Joseph de Ca'th Lon and ClaireFontaine have arrived in Verona this morning, where they will attend the opening ceremony of the ParalympicGames today.The two friends have been to Maria Enzasduaf and Kufstein this week, before arriving in this beautiful city in Veneto from where they will travel to the different places to enjoy such a spectacular sporting spectacle as the Paralympic Games.
Meanwhile, The Grandma continues in Denmark. She arrived in Københavnwith Veles e Vents by AusiàsMarch and couldn't leave Roskilde without visiting the Vikingeskibsmuseet, an extraordinary museum that transports you throughout the history of the Vikings, who, just like Ausiàs March did in the Mediterranean, set out to sail, discover and live in places far from Scandinavian lands.
Vikingeskibsmuseet is a must-see to understand the Scandinavian past and present, a culture that has influenced the rest of Europe and part of North America much more than we will ever imagine.
For The Grandma, who loves the sea and sailing madly, being able to visit this museum is an indescribable pleasure, especially the part where they teach how these magnificent and majestic ships were made.
How do you take a piece of this culture with you? Some small souvenirs, a great book and a nice sweatshirt are not enough. Nothing is enough.
This evening, she will travel by train to Malmö, Sweden where she will stay for the weekend before returning to Barcelona, where on Monday afternoon she will have a training session with future trainers in Castelldefels.
Vikingeskibsmuseet (Viking Ship Museum) in Roskilde is Denmark's national ship museum for ships of the prehistoric and medieval period.
The main focus of the museum is a permanent exhibition of the Skuldelev ships,five original Viking ships excavated nearby in 1962.
The Viking Ship Museum also conducts research and educates researchers in the fields of maritime history, marine archaeology and experimental archaeology. Various academic conferences are held here and there is a research library in association with the museum.
Around the year 1070, five Viking ships were deliberately sunk at Skuldelev in Roskilde Fjord in order to block the most important fairway and to protect Roskilde from an enemy attack from the sea. These ships, later known as the Skuldelev ships, were excavated in 1962. They turned out to be five different types of ships ranging from cargo ships to ships of war.
The Viking Ship Museum overlooking the inlet of Roskilde Fjord was built in 1969 with the main purpose of exhibiting the five newly discovered Skuldelev ships.
The original Skuldelev Viking ships are the main focus of the museum, but a small exhibition about the Roskilde ships and various temporary exhibitions with a broader scope can also be experienced here.
In the late 1990s, excavations for the shipyard expansion of the Viking Ship Museum uncovered the remains of a further nine ships, the Roskilde ships, from the medieval period. It is the largest such discovery of ships in Northern Europe. Most of these are from the period just after the Viking Age, 1060-1350 AD, but Roskilde 6 is from 1025 AD and is the longest Viking ship ever found; about 37 m long. All except Roskilde 8 have been excavated and their remains are at the National Museum of Denmark.
The Viking Ship Museum has a long tradition of Viking ship reconstructions and boat building and also collects boats of interest from all over Scandinavia.
The boat collection at the museum now comprise more than 40 vessels and the associated ship building yard is constantly building new ships by original methods as part of an experimental archaeology learning process. It is possible to follow or engage in the ship building process here. The shipyard is located on a small isle known as Museumsøen (Museum Island), connected to the main museum exhibition buildings by a drawbridge.
Every summer, a handful of boats are launched for extended sea voyages to accumulate more knowledge about the seafaring techniques and conditions of the Vikings.
Today, the day dawned with a few clouds in København. The Grandma has takenthe train to Roskilde. It's a 25-minute journey, enough to accompany them with a good read. She has chosenSommerfugledalen: Etrequiem by IngerChristensen, a Scandinavian author for whom TheGrandma feels true devotion and whom she had the pleasure of meeting in person in Rome eight years ago.
Inger Christensen was a woman with a passionate personality and what excites The Grandma most about her poetry is the use of mathematical patterns (such as the Fibonacci sequence or combinatorial systems) that make you, as a reader, feel that language grows like a natural organism. And indeed, it does.
Inger Christensen shows how individual existence is part of an immense order where plants, animals, humans, language and the universe function as a network of interconnections, as the Mallorcan philosopher Ramon Llull said in the 13th century.
Inger Christensen's work is based on the philosophical idea that language not only describes the world, but also creates it. Her poems often seem like experiments with reality, as if she were trying to discover how far language can go to explain existence, and for this reason, these poems explore the contradiction between order (patterns, mathematics, language) and chaos (war, destruction, entropy) and this is amazing.
