This is a tribute to our dear beautiful horses. The horse (Equus ferus caballus) is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an odd-toed ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated, such as the endangered Przewalski's horse, a separate subspecies, and the only remaining true wild horse. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior. Horses' anatomy enables them to make use of speed to escape predators and they have a well-developed sense of balance and a strong fight-or-flight response. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait: horses are able to sleep both standing up and lying down. Female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months, and a young horse, called a foal, can stand and run shortly following birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under saddle or in harness between the ages of two and four. They reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years. Horse breeds are loosely divided into three categories based on general temperament: spirited "hot bloods" with speed and endurance; "cold bloods," such as draft horses and some ponies, suitable for slow, heavy work; and "warmbloods," developed from crosses between hot bloods and cold bloods, often focusing on creating breeds for specific riding purposes, particularly in Europe. There are more than 300 breeds of horse in the world today, developed for many different uses. Ponies are taxonomically the same animals as horses. The distinction between a horse and pony is commonly drawn on the basis of height, especially for competition purposes. However, height alone is not dispositive; the difference between horses and ponies may also include aspects of phenotype, including conformation and temperament. The traditional standard for height of a horse or a pony at maturity is 14.2 hands (58 inches, 147 cm). An animal 14.2 h or over is usually considered to be a horse and one less than 14.2 h a pony, but there are many exceptions to the traditional standard. In Australia, ponies are considered to be those under 14 hands (56 inches, 142 cm), The International Federation for Equestrian Sports, the world governing body for horse sport, uses metric measurements and defines a pony as being any horse measuring less than 148 centimetres (58.27 in) at the withers without shoes, which is just over 14.2 h, and 149 centimetres (58.66 in), or just over 14.21/2 h, with shoes. Height is not the sole criterion for distinguishing horses from ponies. Breed registries for horses that typically produce individuals both under and over 14.2 h consider all animals of that breed to be horses regardless of their height. Conversely, some pony breeds may have features in common with horses, and individual animals may occasionally mature at over 14.2 h, but are still considered to be ponies. Ponies often exhibit thicker manes, tails, and overall coat. They also have proportionally shorter legs, wider barrels, heavier bone, shorter and thicker necks, and short heads with broad foreheads. They may have calmer temperaments than horses and also a high level of equine intelligence that may or may not be used to cooperate with human handler

I have to figure out How to start being that famous person outside this henhouse. I want it so desperately, my own sparkling career. but here I am stuck here with memories of hens and roosters that must have lived here inside this little house the house belonged to them until they met their cruel destiny and they didn't know that things could be different, but I know I know that some day after they all were dead and all gone then I came To their house Their little old Henhouse And made it My studio And I am sure That great art Will be made Right here So I try hard To work a little but all I can do At the moment is nothing or maybe to kick in the door or perhaps the wall. And Then the frail wood might Crackle Or Maybe It will not It is not worth My efforts Maybe I end up as a loser with no hope just a pathetic loser or maybe not. If I try to appear as A distinguished artist, I will transform Into a significant figure and appear as an important person. or maybe It is not worth My efforts Or will I be Recognized As an intellectual force Of great Importance Some day But Today I am not in the mood To be neither significant nor important at all. And My arms Feel so Heavy and they hang heavily over my bony knees and I bump my head impatiently towards my hands over and over again and then I know I should work, but I regret to say I feel so completely uninspired today Last night I was at this party and I feel that It was me Who was the big party star and Naturally I drank A whole lot As I am able to Drink a lot of alcohol. And I might even have been drunk, but everybody was and the party itself was a boring show. That party That very stupid And boring party last night is probably the reason why I did not feel in my best mood when I woke up this morning But still very determined I crawled out of my warm bed at eleven o'clock sharp. Right after breakfast dutiful as I always am I went Straight across the courtyard and over to my little hut the old henhouse but now it is my studio and Inside of it I flop down on my desk. I try to appear Both charming and interesting and I know that possibly a wonderful day my dream may come through somehow. Hopefully it is just a matter of time. Because I certainly have got what it takes to succeed since I am obviously supposed to be an important person and I have been important All my life To me. I know that I have always been an important person deep down in my soul and to my mother I am so distinguished and I probably Just have to wait for a short while and then my fame will occur and establish itself. But if my dream by accident should let me down and prove to not come true I do not break down In anger and despair Because I do not care What people say So then I am prepared to live in my dream forever And I will not let the dream of my life slip away Last night I was a sort of a king of the party but where did it go The feeling of high importance have slipped away while I slept And Today I am obviously not the king of anything. I feel so terrible uninspired and exhausted I am So I cannot stand the sight of a single person today and here I am doing nothing but staring blankly into space. Here I am all alone With myself and my endlessly boring projects but without a single idea about anything at all Not anywhere Outside or inside of my beautiful big head is any brilliant idea so then I do not know what to do I just do not Have a clue of what to do So help me mother Give me more Love And the fame I need I need it now

This is a tribute to Iceland, a very spectacular country. Iceland is a Nordic island country marking the juncture between the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The country has a population of 321,857 and a total area of 103,000 km2 (40,000 sq mi), which makes it the most sparsely populated country in Europe. The capital and largest city is Reykjavik, with the surrounding areas in the southwestern region of the country being home to two-thirds of the country's population. Reykjavik is the most northern capital in the world. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active. The interior consists mainly of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. According to Landnamabok, the settlement of Iceland began in AD 874 when the chieftain Ingolfr Arnarson became the first permanent Norse settler on the island. Others had visited the island earlier and stayed over winter. During the following centuries, Norsemen settled Iceland, bringing with them thralls of Gaelic origin. From 1262 to 1918, Iceland was part of the Norwegian and later the Danish monarchies. The country became independent in 1918 and a republic was declared in 1944. Until the 20th century, the Icelanders relied largely on fishing and agriculture, and the country was one of the least developed in the region. Industrialisation of the fisheries and aid through the United States' Marshall Plan following World War II brought prosperity and, by the 1990s, Iceland had developed as one of the wealthiest and most developed nations in the world. In 1994, Iceland became party to the European Economic Area, which supported diversification of the economy into economic and financial services. Iceland has a free-market economy with relatively low corporate taxes compared to other OECD countries. It maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens. In 2013, it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations' Human Development Index. In 2008, the nation's entire banking system systemically failed, affected by the worldwide crisis. This resulted in substantial political unrest. In the wake of the crisis, Iceland instituted "capital controls" that made it impossible for many foreigners to get their money out of the country. Though designed to be temporary, the controls remain and are among the biggest hurdles for attracting international investment in the Icelandic economy. Iceland ranks high in economic and political stability, though it is still in the process of recovering from the crisis. Gender equality is highly valued in Iceland. In the Global Gender Gap Report 2012, Iceland holds the top spot for the least gap, closely followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden. Icelandic culture is founded upon the nation's Norse heritage. Most Icelanders are descendants of Norse and Gaelic settlers. Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is descended from Old Norse and is closely related to Faroese and some West Norwegian dialects. The country's cultural heritage includes traditional Icelandic cuisine, poetry, and the medieval Icelanders' sagas. Among NATO members, Iceland has the smallest population and is the only one with no standing army. Its lightly armed Coast Guard is in charge of its defences.

