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Invertebrate paleontology

Invertebrate paleontology (also spelled invertebrate palaeontology) is sometimes described as invertebrate paleozoology or invertebrate paleobiology. Whether it is considered to be a subfield of paleontology, paleozoology, or paleobiology, this discipline is the scientific study of prehistoric invertebrates by analyzing invertebrate fossils in the geologic record.

By invertebrates are meant the non-vertebrate creatures of the kingdom Animalia (or Metazoa) in the biotic domain of Eukaryota. By phyletic definition, these many-celled, sub-vertebrate animals lack a vertebral column, spinal column, vertebrae, backbone, or long, full-length notochord—in contrast to the vertebrates in the one phylum of Chordata.

Relatedly, invertebrates have never had a cartilaginous or boney internal skeleton, with its skeletal supports, gill slits, ribs and jaws. Finally, throughout geologic time, invertebrates have remained non-craniate creatures; that is, they never developed a cranium, nerve-chord brain, skull, or hard protective braincase (unlike many vertebrates).

Invertebrate terminology in science
In the many decades since Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, a pioneering biologist and evolutionist, first conceptualized and coined the category "Invertebrata" (between 1793 and 1801) and the term "Biology" (in 1802), zoology has come to recognize that the non-vertebrate category is not a scientifically valid, monophyletic taxon. Evolutionary biology and developmental biology (a.k.a. "evo-devo") now consider the term "Invertebrata" to be both polyphyletic and paraphyletic. Nevertheless, most earth science departments continue to employ this term; and paleontologists find it both useful and practical in evaluating fossil invertebrates and—consequently—invertebrate evolution.

However, there is one contemporary caveat: Paleobiologists and microbiologists in the 21st century no longer classify one-celled "animal-like" microbes either as invertebrates or as animals. For example, the commonly fossilized foraminifera ("forams") and radiolarians—zooplankton both formerly grouped under either an animal phylum or animal sub-kingdom called Protozoa ("first animals")—are now placed in the kingdom or super-kingdom Protista or Protoctista (and thus called protists or protoctists).

Thus modern invertebrate paleontologists deal largely with fossils of this more strictly defined Animal Kingdom (excepting Phylum Chordata), Phylum Chordata being the exclusive focus of vertebrate paleontology. Protist fossils are then the main focus of micropaleontology, while plant fossils are the chief focus paleobotany. Together these four represent the traditional taxonomic divisions of paleontologic study.

Invertebrate fossilization
When it comes to the fossil record, soft-bodied and minuscule invertebrates—such as hydras, jellies, flatworms, hairworms, nematodes, ribbon worms, rotifers and roundworms—are infrequently fossilized. As a result, paleontologists and other fossil hunters must often rely on trace fossils, microfossils, or chemofossil residue when scouting for these prehistoric creatures.

Hard-bodied and large invertebrates are much more commonly preserved; typically as sizeable macrofossils. These invertebrates are more frequently preserved because their hard parts fossilise more readily—for example, shell, armor, plates, tests, exoskeleton, jaws or teeth. In invertebrates, these parts are composed of silica (silicon dioxide), calcite or aragonite (both forms of calcium carbonate), chitin (a protein often infused with tricalcium phosphate), or keratin (an even-more complex protein), rather than the vertebrate bone (hydroxyapatite) or cartilage of fishes and land-dwelling tetrapods.

The chitinous jaws of annelids (such as the marine scolecodonts) are sometimes preserved as fossils; while many arthropods and inarticulate brachiopods have easily fossilized hard parts of calcite, chitin, or keratin. The most common and often-found macrofossils are the very hard calcareous shells of articulate brachiopods (that is, the everyday "lampshells") and of mollusks (such as the omnipresent clams, snails, mussels and oysters). On the other hand, shell-less slugs and non-tubiferous worms (for instance, earthworms) lack hard parts and therefore such organisms are poorly represented in the fossil record.

title: Invertebrate paleontology


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Moiety

Moiety may refer to:

Anthropology

 * Moiety (kinship), either of two groups into which a society is divided
 * A division of society in the Iroiquois societal structure in North America
 * An Australian Aboriginal kinship group
 * Native Hawaiian realm ruled by a mo'i or an ali'i

Chemistry

 * Moiety (chemistry), a part or functional group of a molecule
 * Moiety conservation, conservation of a subgroup in a chemical species

Other uses

 * Moiety, a 2012 album by Keith Kenniff (as Helios)
 * Moiety, a rebel group in the computer game Riven

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

title: Moiety


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Ethyl group

In organic chemistry, an ethyl group (abbr. Et) is an alkyl substituent with the formula \sCH2CH3, derived from ethane (C2H6). Ethyl is used in the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry's nomenclature of organic chemistry for a saturated two-carbon moiety in a molecule, while the prefix "eth-" is used to indicate the presence of two carbon atoms in the molecule.

Ethylation
Ethylation is the formation of a compound by introduction of the ethyl group. The most widely practiced example of this reaction is the ethylation of benzene with ethylene to yield ethylbenzene, a precursor to styrene, which is a precursor to polystyrene. Approximately 24.7 million tons of ethylbenzene were produced in 1999.
 * EtC6H5route.png

Many ethyl-containing compounds are generated by electrophilic ethylation, i.e. treatment of nucleophiles with sources of Et+. Triethyloxonium tetrafluoroborate [Et3O]BF4 is such a reagent. For good nucleophiles, less electrophilic reagents are employed, such as ethyl halides.

Stereochemistry
In unsymmetrical ethylated compounds, the methylene protons in the ethyl substituent are diastereotopic. Chiral reagents are known to stereoselectively modify such substituents.

Etymology
The name of the group is derived from the Aether, the first-born Greek elemental god of air (and at that time a general term for any highly volatile compound) and "hyle", referring to "stuff". The name "ethyl" was coined in 1835 by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius.

title: Ethyl group


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Bromide (disambiguation)

Bromide can refer to:

In chemistry
 * Bromide, the anion of bromine, or any ionic salt containing bromide as the only anion, or (as a common name) any covalent compound containing bromine in the -1 oxidation state.
 * Potassium bromide, an anticonvulsant and sedative (most pharmacologic information is here).
 * Sodium bromide, an anticonvulsant and sedative.

In geography
 * Bromide, Oklahoma, a small village in the southern central part of the state.
 * Bromide Basin, a basin in Utah.

In language
 * Bromide (language), a figure of speech meaning a tranquilizing phrase, cliché or platitude used as a verbal sedative.

In photography
 * Bromide (Japanese culture), commercial photographic portraits of celebrities including geisha, singers, actors and sports-people.
 * Bromide paper, paper coated with an emulsion of silver bromide, used primarily for photographic prints.

title: Bromide (disambiguation)


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Rye whiskey

Rye whiskey can refer to two different, but related, types of whiskey:
 * American rye whiskey, which is similar to bourbon whiskey, but must be distilled from at least 51 percent rye grain
 * Canadian whisky, which is often referred to as (and often labelled as) rye whisky for historical reasons, although it may or may not actually include any rye grain in its production process.

American rye whiskey
In the United States, rye whiskey is, by law, made from a mash of at least 51 percent rye. (The other ingredients in the mash are usually corn and malted barley.) It is distilled to no more than 160 U.S. proof (80% abv) and aged in charred, new oak barrels. The whiskey must be put in the barrels at no more than 125 proof (62.5% abv). Rye whiskey that has been aged for at least two years and has not been blended with other spirits may be further designated as straight, as in "straight rye whiskey".

History
Rye whiskey was historically the prevalent whiskey in the northeastern states, especially Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland. Pittsburgh was the center of rye whiskey production in the late 1700s and early 1800s. By 1808, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania farmers were selling half a barrel for each man, woman and child in the country. By the 1880s, Joseph F. Sinnott's distillery, Moore and Sinnott, located in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, was the largest producer of rye whiskey, with a capacity of 30,000 barrels a year. In 1886, rye whiskey was produced in 17 states.

Rye whiskey largely disappeared after Prohibition. A few brands, such as Old Overholt, survived, although by the late 1960s former Pennsylvania brands like Old Overholt were being distilled mostly in Kentucky.

In the early 21st century, an expanding number of rye whiskey brands are produced by Campari Group (Wild Turkey Rye), Diageo (George Dickel Rye and Bulleit Rye), Heaven Hill (Pikesville Rye and Rittenhouse Rye), Beam Suntory (Old Overholt and Jim Beam Rye), The Sazerac Company (Col. E. H. Taylor, Sazerac Rye, and Thomas H. Handy), and various smaller companies. A particularly large producer is MGP of Indiana (formerly known as Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana), which is a distiller for many brands that are marketed by others (including some of the large companies previously listed).

Rye whiskey has been undergoing a small but growing revival in the US. Since the beginning of the 21st century, more producers have been experimenting with rye whiskey, and several now market aged rye whiskey. For example, Brown-Forman began production of a Jack Daniel's rye whiskey and released unaged and lightly aged versions as limited editions. A reconstructed distillery at Mount Vernon (the estate of George Washington) sells a rye that is similar to the whiskey Washington made. At its peak, Washington's original distillery was among the largest producers of rye whiskey in the United States, averaging 11000 gal per year. In 2023, Maryland passed legislation naming Maryland rye whiskey as the state's official liquor.

Differences between rye and bourbon
Rye grain is known for imparting what many call a spicy or fruity flavor to the whiskey. Bourbon, distilled from at least 51% corn, is noticeably sweeter and tends to be more full-bodied than rye. As bourbon gained popularity beyond the southern United States, bartenders increasingly substituted it for rye in cocktails such as the whiskey sour, Manhattan, and Old Fashioned, which were originally made with rye. All other things being equal, the character of the cocktail will be drier (i.e., less sweet) with rye.

Other Styles
While straight rye is defined as having a minimum of 51% rye in the mash bill, there are other (albeit unofficial) types that exist: Maryland, Pennsylvania and Kentucky styles.

