HARALD HARDRADA, THE NORWEGIAN INVADE ENGLAND

Today, The Grandma has been reading about one of the most interesting moments of English History: the Norwegian invasion. On a day like today in 1066, the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada landed with Tostig Godwinson at the mouth of the Humber River and began the invasion of England.

The influence of the Vikings on European lands is absolutely incredible. From Scandinavia they settled in Russia and the British Isles, but also in more distant places such as Sicily or Constantinople. Let's go to know a little more about Harald Hardrada, who is also known as the last Viking.

Harald Sigurdsson, in Old Norse Haraldr Sigurðarson (1015-25 September 1066), also known as Harald III of Norway and given the epithet Hardrada in the sagas, was King of Norway from 1046 to 1066.

He unsuccessfully claimed the Danish throne until 1064 and the English throne in 1066. Before becoming king, Harald spent 15 years in exile as a mercenary and military commander in Kievan Rus' and chief of the Varangian Guard in the Byzantine Empire. In his chronicle, Adam of Bremen called him the Thunderbolt of the North.

In 1030, the fifteen-year-old Harald fought in the Battle of Stiklestad alongside his half-brother Olaf Haraldsson. Olaf sought to reclaim the Norwegian throne, which he had lost to Danish king Cnut two years previously. Olaf and Harald were defeated by forces loyal to Cnut, and Harald was forced into exile to Kievan Rus'. Thereafter, he was in the army of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise, becoming captain, until he moved on to Constantinople with his companions around 1034. 

In Constantinople, he rose quickly to become the commander of the Byzantine Varangian Guard, seeing action on the Mediterranean Sea, in Asia Minor, Sicily, possibly in the Holy Land, Bulgaria and in Constantinople itself, where he became involved in the imperial dynastic disputes. 

Harald amassed wealth whilst in the Byzantine Empire, which he shipped to Yaroslav in Kievan Rus' for safekeeping. In 1042, he left the Byzantine Empire, returning to Kievan Rus' to prepare to reclaim the Norwegian throne. In his absence the Norwegian throne had been restored from the Danes to Olaf's illegitimate son Magnus the Good.

In 1046, Harald joined forces with Magnus's rival in Denmark, the pretender Sweyn II of Denmark, raiding the Danish coast. Magnus, unwilling to fight his uncle, agreed to share the kingship with Harald, since Harald in turn would share his wealth with him. The co-rule ended abruptly the next year as Magnus died: Harald became the sole ruler of Norway. 

Domestically, Harald crushed opposition, and outlined the unification of Norway. Harald's reign was one of relative peace and stability, and he instituted a coin economy and foreign trade. Seeking to restore Cnut's North Sea Empire, Harald claimed the Danish throne, and spent nearly every year until 1064 raiding the Danish coast and fighting his former ally, Sweyn. Although the campaigns were successful, he was never able to conquer Denmark.

Not long after Harald had renounced his claim to Denmark, the former Earl of Northumbria, Tostig Godwinson, brother of English king Harold Godwinson, pledged his allegiance to Harald, inviting him to claim the English throne. Harald assented, invading northern England with 10,000 troops and 300 longships in September 1066, defeating the English regional forces of Northumbria and Mercia in the Battle of Fulford near York on 20 September. Harald was defeated and killed in a surprise attack by Harold Godwinson's forces in the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September, which wiped out his army.  

Historians often consider Harald's death the end of the Viking Age.

More information: All Thats Interesting

Harald was born in Ringerike, Norway, in 1015 (or possibly 1016) to Åsta Gudbrandsdatter and her second husband Sigurd Syr. Sigurd was a petty king of Ringerike, and among the strongest and wealthiest chieftains in the Uplands. Through his mother Åsta, Harald was the youngest of three half-brothers to King Olaf Haraldsson (later Saint Olaf). In his youth, Harald displayed traits of a typical rebel with big ambitions, and admired Olaf as his role model. He thus differed from his two older brothers, who were more similar to their father, down-to-earth and mostly concerned with maintaining the farm.

It is likely that the money Harald made while serving in Constantinople allowed him to fund his claim for the crown of Norway.

