(from the article "Literature") Established author Arne Svingen was awarded the Brage Prize for Youth Literature for Svart elfenben, about two wandering friends who travel to war-torn Cote d'Ivoire.
first chief of state of independent Finland, as prime minister and then as president. He headed the Finnish government during his country's civil war (1918) and in the early 1930s. He was instrumental in suppressing Finland's Communist Party and maintaining a rightist regime. [1 Related Articles]
Russian composer and pianist (b. Dec. 16, 1915, Fatezh, Russia--d. Jan. 5, 1998, Moscow, Russia), wrote music that paid tribute to Russian literature and folk traditions, achieving acclaim within the Soviet cultural system. Sviridov studied music under Dmitry Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatory, graduating in 1941. His talent was soon ...
town, northern Bulgaria, on the terraced bank of the Danube River. Svishtov is one of the largest Bulgarian Danube ports and is a cultural centre. The Romans built on a strategic site near the town in the 1st century AD. There is little historical record of the town during the ...
(from the article "Ukraine") Ukraine has a few natural lakes, all of them small and most of them scattered over the river floodplains. One of the largest is Lake Svityaz, 11 square miles (28 square km) in area, in the northwest. Small saltwater lakes occur in the Black Sea Lowland and in the Crimea. ...
Czech stage scenographer (b. May 10, 1920, Caslav, Czech.-d. April 8, 2002, Prague, Czech Rep.), enhanced more than 700 theatre, ballet, and opera productions in Europe and the U.S. with his unique vision and technical ingenuity; his innovative designs ranged from massive pieces of relatively traditional scenery to delicately placed ... [1 Related Articles]
president of Czechoslovakia (1968-75) who achieved great popularity by resisting the Soviet Union's demands during and after its invasion of August 1968. He was also a national hero of two world wars. [2 Related Articles]
city and centre of Svobodny rayon (sector), Amur oblast (region), southeastern Russia. It is situated on the right bank of the Zeya River, which is a tributary of the Amur River, and on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Svobodny was founded in 1912. It is now ...
(from the article "Olaf I Tryggvason") Olaf met his death in the Battle of Svolder (c. 1000) at the hands of the Danish king Sweyn I, the Swedish king Olaf Skotkonung, and Eric the Norwegian, earl of Lade. The battle is often retold in medieval Scandinavian poems. After his death large portions of Norway reverted to ...
chief town and port of the Lofoten island group, northern Norway, and part of the municipality of Vagan (see also Kabelvag). It is on the southern coast of Austvagoya, the easternmost island of the group. Svolvaer's economy depends almost entirely on cod fisheries. At the height of the fishing season (January-April), ... [1 Related Articles]
(from the article "Russia") ...for the reign of his son Yaroslav (ruled 1019-54) to produce a flowering of cultural life. But neither Yaroslav, who gained control of Kiev only after a bitter struggle against his brother Svyatopolk (1015-19), nor his successors in Kiev were able to provide lasting political stability within the enormous realm. ...
(from the article "COBRA") ...at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Liege, Belgium. COBRA included among its members Karel Appel, Corneille (Corneille Guillaume Beverloo), Constant (Nieuwenhuis), Pierre Alechinsky, Lucebert (Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk), and Jean Atlan. Influenced by poetry, film, folk art, children's art, and primitive art, the semiabstract canvases by these artists display brilliant colour ...
historic region of southwestern Germany, including what is now the southern portion of Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state) and the southwestern part of Bavaria Land in Germany, as well as eastern Switzerland and Alsace. [3 Related Articles]
(from the article "Italy") The reign of Conrad's successor and nephew, the duke of Swabia, Frederick I (1152-90), brought a major reassertion of imperial rule in Italy. Frederick saw himself not as the heir to a compromise but as a restorer of the Romano-Carolingian heritage of the German monarchy.
(from the article "Romania") ...supplies, and livestock and were exempt from paying taxes. Although only some of the emigrants were from Swabia, in southwestern Germany, the Hungarians referred to all the newly arrived Germans as Swabians. Throughout the 18th century, communities of Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, and Romanians also settled in the plains of the ...
(from the article "Germany") ...German Uplands (Central German), and the southern Jura, Danube basin, and Alpine districts (Upper German). Of the Upper German dialects, the Alemannic branch in the southwest is subdivided into Swabian, Low Alemannic, and High Alemannic. Swabian, the most widespread and still-ascending form, is spoken to the west and south of ...
continuation of the Jura Mountains in Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. The upland plateau extends approximately 100 miles (160 km) from the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) to the Wornitz River at an average elevation of about 2,300 feet (700 m). The plateau rises in a steep northwestern scarp some 1,300 feet ... [2 Related Articles]
(from the article "Germany") On July 4, 1376, an alliance of 14 imperial cities of Swabia was formed under the leadership of Ulm and Constance for mutual protection against unjust taxes and seizure from the empire. The Swabian League counted 40 members by 1385 and was linked with similar coalitions in Alsace, the Rhineland, ...