Maryland-style is defined as containing 65-70% rye and 30-35% corn in the mash bill, and generally has a sweeter flavor. Pennsylvania-style, also called Monongahela rye, is defined as containing at least 95% rye in its mash bill, and is generally spicier. So the more rye in the mash bill, the spicier the whiskey should be, aging notwithstanding.

Kentucky-style rye, however, is characterized by even sweeter profile than Maryland-style, as its mash bill is normally 51-55% rye, with the remaining grains being a mix of corn and malted barley. Because of its relatively low rye content, it's more akin to standard straight rye whiskeys and is comparable to high-rye bourbons.

Canadian rye whisky

Canadian whisky is often referred to as "rye whisky" because historically much of the content was from rye. There is no requirement for rye to be used to make Canadian whisky, and the labels "Canadian whisky", "Canadian rye whisky" and "Rye whisky" are all legally permitted, regardless of the actual composition, provided the whiskies "possess the aroma, taste and character generally attributed to Canadian whisky".

In modern practice, most Canadian whiskies are blended to achieve this character, primarily consisting of a high-proof base whisky typically made from corn or wheat and aged in used barrels combined with a small amount of flavoring whisky made from a rye mash and distilled to a lower proof. In some cases, the corn-to-rye ratio may be as high as 9:1. There are a few exceptions, such as Alberta Premium and Canadian Club Chairman's Select, which are made from 100% rye mash.

Canadian whisky must be aged in wooden barrels that are not larger than 700 L for at least three years, and the barrels do not have to be new oak or charred. This requirement differs from regulations for U.S. blended whiskey, in which the bulk base spirits are not required to be aged.

Rye elsewhere
Scotch whisky distillers were using rye as a mash ingredient for grain whisky in the 18th century. By the 2020s, tariffs on biogas producers had led to an increase in availability of the grain, leading modern distilleries to begin experimenting with the new raw material.

title: Rye whiskey


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Table

Table may refer to:

 * Table (database), how the table data arrangement is used within the databases
 * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs
 * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns
 * Table (landform), a flat area of land
 * Table (parliamentary procedure)
 * Table (sports), a ranking of the teams in a sports league
 * Tables (board game)
 * Mathematical table
 * Table, surface of the sound board (music) of a string instrument
 * Al-Ma'ida, the fifth surah of the Qur'an, occasionally translated as “The Table”
 * Calligra Tables, a spreadsheet application
 * Water table

title: Table


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Chinese character encoding

In computing, Chinese character encodings can be used to represent text written in the CJK languages—Chinese, Japanese, Korean—and (rarely) obsolete Vietnamese, all of which use Chinese characters. Several general-purpose character encodings accommodate Chinese characters, and some of them were developed specifically for Chinese.

In addition to Unicode (with the set of CJK Unified Ideographs), local encoding systems exist. The Chinese Guobiao (or GB, "national standard") system is used in Mainland China and Singapore, and the (mainly) Taiwanese Big5 system is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as the two primary "legacy" local encoding systems. Guobiao is usually displayed using simplified characters and Big5 is usually displayed using traditional characters. There is however no mandated connection between the encoding system and the font used to display the characters; font and encoding are usually tied together for practical reasons.

The issue of which encoding to use can also have political implications, as GB is the official standard of the People's Republic of China and Big5 is a de facto standard of Taiwan.

In contrast to the situation with Japanese, there has been relatively little overt opposition to Unicode, which solves many of the issues involved with GB and Big5. Unicode is widely regarded as politically neutral, has good support for both simplified and traditional characters, and can be easily converted to and from the GB and Big5. Furthermore, Unicode has the advantage of not being limited only to Chinese, since it contains character codes for (nearly) every language.

Guobiao
The Guobiao (GB) line of character encodings start with the Simplified Chinese charset GB 2312 published in 1980. Two encoding schemes existed for GB 2312: a one-or-two byte 8-bit EUC-CN encoding commonly used, and a 7-bit encoding called HZ for usenet posts. A traditional variant called GB/T 12345 was published in 1990.

The EUC-CN form was later extended into GBK to include all Unicode 1.1 CJK Ideographs in 1993, abandoning the ISO-2022 model. By doing so, GBK includes Traditional Chinese characters in addition to simplified ones in GB2312. GBK gained popularity through the widespread Code page 936 implementation found in Microsoft Windows 95.

In 2000, GB 18030 was published as GBK's successor. This new encoding includes a four-byte UTF which encodes all Unicode codepoints not previously encoded. In 2005, GB 18030 was published to contain reference glyphs for scripts used by ethnic minorities in China, as well as glyphs from CJK Unified Ideographs Extension B due to the update of Unicode.

Adobe-GB1 is the corresponding PostScript charset for GB encodings.

Big5
The Big5 family of character encodings start with the initial definition by the consortium of five companies in Taiwan that developed it. It is a double-byte character set (DBCS) somehow similar to Shift JIS, often combined with a MBCS like ASCII. Quite a few vendors as well as official extensions exist, of which ETEN, HKSCS (Hong Kong) and Big5-2003 (as a part of CNS 11643 by Taiwan) are the most well-known ones. Adobe-CNS1 is the PostScript charset corresponding to the Big5 family of encodings.

Conversion
Prior to GBK which includes both traditional and simplified characters, conversion between Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese charsets was complicated by the need of transcribing text between the two variants of Chinese, as one charset cover many of the other's characters only in its own variant. The conversion between traditional and simplified Chinese is usually problematic, because the simplification of some traditional forms merged two or more different characters into one simplified form. The traditional to simplified (many-to-one) conversion is technically simple. The opposite conversion often results in a data loss when converting to GB 2312: in mapping one-to-many when assigning traditional glyphs to the simplified glyphs, some characters will inevitably be the wrong choices in some of the usages. Thus simplified to traditional conversion often requires usage context or common phrase lists to resolve conflicts. This issue is less of a problem with newer standards such as GBK, GB 18030 and Unicode, which have separate code points for both simplified and traditional characters.

One other issue is that many of the encoding systems are missing characters. While the missing characters are often literary and not commonly used in ordinary text, this does become a problem because people's names often contain these characters. An example of the problem is the Taiwanese politician Wang Chien-shien who has a (煊) character in his name which is not in some character systems, and former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, whose  (镕) character is not in GB 2312. The newest GB standard, GB 18030 has the complete character repertoire of Unicode 4.0, including the Unihan extensions in the Supplementary Ideographic Plane.

title: Chinese character encoding


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Talk:Chinese character encoding

Not sure this is true....

 * Unicode is not well accepted by the Chinese government. The Chinese government mandates software must support GB18030 encoding to be legally sold in China. Some says it is purely a political move of protectionism.

The PRC standards bodies have been very active and supportive in setting up Unicode. Also, the mandate needs more detail. The PRC Ministry of Information Industry puts up a lot of regulations and mandates about computer software that are generally ignored because there are no legal penalities for not following them. I have a suspicion that someone may have taken an MII directive too seriously. For it to be taken seriously, the mandate has to come from the State Council or the Ministry of Commerce. -- Roadrunner 20:08, 21 July 2003

I removed this line
From the sentence about TC to SC conversion.

although there is little market for such products and they are therefore practically nonexistent IIRC, this phrase was part of a sentence talking about using Big5 for SC. Though Big5 is capable of encoding SC, there is no example of such product. Somehow this is grafted into a sentence about TC to SC conversion and turned into a bogus claim. TC and SC conversion are widely used by websites that need to cater to both types of readers. There is a big market for such products. Since SC to TC is error prone but TC to SC is straight forward, it is not hard to assume that those bi-encoding websites would store all their source text in TC and convert to SC on the fly. Kowloonese 19:38, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Chinese character encoding


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Egil's Saga

Egill's Saga or Egil's saga (Egils saga ; ) is an Icelandic saga (family saga) on the lives of the clan of Egill Skallagrímsson (Anglicised as Egill Skallagrimsson), an Icelandic farmer, viking and skald. The saga spans the years c. 850–1000 and traces the family's history from Egill's grandfather to his offspring.

Its oldest manuscript (a fragment) dates back to 1240 AD, and comprises the sole source of information on the exploits of Egill, whose life is not historically recorded. Stylistic and other similarities between Egill's Saga and Heimskringla have led many scholars to believe that they were the work of the same author, Snorri Sturluson. The work is generally referred to as Egla by Icelandic scholars.

Synopsis

The saga begins in Norway around 850, with the life of Egill's grandfather Ulf (Úlfr) aka Kveldulf or "Evening Wolf", and his two sons Thorolf (Þórólfr) and Skallagrim (Skalla-Grímr). Strife with the royal house drive the family out of the country, and they settle in Iceland. The brothers Egill and Thorolf Skallagrimsson are born. They have a tenuous tenure in Norway, but Egill is outlawed and they roam Scandinavia and serve the king of England. Egill tries to reclaim property back in Norway (as his wife's inheritance), but this is blocked, and Egill develops a personal vendetta against the King.

There are also vivid descriptions of his other fights and friendships, his relationship with his family (highlighted by his jealousy, as well as fondness for his older brother Thorolf), his old age, and the fate of his own son Thorstein (Þorsteinn, who was baptized once Roman Catholicism came to Iceland) and his children, who had many children of their own. The saga ends around the year 1000 and spans many generations.

Kveldulf's lineage
Ulf (Kveldulf) had Hallbjorn Halftroll as his maternal uncle, and was known for his surpassing size and strength. He had accrued land and property from viking raids, and was a man of wisdom. He earned the nickname Kveldulf (Kveldúlfr, "Evening Wolf") because of his erratic temper at nightfall, and reputation for manifesting the so-called "shape-shifter" (hamrammr) abilities, explained in later chapters to be comparable (or equatable) with berserk fury. Extreme personal traits like these are manifested by his son Skallagrim and his grandson Egill as well.