Seeking to regain for himself the kingdom lost by his half-brother Olaf Haraldsson, Harald began his journey westwards in early 1045, departing from Novgorod (Holmgard) to Staraya Ladoga (Aldeigjuborg) where he obtained a ship. His journey went through Lake Ladoga, down the Neva River, and then into the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea. He arrived in Sigtuna in Sweden, probably at the end of 1045 or in early 1046. When he arrived in Sweden, according to the skald Tjodolv Arnorsson, his ship was unbalanced by its heavy load of gold.

In Harald's absence, the throne of Norway had been restored to Magnus the Good, an illegitimate son of Olaf. Harald may actually have known this, and it could have been the reason why Harald wanted to return to Norway in the first place. Since Cnut the Great's sons -Harthacnut and Harold Harefoot- had abandoned Norway, Magnus's position as king had been secured. No domestic threats or insurrections are recorded to have occurred during his eleven-year reign. After the death of Harthacnut left the Danish throne vacant, Magnus was also elected king of Denmark, and managed to defeat the Danish royal pretender Sweyn Estridsson.

In 1047, Magnus and Harald went to Denmark with their leidang forces. Later that year in Jylland, less than a year into their co-rule, Magnus died without an heir. Before his death, he had decided that Sweyn was to inherit Denmark and Harald to inherit Norway. On hearing the news of Magnus's death, Harald quickly gathered the local leaders in Norway and, declaring himself king of Norway as well as of Denmark, prepared ousting his former ally from the Denmark. However, the army and the chieftains, headed by Einar Thambarskelfir, opposed any plans of invading Denmark. 

Although Harald himself objected to bringing the body of Magnus back to Norway, the Norwegian army prepared to transport his body to Nidaros (now Trondheim), where they buried him next to Saint Olaf in late 1047. Einar, an opponent of Harald, claimed that to follow Magnus dead was better than to follow any other king alive.

Harald also wanted to re-establish Magnus's rule over Denmark, and in the long term probably sought to restore Cnut the Great's North Sea Empire in its entirety.

Harald's reign was marked by his background as a military commander, as he often solved disputes with a brute force. One of his skalds even boasted about how Harald broke settlements he had made, in his battles in the Mediterranean. While the sagas largely focus on Harald's war with Sweyn and the invasion of England, little is said about his domestic policies. 

Modern historians have taken this as a sign that, despite his absolute monarchy, his reign was one of peace and progress for Norway. Harald is considered to have instituted good economic policies, as he developed a Norwegian currency and a viable coin economy, which in turn allowed Norway to participate in international trade. He initiated trade with Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire through his connections, as well as with Scotland and Ireland. According to the later sagas, Harald founded Oslo, where he spent much time.

Harald also continued to advance Christianity in Norway, and archaeological excavations show that churches were built and improved during his reign. He also imported bishops, priests and monks from abroad, especially from Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire. A slightly different form of Christianity was thus introduced in Norway from the rest of northern Europe. 

More information: The Viking Herald

Harald's misusing funds from the pilgrimage to Nidaros as well as his bringing bishops to the country who were either not consecrated in France and England or not consecrated at all, brought him into conflict with Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen.

Accepting he could not conquer Denmark, Harald switched attention to England; his claim was based on a 1038 agreement between Magnus and its previous ruler, Harthacnut, who died childless in 1042.

News of the early raids had reached the earls Morcar of Northumbria and Edwin of Mercia, and they fought against Harald's invading army three kilometres south of York at the Battle of Fulford.

The battle was a decisive victory for Harald and Tostig, and led York to surrender to their forces on 24 September. This would be the last time a Scandinavian army defeated English forces. The same day as York surrendered to Harald and Tostig, Harold Godwinson arrived with his army in Tadcaster, just eleven kilometres from the anchored Norwegian fleet at Riccall. From there, he probably scouted the Norwegian fleet, preparing a surprise attack. As Harald had left no forces in York, Harold Godwinson marched right through the town to Stamford Bridge.

Harald was struck in the throat by an arrow and killed early in the battle, later termed the Battle of Stamford Bridge, in a state of berserkergang, having worn no body armour and fought aggressively with both hands around his sword.

Among those left at Riccall after the battle, who were allowed to return home peacefully by the English forces, was Harald's son Olaf. Although sources state that Harald's remaining army only filled 20-25 ships on the return to Norway, it is likely that this number only accounts for the Norwegian forces.

