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Tenrikyo

Tenrikyo (天理教) is a Japanese new religion which is neither strictly monotheistic nor pantheistic, originating from the teachings of a 19th-century woman named Nakayama Miki, known to her followers as "Oyasama". Followers of Tenrikyo believe that God of Origin, God in Truth, known by several names including "Tsukihi," "Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto" and "Oyagamisama (God the Parent)" revealed divine intent through Miki Nakayama as the Shrine of God and to a lesser extent the roles of the Honseki Izo Iburi and other leaders. Tenrikyo's worldly aim is to teach and promote the Joyous Life, which is cultivated through acts of charity and mindfulness called hinokishin.

The primary operations of Tenrikyo today are located at Tenrikyo Church Headquarters (Tenri, Nara, Japan), which supports 16,833 locally managed churches in Japan, the construction and maintenance of the oyasato-yakata and various community-focused organisations. It has 1.75 million followers in Japan and is estimated to have over 2 million worldwide.

Beliefs
The ultimate spiritual aim of Tenrikyo is the construction of the Kanrodai, a divinely ordained pillar in an axis mundi called the Jiba, and the correct performance of the Kagura ritual around the Kanrodai, which will bring about the salvation of all human beings. The idea of the Jiba as the origin of earthly creation is called moto-no-ri, or the principle of origin. A pilgrimage to the Jiba is interpreted as a return to one's origin, so the greeting okaeri nasai ('welcome home') is seen on many inns in Tenri City.

Other key teachings include:
 * Joyous Acceptance – a constructive attitude towards troubles, illness and difficulties
 * Juzen-no-Shugo – ten principles involved in the creation, which exist in two-in-one relationships and are considered to be applied continuously throughout the universe

Joyous Life
The Joyous Life in Tenrikyo is defined as charity and abstention from greed, selfishness, hatred, anger, covetousness, miserliness, grudge bearing, and arrogance. Negative tendencies are not known as sins in Tenrikyo, but rather as "dust" that can be swept away from the mind through hinokishin and prayer. Hinokishin, voluntary effort, is performed not out of a desire to appear selfless, but out of gratitude for kashimono-karimono and providence.

Ontology
The most basic teaching of Tenrikyo is kashimono-karimono, meaning "a thing lent, a thing borrowed". The thing that is lent and borrowed is the human body. Tenrikyo followers think of their minds as things that are under their own control, but their bodies are not completely under their control.

God
The sacred name of the single God and creator of the entire universe in Tenrikyo is Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto (天理王命). Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto created humankind so that humans may live joyously and to partake in that joy. The body is a thing borrowed, but the mind alone is one's own, thus it is commonly accepted that Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto is not omnipotent.

Other gods are considered instruments, such as the Divine Providences, and were also created by Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto.

Tenrikyo's doctrine names four properties of Tenri-O-no-Mikoto: as the God who became openly revealed in the world, as the creator who created the world and humankind, as the sustainer and protector who gives existence and life to all creation, and as the savior whose intention in becoming revealed is to save all humankind.

Through her scriptures (the Mikagura-uta and Ofudesaki), Nakayama conveyed the concept of the divine to her followers in steps:

 * Firstly as lit. 'spirit/god/deity' (神). Kami was a familiar term for her followers since they commonly referred to the spirits of the ethnic religion of Shinto, which were worshipped and venerated in Japan. To differentiate this divinity from the Shinto spirits, Oyasama clarified its characteristics with phrases such as "God of Origin" and "God in Truth".
 * Secondly as lit. 'Moon-Sun' (月日). The moon and sun could be understood as visual manifestations of the divine. Just as those bodies impartially give the world light and warmth at all times of the day, the workings of the divine are also impartial and constant.
 * Finally as lit. 'Parent' (をや). The relationship between the divine and human beings is the mutual feeling of love between a parent and his or her children. The divine does not want to command and punish human beings, but rather to guide and nurture them so that they may live joyfully and cheerfully together. Oya is both paternal and maternal, not simply one or the other.

These steps have been described as an "unfolding in the revelation of God's nature in keeping with the developing capacity of human understanding, from an all-powerful God, to a nourishing God, and finally to an intimate God."

Followers use the phrase "God the Parent" to refer to God, and the divine name "Tenri-O-no-Mikoto" when praising or worshipping God through prayer or ritual.

Comparison to karmic belief
The concept of "causality" (いんねん) in Tenrikyo is a unique understanding of karmic belief. Although causality resembles karmic beliefs found in religious traditions originating in ancient India, such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, Tenrikyo's doctrine does not claim to inherit the concept from these traditions and differs from their explanations of karma in a few significant ways.

Broadly speaking, karma refers to the spiritual principle of cause and effect where intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect). In other words, a person's good intent and good deed contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deed contribute to bad karma and future suffering. Causality and karma are interchangeable in this sense; throughout life a person may experience good and bad causality. In Tenrikyo, the concept is encapsulated in the farming metaphor, "every seed sown will sprout." Karma is closely associated with the idea of rebirth, such that one's past deeds in the current life and in all previous lives are reflected in the present moment, and one's present deeds are reflected in the future of the current life and in all future lives. This understanding of rebirth is upheld in causality as well.

Tenrikyo's ontology, however, differs from older karmic religious traditions such as Buddhism. In Tenrikyo, the human person is believed to consist of mind, body, and soul. The mind, which is given the freedom to sense, feel, and act by God the Parent, ceases to function at death. On the other hand, the soul, through the process of lit. 'to make a fresh start' (出直し), takes on a new body lent from God the Parent and is reborn into this world. Though the reborn person has no memory of the previous life, the person's thoughts and deeds leave their mark on the soul and are carried over into the new life as the person's causality. As can be seen, Tenrikyo's ontology, which rests on the existence on a single creator deity (God the Parent), differs from Buddhist ontology, which does not contain a creator deity. Also Tenrikyo's concept of salvation, which is to live the Joyous Life in this existence and therefore does not promise a liberated afterlife outside of this existence, differs from Buddhist concepts of saṃsāra and nirvana.

"Original causality"
At the focal point of Tenrikyo's ontological understanding is the positing of "original causality," or "causality of origin" (もとのいんねん), which is that God the Parent created human beings to see them live the Joyous Life (the salvific state) and to share in that joy. Tenrikyo teaches that the Joyous Life will eventually encompass all humanity, and that gradual progress towards the Joyous Life is even now being made with the guidance of divine providence. Thus the concept of original causality has a teleological element, being the gradual unfolding of that which was ordained at the beginning of time.

"Individual causality"
Belief in individual causality is related to the principle of original causality. Individual causality is divine providence acting to realize the original causality of the human race, which through the use of suffering guides individuals to realize their causality and leads them to a change of heart and active cooperation towards the establishment of the Joyous Life, the world that was ordained at the beginning of time.

Tenrikyo's doctrine explains that an individual's suffering should not be perceived as punishment or retributive justice from divine providence for past misdeeds, but rather as a sign of encouragement from divine providence for the individual to reflect on the past and to undergo a change of heart. The recognition of the divine providence at work should lead to an attitude of "joyous acceptance" in Tenrikyo gloss (たんのう), a Japanese word that indicates a state of satisfaction. Tanno is a way of settling the mind – it is not to merely resign oneself to one's situation, but rather to actively "recognize God's parental love in all events and be braced by their occurrence into an ever firmer determination to live joyously each day." In other words, Tenrikyo emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive inner disposition, as opposed to a disposition easily swayed by external circumstance.

"Three causalities"
In addition, The Doctrine of Tenrikyo names three causalities (さんいんねん) that are believed to predetermine the founding of Tenrikyo's teachings. More precisely, these causalities are the fulfillment of the promise that God made to the models and instruments of creation, which was that "when the years equal to the number of their first born had elapsed, they would be returned to the Residence of Origin, the place of original conception, and would be adored by their posterity." The "Causality of the Soul of Oyasama" denotes that Miki Nakayama had the soul of the original mother at creation (Izanami-no-Mikoto), who conceived, gave birth to, and nurtured humankind. The "Causality of the Residence" means that the Nakayama Residence, where Tenrikyo Church Headquarters stands, is the place that humankind was conceived. The "Causality of the Promised Time" indicates that October 26, 1838 – the day when God became openly revealed through Miki Nakayama – marked the time when the years equal to the number of first-born humans (900,099,999) had elapsed since the moment humankind was conceived.

Scriptures
The three scriptures (三原典) of Tenrikyo are the Ofudesaki, Mikagura-uta, and Osashizu.

The "Tip of the Writing Brush" (おふでさき) is the most important Tenrikyo scripture. A 17-volume collection of 1,711 waka poems, the Ofudesaki was composed by the foundress of Tenrikyo, Miki Nakayama, from 1869 to 1882.

The "The Songs for the Service" (みかぐらうた) is the text of the Service, a religious ritual that has a central place in Tenrikyo. During the Service, the text to the Mikagura-uta is sung together with dance movements and musical accompaniment, all of which was composed and taught by Nakayama.

The "Divine Directions" (おさしづ) is a written record of oral revelations given by Izo Iburi. The full scripture is published in seven volumes (plus an index in three volumes) and contains around 20,000 "divine directions" delivered between January 4, 1887 and June 9, 1907.

According to Shozen Nakayama, the second Shinbashira (the spiritual and administrative leader of Tenrikyo), the Ofudesaki "reveal[s] the most important principles of the faith," the Mikagura-uta "come[s] alive through singing or as the accompaniment" to the Service, and the Osashizu "gives concrete precepts by which the followers should reflect on their own conduct."

Supplemental texts to the scriptures
The supplemental texts to the scriptures (準原典) are officially sanctioned texts which, along with the scriptures, are used to instruct students and adherents of Tenrikyo. They are required texts for students enrolling in Tenrikyo's seminary programs, such as the three-month "Spiritual Development Course" (修養科).

The Doctrine of Tenrikyo is Tenrikyo's official doctrine, which explains the basic teachings of Tenrikyo. The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo is Tenrikyo's hagiography of Miki Nakayama. The Anecdotes of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo is an anthology of anecdotes about Nakayama that were passed down orally by her first followers and later written down and verified.