Strife with Harald Fairhair of Norway
King Harald Fairhair (Haraldr Hárfagri) was warring to unite all of Norway. Kveldulf refused to assist the local king of Fjordane, but rebuffed Harald's overtures as well, incurring his wrath. A compromise was mediated by Olvir Hnufa (Ölvir hnúfa or "Olvir Hump"), Kveldulf's brother-in-law and Harald's court poet: Kveldulf was to send his elder son Thorolf, as soon as he returned from viking expedition. Thorolf served the king well, but suspicion fell on him due to his becoming overly successful, exacerbated by words of slanderers. Thorolf was killed by the king who led a band of warriors, and the rift would force Skallagrim and his father Kveldulf to flee Norway to settle in Iceland.

Skallagrim journeyed to Harald's court seeking compensation for the death of his brother Thorolf, but offended the king and had to make a hasty exit empty-handed. Skallagrim and Kveldulf then recaptured a boat that had been seized from Thorolf, and after killing everyone on board, sent a taunting poem to the King. In the battle, Kveldulf displayed his "frenzy" (hamrammr or hamremi), which left him severely weakened. When the family emigrated to Iceland, Kveldulf did not survive the trip, and his coffin was set adrift. Near the spot where the coffin washed ashore in Iceland, Skallagrim established his settlement, which he named Borg. He took up a peaceful livelihood as a farmer and blacksmith, and raised his sons, Thorolf (named Þórólfr after his slain brother), and Egill (the titular hero).

Skallagrim's sons

The saga then proceeds to describe the lives of Thorolf and Egill Skallagrimsson, born in Iceland, and eventually making their way to Norway in adulthood. Thorolf visited Skallagrim's old friend in Norway, Thorir the Hersir (Þórir Hróaldsson). Here Thorolf befriended Prince Eirik Bloodaxe, Harald's favorite son and Thorir's fosterling. He approached the prince with a gift of a painted warship that Eirik was admiring, on advice of Bjorn (Björn Brynjólfsson), Thorir's brother-in-law.

Afterwards Eirik Bloodaxe was crowned co-king, and as Thorolf headed home to Iceland, the king gave him a gold-inlaid ax as a gift to Skallagrim. Skallagrim abused the ax (named "King's Gift" or konungsnautr) and shattered it, reciting an insulting poem about it to Thorolf and handing back what was left of the axe, a sooty handle with a rusted blade. Thorolf flung the axe overboard, but reported to King Eirik that his father was grateful for the axe, presenting a bolt of longship sail cloth pretended to be from Skallagrim. In this way Thorolf managed to somewhat keep the peace between Skallagrim and King Eirik Bloodaxe.

Egill's boyhood foreshadowed his future rebelliousness and poetic prowess. At the age of three, his unbridled behavior when drunk and strength beyond his age earned him a stay at home, ordered by his father, when a feast was held by Yngvar (Egill's maternal grandfather). Egill defiantly rode a horse to attend, following his father and company from afar, and composed his first skaldic verse. At the age of seven while playing in the ball games (knattleikr), he committed his first murder (axe-killing an older boy who outclassed him in the sport). By the time Egill was twelve very few grown men could compete with him in games, but when he and his friend challenged his father one day, Skallagrim manifested such strength at nightfall that he slammed the friend dead against the ground. Egill's life was only saved when Egill's fostra (a female slave that had acted as Egill's nurse as a child) tried to calm Skallagrim down and was killed instead. Egill got so upset that he killed one of his father's favorite slaves in return, and as a result the two were not on speaking terms for the following winter.

Conflict with Eirik Bloodaxe over ale
The summer after Egill's father killed his friend, Thorolf came home to visit Iceland. Egill forcibly insisted on accompanying Thorolf back to Norway, although Thorolf was reluctant. On this trip, Thorolf took his prospective wife, Asgerd (Ásgerðr Bjarnardóttir), who had been reared in Iceland, to ask her father Bjorn and uncle Thorir for permission to marry. While staying with Thorir, Egill became attached to Thorir's son Arinbjorn (Arinbjörn Þórisson), an important figure in the saga and Egill's lifelong friend.

Egill missed the wedding on account of illness, and joined Thorir's men on an errand in Atloy, where he was slighted by the king's steward Bard (Bárðr), and wound up killing him. When Bard received Egill's party, he would only serve curd (skyr) to drink, pretending ale had run out. But later that night when king and queen arrived for the feast to the dísir, ale was served plentifully. Egill relentlessly jibed Bard about the deceit with sarcastic poetry, and his unquenchable thirst embarrassed the host. Bard and the queen sent Egill a poisoned drink, but the attempt was foiled by Egill, who inscribed runes on the horn and besmeared it with his own blood, causing the horn to shatter. Egill then went up to Bard and stabbed him to death with his sword. Discovering Egill had fled, Eirik ordered an unsuccessful manhunt to have Egill killed, and lost several men. Despite the affront, Eirik was persuaded by Thorir (his foster-father) to settle this by compensation.

Mercenary service in England, Thorolf falls in battle
While raiding near Frisia, Egill and Thorolf hear that King Æthelstan of England is in need of warriors. The brothers and their men sail to England to join the armies of the English king, are placed in charge of the Scandinavian contingent of Æthelstan's forces. The saga here displays contact with English historical tradition, correctly providing Æthelstan's lineage and offering only one of two instances of King Alfred being called 'the Great' outside of English sources. The battle that follows the brothers' arrival in England, named Vínheiðr in the text, is widely accepted as being the same as the Battle of Brunanburh, from which Æthelstan emerged victorious in 937. The saga identifies the primary antagonist at Vínheiðr as "Olaf the Red of Scotland", who appears to be a conflation of the Æthelstan's historical opponents, Constantine II of Scotland and Olaf Guthfrithson, a Hiberno-Norse Uí Ímair dynast. Egill and Thorolf are instrumental in Æthelstan's victory; however, Thorolf is killed on the second day of battle. In the aftermath of the conflict, Æthelstan gives Egill two chest of silver in compensation for Thorolf's death, intending that they be passed on to Skallagrim. Egill, however, keeps the silver for himself along with an arm-ring that the king passes him at sword-point at the victory feast. Egill stays at Æthelstan's court for the winter, during which time he composes a drápa in praise of the king. Æthelstan rewards Egill with yet two more gold arm-rings as well as an expensive cloak that the king himself had worn. At Egill's parting, Æthelstan expresses a wish that he would stay permanently in his service, an offer which Egill declines.

Inheritance case at the Gula-Thing
Egill married his brother Thorolf's widow, Asgerd. Some time later, Asgerd's father Bjorn the Wealthy died in Norway, but she received no inheritance, the entire estate having been claimed by Berg-Onund, married to Gunnhild Bjarnardottir (Asgerd's half-sister). Egill wanted to claim half-share for his wife, but the prospect was bleak because Berg-Onund was a favorite of Eirik and his consort Gunnhild. The case was argued at the Gulaþing assembly, where Berg-Onund asserted that Asgerd as a slave-woman entitled to no share (due to the circumstance that her mother eloped without her kinsmen's consent). Asbjorn countered with witnesses swearing that Asgerd was acknowledged as heiress, but the processing was blocked by Queen Gunnhild who ordered a henchmen to disrupt the assembly. Egill made threat against anyone who tried to make use of the disputed farm, and fled by ship. Eirik pursued with a fleet, and a skirmish ensued.

Eirik's power, cursed by Egill
Harald Fairhair dies, and Eirik becomes King of Norway, eliminating two of his brothers who were rivals to the crown. Eirik declares Egill an outlaw to be killed on sight, and Egill vows vengeance, especially against the manipulative queen. Egill's movements are under surveillance, and when he appears to leave the country, Berg-Onund dismissed the men he had gathered for protection and traveled not far from his home (Ask) to the king's farm at Aarstad. By chance, calm winds force Egill back to shore to the same location. Egill commits massacre, killing Onund, as well as Eirik's 10 year-old prince Rognvald. To top it off, Egill erects a scorn-pole (Nithing pole) with a horse head mounted on top, laying a curse that the nature spirits drive King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild away from Norway. The hoped-for outcome of the curse does become reality.

The saga makes note of the death of Skallagrim, Egill's father.

Head-Ransom
Eirik ruled just 1 year before being ousted as Norwegian king by his brother Hakon the fosterling of King Æthelstan in England. Eirik left Norway with his family, and eventually appointed king over Northumbria by Æthelstan of England. Two years later, Egill sailed to England intending to see Æthelstan and was captured by Eirik Bloodaxe. Eirik was furious, but Arinbjorn Thorisson convinced Eirik to spare Egill's life if he could compose a poem in his honor. Egill succeeded (by reciting Höfuðlausn or "Head Ransom"), and Eirik allowed him to leave on condition that he never appeared again before Eirik's sight. Egill made his way to see King Æthelstan, who was fostering Thorstein (Þorsteinn), a kinsman of Arinbjorn. While visiting, word arrived from Norway that Thorstein's father died leaving him a large inheritance. Þorsteinn, Arinbjorn and Egill made plans to sail to Norway to claim Thorsteinn's share. Before they leave, King Æthelstan convinced Egill to move to England and command his armies after their task is completed.

Egill returned to Iceland and spent a few years with his family. During this time, both Kings Æthelstan and Eirik Bloodaxe died, leaving Eirik's brother Hakon ruler of Norway. Egill returned to Norway to claim lands won in a duel with Atli the Short on behalf of his wife Asgerd. Along the way Egill stayed with Arinbjorn, whom he convinces to go to King Hákon on his behalf. Hákon denied Egill's claim, so Arinbjorn compensated Egill with forty marks of silver.

Egill and Arinbjörn went raiding in Saxony and Frisia, after which they stayed with Thorstein Thoruson (Þorsteinn Þóruson). King Hakon requested Thorstein to collect tribute in Värmland or be sentenced to outlawry. Egill went in Thorsteinn's place. Egill traveled with some of King Hákon's men to Värmland and fought battles, Egill killing many times more foes than his companions.

Egill lived to be an old age. Arinbjörn became a close advisor to Harald Eiríksson, to whom Egill composed a poem. Egill's son Bodvar (Böðvar) died in a shipwreck. Egill composed a poem in his honor. Egill's son Thorsteinn has many feuds with Steinar, son of Onund Sjoni (Önundr sjóni Ánason), over land and cattle grazing. Egill became frail and blind. His one last wish was to travel to the Althing and toss silver he received from King Æthelstan for the people to fight over. When he was denied this, he commanded two enslaved men to help him conceal his silver treasure. After this act, he killed the two men to conceal the location and to punish his son-in-law. near Mosfellsbær, giving birth to the legend of Silfur Egils ("Egill's Silver").

