Original Legend Research Articles

Al-Khamsa: The Prophet’s Mares - Or Were They Stallions?

Arab(ian) horse enthusiasts perpetuate an origin legend for the breed that counts five foundational mares in relation to Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Challenging both the concept of a gender preference for mares among Bedouin and/or Arab people in the early Islamic empire as well as the popular historiography of the Arab horse as a Bedouin breed promoted by Islam and in particular its prophet, this paper contextualises Al-Khamsa (the five) as evidence of matrilineal horse breeding strategy by surveying premodern Arabic material on horses.

The language of history-writing in the ninth century: an entangled approach

ABSTRACT This article explores the language in which history was written in ninth-century Britain and Ireland, focusing on accounts concerned with origins. It takes an entangled approach to the written vernacular and is concerned with how insular history-writing, whether in a vernacular language or Latin, was an integral part of a wider Latinate European story. Differences in language choice come more clearly into view, facilitating the exploration of the development of vernacular writing and the theory and practice of vernacularisation. The discussion is structured around three case studies, spanning Wales, Ireland and England. What emerges through comparative study is that linguistic theorisation and multilingual interactions both shaped language choice and were themes of the origin legends themselves, whether explicitly or implicitly. The need for vernacular languages, just like Latin, to have sustained institutional support in order to flourish is also underlined.

The Transtextual Gender Construction in the Opera Madame White Snake

The opera Madame White Snake (hereafter Madame), co-commissioned by Opera Boston and Beijing Music Festival, premiered at Boston Cutler Majestic Theater in February 2010. It was the first commissioned opera by Opera Boston.1 Based on the story from the famous Chinese ancient myth Bai She Zhuan 2 (in Chinese: 白蛇传), this opera’s libretto was created by a Singaporean American librettist, who has shed the story’s “traditional skin and taking on modern trappings” (Smith, 2019: 27) on purpose. When sniffing at male librettists’ discourses about female characters’ vulnerable and tragic lives in their operas, opera Madame’s initiator and librettist Cerise Lim Jacobs argues that women should seize the initiative to make their own decisions in life. The white snake, in her mind, ought to be a whole woman who is powerful and demonic, and yet, is also nurturing and caring, is capable of deep and intense love. In the first section of this article, I introduce the original legend’s background and the story outline in its operatic adaptation; I also trace back the opera’s commissioning process. After providing the background information of the story and the operatic version, then, in the second section I analyze the opera in terms of its transtextual figural gender construction in her characterization through comparative studies of the white and green snakes’ images from the sources of literary works, traditional xiqu scripts and operatic librettos. Referring to Lim’s personal growth and migrating history, as well as she and her husband co-founded charitable foundation’s missions and its recent IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) opera grant program partnering with Opera America, I aim to examine her gender construction of the “female” roles in the opera from the perspectives of feminism, interracial marriage; and heterosexual, transsexual, and homosexual relationships.

