Innerleithen () is a civil parish and a small town in the committee area of Tweeddale, in the Scottish Borders. It was formerly in the historic county of Peeblesshire or Tweeddale.

Etymology
The name "Innerleithen" comes from the Scottish Gaelic meaning "confluence of the Leithen", because it is here that the river joins the Tweed. The prefix "Inner-/Inver-" (Inbhir-) is common in many Scottish placenames, such as Inverness and Inverurie. At this confluence, the Tweed flows approximately west-east, and the Leithen Water flows from the north.

Layout
The layout of the town is dominated by the surrounding hills. To the north the peaked hill of Lee Pen (502m), and its southerly spur Caerlee Hill (258m). To the east the rounded hill of Pirn Craig (363m) - locally known as "Rocky" - and its townward spur of Windy Knowe (155m), also known as "Pirn Hill", and to the south, beyond the Tweed, the extended of ridge of Plora Craig rises sharply from the southerly bank. Thus the town has grown in an inverted 'T' shape north up the valley of the Leithen and east-west along north bank flood plain of the Tweed.

History
The area occupied by the town has been inhabited since pre-Roman times. The remains of an Iron-Age hill fort are visible atop Caerlee Hill, in the form of defensive ditchworks. Ditchworks are also visible on the hill of Windy Knowe and, whilst there is some local speculation that these belong to an unusual round Roman hill fort, they are in fact typical of an indigenous Iron Age hill fort. Crop marks from aerial photographs of the 1950s suggest the existence of a semi-permanent Roman marching camp on the flood plain by the river Tweed at Toll Wood (near Traquair) and at nearby Eshiels.

The town is said to have been founded by an itinerant pilgrim monk called St. Ronan in A.D.737, who came to Innerleithen via the River Tweed in a coracle. Monks would certainly have travelled the natural route of the Clyde and Tweed valleys on their way between the religious centres of Iona and Holy Island. A Celtic stone carved with cup and rings/channels, known as the Runic Cross (although there are neither runes on it, nor any evidence that it was a cross shaft) was found on the slopes of the Leithen valley suggesting that a church existed during the Early Middle Ages. The stone can be viewed in the courtyard of the parish church on Leithen Road.

In the local legend of the town's founding "St. Ronan Cleik't the Deil by the hind leg and banished him", possibly a metaphor for the monks bringing Christian learning back into these regions.

The legend was actually formalised by Sir Walter Scott and was later instigated in a town festival called "The Cleikum Ceremonies" in 1901. This was seen as a way to prevent the legends and folktales of the region from dying out. Scott wrote about the town in his 1824 novel St. Ronan's Well.

The Ceremonies continue to this day as part of St. Ronans Borders Games, also known as 'Games Week' (although, in reality, this is a 10-day-long festival). The Border Games date from 1827 and are the oldest organised sports meeting in Scotland. These happen in the first and second week in July and draw significant local and tourist participation.

Accounts of Innerleithen date from the 12th century, when it was recorded as "Inverlethane". It is said that a son of King Malcolm IV of Scotland (who was staying at Traquair House on a hunting trip), drowned accidentally in a deep pool at the confluence of the rivers Leithen and Tweed. The body was recovered by locals and taken to the church, in recognition of which the King bestowed the right of sanctuary to the land. The pool where the drowning is alleged to have taken place is still known locally as "The Droont Pool". However, it should be borne in mind that Malcolm IV is reported to have died childless at the age of twenty five, so the tale is questionable.

Later written accounts of the town date from the 15th century when it is referred to as "Henderleithen", and at this point it is recorded as a hamlet within the Parish of Traquair, which with its major baronial house was centre of the Parish.

The industrial revolution and wool milling saw Innerleithen outgrow Traquair and become the larger village.  Innerleithen's population rose from 1130 (1861 census) to its current level of over 2500. At one point it had five significant wool mills (or hosieries). Of these, only one, Caerlee Mills remained with a reduced workforce of 33 after its owners JJ & HB Cashmere went into administration in 2010, finally closing in April 2013.

The industries which have supplanted the wool industry and allowed the town to keep growing have been primarily tourism, of which Mountain Biking plays a huge part, and secondly, timber and forestry. Additionally, a significant proportion of the population now commutes to work, including to Edinburgh some 30 miles north.
The town has a football team, Vale of Leithen, who were established in 1891 and play in the Scottish Lowland League. They play their games at the town's Victoria Park.

Tourism

Tourist attractions within the town include Robert Smail's Printing Works and St. Ronans Wells, and nearby Traquair House. Popular tourist activities in the area include golfing (the town has a 9-hole golf course), walking and mountain biking. The area is famous for fly fishing (both trout and salmon), and there is a fish ladder near the golf course, just outside the town boundary on Leithen Road. This proves a popular stopping point for locals and visitors to watch the autumn and winter runs of salmon.

The town has several small hotels including the Traquair Arms Hotel and the St. Ronans Hotel. There are also numerous private houses offering bed and breakfast, a camp site and a caravan site.

The town hosts the annual Innerleithen Music Festival in the Memorial Hall. In addition, it has an active amateur operatic society which stages an annual production.

To get to Innerleithen from Edinburgh, follow the A701, then A703 south from Edinburgh, and at Peebles turn east onto the A72. The town is also served by the First Bus no. 62 service which runs between Edinburgh and Melrose via Penicuik, Peebles, Innerleithen and Galashiels.

Innerleithen has several bookshops, the largest of which holds nearly 19,000 titles and is one of the largest in the Scottish Borders.

Innerleithen is also popular for mountain biking and, together with Glentress, forms one of Forestry and Land Scotland's "7 Stanes".  It is very popular with downhill bikers and has hosted national events since the early 1990s. An uplift shuttle bus service provides access to the top of Plora Rig, ready for riders to plummet back down the trails. Current gems include the "Matador" and "Make or Break".  In recent years the 'Golfie' trails in Caberston Forest have been widely developed and sanctioned, providing a unique network of rider managed technically demanding MTB descents. In addition to the downhill trails, there is a long cross-country loop that climbs to the top of the Minch Moor before descending through some excellent trails.  The Innerleithen XC trails are more demanding than those found at Glentress.

Since 2003, the town has held a music festival every August. Acts that have played at the festival include Eddi Reader, Julie Fowlis, Dougie MacLean, Karine Polwart, Karen Matheson and Old Blind Dogs.

Twinned communities
The town of Innerleithen has been twinned with the community of Thondwe in Malawi since 2008. Both the local church and the Rotary Club are involved.

Notable people
Alexander Tait (poet) (b.1720), known as 'Sawney Tait' was a contemporary and associate of Robert Burns and David Sillar.
Murray Davidson (b. 1988), Scottish international footballer who played for Livingston F.C. and St Johnstone F.C.

See also
 Auchentiber - The 'Cleikum Inn'.
 List of places in the Scottish Borders
 List of places in Scotland

References

External links
Innerleithen Online

Towns in the Scottish Borders
Tweeddale
Parishes in Peeblesshire

Innerleithen


Barnet Football Club () is a professional football club based in London Borough of Barnet, North London. The team compete in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in Chipping Barnet in 1888. They played their home matches at Underhill Stadium from 1907 until 2013, when they moved to the new Hive Stadium, which is named based on the club's nickname of "the Bees". The women's team, the London Bees, compete in the FA Women's National League.

Barnet became founder members of the North London League in 1892 and had success at a local level before ceasing to exist in 1902. Two other clubs, Barnet Avenue and Alston Works, merged and entered the Athenian League as Barnet and Alston in 1912, becoming simply Barnet F.C. seven years later. Barnet spent 53 years in the Athenian League, winning seven league titles and one FA Amateur Cup title, before turning semi-professional as they entered the Southern League in 1965. Crowned Division One champions in 1965–66, they went on to win the Southern League Cup in 1972 and the Division One South title in 1976–77. Barnet became founder members of the Alliance Premier League in 1979 and initially struggled, though finished as runners-up after the league was renamed the Conference in 1986–87.