Organization
Tenrikyo is subdivided into many different groups with common goals but differing functions. These range from the lit. 'large church', to disaster relief corps, medical staff and hospitals, universities, museums, libraries, and various schools.

Tenri Judo is renowned as a successful competition style of Judo that has produced many champions, while there are also other sporting and arts interest groups within Tenrikyo.

History

In Tenrikyo tradition, Nakayama Miki was chosen as the Shrine of God in 1838, after her son and husband began suffering from serious ailments. The family called a Buddhist monk to exorcise the spirit causing the ailments. When the monk temporarily left and asked Nakayama to take over, she was possessed by the One god (Tenri-O-no-Mikoto), who demanded that Nakayama be given to God as a shrine. Nakayama's husband gave in to this request three days later.

Nakayama's statements and revelations as Shrine of God were supplemented by Izo Iburi, one of her earliest followers, who developed a position of revelatory leadership as her deputy, answering questions from followers and giving "timely talks". His position, which is no longer held in Tenrikyo, was called Honseki. The revelatory transmissions of the Honseki were written down and collected in large, multi-volume works called Osashizu. Following Izo's death, a woman called Onmae partially carried on this role for a while, although it appears that she did not have the actual title of Honseki. Since then, Tenrikyo itself has never had a Honseki, although some Tenrikyo splinter groups believe that the revelatory leadership passed from Iburi to their particular founder or foundress.

Nakayama's eldest son obtained a license to practice branch of Shinto ,but did so against his mother's wishes. Tenrikyo was designated as one of the thirteen groups included in Sect Shinto between 1908 and 1945 powered by generation of Heian policy under State Shinto. During this time, Tenrikyo became the first new religion to do social work in Japan, opening an orphanage, a public nursery and a school for the blind.

Although Tenrikyo is now completely separate from Shinto and Buddhism organizationally, it still shares many of the traditions of Japanese religious practice. For instance, many of the objects used in Tenrikyo religious services, such as hassoku and sanpo, were traditionally used in Japanese ritual, and the method of offering is also traditional.

Timeline

 * 1798, April 18 (lunar calendar) – Miki Nakayama was born.
 * 1838, December 12 (October 26, lunar calendar) – God was revealed to Nakayama at the Mishima Shrine.
 * 1854 – Nakayama begins to administer the Grant for Safe Childbirth, and thus begins to recruit her first followers.
 * 1866 – First chapters of Ofudesaki appear.
 * 1887, January 26 (lunar calendar) – the death of Nakayama.
 * 1908 – official recognition as one of the thirteen branches of Sect Shinto.

Religious services
Tenrikyo utilises traditional musical instruments in its lit. 'service or duty', such as hyoshigi (wooden clappers), chanpon (cymbals), surigane (small gong), taiko (large drum), tsuzumi (shoulder drum), fue (bamboo flute), shamisen, kokyū, and koto. These are used to play music from the Mikagura-uta, a body of music, dances and songs created by Nakayama. Most of the world's foremost authorities on gagaku music (the ancient classical Shinto music of the imperial court of Japan) are also Tenrikyo followers, and gagaku music is actively promoted by Tenrikyo, although, strictly speaking, the Mikagura-uta and gagaku are separate musical forms.

The hyoshigi, chanpon, surigane, taiko, and fue were traditionally the men's instruments but are now acceptable for women to play. The shamisen, kokyū, and koto were traditionally women's instruments and, although not very popular, are now acceptable for men to play as well.

Daily services
The Otsutome or daily service consists of the performance of the seated service and, optionally, the practice of a chapter or two of the 12 chapters of lit. 'hand dance' or Yorozuyo. The daily service is performed twice a day; once in the morning and then in the evening. The service times are adjusted according to the time of sun rise and sun set but may vary from church to church. Service times at the Jiba in Tenri City go by this time schedule and adjust in the changing of seasons.

Instruments used in the daily service are the hyoshigi, chanpon, surigane, taiko, and kazutori (a counter, to count the 21 times the first section is repeated). The hyoshigi is always played by the head minister of the church or mission station. If the head minister is not present, anyone may take their place.

The daily service does not need to be performed at a church. It can be done at any time and anywhere, so long as the practitioner faces the direction of the Jiba, or "home of the parent".

The purpose of the daily service, as taught by Nakayama, is to sweep away the Eight Mental Dusts of the mind.

Hinokishin
lit. 'daily service' is a spontaneous action that is an expression of gratitude and joy for being allowed to "borrow" his or her body from God the Parent. Such an action ideally is done as an act of religious devotion out of a wish to help or bring joy to others, without any thought of compensation. Hinokishin can range from helping someone to just a simple smile to brighten another person's day. Examples of common Hinokishin activities that are encouraged include cleaning public bathrooms and parks among other such acts of community service. Doing the work that others want to do least are considered sincere in the eyes of God.

Hinokishin is a method of "sweeping" the "mental dusts" that accumulate in a person's mind. The "mental dusts" are referring to the Eight Mental Dusts. The official translations of these dusts are: Miserliness, Covetousness, Hatred, Self-love, Grudge-bearing, Anger, Greed, and Arrogance.

The Tenrikyo Young Men's Association and Tenrikyo Women's Association are Tenrikyo-based groups that perform group activities as public service. To participate in such groups may be considered Hinokishin.

Monthly services
Tsukinamisai or the monthly service is a performance of the entire Mikagura-uta, the sacred songs of the service, which is the service for world salvation. Generally, mission headquarters and grand churches (churches with 100 or more others under them) have monthly services performed on the third Sunday of every month; other churches perform on any other Sunday of the month. The monthly service at the Jiba is performed on the 26th of every month, the day of the month in which Tenrikyo was first conceived – October 26, 1838.

Instruments used in the monthly service are all of those aforementioned. Performers also include dancers – three men and three women – and a singer. Performers wear traditional montsuki kimono, which may or may not be required depending on the church.

Divine Grant of Sazuke
The Divine Grant of Sazuke is a healing prayer in which one may attain through attending the nine Besseki lectures. When one receives the Divine Grant of Sazuke, one is considered a lit. 'useful timber'. The Sazuke is to be administered to those who are suffering from illness to request God's blessings for a recovery. However, recovery requires the sincere effort from both the recipient and the administrator of the Sazuke to clean their minds of "mental dust." Only with pure minds then can the blessings be received by the recipient through the Yoboku administering the Sazuke. It is taught that when God accepts the sincerity of the person administering the Sazuke and the sincerity of the person to whom it is being administered, a wondrous salvation will be bestowed. This is accomplished through having the recipient be aware of the mental dusts and the teachings of Tenrikyo to remedy their dusty minds.

Tenrikyo centers outside Japan
In recent years Tenrikyo has spread outside Japan, with foreign branches centered primarily in Southeast Asia and America. Tenrikyo maintains centers in:
 * Argentina: Buenos Aires
 * Australia: Brisbane, Melbourne
 * Brazil: Bauru, Recife
 * Canada: Vancouver
 * China: Hong Kong
 * Colombia: Cali, Bogotá, Medellín
 * France: Paris
 * Mexico: Mexico City
 * Philippines: Makati, Manila, Laguna

 * Taiwan: Taipei
 * Thailand: Bangkok
 * United Kingdom: Leeds, London
 * United States: Hawaii, Los Angeles, Seattle New York City San Francisco

Notable followers

 * Avram Davidson – American writer of speculative fiction and crime fiction
 * Ayaka Hirahara – Japanese pop singer
 * Naoki Matsuyo – Japanese association footballer
 * Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin – Japanese shakuhachi player

title: Tenrikyo


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User:Koralt

A student who rarely actually logs in when making changes.

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title: User:Koralt


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User talk:Koralt

Hello there, welcome to the 'pedia! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you need any questions answered about the project then check out Help or drop me a line. Cheers! --maveric149

title: User talk:Koralt


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Dave Berg (cartoonist)

Dave Berg (June 12, 1920 in Brooklyn – May 17, 2002 in Marina del Rey, California) was an American cartoonist, most noted for his five decades of work in Mad of which The Lighter Side of... was the most famous.

Early life
Berg showed early artistic talents, attending Pratt Institute when he was 12 years old, and later studying at Cooper Union. He served a period of time in the Army Air Forces. In 1940, he joined Will Eisner's studio, where he wrote and drew for the Quality Comics line. Berg's work also appeared in Dell Comics and Fawcett Publications, typically on humorous back-up features. Beginning in the mid-1940s, he worked for several years with Stan Lee on comic books at Timely Comics (now known as Marvel Comics), ranging from Combat Kelly and The Ringo Kid to Tessie the Typist. He also freelanced for a half-dozen other companies, including EC Comics. Berg retains notoriety as a contributing “good girl artist” during the 50s and 60s for such publications as editor Abe Goodman's Humorama, rendering attractive women using pinup stylings generally in the form of one-panel humorous gags. Berg's body of contributions during this period rank him alongside recognized contemporaries such as Bill Ward and Bill Wenzel. Beginning in 1983, he worked for a Jewish children's magazine, The Moshiach Times.

Mad
Berg began at Mad in 1957, early in Al Feldstein's term as editor. Berg had distinct facial features and was heavyset, so inducing Feldstein to write, Physically, Dave looks like he kept his nose to the grindstone a little too long, and the rest of his body in the steam room not long enough. For four years, he provided satirical looks at areas such as boating, babysitting, and baseball. In 1961, he started the magazine's "Lighter Side" feature, his most famous creation. Berg would take an omnibus topic (such as "Noise," "Spectators" or "Dog Owners") and deliver approximately 15 short multi-panel cartoons on the subject. Beginning in #218 (October 1980), he abandoned the thematic approach, and thereafter covered multiple topics in each article. Berg often included caricatures of his own family—headed by his cranky hypochondriac alter ego, Roger Kaputnik—as well as of the Mad editorial staff. Occasionally he drew fellow artists, including Don Martin in #110 (April 1967) and Al Jaffee in #119 (June 1968).