Based on fossil and biological evidence, most scientists accept that birds are a specialized subgroup of theropod dinosaurs. More specifically, they are members of Maniraptora, a group of theropods which includes dromaeosaurs and oviraptorids, among others. As scientists have discovered more nonavian theropods closely related to birds, the previously clear distinction between nonbirds and birds has become blurred. Recent discoveries in the Liaoning Province of northeast China, which demonstrate many small theropod dinosaurs had feathers, contribute to this ambiguity. The consensus view in contemporary paleontology is that the birds, or avialans, are the closest relatives of the deinonychosaurs, which include dromaeosaurids and troodontids. Together, these form a group called Paraves. Some basal members of this group, such as Microraptor, have features which may have enabled them to glide or fly. The most basal deinonychosaurs were very small. This evidence raises the possibility that the ancestor of all paravians may have been arboreal, have been able to glide, or both. Unlike Archaeopteryx and the non-avian feathered dinosaurs, who primarily ate meat, recent studies suggest that the first birds were herbivores. The Late Jurassic Archaeopteryx is well known as one of the first transitional fossils to be found, and it provided support for the theory of evolution in the late 19th century. Archaeopteryx was the first fossil to display both clearly traditional reptilian characteristics: teeth, clawed fingers, and a long, lizard-like tail, as well as wings with flight feathers identical to those of modern birds. It is not considered a direct ancestor of modern birds, though it is possibly closely related to the real ancestor. Early disagreements on the origins of birds included whether birds evolved from dinosaurs or more primitive archosaurs. Within the dinosaur camp, there were disagreements as to whether ornithischian or theropod dinosaurs were the more likely ancestors. Although ornithischian (bird-hipped) dinosaurs share the hip structure of modern birds, birds are thought to have originated from the saurischian (lizard-hipped) dinosaurs, and therefore evolved their hip structure independently. In fact, a bird-like hip structure evolved a third time among a peculiar group of theropods known as the Therizinosauridae. A small minority of researchers, oppose the majority view, contending that birds are not dinosaurs, but evolved from early reptiles like Longisquama. The earliest known bird (avialan) fossils currently known hail from the Tiaojishan Formation of China, which has been dated to the late Jurassic period (Oxfordian stage), about 160 million years ago. The avialan species from this time period include Anchiornis huxleyi, Xiaotingia zhengi, and Aurornis xui. The well-known early avialan, Archaeopteryx, dates from slightly later Jurassic rocks (about 155 million years old) from Germany. Many of these early avialans shared unusual anatomical features that may be ancestral to modern birds, but were later lost during bird evolution. These features include enlarged claws on the second toe which may have been held clear of the ground in life, and long feathers or "hind wings" covering the hind limbs and feet, which may have been used in aerial maneuvering. Avialans diversified into a wide variety of forms during the Cretaceous Period. Many groups retained primitive characteristics, such as clawed wings and teeth, though the latter were lost independently in a number of bird groups, including modern birds (Neornithes). While the earliest forms, such as Archaeopteryx and Jeholornis, retained the long bony tails of their ancestors, the tails of more advanced birds were shortened with the advent of the pygostyle bone in the clade Pygostylia. In the late Cretaceous, around 95 million years ago, the ancestor of all modern birds also evolved better olfactory senses.

Henrik Johan Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of realism" and is one of the founders of Modernism in theatre. His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, and The Master Builder. He is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare, and A Doll's House became the world's most performed play by the early 20th century. Several of his plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when European theatre was required to model strict morals of family life and propriety. Ibsen's work examined the realities that lay behind many facades, revealing much that was disquieting to many contemporaries. It utilized a critical eye and free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality. The poetic and cinematic play Peer Gynt, however, has strong surreal elements. Ibsen is often ranked as one of the truly great playwrights in the European tradition. He is widely regarded as the most important playwright since Shakespeare. Ibsen wrote his plays in Danish (the common written language of Denmark and Norway) and they were published by the Danish publisher Gyldendal. Although most of his plays are set in Norway-often in places reminiscent of Skien, the port town where he grew up-Ibsen lived for 27 years in Italy and Germany, and rarely visited Norway during his most productive years. Born into a merchant family connected to the patriciate of Skien, his dramas were shaped by his family background. In the Wild Duck the first act opens with a dinner party hosted by Hakon Werle, a wealthy merchant and industrialist. The gathering is attended by his son, Gregers Werle, who has just returned to his father's home following a self-imposed exile. There, he learns the fate of a former classmate, Hjalmar Ekdal. Hjalmar married Gina, a young servant in the Werle household. The elder Werle had arranged the match by providing Hjalmar with a home and profession as a photographer. Gregers, whose mother died believing that Gina and her husband had carried on an affair, becomes enraged at the thought that his old friend is living a life built on a lie. Hjalmar runs a busy portrait studio out of the apartment. Gina helps him run the business in addition to keeping house. They both dote on their daughter Hedvig. The family eagerly reveals a loft in the apartment where they keep various animals like rabbits and pigeons. Most prized is the wild duck they rescued. The duck was wounded by none other than Werle, whose eyesight is failing. His shot winged the duck, which dove to the bottom of the lake to drown itself by clinging to the seaweed. Werle's dog retrieved it though, and despite its wounds from the shot and the dog's teeth, the Ekdals had nursed the duck back to good health."