Interpretation

The character of Egill is complex and full of seeming contradictions. His multifaceted nature reflects the extreme qualities of his family, a family of men who are either ugly or astoundingly handsome; a family which includes 'shape-shifters', who become suddenly mad, violent and cruel, though they may at other times be deliberate and wise; a family which neither submits to the will of kings, nor stands in open rebellion. His character is also reflected in the storytelling conventions of the text, a difficult text populated by characters with similar or identical names, living out various permutations of very similar stories. The two handsome Thorolfs (Þórólfs) die heroic deaths, while their brothers Skallagrim and Egill both die in old age after spitefully burying their wealth in the wilderness. The descendants of Kveldúlfr find themselves involved in two complicated inheritance feuds, at one time rejecting the claims of illegitimate children of a second marriage, and at another time claiming land on behalf of another illegitimate child born to similar circumstances.

At times in Egill's saga Egill comes across as a brute who often acts quickly and irrationally for no reason. He appears to be a shallow creature and in many instances the only time he appears to put much thought into anything is when he composes and recites poetry. Egill is in reality a man of many virtues which are central to his character. He values honor, loyalty, respect, and friendship above all other things. He takes it as a great personal insult when someone breaks any of these values and as a result he typically destroys that person either through physical force or through poetry. His reactions are usually on a grand scale to the point where they are often outrageous and entertaining. The value code by which Egill lived was the same as that of many Scandinavians at the time of the story's composition. The story is set in a time when many people were migrating, most notably from Norway to Iceland. Life was harsh, particularly during the long, cold winters, when it was crucial for people to get along and work together.

Poetry is used throughout most of the saga and Egill is a master of the art. Egill's Saga takes place during a time of oral tradition. Poetry was used to establish a person's reputation for good or evil, and a great poem could make its characters immortal. Rulers valued poets for their ability to make or break a man, increasing his fame or besmirching his good name. As a poet, Egill was a powerful and valued man.

One of the first negative poems in Egill's saga is a threatening poem in chapter 27 that displays Skallagrim's power after he had just plundered a ship and killed many men. Later, in chapter 38, Skallagrim composes an insulting poem about King Eirik after the king had given Skallagrim a gift not commensurate with his worth. In chapters 55 and 81, Egill composes two powerful poems that show how grief-stricken he is when his brother Thorolfr and his son Bodvar die. These poems are also meant to honor the two. These are only a few examples of the many poems in the saga which portray people in a positive or negative light.

There are also poems which show a much softer side to the Icelandic male characters. One of these is in chapter 55 when King Æthelstan acknowledges the death of Egill's brother, Thorolfr, caused by the King's error in judgement. Egill thanks the king with a number of praise poems showing how considerate and generous the king is. We see a very different side of Egill in chapter 56 when he declares his secret love for his future wife, in a love poem. In chapters 60–62, Egill is confronted with a situation where he must greet King Eirik, with whom he is on bad terms. King Eirik wants Egill dead and at the urging of his friend Arinbjorn, Egill composes a drápa (one of the most complicated forms of poetry) of 20 stanzas praising the king. Thanks to the poem, named Höfuðlausn (Head-Ransom) Egill is allowed to leave Eiríkr's court alive, since killing him would make Eiríkr look like a fool. In chapter 80, Egill composes another praise poem of 25 stanzas expressing his gratitude towards his lifelong friend Arinbjörn for saving his life in his meeting with King Eiríkr. These more positive poems show us a kinder side to the typically rough and violent people of Egill's saga.

As a work of literature, Egill's Saga is generally considered to be amongst the best of the Icelandic sagas, along with Njáls saga, Gísla saga Súrssonar, and Laxdæla saga.

Characters
A detailed family tree connecting major and minor characters through blood and marriage can be found here

Editions

 * Nordal, Sigurður (ed.), Egills saga Skallagrímssonar, Íslenzk fornrit, 2 (Reykjavík, 1933)
 * Guðni Jónsson (ed.), Egills saga Skalla-grímssonar (Reykjavík: Bókaútgáfa Menningarsjóðs og þjóðvinafélagsins, 1945) (heimskringla.no)
 * Bergljót Kristjánsdóttir and Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir (eds), Egills saga: Með formála, viðaukum, skýringum og skrám, Sígildar sögur, 2 (Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 1994) (wikisaga.hi.is)
 * Bjarni Einarsson (ed.), Egills saga (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 2003), (pdf)
 * Modernised spelling (source unclear), (snerpa)

Translations

 * ( wikisaga.hi.is, sagadb.org)
 * Repr.
 * Repr.
 * Repr.
 * Repr.
 * Repr.
 * Repr.
 * Repr.

title: Egil's Saga


text:
A Medal for Benny

A Medal for Benny is a 1945 American drama film directed by Irving Pichel. The story was conceived by writer Jack Wagner, who enlisted his long-time friend John Steinbeck to help him put it into script form. The film was released by Paramount Pictures. The film is also known as Benny's Medal.

Plot
Benny Martin leaves his small town of Pantera and joins the Army after getting in trouble with the police. While he is away, his girlfriend (Lolita) is romanced by Joe. Although she has not heard from Benny in months, she refuses Joe’s advances, wanting to stay loyal to Benny. She eventually falls for Joe and agrees to marry him but then finds out that Benny was killed in action and has been awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. Meanwhile, the Pantera mayor plans a rally for the medal presentation to Benny’s father and intends to use a beautiful house for the event so as not to embarrass the town by having the medal presented at the modest Martin residence. However, Benny’s father Charley, refuses to go along with the ruse and instead the medal ceremony takes place at his home. In his speech, Charley says that Benny will live on in his and Lolita's hearts. Lolita then tells Joe that she cannot marry him yet, because it might break Charley's heart.

Cast

 * Dorothy Lamour as Lolita Sierra
 * Arturo de Córdova as Joe Morales
 * J. Carrol Naish as Charley Martin
 * Mikhail Rasumny as Raphael Catalina
 * Fernando Alvarado as Chito Sierra
 * Charles Dingle as Zach Mibbe
 * Frank McHugh as Edgar Lovekin
 * Rosita Moreno as Toodles Castro
 * Douglass Dumbrille as General
 * Grant Mitchell as Mayor of Pantera
 * Max Wagner as Jake

Awards

 * Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor (J. Carrol Naish)

Nominations

 * Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (J. Carrol Naish)
 * Academy Award for Best Story (John Steinbeck & Jack Wagner)

title: A Medal for Benny


text:
Black-winged stilt

The black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus) is a widely distributed, very long-legged wader in the avocet and stilt family Recurvirostridae. Its scientific name, Himantopus himantopus, is sometimes used to generalize a single, almost cosmopolitan species. Alternatively, it is restricted to the form that is widespread in Europe, Asia and Africa, which equals the nominate group of H. himantopus sensu lato. Meanwhile, the black-necked (H. mexicanus) and white-backed stilts (H. melanurus) both inhabit the Americas; the pied stilt (H. leucocephalus) ranges from Australasia and New Zealand. Today, most sources accept between one and four actual species.

Taxonomy
The black-winged stilt was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the plovers in the genus Charadrius and coined the binomial name Charadrius himantopus. He specified the type locality as southern Europe. The taxonomic name Himantopus comes from Greek, meaning "strap-foot" or "thong-foot". The black-winged stilt is now one of five species placed in the genus Himantopus that was introduced by the French naturalist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

The taxonomy of this bird is still somewhat contentious; it is one of four distinct species, which sometimes are considered subspecies of H. himantopus. H. himantopus sensu lato is made up of a single species, with 5–7 subspecies, and is sometimes referred to as the common stilt. The name "black-winged stilt" refers to H. himantopus sensu stricto, with two subspecies (H.h. himantopus from the Palearctic to South Asia, and H.h. meridionalis from the Afrotropical region).

Description
Adults are 33 – long, with long, pink legs, and a long, rather thin black bill. The birds are generally black above and white below, with a white head and neck (with a varying amount of black, species-dependent). Males have a black back, often with a greenish gloss or sheen. Females' backs have a brownish hue, contrasting with the black remiges. In populations where the top of the head is normally white (at least in winter), females tend to have less black on the head and neck the entire year-round, while males often have much more black, particularly in summer. This difference is not clear-cut, however, and males usually grow all-white head feathers in winter.

Immature birds are grey, instead of black, and have a markedly sandy hue on their wings, with light feather fringes appearing as a whitish line in flight.

Ecology and status
The breeding habitat of all these stilts is marshes, shallow lakes and ponds. Some populations are migratory and move to the ocean coasts in winter; those in warmer regions are generally resident or short-range vagrants. In Europe, the black-winged stilt is a regular spring overshoot vagrant north of its normal range, occasionally remaining to breed in northern European countries. Pairs successfully bred in Britain in 1987, and after a 27-year hiatus there were two instances of successful breeding in Southern England in 2014. 13 young were fledged in southern England in 2017. Four chicks were successfully fledged in northern England in 2022; this is believed to be the most northerly breeding success for the black-winged stilt.

These birds pick up their food from sand or water. They eat mainly insects and crustaceans.

The nest site is a bare spot on the ground near water. These birds often nest in small groups, sometimes with avocets.

