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Harmony

In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds together in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harmonic objects such as chords, textures and tonalities are identified, defined, and categorized in the development of these theories. Harmony is broadly understood to involve both a "vertical" dimension (frequency-space) and a "horizontal" dimension (time-space), and often overlaps with related musical concepts such as melody, timbre, and form.

A particular emphasis on harmony is one of the core concepts underlying the theory and practice of Western music. The study of harmony involves the juxtaposition of individual pitches to create chords, and in turn the juxtaposition of chords to create larger chord progressions. The principles of connection that govern these structures have been the subject of centuries worth of theoretical work and vernacular practice alike.

Drawing both from music theoretical traditions and the field of psychoacoustics, its perception in large part consists of recognizing and processing consonance, a concept whose precise definition has varied throughout history, but is often associated with simple mathematical ratios between coincident pitch frequencies. In the physiological approach, consonance is viewed as a continuous variable measuring the human brain's ability to 'decode' aural sensory input. Culturally, consonant pitch relationships are often described as sounding more pleasant, euphonious, and beautiful than dissonant pitch relationships, which can be conversely characterized as unpleasant, discordant, or rough.

In popular and jazz harmony, chords are named by their root plus various terms and characters indicating their qualities. In many types of music, notably baroque, romantic, modern, and jazz, chords are often augmented with "tensions". A tension is an additional chord member that creates a relatively dissonant interval in relation to the bass. The notion of counterpoint seeks to understand and describe the relationships between melodic lines, often in the context of a polyphonic texture of several simultaneous but independent voices. Therefore, it is sometimes seen as a type of harmonic understanding, and sometimes distinguished from harmony.

Typically, in the classical common practice period, a dissonant chord (chord with tension) "resolves" to a consonant chord. Harmonization usually sounds pleasant when there is a balance between consonance and dissonance. This occurs when there is a balance between "tense" and "relaxed" moments. Dissonance is an important part of harmony when it can be resolved and contribute to the composition of music as a whole. A misplayed note or any sound that is judged to detract from the whole composition can be described as disharmonious rather than dissonant.

Etymology and definitions
The term harmony derives from the Greek ἁρμονία harmonia, meaning "joint, agreement, concord", from the verb ἁρμόζω harmozō, "(Ι) fit together, join". Aristoxenus wrote a work entitled Elements of Harmony, which is thought the first work in European history written on the subject of harmony. In this book, Aristoxenus refers to previous experiments conducted by Pythagoreans to determine the relationship between small integer ratios and consonant notes (e.g., 1:2 describes an octave relationship, which is a doubling of frequency). While identifying as a Pythagorean, Aristoxenus claims that numerical ratios are not the ultimate determinant of harmony; instead, he claims that the listener's ear determines harmony.

Current dictionary definitions, while attempting to give concise descriptions, often highlight the ambiguity of the term in modern use. Ambiguities tend to arise from either aesthetic considerations (for example the view that only pleasing concords may be harmonious) or from the point of view of musical texture (distinguishing between harmonic (simultaneously sounding pitches) and "contrapuntal" (successively sounding tones)). According to A. Whittall:

"While the entire history of music theory appears to depend on just such a distinction between harmony and counterpoint, it is no less evident that developments in the nature of musical composition down the centuries have presumed the interdependence – at times amounting to integration, at other times a source of sustained tension – between the vertical and horizontal dimensions of musical space."

The view that modern tonal harmony in Western music began in about 1600 is commonplace in music theory. This is usually accounted for by the replacement of horizontal (or contrapuntal) composition, common in the music of the Renaissance, with a new emphasis on the vertical element of composed music. Modern theorists, however, tend to see this as an unsatisfactory generalisation. According to Carl Dahlhaus:

"It was not that counterpoint was supplanted by harmony (Bach's tonal counterpoint is surely no less polyphonic than Palestrina's modal writing) but that an older type both of counterpoint and of vertical technique was succeeded by a newer type. And harmony comprises not only the ('vertical') structure of chords but also their ('horizontal') movement. Like music as a whole, harmony is a process."

Descriptions and definitions of harmony and harmonic practice often show bias towards European (or Western) musical traditions, although many cultures practice vertical harmony. In addition, South Asian art music (Hindustani and Carnatic music) is frequently cited as placing little emphasis on what is perceived in western practice as conventional harmony; the underlying harmonic foundation for most South Asian music is the drone, a held open fifth interval (or fourth interval) that does not alter in pitch throughout the course of a composition. Pitch simultaneity in particular is rarely a major consideration. Nevertheless, many other considerations of pitch are relevant to the music, its theory and its structure, such as the complex system of Ragas, which combines both melodic and modal considerations and codifications within it.

So, intricate pitch combinations that sound simultaneously do occur in Indian classical music – but they are rarely studied as teleological harmonic or contrapuntal progressions – as with notated Western music. This contrasting emphasis (with regard to Indian music in particular) manifests itself in the different methods of performance adopted: in Indian Music, improvisation takes a major role in the structural framework of a piece, whereas in Western Music improvisation has been uncommon since the end of the 19th century. Where it does occur in Western music (or has in the past), the improvisation either embellishes pre-notated music or draws from musical models previously established in notated compositions, and therefore uses familiar harmonic schemes.

Emphasis on the precomposed in European art music and the written theory surrounding it shows considerable cultural bias. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Oxford University Press) identifies this clearly:

"In Western culture the musics that are most dependent on improvisation, such as jazz, have traditionally been regarded as inferior to art music, in which pre-composition is considered paramount. The conception of musics that live in oral traditions as something composed with the use of improvisatory techniques separates them from the higher-standing works that use notation."

Yet the evolution of harmonic practice and language itself, in Western art music, is and was facilitated by this process of prior composition, which permitted the study and analysis by theorists and composers of individual pre-constructed works in which pitches (and to some extent rhythms) remained unchanged regardless of the nature of the performance.

Historical rules
Early Western religious music often features parallel perfect intervals; these intervals would preserve the clarity of the original plainsong. These works were created and performed in cathedrals, and made use of the resonant modes of their respective cathedrals to create harmonies. As polyphony developed, however, the use of parallel intervals was slowly replaced by the English style of consonance that used thirds and sixths. The English style was considered to have a sweeter sound, and was better suited to polyphony in that it offered greater linear flexibility in part-writing.

Types

Carl Dahlhaus (1990) distinguishes between coordinate and subordinate harmony. Subordinate harmony is the hierarchical tonality or tonal harmony well known today. Coordinate harmony is the older Medieval and Renaissance tonalité ancienne, "The term is meant to signify that sonorities are linked one after the other without giving rise to the impression of a goal-directed development. A first chord forms a 'progression' with a second chord, and a second with a third. But the former chord progression is independent of the later one and vice versa." Coordinate harmony follows direct (adjacent) relationships rather than indirect as in subordinate. Interval cycles create symmetrical harmonies, which have been extensively used by the composers Alban Berg, George Perle, Arnold Schoenberg, Béla Bartók, and Edgard Varèse's Density 21.5.

Close harmony and open harmony use close position and open position chords, respectively. See: Voicing (music) and Close and open harmony.

Other types of harmony are based upon the intervals of the chords used in that harmony. Most chords in western music are based on "tertian" harmony, or chords built with the interval of thirds. In the chord C Major7, C–E is a major third; E–G is a minor third; and G to B is a major third. Other types of harmony consist of quartal and quintal harmony.

A unison is considered a harmonic interval, just like a fifth or a third, but is unique in that it is two identical notes produced together. The unison, as a component of harmony, is important, especially in orchestration. In pop music, unison singing is usually called doubling, a technique The Beatles used in many of their earlier recordings. As a type of harmony, singing in unison or playing the same notes, often using different musical instruments, at the same time is commonly called monophonic harmonization.

Intervals
An interval is the relationship between two separate musical pitches. For example, in the melody "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", between the first two notes (the first "twinkle") and the second two notes (the second "twinkle") is the interval of a fifth. What this means is that if the first two notes were the pitch C, the second two notes would be the pitch G—four scale notes, or seven chromatic notes (a perfect fifth), above it.

The following are common intervals:

When tuning notes using an equal temperament, such as the 12-tone equal temperament that has become ubiquitous in Western music, each interval is created using steps of the same size, producing harmonic relations marginally 'out of tune' from pure frequency ratios as explored by the ancient Greeks. 12-tone equal temperament evolved as a compromise from earlier systems where all intervals were calculated relative to a chosen root frequency, such as just intonation and well temperament. In those systems, a major third constructed up from C did not produce the same frequency as a minor third constructed up from D♭. Many keyboard and fretted instruments were constructed with the ability to play, for example, both of G♯ and A♭ without retuning. The notes of these pairs (even those where one lacks an accidental, such as E and F♭) were not the 'same' note in any sense.

Using the diatonic scale, constructing the major and minor keys with each of the 12 notes as the tonic can be achieved using only flats or sharps to spell notes within said key, never both. This is often visualized as traveling around the circle of fifths, with each step only involving a change in one note's accidental. As such, additional accidentals are free to convey more nuanced information in the context of a passage of music and the other notes that make it up. Even when working outside diatonic contexts, it is convention, if possible, to use each letter in the alphabet only once in describing a scale.

