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C shell

The C shell (csh or the improved version, tcsh) is a Unix shell created by Bill Joy while he was a graduate student at University of California, Berkeley in the late 1970s. It has been widely distributed, beginning with the 2BSD release of the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) which Joy first distributed in 1978. Other early contributors to the ideas or the code were Michael Ubell, Eric Allman, Mike O'Brien and Jim Kulp.

The C shell is a command processor which is typically run in a text window, allowing the user to type and execute commands. The C shell can also read commands from a file, called a script. Like all Unix shells, it supports filename wildcarding, piping, here documents, command substitution, variables and control structures for condition-testing and iteration. What differentiated the C shell from others, especially in the 1980s, were its interactive features and overall style. Its new features made it easier and faster to use. The overall style of the language looked more like C and was seen as more readable.

On many systems, such as macOS and Red Hat Linux, csh is actually tcsh, an improved version of csh. Often one of the two files is either a hard link or a symbolic link to the other, so that either name refers to the same improved version of the C shell. The original csh source code and binary are part of NetBSD.

On Debian and some derivatives (including Ubuntu), there are two different packages: csh and tcsh. The former is based on the original BSD version of csh and the latter is the improved tcsh.

tcsh added filename and command completion and command line editing concepts borrowed from the Tenex system, which is the source of the "t". Because it only added functionality and did not change what already existed, tcsh remained backward compatible with the original C shell. Though it started as a side branch from the original source tree Joy had created, tcsh is now the main branch for ongoing development. tcsh is very stable but new releases continue to appear roughly once a year, consisting mostly of minor bug fixes.

Design objectives and features
The main design objectives for the C shell were that it should look more like the C programming language and that it should be better for interactive use.

More like C
The Unix system had been written almost exclusively in C, so the C shell's first objective was a command language that was more stylistically consistent with the rest of the system. The keywords, the use of parentheses, and the C shell's built-in expression grammar and support for arrays were all strongly influenced by C.

By today's standards, C shell may not seem particularly more C-like than many other popular scripting languages. But through the 80s and 90s, the difference was seen as striking, particularly when compared to Bourne shell (also known as sh), the then-dominant shell written by Stephen Bourne at Bell Labs. This example illustrates the C shell's more conventional expression operators and syntax.

The Bourne sh lacked an expression grammar. The square bracketed condition had to be evaluated by the slower means of running the external test program. sh's  command took its argument words as a new command to be run as a child process. If the child exited with a zero return code, sh would look for a  clause (a separate statement, but often written joined on the same line with a semicolon) and run that nested block. Otherwise, it would run the else. Hard-linking the test program as both " " and " " gave the notational advantage of the square brackets and the appearance that the functionality of test was part of the sh language. sh's use of a reversed keyword to mark the end of a control block was a style borrowed from ALGOL 68.

By contrast, csh could evaluate the expression directly, which made it faster. It also claimed better readability: Its expressions used a grammar and a set of operators mostly copied from C, none of its keywords were reversed and the overall style was also more like C.

Here is a second example, comparing scripts that calculate the first 10 powers of 2.

Again because of the lack of an expression grammar, the sh script uses command substitution and the expr command. (Modern POSIX shell does have such a grammar: the statement could be written i=$((i * 2)) or : "$((i *= 2))".)

Finally, here is a third example, showing the differing styles for a switch statement.

In the sh script, " " marks the end of each case because sh disallows null statements otherwise.

Improvements for interactive use
The second objective was that the C shell should be better for interactive use. It introduced numerous new features that made it easier, faster and more friendly to use by typing commands at a terminal. Users could get things done with a lot fewer keystrokes and it ran faster. The most significant of these new features were the history and editing mechanisms, aliases, directory stacks, tilde notation, cdpath, job control, and path hashing. These new features proved very popular, and many of them have since been copied by other Unix shells.

History
History allows users to recall previous commands and rerun them by typing only a few quick keystrokes. For example, typing two exclamation marks (" ") as a command causes the immediately preceding command to be run. Other short keystroke combinations, e.g., " " (meaning "the final argument of the previous command"), allow bits and pieces of previous commands to be pasted together and edited to form a new command.

Editing operators
Editing can be done not only on the text of a previous command, but also on variable substitutions. Operators range from simple string search/replace to parsing a pathname to extract a specific segment.

Aliases
Aliases allow the user to type the name of an alias and have the C shell expand it internally into whatever set of words the user has defined. For many simple situations, aliases run faster and are more convenient than scripts.

Directory stack
The directory stack allows the user to push or pop the current working directory, making it easier to jump back and forth between different places in the filesystem.

Tilde notation
Tilde notation offers a shorthand way of specifying pathnames relative to the home directory using the " " character.

Filename completion
The escape key can be used interactively to show possible completions of a filename at the end of the current command line.

Cdpath
Cdpath extends the notion of a search path to the  (change directory) command:  If the specified directory is not in the current directory, csh will try to find it in the cdpath directories.

Job control
Well into the 1980s, most users only had simple character-mode terminals that precluded multiple windows, so they could only work on one task at a time. The C shell's job control allowed the user to suspend the current activity and create a new instance of the C shell, called a job, by typing. The user could then switch back and forth between jobs using the fg command. The active job was said to be in the foreground. Other jobs were said to be either suspended (stopped) or running in the background.

Path hashing
Path hashing speeds up the C shell's search for executable files. Rather than performing a filesystem call in each path directory, one at a time, until it either finds the file or runs out of possibilities, the C shell consults an internal hash table built by scanning the path directories. That table can usually tell the C shell where to find the file (if it exists) without having to search and can be refreshed with the  command.

Overview of the language
The C shell operates one line at a time. Each line is tokenized into a set of words separated by spaces or other characters with special meaning, including parentheses, piping and input/output redirection operators, semicolons, and ampersands.

Basic statements
A basic statement is one that simply runs a command. The first word is taken as name of the command to be run and may be either an internal command, e.g.,, or an external command. The rest of the words are passed as arguments to the command.

At the basic statement level, here are some of the features of the grammar:

Wildcarding
The C shell, like all Unix shells, treats any command-line argument that contains wildcard characters as a pattern and replaces it with the list of all the filenames that match (see globbing).

 * matches any number of characters.
 * matches any single character.
 * ... matches any of the characters inside the square brackets.  Ranges are allowed, using the hyphen.
 * ... matches any character not in the set.

The C shell also introduced several notational conveniences (sometimes known as extended globbing), since copied by other Unix shells.

 * is alternation (aka brace expansion) and expands to abcdef abcghi.
 * means the current user's home directory.
 * means user's home directory.

Multiple directory-level wildcards, e.g., " ", are supported.

Since version 6.17.01, recursive wildcarding à la zsh (e.g. " " or " ") is also supported with the  option.

Giving the shell the responsibility for interpreting wildcards was an important decision on Unix. It meant that wildcards would work with every command, and always in the same way. However, the decision relied on Unix's ability to pass long argument lists efficiently through the exec system call that csh uses to execute commands. By contrast, on Windows, wildcard interpretation is conventionally performed by each application. This is a legacy of MS-DOS, which only allowed a 128-byte command line to be passed to an application, making wildcarding by the DOS command prompt impractical. Although modern Windows can pass command lines of up to roughly 32K Unicode characters, the burden for wildcard interpretation remains with the application.

I/O redirection
By default, when csh runs a command, the command inherits the csh's stdio file handles for stdin, stdout and stderr, which normally all point to the console window where the C shell is running. The i/o redirection operators allow the command to use a file instead for input or output.

 * file means stdout will be written to file, overwriting it if it exists, and creating it if it doesn't. Errors still come to the shell window.
 * file means both stdout and stderr will be written to file, overwriting it if it exists, and creating it if it doesn't.
 * file means stdout will be appended at the end of file.
 * file means both stdout and stderr will be appended at the end of file.
 * file means stdin will be read from file.
 * string is a here document. Stdin will read the following lines up to the one that matches string.

Redirecting stderr alone isn't possible without the aid of a sub-shell.

Systems supporting file descriptors as files may use the following workaround.

Joining
Commands can be joined on the same line.

 * means run the first command and then the next.
 * means run the first command and, if it succeeds with a 0 return code, run the next.
 * means run the first command and, if it fails with a non-zero return code, run the next.

Piping
Commands can be connected using a pipe, which causes the output of one command to be fed into the input of the next. Both commands run concurrently.

 * means connect stdout to stdin of the next command. Errors still come to the shell window.
 * means connect both stdout and stderr to stdin of the next command.

Running concurrently means "in parallel". In a multi-core (multiple processor) system, the piped commands may literally be executing at the same time, otherwise the scheduler in the operating system time-slices between them.

Given a command, e.g., " ", the shell creates a pipe, then starts both  and   with stdio for the two commands redirected so that   writes its stdout into the input of the pipe while   reads stdin from the output of the pipe. Pipes are implemented by the operating system with a certain amount of buffering so that  can write for a while before the pipe fills but once the pipe fills any new write will block inside the OS until   reads enough to unblock new writes. If  tries to read more data than is available, it will block until   has written more data or until the pipe closes, e.g., if   exits.

Variable substitution
If a word contains a dollar sign, " ", the following characters are taken as the name of a variable and the reference is replaced by the value of that variable. Various editing operators, typed as suffixes to the reference, allow pathname editing (e.g., " " to extract just the extension) and other operations.

Quoting and escaping
Quoting mechanisms allow otherwise special characters, such as whitespace, wildcards, parentheses, and dollar signs, to be taken as literal text.

 * means take the next character as an ordinary literal character.
 * string is a weak quote.  Enclosed whitespace and wildcards are taken as literals, but variable and command substitutions are still performed.
 * string is a strong quote.  The entire enclosed string is taken as a literal.

Double quotes inside double quotes should be escaped with. The same applies to the dollar symbol, to prevent variable expansion. For backticks, to prevent command substitution nesting, single quotes are required.

Command substitution
Command substitution allows the output of one command to be used as arguments to another.

 * command means take the output of command, parse it into words and paste them back into the command line.

The following is an example of nested command substitutions.

Background execution
Normally, when the C shell starts a command, it waits for the command to finish before giving the user another prompt signaling that a new command can be typed.

