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William George Ward

William George Ward (21 March 1812 – 6 July 1882) was an English theologian and mathematician. A Roman Catholic convert, his career illustrates the development of religious opinion at a time of crisis in the history of English religious thought.

Life
He was the son of William Ward and Emily Combe. He was educated at Winchester College and went up to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1830, but his father's financial difficulties forced him in 1833 to try for a scholarship at Lincoln College, which he succeeded in obtaining. Ward had a gift for pure mathematics but for history, applied mathematics or anything outside the exact sciences, he felt contempt. He was endowed with a strong sense of humour and a love of paradox carried to an extreme. His examination for mathematical honours exhibited some of the peculiarities of his character and mental powers. Four out of his five papers on applied mathematics were sent up absolutely blank. Honours, however, were not refused him, and in 1834 he obtained an open fellowship at Balliol.

In the previous year the Tractarian movement had been launched: Ward was attracted to it by his hatred of moderation and what he called "respectability". He was repelled by the conception he had formed of John Henry Newman, whom he regarded as a mere antiquary. When, however, he was at length persuaded by a friend to go and hear Newman preach, he at once became a disciple. But he had, as Newman afterwards said of him, "struck into the movement at an angle." He had no taste for historical investigations. He treated the question at issue as one of pure logic: disliking the Reformers, the right of private judgment which Protestants claimed, and the somewhat prosaic uniformity of the English Church, he flung himself into a campaign against Protestantism in general and the Anglican form of it in particular. He nevertheless took deacon's orders in 1838 and priest's orders in 1840.

In 1839 Ward became a writer for the British Critic, the organ of the Tractarian party, and he excited suspicion among the adherents of the party by his violent denunciations of the Anglican Church, to which he still belonged. In 1841 he urged the publication of the celebrated Tract 90, and wrote in defence of it. From that period Ward and his associates worked undisguisedly for union with the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1844 he published his Ideal of a Christian Church, in which he openly contended that the only hope for the Church of England lay in submission to the Church of Rome. This publication brought to a height the storm which had long been gathering. The University of Oxford was invited, on 13 February 1845, to condemn Tract 90, to censure the Ideal, and to deprive Ward from his degrees. The two latter propositions were carried with Ward being deprived of his tutorship and Tract 90 only escaped censure by the non-placet of the proctors, Guillemard and Church.

Ward left the Church of England in September 1845, and was followed by many others, including Newman himself. After his reception into the Catholic Church, Ward devoted himself to ethics, metaphysics and moral philosophy. After his conversion he married, and for a time had to struggle with poverty. But his circumstances slowly improved. In 1851 he became professor of moral philosophy at St Edmund's College, Ware, and the following year he was appointed to the chair of dogmatic theology.

Dublin Review
Ward wrote articles on free will, the philosophy of theism, on science, prayer and miracles for the Dublin Review. In 1863 he became editor of the Dublin Review (1863–1878). He took over as editor in July 1863, deferring editorial decisions on politics, history, or literature to sub-editors. He was an opponent of Liberal Catholicism and defender of papal authority, and attacked the views of Charles Forbes René de Montalembert and Ignaz von Döllinger. He supported the promulgation of the dogma of Papal Infallibility in 1870. He also dealt with the condemnation of Pope Honorius I, carried on a controversial correspondence with John Stuart Mill, and took a leading part in the discussions of the Metaphysical Society.

Family
Ward was the grandnephew of Robert Plumer Ward, the nephew of Sir Henry George Ward, and the son of William Ward.

He was the father of Newman's biographer, Wilfrid Philip Ward; a grandfather of Father Leo Ward, a missionary in Japan and co-founder of Sheed & Ward, and of Leo's sister, the writer and publisher Maisie Ward; and a great-grandfather of the translator Rosemary Sheed, and of Rosemary's brother, the novelist Wilfrid Sheed. His daughter was professed as a Benedictine nun and became Lady Abbess of Oulton Abbey, Staffordshire.

Works

 * The Ideal of a Christian Church (1844)
 * The Anglican Establishment Contrasted (1850)
 * Heresy and Immortality (1851)
 * On Nature and Grace: A Theological Treatise (1860)
 * The Relation of Intellectual Power to Man's True Perfection (1862)
 * The Authority of Doctrinal Decisions Which are not Definitions of Faith, Considered in a Short Series of Essays Reprinted from "The Dublin Review" (1866)
 * De Infallibilitatis Extensione (1869)
 * Essays on Devotional and Scriptural Subjects (1879)
 * The Condemnation of Pope Honorius (1879)
 * Essays on the Church's Doctrinal Authority (1880)
 * Essays on the Philosophy of Theism Vol. 1 Vol. 2 (1884)

Selected articles
 * "Intrinsic End of Civil Government," The Dublin Review, Vol. LIII (1863).
 * "The Dogmatic Principle," The Dublin Review, Vol. LIII (1863).
 * "The 'Union' Movement," The Dublin Review, Vol. LIV (1864).
 * "Rome and the Munich Congress," The Dublin Review, Vol. LV (1864).
 * "The University Question," The Dublin Review, Vol. LVI (1865).
 * "The Encyclical and Syllabus," The Dublin Review, Vol. LVI (1865).
 * "Public School Education," The Dublin Review, Vol. LVII (1865).
 * "Rome, Unionism, and Indifferentism," The Dublin Review, Vol. LVII (1865).
 * "Mr. Oxenham and the 'Dublin Review'," The Dublin Review, Vol. LVII (1865).
 * "Doctrinal Decrees of a Pontifical Congregation: The Case of Galileo," The Dublin Review, Vol. LVII (1865).
 * "Dr. Pusey's Apology for Anglicanism," The Dublin Review, Vol. LVIII (1866).
 * "Dr. Pusey's Project of Union," The Dublin Review, Vol. LVIII (1866).
 * "The Council of Florence," The Dublin Review, Vol. LVIII (1866).
 * "Irish Writers on University Education," The Dublin Review, Vol. LIX (1866).
 * "Dr. Pusey on Marian Devotion," The Dublin Review, Vol. LIX (1866).
 * "Pius IX. and the 'Civiltà Cattolica'," The Dublin Review, Vol. LIX (1866).
 * "Two Criticisms on the Dublin Review," The Dublin Review, Vol. LX (1867).
 * "Science, Prayer, Free Will and Miracles," The Dublin Review, Vol. LX (1867).
 * "Doctrinal Apostolic Letters," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXII (1868).
 * "The Witness of Heretical Bodies to Mariology," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXII (1868).
 * "The Irish Disestablishment," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXIII (1868).
 * "Principles of Catholic Higher Education," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXIV (1869).
 * "Catholic Controversy," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXV (1869).
 * "Grignon de Monfort and his Devotion," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXVIII (1871).
 * "The Definition of Papal Infallibility," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXVIII (1871).
 * "Certitude in Religious Assent," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXVIII (1871).
 * "Copernicanism and Pope Paul V," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXVIII (1871).
 * "The Rule and Motive of Certitude," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXIX (1871).
 * "Galileo and the Pontifical Congregations," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXIX (1871).
 * "Mr. Mill's Denial of Necessary Truth," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXIX (1871).
 * "Liberalism Religious and Ecclesiastical," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXX (1872).
 * "Mr. Mill on the Foundation of Morality," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXX (1872).
 * "Father Liberatore, Father Harper, and Lord Robert Montagu," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXX (1872).
 * "Parliament and Catholic Education," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXX (1872).
 * "The Priesthood in Irish Politics," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXI (1872).
 * "A Word on Classical Studies," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXI (1872).
 * "The Present Anglican Position," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXI (1872).
 * "The Labourers and Political Economy," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXII (1873).
 * "Irish Priests and Landlords," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXII (1873).
 * "A Few Words on Dr. Brownson's Philosophy," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXVIII (1876).
 * "Father O'Reilly on Society and the Church," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXVIII (1876).
 * "Tradition and Papal Infallibility," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXVIII (1876).
 * "Church and State," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXVIII (1876).
 * "Professor Mivart on the Rights of Conscience," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXIX (1876).
 * "Cremation," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXIX (1876).
 * "Mr. Mill on Causation," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXIX (1876).
 * "Civil Intolerance of Religious Error: Professor Mivart on Liberty of Conscience," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXX (1877).
 * "Hergenröther on Church and State," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXXI (1877).
 * "Mr. Shadworth Hodgson on Free Will," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXXVII (1880).
 * "Philosophy of the Theistic Controversy," The Dublin Review, Vol. LXXXIX (1882).

