Wikipedia Trail: from Rübezahl to Cypress

Rübezahl - Rubezahl is a mythological mountain spirit from Silesia and the main character in my storybook. This article explains the origin of his name and provides a list of works about him. Rubezahl is a mountain spirit which I learned can also be called a "woodwose."

Woodwose - Woodwose comes from Middle English and means "wild man." All sorts of mythological traditions from around the world have some type of woodwose, but they are remarkably popular in early European myths. One woodwose I had not heard of and found interesting was Silvanus.

Silvanus - Silvanus, meaning "of the woods" in Latin, is a Roman protector spirit of the woods and fields. I found it interesting the Silvanus is most likely not a Hellenic deity but was most likely an original Roman deity given that the Etruscans had a very similar deity with roughly the same name. In art, Silvanus is recognizable because he is always seen carrying a branch from a cypress tree

Bronze statue of Silvanus.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Mediterranean Cypress - Cupressus sempervirens, more commonly known as cypress, is a tree found throughout the eastern half of the Mediterranean. The species name, sempervirens, is Latin for "always green."

Wikipedia Trail: Hellebore to Herbicidal Warfare

Hellebore - I changed my iPhone background to one of the default flower wallpapers. I was interested in what type of flower it was. It turns out that the picture I chose is of a hellebore which is a poisonous flower native to Europe and Asia

Siege of Kirrha - Apparently, in 585 BC, during the Siege of Kirrha in the the First Sacred War in Greece, hellebores were used to poison the water supply of the city. This is one of the earliest instances of chemical warfare

Chemical Warfare - Chemical warfare has been around almost as long as war itself has been waged. The pinnacle of chemical warfare is most likely the devastating mustard gas attacks during the First World War

Herbicidal Warfare - This is a specific type of chemical warfare in which neither people are not the direct targets of the attack. Rather, the attacker attempts to destroy the enemies crops using herbicides in an attempt to cripple war efforts. This was a common tactic used by the United States during the Vietnam War.

Hellebores. Source: Home Depot

Wikipedia Trail from Umlaut to Gregorian Calender

1. Umlaut - the umlaut is the two dots above vowels in German to tell the reading that that vowel sound should come from the front of the mouth

2. Tilde - the squiggly line above some N's in Spanish was originally scribal shorthand used to denote the title of something, which is where it gets its name: from the Latin word titulus meaning "title"

3. Anno Domini - usually abbreviated to AD and means "in the year of the Lord" in Medieval Latin.
However, it is becoming more common to use CE, meaning "common era," in place of AD

4. Gregorian Calendar - the calendar introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 that we still use today.

One of the first printed editions of the Gregorian Calendar. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Wikipedia Trail: from Saint John's Day to Dr. Whitney Smith

I started with the article about the origin of Saint John the Baptist's Day which I used while researching information for my project. I learned that it is held on June 24, also called Midsummer, because it is the day that marks the Summer Solstice.

I then clicked the link that led me to an article about dragons because apparently one of the traditions of Saint John's Day is to build a large bonfire that was supposed to ward off dragons. There, I learned that dragons appeared relatively often on various European coat of arms.

Following the link to the article about coat of arms, I learned that the practice originated from the Romans painting their unit's insignia on their shields. The study of coats of arms is closely related to vexillology, which I am already interested in, so I followed the link.

There, I found that the International Federation of Vexillological Associations has their own flag. I also discovered that Dr. Whitney Smith formalized the field of vexillology.

Flag of the FIAV. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Following the link to the article about Dr. Whitney Smith, I learned that he designed the national flag of Guyana that they still use today.