This is a tribute to the sea, or the Ocean, or all the water around us. The sea, the world ocean, or simply the ocean, is the connected body of salty water that covers over 70 percent of the Earth's surface. It moderates the Earth's climate and has important roles in the water cycle, carbon cycle, and nitrogen cycle. Although the sea has been travelled and explored since ancient times, the scientific study of the sea dates broadly from the voyages of Captain James Cook who explored the Pacific Ocean between 1768 and 1779. In geography, "sea" is used in the names of smaller, partly landlocked sections of the ocean, for example the Irish Sea, while "ocean" is used in the names of the five largest sections, such as the Pacific Ocean. The most abundant ions in sea water are chloride and sodium. The water also contains magnesium, sulfate, calcium, potassium, and many other components, some in minute concentrations. Salinity varies widely, being lower near the surface and the mouths of large rivers and higher in the depths of the ocean; however the relative proportions of dissolved salts vary little across the oceans. Carbon dioxide from the air is currently being absorbed by the sea in increasing amounts, lowering seawater pH in a process known as ocean acidification, which is likely to damage marine ecosystems in the near future. Winds blowing over the surface of the sea produce waves, which break when they reach shallow water. Winds also create surface currents through friction, setting up slow but stable circulations of water throughout the oceans. The directions of the circulation are governed by factors including the shapes of the continents and the rotation of the earth. Deep-sea currents, known as the global conveyor belt, carry cold water from near the poles to every ocean. Tides are caused by the rotation of the Earth and the gravitational effects of the orbiting Moon and, to a lesser extent, the Sun. Tides may have a very high range in bays or estuaries. A wide variety of life, including viruses, bacteria, protists, algae, plants, fungi and animals, lives in the sea, which offers a wide range of marine habitats and ecosystems, ranging from sunlit surface waters to the enormous depths and pressures of the cold, dark abyssal zone. The sea also varies in latitude from the cold waters beneath the Arctic ice to the colourful diversity of coral reefs in the tropics. Many of the major groups of organisms evolved in the sea and life may have started there. The sea provides people with substantial supplies of food, mainly fish, but also shellfish, mammals and seaweed, whether harvested in the wild or farmed underwater. The sea also serves other purposes, including trade, travel, mineral extraction, power generation, warfare, and leisure activities such as swimming, surfing, sailing and scuba diving. The sea has played an important part in culture throughout history, with major appearances in literature at least since Homer's Odyssey, in marine art, in cinema, in theater, and in classical music. Symbolically, the sea appears as monsters such as Scylla in mythology and represents the unconscious mind in dream interpretation. The sea is the interconnected system of all the Earth's oceanic waters, including the five named "oceans," the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern and Arctic Oceans. The word "sea" is used in the names of specific, smaller bodies of seawater, such as the North Sea or the Red Sea. There is no sharp distinction between seas and oceans, though seas are smaller, and are partly (as marginal seas) or wholly (as inland seas) bordered by land, on a smaller scale than say the Atlantic Ocean. However, the Sargasso Sea has no coastline and lies within a circular current, the North Atlantic Gyre. Seas are generally larger than lakes and contain salt water, but the Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states that all of the ocean is "sea."

We dream about life at the farm, but how romantic is it really? Agriculture, also called farming or husbandry, is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinals and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the development of civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science. The history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. However, all farming generally relies on techniques to expand and maintain the lands that are suitable for raising domesticated species. For plants, this usually requires some form of irrigation, although there are methods of dryland farming. Livestock are raised in a combination of grassland-based and landless systems, in an industry that covers almost one-third of the world's ice- and water-free area. In the developed world, industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture has become the dominant system of modern farming, although there is growing support for sustainable agriculture, including permaculture and organic agriculture. Until the Industrial Revolution, the vast majority of the human population labored in agriculture. Pre-industrial agriculture was typically subsistence agriculture/self-sufficiency in which farmers raised most of their crops for their own consumption instead of cash crops for trade. A remarkable shift in agricultural practices has occurred over the past century in response to new technologies, and the development of world markets. This also has led to technological improvements in agricultural techniques, such as the Haber-Bosch method for synthesizing ammonium nitrate which made the traditional practice of recycling nutrients with crop rotation and animal manure less important. Modern agronomy, plant breeding, agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, and technological improvements have sharply increased yields from cultivation, but at the same time have caused widespread ecological damage and negative human health effects. Selective breeding and modern practices in animal husbandry have similarly increased the output of meat, but have raised concerns about animal welfare and the health effects of the antibiotics, growth hormones, and other chemicals commonly used in industrial meat production. Genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts. Significant degradation of land and water resources, including the depletion of aquifers, has been observed in recent decades, and the effects of global warming on agriculture and of agriculture on global warming are still not fully understood. The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals (grains), vegetables, fruits, oils, meats and spices. Fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo. Other useful materials are produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. Over one third of the world's workers are employed in agriculture, second only to the services sector, although the percentages of agricultural workers in developed countries has decreased significantly over the past several centuries

This is a tribute to Cyprus, a wonderful island with a turbulent history. Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Cyprus is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, and a member state of the European Union. It is located east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and north of Egypt. The earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, and Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC. As a strategic location in the Middle East, it was subsequently occupied by several major powers, including the empires of the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Persians, from whom the island was seized in 333 BC by Alexander the Great. Subsequent rule by Ptolemaic Egypt, the Roman Empire, the Byzantines, Arab caliphates for a short period, the French Lusignan dynasty, and the Venetians, was followed by over three centuries of Ottoman control. Cyprus was placed under British administration in 1878 until it was granted independence in 1960, becoming a member of the Commonwealth the following year. In 1974, seven years after the intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, an attempted coup d'etat by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta with the aim of achieving enosis (union of the island with Greece) took place. Turkey used this as a pretext to invade the northern portion of the island. Turkish forces remained after a cease-fire, resulting in the partition of the island; an objective of Turkey since 1955. The intercommunal violence and subsequent Turkish invasion led to the displacement of over 150,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots, and the establishment of a separate Turkish Cypriots political entity in the north. These events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. The Republic of Cyprus has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus and its surrounding waters, except for the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, administered as Sovereign Base Areas. However, the Republic of Cyprus is de facto partitioned into two main parts; the area under the effective control of the Republic, comprising about 59% of the island's area, and the Turkish-controlled area in the north, calling itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and recognised only by Turkey, covering about 36% of the island's area. The international community considers the northern part of the island as occupied territory of the Republic of Cyprus by Turkish forces. Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean. An advanced, high-income economy with a very high Human Development Index, the Republic of Cyprus was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement until it joined the European Union on 1 May 2004. On 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the Eurozone.

