The Narisci border on the Hermunduri, and then follow the Marcomanni and Quadi. The Marcomanni stand first in strength and renown, and their very territory, from which the Boii were driven in a former age, was won by valour. Nor are the Narisci and Quadi inferior to them. This I may call the frontier of Germany, so far as it is completed by the Danube. The Marcomanni and Quadi have, up to our time, been ruled by kings of their own nation, descended from the noble stock of Maroboduus and Tudrus. They now submit even to foreigners; but the strength and power of the monarch depend on Roman influence. He is occasionally supported by our arms, more frequently by our money, and his authority is none the less.
 - Tacitus, Germania 42

... the Marsigni, Gotini, Osi, and Buri, close in the rear of the Marcomanni and Quadi. Of these, the Marsigni and Buri, in their language and manner of life, resemble the Suevi. The Gotini and Osi are proved by their respective Gallic and Pannonian tongues, as well as by the fact of their enduring tribute, not to be Germans. Tribute is imposed on them as aliens, partly by the Sarmatæ, partly by the Quadi. The Gotini, to complete their degradation, actually work iron mines. All these nations occupy but little of the plain country, dwelling in forests and on mountain-tops. For Suevia is divided and cut in half by a continuous mountain-range, beyond which live a multitude of tribes.
 - Tacitus, Germania 43

The belief of the Getae in respect of immortality is the following. They think that they do not really die, but that when they depart this life they go to Zalmoxis, who is called also Gebeleizis by some among them. To this god every five years they send a messenger, who is chosen by lot out of the whole nation, and charged to bear him their several requests. Their mode of sending him is this. A number of them stand in order, each holding in his hand three darts; others take the man who is to be sent to Zalmoxis, and swinging him by his hands and feet, toss him into the air so that he falls upon the points of the weapons. If he is pierced and dies, they think that the god is propitious to them; but if not, they lay the fault on the messenger, who (they say) is a wicked man: and so they choose another to send away. The messages are given while the man is still alive. This same people, when it lightens and thunders, aim their arrows at the sky, uttering threats against the god; and they do not believe that there is any god but their own.

I am told by the Greeks who dwell on the shores of the Hellespont and the Pontus, that this Zalmoxis was in reality a man, that he lived at Samos, and while there was the slave of Pythagoras son of Mnesarchus. After obtaining his freedom he grew rich, and leaving Samos, returned to his own country. The Thracians at that time lived in a wretched way, and were a poor ignorant race; Zalmoxis, therefore, who by his commerce with the Greeks, and especially with one who was by no means their most contemptible philosopher, Pythagoras to wit, was acquainted with the Ionic mode of life and with manners more refined than those current among his countrymen, had a chamber built, in which from time to time he received and feasted all the principal Thracians, using the occasion to teach them that neither he, nor they, his boon companions, nor any of their posterity would ever perish, but that they would all go to a place where they would live for aye in the enjoyment of every conceivable good. While he was acting in this way, and holding this kind of discourse, he was constructing an apartment underground, into which, when it was completed, he withdrew, vanishing suddenly from the eyes of the Thracians, who greatly regretted his loss, and mourned over him as one dead. He meanwhile abode in his secret chamber three full years, after which he came forth from his concealment, and showed himself once more to his countrymen, who were thus brought to believe in the truth of what he had taught them. Such is the account of the Greeks.
- Herodotus, The Histories

But there is also another division of the country which has endured from early times, for some of the people are called Daci, whereas others are called Getae — Getae, those who incline towards the Pontus and the east, and Daci, those who incline in the opposite direction towards Germany and the sources of the Ister. The Daci, I think, were called Daï in early times; whence the slave names "Geta" and "Daüs" which prevailed among the Attic people; for this is more probable than that "Daüs" is from those Scythians who are called "Daae," for they live far away in the neighbourhood of Hyrcania...

- Strabo, Geographica

According to Strabo, the original name of the Dacians was daoi. A tradition preserved by Hesychius informs us that daos was the Phrygian word for "wolf.' P. Kretschmer had explained daos by the root *dhäu, "to press, to squeeze, to strangle."' Among the words derived from this root we may note the Lydian Kandaules, the name of the Thracian war god, Kandaon, the Illyrian dhaunos (wolf), the god Daunus, and so on. The city of Daous-dava, in Lower Moesia, between the Danube and Mount Haemus, literally meant "village of wolves. Formerly, then, the Dacians called themselves "wolves" or "those who are like wolves," who resemble wolves. Still according to Strabo, certain nomadic Scythians to the east of the Caspian Sea were also called daoi. The Latin authors called them Daliae, and some Greek historians daai. In all probability their ethnic name was derived from Iranian (Saka) dahae, "wolf." But similar names were not unusual among the IndoEuropeans. South of the Caspian Sea lay Hyrcania, that is, in Eastern Iranian "Vehrkana," in Western Iranian "Varkana," literally the "country of wolves" (from the Iranian root vehrka, "wolf'). The nomadic tribes that inhabited it were called Hyrkanoi, "the wolves," by Greco-Latin authors. In Phrygia there was the tribe of the Orka (Orkoi).

We may further cite the Lycaones of Arcadia, and Lycaonia or Lucaonia in Asia Minor, and especially the Arcadian Zeus Lykaios" and Apollo Lykagenes; the latter surname has been explained as "he of the she-wolf,""he born of the she-wolf," that is, born of Leto in the shape of a she-wolf. According to Heraclides Ponticus (Fragm. Hist. Gr. 218), the name of the Samnite tribe of the Lucani came from Lykos, "wolf." Their neighbours, the Hirpini, took their name from hirpus, the Samnite word for "wolf." At the foot of Mount Soracte lived the Hirpi Sorani, the "wolves of Sora" (the Volscian city). According to the tradition transmitted by Servius, an oracle had advised the Hirpi Sorani to live "like wolves," that is, by rapine. And in fact they were exempt from taxes and from military service, for their biennial rite-which consisted in walking barefoot over burning coals-was believed to ensure the fertility of the country. Both this shamanic rite and their living "like wolves" reflect religious concepts of considerable antiquity. There is no need to cite other examples. We will note only that tribes with wolf names are documented in places as distant as Spain (Loukentioi and Lucenses in Celtiberian Calaecia), Ireland, and England. Nor, indeed, is the phenomenon confined to the IndoEuropeans.

