The death of Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons' vengeance in the last episodes from season 4

When king Ælla of Northumbria learns of the pillaging army, he musters an overwhelming force and defeats Ragnar's army. Ragnar is dressed in a silken jacket which Aslaug had made and nothing can pierce it. Finally, he is taken prisoner and thrown into a snake pit. However, as the snakes do not bite him, the Englishmen take off his clothes and then the snakes kill him for good.

Ragnar's sons attack England but Ivar does not want to fight as the English army is too large; he fears they will lose and will have to go home again. Ivar, however, stays in England and asks Ælla for wergild, claiming that he can not go home without some compensation to show his brothers.

King Ælla of Northumbria (Ivan Kaye) photo: wikia

Ivar only asks for as much land as he can cover with an ox's hide. He cuts it into such a fine long string of hide that he can encircle an area large enough for a city. When this is done, he lays the foundations for a city which becomes York. He allies himself with all of England and finally all the chieftains in the region become loyal to Ivar and his brothers.

Then, Ivar tells his brothers to attack England. During the battle Ivar sides with his brothers and so do many of the English chieftains with their people, out of loyalty to Ivar. Ælla is taken captive and in revenge Ragnar's sons carve the blood eagle from him.

Ivar becomes king over north-eastern England which his forefathers owned (i.e. Ivar Vidfamne and Sigurd Ring), and he has two sons, Yngvar and Husto. They obey their father Ivar and torture king Edmund the Martyr and take his realm.

An 1857 painting by August Malmström depicting King Aella's messenger before Ragnar Lodbrok's sons. photo: wikipedia

Ragnar's sons pillage in England, Wales, France and Italy, until they come to the town of Luna in Italy. When they come back to Scandinavia, they divide the kingdom so that Björn Ironside has Uppsala and Sweden, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye has Zealand, Scania, Halland, Viken, Agder, all the way to Lindesnes and most of Oppland, and Hvitserk receives Reidgotaland (Jutland) and Wendland.

Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye marries king Ælla's daughter Blaeja and they have a son named Harthacnut, who succeeds his father as the king of Zealand, Scania and Halland, but Viken rebels and breaks loose. Harthacanute has a son named Gorm, who is big and strong but not as wise as his ancestors.

Other articles on the same theme:

• Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) meet his fate and dies in a pit of snakes in Episode 15 of Vikings Season 4

• Over a millennium ago, the real Ragnar Lodbrok ran a legendary battle that would ensure them a place in history

• Top 8: Famous Vikings you should know about

• 1013: The year when the vikings invaded and conquered England

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Wikipedia. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Big Diamonds From Great Depths and how do Gemstones Form: The most valuable jewelry offers researchers important information from the depths of the Earth

Geologists studied these scraps of diamond leftover from the shaping of big jewels. Evan Smith/Gemological Institute of America

Evan Smith wanted to get his hands on the world's biggest diamonds — the kind that sit at royal scepters, and the ones that are always the target of elaborate movie heists.

But this wasn't for some nefarious get-rich-quick scheme. It was for science.

"The most valuable, the most prized, of all gemstones are coincidentally some of the most scientifically valuable pieces of the Earth," says Smith, a diamond geologist at the Gemological Institute of America.

The Ungraspable Value of the World's Largest Diamond The New Yorker

They're scientifically valuable because they come from a deep part of the Earth that humans can't access and don't know that much about.

GEMSTONE TREASURES OF THE WORLD POSTER  Jewelry auction Pinterest

Because of their rare size and quality, Smith thought these diamonds might have come from somewhere different, though no one knew exactly where.

"It was a total mystery," says Smith.

Layers of the Earth - Maggie's Science Connection

To solve that mystery, he'd have to look inside the diamonds, at tiny specs of junk no wider than a human hair that the crystals had brought with them on their journey from the deep.

"You really couldn't ask for a better vessel to store something in. Diamond is the ultimate Tupperware," says Smith.

World's Largest Rough Diamond Fails to Sell At Auction Forbes

A slogan like "the ultimate Tupperware" won't sell many engagement rings, but for scientists, the diamonds' Tupperware-quality is key. It makes the geologic equivalent of messages in a bottle.

But Smith couldn't just knock on a royal palace door and ask to crack open the crown jewels.

Price and Buying Guide for 4 Carat Diamonds

Evan Smith

Gemological Institute of America

Instead, he got the Gemological Institute of America to buy eight fingernail-sized chunks of those big diamonds, the scraps leftover from when the rough diamonds were cut into sparkly jewels.

