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Birsay

Birsay (Old Norse: Birgisherað) is a parish in the north west corner of The Mainland of Orkney, Scotland. Almost all the land in the parish is devoted to agriculture: chiefly grassland used to rear beef cattle. There are various ancient monuments in the parish.

Ancient monuments
Two important ancient monuments are maintained by Historic Scotland and bring many visitors to the area in summer. These are the prehistoric and Norse settlements on the tidal island of Brough of Birsay and the ruins of the Earl's Palace on the Mainland opposite, at the northern end of the village.

On the western part of Mainland Orkney's north shore there is other evidence of prehistoric man, including the well preserved ruins of the Broch of Gurness.

Earl's Palace

The late 16th-century palace was built by Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney (1533–93). Though extensively ruined, it can be seen to have consisted of four ranges round an open courtyard, with small towers at the corners, an unusual form of building in Scotland at this date, and unprecedented in the north of the country. The date 1574 was formerly carved above the main (south-facing) entrance. The building has been uninhabited since the late 17th century. It was originally adjoined by walled garden enclosures, an archery range and a bowling green. This building, along with the Earl's Palace, Kirkwall and Scalloway Castle in Shetland  (all Historic Scotland), were the main residences of the Stewart Earls of Orkney in the Northern Isles.

St Magnus Church
Near the palace is the St Magnus Church of the parish of Birsay and Harray (Church of Scotland; open in summer). Architectural fragments in the walls, and archaeological investigation of the foundations, suggest that this was the site of the first cathedral of Orkney in the 11th-12th centuries, known as Christchurch, founded by Earl Thorfinn the Mighty (d. c. 1065) after his return from a pilgrimage to Rome. The seat of the diocese was transferred to St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, in the later 12th century, though the Bishops of Orkney continued to have a residence in Birsay (known by the Latin name Mons Bellus) into late medieval times.

The nearby bridge may also be medieval in origin.

Notable people

 * Samuel Trail was minister of the parish 1844 to 1868. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1874.
 * Harald Leslie, Lord Birsay

title: Birsay


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Glanamman

Glanamman (Glanaman) is a mining village in the valley of the River Amman in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Glanamman has long been a stronghold of the Welsh language; village life is largely conducted in Welsh. Like the neighbouring village of Garnant it experienced a coal-mining boom in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but the last big colliery closed in 1947 and coal has been extracted fitfully since then.

History
The location of Garnant and Glanamman was known as Cwmamman ("Amman valley") before coal was discovered; until the 18th century it was a remote wilderness with just a few farms and rough mountain roads. Mining appears to have started at Brynlloi in 1757 and small coal workings proliferated in the first half of the 19th century. The arrival of the railway in 1840 meant that coal could be exported on an industrial scale through Llanelli docks, and the construction of two stations at Glanamman and Garnant promoted a distinction between the two communities.

Taking its name from the emblem of the Dynevor family, the "Raven" colliery in Garnant was operating by 1854. In 1891, the Gelliceidrim Collieries Company opened what became the largest of the coal mines at Glanamman, employing 632 men in 1932. "The Gelly" was nationalised in 1947 and closed in 1957. Since then the area has seen some small private mines come and go, such as a drift mine on Grenig Road in the 1970s.

Government
Cwmamman, the old name for the location of Glanamman and Garnant, was revived for the urban council covering the two villages which now have much smaller populations than in their heyday at the turn of the 20th century. Today Cwmaman Town Council forms the lowest tier of government, comprising 15 community councillors.

Glanamman is also the name of the county electoral ward covering the area around Glannaman village. The ward elects a county councillor to Carmarthenshire County Council.

Glanamman is in the unitary authority of Carmarthenshire. Adam Price of Plaid Cymru currently represents the village at the Welsh Assembly in the constituency of Carmarthen East and Dinefwr.The constituency is represented in Westminster by Jonathan Edwards, Independent, formerly of Plaid Cymru.

Geography
The village is about 13 mi north of Swansea on the edge of the Black Mountain, in the westernmost part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The River Amman flows through the village. Glanamman lies in the western part of the South Wales Coalfield, where the coal is particularly high-quality anthracite.

Demography
The effect of the mining boom can be seen in the expansion of Cwmamman parish (including Garnant and surrounding villages) from just over 3,000 in 1851 to over 11,000 in the early 20th century. The population had declined to 2,261 people at the 2001 census, increasing to 2,347 at the 2011 Census. Garnant is a similar size.

Economy
Traditionally the economy was based on coal-mining with some dairy farming, but the mines have closed and farms such as Gelli Fanwen have moved from milk production to beef-farming. The Raven Tinplate Works (sometimes confused with the Amman Tinplate Works in Garnant) were built on the site of the Cwmamman Brickworks in 1881. They operated until the early 1930s and were demolished after World War II; the site is now a council depot near the station.

Culture and community
Since 1988 Cwmamman has been twinned with the village of Pouldergat, in Brittany. The village is a stronghold of the Welsh language, with 81% of the population able to speak it.

The first chain driven Bicycle in Wales and one of the first in the World was manufactured by the Defiance Cycle Company Glanamman and ridden to Swansea in 1885. This is commemorated on Easter Monday by retracing the same ride to Swansea.

Landmarks
The valley has been shaped by coal workings and their waste, but little remains above ground. Brynseion Chapel's location at the corner of the High Street and the main road marks the centre of the village, but both it and Saint Margaret's Church (see below) are now closed.

Transport
A turnpike road (now the A474) was constructed along the valley in 1817. The Llanelly Railway and Dock Company built the Llanelly Railway to Garnant in 1840. It was taken over by the GWR on amalgamation in 1923, and closed to passenger services by British Railways on 18 August 1958. Freight traffic continued until the closure of the Abernant Colliery in 1988. The Amman Valley Railway Society are seeking to restore the Abernant branch line as part of the Swansea 9 Lines project.

Education
Glanamman used to have a primary school which opened in 1884 and closed in 2005. Glanamman was a category A, or Welsh medium school with most subjects taught in Welsh. Three local schools, Ysgol y Twyn, Ysgol Gynradd y Garnant and Ysgol Gynradd Glanaman, were merged to form Ysgol y Bedol (the Horseshoe School) on the north bank of the three rivers in Garnant. This primary school for ages 3–11 was opened in 2005. Ysgol y Bedol is also a Welsh medium school. The nearest secondary school is Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford.

Religious sites
The Welsh valleys have long been hotbeds of Nonconformism and Glanamman was no exception. Old Bethel Chapel, also known as The Old Meeting House, was built in 1773 high on the north side of the valley between Glanamman and Garnant. The Tabernacle Calvinistic Methodist Chapel and the Bethesda Baptist Chapel followed in 1840 and 1882 respectively. The prosperity at the turn of the 20th century can be seen in the ornate facade of the Bethania Calvinistic Methodist Chapel (1906-7) on Brynlloi Road and in the large Gothic-tinged Brynseion Independent Chapel (1909–10) nearby; Brynseion closed in 2004. Ammanford, a few miles down the valley, was a centre of the 1904–1905 Welsh Revival which saw thousands of new converts.

Anglicans worshipped at Christchurch in nearby Garnant during the 19th century but as with the Methodists they were prompted by the Revival to found a church in Glanamman itself. Saint Margaret's Church started in what is now the church hall, a corrugated iron building on Tirycoed Road, dedicated in 1907. The foundation stone of a new building was laid on 22 April 1933 and the church was dedicated on 1 November by the Lord Bishop of St. Davids. A lack of funds for essential repairs meant that the last regular service took place on Christmas Day 2008, but it is hoped to use the church for special services in future.

Sport
Garnant Park (formerly Cwmamman Recreation Ground) was part of Lord Dynevor's Glanrafon Farm estate just east of Glanamman. It is home to Amman United RFC which was founded in 1903 and is a feeder club for the Scarlets regional team. Players who have gone on to rugby at international level include Claude Davey, Tom Day and Trevor Evans of the British Lions. Rugby international Shane Williams bought a disused industrial unit on Station Road which he converted into a CrossFit-franchised gym with bike hire and other facilities (now closed).

Notable people
Those born or raised in Glanamman include:
 * Arthur and William Williams, 19th C. founders of Defiance Cycle Company, the first cycle factory in Wales.
 * W. D. Davies (1911–2001), Congregationalist minister, theologian, author and professor of religion.
 * Ryan Davies (1937–1977), entertainer and actor
 * Sharon Morgan (born 1949) Welsh language campaigner and actress, brought up in Glanamman
 * David E. Evans (born 1950), professor of mathematics at Cardiff University, specialising in knot theory
 * Tecwyn Ifan (born 1952), singer-songwriter
 * Jeff Hughes (1965–2018), historian of science at Manchester University who researched physics and nuclear culture
 * Sian Reese-Williams (born 1981), a Welsh actress,

Sport

 * William Rees (1899–1968), a Welsh rugby union, and professional rugby league footballer
 * Tom Day (1907–1980), rugby union player with 13 caps for Wales
 * Dai Davies (born 1948), footballer with 52 caps for Wales
 * Gerwyn Edwards (born 1953), cricketer
 * Arwel Thomas (born 1974), rugby union player with 23 caps for Wales
 * Shane Williams MBE (born 1977 in Morriston near Swansea), Welsh rugby international and TV presenter, grew up in Glanamman

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

title: Glanamman


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Sword of Mana

Sword of Mana, originally released in Japan as Shin'yaku: Seiken Densetsu, is a 2003 action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and Brownie Brown and published by Square Enix and Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is an enhanced remake of the first game in the Mana series, the Game Boy game Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden, which was released as Final Fantasy Adventure in North America and as Mystic Quest in Europe. Sword of Mana was the fifth release in the series. Set in a high fantasy universe, the game follows an unnamed hero and heroine as they seek to defeat the Dark Lord and defend the Mana Tree from enemies who wish to misuse its power.