The fact that a people takes its ethnic name from the name of an animal always has a religious meaning. More precisely, the fact cannot be understood except as the expression of an archaic religious concept. In the case with which we are concerned, several hypotheses can be considered. First, we may suppose that the people derives its name from a god or mythical ancestor in the shape of a wolf or who manifested himself lycomorphically. The myth of a supernatural wolf coupling with a princess, who gives birth either to a people or a dynasty, occurs in various forms in Central Asia. But we have no testimony to its existence among the Dacians.

- Mircea Eliade, Zalmoxis, the Vanishing God

Before the Great White Wolf, there was a man, a young man that in spite of his age had a long white beard and white hair. He wandered the land of Dacia, helping people and preaching the word of Zamolxe. He found shelter in a cave in the mountains where he enjoyed the love and respect of the animals. Out of all the creatures of the forest, the wolves where the ones that loved him the most. He taught the wolves to respect men and not attack them and their households. The man also taught the Dacians to care for the wolves and give them food while the wolves helped and fought with them in battle. Thus, man and wolf became brothers.

Zamolxe, knowing that danger was to come over Dacia he asked the white bearded man if, in exchange of immortality and a place by his side in the Sacred Mountain, he wants to become the leader of the wolves. Exchange that the white bearded man, out of loyalty and love for Dacia, gratefully accepted. Zamolxe turned him in the Great White Wolf. Together they watched over Dacia, Zamolxe as the leader of the people and the Great White Wolf as the leader of wolves.

For centuries their land was prosperous and peaceful but, as history showed us, it was not bound to last. The Romans were getting nearer and nearer and some of them managed to poison the mind of men against their brother wolves. So the Dacians started hunting them with the belief that, if they killed the Great White Wolf and brought its head to the Romans, their land would be spared a war.

The wolves, betrayed, retreated deeper into the forests and never came out. The Great White Wolf retreated alongside Zamolxe to the Sacred Mountain and watched how war and misery took over their land. The Dacians, having lost the loyalty of the wolves received no help from them during their battles with the Romans. This is how Dacia became a Roman province.

Many of the images on Trajan's Column depict Romans slaughtering Dacians. It is ironic that we are left with so many contemporary images of a Barbarian people about whom we otherwise know so little. The Column celebrates Trajan's campaign in AD 101-6, in which he entered the kingdom of Dacia and destroyed the entire Dacian nation. Or at least that's what the Romans liked to think.

Nowadays some historians are reluctant to accord Trajan the honour of achieving total genocide. They point to inscriptions and written documents that indicate sufficient Dacians escaped the Roman holocaust to have ensured some continuity from those days to the present, when what remains of the country of Dacia is known - ironically enough - as Romania. There are records, for example, of at least 12 units of Dacian soldiers being subsequently posted to various parts of the Roman Empire - many of them, according to the archaeological record, to Britain. What's more, the Column itself concludes with an image of Dacians peaceably returning to graze their sheep on the emptied land.

The snag is that in ancient Rome it was common knowledge that Trajan had annihilated the Dacians. The Emperor's doctor, Crito, claimed that Trajan had done the job so well that only 40 Dacians remained - at least that's what the writer Lucian said he said. Crito did write an account of his adventures in Dacia with Trajan, but the book is now lost, and Lucian, who was a satirist and wit, may have been employing comic hyperbole to make a point.

But later writers continued to perpetuate the idea. They included the Emperor Julian (better known as Julian the Aposstate) who, in one of his works, imagines Trajan announcing: 'Alone, I have defeated the peoples from beyond the Danube and I have annihilated the people of the Dacians.' The fourth-century historian Eutropisu wrote that, when Dacia had been defeated, all that remained was a wasteland that Trajan then repopulated with people from various other parts of the Empire. "Trajan brought countless masses of people from the whole Roman world to live in the fields and in the cities, since Dacia was exhausted of men after the long war.

Since this was a widely known story, it could well be that the last images on Trajan's Column depict not the return of Dacians to their native soil, but the repopulation of the empty country by Roman settlers. It has also been suggested, however, that the images may be of Dacians being relocated in the Empire.

As for the deployment of Dacians in the Roman army, that too could be taken as a sign that very few Dacian males were allowed to remain in the country after the campaign. Another writer, who based his information on Crito's account, claims that Trajan pressed half a million Dacians into the Roman army. Although this is probably an exaggeration, it indicates that the Romans were determined to leave very few males on their native soil - a fact confirmed by Eutropius.

One archaeologist, Linda Ellis, describes it as a kind of Year Zero, with the Romans wiping Dacia clean and building a new civilisation as though this were terra nova, new land. "There was no continuation of Dacian traditions, either religious tradition or economic or political tradition, so Dacian civilization had been literally wiped from the surface and a new Roman order had been emplaced upon it." Whether they killed off the entire population or not, the Romans did a thorough job of removing Dacian culture and identity from the world map.

The Dacians, then, have the distinction of being one of the few nations on earth whose destruction has been lovingly recorded in pictures for posterity.

- Terry Jones, Barbarians

One of the elements that came from the Roman and Thracian celebrations was the one about wolves. Is it only a coincidence that we, the descendants of Dacians, whose flag was shaped as a wolf, have chosen the patron of wolves as our protector? During this night, the wolves are allowed to eat all the animals they want. It is said that they can speak, too, but anyone that hears them will die soon.

Early on St. Andrew’s day, the mothers go into the garden and pick tree branches, especially from apple trees, pear trees, cherry trees, but also rose -bush branches. They make a bunch of branches for each family member. The one whose bunch will bloom by New Years day will be lucky and healthy next year.