The black-winged stilt is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.

title: Black-winged stilt


text:
Talk:Brown

Bold text
Is it just my monitor, or does that "brown" look like a lighter version of maroon rather than actual brown? --Delirium 00:23 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * It's not just your monitor. On my screen it looks very reddish. --Robert Merkel 00:28 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * I've changed it to [170, 85, 0], which was already mentioned in the article as the colour that was supposedly in the box. Should look brown now. כסיף Cyp 00:42 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

looks too orange to me, but we'll be on this all night if we let ourselves be. XD

List of terms associated with the color brown by superstitious people

 * ambition
 * approachable
 * comfort
 * credibility
 * earth
 * endurance
 * feces
 * fertility
 * generosity
 * god
 * growth
 * harmony
 * hearth
 * home
 * humility
 * informality
 * maturity
 * neutrality
 * nurturing
 * organization
 * outdoors
 * passiveness
 * productivity
 * quality
 * relaxation
 * reliability
 * sensuality
 * simplicity
 * solidity
 * stability
 * strength

At least some of these should be merged into this article. anthony (see warning) 22:35, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Red and Green?
In the RGB color model used to project colors onto television screens and computer monitors, brown combines red and green

Doesn't brown combine red and green in subtractive colour models? I thought, in RGB yellow combines red and green Lachsersatz (talk) 12:51, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

 * How dark do you think yellow can get? 124.169.136.120 (talk) 09:50, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 01:07, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
 * S7307583.jpg

Why is this article start class?
There is no reason for this article to be rated so low. Notaoffensivename (talk) 02:05, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Brown


text:
User talk:Sir charles

Evercat is the only one who seems to have "something on ball".

"On the right page" ________________________________________________________________________________ User 80.132.28.207 states that I should be banned. I don't care. She is nothing but I pony show. User 80 stated that he checked with Bubba and the boys and they said Ronald Reagan Eternal Flame of Freedom and the Medal of Freedom are bogus. The reviewers want let the public see this response. They keep blocking it. What are you afraid of. You have a big mouth. You should apologize. I too believe this is a waste of time. But who is going accept attacks and not respond. Please tell Babba and the boys to visit The Ronald Reagan Eternal Flame of Freedom next time that they are in Washington. D.C

http://www.nrsc.org/memberprograms/taskforce/benefits.shtml ______________________________________________________________________________ No Bubba say that; I said, I was honored with the medal and This is what the medal of Freedom looks like. They must have been drinking moon shine: http://www.nyrotary.org/meet_our_members/sonny_lee/sonny_lee.html ________________________________________________________________________________ You want leave this alone. Citizens names are placed on the monument and medals given.
 * Yes, the Flame of Freedom is a monument, not a prize that you could have won as you claimed in your article. No Bubba (Anome)said that. I said that I was honored with th medal (receiving it)
 * No one said it doesn't exist. You just haven't received it. Or is your name Sonny Lee?

This eloquent monument, which is located just to south of the Eternal Flame of Freedom..." So your name would be on the Republican Victory Monument, not the Eternal Flame of Freedom. _______________________________________________________________________________
 * The site says: "The Patriotic Americans who have achieved recognition as PLATINUM MEMBERS for their leadership in the Republican Party and their loyal service to our Republican Presidents are eligible to have their names inscribed in the granite tablet which is the Republican Victory Monument.

The issue was me winning as a prize. Again, I did not say nor write that. Anome did. The Medal is award to you. _____________________________________________________________________________ My medal reads as his. I wanted you to see it. Lee is a fine fellow

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=The+Senatorial+Medal+of+Freedom&btnG=Google+Search

There is the list read................Why don't you stop! Who is wasting time _

 * There is no list showing you received the medal. Searching for "Medal of Freedom" +"Charles W Swan" finds only sites of your own creation.

Lee and other had their created. Where do you think the websites come from? Heaven

_______________________________________________________________________________ The Famous Swan http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Charles+W.+Swan%22&hl=en&lr=&filter=0 ________________________________________________________________________________
 * If you're famous, it would have been reported somewhere surely. It's up to you to prove.

_______________________________________________________________________________
 * No, The Self-Aggrandizing Swan. All those websites are made by yourself or contain material submitted by yourself. I must be computer whiz. Companies do this!

No this is how the web spins its self. I dont own these sites the companies do!

Example. Did I create Famousbirthdays, Google, lycos, Yahoo. No! Nor others

Did Bill Clinton create his sites? Its the new Library. Th Pentagon computer was created by Rand Corp/ Stanford. Google is own by Standford U. They supplied the data. Write the Computer a Question, Its answers. It was programed with the information. Who is Wikipedia. The Computer would answer. Because you are important to list. That how it all work. Type your name in the http box and see if you are in the data bank. William Tell. Its come up. You are important, if not, you are not.

_____________________________________________________________________________ Some old notes that started this whole circus: Sir Charles didnot try to make an article. He was adding information to your Encyclopedia. The Birthday is listed under famousbirthdays.com (March 11th, Charles W. Swan, a noted actor). All submissions made by Sir Charles are accurate and true. Anome prematurely deletes information without verifying its content. All medals and awards were granted by two Presidents, the U.S Senate and House of Representatives. Marquis' Publications needs no introduction Undelete Swan,Charles W. (bio)

Serious websites are: (Charles W. Swan) famousbirthdays.com, starchive.com, Movieeye.com, actor.bigtome.com, bangladeshinfo.com, Internet-net-stars.com, starbuzz.com, blackflicks.com, topcelebritypages.com., openhere.com, google famous baltimoreans, celebhoo.com (birthdays), aol.com, Boomis.com, ifilm.com, hongkongcentre.com, textilecentre.com, celebstuck.com, suite101.com, google.com, greenlinersoft.com,lycos.com, yahoo.com, starpages news: Swan in Paris, google charles W. Swan Paris, google Charles W. Swan World, moviething.com, Hong Kong.com, hotbot, Celebrity find.com, all-web, search.com and all web engines

______________________________________________________________________________ It is very simple, I never killed anyone. But the Queen did invite me to the new British Air Museum _______________________________________________________________________________ It puzzles me as to why some people think that they know everything. This can not be. _______________________________________________________________________________I really had enough of this stage show. But this was the intent all along. For The People with Purple eyes only. Anome created this whole show and has not said one word. He is a very dangerous person. The K leader. That would be a good article-How people are easily influence. The need to belong for starters. I am out of here! All of this has been educational but we have a long way still to go. I stopped because someone call this a saga. The devil is every where. I walked into a town that did not like people with blue eyes. Get it
 * Those are (A) sites everyone can submit stuff to, or (B) search engines picking up the stuff you submitted to the (A) sites. If you're famous, why is there no cnn.com or bbc.co.uk or nytimes.com?

The Anome ______________________________________________________________________________ Dear Sir Charles; I am trying to find the basis your listing of Mr. Swan here. Can you give any names of major productions he has been in, please? -- The Anome

Dear Sir Charles: you may by now be wondering why your edits are vanishing as fast as you make them. This is because other users are reverting your changes, since you have not provided any evidence for your claims. -- The Anome 00:37 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Hi. If (and only if) Charles Swan is an actual person of note, then Charles Swan or maybe Charles W. Swan would be the correct place to create the page. However, pages should not contain only links. Evercat 21:16 25 Jul 2003 (UTC)

User:Sir charles
I've added the "" template to your user page (User:Sir charles), suggesting that it be deleted according to the proposed deletion process. I've explained why in the deletion notice (see also "What Wikipedia is not" and Wikipedia's deletion policy).

Please note that the purpose of a user page is not as personal homepage or used as a general webhosting service, but as way for active editors of Wikipedia to introduce themselves to other editors. If you disagree with the notice, discuss the issues here or on my user talk page. You may remove the deletion notice, and the page will not be deleted for the moment, but note that it may still be sent to Miscellany for Deletion, where it may be deleted if consensus to delete is reached, or if it matches any of the speedy deletion criteria. Calton | Talk 00:37, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Sir charles


text:
Gordon Giltrap

Gordon Giltrap, MBE (born 6 April 1948) is an English guitarist and composer. His music crosses several genres. He has been described as "one of the most revered guitarists of his generation", and has drawn praise from fellow musicians including Steve Rothery, Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page.

Early life
Giltrap was born on 6 April 1948 in the village of Brenchley, Kent, England at The British Hospital for Mothers and Babies. Thereafter he was brought up in Deptford, South East London spending the first 11 years of his life at 43 Elverson Road, a two up, two down terraced house shared by two households with an outside toilet. His family then moved to Blackwall Lane East Greenwich. Rock star Marty Wilde grew up in the same area along with guitarist Albert Lee. Giltrap began to play the guitar at the age of 12 and received no formal tuition, choosing to develop his own style and technique.

Career
Giltrap's career began in the 1960s performing in the folk music scene in London alongside contemporaries such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, and Mike Oldfield. At 18, Giltrap signed with Transatlantic Records and released his debut studio albums, Gordon Giltrap (1968) and Portrait (1969). Both featured Giltrap on guitar and lead vocals; he has since considered his lyrics "naive". The track "Willow Pattern" from his debut attracted the praise of guitarist Ralph McTell for the imagery it portrayed. "Gospel Song", also from his first, features a more aggressive strumming style, influenced by Pete Townshend, which later became a trademark of his style. In 1969, Giltrap was featured in Transatlantic's guitar showcase album The Contemporary Guitar Sampler, Volume 1. He was also featured on the second volume released in 1970, and both increased his profile.

Shortly after the release of his first album, Giltrap joined The Buskers' Tour of the UK, headlined by Don Partridge. Giltrap subsequently formed a band with Partridge called Accolade. Together they released a self-titled album. Partridge later wrote the sleeve notes for Portrait. Giltrap played lead guitar in the band and penned several compositions. Whilst his involvement in the band certainly helped to raise his profile he felt impatient to move on to recording further new albums under his own name.

1970s
In 1970, Giltrap signed to MCA Records and released his next album, Testament of Time, which was again a mixture of songs and instrumental pieces. on two future albums. It was to be one of the pieces he chose to play on his first television appearance, on Disco 2.

At this stage, he was managed by Miles Copeland who, amongst others, also managed Wishbone Ash. Strings on the album were arranged by Del Newman, who also played keyboards. Newman had already worked with many artists of that era including Cat Stevens. Thus began a lasting friendship, and later Giltrap wrote the foreword for Newman's 2010 autobiography A Touch From God (It's Only Rock and Roll). With Newman's influence, the album had a much fuller sound than Giltrap's previous two albums and he regarded it as a significant step forward.