While incorporating gameplay elements from the original game and generally following the same plot, Sword of Mana has new gameplay mechanics and a much more involved story. It removes elements of the Final Fantasy series present in the original game as a marketing ploy, while adding in gameplay elements and artistic styles from later games in the series. The plot is modified to allow the player to follow the parallel stories of either the hero or the heroine, and the backstory and dialogue is expanded from the original. Sword of Mana was produced by series creator Koichi Ishii, directed by Takeo Oin, and largely developed by employees of Brownie Brown who had previously worked on the series for Square.

The game received weakly positive reviews from critics. Reviewers praised the graphics of the game, as well as its enhancements to the original version. They were generally dismissive of the plot, even with enhancements, and disliked elements of the gameplay, especially the computer-controlled ally. Critics recommended the game mainly to fans of the genre or the series. Final Fantasy Adventure received a second remake in 2016, Adventures of Mana.

Gameplay
The gameplay of Sword of Mana is an expanded and modified version of the gameplay of the action role-playing game Final Fantasy Adventure, with elements added from later games in the Mana series. Like previous games in the series, Sword of Mana displays a top-down perspective, in which the player characters navigate the terrain and fight off hostile creatures. Unlike the original game, the terrain is in color, is not composed of square tiles, and the player is not restricted to moving only in the cardinal directions. At the beginning of the game the player chooses to follow the story of either the unnamed hero or heroine, and controls them thereafter. The player is often joined by either the unchosen protagonist or by temporary companions, and at any point during battles can choose to take direct control of the other party member instead of their chosen character. The non-selected character is controlled via artificial intelligence. Unlike prior games in the series, Sword of Mana does not have a direct multiplayer component. Instead, players can connect their Game Boy Advances together via a Link Cable to give their characters powerful attacks to be used at a later time, known as the "Amigo" system. The original game featured no multiplayer capabilities.

The two main characters have different capabilities. Both are capable of using weapons and magic, but the hero is stronger with melee weapons and the heroine is stronger with ranged magical attacks. Weapons have three attributes: slash, jab, and bash; and different attributes cause more or less damage to different enemies. Magical spells can cause damage or defend the protagonists, and are affected by the weapon the character is holding. Combat takes place in real-time. Located at the bottom of the screen is an overdrive gauge that increases by one point at each hit given to an enemy. When that gauge is full, the player can release a powerful attack that will deplete the gauge completely if the attack lands. Upon collecting enough experience points in battle, each character increases in level and improves in areas such as strength and evasion.

The player can rest in towns, where they can regain hit points or purchase restorative items and equipment. Options such as changing equipment, casting spells, or checking status are performed by cycling through the game's Ring Commands, a circular menu which hovers over the currently controlled party member. The Ring Command menu, which lets the player pause the game in combat to select different weapons, spells, and items, was not present in the original game, but was present in the sequels Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana. A version of the day-and-night system introduced in Trials of Mana was added to the game, whereby some enemies are only present at different times of day, which changes whenever the player enters a new area. Much like Legend of Mana, players can forge weapons and plant produce in an orchard in the game's "Hot House" feature.

Plot
Sword of Mana has a similar story to Final Fantasy Adventure with additional details and dialogue added. The player has the choice to follow the story of either the hero or the heroine, who are named by the player, instead of only the hero as in the original game. The two stories parallel each other, and the two protagonists are often together.

The hero's story begins with a flashback dream of the death of his parents at the hands of the Dark Lord, the ruler of the nation of Granz. Upon waking, the hero, a gladiator-slave in Granz, attempts to escape before being confronted by the Dark Lord and thrown off of a bridge. After being fished out of a lake, the hero is advised to head to the city of Topple. The heroine's story also begins with a flashback dream of the Dark Lord and his assistant, Julius, killing her stepmother and destroying her village. Upon awaking, she is advised by the knight Bogard to head to Topple, while he journeys to the city of Wendell. The hero and heroine meet in Topple, and agree to journey together. They head toward Wendell, and along the way discover that women of the Mana tribe, which the heroine belongs to, are being kidnapped by vampires. The heroine is kidnapped, and is rescued by the hero and an unnamed man; they discover that the kidnappings are to keep the woman safe from the Dark Lord and Julius, who are killing them all in part because the tribe was unable to save the Dark Lord's mother from a terrible fate.

In Wendell, the two protagonists learn that Bogard and several other knights were instrumental in overthrowing the Vandole Empire twenty years prior, which had been abusing Mana, the source of magic. The hero states his intention to find the legendary Mana Sword in order to avenge his parents and the heroine reveals she has a pendant from her stepmother that is the key to the Mana Tree, the source of Mana. The unnamed man then reveals himself to be Julius and kidnaps the heroine for the pendant; during a failed rescue attempt the hero falls from an airship along with the pendant. After a side story resulting in the hero and heroine killing the Dark Lord's mother, who had been turned into a monster, the pendant is stolen and given to the Dark Lord. The protagonists chase after him. After the two defeat the Dark Lord, Julius reveals himself to be the last survivor of the Vandole Empire. Once gaining the pendant he mind controlled the heroine to use the pendant to give him control of the Mana Tree, which Vandole had attempted to do prior to being overthrown. Julius defeats the hero and heroine, and heads off to the Mana Tree.

The hero and heroine split up to find the Mana Sword. After the hero passes trials to prove himself worthy of the sword, which first appears as a rusty blade, the two join forces to storm the Mana Tree and defeat Julius. They do so, but the tree is killed in the process; prior to death, the tree reveals that she was the heroine's mother, and asks the heroine to replace her as the next Mana Tree. The heroine agrees, and the two protagonists part ways.

Origin
After the release of the previous game in the Mana series, 1999's Legend of Mana, several members of the development team for the game left Square to form a new development studio, Brownie Brown. These included character designer Kameoka Shinichi and lead artist Kouji Tsuda, as well as several other writers and artists. The crew that stayed was merged with those behind Parasite Eve II, Brave Fencer Musashi and Chrono Cross to make Final Fantasy XI. Square, in turn, outsourced development of the fifth game in the Mana series to Brownie Brown. The producer for the game was Square's Koichi Ishii, who had directed or designed the previous games in the series. Ishii had served as the director for the original game in the series, Final Fantasy Adventure, of which Sword of Mana is a remake.

Game design
The remake, in addition to adding enhanced graphics to the original Game Boy title, sought to add elements present in later games in the series, such as the Ring Command menu system, and to expand the game's storyline. It also removed elements from the Final Fantasy series, which had been placed in the original game as a part of the marketing for the game before its sequels moved to be a distinct series. The ability to play as the heroine was added, and an element of multiplayer features that the series had become known for was added by allowing two players to link their Game Boy Advances together to trade items.

Character design
The hero was designed to show a lot of skin in order to convey his slave status. To help the character stand out when converted to pixel art design, cross patterns were added to the back of his gloves and his shoulder pads. For the heroine, her design was guided to make her look both like a warrior and a princess. Bogard, who in Final Fantasy Adventure has a "gentlemanly" look was made to look more like a ruffian or hermit.

The Eight Mana Spirits were designed to look like three-dimensional characters from a storybook. In order to hide the Dark Lord’s identity, a mask was designed so that this aspect of the plot could remain hidden until later on in the game. Game illustrator Shinichi Kameoka stated that he was told to design Julius to look like a neutral character. Kameoka stated he also tried to make Julius look “like a girl”.

Release
Square announced in August 2002 that a Mana game for the Game Boy Advance was under development, and in early 2003 announced that the game was a remake of Final Fantasy Adventure and would be released in Japan later that year under the name Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu. On April 24, 2003, Square Enix, formed from the merger of Square and Enix during the game's development, announced that Sword of Mana would have North American and European releases as well. While Legend of Mana had been released worldwide, Trials of Mana had only been released in Japan. In July 2003, IGN listed the game as one of the top ten most anticipated Game Boy Advance games of 2003. Sword of Mana was released in Japan on August 29, 2003, in North America on December 1, and in Europe on March 18, 2004. In Japan, a special edition "Mana Blue"-colored Game Boy Advance SP was released on the same date as the game, packaged with Sword of Mana and a carrying case. Those who purchased the game's soundtrack and strategy guide between August 27 and September 30, 2003, were given the opportunity to win a Cactus character cushion and a cellphone strap.

Music
The score for Sword of Mana was composed by Kenji Ito, the composer for the original Final Fantasy Adventure. The music includes reworked tracks from the original game as well as new material. Ito's music is mainly inspired by images from the game rather than outside influences; however, he never played either the original game or the remake. The 2003 Sword of Mana Premium Soundtrack album collects 47 tracks of music from the game. The two-disc album contains over an hour and a half of music and was published by DigiCube, with a 2004 reprint by Square Enix. The first disc contains music directly from the game, while the second disc features seven piano arrangements by Ito of songs from the soundtrack. The first edition of the soundtrack included a bonus disc, containing an orchestral arrangement of "Rising Sun ~ Endless Battlefield". The album reached position #118 on the Japan Oricon charts, and stayed on the charts for only one week. Music from the soundtrack has been arranged for the piano and published by DOREMI Music Publishing. Additionally, KMP Music Publishing has published a book of sheet music for the piano tracks included in the album.