On St. Andrew’s night ghosts haunt and harass the people. For protection, one should rub the entrance door with garlic and turn all the dishes upside down. A special party takes place now, called “Guarding the garlic”. Boys and girls gather in a house with the doors and windows rubbed with garlic. They also put garlic (three bulbs for each girl) in a wooden tub that is to be guarded till day-break by an old woman, in a candle-lit room. They party all night, and in the morning, the wooden tub is taken outside and they dance around it. Then they all take some garlic home as protection against illness or spells.

St. Andrew is the patron of the wolves, being the one who protects the people attacked by these animals. St. Andrew is also celebrated in order that the wolves should stay away from the households or from the travelers. The salt is charmed and buried under the door of the stable. It will be taken out on St. George and given to the cattle, as a protection against the wolves and other evil things.

- St. Andrew's Day in Romania

The Thracians bursting into Mycalessus sacked the houses and temples, and butchered the inhabitants, sparing neither youth nor age, but killing all they fell in with, one after the other, children and women, and even beasts of burden, and whatever other living creatures they saw; the Thracian race, like the bloodiest of the barbarians, being even more so when it has nothing to fear. Everywhere confusion reigned and death in all its shapes; and in particular they attacked a boys' school, the largest that there was in the place, into which the children had just gone, and massacred them all. In short, the disaster falling upon the whole town was unsurpassed in magnitude, and unapproached by any in suddenness and in horror.

- Thucydides, Histories, VII

The Thracians are the most powerful people in the world, except, of course, the Indians; and if they had one head, or were agreed among themselves, it is my belief that their match could not be found anywhere, and that they would very far surpass all other nations. But such union is impossible for them, and there are no means of ever bringing it about...

The Thracians who live above the Crestonaeans observe the following customs. Each man among them has several wives; and no sooner does a man die than a sharp contest ensues among the wives upon the question which of them all the husband loved most tenderly; the friends of each eagerly plead on her behalf, and she to whom the honour is adjudged, after receiving the praises both of men and women, is slain over the grave by the hand of her next of kin, and then buried with her husband. The others are sorely grieved, for nothing is considered such a disgrace.

The Thracians who do not belong to these tribes have the customs which follow. They sell their children to traders. On their maidens they keep no watch, but leave them altogether free, while on the conduct of their wives they keep a most strict watch. Brides are purchased of their parents for large sums of money. Tattooing among them marks noble birth, and the want of it low birth. To be idle is accounted the most honourable thing, and to be a tiller of the ground the most dishonourable. To live by war and plunder is of all things the most glorious. These are the most remarkable of their customs. - Herodotus, The Histories

First of all the Thracians, like wild beasts kept in cages and suddenly released, set up a deafening roar and charged the Italian cavalry on the right wing with such fury that, in spite of their experience of war and their native fearlessness, they threw them into disorder...

On that day there fell on the side of the Romans 200 cavalry and not less than 2000 infantry; about 600 were made prisoners. Out of the king's army 20 cavalry and 40 infantry were killed. On their return to camp the victors were all in high spirits, but the Thracians surpassed all in the insolence of their joy. They returned to camp singing and carrying the heads of their enemies fixed on their spears.

- Livy's account of the Battle of the Callinicus, History of Rome: Book 42

CHAP. VII.

How St Andrew, the Champion of Scotland, Travelled into a Vale of Walking Spirits, and how he was set at Liberty by a going Fire, after his Journey into Thracia, where he recovered the Six Ladies to their natural shapes, that had lived seven years in the likeness of milk-white Swans, with other Accidents that be∣fell the most Noble Champion.

Now of the honourable Adventures of St. Andrew, the famous Champion of Scotland, must I discourse, whose seven years Travels were as strange as any of the other Champions...

... At last, without any further molestation, he arrived within the Territories of Thracia, a Country as you have heard in the former Chapter, adorned with the beauty of many fair Woods and Forests, through which he Travelled with small rest, and less sleep, till he came to the foot of the Mountain, whereupon stood the Castle wherein the woeful King of Thracia, in company of his sorrowful Subjects, still lamented the unhappy Destinies of his six Daughters turned into Swans, having Crowns of Gold about their Necks; when the Valiant Champion St. Andrew beheld the lofty situation of the Castle, and the invincible strength it seemed to be of, he expected some strange Adventure to befall him in the said Castle, so preparing his Sword in readiness, and buckling close his Armour, which was a shirt of Silver Mail for lightness in Travel, he climbed the Mountain, whereupon he espied the Gyant lying upon a craggy Rock, with his Limbs and Members all rent and torn, by the fury of hunger-starved Fowls: which loathsome Spectacle was no little wonder to the worthy Champion, considering the mighty stature and bigness of the Gyant: where leaving his putrefied Body to the Winds, he approached the Gates: where after he had read the Superscription over the same, without any interruption, entered the Castle, whence he expected a fierce encounter by some Knight that should have defended the same; but all things fell out contrary to his imagination, for after he had found many a strange novelty and hidden secret closed in the same, he chanced at last to come where the Thracians duly observed their ceremonious Mournings, which in this order were daily performed: First upon Sundays, which in that Country is the first day in the Week, all the Thracians attired themselves after the manner of Bacchus's Priests, and burned persumed Incense, with sweet Arabian Frankincense upon a Religious Shrine, which they offered to the Sun as chief Governor of that day, thinking Page [unnumbered] thereby to appease the angry Destinies, and to recover the unhappy Ladies to their former shapes: upon Mondays, clad in Garments after the Silvans, a colour like to the Waves of the Sea, they offered up their tears to the Moon, being the guider and Mistriss of that day: Upon Tuesdays like Souldiers trailing their banners in the Dust, and Drums sounding sad and doleful melody, in sign of Discontent, they committed their procéedings to the pleasures of Mars, being Ruler and Guider of that Day; Upon Wednesday like Scholars unto Mercury: Upon Thursday like Potentates, to Love; Upon Frydays like Lovers with sweet sounding Musick to Venus; and upon Saturday like manual professors, to the angry and discontented Saturn.