Barnet were first promoted to the Football League in 1991 after manager Barry Fry led them to the Conference title in 1990–91. Promoted out of the Third Division in 1992–93, they spent just one season in the third tier before being relegated. They were relegated back to the Conference in 2001, but returned to the Football League four years later after winning the 2004–05 Conference National title. They then spent the next eight seasons in League Two before being relegated to the Conference once again in 2013. In 2015, they returned to the Football League for a third time, after winning the 2014–15 Conference Premier title. However, they survived for just three seasons in League Two before suffering another relegation in 2018.

Club history
For a complete list of seasons, see List of Barnet F.C. seasons

Early years (1888–1901)
Barnet FC were formed in 1888, having formerly been known as New Barnet FC (1885–88) and Woodville FC (1882–85). The club's origins are from ex-scholars of Cowley College and Lyonsdown Collegiate School. They were known as "The Hillmen" and played in New Barnet before moving to Ravenscroft Park in Queens Road in 1889. Initially they played friendly games before becoming inaugural members of the North London League in 1892–93. They went on to have success in the North Middlesex League Division II (1894–95 runners-up), Division I (1895–96 runners-up) and the Premier Division (1896–97 champions). Promoted to the London League Division II, Barnet became champions in 1897–98 and spent the following seasons in London League Division I before ceasing to exist in the 1901–02 season.

Barnet Avenue and Barnet Alston (1901–1919)
Two local clubs, Barnet Avenue FC (formed 1890) and Alston Works AFC (formed 1901) continued to attract support. Barnet Avenue renamed themselves Barnet FC in 1904 and as staunch believers in the amateur game they shunned the London Football Association in favour of the Amateur Football Association, which they joined in 1907 after winning the Chiswick League. Avenue played their home games initially at Hadley Green before moving to Queens Road.

Alston Works AFC, later Barnet Alston FC, were formed in 1901, and became champions of the London League in 1906–07. Formed from workers at Alston Works, a dental manufacturers, they were known as "The Dentals". Their club strip of amber and black is the basis of the current Barnet team strip. In 1907 they moved to the club's current ground at Underhill, Barnet Lane. Their first match was a 1–0 win over Crystal Palace on 14 September 1907. After merging with the Avenue team in 1912 they spearheaded the new Athenian League as Barnet and Alston FC. After the First World War in 1919 they became the third instance of Barnet FC. This team continues today.

Athenian League years (1912–1965)
For over 50 years Barnet FC competed in the Athenian League. They were inaugural members in 1912–13 they were league champions no fewer than seven times between 1919 and 1965 before turning fully professional in 1965.

During the 1920s Barnet consolidated their amateur status in the Athenian League under team secretary Tom Goss. He arranged for junior players from Tottenham Hotspur to play for the club including Taffy O'Callaghan, Willie Evans and Bill Whatley, all of whom eventually became internationals, between them gaining 17 Welsh caps.

The 1930–31 season saw Barnet gain their first Athenian League Championship to be repeated again the following season. Included in the team at that time were George Hughes and Fred Garrett, full backs; Reg Wright (England), centre-half; and Arthur Morris, Jack Richardson and a Barnet and England legend Lester Finch in the forward line.

In the two seasons after World War II, Barnet won the FA Amateur Cup (beating Bishop Auckland 3–2), the Athenian League Championship twice, and the London Senior Cup. The side included five internationals in Ted Bunker, George Wheeler, Dennis Kelleher, Ron Phipps and Lester Finch. In the 1958–59 season, their young team coached by George Wheeler, reached the FA Amateur Cup final for the third time, but were beaten 3–2 by Crook Town.

In October 1946, the first live televised football match was broadcast by the BBC from Underhill. Twenty minutes of the game against Wealdstone were televised in the first half and thirty five minutes of the second half before it became too dark. In 1947, Barnet FC played Sing Tao Sports Club, winners of the Hong Kong Football League at Underhill. They were the first Chinese club to ever play in the United Kingdom. Barnet won 5–3.

Non-League years (1965–1991)
Barnet reached the third round proper of the FA Cup for the first time on 9 January 1965, meeting the previous season's runner-up Preston North End at Underhill. 2–0 down inside the first 10 minutes, the second half saw Barnet, urged on by 10,500 spectators, level the score at 2–2, before a last minute own goal sent them out.

In 1965–66 Barnet turned semi-professional. Before the season commenced, manager Dexter Adams made two astute signings. He persuaded Les Eason, then 20 years of age, to join from Finchley and then acquired amateur international Barry King from Hitchin, who became the first player to sign professional forms for the club. The first game finished in Barnet's favour, a 10–1 win over Hinckley Athletic. Les Eason went on to score 31 goals in his first season as the club became champions of the Southern League Division I.

Promoted to the Southern League Premier for 1966–67 the club ended up 5th but had reached the Southern League Cup final only to lose to Guildford City over two legs. In 1969–70 the FA Trophy was introduced and Barnet reached the semi-final before losing to Macclesfield Town 0–1 at Stoke City's Victoria Ground. The club reached the third round of the FA Cup the following season, but lost 1–0 to Colchester United, who went on to knock out Leeds United in the fifth round. That year's cup run included a 6–1 first round win over then Fourth Division Newport County, equalling the competition's all-time record for a win by a non-league side over league opponents.

The 1971–72 season proved one of the most successful. Using just 15 players for 80 competitive matches Barnet reached Wembley in the FA Trophy, losing 3–0 to Stafford Rangers, and reached the final of the Southern League Cup, drawing 2–2 with Hereford on aggregate. The replay, played the next season, was a 2–2 draw but Barnet went on to win 7–6 on penalties. In 1972–73, Barnet put up a tremendous fight against Queens Park Rangers in the third round of the FA Cup. The match at Loftus Road ended 0–0 and the replay at Underhill drew in excess of 11,000 spectators. Rangers eventually won 3–0.

In 1975, Barnet were relegated back to the Southern League Division One North, after one season they switched to the Southern League Division One South which they won at the first attempt and returned to the Southern League Premier. It was during this period that many famous names played for the club including Jimmy Greaves, Marvin Hinton, Bob McNab, Terry Mancini and John Fairbrother. Jimmy Greaves, although playing in midfield, still ended the season as leading goal scorer with 27 goals.

By virtue of their Premier Division positions in seasons 1977–78 and 1978–79, Barnet were given a place in the newly formed Alliance Premier League. In the first three Alliance seasons, Barnet just avoided relegation, but in 1982–3 they finished 15th and a year later 9th. Then in 1984–85, when it looked like Barnet would face relegation, manager Barry Fry left to take charge at Maidstone United. The season was resurrected under the guidance of ex-player Roger Thompson, with the team losing only one of their remaining thirteen league games. They also managed to beat Wealdstone – fierce rivals at the time and about to win the non-league double – by seven goals to nil, thanks to a haul from Nicky Evans and a hat trick by Steve Mahoney.

In season 1985–86 they finished 14th but reached the final of the Bob Lord Challenge Trophy only to lose to old friends Stafford Rangers. Dom MacAllister replaced Roger Thompson and then in July 1986, Barry Fry returned, much to the delight of the supporters. He led Barnet to their best league position for many years finishing runners-up in the renamed Football Conference scoring 86 goals.

Despite turbulent times off the field, during season 1986–87 (the first season of automatic promotion to the Football League for Conference champions) the club maintained their scoring, again finishing runners-up, Scarborough taking the automatic position into the Fourth Division. Lincoln City came down but in 1987–88 they returned ahead of Barnet in the championship. 1988–89 was another indifferent season; at one time looking like relegation prospects, the team secured 8th place, in the process using no fewer than 47 players. They did however win the Clubcall Cup (League Cup), the final being played at Telford United's Bucks Head Ground, by beating Hyde United on penalties after a 3–3 draw. 1989–90 saw Barnet yet again finish runners-up in the Conference. This time it was Darlington that took the top spot.

A good run in the 1990–91 FA Cup culminated in a home defeat by Portsmouth in the 3rd round. A win in the last game of the season against Fisher Athletic finally saw Barnet promoted to the Fourth Division of the Football League.