Reception
Sword of Mana sold over 277,000 copies in Japan in 2003. It received positive reviews from critics. The game's presentation was praised, especially its graphics; Brad Shoemaker of GameSpot praised the "lush, colorful backgrounds" and animation quality, which was seconded by the reviewer for GamePro. Game Informer's Justin Leeper also felt that the graphics were beautiful, and Shane Bettenhausen of Electronic Gaming Monthly said it was "one of the most stunning games on [the] GBA". Kevin Gifford of 1UP.com also praised the graphics in relation to other Game Boy Advance games, while Darryl Vassar of GameSpy said that it would have been the best-looking Game Boy Advance game if were not for what he felt was poor animation quality. Reaction to the music was more mixed; while the reviews for Game Informer and GamePro praised it, Shoemaker of GameSpot termed the music "mostly bland" and Craig Harris of IGN and GameSpy's Vassar said it was nice but repetitive. Reviewers also noted technical problems with the presentation: both the GameSpot and IGN reviews noted graphical glitches in the game as marring the presentation.

The game's plot was widely dismissed; IGNs Harris termed it "a little on the basic side" and "borderline silly", which 1UP.coms Gifford amended to just "silly", with "needlessly-long dialogue". Vassar of GameSpy felt that the added dialogue simply unjustly inflated a simple story. Shoemaker of GameSpot called it "quaintly simplistic", while the Electronic Gaming Monthly review said it was one of the biggest problems with the game.

Elements of the gameplay were also poorly received. The computer-controlled companion was almost universally derided: Bettenhausen of Electronic Gaming Monthly said they were "nearly useless", as did Gifford of 1UP.com, Shoemaker of GameSpot called them "just plain dumb", and IGN's Harris said it was "the absolute pits" and "definitely the weakest aspect" of the game. The GamePro, GameSpot, and GameSpy reviews found issues with the combat mechanics, and the GameSpot and IGN reviewers felt the game was too easy. 1UP.com's Gifford felt that the boss battles were too easy, and that the weapon-switching system was needlessly complicated. IGNs Harris and Game Informers Leeper found the day/night system to be odd and unnecessary, and Harris additionally felt that the multiplayer system was underwhelming. Shoemaker of GameSpot concluded that the game was "pretty good", and recommended it for fans of the genre, while Leeper of Game Informer and Bettenhausen of Electronic Gaming Monthly said that it was "decent" and "worth a look for fans" of the series. The Japanese magazine Famitsu said that it was a good update to Final Fantasy Adventure without innovating the gameplay much beyond the original game.

Legacy
Sword of Mana was adapted into manga form by author Shiro Amano and published by Enterbrain on February 25, 2004. Two novels based on the game were written by Matsui Oohama with illustrations by Yumiko Murakami and were also published by Enterbrain on February 27, 2004. Square Enix also produced a book of yonkoma comics based on the game on January 16, 2004. Final Fantasy Adventure received a second remake in 2016, Adventures of Mana.

title: Sword of Mana


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User:Aquafleur

I am a geophysicist, but spend all of my spare time studying analytic philosophy; particularly, philosophical logic. I want to help wikipedia have better entries on all these subjects.

I'm currently interested in these articles:

counterfactuals (I wrote the first draft of this one)

It would be nice if there were an article on semantic tableaux Now that there is an article on strict implication, there should be one on Grice's conversational implicature.

title: User:Aquafleur


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Environment minister

An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of the environment) is a cabinet position charged with protecting the natural environment and promoting wildlife conservation. The areas associated with the duties of an environmental minister depends largely of the needs of an individual countries or states. Some powers pertaining to environment protection might be also found within transport ministers, energy ministers an so.

The world's first minister of the environment was the British Politician Peter Walker from the Conservative Party. He was appointed in 1970.

Africa

 * 🇧🇼 Botswana: Ministry of Environment and Tourism (Botswana)
 * 🇪🇹: Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
 * 🇿🇦: Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs
 * Minister of Green Economy & Environment

Americas

 * 🇦🇷: Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development
 * 🇧🇴: Minister of Environment and Water
 * 🇧🇷: Minister of the Environment and Climate Change
 * 🇨🇦: Minister of the Environment
 * Ministry for the Environment
 * 🇨🇴: Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development
 * Ministry of Environment and Energy
 * 🇨🇺: Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment
 * Ministry of the Environment
 * 🇲🇽: Secretary of the Environment
 * 🇳🇮: Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources
 * 🇵🇦: Ministry of Environment
 * 🇵🇪: Ministry of Environment
 * 🇺🇸: Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Secretary of the Interior
 * Ministry of Environment
 * 🇻🇪: Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources

Asia

 * 🇦🇿: Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources
 * Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Bangladesh)
 * Minister of Environmental Protection Administration
 * 🇭🇰: Secretary for the Environment
 * 🇮🇩: Ministry of Environment and Forestry
 * 🇯🇵: Minister of the Environment
 * 🇰🇷: Ministry of Environment
 * Minister of Environment and Water
 * 🇳🇵 Nepal: Minister of Forests and Environment
 * 🇵🇰: Minister of Environment
 * 🇵🇭: Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources
 * 🇸🇬: Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment
 * 🇹🇭 Thailand: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
 * 🇹🇷: Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning
 * Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

Europe

 * 🇦🇱: Ministry of Environment, Forests and Water Administration
 * 🇦🇹: Minister for Agriculture, Environment, Forestry and Water Management
 * 🇨🇿: Ministry of the Environment
 * Minister of the Environment
 * 🇪🇺 European Union: Commissioner for the Environment
 * 🇫🇮: Minister of Environment
 * 🇫🇷: Minister of Ecology (as of 2017, Ministry for an Ecological and Solidary Transition)
 * 🇩🇪: Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety
 * Minister for the Environment, Energy and Climate Change
 * 🇮🇸: Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources
 * 🇮🇪: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications
 * 🇮🇹: Ministry of the Environment
 * 🇱🇹: Ministry of Environment
 * 🇲🇩: Ministry of Environment
 * 🇳🇱: Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy
 * Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning
 * 🇳🇴: Minister of the Environment
 * Ministry of Environment and Climate Change
 * 🇷🇸: Ministry of the Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning
 * 🇸🇪: Minister of the Environment
 * 🇺🇦: Environment Ministry
 * Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
 * Northern Ireland: Minister for the Environment
 * Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment
 * 🏴: Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs

Oceania

 * 🇦🇺: Minister for the Environment
 * Minister for Environment (New South Wales)
 * Minister for Environment and Natural Resources (Northern Territory)
 * Minister for Environment (Western Australia)
 * Minister for the Environment (Victoria)
 * 🇳🇿: Minister for the Environment

title: Environment minister


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Gorseinon

Gorseinon is a town within the City and County of Swansea, Wales, near the Loughor estuary. It was a small village until the late 19th century when it grew around the coal mining and tinplate industries. It is situated in the north west of Swansea City Centre, around 6 mi north west of the city centre. Gorseinon is a local government community with an elected town council.

The population of the Gorseinon town council area in the 2011 Census is 8,693. However, the ONS defines an area called the Gorseinon Urban Area which comprises all of the continuous built up area in and around Gorseinon. This area includes Gorseinon, Loughor, Garden Village and Penllergaer and has a population of 20,581.

Etymology
The name Gorseinon means "Einon's marsh", from the soft mutated form of Welsh cors "marsh" and the male personal name Einon, the identity of whom is uncertain. Einon is the southern form of the name Einion. The initial soft mutation is irregular, and one would expect Corseinon. The short name of the village in Welsh is Y Gors (the marsh). Here the soft mutation is entirely regular (occurring when a feminine noun follows the definite article), and it may have spurred the change of Corseinon to Gorseinon. A "standard" form of the name, Corseinion, is seen in an appeal to his fellow tinplate workers by Y Cymro Coch in 1882.

Religious development
In 1840 the population of Gorseinon was barely 250 people. There were then two churches in the area. One was St Teilo's Church, Llandeilo Tal-y-bont, also known as the “Church on the Marsh” – this has now been rebuilt in the St Fagans National History Museum in Cardiff. The other church was Brynteg Chapel, the only non-conformist chapel for miles, which was built in 1815 and still stands.

Several churches and chapels were built in the 1880s. The first church in the town was Holy Trinity Church, built in 1882 and extended in 1884. Seion Baptist Church opened in 1886, built on a riverbank at the bottom of Gorseinon, but by 1902 a new Seion was built in the High Street. The old Seion was taken over by the English Methodists, but this eventually became the Moose Hall. Bethel English Congregational Church (Evangelical) was built in 1894. West Street Bethel Chapel in Masons Road was built as an English Congregationalist church. Ebenezer, the Welsh Congregational Chapel opened in 1887, but by 1909 a new chapel was built near Seion Capel.

St. Catherine's Church was built in 1913 and the Salvation Army church in 1910. A Roman Catholic church in Pontardulais Road was built in 1932 and a new church was built on Alexandra Road in the 1960s, designed by the architect Robert Robinson, a local Gower man. There is also a Christadelphian meeting hall in the town.

Agricultural and industrial development
Gors Eynon first appeared on an Ordnance Survey map in 1813, but by 1830 the name appeared in its modern spelling.

The monks of Neath Abbey paid many visits to this locality, and evidence of this were several mills built on the banks of local rivers; Cadle Mill, on the Lliw, Pontlliw, Melyn Mynach, and Loughor Mill.