Thus the woeful Thracian King, and his sorrowful Subjects, consumed seven Months away, one while accursing Fortune of despite, another while the Heavens of Injustice: the one for his Children's Transformations, the other for their long limited Punishments. But at last when the Scottish Champion heard what bitter moan the Thracians made about the River, he demanded the cause, and to what purpose they observed such Ceremonies, condemning the Majesty of Jehovah, and only Worshipping but outward and vain Gods: to whom the King, after a few sad tears Tears strained from the Conduits of his aged Eyes, Replied in this manner.

"Most Noble Knight, for so you seem by your gesture and other outward appearance, (quoth the King,) if you desire to know the cause of our continual grief, prepare your ears to hear a Tragick and woeful tale, whereat methinks I see the Elements begin to mourn, and cover their azured countenance with fable Clouds: These Milk-white Swans you see, whose Necks are beautified with Golden Crowns, are my six natural Daughters, transformed into this Swan-like Substance, by the appointment of the Gods: for of late this Castle was kept by a cruel Gyant, named Blanderon, who by violence would have Ravished them, but the Heavens to preserve their Chastities, prevented his Lustful Desires: and transformed their beautiful bodies to these milk-white Swans: and now seven years the cheerful Spring hath renewed the Earth with a Summer's Livery, and seven times the nipping Winter Frosts have bereaved the Trees of Leaf and Bud, since first my Daughters lost their Virgin-shapes: seven Summers have they swam upon this Crystal Stream, where instead of Rich Attire, and embroidered Vestments, their smooth Silver-coloured Feathers adorn their comely Bodies: Princely Palaces, wherein they were wont, like tripping Sea-Nymphs, to dance their measures up and Page [unnumbered] down, are now exchanged into cold streams of water: where in their chiefest melody is the murmuring of cold liquid bubbles, and their joyful pleasure to hear the harmony of humming Bees which some Poets call the Muses Birds."

"Thus have you heard" (most worthy Knight) "the woeful Tragedy of my Daughters, for whose sakes I will spend the remnant of my days heavily, complaining of their long appointed Punishments, about the Banks of this unhappy River." Which sad Discourse was no sooner ended, but the Scottish Knight (having a mind furnished with all Princely thoughts, and a tongue washt in the Fountain of Eloquence) thus replied, to the comfort and great rejoicing of the Company.

"Most Noble King" (quoth the Champion) "your heavy and dolorous discourse hath constrained my heart to a wonderful Passion and compelled my very soul to rue your Daughters miseries: But yet a greater grief and deeper sorrow than that, hath taken possession of my breast, whereof my eyes have been witnesses, and my ears unhappy hearers of your misbelief, I mean your unchristian Faith: For I have seen since my first arrival into this same Castle, your Prophane and Vain Worship of strange and false Gods, as of Phoebus, Luna, Mars, Mercury, and such like Poetical Names, which the Majesty of high Jehovah utterly contemns."

"But Magnificent Governor of Thracia, if you seek to recover your Daughters by humble Prayer, and to obtain your soul's content by true tears, you must abandon all such vain Ceremonies, and with true Humility believe in the Christian's God, which is the God of Wonders, and chief Commander of the rouling Elements, in whose Quarrel this unconquered Arm, and this undaunted Heart of mine shall fight: and how be it known to thee, great King of Thrace, that I am a Christian Champion, by Birth a Knight of Scotland, bearing my Country's Arms upon my Breast," (for indeed thereon he bore a Silver Cross, set in blue Silk) "and therefore in the honour of Christendom, I Challenge forth the proudest Knight at Arms, against whom I will maintain that our God is the true God, and the rest fantastical and vain Ceremonies."

Which sudden and unexpected Challenge, so daunted the Thracian Champions, that they stood amazed for a time, gazing upon one another, like Men dropt from the Clouds: but at fast consulting together, how the Challenge of the strange Knight was to the dishonour of their Country, and utter scandal of all Knightly Dignity; they with a general consent craved leave of the King, that the Challenge might be taken, who as willingly condescended as they demanded.

So both time and place was appointed, which was the next morning following, by the King's Commandment, upon a large and plain Meadow close by the River-side, whereon the six Swans were swimming, whereupon after the Christian Champion had cast down his steely Gauntlet, and the Thracian Knight accepted thereof, every one departed for that night, the Challenger to the East-side of the Castle to his Lodging, and the Defendants to the West, where they slept quietly till the next morning, who by the break of day, were wakened by a Herald of Arms: but all the passed night, our Scottish Champion never entertained one motion of rest, but busied himself in trimming his Horse, buckling on his Armour, lacing on his Burgonet, and making prayers to the Divine Majesty of God, for the Conquest and Victory, till the Morning's beauty chased away the darkness of the Night, and no sooner were the Windows of the day full opened, but the Valiant and Noble-minded Champion of Christendom entrred the List, where the King in company of the Thracian Lords was present to behold the Combat: and so after St. Andrew had twice or thrice traced his Horse up and down the Lists, bravely flourishing his Launce, at the top whereof hung a Pendant of Gold, whose Poesie was thus written in Silver Letters, "This day a Martyr or a Conqueror."

Then entered a Knight in exceeding bright Armour, mounted upon a Courser as white as the Northern Snow, whose Caparison was of the colour of the Elements, betwixt whom was a fierce Encounter: but the Thracian had the Foil and with disgrace departed the List. Then secondly, entered another Knight in Armour, varnished with green Varnish, his Steed of the colour of an Iron-grey: who likewise had the repulse by the worthy Christian. Thirdly, Entered a Knight in a black Corselet, mounted upon a big-boned Paltry, covered with a veil of sable Silk, in his hand he bore a Launce nailed round about with plates of Steel: which Knight amongst the Thracians was accounted the strongest in the World, except it were those Gyants that descended from a monstrous Lineage: but no sooner encountered these hardy Champions, but their Lances shivered in sunder, and flew so violently into the Air, that it much amazed the beholders, then they alighted from their Steeds, and so valiantly bestirred them with their keen Falchions, that the fiery sparkles flew so fierce from these Noble Champions steely Helmets, as from an Iron Anvil: But the Combat endured not very long, before the most hardy Scottish Knight espied an advantage, wherein he might shew his matchless Fortitude: whereupon he struck such a mighty Blow upon the Thracian's Burgonet, that it cleaved his head just down to his shoulders: whereat the King suddenly started from his Seat, and with a wrathful countenance threatened the Champions Death in this manner.