title: William George Ward


text:
Gold Cup

Gold Cup may refer to:

In art and archaeology:
 * Royal Gold Cup, 14th century French cup in the British Museum
 * Rillaton Gold Cup, late Neolithic, from Rillaton Barrow in England
 * Ringlemere Cup, Bronze Age from England

In horse racing:
 * Ascot Gold Cup, horse race run at Ascot Racecourse, UK, during June
 * Awapuni Gold Cup, major horse race run under weight-for-age conditions held in Awapuni, Palmerston North, New Zealand
 * Ayr Gold Cup, flat horse race run at Ayr Racecourse
 * Cheltenham Gold Cup, steeplechase run at Cheltenham Racecourse
 * Geraldton Gold Cup, one of Western Australia's most popular races
 * Gold Cup at Greyville, Grade III stakes race over 3200m held at Greyville in Durban, South Africa
 * Gold Cup at Santa Anita Stakes, Grade I stakes race currently held at Santa Anita Park
 * Gold Cup Steeplechase American race
 * Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap, Grade II race for thoroughbred horses run at Hawthorne Race Course each year
 * Jockey Club Gold Cup, horse race, Elmont, New York
 * BetVictor Gold Cup, steeplechase run at Cheltenham Racecourse
 * December Gold Cup, steeplechase run at Cheltenham Racecourse
 * Tattersalls Gold Cup, horse race run at The Curragh, Ireland in May
 * Virginia Gold Cup, steeplechase run on the first Saturday in May, American

In association football:
 * Copa de Oro (Spanish: Gold Cup), South American association football competition between the club winners of the Copa Libertadores de América, the Supercopa Sudamericana, the Copa CONMEBOL, and the Supercopa Masters
 * CONCACAF Gold Cup, association football competition between nations from North and Central America and from the Caribbean
 * CONCACAF W Championship, known as the CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup from 2000 to 2006, women's association football competition
 * CONCACAF W Gold Cup, women's association football competition
 * Gold Cup (India), the 4-team women's association football tournament organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF)
 * Gold Cup (Northern Ireland), defunct association football competition
 * Aga Khan Gold Cup, defunct association football competition

In rugby union:
 * Gold Cup (rugby union), a South African rugby union competition between the winners of the club championships of provincial unions

In motorsport:
 * Oulton Park International Gold Cup, an annual non-Championship Formula One race of the 1950s and '60s, recently reinstated for historic F1 cars
 * APBA Gold Cup, an annual hydroplane racing cup
 * UAW-GM Spirit of Detroit Hydrofest, an annual hydroplane racing cup on the Detroit River, formerly known as the Gold Cup
 * HAPO Gold Cup, an H1 Unlimited hydroplane boat race held each July on the Columbia River in Columbia Park, Tri-Cities, Washington
 * Steve Henshaw Gold Cup, an annual motorcycle circuit race, held at Oliver's Mount, in Scarborough, England

In sailing:
 * Scandinavian Gold Cup, annual nation race of 5.5 metre class yachts.
 * Dragon Gold Cup, established in 1937 for Dragon Class one-design yachts.
 * Finn Gold Cup, annual World Championship event for Finn dinghies.
 * King Edward VII Gold Cup, raced in Bermuda with International One Design class yachts.
 * Nordic Folkboat Gold Cup, established in 1963 for Nordic Folkboat class one-design yachts.

In contract bridge:
 * Gold Cup (bridge), the premier open competition in the United Kingdom

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

title: Gold Cup


text:
Varro Atacinus

Publius Terentius Varro Atacinus (82 – c. 35 BC) was a Roman poet, more polished in his style than the more famous and learned Varro Reatinus, his contemporary, and therefore more widely read by the Augustan writers. He was born in the province of Gallia Narbonensis, the southern part of Gaul with its capital at Narbonne, on the river Atax (now the Aude), for his cognomen Atacinus indicates his birthplace.

Writings
Only fragments of his works survive. His first known works are Bellum sequanicum, a poem on Julius Caesar's campaign against Ariovistus, and some satires; these should not be confused with the Menippean Satires of the other Varro, of which some 600 fragments survive. He also wrote a geographical poem, Chorographia; Ephemeris, a hexameter poem on weather-signs after Aratus, from which Virgil has borrowed and (late in life) elegies to Leucadia.

His translation of the Alexandrian poet Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica into Latin has some fine surviving lines; and was singled out for praise by Ovid: “Of Varro too what age will not be told/And Jason’s Argo and the fleece of gold?”. Oskar Seyffert considered that the poem to have been “the most remarkable production in the domain of narrative epic poetry between the time of Ennius and that of Vergil”.

Of Varro's fragments, the epigram on "The Tombs of the Great" is well-known; whether or not it is truly Varro's is debatable:

Patrons
Cicero as well as Caesar have been suggested as possible patrons of Varro's writings.

authors: Я сошла с ума

title: Varro Atacinus


text:
OFC Men's Nations Cup

The OFC Men's Nations Cup, known as the OFC Nations Cup before the 2024 edition, is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), determining the continental champion of Oceania. The winning team became the champion of Oceania and until 2016 qualified for the FIFA Confederations Cup.

Historically, a very large gulf separated Australia and New Zealand from the smaller island competitors, and little attention was paid to the tournament by the rest of the football world. In fact, the 2012 OFC Nations Cup is the only edition to date not won by either New Zealand or Australia, being won by Tahiti instead.

First editions (1973–1980)
This tournament began in 1973 as the "Oceania Cup". This first edition was staged without a qualifying round and was won by the host in Auckland, New Zealand that defeated Tahiti, 2–0. The tournament was characterised by the absence of the Australian team and the presence of some teams not members of FIFA, such as New Hebrides, which later became Vanuatu after gaining independence in 1980.

The second edition of the Oceania Cup took place in 1980 in New Caledonia, at that time not a FIFA member. Australia played the final match in Nouméa and defeated Tahiti, 4–2. The tournament was characterised by a poor result for New Zealand: out in the group stage losing against Tahiti (3–1) and Fiji (4–0). Two years later they qualified for the 1982 FIFA World Cup. These two editions were the only without qualifying rounds. After this edition the tournament was discontinued. So Australia maintained the Oceania Champion title for 16 years without playing in any tournaments. Between the years of absence (1981–1995) the most important Oceanian region tournament was the Trans-Tasman Cup played only between Australia and New Zealand.