There was one weaving mill and two flour mills on the river. These were worked by the monks to provide food and clothing for the Abbey, wool being brought here from Gower sheeplands.

By the end of the thirteenth century the monks at Melyn Mynach owned vast acreage devoted to sheep farming. They produced high quality wool at Cwrt Y Carnau, which was traded in Flanders and Italy.

With the arrival of the black death and bubonic plague in the fourteenth century, labour became scarce and the monks were forced to sell or rent to the local farmers. Eventually, during Henry VIII's reign, the few monks that were left were pensioned off, as their land passed into crown hands.

John Pryce, a legal gentleman, who was originally from the area but had moved to London, returned to raise a family at Cwrt Y Carne. In 1575 he purchased the manor and land, and also the mill at Melyn Mynach. The whole estate totalled over 130 acre. Pryce tried to squeeze every penny out of his tenant farmers and many disputes followed. The Pryce family prospered and by the early eighteenth Century, the name had changed to Price.

The last owner of the Melyn Mynach was the husband of a Price family member. He was called Nathaniel Cameron – Mayor of Swansea. He also owned the Mountain Colliery but sold the Mill after getting into financial difficulties to Mr. William Lewis, the founder of Gorseinon.

There were few industries but coal was plentiful. A drift was opened in 1846 and became known as “The Mountain Coal”. This coal was transported on a narrow gauge railway line to Loughor, where it was loaded onto barges and sent to Llanelli for transportation all around the world. The drift mine continued to be worked until 1900, when a shaft was sunk. Now known as the Mountain Colliery, it produced at its peak in excess of 200,000 tons of coal a year with a workforce in excess of 900. It was closed in 1969.

In 1860 the L.N.W.R. wanted to extend the line from Pontarddulais to Swansea. William Lewis, a young industrialist, sold them the land and a station was erected in 1870 – this became known as Gorseinon Station. The Mountain Colliery laid a siding from the Colliery to the Station and coal was redirected to Swansea Docks.

The first day-school was opened in 1880 at Penyrheol. The Headmaster, Mr. Jones, afterwards transferred to Gorseinon. As Gorseinon's industries grew so did its housing and streets, with the development of Mill Street, Gorseinon Terrace, Eynon Street and High Street.

In 1886 the Grovesend Tin Works was built and the Lewis Family built many houses around the area to house the workers. The Grovesend Steelworks opened in 1890, but in 1891 all tinplate workers in South Wales were involved in a seven-month strike and times were very hard for the workers.

Gorseinon had two public houses, the Gorseinon Hotel (the Bottom Hotel) and the Station Hotel (the Gyp). It was said that the Bottom Hotel was for miners and the Gyp was for tinplate workers and it was a mortal sin to encroach on another man's territory. Then in 1892 the West End Hotel was built and the Mardy in 1901 bring the number of public houses to four. The Gorseinon Hotel is no longer a pub but a ‘Seagers’ steakhouse restaurant.

Gorseinon Institute was opened in 1904 and in 1908 the Bryngwyn Sheetworks was opened

County Council
Prior to local government re-organisation in 1996, the town of Gorseinon was administered as part of the Lliw Valley district and previously Llwchwr Urban District Council. Since 1996, Gorseinon has been governed by the City and County of Swansea council and falls within the Gorseinon and Penyrheol wards of Swansea.

Town Council
The community of Gorseinon comprises the Gorseinon ward and the southern part of the Penyrheol ward. The Gorseinon Town Council developed from the former Gorseinon Community Council in 1998, since when it was able to appoint a town mayor annually. The council now comprises sixteen unpaid volunteers who are elected every four years. The council meet at Gorseinon Institute every first Wednesday to discuss local business and planning applications.

Economy
Gorseinon has a busy high street area in the centre of the town. The other major areas of employment are the nearby Garngoch Industrial estate, in Penllergaer, Gorseinon Business Park and Kingsbridge Business Park. Previously, the nearby Bryngwyn steel works and Valeo plant were major employers in the town, however they closed in the 1990s. In response to the closures, the National Assembly for Wales set up the Gorseinon Regeneration Strategy to invest in a number of regeneration schemes in the town.

A large Asda store opened in September 2010.

The Canolfan Gorseinon Centre was built on the old Bryngwyn Steel Works and is a charity-run, community-based centre. Several local charities and organisations are based here, including
 * Gorseinon Development Trust
 * Gorseinon Food Bank
 * Musicality – Academy of Performing Arts
 * Gorseinon Food Festival
 * Gorseinon Community Cinema
 * Gorseinon Players

Gorseinon Development Trust is a locally-run charity that works on issues such as car parking, business, litter, historic areas, tourism and parks in the area.

Twin Town
The town of Gorseinon along with the community of Llwchwr is twinned with:
 * 🇫🇷 Ploërmel, France

Facilities
The town has local hospital, donated to the community prior to the establishment of the National Health Service by the local industrialist, (William) Rufus Lewis, who also established Parc y Werin People's Park

Gorseinon has a library, a district housing office and a post office.

Sport and leisure

 * Gorseinon RFC play Rugby Union in WRU Division One West.
 * Garden Village FC play in the Welsh Football League Division Two.
 * Gorseinon Cricket Club play in the South Wales Cricket Association Division One.
 * Gower Riders cycling club are based in the town and hold an annual cyclo-cross race at Melin Mynach in the town.
 * Swansea Sharks roller hockey club play in the South Wales region of the BIPHA.
 * Garngoch Golf Club, Gorseinon, operated between about 1930 and 1950.

Gorseinon hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1980.

For more than 50 years, Gorseinon was home to 'La Charrette', the UK's smallest cinema, established by local electrician, the late Gwyn Phillips. Built from a disused railway carriage, the cinema opened in 1953; when the decay of its structure forced closure in February 2008, 'La Charrette' was dismantled and taken to the Gower Heritage Centre. The last film shown at La Charette was a black-tie premiere of Danny Boyle's Alien Love Triangle attended by Kenneth Branagh, who starred in the film, and organised by Observer film critic Mark Kermode.

The recently opened Canolfan Gorseinon Centre features a multi-use hall, training rooms, office room for small businesses, a creche and a bar and cafe.

Education
Gorseinon Primary School, which has three sites in the town, provides pre-school and primary education. There is a proposal to build a new primary school at Parc y Werin to replace the existing school buildings.

Most eleven to sixteen-year-old children in the area attend Penyrheol Comprehensive School. The school buildings were largely destroyed by an arson attack in 2006. The rebuilt school was opened in 2009.

One of the campuses of Gower College Swansea is in Gorseinon, providing further education and adult learning.

Notable residents

 * Keith Allen, actor, comedian, singer/songwriter
 * Aneirin Talfan Davies, Welsh language poet, broadcaster and literary critic
 * Sir Alun Talfan Davies QC, judge, publisher and politician
 * Colin Edwards, (1924–1994) radio journalist and documentary film maker
 * Norman Gale, Welsh rugby union captain
 * Lord Garel-Jones, Conservative MP for Watford and government minister
 * James Henry Govier, (1910–1974) painter, etcher and engraver lived in Gorseinon from 1914 to 1945
 * David Rhys Grenfell, born in nearby Penyrheol, local Member of Parliament for 37 years, Father of the House of Commons
 * Leigh Halfpenny, Welsh international and British & Irish Lions rugby union player
 * Michael Howard, politician, Conservative Party leader and Home Secretary
 * Gwynne Howell, operatic bass
 * Leighton James, Welsh international footballer
 * Robbie James, Welsh international footballer
 * Phil John, rugby union player
 * Colin Jones, welterweight boxer
 * Lewis Jones, dual-code Welsh international rugby footballer
 * Richard Moriarty, Welsh rugby union captain
 * Beth Morris, television actress
 * Jessica Sula, actress
 * Elin Manahan Thomas, classical soprano, broadcaster and presenter
 * Imogen Thomas, model

Transport
Gorseinon bus station is located just off West Street in the town centre. Bus services are provided by First Cymru with services to the surrounding villages and to Llanelli and Swansea city centre. The bus station was rebuilt making an improvement to the area. The town lost its train service in 1964 under the Beeching Axe; the nearest train station is now Gowerton railway station, 1.8 mi to the south.

The primary route through Gorseinon is the A4240 road which crosses the town centre as High Street and Alexandra Road. The A4240 connects Gorseinon with Llanelli to the west; and Penllergaer and the M4 Motorway (Junction 47) to the east.

Grovesend formation
Gorseinon is built upon the Grovesend formation. Lithological characteristics are predominantly argillaceous, comprising mudstones and siltstones, with well developed coals; minor lithic ("Pennant") sandstones; locally developed red mudstones in the type area. Description of the lower boundary of this formation is that the base is placed at the base of the Swansea Four-Feet Coal of the Swansea district (equivalent of the Llantwit No.3 Seam in the Pontypridd district and the Mynyddislwyn Seam east of the Taff valley), where it overlies mudstone seatearth at the top of the predominantly arenaceous Swansea Member in the Swansea district and the similar Hughes Member in the east of the coalfield. It is a conformable boundary in the west, but is assumed to be an unconformable one in the east (Woodland et al., 1957; Squirrell and Downing, 1969; Barclay, 1989). Also taken at the base of the laterally correlatable Rudge Coal in the Radstack part of the Somerset Coalfield, the High Coal of the Bristol Coalfield and the Avonmouth No.1 Coal of the Severn Coal Basin. Description of the upper boundary is The Grovesend Formation is the youngest unit found in the South Wales and Forest of Dean coalfields. It is overlain unconformably by sandstones of the Sherwood Sandstone Group in the Newent Coalfield, by mudstones of the Mercia Mudstone Group in the Oxfordshire Coalfield and either the Sherwood Sandstone or Mercia Mudstone groups in the Bristol/Somerset Coalfields.