Harald is described by Snorri Sturluson to have been physically larger than other men and stronger. It is said that he had light hair, a light beard, and a long upper beard (moustache), and that one of his eyebrows was somewhat higher situated than the other.

Harald himself composed skaldic poetry. Composing poetry was normal for Norwegian kings, but Harald was the only one who showed a decided talent. His preoccupation with the poetic form may have motivated him to give privileged attention to Icelanders, and particularly Icelandic skalds. He is portrayed as a man very concerned with the way that his image will be presented and memory shaped.

According to one poem, Harald had mastered a number of activities that were considered sports in the Viking Age, in addition to poetry, brewing, horse riding, swimming, skiing, shooting, rowing and playing the harp. The sagas state that Harald and his Varangians at least once took a break during the siege of a town to enjoy sports.

A year after his death at Stamford Bridge, Harald's body was moved to Norway and buried at the Mary Church in Nidaros (Trondheim).

More information: Nidaros Domkirke, A Jewel of Romanesque & Gothic

The most enterprising Prince Haraldr of the Norwegians 
lately attempted this sea. 
Who, having searched thoroughly t
he length of the northern ocean in ships, 
finally had before his eyes 
the dark failing boundaries of the savage world, a
nd, by retracing his steps, 
with difficulty barely escaped the deep abyss in safety.

Adam of Bremen, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum

IF WE HAD THE CHANCE TO DO IT ALL AGAIN, WOULD BE?

We will miss you, Robert, my friend. Thank you for all these years of acting, producing and directing and for giving life to dozens of characters that have marked our lives forever.

As your Henry Brubaker said, 'I don't see how you can do politics with the truth.' Your characters shook our consciences, offered us unconventional and establishment-critical viewpoints, and moved us again and again with each of your performances.

This time, the raindrops will not stop falling on your head, and although crying is not for you, we will do it for you, and we will always remember the way you were.

 

Memories
Light the corners of my mind
Misty watercolor memories
Of the way we were

Scattered pictures
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were

Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time rewritten every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we?
Could we?

Memories
May be beautiful and yet
What's too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget
So it's the laughter
We will remember
Whenever we remember
The way we were

The way we were

 

Storytelling is important. 

Part of human continuity.

Robert Redford

XEROX 914, 1ST SUCCESSFUL COMMERCIAL PHOTOCOPIER

Today, The Grandma has begun preparing new material for future courses. 

Things change very quickly in a short time. Digitalization has changed teaching by providing it with an infinity of tools that make it more accessible to teachers and students, in the same way that the appearance of the photocopier, on a day like today in 1959, changed the paradigm of the working lives of millions of people.

The Xerox 914 was the first successful commercial plain paper copier. Introduced in 1959 by the Haloid/Xerox company, it revolutionized the document-copying industry. The culmination of inventor Chester Carlson's work on the xerographic process, the 914 was fast and economical. The copier was introduced to the public on September 16, 1959, in a demonstration at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York, shown on live television.

Xerography, a process of producing images using electricity, was invented in 1938 by physicist-lawyer Chester Floyd "Chet" Carlson (1906-1968), and an engineering partner, Otto Kornei. Carlson entered into a research agreement with the Battelle Memorial Institute in 1945, when he and Kornei produced the first operable copy machine. He sold his rights in 1947 to the Haloid Company, a wet-chemical photopaper manufacturer, founded in 1906 in Rochester, New York.

Haloid introduced the first commercial xerographic copier, the Xerox Model A, in 1949. The company had, the previous year, announced the refined development of xerography in collaboration with Battelle Development Corporation, of Columbus, Ohio. Manually operated, it was also known as the Ox Box. An improved version, Camera #1, was introduced in 1950. Haloid was renamed Haloid Xerox in 1958, and, after the instant success of the 914, when the name Xerox soon became synonymous with copy, would become the Xerox Corporation.

In 1963, Xerox introduced the first desktop copier to make copies on plain paper, the 813. It was designed by Jim Balmer and William H. Armstrong of Armstrong-Balmer & Associates, and won a 1964 Certificate of Design Merit from the Industrial Designers Institute (IDI). Balmer had recently left Harley Earl, Inc., where he had been a designer since 1946, to co-establish Armstrong-Balmer & Associates in 1958.