A note spelled as F♭ conveys different harmonic information to the reader versus a note spelled as E. In a tuning system where two notes spelled differently are tuned to the same frequency, those notes are said to be enharmonic. Even if identical in isolation, different spellings of enharmonic notes provide meaningful context when reading and analyzing music. For example, even though E and F♭ are enharmonic, the former is considered to be a major third up from C, while F♭ is considered to be a diminished fourth up from C. In the context of a C major tonality, the former is the third of the scale, while the latter could (as one of numerous possible justifications) be serving the harmonic function of the third of a D♭ minor chord, a borrowed chord within the scale.

Therefore, the combination of notes with their specific intervals—a chord—creates harmony. For example, in a C chord, there are three notes: C, E, and G. The note C is the root. The notes E and G provide harmony, and in a G7 (G dominant 7th) chord, the root G with each subsequent note (in this case B, D and F) provide the harmony.

In the musical scale, there are twelve pitches. Each pitch is referred to as a "degree" of the scale. The names A, B, C, D, E, F, and G are insignificant. The intervals, however, are not. Here is an example:

As can be seen, no note will always be the same scale degree. The tonic, or first-degree note, can be any of the 12 notes (pitch classes) of the chromatic scale. All the other notes fall into place. For example, when C is the tonic, the fourth degree or subdominant is F. When D is the tonic, the fourth degree is G. While the note names remain constant, they may refer to different scale degrees, implying different intervals with respect to the tonic. The great power of this fact is that any musical work can be played or sung in any key. It is the same piece of music, as long as the intervals are the same—thus transposing the melody into the corresponding key. When the intervals surpass the perfect Octave (12 semitones), these intervals are called compound intervals, which include particularly the 9th, 11th, and 13th Intervals—widely used in jazz and blues Music.

Compound Intervals are formed and named as follows:
 * 2nd + Octave = 9th
 * 3rd + Octave = 10th
 * 4th + Octave = 11th
 * 5th + Octave = 12th
 * 6th + Octave = 13th
 * 7th + Octave = 14th

These numbers don't "add" together because intervals are numbered inclusive of the root note (e.g. one tone up is a 2nd), so the root is counted twice by adding them. Apart from this categorization, intervals can also be divided into consonant and dissonant. As explained in the following paragraphs, consonant intervals produce a sensation of relaxation and dissonant intervals a sensation of tension. In tonal music, the term consonant also means "brings resolution" (to some degree at least, whereas dissonance "requires resolution").

The consonant intervals are considered the perfect unison, octave, fifth, fourth and major and minor third and sixth, and their compound forms. An interval is referred to as "perfect" when the harmonic relationship is found in the natural overtone series (namely, the unison 1:1, octave 2:1, fifth 3:2, and fourth 4:3). The other basic intervals (second, third, sixth, and seventh) are called "imperfect" because the harmonic relationships are not found mathematically exact in the overtone series. In classical music the perfect fourth above the bass may be considered dissonant when its function is contrapuntal. Other intervals, the second and the seventh (and their compound forms) are considered Dissonant and require resolution (of the produced tension) and usually preparation (depending on the music style ).

The effect of dissonance is perceived relatively within musical context: for example, a major seventh interval alone (i.e., C up to B) may be perceived as dissonant, but the same interval as part of a major seventh chord may sound relatively consonant. A tritone (the interval of the fourth step to the seventh step of the major scale, i.e., F to B) sounds very dissonant alone, but less so within the context of a dominant seventh chord (G7 or D♭7 in that example).

Chords and tension
In the Western tradition, in music after the seventeenth century, harmony is manipulated using chords, which are combinations of pitch classes. In tertian harmony, so named after the interval of a third, the members of chords are found and named by stacking intervals of the third, starting with the "root", then the "third" above the root, and the "fifth" above the root (which is a third above the third), etc. (Chord members are named after their interval above the root.) Dyads, the simplest chords, contain only two members (see power chords).

A chord with three members is called a triad because it has three members, not because it is necessarily built in thirds (see Quartal and quintal harmony for chords built with other intervals). Depending on the size of the intervals being stacked, different qualities of chords are formed. In popular and jazz harmony, chords are named by their root plus various terms and characters indicating their qualities. To keep the nomenclature as simple as possible, some defaults are accepted (not tabulated here). For example, the chord members C, E, and G, form a C Major triad, called by default simply a C chord. In an A♭ chord (pronounced A-flat), the members are A♭, C, and E♭.

In many types of music, notably baroque, romantic, modern and jazz, chords are often augmented with "tensions". A tension is an additional chord member that creates a relatively dissonant interval in relation to the bass. Following the tertian practice of building chords by stacking thirds, the simplest first tension is added to a triad by stacking, on top of the existing root, third, and fifth, another third above the fifth, adding a new, potentially dissonant member a seventh away from the root (called the "seventh" of the chord) producing a four-note chord called a "seventh chord".

Depending on the widths of the individual thirds stacked to build the chord, the interval between the root and the seventh of the chord may be major, minor, or diminished. (The interval of an augmented seventh reproduces the root, and is therefore left out of the chordal nomenclature.) The nomenclature allows that, by default, "C7" indicates a chord with a root, third, fifth, and seventh spelled C, E, G, and B♭. Other types of seventh chords must be named more explicitly, such as "C Major 7" (spelled C, E, G, B), "C augmented 7" (here the word augmented applies to the fifth, not the seventh, spelled C, E, G♯, B♭), etc. (For a more complete exposition of nomenclature see Chord (music).)

Continuing to stack thirds on top of a seventh chord produces extensions, and brings in the "extended tensions" or "upper tensions" (those more than an octave above the root when stacked in thirds), the ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths. This creates the chords named after them. (Except for dyads and triads, tertian chord types are named for the interval of the largest size and magnitude in use in the stack, not for the number of chord members : thus a ninth chord has five members [tonic, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th], not nine.) Extensions beyond the thirteenth reproduce existing chord members and are (usually) left out of the nomenclature. Complex harmonies based on extended chords are found in abundance in jazz, late-romantic music, modern orchestral works, film music, etc.

Typically, in the classical common practice period a dissonant chord (chord with tension) resolves to a consonant chord. Harmonization usually sounds pleasant to the ear when there is a balance between the consonant and dissonant sounds. In simple words, that occurs when there is a balance between "tense" and "relaxed" moments. For this reason, usually tension is 'prepared' and then 'resolved', where preparing tension means to place a series of consonant chords that lead smoothly to the dissonant chord. In this way the composer ensures introducing tension smoothly, without disturbing the listener. Once the piece reaches its sub-climax, the listener needs a moment of relaxation to clear up the tension, which is obtained by playing a consonant chord that resolves the tension of the previous chords. The clearing of this tension usually sounds pleasant to the listener, though this is not always the case in late-nineteenth century music, such as Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner.

Perception

A number of features contribute to the perception of a chord's harmony.

Tonal fusion
Tonal fusion contributes to the perceived consonance of a chord, describing the degree to which multiple pitches are heard as a single, unitary tone. Chords which have more coinciding partials (frequency components) are perceived as more consonant, such as the octave and perfect fifth. The spectra of these intervals resemble that of a uniform tone. According to this definition, a major triad fuses better than a minor triad and a major-minor seventh chord fuses better than a major-major seventh or minor-minor seventh. These differences may not be readily apparent in tempered contexts but can explain why major triads are generally more prevalent than minor triads and major-minor sevenths are generally more prevalent than other sevenths (in spite of the dissonance of the tritone interval) in mainstream tonal music.

In organ registers, certain harmonic interval combinations and chords are activated by a single key. The sounds produced fuse into one tone with a new timbre. This tonal fusion effect is also used in synthesizers and orchestral arrangements; for instance, in Ravel's Bolero #5 the parallel parts of flutes, horn and celesta resemble the sound of an electric organ.

Roughness
When adjacent harmonics in complex tones interfere with one another, they create the perception of what is known as "beating" or "roughness". These precepts are closely related to the perceived dissonance of chords. To interfere, partials must lie within a critical bandwidth, which is a measure of the ear's ability to separate different frequencies. Critical bandwidth lies between 2 and 3 semitones at high frequencies and becomes larger at lower frequencies. The roughest interval in the chromatic scale is the minor second and its inversion, the major seventh. For typical spectral envelopes in the central range, the second roughest interval is the major second and minor seventh, followed by the tritone, the minor third (major sixth), the major third (minor sixth) and the perfect fourth (fifth).

Familiarity
Familiarity also contributes to the perceived harmony of an interval. Chords that have often been heard in musical contexts tend to sound more consonant. This principle explains the gradual historical increase in harmonic complexity of Western music. For example, around 1600 unprepared seventh chords gradually became familiar and were therefore gradually perceived as more consonant.

Individual characteristics such as age and musical experience also have an effect on harmony perception.

Neural correlates of harmony
The inferior colliculus is a mid-brain structure which is the first site of binaural auditory integration, processing auditory information from the left and right ears. Frequency following responses (FFRs) recorded from the mid-brain exhibit peaks in activity which correspond to the frequency components of a tonal stimulus. The extent to which FFRs accurately represent the harmonic information of a chord is called neural salience, and this value is correlated with behavioral ratings of the perceived pleasantness of chords.

In response to harmonic intervals, cortical activity also distinguishes chords by their consonance, responding more robustly to chords with greater consonance.

Consonance and dissonance in balance
"The creation and destruction of harmonic and 'statistical' tensions is essential to the maintenance of compositional drama. Any composition (or improvisation) which remains consistent and 'regular' throughout is, for me, equivalent to watching a movie with only 'good guys' in it, or eating cottage cheese."