Falra hányt betűk: késő gótikus falikrónikák a középkori Magyarországon

During the 15th and 16th centuries, a number of long inscriptions were painted on the walls of parish churches in the territory of the medieval Hungarian Kingdom. The first known example is in the St Elisabeth’s of Kassa (Kaschau, Košice, Slovakia). The earlier inscription in the north-east chapel describes the events between 1387 and 1439 while it is continued in the south transept with a political manifestation on the side of the new-born King Ladislas V, opposed by Wladislas I. Another wall-chronicle is readable in the entrance hall of the St James’ in Lőcse (Leutschau, Levoča, Slovakia). Here the inscription, dated to ca 1500, commemorates events between 1431 and 1494, including local fires and diseases, the coronation of Ladisla V and Wladislas II and the royal meeting of John Albert of Poland and Wladislas II of Hungary held at the city in 1494. On the other side of the entrance hall, a detailed Last Judgement was painted, as the final act of world history. The inscriptions of Lőcse are usually interpreted as a manifestation of the local identity of the Saxons in the Szepes (Zips, Spiš, Slovakia) region, enjoying special privileges. This is probably also true for the second group of wall-chronicles, to be found in Transylvania in the important Saxon towns. The only surviving example is in Szeben (Hermannstadt, Sibiu, Romania), in the gallery of the western hall (Ferula). Beside some national events (coronation of King Matthias, death of Louis II) it is dealing with Transylvanian affairs between 1409 and 1566. A similar chronicle has been documented in Brassó (Kronstadt, Braşov, Romania), which started the narrative with the immigration of the Saxons and ended with 1571, with a special attention to the Ottoman wars. Unfortunately the inscriptions have been covered after the fire of 1689. Other wall-chronicles are documented by secondary sources in Segesvár (Säsßburg, Sighișoara), Medgyes (Mediasch, Mediaș), Beszterce (Bistritz, Bistrița), Muzsna (Meschen, Moșna), Baráthely (Pretai, Brateiu) and Ecel (Hetzeldorf, Ațel, all in Romania). While all these were written in Latin, a Hungarian inscription has been preserved in the Calvinist church of Berekeresztúr (Bâra, Romania) in the Szeklerland from the early 17th century. Although a misunderstanding of the sources led some scholars to suppose an inscription or an images cycle with secular content in Buda, these passages refer in reality to the Franciscan friary at Chambery. In international comparison, the Gothic wall-chronicles seem to be a rarity; the best example is known from the cathedral of Genoa, where the rebuilding of the cathedral in the early 14th century is connected to the legendary origin of the city, counterbalancing the civil war between the citizens.Decorating the walls of churches with letters instead of images is certainly aniconic, but not necessarily un-pretentious. Letters always play a decorative function whenever written on the walls. The letters, especially for the illiterate people, was a special type of ornament. Nevertheless, inscriptions, as far as their letters are readable and languages are understandable, tend to be informative. Interpreting their content depends on different levels of literacy. But they work for all as visual symbols. The longish Latin wall chronicles of Late Gothic parish churches were probably understood by the rich patricians; but the large surfaces close to the entrances might have been meaningful for all others who recognized their significance in local identity-building. The illiterate local people of the Protestant villages were unable to decipher the exact meaning of the inscriptions, even if they were in their native Hungarian language. However, these letters were necessarily eloquent for the entire community: the fact itself that there are letters decorating the walls instead of images was meaningful, reflecting the transformation of Christian culture. The letters themselves, legible or not, had a symbolic value which can be decoded taking into consideration their location, forms and context.

The Ruin: An Old English Mnemonic?

Despite the generally accepted scholarly opinion that the three rhetorical manuals describing the method of loci and its accompanying origin legend were unknown in early medieval England (i.e. Rhetorica ad Herennium, Cicero’s De oratore, and Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria), I argue that the Old English poem, The Ruin, suggests otherwise. By examining the features that overlap between the method of loci as described in these rhetorical texts, Mary Carruthers’ argument for a uniquely “monastic memoria” that was ubiquitous in the early medieval period, and The Ruin, I suggest that the Rhetorica ad Herennium provides a good accounting for some of the oddly specific descriptive details the poem is best known for. Moreover, as the poem is fundamentally concerned with the power of remembering to bring order to chaos, The Ruin bears a striking resemblance to the origin legend of the method of loci. Evidence of the influence of the method of loci and its origin legend on Old English literature requires that we rethink how well the extant manuscript record represents both the state of learning in, and the transfer of knowledge throughout, early medieval Britain.

Corrigendum: Mesozooplankton and Micronekton Active Carbon Transport in Contrasting Eddies

In the original article, there was a mistake in the legend for Table S-3 as published. Units were not included in the original table legend. The correct legend appears below. Table S-3. Length to weight relationships used to calculate carbon weight (CW; in mg) for micronekton captured in the MIDOC. Lengths are reported as either total length (TL) or standard length (SL) in millimeters. Additionally, there was a mistake in Table S-3 as published.We have re-configured some of the equations within the table to add clarity for those that wish to apply these equations with their own data. In the original table the wet weight to carbon conversions on some of the equations were improperly placed. The corrected Table S-3 appears below. The authors apologize for these errors and state that they do not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated.

The Durham Latin Prose "Brut" to 1347 with a Continuation to 1348: A Nationalistic Chronicle of England and Its Manuscripts

This article re-examines the unedited Durham Latin Prose "Brut" chronicle and its manuscript tradition in light of the discovery of a previously unknown manuscript. The Durham "Brut" covers the history of England from its legendary origins through the English victories over Scotland and France in 1346–47. The chronicle's later years are related to those in two other important late-medieval chronicles, the Anonimalle Chronicle and the Lanercost Chronicle, and for a short section of John of Washington's later chronicle. Only one witness of the Durham "Brut" was known until 2011, when another was identified with a 1347–48 continuation in a seventeenth-century hand. This article identifies an additional medieval witness that also includes the continuation. This article examines all three manuscripts together to track their development through both layout and a word by word comparison of a section of the text (Edward III's 1346 invasion of Normandy). This article will serve as a starting point for future editors of this neglected but important chronicle, written during a time of great change in English culture and national identity.