Earth structure infographic Freepik

After grinding some down and cutting others open, Smith used fancy techniques involving big microscopes, lasers and electron beams to figure what was inside. He also used some not-so-fancy equipment — a magnet attached to a string — to figure out if they contained iron. ("After staring at these inclusions for hours on end over the course of many months, you start to resort to some alternative tools," he says).

Diamond Cutting Green Laser Machine Diamond Industry

Smith eventually found that many of the stones contained bits of garnet with a silicon content indicating that they must have formed under very high pressure. He also found iron and nickel, shrouded in invisible envelopes of fluid methane.

"That's unusual. This is the first time I've seen methane around an inclusion," he says.


When he took a nondestructive look at 53 other diamonds passing through the institute for quality grading, he found that 38 of them contained the same unusual materials.

As Smith and his colleagues wrote Thursday in the journal Science, those odd bits and pieces told him two important things.

How Do Gemstones Form? Gem Rock Auctions

"One, they tell us that these large, exceptional-quality diamonds originate from extreme depths in the Earth," he says, from about 200 to 500 miles below us.

That's about as far under our feet as the International Space Station is above our heads. And it's about twice as deep as where most diamonds are born.

"So, that in itself is pretty amazing," says Smith.


The second thing he learned is that the diamonds had formed inside oxygen-deprived patches of liquid metal. And that's the first hard evidence that the Earth's mantle is not a uniform stew of oxygen-rich rocks

World's First Realization of Ultrahigh Pressure and Ultrahigh Temperature at the Earth's Center - Finally reaching the Earth's Core — SPring-8 Web Site

It might not sound very exciting, says Kanani Lee, a mineral physicist at Yale University, but it is.

"It further complicates things, but it makes us have to think more deeply about what's going on in the planet because ultimately this does affect what we see up on the surface," says Lee.

As the Earth cooled over the last 4.5 billion years, its layers slowly revolved from the core to the surface and back again. Until recently, scientists expected that the mantle, the part of the planet between the continental plates and its core, would be pretty thoroughly mixed, with oxygen distributed throughout. But these diamonds show that until relatively recently, there were pockets that somehow managed to resist that mixing.

A rare diamond carried this tiny package of material from hundreds of miles underground. It's about as wide as a poppy seed. Evan Smith/Gemological Institute of America

And those pockets were long-lasting and widespread enough to produce diamonds that surfaced on multiple continents and that range in age from about 100 million years old to about a billion years old.

It's unclear if those pockets are still around now. Nevertheless, it means that the planet and its past could be a little messier than scientists first thought.

"It tells you that we have to refine our thinking about how the planet – whether it's Earth or any other planet — evolves with time. And that our simple pictures may not be good enough anymore if we can't explain these features," says Lee.

Those odd features are just slivers of a much larger picture — how Earth became what it is today, including its ability to host life.


"Over time, those are the things that shape the surface of the Earth. They're the materials that the whole surface of the Earth is built with," Smith says.

Other articles on the same theme:

• Top 10 undiscovered treasures

• New Anglo-Saxon precious treasure, discovered by archaeologists in England

• A new treasure has been discovered in Greece it was found in the ruins of an ancient city dating back 2,500 years

• Giant Blobs of Rock, Deep Inside the Earth, Hold Important Clues About Our Planet

• New Report: Heavy iron isotopes leaking from Earth’s core

• It was discovered a huge reservoir of melted carbon deep beneath Earth's surface in the Western United States

• Earth's mantle cools more quickly than was previously thought

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Npr. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Top 15 most powerful women in History

Updated again today 27/05/2021

Updated today Monday, November 11, 2018

In my previous article I talked about the most powerful women in history and I would like to continue the list in 2018 adding three more great personalities that deserve all our respect and appreciation speaking only at the level of power, Excluding the Queen of England from the list, because her majesty can not be compared. A number of powerful women have shaped the course of history with their intelligence, strength, passion, and leadership qualities. They have challenged the status quo, made lasting reforms, and many have presided over their countries for decades, ushering in prosperity and cultural revolutions.

The first person I would like to add is Angela Merkel, a free thinker and who has the courage to act when others do not, my personal opinion, and do not want the offense of any political party, etc.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during the 2018 budget debate at the lower house of parliament rferl

My second in the list is Hillary Clinton as one of the most powerful women in history that has led democracy to another level and the future historians will write about it. 

The only bad luck in my opinion of course is that she competed against the great Donald Trump and she could not win before such a personality and power, which would have a hard word to say in the history of the world.

