Blue and Hope diamonds was conducted. The results support the long-held theory that the diamonds are in fact the same stone, concluding that the Hope Diamond is likely the only surviving piece of the diamond originally sold to King Louis XIV–the rest having been ground away during the various recuttings. This research, conducted by Jeffrey Post, Smithsonian curator of the National Gem Collection, Steven Attaway, engineer and gem cutter, and Scott Sucher and Nancy Attaway, gem cutting experts, was featured on the Discovery Channel. The film, “Unsolved History: Hope Diamond,” premiered Feb 10, 2005.

 

In 2007, a lead cast of the French Blue diamond was discovered in the mineral collection of the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, permitting additional refinements to the modeling study.

 

Boron in Blue Diamonds

 

The blue color in the Hope Diamond and others like it is caused by trace amounts of boron. The Hope Diamond was tested to measure its chemical composition and determine the concentration of boron. This study used various spectroscopic methods and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy to analyze for boron in natural type IIb blue diamonds, including the Hope Diamond and the Blue Heart Diamond (also a part of the Smithsonian’s National Gem Collection). The study found that, on average, the Hope Diamond contains about 0.6 parts per million boron.

 

Phosphoresence of the Hope Diamond

 

Curator Dr. Jeffrey Post led a team from the Smithsonian and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory to investigate the intense, red-orange phosphorescence exhibited by the Hope Diamond after exposure to ultra-violet light. They discovered that all type IIB blue diamonds exhibit similar phosphorescence behaviors and that the specific phosphorescence spectral properties might be unique to each individual blue diamond, enabling the researchers to essentially “fingerprint” each stone.

The charm of unsolved places

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

Due to increasing tensions in Europe which led to World War 2, AVRO Aircraft started developing combat aircraft, and as a subsidiary of Hawker, they had access to the Hurricane plans. At the time that the Hurricane was developed, RAF Fighter Command consisted of just 13 squadrons, each equipped with either the Hawker Fury, Hawker Demon, or the Bristol Bulldog – all of them biplanes with fixed-pitch wooden propellers and non-retractable undercarriages. After the Hurricane's first flight, Avro started working on a more refined and lighter aircraft, resulting in a similar if not higher top speed and improved maneuverability.

 

The result was Avro’s project 675, also known as the "Swallow". The aircraft’s profile resembled the Hawker Hurricane, but appeared more squatted and streamlined, almost like a race version. Compared with the Hurricane, overall dimensions were reduced and the structure lightened wherever possible. The wings were much thinner, too, and their shape reminded of the Supermarine Spitfire’s famous oval wings. The main landing gear was retractable and had a wide track. The tail wheel was semi-retractable on the prototype, but it was later replaced by a simpler, fixed tail wheel on production models.

 

The Swallow made its first flight on 30th December 1937 and the Royal Air Force was so impressed by its performance against the Hurricane that they ordered production to start immediately, after a few minor tweaks to certain parts of the aircraft had been made.

 

On 25 July 1939, the RAF accepted their first delivery of Avro Swallow Mk. Is. The first machines were allocated to No.1 Squadron, at the time based in France, where they were used in parallel to the Hurricanes for evaluation. These early machines were powered by a 1.030 hp (770 kW) Rolls-Royce Merlin Mk II liquid-cooled V-12, driving a wooden two-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller. The light aircraft achieved an impressive top speed of 347 mph (301 kn, 558 km/h) in level flight – the bigger and heavier Hurricane achieved only 314 mph (506 km/h) with a similar engine. Like the Hurricane, the Swallow was armed with eight unsynchronized 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in the outer wings, outside of the propeller disc.

 

In spring 1940, Avro upgraded the serial production Swallow Mk.I's to Mk.IA standard: the original wooden propeller was replaced by a de Havilland or Rotol constant speed metal propeller with three blades, which considerably improved field performance. Many aircraft were retrofitted with this update in the field workshops until summer 1940.

 

In parallel, production switched to the Swallow Mk. II: This new version, which reached the front line units in July 1940, received an uprated engine, the improved Rolls-Royce Merlin III, which could deliver up to 1,310 hp (977 kW) with 100 octane fuel and +12 psi boost. With the standard 87 Octane fuel, engine performance did not improve much beyond the Merlin II's figures, though.