Swansea Member Formation
Small outcrop of this formation occurs to East of a fault which has a north–south orientation which is in the penllergaer region of Gorseinon. Lithological characteristics are green-grey, lithic arenites ("Pennant sandstones") with thin mudstone/siltstone and seatearth interbeds, and mainly thin coals. Description of the lower boundary of this formation is that the base is placed at the base of the Golden Seam (Swansea Three Feet or Graigola) (Woodland et al., 1957), where the coal rests on mudstone seatearth within a predominantly arenaceous sequence of the Pennant Sandstone Formation. Description of the upper boundary of this formation is that the top is placed at the base of the Wernffraith Seam (correlated with the Mynyddislwyn Seam of the eastern part of the South Wales Coalfield) where the coal overlies mudstone seatearth with a predominantly arenaceous sequence of the Pennant Sandstone Formation, and is overlain conformably by the mudstone-dominated succession of the Grovesend Formation.

Drift Geology
The most common drift deposit in Gorseinon are Devension till (boulder clay) glacial deposits. The Afon Lliw is dominated by Alluvium deposits. Tidal flat deposits occur East of Gorseinon near the estuary.

Economic Geology
Several coal mines and shafts occur in South Gorseinon. There are also abundant aggregate quarries in North Gorseinon. Coal seams occur in the Southern and Eastern limits of Gorseinon.

Structural Geology
A large axial plan of an Anticline occurs South of the hospital in Gorseinon with a North West-South East orientation. Four major faults with a north–south orientation in the Gorseinon region.

title: Gorseinon


text:
Gradient-index optics

Gradient-index (GRIN) optics is the branch of optics covering optical effects produced by a gradient of the refractive index of a material. Such gradual variation can be used to produce lenses with flat surfaces, or lenses that do not have the aberrations typical of traditional spherical lenses. Gradient-index lenses may have a refraction gradient that is spherical, axial, or radial.

In nature
The lens of the eye is the most obvious example of gradient-index optics in nature. In the human eye, the refractive index of the lens varies from approximately 1.406 in the central layers down to 1.386 in less dense layers of the lens. This allows the eye to image with good resolution and low aberration at both short and long distances.

Another example of gradient index optics in nature is the common mirage of a pool of water appearing on a road on a hot day. The pool is actually an image of the sky, apparently located on the road since light rays are being refracted (bent) from their normal straight path. This is due to the variation of refractive index between the hot, less dense air at the surface of the road, and the denser cool air above it. The variation in temperature (and thus density) of the air causes a gradient in its refractive index, causing it to increase with height. This index gradient causes refraction of light rays (at a shallow angle to the road) from the sky, bending them into the eye of the viewer, with their apparent location being the road's surface.

The Earth's atmosphere acts as a GRIN lens, allowing observers to see the sun for a few minutes after it is actually below the horizon, and observers can also view stars that are below the horizon. This effect also allows for observation of electromagnetic signals from satellites after they have descended below the horizon, as in radio occultation measurements.

Applications
The ability of GRIN lenses to have flat surfaces simplifies the mounting of the lens, which makes them useful where many very small lenses need to be mounted together, such as in photocopiers and scanners. The flat surface also allows a GRIN lens to be easily optically aligned to a fiber, to produce collimated output, making it applicable for endoscopy as well as for in vivo calcium imaging and optogenetic stimulation in brain.

In imaging applications, GRIN lenses are mainly used to reduce aberrations. The design of such lenses involves detailed calculations of aberrations as well as efficient manufacture of the lenses. A number of different materials have been used for GRIN lenses including optical glasses, plastics, germanium, zinc selenide, and sodium chloride.

Certain optical fibres (graded-index fibres) are made with a radially-varying refractive index profile; this design strongly reduces the modal dispersion of a multi-mode optical fiber. The radial variation in refractive index allows for a sinusoidal height distribution of rays within the fibre, preventing the rays from leaving the core. This differs from traditional optical fibres, which rely on total internal reflection, in that all modes of the GRIN fibres propagate at the same speed, allowing for a higher temporal bandwidth for the fibre.

Antireflection coatings are typically effective for narrow ranges of frequency or angle of incidence. Graded-index materials are less constrained.

An axial gradient lens has been used to concentrate sunlight onto solar cells, capturing as much as 90% of incident light when the sun is not at an optimal angle.

Manufacture
GRIN lenses are made by several techniques:
 * Neutron irradiation – Boron-rich glass is bombarded with neutrons to cause a change in the boron concentration, and thus the refractive index of the lens.
 * Chemical vapour deposition – Involving the deposition of different glass with varying refractive indexes, onto a surface to produce a cumulative refractive change.
 * Partial polymerisation – An organic monomer is partially polymerized using ultraviolet light at varying intensities to give a refractive gradient.
 * Ion exchange – Glass is immersed into a liquid melt with lithium ions. As a result of diffusion, sodium ions in the glass are partially exchanged with lithium ones, with a larger amount of exchange occurring at the edge. Thus the sample obtains a gradient material structure and a corresponding gradient of the refractive index.
 * Ion stuffing – Phase separation of a specific glass causes pores to form, which can later be filled using a variety of salts or concentration of salts to give a varying gradient.
 * Direct laser writing – While point-by-point exposing the pre-designed structure an exposure dose is varied (scanning speed, laser power, etc.). This corresponds to spatially tunable monomer-to-polymer degree-of-conversion resulting to a different refractive index. The method is applicable to free-form micro-optical elements and multi-component optics.

History
In 1854, J C Maxwell suggested a lens whose refractive index distribution would allow for every region of space to be sharply imaged. Known as the Maxwell fisheye lens, it involves a spherical index function and would be expected to be spherical in shape as well. This lens, however, is impractical to make and has little usefulness since only points on the surface and within the lens are sharply imaged and extended objects suffer from extreme aberrations. In 1905, R. W. Wood used a dipping technique creating a gelatin cylinder with a refractive index gradient that varied symmetrically with the radial distance from the axis. Disk-shaped slices of the cylinder were later shown to have plane faces with radial index distribution. He showed that even though the faces of the lens were flat, they acted like converging and diverging lens depending on whether the index was a decreasing or increasing relative to the radial distance. In 1964, a posthumous book of R. K. Luneburg was published in which he described a lens that focuses incident parallel rays of light onto a point on the opposite surface of the lens. This also limited the applications of the lens because it was difficult to use it to focus visible light; however, it had some usefulness in microwave applications. Some years later several new techniques have been developed to fabricate lenses of the Wood type. Since then at least the thinner GRIN lenses can possess surprisingly good imaging properties considering their very simple mechanical construction, while thicker GRIN lenses found application e.g. in Selfoc rods.

Theory
An inhomogeneous gradient-index lens possesses a refractive index whose change follows the function $$n=f(x,y,z)$$ of the coordinates of the region of interest in the medium. According to Fermat's principle, the light path integral (L), taken along a ray of light joining any two points of a medium, is stationary relative to its value for any nearby curve joining the two points. The light path integral is given by the equation
 * , where n is the refractive index and S is the arc length of the curve. If Cartesian coordinates are used, this equation is modified to incorporate the change in arc length for a spherical gradient, to each physical dimension:

where prime corresponds to d/ds. The light path integral is able to characterize the path of light through the lens in a qualitative manner, such that the lens may be easily reproduced in the future.

The refractive index gradient of GRIN lenses can be mathematically modelled according to the method of production used. For example, GRIN lenses made from a radial gradient index material, such as SELFOC Microlens, have a refractive index that varies according to:
 * , where nr is the refractive index at a distance, r, from the optical axis; no is the design index on the optical axis, and A is a positive constant.

title: Gradient-index optics


text:
Green Grow the Rushes, O

Green Grow the Rushes, O (alternatively "Ho" or "Oh") (also known as "The Twelve Prophets", "The Carol of the Twelve Numbers", "The Teaching Song", "The Dilly Song", or "The Ten Commandments"), is an English folk song (Roud #133). It is sometimes sung as a Christmas carol. It often takes the form of antiphon, where one voice calls and is answered by a chorus.

The song is not to be confused with Robert Burns's similarly titled "Green Grow the Rashes" nor with the Irish folk band Altan's song of the same name.

It is cumulative in structure, with each verse built up from the previous one by appending a new stanza. The first verse is:

 * I'll sing you one, O
 * Green grow the rushes, O
 * What is your one, O?
 * One is one and all alone
 * And evermore shall be so.

There are many variants of the song, collected by musicologists including Sabine Baring-Gould and Cecil Sharp from the West of England at the start of the twentieth century. The stanzas are clearly much corrupted and often obscure, but the references are generally agreed to be both Biblical and astronomical.

Lyrics
The twelfth, cumulated, verse runs:

 * I'll sing you twelve, O
 * Green grow the rushes, O
 * What are your twelve, O?
 * Twelve for the twelve Apostles
 * Eleven for the eleven who went to heaven,
 * Ten for the ten commandments,
 * Nine for the nine bright shiners,
 * Eight for the April Rainers.
 * Seven for the seven stars in the sky,
 * Six for the six proud walkers,
 * Five for the symbols at your door,
 * Four for the Gospel makers,
 * Three, three, the rivals,
 * Two, two, the lily-white boys,
 * Clothed all in green, O
 * One is one and all alone
 * And evermore shall be so.