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Harthacnut

Harthacnut (Hardeknud; "Tough-knot"; c. 1018 – 8 June 1042), traditionally Hardicanute, sometimes referred to as Canute III, was King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042 and King of the English from 1040 to 1042.

Harthacnut was the son of King Cnut the Great (who ruled Denmark, Norway, and England) and Emma of Normandy. When Cnut died in 1035, Harthacnut struggled to retain his father's possessions. Magnus I took control of Norway, but Harthacnut succeeded as King of Denmark and became King of England in 1040 after the death of his half-brother Harold Harefoot, king of England. Harthacnut himself died suddenly in 1042 and was succeeded by Magnus in Denmark and Edward the Confessor in England. Harthacnut was the last Dane to rule England.

Early life
Harthacnut was born shortly after the marriage of his parents in July or August 1017. Cnut had put aside his first wife Ælfgifu of Northampton to marry Emma, and according to the Encomium Emmae Reginae, a book she inspired many years later, Cnut agreed that any sons of their marriage should take precedence over the sons of his first marriage. In 1023, Emma and Harthacnut played a leading role in the translation of the body of the martyr St Ælfheah from London to Canterbury, an occasion seen by Harthacnut's biographer, Ian Howard, as recognition of his position as Cnut's heir in England.

In the 1020s, Denmark was threatened by Norway and Sweden, and in 1026 Cnut decided to strengthen its defences by bringing over his eight-year-old son to be the future king under a council headed by his brother-in-law, Earl Ulf. Ulf alienated Cnut by getting the Danish provinces to acknowledge Harthacnut as king without reference to Cnut's overall authority and by failing to take vigorous measures to meet Norwegian and Swedish invasions, instead waiting for Cnut's assistance. In 1027, Cnut arrived with a fleet. He forgave Harthacnut his insubordination in view of his youth but had Ulf murdered. He drove the invaders out of Denmark and established his authority over Norway, returning to England in 1028 and leaving Denmark to be ruled by King Harthacnut.

Cnut had left Norway under the rule of Håkon Eiriksson, who drowned in a shipwreck in 1029 or 1030. Cnut then appointed his son Svein to rule Norway with the assistance of Ælfgifu, Cnut's first wife and Svein's mother. They made themselves unpopular by heavy taxation and favouring Danish advisers over the Norwegian nobles, and when King Magnus I of Norway, the son of the former King of Norway, Olaf, invaded in 1035, they were forced to flee to Harthacnut's court. Harthacnut was a close ally of Svein, but he did not feel his resources were great enough to launch an invasion of Norway, and the half-brothers looked for help from their father, but instead they received news of his death in November 1035.

Harold and Denmark
In 1035, Harthacnut succeeded his father on the throne of Denmark as Cnut III. He was unable to come to England in view of the situation in Denmark, and it was agreed that Svein's full brother, Harold Harefoot, should act as regent, with Emma holding Wessex on Harthacnut's behalf. In 1037, Harold was generally accepted as king, Harthacnut being, in the words of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "forsaken because he was too long in Denmark", while Emma fled to Bruges, in Flanders. In 1039, Harthacnut sailed with ten ships to meet his mother in Bruges but delayed an invasion as it was clear Harold was sick and would soon die, which he did in March 1040. Envoys soon crossed the channel to offer Harthacnut the throne.

While the general outline of events following Cnut's death is clear, the details are obscure, and historians give differing interpretations. The historian M. K. Lawson states that it is unclear whether Harthacnut was to have England as well as Denmark, but it was probably a reflection of a formal arrangement that mints south of the Thames produced silver pennies in his name, while those to the north were almost all Harold's. There might have been a division of the kingdom if Harthacnut had appeared straight away. He probably stayed in Denmark because of the threat from Magnus of Norway, but they eventually made a treaty by which if either died without an heir, his kingdom would go to the other, and this may have freed Harthacnut to pursue his claim to England.

According to Ian Howard, Harthacnut agreed to help Svein recover Norway and planned an invasion in 1036. Svein died shortly before it was to set out, but Harthacnut proceeded anyway. War was avoided by the treaty between Harthacnut and Magnus, which Harthacnut agreed to because he had no plausible candidate to rule Norway after Svein's death, and he was in any case temperamentally inclined to avoid campaigns and wars. Howard dates the treaty to 1036, whereas other historians date it to 1039 and believe it freed Harthacnut to launch an invasion of England.

Exiled in Bruges, Emma plotted to gain the English throne for her son. She sponsored the Encomium Emmae Reginae, which eulogised her and attacked Harold, especially for arranging the murder of Alfred Atheling (the younger of Emma's two sons by Æthelred) in 1036. The work describes Harthacnut's horror at hearing of his half brother's murder, and in Howard's view, was probably influential in finally persuading the cautious Harthacnut to invade England. According to a later edition of the Encomium, the English took the initiative in communicating with Harthacnut in 1039, possibly when they became aware that Harold had not long to live.

Return to England

Harthacnut travelled to England with his mother. The landing at Sandwich on 17 June 1040, "seven days before Midsummer", was a peaceful one, though he had a fleet of 62 warships. Even though he had been invited to take the throne, he was taking no chances and came as a conqueror with an invasion force. The crews had to be rewarded for their service, and to pay them, he levied a geld of more than 21,000 pounds, a huge sum of money that made him unpopular, although it was only a quarter of the amount his father had raised in similar circumstances in 1017–1018.

Harthacnut had been horrified by Harold's murder of Alfred, and his mother demanded vengeance. With the approval of Harold's former councillors, his body was disinterred from its place of honour at Westminster and publicly beheaded. It was disposed of in a sewer, but then retrieved and thrown in the Thames, from which London shipmen rescued it and had it buried in a churchyard. Godwin, the powerful earl of Wessex, had been complicit in the crime as he had handed over Alfred to Harold, and Queen Emma charged him in a trial before Harthacnut and members of his council. The king allowed Godwin to escape punishment by bringing witnesses that he had acted on Harold's orders, but Godwin then gave Harthacnut a ship so richly decorated that it amounted to the wergild that Godwin would have had to pay if he had been found guilty. Bishop Lyfing of Worcester was also charged with complicity in the crime and deprived of his see, but in 1041 he made his peace with Harthacnut and was restored to his position.

The English had become used to the king ruling in council, with the advice of his chief men, but Harthacnut had ruled autocratically in Denmark, and he was not willing to change, particularly as he did not fully trust the leading earls. At first he was successful intimidating his subjects, though less so later in his short reign. He doubled the size of the English fleet from sixteen to thirty-two ships, partly so that he had a force capable of dealing with trouble elsewhere in his empire, and to pay for it he severely increased the rate of taxation. The increase coincided with a poor harvest, causing severe hardship. In 1041, two of his tax gatherers were so harsh in dealing with people in and around Worcester that they rioted and killed the tax gatherers. Harthacnut reacted by imposing a then-legal but very unpopular punishment known as "harrying". He ordered his earls to burn the town and kill the population. Few people were killed, as the people of Worcester had fled in advance of their arrival. Although the city was burnt and plundered, citizens of Worcester who had taken refuge on an island in the River Severn fought successfully against Harthacnut's troops, and won the right to return to their homes without further punishment.

The earl of Northumbria was Siward, but Earl Eadwulf of Bamburgh ruled the northern part in semi-independence, a situation which did not please the autocratic Harthacnut. In 1041, Earl Eadwulf gave offence to the king for an unknown reason but then sought reconciliation. Harthacnut promised him safe conduct but then colluded in his murder by Siward, who became earl of the whole of Northumbria. The crime was widely condemned, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described it as "a betrayal" and the king as an "oath-breaker".

Harthacnut was generous to the church. Very few contemporary documents survive, but a royal charter of his transferred land to Bishop Ælfwine of Winchester, and he made several grants to Ramsey Abbey. The 12th century Ramsey Chronicle speaks well of his generosity and of his character.

Death
Harthacnut had suffered from bouts of illness even before he became King of England. He may have suffered from tuberculosis, and he probably knew that he had not long to live. In 1041, he invited his half-brother Edward the Confessor (his mother Emma's son by Æthelred the Unready) back from exile in Normandy and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that Edward was sworn in as king. Lawson comments: "This may mean that Edward was recognized as heir of Harthacnut, who had neither wife nor children, and who is said by the slightly later Norman historian William of Poitiers to have suffered from frequent illness; the likely truth of this is suggested not only by his sudden death the following year, but also because it is otherwise difficult to see why a man in his early twenties with a normal life expectancy should have acted so." He may well have been influenced by Emma, who hoped to keep her power by ensuring that one of her sons was succeeded by another.

On 8 June 1042, Harthacnut attended a wedding in Lambeth. The groom was Tovi the Proud, and the bride was Gytha, daughter of Osgod Clapa. Both men had been close to Cnut. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "Harthacnut died as he stood at his drink, and he suddenly fell to the earth with an awful convulsion; and those who were close by took hold of him, and he spoke no word afterwards".

Succession

The political agreement between Harthacnut and Magnus the Good included the appointment of the latter as heir to Harthacnut. At the time, the agreement would have only affected the throne of Denmark. The Heimskringla reports that when Harthacnut died, Magnus extended his claim to England. He reportedly sent a letter to Edward the Confessor, pressing his claim to the English throne and threatening invasion. His own heir, Harald Hardrada, would also press this claim. Both considered themselves legal heirs to Harthacnut. The Fagrskinna contains a scene where Magnus proclaims: "I will take possession of all the Danish empire or else die in the attempt."