At Earl, Balmer had been involved in the Secretary copy machine designed for Thermofax and introduced by 3M in 1958, and Haloid Xerox had been impressed with the design, engaging Balmer to consult on the final design of the 914.

A year later, in 1964, Balmer worked with Xerox to establish their first internal industrial design group. Among those first design employees were William Dalton and Robert Van Valkinburgh.

The 914 model, so-called because it could copy originals up to 229 mm × 356 mm and could make 100,000 copies per month (seven copies per minute).

In 1985, the Smithsonian received a Xerox 914, number 517 off the assembly line. It weighs approximately 294 kg and measures 107 cm high × 117 cm wide × 114 cm deep.

The machine was mechanically complex. It required a large technical support force, and had a tendency to catch fire when overheated. According to technology historian Edward Tenner, during the development of the technology, copiers were found to catch fire on documents that had too many zeros or Os.

Because of the problem, the Xerox company provided a scorch eliminator, which was actually a small fire extinguisher, along with the copier. Ralph Nader was among those to complain about the copier fires, reporting that the machine at his office in Washington had caught fire three times in four months.

A 1967 article in The New Yorker by John Brooks detailed the relationship between the office secretary and the copier. A secretary he had interviewed for the piece said that a technical representative from Xerox had warned her not to be afraid of the 914 because the machine would sense her fear and, like a mischievous child, misbehave. Despite these problems, the machine was regarded with affection by its operators, due to it being complex enough to be interesting to use, but without being so complex as to be beyond understanding.

The pricing structure of the machine was designed to encourage customers to rent rather than buy: it could be rented in 1965 for $25 per month, plus 10 cents per copy. There was a meter, which the customer would read to fill out and mail a card to Xerox each month. Its purchase price was $27,500, which was established by the US Government, as they would not rent equipment. The customer also bought paper and toner (ink) at a cost of about 5 cents per copy.

The Xerox 914 was produced between 1960 and 1977. It was introduced to the public on September 16, 1959, in a demonstration at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York, shown on live television. One of the two copiers that were present that day caught fire.

The company's subsequent models were the Xerox 710, the Xerox 1000, the Xerox 813 and the Xerox 2400. One writer has assessed that the popularity of the machine has had a number of lasting impacts, such as prompting the introduction of highlighter pens, and university courses switching from reading lists of single chapters from several books, each of which needed to be purchased by the student, to requiring the students to purchase a single compilation of those chapters produced by local copy shops.

More information: Xerox

 Xerox's innovative technology and service offerings 
-delivered through an expanding distribution system 
with a lean and flexible business model- 
continue to solidify our market leadership, 
driving consistently strong earnings performance.

Anne M. Mulcahy

BENGT GUNNAR EKELÖF, SURREALIST SWEDISH POETRY

Monday is always a day of introspection and what really helps on days like these is reading poetry.

The Grandma is reading one of her favourite poets, Gunnar Ekelöf, the Swedish author who was born on a day like today in 1907.

Bengt Gunnar Ekelöf (15 September 1907-16 March 1968) was a Swedish poet and writer. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1958 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by Uppsala University in 1958. He won a number of prizes for his poetry.

Gunnar Ekelöf was born on 15 September 1907 in Stockholm. He has been called Sweden's first surrealist poet. He made his debut with the collection sent på jorden (late on earth) in 1932, written during an extended stay in Paris in 1929-1930, which was too unconventional to become widely appreciated and described by its author as capturing a period of suicidal thoughts and apocalyptic moods.

While not disavowing his debut, Ekelöf moved towards romanticism and received better reviews for his second poetry collection, Dedikation (1934). Both the volumes are influenced by surrealism and show a violent, at times feverish torrent of images, deliberate breakdown of ordered syntax and traditional poetic language and a defiant spirit bordering on anarchism. This defiant externalism was grounded in his person.

Though he came from an upper-class background, Ekelöf had never felt committed to it  -his father had been mentally ill and when his mother remarried, Ekelöf strongly disapproved of his stepfather, and by extension of his mother; he had become a loner and a rebel by his teens and would never feel at ease with the mores of the established upper and middle classes or with their inhibitions and what he perceived as their hypocrisy and back-scratching.

Swedish critic Anders Olsson described Ekelöf's turn to poetry as a choice of the only utterance that doesn't expurge the contradictions and empty spaces of language and of the mind.