It is difficult to highlight one work above the rest as a whole, but today TheGrandma has decided to highlight Sommerfugledalen: Et requiem, a cycle of sonnets about butterflies and mortality, where it talks about how the beauty of nature coexists with the awareness of the fragility of life.
The butterfly is a mythological insect for many cultures. Diderot's Encyclopédie cites them as a symbol of the soul. Accordingly, the ancient Greek word for butterfly is ψυχή (psȳchē), which primarily means soul or mind. In some cultures, butterflies symbolize reincarnation. In Japan, the butterfly is seen as the personification of a person's soul; whether alive, dying, or already dead. In China, however, it symbolizes love, in an image similar to that of the Western heart. In many countries it is an allegory of beauty and fragility, which is why it is a metaphorical image of young women. Her life is also a symbol of transformation and change; coming out of the chrysalis to become better. In Devon, England, people rush to kill the first butterfly of the year to avoid a year of bad luck. In the Philippines, a persistent black butterfly or moth in the house means a death in the family. Several states in the United States of America have chosen the butterfly as their state insect.
For this reason, the so-called butterfly effect is an image to explain that everything is related and as Inger Christensen and Ramon Llull said, the universe works as a network of interconnections.
And while The Grandma was reading Sommerfugledalen: Et requiem, she has arrived at her destination, Roskilde, where an intense morning of work awaits her, with another vital network for territorial development: the railway.
Inger Christensen (16 January 1935-2 January 2009) was a Danish poet, novelist, essayist and editor. She is considered the foremost Danish poetic experimentalist of her generation.
Born in the town of Vejle, on the eastern Jutland coast of Denmark, Christensen's father was a tailor, and her mother a cook before her marriage. After graduating from Vejle Gymnasium, she moved to Copenhagen and, later, to Århus, studying at the Teachers' College there. She received her certificate in 1958. During this same period, Christensen began publishing poems in the journal Hvedekorn, and was guided by the noted Danish poet and critic Poul Borum (1934-1996), whom she married in 1959 and divorced in 1976.
After teaching at the College for Arts in Holbæk from 1963 to 1964, she turned to writing full-time, producing two of her major early collections, Lys (1962) and Græs (1963), both examining the limits of self-knowledge and the role of language inperception. Her most acclaimed work of the 1960s, however, was It, which, on one level, explored social, political and aesthetic issues, but more deeply probed large philosophical questions of meaning. The work, almost incantatory in tone, opposes issues such as fear and love and power and powerlessness.
In these years Christensen also published two novels, Evighedsmaskinen (1964) and Azorno (1967), as well as a shorter fiction on the Italian Renaissance painter Mantegna, presented from the viewpoint of various narrators (Mantegna's secretary Marsilio, the Turkish princess Farfalla, and Mantagena's young son), Det malede Værelse (1976, translated into English as The Painted Room by Denise Newman and published by Harvill Press in 2000).
Much of Christensen's work was organized upon systemic structures in accordance with her belief that poetry is not truth and not even the dreamof truth, but is a game,maybe a tragic game -the game we play with a world that plays its own game with us.
In the 1981 poetry collection Alfabet, Christensen used the alphabet (from a ["apricots"] to n ["nights"]) along with the Fibonacci mathematical sequence in which the next number is the sum of the two previous ones (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34...). As she explained: The numerical ratios exist in nature: the way a leek wraps around itself from the inside, and the head of a snowflower, are both based on this series. Her system ends on the n, suggesting many possible meanings including n's significance as any whole number. As with It, however, despite its highly structured elements this work is a poetically evocative series concerned with oppositions such as an outpouring of the joy of the world counterposed with the fears for and forces poised for its destruction.
Sommerfugledalen of 1991 (Butterfly Valley: A Requiem, 2004) explores through the sonnet structure the fragility of life and mortality, ending in a kind of transformation. It consists of 15 sonnets and is a so-called sonnet redoublé.
Christensen also wrote works for children, plays, radio pieces, and numerous essays, the most notable of which were collected in her book Hemmelighedstilstanden (The State of Secrecy) in 2000.
In 1978, she was appointed to the Royal Danish Academy; in 1994, she became a member of the Académie Européenne de Poésie; in 2001, a member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin. She won the Grand Prix des Biennales Internationales de Poésie in 1991. She received the Rungstedlund Award in 1991, Derösterreichische Staatspreis für Literature in 1994; in 1994, she won the Swedish Academy Nordic Prize, known as the little Nobel; the European Poetry Prize in 1995; The America Award in 2001; the German Siegfried Unseld Preis in 2006; and received numerous other distinctions.
Her works have been translated into several languages, and she was frequently mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The complete Butterfly valley has been set twice by two Danish composers, Niels Rosing-Schow and Svend Nielsen. Both versions were, separately, recorded by Ars Nova Copenhagen with poetry reading by the poet.
