Interesting Dead Person of the Day

[houseisland]

Egil at Wikipedia


910-990 AD -- Egil Skallagrimson was one of Iceland's more interesting historical characters. In addition to being a farmer and a lawyer, he was a highly skilled and fearless killer, one who had started young, performing his first axe murder at the age of six. He was also an extremely talented skaldic poet. Both his poetic and murderous talents found service with English kings -- poetry in court -- berserk fierce killing on the battlefield. He was in many ways the archetypal Viking adventurer.

His story is told in Egil's Saga.

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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

[houseisland]

The Execution of Tupac Amaru

If you wish to have some understanding of current events in South America (as in Bolivia for example), it is helpful to have an understanding of the past.

The story of Tupac Amaru is most enlightening. See:
Tupac Amaru, The Life, Times, and Execution of the Last Inca by James Q. Jacobs

The story explains much about the resentment felt by the aboriginal peoples of the Andes. Tupac Amaru led the last Inca revolt against the Spanish during the early years of occupation. He was captured in 1572 and executed. Some two hundred years later, his great-grandson led another rebellion against colonial authorities. He too was captured and executed.

The situation for native people was bad.

From Wikipedia:

"In Cuzco in 1589, the last survivor of the original conquerors of Peru, Don Mancio Serra de Leguisamo, wrote in the preamble of his will the following in parts:

'We found these kingdoms in such good order, and the said Incas governed them in such wise [manner] that throughout them there was not a thief, nor a vicious man, nor an adulteress, nor was a bad woman admitted among them, nor were there immoral people. The men had honest and useful occupations. The lands, forests, mines, pastures, houses and all kinds of products were regulated and distributed in such sort that each one knew his property without any other person seizing it or occupying it, nor were there law suits respecting it...the motive which obliges me to make this statement is the discharge of my conscience, as I find myself guilty. For we have destroyed by our evil example, the people who had such a government as was enjoyed by these natives. They were so free from the committal of crimes or excesses, as well men as women, that the Indian who had 100,000 pesos worth of gold or silver in his house, left it open merely placing a small stick against the door, as a sign that its master was out. With that, according to their custom, no one could enter or take anything that was there. When they saw that we put locks and keys on our doors, they supposed that it was from fear of them, that they might not kill us, but not because they believed that anyone would steal the property of another. So that when they found that we had thieves among us, and men who sought to make their daughters commit sin, they despised us.' (Markham 300)"

As bad as things had been for native people under colonial rule, they only got worse with independence from Spain.

It was not until the liberal/leftist military juntas of the late 1960s that any attempt at redress was made.

The weight of history on the land is oppressive.

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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

[El_Squid]

Ah, how we do love to romanticize our native cultures! Not defending the Spaniards in any way. They were brutal, greedy, lying, back-stabbing conquerors. But, the Incas, Aztecs, etc. were not quite as innocent as we would like to believe. I refer you to your #9 entry on this thread, Juanita the human sacrifice, for example. The native peoples of America were simply the victims of superior technology and politics, wielded by the Europeans. (That, and horses.)

No Empire was ever built by a peaceful people. The Incas, Aztecs, Olmecs, Mayas all built their Empires on the blood and bodies of other tribes, whom history has forgotten. Who knows what really went down back in those pre-Columbian days, when those cultures got their start?

Was the great Quetzal, in reality, a lost, wandering Viking? Will the rest of the North American tribes ever get a chance to stomp the hell out of the Crow? Are puppies really tasty? I don't know; go ask Stalemate.

[El_Squid]

You gotta love Rasputin! Drugged, poisoned, strangled, shot and stabbed, but dies due to drowning when they try to dispose of the body in the Neva river. Illiterate, hard-drinking womanizer, who claims to have faith healing powers and visions from God, he is like Pat Robertson, Ted Kennedy and Larry, the Cable Guy, all rolled into one!

Rasputin

What a guy! (in my best Yakov Smirnoff voice)

[houseisland]

Ah, how we do love to romanticize our native cultures! Not defending the Spaniards in any way. They were brutal, greedy, lying, back-stabbing conquerors. But, the Incas, Aztecs, etc. were not quite as innocent as we would like to believe.

Indeed. Indeed. That fact that you are right doesn't make Tupac Amaru any less interesting, though. Nor does it deny him the status of being dead. Nor does it dismiss his iconic status. Nor does it diminish the illumination his story provides on the discontent of Quechua and Aymara peoples.

The Incas governed like the king in Monty Python's Happy Valley where everyone was happy because all the malcontents had been put to death years ago.

There are documented acts of genocide in North America that on a relative scale make the actions of Hitler and his minions seem like the innocent pranks of high-spirited boy scouts.