According to the Encomium, Edward the Confessor already served as co-ruler of England since 1041. There is an emphasis on Harthacnut, Edward, and Emma serving as a trinity of rulers, in emulation of the Holy Trinity. Edward, by surviving his co-ruler, would be king by default. The Heimskringla depicts Edward portraying himself as brother and legal heir to both Harold Harefoot and Harthacnut, while pointing out that he had already won the support "of all the people of the country". Unstated in both is that the marriage of Edward to Edith of Wessex would also support his claim by earning him both the political support of her father Godwin and an additional connection to Cnut. She was a niece to the king. The Fagrskinna has Edward point out that he was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, the half-brother to Edmund Ironside, the stepson of Cnut, the stepbrother of Harold Harefoot, and the half-brother of Harthacnut. In short, he had a much stronger family claim to the throne than Magnus. All the leaders of England had already acknowledged him as their king, and he was consecrated by an archbishop. England was his own heritage. Whether Magnus defeated him in war or not, he was told: "You can never be called king in England, and you will never be granted any allegiance there before you put an end to my life." This was supposedly enough to cause Magnus to doubt the strength of his own claim.

The marriage agreement between Gunhilda of Denmark (sister of Harthacnut) and Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor was meant to allow descendants of the marriage to claim the throne of Denmark and potentially of England. From Henry's perspective, it was probably orchestrated to allow the Holy Roman Empire to claim control of Denmark and the western areas of the Baltic Sea. She died in 1038 with no known sons. Her only daughter was Beatrice I, Abbess of Quedlinburg, who never married.

Reputation

Apart from the Ramsey Chronicle, medieval sources are hostile to Harthacnut. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he "did nothing worthy of a king as long as he ruled". Modern historians are less dismissive. In the view of M. K. Lawson, he had at least two of the requisites of a successful medieval king: he was "both ruthless and feared"; had he not died young, the Norman Conquest might not have happened. Ian Howard praises Harthacnut for keeping peace throughout his empire, benefiting trade and merchants, and ensuring a peaceful succession by inviting Edward to his court as his heir. Had he lived longer, Howard believes, his character might have enabled him to become a successful king like his father.

Henry of Huntingdon (12th century) claimed that Harthacnut ordered for the dining tables of his court to be "laid four times a day with royal sumptuousness" which O'Brien says is likely a popular myth. Henry of Huntingdon viewed this detail in the context of the monarch sharing these meals with the members of his household, making Harthacnut more generous than his own contemporaries, who "through avarice, or as they pretend through disgust, ... set but one meal a day before their dependents". His account produced the image of Harthacnut as a "very generous bon viveur". Ranulf Higden (14th century) viewed the same detail in a negative light. He claimed that Harthacnut insisted on having two dinners and two suppers per day. His example influenced the English people, who supposedly were to Higden's day gluttonous and extravagant. Higden so claimed that Harthacnut had a lasting effect on the English national character. The association of Harthacnut with gluttony was well known enough to appear in the novel Ivanhoe (1819) by Walter Scott. The character Cedric comments on his friend Athelstane, whose main character trait is a love for food and drink: "The soul of Hardicanute hath taken possession of him, and he hath no pleasure save to fill, to swill, and to call for more."

The Knýtlinga saga treats the death of Harthacnut as the end of an ancient line of kings, and notes that he was the last Danish king to rule over England. But otherwise, Harthacnut is treated as a mere footnote in the line of monarchs, while there are many observations on Cnut. The Morkinskinna covers Harthacnut's death in some detail, but records next to nothing about his life, suggesting a lack of memorable details on him, presumably due to his short reign.

The Brut Chronicle was an Anglo-Norman work, covering British and English monarchs from Brut (Brutus of Troy) to the death of Henry III in 1272. It was probably written during the reign of Edward I (reigned 1272–1307), though the oldest surviving manuscript dates to 1338. The text often includes notable errors. The original author remains unknown, but there were a number of continuations by different hands, continuing the story to the Battle of Halidon Hill (1333). The material on Harthacnut is largely positive. The author considered both Harold Harefoot and Harthacnut to have been sons of Cnut and Emma of Normandy. He portrays Harold as lacking in chivalry, courtesy or honour, and Harthacnut as "a noble knight and stalwart of body, and he greatly loved knighthood and all virtues". He praises Harthacnut for his generosity with food and drink, writing that his table was open "for all who wished to come to his court to be richly served with royal dishes". He concludes by portraying Harthacnut as a loyal son for accepting his mother, Emma, back to court.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Harthacnut


text:
Talk:Parser

Old text
Original entry on main page "wikified" a bit.

A parser is a program or subprogram that analyzes the grammatical structure of an input stream of tokens, with respect to a given grammar (typically for a programming language) and determines if a correct translation if possible.

Some discussion that may help flesh out the article a bit. This is paraphrase from the "dragon book" by an inexperienced programmer so it should not be added to entry except by a confident software knowledgeable person.

Using the rules provided by the language specification or grammar the program statements are broken down into smallest meaningful elements or tokens. It is useful to conceptualize a binary parse tree when discussing the design and operation of parser. Various means of traversing this tree (moving systematically through processing all nodes) are used in various types of parser.

Methods of parsing Top-Down Parsing many others here

Basically, a parser is a translater from one language to another based upon completely specified grammers.

A definative text in the field of software languages is The Dragon Book, so named for the picture of a dragon peering through a computer monitor at a knight with various shields, armour, and sword labeled with key elements necessary for mastery of the subject.

Reference: "Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools" by Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, and Jeffrey D. Ullman

user:mirwin

From Semantic action routine:

 * Semantic action routines are simple functions invoked by the parser, which add context sensitive informations (e.g. type of a variable...) to the result of the Syntaxanalysis, done by the parser. They also build the intermediate representation of the source code or even the goal language.

 * 1) (cur) (last) . . 11:07, Feb 5, 2004 . . 217.199.69.42
 * 2) (cur) (last) . . 11:04, Feb 5, 2004 . . 217.199.69.42

Someone see if this is of any use to the article. Dori | Talk 20:53, Feb 5, 2004 (UTC)

 * I've mentioned it in compiler-compiler because I think that's where it belongs. -- Jan Hidders 16:19, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hard to understand
I'm finding the article a little hard to understand. The most confusing thing is, in an introduction, the use of domain specific terminology. I barely know what a parser is, so it feels unnatural to be knee deep already. If something is fundamental to parsing, please don't hesitate to describe (and duplicate) it here. Context free grammar would take a line to abridge, for example. An example of what purpose they serve/what they do could really help the first paragraph. Just some thoughts. 137.186.216.141 07:37, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * I modified the article. How do you like it? Which parts can be improved?

 * I understand your problem. Especially I am puzzled why the article focuses on grammars like context-free grammar. This is not an article about grammars, you know. Lucky for us, I noticed parsing article has a better description of parser. -- Taku 17:41, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

Informal poll for merging with Parsing
Hokay, guys, let's take a poll to see if we all agree to merge the articles. The front page mentions a merge poll, but i can't see one :) So

 * Strong Merge, use Parser as the main article, speedy parsing, create seperate section inside Parser about parsing. Don't mix parser and parsing in a long (more than a page) single article.

title: Talk:Parser


text:
Harold Harefoot

Harold I (died 17 March 1040), also known as Harold Harefoot, was regent of England from 1035 to 1037 and King of the English from 1037 to 1040. Harold's nickname "Harefoot" is first recorded as "Harefoh" or "Harefah" in the twelfth century in the history of Ely Abbey, and according to some late medieval chroniclers it meant that he was "fleet of foot".

The son of Cnut the Great and Ælfgifu of Northampton, Harold was elected regent of England following the death of his father in 1035. He initially ruled England in place of his brother Harthacnut, who was stuck in Denmark due to a rebellion in Norway which had ousted their brother Svein. Although Harold had wished to be crowned king since 1035, Æthelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to do so. It was not until 1037 that Harold, supported by earl Leofric and many others, was officially proclaimed king. The same year, Harold's two step-brothers Edward and Alfred returned to England with a considerable military force. Alfred was captured by Earl Godwin, who had him seized and delivered to an escort of men loyal to Harefoot. While en route to Ely, he was blinded and soon after died of his wounds.

Harold died in 1040, having ruled just five years; his half-brother Harthacnut soon returned and took hold of the kingdom peacefully. Harold was originally buried in Westminster, but Harthacnut had his body dragged up and thrown into a fen adjacent to the river Thames, from where it was reportedly recovered by a fisherman and eventually reburied in a Danish cemetery in London.

Paternity

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that Harold said that he was a son of Cnut the Great and Ælfgifu of Northampton, "although it was not true". Florence of Worcester (12th century) elaborates on the subject. Claiming that Ælfgifu wanted to have a son by the king but was unable to, she secretly adopted the newborn children of strangers and pretended to have given birth to them. Harold was reportedly the son of a cobbler, while his brother Svein Knutsson was the illegitimate son of a priest. She deceived Cnut into recognizing both children as his own.

21st century author Harriet O'Brien doubts Cnut, the shrewd politician who "masterminded the bloodless takeover of Norway", could have been deceived in such a way. She suspects the tale started out as a popular myth, or intentional defamation presumably tailored by Emma of Normandy, the other wife of Cnut and rival to Ælfgifu.