 * command means start command in the background and prompt immediately for a new command.

Subshells
A subshell is a separate child copy of the shell that inherits the current state but can then make changes, e.g., to the current directory, without affecting the parent.

 * commands means run commands in a subshell.

Control structures
The C shell provides control structures for both condition-testing and iteration. The condition-testing control structures are the if and switch statements. The iteration control structures are the while, foreach and repeat statements.

if statement
There are two forms of the if statement. The short form is typed on a single line but can specify only a single command if the expression is true.

The long form uses then, else and endif keywords to allow for blocks of commands to be nested inside the condition.

If the else and if keywords appear on the same line, csh chains, rather than nests them; the block is terminated with a single endif.

switch statement
The switch statement compares a string against a list of patterns, which may contain wildcard characters. If nothing matches, the default action, if there is one, is taken.

while statement
The while statement evaluates an expression. If it is true, the shell runs the nested commands and then repeats for as long as the expression remains true.

foreach statement
The foreach statement takes a list of values, usually a list of filenames produced by wildcarding, and then for each, sets the loop variable to that value and runs the nested commands.

repeat statement
The repeat statement repeats a single command an integral number of times.

Variables
The C shell implements both shell and environment variables. Environment variables, created using the  statement, are always simple strings, passed to any child processes, which retrieve these variables via the   argument to.

Shell variables, created using the  or   statements, are internal to C shell. They are not passed to child processes. Shell variables can be either simple strings or arrays of strings. Some of the shell variables are predefined and used to control various internal C shell options, e.g., what should happen if a wildcard fails to match anything.

In current versions of csh, strings can be of arbitrary length, well into millions of characters.

Variables can be enlarged as needed. However, if it's desirable to work on a fixed size, the following syntax is preferred.

Expressions
The C shell implements a 32-bit integer expression grammar with operators borrowed from C but with a few additional operators for string comparisons and filesystem tests, e.g., testing for the existence of a file. Operators must be separated by whitespace from their operands. Variables are referenced as name.

Operator precedence is also borrowed from C, but with different operator associativity rules to resolve the ambiguity of what comes first in a sequence of equal precedence operators. In C, the associativity is left-to-right for most operators; in C shell, it is right-to-left. For example,

The parentheses in the C shell example are to avoid having the bit-shifting operators confused as I/O redirection operators. In either language, parentheses can always be used to explicitly specify the desired order of evaluation, even if only for clarity.

Return values are limited to 8-bit. For  expressions, the unary negation operator can be used for 32-bit evaluation.

Reception
Although Stephen Bourne himself acknowledged that csh was superior to his shell for interactive use, it has never been as popular for scripting.

In 1983, both csh and Bourne shell were available for Charles River Data Systems' UNOS operating system among other UNIX tools under Bell Laboratories license.

Initially, and through the 1980s, csh could not be guaranteed to be present on all Unix and Unix-like systems, but sh could, which made it a better choice for any scripts that might have to run on other machines. By the mid-1990s, csh was widely available, but the use of csh for scripting faced new criticism by the POSIX committee, which specified that there should only be one preferred shell, the KornShell, for both interactive and scripting purposes. The C shell also faced criticism from others over the C shell's alleged defects in syntax, missing features, and poor implementation.

 * Syntax defects: were generally simple but unnecessary inconsistencies in the definition of the language. For example, the ,   and   commands all did basically the same thing, namely, associate a name with a string or set of words.  But all three had slight but unnecessary differences. An equal sign was required for a   but not for   or  ; parentheses were required around a word list for a   but not for   or  , etc.  Similarly, the  ,   and looping constructs use needlessly different keywords ( ,   and  ) to terminate the nested blocks.
 * Missing features: most commonly cited are the lack of ability to manipulate the stdio file handles independently and support for functions. Although lacking support for functions, aliases serve as workaround. For multiple lines of code, aliases must be within single quotes, and each end of line must precede a backslash (the end of the last line must precede a single quote to delimit the end of the alias). Recursion is favorable over aliases in scripts as workaround for functions (an example is given below).
 * The implementation: which used an ad hoc parser, has drawn the most serious criticism. By the early 1970s, compiler technology was sufficiently mature that most new language implementations used either a top-down or bottom-up parser capable of recognizing a fully recursive grammar.  It is not known why an ad hoc design was chosen instead for the C shell.  It may be simply that, as Joy put it in an interview in 2009, "When I started doing this stuff with Unix, I wasn’t a very good programmer." The ad hoc design meant that the C shell language was not fully recursive.  There was a limit to how complex a command it could handle.

It worked for most interactively typed commands, but for the more complex commands a user might write in a script, it could easily fail, producing only a cryptic error message or an unwelcome result. For example, the C shell could not support piping between control structures. Attempting to pipe the output of a  command into   simply didn't work. (The work-around, which works for many of the complaints related to the parser, is to break the code up into separate scripts. If the   is moved to a separate script, piping works because scripts are run by forking a new copy of csh that does inherit the correct stdio handles. It's also possible to break codes in a single file. An example is given below on how to break codes in a single file.)

Another example is the unwelcome behavior in the following fragments. Both of these appear to mean, "If 'myfile' does not exist, create it by writing 'mytext' into it." But the version on the right always creates an empty file because the C shell's order of evaluation is to look for and evaluate I/O redirection operators on each command line as it reads it, before examining the rest of the line to see whether it contains a control structure.

The implementation is also criticized for its notoriously poor error messages, e.g., "0: Event not found.", which yields no useful information about the problem.

However, by practicing, it's possible to overcome those deficiencies (thus instructing the programmer to take better and safer approaches on implementing a script).

The "0: Event not found." error implies there aren't saved commands in the history. The history may not work properly in scripts, but having a pre-set of commands in a variable serves as workaround.

Prefer breaking codes by recursing the script as workaround for functions.

Influence
The C shell was extremely successful in introducing a large number of innovations including the history mechanism, aliases, tilde notation, interactive filename completion, an expression grammar built into the shell, and more, that have since been copied by other Unix shells. But in contrast to sh, which has spawned a large number of independently developed clones, including ksh and bash, only two csh clones are known. (Since tcsh was based on the csh code originally written by Bill Joy, it is not considered a clone.)

In 1986, Allen Holub wrote On Command: Writing a Unix-Like Shell for MS-DOS, a book describing a program he had written called "SH" but which in fact copied the language design and features of csh, not sh. Companion diskettes containing full source for SH and for a basic set of Unix-like utilities (cat, cp, grep, etc.) were available for $25 and $30, respectively, from the publisher. The control structures, expression grammar, history mechanism and other features in Holub's SH were identical to those of the C shell.

In 1988, Hamilton Laboratories began shipping Hamilton C shell for OS/2. It included both a csh clone and a set of Unix-like utilities. In 1992, Hamilton C shell was released for Windows NT. The Windows version continues to be actively supported but the OS/2 version was discontinued in 2003. An early 1990 quick reference described the intent as "full compliance with the entire C shell language (except job control)" but with improvements to the language design and adaptation to the differences between Unix and a PC. The most important improvement was a top-down parser that allowed control structures to be nested or piped, something the original C shell could not support, given its ad hoc parser. Hamilton also added new language features including built-in and user-defined procedures, block-structured local variables and floating point arithmetic. Adaptation to a PC included support for the filename and other conventions on a PC and the use of threads instead of forks (which were not available under either OS/2 or Windows) to achieve parallelism, e.g., in setting up a pipeline.

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Marama (mythology)

Marama is a Polynesian deity of varying representation and importance depending on the society or tribe being discussed.

To the Maori people, Marama is the moon, a male deity who married Hina, the daughter of Tangaroa. However, the moon is also considered to be the husband of all women due to the effect of the moon on women every month. In the Gambier Islands, Marama is also considered to be the moon, however in Samoa and Tahiti, Marama is considered to be the deity of Light, highlighting how different mythology can be, especially across the vast expanse of Oceania. In Samoa, Marama is also considered to be the founder and patron of woodworkers and carpenters.

Genealogy
Little is known about Marama, many mentions of him are only to explain the genealogy of other more prominent gods of the time. The genealogy is as follows: First there is the Supreme Being, Io, from Io comes Marama and from Marama is Po. Finally, from Po, is Rangi and Papa, Heaven Father and Earth Mother, from which all other gods were descended.

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

title: Marama (mythology)


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Orkneyinga saga

The Orkneyinga saga (Old Norse: ; also called the History of the Earls of Orkney and Jarls' Saga) is a narrative of the history of the Orkney and Shetland islands and their relationship with other local polities, particularly Norway and Scotland. The saga has "no parallel in the social and literary record of Scotland" and is "the only medieval chronicle to have Orkney as the central place of action". The main focus of the work is the line of jarls who ruled the Earldom of Orkney, which constituted the Norðreyjar or Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland and there are frequent references to both archipelagoes throughout.

The narrative commences with a brief mythical ancestry tale and then proceeds to outline the Norse take-over of the Norðreyjar by Harald Fairhair – the take-over is not in doubt although the role of the king is no longer accepted by historians as a likelihood. The saga then outlines, with varying degrees of detail, the lives and times of the many jarls who ruled the islands between the 9th and 13th centuries. The extent to which the earlier sections in particular can be considered genuine history rather than fiction has been much debated by scholars.

There are several recurring themes in the Orkneyinga saga, including strife between brothers, relationships between the jarls and the Norwegian crown, and raiding in the Suðreyjar – the Hebrides and elsewhere. In part, the saga's purpose was to provide a history of the islands and enable its readers to "understand themselves through a knowledge of their origins" but even where its historical accuracy is lacking it provides modern scholars with insights into the motives of the writers and the politics of 13th century Orkney.

Development and versions
The original text of this Norse saga was written in the late twelfth century. It no longer exists. A new version was written in the early thirteenth century (three centuries after some of the earliest events it records) by an unknown Icelandic author who was probably associated with the cultural centre at Oddi. Orkneyinga saga belongs to the genre of "Kings' Sagas" within Icelandic saga literature, a group of histories of the kings of Norway, the best known of which is Heimskringla, written by Snorri Sturluson. Indeed, Snorri used Orkneyinga saga as one of his sources for Heimskringla which was compiled around 1230 (and then Heimskringla became in turn a source for later versions of the Orkneyinga saga).

