Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Loki

(Encyclopedia)Loki lōˈkē [key], Norse giant (or deity) who personified evil. He hated the gods of Asgard and continually sought to overthrow them. His worst exploit was the murder of Balder, for which he was pun...

Freyja

(Encyclopedia)Freyja frāˈä [key], Norse goddess of love, marriage, and fertility. Her identity and attributes were often confused with those of the goddess Frigg. As a deity of the dead, Freyja was entitled to h...

Yggdrasill

(Encyclopedia)Yggdrasill ĭgˈdrəsĭl, yo͞ogˈ– [key], in Norse mythology, the great tree of the world. Its branches and roots extended through all the universe—the heavens, the earth, and the underworld. At ...

nightingale

(Encyclopedia)nightingale, common name for a migratory Old World bird of the family Turdidae (thrush family), celebrated for its vocal powers. The common nightingale of England and Western Europe, Luscinia megarhyn...

sibyl

(Encyclopedia)sibyl sĭbˈĭl [key], in classical mythology and religion, prophetess. There were said to be as many as 10 sibyls, variously located and represented. The most famous was the Cumaean sibyl, described ...

Ragnarok

(Encyclopedia)Ragnarok rägˈnərŏkˌ [key], in Norse mythology, the doom of the gods. According to prophecy the end of the world would follow a severe ice age, in which human civilization would be destroyed. Then...

Edmund

(Encyclopedia)Edmund, 921–46, king of Wessex (939–46), half-brother and successor of Athelstan. Immediately after his accession he had to face an invasion of Irish vikings led by Olaf Guthfrithson. He was force...

pomegranate

(Encyclopedia)pomegranate pŏmˈgrănĭt, pŏmˈə– [key], handsome deciduous and somewhat thorny large shrub or small tree (Punica granatum) belonging to the family Punicaceae, native to semitropical Asia and na...

Stuart, Charles Edward

(Encyclopedia)Stuart or Stewart, Charles Edward, 1720–88, claimant to the British throne, b. Rome. First son of James Francis Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender), he was known as Bonnie Prince Charlie and as the Yo...

Mansa Musa

(Encyclopedia)Mansa Musa (Musa I) mänˈsä mo͞oˈsä [key], c.1280–1337, ruler of the Mali empire (1312–37). A devout Muslim, he brought the Mali empire to its greatest height, encompassing what is now Niger ...