His artistic style made Berg one of the more realistic Mad artists, although his characters managed to sport garish early-1970s wardrobes well into the 1990s. The art chores for a 1993 article, "The First Day of School 30 Years Ago and Today", were split between Berg and Rick Tulka, since Berg's old-fashioned appeal made him an ideal choice to depict the gentle nostalgia of 1963. The artist's lightweight gags and sometimes moralistic tone were roughly satirized by the National Lampoon's 1971 Mad parody, which included a hard-hatted conservative and a longhaired hippie finding their only common ground by choking and beating Berg. However, "The Lighter Side" had a long run as the magazine's most popular feature. Mad editor Nick Meglin often sketched layouts of "Lighter Side" panels. Sixteen original collections by Berg were published as paperbacks between 1964 and 1987.

Berg held an honorary doctorate in theology. He produced regular religious-themed work for Moshiach Times and the B'nai Brith newsletter. His interaction with Mad's atheist publisher Bill Gaines was suitably irreverent: Berg would tell Gaines, "God bless you," and Gaines would reply, "Go to Hell."

Fellow Mad contributor Al Jaffee described Berg's unique personality in 2009: "Dave had a messianic complex of some sort. He was battling ... he had good and evil inside of him, clashing all the time. It was sad, in a sense, because he wanted to be taken very seriously, and you know, the staffers at Mad just didn't take anything seriously. Most of all, ourselves ... It came out in a lot of the things he did. He had a very moralistic personality ... He wrote a book called My Friend God. And of course, if you write a book like that, you just know that the Mad staff is going to make fun of you. We would ask him questions like, "Dave, when did you and God become such good friends? Did you go to college together, or what?"

In this faith connection, Berg was additionally hired to contribute content to The Magazine For Jewish Children, The Moshiach Times, by Rabbi Dr. Dovid Sholom Pape. According to Pape: "He was a wonderful writer and humorist, and he had a great Jewish heart. I asked him to prepare a series of cartoons that would, in a humorous way, illustrate basic ideas in Torah. To do this, he invented a fat character called Schlemiel who would always misunderstand things, and then there would be a couple of boys who would correct him." In 2002, Berg told an interviewer, "There was a psychiatrist who filed my Lighter Sides in categories. When a patient would tell him their troubles, he would pull out one of my sequences and say, 'See, it happens to everyone.'"

His characters occasionally made their way into other artists' works, such as Kaputnik finding himself a patient in a Mort Drucker spoof of St. Elsewhere, tagged "with apologies to Dave Berg".

Berg contributed to Mad for 46 years until his death, appearing in 368 issues. His final hand-drawn strip appeared in Mad issue #423. His last set of "Lighter Side" strips, which had been written but not penciled, were illustrated after Berg's death by 18 of Mad's other artists as a final tribute; this affectionate send-off included the magazine's final new contributions from Jack Davis and George Woodbridge. This tribute appeared in Mad issue #427.

Between 2008 and 2017, Berg's old Lighter Side gags were given rewritten word balloons with inappropriately "un-Berg-like" humor by longtime Mad writer Dick DeBartolo and other staffers, while the art was unchanged. The twelve installments of this irregular feature were called "The Darker Side of the Lighter Side."

Berg's other work included the comic strips Citizen Senior (1989–93), Roger Kaputnik (1992) and Astronuts (1994).

Death
After a long battle with cancer, he died in his home in Marina del Rey, California, shortly after midnight on May 17, 2002. Berg was survived by his wife of 52 years, Vivian, and their two children, Mitch and Nancy.

title: Dave Berg (cartoonist)


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Vulcan, Alberta

Vulcan is a town in southern Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by Vulcan County. It is on Highway 23, midway between the cities of Calgary and Lethbridge. The population of the town was 1,769 in 2021. Now known as the "Official Star Trek Capital of Canada", Vulcan has a tourism building made to look like a landed space station, a statue of the original series Enterprise, and other Star Trek themed attractions.

History
Vulcan was named by a surveyor for the Canadian Pacific Railway after the Roman God of Fire – Vulcan. Originally, all the streets of Vulcan were named after gods and goddesses of the classical world such as Juno, Mars, and Jupiter.

The community was incorporated as a village on December 23, 1912, and then as a town on June 15, 1921. In July 1927, a major tornado destroyed many homes and the new curling rink in the town. That tornado was made famous when a photograph of it approaching Vulcan was used for the "tornado" article in Encyclopædia Britannica.

The first newspaper to serve the area was The Vulcan Review, which began in 1912 and was published for one year. The Vulcan Review was followed by the Vulcan Advocate in 1913, which is still being published today as member of Sun Media Community Newspapers part of Postmedia Network. Vulcan once had nine grain elevators, more than any other location west of Winnipeg, making it the largest grain shipping point at that time. Due to the changing economics of the agricultural industry, the original elevators were taken down one by one. Today, Vulcan has only one of the "prairie skyscrapers" left that once could be seen miles away. Although not original, this last wooden elevator was built in the 1980s.

A British Commonwealth Air Training Plan air force base, RCAF Station Vulcan, was located 5.7 NM southwest of the town during the Second World War. Many of the old hangars still exist and the runways can still be seen. It is now operated as Vulcan/Kirkcaldy Aerodrome and some of the old runways are still in use. There is a second airport, Vulcan Airport.

In 2015 the town council voted to form Heritage Advisory Board Committee to manage the historical sites in Vulcan County.

Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Vulcan had a population of 1,769 living in 806 of its 876 total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of 1,917. With a land area of 6.28 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Vulcan recorded a population of 1,917 living in 829 of its 879 total private dwellings, a NaN% change from its 2011 population of 1,836. With a land area of 6.34 km2, it had a population density of in 2016.

Economy
The town's economy is mainly tourism and agriculture-based. Wheat, canola and barley are the main crops grown in the Vulcan area.

Oil and gas is another industry that employs many residents of Vulcan.

Tourism
Since 1990, Vulcan has hosted the annual Vulcan Tinman Triathlon, which takes place at the beginning of June. This sprint-distance triathlon attracts nearly 1,000 participants. There are classes for adults of all ages and skill levels as well as for teams and children.

The town's name has brought some attention that has helped it become a tourist attraction. In the Star Trek television and feature film series it is the name of the homeworld of Mr. Spock and his fellow Vulcans. Capitalizing on this coincidence, the town has built a Star Trek–themed tourist station (the Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station), which provides tourist information, displays an extensive donated collection of Star Trek memorabilia. The Trek Station also offers unique photo opportunities and interactions with iconic Star Trek characters in their ever-evolving Cosplay Costume Collection. Nearby, a replica of the starship Enterprise from Star Trek V has been mounted on a pedestal which includes writing from Star Trek alien languages such as Klingon. In 2010 Leonard Nimoy visited the town and was honoured at the town centre with a bust and handprint. A transporter, Doctors Mural and other Star Trek attractions can be experienced throughout the town. The Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station has hosted an annual Star Trek Convention (held the last weekend in July) "VulCON" since 1993 where celebrity guests are "beamed" in to spend the weekend with attendees. It is a unique convention in that celebrity guests & Trekkies get to know each other during the Meet & Greet, Q&As and a banquet and dance. This convention attracts hundreds of Star Trek fans from around the world.

The town also hosts another annual event called "Spock Days". This is a family-friendly weekend with a parade, children's spaces, a ball tournament, fireworks and more.

Vulcan Community Healthcare Centre
The Vulcan Community Healthcare Centre offers emergency and long-term care medical services. The hospital had 5,125 visits for emergency medical services in the 2013/2014 year. It has eight medical beds with 15 long-term care beds and hosts a medical clinic.

Climate
Vulcan experiences a dry continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb) with long, cold winters and short, warm summers.

title: Vulcan, Alberta


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2060 Chiron

2060 Chiron is a ringed small Solar System body in the outer Solar System, orbiting the Sun between Saturn and Uranus. Discovered in 1977 by Charles Kowal, it was the first-identified member of a new class of objects now known as centaurs—bodies orbiting between the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. Chiron is named after the centaur Chiron in Greek mythology.

Although it was initially called an asteroid and classified only as a minor planet with the designation "2060 Chiron", in 1989 it was found to exhibit behavior typical of a comet. Today it is classified as both a minor planet and a comet, and is accordingly also known by the cometary designation 95P/Chiron. More recently, a series of occultation events through the 2010s and early 2020s revealed that Chiron hosts rings, making it one of four minor planets and the only known comet to host a ring system.

Discovery
Chiron was discovered on 1 November 1977 by Charles Kowal from images taken on 18 October at Palomar Observatory. It was given the temporary designation of. It was found near aphelion and at the time of discovery it was the most distant known minor planet. Chiron was even claimed as the tenth planet by the press. Chiron was later found on several precovery images, going back to 1895, which allowed its orbit to be accurately determined. It had been at perihelion in 1945 but was not discovered then because there were few searches being made at that time, and these were not sensitive to slow-moving objects. The Lowell Observatory's survey for distant planets would not have gone down faint enough in the 1930s and did not cover the right region of the sky in the 1940s. The April 1895 precovery image was one month after the March 1895 perihelion.

Naming
This minor planet was named after Chiron, a half-human, half-horse centaur from Greek mythology. Son of the Titan Cronus and the nymph Philyra, Chiron was the wisest and most just of all centaurs, serving as an instructor of the Greek heroes. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 April 1978 (M.P.C. 4359). It was suggested that the names of other centaurs be reserved for objects of the same type.

Chiron, along with most major and minor planetary bodies, is not generally given a symbol in astronomy. A symbol was devised for it by Al H. Morrison and is mostly used among astrologers: it resembles a key as well as an OK monogram for Object Kowal.

Orbit
Chiron's orbit was found to be highly eccentric (0.37), with perihelion just inside the orbit of Saturn and aphelion just outside the perihelion of Uranus (it does not reach the average distance of Uranus, however). According to the program Solex, Chiron's closest approach to Saturn in modern times was around May 720, when it came within $116.7 km$ million km (30.5 ±) of the planet. During this passage Saturn's gravity caused Chiron's semi-major axis to decrease from $135.69 km$ AU to 13.7 AU. Chiron's orbit does not intersect Uranus' orbit.