As was generally the case with Icelandic language writing of this period, the aims of the saga were to provide a sense of social continuity through the telling of history combined with an entertaining narrative drive. The saga is thought to have been compiled from a number of sources, combining family pedigrees, praise poetry and oral legends with historical facts. In the case of the Orkneyinga saga the document outlines the lives of the earls of Orkney and how they came about their earldom. Woolf (2007) suggests that the task that the Icelandic compiler was faced with was not dissimilar to trying to write a "history of the Second World War on the basis of Hollywood movies". He also notes that a problem with medieval Icelandic historiography in general is the difficulty of fixing of a clear chronology based on stories created in a largely illiterate society in which "AD dating was probably unknown".

As the narrative approaches the period closer to the time it was written down, some historians have greater confidence in its accuracy. For example, there are significant family connections between Snorri Sturluson and Earl Harald Maddadsson (d. 1206) and the original saga document was probably written down at about the time of Harald's death.

Gudbrand Vigfússon (1887) identified several different components to the saga, which may have had different authors and date from different periods. These are:
 * Fundinn Noregr chapters 1–3
 * Iarla Sogur chapters 4–38 (of which the sections regarding Earl Einarr are the oldest texts in the saga as a whole)
 * St Magnus saga chapters 39–55
 * Iarteina-bok (Magnus's "Miracle book") chapter 60
 * The History of Earl Rognwald and Swain Asleifsson chapters 56–59 and 61–118.

A Danish translation dating to 1570 indicates that the original version of the saga ended with the death of Sweyn Asleifsson, who (according to the saga) was killed fighting in Dublin in 1171. Various additions were then added circa 1234-5 when a grandson of Asleifsson and a lawmaker called Hrafn visited Iceland. The oldest complete text is found in the late 14th century Flateyjarbók but the first translation into English did not appear until 1873.

Narrative
The first three chapters of the saga are a brief folk legend that sets the scene for later events. It commences with characters associated with the elements – Snaer (snow), Logi (flame), Kari (storm) and Frosti (frost) and also gives a unique explanation for how Norway came to be named as such, involving Snaer's grandson Nór. There is also a reference to claiming land by dragging a boat over a neck of land (reprised in chapter 41 when Magnus Barefoot uses the same trick) and the division of the land between Nór and his brother Gór, which is a recurring theme in the saga. This legend also gives the Orkney jarls an origin involving a giant and king called Fornjót who lived in the far north. This clearly distinguishes them from the Norwegian kings as described in the Ynglingatal and may have been intended to give the jarls a more senior and more Nordic ancestry.

Having dealt with the mythical ancestry of the earls, the saga then moves on to topics that are apparently intended as genuine history.

Harald Fairhair and the voyage to the west

The next few chapters deal with the creation of the Earldom of Orkney; they are brief and contain much less detail than the later events the saga describes. The saga states that Rognvald Eysteinsson Earl Rognvald retains the rule of Møre by the King of Norway, Harald Fairhair. Earl Rognvald accompanied the king on an expedition where they conquer the islands of Shetland, called Hjaltland, and Orkney, before they continued on to Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man. During this campaign Rognvald's son Ivarr was killed and in compensation Harald granted Earl Rognvald to rule over Orkney and Shetland. Rognvald Earl thereafter returned to Norway, giving these islands to his brother Sigurd Eysteinsson. Sigurd had been the forecastleman on Harald's ship and after sailing back east the king "gave Sigurd the title of earl".

Sigurd "the Mighty" then died in a curious fashion, following a battle with Máel Brigte of Moray. Sigurd's son Gurthorm ruled for a single winter after this and died childless. Rognvald's son Hallad then inherited the title. However, unable to constrain Danish raids on Orkney, he gave up the earldom and returned to Norway, which "everyone thought was a huge joke."

First written down in the early 13th century, the saga is informed by the Norwegian politics of the day. Once, historians could write that no-one denied the reality of Harald Fairhair's expeditions to the west (recounted in detail in the Heimskringla), but this is no longer the case. Thomson (2008) writes that Harald's "great voyage is so thoroughly ingrained in popular and scholarly history, both ancient and modern, that it comes as a bit of a shock to realise that it might not be true." The Norwegian contest with the Kings of Scots over the Hebrides and the Isle of Man in the mid 13th century is the backdrop to the saga writer's intentions and in part at least the sagas aim to legitimise Norwegian claims to both the Northern Isles and the Kingdom of the Isles in the west.

It may be that the saga writers drew on a genuine tradition of a voyage by Harald to the west, or that they simply invented it wholesale for political purposes, but it is possible that there are elements included in the narrative that are drawn from the much later expeditions undertaken by Magnus Barefoot. The situation faced by Earl Harald Maddadsson of Orkney in 1195, shortly before the time that the sagas were first written down, when he was forced to submit himself to royal authority after an ill-judged intervention in Norwegian affairs would have made legendary material of this nature of considerable interest in Orkney at the time. Nonetheless, the view that the Orkney earldom was created by "members of the Møre family" continues to receive academic support.

Torf-Einarr
Hallad's failure led to Rognvald flying into a rage and summoning his sons Thorir and Hrollaug. He asked which of them wanted the islands but Thorir said the decision was up to the earl himself. Rognvald predicted that Thorir's path would keep him in Norway and that Hrollaug was destined seek his fortune in Iceland. Einarr, the youngest of his natural sons, then came forward and offered to go to the islands. Rognvald said: "Considering the kind of mother you have, slave-born on each side of her family, you are not likely to make much of a ruler. But I agree, the sooner you leave and the later you return the happier I'll be." Despite his father's misgivings, on arrival on the islands, Einarr fought and defeated two Danish warlords who had taken residence there. Einarr then established himself as earl and founded a dynasty which retained control of the islands for centuries after his death. The scene in which Einarr's father scorns him is a literary device which often figures in Old Norse literature. The dialogue between the father and his sons has been interpreted as being about Rognvald's desire to cement his own position as Earl of Møre and an allusion to the early history of Iceland, where the saga was written. Thorir is a compliant son who Rognvald is happy to keep at home. Hrolluag is portrayed as a man of peace who will go to Iceland. Einarr is aggressive and a threat to his father's position so can be spared for the dangers of Orkney. (In the Landnámabók version the equally aggressive brother Hrolfr is also present, and his destiny is anticipated to be in conveniently far-away Normandy.)

Einarr is also provided with various characteristics associated with Odin. Both have but one eye and the death of an opponent at Einarr's hands is offered to the god—an act that contains a hint of Odin's own sacrifice to himself in the Hávamál. Einarr is a man of action who is self-made, and he is a successful warrior who (unlike his brothers) avenges his father's death. He leads a dramatic and memomorable life and emerges as "ancient, powerful and mysterious—but as a literary figure rather than a real person". He is also a whose appearance at the commencement of the saga contrasts with the later martyrdom of his descendant St Magnus. That event marks a "moral high-point" of the story.

Sigurd the Stout
The death of Earl Sigurd Hlodvirsson (980–1014) is the subject of earliest known contemporary reference to the earldom of Orkney. The 12th-century Irish source, the Cogadh Gaedhil re Gallaibh, records the events of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. The "foreigners and Leinstermen" were led by Brodir of the Isle of Man and Sigurd, and the battle lasted all day, but the Irishmen ultimately drove back their enemies into the sea. His death is corroborated by the Annals of Ulster, which record that amongst the dead was "Siuchraid son of Loduir, iarla Innsi Orcc" (i.e. of Sigurd, son of Hlodvir, Earl of Orkney). According to the Orkneyinga saga, the Northern Isles had been Christianised by King Olaf Tryggvasson in 995 when he stopped at South Walls on his way from Ireland to Norway. The King summoned jarl Sigurd and said "I order you and all your subjects to be baptised. If you refuse, I'll have you killed on the spot and I swear I will ravage every island with fire and steel." Unsurprisingly, Sigurd agreed and the islands became Christian at a stroke. However, when the sagas were written down Orkney had been Christian for 200 years or more and the conversion tale itself has been described as "blatantly unhistorical". Some have argued that when the Norse arrived in the Northern Isles they would have found organised Christianity already thriving there, although there is no mention of this at all in the sagas.

Earl Thorfinn
Virtually nothing about Thorfinn Sigurdsson's life is corroborated from contemporary sources and the saga writer seems to have obtained most of his material from the poem Þórfinnsdrápa, which was written by his court poet Arnór immediately following his death.

The Orkneyinga Saga says that a dispute between Thorfinn and Karl Hundason began when the latter became "King of Scots" and claimed Caithness, his forces successfully moving north and basing themselves in Thurso. In the war which followed, Thorfinn defeated Karl in a sea-battle off Deerness at the east end of the Orkney Mainland. Then Karl's nephew Mutatan or Muddan, appointed to rule Caithness for him, was killed in Caithness by Thorkel Fosterer. Finally, a great battle at "Torfness" (probably Tarbat Ness on the south side of the Dornoch Firth) ended with Karl either being killed or forced to flee. Thorfinn, the saga says, then marched south through Scotland as far as Fife, burning and plundering as he passed. As a result of his military exploits Thorfinn became Mormaer of Caithness and during the first twenty years of his long earldom he was often based there. He was thus a vassal of both the King of Norway and the King of Scots, a status and title that was held by many of his successors. Thorfinn also became King of the Isles from 1035, which title was only held amongst the earls of Orkney by Sigurd Eysteinsson before him, and after him possibly by Einar Sigurdsson and for a brief period by Sigurd Magnusson as the under-age son of Magnus Barefoot.