Return, every two years (1996–2004)
In 1996, when OFC reached the official status of Confederation for FIFA, the tournament reappeared as the "Oceania Nations Cup" and served as a qualifier for the Confederations Cup. The 1996 edition lacked a host nation but had its inaugural qualifying round, contested with four teams playing semifinals and final match on two legs both: Australia and New Zealand, who played the semifinal also for the Trans-Tasman Cup, and the second semifinal match between Tahiti as Polynesia Cup holders and Solomon Islands as Melanesia Cup holders. Australia defended its title of The Cup winning easily in the final match, on two legs, against Tahiti (6–0 and 5–0). The topscorer of this tournament, Kris Trajanovski, scored all his seven goals in the final tie: four in the first leg in Papeete (Tahiti) and three in the second leg in Canberra (Australia). Thanks to this result, this Australian team, managed by the English Terry Venables and not by the Scottish Oceania Champion Eddie Thomson, took part to the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup in Saudi Arabia.

In the 1998 edition six teams participated, hosted by Australia and dominated by Australia and New Zealand. In the final match, played in Brisbane, New Zealand beat the host Australia 1–0 with a goal by Mark Burton. In this edition the Australian player Damian Mori scored 10 goals, the standing record. He is also the overall Oceania Nations Cup top scorer with 14 goals, scored in three editions: one in 1996, ten in 1998 and three in 2002.

The fifth edition was hosted by Tahiti in 2000. The tournament structure was confirmed and again the tournament was dominated by Australia and New Zealand who reached the final match in Papeete. Australia won their third title by a score of 2–0, qualifying for the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup. Fiji, who qualified for this edition, was forced to withdraw due to civil war and was replaced by Vanuatu, who impressed in the semifinal against Australia: the Socceroos, managed by Frank Farina, won 1–0 thanks only to a penalty kick by Kevin Muscat. Two years later the Australian team finished third in the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Korea and Japan.

For the 2002 edition, hosted by New Zealand, eight teams participated, divided into two groups won by Australia and New Zealand. This was their third consecutive final match. The Australian side won the semifinal against a brave Tahiti only after extra time. Soccer Australia was involved in financial problems: the non-existent financial contribution meant that the Australian players had to pay their own way to get to New Zealand, so Scott Chipperfield became the only one of Australia's large European contingent to answer the call and perform for his country in their time of need, resulting in a weak team for the tournament. So the final was won for the third time by the All Whites beating their historical rivals 1–0 in Auckland with a late Ryan Nelsen goal.

In the 2004 edition, which served also as the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification and was played in Australia, six nations took part playing each other in a unique group, with the first two playing a final match in two legs. During the group stage Vanuatu surprisingly beat New Zealand 4–2, but lost all their remaining matches. This and a draw with Australia (2–2) allowed Solomon Islands to claim second place and a berth in the final match against Australia. In the final, the Solomon Islands were beaten 5–1 on their home ground Honiara and 6–0 in Sydney. Moreover, this was the first, and until today the only time that a coach, Frank Farina, has won the Oceania Nations Cup trophy twice. Two years later, managed by Dutchman Guus Hiddink and composed of many 2004 Oceania Nations Cup scorers such as Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell, Mark Bresciano, Brett Emerton, John Aloisi, Australia reached the second round of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. However, this was the fourth and last OFC title for Australia: in 2006 they decided to join AFC, changing considerably the Oceania football scene.

A new era (2006–present)
Australia joined the Asian Football Confederation on 1 January 2006, ceasing to be a member of OFC, leaving New Zealand as the only major power in the OFC. The 2007 South Pacific Games, won by New Caledonia, served as a qualifying round for the three lowest ranked teams in the OFC, with the winners qualifying for the 2008 OFC Nations Cup. The 2008 OFC Nations Cup was played without a fixed venue and with four teams playing each other at home and away in one group. The tournament also served as part of the OFC's qualifying competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. New Zealand emerged easily as winners for the fourth time ahead of New Caledonia, winning five matches of six. Surprisingly, Fiji won the last match against New Zealand in Lautoka (Fiji) for 2–0 with two goals of Roy Krishna. The top-scorer Shane Smeltz (New Zealand) scored eight goals: four against the runners up New Caledonia beaten 3–1 away and 3–0 at home.

The 2012 edition of the tournament was originally meant to be played in Fiji, but they were stripped from hosting due to the ongoing legal dispute involving OFC general secretary Tai Nicholas and Fijian authorities. Hosting rights was moved to the Solomon Islands as they were joined by New Zealand, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Tahiti, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Samoa (winner of the qualifying tournament). The draw which was similar to the 2012 edition with them competing in two groups of four teams, with the top two in each group qualifying for the semi-finals. After 9 days, Tahiti and New Caledonia reached the final in Lawson Tama Stadium with Tahiti winning 1–0 with a goal from Steevy Chong Hue. With this, Tahiti became the first team other than Australia (no longer part of OFC) and New Zealand to be crowned Oceania champions. The tournament also served as part of the OFC's qualifying competition for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

After the cancellation of the 2020 OFC Nations Cup, the tournament was confirmed for 2024 as the 2024 OFC Men's Nations Cup. The tournament will follow the same style, but will not serve as World Cup qualifiers.

Format
The first two editions were played without any qualifying rounds. For the successive three tournaments, Australia and New Zealand were seeded into the tournament automatically, while the remaining ten nations played to qualify. The Polynesian and Melanesian Cups, each played between five nations grouped on a geographical basis, served as qualifications via a round-robin tournament, with the highest ranked two teams in each competition qualifying for the actual OFC Nations Cup.

With the postponement and then cancellation of the Melanesian Cup, and a similar fate befalling its Polynesian equivalent, the format of the tournament changed in 2002. FIFA rankings determined the seedings of all twelve teams, and the lower six teams played a group stage for two qualifier positions into the main tournament. The 2002 Cup tournament proper was played with two groups of four teams (again in round-robin style), which led into a 4-way knockout stage, playing for the top four positions.

In 2004, the format changed once again, returning to a format similar to that of the 1996–2000 tournaments, with five teams each playing in two qualifying groups and Australia and New Zealand seeded to the actual tournament, played as a group stage of six, with a home and away Final played between the two highest-placed teams. This tournament doubled also as qualifying round for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

For the 2008 tournament, the format altered again. The 2007 South Pacific Games football tournament served as a qualification tournament, with the gold, silver and bronze winning nations progressing to the main, round-robin format, tournament, for which New Zealand qualified automatically. New Zealand emerged as winners of the 2008 OFC Nations Cup, ahead of New Caledonia, and thus qualified for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and a playoff with the fifth placed team from the AFC for a place in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Results

 * 2004 tournament was held as a round-robin tournament in Australia followed by the final by two teams of home and away.

Summary
Notes:

Bold text denotes team was host country. 1 Australia left the OFC in 2006 and became a full member of the AFC.

Awards
There are currently four post-tournament awards
 * the Best Player for most valuable player;
 * the Top Goalscorer for most prolific goal scorer;
 * the Best Goalkeeper  for most outstanding goalkeeper;
 * the Fair Play Award for the team with the best record of fair play.

title: OFC Men's Nations Cup


text:
Schwäbisch Hall (district)

Schwäbisch Hall is a Landkreis (district) in the northeast of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) Main-Tauber, the Bavarian district Ansbach, Ostalbkreis, Rems-Murr, and Hohenlohe.

History
The district dates back to the Oberamt Schwäbisch Hall, which was created in 1803, when the previously free imperial city Schwäbisch Hall became part of Württemberg. After several minor changes, it was converted into a district in 1938. In 1973, it was merged with the district Crailsheim and the area around Gaildorf, which was part of the also dissolved district Backnang.