"Proud Christian" (said the King) "thou shalt repent his death, and curse the time that ever thou camest to Thracia: his blood we will revenge upon thy head, and quit thy committed cruelty with a sudden death:" and so in company of a hundred Armed Knights, he encompassed the Scottish Champion, intending by multitudes to murder him. But when the valiant Knight St. Andrew saw how he was suppressed by Treachery, and environed with mighty Troops, he called to Heaven for succour, and animated himself by these words of encouragement: "Now for the honour of Christendom, This day a Martyr or a Conqueror!": and therewithal he so Valiantly behaved himself with his Cuttle-Axe, that he made Lanes of murdered Men, and felled them down by multitudes like as the Harvest men do mow down Ears of ripened Corn, whereby they fell before his face like leaves, from trees when the Summer's Pride declines her Glory. So at the last after much bloodshed, the Thracian King was compelled to yield to the Scottish Champion's Mercy, who swore him for the safety of his Life, to forsake his profane Religion, and become a Christian, whose living true God the Thracian King vowed for evermore to Worship, and thereupon he kissed the Champion's Sword.

This Conversion of the Pagan King, so pleased the Majesty of God, that he presently gave end to his Daughters punishments, and turned the Ladies to their former shapes. But when the King beheld their smooth Feathers, which were as white as Lilies, exchanged to natural fairness, and that their black Bills and slender Necks were converted to their first created Beauty (where for external fairness the Queen of Love might build her Paradise) he bad adieu to his grief and long continued sorrows, protesting ever after to continue a true Christian for the Scottish Champion's sake, by whom and by whose Divine Orisons, his Daughters obtained their former Features; so taking the Christian Knight in company of the six Ladies, to an excellent Rich Chamber prepared with all things according to their wishes, where first the Christian Knight was unarmed, then his wounds washed with Whitewine, new Milk, and Rose-water, and so after some dainty Repast, conveyed to his nights Repose. The Ladies being the joyfullest Creatures under Heaven, never entertained one thought of sleep, but passed the night in their Father's company, (whose mind was ravished with unspeakable pleasures) till the morning's messengers bad them good morrow.

Thus all things being prepared in a readiness, they departed the Castle, not like Mourners to a heavy Funeral, but in triumphing manner, marching back to the Thracian Palace, with streaming Banners in the Wind, Drums and Trumpets sounding joyful Melody, and with sweet inspiring Music, caused the Air to resound with Harmony: But no sooner were they entered the Palace which was in distance from the Gyant's Castle, some ten miles, but their Triumphs turned to exceeding Sorrow, for Rosalinde with the Champion of Italy, as you have heard before, was departed the Court; which unexpected news so daunted the whole company, but especially the King, that the Triumphs for that time were deferred, and Messengers were dispatched in pursuit of the Adventurous Italian, and lovely Rosalinde.

Likewise when St. Andrew of Scotland had intelligence how it was one of those Knights which was Imprisoned with him under the wicked Enchantress Kalyb, as you heard in the first beginning of the History, his heart thirsted for his most honourable company, and his eyes seldom closed quietly, nor took any rest, untill he was likewise departed in the pursuit of his sworn Friend, which was the next night following, without making any acquainted with his intent: Likewise when the six Ladies understood the secret departure of the Scottish Champion, whom they asserted dearer than any Knight in the World, they stored themselves with sufficient Treasure, and by stealth took their Journeys from their Father's Palace, intending either to find out the Victorious and approved Knight of Scotland, or to end their Lives in some Foreign Region.

The Rumour of whose Departure, no sooner came to the King's Ears, but he purposed the like Travel, either to obtain the sight of his Daughters again, or to make his Tomb beyond the circuit of the Sun. So attiring himself in homely Russet, like a Pilgrim, with an Ebon staff in his hand, tipt with Silver, took his Journey all unknown from his Palace, whose sudden and secret departure struck such an extreme and intolerable heaviness in the Court, that the Palace Gates, were fealed up with sable mourning-cloth, the Thracian Lords exempted all pleasure, and like Flocks of sheep strayed up and down without Shepherds, the Ladies and Courtly Gentiles sate sighing in their private Chambers: where we will leave them for this time, and speak of the success of the other Champions, and how Fortune smiled on their Adventurous Proceedings.

Persecution caused the followers of Asura to hide their temples with cunning art, and to veil their rituals in obscurity; and this secrecy, in turn, evoked more monstrous suspicions and tales of evil.

But Conan’s was the broad tolerance of the barbarian, and he had refused to persecute the followers of Asura or to allow the people to do so on no better evidence than was presented against them, rumors and accusations that could not be proven. "If they are black magicians," he had said, "how will they suffer you to harry them? If they are not, there is no evil in them. Crom’s devils! Let men worship what gods they will."

- "The Hour of the Dragon,"The Bloody Crown of Conan, p151-152

On this day, St. Andrew the Apostle, the brother of St. Peter, was martyred. He was chosen to go to the city of Lydd and to Kurdistan. He entered the city of Lydd, where most of its people had believed at the hands of St. Peter. He was accompanied by his disciple, Philemon, who had a sweet voice and was a good reader. St. Andrew commanded Philemon to go up to the pulpit and read.