Football League (1991–2001)
Barnet F.C. joined the Fourth Division of the Football League on winning the Football Conference championship in 1991. Their early reputation was of playing fast, attacking football, a reputation only enhanced by their first ever league match (which they lost 4–7 to Crewe Alexandra), and a 5–5 draw to Brentford in the League Cup in their next match. In their first season of league football, the club reached the promotion playoffs but lost to Blackpool in the semi-finals.

The 1992–93 season saw controversy at Underhill as Barnet chairman Stan Flashman regarding club accounts and players' wages, resulting in some nationwide back page headlines. Flashman also brought his son, Mark, to the club as a reserve goalkeeper. In spite of the financial problems, Barnet finished third in the new Division Three and secured the final automatic promotion spot. Manager Barry Fry, however, left Barnet with a handful of games remaining and was replaced by his assistant Edwin Stein, who himself then left to join Fry in the summer at Southend United. Goalkeeper Gary Phillips took over as manager during a difficult summer in which Barnet marginally survived a vote of expulsion by a Football League EGM, and lost the vast majority of their promotion winning side in a tribunal which nullified the players' contracts. Phillips cobbled together a squad from the few remaining players and free transfers. In January 1994 Phillips was assisted by former England goalkeeper Ray Clemence, but were still relegated from Division Two. In August 1994 Ray Clemence became sole manager for two seasons, finishing 11th and then ninth in Division Three. Then at the start of the 1996–97 season Ray Clemence left to become England goalkeeping coach, leaving Terry Bullivant in charge.

The following season saw Barnet slump to 15th place, their lowest Football League finish until that point, though Bullivant was still approached to take over as manager of Reading that summer; he accepted the job, and John Still replaced him as manager. The following four seasons saw the club yo-yo in form, as they finished 7th and reached the play-offs in 1997–98, hit a new low of 16th place in 1998–99, and then finished sixth and qualified for the play-offs once more in 1999–2000. 2000–01 initially looked to be another solid campaign, with Barnet among the leading pack from early on; in early November however, Still was "kicked upstairs" to become the club's director of football and was succeeded by Tony Cottee, an ambitious high-profile appointment which aimed to take the club forward. Despite a 7–0 victory in his first match in charge vs Blackpool, the club ultimately won only five more games for the remainder of the season and finished in bottom place after failing to beat second-bottom Torquay United, returning to the Conference after exactly a decade. Still was reinstated as manager in the final stages of the season, but was ultimately unable to rescue the club.

Life in the Conference (2001–2005)
Still remained in charge for the club's return to the Conference, and with a good first half of the season it looked as if their stay would be a short one. However, a terrible run of form after Christmas 2001 saw the side crash to mid-table and led to Still's final departure from the club. He was replaced by Peter Shreeves, who only months before had been in charge of Division One side Sheffield Wednesday, and quickly turned Barnet's form around. With only the Conference champions going up in this season the prospect of promotion was already long-gone by the time Shreeves was appointed, but the fifth-place finish that they ultimately managed would be good enough for the play-offs introduced for the following season. Unfortunately Barnet did not maintain their momentum into 2002–03, and Shreeves was sacked late in that season, with Barnet in very much the same mid-table position he had found them in. Martin Allen took over as manager and brought a turn-around in results, though it was again too late to mount a promotion challenge and they finished a distinctly underwhelming 11th. 2003–04 proved to be a much better campaign, and the club were challenging near the top of the table throughout the season, but Allen left to take over at fellow London club Brentford with only a couple of months of the campaign left.

Former Stevenage Borough manager Paul Fairclough replaced Allen for the remainder of the 2003–04 season. The club's form stuttered, falling out of contention for automatic promotion and very nearly even the play-offs as well, but this time the club were able to rebound and secure a fourth-place finish, setting up a play-off semi final with the side directly above them, Shrewsbury Town. This was taken to penalties after a 2–2 aggregate score (Barnet won 2–1 at Underhill, Shrewsbury won 1–0 at Gay Meadow), with Shrewsbury winning 5–3 on penalties. The following season, 2004–05, with Fairclough at the helm, the Bees went one better than the previous season and were crowned Champions of the Conference Premier and regained their football league status, after amassing an impressive 86 points in the season, and scoring 90 goals with it. Barnet also finished 12 points ahead of their nearest rival, Hereford United. Giuliano Grazioli finished with 29 goals, and was also top scorer in the League.

Return to the Football League (2005–2013)

The 2005–06 season started with Barnet leading League Two after four games, but this form did not continue and the club finished the season five places and 5 points above the relegation zone, yet only 12 points out of the playoffs, with only 1 win in the first 12 games of 2006. In the League Cup the Bees drew a lucrative away tie against Manchester United in October 2005. 5,000 fans made the trip to Old Trafford to see Barnet lose 4–1, goalkeeper Ross Flitney being sent-off in the second minute. The 2006–07 season started poorly for Barnet, but a mid-season rally saw them finish the season in 14th place. A good run in the FA Cup also saw them reach the fourth round of that competition for the first time in their history, beating Championship side Colchester United 2–1 in the third round and Northampton Town 4–1 in the second round before losing 2–0 to Plymouth Argyle at home. 2007–08 saw another mid-table finish for Barnet; 12th with 60 points, and a second run to the Fourth round of the FA Cup, where they lost 1–0 to Bristol Rovers, with Jason Puncheon missing a penalty for the Bees.

The 2008–09 season started poorly, and by late September only the three teams that had been docked points prior to the start of the season had lower league positions. After a run of thirteen games without a win in any competition Paul Fairclough announced his resignation to take up a role as director and leaving the first team duties to his assistant Ian Hendon. Fairclough would take over one last game which resulted in a 2–0 win against another relegation threatened side AFC Bournemouth. Results improved, and before the end of the season Hendon was made permanent boss with a two-year contract. The Bees stayed in Football League Two for the following 2009–10 season, which started with four wins from their first six games. A poor run of form would follow, including a 13-game winless streak, and after five consecutive defeats left the Bees close to the relegation zone, Ian Hendon was sacked in April with two games of the season remaining. Paul Fairclough returned as caretaker manager for the last two games and guided the Bees to safety with a 1–0 win at home to Rochdale on the last day of the season.

On 1 June 2010, Mark Stimson was appointed as the new manager and after a poor start to the season was sacked on 1 January 2011. He was succeeded by the ever-present Paul Fairclough; however, he stepped down after only being able to secure three wins in 17 games. He was then succeeded by Martin Allen, who was asked to manage Barnet on a non-contract basis until the end of the season; however, after just 3 matches, he was offered a contract from Notts County and subsequently left for them. With just 5 games left of the season, assistant manager Giuliano Grazioli took over, having been appointed as Assistant manager by Martin Allen earlier. Grazioli was also able to bring in Lawrie Sanchez as an adviser. Grazioli took Barnet to the last day of the season 2 points behind Lincoln City in the relegation zone. Barnet were up against Port Vale in their final match on 7 May 2011 at Underhill and were able to win 1–0 following a penalty scored by Izale McLeod. Aldershot Town's 3–0 victory over Lincoln City meant Barnet finished a point above Lincoln City and the relegation zone. Pitch invasions followed as the club survived on the last day of the season again, as the day was regarded as the "great escape". Following the end of the season, Lawrie Sanchez was appointed as manager.

In the 2011–12 season, Lawrie Sanchez steered the side to 3rd from bottom with 3 games to go. He was replaced on 16 April by Martin Allen, who managed to keep Barnet up on the last day of the season following a 2–1 win over Burton Albion leaving Barnet two points above Hereford United and the relegation zone. This was the third year in a row that Barnet had managed to secure their Football League survival on the last day.

Barnet's 2012–13 season started disappointingly, without a single win in August or September. On 11 October 2012, Barnet confirmed a huge coup in signing the former Barcelona and Ajax midfielder Edgar Davids as player and joint head coach alongside Mark Robson. In October Barnet recorded their first win of the season with a 4–0 result against Northampton Town. Near the end of December, Barnet announced that Robson's contract had been terminated, saying: "It was felt that clarification was required regarding the coaching responsibilities at the club and to this end it was agreed that Mark should leave with immediate effect." This left Davids with sole responsibility for the club. The team were then relegated back to the Conference on 27 April 2013, after finishing on 51 points (the highest ever obtained by a team relegated from League 2) and going down due to an inferior goal difference to that of Dagenham and Redbridge, after a 2–0 loss to Northampton.