Grammys 2018: Hillary Clinton TVLine

While this list is certainly subjective, it tries to take into account the actual power and the impact of each person.

Notably, the United Kingdom has three entries in the top ten, an eye-catching fact, considering that a monarchy managed to achieve such a feminist feat, and yet the United States, which always considered itself as the most advanced democratic society ever, hasn’t been able to elect a female leader in all of its independent existence so far. 

And the 3rd one of my favorites is Marine Le Pen was ranked among the most influential people in 2011 and 2015, by the Time 100. In 2016, she was ranked by Politico as the second-most influential MEP in the European Parliament, after President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz. 

The return of Marine Le Pen photo: POLITICO Europe

 

Marine Le Pen and Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 24 March 2017 Kremlin.ru

15. Zenobia (240-275) was a queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria who challenged the authority of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. She conquered Egypt, Anatolia, Lebanon and Roman Judea until finally being defeated by the Roman emperor Aurelian.

Zenobia Captive (1878), Sir Edward Poynter (mirror of original image) Beauty, Zenobia, Warrior woman

Queen Zenobia's Last Look upon Palmyra by Herbert Gustave Schmalz Photo: wikipedia

14. Cleopatra (69-30 BC) was the last Pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt, known for her superior intelligence and improving its country’s standing and economy. She is also famous in popular culture for her love affairs with Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony. 

Cleopatra (69-30 B.C.) - HistoriaRex.com

Lillie Langtry (Emilie Charlotte Le Breton) (1853 - 1929) in costume for her role as Cleopatra in 'Anthony and Cleopatra'. (Photo by W. & D. Downey/Getty Images)

13. Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi (1828-1858) was the queen of India’s Jhansi State, and one of the leaders of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, also known as India’s First War of Independence against British rule. Referred to as “the Indian Joan of Arc”, Rani Lakshmibai became a symbol of resistance for leading her army in first direct confrontations with the occupiers. 

Lakshmibai - The Rani of Jhansi Indian freedom fighters, Women freedom fighters, Freedom fighters of india

Portrait of Lakshmibai, the Ranee of Jhansi, (1850s or 1860s). Probably done after her death (June 1858): she wears a valuable pearl necklace and a cavalrywoman's uniform Photo: wikipedia

12. Joan of Arc (1412-1431) was a French heroine and a saint to Roman Catholics. She claimed to have mystical visions and rallied French troops to defeat the English in the Battle of Orleans among others. She was eventually betrayed to the English and burned at the stake. Her unflinching faith and role in liberating the French from the English invasion has accorded Joan of Arc mythic status.

Saint Joan of Arc (1412 - 1431), known as 'the Maid of Orleans', at Reims Cathedral for the coronation of the dauphin as King Charles VII, circa 1429, accompanied by her squire Anton, her chaplain Jean Pasquerel and her pages. Painting by J D Ingres in the Louvre. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

11. Borte Ujin (1161-1230) was the wife of Genghis Khan and empress of the Mongolian Empire, the largest land empire in history. She was one of Genghis Khan’s most trusted advisors and ruled the Mongol homeland in the long periods when he’d be away at war.

Börte Ujin - Wikipedia

The Mongol Empresses of the Yuan Dynasty. photo: bigthink

10. Indira Ghandi (1917 - 1984) was the first and only female Prime Minister of India, serving 4 terms between 1966-1984, when she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. She was a controversial but very powerful figure, winning a war with Pakistan, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh. She was murdered by her bodyguards over her order to storm their holy temple during an insurgency four months prior.

Indira Gandhi Inspirational women, Gandhi photo: Pinterest

Indira Gandhi Photo: wikipedia

22nd March 1982: British Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with Indian premier Indira Gandhi (1917 - 1984), outside 10 Downing Street. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

9. Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 1979 and 1990, the first woman to hold this office. She was the longest-serving British PM of the 20th century, dubbed the “Iron Lady” by the Soviets for her hardheadedness. She won a popular victory over Argentina in the 1982 Falklands War, but her economic policies had mixed support, as she promoted a free market economy and confronted the power of the labor unions

Margaret Thatcher 1925-2013

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Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Photo: wikipedia

1980: British Conservative politician and first woman to hold the office of Prime Minister of Great Britain Margaret Thatcher at the Tory Party Conference in Brighton, East Sussex. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

8. Theodora (500-548) was a highly influential Empress of the Byzantine Empire and a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Married to Emperor Justinian I, she was his most trusted advisor and used him to achieve her purposes. She controlled foreign affairs and legislation, violently put down riots, and, notably, fought for the rights of women, passing anti-trafficking laws and improving divorce proceedings.

