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artemisofluna Mar. 30th, 2009 10:55 am)
artemisofluna Mar. 30th, 2009 10:55 am)You know what I love? Looking 'Wiener Neustadt' up on Wikipedia so I could see where it was, and reading the following:
The city was founded by the Babenberger Duke Leopold V in 1194, who financed the construction of the city with the ransom paid for the English king Richard the Lionheart, who had previously been held as a hostage in Austria at Dürnstein.
And knowing exactly what it is talking about. Every bit of it. My University degree is about as useful as toilet paper (which..technically, is pretty useful but only for one purpose...) but damn do I know random crap, thanks to the history component of having a Bachelor of Arts-German Language and Literature major. Like who Leopold V was. And, for that matter, who the Babenbergs were. And the Hapsburgs. Who I know were not mentioned, but they made an empire through marriage instead of killing (though they did that too). Marie Antionette was a Hapsburg! Her mother, Maria Theresia was Empress of Austria for 40 years (exactly) and she had 49729475312 babies most of whom died as kids though the ones that didn't married all over. AND the child Mozart performed for her and she adored him.
And don't get me started on Empress Elisabeth because I can go on all day. The paper I wrote on her got me my very own 98% in a unit, as the paper was the only thing graded in that unit. She's fascinating.
And, back on Richard the Lionheart, the castle in Dürnstein is along the Danube and we stopped there on our way back to Vienna from Melk. And our teacher told us the (fake) tale of the minstrel who came to sing under Richard's window, and that's how they discovered where he was. Ah, legends. So I found it on the web here.
History is my crack for SRS. But I cannot for the life of me remember the word for 'minstrel' in German, but I remember I liked the word! MY LANGUAGE SKILLS HAVE FAILED ME!
Edit: BWUAAHHAHAA - Minnesänger I so just used freetranslation.com. Fail. :D
The city was founded by the Babenberger Duke Leopold V in 1194, who financed the construction of the city with the ransom paid for the English king Richard the Lionheart, who had previously been held as a hostage in Austria at Dürnstein.
And knowing exactly what it is talking about. Every bit of it. My University degree is about as useful as toilet paper (which..technically, is pretty useful but only for one purpose...) but damn do I know random crap, thanks to the history component of having a Bachelor of Arts-German Language and Literature major. Like who Leopold V was. And, for that matter, who the Babenbergs were. And the Hapsburgs. Who I know were not mentioned, but they made an empire through marriage instead of killing (though they did that too). Marie Antionette was a Hapsburg! Her mother, Maria Theresia was Empress of Austria for 40 years (exactly) and she had 49729475312 babies most of whom died as kids though the ones that didn't married all over. AND the child Mozart performed for her and she adored him.
And don't get me started on Empress Elisabeth because I can go on all day. The paper I wrote on her got me my very own 98% in a unit, as the paper was the only thing graded in that unit. She's fascinating.
And, back on Richard the Lionheart, the castle in Dürnstein is along the Danube and we stopped there on our way back to Vienna from Melk. And our teacher told us the (fake) tale of the minstrel who came to sing under Richard's window, and that's how they discovered where he was. Ah, legends. So I found it on the web here.
History is my crack for SRS. But I cannot for the life of me remember the word for 'minstrel' in German, but I remember I liked the word! MY LANGUAGE SKILLS HAVE FAILED ME!
Edit: BWUAAHHAHAA - Minnesänger I so just used freetranslation.com. Fail. :D