This is a tribute to our best friend, so happy and colorful. The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), a member of the Canidae family of the mammalian order Carnivora. The term "domestic dog" is generally used for both domesticated and feral varieties. The dog was the first domesticated animal and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and pet animal in human history. The word "dog" can also refer to the male of a canine species, as opposed to the word "bitch" which refers to the female of the species. Recent studies of "well-preserved remains of a dog-like canid from the Razboinichya Cave" in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia concluded that a particular instance of early wolf domestication approximately 33,000 years ago did not result in modern dog lineages, possibly because of climate disruption during the Last Glacial Maximum. The authors postulate that at least several such incipient events have occurred. A study of fossil dogs and wolves in Belgium, Ukraine, and Russia tentatively dates domestication from 14,000 years ago to more than 31,700 years ago. Another recent study has found support for claims of dog domestication between 14,000 and 16,000 years ago, with a range between 9,000 and 34,000 years ago, depending on mutation rate assumptions. Dogs' value to early human hunter-gatherers led to them quickly becoming ubiquitous across world cultures. Dogs perform many roles for people, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship, and, more recently, aiding handicapped individuals. This impact on human society has given them the nickname "man's best friend" in the Western world. In some cultures, however, dogs are also a source of meat. In 2001, there were estimated to be 400 million dogs in the world. Most breeds of dog are at most a few hundred years old, having been artificially selected for particular morphologies and behaviors by people for specific functional roles. Through this selective breeding, the dog has developed into hundreds of varied breeds, and shows more behavioral and morphological variation than any other land mammal. For example, height measured to the withers ranges from 15.2 centimetres (6.0 in) in the Chihuahua to about 76 cm (30 in) in the Irish Wolfhound; color varies from white through grays (usually called "blue") to black, and browns from light (tan) to dark ("red" or "chocolate") in a wide variation of patterns; coats can be short or long, coarse-haired to wool-like, straight, curly, or smooth. It is common for most breeds to shed this coat. Dog is the common use term that refers to members of the subspecies Canis lupus familiaris (canis, "dog"; lupus, "wolf"; familiaris, "of a household" or "domestic"). The term can also be used to refer to a wider range of related species, such as the members of the genus Canis, or "true dogs," including the wolf, coyote, and jackals, or it can refer to the members of the tribe Canini, which would also include the African wild dog, or it can be used to refer to any member of the family Canidae, which would also include the foxes, bush dog, raccoon dog, and others. Some members of the family have dog in their common names, such as the raccoon dog and the African wild dog. A few animals have dog in their common names but are not canids, such as the prairie dog. The English word dog comes from Middle English dogge, from Old English docga, a "powerful dog breed." In 14th-century England, hound (from Old English: hund) was the general word for all domestic canines, and dog referred to a subtype of hound, a group including the mastiff. It is believed this "dog" type was so common, it eventually became the prototype of the category "hound." By the 16th century, dog had become the general word, and hound had begun to refer only to types used for hunting.

This book is a tribute to two very unhappy kids once upon a time, my mother Else Margrethe Widerberg and her brother Frans (Frantz Gustav) Widerberg, who grew up with a father who was abusing them, fysically, mentally and sexually. Now Else Margrethe has been dead some years, and Frans is a very old man. He is a famous Norwegian painter, but the self-therapist side of his art hasn't been seen or recognized. He seems to have been confusing the critics, probably because the story of child abuse and incest has been a very big shame for the family. Definitions of art therapy vary due to its origins in two fields: art and psychotherapy. It can focus on the art-making process as therapeutic in and of itself ("art as therapy") or it can be "art in therapy" (art psychotherapy). The psychoanalytic approach was the earliest form of art psychotherapy. This approach employs the transference process between the therapist and the client who makes art. The therapist interprets the client's symbolic self-expression as communicated in the art and elicits interpretations from the client. Analysis of transference is no longer always a component. Current art therapy includes a vast number of other approaches such as: Person-Centered, Cognitive, Behavior, Gestalt, Narrative, Adlerian, Family (Systems) and more. The tenets of art therapy involve humanism, creativity, reconciling emotional conflicts, fostering self-awareness, and personal growth. Various definitions of the term "art therapy" exist, each reflecting the historical narrative or theoretical underpinnings of its proponents. The British Association of Art Therapists defines art therapy as: ..".a form of psychotherapy that uses art media as its primary mode of communication. It is practised by qualified, registered Art Therapists who work with children, young people, adults and the elderly. Clients who can use art therapy may have a wide range of difficulties, disabilities or diagnoses. These include, for example, emotional, behavioral or mental health problems, learning or physical disabilities, life-limiting conditions, brain-injury or neurological conditions and physical illness. Art therapy may be provided for groups, or for individuals, depending on clients' needs. It is not a recreational activity or an art lesson, although the sessions can be enjoyable. Clients do not need to have any previous experience or expertise in art." The American Art Therapy Association defines art therapy as: ..".the therapeutic use of art making, within a professional relationship, by people who experience illness, trauma or challenges in living, and by people who seek personal development. Through creating art and reflecting on the art products and processes, people can increase awareness of self and others cope with symptoms, stress and traumatic experiences; enhance cognitive abilities; and enjoy the life-affirming pleasures of making art." "Art therapy is a mental health profession that uses the creative process of art making to improve and enhance the physical, mental and emotional well-being of individuals of all ages. It is based on the belief that the creative process involved in artistic self-expression helps people to resolve conflicts and problems, develop interpersonal skills, manage behaviour, reduce stress, increase self-esteem and self-awareness, and achieve insight. Art therapy integrates the fields of human development, visual art (drawing, painting, sculpture, and other art forms), and the creative process with models of counseling and psychotherapy."