(from the article "Kerner, Justinus Andreas Christian") German poet and spiritualist writer. He and the poet Ludwig Uhland founded the so-called Swabian group of late Romantic poets.
(from the article "Switzerland") ...joined with the Swabian League, an alliance of southern German princes, knights, and cities organized to maintain public peace, and attacked the Swiss ally Graubunden, thus igniting the Swabian (or Swiss) War. After several battles in Graubunden and along the Rhine from Basel to the Vorarlberg, peace was declared at ...
(from the article "Mesoamerican Indian languages") Early proposals linked Huave to Mixe-Zoque and Mayan. Although this has not been generally accepted by many specialists, it has been uncritically repeated in most compilations. Recently, Morris Swadesh presented a reasonably well documented proposal for Huave as an Oto-Manguean language.South American Indian languages
(from the article "education") The administrative policy of Baron Curzon also gave rise to the first organized movement for national education. This effort was part of the swadeshi movement, which called for national independence and the boycotting of foreign goods. A body known as the National Council of Education, in Calcutta, established a national ...
(from the article "South Derbyshire") ...Undulating arable land is interspersed with meadowland in the valleys of the Rivers Derwent, Dove, and Trent, although the Trent valley also has electric-power stations and gravel-extraction sites. Swadlincote is the principal town in the district; using local coal and clay, it manufactures stoneware pipes, pottery, and bricks. Melbourne, a ...
(from the article "Belgian literature") ...poet in the Classical style of the French Pleiade; Richard Verstegen, a polemicist; Adriaen Poirters, a popular moralist; the dramatists Willem Ogier and Cornelis de Bie; and, especially, Michiel de Swaen, the last important Baroque poet and playwright, who was deeply inspired by his religion, compare favourably with most writers ...
in architecture and decoration, carved ornamental motif consisting of stylized flowers, fruit, foliage, and cloth, tied together with ribbons that sag in the middle and are attached at both ends. The distinction is sometimes made between a swag and a festoon by limiting the former to festoons entirely made up ... [1 Related Articles]
(from the article "garland") a band, or chain, of flowers, foliage, and leaves; it may be joined at the ends to form a circle (wreath), worn on the head (chaplet), or draped in loops (festoon or swag). Garlands have been a part of religious ritual and tradition from ancient times: the Egyptians placed garlands ...
(from the article "art, African") The area of the Eastern Bantu-speaking peoples covers Kenya and part of Tanzania, including the Swahili coast. The trade between East Africa, Arabia, and India in the past 1,000 years has had some effect on the decorative art traditions of the region. Swahili art includes wood carving (especially of doors), ...
Bantu language spoken either as a mother tongue or as a fluent second language on the east coast of Africa in an area extending from Lamu Island, Kenya, in the north to the southern border of Tanzania in the south. (The Bantu languages form a subgroup of the Benue-Congo branch ... [10 Related Articles]
that body of creative writing done in Swahili, a Bantu language of Africa. The earliest preserved Swahili writing, from the early 18th century, is written in Arabic script, and subsequent writings were primarily in three main dialects: kiUnjuga, kiMvita, and kiAmu. In the 1930s, British colonial authorities, with some assistance ... [4 Related Articles]
coral atoll, American Samoa, southwestern Pacific Ocean, 280 miles (450 km) north of Tutuila. The atoll is 15-25 feet (5-8 metres) above sea level; it is circular in shape, with 8 miles (13 km) of shoreline, and encloses a freshwater lagoon. Probably first known to Europeans in the 19th century, ...
(from the article "hawk") ...States. The broad-winged hawk (B. platypterus), a crow-sized hawk, gray-brown with a black-and-white-banded tail, is found in eastern North America, where it migrates in large flocks. Swainson's hawk (B. swainsoni) is a bird of western North America that migrates to Argentina. Two notable rough-legged hawks are the ferruginous hawk (B....
(from the article "Namibia") As noted, only the border rivers are permanent. The Swakop and Kuiseb rivers rise on the plateau, descend the western escarpment, and die out in the Namib (except in rare flood years, when they reach the sea at Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, respectively). The Fish (Vis) River rises in the ...
town, northwestern Namibia, on the Atlantic Ocean coast about 20 miles (32 km) north of the port of Walvis Bay and 175 miles (280 km) west of Windhoek, Namibia's capital. During the summer (December -January) the territorial administration moves from Windhoek to Swakopmund, where the weather is somewhat cooler. It ... [1 Related Articles]
borough (district), administrative and historic county of Kent, southeastern England, on the south side of the Thames estuary at its mouth. Swale borough includes the Isle of Sheppey, 9 miles (14 km) long and 4 miles (6 km) wide, to the north. The island is separated from the mainland (south) ...