When the priests of the idols heard of the arrival of Andrew the Apostle, they took their spears and went to the church. They stood outside the church to hear if he was cursing their gods or not. They heard Philemon reading the words of David the Prophet, "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak: eyes they have but they do not see: They have ears, but they do not hear: noses they have, but they do not smell: They have hands, but they do not handle: feet they have, but they do not walk: nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them." (Psalm 115:4-8)

Their hearts rejoiced because of his sweet voice and their emotions mellowed. They entered the church, and bowed down at the feet of Andrew the Apostle. He preached to them and they believed in the Lord Christ. Then he baptized them with the rest of those who worshipped idols. Andrew the Apostle, then left them and went to Kurdistan and to the cities of Aksis, Aregnas and Henefores, to preach there.

He also went with St. Bartholomew to the city of Azrinos. Its people were wicked and knew not God. They went on preaching and teaching them until they lead many of them to the knowledge of God, because of the signs and wonders they performed before them. Those who did not believe plotted against him. They sent for him so that when he arrived, they would attack him and kill him. When their messengers came to St. Andrew and heard his sincere teachings and saw his shining face, they believed in our Lord Christ and did not return to those who had sent them. The unbelievers decided to go to him and burn him. When they gathered around him to do what they had intended, the Apostle prayed to the Lord, and immediately fire came down from heaven and surrounded them. They were terrified and believed.

The report of St. Andrew the Apostle, was heard throughout all these countries and many believed in the Lord. Nevertheless the priests of the idols did not cease looking for him in order to kill him. Afterwards, they gathered and went to him; they bound him and beat him severely. After they dragged him around the city naked, they cast him into prison, so that they might crucify him the following day. Their custom was to stone those who were to be killed by crucifixion. The Apostle spent his night praying to God. The Lord Christ appeared to him and strengthened him saying, "Do not fear or worry for the time of your departure from this world is near." He gave him peace and disappeared. St. Andrew's soul rejoiced for what he saw.

On the next day, they hanged him upon a tree and stoned him until he departed. Certain believers came and took his holy body and laid it with great honor in a private grave. Many signs and wonders were made manifest from his body.

His prayers be with us and Glory be to our God forever. Amen.

- "The Martyrdom of St. Andrew the Apostle, the Brother of St. Peter," Coptic Orthodox Church, Commemorations for Khiak 4

He was a humble, simple man, and for a simple man nothing is impossible. If he had been an arrogant European explorer he would never have trusted these people, he would have found his own way like Pytheas, who made a boat and sailed to Greenland from Marseilles. Although h respected their knowledge, Pytheas didn't fully trust the locals becaue he was a Greek and they were barbarians.

You see, my book is a cultural tapestry. It includes the Scythians, the ancient Scots, early Africa. It is about St. Andrew, but it is also about the world he moved in: the Slavs, the Pharisees, Epicureans, Stoics, the North Africans, the Lapp nomads, the Han Dynasty in China, the Mongols and the Turks. My editor told me, "Don't just write the life of St. Andrew, describe the places he went and the people he would have met." When I began writing about these places, I found that I had to depict the whole era - how Siberia and Finnish-Russian Karelia are connected to central Asia, Africa and Scotland - so that a reader can understand what the world was like at that time.

- Georgio Alexandrou

On the left: Kang, Koloth, & Kor. On the right: Kang, Koloth, & Kor.

Gene Roddenberry tried to explain the differences between The Motion Picture's Klingons and the original ones by saying that the original show had simply never had the budget and makeup technology to envision the species as it should have been seen, so the apparently new Klingons were just Klingons as they were always intended to have been. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 37, No. 2, p. 40) 

There is a word for the Star Trek style, and that is “Minimalism” — which I mean as a technical term, the designation of a certain style. Minimalism brings with it a complex of values that are also notable in the original Star Trek. There is no doubt that budget constraints shaped the style, but ultimately the Minimalist look has nothing to do with budgeting. The look of Star Trek is Minimalist through and through, even including the somewhat elaborate bridge set (with the “con”), where Captain Kirk issues commands and supervises the starship. Successor shows and movies, by contrast, could hardly be less Minimalist in their art direction, style, and lighting. Advances in special effects after 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Star Wars movies were considerable by the time of The Next Generation,² though not yet at the stage where “lighting a scene becomes a matter of painting pixels,” as Stephen Prince puts it (“True Lies” 32). Science fiction on television had to look good, had to be as perfect in terms of surface appearances as possible. By contrast, the predecessor series, Star Trek, was establishing conventions, not trying to catch up with them: important conventions of the genre start there. There was no “anxiety of influence” to overcome, and therefore a definite lack of inhibition, a kind of energy that cannot be duplicated under more regular circumstances. Improvisation is part of the original show, and with it the failings and advantages that improvisation yields. Many of the effects and settings were in fact improvised — improvised in the literal sense of that word, made up quickly under pressure with few resources. There is something about such circumstances that can stimulate creative work, as so many inexpensive but brilliant movies in film history also testify. In the case of Star Trek, later series are more polished but less energized.
 - Minimalist Magic: The Star Trek Look, Mervyn Nicholson

Bashir: "Those are Klingons?"
Waitress: "All right. You boys have had enough."
Odo: "Mister Worf?"
Worf: "They are Klingons, and it is a long story."
O'Brien: "What happened? Some kind of genetic engineering?"
Bashir: "A viral mutation?"
Worf: "We do not discuss it with outsiders."

In some senses, it’s the idea of a thing rather than the thing itself that matters. The animated series, the initial motion pictures, TNG (and its films) and subsequent series, and now the new reboots have all reworked ST:TOS. To varying extents what they’ve been reworking is not the text, but the reception thereof. Even the animated series has a lot of fan-service call-backs: Mudd and tribbles and Spock’s sad childhood on Vulcan. The original run of Star Trek films’ most dramatic moments (Kirk screaming at the death of his friend, Kirk disobeying orders to save him, etc.), which only have meaning because they’re great upheavals in Kirk’s life, have since come to define that character. (This mechanism is also at work on other characters in Star Trek films and reboots.) Misreading Kirk as generally brash makes these departures from his normal behaviour less important, and thus bleeds the drama clean out of Kirk’s reactions in, for example, The Wrath of Khan. Because Kirk was insubordinate at one of the most extreme points in his life and/or under the narrative constraints of the films (which are entirely different from those of TOS), he’s become a character who is read as insubordinate.
 - Kirk Drift, Erin Horáková

The goal was never to make Star Trek and make a pile of money from it – it was to build up the paper tiger just enough to boost CBS’ overall bottom line. If anybody was wondering exactly how Star Trek was going to make CBS money even though it was put behind the paywall of a service that relatively nobody uses, this was how. They can expect to push company revenues up by about 10% to 12% a year, and they paid basically nothing to do it.