His association with Copeland ended when he moved to Philips Records, releasing the 1973 album entitled Giltrap. This album featured a much larger band. On some of the songs he experimented with early instruments (played by Douglas Wooton and Rod and Joseph Sleeping) and some of his lyrics clearly reflected an interest in historical events. The drummer on this album was Nicko McBrain, who a decade later would join Iron Maiden. The front cover photographs reflect Giltrap as a proud father blowing bubbles together with his then two-year-old son, Jamie. The opening track, "When I See My Son", further reflected that pride. This was the last album on which he sang lead vocals. As he became less convinced by his lyric writing capabilities he began seeking a different path.

While popular on the folk and university circuit, Giltrap reached a turning point and received greater recognition during the 1970s. During this time, Giltrap started to concentrate on more purely instrumental pieces, and in 1976 released the album Visionary, based on the art and poetry of William Blake. Whilst recording, he missed the birth of his daughter Sadie, who was born in March 1975.

Visionary was produced by Jon Miller, who along with guitarist Roger Hand and keyboard player Rod Edwards were known as Triumvirate Productions. Hand and Edwards, having listened to demos of some of the material for Visionary, decided that it was time for Giltrap to be dragged, initially reluctantly, into the realm of rock music. With this new sound, however, Giltrap found a different audience and gained greater commercial success. The success of this album prompted Giltrap to move on from the singer-songwriter approach and to form the Gordon Giltrap Band, which toured extensively in the UK at that time.

Once the demos for Visionary were finished, Giltrap found himself with a three-album record contract with Electric Records. He was then offered a UK tour supporting the English progressive rock band Renaissance. He was invited to appear on BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test hosted by Bob Harris. Supported by his full band, they performed "Robes and Crowns/Awakening" and "Lucifer's Cage". Footage of the latter performance can be seen on the program 'Guitar Heroes at the BBC'.

A European tour followed at the end of 1976 as a support act to Wishbone Ash. They played several dates in Germany and were also booked to tour Switzerland. Unfortunately, upon arriving in Zurich Giltrap was hit by a car and broke his collarbone. As he was then unable to play guitar ,the rest of his tour was cancelled.

His follow-up album, Perilous Journey, consolidated his success, being named one of the best albums of 1977 by The Sunday Times. It peaked in the UK Albums Chart at No. 29. A single taken from the album, "Heartsong", received extensive airplay and reached No. 21 in the UK Singles Chart. The track was later used as the theme tune of the BBC TV series Holiday. Another of Giltrap's tracks, "The Carnival", was specially commissioned by ITV for the theme tune to ITV's holiday programme Wish You Were Here...?.

"Heartsong" has subsequently become the tune for which Giltrap is best known and still features in his live sets. "Heartsong" was eventually nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for the best instrumental/ orchestral piece for that year, losing to Elton John's "Song for Guy". Giltrap later said of the track's creation, "It began with a song I did in the late '60s called 'Starting All Over'. When I lived in London I began to mess around with it and stumbled on the riff for what would become 'Heartsong'. I kept working on it, and eventually recorded the guitar part for it. Then we added the rhythm section from Simon Phillips (drums) and John G. Perry (bass)." "At the time I never thought of this as anything other than a jolly little tune, but my producers Rod Edwards and Roger Hand realized the commercial potential in what we had. The melody really came out when the mini moog part was added, and then Eddie Spence (keyboards) came up with the fast moving synth figure. Edwards and Hand recorded Eddie at half speed, then played it back at normal speed to get the desired effect. That was something they learnt from working with George Martin."

Whilst Visionary had evolved from acoustic compositions adapted for a bigger band, Perilous Journey was composed with a bigger band sound in mind. It appeared occasionally to be more keyboard dominated but Giltrap was unperturbed by this as the pieces were his own compositions and he was pleased with the arrangements which he had worked on with Rod Edwards and Roger Hand.

In this period, albums had to flow from artists at consistent rates and few acts dared to allow time for the public to forget them. Such was the case with Giltrap who released his next album, Fear of the Dark, in 1978. At this stage, after the success of his previous two albums, Giltrap was riding on a high. Material for Fear of the Dark was relatively swiftly assembled.

The title track, in shortened form, was released as a single but failed to match the commercial success of "Heartsong". It reached number 48 in the singles charts and the band appeared on Top of the Pops. Another song on the album, "Fast Approaching", was a reworked track, vastly different from the original which had appeared on Giltrap's first album. It was extended to five minutes and featured Giltrap on both acoustic and electric guitars. He was now becoming far more familiar with the latter instrument and at this stage really enjoyed playing his Gibson Les Paul. Giltrap's electric guitar playing is a feature on this album but he was always first and foremost an acoustic guitarist and before too long the electric guitar featured less and less in his work.

In 1979, Giltrap toured the Fear of the Dark album with a band that consisted of John Gustafson on bass, who was active in the early Mersey scene and a top session player, and Ian Mosley on drums, who went on to work with Steve Hackett and latterly became a full-time member of Marillion. Old stalwarts Rod Edwards and Eddy Spence shared keyboard duties. Singer Shirlie Roden made a guest appearance on '"Innerdream". One of the dates on the tour was at the Oxford Polytechnic, where the subsequent Live at Oxford album was recorded.

By this stage in Giltrap's career, he was beginning to be concerned about becoming too predictable. He decided to move away from playing with a band and move back towards solo work. Giltrap's next album The Peacock Party which was released in 1979, was inspired by a book of the same name. This was in part illustrated by Alan Aldridge who also painted the colourful cover of the Giltrap album. A previous book entitled The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast had inspired an album by Roger Glover of Deep Purple which featured a host of stars. The Triumvirate team had also been working on an album inspired by the book featuring the voices of Judi Dench and Michael Hordern and it also featured celebrated musicians including Gerry Conway and Bruce Lynch both of whom had previously worked extensively with Cat Stevens. Aldridge appeared to prefer Triumvirates's version and it was he who brought his next book The Peacock Party  to the Triumvirate team to see if they were interested in another project. Triumvirate felt this was a good project for Giltrap to pursue.

Giltrap's pieces on this album are less complicated but still feature a full band sound. The whole feel of the album is more upbeat than his previous three. The tracks are shorter in length and, ironically, feature Giltrap playing more electric guitar than previous albums.

As previously mentioned, Giltrap had decided at this stage to move away from more commercial music and concentrate solely upon self-penned intricate guitar pieces. Whilst working on The Peacock Party he decided to retain the big band sound and incorporated many musicians within his pieces with whom he felt comfortable working. For example, the album featured the first of Giltrap's several collaborations with violinist Ric Sanders of Fairport Convention and John Etheridge of Soft Machine also features.

This album showcased Giltrap's talents from his strident electric guitar work on the opening track, "Headwind" to the intricacy of second acoustic track "Magpie Rag". This track incorporates a complex, oft-repeated riff around which the whole piece is based. The final track, "Dodo's Dream" has become a standard feature of his live performances in which he uses a looper and overdubbing to build up the piece.

When he finished recording, he embarked on a small tour in his favoured trio format which featured Ric Sanders on violin and long-term ally Eddie Spence on keyboards. This diversion concluded at a tricky time in his life when his first marriage broke up and his mother, with whom he was very close, died at age 58 having contracted cancer.

The tour to promote the album comprised Giltrap, Clive Bunker on drums, Rod Edwards on keyboards and 'Bimbo' Acock on saxophone, flute and additional keyboards. The tour was a success and boosted Giltrap at a time when he was feeling really low.

1980s
Giltrap's next album, Airwaves, released in 1981, evolved from the lineup of the band with whom Giltrap was performing. This was a different album to any previously produced as Giltrap did not compose every piece. Initially planned as music for TV, radio, film or other non-commercial use the recordings gradually morphed into an album which was eventually released. It didn't sell as well as previous Giltrap recordings and Giltrap himself felt somewhat detached from it as he was going through a difficult time in his life. There were to be no more Giltrap albums released for five years.

Performing gigs, however, did not stop as income still needed to be earned and Giltrap was pleased that he had learnt his craft as a solo performer thus not requiring the backing of a large band. During this time, he honed his skills of engaging with an audience.

Giltrap's life during this time went through a turbulent stage with the loss of his father at age 66, the fact he had two children to bring up and meeting Hilary, who was to become his second wife. He gradually began to get his life back to some sort of order. He was also gigging through this entire time and had joined up with Ric Sanders, the violinist of Fairport Convention. Sanders had already appeared as a guest on Giltrap's' album Peacock Party.

The title track, the longest on the album, was based upon a poem written by Elizabeth Barker, Giltrap's mother-in-law. Giltrap found the poem emotionally moving. On this track, the sound effects generated by the electric guitar are much in evidence.

"Sallie's Song" was inspired by a commission Giltrap received for the TV series Hold the Back Page starring David Warner and directed by Adrian Shergold. Shergold later commissioned Giltrap to write music for several further productions. These compositions were never released on album because Giltrap felt they were too intrinsically linked to the plot of the films to work as stand-alone pieces.

Later in 1987, Giltrap released A Midnight Clear, featuring instrumental renditions of well-known and lesser-known Christmas carols. Giltrap enlisted the support of Ric Sanders and his old friend Bimbo Acock.

The following year, Giltrap began to performs at gigs with Sanders and the two men began working on an album together. Entitled One to One, it was released in 1989. Both artists felt differently about it but both accept there was an instrumental imbalance which could be substantially improved with a remix.

1990s
In 1992, Giltrap performed at the Warwick Folk Festival when he performed, arguably, his finest live session. Unbeknownst to Giltrap, this was recorded and later released as an album. It was this album which caught the attention of Ritchie Blackmore, who had become a self-professed admirer of Giltrap's work.

In 1993, Giltrap was able to complete a project he had contemplated for some time. He wished to re-record "Heartsong" with famous friends Brian May, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, Midge Ure and Neil Murray. When completed there was little interest from record companies and it was two years before the track surfaced on an album.

