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Thor

(Encyclopedia)Thor dōˈnär [key], Norse god of thunder. An ancient and highly revered divinity, Thor was the patron and protector of peasants and warriors. As a god of might and war he was represented as extremel...

Akkadian

(Encyclopedia)Akkadian əkāˈdēən [key], extinct language belonging to the East Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages). Also called Assyro...

Gaster, Moses

(Encyclopedia)Gaster, Moses gäsˈtər [key], 1856–1939, Romanian Jewish scholar and writer, b. Bucharest. Expelled (1885) from Romania for championing the Jewish cause, he went to England and was lecturer at Oxf...

byliny

(Encyclopedia)byliny bĭlēˈnē [key] [Rus.,=what has happened], Russian scholarly term first applied in the 1840s to a great body of narrative and heroic poems. They are called by the folk stariny [Rus.,=what is ...

Czech language

(Encyclopedia)Czech language chĕk [key], in the past sometimes also called Bohemian, member of the West Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages). The off...

Ahad Ha-am

(Encyclopedia)Ahad Ha-am äkhädˈ hä-äm [key] [Heb.,=One of the People], 1856–1927, Jewish thinker and Zionist leader, b. Ukraine. Originally named Asher Ginzberg, he adopted his pen name when he published his...

Arnulf

(Encyclopedia)Arnulf ärˈnəlf [key], c.850–899, Carolingian emperor (896–99), king of the East Franks (887–99), illegitimate son of Carloman of Bavaria. In 887 he led the rebellion of the kingdom of the Eas...

Egyptian language

(Encyclopedia)Egyptian language, extinct language of ancient Egypt, a member of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages). The development of ancient Egyptian is usually divided into four peri...

Armenian language

(Encyclopedia)Armenian language, member of the Thraco-Phrygian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-European). There is evidence that in ancient times a distinct subfamily of Indo-European l...

Pirandello, Luigi

(Encyclopedia)Pirandello, Luigi lwēˈjē pērändĕlˈlō [key], 1867–1936, Italian author, b. Sicily. One of the great figures in 20th-century European theater, Pirandello was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Li...