Random Image

You are here: Random Image > Words beginning with a > Random Image for awald

Possible definitions for awald

Ewald
Danish poet and dramatist. By age 19 he was becoming known as a writer. At 30, addicted to alcohol, he adopted a more solitary life and began producing his mature works, incl. The Death of Balder (1774), in which he became the first Danish poet to use themes from Scandinavian myth and saga. Of his dramatic works, only the operetta Fiskerne (1779; "The Fishermen") is still performed. He is especially known for his great personal odes and for songs such as "King Christian Stood by the Lofty Mast," used as a national anthem, and "Lille Gunver," the first Danish romance. He is considered one of Denmark's greatest lyric poets. His memoirs (published 1804) are his greatest prose work.


Adad
Babylonian and Assyrian god of weather, the son of Anu (sometimes called the son of Bel). He was known as the Lord of Abundance for rains that made the land bloom, but he sent death-dealing storms to his enemies. He was also the god of oracles and divination. Though widely worshiped, he was a minor god and appears to have had no cult center of his own.


Adal
Historic Islamic state, E Africa, southwest of the Gulf of Aden, with its capital at Harer (now in Ethiopia). Its rivalry with Christian Ethiopia began in the 14th cent. In the 16th cent. Adal launched a series of attacks, led by Ahmed Gran, who succeeded by 1533 in gaining control of most of central Ethiopia. Gran was killed in battle in 1543, and the Oromo invasions of the later 16th cent. ended Adal's power.


Aladdin
Hero of a well-known story in TheThousand and One Nights. The son of a poor widow, Aladdin is a lazy, careless boy who meets an African magician claiming to be his uncle. He sends Aladdin into a cave to find a magic lamp, but Aladdin refuses to hand over the lamp until he is safely out of the cave. The angry magician shuts the boy in the cave and departs, but Aladdin discovers that he can summon powerful genies (jinn) by rubbing the lamp. The genies grant his every wish, and Aladdin becomes rich, marries the sultan's beautiful daughter, and reigns for many years.


Amalfi
Town (pop., 1993 est.: 5,600), S Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno. It was of little importance until the mid-6th cent., when it fell under Byzantine control. It grew into one of the first Italian maritime republics in the 9th cent., becoming a rival of Venice and Genoa. Annexed by Roger II of Sicily in 1131, it was sacked by Pisa in 1135 and 1137 and rapidly declined in importance, though its maritime code, the Tavola Amalfitano, was recognized in the Mediterranean until 1570. Amalfi is now a notable tourist resort.


amalgam
Alloy of mercury and one or more other metals. Those of silver, gold, and palladium occur naturally. Those with a very high mercury content are liquid; others are crystalline. Amalgams of silver and tin, with minor amounts of copper and zinc, are used in dentistry to fill teeth. Sodium amalgam is ...

Top words beginning with A: adderstongue, atrolactic, anthroxan, atypy, anisowicz, aerialness, antiantitoxin, apivorous, advoutry, anticonculsant, agrege, adenitides, aragats, auxograph, allotriomorphic, armoracia, annexion, ankyroid, ararauna, asself

More words beginning with A.

Browse the alphabet: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z