Luckily I had a big Brother and one day my brother decided that he should have a horse. So suddenly he had a horse. I don't know How He got it But he always Seemed to get What he wanted, My big brother. He must have been born Under a lucky star Unlike me. So Even though Our parents didn't seem to have much money my brother must have managed to squeeze a reasonable amount out of them to finance this horse. But a horse Doesn't only Need financial support, It also needs attention, And my big brother, He was such a busy person. he didn't always have the time to go to the stable every day to do all the boring stable work. all the cleaning and feeding and grooming and riding in all kind of weather, as one are supposed to when one have a horse, he just couldn't do all that, he was too busy. so I did most of it. I was so happy to finally have got myself a horse, not just a little pony that was what I really wanted but a big white horse. Well, it was almost a pony, only bigger. After one year My brother Was twenty-one years old And he Was so tired Of having this horse So he sold it And bought himself An old sailboat Instead. Then I was just fifteen And in my parents' opinion I was clearly too young to have a horse on my own and I didn't have the money either, so then I started drinking and partying instead. For young girls Like me There was always A party And there was always Someone Who was willing To pay for My drinks. Then I kept falling in love With creatures Who looked like Horses With bony bodies, long limbs, Dreaming eyes, Big noses, fluffy manes, and even some of them had pony tales. I adored these Skinny creatures That reminded me Of all the beautiful horses Patiently waiting For me To come home To the stables Any rainy day. Many years later I was a mother And my little daughter Was deeply in love With a little pony. Maybe she was too young to have a pony on her own, she was twelve years old at that time, or maybe twelve is the perfect age to have a pony. Well, my mother didn't think so so she told her that she was far too young and that she would have to wait till she had grown up. I don't agree with that. I think that If you shall have a pony anytime at all, Twelve is a good age. when you are Twenty It will be too late, in my opinion. Who will like to have her first little pony when she is twenty years old or fifty-two? But I didn't feel like Discussing it At the time. After all My dear mother Was very ill And maybe she was about to die. My dear mother She was in a hospital because She had cancer And we My daughter and I Visited her, And then She told my daughter That I also had wanted a pony when I was a little girl but that I couldn't have it. And then She also told my daughter That my brother Have had a horse, Because he was big enough at the time. I felt so deeply Disappointed Over the fact That She My dear mother obviously didn't know about All my work With the old horse That my brother and I Had been having Together Many years ago. I wondered If she just had forgotten About all My efforts At the time Or if she never had recognized them. Had my eager stable work made no impression on her at all? Had I Ever Lived? Then my mother Died And I inherited some money, and with her money I bought the dear little pony To my daughter. Soon I realized That My daughter was in love with a very naughty little pony that was almost impossible to ride. But then we, My daughter and I, Almost moved Into the stable And trained the pony Into a nice little Competition horse For my daughter. But later on My daughter grew up To be a very tall Young lady And then she felt funny Riding competitions With her tiny Little pony. I want my daughter To keep riding As long as she wish, Maybe all her life, So I borrowed Some more money And I bought a bigger Competition horse To her. So now I have Inherited Her dear little pony. It is clearly Too little For me to ride it, I am too big And feel Completely funny On the back Of such a litt

This is an ironic portrait of Norway. Norway is a Scandinavian unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) and a population of a little above 5 million. It is the 2nd least densely populated country in Europe. The country shares a long eastern border with Sweden (1,619 km or 1,006 mi long), which is the longest uninterrupted border within both Scandinavia & Europe at large. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, and the Skagerrak Strait to the south, with Denmark on the other side. It shares maritime borders with Russia by the Barents Sea; Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland by the Norwegian Sea; and Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom by the North Sea. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is laced with fjords, a renowned part of its landscape. The capital city Oslo is the largest in the nation, with a population of 630,000. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, fresh water, and hydropower. Two centuries of Viking raids to southern and western areas tapered off following the adoption of Christianity in AD 994. Norway expanded its control overseas to parts of Britain, Ireland, Iceland, and Greenland. Norwegian power peaked in 1265, but competition from the Hanseatic League and the spread of the Black Death weakened the country. In 1380, Norway was absorbed into a union with Denmark that lasted more than four centuries. In 1814, Norwegians resisted the cession of their country to Sweden and adopted a constitution. Sweden went to war with Norway but agreed to let Norway keep its constitution in return for accepting the union under a Swedish king. Later Norway demanded independence, which it gained in a referendum in 1905. Norway remained neutral in World War I. Despite its declaration of neutrality in World War II, Norway was occupied for 5 years by forces of Nazi Germany. In 1949 it abandoned neutrality, becoming a founding member of NATO. Discovery of oil in adjacent waters in the late 1960s boosted Norway's economic fortunes. The country maintains a welfare model with universal health care, subsidised higher education, and a comprehensive social security system. Key domestic issues include maintaining the country's extensive social safety net with an aging population and preserving economic competitiveness. The petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the country's gross domestic product. King Harald V is Norway's head of state and Erna Solberg became Prime Minister on 16 October 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg, and the government made a shift from being a labour to a conservative government. It has administrative subdivisions on two levels, known as counties (fylke) and municipalities (kommuner). The Sami people have a certain amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sami Parliament and the Finnmark Act. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and its member countries (despite rejecting full EU membership in two referenda), as well as with the United States. Norway participates with United Nations forces in international missions, notably in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sudan, and Libya. Norway is a founding member of the United Nations, NATO, the Council of Europe, and the Nordic Council; a member of the European Economic Area, the WTO and the OECD; and is also a part of the Schengen Area.

This is a tribute to all the useless cats. The domestic cat (Felis catus or Felis silvestris catus is a small, usually furry, domesticated, and carnivorous mammal. It is often called the housecat when kept as an indoor pet, or simply the cat when there is no need to distinguish it from other felids and felines. Cats are often valued by humans for companionship and their ability to hunt vermin and household pests. Cats are similar in anatomy to the other felids, with strong, flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws, and teeth adapted to killing small prey. Cat senses fit a crepuscular and predatory ecological niche. Cats can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by mice and other small animals. They can see in near darkness. Like most other mammals, cats have poorer color vision and a better sense of smell than humans. Despite being solitary hunters, cats are a social species, and cat communication includes the use of a variety of vocalizations (mewing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling and grunting) as well as cat pheromones and types of cat-specific body language. Cats have a rapid breeding rate. Under controlled breeding, they can be bred and shown as registered pedigree pets, a hobby known as cat fancy. Failure to control the breeding of pet cats by neutering, and the abandonment of former household pets, has resulted in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, requiring population control. Since cats were cult animals in ancient Egypt, they were commonly believed to have been domesticated there, but there may have been instances of domestication as early as the Neolithic from around 9500 years ago (7500 BC). A genetic study in 2007 concluded that domestic cats are descended from African wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica) c. 8000 BC, in the Near East. According to Scientific American, cats are the most popular pet in the world, and are now found in almost every place where humans live. The word cat was introduced, together with the domestic animal itself, to the Roman Republic by the 1st century BC. An alternative word with cognates in many languages is English puss (pussycat). Attested only from the 16th century, it may have been introduced from Dutch poes or from Low German puuskatte, related to Swedish kattepus, or Norwegian pus, pusekatt. Similar forms exist in Lithuanian and Irish. The etymology of this word is unknown, but it may have simply arisen from a sound used to attract a cat. A group of cats is referred to as a "clowder" or a "glaring," a male cat is called a "tom" or "tomcat" (or a "gib," if neutered), an unaltered female is called a "queen," and a pre-pubescent juvenile is referred to as a "kitten." Although spayed females have no commonly used name, in some rare instances immature or spayed females are referred to as a "molly." The male progenitor of a cat, especially a pedigreed cat, is its "sire," and its female progenitor is its "dam." While the African wildcat is the ancestral subspecies from which domestic cats are descended, and wildcats and domestic cats can completely interbreed, there are several intermediate stages between domestic pet and pedigree cats on the one hand and those entirely wild animals on the other. The semi-feral cat is a mostly outdoor cat that is not owned by any one individual, but is generally friendly to people and may be fed by several households. Feral cats are associated with human habitation areas and may be fed by people or forage in rubbish, but are typically wary of human interaction

