Sir Balin

Sir Balin le Savage /ˈbeɪlᵻn/, also known as the Knight with the Two Swords, is a character in the Arthurian legend. Merlin told King Arthur he would have been his best and bravest knight. A knight before the Round Table was formed, Sir Balin hails from Northumberland, and is associated with Sir Balan, his brother. Balin lives only for a few weeks following his departure from King Arthur's court. The king is virile and strong, near the beginning of his reign. Balin is a poor knight and has been in King Arthur's prison for six months. Just prior to his departure from court, a free man once more, his destiny is sealed by the arrival of a mysterious damsel bearing a sword that only the most virtuous knight in King Arthur's court will be able to draw. Balin draws this sword easily and Sir Thomas Malory's fifteenth-century account of his subsequent, brief adventures ends when Balin and his brother Balan destroy each other in single combat, fulfilling an earlier prophecy about the destiny of the bearer of the damsel's sword.

Sir

Sir is an honorific address used in a number of situations in many anglophone cultures. The term can be used as a formal prefix, especially in the Commonwealth, for males who have been given certain honors or titles (such as knights and baronets), where usage is strictly governed by law and custom.

The term is commonly used as a respectful way to address a man, usually of superior social status or military rank. Equivalent terms of address to females are "ma'am" or "madam" in most cases, or in the case of a very young woman, girl, or unmarried woman who prefers to be addressed as such, "miss". The equivalent term for a knighted woman or baronetess is Dame, or "Lady" for the wife of a knight or baronet.

Etymology

"Sir" derives from the Middle French honorific title sire. Sire developed alongside the word seigneur, also used to refer to a feudal lord. Both derived from the Vulgar Latin senior, sire comes from the oblique case declension senior and seigneur, the nominative case declension seniōrem.

Sirá

Sirá is a village and municipality (obec) in Rokycany District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic.

The municipality covers an area of 6.43 square kilometres (2.48 sq mi), and has a population of 105 (as at 3 July 2006).

Sirá lies approximately 14 kilometres (9 mi) north-east of Rokycany, 28 km (17 mi) east of Plzeň, and 58 km (36 mi) south-west of Prague.

References

Æsir

In Old Norse, ǫ́ss (or áss, ás, plural æsir; feminine ásynja, plural ásynjur) is the term denoting a member of the principal pantheon in the indigenous Germanic religion known as Norse religion. This pantheon includes Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Týr. The second pantheon comprises the Vanir. In Norse mythology, the two pantheons wage the Æsir-Vanir War, which results in a unified pantheon.

The cognate term in Old English is ōs (plural ēse) denoting a deity in Anglo-Saxon paganism. The Old High German is ans, plural ensî. The Gothic language had ans- (based only on Jordanes who glossed anses with uncertain meaning, possibly 'demi-god' and presumably a Latinized form of actual plural *anseis). The reconstructed Proto-Germanic form is *ansuz (plural *ansiwiz). The a-rune ᚫ was named after the æsir.

Unlike the Old English word god (and Old Norse goð), the term ōs (áss) was never adopted into Christian use.

Etymology

Æsir is the plural of áss, óss "god" (gen. āsir) which is attested in other Germanic languages, e.g., Old English ōs (gen. pl. ēsa) and Gothic (as reported by Jordanes) anses "half-gods". These all stem from Proto-Germanic *ansis ~ ansuz, which itself comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énsus (gen. h₂n̥sóus) "life force" (cf. Avestan aŋhū "lord; lifetime", ahura "godhood", Sanskrit ásu "life force",ásura "god" (< *h₂n̥suró)). It is widely accepted that this word is further related to *h₂ens- "to engender" (cf. Hittite hass- "to procreate, give birth", Tocharian B ās- "to produce").

Balin

Balin can refer to:

People

Places

See also

Balin (album)

Balin is Marty Balin's 1981 album. Two top-40 singles were released, "Hearts" (a U.S. #8 hit, and also his biggest as a solo artist) and "Atlanta Lady" (U.S. #27). The album rose to #35 on the Billboard charts.

Track listing

Side One

Side Two

CD Releases

"Balin" was released by American Beat on CD in 2008 and by EMI in 2009. Both editions featured the shorter, single version of "Hearts" rather than the longer album version.

In March 2013 BGO reissued the album along with the follow up release "Lucky" on one CD. Mastered by Andrew Thompson the BGO edition is the only CD version that features the full length album version of "Hearts".

Vali (Ramayana)

In the Hindu epic Ramayana, the vanara Vali was king of Kishkindha, a son of Indra, elder brother of Sugriva and father of Angada. He was killed by Lord Rama, an Avatar of Vishnu.

Vali (Sanskrit: वाली, nominative singular of the root वालिन् (Valin) is also known as Bali in several Indian languages. His other names include Indonesian: Subali, Malay: Balya, Yuan: Bari, Thai: Phali, Lao: Palichan and Khmer: ពាលី .

Early life

Vali was famous for the boon that he had received, according to which anyone who fought him in single-combat lost half his strength to Vali, thereby making Vali invulnerable to any enemy. Once Ravana called Vali for a fight when Vali was doing his regular Sandhyavandanam. He took Ravana in his tail and took him around all the world. Humbled, Ravana called for a truce. It is said in the Ramayana that Vali was very brave and courageous. Before dawn he used to go from the Eastern coast of sea to the Western coast and from the Northern coast of the sea to the Southern coast to pay his homage to Surya - the sun-god. He was so brave and powerful that on his way to pay homage to Surya, he used to toss the mountain peaks upward and catch them as if they were play balls. After completing the tedious task of paying homage to the sun god in all the four directions, he used to return to Kishkindha without even being tired.