Geography
The two rivers Jagst and Kocher, tributaries to the Neckar, flow through the district. The landscapes covered by the district are the Hohenlohe plain (Hohenloher Ebene), the Swabian-Franconian Forest (Schwäbisch-Fränkischen Waldberge), which includes part of the Mainhardt Forest, and the Frankenhöhe.

Partnerships
The district maintains partnerships with the district Delitzsch (now part of Nordsachsen) in Saxony and the Polish commune of Zamość.

Coat of arms
The coat of arms shows a coin in the top part. The city of Schwäbisch Hall was one of the most important minting towns, the local coin Heller was well known in all of Germany. Below the coin are two hooks, taken from the coat of arms of the district Crailsheim, as well as from the city of Gaildorf. The black-and-white checkered area at the bottom is taken from the coat of arms of the Hohenzollern dynasty, who ruled the area historically.

title: Schwäbisch Hall (district)


text:
Luther Youngdahl

Luther Wallace Youngdahl (May 29, 1896 – June 21, 1978) was an American judge and politician who served as the 27th governor of Minnesota and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Education and career
Born on May 29, 1896, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Youngdahl graduated from Minneapolis South High School. He then received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1919 from Gustavus Adolphus College and a Bachelor of Laws in 1921 from the Minnesota College of Law (now Mitchell Hamline School of Law). He served as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army during World War I. He was an assistant city attorney for Minneapolis from 1921 to 1924 and in private practice from 1924 to 1930. He was a judge of the Minneapolis Municipal Court from 1930 to 1936 and of the Minnesota District Court for the Fourth Judicial District from 1936 to 1942. He was an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from 1942 to 1946. A member of the Republican Party, he was the governor of Minnesota from January 8, 1947, to September 27, 1951.

As governor, one of Youngdahl's biggest concerns was mental health, and he made reforms to Minnesota's mental health care system. In October 1949, Youngdahl personally burned more than 300 straitjackets and restraints. He also increased funding for public education, expanded public housing, increased benefits for war veterans, created activities to improve the health of young people, desegregated the state's National Guard, passed anti-discrimination laws in employment, and banned slot machines and strengthened anti-liquor laws, despite the legislature's opposition.

Federal judicial service
Youngdahl was a popular governor who won reelection easily in 1950, but as early as 1949 he expressed to a friend his desire to return to the judiciary, this time at the federal level. Believing that Youngdahl would be the strongest candidate the Republicans could run against him when he sought reelection in 1954, upon learning of Judge Thomas Alan Goldsborough's death from a heart attack, Minnesota's junior U.S. senator, Hubert Humphrey, proposed nominating Youngdahl to Goldsborough's now-vacant seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in a meeting with President Harry S. Truman on July 2, 1951. Noting that Youngdahl was the only governor who had written a letter commending him for his recent decision to fire General Douglas MacArthur, Truman agreed to the suggestion.

After meeting with Youngdahl on July 5, Truman appointed him the next day to the vacancy on the D.C. district court. The United States Senate confirmed Youngdahl on August 28, 1951, and he received his commission the next day. He assumed senior status on May 29, 1966.

As a senior judge, Youngdahl advocated education and job training for incarcerated criminals and less crowded programs to rehabilitate drug users, believing that harsh punishments failed to reduce crime.

His service ended on June 21, 1978, upon his death in Washington, D.C. He was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

title: Luther Youngdahl


text:
C. Elmer Anderson

Clyde Elmer Anderson (March 16, 1912 – January 22, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 28th governor of Minnesota from September 27, 1951 to January 5, 1955. Anderson also served as the lieutenant governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943 and again from 1945 to 1951.

Life and career
Anderson was born in Brainerd, Minnesota, in 1912 to Fred and Anna Anderson, Swedish-speaking Finnish immigrants from Lappfors in Esse, Ostrobothnia, Finland. His father died when he was 14, forcing him to get a job with a magazine and newspaper company to help support the family. He attended Brainerd High School and spent two quarters at the University of Minnesota studying medicine before running out of tuition money and returning home to continue working.

In 1938, he ran for lieutenant governor of Minnesota with Republican gubernatorial candidate Harold Stassen and won. At 31 and 26 years old, respectively, Stassen and Anderson were the youngest governor and lieutenant governor in state history. Anderson was reelected lieutenant governor five more times under three different governors. He holds the record for the most total years served as the state's lieutenant governor.

In September 1951, Anderson became governor when Luther Youngdahl resigned to become a federal judge in Washington, D.C. He won election to a full term in 1952 but was defeated by Orville Freeman two years later. After leaving the governor's office, he served as mayor of Nisswa from 1961 to 1963 and as mayor of Brainerd from 1976 to 1986. He died in Brainerd in 1998. The C. Elmer Anderson Memorial Highway is named in his honor.

title: C. Elmer Anderson


text:
Talk:Ronald Rivest

Needs merging with the Ron Rivest article. -- Loren

title: Talk:Ronald Rivest


text:
Elmer L. Andersen

Elmer Lee Andersen (June 17, 1909 – November 15, 2004) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and politician who built a successful business career with the H. B. Fuller Company. Andersen was most notably the 30th governor of Minnesota. A self-described progressive Republican, he was a well-regarded politician who passed many social and environmental regulations during his time as governor.

In one of the closest elections in the history of Minnesota and the United States, Andersen lost the 1962 Minnesota gubernatorial election by 91 votes to Karl Rolvaag.

Early life and education
Andersen was born in Chicago. His mother, Jennie Olivia Johnson (1877–1925), was the daughter of a seaman from Luleå, Sweden, who came to America as a young man and worked in the timber business. Elmer's father, Arne Kjelsberg Andersen (1866–1926), was an immigrant from Solør, Norway, who had settled in Chicago and became a streetcar motorman, operating on the Halsted streetcar line out of the Ashland Avenue car barns. "My earliest memory", Andersen wrote in his memoirs, "is of riding with him on the streetcar and being permitted to clang the bell as we came to street crossings." His parents separated when he was six years old. Andersen never understood why his parents separated and never questioned them. He and his mother and infant sister, Caroline, moved to Muskegon, Michigan. His two older brothers, Arnold and Marvin, arrived in Muskegon later. The Andersens had only sporadic contact with their father after the separation. At age nine, Elmer contracted a mild form of polio but, through exercise, regained his strength.

Andersen's brothers worked for E. H. Sheldon and Company in Muskegon, a manufacturer of specialty school furniture. Too young to work in the factory, Elmer's first job was helping his mother, who took in washing. From there he moved on to selling newspapers, vegetables, specialty products, candy bars and soft drinks. He also carried travelers' bags from the boat docks to the train station. "I love selling", he wrote. "I love the interchange with people. A good salesman gains influence on another person's mind. That makes selling quite a serious undertaking." At age 14, Andersen joined his brothers at Sheldon and Company. He also wrote short essays on birds that were published in the Muskegon Chronicle. "The thrill I had seeing those columns in print was the start of an abiding attraction to the newspaper business."

Andersen's mother was devoted to church work and ensured that her children were raised in the Lutheran church; Andersen was confirmed at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Muskegon. In 1925, his mother contracted a cold that developed into pneumonia. She died at home on March 3, 1925, with Andersen at her bedside. Within a year, his father also died, of a heart attack.

Andersen graduated from high school in 1926 and became a member of the first class of the newly established Muskegon Junior College. Upon graduating two years later, he received the first diploma awarded by the school. While in college, he held a sales job with J. J. Fagan and Company, a real estate firm, and worked as a stringer for the Muskegon Chronicle, while starting a newspaper for the junior college. Not long after, he and his brothers started a company, Muskegon Realty, which also sold casualty insurance for the Mercury Insurance Company. "I matured fast in those years. I was selling homes and farms. I was selling insurance. I was editing a college newspaper and stringing for a daily newspaper. I was studying and learning about things I had never known existed. It was almost an incredible time."