St Magnus
Magnus Erlendsson, Thorfinn's grandson, had a reputation for piety and gentleness, which the Norwegians viewed as cowardice. Having been taken hostage by King Magnus Barefoot, he refused to fight in a Viking raid in Anglesey because of his religious convictions, and instead stayed on board the ship during the Battle of Menai Straits, singing psalms. His brother Erling died while campaigning with King Magnus, either at that same battle or in Ulster. Magnus was obliged to take refuge in Scotland, but returned to Orkney in 1105 and disputed the succession with his cousin Haakon Paulsson. Having failed to reach an agreement, he sought help from King Eystein I of Norway, who granted him the earldom of Orkney and he ruled jointly and amicably with Haakon until 1114. Eventually however, the followers of the two earls fell out, and the sides met at an assembly on the Orkney mainland in 1117. Peace was negotiated and the Earls arranged to meet each other to formalise this at Easter on the island of Egilsay, each bringing only two ships. Magnus arrived with his two, but then Haakon treacherously turned up with eight ships.

Magnus took refuge in the island's church overnight, but the following day he was captured and an angry Haakon made his cook Lifolf kill Magnus by striking him on the head with an axe. It was said that Magnus first prayed for the souls of his executioners. Sometime later William the Old, Bishop of Orkney, was struck blind in his church, but subsequently had his sight restored after praying at the grave of Magnus. He also later sanctified the murdered Earl. St Magnus Church, Egilsay, was constructed on the island shortly afterwards, at or near the supposed site of the murder.

Magnus's nephew, Rögnvald Kali Kolsson, laid claim to the Earldom of Orkney, and was advised by his father Kol to promise the islanders to "build a stone minster at Kirkwall" in memory of his uncle the Holy Earl, and this became St Magnus Cathedral. When the cathedral, begun in 1137, was ready for consecration the relics of St Magnus were transferred there.

Sweyn Asleifsson and Earl Rögnavald
As this part of the saga was written only a few decades after Asleifsson's death it is reasonable to suppose these chapters more accurately reflect the events they describe than the histories of earlier times. Asleifsson is depicted as the quintessential Viking, a freebooter whose activities include drunkenness, murder and plundering and whose support is crucial to the politics of the Orkney earldom. Although he was not an earl his activities take up fully one quarter of the saga and the oldest version ends with his death.

His tale is closely bound up with that of Earl Rögnvald, a more rounded character who is also a troubadour and, like his uncle Magnus, ultimately a saint, and it may be that the saga writers were seeking to portray them as exemplars of the Viking lifestyle. However, there may also be a more complex moral to the story. Although Ásleifsson's dying words are "Be it known to all men... that I belong to the bodyguard of Saint Rögnvald the Earl", he also blackmailed Rögnvald and caused him a great deal of trouble. It is possible that the saga intends to cast Rögnvald as a weak leader who was unable control his nobles.

Another interpretation of the narrative is that rather than seeing these two men as protagonist and antagonist that together they live in a golden age where the earl is a cultured ruler and primus inter pares but who owes his position in part to his band of "worthy warriors" and is by no means a despot who rules by divine right. In this case the whole story may be seen as a reaction to the Norwegian royal propaganda of the age that sought to promote the central authority of the crown.

If the height of the earls' military strength was during the 11th century time of Thorfinn "the Mighty", the reign of Earl Rögnvald Kali Kolson marks the 12th century cultural high point of the saga.

Later Earls
Earl Harald "the Old" Maddadsson (c. 1134 – 1206) ruled jointly with Earl Rognvald for part of his long tenure. When King Eystein Haraldsson undertook a raiding expedition from Norway against Orkney he encountered Harald near Thurso and captured him. Harald was freed in return for a ransom in gold and by giving his oath to Eystein. Eystein then went on to raid the coasts of Scotland and England.

Possibly as a result of Eystein's activities, King David I granted half of Caithness to Harald's cousin, Erlend Haraldsson. The result was a political struggle which ended with Erlend's murder in 1154. Sweyn Asleifsson was again heavily involved in this dynastic conflict. In 1153 King David died and was succeeded by his young grandson, Malcolm IV. King Eystein too died in a war with his brothers Ingi and Sigurd. As a result, by 1158 Harald Maddadsson was undisputed Earl of Orkney, with neither the King of Scots nor the King of Norway in a position to contest his power.

The final, brief chapters of the later version of the saga depict the lives of Harald's four successors who ruled until the murder of Jon Haraldsson in 1231, bringing the line of specifically Norse earls of Orkney to an end although Orkney and Shetland remained part of Norway until the 15th century.

History or fable?
There is clearly doubt about the historicity of many of the claims in the Orkneyinga saga and the extent to which euhemerism may be an appropriate approach. Just as the backdrop to the supposed great expedition to the west undertaken by King Harald Fairhair that led to the founding of the Orkney earldom was the mid-13th century Norwegian contest with the Kings of Scots over the Hebrides, so also events that have been included in the saga as embellishments to the life of Earl Thorfinn have a number of parallels with the life of Harald Maddadsson. Woolf (2007) speculates that aspects of Thorfinn's story may have been included to legitimise the latter's adventures.

Early in the narrative in particular, there are examples of obviously fictional elements such as Earl Sigurd's raven banner and also in some later events such as the effects of the poisoned shirt that supposedly killed Earl Harald Haakonsson. Furthermore, there is the regular use of standard Norse dramatic sitations. For example, the story of the killing of Rognvald Brusason by Earl Thorfinn "is saga-fiction, and it contains some stock-episodes which are repeated elsewhere in the saga". Another example of the saga writer's fictional devices is found in the tale of Haakon Paulsson's travels through Scandinavia where he meets a fortune teller. The sooth-sayer's predictions are in effect a "table of contents" for his later travails with his cousin Magnus and an example of "the frequent need to disentangle the historical Magnus from the saga's story-telling techniques".

However, there are also examples of events depicted in the saga that have been thought of as essentially fictional, but have later been shown to have some basis in fact. For example, towards the end of his reign as earl, Sigurd Eysteinsson is said to have challenged a native ruler, Máel Brigte the Bucktoothed, to a 40-man-a-side battle. Treacherously, Sigurd brought 80 men to the fight and Máel Brigte was defeated and beheaded. Sigurd strapped the head to his saddle as a trophy, but as Sigurd rode home, Máel Brigte's buck-tooth scratched his leg. The leg became inflamed and infected, and as a result Sigurd died. He was buried in a tumulus known as Sigurd's Howe, or Sigurðar-haugr. The location of Sigurd's Howe is most probably modern-day Sidera or Cyderhall near Dornoch, which discovery was not made until the late 19th century. Another example concerns a King of Scots, apparently named Karl Hundason.

Who was Karl Hundason?
The identity of Karl Hundason, unknown to Scots and Irish sources, has long been a matter of dispute. His existence rests solely on the Orkneyinga saga, and more particularly on those elements of Þórfinnsdrápa which are preserved within it.

Robertson (1862) proposed that Hundason should be identified with Duncan I. William Forbes Skene suggested that Karl (or Kali) Hundason should be identified with "Malcolm MacKenneth", a son of Kenneth III. Another candidate is MacBeth whose father may be called "jarl Hundi" in Njál's saga. Woolf (2007) proposes that Hundason, rather that being some hitherto unknown Scots king, was the son of Thorfinn's brother Hundi. However, Thomson (2008) notes that both the Orkneyinga saga and St Olaf's saga suggest Hundi only lived "a short while" and was unlikely to have had a son himself. Anderson (1990) suggested that this is "a fabulous story" and concluded that "[n]o solution to the riddle seems to be justified".

Muir (2005) points out that a literal translation of "Karl Hundisson" is "peasant son-of-a-dog", an insult that would have been obvious to Norse-speakers hearing the saga and that "we can assume this wasn't his real name". The implication is that there is no purpose in seeking phonetic parallels with known Scots personages. Thomson points out that both "Karl" and Hundi" are names used in other contexts without disparaging intentions although the combination is otherwise unknown.

Thomson also notes that the war with Hundasson seem to have taken place between 1029 and 1035 and that the Annals of Ulster record the violent death of Gillacomgain, son of Mael Brigte and Mormaer of Moray in 1032. He too is thus a candidate for Thorfinn's Scots foe—and the manner of his death by fire bears comparison with Arnór's poetic description of the aftermath of the battle at Torfness.

Whoever Karl son of Hundi may have been, it appears that the saga is reporting a local conflict with a Scots ruler of Moray or Ross:"[T]he whole narrative is consistent with the idea that the struggle of Thorfinn and Karl is a continuation of that which had been waged since the ninth century by the Orkney earls, notably Sigurd Rognvald's son, Ljot, and Sigurd the Stout, against the princes or mormaers of Moray, Sutherland, Ross, and Argyll, and that, in fine, Malcolm and Karl were mormaers of one of these four provinces."

It is therefore entirely possible that Thorfinn's campaign was not fought against the Scottish crown as such but that rather the Scots may have been his allies in a struggle they both had against the power of Moray.

Gender
It is evident that the main characters of the saga are the exclusively male jarls and kings and their male supporters and antagonists. Nonetheless, it is believed that women enjoyed a relatively high status during the Viking Age, possibly due to the high degree of mobility in society and they regularly appear in supporting roles. Amongst them are Gunnhild "Mother of Kings" Gormsdóttir; Ingibiorg "the Earls'-mother" Finnsdottir, wife of Earl Thorfinn; Frakokk, whose poisoned shirt was involved in the death of her nephew Earl Harald Haakonsson; Helga Moddansdottir, sister of Frakkok and mother of Ingibjörg Hakonsdóttir who married King Olaf Godredsson; and Gunnhild, sister of Magnus Erlendsson and mother of Earl Rognvald. On the other hand, the idea of "courtly love" plays a much more prominent part in the literature of continental Europe for the same period than in the sagas in general.

Orkney and Norway
Woolf (2007) argues that the "saga’s main theme, in so far as it can be said to have one, seems to have been to tie in the history of the earldom with that of the kings of Norway and to establish clearly the history of the relationships between the two polities." Crawford (1987) observes several sub-themes: "of submission and of overlordship; the problem of dual allegiance and the threat of the earls looking to the kings of Scots as an alternative source of support; the Norwegian kings' use of hostages; and their general aim of attempting to turn the Orkney earls into royal officials bound to them by oaths of homage, and returning tribute to them on a regular basis."