Färjesång (1941), showed influence from T.S. Eliot, whose poem East Coker Ekelöf had translated to Swedish. It took influence from oriental poetry and the darkness of the ongoing Second World War. Ekelöf himself considered Färjesång as his personal breakthrough and with its simple and effective language it has had an strong influence on later Swedish poetry.

Färjesång was followed by the acclaimed works, the prose book Promenader (1941, Walks), the disillusioned Non Serviam (1945) in which the title poem borrowed from Lucifer's motto I will not serve in Latin, which symbolises a refusal to adapt to the conformity of the welfare society, and Om hösten (1951, In autumn) which includes the well-known poem Röster under jorden (Underground voices).

In Strountes (1955), from Swedish strunt (nonsense), Ekelöf returned to his attacks on literary conventions, exploring meaninglessness. With his continual wordplay, he demonstrated that meaning can emerge from apparent nonsense. Similar themes were explored in Opus incertum (1959) och En natt i Otočac (1961). The poetry suite En Mölna-elegi. Metamorfoser (1960) features an advanced technique of allusions, in which the protagonist in a short moment experiences a long time sequence.

In April 1958, Ekelöf was elected a member of the Swedish Academy, succeeding author Bertil Malmberg on chair 18 in December the same year.

Ekelöf's last works, Dīwān över Fursten av Emgión (1965, Diwan on the Prince of Emgion), Sagan om Fatumeh (1966, The Tale of Fatumeh) and Vägvisare till underjorden (1967, Guide to the Underworld) was a trilogy with Byzantine theme. The trilogy was inspired by journey to Istanbul and İzmir in 1965 that resulted in an outburst of creativity. In his diary, Ekelöf described the visit as a revelation that would change his life. Dīwān över Fursten av Emgión tells the story of the fictive Prince of Emgión who participated in the Battle of Manzikert, was captured, tortured and blinded, and then jailed in Constantinople for ten years. On his way home, the Prince is accompanied by a mysterious woman, assisting him in his blindness. For this book, Ekelöf was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1966.

Ekelöf is remembered as one of the first surrealist poets of Sweden. 

He died on 16 March 1968 in Sigtuna. According to his will, his ashes were scattered in the river Pactolus (now the river Sart) in Salihli, Turkey. Ovid records the legend that King Midas divested himself of the golden touch by washing himself in that river.

On the 103rd anniversary of his birth, 40 Swedish poetry enthusiasts gathered in Salihli. Together with the deputy mayor, they honored Ekelöf's legacy in the city, which he had come to admire ardently on a visit in 1965, and had portrayed in several poems. A bust of Ekelöf by Gürdal Duyar was to have been placed there, but this was never done, and it now waits in the garden of the Swedish Embassy in Istanbul.

More information: Ekelut

Något av det viktigaste i all konst: 
att överlåta en anständig del åt läsaren, 
betraktaren, den medverkande. 
Det ska finnas en tom plats vid det dukade bordet. 
Den är hans.

One of the most important things in all art: 
to leave a decent part to the reader, 
the viewer, the participant.
There should be an empty place at the set table. 
It's his.

Gunnar Ekelöf

JOE KITTINGER, FLYING THE ATLANTIC BY A GAS BALLOON

Today, Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have travelled from Barcelona to Òdena to prepare their monthly trip by balloon. They want to spend a beautiful morning enjoying Catalan counties from the air and a special and sacred place, Montserrat. 

Before arriving to Òdena, they have talked about Joseph Kittinger, the American pilot who became the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean, on a day like today in 1984.

Joseph William Kittinger II (July 27, 1928-December 9, 2022) was an American military pilot who was an officer in the United States Air Force. He served from 1950 to 1978 and earned Command Pilot status before retiring with the rank of colonel. He held the world record for the highest skydive -31.3 km- from 1960 until 2012.

Kittinger participated in the Project Manhigh and Project Excelsior high-altitude balloon flight projects from 1956 to 1960 and was the first man to fully witness the curvature of the Earth.

A fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, Kittinger shot down a North Vietnamese MiG-21 jet fighter. He was later shot down as well, subsequently spending 11 months as a prisoner of war in a North Vietnamese prison before he was repatriated in 1973.

In 1984, Kittinger became the first person to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a gas balloon.