Монгольский хаган как сын Бога

Extensive Mongol conquests in the 13th century led to a clash of different cultures and necessitated the translation of concepts from one culture to another. One of them discussed in this article was the concept of Son of God, which most likely goes back to the Chinese Son of Heaven. The Mongols practically did not use Chinese political and philosophical terminology, but it seems to have existed in their Empire thanks to Kitan advisers along with the native steppe notions. In communications with Christians, the Mongols used the phrase Son of God in relation to their khagans, especially Genghis Khan, which, of course, was perceived by Christians very negatively, since in their culture this epithet could only belong to Jesus Christ. The article attempts to trace the use of this concept in Mongolian diplomacy in the middle of the XIII century — the period of the highest power of the Mongol Empire. The author concludes that, despite the legend of the heavenly origin of their ancestors, neither Genghis Khan nor the other great khans had this title officially. It appears sporadically in diplomatic correspondence and chronicles, and only in late medieval Mongol historiography does it become a permanent epithet of deified Genghis Khan.

ПОЛЬСЬКЕ РОЗТОЧЧЯ: ПОТЕНЦІАЛ УКРАЇНСЬКО-ПОЛЬСЬКОЇ СПІВПРАЦІ У СФЕРІ РЕКРЕАЦІЇ ТА ТУРИЗМУ

The recreational and tourist potential of Roztocze, a region in the south-east of Poland, bordering on Ukraine, its tourist specialization and opportunities for the development of cooperation with Ukraine in the field of recreation and tourism have been revealed. The resource base of the Roztocze region for the formation of its modern tourist specialization, in particular, gastronomic, urban, rural green, pedestrian, literary, historical- cognitive and military types of tourism has been studied. The specifics of gastronomic tourism in the region, which is based on a rather specific agricultural base of Roztocze, are revealed. The poor nature of Polissya and economic underdevelopment in the past led to a low standard of living for the local population, which was reflected in its food preferences. The main ingredients of Roztocze cuisine are porridge, cheese, sauerkraut, and peas, but now they are at a high price due to their health benefits. It is noted that there are no meat and sweet dishes among the delicacies of Roztocze, which reflects the standard of living and nutrition of the population of this region in the past. So, the most famous Roztocze “delicacy” – a cake with onion (Polish – cebularz), but now this dish of local misery has become a Polish pride, as it was the first product of the Lublin Voivodeship, which received the Protected Geographical Indication of the European Union. Today it is the first product that is recommended to tourists upon arrival in Roztocze. Interesting are other dishes of local cuisine – Roztochan borsch, which locals call Ukrainian, cakes made of flour and water, potato pancakes with dough with potatoes and eggs, local dumplings, stuffed with buckwheat porridge and cheese, Roztochan cutlets, which are made from buckwheat porridge, cheese, and potatoes. The simple and healthy nature of Roztocze cuisine included restrictions on the consumption of sweets. The range of gastronomy of Roztocze can be found at local gastronomic festivals, such as Galician Fair “Tastes of Roztocze” in Narol, local product festival in Zamost, Lublin meetings with hunting tradition and culture in Zwierzyniec, the festival of Kresy Meals in Bashnya Dolna, etc. Tourist resources of the main cities of Roztocze – Zamost, Tomaszow Lubelski, Szczebrzeszyn have been revealed. Routes of military and bicycle tourism on the basis of visiting of fortifications of so-called Molotov lines, which have survived in large numbers in Roztocze are offered. The legendary origin of Swedish table style, connected with war experience of the city of Zamosc during Mideveal times is revealed. Tank battle place from II World War near the city of Tomaszow Lubelski is considered a great tourist attraction. The city of Szczebrzeszyn is a place of all Poland Literature Festival. Touristic routes connect Zamosc and Tomaszow Lubelski with the Ukrainian city of Lviv. Local Polish tourist firms propose tours of sentimental tourism to Ukrainian historic cities of Kamianets-Podilskiy and Kremenets and also to Chernobyl zone.