Chiron attracted considerable interest because it was the first object discovered in such an orbit, well outside the asteroid belt. Chiron is classified as a centaur, the first of a class of objects orbiting between the outer planets. Chiron is a Saturn–Uranus object because its perihelion lies in Saturn's zone of control and its aphelion lies in that of Uranus. Centaurs are not in stable orbits and will be removed by gravitational perturbation by the giant planets over a period of millions of years, moving to different orbits or leaving the Solar System altogether. Chiron likely comes from the Kuiper belt and will probably become a short-period comet in about a million years. Chiron came to perihelion (closest point to the Sun) in 1996 and aphelion in May 2021.

Spectral type
The visible and near-infrared spectrum of Chiron is neutral, and is similar to that of C-type asteroids and the nucleus of Halley's Comet. The near-infrared spectrum of Chiron shows absence of water ice.

Rotation period
Four rotational light curves of Chiron were taken from photometric observations between 1989 and 1997. Lightcurve analysis gave a concurring, well-defined rotational period of 5.918 hours with a small brightness variation of 0.05 to 0.09 magnitude, which indicates that the body has a rather spheroidal shape (U=3/3/3).

Diameter
The assumed size of an object depends on its absolute magnitude (H) and the albedo (the amount of light it reflects). In 1984 Lebofsky estimated Chiron to be about 180 km in diameter. Estimates in the 1990s were closer to 150 km in diameter. Occultation data from 1993 suggests a diameter of about 180 km. Combined data from the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2007 and the Herschel Space Observatory in 2011 suggests that Chiron is $98 km$ km in diameter. Therefore, Chiron may be as large as 10199 Chariklo. The diameter of Chiron is difficult to estimate in part because the true absolute magnitude of its nucleus is uncertain due to its highly variable cometary activity.

Cometary behavior
In February 1988, at 12 AU from the Sun, Chiron brightened by 75 percent. This is behavior typical of comets but not asteroids. Further observations in April 1989 showed that Chiron had developed a cometary coma, A tail was detected in 1993. Chiron differs from other comets in that water is not a major component of its coma, because it is too far from the Sun for water to sublimate. In 1995 carbon monoxide was detected in Chiron in very small amounts, and the derived CO production rate was calculated to be sufficient to account for the observed coma. Cyanide was also detected in the spectrum of Chiron in 1991. At the time of its discovery, Chiron was close to aphelion, whereas the observations showing a coma were done closer to perihelion, perhaps explaining why no cometary behavior had been seen earlier. The fact that Chiron is still active probably means it has not been in its current orbit very long.

Chiron is officially designated as both a comet—95P/Chiron—and a minor planet, an indication of the sometimes fuzzy dividing line between the two classes of object. The term proto-comet has also been used. Being about 220 km in diameter, it is unusually large for a comet nucleus. Chiron was the first member of a new family of Chiron-type comets (CTC) with (TJupiter > 3; a > aJupiter). Other CTCs include: 39P/Oterma, 165P/LINEAR, 166P/NEAT, and 167P/CINEOS. There are also non-centaur asteroids that are simultaneously classified as comets, such as 4015 Wilson–Harrington, 7968 Elst–Pizarro, and 118401 LINEAR. Michael Brown lists it as possibly a dwarf planet with a measured diameter of 200 km, which may be near the lower limit for an icy object to have been a dwarf planet at some point in its history.

Since the discovery of Chiron, other centaurs have been discovered, and nearly all are currently classified as minor planets, but are being observed for possible cometary behavior. 60558 Echeclus has displayed a cometary coma and now also has the cometary designation 174P/Echeclus. After passing perihelion in early 2008, 52872 Okyrhoe significantly brightened.

Rings
Chiron has rings, similar to the better-established rings of 10199 Chariklo. Based on unexpected occultation events observed in stellar-occultation data obtained on 7 November 1993, 9 March 1994, and 29 November 2011, which were initially interpreted as resulting from jets associated with Chiron's comet-like activity, Chiron's rings were proposed to be $126 km$ in radius and sharply defined. The rings' changing appearance at different viewing angles can largely explain the long-term variation in Chiron's brightness and hence estimates of Chiron's albedo and size. Moreover, it can, by assuming that the water ice is in Chiron's rings, explain the changing intensity of the infrared water-ice absorption bands in Chiron's spectrum, including their disappearance in 2001 (when the rings were edge-on). Also, the geometric albedo of Chiron's rings as determined by spectroscopy is consistent with that used to explain Chiron's long-term brightness variations.

Further evidence of the rings was provided by two independent observations of occultations on 28 November 2018 and 15 December 2022, which suggests that their structure is constantly evolving. In the 2018 event Chiron's rings were observed to have less material than in 2011, but seemed to be developing a partial third ring; by the 2022 event there was more material than either of the previous observations, and the third ring had fully developed. J.L. Ortiz speculated that the extra material in the 2022 event could be from an outburst observed in 2021, which left more material in orbit and thus bolstered the generation of the third ring–this is also expected to be cyclical, maintaining the rings. However, Sickafoose saw no connection.

The preferred pole of Chiron's rings is, in ecliptic coordinates, λ = $109 km$, β = $68 km$. The rings' width, separation, and optical depths were observed to be nearly identical to those of Chariklo's rings until the 2018 observation, indicating that the same type of structure had been responsible for both. Moreover, both their rings are within their respective Roche limits, though Chiron's newly developed third ring may be outside of it depending on its density.

Exploration
The Chiron Orbiter Mission was a mission proposed for NASA's New Frontiers program or Flagship program. It was published in May 2010 and proposed an orbiter mission to Chiron. Its launch date could have varied from as early as 2023 to as late as 2025, depending on budget and propulsion type.

There was another mission proposed, part of the Discovery Program known as Centaurus; if approved, it would have launched between 2026 and 2029 and made a flyby of 2060 Chiron and one other Centaur sometime in the 2030s.

title: 2060 Chiron


text:
Red dog (card game)

Red dog, also known as Yablon, is a game of chance played with cards, in which two cards are dealt and a player bets on whether the rank of a third card would fall between them. While found in some land casinos, its popularity has declined, although it is featured at many online casinos.

A standard 52-card deck is used. The game may be played with anywhere from one to eight decks, with an increasing number of decks decreasing the house's edge—the house's advantage begins at 3.155% with one deck but falls to 2.751% when eight decks are used. This is in contrast with some other casino card games, such as blackjack, where a higher number of decks used will increase the house edge.

A close variant is Acey Deucey.

Red Dog
The game only uses three cards at a time, which are ranked as in poker, with aces high. Suit is irrelevant. A wager is placed, and two cards are placed face up on the table, with three possible outcomes:

 * If the cards are consecutive in number (for example, a four and a five, or a jack and a queen), the hand is a push and the player's wager is returned.
 * If the two cards are of equal value, a third card is dealt. If the third card is of the same value, then the payout for the player is 11:1, otherwise, the hand is a push.
 * If neither of the above is the case (for example, a three and an eight), then a spread is announced which determines the payoff (a 4-card spread, in this example), and a third card will be dealt. Before dealing the third card, the player has the option to double his bet. If the third card's value falls between the first two, the player will receive a payoff according to the spread; otherwise, the bet is lost.

Spread
The spread table is as follows:

The house edge table is as follows.

The spread probabilities table is as follows.

Acey Deucey
Acey Deucey, also known as In-Between, Sheets, Between the Sheets or Maverick, is a simple betting card game. Two cards are dealt to a player, who then bets on whether the rank of a third card will fall between those of the first two.

Rules
Before the action, each player must add their ante into the pot. Two cards are then dealt face-up to one player. That player then bets from nothing to the amount that is in the pot at the time whether or not the third card will numerically fall in between the first two. If the third card falls in between the two other cards, the bettor takes the amount they bet out of the pot; if the third card falls outside of the two other cards, the bettor must add what they bet to the pot; and if the third card matches the numerical value of one of the other two cards, the bettor must add to the pot double what they bet. If two cards of the same value come up, e.g. 2,2 the bettor picks if the next card will be higher or lower and bets. If the next card is the same as the last two, i.e. a 2, the bettor must triple their bet.

Regionally specific rules
The rules and specifics of the game often vary from region to region. For example in Liaoning province, northeast China the minimum number of players is 4 and each player is required to ante before the first card is turned. Two cards are then dealt face-up to one player. That player then bets from nothing to the amount that is in the pot at the time (during the first time around the table players are only allowed to bet up to half of the pot) whether or not the third card will numerically fall in between the first two. Other regions, such as in the United States, play the game by combining two decks of cards. This adds another dynamic to the game due to the extra number of similar type cards. Beyond that, most of the other rules followed by United States players are similar to those which are observed in the Liaoning province.

Just about all regions play if the third card falls in between the two other cards, the bettor takes the amount they bet out of the pot; if the third card falls outside of the two other cards, the bettor must add what they bet to the pot; and if the third card matches the numerical value of one of the other two cards, this is referred to as a "Post" and the bettor must add to the pot double their own initial bet. If two cards of the same value come up, e.g. 2,2 the bettor picks if the next card will be higher or lower and bets. If the next card is the same as the last two, i.e. a 2, this is considered a "Post" and the player is required to pay triple the bet for the hand.

Aces
In addition to this, there is a special rule for Aces. If the first card turned is an Ace the player may choose its value as either the high Ace or the low one. Low Ace is always lower than any other card, including the deuce. If an Ace comes up as the second card turned it is always considered the high Ace. If a player "Posts" on an Ace they are required to pay four times their bet for that hand. Aces also cause an automatic loss if it is the third card turned when the first two cards are a match, e.g. 6,6. The best spread in the game is considered to be a low Ace on the left and a high Ace on the right. This is also one of the worst hands to get as you run the risk of the third card being an Ace and having to pay four times your bet for the hand.

Variations
A variation is to split the cards if two end cards are the same value. This requires the bettor to ante in for two hands and the dealer would draw one more card under each of the end cards. After this, the same rules apply.