Happiness is the change that comes over me when I describe the world. It comes over the world. Happiness is the change that comes over me when I'm afraid. It comes over the world. For instance I can be afraid of and for the world afraid because the world consists among other things of me so swiftly dying.
Today, The Grandma has woken up early because she had a busy morning of work ahead of her. The day has been sunny with a temperature no higher than 6 degrees, but a feeling of cold, strangely, more bearable than that of the last cloudy week in Barcelona or Lleida. So, before meeting her friends, she has decided to enjoy a wonderful local breakfast tasting rugbrødand smørrebrød. They are two excellent Danish products you must taste.
It is a very different breakfast than the bread with tomato she is used to, but Danish food is irresistible and we all know that one of the best things about travelling is enjoying culture, history and gastronomy.
Thanks a lot Aage, Anders, Benedikte and Ida for your warm welcome
and for making The Grandma always feel like she was at home.
Visiting København is always a great pleasure.
Rugbrød is a very common form of rye bread from Denmark. Rugbrød usually resembles a long brown extruded rectangle, no more than 12 cm high, and 30 to 35 cm long, depending on the bread pan in which it is baked. The basic ingredient is rye flour which will produce a plain or old-fashioned bread of uniform, somewhat heavy structure, but the most popular versions today contain whole grains (cracked or chopped rye kernels) and often other seeds such as sunflower seeds, linseeds or pumpkin seeds. Most Danes eat rugbrød every day.
The dough may be made exclusively with rye flour or contain up to one third whole rye grains. A small amount of wheat flour, sugar or molasses is often added to adjust the taste or because contrary to former times wheat flour is cheaper than rye.
Rugbrød was the major staple of most of the population until potatoes became widespread during the late 19th century, and even up to the 1950s, Danes ate much larger amounts of rugbrød than today. It has been discussed why this bread type prevailed better in Denmark than other Northern European countries.
Rugbrød is implied in the colloquial Danish term for serving prison time, på vand og brød (on water and bread). Until 1933, prisoners could in some circumstances be punished with an allowance of only water, a fixed amount of rugbrød, salt and possibly lard.
Rugbrød is regarded somewhat difficult for home baking. Apart from the sourdough preparation, the loaves must not be leavened for too long, or else the taste can become excessively sour, with the relatively pungent acetic acid taking the lead over milder-tasting lactic acid, and enzymes can cause the gluten (protein structure) and starches to degrade and collapse, creating cavities or dense lumps inside the bread or even causing it to shrink during or after baking. Rarely, recipes replace some of the water with ale or beer, but this is not necessary to create the characteristic sourdough taste.
Sourdough is almost always used for the base dough, as commercial yeasts are unsuitable. The naturally fermented dough will develop a Lactobacillus culture in symbiotic combination with naturally present yeasts. It is essential in baking rye-based breads because the chemistry of rye flour produces an environment that is acidic. The most commonly present yeast species in the production of naturally leavened dough is Saccharomyces exiguus, which is more acid-tolerant than commercially produced S. cerevisiae, although the latter and other strains may also be present. Research has shown that when creating a naturally fermented starter, any naturally present S. cerevisiae will have died off after a few days. Sourdough is thus a stable culture of lactic acid bacteria and yeast in a mixture of flour and water. The yeast produces carbon dioxide which leavens the dough, and the bacteria produces lactic acid which contributes flavor. The bacteria metabolizes sugars that the yeast cannot, and the yeast metabolizes byproducts of bacterial fermentation. Commercially produced yeast will not accomplish these processes in rye flour.
Rugbrød contains little or no added oils and is low in fat. Additional flavourings, other than salt, can include barley malt syrup or sugar. The bread is rich in protein and dietary fiber and not very sweet, unlike Swedish and German rye bread.
Buttered rugbrød is essentially the base for Danish open sandwich smørrebrød.
Smørrebrød, smørbrød in Norwegian and smörgås in Swedish, is a traditional open-faced sandwich in the cuisines of Denmark, Norway and Sweden that usually consists of a piece of buttered rugbrød (a dense, dark rye bread) topped with commercial or homemade cold cuts, pieces of meat or fish, cheese or spreads, and garnishes.
Bread is a very important part of the Scandinavian diet, primarily rugbrød, which is sourdough rye bread. It is a dark, heavy bread which is often bought sliced, in varieties from light-coloured rye to very dark, and from refined to whole-grain. Some toppings are served on franskbrød (French bread), a very light, crusty wheat bread. The bread is usually buttered, though for some variants, a spread of lard is customary.