Andersen graduated from junior college in 1928. For the next year, he worked as a salesman for the Sheldon Company, working out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. "A year in Minneapolis left me convinced that I wanted something more. I wanted to enroll at the University of Minnesota. I usually approach a new venture with specific objectives. In aiming for the University of Minnesota, I had three: I wanted to get a degree for reasons of job protection. I did not want somebody to push ahead of me because he had a degree and I did not. Another object was to meet a woman whom I might marry. I was beginning to long for a home life and a family. I was lonely. I discovered that being a traveling salesman, on the road all the time, was no way to meet the kind of women I wanted to meet. My third objective was to have a good time! I had been a fairly successful salesman and quite frugal with my earnings....So, having fun, finding a girl, getting a degree—those were my objectives. If I was able to learn anything along the way, that would be purely incidental!" Andersen graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1931.

H. B. Fuller Company
By 1934, Andersen was growing dissatisfied with life as a traveling salesman. He heard through an associate that the H. B. Fuller Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, a manufacturer of school paste, was looking for someone to hire in sales promotion. Andersen discussed the position with the owner and president, Harvey B. Fuller Jr., and joined the company on October 8, 1934. Andersen managed sales for the H.B. Fuller Company over the next seven years until purchasing a controlling interest in the company in 1941 and taking over as president. Under his leadership, the firm became an early model of corporate responsibility, recognized for offering generous benefits to employees, their spouses, and retirees. Andersen's corporate philosophy was built around four priorities in a definite order. The highest priority was service to the customer. "Anything the customer wanted should be seen as an opportunity for us to provide it. Number two was that the company should exist deliberately for the benefit of the people associated in it. I never liked the word employee. It intimated a difference in class within a plant. We always used the word associate. Fuller's third priority was to make money. To survive, you have to make money. To grow, you need money. To conduct research and develop new products, you must have money. The need for money can be desperate at times. But corporations must put the quest for money in its proper place. Our philosophy did not leave out service to the larger community. We put it in fourth place, behind service to customers, our associates, and the bottom line. Community service cannot be paramount to a business, but it ought not to be omitted, as it too often is. Business must concern itself with the larger society—for reasons of self-interest if nothing else."

Under Andersen's guidance, Fuller grew from a small plant to an international Fortune 500 company. Its expansion strategy baffled the competition. Competitors thought the company was struggling to keep all the new plants afloat, but the opposite was true. Other leaders in the adhesives industry operated in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco. "They had huge plants and big established investments. They could not start a new plant. What would they do with their big old plant? By comparison, we were popping around the country and setting up small plants in lively little markets. We kept our real estate costs down. We did not have large freight charges to pass on to the customer. National Adhesives, the biggest company in the industry, was very focused on making money. They maintained their prices at a high level, even when their share of the market dropped, in order to make more money. That was a blessing for little companies like Fuller."

In 1968, Fuller became a publicly traded company. By 1970, it had become an adhesives industry leader, with 27 plants and offices in the U.S. and ten in foreign countries. The goal Andersen had set decades before of doubling its sales volume every five years was still being met. In 1970, Fuller reached about $48 million in sales. Andersen retired as president and chief executive officer in 1974, at age 65, turning the company over to his eldest son, Tony.

Dairy farm
In 1953, 12 years after becoming president of the H. B. Fuller Company, Andersen entered the dairy business, buying a farm held by his wife's family on Deer Lake, near St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. It was the start of 35 years in the dairy business, with about 200 head of cattle. The herd was slowly converted to registered Holsteins. In 1984, Deer Lake Farm received the National Holstein Association's Progressive Breeder Award. Additional land was acquired in the 1950s, and environmental restoration projects were undertaken on the expanded farm. After Andersen moved out of the dairy business in 1988, 80 acres of land surrounding one of the ponds were placed in a land preserve to honor the memories of his wife's parents.

ECM Publishers
In 1974, Andersen began a new career as a newspaper publisher and writer. He acquired two newspapers to form the Princeton Union-Eagle, which eventually became part of ECM Publishers, which published a number of weekly local newspapers and shoppers. Andersen wrote editorials for the ECM papers, many of which are gathered in Views from the Publisher's Desk (1997). His newspaper work gave him "more personal satisfaction than almost anything else I have done". His editorial goal was to make his readers think without telling them what to think. The Andersen family sold ECM to Adams Publishing Group in 2016.

Politics
A progressive Republican, Andersen served in the Minnesota legislature from 1949 to 1958. Among the many causes he championed were educational programs for exceptional children, recognition of alcoholism as a health problem, the Metropolitan Planning Commission in the Twin Cities, and the Fair Employment Practices Act (Minnesota was the fifth state to pass legislation on this issue). After the anti-discrimination bill passed, Andersen was greeted by an African-American, who told him that for the first time he felt like a "real man". Andersen described this moment as one of his most touching memories.

In 1960, Andersen ran for governor against incumbent Democrat Orville Freeman. In 1999, he said he decided to run after hearing Freeman wish he could again call the Minnesota National Guard to bust a strike at an Albert Lea meatpacking plant, after a federal judge blocked that decision. Andersen won by more than 20,000 votes. During his term, the common loon became the Minnesota state bird, several state parks were established, and the Taconite Amendment and fair housing legislation passed. He lost reelection two years later by the closest margin in U.S. history. The election was held on November 6, 1962, but the results were not known until March 21, 1963. After recounts and court challenges, it was determined that then-Lieutenant Governor Karl Rolvaag had defeated Andersen by 91 votes out of nearly 1.3 million cast, 619,842 to 619,751. On February 14, 1963, Andersen issued a statement that if he were reelected as governor, he would veto any right-to-work legislation disguised as "compulsory open shop legislation". Andersen believed that right-to-work laws would weaken Minnesota's labor movement and cause friction between workers and management.

Andersen remained in the Republican Party for the rest of his life, but he became unhappy about how conservative the party became. Even in the 1960s, his views were in the minority of the party. In a 2003 interview with the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, he said, "I remind people I want to be known as a liberal Republican. If that's a dirty word, so be it." In the 2004 presidential election, he endorsed Democratic nominee John Kerry over incumbent Republican President George W. Bush. He was so disenchanted with the Bush administration that he wrote a commentary in the Minneapolis Star Tribune claiming that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney "spew outright untruths with evangelistic fervor" and calling Cheney an evil man who was the administration's real decision-maker. Unlike many other members of his party, Andersen opposed low taxes.

University of Minnesota
Andersen served on the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota from 1967 to 1975 and as chair from 1972 to 1975. From 1968 to 1988, he was a trustee of the University of Minnesota Foundation, presiding over it from 1978 to 1981. During the Minnesota Campaign, the university's major fundraising effort from 1985 to 1988, he played a major leadership role in what was, at the time, the most successful fundraising effort by any U.S. public university.

Andersen believed there was an additional mission to the three central missions—teaching, research, and community service—of the university: an archival one. The building housing the archives and special collections of the university's libraries is named for him, in recognition of his deep belief in that mission. On May 14, 1999, the university's Board of Regents unanimously voted to name the newest library in his honor. The Elmer L. Andersen Library opened in April 2000.

Voyageurs National Park
One of Andersen's proudest achievements came in April 1975, when Congress passed legislation establishing Voyageurs National Park—thousands of acres of forests and lakes along Minnesota's northern border. Along with people like naturalist Sigurd Olson, legislator Willard Munger, and aviator Charles A. Lindbergh, Andersen devoted thousands of hours to persuading landowners, timber industry leaders, politicians, and citizens of the park's value to future generations. For his work, he is remembered as the "father of Voyageurs National Park".