If you look at the price versus selection ratio, CBS All Access pricing is pretty poor, but CBS basically doesn’t care. It’s being run to break even, not make a profit. The profit comes in negotiating better prices for the rest of their catalog through other services. That’s the profit center in all this, and that’s why they needed something like Star Trek: Discovery in their stable. It didn’t have to be Trek specifically, just something big. Like the next Baywatch, or a TV series based on Fast and Furious, just anything to get people to sign up. It just happened to be Star Trek.

While we’re on it, there are a lot of rumors flying around about how Discovery is greenlit for Season 2, that they’re prepping for Season 3 already, that it’s planned to run for several seasons, and all sorts of other claims. Unfortunately none of those rumors are currently true. In a Hollywood Reporter article on September 26, Star Trek: Discovery producer Alex Kurtzman tells his interviewer that while they’re planning Season 2 now, there is currently no agreement to proceed.

The money quote here from Kurtzman is as follows:

We have a larger picture for season two — if we’re lucky to get a season two order.

It was never about the Star Trek fans, nor even about the money they could make directly from them (which is fairly insignificant, see our previous article), just the foot traffic they represented. CBS needed to identify a really strong property that they had the rights to that would generate a subscriber spike. Star Trek was it.  CBS head exec Les Moonves has said, 

I think Star Trek is the type of show that could bolster CBS All Access and put it on perhaps the same footing as Netflix or Amazon…[Star Trek’s fans] are some of the most passionate fans in the world, and we can see millions of them joining All Access.

They did not get millions, of course, but the language here is clear. Moonves is a businessman, and a shrewd one, and figured out how to play both Netflix and the fans themselves to improve his bottom line. It simply does not matter that millions of Trek fans are not flocking to the CBS All Access platform. They only needed some, and they don’t even need them all at once. The job is effectively done. Mission accomplished.

That’s why there’s no particular pressure to commence with a Season 2 of Discovery, and as mentioned above, Season 2 currently does not have a green light. CBS will be quite happily tooling up their replay sales over the next two years just based on what they already have. Even if they do greenlight the next season, Kurtzman is on record as saying that we won’t see any of it until at very least the first quarter of 2019, and probably not till the second quarter, assuming it happens at all. The longer we wait to hear, of course, the worse the odds. These things have a certain momentum, and if they wait too long, the moment will be lost, and they’ll move on to the next shiny object.

"Star Trek's" licensing and merchandising rights are spread over two media conglomerates with competing goals. The rights to the original television series from the 1960s remained with CBS after it split off from Paramount’s corporate parent Viacom in 2006, while the studio retained the rights to the film series. CBS also held onto the ability to create future “Star Trek” TV shows.

Paramount must license the “Star Trek” characters from CBS Consumer Products for film merchandising.

Much to the dismay of Bad Robot, CBS' merchandising arm continued to create memorabilia and products based on the cast of the original 1960s series and market them to Trekkies. The production company did market research and found that there was brand confusion between Abrams' rebooted Enterprise crew and the one starring William Shatner and DeForest Kelley.

TheWrap has learned that Bad Robot asked CBS to stop making products featuring the original cast, but talks broke down over money. The network was making roughly $20 million a year on that merchandise and had no incentive to play nice with its former corporate brother, the individual said. In response, the company scaled back its ambitions to have "Star Trek's" storylines play out with television shows, spin-off films and online components, something Abrams had been eager to accomplish.

Ferengi Rule of Acquisition 1: Once you have their money, you never give it back.

Seriously, TRANSFORMERS has a more complex multiverse canon than Star Trek.

Three Rings for the Elfin-kings unner the sky,

Seiven for the Droich-lairds in thair haws of stane,

Nine for Mortal Men duimit tae dee,

Ane for the Daurk Laird oan his daurk throne

In the Laund of Mordor whaur the Shadaes lig.

Ane Ring tae rowl thaim aw, Ane Ring tae find thaim,

Ane Ring tae bring thaim aw an' in the mirkness bind thaim

In the Laund of Mordor whaur the Shadaes lie. 

 - The Laird of the Rings (in Scots) - I can dream, eh?

"...previously unexplored stories based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s original writings..."

Set in Middle Earth, the television adaptation will explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s TheFellowship of the Ring. The deal includes a potential additional spin-off series. 

I love Dragonslayer as much as the next '80s kid, but Smaug is clearly a quadrupedal winged linnormr, not Vermithrax pejorative.

Aladdin’s not the only prince coming for Jasmine in Agrabah. The new Disney live-action remake of the classic 1992 film will also feature another royal blue blood, played by Billy Magnussen. Everybody, this is Prince Anders. Prince Anders, this is everybody.

He’s “a suitor from Skanland and potential husband for Princess Jasmine,” according to an official statement from Disney—which means that Agrabah has a new fake Scandinavian counterpart. Disney also shared a handful of new details about the rest of the cast, which includes Will Smith as the Genie, newcomer Mena Massoud as Aladdin, and Naomi Scott as Jasmine. Smith tweeted out a quick cast selfie on Wednesday, announcing that filming had just begun.

The initial news of Magnussen’s casting, which broke late Tuesday, was met with a mixed response on social media. Some viewers wondered why a white actor is being brought into this film, set in a made-up Middle Eastern nation—especially when the original movie didn’t include any white main characters.