In 2012, Kittinger participated in the Red Bull Stratos project as capsule communicator at age 84, directing Felix Baumgartner on his 39 km freefall from Earth's stratosphere, which broke Kittinger's own 53-year-old record. Felix Baumgartner's record would be broken two years later by Alan Eustace.

Born in Tampa, Florida, and raised in Orlando, Florida, Kittinger was educated at The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, and the University of Florida. He became fascinated with planes at a young age and soloed in a Piper Cub by the time he was 17.

After racing speedboats as a teenager, he entered the U.S. Air Force as an aviation cadet in March 1949. On completion of aviation cadet training in March 1950, he received his pilot wings and a commission as a second lieutenant. He was subsequently assigned to the 86th Fighter-Bomber Wing based at Ramstein Air Base in West Germany, flying the F-84 Thunderjet and F-86 Sabre.

In 1954, Kittinger was transferred to the Air Force Missile Development Center (AFMDC) at Holloman AFB, New Mexico.

Captain Kittinger was next assigned to the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. For Project Excelsior, meaning ever upward, a name given to the project by Colonel Stapp as part of research into high-altitude bailouts, he made a series of three extreme altitude parachute jumps from an open gondola carried aloft by large helium balloons.

Kittinger retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 1978 and initially went to work for Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin) Corporation in Orlando, Florida. He later became vice president of flight operations for Rosie O'Grady's Flying Circus, part of the Rosie O'Grady's/Church Street Station entertainment complex in Orlando, prior to the parent company's dissolution.

Still interested in ballooning, Kittinger set a world distance record for the AA-06 size class of gas balloons of 3,221.23 kilometers in 1983. The record has since been broken. 

In 1984, he completed the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic in the 3,000 m3 Balloon of Peace, launched from Caribou, Maine, on September 14 and landing on September 18.

The flight was organized by the Canadian promoter Gaetan Croteau. An official FAI world aerospace record, the 5,703.03-kilometer flight is the longest gas balloon flight in the AA-10 size category.

Kittinger died at the age of 94 on December 9, 2022. He is interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

More information: The New York Times

The most fascinating thing is that it's just black overhead 

-the transition from normal blue to black is very stark... 
I was struck with the beauty of it. 
But I was also struck by how hostile it is: 
more than 100 degrees below zero, no air.

Joseph Kittinger

ROALD DAHL, CHILDREN'S LITERATURE & SHORT STORIES

Today, The Grandma ha sbeen reading some books written by Roald Dahl, the British author of popular children's literature and short stories, who was born on a day like today in 1916.

Roald Dahl (13 September 1916-23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime fighter ace. 

His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide. He has been called one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century.

Dahl was born in Wales to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents, and lived for most of his life in England. He served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He became a fighter pilot and, subsequently, an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for children and for adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors.

His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. 

In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945.

In 2021, Forbes ranked him the top-earning dead celebrity.

Dahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters.

His children's books champion the kindhearted and feature an underlying warm sentiment. His works for children include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits, George's Marvellous Medicine and Danny, the Champion of the World. His works for older audiences include the short story collections Tales of the Unexpected and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More.

Roald Dahl was born in 1916 at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegians Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg.

In August 1939, as the Second World War loomed, the British made plans to round up the hundreds of Germans living in Dar-es-Salaam. Dahl was commissioned as a lieutenant into the King's African Rifles, commanding a platoon of Askari men, indigenous troops who were serving in the colonial army.

After being invalided home, Dahl was posted to an RAF training camp in Uxbridge. He attempted to recover his health enough to become an instructor.

Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was A Piece of Cake, on 1 August 1942. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by The Saturday Evening Post for US$1,000 and published under the title Shot Down Over Libya.

His first children's book was The Gremlins, published in 1943, about mischievous little creatures that were part of Royal Air Force folklore. The RAF pilots blamed the gremlins for all the problems with the aircraft. The protagonist Gus -an RAF pilot, like Dahl- joins forces with the gremlins against a common enemy, Hitler and the Nazis. While at the British Embassy in Washington, Dahl sent a copy to the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who read it to her grandchildren,and the book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made.

Dahl went on to write some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George's Marvellous Medicine.