Some new rules that increase payouts and betting:
 * Blind Pot - Bet the pot before your 2 outside cards are placed. In the case of a win, you win the pot.  If you are outside of your cards you lose half the pot.  If you post you have to pay the full amount of the pot.
 * "AutoPot" - Any A-2 played as your outside cards automatically make the player bet the full amount of the pot.
 * Post Bet - You can bet that your inside card will match one of your outside cards. In the case of this you win the full pot and in addition each player pays an equal percentage to match the pot.  Therefore, the player that post would win 2x the pot.  If the player bets the post and misses, they owe half the amount of the pot to the pot.
 * Satan 6s - Any player that gets 6-6-6 as their cards must pay 6x the amount of the pot to the pot.

In popular culture
The game show Card Sharks is based on Acey Deucey and closely resembles the rules. In the show, two players answer high-low survey questions, and guess whether the next card is higher or lower (with duplicates counting as wrong).

Acey-ducey is often mentioned in the book series The Corps by W.E.B. Griffin which is set in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and follows the lives of a group of marines in special service. Griffin never explains the game in the slightest, but his characters are often playing it when they are interrupted by the war, i.e. required to stop playing to perform some duty.

In 1978 a type-in program BASIC video game version was distributed via the book BASIC Computer Games.

An unsold 1985 game show pilot hosted by Jim McKrell, entitled Split Decision, had contestants playing the game Acey Deucey while answering general knowledge questions. Each player picked a card to share and had their own base card, and tried to fit a card in or bust the other player.

title: Red dog (card game)


text:
Game of chance

A game of chance is in contrast with a game of skill. It is a game whose outcome is strongly influenced by some randomizing device. Common devices used include dice, spinning tops, playing cards, roulette wheels, numbered balls, or in the case of digital games random number generators. A game of chance may be played as gambling if players wager money or anything of monetary value.

Alternatively, a game of skill is one in which the outcome is determined mainly by mental or physical skill, rather than chance.

While a game of chance may have some skill element to it, chance generally plays a greater role in determining its outcome. A game of skill may also may have elements of chance, but skill plays a greater role in determining its outcome.

Gambling is known in nearly all human societies, even though many have passed laws restricting it. Early people used the knucklebones of sheep as dice. Some people develop a psychological addiction to gambling and will risk food and shelter to continue.

Skill
Some games that involve an element of luck may also require a certain level of skill. This is particularly evident when players need to make decisions based on prior knowledge or incomplete information, as seen in games like blackjack. In contrast, games such as roulette and punto banco (baccarat) rely more on chance, with players having the choice to determine their bet amount and selection, leaving the outcome largely to luck. Consequently, these games are categorized as games of chance, although a minimal skill component is still involved.

The distinction between 'chance' and 'skill' is relevant because in some countries, chance games are illegal or at least regulated, but skill games are not. Since there is no standardized definition, poker, for example, has been ruled a game of chance in Germany and, by at least one New York state Federal judge, a game of skill.

Addiction
People who engage in games of chance and gambling can develop a strong dependence on them. This is called psychopathology (addiction) of "pathological gambling". According to psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler, there are six characteristics of pathological gamblers:
 * 1) They must play regularly: the issue here is to know when the subject performs "too much".
 * 2) The game takes precedence over all other interests.
 * 3) There is optimism in the player that is not initiated by repeated experiences of failure.
 * 4) The player never stops until they win.
 * 5) Despite the precautions that they originally promised, they end up taking too many risks.
 * 6) There is in them a subjective experience of "thrill" (a shivering sensation, excitement, tension, both painful and pleasant) during the phases of play.

State revenues
Governments that authorize games of chance generate significant gambling revenues.

According to the UK Gambling Commission, the government received a total gross gambling revenue of £144 billion ($19 billion) in 2018. That's up 45% from a year earlier.

The Gambling Commission is an executive non-departmental body of the UK government. It is responsible for regulating gambling in the UK. It also oversees gambling legislation.

The state government of Nevada, USA, received gambling revenues totaling $262 billion in 2017. Casino contributions totaled $8522 million, 77% of the total, according to iGaming Business.

Types
There are dozens of different types of games of chance. The most popular online casino games are video poker, roulette, craps, blackjack and sports betting. Baccarat is also popular.

 * Casinos - they exist online as well as in physical buildings that people go into (in real life).
 * Arcades - which may be intended exclusively for persons over the age of 18 or families.
 * Bingo - which can be held in a bingo hall or online.
 * Betting - which can be conducted online, in betting shops (sweepstakes) or at the event.
 * Slot machines - such as fruit machines or fixed odds betting terminals.

title: Game of chance


text:
Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien

The English philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien created several constructed languages, mostly related to his fictional world of Middle-earth. Inventing languages, something that he called glossopoeia (paralleling his idea of mythopoeia or myth-making), was a lifelong occupation for Tolkien, starting in his teens.

Tolkien's glossopoeia has two temporal dimensions: the internal (fictional) timeline of events in Middle-earth described in The Silmarillion and other writings, and the external timeline of Tolkien's own life during which he often revised and refined his languages and their fictional history. Tolkien scholars have published a substantial volume of Tolkien's linguistic material in the History of Middle-earth books, and the Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon journals. Scholars such as Carl F. Hostetter, David Salo and Elizabeth Solopova have published grammars and studies of the languages.

He created a large family of Elvish languages, the best-known and most developed being Quenya and Sindarin. In addition, he sketched in the Mannish languages of Adûnaic and Rohirric; the Dwarvish language of Khuzdul; the Entish language; and the Black Speech, in the fiction a constructed language enforced on the Orcs by the Dark Lord Sauron. Tolkien supplemented his languages with several scripts.

Tolkien's hobby: glossopoeia
Tolkien was a professional philologist of ancient Germanic languages, specialising in Old English. Glossopoeia, the construction of languages, was Tolkien's hobby for most of his life. At a little over 13, he helped construct a sound substitution cypher known as Nevbosh, 'new nonsense', which grew to include some elements of actual invented language. Tolkien stated that this was not his first effort in invented languages. Shortly thereafter, he developed a true invented language called Naffarin. One of his early projects was the reconstruction of an unrecorded early Germanic language which might have been spoken by the people of Beowulf in the Germanic Heroic Age.

In 1931, Tolkien gave a lecture about his passion for constructed languages, titled A Secret Vice. Here he contrasts his project of artistic languages constructed for aesthetic pleasure with the pragmatism of international auxiliary languages. The lecture also discusses Tolkien's views on phonaesthetics, citing Greek, Finnish, and Welsh as examples of "languages which have a very characteristic and in their different ways beautiful word-form". Part of the lecture was published in The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays; in the part that was not, Tolkien gave the example of "Fonwegian", a language with "no connection whatever with any other known language".

Being a skilled calligrapher, Tolkien invented scripts for his languages. The scripts included Sarati, Cirth, and Tengwar.

Tolkien's theory of invented languages
Tolkien was of the opinion that the invention of an artistic language in order to be convincing and pleasing must include not only the language's historical development, but also the history of its speakers, and especially the mythology associated with both the language and the speakers. It was this idea that an "Elvish language" must be associated with a complex history and mythology of the Elves that was at the core of the development of Tolkien's legendarium.

Tolkien wrote in one of his letters:

"what I think is a primary 'fact' about my work, that it is all of a piece, and fundamentally linguistic in inspiration. ... It is not a 'hobby', in the sense of something quite different from one's work, taken up as a relief-outlet. The invention of languages is the foundation. The 'stories' were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me a name comes first and the story follows. I should have preferred to write in 'Elvish'. But, of course, such a work as The Lord of the Rings has been edited and only as much 'language' has been left in as I thought would be stomached by readers. (I now find that many would have liked more.) ... It is to me, anyway, largely an essay in 'linguistic aesthetic', as I sometimes say to people who ask me 'what is it all about'."

The Tolkien scholar and folklorist Dimitra Fimi questions this claim. In particular, his September 1914 The Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star, based on the Old English poem Crist 1, shows that he was starting to think about a mythology before he started to sketch his first invented Middle-earth language, Qenya, in March 1915. Further, the steps that led to his first attempt at the mythology, the 1917 draft of The Book of Lost Tales, involving the character of Earendel in its first story, did not involve his invented languages. Tolkien was, rather, in Fimi's view, emphasizing that language and myth "began to flow together when I was an undergraduate [at Oxford, 1911–1915]" (as Tolkien wrote in 1954), and stayed that way for the rest of his life.

Lhammas
In 1937, Tolkien wrote the Lhammas, a linguistic treatise addressing the relationships of the languages spoken in Middle-earth during the First Age, principally the Elvish languages. The text purports to be a translation of an Elvish work, written by one Pengolodh, whose historical works are presented as being the main source of the narratives in The Silmarillion concerning the First Age.

The Lhammas exists in three versions, the shortest one being called the Lammasathen. The main linguistic thesis in this text is that the languages of Middle-earth are all descended from the language of the Valar (the "gods"), Valarin, and divided into three branches:

 * Oromëan, named after Oromë, who taught the first Elves to speak. All languages of Elves and most languages of Men are Oromëan.
 * Aulëan, named after Aulë, maker of the Dwarves, is the origin of the Khuzdul language. It has had some influences on the tongues of Men.
 * Melkian, named after the rebellious Melkor or Morgoth, is the origin in the First Age of the many tongues used by the Orcs and other evil beings. (This tongue is unrelated to the Black Speech of Sauron.)

Internal and external histories

Internally, in the fiction, the Elvish language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language.

Externally, in Tolkien's life, he constructed the family from around 1910, working on it up to his death in 1973. He constructed the grammar and vocabulary of at least fifteen languages and dialects in roughly three periods:

 * 1) Early, 1910 – c. 1930: most of the proto-language Primitive Quendian, Common Eldarin, Quenya, and Goldogrin
 * 2) Mid: c. 1935–1955: Goldogrin changed into Noldorin, joined by Telerin, Ilkorin, Doriathrin and Avarin
 * 3) Late: Ilkorin and Doriathrin disappeared; Noldorin matured into Sindarin.

Tolkien worked out much of the etymological background of his Elvish languages during the 1930s, resulting in The Etymologies.