Harthacnut's reign
Upon the death of Cnut on 12 November 1035, Harold's younger half-brother Harthacnut, the son of Cnut and his queen Emma of Normandy, was the legitimate heir to the thrones of both the Danes and the English. Harthacnut, however, was unable to travel to his coronation in England because his Danish kingdom was under threat of invasion by King Magnus I of Norway and King Anund Jacob of Sweden. England's magnates favored the idea of installing Harold Harefoot temporarily as regent or joint monarch, due to the difficulty of Harthacnut's absence, and despite the opposition of Godwin, the Earl of Wessex, and the Queen, he eventually wore the crown. There is some dispute in primary sources (the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) about Harold's initial role. Versions E and F mention him as regent, the others as co-ruler.

Ian Howard points out that Cnut had been survived by three sons: Svein, Harold, and Harthacnut. The Encomium Emmae Reginae also describes Edward the Confessor and Alfred Aetheling as the sons of Canute, though the modern term would be step-sons. Harold could claim the regency or kingship because he was the only one of the five present in England in 1035. Harthacnut was reigning in Denmark, and Svein had joined him there following his deposition from the Norwegian throne, while Edward and Alfred were in Normandy. Harold could reign in the name of his absent brothers, with Emma rivaling him as a candidate for the regency.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ignores the existence of Svein, or his claim to the throne, which Howard considers as evidence of the relative entries being unreliable, of failing to give a complete picture. The Heimskringla of Snorri Sturluson claims that Svein and Harthacnut had agreed to share the kingdom between them. This agreement would include Denmark and (probably) England. Snorri quotes older sources on the subject and could be preserving valuable details.

Assumption of the throne

Harold reportedly sought coronation as early as 1035. According to the Encomium Emmae Reginae, however, Æthelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to crown Harold Harefoot. Coronation by the Archbishop would be a legal requirement to become a king. Æthelnoth reportedly placed the sceptre and crown on the altar of a temple, possibly that of the Canterbury Cathedral. Offering to consecrate Harold without using any of the royal regalia would have been an empty honour. He refused to remove the items from the altar and forbade any other bishop from doing so. The tale goes on that Harold failed to sway Æthelnoth, as both bribes and threats proved ineffectual. The despairing Harold reportedly rejected Christianity in protest. He refused to attend church services while uncrowned, preoccupying himself with hunting and trivial matters.

The Encomium stays silent on an event reported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other sources. Harold was accepted as monarch in a Witenagemot held at Oxford. His chief supporter in the council was Leofric, Earl of Mercia, while the opposition was led by Godwin, Earl of Wessex. There is evidence that Ælfgifu of Northampton was attempting to secure her son's position through bribes to the nobles. In 1036, Gunhilda of Denmark, sister to Harthacnut and half-sister to Harold, married Henry III, King of Germany. On this occasion Immo, a priest serving at the court of the Holy Roman Empire, wrote a letter to Azecho, Bishop of Worms. It included information on the situation in England, with messengers from there reporting that Ælfgifu was gaining the support of the leading aristocrats through pleas and bribery, binding them to herself and Harold by oaths of loyalty.

Initially, the Kingdom of England was divided between the two half-brothers. Harold ruled the areas north of the River Thames, supported by the local nobility. The southern nobility under Godwin and Emma continued to be ruled in the name of the absent Harthacnut. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that Godwin and the leading men of Wessex opposed the rule of Harold for "...as long as they could, but they could not do anything against it." With the north at least on Harold's side, in adherence to the terms of a deal, which Godwin was part of, Emma was settled in Winchester, with Harthacnut's huscarls. Harold soon "sent and had taken from her all the best treasures" of Cnut the Great.

The situation could not last for long, and Godwin eventually switched sides. William of Malmesbury asserts that Godwin had been overwhelmed "in power and in numbers" by Harold. In 1037, Emma of Normandy fled to Bruges, Flanders, and Harold "was everywhere chosen as king". The details behind the event are obscure. The account of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, version E, jumps from Harold being a mere regent to Harold being the sole king. Versions C and D do not even make a distinction between the two phases. Ian Howard theorises that the death of Svein Knutsson could have strengthened Harold's position. He went from being the second surviving son of Cnut to being the eldest living, with Harthacnut still absent and unable to press his claim to the throne.

Harold himself is somewhat obscure; the historian Frank Stenton considered it probable that his mother Ælfgifu was "the real ruler of England" for part or all of his reign. Kelly DeVries points out that during the High Middle Ages, royal succession in Northern Europe was determined by military power. The eldest son of a king could have a superior right of inheritance but still lose the throne to a younger brother, or other junior claimant, possessing greater military support. Harold managed to win the throne against the superior claim of Harthacnut in this way. The 11th century provides other similar examples. Magnus I of Norway (reigned 1035–1047), who wasn't a warlord, had reigned for more than a decade when his uncle Harald Hardrada (reigned 1047–1066) challenged his rule. With Harald being a famous military leader, his claim would end Magnus' reign early. Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders (reigned 1067–1070) was effectively succeeded by his brother Robert I (reigned 1071–1093), rather than his own sons. Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy (reigned 1087–1106) lost the throne of England to his younger brothers William II (reigned 1087–1100) and Henry I (reigned 1100–1135).

With the Kingdom of England practically owned by Harold, Harthacnut could not even approach without securing sufficient military strength. His decision to remain in Denmark probably points to him lacking sufficient support, though he would certainly wait for an opportunity to forcefully assert his claim and depose his half-brother. Harold reigned as sole king from 1037 to 1040. There are few surviving documents about events of his reign. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mostly covers church matters, such as the deaths and appointments of bishops and archbishops. There is, however, a record of a skirmish between the Anglo-Saxons and the Welsh in 1039. The named casualties were Eadwine (Edwin), brother to Leofric, Earl of Mercia, Thurkil, and Ælfgeat, but there are no other details concerning this event. Also in 1039, there is mention of a great gale, again with no details.

Return of Ælfred and Edward

In 1036, Ælfred Ætheling, son of Emma by the long-dead Æthelred, returned to the kingdom from exile in the Duchy of Normandy with his brother Edward the Confessor, with some show of arms. Their motivation is uncertain. William of Poitiers claimed that they had come to claim the English throne for themselves. Frank Barlow suspected that Emma had invited them, possibly to use them against Harold. If so, it could mean that Emma had abandoned the cause of Harthacnut, probably to strengthen her own position, but that could have inspired Godwin to also abandon the lost cause.

The Encomium Emmae Reginae claims that Harold himself had lured them to England, having sent them a forged letter, supposedly written by Emma. The letter reportedly both decried Harold's behaviour against her and urged her estranged sons to come and protect her. Barlow and other modern historians suspect that this letter was genuine. Ian Howard argued that Emma not being involved in a major political manoeuvre would be "out of character for her", and the Encomium was probably trying to mask her responsibility for a blunder. William of Jumièges reports that earlier in 1036, Edward had conducted a successful raid of Southampton, managing to win a victory against the troops defending the city and then sailing back to Normandy "richly laden with booty", but the swift retreat confirms William's assessment that Edward would need a larger army to seriously claim the throne.

With his bodyguard, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ælfred intended to visit his mother, Emma, in Winchester, but he may have made this journey for reasons other than a family reunion. As the "murmur was very much in favour of Harold", on the direction of Godwin (now apparently on the side of Harold Harefoot), Ælfred was captured. Godwin had him seized and delivered to an escort of men loyal to Harefoot. He was transported by ship to Ely, and blinded while on board. He died in Ely soon after due to the severity of the wounds, his bodyguard similarly treated. The event would later affect the relationship between Edward and Godwin, the Confessor holding Godwin responsible for the death of his brother.

The failed invasion shows that Harold Harefoot, as a son and successor to Cnut, had gained the support of Anglo-Danish nobility, which violently rejected the claims of Ælfred, Edward, and (by extension) the Aethelings. The House of Wessex had lost support among the nobility of the Kingdom. It might also have served as a turning point in the struggle between Harold and Emma that resulted in Emma's exile.

Death
Harold died at Oxford on 17 March 1040, just as Harthacnut was preparing an invasion force of Danes, and was buried at Westminster Abbey. His body was subsequently exhumed, beheaded, and thrown into a fen bordering the Thames when Harthacnut assumed the throne in June 1040. The body was subsequently recovered by fishermen, and resident Danes reportedly had it reburied at their local cemetery in London. The body was eventually buried in a church in the City of Westminster, which was fittingly named St. Clement Danes. A contradictory account in the Knýtlinga saga (13th century) reports Harold buried in the city of Morstr, alongside his half-brother Harthacnut and their father Cnut. While mentioned as a great city in the text, nothing else is known of Morstr. The Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson reports Harold Harefoot to have been buried at Winchester, again alongside Cnut and Harthacnut.

The cause of Harold's death is uncertain. Katherine Holman attributes the death to "a mysterious illness". An Anglo-Saxon charter attributes the illness to divine judgment. Harold had reportedly claimed Sandwich for himself, thereby depriving the monks of Christchurch. Harold is described as lying ill and in despair at Oxford. When monks came to him to settle the dispute over Sandwich, he "lay and grew black as they spoke". The context of the event was a dispute between Christchurch and St Augustine's Abbey, which took over the local toll in the name of the king. There is little attention paid to the illness of the king. Harriet O'Brien feels this is enough to indicate that Harold died of natural causes, but not to determine the nature of the disease. The Anglo-Saxons themselves would consider him elf-shot (attacked by elves), their term for any number of deadly diseases. Michael Evans points out that Harold was only one of several youthful kings of pre-Conquest England to die following short reigns. Others included Edmund I (reigned 939–946, murdered at age 25), Eadred (reigned 946–955, died at age 32), Eadwig (reigned 955–959, died at age 19), Edmund Ironside (reigned 1016, murdered at age 26), and Harthacnut (reigned 1040–1042, who would die at age 24). Evans wonders whether the role of king was dangerous in this era, more so than in the period after the Conquest, or whether hereditary diseases were in effect since most of these kings were members of the same lineage, the House of Wessex.

