[Leica] Walls that work - or not

[afirkin at afirkin.com (afirkin at afirkin.com)]

doug,
wonderful stuff: I noticed that under L was:

leika

meaning "to play"

Seems appropriate ;-)

> Walls only really work in the minds of the people who build them, and it
> almost always depends which side of the wall you are on and whether you
> are being kept in or out.
>
> A bit of wall history:
>
> A significant part of the Maginot line failed completely in WWII because
> the commander who had the keys to a strategic fort section went on
> holiday and took them with him. The German army just marched around it.
>
> (Source: Military Blunders - book and BBC 2 documentary series by
> Geoffrey Regan)
>
> The "Great Wall" of Britain and the Vikings:
>
> Hadrian's Wall (117 km / 73.5 miles long)  was built to defend the
> northernmost border of the Roman Empire in Britain against marauding
> tribes from what is now Scotland. Work began around 122 AD and took
> approximately six years to complete (they obviously didn't need to get
> planning permission from the local government ;-) ). The wall was
> finally abandoned around 140 AD.
>
> The settlers who followed found it a wonderful source of ready-made
> building stone.
>
> Viking raiders first started to attack the English coast in the 8th
> century, centuries after the Romans had left, the most famous attack
> being on Lindisfarne Priory in Northumberland.
>
> The raids soon gained a more geopolitical aspect as the Vikings
> (Norsemen) began to settle in the areas north and a little to the south
> of the river Humber and as far north as Northumberland and Durham.
>
> There were actually two different groups of Vikings - the Danes (invaded
> as settlers) and the Norwegians (looting warriors) - and their spheres
> of influence were more or less geographically separated by the Pennine
> hills down the backbone of northern England - Norwegians in the West and
> Danes in the East.
>
> Larger cities and trading communities were built at strategic locations
> on navigable rivers like the Ouse that flows through York - first a
> Roman settlement (Eboracum, where Emperor Constantine was crowned) )
> then, later, a Viking settlement (Jorvik).
>
> King Alfred won a decisive battle against the Vikings at Edington and
> made a treaty with the settlers that limited their sphere of influence
> to Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and the northernmost
> counties of England (Danelaw).
>
> The last great battle between Britons and Vikings took place at Stamford
> Bridge (near York) in 1066 (a bad year for Britain, the army was still
> exhausted from the battle and King Harald lost against the Normans at
> Hastings after, according to the Bayeux Tapestry, he got an arrow in his
> eye.
>
> Apparently, one side of my family is descended from early Norse
> christian settlers - my mother's side has the name Barraclough,
> originally the locational name "beara cloh", describing the village they
> originated from - roughly meaning wooded slope or wooded ravine.
>
> Many of the words in the Yorkshire dialect I grew up with are of Viking
> (Norse) origin, e.g. laik = to play, skep = basket, ginnel = narrow
> street or snicket (all of which I used as a child) as in "Is yower
> Martin laikin aht - wirrof darnt ginnel un off ovver to't mill to laik
> abaht in't skeps."
>
> The enormous baskets piled up outside the textile mills were great for
> playing hide and seek.
>
> There are hundreds more here:
> http://www.viking.no/e/england/e-yorkshire_norse.htm
>
> Cheers
> Douglas
>
>
>
>
> On 04.01.2010 23:20, Mark Rabiner wrote:
>>> Spencer wrote:
>>> "Walls never work. The Great Wall didn't work. The Maginot Line didn't
>>> either. We are dealing with a global clash of cultures and religions.
>>> My
>>> opinions only of course. :)"
>>>
>>> Actually some walls work very well. The Great Wall worked to keep
>>> Mongols
>>> out of China for several hundred years. Hadrian's wall kept what is now
>>> England from speaking Norwegian or Celtic. The Israeli wall is given
>>> credit
>>> for significantly reducing raids on Israel. The Maginot Line would have
>>> worked if the guns could have been pointed towards Belgium. The only
>>> wall
>>> that didn't work in recent years is Wall Street. ;-)
>>> Larry Z
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Forgot the Walls of Jericho and the Berlin wall!
>> Which was so nice when it was no longer there.
>>
>> Mark William Rabiner
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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