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VIKINGS EINHERJAR – THE CHOSEN ONES Kenneth Dunn History 115 Professor Gordon â€Å"Never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race. †¦ Behold, the church of St. Cuthbert, spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples." - Alcuin of York, in a letter to Ethelred, King of Northumbria in England. Vikings were a truly diverse and fascinating people. As they rode the waves of the Atlantic Ocean to many different lands, the warriors struck terror into the hearts of people throughout the many countries they raided. Just the sight of the long, carved beasts at the bows of their ships slinking toward the shores through the mist was enough weaken even the strongest soul. However, while being vicious, inhumane barbarians, a different lifestyle prevailed in their homelands as they faced the same daily struggles as any other society. They were farmers, traders, explorers, and accomplished shipbuilders. There followed laws and customs for which there were punishments if those laws were not followed. They prayed to their Gods and loved their families. In the end, the Vikings traveled over most of the world and left a lasting impression that still excites our imaginations to this day. Social Structure and Aspects of Everyday Life of the Vikings By Wendy Latimore Vikings were a fierce and barbaric society†¦.or were they? Most Vikings were farmers and traders. They hunted and fished and grew the foods they needed to sustain their families. According to Ingmar Jansson, a professor of archaeology at Stockholm University in Sweden, "The Norsemen were not just warriors, they were farmers, artists, shipbuilders, and innovators. More than anything, they were excellent traders who connected peoples fr... ...Viking Heritage 2005, viking.hgo.se/Files/VikHeri/Viking_Age/end.html, retrieved June 15, 2005. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Edited by Peter Sawyer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. The Viking Network. The Vikings: Who Were the Vikings: Everyday Life: Viking Women. http://www.viking.no/e/life/ewomen.htm. 15 April 2000. (retrieved June 29, 2005) Travel Through the Ireland Story . . . The Vikings, www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/pre_norman/history/vikings.html, retrieved June 16, 2005. â€Å"Vikings,† Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2005, encarta.msn.com 1997-2005. Microsoft Corporation. â€Å"Viking Religion† BBCi History. bbc.co.uk/history/ 2001. British Broadcasting Corporation. Siddorn, K., Williamson R. Viking Ship Building, http://www.regia.org/ships/Ships1.htm. â€Å"Vikings.† Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 1997-2005. encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761561500_1____5/Vikings.html#s5 retrieved June 21, 2005. Viking Traveling Rout[e]s, www.arild-hauge.com/eraids.htm, retrieved June 16, 2005.

Ethnic Background Essay

My name is Stephanie Flowers and until this class assignment I never thoughtfully considered what my actual ethnic background was. After looking up the meaning of my last name I found it to be of Welsh origin. This means that I could possibility trace my family roots back to Great Britain. After reading chapter one of Race and Ethnic Relations I discovered that being a part of a certain ethnic background does not mean that you have to be part of that race, but you have to practice the common cultural traditions of that subculture. So based off of my name some people might think that I was English. I grew up with a few household traditions that I consider to be a part of my ethnic background. To begin with, I would consider my family to practice Irish traditions. We always have huge St. Patrick’s Day party at my house that turns into an all-day drinking and eating celebration. I might not know all the reasons behind this celebration and what I consider a part of my family tradition, but it is still a part of my ethnic background in my opinion. Drinking is a big part of being Irish and in my family most celebrations do involve some type of alcohol. In Irish culture it is normal to introduce alcohol to children before the actual drinking age, I think this is good because we grow up with this around us and never take consumption of alcohol to extremes because it such a part of everyday life. I am would also consider myself to be of German ethnicity. My family has a good luck tradition for New Years. We eat pork roast and sauerkraut in hopes that the next year will be filled with lots of happiness and joy. I personally love this tradition and get upset when I sometimes only get to eat this meal once a year. It is one of my top five meals to eat that my grandma cooks. Being from the United States of America I do think that I have picked up so many different traditions from all of the friends that I have had throughout my life. This is why I love living in this country I get to experience so many different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. My boyfriend is of the Catholic religion, his family maintains this culture by attending mass for Christmas, Easter, and whenever they feel the need strengthen their relationship with god. This is the way that they maintain their ethnic background. They are a common group of people who believe the idea that they all share the share cultural heritage. This stems from his Irish background where Catholicism is the main religion practiced in that country. So to me this is the way to stay in touch with being from Ireland even though they now live in America. My cousin Rachael is half Mexican. Her mom was an immigrant and came to this country to start a better life. I love getting to go to their house in Texas; her mom makes the best Mexican dishes. What I have noticed from her Mexican culture and ethnicity is that food is a way of bringing the family together, it is a time of bonding in their household. I believe that by cooking traditional Mexican food it keeps her in touch with her roots and makes her feel better connected to her homeland. After doing this assignment I am very interested in doing more research on my family roots and discovering more about who and where I came from. Like it says on the Ancestry. com commercial, â€Å"you don’t have to know what you’re looking for; you just have to start looking. † So that’s what I am going to start doing. Also, I would like to conduct interviews with the elderly people in my family and possibility start filling out my family tree, which would be an easy way to connect the dots of my family history. I will still continue to maintain my Irish and German background by drinking on St. Patrick’s Day and eating pork roast and sauerkraut. I am very proud to be an American and I wish I didn’t take all of the rights that I have in this country for granite.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Review