People think about how race has affected the world. It's not just in the States. Colonialism is the cousin of slavery. Colonialism in Africa would have it that, in order to be a ruler, his education comes from Europe.

I wanted to be completely sure that we didn't convey that idea because that would be counter to everything that Wakanda is about. It's supposed to be the most technologically advanced nation on the planet.

If it's supposed to not have been conquered – which means that advancement has happened without colonialism tainting it, poisoning the well of it, without stopping it or disrupting it – then there's no way he would speak with a European accent.

If I did that, I would be conveying a white supremacist idea of what being educated is and what being royal or presidential is. Because it's not just about him running around fighting.

Depending on the compounds, Baranor could mean"fierce fire,""ruddy mountain," or "House of the Sun" in Sindarin

“But the other two Istari were sent for a different purpose. Morinethar and Rómestámo (Darkness-slayer and East-helper) Their task was to circumvent Sauron: to bring help to the few tribes of Men that had rebelled from Melkor-worship, to stir up rebellion… and after his first fall to search out his hiding ( in which they failed ) and to cause ( ? dissension and disarray ) among the dark East… They must have had very great influence on the history of the Second age and Third age in weakening and disarraying the forces of East… who would both in the Second age and Third age otherwise have… outnumbered the West.”

–The Peoples of Middle-earth

The Númenoreans had now become great mariners, exploring all the seas eastward, and they began to yearn for the West and the forbidden waters; and the more joyful was their life, the more they began to long for the immortality of the Eldar.

Moreover, after Minastir the Kings became greedy of wealth and power. At first the Númenoreans had come to Middle-earth as teachers and friends of lesser Men afflicted by Sauron; but now their havens became fortresses, holding wide coastlands in subjection. Atanamir and his successors levied heavy tribute, and the ships of the Númenoreans returned laden with spoil.

 - The Lord of the Rings Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Númenor

"This bit is so stupid." - Gandalf

• 4 different adaptations of The Adventures of Pinnochio;
• 3 different adaptations of Anna Karenina;
• 2 different adaptations of Ben-Hur;
• 2 adaptations of The Great Gatsby;
• 2 adaptations of Les Liaisons dangereuses;
• 3 different adaptations of The Mysterious Island; 
• About 12 different adaptations of Journey to the West;
• 3 different adaptations of Peter Pan released in thee same year; 
• 7(!) different adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray;
• 3 different adaptations of Pride & Prejudice;
• 2 different adaptations of The Thirty-Nine Steps;
• 3 Spider-Men across 7 feature films; 
• 3 Batmen across 8 feature films;
• A preposterous number of Draculas;
• 11Frankenstein's Monsters, including 2 adaptations of Frankenstein;
• 9King Arthurs;
• 6Sherlock Holmeses;
• 3Allan Quatermains; 

Run, run! It's just begun! Burn ocotillo! Time's nigh! Prepare to die! Skulls by the kilo! You apes'll never escape the high pecadillo of Tom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!

For 130 years, dinosaurs have been divided into two distinct clades—Ornithischia and Saurischia. Here we present a hypothesis for the phylogenetic relationships of the major dinosaurian groups that challenges the current consensus concerning early dinosaur evolution and highlights problematic aspects of current cladistic definitions. Our study has found a sister-group relationship between Ornithischia and Theropoda (united in the new clade Ornithoscelida), with Sauropodomorpha and Herrerasauridae (as the redefined Saurischia) forming its monophyletic outgroup. This new tree topology requires redefinition and rediagnosis of Dinosauria and the subsidiary dinosaurian clades. In addition, it forces re-evaluations of early dinosaur cladogenesis and character evolution, suggests that hypercarnivory was acquired independently in herrerasaurids and theropods, and offers an explanation for many of the anatomical features previously regarded as notable convergences between theropods and early ornithischians.

Radical shakeup of dinosaur family tree points to unexpected Scottish origins
Cat-sized Scottish fossil proposed as candidate for common dinosaur ancestor in controversial study that could overthrow a century of dinosaur classification

The most radical shakeup of the dinosaur family tree in a century has led scientists to propose an unlikely origin for the prehistoric beasts: an obscure cat-sized creature found in Scotland.

The analysis, which has already sparked controversy in the academic world, suggests that the two basic groups into which dinosaurs have been classified for more than a century need a fundamental rethink. If proved correct, the revised version of the family tree would overthrow some of the most basic assumptions about this chapter of evolutionary history, including what the common ancestor of all dinosaurs looked like and where it came from.

Until now, many scientists have backed the view that the first dinosaurs emerged around 237 million years ago on the ancient continent known as Gondwana, that would later become the southern hemisphere, based on a host of immaculately preserved fossils from South America and Tanzania.

However, the latest analysis identifies a Scottish specimen, called Saltopus, as the closest thing in the fossil record to what the hypothetical common ancestor might look like.

Matt Baron, the graduate student who led the three-year project at the University of Cambridge, said that while it would never be possible to pinpoint the origin of dinosaurs with certainty his findings placed the northern hemisphere into contention. “It may just be that dinosaurs originated in Scotland,” he said.

Elgin Museum was once renowned for its collection of fossils, which museum curator David Addison explained was due to the unique history of the surrounding area. “We are on what was basically deserts and sea beds,” he said.

“Half of Moray is an ancient desert; half is an ancient sea bed. We have the very early stages of life. We don’t have ‘younger’ dinosaurs, because they were scraped off the face of Scotland by the ice ages we’ve had.”

According to Mrs Trythall, there may be many more fossils such as this one, which originated from the Moray area but are now being displayed elsewhere.

“Many of these fossils were first discovered by people in Moray during the Victorian and Edwardian era,” she said.

“They were trying to help other scientists by sending them specimens. Some came back, and some didn’t.”

Although the last time little Saltopus was in the area he hung around for 220 million years, anyone who is keen to see him should hop over to Elgin Museum quickly; he’s only going to be there for three months this time round.

However, as Mrs Trythall points out “If people petition for it, then we could keep it for longer.”