Return to the Conference (2013–2015)
Barnet started the 2013–14 season in the Conference Premier. On 18 January 2014, head coach Edgar Davids resigned from his role by mutual consent. On 19 March 2014, Martin Allen was appointed head coach on a contract running until the end of the 2014–15 season, marking the start of his fourth spell as manager. At the end of the season, Barnet finished top of the Conference Premier and were promoted to League Two.

Second return to the Football League (2015–2018)
In their first season back in the Football League, Martin Allen led the team to a 15th-place finish with a final end of season win away at Crawley Town with a finishing result of 3–0. On 1 December 2016 Allen resigned from his post at Barnet to take up the job at Eastleigh. Rossi Eames and Henry Newman were appointed joint interim head coach with Newman leaving three months later on 14 February 2017. This was followed by the appointment of Kevin Nugent who only lasted two months with one win in 11 games before being parting company with Barnet. This left Eames in the caretaker position of coach until the end of the season with Barnet finishing in 15th place two seasons in a row. On 19 May 2017 he was then appointed permanent head coach setting a new record making Eames the youngest manager at the age of 32.

In November of the 2017–18 season saw Mark McGhee appointed as their new manager with Rossi Eames appointed head of player development. In January 2018 Barnet were sitting bottom of League Two and took the decision to move Mark McGhee to the Technical Director position and appoint Graham Westley first team coach. Into March and still sitting at the bottom of the table, Barnet took the decision to sack Graham Westley and reappoint Martin Allen for his fifth spell. It was also reported that Mark McGhee had left the club. Allen turned Barnet fortunes around with five wins out of the next eight matches leaving it to the last day of the season to determine their fate. Barnet won their final match against Chesterfield but with Morecambe drawing leaving both teams on the same number of points, Barnet were subsequently relegated out of the league due to goal difference. It was confirmed on 10 May that Allen had, once again, left the club.

National League (2018–present)

Following the departure of Allen, Barnet re-appointed John Still as their manager for the 2018–19 National League season. On 28 December 2018, Still announced his retirement from management, two days after a 1–0 defeat to Boreham Wood, with the club 15th in the league. Assistant Manager Darren Currie took temporary charge before eventually taking the job on a permanent basis, leading the club to a 13th-placed finish. In the 2018–19 FA Cup, Barnet, despite their status as a fifth-tier team, managed to progress into the fourth round of the competition, winning against Bristol Rovers, Stockport County, and Sheffield United.

The 2020–21 season saw Barnet record their lowest league position for many years. They finished within the relegation zone of the National League, but were saved from dropping into the National League South due to the abandonment of the 2020–21 National League North and South mid-season (owing to the COVID-19 pandemic). The team's 2020–21 performance was greatly hampered by the club being badly affected by the pandemic during the first half of the season, and the closure of the club's EFL-funded football academy at the end of the previous season.

Stadiums

Underhill
Barnet's first stadium named Underhill was established in 1907 when the football club were named Barnet & Alston. This was arranged on 100-year lease with Barnet Council.  The first ever game at the ground was against another London club, namely Crystal Palace, which ended 1–0 to Barnet. Over the years notable matches at Underhill included a game in 1952 against Wycombe Wanderers which had the highest recorded attendance of 11,026 spectators.

The stadium's capacity fluctuated over the years from all-standing to the addition of an all-seater mainstand in 1964 to a final capacity of 6,023.

With the lease ending in 2007 the Barnet chairman Tony Kleanthous extended the lease with the council for a further 5 years. But by December 2011 Kleanthous became increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress from the council to extend the original lease by another 125 years. With plans to build a new stadium on the site continually rejected Kleanthous started to look elsewhere to relocate Barnet, meaning the end of their stay at Underhill.

Barnet's final game at Underhill came on 20 April 2013 against Wycombe Wanderers, which they won 1–0 in front of 6,000 spectators.

In July 2012 Harrow Council agreed the development of a new stadium called The Hive Stadium at the Prince Edward Playing Fields which the club can use for a period of up to 10 years. In February 2013, Barnet's move to the new ground was ratified by The Football League.

Hive Stadium
On 1 August 2007, Barnet chairman Tony Kleanthous announced that he had acquired a  site in Harrow. The deal would see Barnet contribute £6 million towards an £11 million development, which would include training facilities for Barnet's first, reserve and ladies teams, as well as a 5,000 stadium for nearby Wealdstone. The plan also provides for a second, smaller 'green' 1,000 capacity stadium, for ladies and youth football, as well as a centre of excellence and community use facilities.

After a quiet 10 months, an announcement was made on 23 May 2008, which confirmed the plans for the first phase of the development. Costing £3 million, the works included two full size FIFA approved 3rd Generation artificial pitches, senior and youth pitches, car and coach parking, changing facilities for 14 teams, as well as a reception and cafe area. The work would 'provide some of the best training and community use facilities in the country' ending Barnet's nomadic existence in search of areas in which to train. Work began in the Autumn of 2008, once the Football Foundation provided £1 million of funding. Harrow Borough Council also provided £750,000 towards the cost of the project.

Worryingly for Wealdstone supporters, the first phases of plans did not include any mention of providing the stadium initially proposed. Wealdstone made a statement after the first phase plans were announced, insisting that the intention still remains to play at PEPF, and that talks were ongoing, although any deal would have to be right for Wealdstone.

In April 2009, a delegation from the Barnet Football Club Supporters Association (BFCSA) visited the site and interviewed the man overseeing the construction and continued development, Paul Fairclough. A video made during the tour shows the work being carried out, throwing up some new, previously unknown information about the site, such as the construction of a swimming pool and Jacuzzi, and the fact that Highbury's floodlights were currently being stored there! The interview was particularly revealing, indicating that the development is in the first of four planned stages (suggesting a stadium for Wealdstone is still a possibility), that there were hopes to have the England senior team hold training camps there, and that the proposed centre of excellence would cost £250,000 per year to run. There was also some indication of how Barnet could financially exploit the site, and attain a degree of self-sufficiency, as they were in the process of doing a deal with an organisation to rent out the astro turf pitches for £30,000 for one year. In addition, up to £180,000 per year is available to Football League clubs to run their youth systems. In May 2009, it was reported that Harrow Borough and Wealdstone are in negotiation with Barnet to use the training facilities. The training ground is known as "The Hive" and was opened by Fabio Capello and Trevor Brooking on 15 December 2009. Since then, major teams visiting London, such as then-Premier League club Hull City, Italian side Parma, French side AS Monaco and the Egyptian, Brazilian, Chilean and German National Squads, have made use of the training facilities.

Club crest and nickname

The club's current crest was designed in the 1950s and contains the green hill of High Barnet and the red rose, white rose and crossed swords representing the 1471 Battle of Barnet, a pivotal battle in the Wars of the Roses. The badge was designed by Sidney Robert Price who was the chairman of the club at the time.

The club's nickname of "The Bees", reflected in their amber and black shirts, is likely to have come from the location of apiaries close to the Underhill ground in the early years of the 20th century. Coincidentally, this nickname is similar to those of two of Barnet's neighbours, Watford ("The Hornets") and Brentford (also "The Bees").

Rivalries
Traditionally, the club's main local rivals were Enfield. The two clubs were amongst the biggest in Non-League during the 1980s and matches between them were fiercely contested. Enfield suffered numerous off-field problems and the original club has since ceased to exist and reformed as Enfield 1893 F.C. in 2007, suffering a split in the past in 2001 after the formation of the breakaway club Enfield Town. As such, the last clash with the original club was in 1991, in the FA Cup, a match which Barnet won 4–1.

Other local rivals include Stevenage, Wealdstone, Brentford and Boreham Wood. Barnet have also had a long-lasting friendly rivalry with their "big neighbours" Arsenal, with whom they regularly had pre-season friendlies for several seasons.

Players

Squad

Out on loan

Former players
For a complete list of former Barnet players with Wikipedia articles, see :Category:Barnet F.C. players.