"It is flattering to have been called the father of Voyageurs Park. I think that I made a difference. But so did many, many other people, more than I could possibly name, who kept the dream alive until it came to fruition. Some of the real heroes were people in the region who opposed their friends or employers to support the park. The park also had help from another real hero—Charles Lindbergh....Charles A. Lindbergh's name deserves a prominent place in the annals of Voyageurs National Park. The man who did so much for the development of aviation also did much for his home state, for the cause of wilderness preservation—and for me."

Book collector
Andersen developed a passion for books as a child and collected them all his life. As a young traveling salesman, he saved his loose change and spent it on books. His hunt for books brought him into contact with dealers, other collectors, printers and librarians. He was well-acquainted with book and auction catalogues; paging through them became a welcome break in a busy day. Andersen bought books with a purpose, to build a library. He intended to read them, know them well, catalog them, and care for them. American and English history and literature and inspirational poetry were of particular interest to him, but as his interests expanded so did his reading and his library. When he came to Minnesota, he became interested in the state's history. When he learned more about fine printing and printers, he turned to William Morris and the Kelmscott Press. And when he discovered something new, like the Whittington Press, he made sure that the University of Minnesota owned the printer's entire archive.

While writing his Princeton Union-Eagle editorials, Andersen wrote a column on book collecting using the name Arne Kjelsberg, his father's first two names. He did not reveal his authorship of the column for many years, though a close friend guessed. Andersen was a longtime member of the bibliophilic Ampersand Club, and his Arne Kjelsberg articles were published the year after his death in honor of the club's 75th anniversary, in 2005. Compilation of the volume commenced while Andersen lived, and he expressed hope to attend its publication party.

Andersen's wife supported his bibliomania. Together, their book buying was intimately connected with book giving and support for libraries and reading. Public libraries around the state and other book concerns benefited from their support and interest. They were major benefactors of the University of Minnesota and its libraries. Much of the collection at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Library, which bears Andersen's name, is a result of their generosity. The gift of his personal library of 12,500 rare volumes in March 1999 was described in the Minneapolis Star Tribune as "a gift of the heart."

Personal life and legacy
Andersen met Eleanor Anne Johnson (1911–2011) at Grace University Lutheran Church while they were both students. She was the eldest child of Gustav A. and Elizabeth Johnson, both Swedish immigrants. The Andersens married on September 1, 1932. Eleanor's sister Edith Johnson later married future Minnesota Senator Stanley W. Holmquist. The Andersens settled in the Twin Cities. Eleanor decided to leave the university when they were married and postpone the completion of her degree. Andersen credited his wife for many of his accomplishments. They had three children. Several years later, Eleanor Andersen earned her bachelor's degree.

Andersen wrote a number of books, including his autobiography, A Man's Reach; a collection of newspaper articles, Views from the Publisher's Desk; a collection of speeches and reflections, I Trust to Be Believed; and Elmer's Tour, a guide to the Minnesota state capitol building.

The Elmer L. and Eleanor J. Andersen Foundation was founded in 1957.

Andersen died in Minneapolis on November 15, 2004, just months after a gala celebration of his 95th birthday held in the library that bears his name. He was the last living former American governor born in the 1900s decade. The Minnesota Department of Human Services Building in St. Paul is also named for him.

Other sources

 * Andersen, Elmer L. (1997)  Views from the Publisher's Desk  (Nodin Press LLC)      ISBN 978-0931714733
 * Andersen, Elmer L. (2004) Man's Reach (University of Minnesota Press ) ISBN 978-0816637393
 * Andersen, Elmer L. (2004) I Trust to Be Believed (Nodin Press LLC) ISBN 978-1932472073
 * Andersen, Elmer L. (2005) Elmer's Tour: A Former Governor's Loving Look at the Minnesota State Capitol (Nodin Press LLC) ISBN 978-1932472387

title: Elmer L. Andersen


text:
Karl Rolvaag

Karl Fritjof Rolvaag (July 18, 1913 – December 20, 1990) was an American diplomat and politician who served as the 31st governor of Minnesota from March 25, 1963, to January 2, 1967, as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party. He was the son of the author and professor Ole E. Rølvaag.

The 1962 election was held on November 6, but the results were not known until a 139-day recount was completed in March 1963. Rolvaag won the closest gubernatorial election in state history, defeating the incumbent, Elmer L. Andersen by 91 votes out of over 1.3 million cast. He is one of only five Minnesota Democrats to win a gubernatorial election with a Democrat in the White House.

Life and career
A native of Northfield, Minnesota, Rolvaag lived in his hometown and graduated from St. Olaf College. He then fought in World War II, rising to the rank of lieutenant and commanding a tank. After the war, he went to Norway to learn about politics before returning home to Minnesota, where he became the head of the DFL Party. In 1954, he was elected lieutenant governor. After serving in that capacity for eight years, Rolvaag mounted his successful campaign for governor in 1962.

Rolvaag was the first Minnesota governor to serve a four-year term, but due to continuous wrangling between him and the conservative-controlled legislature, there were few notable achievements during his term. He is remembered for a leadership role in bringing reform to the state's institutions for the mentally disabled, leading to improved conditions and treatment for people with developmental disabilities. Rolvaag also changed the organization of the state's junior colleges. Formerly, the local school board ran each college separately; Rolvaag designed a coordinated statewide system with the goal of putting every Minnesotan within commuting distance of an institution of higher education. He also bitterly opposed significant expansion plans by the state colleges and vocally opposed designating a second state research university.

When Rolvaag ran for reelection in 1966, his party did not endorse him, opting instead for Lieutenant Governor A. M. (Sandy) Keith. Rolvaag entered the DFL's primary with a cry of "Let the people decide!" and roundly defeated Keith. He lost to Republican nominee Harold LeVander in the November general election.

In 1967, after leaving office, Rolvaag was appointed United States Ambassador to Iceland by President Lyndon Johnson. He returned to Minnesota in 1970 and was elected to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. He resigned that post in 1975 in order to seek treatment for alcoholism. His alcohol addiction eventually led to the end of his 37-year marriage, but he overcame his heavy drinking in the 1980s. Rolvaag stayed out of politics the rest of his life, but helped others work through their problems with alcoholism, attending meetings and giving talks in places as nearby as his hometown of Northfield and as far off as Sweden.

Rolvaag died at his home in Northfield on December 20, 1990, aged 77, having been ill with a heart condition.

Papers
Correspondence, political files, subject files, personal files, news clippings, print materials, and sound and visual materials of Karl F. Rolvaag are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society.

title: Karl Rolvaag


text:
Excalibur (film)

Excalibur is a 1981 epic medieval fantasy film directed, cowritten and produced by John Boorman, that retells the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, based loosely on the 15th-century Arthurian romance Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory. It stars Nigel Terry as Arthur, Nicol Williamson as Merlin, Nicholas Clay as Lancelot, Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere, Helen Mirren as Morgana, Liam Neeson as Gawain, Gabriel Byrne as Uther and Patrick Stewart as Leondegrance. The film is named after the legendary sword of King Arthur that features prominently in Arthurian literature. The film's soundtrack features the music of Richard Wagner and Carl Orff, along with an original score by Trevor Jones.

Boorman's Excalibur began development as an unproduced adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. The film was shot entirely on location in Ireland and at Ardmore Studios, employing Irish actors and crew. It has been acknowledged for its importance to the Irish filmmaking industry and for helping launch the film and acting careers of a number of Irish and British actors, including Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart, Gabriel Byrne and Ciarán Hinds.