Theodora, detail of a Byzantine mosaic in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna Photo: wikipedia

7. Queen Victoria (1819-1901) was the Queen of the United Kingdom, ruling over a vast British Empire that stretched across six continents for 63 years, the second longest reign in its country’s history (the longest belonging to the current Queen Elizabeth II).

 Her rule was so definitive that the period has come to be known as the “Victorian Era”. Under her rule, slavery was abolished throughout all British colonies and voting rights granted to most British men. She also made reforms in labor conditions and presided over significant cultural, political, and military changes in her Empire.

Queen Victoria - Wikipedia shared by Ailee on We Heart It

Photograph of Queen Victoria, 1882 Photo: wikipedia

6. Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) was the Chinese Emperor’s mother and regent who essentially ruled China for 47 years from 1861 until 1908. She instituted technological and military reforms, overhauled the corrupt bureaucracy, and supported anti-Western attitudes, including the Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901.

Empress Dowager Cixi - Her Later Years (Part two) - History of Royal Women

The Ci-Xi Imperial Dowager Empress Photo: wikipedia

5. Maria Theresa of Austria (1717-1780) was a Hapsburg Empress who reigned for 40 years and controlled a large part of Europe, including Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, and parts of Italy. She had sixteen children, who also became key power players like the Queen of France, the Queen of Naples and Sicily as well as two Holy Roman Emperors. Empress Maria Theresa is known for her reforms in education like making it mandatory, establishing a Royal Academy of Science and Literature in Brussels, and supporting scientific research. She also raised taxes and made reforms in commerce, as well as strengthened the Austrian military (doubling it).

Rosalba Carriera - Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Habsburg (1717-1780) - Google Art Project.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Kaiserin Maria Theresia (HRR) Photo: wikipedia

4. Hatshepsut (1508 BC - 1458 BC) was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, considered to be one of its country’s most successful rulers. She oversaw major building projects, military campaigns into Nubia, Syria and Levant and rebuilt broken trade networks.

Tourists walk past a statue of Queen Hatshepsut, ancient Egypt's most famous female pharaoh, at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, 27 June 2007. (Photo credit: KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

3. Catherine the Great (1729-1796), also known as Catherine II, was undoubtedly one of history’s most famous women. Born in Poland, as a German princess, she attained rule of Russia through marriage and held on to it for 34 years (especially after she plotted to overthrow her husband and assumed complete power). She is responsible for continuing Peter the Great’s work in modernizing Russia, bringing it more in line with the West’s Enlightenment ideas. She also defeated the Ottoman Empire in two big wars and greatly expanded Russia’s Empire over three continents (including the colonization of Alaska).

Catherine the Great Photo: bigthink

She made legislative reforms, put down the dangerous Pugachev Rebellion and was known for a risqué personal life. Her rule is regarded as the Golden Age of the Russian Empire.

2. Empress Wu Zetian (624-705) was the only female Emperor in Chinese history, living during the Tang Dynasty. Her rule is known for expanding the Chinese empire, economic prosperity, and education reform. She was also known as a patron of Buddhism. She did have her detractors who accused her of ruthlessness and cruelty, perhaps going as far as killing her daughter and son as part of a political intrigue. 

Image taken from an 18th century album of portraits of 86 emperors of China, with Chinese historical notes. Originally published/produced in China, 18th century Photo: wikipedia

1. Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was one of most powerful English monarchs ever. Never married and called the “Virgin Queen,” the intellectual Elizabeth I defeated the Spanish Armada and ruled successfully for so long that her reign from 1558 until 1603 is known as the “Elizabethan Era”. As a monarch, the last of the Tudor dynasty, she encouraged major cultural changes like the Renaissance and the transformation of England into a Protestant country.

Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) Art UK

The "Darnley Portrait" of Elizabeth I of England. It was named after a previous owner. Probably painted from life, this portrait is the source of the face pattern called "The Mask of Youth" which would be used for authorized portraits of Elizabeth for decades to come. Recent research has shown the colours have faded. The oranges and browns would have been crimson red in Elizabeth's time. Photo: wikipedia

Other articles on the same theme:

• True story of Joan of Arc

• August 12 is the day the last monarch of Egypt died Cleopatra VII. Her story would be known millennia later

• Marie Curie - the most important women in science

• The Medici Family: One of the most powerful and influential families in the history

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Bigthink. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.