Staff
.

Chairman: Anthony Kleanthous
Manager: Dean Brennan
Assistant manager: Connor Smith
First team coach: Gary King
First-team physio: Jade Doran
Goalkeeping coach: Craig Holloway
Performance analyst: Danny Hutchins
Team Logistics Manager: Kirk Rayment

Honours and achievements
Source:

League
 Conference (level 5)
Champions (3; record): 1990–91, 2004–05, 2014–15

 Southern League Division One (level 6)
Champions: 1965–66, 1976–77

Cup
 FA Trophy
Runners-up: 1971–72

Conference League Cup
Winners: 1988–89

 Southern League Cup
Winners: 1971–72

 FA Amateur Cup
Winners: 1945–46

Minor
Hertfordshire Senior Challenge Cup
Winners (7): 1985–86, 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1995–96, 2006–07, 2010–11
Micky Mays Memorial Trophy
Winners (6): 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985
 Middlesex Senior Cup
Winners: 1931–32, 1932–33, 2021–22
 London Senior Cup
Winners: 1937–38, 1940–41, 1946–47
 Herts Senior Cup
Winners (19): 1939–40, 1941–42, 1944–45, 1945–46, 1947–48, 1948–49, 1949–50, 1957–58, 1960–61, 1962–63, 1964–65, 1979–80, 1985–86, 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1995–96, 2006–07, 2010–11

Club records

Record attendance in League Two: 6,001 vs. Wycombe Wanderers, 2012–13
Record attendance: 11,026 vs. Wycombe Wanderers. FA Amateur Cup 4th round, 1951–52
Record home victory: 10–0 vs. Burton Albion (Southern League Premier Division) 7 February 1970
Record home defeat: 1–9 vs. Peterborough United, Third Division, 5 September 1998
Record away victory: 6–0 vs. Lincoln City, 4 September 1991, Fourth Division
Record away defeat: 7–0 vs. Crewe Alexandra, 21 August 2010
Most League goals in total: Arthur Morris, 403, nine seasons 1927–36
Most League appearances: Les Eason, 648, 1965–74, 1977–78
Transfer Record (received): £800,000 from Crystal Palace for Dougie Freedman
Transfer record (paid): £800,00 to South Mimms FC for Paul Walsh

Managers

2021  Dean Brennan
2021  Harry Kewell
2021  Simon Bassey (interim)
2021  Gary Anderson (caretaker)
2021  Paul Fairclough (caretaker)
2020  Tim Flowers
2020  Peter Beadle
2018  Darren Currie
2018  Darren Currie (interim)
2018  John Still
2018  Martin Allen
2018  Graham Westley
2017  Mark McGhee
2017  Rossi Eames
2017  Rossi Eames (interim)
2017  Kevin Nugent
2016  Rossi Eames & Henry Newman (interim)
2014  Martin Allen
2014  Ulrich Landvreugd &  Dick Schreuder
2014  Paul Fairclough (caretaker)
2012  Edgar Davids
2012  Mark Robson &  Edgar Davids
2012  Mark Robson
2012  Martin Allen
2011  Lawrie Sanchez
2011  Giuliano Grazioli (caretaker)
2011  Martin Allen
2011  Paul Fairclough (caretaker)
2010  Mark Stimson
2010  Paul Fairclough (caretaker)
2008  Ian Hendon
2004  Paul Fairclough
2004  Ian Hendon & Danny Maddix (Joint Caretakers)
2004  Adrian Whitbread & Damien Doyle (Joint Caretakers)
2003  Martin Allen
2003  Peter Shreeves
2001  John Still
2001  Tony Cottee
1997  John Still
1997  Terry Bullivant
1996  Alan Mullery
1996  Terry Gibson
1996  Terry Bullivant
1994  Ray Clemence
1994  Ray Clemence & Gary Phillips
1994  Gary Phillips
1993  Edwin Stein
1986  Barry Fry
1985  Don McAllister
1985  Roger Thompson
1979  Barry Fry
1976  Billy Meadows
1975  Colin Flatt
1974  Brian Kelly
1974  Gordon Ferry
1973  Gerry Ward
1970  Tommy Coleman
1962  Dexter Adams
1961  Wally Lines
1957  George Wheeler
1956  Ted Crawford
1954  Steven Campbell
1951  Lester Finch
1951  Sonny Weightman
1945  Lester Finch
1939  Gerry Kimber
1937  Bert Fydelor
1929  Reg Clayton
1922  Tom Gloss

References

External links

Football clubs in England
English Football League clubs
Sport in the London Borough of Barnet
Association football clubs established in 1888
Football clubs in London
Southern Football League clubs
1888 establishments in England
Athenian League
London League (football)
National League (English football) clubs

Barnet F.C.


The Bab-e-Khyber (Pashto and Urdu: باب خیبر; transl. 'Khyber Gate') is a monument situated at the entrance of the Khyber Pass in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The gate is located immediately west of Peshawar, with the historic Jamrud Fort lying adjacent to it. The gate was built in 1964 by the military government of Ayub Khan. The Bab-e-Khyber is considered as the "National passageway of Pakistan".It was built as a trading route to make trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan easier.

Buildings and structures in Pakistan
National symbols of Pakistan
Peshawar

Bab-e-Khyber


A bubble is a globule of a gas substance in a liquid. In the opposite case, a globule of a liquid in a gas, is called a drop.
Due to the Marangoni effect, bubbles may remain intact when they reach the surface of the immersive substance.

Common examples
Bubbles are seen in many places in everyday life, for example:
 As spontaneous nucleation of supersaturated carbon dioxide in soft drinks
 As vapor in boiling water
 As air mixed into agitated water, such as below a waterfall
 As sea foam
 As a soap bubble
 As given off in chemical reactions, e.g., baking soda + vinegar
 As a gas trapped in glass during its manufacture
 As the indicator in a spirit level

Physics and chemistry
Bubbles form and coalesce into globular shapes because those shapes are at a lower energy state. For the physics and chemistry behind it, see nucleation.

Appearance

Bubbles are visible because they have a different refractive index (RI) than the surrounding substance. For example, the RI of air is approximately 1.0003 and the RI of water is approximately 1.333. Snell's Law describes how electromagnetic waves change direction at the interface between two mediums with different RI; thus bubbles can be identified from the accompanying refraction and internal reflection even though both the immersed and immersing mediums are transparent.

The above explanation only holds for bubbles of one medium submerged in another medium (e.g. bubbles of gas in a soft drink); the volume of a membrane bubble (e.g. soap bubble) will not distort light very much, and one can only see a membrane bubble due to thin-film diffraction and reflection.

Applications
Nucleation can be intentionally induced, for example, to create a bubblegram in a solid.

In medical ultrasound imaging, small encapsulated bubbles called contrast agent are used to enhance the contrast.

In thermal inkjet printing, vapor bubbles are used as actuators. They are occasionally used in other microfluidics applications as actuators.

The violent collapse of bubbles (cavitation) near solid surfaces and the resulting impinging jet constitute the mechanism used in ultrasonic cleaning. The same effect, but on a larger scale, is used in focused energy weapons such as the bazooka and the torpedo. Pistol shrimp also uses a collapsing cavitation bubble as a weapon. The same effect is used to treat kidney stones in a lithotripter. Marine mammals such as dolphins and whales use bubbles for entertainment or as hunting tools. Aerators cause the dissolution of gas in the liquid by injecting bubbles.

Bubbles are used by chemical and metallurgic engineer in processes such as distillation, absorption, flotation and spray drying. The complex processes involved often require consideration for mass and heat transfer and are modeled using fluid dynamics.

The star-nosed mole and the American water shrew can smell underwater by rapidly breathing through their nostrils and creating a bubble.

Research on the origin of life on Earth suggests that bubbles may have played an integral role in confining and concentrating precursor molecules for life, a function currently performed by cell membranes.