Quenya

Tolkien based Quenya pronunciation more on Latin than on Finnish, though it has elements derived from both languages. Thus, Quenya lacks the vowel harmony and consonant gradation present in Finnish, and accent is not always on the first syllable of a word. Typical Finnish elements like the front vowels ö, ä and y are lacking in Quenya, but phonological similarities include the absence of aspirated unvoiced stops or the development of the syllables ti > si in both languages. The combination of a Latin basis with Finnish phonological rules resulted in a product that resembles Italian in many respects, which was Tolkien's favourite modern Romance language.

Quenya grammar is agglutinative and mostly suffixing, i.e. different word particles are joined by appending them. It has basic word classes of verbs, nouns and pronouns/determiners, adjectives and prepositions. Nouns are inflected for case and number. Verbs are inflected for tense and aspect, and for agreement with subject and object. In early Quenya, adjectives agree with the noun they modify in case and number; in later Quenya, this agreement disappears. The basic word order is subject–verb–object.

Sindarin
Tolkien wrote that he gave Sindarin "a linguistic character very like (though not identical with) British-Welsh ... because it seems to fit the rather 'Celtic' type of legends and stories told of its speakers".

Unlike Quenya, Sindarin is mainly a fusional language with some analytic tendencies. It can be distinguished from Quenya by the rarity of vowel endings, and the use of voiced plosives b d g, rare in Quenya found only after nasals and liquids. Early Sindarin formed plurals by the addition of -ī, which vanished but affected the preceding vowels (as in Welsh and Old English): S. Adan, pl. Edain, S. Orch, pl. Yrch. Sindarin forms plurals in multiple ways.

Adûnaic
Tolkien devised Adûnaic (or Númenórean), the language spoken in Númenor, shortly after World War II, and thus at about the time he completed The Lord of the Rings, but before he wrote the linguistic background of the Appendices. Adûnaic is intended as the language from which Westron (also called Adûni) is derived. This added a depth of historical development to the Mannish languages. Adûnaic was intended to have a "faintly Semitic flavour". Its development began with The Notion Club Papers (written in 1945). It is there that the most extensive sample of the language is found, revealed to one of the (modern-day) protagonists, Lowdham, of that story in a visionary dream of Atlantis. Its grammar is sketched in the unfinished "Lowdham's Report on the Adunaic Language". Tolkien remained undecided whether the language of the Men of Númenor should be derived from the original Mannish language (as in Adûnaic), or if it should be derived from "the Elvish Noldorin" (i.e. Quenya) instead. In The Lost Road and Other Writings, it is implied that the Númenóreans spoke Quenya, and that Sauron, hating all things Elvish, taught the Númenóreans the old Mannish tongue they themselves had forgotten.

Rohirric
Tolkien called the language of Rohan "Rohanese". He only gave a few actual Rohirric words:

 * Kûd-dûkan, an old word meaning "hole-dweller", which evolved to kuduk, the name the Hobbits had for themselves
 * Lô- / loh- corresponding to Old English éoh, "war-horse", and the derived names Lôgrad for "Horse-Mark", and Lohtûr for Éothéod, "horse-people". This word is an exact homonym of the Hungarian word for "horse", ló. The Rohirric word for "horse" has been identified as a cognate for Tolkien's Elvish words for "horse": rocco (Quenya) and roch (Sindarin). All names beginning with Éo- supposedly represent Rohirric names beginning with Lô- or Loh-, but the Rohirric forms of names such as Éomer and Éowyn are not given.

Only one proper name is given, Tûrac, an old word for King, the Rohirric for Théoden. That in turn is the Old English word þéoden, meaning "leader of a people", "king" or "prince". As with other descriptive names in his legendarium, Tolkien uses this name to create the impression that the text is "'historical', 'real' or 'archaic'".

Dwarvish
Some samples of Khuzdul, the language of the Dwarves, are given in The Lord of the Rings. The explanation here is a little different from the "Mannish" languages: as Khuzdul was supposedly kept secret by the Dwarves and never used in the presence of outsiders (not even Dwarvish given names), it was not "translated" by any real-life historical language, and such limited examples as there are in the text are given in the "original". Khuzdul was designed to resemble a Semitic language, with a system of triconsonantal roots and other parallels especially to Hebrew, just as some resemblances between the Dwarves and the Jews are intentional.

Entish
The language of the Ents is briefly described in The Lord of the Rings. As the Ents were first taught to speak by Elves, Entish appears related to the Elvish languages. However, the Ents continued to develop their language. It is described as long and sonorous, a tonal language somewhat like a woodwind instrument. Only the Ents spoke Entish as no others could master it. Even the Elves, master linguists, could not learn Entish, nor did they attempt to record it because of its complex sound structure:

"... slow, sonorous, agglomerated, repetitive, indeed long-winded; formed of a multiplicity of vowel-shades and distinctions of tone and quantity which even the loremasters of the Eldar had not attempted to represent in writing"

To illustrate these properties, Tolkien provides the word a-lalla-lalla-rumba-kamanda-lindor-burúme, meaning hill. He described it as a "probably very inaccurate" sampling of the language.

Black Speech
Tolkien devised little of the Black Speech beyond the Rhyme of the Rings. He intentionally made it sound harsh but with a proper grammar. He stated that it was an agglutinative language; it has been likened to the extinct Hurrian language of northern Mesopotamia.

In the fiction, the Black Speech was created by the Dark Lord Sauron to be the official language of all the lands and peoples under his control: it was thus both in reality and in the fiction a constructed language. The Orcs are said never to have accepted it willingly; the language mutated into many mutually unintelligible Orkish dialects, so that Orcs communicated with each other mainly in a debased Westron.

Origins
Tolkien developed a particular love for the Finnish language. He described the finding of a Finnish grammar book as "like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before". Finnish morphology, particularly its rich system of inflection, in part gave rise to Quenya. Another of Tolkien's favourites was Welsh, and features of Welsh phonology found their way into Sindarin.

Linguistic mapping

When writing The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), a sequel to The Hobbit (1937), Tolkien came up with the literary device of using real languages to "translate" fictional languages. He pretended to have translated the original language Westron (named Adûni in Westron) or Common Speech (Sôval Phârë, in Westron) into English. This device of rendering an imaginary language with a real one was carried further by rendering:

 * Rohirric, the language of Rohan (related to Westron) by the Mercian dialect of Old English
 * names in the tongue of Dale by Old Norse forms
 * names of the Kingdom of Rhovanion by Gothic forms, thus mapping the genetic relation of his fictional languages on to the existing historical relations of the Germanic languages.

Furthermore, to parallel the Celtic substratum in England, he used Old Welsh names to render the Dunlendish names of Buckland Hobbits (e.g., Meriadoc for Kalimac). The whole device of linguistic mapping was essentially a fix for the problems Tolkien had created for himself by using real Norse names for the Dwarves in The Hobbit, rather than inventing new names in Khuzdul. This seemed a clever solution, as it allowed him to explain the book's use of Modern English as representing Westron. Because of this, Tolkien did not need to work out the details of Westron grammar or vocabulary in any detail. He does give some examples of Westron words in Appendix F to The Lord of the Rings, where he summarizes Westron's origin and role as lingua franca in Middle-earth:

"The language represented in this history by English was the Westron or 'Common Speech' of the West-lands of Middle-earth in the Third Age. In the course of that age it had become the native language of nearly all the speaking-peoples (save the Elves) who dwelt within the bounds of the old kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor ... At the time of the War of the Ring at the end of the age these were still its bounds as a native tongue. (Appendix F)"

Rohirric is represented in The Lord of the Rings by Old English because Tolkien chose to make the relationship between Rohirric and the Common Speech similar to that of Old English and Modern English.

Tolkien stated in The Two Towers that the name Orthanc had "by design or chance" two meanings. In Sindarin it meant "Mount Fang", while in the language of Rohan he said it meant "Cunning Mind". The author Robert Foster notes that orþanc genuinely does mean "cunning" in Old English, so that the homonym Tolkien had in mind was between Sindarin and Old English, that is, translated or represented Rohirric. Foster comments that since it would be unlikely for a homonym also to exist between these two languages and actual Rohirric, and for the Old English and the Rohirric to be synonyms as well, Tolkien had made an error.

Study
The first published monograph dedicated to the Elvish languages was An Introduction to Elvish (1978) edited by Jim Allan (published by Bran's Head Books). It is composed of articles written before the publication of The Silmarillion. Ruth Noel wrote a book on Middle-earth's languages in 1980.

With the publication of much linguistic material during the 1990s, especially in the History of Middle-earth series, and the Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon material published during the early 2000s from among the 3000 pages of linguistic material held by the team of editors including Carl F. Hostetter, Tolkien's constructed languages have become much more accessible.

David Salo's 2007 A Gateway to Sindarin presents Sindarin's grammar concisely. Elizabeth Solopova's 2009 Languages, Myth and History gives an overview of the linguistic traits of the various languages invented by Tolkien and the history of their creation.

A few fanzines were dedicated to the subject, like Tyalië Tyelelliéva published by Lisa Star, and Quettar, the Bulletin of the Linguistic Fellowship of The Tolkien Society, published by Julian C. Bradfield. Tengwestië is an online publication of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship. Internet mailing lists and forums that have been dedicated to Tolkien's constructed languages include Tolklang, Elfling and Lambengolmor. Since 2005, there has been an International Conference on J.R.R. Tolkien's Invented Languages.


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Narwhal

The narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is a species of toothed whale native to the Arctic. It is the only member of the genus Monodon, and one of two living representatives of the family Monodontidae. The narwhal has a similar build to the closely related beluga whale, with which it overlaps in range and can interbreed. It has a stocky body with a prominent melon, reduced flippers, a shallow dorsal ridge, and mottled brown-and-white colouration. It is sexually dimorphic; adult males are larger than females and have a single tusk that can be up to 3 m long. The tusk, which is derived from the left canine, is thought to serve as a weapon or as a tool for feeding, attracting mates or sensing water salinity. The jointed neck vertebrae and shallow dorsal ridge may allow for agile movements under the ice, or help reduce surface area and heat loss.