The sacredness of nature? Well... where are all the wooly mamoths, giant ground sloths, and giant land tortises that once inhabited North America? Hunted into extinction?... No! Say it ain't so!

If I go on, NooNoo will move this thread into politicos.
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

[houseisland]

You gotta love Rasputin! ...... he is like Pat Robertson, Ted Kennedy and Larry, the Cable Guy, all rolled into one!

You missed Charlie Manson in your list.

[El_Squid]

You missed Charlie Manson in your list.

I wouldn't associate Rasputin with that scuzz bag. Rasputin didn't kill anyone, or have any of his minions kill anyone. He was just out to have a really good time. I mean, how often does a peasant get a chance to party with the elitest of the aristocrats?

[houseisland]

Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battuta at Wikipedia


"Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battuta (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد ابن بطوطة) (born February 24, 1304; year of death uncertain, possibly 1368 or 1377) was born in Tangier, Morocco during the time of Merinid Sultanate rule in the Islamic calendar year 703, into a Berber family. He was a Sunni Islamic scholar and jurisprudent from the Maliki Madhhab (a school of Fiqh, or Sunni Islamic law), and at times a Qadi or judge. However, he is best known as an extensive traveller or explorer, whose account documents his travels and side-excursions over a period of almost thirty years, covering some 73,000 miles (117,000 km). This journeying covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world, extending also to present-day India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and China, a distance readily surpassing that of his prior, near-contemporary and traveller Marco Polo."

Further Reading:

http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sc...uta_Rihla.html

http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/ibn-battuta/

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sourc...bnbattuta.html

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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

[houseisland]

Emilie du Châtelet (1706-1749)

Emilie du Châtelet was a beautiful, vivacious woman.

She was also brilliant.

Perhaps most importantly she was a "big picture" visionary in Physics, one who could pull together the research and theories of others and then synthesize them into something larger. She formalized the understanding of the relationship between engery and mass and velocity thus laying important ground work for Albert Einstein's big equation, E=MC2.

Her lover, Voltaire, said with some irony that she would have been "the greatest of men."

From PBS: "Du Châtelet was one of the leading interpreters of modern physics in Europe as well as a master of mathematics, linguistics, and the art of courtship. But there was one thing she couldn't control. In April of 1749, she wrote to Voltaire, 'I am pregnant and you can imagine ... how much I fear for my health, even for my life ... giving birth at the age of forty.' She didn't rage at the clear incompetence of her era's doctors; she just said to Voltaire that it was sad leaving before she was ready.

She survived the birth the next fall, but infection set in, and within a week she died. Voltaire was beside himself: 'I have lost the half of myself—a soul for which mine was made.'"

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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

[houseisland]

Hildegard of Bingen
at Wikipedia

September 16, 1098 – September 17, 1179

Hilegard was a woman of noble background. Her family gave her to the church as a tithe at the age of 8.

As a nun, she was noted as a mystic visionary. She was a prolific author, writing on subjects ranging from theology to natural history. She was also musically gifted and her surviving compositions form the largest body of mediaeval music from a single composer.

Feminist scholarship has increased her fame and popularity in recent years. In addition to the note of her many accomplishments, Hildegard provides "the earliest description of sexual pleasure from the point of view of a woman."

Further reading

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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

[houseisland]

Snorri Sturluson at Wikipedia

1178 – September 23, 1241

Iceland was the last European country to convert to Christianity, which it did in about 1000. The conversion was largely diplomatic and in actual practice was only partial.

Iceland was physically distant and isolated from Rome and thus did not fall under the same clerical scrutiny as did more readily accessible countries. Even two centuries after conversion, it was possible to have an antiquarian interest in pagan religion and mythology without risking being burned at the stake. As a result of this all, Iceland became the repository for pretty much everything that we know about the pre-Christian belief systems and (non-physical) culture of Germanic peoples.

The person responsible for documenting much of what we know was Snorri Sturluson. He was twice the Law Speaker at the Icelandic Parliament -- the Law Speaker was the living repository of common law, a person trained to memorize the judicial history of the people. He was also the author of the Prose Edda which is a rationalized narrative of Norse (Germanic) mythology. He also wrote a history of Norse kings, and he may have written Egil's Saga.

Snorri was also a politician, and his involvement in a rebellion against the King of Norway led to his assasination in 1241.

Further reading


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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

[Stalemate]

...Are puppies really tasty? I don't know; go ask Stalemate.

Ew.

[El_Squid]

Ew.

Maybe we need to ask an Arapaho, then?