(from the article "Swale") ...side of the Thames estuary at its mouth. Swale borough includes the Isle of Sheppey, 9 miles (14 km) long and 4 miles (6 km) wide, to the north. The island is separated from the mainland (south) by The Swale, a branch of the River Medway estuary, which gives its ...
(from the article "Richmondshire") district, administrative county of North Yorkshire, historic county of Yorkshire, England, centred on the valleys of Swaledale and Wensleydale in the northwestern corner of the county. The upper dales are sparsely populated sheep-rearing country, but, as they open eastward, livestock farming opportunities become greater. Swaledale gives its name to a ...
any of the 74 species of the bird family Hirundinidae (order Passeriformes). A few, including the bank swallow, are called martins (see martin; see also woodswallow; for sea swallow, see tern). Swallows are small, with pointed narrow wings, short bills, and small weak feet; some species have forked tails. Plumage ... [4 Related Articles]
(from the article "cave") ...deepened because no more streams flow through it. Stream banks collapse, channels become overgrown with vegetation, and shallow sinkholes begin to form in the valley floor. Upstream from these "swallow holes" where surface streams are lost to the subsurface, the tributary valleys continue to deepen their channels. These evolve into ...
(from the article "gull") ...northern Siberia and wanders widely over the Arctic Ocean. Abounding in the Arctic, Sabine's gull (Xema sabini) has a forked tail and a habit of running and picking up food like a plover. The swallow-tailed gull (Creagrus furcatus) of the Galapagos Islands is a striking bird, the only gull with ...
(from the article "kite") The swallow-tailed kite of Africa (Chelicti-nia riocourii) is a small gray and white bird of the subfamily Elaninae. It occurs from Nigeria to Somalia. The white-tailed kite (Elanus leucurus; subfamily Elaninae) occurs from Argentina to California, where it is one of the few North American raptors increasing in number. ...
(from the article "kite") The swallow-tailed kite of the New World (Elanoides forficatus) is a striking black and white bird of the subfamily Perninae. It is about 60 cm long, including its long forked tail. It is most common in tropical eastern South America but also occurs from Central America to the United States.
(Tersina viridis), bird of northern South America, the sole member of the subfamily Tersininae, family Emberizidae; some authors give it family rank (Tersinidae). About 15 cm (6 inches) long, it resembles a tanager with long wings and a swallowlike bill. The male is light blue, with black markings; the female ...
the act of passing food from the mouth, by way of the pharynx (or throat) and esophagus, to the stomach. Three stages are involved in swallowing food. [6 Related Articles]
any of a group of butterflies in the family Papilionidae (order Lepidoptera). The swallowtail butterflies (Papilio), found worldwide except in the Arctic, are named for the characteristic taillike extensions of the hindwings, although many species are tailless. Colour patterns may vary, although many species have yellow, orange, red, green, or ... [1 Related Articles]
(from the article "lepidopteran") ...(Alsophila and Paleacrita) and the winter moth (Operophtera brumata). Approximately 700 chiefly tropical species; some adults are large, brilliantly iridescent diurnal moths; the Asian Epicopeia (family...
(from the article "India") ...Indian port of Surat. Portuguese command of the sea nullified the English embassy to the Mughal court in spite of its countenance by the emperor Jahangir. However, the English victory at Swally Hole in 1612 over the Portuguese, whose control of the pilgrim sea route to Mecca was resented by ...
(from the article "sadhu and swami") in India, a religious ascetic or holy person. The class of sadhus includes renunciants of many types and faiths. They are sometimes designated by the term swami (Sanskrit svami, "master"), which refers especially to an ascetic who has been initiated into a specific religious order, such as ...
(from the article "Panna") ...it his capital in 1675. It is a trade centre for agricultural products, timber, and cloth fabrics; handloom weaving is the major industry. Buildings of historical importance include the marble-domed Swami Pran Nath Temple (1795) and Shri Baldeoji Temple. Constituted a municipality in 1921, Panna has colleges affiliated with Awadesh ...
Hindu reform sect with a large popular following in Gujarat state. It arose primarily as a protest against the corrupt practices said to have developed during the 19th century among the Vallabhacarya, a prominent devotional sect renowned for the deference paid to its gurus (spiritual leaders). The sect was founded ...