The narwhal inhabits Arctic waters of Canada, Greenland and Russia. Every year, it migrates to ice-free summering grounds, usually in shallow waters, and often returns to the same sites in subsequent years. Its diet mainly consists of polar and Arctic cod, Greenland halibut, cuttlefish, shrimp, and armhook squid. Plunging at depths of up to 2370 m, the narwhal is among the deepest-diving cetaceans. It travels in groups of three to eight, with aggregations of up to 1,000 occurring in the summer months. It mates in the offshore pack ice from March to May, and the young are born in July or August of the following year. When communicating, a variety of clicks, whistles and knocks are used.

There are an estimated 170,000 living narwhals, and the species is listed as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The population is threatened by the effects of climate change, such as the reduction in ice cover, and human activities such as pollution and hunting. The narwhal has been hunted for thousands of years by Inuit in northern Canada and Greenland for meat and ivory, and regulated subsistence hunts continue.

Taxonomy
The narwhal was scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 Systema Naturae. One of the earliest illustrations of the species is a 1555 drawing by Olaus Magnus depicting a fish-like creature with a horn on its forehead; Magnus called it "Monoceros". The word "narwhal" comes from the Old Norse nárhval, meaning 'corpse-whale', which possibly refers to the animal's grey, mottled skin and its habit of remaining motionless when at the water's surface, a behaviour known as "logging" that usually happens in the summer. The scientific name, Monodon monoceros, is derived from Greek: 'single-tooth single-horn'.

The narwhal is most closely related to the beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas). Together, these two species comprise the only extant members of the family Monodontidae, sometimes referred to as the "white whales". The Monodontidae are distinguished by their pronounced melons (acoustic sensory organs), short snouts and the absence of a true dorsal fin. A 2020 phylogenetic study based on mitochondrial DNA suggested that, around 4.98 million years ago (mya), the narwhal split from the beluga whale.

Results of a genetic study reveal that porpoises and white whales are closely related, forming a separate clade which diverged from dolphins about 11 million years ago. Molecular analysis of Monodontidae fossils indicate that they had separated from Phocoenidae around 10.82 to 20.12 mya; they are considered to be a sister taxon.

The fossil species Casatia thermophila of early Pliocene central Italy was described as a possible narwhal ancestor when it was discovered in 2019. Bohaskaia, Denebola and Haborodelphis were other extinct genera known during the Pliocene of the eastern and western United States. Fossil evidence shows that ancient white whales lived in tropical waters. They may have migrated to Arctic and subarctic waters in response to changes in the marine food chain.

The following phylogenetic tree is based on a 2019 study of the family Monodontidae.

Hybridization
Although the narwhal and beluga are classified as separate genera, there is some evidence that they may, very rarely, interbreed. The remains of an abnormal-looking whale, described by marine zoologists as unlike any known species, were found in West Greenland around 1990. It had features midway between a narwhal and a beluga, indicating that the remains belonged to a narluga (a hybrid between the two species); this was confirmed by a 2019 DNA analysis. Whether the hybrid could breed remains unknown.

Description
The narwhal has a thickset body with a short, blunt snout, small upcurved flippers, and convex to concave tail flukes. Adults measure in body-to-tail length from 3.0 to 5.5 m and weigh 800 to 1600 kg. Male narwhals attain sexual maturity at 11 to 13 years of age, reaching a length of 3.9 m. Females become sexually mature at a younger age, between 5 and 8 years old, when they are about 3.4 m long. In most populations, males are about 70 cm longer and more than 50% heavier than females.

The pigmentation of the narwhal is a mottled pattern, with blackish-brown markings over a white background. At birth, the skin is light grey, and when sexually mature, white patches grow on the navel and genital slit. Whitening occurs throughout life, resulting in aged narwhals that are almost pure white. Unlike most whales, the narwhal has a shallow dorsal ridge, rather than a dorsal fin. This is possibly an evolutionary adaptation to make swimming under ice easier, to facilitate rolling, or to reduce surface area and heat loss. The neck vertebrae are jointed, instead of being fused together as in most whales; this allows a great range of neck flexibility. These characteristics—a dorsal ridge and jointed neck vertebrae—are shared by the beluga whale. Male and female narwhals have different tail flukes; the former are bent inward, while the latter have a sweep-back on the front margins. This is thought to be an adaptation for reducing drag caused by the tusk.

Compared with most marine mammals, the narwhal has a higher amount of myoglobin in its body, which facilitates deeper dives. It has a dense layer of blubber, around 50 to 100 mm thick. This fat accounts for a third of the body mass and helps insulate from cold ocean temperatures. Its skeletal muscle is adapted to withstand prolonged periods of deep-sea foraging. During such activities, oxygen is reserved in the muscles, which are typically slow-twitch, allowing for endurance and manoeuvrable motion.

Tusk

The most conspicuous characteristic of the male narwhal is a long, spiralled tusk, which is a canine tooth that projects from the left side of the upper jaw. Both sexes are born with a pair of tusks embedded in the upper jaw, which in males erupts at two or three. The tusk grows throughout a male's life, reaching lengths of 1.5 to 3 m. It is hollow and weighs up to 7.45 kg. Some males may grow two tusks, occurring when the right canine also protrudes through the lip. Females rarely grow tusks: when they do, the tusks are typically smaller than those of males, with less noticeable spirals.

The function of the narwhal tusk is debated. Some biologists suggest that narwhals use their tusks in fights, while others argue that they may be of use in feeding. There is, however, a scientific consensus that tusks are secondary sexual characteristics which indicate social status. The tusk is also a highly innervated sensory organ with millions of nerve endings that connect seawater stimuli to the brain, allowing the narwhal to sense temperature variability in its surroundings. These nerves may be able to pick up the slightest increase or decrease in the magnitude of particles and water pressure. According to a 2014 study, male narwhals may exchange information about the properties of the water they have travelled through by rubbing their tusks together, as opposed to the previously assumed posturing display of aggressive male-to-male rivalry. Drone footage from August 2016 in Tremblay Sound, Nunavut, revealed that narwhals used their tusks to tap and stun small Arctic cod, making them easier to catch for feeding. Females, who usually do not have tusks, live longer than males, hence the tusk cannot be essential to the animal's survival. It is generally accepted that the primary function of the narwhal tusk is associated with sexual selection.

Vestigial teeth
The narwhal has a single pair of small vestigial teeth that reside in open tooth sockets in the upper jaw. These teeth, which differ in form and composition, encircle the exposed tooth sockets laterally, posteriorly, and ventrally. Vestigial teeth in male narwhals are commonly shed in the palate. The varied morphology and anatomy of small teeth indicate a path of evolutionary obsolescence.

Distribution

The narwhal is found in the Atlantic and Russian areas of the Arctic Ocean. Individuals are commonly recorded in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, such as in the northern part of Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Baffin Bay; off the east coast of Greenland; and in a strip running east from the northern end of Greenland round to eastern Russia (170° east). Land in this strip includes Svalbard, Franz Joseph Land and Severnaya Zemlya. The northernmost sightings of narwhals have occurred north of Franz Joseph Land, at about 85° north. There are an estimated 12,500 narwhals in northern Hudson Bay, whereas around 140,000 reside in Baffin Bay.

Migration
Narwhals exhibit seasonal migration, with a high fidelity of return to preferred ice-free summering grounds, usually in shallow waters. In summer months, they move closer to coasts, often in pods of 10–100. In the winter, they move to offshore, deeper waters under thick pack ice, surfacing in narrow fissures or in wider fractures known as leads. As spring comes, these leads open up into channels and the narwhals return to the coastal bays. Narwhals in Baffin Bay typically travel further north, to northern Canada and Greenland, between June and September. After this period, they travel about 1700 km south to the Davis Strait, and stay there until April. During winter, narwhals from Canada and West Greenland regularly visit the pack ice of the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay along the continental slope which contains less than 5% open water and hosts high densities of Greenland halibut.

Behaviour and ecology

Narwhals normally congregate in groups of three to eight—and sometimes up to twenty—individuals. Groups may be "nurseries" with only females and young, or can contain only post-dispersal juveniles or adult males ("bulls"); mixed groups can occur at any time of year. In the summer, several groups come together, forming larger aggregations which can contain 500 to over 1,000 individuals. Male narwhals have been observed rubbing each other's tusks, a behaviour known as "tusking".

When in their wintering waters, narwhals make some of the deepest dives recorded for cetaceans, diving to at least 800 m over 15 times per day, with many dives reaching 1,500 m. The greatest dive depth recorded is 2370 m. Dives last up to 25 minutes, but can vary in depth, depending on the season and local variation between environments. For example, in the Baffin Bay wintering grounds, narwhals tend to dive deep within the precipitous coasts, typically south of Baffin Bay. This suggests differences in habitat structure, prey availability, or genetic adaptations between subpopulations. In the northern wintering grounds, narwhals do not dive as deep as the southern population, in spite of greater water depths in these areas. This is mainly attributed to prey being concentrated nearer to the surface, which causes narwhals to alter their foraging strategies.

Diet
Compared with other marine mammals, narwhals have a relatively restricted and specialised diet. Due to the lack of well-developed dentition, narwhals are believed to feed by swimming close to prey and sucking them into the mouth. A study of the stomach contents of 73 narwhals found Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida) to be the most commonly consumed prey, followed by Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides). Large quantities of Boreo-Atlantic armhook squid (Gonatus fabricii) were discovered. Males were more likely than females to consume two additional prey species: polar cod (Arctogadus glacialis) and redfish (Sebastes marinus), both of which are found in depths of more than 500 m. The study also concluded that the size of prey did not differ among genders or ages. Other items found in stomachs have included wolffish, capelin, skate eggs and sometimes rocks.

Narwhal diet varies by season. In winter, narwhals feed on demersal prey, mostly flatfish, under dense pack ice. During the summer, they eat mostly Arctic cod and Greenland halibut, with other fish such as polar cod making up the remainder of their diet. Narwhals consume more food in the winter months than they do in summer.

Breeding
Most female narwhals reproduce by the time they are six to eight years old. Courtship and mating behaviour for the species has been recorded from March to May, when they are in offshore pack ice, and is thought to involve a dominant male mating with several partners. The average gestation lasts 15 months; births appear to be most frequent between July and August. A female has a birth interval of around 2–3 years. As with most marine mammals, only a single young is born, averaging 1.5 m in length with white or light grey pigmentation. Summer population surveys along different coastal inlets of Baffin Island found that calf numbers varied from 0.05% of 35,000 in Admiralty Inlet, to 5% of 10,000 total in Eclipse Sound. These findings suggest that higher calf counts may reflect calving and nursery habitats in favourable inlets.