Traditional toppings include pickled herring (plain, spiced or curried), slightly sweeter than Dutch or German herring; thinly sliced cheese in many varieties; sliced cucumber, tomato and boiled eggs; pork liver-paste; dozens of types of cured or processed meat in thin slices, or smoked fish such as salmon; mackerel in tomato sauce; pickled cucumber; boiled egg, and rings of red onion. Mayonnaise mixed with peas, sliced boiled asparagus and diced carrot, called italiensk salat (Italian salad), remoulade or other thick sauces often top the layered open sandwich, which is usually eaten with utensils. It is customary to pass the dish of sliced bread around the table, and then to pass around each dish of toppings, from which people help themselves.
More festive meals can be loosely divided into courses: fish toppings first (such as herring, shrimp, or smoked salmon) followed by cold cuts and salads, and finally cheese with bread or crackers and fruit. One or several warm dishes are often served with the meats on special occasions, such as breaded plaice filet, fried medister sausage, frikadeller with pickled red cabbage, or mørbradbøf (pork tenderloin with sauteed onions or a creamy mushroom sauce).
Today, The Grandma hasarrivedin Københavnwhere she will be staying until Friday for work. She has just arrived in time to watch the Northern Star, who has a very important match at DatenpolArena in Maria Enzasduaf (Mödling, Lower Austria), where there are two luxury spectators: Joseph de Ca'th Lon and ClaireFontaine.
During the flight from Barcelona to København, The Grandma has been reading Ausiàs March, on the 567th anniversary of his death, the Valencianpoet who so excellently sang of love and the art of sailing, an art shared with the Scandinavian inhabitants with whom TheGrandma will spend a few days sharing work projects and cultural experiences.
Perhaps one of the best-known poems of Ausiàs March is Veles e vents, a beauty one that expresses the inner struggle of the lover, especially the conflict between reason and love passion.
Ausiàs March uses the nautical metaphor (the winds, the sea, the ship) to represent his state of mind: the rough sea symbolizes his tormented heart; the contrary winds represent the opposing feelings that dominate him and the ship is himself, who tries to stay on course in the midst of emotional disorder.
Love is seen by Ausiàs March as a powerful and contradictory force that causes torment and instability; doubt and inner contradiction and emotional dependence. As in all his love poems, Ausiàs March expresses an intense, deep and often painful vision of love, very characteristic of his work.
Ausiàs March (1397-March 3, 1459) was a Valencian poet and knight from Gandia, València. He is considered one of the most important poets of the Golden Centuryof Catalan literature.
Not much is known of March's life. He was born in approximately 1400 to a Valencian noble family. His father, Pere March, was himself a poet and served at the court of the younger brother of King Alfonso IV, Pere. His uncle, Jaume March II, was also a poet. March was one of the two children of Pere's second wife, Lionor of Ripoll; he had a younger sister, Peirona.
In 1413, the still-young March became head of his family -part of the Valencian petty nobility- upon the death of his father. From a very young age he took part in the expeditions that King Alfons el Magnànim carried out in the Mediterranean. After returning from these expeditions in 1427, he settled in Gandia. After his return, he would never again leave the region where he was born. March was twice married: first to Isabel Martorell (sister of the writer Joanot Martorell), and later to Joana Escorna.
In 1450, he moved from Gandia to Valencia. It was there that he died on March 3, 1459. While March himself was buried in his family's chapel at the Valencia Cathedral, his two wives and family are buried in the Monastery of Sant Jeroni de Cotalba. Five illegitimate children but no legitimate heirs have been attributed to him.
Inheriting an easy fortune from his father, Pere March -the treasurer to the Duke of Gandia- and enjoying the powerful patronage of Carles of Viana, prince of Aragon, March was able to devote himself to poetical composition.
He was an undisguised follower of Petrarch, carrying the imitation to such a point that he addressed his Cants d'amor (Love songs) to a lady whom he professed to have seen first in church on Good Friday. So far as the difference of language allows, he reproduced the rhythmical cadences of his model, but this should be qualified as the medieval tradition of locus communis requested this following. This is something Petrarch himself did and it need not to be stressed.
March is a very original and idiosyncratic poet.
In the Cants de mort (Death hymns) he touches a note of brooding sentiment peculiar to himself. It can be said that he developed Petrarch's rhetoric and used it for more inner psychological meditations, as other major poets such a Camões and Shakespeare would.
March was one of the first poets to use the local vernacular, Catalan, instead of the troubadour language, Occitan. His poems are marked by obscurity, a sometimes monotonous morbidity, and a conflicting battle between desire and morality, achieved at its apex in the great Cant Spiritual.