It is unclear why a king would have been buried at Westminster Abbey. The only previous royals reportedly buried there were Sæberht of Essex and his wife Æthelgoda. Emma Mason speculates that Cnut had built a royal residence in the vicinity of the Abbey, or that Westminster held some significance to the Danish Kings of England, which would also explain why Harthacnut would not allow a usurper to be buried there. The lack of detail in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle implies that, for its compilers, the main point of interest was not the burial site, but the exhumation of the body. Harriet O'Brien theorises that the choice of location might simply reflect the political affiliation of the area of Westminster and nearby London, being a power base for Harold.

A detailed account of the exhumation appears in the writings of John of Worcester (12th century). The group tasked with the mission was reportedly led by Ælfric Puttoc, Archbishop of York, and Godwin, Earl of Wessex. The involvement of such notable men would have had a significance of its own, giving the event an official nature and avoiding secrecy. Emma Mason suspects that this could also serve as a punishment for Godwin, who had served as a chief supporter of Harold, and was now charged with the gruesome task.

Offspring
Harold may have had a wife, Ælfgifu, and a son, Ælfwine, who became a monk on the continent when he was older – his monastic name was Alboin. Ælfwine/Alboin is recorded in 1060 and 1062 in charters from the Abbey Church of Saint Foy in Conques, which mention him as son of "Heroldus rex fuit Anglorum" (Latin: Harold, who was king of the English People). Harold Harefoot is the most likely father as the only other king Harold was Harold Godwinson, who would not rise to the throne until 1066. Either way, an underage boy would be unable to claim the throne in 1040. His possible hereditary claims would not be enough to gain the support of the leading nobles against the adult Harthacnut.

Ælfgifu of Northampton disappears with no trace after 1040. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Harold Harefoot ruled for four years and sixteen weeks, by which calculation he would have begun ruling two weeks after the death of Cnut.

Reputation
The Prose Brut chronicle was an Anglo-Norman work, covering British and English monarchs from Brut (Brutus of Troy) to the death of Henry III in 1272. It was probably written during the reign of Edward I (reigned 1272–1307), though the oldest surviving manuscript dates to 1338. The text often includes notable errors. The original author remains unknown, but there were a number of continuations by different hands, extending the story to the Battle of Halidon Hill (1333). The material on Harold Harefoot is rather unflattering. The author considered both Harold and Harthacnut to have been sons of Cnut and Emma of Normandy. He proceeds to portray Harold as follows: "...He went astray from the qualities and conduct of his father King Cnut, for he cared not at all for knighthood, for courtesy, or for honour, but only for his own will...". He accuses Harold of driving his own mother Emma out of England, by the advice of Godwin, Earl of Wessex. He paints Harthacnut in a more favorable light.

The Knýtlinga saga (13th century) considers Harold Harefoot to be the oldest son of Cnut and Emma of Normandy, though its author frequently misrepresents family relationships. Harthacnut and Gunhilda of Denmark are regarded in the text as his younger siblings. The narrative has Harold and Harthacnut dividing the realms of their father in an agreement. It also features Harold offering hospitality to his half-brother Edward the Confessor, but they were actually step-brothers, and Edward only settled in England following the death of Harold.

title: Harold Harefoot


text:
Talk:Brian Aldiss

November 2003
Not on the main article because I can't remember the details sufficiently: I think he produced a small magazine/fanzine of SF literary criticism in the 1960s; notable particularly for printing  a transcript of a discussion about science fiction between Aldiss, James Blish, and C.S. Lewis, all of whom were living around Oxford at that time, but I can't remember the title of the magazine.

And I think he and Harry Harrison edited a John W. Campbell memorial Anthology too, but I could be wrong on that. More later.... Malcolm Farmer
 * They did. You're not. Lee M 02:29, 12 Nov 2003 (UTC)

March 2004
There's a lot of detail on individual novels that would probably work better as separate articles. I suppose this could apply to a lot of Wikipedia articles...one big article with lots of subsections, or lots of smaller articles? Lee M 01:45, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Billion Year Spree
Or, I suppose, Trillion Year Spree. Anyone got a copy? I'd like to put Aldiss's exact words about cosy catastrophes into the cosy catastrophe article. –Hajor 17:05, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Hothouse
I've read Hothouse in Polish edition and I'm reading it again now. Each time, i find the book a fascinating novel, not so 'science' fiction, but rather a form of fantasy literature written by the great author with an amazing imagination. Is there anybody willing to make a separate article on this book? I have found none articles on it. Greetings, Critto, December 23, 2005

 * Article written. See here.  Gardener of Geda  | Message Me.... 22:54, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Fame
Re OUTSIDE. If there is one short story that Brian W. Aldiss will be remembered for in a hundred years it is certainly this one. Its issues (what is identity, what happens when credibility is lost etc) have also been treated in other SF stories, notably in Philip K. Dick's Impostor, but what makes Ouside absolutely unique is its ending. Nobody who reads these closing lines will ever forget them: '''"The inhumanity inside will always give you away," he said evenly. "However human you are outside."''' --BZ(Bruno Zollinger) 13:55, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Nausicaä
Hothouse made a very strong influence in Hayao Miyazaki to create Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, it should be mentioned in the main article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.53.137.92 (talk) 16:38, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Doctor Who story
I wasn't quite sure were to put this, but I add an "Other" category to the bibliography to include the Doctor Who short story he's published. We might not be listing every individual short story, but the connection to the major franchise is worth noting. And to any fans racing to their local book dealer, you're welcome. (So much press came out over Michael Moorcock writing a Doctor Who novel, this short story completely passed under the radar, it seems). 68.146.64.9 (talk) 00:30, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Inspiration for Hothouse
The article says (with no citation) "his encounters with tropical rainforests at that time may have been at least a partial inspiration for Hothouse, as his Army experience inspired the Horatio Stubbs second and third books". Probably can't add this to the article, but at the 2011 Cheltenham Literature Festival he said the inspiration came from a mango plant in some gardens in Calcutta, which grew outwards rather than upwards. 94.174.108.74 (talk) 21:04, 15 October 2011 (UTC)
 * If his speech was recorded in print or online, that could be used as cited material.Cloptonson (talk) 20:29, 9 November 2014 (UTC)

An error, either in date or assertion?
The article currently claims that "Around 1964 he and his long-time collaborator Harry Harrison started the first ever journal of science fiction criticism, Science Fiction Horizons, which during its brief span of two issues published articles and reviews by such authors as James Blish, and featured a discussion among Aldiss, C. S. Lewis, and Kingsley Amis in the first issues, and an interview with William S. Burroughs in the second." C.S. Lewis died in November of 1963, after a period of failing health. Now, I don't know for sure if, in his last few months on Earth, he engaged in some discussion that didn't appear until months later, maybe a year or more, in this brand new journal. But I sort of doubt it. There's no citation for the claim, so I can't fact-check it very easily. And it's possible the only error here is "among" -- that the sentence actually means to say that Aldiss discusses the work of Lewis and Amis or something -- but again, I can't prove that Lewis didn't have some dialogue with Aldiss and Amis that found its way into print after his death. Does anyone know anything about this journal, or this claim? Jwrosenzweig (talk) 07:27, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

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Date of Death
When did Aldiss actually die?

According to his family on Twitter and The Telegraph : his birthday on August 18.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/author-brian-aldiss-dead-92-neil-gaiman-graham-coxon-pay-tribute

According to Aldiss agent and publisher, The Guardian and BBC News: early hours of August 19.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/21/science-fiction-author-brian-aldiss-dies-aged-92

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41003085

Who are we supposed to believe? The family or the agent and publisher? Twitter or official announcement? One would think that his own family would know when he died, but his agent and publisher would hardly go out with an official announcement if they didn't know the time of death.