 

A more streamlined radiator bath was fitted, too, and altogether these measures boosted top speed to 371 mph (597 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m). This was a considerable improvement, and the contemporary Hurricane II achieved only 340 mph (547 km/h).

 

Despite this improvement, though, several fundamental weak points of the Swallow remained unsolved: its limited range could not be boosted beyond 300 miles (500 km) and the light machine gun armament remained unchanged, because the Swallow’s thin wings hardly offered more space for heavier weapons or useful external stores like drop tanks.

 

Despite these shortcomings, the pilots loved their agile fighter, which was described as an updated Hawker Fury biplane fighter and less of a direct competitor to the Hurricane. After War had been declared, the crews flew the early Mk.I well against the more experienced Luftwaffe fighters, and many of these aircraft were updated to Mk. IA standard.

 

Since the type was not operated in large numbers, Swallow aces were few. One of them was Flight Lieutenant Killian Murphy, an Irish Volunteer and Pilot of JX-M of RAF No. 1 Squadron. He scored two of his total 24 kills in a Mk. I, and 8 more in a Mk. II from August 1940 on. The initial scores were a Bf 109E and a Ju87, both shot down during the evacuation of Dunkirk. Most of his later victories were scored during the defense of London, before the squadron was completely re-equipped in early 1941 with Hurricane Mk. IIs and later Typhoons, rather focusing on ground attack and interdiction missions on Continental Europe.

 

Some work was done to improve the Swallow, but with limited success. For instance, in early 1941 a Swallow Mk. II was modified to carry a pair of 20mm Hispano cannons instead of the inner pair of machine guns. Due to the thin wings, this option necessitated bulged fairings and a modified internal structure for the cannons' ammunition drums, but the additional firepower was welcomed and led to the Swallow Mk. III, which was introduced in August 1941. It was the final production variant, still powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin III from the swallow Mk. II. Beyond the armament changes, the wing tips were clipped in order to improve roll characteristics at low and medium altitude. Otherwise the Mk. III was virtually identical to the earlier Mk. II.

 

Another Mk. II was experimentally converted with a lowered spine and a framed bubble canopy (reminiscent of the Hawker Typhoon's design), but this experiment did not reach production status. The Swallow had already reached its limited development potential.

 

Since the Supermarine Spitfire had in the meantime proven its worth and promised a much bigger development potential, production of the Avro Swallow already ceased in late 1942 after 435 aircraft had been built. Around the same time, the Swallow was quickly phased out from front-line service, too.

 

Several machines were retained as trainers, messenger aircraft or instructional airframes. 20 late production Mk. IIs were sold to the Irish Air Corps, and a further 50 aircraft were sent to Canada as advanced fighter trainers, where they served until the end of the hostilities in 1945.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 8.57 m (28 ft 1 in)

Wingspan: 10.85 m (35 ft 7 in)

Height: 2.60 m (8 ft 6 in)

Wing area: 17.00 m² (183 ft²)

Empty weight: 1,690 kg (3,726 lb)

Gross weight: 2,200 kg (4,850 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce Merlin III liquid-cooled V-12, rated at 1,310 hp (977 kW) at 9,000 ft (2,700 m)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 371 mph (597 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m)

Range: 320 miles (515 km)

Service ceiling: 36,000 ft (10,970 m)

Rate of climb: 2,780 ft/min (14.1 m/s)

Wing loading: 29.8 lb/ft² (121.9 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.15 hp/lb (0.25 kW/kg)

 

Armament:

8× 0.303” (7,7mm) Browning machine guns with 350 RPG in the outer wings

  

The kit and its assembly:

Another entry to the Battle of Britain Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and this time a collaboration. This fictional machine – or better: the model – is based on a 2D profile conceived by fellow forum member nighthunter: an Avia B.135, outfitted with a Merlin engine, a ventral radiator in the style of a Hawker Hurricane, and carrying RAF markings.

 

Since I had a spare B.35 sans engine left over from the recent Fokker D.XXIII conversion, I used the opportunity to take the virtual design to the hardware stage!

