You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
I Am Saxon chronicles the history of the little-known Transylvanian Saxons. From their humble beginnings in the 12th century as immigrants to a remote and sparsely populated area in the southern basin of the Carpathian Mountains, the Saxons became renowned for their fine trade guilds and seven beautiful, fortified towns. During the many invasions of central Europe during the medieval era, the Transylvanian Saxons were called the wall and shield of Christendom. But after eight hundred years, the Saxons were forced to evacuate their homeland in Siebenbürgen (the land of the seven towns). Karl Gagesch also tells the stories his family shared with him about his ancestral home of Draas, and about life in a rural Saxon village. In addition, he explores the tenacity and cohesiveness Saxon communities required to form a distinct nation within an ethnically diverse region and maintain their cultural independence despite the many challenges they faced. I Am Saxon pays homage to the legacy of the Transylvanian Saxon culture, which has all but disappeared from Siebenbürgen.
New species of animal and plant are being discovered all the time. When this happens, the new species has to be given a scientific, Latin name in addition to any common, vernacular name. In either case the species may be named after a person, often the discoverer but sometimes an individual they wished to honour or perhaps were staying with at the time the discovery was made. Species names related to a person are ‘eponyms’. Many scientific names are allusive, esoteric and even humorous, so an eponym dictionary is a valuable resource for anyone, amateur or professional, who wants to decipher the meaning and glimpse the history of a species name. Sometimes a name refers not to a person but...