This is a tribute to our best friend, the dog. Domestic dogs inherited complex behaviors from their wolf ancestors, which would have been pack hunters with complex body language. These sophisticated forms of social cognition and communication may account for their trainability, playfulness, and ability to fit into human households and social situations, and these attributes have given dogs a relationship with humans that has enabled them to become one of the most successful species on the planet today. Although experts largely disagree over the details of dog domestication, it is agreed that human interaction played a significant role in shaping the subspecies. Domestication may have occurred initially in separate areas, particularly Siberia and Europe. Currently it is thought domestication of our current lineage of dog occurred sometime as early as 15,000 years ago and arguably as late as 8500 years ago. Shortly after the latest domestication, dogs became ubiquitous in human populations, and spread throughout the world. Emigrants from Siberia likely crossed the Bering Strait with dogs in their company, and some experts suggest the use of sled dogs may have been critical to the success of the waves that entered North America roughly 12,000 years ago, although the earliest archaeological evidence of dog-like canids in North America dates from about 9,400 years ago. Dogs were an important part of life for the Athabascan population in North America, and were their only domesticated animal. Dogs also carried much of the load in the migration of the Apache and Navajo tribes 1,400 years ago. Use of dogs as pack animals in these cultures often persisted after the introduction of the horse to North America. The current consensus among biologists and archaeologists is that the dating of first domestication is indeterminate, although more recent evidence shows isolated domestication events as early as 33,000 years ago. There is conclusive evidence the present lineage of dogs genetically diverged from their wolf ancestors at least 15,000 years ago, but some believe domestication to have occurred earlier. Evidence is accruing that there were previous domestication events, but that those lineages died out. It is not known whether humans domesticated the wolf as such to initiate dog's divergence from its ancestors, or whether dog's evolutionary path had already taken a different course prior to domestication. For example, it is hypothesized that some wolves gathered around the campsites of paleolithic camps to scavenge refuse, and associated evolutionary pressure developed that favored those who were less frightened by, and keener in approaching, humans. The bulk of the scientific evidence for the evolution of the domestic dog stems from morphological studies of archaeological findings and mitochondrial DNA studies. The divergence date of roughly 15,000 years ago is based in part on archaeological evidence that demonstrates the domestication of dogs occurred more than 15,000 years ago, and some genetic evidence indicates the domestication of dogs from their wolf ancestors began in the late Upper Paleolithic close to the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary, between 17,000 and 14,000 years ago. But there is a wide range of other, contradictory findings that make this issue controversial. There are findings beginning currently at 33,000 years ago distinctly placing them as domesticated dogs evidenced not only by shortening of the muzzle but widening as well as crowding of teeth.

In texts and pictures we explore the mysteries of love and life. Love refers to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection to pleasure. It can refer to an emotion of a strong attraction and personal attachment. It can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection -"the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another." It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one's self or animals. Ancient Greeks identified four forms of love: kinship or familiarity (in Greek, storge), friendship (philia), sexual and/or romantic desire (eros), and self-emptying or divine love (agape). Modern authors have distinguished further varieties of romantic love. Non-Western traditions have also distinguished variants or symbioses of these states. This diversity of uses and meanings combined with the complexity of the feelings involved makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to other emotional states. Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts. Love may be understood as a function to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species. The word "love" can have a variety of related but distinct meanings in different contexts. Many other languages use multiple words to express some of the different concepts that English relies mainly on "love" to encapsulate; one example is the plurality of Greek words for "love." Cultural differences in conceptualizing love thus doubly impede the establishment of a universal definition. Although the nature or essence of love is a subject of frequent debate, different aspects of the word can be clarified by determining what isn't love. Love as a general expression of positive sentiment (a stronger form of like) is commonly contrasted with hate (or neutral apathy); as a less sexual and more emotionally intimate form of romantic attachment, love is commonly contrasted with lust; and as an interpersonal relationship with romantic overtones, love is sometimes contrasted with friendship, although the word love is often applied to close friendships. Abstractly discussed love usually refers to an experience one person feels for another. Love often involves caring for or identifying with a person or thing (cf. vulnerability and care theory of love), including oneself (cf. narcissism). In addition to cross-cultural differences in understanding love, ideas about love have also changed greatly over time. Some historians date modern conceptions of romantic love to courtly Europe during or after the Middle Ages, although the prior existence of romantic attachments is attested by ancient love poetry. The complex and abstract nature of love often reduces discourse of love to a thought-terminating cliche. Several common proverbs regard love, from Virgil's "Love conquers all" to The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love." St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle, defines love as "to will the good of another." Bertrand Russell describes love as a condition of "absolute value," as opposed to relative value. citation needed] Philosopher Gottfried Leibniz said that love is "to be delighted by the happiness of another." Biologist Jeremy Griffith defines love as "unconditional selflessness." Love is sometimes referred to as an "international language" that overrides cultural and linguistic divisions.