He was fully entitled to the supremacy which he enjoyed among his contemporaries, and the success of his innovation no doubt encouraged Boscán to introduce the Italian metres into Castilian.
March's poetry has been set to music by different composers.
Veles e vents han mos desigs complir
faent camins dubtosos per la mar. Mestre i ponent contra d’ells veig armar: xaloc, llevant los deuen subvenir ab llurs amics lo grec e lo migjorn, fent humils precs al vent tramuntanal que en son bufar los sia parcial e que tots cinc complesquen mon retorn.
Bullirà·l mar com la cassola en forn, mudant color e l'estat natural, e mostrarà voler tota res mal que sobre si atur un punt al jorn. Grans e pocs peixs a recors correran e cercaran amagatalls secrets; fugint al mar on són nodrits e fets, per gran remei en terra eixiran.
Los pelegrins tots ensems votaran e prometran molts dons de cera fets; la gran paor traurà al llum los secrets que al confés descoberts no seran. En lo perill no·m caureu de l'esment, ans votaré al Déu qui·ns ha lligats de no minvar mes fermes voluntats e que tots temps me sereu de present.
Jo tem la mort per no ser-vos absent, perquè amor per mort és anul·lats; mas jo no creu que mon voler sobrats pusca ésser per tal departiment. Jo só gelós de vostre escàs voler que, jo morint, no meta mi en oblit. Sol est pensar me tol del món delit car, nós vivint, no creu se pusca fer: aprés ma mort d'amar perdau poder e sia tost en ira convertit, e jo, forçat d’aquest món ser eixit, tot lo meu mal serà vós no veer. Oh Déu, ¿per què terme no hi ha en amor, car prop d'aquell jo·m trobara tot sol? Vostre voler sabera quant me vol, tement, fiant, de tot l'avenidor.
Jo són aquell pus extrem amador aprés d'aquell a qui Déu vida tol. Puis jo són viu, mon cor no mostra dol tant com la mort per sa extrema dolor. A bé o mal d'amor jo só dispost, mas per mon fat fortuna cas no·m porta. Tot esvetlat, ab desbarrada porta, me trobarà faent humil respost. Jo desig ço que·m porà ser gran cost i aquest esper de molts mals m'aconhorta. A mi no plau ma vida ser estorta d’un cas molt fer, qual prec Déu sia tost; lladoncs les gents no·ls calrà donar fe al que amor fora mi obrarà; lo seu poder en acte·s mostrarà e los meus dits ab los fets provaré.
Amor, de vós jo·n sent més que no·n sé, de què la part pijor me'n romandrà, e de vós sap lo qui sens vós està. A joc de daus vos acompararé.
Sails and winds shall fulfill my deep longings, forging uncertain paths along the sea. Mistral and Ponent rise up against them; Sirocco and Levanter must then resist, with stalwart allies Gregal and Noonday, making humble plea to wind Transmontane to lend them favor with her billowing that, as one, five might aid my swift return.
The sea will boil like a crock on the flame, transforming her natural color and shape; she will reveal how she distains all that seek her refuge even for a moment. Fish both great and humble, left succorless, will seek a secret nook or hiding place, fleeing what once engendered and protected to pursue a desperate landlocked rescue.
With one voice, all seafarers will take oath, pledging gifts of supplicatory wax; the terror there will unlock the secrets until then unconfessed, hence unabsolved. Through such peril, you will not leave my thoughts, and to the God who joined us, thus my plea: that I be steadfast in my firm resolve, and you my strong companion all the while.
I fear death for the absence it will bring, because love, in death, is perforce anulled; but I do not believe this departure will reverse my own desperate longing. I yearn deeply for your lukewarm heart, and pray my death does not cause your disregard. Life's joy is banished by this thought alone (though while we live I doubt it will happen): that when I die your love will soon falter and all its fury be turned into rage. And I, forcibly cast out of this world, I will only regret not seeing you. My God, were love not infinite, boundless I would stand alone at its furthest point! Then I would know the measure of your love, and trust it all to fate, if fearfully.
No one has loved more ardently than I, save any man whose life God took for love; I, who live, cannot show the heartfelt pain revealed best and alone in lovelorn death. Yet I am at love’s call, for good or ill, and although such fortune ne'er befall me, will stand prepared, unbarred doors open wide, where I'll be found in humble readiness. I so want that which will cost me dearest that there is solace in waiting alone! I am not content to be spared the worst Dear God, it is my life's most fervent plea for then all who watch will see, in action, love's universal and external works made powerfully manifest in me, as these many words I confirm with deeds.