Reviewers praised Excalibur visual style. It won the award for Best Artistic Contribution at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography and a BAFTA nomination for Best Costume Design. It grossed $35 million in the United States and Canada on a budget of $11 million.

Plot
In the Dark Ages, the sorcerer Merlin retrieves the magical sword Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake for Uther Pendragon. Merlin also agrees to help Uther seduce Igrayne, the Duke of Cornwall's wife, in exchange for “what issues from your lust". With Merlin's magic, Uther tricks Igrayne into sleeping with him while the Duke dies in battle. Her daughter Morgana, however, sees through Uther's illusion. Uther takes Igrayne as his wife and months later, Igrayne gives birth to Arthur, and Merlin comes for the boy. Furious, Uther chases after Merlin, but is ambushed by the Duke's surviving men. Before dying, Uther thrusts Excalibur into a stone. Merlin declares that he who pulls the sword from the stone shall be king.

Merlin entrusts Ector to raise the infant Arthur, whom he treats as his own son. Ector's son, Kay, grows up with Arthur as his brother, and Arthur becomes his squire when Kay becomes a knight. Years later, Arthur pulls Excalibur from the stone, proving he is Uther's son, the rightful ruler. Leodegrance witnesses this and immediately pledges his allegiance to Arthur.

The knights who oppose Arthur's kingship due to him being a bastard (under medieval law, children born as the fruit of an adulterous union were still bastards even if Uther married Igrayne before Arthur's birth), subsequently attempt to storm the castle of Arthur's ally, Leondegrance. Arthur's bravery and prowess at combat earn him the trust of Uryens, whom he defeats in battle. Arthur makes Uryens knight him and swear fealty to him. During this time, Arthur also meets Leondegrace's daughter, Guinevere and is smitten by her. Merlin warns Arthur that Guinevere will one day fall in love with someone else but Arthur ignores this.

Later, the undefeated knight Lancelot blocks a bridge, seeking a king worthy of his sword. He defeats the king's knights and is challenged by Arthur to a fight. Lancelot almost bests Arthur, but Arthur calls upon the power of Excalibur to defeat Lancelot as they fight in a lake. This breaks Excalibur and Arthur admits that he was wrong for doing this. The Lady of the Lake fixes the sword and hands it back to Arthur. Arthur is victorious, and Lancelot swears allegiance to him. Guinevere and Lancelot become immediately infatuated with each other upon meeting. Arthur and his knights unify the land. Arthur creates the Round Table, and commissions the building of his castle Camelot. On Arthur and Guinevere's wedding day, Lancelot tells Guinevere that he loves her but his loyalty to Arthur means that he can not pursue her romantically. While attending the wedding, Arthur's half-sister Morgana reveals to Merlin that she is a sorceress and becomes apprenticed to him.

Influenced by Morgana's magic, Gawain accuses Guinevere of treachery and a duel over her innocence is set. While Arthur is judge of the trial, Lancelot fights for her honour and wins. Guinevere is moved by this and the two make love. Arthur finds out about it and spitefully thrusts Excalibur into the ground between them. Merlin's magical link to the land impales him on the sword, and Morgana seizes the opportunity to trap him and steal his secret Charm of Making. Taking the form of Guinevere, she has sex with the unknowing Arthur and is impregnated by him.

Morgana later gives birth to a son, Mordred, whose incestuous origin strikes the land with famine and sickness. Struck by a magical bolt of lightning, Arthur is reduced to a weakened state. He sends his knights on a quest for the Holy Grail, hoping to restore the land and himself. While searching, many knights die or are bewitched by Morgana into entering her service. After reaching adulthood, Mordred demands Arthur's crown, to no avail. Before rebuking Arthur's attempt to recognise him as his son, Mordred vows to return with an army and take Camelot by force.

Perceval resists Morgana's attacks and soon becomes the final remaining knight questing for the Grail. Along the way, he nearly drowns and is transported to where the Grail is kept. He proves worthy, gains the Grail and takes it back to Arthur, who drinks from it and is revitalised, along with the land. Arthur calls upon his foster brother Kay to rally his remaining forces to battle Mordred and Morgana.

Arthur finds Guinevere at a convent, and they reconcile. She gives him back Excalibur, which she had kept, and he rides off with his men. At Stonehenge, Arthur falls asleep, and his love liberates Merlin from Morgana's magical prison. After a final conversation with Arthur, Merlin appears to Morgana and tricks her into speaking the Charm of Making. This exhausts her magical powers and summons a mist that envelops her camp and the battlefield. Mordred discovers her aged, true self and murders her in disgust.

Arthur and his men wage war on Mordred's forces, using the mist in their favour. During the battle, Lancelot arrives, reconciles with Arthur and dies fighting. Arthur manages to kill Mordred, but the fight leaves him mortally wounded. While dying, he commands Perceval, the only other survivor, to throw Excalibur into a lake, knowing that one day the sword will rise again when a worthy king comes to power. Perceval complies, and the Lady of the Lake catches the sword, dragging it into the depths. Perceval returns to the battlefield in time to glimpse Arthur being carried away on a ship, sailing towards his rest on Avalon.

Cast

 * Nigel Terry as Arthur
 * Helen Mirren as Morgana Le Fay
 * Kay McLaren as the aged Morgana
 * Barbara Byrne (no relation to Gabriel) as the young Morgana
 * Nicholas Clay as Sir Lancelot
 * Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere
 * Paul Geoffrey as Perceval
 * Nicol Williamson as Merlin
 * Corin Redgrave as Duke of Cornwall
 * Patrick Stewart as King Leodegrance
 * Keith Buckley as Uryens
 * Clive Swift as Ector
 * Liam Neeson as Gawain
 * Gabriel Byrne as King Uther Pendragon
 * Robert Addie as Prince Mordred
 * Charley Boorman as young Mordred
 * Katrine Boorman as Igrayne
 * Ciarán Hinds as King Lot
 * Niall O'Brien as Sir Kay
 * Mannix Flynn as Mordred’s Lieutenant
 * Brid Brennan as Lady-in-Waiting
 * Eamon Kelly as Abbot
 * Hilary Joyalle as Lady of the Lake

Development
John Boorman had planned a film adaptation of the Merlin legend as early as 1969, but when submitting the three-hour script written with Rospo Pallenberg to United Artists, they rejected it deeming it too costly and offered him J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings instead. Boorman was allowed to shop the script elsewhere, but no studio would commit to it. Returning to his original idea of the Merlin legend, Boorman was eventually able to secure deals that would help him do Excalibur. Much of the imagery and set designs were created with his The Lord of the Rings project in mind.

Writing
Rospo Pallenberg and John Boorman wrote the screenplay, which is primarily an adaptation of Malory's Morte d'Arthur (1469–70) recasting the Arthurian legends as an allegory of the cycle of birth, life, decay, and restoration, by stripping the text of decorative or insignificant details. The resulting film is reminiscent of mythographic works such as Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough and Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance; Arthur is presented as the "Wounded King" whose realm becomes a wasteland to be reborn thanks to the Grail, and may be compared to the Fisher (or Sinner) King, whose land also became a wasteland, and was also healed by Perceval. "The film has to do with mythical truth, not historical truth," Boorman remarked to a journalist during filming. The Christian symbolism revolves around the Grail, perhaps most strongly in the baptismal imagery of Perceval finally achieving the Grail quest. "That's what my story is about: the coming of Christian man and the disappearance of the old religions which are represented by Merlin. The forces of superstition and magic are swallowed up into the unconscious."