This is a tribute to my mother, Else Margrethe Widerberg, who died in 2006, and her brother, Frans (Frantz Gustav) Widerberg, who will turn 80 in 2014. He is a successful Norwegian artist, famous for his colorful pictures of horses and riders. The book indicates how their upbringing in a dysfunctional family influenced on their lives and on his art. Critics basically has misunderstood his art, because they don't know about his upbringing in an incestual family. I know the story, and with that in mind it's not difficult to see that his art most of all is a kind of self-therapy. Although art therapy is a relatively young therapeutic discipline, its roots lie in the use of the arts in the 'moral treatment' of psychiatric patients in the late 18th century and in a re-evaluation of the art of non-western art and of the art of untrained artists and of the insane. Art therapy as a profession began in the mid-20th century, arising independently in English-speaking and European countries. The early art therapists who published accounts of their work acknowledged the influence of aesthetics, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, rehabilitation, early childhood education, and art education, to varying degrees, on their practices. The British artist Adrian Hill coined the term 'art therapy' in 1942. Hill, recovering from tuberculosis in a sanatorium, discovered the therapeutic benefits of drawing and painting while convalescing. He wrote that the value of art therapy lay in "completely engrossing the mind (as well as the fingers)...releasing the creative energy of the frequently inhibited patient," which enabled the patient to "build up a strong defence against his misfortunes." He suggested artistic work to his fellow patients. That began his art therapy work, which was documented in 1945 in his book, Art Versus Illness. The artist Edward Adamson (1911-1996), recently demobilised after WW2, joined Adrian Hill to extend Hill's work to the British long stay mental hospitals. Other early proponents of art therapy in Britain include E. M. Lyddiatt, Michael Edwards, and Rita Simon. The British Association of Art Therapists was founded in 1964. U.S. art therapy pioneers Margaret Naumburg and Edith Kramer began practicing at around the same time as Hill. Naumburg, an educator, asserted that "art therapy is psychoanalytically oriented" and that free art expression "becomes a form of symbolic speech which...leads to an increase in verbalization in the course of therapy." Edith Kramer, an artist, pointed out the importance of the creative process, psychological defenses, and artistic quality, writing that "sublimation is attained when forms are created that successfully contain...anger, anxiety, or pain." Other early proponents of art therapy in the United States include Elinor Ulman, Robert "Bob" Ault, and Judith Rubin. The American Art Therapy Association was founded in 1969. National professional associations of art therapy exist in many countries, including Brazil, Canada, Finland, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Romania, South Korea, and Sweden. International networking contributes to the establishment of standards for education and practice. Diverse perspectives exist on history of art therapy, which complement those that focus on the institutionalization of art therapy as a profession in Britain and the United States. Art therapy and outsider art The relation between the fields of Art Therapy and Outsider Art has been widely debated. The term 'Art Brut' was first coined by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture. Dubuffet used the term 'Art brut' to focus on artistic practice by insane-asylum patients. The English translation Outsider Art was first used by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972.

This book is a tribute to my mother, who died in 2006, and her brother, who is a successful Norwegian artist. It shows the impact of their upbringing together on his art and on their lives. Colorful paintings, poems and family secrets. The efficiency of treatment interventions for post traumatic disorder in children have not been researched upon extensively. Linda Chapman and fellow psychologists have, however, researched the effectiveness of art therapy on pediatric trauma patients. Early in the research, analysis showed that there were no significant reductions in PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) symptoms between the patients and the control group. However, acute stress disorder symptoms were reduced for the children who received the art therapy intervention. A 2009 study of prison inmates done by David Gussak discovered that art therapy aided in the improvement of mood within prison inmates. It is believed that prison inmates experience an external locus of control and as such feel they do not control their lives and subsequently experience a higher instance of depression and overall poor mood. Art therapy however was proven by David Gussak to assist inmates to shift their locus of control from an external to internal and thus allow inmates to feel they had some control over themselves. This feeling of control led to improvement of mood and the associated depression within the inmate population. It should be noted that art therapy was found by Gussak to be more helpful in improving the mood of female inmates than male inmates, this however is not necessarily a completely conclusive result and requires further study. The term 'Art Brut' was first coined by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture. Dubuffet used the term 'Art brut' to focus on artistic practice by insane-asylum patients. The English translation Outsider Art was first used by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972. Both terms have been criticized because of their social and personal impact on both patients and artists. Art therapy professionals have been accused of not putting enough emphasis on the artistic value and meaning of the artist's works, considering them only from a medical perspective. This led to the misconception of the whole outsider art practice, while addressing therapeutical issues within the field of aesthetical discussion. Outsider Art, on the contrary, has been negatively judged because of the labeling of the artists' work, i.e. the equation artist = genius = insane. Moreover, the business-related issues on the term outsider art carry some misunderstandings. While the Outsider Artist is part of a specific Art System, which can add a positive value to both the artist's work as well as his personal development, it can also imprison him within the boundaries of the system itself. As a mental health profession, art therapy is employed in many clinical and other settings with diverse populations. Art therapy can be found in non-clinical settings, as well as in art studios and in creativity development workshops. Closely related in practice to marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors, U.S. art therapists are licensed under various titles, depending upon their individual qualifications and the type of licenses available in a given state. Art therapists may hold licenses as art therapists, creative arts therapists, marriage and family therapists, counselors of various types, psychologists, nurse practitioners, social workers, occupational therapists, or rehabilitation therapists. Art therapists may have received advanced degrees in art therapy or in a related field such as psychology in which case they would have to obtain post-master's or post-doctorate certification as an art therapist.

An easy-reading book about horses, with beautyful pictures in great colors.

This is a fairytale about three goats. On their way to their summer fields they met an evil troll. Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine: that is a fairytale ... of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful. As Stith Thompson points out, talking animals and the presence of magic seem to be more common to the fairy tale than fairies themselves. However, the mere presence of animals that talk does not make a tale a fairy tale, especially when the animal is clearly a mask on a human face, as in fables. In his essay "On Fairy-Stories," J. R. R. Tolkien agreed with the exclusion of "fairies" from the definition, defining fairy tales as stories about the adventures of men in Faerie, the land of fairies, fairytale princes and princesses, dwarves, elves, and not only other magical species but many other marvels. However, the same essay excludes tales that are often considered fairy tales, citing as an example The Monkey's Heart, which Andrew Lang included in The Lilac Fairy Book. Steven Swann Jones identified the presence of magic as the feature by which fairy tales can be distinguished from other sorts of folktales. Davidson and Chaudri identify "transformation" as the key feature of the genre. From a psychological point of view, Jean Chiriac argued for the necessity of the fantastic in these narratives. In terms of aesthetic values, Italo Calvino cited the fairy tale as a prime example of "quickness" in literature, because of the economy and concision of the tales. Originally, stories that we would now call fairy tales were not marked out as a separate genre. The German term "Marchen" stems from the old German word "Mar," which means story or tale. The word "Marchen" is the diminutive of the word "Mar," therefore it means a "little story." Together with the common beginning "once upon a time" it means a fairy tale or a marchen was originally a little story from long time ago, when the world was still magic. (Indeed one less regular German opening is "In the old times when wishing was still effective.") The English term "fairy tale" stems from the fact that the French contes often included fairies. Roots of the genre come from different oral stories passed down in European cultures. The genre was first marked out by writers of the Renaissance, such as Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile, and stabilized through the works of later collectors such as Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. In this evolution, the name was coined when the precieuses took up writing literary stories; Madame d'Aulnoy invented the term conte de fee, or fairy tale, in the late 17th century. Before the definition of the genre of fantasy, many works that would now be classified as fantasy were termed "fairy tales," including Tolkien's The Hobbit, George Orwell's Animal Farm, and L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. 21] Indeed, Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" includes discussions of world-building and is considered a vital part of fantasy criticism. Although fantasy, particularly the sub-genre of fairytale fantasy, draws heavily on fairy tale motifs, the genres are now regarded as distinct. Literary fairy tales and oral fairy tales freely exchanged plots, motifs, and elements with one another and with the tales of foreign lands. Many 18th-century folklorists attempted to recover the "pure" folktale, uncontaminated by literary versions. Yet while oral fairy tales likely existed for thousands of years before the literary forms, there is no pure folktale, and each literary fairy tale draws on folk traditions, if only in parody. This makes it impossible to trace forms of transmission of a fairy tale. Oral story-tellers have been known to read literary fairy tales to increase their own stock of stories and treatments.