Love, in you, feeling undermines thought, so that to me falls the worst of all lots: as with a bet at any gaming table, discernment is for those not so enticed.
If there is one thing the personalities of Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have in common, it is that all three are very shy and extremely discreet people. But of all three, the one who takes first prize is Claire Fontaine,which is why today they have decided to do a nice photo shoot for her (with her permission) while they have visited Lleida, a city that Claire knows perfectly and that she loves madly because we already know that your home is where your heart is.
This morning, all three of them have walked through the historic centre of the city with the omnipresent presence of the Seu Vella, that they have not been able to visit today due to lack of time, but that they know well and admire deeply. They have had a few hours before taking the Avant towards Barcelona and, for this reason, they have gone to visit the two heroes of the city, Indíbil and Mandoni.
During the train journey, The Grandma has taken the opportunity to write this post, because tomorrow, Claire and Joseph will fly to Vienna where the NorthernStar has a very important match and they don't want to miss the opportunity to watch her live.
Indibilis and Mandonius (Indíbil iMandoni in Catalan) were chieftainsof the Ilergetes, an ancient Iberianpeople based in the Iberian Peninsula.
Polybius speaks of the brothers as the most influential and powerful of the Iberian chieftains in that period. Livy calls one of the chieftains of the IlergetesIndibilis. At the same time, Polybius gives "Andobales" for the same person. They agree that his brother chieftain was Mandonius.
Indibilis fought against the Romans and sided with the Carthaginians at the Battle of Cissa in 218 BC, when Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus fought them. Indibilis and Carthaginian general Hanno were defeated at this battle and became a prisoner.
In 217 BC, Indibilis regained his freedom and, with his younger brother Mandonius, decided to harass neighbouring Iberian tribes who were friendly to, or in alliance with, Rome. This harassment was fended off by Scipio Calvus by counter measures that involved killing some of Indibilis' tribesmen, taking some prisoner, and disarming the others. When Hasdrubal Barca, who was in north-western Iberia, heard of this, he returned to help out his Iberian allies south of the Ebro River. At this time, the tide of war took a turn because of unexpected intelligence received by Scipio Calvus from the Celtiberians. The Celtiberi were encouraged to collaborate with Scipio Calvus and invade New Carthage. On the way there, the combined armies took three fortified towns and fought two successful battles against Hasdrubal, Indibilis, and Mandonius. Scipio Calvus' combined armies killed 15,000 of the enemy and took 4,000 prisoners.
As a result, Indibilis and Mandonius and their remaining tribesmen stayed out of the picture until 211 BC. At that time, they gathered 7,500 Suessetani and joined forces with Hasdrubal. Publius Cornelius Scipio, father to Scipio Africanus and younger brother of Scipio Calvus, decided to attack the Iberian chieftain brothers as they were moving across his line of retreat from his camp. Cornelius Scipio did not want to be trapped and surrounded by Carthaginians. He marched at midnight to meet them and skirmished with them at daybreak. Cornelius Scipio was speared with a lance and killed during the Battle of Castulo, part of the Battle of the Upper Baetis. Scipio Calvus was killed at the Battle of Ilorca, the other part of the battle of the Upper Baetis, a few days later.
Even though the chieftains were generally pro-Carthaginian, for which they were rewarded by being given back their tribal territories after the death of the two Scipios in 211 BC, they soon changed their minds after the conduct of the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal Gisco. He demanded money from them for his own benefit. He also required that the wife of Mandonius and the daughters of Indibilis be held at New Carthage in pledge for their fathers' fidelity. The hostages were part of the booty when Scipio Africanus captured New Carthage in 209 BC. Africanus treated them with much dignity and returned them to their rightful places, which impressed the Iberians.
The two brothers soon abandoned the Carthaginians and sided with the Romans. In 209 BC, they concluded a treaty of alliance with the Romans which involved most of the Iberian tribes. They then collaborated in a campaign against Hasdrubal Gisco which ended in a victory at the Battle of Baecula in 208 BC.
Because of the presence of the Roman general Africanus, Indibilis and Mandonius maintained a friendly association with the Romans. However, when a rumour spread in 206 BC that Africanus was seriously ill and possibly dead, they started a rebellion aimed at getting the Romans to leave Iberia. This rumour also started a mutiny at the military camp at the Sucro River, which involved some 8,000 soldiers. Indibilis and Mandonius sided with the mutineers. Africanus recovered and returned to good health and ultimately defeated the mutiny with the thirty-five ringleaders beheaded. He then fought the armies of Indibilis and Mandonius and defeated them. Indibilis and Mandonius surrendered to Africanus asking for mercy. Indibilis and Mandonius were subsequently released by Scipio on favourable terms.