 

The basis is a vintage KP Models kit of the early B.35 fighter with a fixed landing gear. It’s a sleek and pretty aircraft, but the kit’s quality is rather so-so. Details are good, you get a mix of engraved and raised surface details, but fit is mediocre and there is lots of flash. But, with some effort, things can be mended.

 

Many donation parts for the Swallow, including the engine, propeller, landing gear and radiator, come from an AZ Models Spitfire Mk. I/II/V, from a recently bought Joy Pack which comes with three of these kits without decals.

 

New landing gear wells had to be drilled into the massive lower wing halves. Since the original Swallow profile did not indicate the landing gear design, I went for an inward-retracting solution, using parts from an early Spitfire. Due to the oil cooler in one of the wing roots, though, the stance ended up a little wide… The Merlin fitted very well onto the B.35 fuselage, and, inside of the cockpit, I added a tank behind the seat in order to fill the OOB void there.

 

Another internal change I made is the installation of my trademark propeller adapter: a styrene tube inside of the fuselage that holds a long metal axis with the propeller, so that it can spin freely.

  

Painting and markings:

Very conservative, but IMHO a good match for this fictional fighter: Standard RAF colors in Dark Green/Dark Earth (both enamels from the Modelmaster Authentic line), nothing fancy, and I had the profile as benchmark for what I wanted to achieve. Since the plane is placed historically in August 1940, Sky was about to be introduced, but only gradually and sometimes with “different” tones. Therefore, I painted the underside with Humbrol 23, Duck Egg Blue, and also added roundels under the wings.

 

The code letters should have been Medium Sea Grey, but the profile showed white letters – so I stuck with that, and AFAIK there had been exceptions to the rule. The code letters came from an Xtradecal RAF white letter sheet. Roundels and fin flash come from various sources, including a Matchbox Brewster Buffalo and a Trumpeter P-40C. The serial number was improvised, too.

 

As personal markings I painted a green shamrock under the cockpit on port side, while a list of air combat scores came under the starboard cockpit side (in style with the original profile). A green ring on the spinner was added, too, inspired by the real world No. 1 Squadron’s JX-B, flown by Arthur Clowes. His machine carried a bee nose art and a yellow spinner ring: for every victory, the bee would receive a new stripe, and he achieved eight during his career.

 

Some light weathering and panel shading was done, as well as some light soot stains around the exhausts and the gun ports on the wings. Finally, everything sealed under a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Revell), which unfortunately turned white in some seams! :-/

  

The Avro Swallow looked already promising in nighthunter's profile, almost like a missing link between the sturdy Hurricane and the more glorious Spitfire.

A quick build, but a conversion that has to be kept in mind, because the result looks so convincing! Seeing the completed aircraft, I am amazed how good this thing looks overall, with its elegant, oval wings and the sleek fuselage lines. Nice one! :D

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

Due to increasing tensions in Europe which led to World War 2, AVRO Aircraft started developing combat aircraft, and as a subsidiary of Hawker, they had access to the Hurricane plans. At the time that the Hurricane was developed, RAF Fighter Command consisted of just 13 squadrons, each equipped with either the Hawker Fury, Hawker Demon, or the Bristol Bulldog – all of them biplanes with fixed-pitch wooden propellers and non-retractable undercarriages. After the Hurricane's first flight, Avro started working on a more refined and lighter aircraft, resulting in a similar if not higher top speed and improved maneuverability.

 

The result was Avro’s project 675, also known as the "Swallow". The aircraft’s profile resembled the Hawker Hurricane, but appeared more squatted and streamlined, almost like a race version. Compared with the Hurricane, overall dimensions were reduced and the structure lightened wherever possible. The wings were much thinner, too, and their shape reminded of the Supermarine Spitfire’s famous oval wings. The main landing gear was retractable and had a wide track. The tail wheel was semi-retractable on the prototype, but it was later replaced by a simpler, fixed tail wheel on production models.

 

The Swallow made its first flight on 30th December 1937 and the Royal Air Force was so impressed by its performance against the Hurricane that they ordered production to start immediately, after a few minor tweaks to certain parts of the aircraft had been made.