An example is the passing of the title of Earl of Orkney from Rognvald Eysteinsson, who received it from the Norwegian crown, to his brother Sigurd. The notion that Rognvald could hand over his title in this way has been interpreted in various ways. It may be that Rognvald considered the gift from the king as a mixed blessing, but this is an instance in which the writer of the Orkneyinga saga attempts to reconcile the conflicting themes of independence from Norway (Rognvald gifts the islands to Sigurd) and dependence on royal authority (King Harald formalises the process by confirming Sigurd as earl). Beuermann (2011) speculates that Rognvald's transfer of power to his brother may have been an attempt by the saga writers to imply that the Orkney earldom had more independence from Norway than that of Rognvald's earldom of Møre and that the earl's holdings in Caithness may have allowed for an even greater degree of freedom of action. Such implications are more likely to be rooted in the writer's interest in emphasising Orcadian independence at the time of writing rather than the 9th/10th century events they purport to describe.

Similarly, the story of Torf-Einar in the next generation touches on this theme. The writer of the saga established Einarr's status in two contradictory ways. Although in the Historia Norvegia Rognvald of Møre's family are described as "pirates" the Orkneyinga saga provides them with a legally established earldom instated by the king. On the other hand, Einarr success is largely down to his own efforts and he negotiates with King Harald rather than offers blind obedience. The author is thus able to emphasise both the legitimacy and independence of his house.

Kinstrife
Joint earldoms were a frequent feature of the Norse earldom and Thomson (2008) identifies a different intention at the heart of the saga. This joint rulership was "inherently unstable and usually ended in violence". He identifies these family feuds as being the main theme, culminating in the martyrdom of St Magnus c.1115, and that the writer is emphasising the doom of "kin-slaying". Examples include the fratricidal strife that engulfed the sons of Earl Thorfinn in which they were abetted by Ragnhild Eriksdotter, the deaths of Einar Sigurdsson and his nephew Rognvald Brusason at the hands of Thorkel Fosterer, the henchman of Thorfinn as well as the homicidal dispute between the cousins Haakon Paulsson and Magnus Erlendsson itself that led to the latter's canonisation. Indeed, the rivalry between the two families that Paul and Erlend founded were still alive four generations later when the Orkneyinga Saga was written down.

Although the saga frequently mentions placenames it is largely silent on the subject of how the joint earldoms functioned on a geographical basis. It is possible that Brusi Sigurdsson's share, described as the "northernmost part of the isles", was those islands lying north of the Orkney mainland, that his brother Einar "Wry-mouth" Sigurdsson's was originally the east Mainland and the south isles and that Sumarlidi Sigurdsson's was the west Mainland. However, it is also possible that Brusi's share was Shetland, which formed part of the earldom throughout the Norse period. This possibility is supported by a later reference to his son Rognvald as "Lord of the Shetlanders" and Thompson (2008) is in "no doubt " that Shetland was in Brusi's possession. It is likely that Fair Isle marked the boundary between these shares both then and during later joint earldoms.

Religion and morality
The accuracy with which the saga addresses the conversion of Orkney and Shetland to Christianity has been touched on above and the weight of archaeological evidence suggests that Christian burial was already widespread in Orkney by Sigurd Hlodvirsson's time. The intention may have been to disown the influence of indigenous elements of Orcadian and Shetland culture (such as the existence of this religion prior to the arrival of the Norse) and emphasise that positive cultural developments came from Scandinavia, whilst at the same time critiquing the unduly blunt method of Norwegian interference in this case.

The inclusion of the tale of the raven banner in the saga material may convey the idea of a revival of heathenism in Orcadian society and a reaction to Norwegian attempts to control the islands. However, in the Orkneyinga Saga there is a vivid contrast between Sigurd's death clutching the raven banner and the later career of his son Thorfinn, who is credited with several achievements in bringing Orkney into mainstream Christendom. Taken as a whole the intention may be to draw attention to this transition.

Rögnvald Kali Kolsson's pilgrimage to Jerusalem has a different flavour from the politicking and violence that permeates much of the rest of the saga. There are romantic touches and the earl's poetry is emphasised. There is a case for regarding this episode as the "central quest" of the saga and the poetry emphasises some of the contradictions at the heart of the medieval Orcadian world. Society is both pagan and Christian, violence goes hand-in-hand with maganimity, kinstrife is frequent yet "the bonds of sworn friendship cannot be broken".

Other elements
Another recurring theme in the Orkneyinga saga is raiding in the Hebrides, which is touched on during the saga's coverage of Rognvald Eysteinsson's life and times in the earliest part of the story and on several other occasions up to the last chapters and Sweyn Asleifsson's exploits. Remarkably, neither the Orkneyinga Saga nor any other Kings' Sagas refers to the Irish Sea campaign by Magnus Haraldsson in 1058, which is the first such event attested in contemporary sources in the British Isles. The authors of the sagas may have believed these events were easily confused with Magnus Barefoot's later invasion and that as the earlier Magnus had no royal descendants at the time the stories were committed to writing no-one of importance would lose face by omitting them. Woolf (2007) suggests this shortcoming in the historical record "serves as a warning" about the saga's reliability in general.

At the time the Orkneyinga saga was first written down Haakon Paulsson's grandson, Harald Maddadsson, was Earl of Orkney and the writer clearly had some difficulty in portraying the kin-slaying of Magnus Erlendsson. Thomson (2008) concludes that the "assembly" that sentenced Magnus was either invented or heavily emphasised in order to "divert some of the blame from Hakon". Furthermore, in reporting on Earl Haakon's death the saga reports that this was "felt to be a great loss, his later years having been very peaceful". Commenting on the complex relationship between history and invention in the saga Joseph Anderson wrote:"When great events and mighty deeds were preserved for posterity by oral recitation alone, it was necessary that the memory should be enabled to retain its hold of the elements of the story by some extraneous artistic aid, and therefore they were welded by the wordsmith’s rhymes into a compact and homogenous 'lay'. Thus, worked into the poetical setting (as the jeweler mounts his gems to enhance their value and ensure their preservation), they passed as heirlooms from generation to generation, floating on the oral tradition of the people'."

There are therefore many facets to this saga and, in part at least, its purpose was to "explore such social and psychological tensions as these in the history of the people of Orkney, and to help them understand themselves through a knowledge of their origins".

Modern significance
The saga is not only of importance to scholars attempting to understand the Viking Age in the islands and their neighbouring lands, it is also plays a significant part in the modern culture of the Northern Isles. The vivid stories of life in Scandinavian Scotland invite the "people of Orkney and Shetland to recognise themselves as the inheritors and custodians of a dual culture, both Norse and Scottish".

Popular culture
Orkneyinga saga served as inspiration for several modern novels, including Eric Linklater's The Men of Ness (1932), George Mackay Brown's Magnus (1973), and Linnea Hartsuyker's The Golden Wolf Saga, a trilogy consisting of The Half-Drowned King (2017), The Sea Queen (2018), and The Golden Wolf (2019).

title: Orkneyinga saga


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Greenwich

Greenwich is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated 5.5 mi east-south-east of Charing Cross.

Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. The town became the site of a royal palace, the Palace of Placentia, from the 15th century and was the birthplace of many Tudors, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The palace fell into disrepair during the English Civil War and was demolished to eventually be replaced by the Royal Naval Hospital for Sailors, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor. These buildings became the Royal Naval College in 1873, and they remained a military education establishment until 1998 when they passed into the hands of the Greenwich Foundation. The historic rooms within these buildings remain open to the public; other buildings are used by University of Greenwich and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

The town became a popular resort in the 18th century and many grand houses were built there, such as Vanbrugh Castle (1717) established on Maze Hill, next to the park. From the Georgian period estates of houses were constructed above the town centre. The maritime connections of Greenwich were celebrated in the 20th century, with the siting of the Cutty Sark and Gipsy Moth IV next to the river front, and the National Maritime Museum in the former buildings of the Royal Hospital School in 1934.

Historically an ancient parish in the Blackheath Hundred of Kent, the town formed part of the growing conurbation of London in the 19th century. When the County of London, an administrative area designed to replace the Metropolitan Board of Works, was formed in 1889, the parish merged with those of Charlton-next-Woolwich, Deptford St Nicholas and Kidbrooke to create the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich. When local government in London was again reformed in 1965, it merged with most of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, creating what is now the Royal Borough of Greenwich, a local authority district of Greater London.

Toponymy
The place-name 'Greenwich' is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 918, where it appears as Gronewic. It is recorded as Grenewic in 964, and as Grenawic in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1013. It is Grenviz in the Domesday Book of 1086, and Grenewych in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of 1291. The name means 'green wic', indicating that Greenwich was what is known as a -wich town or emporium, from the Latin 'vicus'.

The settlement later became known as East Greenwich to distinguish it from West Greenwich or Deptford Strond, the part of Deptford adjacent to the River Thames, but the use of East Greenwich to mean the whole of the town of Greenwich died out in the 19th century. However, Greenwich was divided into the registration subdistricts of Greenwich East and Greenwich West from the beginning of civil registration in 1837, the boundary running down what is now Greenwich Church Street and Croom's Hill, although more modern references to "East" and "West" Greenwich probably refer to the areas east and west of the Royal Naval College and National Maritime Museum corresponding with the West Greenwich council ward. An article in The Times of 13 October 1967 stated: East Greenwich, gateway to the Blackwall Tunnel, remains solidly working class, the manpower for one eighth of London's heavy industry. West Greenwich is a hybrid: the spirit of Nelson, the Cutty Sark, the Maritime Museum, an industrial waterfront and a number of elegant houses, ripe for development.

Manor of East Greenwich
Royal charters granted to English colonists in North America, as well as in Company Bombay and St Helena, often used the name of the manor of East Greenwich for describing the tenure (from the Latin verb teneo, hold) as that of free socage. New England charters provided that the grantees should hold their lands "as of his Majesty's manor of East Greenwich". This was in relation to the principle of land tenure under English law, that the ruling monarch (king or queen) was paramount lord of all the soil in the terra regis, while all others held their lands, directly or indirectly, under the monarch. Land outside the physical boundaries of England, as in America, was treated as belonging constructively to one of the existing royal manors, and from Tudor times grants frequently used the name of the manor of East Greenwich, but some 17th-century grants named the castle of Windsor. Places in North America that have taken the name "East Greenwich" include a township in Gloucester County, New Jersey, a hamlet in Washington County, New York, and a town in Kent County, Rhode Island. Greenwich, Connecticut was also named after Greenwich.