Origins
The lyrics of the song are, in many places, exceedingly obscure, and present an unusual mixture of Christian catechesis, astronomical mnemonics, and what may be pagan cosmology. The musicologist Cecil Sharp, influential in the folklore revival in England, noted in his 1916 One Hundred English Folksongs that the words are "so corrupt, indeed, that in some cases we can do little more than guess at their original meaning".

The song's origins and age are uncertain: however, a counting song with similar lyrics, but without the 'Green grow the rushes' chorus, was sung by English children in the first half of the 19th century. By 1868 several variant and somewhat garbled versions were being sung by street children as Christmas carols. Sharp states that the song was very common in Somerset and the whole of the West of England.

"Green grow the rushes, Ho" (or "O"), the chorus, is not included in Sharp's version, which has simply the call and refrain "Come and I will sing to you. What will you sing to me? I will sing you one-er-y. What is your one-er-y? One is One ..." However, Sharp records that "a form of this song, 'Green grow the rushes, O' is known at Eton", that it was printed in English County Songs, and that Arthur Sullivan had included a version in the Savoy opera The Yeomen of the Guard. Sharp discusses at length the similar Hebrew song "Echad Mi Yodea" (Who Knows One?), which accumulates up to thirteen and is sung at many Jewish Passover seders.

Interpretation
The twelve stanzas may be interpreted as follows:

 * Twelve for the twelve Apostles

This refers to the twelve Apostles of Jesus. Sharp states that there were no variants of this line.

 * Eleven for the eleven who went to heaven

These are the eleven Apostles who remained faithful (minus Judas Iscariot), or possibly St Ursula and her 11,000 companions.

 * Ten for the ten commandments

This refers to the Ten Commandments given to Moses.

 * Nine for the nine bright shiners

The nine may be an astronomical reference: the Sun, Moon and five planets known before 1781 yields seven and to this may be added the sphere of the fixed stars and the Empyrean, or it may refer to the nine orders of angels. Sharp records no variants in Somerset, but that Sabine Baring-Gould found a Devon variant "The nine delights" which Sharp glosses as "the joys of Mary".

 * Eight for the April Rainers

Refers to the Hyades star cluster, called the "rainy Hyades" in classical times, and rising with the sun in April; the Greeks thought of the Hyades as inaugurating the April rains.

 * Seven for the seven stars in the sky

The seven are probably the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades star cluster. Other options include Ursa Major, or the seven traditional planets. Alternatively, they could be the seven stars of Revelation chapter 1, verse 16, which are held in the right hand of Christ and explained as referring to the seven angels of seven of the early Christian churches.

 * Six for the six proud walkers

This may be a corruption of 'six proud waters', a reference to the six jars of water that Jesus turned into wine at the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee, (John 2:6) which Sharp notes was suggested by the editors of English County Songs. Or it may refer to Ezekiel 9:2 where six men with swords come in a vision of the prophet to slaughter the people, whose leaders (8:16) have committed such sins as turning East to worship the Sun, and "have filled the land with violence". (This appears to be a guess and needs a reference to a scholarly authority to make it credible.)

 * Five for the symbols at your door

May refer to the marks of blood that God commanded the Israelites to put upon their doorways at the Exodus (cf Exodus 12:7). It may also allude to the practice of putting a pentagram at the door of a house to ward off witches and evil spirits in the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, and is alluded to in literary works (examples?). John Timpson's book Timpson's England states that it refers to five symbols displayed above the doorways of houses that would shelter Catholic priests. He gives an example of a house where these can still be seen.

 * Four for the Gospel makers

This refers to the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

 * Three, three, the rivals

'Rivals' may be a corruption of Riders, Arrivals, or Wisers, referring to the three Magi of the Nativity. The suggestion of the Trinity leaves the rivals unexplained. Perhaps it is not intended to mean 'three competitors' but rather, the 4th century rival philosophical controversies about the trinitarianism: The nature of God as three entities? The rivalry was about which wording could be accepted by a majority, and so would become established as part of the orthodox Christian creed. Another possibility is the trio of Peter, James, and John, often mentioned together in the Gospels, who had a dispute "among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest" (Luke 22:24). Pastor Paul Kolch of Trinity Lutheran Church in Sacramento taught that the three referred to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who resisted burning in the fiery furnace and were "rivals" to the Babylonians. This phrase was thus changed to be "Three, three, alive o". Another option is Yr Eifl, a group of three similar and adjacent mountains in Wales called "The Rivals" in English. A classical option is Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, the three goddesses between whom the Judgement of Paris was made.

 * Two, two, the lily-white boys
 * Clothed all in green, Ho

Many traditionshold that John the Baptist, like Jesus, was born without original sin, making them the lily-white boys. "The infant [John the Baptist] leaped in her [Elizabeth's] womb" (Luke 1:41).

This may refer to the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus where Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus in clothes of 'dazzling white'. The dressed in green would then refer to St. Peter's suggestion that the disciples build shelters of branches for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. Robert Graves suggested that the reference is the defeat at Yule of Holly King by the Oak King.

Sharp cites Baring-Gould's suggestion of an astronomical mnemonic, the Gemini twins (Castor and Pollux) or "signs for Spring". In support of this, Gemini is the northernmost constellation in the zodiac, therefore high in the winter sky in the northern hemisphere where the aurora borealis on occasion clothes the heavenly twins in green.

Another explanation is that the statues of St. John and St. Mary which, in traditionally configured Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, flank the crucifix on the altar reredos or the rood screen were bound with rushes to cover them, during Holy Week. The two figures were portrayed in similar garments, hence lily-white [boys], and wrapped in rushes they were clothed all in green. Except that they weren't boys.

There is an alternate version:
 * Two, two, the lily white pair, clothen all in green, Ho

which may refer to Adam and Eve.

W.W. Reade implied that the stanza refers to ovates, who performed sacrifices for the druids. Normally they would be dressed in white, but their sacerdotal robes would be green. According to the writer and folklorist Tom Slemen, such practices were still being performed in secret in the last century, by a cult known as "The Lily White Boys" in the North West of England.

 * One is one and all alone

This appears to refer to God.

Variants
Apart from the Notes and Queries and the Hebrew versions already mentioned, the following variants are known.

The Twelve Apostles
A variant, sung in the American Ozarks, is entitled The Twelve Apostles. Its twelfth, cumulated, verse, is:

 * Come an' I will sing!
 * What will you sing?
 * I will sing of twelve.
 * What of the twelve?
 * Twelve of the twelve apostles,
 * Leven of the saints that has gone to Heaven,
 * Ten of the ten commandments,
 * Nine of the sunshines bright an' fair,
 * Eight of the eight archangels,
 * Seven of the seven stars in the sky,
 * Six of the cheerful waiters,
 * Five of the ferrymen in the boat,
 * Four of the gospel preachers,
 * Three of them were strangers,
 * Two of the little white babes
 * Dressed in the mournin' green.

The Dilly Song
A similar variant is found in Winston Graham's The Twisted Sword (1990), the penultimate book in the Poldark series. It is sung by a Cornish choir on Christmas Eve. Current 93 recorded a version on their 1988 album Earth Covers Earth. English folksinger Kate Rusby recorded a rendition of "The Dilly Carol" for her 2015 Christmas album The Frost is All Over:

 * Come and I will sing you
 * What will you sing O?
 * I will sing One O.
 * What is your One O?

 * Twelve are the Twelve Apostles
 * Leven are the 'leven will go to Heaven
 * Ten are the Ten Commandments
 * Nine is the moonshine bright and clear
 * Eight are the Eight Archangels
 * Seven are the Seven Stars in the sky
 * Six the Cheerful Waiter
 * Five is the Ferryman in the boat
 * Four are the Gospel Praychers
 * Three of them are strangers
 * Two of them are Lilly-white babes
 * Clothed all in green-o
 * One of them is all alone and ever shall remain so.

Alternative titles

 * I'll Sing You One Oh
 * The Carol of the Twelve Numbers
 * The Twelve Apostles
 * The Dilly Song
 * The Dilly Carol
 * The Counting Song
 * Come and I Will Sing You
 * Stay and I’ll Sing