The next year, Africanus left Iberia in the hands of his generals L. Lentulus and L. Manlius and returned to Rome to prepare for an attack on Carthage. Since Africanus was the only Roman general of whom Indibilis and Mandonius were afraid, they roused the Iberian tribes and assembled an army of 30,000 foot soldiers and 4,000 cavalry and decided to rebel again. In a battle with the Romans, the Iberians were all but destroyed. Indibilis was killed during the battle and Mandonius escaped with the remnants of his forces. As part of the peace terms dictated by Rome, he was given up by his tribesmen to the Romans; what became of him is unknown.
La veu Mandoni i les cadenes trenca, i estén los braços de genolls alçant-se... Mes ai que xiula la destral, llampega, i un tronc desploma’s i una testa salta.
La mare al poble gemegant la mostra: -Què has fet, oh raça de tants hèroes? Guaita, i a eix preu te vens a los botxins? Desperta! Venjança i llibertat!... I el poble calla.
The voice of Mandoni and the chains break, and he stretches his arms from his knees, rising... But alas, the axe whistles, flashes, and a trunk collapses and a head jumps.
The mother in the village groans and shows it: -What have you done, oh race of so many heroes? Look, and at this price you sell yourself to the executioners? Wake up! Revenge and freedom!... And the village is silent.
After observing the syzygy last night, Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have decided to have a good breakfast in Àger and visit the medieval city and the CollegiateCastleof Sant Pere.
Then, they have taken their cameras, zooms and binoculars and have headed towards the Mont-rebei Gorge, a spectacularly wonderful and unique natural space located between Pallars Jussà, LaNoguera and BaixaRibagorça, this in the part known as the Franja, the territories of Catalan language and culture that are part of Aragon. The journey was spectacular and the three friends have enjoyed another of their great hobbies: ornithology.
In the middle of the Vall d'Àger, high on a hill stands the ancient canonry of Sant Pere, one of the most important sites of the Catalan Romanesque. Surrounded by a wall and situated in a strategic point that dominates the entirety of the valley, its stones bear evidence to a part of the history of the Christian conquest.
The origin of the site is found in the castle erected by the Arabs. The vall d'Àger, like the majority of the territories in Lleida, was under Islamic control at the beginning of the 8th century. It wasn't until the end of the 11th century that the Christians, commanded by Arnau Mir de Tost, occupied the fortification.
Arnau Mir and his wife Arsenda converted the castle into their political centre and residence and ordered the construction of the church of Sant Pere, soon housing a community of canonries.
The building that formed the ancient canonry exemplifies diverse styles, transformations and constructions: the major church, with an older part that shaped the crypt, the Romanesque cloister that in the 14th century was substituted for a Gothic cloister under the orders of Pere I, Count of Urgell, and Gothic dependencies, renovated in some cases to match new styles, like the Renaissance refectory.
After a time of splendor, largely due to the privilege of Episcopal exemption, the Sant Pere de Àger went into decline in the 15th century due to the depopulation of the Vall d'Àger and the war against Joan II. The 16th century marked the secularisation of the abbey which was later converted into a collegiate church. The canonry didn’t resist the passage of time and was crumbling from the devastation of wars, sieges and pillaging, the Segadors, the war of Sucession and the Peninsular War, among others.
Sant Pere is a fortified site with Romanesque and Neogothic touches, erected in the 11th century by Arnau Mir de Tost, leader of the county of Urgell. With this operation the leader wanted to obtain political and religious power at the same time, creating canonical site that would directly depend on the Holy See.
The foundations rest on the remains of a Roman castle, subsequently seized and also reconverted by the Arabs. The site was built during the 11th century: the castle-palace and the collegiate church, which was managed by a canonical order.
In the church we can still see the section with the three naves headed by three apses, although this basilical layout was incorporated in later works. The bell tower dates back to the 12th century, and took the defensive style of the site due to strategic recommendations, for the site bordered the Arab part of Catalunya. The building works of the church's cloister, initiated by Count Pere Urgell, took place between the 14th and the 15th centuries.
Important relics of the rich interior decoration are still preserved, such as ornaments and Romanesque mural paintings, in the Museu Diocesà de Lleida, in the Catalonia National Art Museum and in the United States.
It must be added that the sculptures are also noteworthy, and they follow the same style lines as those in the Barcelona Cathedral.
The Mont-rebei Gorge is a place that is part of the Noguera Ribagorçana-Mont Rebei Partial Natural Reserve. It is located on the border between Aragon and Catalunya. To the west, is the Baixa Ribagorça (Franja) and to the east the Pallars Jussà and the Noguera (Catalunya). It is formed in the narrowest part where the Noguera Ribagorçana river crosses the Montsec mountain range.