Does anybody out there have any more information that could clarify this mystery?95.195.212.84 (talk) 17:58, 21 August 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Brian Aldiss. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
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Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussions at the nomination pages linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 13:07, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Brian Aldiss (3).jpg (discussion)
 * Brian Aldiss (4).jpg (discussion)

Reading Heinlein and Dick as a child
"As a child, he discovered the pulp magazine Astounding Science Fiction. He eventually read all the novels by H. G. Wells, Robert Heinlein, and Philip K. Dick." Surely the novels of Heinlein and Dick were published later. Jack Upland (talk) 03:52, 31 August 2023 (UTC)
 * It's probably a lack of clarity or precision that is the problem. Aldiss began writing after some of the works of Heinlein and Dick were published. It is likely the sentence should read that he read all the novels that had been published at that time (i.e., when he started writing) OR that eventually (i.e., in his lifetime) he read all of their work. As the sentence stands it is unclear. I can't access the NYT through the paywall to check what the source actually says. MarcGarver (talk) 13:47, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Brian Aldiss


text:
Talk:Canute

BTW, in Polish history books with great amount of confidency it is written that Canute was grandson of (hm, i can't remember right now) Mieszko or Boleslav. Anyway, relative to Piasts, descendant of Swiatoslawa, that is Storrada the Proud.. What's western history can say about it? szopen]], eager to see more about Canute soon... Mieszko I it was, through the marriage (998?) of his daughter Swietoslawa (known to the Scandinavians as Gunhild, c.968-1014) to Sweyn Forkbeard (Sweyn I of Denmark). So Canute was indeed part Polish. User:David Parker

 * And when I'm telling people that all Europeans are Poles - they don't believe me... But seriously, there's a lot of confusion between Gunhilda and Sigrid the Haughty. Shouldn't the two articles be merged? Halibutt 18:20, Jul 21, 2004 (UTC)

Any cunning stunts in King Cnut's resume? :-) —  Rickyrab | Talk 09:13, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

Surely this should redirect to Cnut the Great, clear primary meaning? PatGallacher (talk) 11:36, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Cnut which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 21:30, 1 July 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Canute


text:
Vibrator

Vibrator may refer to:

Technology

 * Vibrator (sex toy), a device for massage or sexual pleasure used by both men and women
 * Vibrator (mechanical), a class of devices which create mechanical vibrations for uses such as signaling annunciators, doorbells, or industrial uses such as compacting gravel, transporting materials, cleaning, etc.
 * Vibrator (electronic), an electronic component in DC power supplies for generating high voltage made obsolete by the late 1960s
 * Vibrating alert, used in mobile phones and pagers

Music

 * Vibrator (music), a musical instrument
 * The Vibrators, a British punk band
 * Vibrator (album), a 1995 album by Terence Trent D'Arby
 * "Vibrator", a song by Motörhead on Motörhead (album)
 * "Vibrator", a song by Electric Six, on their second album Senor Smoke

Other

 * Multivibrator, an electronic circuit to implement a variety of simple devices
 * Vibroseis, a mobile energy source used in seismic exploration
 * Vibrator (film), a 2003 film

title: Vibrator


text:
Industrial sociology

Industrial sociology, until recently a crucial research area within the field of sociology of work, examines "the direction and implications of trends in technological change, globalization, labour markets, work organization, managerial practices and employment relations" to "the extent to which these trends are intimately related to changing patterns of inequality in modern societies and to the changing experiences of individuals and families", and " the ways in which workers challenge, resist and make their own contributions to the patterning of work and shaping of work institutions".

Labour process theory
One branch of industrial sociology is labour process theory (LPT). In 1974, Harry Braverman wrote Labor and Monopoly Capital, which provided a critical analysis of scientific management. This book analysed capitalist productive relations from a Marxist perspective. Following Marx, Braverman argued that work within capitalist organizations was exploitative and alienating, and therefore workers had to be coerced into servitude. For Braverman the pursuit of capitalist interests over time ultimately leads to deskilling and routinization of the worker. The Taylorist work design is the ultimate embodiment of this tendency.

Braverman demonstrated several mechanisms of control in both the factory blue-collar and clerical white-collar labour force. His key contribution is his "deskilling" thesis. Braverman argued that capitalist owners and managers were incessantly driven to deskill the labour force to lower production costs and ensure higher productivity. Deskilled labour is cheap and above all easy to control due to the workers' lack of direct engagement in the production process. In turn work becomes intellectually or emotionally unfulfilling; the lack of capitalist reliance on human skill reduces the need of employers to reward workers in anything but a minimal economic way.

Braverman's contribution to the sociology of work and industry (i.e., industrial sociology) has been important and his theories of the labour process continue to inform teaching and research. Braverman's thesis has, however, been contested, by Andrew Freidman in his work Industry and Labour (1977). In it, Freidman suggests that whilst the direct control of labour is beneficial for the capitalist under certain circumstances, a degree of "responsible autonomy" can be granted to unionized or "core" workers, in order to harness their skill under controlled conditions. Also, Richard Edwards showed in 1979 that although hierarchy in organizations has remained constant, additional forms of control (such as technical control via email monitoring, call monitoring; bureaucratic control via procedures for leave, sickness etc.) have been added to gain the interests of the capitalist class versus the workers. Duncan Gallie has shown how important it is to approach the question of skill from a social class perspective. In his study, the majority of non-manual, intermediate and skilled manual workers believed that their work had come to demand a higher level of skill, but the majority of manual workers felt that the responsibility and skill needed in their work had either remained constant or declined. This implies that Braverman's claims can't be applied to all social classes.

The notion the particular type of technology workers were exposed to shapes their experience was most forcefully argued in a classic study by Robert Blauner. He argued that some work is alienating more than other types because of the different technologies workers use. Alienation, to Blauner, has four dimensions: powerlessness, meaninglessness, isolation, and self-estrangement. Individuals are powerless when they can't control their own actions or conditions of work; work is meaningless when it gives employees little or no sense of value, interest or worth; work is isolating when workers cannot identify with their workplace; and work is self-estranging when, at the subjective level, the worker has no sense of involvement in the job.

Blauner's claims however fail to recognize that the same technology can be experienced in a variety of ways. Studies have shown that cultural differences with regard to management–union relations, levels of hierarchical control, and reward and performance appraisal policies mean that the experience of the same kind of work can vary considerably between countries and firms. The individualization of work and the need for workers to have more flexible skills in order to respond to technological changes means that Blauner's characterization of work experience is no longer valid. Additionally, workers today may work in teams to alleviate workers' sense of alienation, since they are involved in the entire process, rather than just a small part of it. In conclusion, automative technologies and computerized work systems have typically enhanced workers' job satisfaction and skill deployment in the better-paid, secure public and private sector jobs. But, in more non-skilled manual work, they have just perpetuated job dissatisfaction, especially for the many women involved in this type of work.

title: Industrial sociology


text:
Wikipedia:Contents

Explore the vast knowledge of Wikipedia through these helpful resources. If you have a specific topic in mind, use Wikipedia's search box. If you don't know exactly what you are looking for or wish to explore broad areas, click on a link in the header menu at the top of this page, or begin your browsing below:

Navigating Wikipedia's subjects
Wikipedia organizes its content into distinct subject classifications, each with further subdivisions.

Culture
Explore the diverse cultures, arts, beliefs, and customs of human societies.
 * Culture

Geography
Discover the wonders of Earth's lands, features, inhabitants, and planetary phenomena.
 * Geography

Health
Learn about physical, mental, and social health.
 * Health

History
Dive into the past through written records and scholarly exploration.
 * History

Timelines
Explore chronological events through our comprehensive timelines.
 * List of timelines

Current history entries
Stay up-to-date with encyclopedia entries covering ongoing events.
 * 2024 – Major events this year
 * 2024 in science – Ongoing science findings and technology advancements
 * Portal:Current events – Featured current events and related project activities

Human activities
Delve into diverse human actions, from leisure and entertainment to industry and warfare.
 * Human activities

Mathematics and formal sciences
Explore the study of quantity, structure, space, and change.
 * Mathematics and logic

Natural sciences
Understand natural phenomena through empirical evidence, observations, and experiments.
 * Natural and physical sciences

People
Learn about collective entities, ethnic groups, and nations.
 * People

Philosophy
Dive deep into fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, and more.
 * Philosophy

Reference works
Access comprehensive information collections compiled for easy retrieval.
 * Reference works

Third-party classification systems
Refer to various third-party classification systems linked to Wikipedia articles.
 * Library of Congress Classification
 * List of Dewey Decimal classes
 * Figurative system of human knowledge (Encyclopédie)
 * Propædia (Encyclopædia Britannica)
 * Tree of knowledge system
 * Universal Decimal Classification

Bibliographies
Access sources on specific topics for further reading or verification.
 * Wikipedia:List of bibliographies – Compilation of bibliographies
 * Category:Wikipedia bibliographies – Multi-page catalog of Wikipedia's bibliographies

Religion
Explore social-cultural systems, beliefs, ethics, and more.
 * Religion

Society and social sciences
Understand collectives, social interactions, political authority, and cultural norms.
 * Society

Technology and applied sciences
Learn about techniques, skills, methods, and processes in technology and science.
 * Technology

Overview articles
Get summaries of broad topics with links to subtopics, biographies, and related articles.
 * Overview articles

Outline pages
Explore topics in outline format, linking to more detailed articles.
 * Outline pages

List pages
Find enumerations of specific types, such as lists of countries and people.
 * List pages

Portals
Access featured articles, images, news, and more through thematic portals.
 * Portals

Glossaries
Access lists of terms with definitions through alphabetical glossaries.
 * Glossaries

Category system
Browse Wikipedia's category pages, which index articles by subject.
 * Category:Main topic classifications – Arts, History, Technology, and more
 * Contents/Categories – Hand-crafted list of topic categories
 * Category:People – Biographies

Vital articles
Explore subjects that demand high-quality articles, grouped by importance.
 * Level 1 – 10 most important articles
 * Level 2 – 100 most important articles
 * Level 3 – 1,000 most important articles
 * Level 4 – 10,000 most important articles
 * Level 5 – 50,000 most important articles

Featured content
Discover Wikipedia's best, reviewed and vetted for quality.
 * Featured articles
 * Featured lists
 * Featured pictures
 * Featured topics

Good content
Explore well-written, factually accurate articles that meet editorial standards.
 * Good articles
 * Good topics

Spoken articles
Listen to Wikipedia articles as spoken word recordings.
 * Category:Spoken articles
 * Spoken articles

Alphabetical lists of articles
Browse Wikipedia's articles alphabetically.
 * Special:Allpages – List of all current pages
 * Contents/A–Z index – Alphabetical index
 * Category:Wikipedia indexes – Alphabetical list of topic indexes
 * Contents/Indices – Indexes sorted by topic area

title: Wikipedia:Contents


text:
Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Contents

Contents pages, and lists of lists
(move resolved and archived)