Related works

 * The Orange Lily O', an Orange song about how Erin's Orange Lily was grander than similar items throughout the British Isles.
 * A medical version of the song is featured in the TV Sitcom "Doctor in the House" episode "Keep it Clean" and is sung by students Michael Upton, Duncan Waring, Paul Collier, Dave Briddock, and Huw Evans in the student union bar.
 * The spiritual "Children, Go Where I Send Thee" has a similar format, counting down from ten or twelve biblical references.
 * "Echad Mi Yodea" ("Who Knows One?"), a Hebrew song sung at the end of the Jewish Passover seder, has a very similar structure, counting up to thirteen using biblical and religious references.
 * The song "The Ten Commandments", on Figgy Duff's album After The Tempest is a variant, omitting the last two symbols.
 * A filk song titled "High Fly the Nazgul-O!" uses the same tune but the lyrics have been changed to refer to The Lord of the Rings.
 * The comedy character Rambling Syd Rumpo sang a parody called "Green Grow My Nadgers, O" on the Round the Horne radio comedy programme.
 * In the Gilbert & Sullivan opera The Yeomen of the Guard, the duet "I Have a Song to Sing, O" was inspired by a variant of this song, beginning "Come, and I will sing you".
 * In The Children of Green Knowe, by Lucy M. Boston, Tolly sings the first two verses of the song.
 * In the "Too Many Christmas Trees" episode of the 1960s U.K. TV series The Avengers, Steed sings the first two verses of this song to avoid having his mind influenced by his adversaries with psychic powers.
 * The Society for Creative Anachronism kingdom of Ealdormere has a filk version of the song, using the tune and the count-down format; the final line is "And one for the land of Ealdormere that ever more shall be so".
 * The Two Ronnies performed a satirical version as members of a Russian Choir. "Green" was changed to "Red". Memorable lyrics included: "Six for the Common Market / Five pence a mile to drive your car / And four pounds just to park it / Three P for a rotten cup of tea / Tu-tu for women's lib / Now they've burned their bras - O! / One is one, and all alone, and that is Greta Garbo".
 * The song was very popular at holiday camps up until about the 1970s, where campers would perform actions whilst enthusiastically singing along to each verse. In this version the lyrics to verse 2 were completely changed to "two, two, the same to you; how's your father? he's alright". The only other deviation from the standard lyrics was in verse 5 where "symbols" was replaced with "cymbals" to which campers would bang drink trays together to mimic cymbals.
 * "Red Fly the Banners, O" is a Marxist-Leninist version of the song.
 * There is a reference to "the lily-white boy" in W. H. Auden's poem "As I Walked Out One Evening".
 * The song is referred to in the famous Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, specifically on pg 271 of Post Captain.
 * Twelve of Anthea Fraser's novels featuring fictional detective David Webb reference lines of the song.
 * The song is sung by Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols preceding her murder in Alan Moore's From Hell. Though there is no record of Nichols knowing the song or being known to sing it, Moore admits in his annotations that he included the song to tie into the book's theme of the pagan symbolism of Britain - as well as it being a song likely to be sung by a citizen of London in the 1800s.
 * A variation of this song using nature references and extending only from one to five is performed by an animated turtle in children's TV show Sesame Street.
 * Jilly Cooper's novel Rivals references the song several times: the three companies are described as the "three rivals" and lines from the song are sung by characters.
 * The Canadian folk rock band Great Big Sea recorded a version titled "Come and I Will Sing You" on their 2005 album The Hard and the Easy.
 * Terry Pratchett's novel Hogfather features two brothers that share the last name "Lilywhite"; the book also contains a fictional holiday carol "The Lilywhite Boys".
 * The American band R.E.M. wrote a song named "Green Grow the Rushes" that was released in 1985 on their album Fables of the Reconstruction.
 * Jonathan Stagge's (pseud. see Patrick Quentin) mystery novel Death's Old Sweet Song (1946) has a series of murders referencing lines of the song.
 * Australian writer Garth Nix's Old Kingdom book series incorporates a version of the song, as well as the idea of Nine Bright Shiners, into its cosmology.
 * The song is referenced in Shirley Jackson's novel Hangsaman.

Settings and recordings

 * Set by Benjamin Britten (as The Twelve Apostles) in 1962 for the London Boy Singers.
 * There is a recording by Philip Langridge and the Wenhaston Boys Choir on #13 from the Naxos English Song Series (8.557222 - originally released on Collins Classics)
 * A version was recorded by King Solomon's Singers, a vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of Renaissance polyphony and chant.

title: Green Grow the Rushes, O


text:
Talk:Green Grow the Rushes, O

I have always understood the two lily white boys as referring to the Princes in the tower. They were reputed to have been murdered by their uncle, King Richard III. The symbol of the House of York is the white rose. Covered all in green-o refers to the burial of their bodies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bighuggy (talk • contribs) 13:30, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

[Untitled]

Three rivals could be Ocean-land-air or the three popes during the western schism. (but this is unsourced so I'm writing here).

"My only source for this is what we used to sing in childhood in the westcountry (Devon, UK) - "Five for the five bars at your gate" - just another variant." I couldn't find any references to this variant on google, so I removed it entirely. It could be widespread, or it could be limited to the author's family! If anybody else has heard this variant, please re-insert it as an alternate lyric. --Spudtater 12:56, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

"a folk song popular in England, Scotland, and Wales" - I don't think it is popular in Scotland and Wales. This song has always struck me as being very English. The Robert Burns' "Green grow the rushes O" is a popular folk song in Scotland.

Related song(s)
I heard a song that is clearly related to this one at a performance of the SF Bay Christmas Revels last night. According to their program note, it is "a counting song ... from Devon and Cornwall. Sometimes called the 'Dilly Song', [it is] related to Green Grow the Rushes-O, but contains more ancient and universal images."

And here are the count items (I'm using their capitalizations verbatim): One and all alone Two Christmas babes in green Three Great Rivals Four Seasons of the year Five Symbols at your door Six Proud Walkers Seven Stars in the Sky Eight for the Hour of Morning's Break Nine for the Pale Moonshine Ten April Rainers Eleven maids in a dance Twelve Months One after Another

Quite a lively song, at least in this performance. Can't recall the tune, but remember that it's not quite as arpeggio-driven as "Green." It does have the same call and response structure (though it begins each verse with something like "What shall I sing of?")

70.137.145.84 18:16, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

I have some interesting ideas about 3 through 1. Three rivals could refer to the three peoples whose bodies are being chewed on by Lucifer in Dante's Inferno,Judas, Brutus and Cassius. The two kids in green could refer to the two boys who, after the reserection, were either the first to see the empty cave or actually saw Jesus (I forget what actually happened, I just seem to remember two boys). And for the one alone. I'm pretty sure it refers to Jesus himself, refering both to his stint in the wilderness and simply the fact that he was alone in his suffering and such, though if what you say is true about the origins, then Jesus wouldn't make much sense, though it seems reasonable. Steeley42 07:32, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

the nine bright shiners
I am removing the following section,

"Also in the Bible, Jesus tells a story about girls going to a wedding- some did not bring extra oil for their lamps and had to go back for more, therefore missing the wedding. The other girls, however, brought extra oil for their lamps, hence "bright shiners".""

Because the story in question regards 10 girls, 5 of whom forget extra oil and 5 who bring it. Absolutely nothing about 9 anythings in the story. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.131.135.201 (talk) 20:40, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

I always sing 9 proud walkers and assumed that they are the 9 of the ten lepers that Jesus healed who didn´t come back to thank him, and then 6 bright shiners ... but I have no sources for this. 5 symbols at your door, I assume are the 5 wounds from the nails on the cross of Jesus and then the spear in his side ... but again no sources for this at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.191.225.98 (talk) 17:00, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

the three rivals
It has always seemed to me that the 'three rivals' refers to the three peaks in Wales known as Yr Eifl in Welsh and corrupted into The Three Rivals in English.

Also, I learned the text as the six wide walkers which never made any sense to me but makes waters seem like a better word than walkers -- the six wide waters. But of course aren't there seven seas?

I was taught that the three rivals referred to the judgement of Paris, when he had to choose the most beautiful of three goddesses (or was it two goddesses and a mortal woman?).

Could it not mean the three branches of the Christian church (Roman Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox)? 84.70.185.231 09:55, 29 January 2007 (UTC)- JP

In From Hell (Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's graphic novel based on the Jack the Ripper murders) it is suggested that the three rivals are Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum, the killers of Hiram Abiff in Masonic tradition. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.219.152.63 (talk) 12:14, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Clothed all in Green O!
When I originally learned this song at primary school, the textbook stated that Two, two, the lilly-white boys, clothed all in green O! was a reference to Jesus and his cousin John the Baptist. It's an easy fit to Jesus - lilly white for purity and perfection, green because this is the usual colour of priestly robes in the Catholic Church and Jesus is regarded as the prototype of the Christian priesthood. Not quite as easy a fit to John the Baptist, though.

The alteration of April rainers to eight bold rangers may be partly influenced by a parallel with six proud walkers, and also by the desire to get the word eight into the line. There's a similar parallel between nine bright shiners and seven stars in the sky, which may have suggested it.

--PeteBleackley 09:12, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

I definitely favour the interpretation of the Holly King and the Oak King being the two lily-white boys. It sounds a lot more Pagan than Christian to me!202.86.97.52 21:43, 10 September 2006 (UTC)Kate Rockpool

I do like my suggestion of the Synoptic Gospels for the "rivals" (well, I would, wouldn't I?)

But it does rather assume that elementary hermeneutics was well known to the originators of the song or the people who passed it on, eventually  to my 4th grade  teacher. And too the vague similarity of the song to "The Ash Grove"  tells in favor of the Welsh mountains. However, a mention of the Synoptic Gospels can hardly be a bad thing.

Either way. Chop my suggestion if you think it's intrusive. No bad feelings on my part.