Early settlement
Tumuli to the south-west of Flamsteed House, in Greenwich Park, are thought to be early Bronze Age barrows re-used by the Saxons in the 6th century as burial grounds. To the east between the Vanbrugh and Maze Hill Gates is the site of a Roman villa or temple. A small area of red paving tesserae protected by railings marks the spot. It was excavated in 1902 and 300 coins were found dating from the emperors Claudius and Honorius to the 5th century. This was excavated by the Channel 4 television programme Time Team in 1999, broadcast in 2000, and further investigations were made by the same group in 2003.

The Roman road from London to Dover, Watling Street crossed the high ground to the south of Greenwich, through Blackheath. This followed the line of an earlier Celtic route from Canterbury to St Albans. As late as Henry V, Greenwich was only a fishing town, with a safe anchorage in the river.

Viking
During the reign of Ethelred the Unready, the Danish fleet anchored in the River Thames off Greenwich for over three years, with the army being encamped on the hill above. From here they attacked Kent and, in the year 1012, took the city of Canterbury, making Archbishop Alphege their prisoner for seven months in their camp at Greenwich, at that time within the county of Kent. They stoned him to death for his refusal to allow his ransom (3,000 pieces of silver) to be paid; and kept his body, until the blossoming of a stick that had been immersed in his blood. For this miracle his body was released to his followers, he achieved sainthood for his martyrdom and, in the 12th century, the parish church was dedicated to him. The present church on the site west of the town centre is St Alfege's Church, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1714 and completed in 1718.

Norman
The Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor of Grenviz in the hundred of Grenviz as held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux; his lands were seized by the crown in 1082. The name of the hundred was changed to Blackheath when the site of the hundred court was moved there in the 12th century. A royal palace, or hunting lodge, has existed here since before 1300, when Edward I is known to have made offerings at the chapel of the Virgin Mary.

Plantagenet
Subsequent monarchs were regular visitors, with Henry IV making his will here, and Henry V granting the manor (for life) to Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, who died at Greenwich in 1426. The palace was created by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Henry V's younger brother and regent to his son - Henry VI - in 1447; he enclosed the park and erected a tower (Greenwich Castle) on the hill now occupied by the Royal Observatory. The Thames-side palace was renamed the Palace of Placentia or Pleasaunce by Henry VI's consort Margaret of Anjou after Humphrey's death. The palace was completed and further enlarged by Edward IV, and in 1466 it was granted to his queen, Elizabeth. Edward IV had previously been given permission by the Pope to establish a Franciscan friary of Observant Friars in Greenwich, this was done in 1485, two years after his death; the first Observant House in England, it was located on land adjacent to the palace. After rejecting papal authority in 1534, the Franciscan Observants were suppressed; refounded as Franciscan Conventual, the friary was dissolved in 1538, then re-established in 1555 for Observants, before the friars were finally expelled in 1559 and the friary was demolished in 1662.

Ultimately it was because the palace and its grounds were a royal possession (with a useful hill) that it was chosen as the site for Charles II's Royal Observatory, from which stemmed Greenwich's subsequent global role as originator of the modern Prime Meridian.

Tudor
The palace was the principal residence of Henry VII whose sons Henry (later Henry VIII) and Edmund Tudor were born here, and baptised in St Alphege's. Henry favoured Greenwich over nearby Eltham Palace, the former principal royal palace in south London, but which was not on the River Thames and so was less accessible. Henry extended Greenwich Palace and it became his principal London seat until Whitehall Palace was built in the 1530s. Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves at Greenwich, and both Mary (18 February 1516) and Elizabeth (7 September 1533) were born at Greenwich. His son Edward VI also died there at age 15.

The palace of Placentia, in turn, became Elizabeth's favourite summer residence. Both she and her sister Mary used the palace extensively, and Elizabeth's Council planned the Spanish Armada campaign there in 1588.

Stuart
James I carried out the final remodelling work on Greenwich Palace, granting the manor to his wife Queen Anne of Denmark. In 1616 Anne commissioned Inigo Jones to design and build the surviving Queen's House as the final addition to the palace.

Charles I granted the manor to his wife Queen Henrietta Maria, for whom Inigo Jones completed the Queen's House. During the English Civil War, the palace was used as a biscuit factory and prisoner-of-war camp. Then, in the Interregnum, the palace and park were seized to become a 'mansion' for the Lord Protector.

By the time of the Restoration, the Palace of Placentia had fallen into disuse and was pulled down. New buildings began to be established as a grand palace for Charles II, but only the King Charles block was completed. Charles II also redesigned and replanted Greenwich Park and founded and built the Royal Observatory.

Prince James (later King James II & VII), as Duke of York and Lord Admiral until 1673, was often at Greenwich with his brother Charles and, according to Samuel Pepys, he proposed the idea of creating a Royal Naval Hospital. This was eventually established at Greenwich by his daughter Mary II, who in 1692–1693 commissioned Christopher Wren to design the Royal Hospital for Seamen (now the Old Royal Naval College). The work was begun under her widower William III in 1696 and completed by Hawksmoor. Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark continued to patronise the project.

Hanoverian
George I landed at Greenwich from Hanover on his accession in 1714. His successor George II granted the Royal Hospital for Seamen the forfeited estates of the Jacobite Earl of Derwentwater, which allowed the building to be completed by 1751.

In 1805, George III granted the Queen's House to the Royal Naval Asylum (an orphanage school), which amalgamated in 1821–1825 with the Greenwich Hospital School. Extended with the buildings that now house the National Maritime Museum, it was renamed the Royal Hospital School by Queen Victoria in 1892.

George IV donated nearly 40 paintings to the hospital in 1824, at a stroke creating a gallery in the Painted Hall. These now form the Greenwich Hospital Collection at the National Maritime Museum. Subsequently, William IV and Queen Adelaide were both regular donors and visitors to the gallery.

Victorian and Edwardian
Queen Victoria rarely visited Greenwich, but in 1845 her husband Prince Albert personally bought Nelson's Trafalgar coat for the Naval Gallery.

In 1838 the London and Greenwich Railway (L&GR) completed the first steam railway in London. It started at London Bridge and had its terminus at London Street (now Greenwich High Road). It was also the first to be built specifically for passengers, and the first ever elevated railway, having 878 arches over its almost four mile stretch. South of the railway's viaduct over Deptford Creek is a Victorian pumping station constructed in 1864 as part of Sir Joseph Bazalgette's London sewerage system (the Southern Outfall Sewer flows under Greenwich town centre).

In 1853 the local Scottish Presbyterian community built a church, St Mark's, nearby which was extended twice in the 1860s during the ministry of Adolph Saphir, eventually accommodating 1,000 worshippers.

In 1864 opposite the railway terminus, theatrical entrepreneur Sefton Parry built the thousand seater New Greenwich Theatre. William Morton was one of its more successful managers. The theatre was demolished in 1937 to make way for a new Town Hall, now a listed building under new ownership and renamed Meridian House.

Greenwich Station is at the northern apex of the Ashburnham Triangle, a residential estate developed by the Ashburnham family, mainly between 1830 and 1870, on land previously developed as market gardens. It is now a designated conservation area. The present Greenwich Theatre, further to the east, on Croom's Hill, was constructed inside the shell of a Victorian music hall. Beginning life in 1855 as an annexe to the Rose and Crown, the music hall was rebuilt in 1871 by Charles Crowder and subsequently operated under many names. Further south on Croom's Hill, the Roman Catholic church of Our Ladye Star of the Sea was opened in 1851.

The meridian was established in 1851.

Modern and the present
George V and Queen Mary both supported the creation of the National Maritime Museum, and Mary presented the museum with many items.

The Prince Albert, Duke of York (later George VI), laid the foundation stone of the new Royal Hospital School when it moved out to Holbrook, Suffolk. In 1937 his first public act as king (three weeks before coronation) was to open the National Maritime Museum in the buildings vacated by the school. The king was accompanied by his mother Queen Mary, his wife Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) and the Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II.)

Princess Elizabeth and her consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (who was ennobled Baron Greenwich on marriage in 1947) made their first public and official visit to Greenwich in 1948 to receive the Freedom of the Borough for Philip. In the same year, he became a trustee of the National Maritime Museum. Prince Philip was a trustee for 52 years until 2000, when he became its first patron. The Duke of Edinburgh was also a patron of the Cutty Sark (which was opened by the Queen in 1957) from 1952.

During the Silver Jubilee of 1977, the Queen embarked at Greenwich for the Jubilee River Pageant. In 1987, she was aboard the P&O ship Pacific Princess when it moored alongside the Old Royal Naval College for the company's 150th-anniversary celebrations.

To mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, it was announced on 5 January 2010 that on 3 February 2012 the London Borough of Greenwich would become the fourth to have Royal Borough status, the others being the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. The status was granted in recognition of the borough's historic links with the Royal Family, the location of the Prime Meridian and its being a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Governance
Greenwich is covered by the Greenwich West and Peninsula wards of the London Borough of Greenwich, which was formed in 1965 by merging the former Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich with that part of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich which lay south of the River Thames. Along with Blackheath Westcombe, Charlton, Glyndon, Woolwich Riverside, and Woolwich Common, it elects a Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich and Woolwich; currently the MP is Matthew Pennycook.

Geography of Greenwich
The town of Greenwich is built on a broad platform to the south of the outside of a broad meander in the River Thames, with a safe deep water anchorage lying in the river. To the south, the land rises steeply, 100 ft through Greenwich Park to the town of Blackheath. The higher areas consist of a sedimentary layer of gravelly soils, known as the Blackheath Beds, that spread through much of the south-east over a chalk outcrop—with sands, loam and seams of clay at the lower levels by the river.

Greenwich is bordered by Deptford Creek and Deptford to the west; the residential area of Westcombe Park to the east; the River Thames to the north; and the A2 and Blackheath to the south. The Greenwich Peninsula, also known as North Greenwich, forms the main projection of the town (to the northeast of the town centre).