Genealogical Researches of Karpiai Family: the Possibilities Evaluation of Prosopography Researches

Karpiai – a famous noble family of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – are distinguished by their political and educative activities. The family’s influence is most markedly observed in the 18th–19th centuries, when the most famous and active members of the Karpiai family had lived. This family has not received plenty of scholarly attention, though from time to time new studies do spring up. Almost all of them are oriented to analyzing the activities of separate members of the Karpiai family, while the family’s origin and genealogy researches are scarce. Recently, prosopography has been found to be a very promising method for analyzing noble families. It analyzes the person, their environment, social position, career, power amassment, political influence, and other factors, researching bonds between individuals and constantly evaluating them in an interplay aspect. Besides, in prospect, a prosopographic analysis creates an ideal base for a person’s historical biographical research. This article returns to the beginning of the Karpiai family, studies the theories regarding its legendary origin and the appearance of their progenitor’s in the Grand Duchy, and explains how the recent researches of the Karpiai family’s origin lay the foundation for productive prosopographic researches. Since in prosopography one of the most important methods is the genealogical one, this article discusses the topic of genealogical tree researches of the Karpiai family.

Lech’s Supposed Origins in Croatia: Regarding the Identification of the Rivers Huy and Krupa in the Works of Jan Długosz and Maciej of Miechów

The present article is a further contribution to the debate on the famous late medieval and early Renaissance narrative of the legendary origins of the Poles. The paper focuses on the legendary castle of ‘Psary’ — the ‘ancestral home’ of Prince Lech, that is on the geographical information given by chroniclers Jan Długosz and Maciej of Miechów in their writings. The author dismisses the identification of ‘Psary’ with Krapina or Pharos (Starigrad on the island of Hvar), arguing that ‘Psary’ was the medieval Minor Pset most likely located on top of Pušačko Hill (Pušačko brdo) in the vicinity of the late medieval castle Krupa (present-day Bosanska Krupa in Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Correction: SIRT2 regulates NF-κB-dependent gene expression through deacetylation of p65 Lys310 (doi:10.1242/jcs.073783).

There was an error in J. Cell Sci. (2010) 123, 4251-4258 (doi:10.1242/jcs.073783).The journal was informed that the p65 and myc (p65) blots in Fig. 1A,B are identical to those shown in fig. 3A,B of another paper by the same authors in BMC Genomics (2010) 11, 22 (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-11-22). The authors explained that the data in the two figures validate the specificity of antibodies generated against different acetylated lysines of p65 and originate from the same experiment, meaning that use of the same controls is justified. Although the BMC Genomics paper was referenced and discussed, the authors should have stated in the legend for Fig. 1 that these control blots were reproduced from their earlier paper. The corrected and original legends are shown below and the online full-text and PDF versions of the paper have been updated.The authors apologise to readers for this omission, which does not impact the results or conclusions of the paper.

Solving an historical puzzle: Radiocarbon dating the Capitoline she wolf

The Capitoline she wolf is a Bronze statue located at the “Capitoline Museums” in Rome, Italy. The extraordinary cultural and symbolic importance of the statue is mainly related to the myth of the Capitoline she wolf and to the legendary origin of the city of Rome. Though traditionally considered an Etruscan bronze, recently a much more recent age was suggested on the base of consideration related to the used casting technique. In this paper we present the results of an AMS radiocarbon dating campaign carried out on the organic residues found in the casting cores recovered from the inner part of the statue. The obtained results firmly anchor the statue to the XI-XII centuries CE, in the Middle Ages.

CHRONICLING THE MEROVINGIANS IN HEBREW: THE EARLY MEDIEVAL CHAPTERS OF YOSEF HA-KOHEN'SDIVREI HAYAMIM

Yosef Ha-Kohen (1496–ca. 1575) was a Jewish Italian physician and intellectual who in 1554 published a chronicle in Hebrew titledSefer Divrei Hayamim lemalkei Tzarfat ulemalkei Beit Otoman haTogar, orThe Book of Histories of the Kings of France and of the Kings of Ottoman Turkey. It was, as its name suggests, a history told from the perspective of two nations, the French and the Turks. Ha-Kohen begins his narrative with a discussion of the legendary origins of the Franks and the history of their first royal dynasty, the Merovingians. This composition is unique among late medieval and early modern Jewish works of historiography for its universal scope, and even more so for its treatment of early medieval history. For this part of the work, Ha-Kohen relied extensively on non-Jewish works, which themselves relied on still earlier chronicles composed throughout the early Middle Ages. Ha-Kohen thus became a unique link in a long chain of chroniclers who worked and adopted Merovingian material to suit their authorial agendas. This article considers how the telling of Merovingian history was transformed in the process, especially as it was adapted for a sixteenth-century Jewish audience.