Revbob (talk) 01:14, 3 April 2008 (UTC))

I have always thought that the lily white boys were the Prices in the Tower. Bighuggy (talk) 13:33, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

Hebrew version
Does anyone know where I can find the Hebrew version? Zargulon 18:06, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

 * And are we sure that the claim of Hebrew origin isn't a garbled reference to Echad Mi Yodea? --Sir Myles na Gopaleen (the da) (talk) 11:59, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

 * Almost certainly someone is referring to Echad Mi Yodea, which isn't ancient though might be earlier than Green Grow the Rushes, and is structured very similarly Ariehkovler (talk) 18:49, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

go where i send thee?
The page lists "Children Go Where I Send Thee" as an alternate title, but it isn't really- it's a related, but entirely different song! Should this be elucidated? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.2.42.105 (talk) 14:44, 8 December 2006 (UTC).

unreferenced
I've tagged this article as unreferenced, because it cites no sources at all despite making many claims about the interpretation of the song. While I know nothing about it myself, I am sure that if these are the accepted interpretations then there has got to be a good, reliable source out there describing them. Confusing Manifestation 00:02, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

 * Where is St George: Pagan Imagery in English Folk Song by R.J. Stewart contains many of the interpretations used in this article. http://www.rjstewart.net/st-george.htm (83.13.39.98 (talk) 20:07, 7 April 2008 (UTC))

Deleted Bits
I removed "The I Ching contains the interesting proverb that "When three meet together, doubts arise among them", although it probably has no bearing on the interpretation of this song" from the three-rivals section because it not only are the I Ching and this song unrelated, but the quoted proverb doesn't even have anything to do with rivalry. I also removed the word Rasanayagam, formerly the last word of the article, at the end of the parenthetical note about the trinity, because I couldn't understand how it related. If there was a person named Rasanayagam who said something relavent on this topic, that should be stated more clearly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.168.208.62 (talk) 19:37, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

One, two, three possibilities
Three: (I think that rival has an earlier meaning -middle English?- quite different to the present-day usage, i.e. PARTNERS. If so, this would remove the ojections that this verse is indeed referring to the trinity. Rasanayagam.)

 * You're right: "rivals" used to mean "partners". cf http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster%27s&word=rival&use1913=on. I've added this to the article Ariehkovler (talk) 15:59, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Two: The two boys being Jesus and his cousin John the Baptist might well be the correct interpretation. Lilywhite meaning sinless. Also I have read somewhere, and it should be possible to verify this, that in Jewish tradition of long ago, the young children were actually dressed in green on certain important religious days and acted out scriptural scenes to entertain the family and guests. One: (There is no conflict here with Christian beliefs which is the existence of ONE God, the Unity of Father,Son and Spirit forming One Godhead.Rasanayagam.)

Moved these statements by User:Rasanayagam from article page to discussion page, as they are phrased as personal comment--Bookgrrl holler/ lookee here 01:56, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Fat Grow the Buffalo
Anyone familiar with the version of this song that starts with "Fat grow the buffalo" ? To my knowledge and from when I sang it, the remaining verses 2-12 were the same...--Paul McDonald (talk) 04:31, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Gringo
According the Wiki article on Gringo that word originated from this song (green grow = gringo). From the Spanish - American war it seems.  Smokey TheCat  11:17, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

This article is an embarrassment
This kind of uncited speculation may have been fine back in 2005 but it's just embarrassing now. In places even the authors admit they're just guessing. Unfortunately, removing every uncited claim wouldn't leave much. Does anyone know of reliable sources, or is some ruthless pruning in order here? I've fixed the "B" class. Chiswick Chap (talk) 10:40, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

I just searched this song and found the page very useful, I don't think it's embarrassing. The song is extremely well known and extremely curious. Like everything here, citations would help, but a lack of them is not a reason to pull it. Conjecture and guesswork are helpful in this situation. We have little else.Thelisteninghand (talk) 20:15, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

Rushbearing
I have no citation to say these pages should be linked. It's just obvious.Thelisteninghand (talk) 20:32, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

five symbols at your door
The five symbols Christians often put on their door are the Greek letters "ɪ k θ ə s" which spells "fish" in Koine Greek. It's the first thing I thought of when I heard the words of the song. I wonder if it was as popular a door sign in England of the early 1800s as it was in the U.S. in the 1970s. That might explain one interpretation of the fifth verse. I feel it's important enough that it should be included on the article page, but I feel less than confident as an very 'green' editor to add it without more research. Thus, I post it here. As a random aside, I also wonder if the jumble of variants of the song indicate an attempt to erase a bit of non-Christian or pagan cultural memory with lyrics more acceptable to the dominant culture. It's a curious verse which begs for idle speculation. Dwilliamshome (talk) 16:04, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Green Grow the Rushes, O


text:
Earl's Palace, Birsay

The Earl's Palace in Birsay, Orkney, Scotland, is a ruined 16th-century castle. It was built by Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney (1533–1593), illegitimate son of King James V and his mistress Euphemia Elphinstone. The palace is in the care of Historic Environment Scotland as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

History
Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, had a house at Birsay, which he called the "place of Birsay". In December 1560, it was taken and occupied by Henry Sinclair of Strom, an Orkney landowner and a son of Edward Sinclair, the Sheriff of Orkney.

The castle was constructed in two phases. The first phase of work, begun in the 1570s, consisted of the great hall located in the south range, above the main door. Beside this was Lord Orkney's private chamber in the south-east corner tower. An inscription above the entrance, dated 1574, marks this phase. The second phase, completed in the 1580s, saw a new range containing a great hall and chamber built on the north side of the courtyard. The second phase probably followed Robert's acquisition of the Earldom of Orkney in 1581. After the death of Robert Stewart, the palace was used only occasionally by later earls of Orkney, and was not occupied after the mid-17th century. By 1701 the palace had begun to deteriorate badly.

The castle
The two-storey palace was constructed around a central courtyard and well, with large stone towers at three of the four corners. It was as much a fortress as a residence. Only the palace's upper floors had large windows; the accessible ground floors were equipped with small openings and an array of gun-holes, from which musketeers could cover every side of the building.

Few records of the palace remain to give a clear impression of its contents and layout. The Reverend John Brand published a book about Orkney in 1701, and included a description of the palace. He wrote: "'[The upper floor] hath been prettily decored, the Ceiling being all Painted, and that for the most part with schems holding forth scripture-histories, as Noah's floud, Christ's riding to Jerusalem &c. And the Scripture is set doun beside the Figure.'"

title: Earl's Palace, Birsay


text:
Bromelain

Bromelain is an enzyme extract derived from the stems of pineapples, although it exists in all parts of the fresh plant and fruit. The extract has a history of folk medicine use. As a culinary ingredient, it may be used as a meat tenderizer.

The term "bromelain" may refer to either of two protease enzymes extracted from the plants of the family Bromeliaceae, or it may refer to a combination of those enzymes along with other compounds produced in an extract.

Although tested in a variety of folk medicine and research models for its possible efficacy against diseases, the only approved clinical application for bromelain was issued in 2012 by the European Medicines Agency for a topical medication called NexoBrid used to remove dead tissue in severe skin burns. There is no other established application for bromelain as a nutraceutical or drug.

Extract components
Bromelain extract is a mixture of protein-digesting (proteolytic) enzymes and several other substances in smaller quantities. The proteolytic enzymes are sulfhydryl proteases; a free sulfhydryl group of a cysteine amino acid side chain is required for function. The two main enzymes are:

 * Stem bromelain –
 * Fruit bromelain –

History
Pineapples have a long tradition as a medicinal plant among the natives of South and Central America. The first isolation of bromelain was recorded by the Venezuelan chemist Vicente Marcano in 1891 by fermenting the fruit of pineapple. In 1892, Russell Henry Chittenden, assisted by Elliott P. Joslin and Frank Sherman Meara, investigated the matter more completely, and called it 'bromelin'. Later, the term 'bromelain' was introduced and originally applied to any protease from any member of the plant family Bromeliaceae.

Production
Produced mainly in parts of the world where pineapples are grown, such as Thailand or Malaysia, bromelain is extracted from the peel, stem, leaves or waste of the pineapple plant after processing the fruit for juice or other purposes. The starting material is blended and pressed through a filter to obtain a supernatant liquid containing the soluble bromelain enzyme. Further processing includes purification and concentration of the enzyme.

Temperature stability
After an hour at 50 °C (122 °F), 83% of the enzyme remains, while at 40 °C (104 °F), practically 100% remains. The proteolytic activity of concentrated bromelain solutions remains relatively stable for at least 1 week at room temperature, and multiple freeze-thaw cycles or exposure to the digestive enzyme trypsin have little effect on it.

Meat tenderizing and other uses
Along with papain, bromelain is one of the most popular proteases to use for meat tenderizing. Bromelain is sold in a powdered form, which is combined with a marinade, or directly sprinkled on the uncooked meat.

Cooked or canned pineapple does not have a tenderizing effect, as the enzymes are heat-labile and denatured in the cooking process. Some prepared meat products, such as meatballs and commercially available marinades, include pineapple and/or pineapple-derived ingredients.

Although the quantity of bromelain in a typical serving of pineapple fruit is probably not significant, specific extraction can yield sufficient quantities for domestic and industrial processing, including uses in baking, anti-browning of cut fruit, textiles and cosmetics manufacturing.

Potential medical uses
A concentrate of proteolytic enzymes enriched in bromelain is approved in Europe for the debridement (removal of dead tissue) of severe burn wounds under the trade name NexoBrid.

Bromelain has not been scientifically proven to be effective in treating any other diseases and it has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of any disorder. In the United States, the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA, 1994) allows the sale of bromelain-containing dietary supplements even though efficacy has not been confirmed.

While there have been studies which positively correlated the use of bromelain with reduction of symptom severity in osteoarthritis, "[t]he majority of the studies have methodological issues that make it difficult to draw definite conclusions", as none definitively established efficacy, recommended dosage, long term safety, or adverse interaction with other medications.

Systemic enzyme therapy (consisting of combinations of proteolytic enzymes such as bromelain, trypsin, chymotrypsin, and papain) has been investigated in Europe to evaluate the efficacy in breast, colorectal, and plasmacytoma cancer patients.

Bromelain may be effective as an adjunct therapy in relieving symptoms of acute rhinosinusitis in patients not treated with antibiotics.

Bromelain is also claimed as a tooth plaque removal enhancer in toothpastes.

title: Bromelain