Later that year, Giltrap joined Midge Ure on his Out Alone solo tour. Giltrap co-wrote a song with him entitled "Feel So Good" which was eventually released on the 2001 album Little Orphans. He also undertook a tour with a guitarist he greatly admired, Albert Lee, along with his band Hogan's Heroes.

In 1994, Giltrap toured with ELO Part II. a group created by ELO drummer Bev Bevan without the involvement of Jeff Lynne. Giltrap was disappointed that his name did not appear on any advertising poster, nor was he actually remunerated for his performances. These were very well received and resulted in good CD sales.

Giltrap had used a Fylde guitar on "Heartsong" which had been greatly admired by Cliff Richard. This guitar is the one he played on BBC's Top of the Pops. Whilst interviewing many musicians for Guitarist magazine, Giltrap met Cliff Richard for the first time since the 1970s when he had originally loaned Richard the Fylde. It had an intricately designed inlay of the 'Tree of Life' on the fretboard and Richard loved it. Giltrap decided to present it to him as a gift.

In 1995, Giltrap released the album Music for the Small Screen. Not many of these pieces, composed as the theme tunes for television programmes, had appeared on his albums. The album featured the all-star reworking of "Heartsong" and also a track entitled "Last of England", later to be the title of a highly regarded album, which had been used in the Adrian Shergold drama Will You Love Me Tomorrow. This play was loosely based on the actions of child killer Mary Bell and featured Giltrap in a cameo role as a newspaper seller strumming a guitar.

This album also featured a track entitled "The Lord's Seat" which had been written for a television documentary. It still remains a staple of Giltrap gigs. The track was written in a Renaissance style and required a special, lute-like baby guitar made by luthier Rob Armstrong. Another track on the album, "Brutus", had been used as the theme tune of the World Bowls Championship.

In 1995, Giltrap was invited by Cliff Richard to take part in his West End musical Heathcliff, which was based upon the Wuthering Heights novel by Charlotte Brontë. Giltrap's character in the show was the Troubadour. He sang three songs in the show.

After some public previews at Earls Court, Heathcliff premiered at the National Indoor Theatre in Birmingham in October 1996. The show then headed to Edinburgh Playhouse for a four-week run before returning to Birmingham for a few pre-Christmas shows. It then travelled to the Palace Theatre in Manchester and finally Hammersmith Odeon before its final performance there in May 1997. Heathcliff reached an audience of nearly half a million people during its run and broke box-office records at almost every theatre at which the production was staged. Whilst not popular with critics, a video of the show recorded at Hammersmith Odeon remained top of the video charts for eight weeks.

Giltrap's next album, Troubadour, was named after his character in Heathcliff. Troubadour gave Giltrap the chance to approach his old friend Del Newman to work on the string arrangements for the album. Newman wanted to produce the album himself to ensure the right balance between his string arrangements and Giltrap's guitar.

When he heard that the album was going to include a version of "A Misunderstood Man", Cliff Richard approached Giltrap and volunteered to sing backing vocals on the track. Troubadour also includes another song from the Heathcliff musical: "Be With Me Always". The first edition of the album included sleeve notes written by both Cliff Richard and Tim Rice. An important album for Giltrap, many of its tracks are frequently included in his live performances to this day.

One of the album's tracks, "Rain in the Doorway", utilised a beloved baby guitar purchased at a boot sale for £5. It has since been renovated and usually accompanies Giltrap on his gigs, used primarily for the piece "Appalachian Dreaming". The album gained very favourable reviews and sold well.

Alongside his continued live performances, Giltrap then began conducting celebrity interviews for Guitarist magazine. This led to him meeting Fay Goodman, who was considering producing a series of DVD interviews with prominent musicians. Once employed, Giltrap found himself interviewing stars such as Albert Lee and Tony Iommi. One such interview was with one of his heroes, John Entwistle of the Who. Their encounter was later released as a DVD entitled Thunderfingers.

2000s
For some time, Giltrap had been considering creating a tribute album to Bert Jansch, whom he greatly admired. The result was an album comprising six pieces. One of these tracks required vocals which Giltrap himself performed. The track, entitled 'Running From Home', was the first time Giltrap had sung on an album in 17 years.

During this album, Giltrap attempted to demonstrate Jansch's great versatility of skills in the selection of pieces he chose for the album, performing each in Janch's unique style. This is amply demonstrated by Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", a track which Jansch had played in his unique style and which Giltrap followed faithfully in his interpretation of the song. Another notable track on the album was another piece previously interpreted by Jansch: Davey Graham's "Anji". This piece (spelt "Angie" on the album) had also influenced Giltrap's early work.

The album concluded with a version of "Roots", Giltrap's own composition which had first appeared on his Fear of the Dark album. He included this to show the influence Jansch had had on his own guitar style.

Janschology was released on the 'Voiceprint' label in 2001. Giltrap was by now working on new material for his next album, Under This Blue Sky, which was to be released the following year. Giltrap recruited additional musicians to play on the album, the most significant of whom was Bert Jansch himself. Jansch plays on the track "Chambertin". This track had appeared on his previous album but was now considerably lengthened. The album also featured the talents of flautist Hillary Ashe-Roy.

Giltrap decided to include his version of George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun". He used a baby Armstrong guitar for this piece and, although he never met George Harrison, he was indirectly the person who introduced him to that guitar. This happened via his friend, Joe Brown, who was so impressed with the instrument when Giltrap demonstrated it to him, that he sent one to Harrison as a Christmas present. Harrison loved it too and purchased two more as gifts for his close friends.

Another track revisited on this album was the Troubadour piece "The Picnic". This piece became enlivened by Ashe-Roy's skills on the flute and Giltrap was delighted with the result. The flautist's skills were also in evidence on another track, "Crossing the Border", on which the duo were joined by a second guitarist, Kevin Dempsey, with whom Giltrap had toured as a duo several years earlier.

In 2003, the album Remember This was released. Featuring some original Giltrap recordings, it mostly contains renditions of compositions which influenced the young Giltrap. These included "Substitute" by the Who, as Giltrap had long been an admirer of Pete Townshend's skills on the guitar. The album also includes Cliff Richard's "Summer Holiday", as well as pieces by Django Reinhardt, John Renbourn and J.S. Bach.

Giltrap performed most pieces himself but on a couple of tracks he enlisted the help of guitarist Neville Marten and, once again, the flautist Hilary Ashe-Roy. Two of Giltrap’s original tracks featured accompaniment by Rick Wakeman as these had previously been recorded for a radio programme.

In 2001, Giltrap met the classical guitarist Raymond Burley. Burley listened to Giltrap‘s work and, liking what he heard, realised that they might be able to make music together. This resulted in a collaborative album called Double Vision, which was released in 2004. The album was recorded live at Holy Trinity church in Weston, East Hampshire. This was the beginning of a collaboration between the two friends which would last several years.

Next came the solo album Live At Ambergate. This album explored the unusual sound effects of binaural recording which was recorded using in-ear microphones.

The next studio album, Drifter, was released in 2004. This featured a very special violin played by John Bradbury. This violin Giltrap had picked up at a boot fair for £20. He asked somebody to look at it to see if it was any good. It turned out to be a violin made by Giuseppe Pedrazzini who was a celebrated early 20th century violin maker, and was worth £30,000, This instrument was used on three tracks on the album. Giltrap eventually parted with the violin for £23,000.

The violin features on the opening track of the album, "Mrs Singer's Waltz". This is followed by another track, a regular piece in Giltrap's current live performances, entitled "Maddie Goes West". It features banjo player Madelyn Martyn who was just about to take a trip to America, hence the title.

The title track, "Drifter", was, interestingly, also recorded on another guitar purchased cheaply at a boot fair. Giltrap's wife, Hilary, helped out with the vocals on this track.

Giltrap had previously received a call from somebody who worked for music publishing company wondering if he could write a piece in the style of Django Reinhardt. Giltrap duly created a piece entitled "Deco Echo". This piece was later to be used on a television programme about the Poirot series which starred David Suchet.

The album had a sleeve with the lone silhouetted figure of Giltrap looking like a drifter. The photo had been taken by his wife Hilary and they were both delighted with it particularly when they realised that it suited the title of the album perfectly.

No further original Giltrap albums were to be forthcoming for several years but in 2006 a concert at the Symphony Hall Birmingham was filmed.

In 2007, Giltrap released the album Secret Valentine. This album re-visited some of his favourite romantic pieces. It was basically created to feature the sound of a Rob Armstrong guitar which had been designed as part of a research project and was made entirely out of a plastic polymer. Giltrap released this and amply demonstrated the versatility of that instrument.

A live album, As It Happens..., was released later in 2007, with which Giltrap himself was very pleased.

The following year saw the launch of a venture entitled Three Parts Guitar. Double Vision had not been as successful as hoped due to a perceived clash in styles between Burley and Giltrap. The pair, however, convinced their collaboration had a future, enlisted the talented jazz-based guitarist John Etheridge to join them in a tour. This proved extremely successful. In concert, they each played a solo session before the finale where they joined together to play some of Gordon's pieces. The show in the Symphony Hall in Birmingham in September 2008 was performed to capacity crowd with special guest Rick Wakeman.

John Etheridge could not totally commit to the tour as he was also working with classical guitar star John Williams. Clive Carrol was approached to see if he would step in if required. Having seen Carrol play guitar Festival, it was John Renbourn who recommended him. Giltrap too was also hugely impressed with his talent. Etheridge, however, then committed to the project and Carrol was asked to join the group which then became Four Parts Guitar, thus forming a collaboration which worked well for several more years.

For some time, Giltrap and Rick Wakeman had been planning to make an album together. They decided that the time had now arrived. Giltrap's love of Renaissance art contrasting with Wakeman‘s love of sculpture resulted in the album's title From Brush and Stone. The album, divided in two by composer, featured tracks with each adding accompaniment to each other's compositions. Giltrap's pieces were mainly a reworking of his Brotherhood Suite and these were complemented by versions of the aforementioned "Maddie Goes West" and a piece entitled "By Angle Tarn".

The duo's collaboration continued when Wakeman undertook a solo tour entitled Grumpy Old Picture Show. It included a previously recorded video conversation with Giltrap, which was worked so that Wakeman appeared to be conversing live with Giltrap on stage.