Nearby areas

 * Blackheath
 * Charlton
 * Deptford
 * Greenwich Peninsula
 * Eltham
 * Kidbrooke
 * Lewisham
 * New Cross
 * Plumstead
 * Shooters Hill
 * Surrey Quays
 * Thamesmead
 * Westcombe Park
 * Woolwich
 * Welling
 * Falconwood
 * Abbey Wood

Climate
This data was collected between 2005 and 2015 at the weather station in Greenwich:

Historically, the record high is 100 F on 9 August 1911. This was the record for London until 2003, though it was disregarded due to non-standard instruments.

Greenwich has an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb) with warm summers and cool winters.

Riverfront
The Cutty Sark (a clipper ship) has been preserved in a dry dock by the river. A major fire in May 2007 destroyed a part of the ship, although much had already been removed for restoration. Nearby for many years was also displayed Gipsy Moth IV, the 54 ft yacht sailed by Sir Francis Chichester in his single-handed, 226-day circumnavigation of the globe during 1966–67. In 2004, Gipsy Moth IV was removed from Greenwich, and after restoration work completed a second circumnavigation in May 2007. On the riverside in front of the north-west corner of the hospital is an obelisk erected in memory of Arctic explorer Joseph René Bellot.

Near the Cutty Sark site, a circular building contains the entrance to the Greenwich foot tunnel, opened on 4 August 1902. This connects Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs on the northern side of the River Thames. The north exit of the tunnel is at Island Gardens, from where the famous view of Greenwich Hospital painted by Canaletto can be seen.

Rowing has been part of life on the river at Greenwich for hundreds of years and the first Greenwich Regatta was held in 1785. The annual Great River Race along the Thames Tideway finishes at the Cutty Sark. The nearby Trafalgar Rowing Centre in Crane Street is home to Curlew and Globe rowing clubs.

The Old Royal Naval College is Sir Christopher Wren's domed masterpiece at the centre of the heritage site. The site is administered by the Greenwich Foundation and several of the buildings are let to the University of Greenwich and one, the King Charles block, to Trinity College of Music. Within the complex is the former college dining room, the Painted Hall, this was painted by James Thornhill, and the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul, with an interior designed by James 'Athenian' Stuart. The Naval College had a training reactor, the JASON reactor, within the King William building that was operational between 1962 and 1996. The reactor was decommissioned and removed in 1999.

To the east of the Naval College is the Trinity Hospital almshouse, founded in 1613, the oldest surviving building in the town centre. This is next to the massive brick walls and the landing stage of Greenwich Power Station. Built between 1902 and 1910 as a coal-fired station to supply power to London's tram system, and later the London underground, it is now oil- and gas-powered and serves as a backup station for London Underground. East Greenwich also has a small park, East Greenwich Pleasaunce, which was formerly the burial ground of Greenwich Hospital.

The O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome) was built on part of the site of East Greenwich Gas Works, a disused British Gas site on the Greenwich Peninsula. It is next to North Greenwich Underground station, about 3 mi north east from the Greenwich town centre, north west of Charlton. Pear Tree Wharf was associated with the gas works, being used to unload coal for the manufacturing of town gas, and is now home to the Greenwich Yacht Club. The Greenwich Millennium Village is a modern urban regeneration development to the south of the Dome. Enderby's Wharf is a site associated with submarine cable manufacture for over 150 years.

Greenwich Park
South of the former Naval College is the National Maritime Museum housed in buildings forming another symmetrical group and grand arcade incorporating the Queen's House, designed by Inigo Jones. Continuing to the south, Greenwich Park is a Royal Park of 183 acre, laid out in the 17th century and formed from the hunting grounds of the Royal Palace of Placentia.

The park rises towards Blackheath and at the top of this hill is a statue of James Wolfe, commander of the British expedition to capture Quebec. Nearby a major group of buildings within the park includes the former Royal Observatory, Greenwich; the Prime Meridian passes through this building.

Greenwich Mean Time was at one time based on the time observations made at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, before being superseded by the closely related Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). While there is no longer a working astronomical observatory at Greenwich, a ball still drops daily to mark the exact moment of 1 p.m., and there is a museum of astronomical and navigational tools, particularly John Harrison's marine chronometers.

The Ranger's House lies at the Blackheath end of the park and houses the Wernher Collection of art, and many fine houses, including Vanbrugh's house lie on Maze Hill, on the western edge of the park.

Town centre
Around the covered Greenwich Market, Georgian and Victorian architecture dominates in the town centre which spreads to the west of the park and Royal Naval College. Up the hill from the centre, there are many streets of Georgian houses, including the Fan Museum, on Croom's Hill. Nearby, at the junction of Croom's Hill with Nevada Street, is Greenwich Theatre; at the eastern end of Nevada Street is the Greenwich Tavern. To the west, the arthouse Greenwich Cinema is on Greenwich High Road, while the nearby Greenwich Playhouse closed in 2012.

Market
There has been a market at Greenwich since the 14th century, but the history of the present market dates from 1700 when a charter to run two markets, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, was assigned by Lord Romney (Henry, Earl of Romney) to the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital for 1000 years.

The market is part of "the island site", bounded by College Approach, Greenwich Church Street, King William Walk and Nelson Road, near the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory. The buildings surrounding the market are Grade 2 listed and were established in 1827–1833 under the direction of Joseph Kay. A market roof was added in 1902–1908 (and replaced in 2016). Later significant development occurred in 1958–1960 and during the 1980s.

The landowner, Greenwich Hospital, enhanced the market between 2014 and early 2016. Following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 the rents for several of the market stalls were increased by up to 60% as Greenwich Hospital's managing agent Knight Frank said it was losing money with fewer stalls operating and only four days of trading a week.

Millennium Leisure Park
About 1.0 mi east of Greenwich town centre, the Millennium Leisure Park is an out-of-town retail park on Bugsby's Way in east Greenwich. It consists of retail outlets (IKEA and B&Q), restaurants and an Odeon cinema. The IKEA store here opened in 2019 as the retailer's fourth main store in London, following stores in Wembley (1988), Croydon (1992) and Tottenham (2005); the Greenwich store is the first in Inner London.

Greenwich Shopping Park is about 0.5 mi further east, in Charlton.

Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, which overlooks the River Thames from a hill in Greenwich Park. GMT is commonly used in practice to refer to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) when this is viewed as a time zone, especially by bodies connected with the United Kingdom, such as the BBC World Service, the Royal Navy, the Met Office and others, although strictly UTC is an atomic time scale which only approximates GMT with a tolerance of 0.9 second. It is also used to refer to Universal Time (UT), which is a standard astronomical concept used in many technical fields and is often referred to by the military in the phrase Zulu time.

As the United Kingdom grew into an advanced maritime nation, British mariners kept at least one chronometer on GMT in order to calculate their longitude from the Greenwich meridian, which was by convention considered to have longitude zero degrees (this convention was internationally adopted in the International Meridian Conference of 1884). The synchronization of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time itself, which was still solar time. But this practice, combined with mariners from other nations drawing from Nevil Maskelyne's method of lunar distances based on observations at Greenwich, eventually led to GMT being used worldwide as a reference time independent of location. Most time zones were based upon this reference as a number of hours and half-hours "ahead of GMT" or "behind GMT".

In recognition of the suburb's astronomical links, Asteroid 2830 has been named 'Greenwich'.

World Heritage Site
In 1997 Maritime Greenwich was added to the list of World Heritage Sites, for the concentration and quality of buildings of historic and architectural interest. These can be divided into the group of buildings along the riverfront, Greenwich Park and the Georgian and Victorian town centre.

Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre
The Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre provides an introduction to the history and attractions in the Greenwich World Heritage Site. It is in The Pepys Building near to the Cutty Sark within the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College (formerly Greenwich Hospital); the building began life as an engineering laboratory for the college. The centre opened in March 2010, and admission is free.

The Centre explains the history of Greenwich as a royal residence and a maritime centre. Exhibits include:
 * The history of the Palace of Placentia.
 * Models of Christopher Wren's original designs for Greenwich Hospital.
 * Six of the carved heads originally intended to decorate the exterior of the college's Painted Hall.
 * Exhibition displays about Maritime Greenwich and its connections with the sea and exploration.
 * "By Wisdom as much as War" – an exhibition about the history of the Royal Naval College during the years it occupied Greenwich Hospital (1873–1998).

Education
The University of Greenwich main campus occupies most of the grand, landmark riverside vista buildings of the former Royal Naval College. The university has other campuses at Avery Hill in Eltham and at Medway. The Greenwich campus also houses the Trinity College of Music.

Secondary schools in the area include The John Roan School, founded 1677, and St Ursula's Convent School, established 1850.

National Rail
Greenwich is served by Greenwich and Maze Hill stations with Southeastern services to London Cannon Street, Dartford, Barnehurst and Crayford as well as Thameslink services to Luton via London Blackfriars and to Rainham.

London Underground
The area is also served by North Greenwich station with Jubilee Line services to Stanmore and Stratford.

DLR
Greenwich is served by the Docklands Light Railway, with services from Greenwich and Cutty Sark stations to Bank via Canary Wharf and to Lewisham.

Buses
Greenwich is served by many London Buses routes.
 * 129 to Lewisham Shopping Centre or North Greenwich
 * 177 to Peckham via New Cross or to Thamesmead via Woolwich
 * 188 to North Greenwich or to Russell Square via Canada Water, Elephant & Castle and Waterloo
 * 199 to Bellingham via Lewisham & Catford or to Canada Water
 * 286 to Sidcup via Blackheath and Eltham
 * 386 to Blackheath or to Woolwich
 * N1 to Tottenham Court Road station via Elephant & Castle and Waterloo or to Thamesmead via Woolwich (Night Bus)
 * N199 to St Mary Cray via Lewisham, Catford, Bromley and Orpington and to Trafalgar Square via Canada Water and London Bridge (Night Bus)

Boat
There are a number of river boat services running from Greenwich Pier, managed by London River Services. The main services include the Thames commuter catamaran service run by Thames Clippers from Embankment, via Tower Millennium Pier, Canary Wharf and on to the O2 and Woolwich Arsenal Pier; the Westminster-Greenwich cruise service by Thames River Services; and the City Cruises tourist cruise via Westminster, Waterloo and Tower piers.