Pulsation
When bubbles are disturbed (for example when a gas bubble is injected underwater), the wall oscillates. Although it is often visually masked by much larger deformations in shape, a component of the oscillation changes the bubble volume (i.e. it is pulsation) which, in the absence of an externally-imposed sound field, occurs at the bubble's natural frequency. The pulsation is the most important component of the oscillation, acoustically, because by changing the gas volume, it changes its pressure, and leads to the emission of sound at the bubble's natural frequency. For air bubbles in water, large bubbles (negligible surface tension and thermal conductivity) undergo adiabatic pulsations, which means that no heat is transferred either from the liquid to the gas or vice versa. The natural frequency of such bubbles is determined by the equation:

where:
  is the specific heat ratio of the gas
  is the steady state radius
  is the steady state pressure
  is the mass density of the surrounding liquid

For air bubbles in water, smaller bubbles undergo isothermal pulsations.  The corresponding equation for small bubbles of surface tension σ (and negligible liquid viscosity) is

Excited bubbles trapped underwater are the major source of liquid sounds, such as inside our knuckles during knuckle cracking, and when a rain droplet impacts a surface of water.

Physiology and medicine
Injury by bubble formation and growth in body tissues is the mechanism of decompression sickness, which occurs when supersaturated dissolved inert gases leave the solution as bubbles during decompression. The damage can be due to mechanical deformation of tissues due to bubble growth in situ, or by blocking blood vessels where the bubble has lodged.

Arterial gas embolism can occur when a gas bubble is introduced to the circulatory system and lodges in a blood vessel that is too small for it to pass through under the available pressure difference. This can occur as a result of decompression after hyperbaric exposure, a lung overexpansion injury, during intravenous fluid administration, or during surgery.

See also

 Antibubble
 Bubble fusion
 Bubble sensor
 Foam
 Minnaert resonance
 Sonoluminescence
 Underwater acoustics

References

Fluid mechanics

Bubble (physics)


Bui Thi Minh Hang (Vietnamese Bùi Thị Minh Hằng) is a Vietnamese activist and blogger. In 2016, Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., named her one of twenty women political prisoners in the Free the 20 campaign.  Bui Thi Minh Hang was released Feb. 11, 2017.

In 2011, Bui Thi Minh Hang protested in Hanoi and in Ho Chi Minh City.  She protested against Chinese land claims on the Spratly and Paracel Islands. Police arrested her and sent her to sent her to Thanh Ha Education Center, a reeducation camp in Vinh Phuc province. There was an international protest about her arrest. She was in the reeducation camp for six months without a trial.

In 2012, Bui Thi Minh Hang was free again, and started to work for human rights again. She wrote about her time in the Thanh Ha Education center. She also gave people a "Manual for the Implementation of Human Rights" (Cam nang thuc thi quyen lam nguoi). In 2014, Bui Thi Minh Hang and a group of 21 bloggers and Hoa Hao Buddhist activists went to visit a political prisoner.  The police arrested Bui Thi Minh Hang and two others. She was charged with disrupting traffic under Article 245 of the Penal Code. She was sentenced to three years in prison.

In 2016, Amnesty International said Bui Thi Minh Hang had health problems in prison, but she did not get medical care.

Bui Thi Minh Hang was released on Saturday Feb. 11, 2017. Her family and supporters were with her, and the traffic police escorted her back to Ho Chi Minh City.

Other websites
 Free Bui Thi Minh Hang on Facebook

References

Vietnamese activists
Human rights activists
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Political prisoners

Bui Thi Minh Hang


HMS Puffin (L52) (later K52), was a  sloop of the British Royal Navy, built in the 1930s, that saw service during World War II. The ship was laid down on 12 June 1935 by Alexander Stephens and Sons, based at Linthouse in Glasgow, launched on 5 May 1936, and commissioned on 6 August 1936.

Armament
On the outbreak of war, Puffin, like the rest of her class, was rapidly up-gunned. First a multiple Vickers machine gun was mounted on the quarterdeck, and two single 20 mm Oerlikon guns, added as they became available, on single pedestal mounts on the deckhouse aft, with the machine gun being replaced later with a further pair of such weapons. As it became available the Centimetric Radar Type 271 was added - a target indication set capable of picking up the conning tower or even the periscope or snorkel of a submarine. Radar Type 286 air warning was added at the masthead.

Service history
On 25 October 1939 the German submarine  was sunk in the English Channel near Dover by depth charges from Puffin and the ASW trawler HMT Cayton Wyke.

On 19 May 1940 Puffin along with a group of six trawlers and two destroyers took part in "Operation Quixote", cutting commercial cables from the UK to Europe off the  coast of Norfolk.

On 26 March 1945 Puffin under the command of Lt.Cdr. A.S. Miller, RNZNVR, rammed and sank a German Seehund midget submarine off Lowestoft. The impact caused the U-boat's torpedoes to explode and Puffin was so badly damaged that she was written off as constructive total loss, and finally sold for scrapping in 1947.

References

Bibliography

Kingfisher-class sloops
Ships built on the River Clyde
1936 ships
Maritime incidents in March 1945

HMS Puffin (L52)


Corriverton is the easternmost town in Guyana. It lies  at the mouth of the Corentyne River, opposite Nieuw Nickerie, Suriname, to which it is linked by ferry from South Drain.

Corriverton is located about 195 mi/313 km from Georgetown on the eastern side of Guyana, in the county of Berbice. Its population in 2012 was 11,386.

It is a modern administrative construction, formed from two older towns, Springlands and Skeldon, and several villages which were named, or rather numbered (e.g. '78'), after their sugar plantations, owned by Bookers.

Corriverton has a mixed population of Hindus, Christians and Muslims living together. It is the site of many mosques, temples and churches, and has an excellent educational system.

Hotels in the town include the Paraton Inn, Mahogany Hotel, Riverton Suites, Hotel Malinmar, the Swiss Guest House and many others. Corriverton is very economical for tourists.

Ferry
Since 1998, the CANAWAIMA ferry connects Moleson Creek, 10 km south of Corriverton, with South Drain in Suriname. This is the only legal connection between the two countries, but before the repaving of the road many travelers preferred to take a back-track route.

References

External links
 GuyanaGuide.com

Populated places in East Berbice-Corentyne
Guyana–Suriname border crossings

Corriverton


The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún is a book containing two narrative poems and related texts composed by English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and HarperCollins on 5 May 2009.

The two poems that make up most of the book were probably written during the 1930s, and were inspired by the legend of Sigurd and the fall of the Niflungs in Norse mythology. Both poems are in a form of alliterative verse inspired by the traditional verse of the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century. Christopher Tolkien has added copious notes and commentary on his father's work.

Plot

The New Lay of the Völsungs

Upphaf

Asgard is besieged by jötunns and trolls. Wielding the hammer Mjöllnir, Thor repels the enemies. A seeress prophesies Ragnarök, where Odin will be slain by the wolf Fenrir and Thor by the Midgard serpent, unless a mortal descendant of Odin, a serpent-slayer, fights alongside the gods. In vain, Odin scatters his seed among mortals.

Andvari's gold

Odin, Loki, and Hoenir arrive at the dwarf Andvari's cave. Meeting the demon Hreidmar's son Ótr whom they mistake for an otter, Loki kills and skins him, and steals his salmon. Enraged, Hreidmar and his sons, Fafnir and Regin, bind the three gods in unbreakable chains and demand that Otr's pelt be covered with gold in compensation. Loki seeks out Andvari and extorts the gold ransom. Andvari attempts to conceal a golden ring, but Loki seizes it as well. Enraged, Andvari vows that the ring and the gold will be the death of all who possess them. Loki delivers the gold to Hreidmar and his sons.

Signý

Rerir the sea lord, Odin's grandson, conducts raids in Viking longships. His son Völsung, Odin's favourite, marries a valkyrie, who has twins, Sigmund and Signý. Siggeir, King of the Gauts, demands Signý's hand in marriage. At the wedding feast, Odin enters the hall disguised as Grímnir. He drives a sword into the oak at the center of the hall and dares the men present to pull it out. Only Sigmund succeeds; he refuses the fortune Siggeir offers in exchange for it. Enraged, Siggeir declares war on Völsung and kills him. Signý's brothers are bound to trees and left for the wolves to eat. Sigmund slays the she-wolf and escapes into an enchanted cave, where he mates with his sister, who has entered the cave in the guise of an elvish maiden. Their son is Sinfjötli. When he comes of age, he visits his father in the cave and delivers the sword of Grímnir. Father and son range through Gautland as outlaws. They infiltrate the hall of Siggeir and kill everyone; they ask Signý to leave with them, but she refuses and dies at her husband's side.