2010s
Wakeman also appeared on Giltrap’s next album, Shining Morn, which was released in 2010. The title piece appears twice on the album, first as a solo and again as the concluding track which incorporates Wakeman on keyboards. The flautist Hilary Ash-Roy appears once again on "Joy Ride" and "Prayer for Philippa". Another track, "Forever Gold", was written to celebrate Cliff Richard's 50 years in show business.

Several older compositions are revisited on the album. One, "Ive's Horizon", first appeared on Giltrap's very first album which was released in 1968. Another, "The Passing Of A Queen", had originally appeared on the 1973 Giltrap album. Shining Morn also features a new version of "Dodo's Dream", which had become a staple of Giltrap’s concerts. This version with overdubbing tries to replicate the feeling given during live performances of the piece.

In 2012, Giltrap, reflecting upon the work he had done since Elegy, decided to change tack and produce a completely different type of album. To this end, he teamed up with Oliver Wakeman (one of Rick's sons), who had recently departed from the band Yes. The pair of them produced together the prog rock album Ravens and Lullabies, which was released the following year.

Giltrap decided that this collaboration was to involve both their writing skills. Wakeman arranged Esoteric as the record label, found recording studios and located a suitable vocalist in the form of Paul Manzi.

This album reacquainted Giltrap with the electric guitar. Despite on many previous occasions revealing considerable skills with this instrument, he still lacked faith in his own abilities. The results he achieved even surprised himself.

The track "From the Turn of a Card" featured the vocals of Benoit David with whom Wakeman had worked during his time with the band Yes. The album was well received and sold well.

The album was supported by a tour complete with a full band. Giltrap felt uncomfortable attempting to play all the necessary guitar parts himself which would have involved frequent changes of instrument. For this reason, they drafted in guitarist Nick Kendall. The band headlined the Summer's End prog rock festival to great acclaim and, their live show proved to be an enormous success.

Giltrap also undertook a tour with Oliver Wakeman at this time with both artists showcasing their own material. They were recruited to support Barclay James Harvest on their 2013 tour.

Alongside his performances with the Ravens band, during 2014 Giltrap continued to tour with his Four Parts Guitar ensemble. Later that year he began performing charity shows at St Giles Hospice in Sutton Coldfield. These gigs were well attended and Giltrap found them very uplifting.

In January the following year, Giltrap’s health began to suffer. He was getting uncomfortable gastric symptoms and these turned out to be very serious when, in June 2015, he was diagnosed with having a GIST or gastrointestinal stromal tumor. He was referred eventually to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Surgery took place on 6 May 2016 and was considerably more invasive than they had hoped it would be. During this time he was supported by his friend, singer / songwriter Carrie Martin, who helped both himself and Hilary through a very traumatic period of their lives. After surgery, which was to prove to be twice as long as expected, Giltrap was very weak and there initially was concern for his future. However, he gradually regained his strength, returning home just a fortnight later. A period of convalescence followed and gradually, despite occasional setbacks, he recovered.

Upon recovery, Giltrap continued gigging and he also began to run workshops teaching his guitar pieces to groups of students. These events have proved popular and have become regular, most recently taking place at a large scout hall near his home in Sutton Coldfield. Events are publicised and sold through his website. Giltrap is a member of the Registry of Guitar Tutors and has long been passionate about sharing guitar techniques with his students. "'Teaching and passing on knowledge is something that has been close to my heart for many years. I have taught in schools, conducted guitar workshops, written columns for various guitar publications, and as already mentioned, have a strong association with the RGT. I was asked to be a patron quite a few years ago. They are bringing out a book of my pieces under the umbrella of The London College of Music. As a self-taught, non-academic musician I'm honoured to now become 'legit' within the hallowed portals of the college with this new publication entitled GRADED GILTRAP. The title itself just makes me smile.'"

On 31 January 2018, Giltrap learnt the devastating news that Jamie, his son, had passed away suddenly after a short illness. He was not considered to be in danger and so this was very unexpected news. Jamie had followed in his father’s footsteps with regard to a keen interest in music but his interests were of a very different genre. He had begun working as a DJ with dance music using the name DJ Tango. He was well respected and according to one source: "'changed the rave music scene and produced some amazing music, ... (helping to) shape and build the foundations for drum & bass in the days when Coventry was at the forefront of the best all-night rave clubs in the UK every weekend. Thousands traveled from all over the UK to queue for hours to get in. For those who had pleasure to know him or go to one of his sets, it was always a good night.'"

In order to help overcome his grief, Giltrap threw himself into other projects. One most dear to his own heart was an album he was working on at the time of Jamie's passing. It had been conceived to help to raise funds for Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where Giltrap himself had been treated. This was his way of saying thank you for the wonderful treatment he had received at the hospital and to the many friends he had made there. Entitled Heartsongs, the album, a revised release of Shining Morn, included his all-star version of "Heartsong". The album is available for purchase only through the hospital charity and all proceeds are diverted towards cancer research. The story surrounding its production is detailed on Giltrap’s website which includes a link to purchase a copy. The album is dedicated to Jamie's memory.

Another project which came to fruition around the time of Jamie's passing was the publication of Giltrap's authorised biography by Steve Pilkington. The foreword was written by Del Newman. The book was published on 5 October 2018 and is dedicated to Jamie's memory.

During his years in the music business, Giltrap has attracted admiration from other celebrities, one such being Pete Townshend of the Who. Giltrap has always cited Townshend as being a strong influence on his guitar playing. In a 2019 interview, he stated: "'There truly is only one (person I'd like to collaborate with) and that has to be Pete Townshend, not just because he is cited as an influence on the way I play the guitar, but the power and eloquence of his creativity. He really is a towering genius within the annals of rock music and for me the Who were and still are the greatest rock band ever. I had the great pleasure of meeting Pete for the first time in 2017 and a more gracious and generous man you couldn't wish to be with. When I was going through serious health problems, he gifted me one of his Gibson J-200 signature guitars, and we hadn't even met at that time. Brian May did a similar thing to help raise my spirits. I shall never forget both those acts of kindness.'"

To his delight, Giltrap and Townshend finally met at a Who concert in Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena in 2017 and he was delighted to be asked to play on a Who album Townshend was working on. The piece he was asked to contribute to was entitled "She Rocked My World", and Giltrap travelled to Townshend's home to record it. The resultant album, Who, was released on 6 December 2019.

Giltrap has continued to tour the UK playing smaller, more intimate venues occasionally supported by Nick Hooper or Carrie Martin. He collaborated on two tracks from Martin's 2020 album Entity: "Time after Time" and "White Kites".

2020s
During the COVID-19 pandemic, according to his website, Giltrap remained creative in the period of restriction. No longer having to concentrate on his performances, he has been busy composing pieces for new albums, using musicians such as Ian Mosley and Rod Edwards. In November 2020, he promoted the release of a Christmas song for University Hospitals Birmingham Charity he had helped produce, penned by his friend Carrie Martin and recorded by a choir of hospital staff before the pandemic

On 31 January 2020, Giltrap released the album Woman. This was inspired by the many women who had influenced Giltrap during his life, particularly his wife, Hilary. It is her photograph which graces the album's cover. Many of the tracks were commissions from husbands dedicated to their wives.

Personal life
Giltrap married his first wife Maureen in June 1970 and they had two children. The couple divorced in 1981. Giltrap married his second wife, Hilary, on 22 May 1986. Hilary died on 30 December 2022, aged 83.

Influences
Giltrap cites Hank Marvin, the Beatles, Pete Townshend, Donovan, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Julian Bream, John Williams, Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams as his main musical influences.

Awards and honours
In 2000, Giltrap was inducted into the Grand Order of Water Rats, a celebrity charitable organisation.

In 2019, Giltrap was awarded with an MBE for his "for services to music and to charity". His award was announced in the 2018 honours list and the medal was presented to him by Prince Charles on 7 March 2019.

Discography
Studio albums:
 * 1968: Gordon Giltrap (Transatlantic Records) - later reissued on cassette as The Early Days (Allegro ALC) with a different track sequence
 * 1969: Portrait (Transatlantic)
 * 1971: A Testament of Time (MCA Records)
 * 1973: Giltrap (Philips Records)
 * 1976: Visionary (The Electric Record Company, catalogue no. TRIX 2)
 * 1977: Perilous Journey (The Electric Record Company, catalogue no. TRIX 4)
 * 1978: Fear of the Dark (The Electric Record Company)
 * 1979: The Peacock Party (PVK)
 * 1981 A Matter of Time - with Martin Taylor
 * 1982: Airwaves (PVK)
 * 1984: In At The Deep End (KPM)
 * 1987: Elegy (Filmtrax) - reissued in 2000 by La Cooka Ratcha
 * 1987: A Midnight Clear (Modern Music) - a collection of Christmas carols
 * 1995: Music for the Small Screen (Munchkin)
 * 1998: Troubadour (K-tel)
 * 1989 One to One - with Rick Sanders
 * 1998: Down the River (K-tel)
 * 2002: Under This Blue Sky (La Cooka Ratcha)
 * 2003: Remember This (La Cooka Ratcha) - primarily cover songs
 * 2004: Drifter (La Cooka Ratcha)
 * 2007: Secret Valentine (La Cooka Ratcha / Voiceprint)
 * 2009 Double Vision - with Raymond Burley
 * 2010: Shining Morn (Floating World)
 * 2011: 4 Parts Guitar with Raymond Burley, John Etheridge and Clive Carroll
 * 2012: Echoes Of Heaven with Carol Lee Sampson and Martin Green (BigWeb Entertainment Limited BW 4207)
 * 2013 Ravens And Lullabies with Oliver Wakeman, Paul Manzi, Benoit David, Steve Amadeo and Johanne James (Esoteric Antenna / Cherry Red Records EANTCD1013)
 * 2018 Heartsongs Charity CD for Birmingham Hospitals (Psychotron Records PR1007)
 * 2020 Woman (Angel Air records SJPCD608)

title: Gordon Giltrap