Index lists - RfC
Please see Village pump (policy)/Archive 14, a complex issue which I've tried to summarize. It concerns pages in mainspace like List of timelines, List of basic mathematics topics, and List of film topics. Its scope is currently a few hundred pages, and potentially a few thousand pages. Feedback would be appreciated. -- Quiddity (talk) 19:23, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Topics Navchart
I added the Topics Navchart to show how topic classifications are covered on the contents pages. It offers a quick way to browse each section. It also can be used as a tool for topics classifications and contents pages discussions. RichardF 03:19, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Topics-based contents pages project
Based on a continuing interest to improve how readers can browse contents pages by topics, it looks like a good time to work on another project. This page can be used as the main location to coordinate the related development activities. I added a to-do list at the top of this page to help plan activities and track their progress. RichardF 16:17, 1 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Especially now that it is a bonafide WikiProject. :-)  The Transhumanist 02:08, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

spam and "list of topics in"
I certainly like all attempts at organization, but i have noticed that a number of the lists of topics in, and list of important topics in... pages seem to accumulate spam, and contribute to the formation of walled gardens in topics that are not necessarily of all that much proportionate importance. should we have a rule perhaps that such pages can never contain external links? DGG (talk) 04:11, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Ooh, a metaphor! Cool.  I love metaphors.  To continue your analogy: not all external links are flowers: spam are weeds.  But aren't garden walls built to keep people out of those gardens?  On Wikipedia, walls are restrictions like page protection, content policies, and search exclusion.  Be careful that you don't build walls in an effort to protect us from them, or remove the gardens in order to illiminate weeds.  We should keep the gardens, they're the whole point.  Maybe we should just pull the weeds.  I can see the gardens you are referring to, but I don't see the walls you mentioned.  What are the "walls" you are referring to?  The Transhumanist 13:32, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Coordinating Portal:Contents pages
A group of editors is working on coordinating Portal:Contents and all of its subpages. This activity has two basic parts. The simplest part is to coordinate their presentation, such as page layouts. Most of the discussions about how to accomplish this are at Portal talk:Contents. The more involved part is to coordinate their substance, such as what gets linked from the pages and their classifications. Most of the discussions about how to accomplish this are at WikiProject Contents and related projects such as WikiProject Lists of basic topics, WikiProject Lists of topics, WikiProject Glossaries, WikiProject Portals and WikiProject Categories. Please feel free to join in on these activities. RichardF (talk) 12:50, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Subportals of current events MfD
A discussing about several of the Current events subportals has been opened at Miscellany for deletion. You are invited to participate in discussing the fate of these subportals --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 17:40, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Major rename proposal of certain "lists" to "outlines"
See Village pump (proposals)/Archive 28.

The Transhumanist 21:48, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia's Content
I'm not able to edit the talk page for this page and trying to find where to request this annoyed me, so I'm going to have to dump it here. Due to the recent skin change, the first bullet point in the introductory of the above page is outdated. There are no longer any 'Go' or 'Search' buttons. It's not a major concern, but it should be addressed. Thanks. 79.67.153.54 (talk) 20:51, 30 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Done. Thanks for persevering! Hopefully we'll get a better banner at the top of Portal talk:Contents soonish.. -- Quiddity (talk) 21:40, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Selected anniversaries concern
I have raised a concern at Wikipedia_talk:Selected_anniversaries regarding the "rules" known as OTDRULES. Please contribute to the discussion there! (sdsds - talk) 11:23, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Rename sidebar link - proposal
See discussion about renaming the link to this portal (not the page itself) in the sidebar, at Village pump (proposals)/Archive 106. –Quiddity (talk) 01:10, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

Leaflet for Wikiproject Contents at Wikimania 2014
Hi all,

My name is Adi Khajuria and I am helping out with Wikimania 2014 in London.

One of our initiatives is to create leaflets to increase the discoverability of various wikimedia projects, and showcase the breadth of activity within wikimedia. Any kind of project can have a physical paper leaflet designed - for free - as a tool to help recruit new contributors. These leaflets will be printed at Wikimania 2014, and the designs can be re-used in the future at other events and locations.

This is particularly aimed at highlighting less discoverable but successful projects, e.g:

• Active Wikiprojects: Wikiproject Medicine, WikiProject Video Games, Wikiproject Film

• Tech projects/Tools, which may be looking for either users or developers.

• Less known major projects: Wikinews, Wikidata, Wikivoyage, etc.

• Wiki Loves Parliaments, Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves ____

• Wikimedia thematic organisations, Wikiwomen’s Collaborative, The Signpost The deadline for submissions is 1st July 2014 For more information or to sign up for one for your project, go to: Project leaflets Adikhajuria (talk) 17:05, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

Comment on the WikiProject X proposal
Hello there! As you may already know, most WikiProjects here on Wikipedia struggle to stay active after they've been founded. I believe there is a lot of potential for WikiProjects to facilitate collaboration across subject areas, so I have submitted a grant proposal with the Wikimedia Foundation for the "WikiProject X" project. WikiProject X will study what makes WikiProjects succeed in retaining editors and then design a prototype WikiProject system that will recruit contributors to WikiProjects and help them run effectively. Please review the proposal here and leave feedback. If you have any questions, you can ask on the proposal page or leave a message on my talk page. Thank you for your time! (Also, sorry about the posting mistake earlier. If someone already moved my message to the talk page, feel free to remove this posting.) Harej (talk) 22:47, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

WikiProject X is live!

Hello everyone!

You may have received a message from me earlier asking you to comment on my WikiProject X proposal. The good news is that WikiProject X is now live! In our first phase, we are focusing on research. At this time, we are looking for people to share their experiences with WikiProjects: good, bad, or neutral. We are also looking for WikiProjects that may be interested in trying out new tools and layouts that will make participating easier and projects easier to maintain. If you or your WikiProject are interested, check us out! Note that this is an opt-in program; no WikiProject will be required to change anything against its wishes. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!

Note: To receive additional notifications about WikiProject X on this talk page, please add this page to WikiProject X/Newsletter. Otherwise, this will be the last notification sent about WikiProject X.

Harej (talk) 16:57, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

WikiProject collaboration notice from the Portals WikiProject
The reason I am contacting you is because there are one or more portals that fall under this subject, and the Portals WikiProject is currently undertaking a major drive to automate portals that may affect them.

Portals are being redesigned.

The new design features are being applied to existing portals.

At present, we are gearing up for a maintenance pass of portals in which the introduction section will be upgraded to no longer need a subpage. In place of static copied and pasted excerpts will be self-updating excerpts displayed through selective transclusion, using the template Transclude lead excerpt.

The discussion about this can be found here.

Maintainers of specific portals are encouraged to sign up as project members here, noting the portals they maintain, so that those portals are skipped by the maintenance pass. Currently, we are interested in upgrading neglected and abandoned portals. There will be opportunity for maintained portals to opt-in later, or the portal maintainers can handle upgrading (the portals they maintain) personally at any time.

Background
On April 8th, 2018, an RfC ("Request for comment") proposal was made to eliminate all portals and the portal namespace. On April 17th, the Portals WikiProject was rebooted to handle the revitalization of the portal system. On May 12th, the RfC was closed with the result to keep portals, by a margin of about 2 to 1 in favor of keeping portals.

There's an article in the current edition of the Signpost interviewing project members about the RfC and the Portals WikiProject.

Since the reboot, the Portals WikiProject has been busy building tools and components to upgrade portals.

So far, 84 editors have joined.

If you would like to keep abreast of what is happening with portals, see the newsletter archive.

If you have any questions about what is happening with portals or the Portals WikiProject, please post them on the WikiProject's talk page.

Thank you. — The Transhumanist  07:33, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Idea for new community workspace
Hi. I would like to create some kind of collaborative workspace where coordinators or members of various WikiProjects would gather and provide updates and information on what is going on at each wikiproject, i.e. regarding their latest efforts, projects, and where interested editors can get involved. For those of you at this very active WikiProject, your input would be very helpful, so I wanted to get your input on whether you'd be interested in helping me to make this happen.

we are discussing this proposal right now at:

* Village pump (proposals)

Please feel free to let me know what you think of this idea, and please let me know your preference, regarding the options above. if you do not see any need for this idea, that is totally fine. However, I think that the majority of editors lack awareness of where the truly active editing is taking place and at which WikiProjects, and I would like to do whatever I can to help make people more aware of where the activity is, what they can do to help, and also which areas of Wikipedia offer ideas and efforts that might help them in their own editing activities. Please feel free to let me know.

 * Would you be interested in an idea of this nature?
 * If so, which option below seems most feasible to you?
 * Create a new page/talk page at the existing WikiProject Council, where members of various WikiProject can gather to offer updates, information and ideas on the latest efforts at each of their own WikiProject, such as WikiProject Council/Town Hall.
 * Create an entirely new WikiProject with an inclusive name such as
 * WIkiProject Town Hall,
 * WikiProject Bulletin Board,
 * WikiProject Water Cooler
 * Create a new collaborative page or forum, but not as a new WIkiProject, i.e. with some name like
 * Town Hall or
 * Water Cooler
 * Create a new sub-page in my own userspace, such as User:Sm8900/Town Hall
 * Create a subpage at an umbrella-type WikiProject that already covers a broad topical area, such as WikiProject History/Town Hall

thanks. --Sm8900 (talk) 19:02, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Contents