Pedestrian and cycle routes
The Thames Path National Trail runs along the riverside. The Greenwich foot tunnel provides pedestrian access to the southern end of the Isle of Dogs, across the river Thames.

The National Cycle Network Route 1 includes the foot tunnel, though cycling is not permitted in the tunnel itself.

Rowing
Greenwich is home to a variety of amateur sports clubs. Its location on the tidal Thames makes it a good location for rowing; the Trafalgar Rowing Centre in Crane Street is the clubhouse of the Curlew and Globe rowing clubs. The Globe has senior and junior squads, the latter renowned for its achievements at national and international level.

Running
The Thames Path and Greenwich Park are popular with runners. The 'red start' for the London Marathon is situated south of the park on Charlton Way (other starts are nearby in St John's Park, and on Shooter's Hill Road). After heading east through Charlton and Woolwich, the marathon route then turns west towards Greenwich; as runners reach the 10 km, they pass the Old Royal Naval College and then loop around the prow of the Cutty Sark before continuing west towards Deptford.

Golf
The Greenwich Peninsula Golf Range at North Greenwich is a riverside golf driving range with 60 bays, a mini 18-hole adventure course, golf academy, golf shop and restaurant.

Twin towns
The twin towns of Greenwich are:

 * 🇸🇮 Maribor, Lower Styria, Slovenia
 * 🇩🇪 Reinickendorf, Berlin, Germany
 * 🇬🇭 Tema, Greater Accra, Ghana
 * 🇨🇳 Hangzhou, China

Literature
Edward Lear makes reference to Greenwich in More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc:

There was a young lady of Greenwich, Whose garments were bordered with Spinach; But a large spotty calf Bit her shawl quite in half, Which alarmed that young lady of Greenwich.

title: Greenwich


text:
Kui

Kui may refer to:

People

 * Kui people, a Mon-Khmer ethnic minority
 * Kui Lee, a singer-songwriter

People with the surname Kui (奎)

 * Kui Yuanyuan, a Chinese gymnast

Places

 * Kui, Hiroshima, a Japanese town
 * Kawau Island Airport, IATA code KUI, on Kawau Island

Astronomy

 * KUI 91AB, a variable star of Delta Cephei type
 * KUI 93AB, an eclipsing binary of Algol variable type

Other uses

 * Kui (Chinese mythology) 夔, a one-legged mountain demon, also legendary inventor of music and dance
 * Kui (dragonball), a manga character
 * Kui (music), comes from Kazakh language
 * Kui (Māori mythology), a chthonic Māori demigod, also father of Vahi-vero in Tuamotu mythology
 * Kui kuningas nutab, a 1997 song by Terminaator
 * Kui language (India), a Dravidian language spoken by the Khonds
 * Kui language (Indonesia), a Timor–Alor–Pantar language
 * Kui the Horseclaw, a character in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
 * KUI, acronym for Kinetic user interface

title: Kui


text:
Merau

In Polynesian mythology, Merau is a goddess of death and the underworld.

title: Merau


text:
Milu

Milu may refer to:

People

 * Milú (Maria de Lourdes de Almeida Lemos) (1926–2008), Portuguese actress and singer
 * miLù German singer who has worked with Schiller (band)

Other uses

 * Milü, an approximation for pi by Zu Chongzhi
 * Milu (mythology), the ruler of Lua-o-Milu, the underworld
 * Père David's Deer, milu or elaphure, Elaphurus davidianus, a Chinese species of deer known only in captivity
 * Milu, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province, Iran

title: Milu


text:
Lua-o-Milu

In Hawaiian religion, Lua-o-Milu is the land of the dead, ruled by Milu. Entrance to Lua-o-Milu is from the top of a valley wall or sea cliff where the soul departs via a tree. It is reported that each Hawaiian island has at least one leaping place. According to natives of the land, the entrance located in Waipio Valley has since been covered in sand and is now hidden from the sight of upper areas. Another documented area where souls enter the next world is Leina Kauhane. The spirits of the dead can watch what the living do and turn them to stone by staring at them.

title: Lua-o-Milu


text:
Dacrydium cupressinum

Dacrydium cupressinum, commonly known as rimu, is a large evergreen coniferous tree endemic to the forests of New Zealand. It is a member of the southern conifer group, the podocarps.

The Māori name rimu comes from the Polynesian term limu which the tree's foliage were reminded of, ultimately from Proto-Austronesian *limut meaning "moss". The former name "red pine" has fallen out of common use.

Description
Rimu is a coniferous tree with dark red wood that reaches a height of 35–60 m, with a trunk 1.5–2 m in diameter. The bark is flaky and dark-brown in colour. In its juvenile stages the branches are thin and numerous, but as the tree grows older around three quarters of the tree becomes branchless. It has a lifespan of 600–800 years, but may reach beyond 1000 in rare cases.

The yellowish-green foliage varies in size and shape between the juvenile, sub-adult, and adult life stages. The leaves begin 0.4–10 mm long and 0.5–0.1 mm wide with sharp points. They are divided along an axis and roughly shaped like a sickle. In sub-adults the leaves shorten to 4–6 mm long, curve upward, and become diamond shaped. In adults the leaves become smaller, just 2–3 mm long, and press against one-another tightly.

Male and female cones, or strobili, appear first in sub-adults but on different male and female trees. Male cones are 5–10 mm long, rectangular shaped, and covered in a yellow pollen. Ovules appear on their own on upturning branchlets. The fruit consists of a 1–2 mm long fleshy orange receptacle and a 3–4 mm long dark brown rectangular-shaped seed. Rimu is distinctive enough that it is unlikely to be misidentified except as a seedling with Manoao colensoi, which have glossier, less fine leaves. It has a diploid chromosome count of 20.

Distribution
Rimu grows throughout New Zealand, in the North Island, South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura. This species is common in lowland and montane forest. Although the largest concentration of trees is now found on the West Coast of the South Island, the biggest trees tend to be in mixed podocarp forest near Taupō (e.g., Pureora, Waihaha, and Whirinaki Forests). A typical North Island habitat is in the Hamilton Ecological District, where Fuscospora truncata and rimu form the overstory. Associate ferns on the forest floor are Blechnum discolor, Blechnum filiforme, Asplenium flaccidum and Hymenophyllum demissum. An 800-year-old rimu tree can be seen at the Otari-Wilton's Bush in Wellington.

Uses
Māori originally used the resinous heartwood of rimu (called māpara or kāpara) for wooden items such as heru (combs) and fernroot beaters. Historically, rimu and other native trees such as kauri, mataī and tōtara were the main sources of wood for New Zealand, including furniture and house construction. However, many of New Zealand's original stands of rimu have been destroyed, and recent government policies forbid the felling of rimu in public forests, though allowing limited logging on private land. Pinus radiata has now replaced rimu in most industries, although rimu remains popular for the production of high quality wooden furniture. There is also limited recovery of stump and root wood, from trees felled many years before, for use in making bowls and other wood turned objects.

The inner bark can also be used to treat burns and cuts.

In cultivation
Although slow to establish, with a long juvenile period and fairly high moisture requirements, rimu is widely grown as an ornamental tree in New Zealand. It is attractive at all growth stages, usually quite narrow when young, then developing into a broader tree with weeping branches before finally progressing to its more upright adult form. While rimu does exhibit some variation in the wild, garden cultivars are largely unknown, except for one recent introduction, 'Charisma', which is a compact, golden-foliaged form.

Pests and diseases
This species plays host to the New Zealand endemic beetle Agapanthida pulchella.

title: Dacrydium cupressinum


text:
Rohe

The Māori people of New Zealand use the word rohe to describe the territory or boundaries of tribes (iwi, although some divide their rohe into several takiwā.

The term rohe also combines with other words to form more modern terms. These include rohe pōti, meaning an electoral district or constituency, rohe wā, meaning time zone, and whatunga rohe paetata, meaning a local area network. The term rohe on its own has also been adopted to mean an internet domain. The term rohe mihana is used for the mission districts of Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa, the Māori Anglican Church in New Zealand.

title: Rohe


text:
Rohe (mythology)

In a tradition of the Moriori people of the Chatham Islands, Rohe is the wife of the demi-god Māui. Beautiful Rohe was a sister of the sun, and her face shone. A quarrel arose after Rohe remarked that Māui's face was ugly. Māui then decided that they should change faces.

Afterwards Māui used magic to kill Rohe, but her spirit returned and destroyed Māui. Thus were black magic and death introduced into the world. After her death, Rohe ruled as the goddess of the pō (spirit world), where she gathered in the spirits of the dead. Evil influences were attributed to her.

Cook Islands
In Mangaia, the name Ro'e appears in Te Aka-ia-Ro'e (the root of all existence) which, according to Tregear, is "a spirit in the form of a thick stem tapering to a point, and is situated at the bottom of the Universe, sustaining the Cosmos".

Māori
The Māori knew little of Rohe. Tregear records the one myth associated with her, in which she is the wife of Māui. She was beautiful as he was ugly, and she refused his request to exchange faces. Māui, however, recited an incantation, and their faces were switched. In anger Rohe left him, and refused to live any longer in the world of light. She went to the underworld, and became a goddess of the pō (night or spirit world). Rohe is said sometimes to beat the spirits of deceased as they pass through her realm. Her home is in that division of the night world called Te Uranga-o-te-rā. Māui and Rohe had a son named Rangihore, the god of rocks and stones.

Tahiti
In Tahiti, the 'Father of Famine' is called Rohe-upo'o-nui (Large-headed Rohe).

Cited works

 * Craig, R. D. (1989). Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313258909.
 * Gill, W. W. (1876). Myths and Songs from the South Pacific. London: Henry S. King.
 * Shand, A. (June 1894). "The Moriori People of the Chatham Islands: Their Traditions and History". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. Volume 3, no. 2. pp. 76–92..
 * Tregear, E. R. (1891). Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary. Lambton Quay, Wellington, NZ: Lyon and Blair.

title: Rohe (mythology)