[houseisland]

Socates at Wikipedia

June 4, ca. 469 BC – May 7, 399 BC

What we know of Socrates is from second hand sources, mostly from the writings of his pupil, Plato. Socrates was physically tough, and he was fearless; stories of his service in the Athenian army and the manner in which he faced his death bear this out. He was homo- or bi-sexual, which may have been either a natural or a cultural inclination; he was married and fathered three children, but also appeared to have a large appetite for young men. He was also fond of alcohol, which again may have either a natural or a cultural inclination. The imprint of his thought on Western culture is broad and deep -- Socratic dialectics, for example, provide the basis for methods of critical thought such as "the scientific method." He is also the corner stone of western education: he was mentor to Plato, who in turn was the mentor of Aristotle and so on; and Plato's school, the Academy, was the model upon which western universities were based as they developed from the middle ages onward.

Further reading

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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

[houseisland]

No time for a dead person tomorrow. So I'll do tomorrow's today.

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Bede at Wikipedia

ca. 672 or 673 – May 27, 735

Bede entered a monestary at Wearmouth at the age of seven. He lead a productive scholarly life writing on a wide variety of subjects, theology, music, science, chronology, linguistics, and history. He was also a textual scholar, and his edition of the Vulgate Bible was used by the Catholic Church until the 1960s. He is credited with with devising the BC/AD system of dating and with improving the accuracy of the Gregorian calendar. He also argued that the earth was round.

His history of the English people, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, is one of the few existing primary sources for Anglo Saxon history.


Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum

One of the more interesting passages from this work is "The Conversion of Edwin."

From: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/bede1.html

[Edwin, the king of Northumbria, urged by his Christian wife Ethelberga, and by the bishop Paulinus,] answered that he was both willing and bound to receive the new faith which the bishop taught, but that he wished, nevertheless, to confer about it with his principal friends and counselors, to the end that, if they also were of his opinion, they might all be cleansed together in Christ, the Fount of Life. Paulinus consenting, the king did as he said; for holding a council with the wise men, he asked of every one in particular what he thought of the new doctrine and the new worship that was preached.

To which the chief of his priests, Coifi, immediately answered: "O king, consider what this is which is now preached to us; for verily I declare to you that the religion which we have hitherto professed has, as far as I can learn, no virtue in it. For none of your people has applied himself more diligently to the worship of our gods than I; and yet there are many who receive greater favors from you, and are more preferred than I, and who are more prosperous in all their undertakings. Now if the gods were good for anything, they would rather forward me who has been more careful to serve them. It follows, therefore, that if upon examination you find those new doctrines which are now preached to us better and more efficacious, we should immediately receive them without any delay' "

Another of the king's chief men, approving of Coifi's words and exhortations, presently added: " The present life man, O king, seems to me, in comparison with that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter amid your officers and ministers, with a good fire in the midst whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door and immediately another, whilst he is within is safe from the wintry but after a short space of fair weather he immediately vanishes out of your sight into the dark winter from which he has emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space but of what went before or what is to follow we are ignorant. If, therefore, this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed.'

The other elders and king's counselors, by divine inspiration, spoke to the same effect., But Coifi added that he, wished more attentively to hear Paulinus' discourse concerning the God whom he preached. So the bishop having spoken by the king's command at greater length, Coifi, hearing his words,- cried out: "I have long since been sensible that there was nothing in that which we worshiped, because the more diligently I sought after truth in that worship the less I found it. But now I freely confess that such evident, truth appears in this preaching as can confer on us the gifts of life, of salvation, and of eternal happiness. For which reason I advise, O king, that we instantly abjure and set fire to those temples and altars which we have consecrated out reaping any benefits from them."

In short, the king publicly gave his permission to Paulinus to preach the gospel, and, renouncing idolatry, declare he received the faith of Christ: and when he inquired high priest who should first profane the altars and temples of their idols, with the enclosures that were about them, the high priest answered, ,I; for who can more properly than myself destroy those things which I worshiped through ignorance, for an example to all others, through the wisdom which been given me by the true God ? "

Then immediately, in contempt of his former superstitions, desired the king to furnish him with arms and a stallion, and mounting the latter, he set out to destroy the idols ; for it was not lawful before for the high priest either to carry arms or to ride on any beast but a mare. Having, therefore, girt on a sword and carrying a spear in his hand, he mounted the king's stallion and proceeded to the idols. The multitude, beholding him, concluded he was distracted; but he lost no time, for as soon as he drew near the temple he profaned the same, casting into it the spear which he held. And rejoicing in the knowledge of the worship of the true God, he commanded his companions to destroy the temple, with all its enclosures, by fire.

This place where the idols were is still shown, not far from York, to the eastward, beyond the river Derwent, and is now called Godmundingham; where the high priest, by the inspiration of the true God, profaned and destroyed the altars which he had himself consecrated.


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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!