Newborn calves begin their lives with a thin layer of blubber. The blubber thickens as they nurse their mother's milk, which is rich in fat; calves are dependent on milk for about 20 months. This long lactation period gives calves time to learn skills they will need to survive as they mature.

Narwhals are among the few animals that undergo menopause and live for decades after they have finished breeding. Females in this phase may continue to protect calves in the pod. A 2024 study concluded that five species of Odontoceti evolved menopause to acquire higher overall longevity, though their reproductive periods did not change. To explain this, scientists hypothesised that calves of the five Odontoceti species require the assistance of menopausal females for an enhanced chance at survival, as they are extremely difficult for a single female to successfully rear.

Communication
Like most toothed whales, narwhals use sound to navigate and hunt for food. They primarily vocalise through clicks, whistles and knocks, created by air movement between chambers near the blowhole. The frequency of these sounds ranges from 0.3 to 125 hertz, while those used for echolocation typically fall between 19 and 48 hertz. Sounds are reflected off the sloping front of the skull and focused by the animal's melon, which can be controlled through surrounding musculature. Echolocation clicks are used for detecting prey and locating barriers at short distances. Whistles and throbs are most commonly used to communicate with other pod members. Calls recorded from the same pod are more similar than calls from different pods, suggesting the possibility of group- or individual-specific calls. Narwhals sometimes adjust the duration and pitch of their pulsed calls to maximise sound propagation in varying acoustic environments. Other sounds produced by narwhals include trumpeting and "squeaking-door sounds". The narwhal vocal repertoire is similar to that of the beluga whale. However, the frequency ranges, durations, and repetition rates of narwhal clicks differ from those of belugas.

Longevity and mortality factors
Age determination techniques using the number of periosteum layers in the lower jaw reveal that narwhals live an average of 50 years, though techniques using amino acid dating from the lens of the eyes suggest that female narwhals can reach 115±10 years and male narwhals can live to 84±9 years.

Death by suffocation often occurs when narwhals fail to migrate before the Arctic freezes over in late autumn. This is known as "sea-ice entrapment". Narwhals drown if open water is no longer accessible and ice is too thick for them to break through. Breathing holes in ice may be up to 1450 m apart, which limits the use of foraging grounds. These holes must be at least 0.5 m wide to allow an adult whale to breathe. Narwhals also die of starvation from entrapment events.

In 19141915, around 600 narwhal carcasses were discovered after entrapment events, most occurring in areas such as Disko Bay. In the largest entrapment in 1915 in West Greenland, over 1,000 narwhals were trapped under the ice. Several cases of sea entrapment were recorded in 2008–2010, during the Arctic winter, including in some places where such events had never been recorded before. This suggests later departure dates from summering grounds. Wind and currents move sea ice from adjacent locations to Greenland, leading to fluctuations in concentration. Due to their tendency of returning to the same areas, changes in weather and ice conditions are not always associated with narwhal movement toward open water. It is currently unclear to what extent sea ice changes pose a danger to narwhals.

Narwhals are preyed upon by polar bears and orcas. In some instances, the former have been recorded waiting at breathing holes for young narwhals, while the latter were observed surrounding and killing entire narwhal pods. To escape predators such as orcas, narwhals may use prolonged submersion to hide under ice floes rather than relying on speed.

Researchers found Brucella in the bloodstreams of numerous narwhals throughout the course of a 19-year study. They were also recorded with whale lice species such as Cyamus monodontis and Cyamus nodosus. Other pathogens include Toxoplasma gondii, morbillivirus, and papillomavirus. In 2018, a female narwhal had alphaherpesvirus in her system.

Conservation
The narwhal is listed as a species of least concern by the IUCN Red List. As of 2017, the global population is estimated to be 123,000 mature individuals out of a total of 170,000. There were about 12,000 narwhals in Northern Hudson Bay in 2011, and around 49,000 near Somerset Island in 2013. There are approximately a total of 35,000 in Admiralty Inlet, 10,000 in Eclipse Sound, 17,000 in Eastern Baffin Bay, and 12,000 in Jones Sound. Population numbers in Smith Sound, Inglefield Bredning and Melville Bay are 16,000, 8,000 and 3,000, respectively. There are roughly 800 narwhals in the waters off Svalbard.

In the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, the United States banned imports of products made from narwhal parts. They are listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). These committees restrict international trading of live animals and their body parts, as well as implement sustainable action plans. The species is classified as special concern under the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), which aims to classify the risk levels of species in the country.

Threats

Narwhals are hunted for their skin, meat, teeth, tusks and carved vertebrae, which are commercially traded. About 1,000 narwhals are killed per year: 600 in Canada and 400 in Greenland. Canadian catches were steady at this level in the 1970s, dropped to 300–400 per year in the late 1980s and 1990s and have risen again since 1999. Greenland caught more, 700–900 per year, in the 1980s and 1990s.

Narwhal tusks are sold both carved and uncarved in Canada and Greenland. Per hunted narwhal, an average of one or two vertebrae and one or two teeth are sold. In Greenland, the skin (muktuk) is sold commercially to fish factories, and in Canada to other communities. One estimate of the annual gross value received from narwhal hunts in Hudson Bay in 2013 was CA$6500 (US$) per narwhal, of which CA$4570 (US$) was for skin and meat. The net income after subtracting costs in time and equipment, was a loss of CA$7 (US$0) per narwhal. Hunts receive subsidies, but they continue mainly to support tradition, rather than for profit. Economic analysis noted that whale watching may be an alternate source of revenue.

As narwhals grow, bioaccumulation of heavy metals takes place. It is thought that pollution in the ocean is the primary cause of bioaccumulation in marine mammals; this may lead to health problems for the narwhal population. When bioaccumulating, numerous metals appear in the blubber, liver, kidney and musculature. A study found that the blubber was nearly devoid of these metals, whereas the liver and kidneys had a dense concentration of them. Relative to the liver, the kidney has a greater concentration of zinc and cadmium, while lead, copper and mercury were not nearly as abundant. Individuals of different weight and sex showed dissimilarities in the concentration of metals in their organs.

Narwhals are one of the Arctic marine mammals most vulnerable to climate change due to sea ice decline, especially in their northern wintering grounds such as the Baffin Bay and Davis Strait regions. Satellite data collected from these areas shows the amount of sea ice has been markedly reduced from what it was previously. It is thought that narwhals' foraging ranges reflect patterns they acquired early in life, which improves their capacity to obtain the food supplies they need for the winter. This strategy focuses on strong site fidelity rather than individual-level responses to local prey distribution, resulting in focal foraging areas during the winter. As such, despite changing conditions, narwhals will continue to return to the same areas during migration. As narwhals emerged during the late Pliocene epoch, they must have undergone adaptation to glacials and climate change.

Reduction in sea ice has possibly led to increased exposure to predation. In 2002, hunters in Siorapaluk experienced an increase in the number of caught narwhals, but this increase did not seem to be linked to enhanced endeavour, implying that climate change may be making the narwhal more vulnerable to hunting. Scientists recommend assessing population numbers, assigning sustainable quotas, and ensuring local acceptance of sustainable development. Seismic surveys associated with oil exploration disrupt the narwhal's normal migration patterns. These disturbed migrations may also be associated with increased sea ice entrapment.

Relationship with humans
Narwhals have coexisted alongside circumpolar peoples for millennia. Their long, distinctive tusks were often held with fascination throughout human history. Depictions of narwhals in paintings such as The Lady and the Unicorn have found a prevalent place in art. The ivory tusks were prized for their supposed healing powers, and were worn on staffs and thrones.

Inuit

Narwhals have been hunted by Inuit to the same extent as other sea mammals, such as seals and whales. Almost all parts of the narwhalthe meat, skin, blubber and organsare consumed. Muktuk, the raw skin and attached blubber, is considered a delicacy. As a custom, one or two vertebrae per animal are used for tools and art. The skin is an important source of vitamin C, which is otherwise difficult to obtain in the Arctic Circle. In some places in Greenland, such as Qaanaaq, traditional hunting methods are used and whales are harpooned from handmade kayaks. In other parts of Greenland and Northern Canada, high-speed boats and hunting rifles are used.

In Inuit legend, the narwhal's tusk was created when a woman with harpoon rope tied around her waist was dragged into the ocean after the harpoon had stuck into a large narwhal. She was then transformed into a narwhal; her hair, which she was wearing in a twisted knot, became the spiralling narwhal tusk.

Tusk trade

The narwhal tusk has been highly sought-after in Europe for centuries. This stems from a medieval belief that narwhal tusks were the horns of the legendary unicorn. According to some theories, Vikings and Greenland Norse began trade of narwhal tusks, which, via European channels, would later reach markets in the Middle East and East Asia. The idea that Norsemen hunted narwhals was once held, but was never confirmed and is now considered improbable.

Across medieval Europe, narwhal tusks were given as state gifts to kings and queens. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the price tag of tusks was said to be a couple of hundred times greater than its weight in gold. Ivan the Terrible had a jewellery-covered narwhal tusk on his deathbed, while Elizabeth I received a narwhal tusk allegedly valued at £10,000 pounds sterling from the privateer Martin Frobisher; both items were staples in cabinets of curiosities.

Considered to have magical properties, narwhal tusks were used to counter poisoning, and all sorts of diseases such as measles and rubella. The rise of science towards the end of the 17th century led to a decreased belief in magic and alchemy. After the unicorn notion was scientifically refuted, narwhal tusks were rarely employed for magical purposes.

title: Narwhal


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Somerset County

Somerset County may refer to:

Australia

 * the former name of Somerset Land District, Tasmania
 * Somerset Region in Queensland

United Kingdom

 * Somerset, England

United States

 * Somerset County, Maine
 * Somerset County, Maryland
 * Somerset County, New Jersey, the most populous county in the United States named Somerset
 * Somerset County, Pennsylvania

title: Somerset County