Amor y tragedia en cuatro historias de guerra del siglo XX: Erich Maria Remarque, Ernest Hemingway. ¿Tristán e Isolda revisitado?

La influencia en Occidente de un imaginario del amor trágico, desde Tristán e Isolda hasta nuestros días, se exhibe en las diferentes declinaciones del mito, desde el amor-pasión o amour fou hasta los acentos populares del melodrama, con su lógica repetitiva del obstáculo. Un empleo de la fatalidad inscripta en la trama amorosa arquetípica parece potenciar, en un sentido inesperado en principio, la capacidad de denuncia de ciertas novelas célebres del siglo XX sobre el tema de la guerra. Tales connotaciones podrían arrojar luz sobre la importancia de la dimensión de enfrentamiento entre individuo y sociedad contenida en la leyenda originaria.

Provins as an example of a “live museum”

The article concerns the history, revalorisation and accessibility of the cultural heritage in the historic town of Provins, located to the southwest of Paris. The town was founded in the early medieval period, and in the 12th and 13th century it was one of the most prominent fair towns in Champagne. Many valuable monuments of that period have survived until the present time, such as the urban layout, the defensive walls, the Cesar tower supposedly relating to the legendary origins of the town dating back to the Roman period, churches and relics of residential buildings. In 2001, the above mentioned buildings were appreciated and distinguished by the UNESCO Committee which inscribed Provins in the World Heritage List. This distinction is not merely a matter of pride for the local authorities, but also an obligation to properly maintain the historic heritage, to revalorise it constantly and to educate the community regarding the protection of the town heritage. It must be stated that the authorities perfectly fulfil their responsibilities, which is worth presenting in this article to set an example of proper cultural heritage management for other historic towns.

Ñaimlap, the Birds, and the Sea: Viewing an Ancient Peruvian Legend through the Lens of Onomastics

Among the most intriguing oral testimonies of the late pre-Hispanic cultures of the Peruvian North Coast are the legends of origin that the Spanish were still able to record. In this article, we explore the names of the (mythological) first rulers and their associates which figure in one particularly famous North-Coast legend, that of Ñaimlap, the mythological founder of Lambayeque. We show that the name of Ñaimlap, as well as those of his courtiers and successors, can be attributed to the Mochica language. We also provide, to the extent possible, etymologies. Two names of the Ñaimlap dynasty, those of the dynastic founder Ñaimlap himself and his grandson Escuñain, reveal avian associations, while that of one of his officers, Ñina Cala, shows maritime connections. Both aspects match the structure of the Ñaimlap myth, in which the ruler arrives from a foreign land via a sea route.

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Alphabetizing the Nation: Medieval British Origins in Thomas Elyot's Dictionary

Reading Thomas Elyot's Dictionary, this essay examines the legacy of medieval chronicle and fable for the early modern period. Elyot's influential work, here considered in its 1542 edition as Bibliotheca Eliotae, contains entries for both “Albion” and “Britannia,” topics which plunged the work straight into the problematic inheritance of Galfridian history, recently discredited at Henry VIII's court by the Italian humanist Polydore Vergil. Elyot presents, only to dismiss, medieval legendary origins for Albion and Britain, using what he calls similitudo to find alternative explanations. His dictionary thereby transforms misleading medieval fables into something more “fitting” for England in the early days of the Reformation. Yet similitude remains problematic for Elyot; replacing the medieval Brutus legend with a story that privileges the humanist reconstruction of the illegible fragments of the past, Elyot does not avoid uncomfortable reminiscences of the senseless destruction of past cultural objects.

Latin America: the next region for haematopoietic transplant progress.

Correction to: Bone Marrow Transplantation (2017) 52, 671–677; doi:10.1038/bmt.2016.361; published online 23 January 2017 Since the online publication of this article, the authors realised there were errors in the legends for Figures 1 and 2. The original legend for Figure 1 was: ‘Reasons for auto (left) (N=2057) and allotransplants (right) (N=1206).