Dahl also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, which often blended humour and innocence with surprising plot twists. The Mystery Writers of America presented Dahl with three Edgar Awards for his work, and many were originally written for American magazines such as Collier's (The Collector's Item was Collier's Star Story of the week for 4 September 1948), Ladies' Home Journal, Harper's, Playboy and The New Yorker.

Works such as Kiss Kiss subsequently collected Dahl's stories into anthologies, and gained significant popularity. Dahl wrote more than 60 short stories; they have appeared in numerous collections, some only being published in book form after his death. His three Edgar Awards were given for: in 1954, the collection Someone Like You; in 1959, the story The Landlady; and in 1980, the episode of Tales of the Unexpected based on Skin.

One of his more famous adult stories, The Smoker, also known as Man from the South, was filmed twice as both 1960 and 1985 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, filmed as a 1979 episode of Tales of the Unexpected, and also adapted into Quentin Tarantino's segment of the film Four Rooms (1995). This oft-anthologised classic concerns a man in Jamaica who wagers with visitors in an attempt to claim the fingers from their hands. The original 1960 version in the Hitchcock series stars Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre. Five additional Dahl stories were used in the Hitchcock series. Dahl was credited with teleplay for two episodes, and four of his episodes were directed by Alfred Hitchcock himself, an example of which was Lamb to the Slaughter (1958).

His short story collection Tales of the Unexpected was adapted to a successful TV series of the same name, beginning with Man from the South. When the stock of Dahl's own original stories was exhausted, the series continued by adapting stories written in Dahl's style by other authors, including John Collier and Stanley Ellin. Another collection of short stories, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, was published in 1977, and the eponymous short story was adapted into a short film in 2023 by director Wes Anderson with Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular character Henry Sugar and Ralph Fiennes as Dahl.

The last book published in his lifetime, Esio Trot, released in January 1990, marked a change in style for the author. Unlike other Dahl works (which often feature tyrannical adults and heroic/magical children), it is the story of an old, lonely man trying to make a connection with a woman he has loved from afar.

In 1994, the English language audiobook recording of the book was provided by Monty Python member Michael Palin. Screenwriter Richard Curtis adapted it into a 2015 BBC television comedy film, Roald Dahl's Esio Trot, featuring Dustin Hoffman and Judi Dench as the couple.

Written in 1990 and published posthumously in 1991, Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety was one of the last things he ever wrote. In a response to rising levels of train-related fatalities involving children, the British Railways Board had asked Dahl to write the text of the booklet, and Quentin Blake to illustrate it, to help young people enjoy using the railways safely. The booklet is structured as a conversation with children, and it was distributed to primary school pupils in Britain.

A major part of Dahl's literary influences stemmed from his childhood. In his younger days, he was an avid reader, especially awed by fantastic tales of heroism and triumph. He met his idol, Beatrix Potter, when he was six years old. His other favourite authors included Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and former Royal Navy officer Frederick Marryat, and their works made a lasting mark on his life and writing.

Roald Dahl died on 23 November 1990, at the age of 74 of a rare cancer of the blood, myelodysplastic syndrome, in Oxford, and was buried in the cemetery at the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England.

More information: Roald Dahl Fans

 When you're writing a book, 
with people in it as opposed to animals, 
it is no good having people who are ordinary, 
because they are not going to interest your readers at all. 
Every writer in the world has to use the characters 
that have something interesting about them,
 and this is even more true in children's books.

Roald Dahl

SONDERBUNDSKRIEG, SWITZERLAND AS A FEDERAL STATE

Today, The Grandma has received the visit of one of her closest friends, Joseph de Ca'th Lon.

Joseph is Swiss and they have been talking about the establishment of Switzerland as a federal state, on a day like today in 1848.

The rise of Switzerland as a federal state began on 12 September 1848, with the creation of a federal constitution in response to a 27-day civil war, the Sonderbundskrieg. The constitution, which was heavily influenced by the United States Constitution and the ideas of the French Revolution, was modified several times during the following decades and wholly replaced in 1999.

The 1848 constitution represented the first time, other than when the short-lived Helvetic Republic had been imposed, that the Swiss had a central government instead of being simply a collection of autonomous cantons bound by treaties.

In 1847, the period of Swiss history known as Restoration ended with a war between the conservative Roman Catholic and the liberal Protestant cantons (the Sonderbundskrieg). The conflict between the Catholic and Protestant cantons had existed since the Reformation; in the 19th century the Protestant population had a majority.