 

On 25 July 1939, the RAF accepted their first delivery of Avro Swallow Mk. Is. The first machines were allocated to No.1 Squadron, at the time based in France, where they were used in parallel to the Hurricanes for evaluation. These early machines were powered by a 1.030 hp (770 kW) Rolls-Royce Merlin Mk II liquid-cooled V-12, driving a wooden two-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller. The light aircraft achieved an impressive top speed of 347 mph (301 kn, 558 km/h) in level flight – the bigger and heavier Hurricane achieved only 314 mph (506 km/h) with a similar engine. Like the Hurricane, the Swallow was armed with eight unsynchronized 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in the outer wings, outside of the propeller disc.

 

In spring 1940, Avro upgraded the serial production Swallow Mk.I's to Mk.IA standard: the original wooden propeller was replaced by a de Havilland or Rotol constant speed metal propeller with three blades, which considerably improved field performance. Many aircraft were retrofitted with this update in the field workshops until summer 1940.

 

In parallel, production switched to the Swallow Mk. II: This new version, which reached the front line units in July 1940, received an uprated engine, the improved Rolls-Royce Merlin III, which could deliver up to 1,310 hp (977 kW) with 100 octane fuel and +12 psi boost. With the standard 87 Octane fuel, engine performance did not improve much beyond the Merlin II's figures, though.

 

A more streamlined radiator bath was fitted, too, and altogether these measures boosted top speed to 371 mph (597 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m). This was a considerable improvement, and the contemporary Hurricane II achieved only 340 mph (547 km/h).

 

Despite this improvement, though, several fundamental weak points of the Swallow remained unsolved: its limited range could not be boosted beyond 300 miles (500 km) and the light machine gun armament remained unchanged, because the Swallow’s thin wings hardly offered more space for heavier weapons or useful external stores like drop tanks.

 

Despite these shortcomings, the pilots loved their agile fighter, which was described as an updated Hawker Fury biplane fighter and less of a direct competitor to the Hurricane. After War had been declared, the crews flew the early Mk.I well against the more experienced Luftwaffe fighters, and many of these aircraft were updated to Mk. IA standard.

 

Since the type was not operated in large numbers, Swallow aces were few. One of them was Flight Lieutenant Killian Murphy, an Irish Volunteer and Pilot of JX-M of RAF No. 1 Squadron. He scored two of his total 24 kills in a Mk. I, and 8 more in a Mk. II from August 1940 on. The initial scores were a Bf 109E and a Ju87, both shot down during the evacuation of Dunkirk. Most of his later victories were scored during the defense of London, before the squadron was completely re-equipped in early 1941 with Hurricane Mk. IIs and later Typhoons, rather focusing on ground attack and interdiction missions on Continental Europe.

 

Some work was done to improve the Swallow, but with limited success. For instance, in early 1941 a Swallow Mk. II was modified to carry a pair of 20mm Hispano cannons instead of the inner pair of machine guns. Due to the thin wings, this option necessitated bulged fairings and a modified internal structure for the cannons' ammunition drums, but the additional firepower was welcomed and led to the Swallow Mk. III, which was introduced in August 1941. It was the final production variant, still powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin III from the swallow Mk. II. Beyond the armament changes, the wing tips were clipped in order to improve roll characteristics at low and medium altitude. Otherwise the Mk. III was virtually identical to the earlier Mk. II.

 

Another Mk. II was experimentally converted with a lowered spine and a framed bubble canopy (reminiscent of the Hawker Typhoon's design), but this experiment did not reach production status. The Swallow had already reached its limited development potential.

 

Since the Supermarine Spitfire had in the meantime proven its worth and promised a much bigger development potential, production of the Avro Swallow already ceased in late 1942 after 435 aircraft had been built. Around the same time, the Swallow was quickly phased out from front-line service, too.