On the south-eastern side, it belongs to the municipality of Àger, in LaNoguera; on the north-eastern side, to Sant Esteve de la Sarga, in Pallars Jussà. On the western side, it belongs to the municipality of Viacamp i Lliterà, in BaixaRibagorça.
It is a place of undoubted ecological value for the wild fauna that it houses, among which birds of prey should be highlighted, and for the beauty of its rugged landscape. It is very attractive for climbers and speleologists, as there are excellent walls and a cave such as La Colomera. The maintenance of the reserve is in charge of the Fundació Catalunya-La Pedrera.
It can be reached by road from the Montanyana and Sant Esteve de la Sarga bridges to the north, and from Àger to the south. There is an unguarded public car park located on the plain formed by the eastern bank, just north of the gorge. There is an information hut and in the summer educational talks are held there.
On the Aragonese side, the right bank of the river, north of the gorge, is dominated by the tower of Girbeta Castle and two Romanesque churches: Nostra Senyora del Congost and Nostra Senyora del Congost Vella, the latter in ruins.
On the Catalan side, the passage through the gorge is made entirely by a path dug into the rock, and in some places by tunnel. It should be remembered that this path is located at high altitude and does not have a railing, so it is not recommended for children or those who suffer from vertigo. To the south, the path gains altitude and runs along the slopes of the mountain until you can see the reservoir.
The Mont-rebei Gorge is, without a doubt, one of the most unique natural spaces in the Pre-Pyrenees, both from a landscape point of view, as it is the only large gorge free of infrastructure, and for its great biodiversity.
Several interesting faunal species live there. Among the birds, there are many large birds of prey typical of the cliffs: the bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), the sable (Neophron percnopterus), the griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus), the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), as well as the yellow-billed jackdaw (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) and red-billed jackdaw (Pyrrhocorax graculus) and the rockhopper (Tichodroma muraria). Among the mammals, there is the common otter (Lutra lutra), the wildcat (Felis silvestris), the marten (Martes martes), the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), the mole (Talpa europaea) and numerous species of bats.
Joseph de Ca'th Lon arrived in Barcelona yesterday to spend four days with TheGrandma.
This afternoon, they have taken their telescopes and an Avant to Lleida where Claire Fontaine was waiting for them to organize their visit to Àger, where tonight they hope that the sky will be with them, there will not be many clouds and they can contemplate the syzygy or planetaryalignment of six planets and the Moon, a spectacle that does not happen every day and that is always something fascinating to see and experience. Once they have arrived in Lleida, they have driven along the C12 to this beautiful town that hosts one of the best Astronomical Parks in the country.
Àger is a municipality of 637 population in the comarca of La Noguera in Catalunya. It is situated in the north-west of the comarca, and the territory of the municipality stretches between the Noguera Ribagorçana and Noguera Pallaresa rivers. The Terradets reservoir on the Noguera Pallaresa is situated within the municipality. The village is linked to Balaguer and Tremp by the L-904 road.
In astronomy, a syzygy (from Ancient Greek συζυγία (suzugía) union, yoking, expressing the sense of σύν (syn- together) and ζυγ- (zug- a yoke) is a roughly straight-line configuration of three or more celestial bodies in a gravitational system.
The word is often used in reference to the Sun, Earth, and either the Moon or a planet, where the latter is in conjunction or opposition. Solar and lunar eclipses occur at times of syzygy, as do transits and occultations.
A syzygy sometimes results in an occultation, transit, or an eclipse.
-An occultation occurs when an apparently larger body passes in front of an apparently smaller one, obscuring it from view.
-A transit occurs when a smaller body passes in front of a larger one.
-In the combined case where the smaller body regularly transits the larger, an occultation is also termed a secondary eclipse. It is commonly used to refer to cases where a planet travels behind its host star as viewed from Earth.
-An eclipse occurs when a body totally or partially disappears from view, either by an occultation, as with a solar eclipse, or by passing into the shadow of another body, as with a lunar eclipse.
The term is also used to describe situations when all the planets are on the same side of the Sun although they are not necessarily in a straight line, such as on March 10, 1982.
Apparent planetary alignment involving Mercury, Venus, Mars, andJupiter; the Moon is also shown, as the brightest object.
Because the orbits of all the planets in the Solar System (as well as the Moon) are inclined by only a few degrees, they always appear very near the ecliptic in our sky. Therefore, although an apparent planetary alignment known as a planetary parade may appear as a line (actually, a great arc), the planets are not necessarily aligned in space.
Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)