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Althing

(Encyclopedia)Althing älˈthĭng [key] [Icel.,=general diet], parliament of Iceland. This assembly, the oldest in Europe, was convened at Thingvellir, SW Iceland, in 930. It was dissolved in 1800, was revived as a...

Oehlenschläger, Adam Gottlob

(Encyclopedia)Oehlenschläger, Adam Gottlob äˈdäm gŏtˈlŏb öˈlənshlāgər [key], 1779–1850, Danish romantic poet and dramatist. Oehlenschläger turned for themes to the sagas and to Scandinavian history; ...

Ohthere

(Encyclopedia)Ohthere ōthērˈə [key], fl. 880, Norse explorer. His account of his voyage around the North Cape, along Lapland, and into the White Sea was incorporated by Alfred the Great in the introduction to h...

Bernstorff, Andreas Peter

(Encyclopedia)Bernstorff, Andreas Peter ändrāˈäs pāˈtər bĕrnsˈtôrf [key], 1735–97, Danish politician; nephew of Johann Hartwig Ernst Bernstorff. Made (1773) foreign minister after Struensee's fall from ...

Oldenburg, former state, Germany

(Encyclopedia)Oldenburg ôlˈdənbo͝orkh [key], former state, NW Germany. It is now included in the state of Lower Saxony. The city of Oldenburg was the capital. The former state consisted of three widely separate...

Fyn

(Encyclopedia)Fyn fün [key], Ger. Fünen, island, c.1,340 sq mi (3,471 sq km), Fyn co., S central Denmark....

Holstein

(Encyclopedia)Holstein, former duchy, N central Germany, the part of Schleswig-Holstein S of the Eider River. Kiel and Rendsburg were the chief cities. For a description of Holstein and for its history after 1814, ...

Saaremaa

(Encyclopedia)Saaremaa or Sarema both: säˈrĕmä [key], Swed. Ösel, Rus. Ezel, 1,048 sq mi (2,714 sq km), island off the mainland of Estonia, in the Baltic Sea, across the mouth of the Gulf of Riga. It is irregu...

Scheidemann, Philipp

(Encyclopedia)Scheidemann, Philipp fēˈlĭp shīˈdəmän [key], 1865–1939, German Social Democratic leader. A member of the Reichstag from 1898, he became (1918) secretary of state without portfolio in the cabi...

Christian IX

(Encyclopedia)Christian IX, 1818–1906, king of Denmark (1863–1906). A member of the cadet line of Sonderburg-Glücksburg, he succeeded Frederick VII, last of the direct line of Oldenburg. The London Conference ...