In addition to Malory, the writers incorporated elements from other Arthurian stories, sometimes altering them. For example, the sword between the sleeping lovers' bodies comes from the tales of Tristan and Iseult; the knight who returns Excalibur to the water is changed from Bedivere to Perceval; and Morgause and Morgan Le Fay are merged into one character. The sword Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are presented as the same thing; in some versions of the legends, they are separate. In Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Galahad, the illegitimate son of Lancelot and Elaine of Corbenic, is the Knight who is worthy of the Holy Grail. Boorman follows the earlier version of the tale as told by Chrétien de Troyes, making Perceval the grail winner. Some new elements were added, such as Uther wielding Excalibur before Arthur (repeated in Merlin), Merlin's 'Charm of Making' (written in Old Irish), and the concept of the world as "the dragon" (probably inspired by the dragon omen seen in Geoffrey of Monmouth's account of Merlin's life).

According to linguist Michael Everson, the "Charm of Making" that Merlin speaks to invoke the dragon is an invention, there being no attested source for the charm. Everson reconstructs the text as Old Irish. The phonetic transcription of the charm as spoken in the film is. Although the pronunciation in the film has little relation to how the text would actually be pronounced in Irish, the most likely interpretation of the spoken words, as Old Irish text is:
 * The Charm of Making

 * Anál nathrach,
 * orth’ bháis's bethad,
 * do chél dénmha

In modern English, this can be translated as:

 * Serpent's breath,
 * the charm of death and life,
 * thy omen of making.

Casting
Boorman cast Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren opposite each other as Merlin and Morgana, knowing that the two were on less than friendly terms due to personal issues that arose during a production of Macbeth seven years earlier. Boorman verified this on the Excalibur DVD commentary, saying he felt that the tension on the set would come through in the actors' performances.

Even though he was 35 years old, Nigel Terry plays King Arthur from his teenage years to his ending as an aged monarch.

Several members of the Boorman family appear in the cast: his daughter Katrine played Igraine, Arthur's mother, and his son Charley portrayed Mordred as a boy. Because of the number of Boormans involved with the film, it is sometimes called "The Boorman Family Project".

Filming

Excalibur was filmed in 1980 on-location in County Wicklow, County Tipperary, and County Kerry, with the interiors shot at Ardmore Studios. The costumes were designed by Bob Ringwood. The armor was designed by Terry English.

An early critical battle scene at a castle, in which Arthur is made a knight by Uryens while kneeling in a moat, was filmed in Cahir Castle, in Cahir County Tipperary, the Republic of Ireland, a well-preserved Irish castle. The castle's moat is the River Suir which flows around it. The fight with Lancelot was filmed at Powerscourt Estate's waterfall. Other locations included Wicklow Head as the backdrop to the battle over Tintagel, the Kerry coast as the place from which Arthur sails to Avalon, and a place called Childers Wood near Roundwood, County Wicklow, where Arthur comes on Excalibur in the stone. At the time, John Boorman was living just a few miles down the road, at Annamoe. According to Boorman, the love scene between Lancelot and Guenevere in the forest was filmed on a very cold night, but Nicholas Clay and Cherie Lunghi performed the scene nude anyway.

According to Boorman, the film was originally three hours long; among the scenes that were deleted from the finished film, but featured in one of the promotional trailers, was a sequence where Lancelot rescued Guenevere from a forest bandit.

Release
The film opened in the United States on 10 April 1981 and in London on 2 July 1981, before opening nationwide in the United Kingdom on 5 July 1981. The film was initially released in the United States with an R rating. Distributors later announced a 119 minute PG-rated version, with less graphic sex and violence, but it was not widely released. When first released in the United Kingdom, the film was classified as an "AA" by the BBFC, restricting it to those aged 14 and over. In 1982, the BBFC replaced the "AA" certificate with the higher age-specific "15", which was applied to Excalibur when released on home video. When Excalibur first premiered on HBO in 1982, the R-rated version was shown in the evening and the PG-rated version was shown during the daytime, following the then-current rule of HBO only showing R-rated films during the evening hours.

Reception
Excalibur was the number one film in the United States during its opening weekend, eventually grossing $34,967,437 in the United States and Canada, ranking as the 18th highest-grossing film of the year. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 72% score based on 93 reviews, with an average rating of 7.0/10. On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 based on reviews from 10 critics.

Roger Ebert called it both a "wondrous vision" and "a mess". Elaborating further, Ebert wrote that the film was "a record of the comings and goings of arbitrary, inconsistent, shadowy figures who are not heroes but simply giants run amok. Still, it's wonderful to look at". Vincent Canby wrote that while Boorman took Arthurian myths seriously, "he has used them with a pretentiousness that obscures his vision." In her review in The New Yorker, Pauline Kael wrote that the film had its own "crazy integrity", adding that the imagery was "impassioned" with a "hypnotic quality". According to her, the dialogue was "near-atrocious". She concluded by writing that "Excalibur is all images flashing by... We miss the dramatic intensity that we expect the stories to have, but there's always something to look at".

Others have praised the entire film, with Variety calling it "a near-perfect blend of action, romance, fantasy and philosophy". Sean Axmaker of Parallax View wrote "John Boorman's magnificent and magical Excalibur is, to my mind, the greatest and the richest of screen incarnation of the oft-told tale." In a later review upon the film's DVD release, Salon's David Lazarus noted the film's contribution to the fantasy genre, stating that it was "a lush retelling of the King Arthur legend that sets a high-water mark among sword-and-sorcery movies". A study by Jean-Marc Elsholz demonstrates how closely the film Excalibur was inspired by the Arthurian romance tradition and its intersections with medieval theories of light, most particularly in the aesthetic/visual narrative of Boorman's film rather than in its plot alone.

Christopher John reviewed Excalibur in Ares Magazine #9 and commented that "Excalibur is a shockingly large film and an incredibly intricate and fascinating piece of cinema. It is a fine prologue for the spate of fantasy films waiting in the wings for release this year." The film featured many actors early in their careers who later became very well-known, including Helen Mirren, Patrick Stewart, Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, and Ciarán Hinds. For his performance as Merlin, Nicol Williamson received widespread acclaim. The Times in 1981 wrote: "The actors are led by Williamson's witty and perceptive Merlin, missed every time he's offscreen".

Legacy
The comedic 1989 teaser trailer for Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III directly parodies the lady of the lake scene from Excalibur.

In 2009, filmmaker Zack Snyder said Excalibur was his favorite film, calling it "the perfect meeting of movies and mythology". In his film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Bruce Wayne and his parents, Thomas and Martha, are walking home from seeing Excalibur when the latter two are killed by Joe Chill. The event later leads to Bruce becoming Batman. Moreover, the film parallels much of the film's major plot points, most notably Superman killing Doomsday with a Kryptonite Spear at the expense of his own life intended as a homage to Arthur killing Mordred with Excalibur at the cost of his.

The 2018 adaption of Ready Player One features the charm of making as an activation/deactivation code.

During the shooting of the 2023 film Irati, inspired by Basque mythology and several medieval films including Excalibur, the crew nicknamed it Euskalibur, after euskal, ("Basque-language").

Documentaries
Neil Jordan directed a 1981 documentary on the making of Excalibur, entitled The Making of Excalibur: Myth Into Movie. In 2013 another documentary entitled Behind the Sword in the Stone was released featuring interviews with director Boorman and many of the cast, such as Terry, Mirren, Stewart, Neeson, Byrne, Lunghi, and Charley Boorman. Distribution rights were later acquired by PBS International, and the title was changed to Excalibur: Behind the Movie. As of June 2020, this documentary was made available in the United States through various online streaming services.

title: Excalibur (film)