The Death of Sinfjötli

Sigmund and Sinfjötli return by ship to the land of the Völsungs. Sigmund takes a queen from among the war captives. Loathing the man who slew her father, the Queen brews poison for Sinfjötli. Sigmund, suspecting that his wine has been tampered with, drains Sinfjötli's and remains unharmed. Enraged, the Queen brews poisoned beer, which again is offered to Sinfjötli but drunk by his father with no harm. Still determined to slay Sinfjötli, the Queen gives him poisoned ale. This time the cup is drunk by Sinfjötli himself, who falls dead. Sinfjötli is welcomed in Valhalla by his grandfather Völsung, who comments that the serpent slayer is still awaited.

Sigurd born

Sigmund grows old, having lost both his son and his treacherous Queen. He marries the beauteous Princess Sigrlinn. Enraged at this slight, the seven rejected sons of kings invade the land. Sigmund is confronted by a one-eyed warrior, and is severely wounded. Sigrlinn vows to heal his wounds, but Sigmund refuses. He prophesies that her unborn child will be the serpent-slayer, and orders her to carefully preserve the fragments of Grímnir's gift. He dies and Sigrlinn is carried into slavery. When the parentage of her son is revealed, Sigrlinn is wed to the king of that land. Sigurd is sent to be fostered by Regin, son of Hreidmar.

Regin

Otr's ransom is held by Regin's brother Fafnir, transformed into a dragon. Coveting the hoard, Regin goads Sigurd into fighting Fafnir. Twice Regin tries to forge a sword for Sigurd, only to see him effortlessly break them. At last, Sigurd  asks his mother Sigrlinn for the shards of the sword Grímnir. Regin forges them into the sword Gram. Sigurd buys the horse Grani, sired by Odin's eight-legged steed Sleipnir, and goes forth to kill Fafnir. Sigurd hides and stabs the dragon in the heart. As Fafnir's black blood drains over Sigurd and hardens his flesh, the young warrior withdraws his sword and leaps into the dragon's sight.
As the dragon dies, Regin attempts to claim some of the gold. Regin draws a knife and cuts out Fafnir's heart. Ordering Sigurd to roast it for him, Regin departs. Sigurd fashions a spit and kindles a fire. After burning his finger on the roasting heart, Sigurd puts the finger in his mouth and suddenly understands the language of birds. As he listens to the birds speaking, Sigurd decides to eat the heart whole. Upon seeing Regin sneaking towards him with a drawn blade, Sigurd draws Gram and slays his foster father. He loads the gold hoard onto Grani and departs.

Brynhildr

Sigurd arrives at Hindarfell. As they climb the mountainside, Grani leaps the ring of lightning and fire which surrounds the valkyrie Brynhild. Sigurd slices her corslet with Gram, awakening her. Brynhild explains how Odin doomed her to mate a mortal man. Brynhild had vowed to wed only the prophesied serpent-slayer. When Sigurd relates his descent from Odin and the slaying of Fafnir, Brynhild says that the gods await him in Valhalla. They become engaged, but she vows that she will only wed Sigurd when he has won a kingdom. After cautioning him to avoid the abode of a witch-hearted woman, she returns to Hindarfell. Sigurd rides to the court of the Niflungs' at Worms.

Gudrun

Princess Gudrun of the Niflungs approaches her mother, the witch-hearted Queen Grimhild, with a dream. The Niflungs were hunting a stag which evaded their grasp. Gudrun caught him, only to see him stung with a shaft by a spiteful woman. Her mother then gave Gudrun a wolf to ease her grief and  bathed her in the blood of her brothers. Gudrun sees a warrior riding toward the court. Sigurd enters the court, riding upon Grani. When her father Gjuki asks his name and parentage, he is overjoyed to learn that a Völsung warrior has arrived and summons a seat for Sigurd. Gudrun's brother Gunnar sings a lay of the Niflungs' war against King Atli of the Huns. Sigurd takes the harp and sings of Brynhild and the gold hoard. Impressed, Gunnar and Högni invite Sigurd to dwell among them. Sigurd accompanies the Niflungs in war, and their glory spreads far and wide. Grimhild advises her sons to regularise their alliance with Sigurd by marrying him to Gudrun. Grimhild gives Sigurd a love potion, and he falls in love with Gudrun.

Brynhild betrayed

Brynhild awaits the coming of Sigurd, slaying the visiting suitors. Odin arrives on horseback, armoured as an ancient king. He prophesies that she shall wed a mortal king. Sigurd weds Gudrun. He and his in-laws swear eternal brotherhood, but a shadow remains in Sigurd's heart. The news of Brynhild and the gold hoard reaches Grimhild's ears. Certain that such a Queen will bring glory to her son's court, Grimhild counsels King Gunnar to wed. Sigurd, Högni, and Gunnar depart for Brynhild's mead hall. King Gunnar's horse shies away at the sight of the fire at the mead hall. Through a spell cast by Grimhild, Sigurd rides through the fire in Gunnar's likeness. Brynhild demands to know whether "Gunnar" is the masterless warrior she has vowed to wed. "Gunnar" reminds her that, as her oath has been fulfilled, she is doomed to wed him. That night, Brynhild and Sigurd sleep in the same bed with a drawn sword lying between them. As dawn arrives, Brynhild at last agrees to marry "Gunnar."

Strife
During the nuptial feast, the bride catches sight of Sigurd next to Gudrun. Grimhild's spell dissipates and Sigurd recalls the oaths he swore to Brynhild. Later, during a stag hunt, Brynhild and Gudrun bathe in the Rhine. Brynhild comments that the water washing Gudrun will soon wash one far lovelier. Gudrun reveals that Sigurd rode through the fire and shows the ring of Brynhild on her own hand. Shocked, Brynhild returns to her bower, where she curses the Norns for framing her fate.

Brynhild refuses to eat, drink, or depart her bed. When Gunnar approaches her, she calls him a coward and curses him to an early death. Stunned, Sigurd speaks lovingly to her of the spell that was cast upon him and admits that his only comfort has been to see her in Gunnar's hall. Although touched, Brynhild states that it is too late to avert the evil of her curse, but Sigurd shall die an honourable death at the point of a sword.

Sigurd tells Gudrun of the curse. When Gunnar later seeks his advice, Sigurd informs him that Brynhild's only doctor should be her husband. In response, Gunnar approaches his wife, offering her a hoard of gold and silver. Unmoved, Brynhild taunts him as "a Völsung's squire, a vassal's servant." She adds that she will depart his mead hall and leave Gunnar in disgrace unless he slays his brother in law. Gunnar declares to Högni that Sigurd has broken the oath and must be slain. Högni suggests that Brynhild is lying out of jealousy. Gunnar insists, however, that he loves and trusts Brynhild more than anyone in the world and adds that, by slaying Sigurd, they will be masters again of their kingdom. Högni declares that the Niflungs will miss both Sigurd's prowess in war and the mighty nephews he could have sired. Knowing that he swore no oath, Gunnar approaches his half brother Gotthorm and promises him both gold and lordship if he kills Sigurd.

Later, as Sigurd hunts with his falcon, Gutthorm accuses him of wishing to usurp the Niflung throne. Sigurd orders Gutthorm to say no more if he values his life. At dawn the following morning, Gutthorm enters Sigurd's room with a drawn sword and stabs him. Awakening, Sigurd kills his attacker; he dies in Gudrun's arms.

As Gudrun laments, Brynhild laughs, curses the Niflungs for murdering their blood brother, and reveals that Sigurd's seduction was a lie. Brynhild announces that she is leaving Gunnar forever, and falls upon her sword. She requests that her corpse be burned in Sigurd's funeral pyre. Gram is to lie unsheathed between them as on their only night together. Sigurd and Brynhild are carried to Valhalla in the flames of a Viking funeral.