 

Several machines were retained as trainers, messenger aircraft or instructional airframes. 20 late production Mk. IIs were sold to the Irish Air Corps, and a further 50 aircraft were sent to Canada as advanced fighter trainers, where they served until the end of the hostilities in 1945.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 8.57 m (28 ft 1 in)

Wingspan: 10.85 m (35 ft 7 in)

Height: 2.60 m (8 ft 6 in)

Wing area: 17.00 m² (183 ft²)

Empty weight: 1,690 kg (3,726 lb)

Gross weight: 2,200 kg (4,850 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce Merlin III liquid-cooled V-12, rated at 1,310 hp (977 kW) at 9,000 ft (2,700 m)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 371 mph (597 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,096 m)

Range: 320 miles (515 km)

Service ceiling: 36,000 ft (10,970 m)

Rate of climb: 2,780 ft/min (14.1 m/s)

Wing loading: 29.8 lb/ft² (121.9 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.15 hp/lb (0.25 kW/kg)

 

Armament:

8× 0.303” (7,7mm) Browning machine guns with 350 RPG in the outer wings

  

The kit and its assembly:

Another entry to the Battle of Britain Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and this time a collaboration. This fictional machine – or better: the model – is based on a 2D profile conceived by fellow forum member nighthunter: an Avia B.135, outfitted with a Merlin engine, a ventral radiator in the style of a Hawker Hurricane, and carrying RAF markings.

 

Since I had a spare B.35 sans engine left over from the recent Fokker D.XXIII conversion, I used the opportunity to take the virtual design to the hardware stage!

 

The basis is a vintage KP Models kit of the early B.35 fighter with a fixed landing gear. It’s a sleek and pretty aircraft, but the kit’s quality is rather so-so. Details are good, you get a mix of engraved and raised surface details, but fit is mediocre and there is lots of flash. But, with some effort, things can be mended.

 

Many donation parts for the Swallow, including the engine, propeller, landing gear and radiator, come from an AZ Models Spitfire Mk. I/II/V, from a recently bought Joy Pack which comes with three of these kits without decals.

 

New landing gear wells had to be drilled into the massive lower wing halves. Since the original Swallow profile did not indicate the landing gear design, I went for an inward-retracting solution, using parts from an early Spitfire. Due to the oil cooler in one of the wing roots, though, the stance ended up a little wide… The Merlin fitted very well onto the B.35 fuselage, and, inside of the cockpit, I added a tank behind the seat in order to fill the OOB void there.

 

Another internal change I made is the installation of my trademark propeller adapter: a styrene tube inside of the fuselage that holds a long metal axis with the propeller, so that it can spin freely.

  

Painting and markings:

Very conservative, but IMHO a good match for this fictional fighter: Standard RAF colors in Dark Green/Dark Earth (both enamels from the Modelmaster Authentic line), nothing fancy, and I had the profile as benchmark for what I wanted to achieve. Since the plane is placed historically in August 1940, Sky was about to be introduced, but only gradually and sometimes with “different” tones. Therefore, I painted the underside with Humbrol 23, Duck Egg Blue, and also added roundels under the wings.

 

The code letters should have been Medium Sea Grey, but the profile showed white letters – so I stuck with that, and AFAIK there had been exceptions to the rule. The code letters came from an Xtradecal RAF white letter sheet. Roundels and fin flash come from various sources, including a Matchbox Brewster Buffalo and a Trumpeter P-40C. The serial number was improvised, too.

 

As personal markings I painted a green shamrock under the cockpit on port side, while a list of air combat scores came under the starboard cockpit side (in style with the original profile). A green ring on the spinner was added, too, inspired by the real world No. 1 Squadron’s JX-B, flown by Arthur Clowes. His machine carried a bee nose art and a yellow spinner ring: for every victory, the bee would receive a new stripe, and he achieved eight during his career.

 

Some light weathering and panel shading was done, as well as some light soot stains around the exhausts and the gun ports on the wings. Finally, everything sealed under a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Revell), which unfortunately turned white in some seams! :-/

  

The Avro Swallow looked already promising in nighthunter's profile, almost like a missing link between the sturdy Hurricane and the more glorious Spitfire.

A quick build, but a conversion that has to be kept in mind, because the result looks so convincing! Seeing the completed aircraft, I am amazed how good this thing looks overall, with its elegant, oval wings and the sleek fuselage lines. Nice one! :D