Mrs. Dalloway is a complex and compelling modernist novel by  Virginia Woolf. It is a wonderful study of its principal characters. The novel enters into the consciousness of the people it takes as it subjects, creating a powerful, psychologically authentic effect. Although quite rightly numbered amongst the most famed modernist writers — such as Proust,  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Joyce, and  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Lawrence — Woolf is often considered to be a much gentler artist, lacking the darkness of the male contingent of the movement. With Mrs. Dalloway, though, Woolf created a visceral and unyielding vision of madness and a haunting descent into its depths. Overview Mrs. Dalloway follows a set of characters as they go about their lives on a normal day. The eponymous character, Clarissa Dalloway, does simple things: she buys some flowers, walks in a park, is visited by an old friend and throws a party. She speaks to a man who was once in love with her, and who still believes that she settled by marrying her politician husband. She talks to a female friend with whom she was once in love. Then, in the final pages of the book, she hears about a poor lost soul who threw himself from a doctors window onto a line of railings. Septimus This man is the second character central in Mrs. Dalloway. His name is Septimus Smith. Shell-shocked after his experiences in  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹World War I, he is a so-called madman who hears voices. He was once in love with a fellow soldier named Evans--a ghost who haunts him throughout the novel. His infirmity is rooted in his fear and his repression of this forbidden love. Finally, tired of a world that he believes is false and unreal, he commits suicide. The two characters whose experiences form the core of the novel — Clarissa and Septimus — share a number of similarities. In fact, Woolf saw Clarissa and Septimus as more like two different aspects of the same person, and the linkage between the two is emphasized by a series of stylistic repetitions and mirrorings. Unbeknownst to Clarissa and Septimus, their paths cross a number of times throughout the day — just as some of the situations in their lives followed similar paths.Clarissa and Septimus were in love with a person of their own sex, and both repressed their loves because of their social situations. Even as their lives mirror, parallel, and cross — Clarissa and Septimus take different paths in the final moments of the novel. Both are existentially insecure in the worlds they inhabit — one chooses life, while the other commits suicide. A Note on Style of Mrs. Dalloway Woolfs style — she is one of the most foremost proponents of what has become known as stream of consciousness — allows readers into the minds and hearts of her characters. She also incorporates a level of psychological realism that Victorian novels were never able to achieve. The every day is seen in a new light: internal processes are opened up in her prose, memories compete for attention, thoughts arise unprompted, and the deeply significant and the utterly trivial are treated with equal importance. Woolfs prose is also enormously poetic. She has a very special ability to make the ordinary ebb and flow of the mind sing.Mrs. Dalloway is linguistically inventive, but the novel also has an enormous amount to say about its characters. Woolf handles their situations with dignity and respect. As she studies Septimus and his deterioration into madness, we see a portrait that draws considerably from Woolfs own experiences. Woolfs stream of consciousness-style leads us to expe rience the madness. We hear the competing voices of sanity and insanity. Woolfs vision of madness does not dismiss Septimus as a person with a biological defect. She treats the consciousness of the madman as something apart, valuable in itself, and something from which the wonderful tapestry of her novel could be woven.