This is an old fairytale about the little hen who saved the world. A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features European folkloric fantasy characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants, witches, mermaids, or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described) and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables. In less technical contexts, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy tale ending" (a happy ending) or "fairy tale romance" (though not all fairy tales end happily). Colloquially, a "fairy tale" or "fairy story" can also mean any farfetched story or tall tale; it's used especially of any story that not only isn't true, but couldn't possibly be true. In cultures where demons and witches are perceived as real, fairy tales may merge into legends, where the narrative is perceived both by teller and hearers as being grounded in historical truth. However, unlike legends and epics, they usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, people, and events; they take place once upon a time rather than in actual times. Fairy tales are found in oral and in literary form. The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive. Still, the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed for thousands of years, although not perhaps recognized as a genre; the name "fairy tale" was first ascribed to them by Madame d'Aulnoy in the late 17th century. Many of today's fairy tales have evolved from centuries-old stories that have appeared, with variations, in multiple cultures around the world. Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today. The older fairy tales were intended for an audience of adults, as well as children, but they were associated with children as early as the writings of the precieuses; the Brothers Grimm titled their collection Children's and Household Tales, and the link with children has only grown stronger with time. Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways. The Aarne-Thompson classification system and the morphological analysis of Vladimir Propp are among the most notable. Other folklorists have interpreted the tales' significance, but no school has been definitively established for the meaning of the tales. The fairytale moves in an unreal world without definite locality or definite creatures and is filled with the marvelous. In this never-never land, humble heroes kill adversaries, succeed to kingdoms and marry princesses. The characters and motifs of fairy tales are simple and archetypal: princesses and goose-girls; youngest sons and gallant princes; ogres, giants, dragons, and trolls; wicked stepmothers and false heroes; fairy godmothers and other magical helpers, often talking horses, or foxes, or birds; glass mountains; and prohibitions and breaking of prohibitions. One universally agreed-upon matter is that fairy tales do not require fairies. Common parlance conflates fairy tales with beast fables and other folktales, and scholars differ on the degree to which the presence of fairies and/or similarly mythical beings (e.g., elves, goblins, trolls, giants huge monsters) should be taken as a differentiator. Vladimir Propp, in his Morphology of the Folktale, criticized the common distinction between "fairy tales" and "animal tales" on the grounds that many tales contained both fantastic elements and animals.

This is an easy-reading drama about a little hen, a rooster, a duck, a goose and a fox. Tales were told or enacted dramatically, rather than written down, and handed down from generation to generation. Because of this, the history of their development is necessarily obscure. and fairy tales appear, now and again, in written literature throughout literate cultures, as in The Golden Ass, which includes Cupid and Psyche (Roman, 100-200 AD), or the Panchatantra (India 3rd century BCE), but it is unknown to what extent these reflect the actual folk tales even of their own time. The stylistic evidence indicates that these, and many later collections, reworked folk tales into literary forms. What they do show is that the fairy tale has ancient roots, older than the Arabian Nights collection of magical tales (compiled circa 1500 AD), such as Vikram and the Vampire, and Bel and the Dragon. Besides such collections and individual tales, in China, Taoist philosophers such as Liezi and Zhuangzi recounted fairy tales in their philosophical works. In the broader definition of the genre, the first famous Western fairy tales are those of Aesop (6th century BC) in ancient Greece. The fairy tale itself became popular among the precieuses of upper-class France (1690-1710), and among the tales told in that time were the ones of La Fontaine and the Contes of Charles Perrault (1697), who fixed the forms of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Although Straparola's, Basile's and Perrault's collections contain the oldest known forms of various fairy tales, on the stylistic evidence, all the writers rewrote the tales for literary effect. In the mid-17th century, a vogue for magical tales emerged among the intellectuals who frequented the salons of Paris. These salons were regular gatherings hosted by prominent aristocratic women, where women and men could gather together to discuss the issues of the day. In the 1630s, apathetic women began to gather in their own living rooms, salons, in order to discuss the topics of their choice: arts and letters, politics, and social matters of immediate concern to the women of their class: marriage, love, financial and physical independence, and access to education. This was a time when women were barred from receiving a formal education. Some of the most gifted women writers of the period came out of these early salons (such as Madeleine de Scudery and Madame de Lafayette), which encouraged women's independence and pushed against the gender barriers that defined their lives. The salonnieres argued particularly for love and intellectual compatibility between the sexes, opposing the system of arranged marriages. Sometime in the middle of the 17th century, a passion for the conversational parlour game based on the plots of old folk tales swept through the salons. Each salonniere was called upon to retell an old tale or rework an old theme, spinning clever new stories that not only showcased verbal agility and imagination, but also slyly commented on the conditions of aristocratic life. Great emphasis was placed on a mode of delivery that seemed natural and spontaneous The decorative language of the fairy tales served an important function . . . disguising the rebellious subtext of the stories and sliding them past the court censors. Critiques of court life (and even of the king) were embedded in extravagant tales and in dark, sharply dystopian ones. Not surprisingly, the tales by women often featured young (but clever) aristocratic girls whose lives were controlled by the arbitrary whims of fathers, kings, and elderly wicked fairies . . . as well as tales in which groups of wise fairies (i.e., intelligent, independent women) stepped in and put all to rights.