The Sonderbund, in German separate alliance, was concluded after the Radical Party had taken power in Switzerland and had, thanks to the Protestant majority of cantons, taken measures against the Catholic Church such as the closure of monasteries and convents in Aargau in 1841. When Lucerne, in retaliation, recalled the Jesuits the same year, groups of armed radicals (Freischärler) invaded the canton. The invasion caused a revolt, mostly because rural cantons were strongholds of ultramontanism.

The Sonderbund was in violation of the Federal Treaty of 1815, which forbade separate alliances, and the Radical majority in the Tagsatzung dissolved it on 21 October 1847. A confederate army was raised against the members of the Sonderbund, composed of soldiers of all the other states except Neuchâtel and Appenzell Innerrhoden, which stayed neutral. Ticino, while a Catholic canton, did not join the Sonderbund and fought alongside the Protestants.

The war lasted for less than a month, causing fewer than 100 casualties. Apart from small riots, this was the last armed conflict on Swiss territory.

At the end of the Sonderbund War, the Diet debated a new federal constitution drawn up by Johann Conrad Kern (1808-1888) of Thurgau and Henri Druey (1790-1855) of Vaud. In the summer of 1848 this constitution was accepted by fifteen and a half cantons, with Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Valais, Ticino and Appenzell Innerrhoden opposing. The new constitution was declared on 12 September 1848.

The new constitution created, for the first time, Swiss citizenship in addition to cantonal citizenship.

A federal central government was set up to which the cantons gave up certain parts of their sovereign rights. The Federal Assembly was made up of two houses: Council of States (Ständerat), composed of two deputies from each canton (44 members at the time) and the National Council (Nationalrat) made up of deputies elected three years, in the proportion of one for every 20,000 citizens or fraction over 10,000 from each canton.

The Federal Council or executive (Bundesrat) consisted of seven members elected by the Federal Assembly. In the 1848 Constitution, the Federal Council was granted the supreme executive and directorial authority of the Confederation. Each member of the Federal Council heads one of seven executive departments. The chairman of the Council also holds the title of President of the Swiss Confederation for a one-year term, with the position rotating among the members of the Federal Council.

The judiciary (Bundesgericht) was made up of eleven members elected for three years by the Federal Assembly. The Bundesgericht was chiefly confined to civil cases in which the Confederation was a party, but also took in great political crimes. All constitutional questions are however reserved for the Federal Assembly.

A federal university and a polytechnic school were to be founded. All capitulations were forbidden in the future. All cantons were required to treat Swiss citizens who belonged to one of the Christian confessions like their own citizens. Previously, citizens of one canton regarded citizens of the others as the citizens of foreign countries. All Christians were guaranteed the exercise of their religion but the Jesuits and similar religious orders were not to be received in any canton. German, French and Italian were recognized as national languages.

Although there was now a fully organized central government, Switzerland was a very decentralized federation. Most authority remained with the cantons, including all powers not explicitly granted to the federal government. One of the first acts of the Federal Assembly was to exercise the power given them of determining the home of the Federal authorities, the de facto capital of the newly created confederation, and on 28 November 1848 Bern was chosen. The first Federal Council sat on 16 November 1848, composed entirely of Radicals, predecessors of the Free Democratic Party.

Some of the first acts of the new Federal Assembly were to unify and standardize daily life in the country. In 1849 a uniform postal service was established. In 1850 a single currency was imposed to replace the cantonal currencies, while all customs between cantons were abolished. In 1851 the telegraph was organized, while all weights and measures were unified. In 1868 the metric system was allowed and in 1875 declared obligatory and universal. In 1854 roads and canals taken in hand were taken under federal control. The Federal Polytechnic wasn't opened until 1855 in Zurich, though the Federal university authorized by the new constitution has not yet been set up.

In 1859, Reisläuferei (mercenary service) was outlawed, with the exception of the Vatican guard.

In 1866, the rights granted only to Christians (free movement and freedom of religion) under the 1848 Constitution were extended to all Swiss regardless of religion.

More information: The Federal Assembly-The Swiss Parliament

 Switzerland is a small, steep country, 
much more up and down than sideways, 
and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built 
on the cuckoo clock style of architecture.

Ernest Hemingway