Odin and the Völsungs welcome the long-awaited serpent slayer. At Ragnarök, Brynhild will attire Sigurd for war and he will defeat the wolf Fenrir and the Midgard serpent. Most of the Aesir shall die, but Sigurd will destroy the forces of darkness, and the nine worlds will be created anew.

The New Lay of Gudrun

As the flames of the pyre sink, Gudrun wanders through the forest witless. King Atli's Hunnic Empire grows ever stronger, and he hastens westward to claim the gold hoard of Fafnir and the beauty of Gudrun.

As the news reaches the Niflung court, Gunnar asks Högni whether Atli should be fought or appeased. Högni advises Gunnar to fight, but Grimhild counsels offering Gudrun's hand in marriage, and the Niflungs decide to do this. They offer Gudrun a large payment of gold as weregild for her husband's death, but she refuses. Grimhild threatens to curse her daughter to unimaginable torment if she will not obey. Intimidated, Gudrun agrees. At their wedding feast, Atli drinks to Gudrun, moved both by her beauty and by dreams of the dragon hoard. He takes Gudrun back to Hunland, but his lust for the dragon hoard remains unquenched and he summons the Niflungs to a feast in Hunland. Högni suspects a trap.

Gudrun sends Gunnar a wooden slab with "runes of healing". Grimhild says the original runes have been shaven off the tablet but may still be read. The original message from Gudrun was a warning of danger. Gunnar says he will not be coming to the feast in Hunland. Amused, Vingi responds that, as Grimhild clearly rules the Niflung kingdom, there is no need for Gunnar to come.  Although Gunnar suspects a trap, he agrees to come to the feast. Högni is troubled that they aren't taking their mother's counsel. Vingi dishonestly swears that the gallows shall take him and ravens shall devour his flesh if the runes are lying. Grimhild watches as they disappear, certain she will never see them again.

The Niflungs arrive in Hunland and sound their horns; but the gates are barred. Vingi reveals the reason for the invitation: Atli has prepared a gallows for the Niflungs. Högni vows that the treacherous Vingi has forfeited his life. Dragging him to a nearby oak, the Niflungs hang Vingi in sight of the Huns. The Huns hurl themselves upon the Niflungs. Gunnar and Högni drive the Huns back inside the mead hall. Atli calls the Niflungs his vassals, and demands Fafnir's gold hoard as the price of their lives. Gunnar refuses. Atli demands weregild for Sigurd. Doors spring open and Hun warriors charge the Niflungs, who fill the mead hall with bodies.

Gudrun listens to the battle and curses the hour of her birth. Recalling their past wars against Atli and his Huns, the Goths turn against their lord and make common cause with the Niflungs. Gunnar and Högni fight their way to Gudrun, and declare that the Norns have fated them to always give her in marriage and then slay her husband. Gudrun pleads with them not to tempt fate and to spare Atli's life. They mock Atli as unfit for a warrior's death and allow him to slink away. Night falls as Atli rallies warriors throughout the countryside. As the Goths and Niflungs go to sleep, Högni notices a column of fire moving toward the mead hall. Gunnar rallies his men for the final battle, and they defend the doorways for five days. Atli bewails the loss of all that he has. His counselor Beiti tells Atli to set fire to the mead hall; as it collapses, the Goths and Niflungs charge out and are captured.

Casting his captives before Gudrun, Atli vows that he will avenge Sigurd by hurling her brothers into a pit of adders. Disgusted, Gudrun calls her husband evil and expresses hope that his death will be shameful. Atli vows that he will release the Niflungs only if he is given the gold hoard. Gunnar agrees to give Atli the gold, but only if his brother Högni is first slain and the heart is delivered to him. Now frantic, Gudrun pleads with Atli to spare her brother Högni. Atli, however, vows that he will have the gold despite the tears of his wife.

Atli's wise men, however, plead for caution. Fearing the queen, they persuade Atli to slay the thrall Hjalli; but Gunnar is not fooled. The Huns cut out Högni's heart, but Gunnar laughs in their faces: the gold, he declares, is long gone, having been cast into the Rhine after Sigurd's death. Gunnar curses Atli, calling him a gold-haunted murderer. Atli orders Gunnar to be stripped naked and cast into the pit of adders. Gudrun orders a harp to be sent to her brother in the pit. Gunnar chants of Odin and the Aesir, of ancient kings, and the coming doom of Hunland, to the sound of the harp. The whole palace listens in wonder and the snakes are stilled to sleep. An ancient adder bites Gunnar in the chest; he topples over dead and the harp is stilled. Gudrun hears his cry. Realising how to avenge her brothers, Gudrun summons her sons Erp and Eitil.

Viking funerals are prepared, and a funeral feast is held in the remnants of Atli's palace. Gudrun, presenting two goblets to her husband, toasts his health. He drinks. She tells him that, in vengeance for her brothers, she has slain their sons; the goblets,  made from their skulls, were filled with their blood and honey. Their bodies have been fed to Atli's hounds. Atli swoons. As the moon rises, Atli is carried to his bed, as sick as one poisoned. Gudrun enters his chambers, wakes her husband, and drives a knife into Atli's breast. Laughing, she tells him that his funeral pyre has already been kindled; fire consumes Atli's palace and the surrounding town. Gudrun drowns herself in the sea.

Origin
According to Christopher Tolkien, it is no longer possible to trace the exact date of composition of the two poems in The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, though circumstantial evidence suggests that they date from the 1930s. In his foreword, Christopher Tolkien writes: "He scarcely ever (to my knowledge) referred to them. For my part, I cannot recall any conversation with him on the subject until very near the end of his life, when he spoke of them to me, and tried unsuccessfully to find them."

Tolkien wrote in 1967, in a letter to W. H. Auden: "Thank you for your wonderful effort in translating and reorganizing The Song of the Sibyl. In return, I hope to send you, if I can lay my hands on it (I hope it isn't lost), a thing I did many years ago while trying to learn the art of writing alliterative poetry: an attempt to unify the lays about the Völsungs from the Elder Edda, written in the old eight-line fornyrðislag stanza."

Commentary
In a prefatory text, "Introduction to the Elder Edda", based partly on one of his lectures, Tolkien draws a sharp distinction between epic poems and the Skaldic and eddic poems of the Nordic countries: "...epic poetry never developed in those lands"; "verse developed its local brief, pithy, strophic, often dramatic form, not into epic, but into the astonishing and euphonious but formal elaborations of scaldic verse." He also draws a distinction, although not as sharply, between the later elaborate skaldic verse and the simpler forms used in the poems of the Elder Edda. The poems in The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún use these simpler forms, which, the book says, arose earlier but persisted alongside the skaldic forms. "But the opposition between 'Eddic' and 'Skaldic' verse is quite unreal as one of 'time.' ... They are related growths, branches on the same tree, essentially connected, even possibly sometimes by the same hands." Tolkien also mentions that the use of the term "eddic" for this simpler style of verse is a later development, even an anachronism: "Thus the term 'Eddaic', as now used, in opposition to 'Skaldic,' is a perfect reversal of its former meaning."

The book contains extensive commentary by Christopher Tolkien on the sources for the two poems by his father, and the ways in which he used, mixed, and differed from those sources, as well as the larger background of legend and history behind the stories. Excerpts from notes for lectures that J. R. R. Tolkien gave on related topics are also included.

Audiobook

The Scottish actor Brian Cox collaborated with HarperCollins to produce a dramatic reading of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, released in August 2009.

See also

 The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs (William Morris, 1876)

References

Bibliography

External links

 The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun FAQ

2009 poetry books
Norse mythology in art and literature
Poetry by J. R. R. Tolkien
Epic poems in English
Novels set in the Viking Age
Völsung cycle
Books published posthumously
HarperCollins books

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún


Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The boundaries of the area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818 without recognizing indigenous claims to the area, consisted of the land north of 42° N latitude, south of 54°40′ N latitude, and west of the Rocky Mountains down to the Pacific Ocean and east to the Continental Divide. Article III of the 1818 treaty gave joint control to both nations for ten years, allowed land to be claimed, and guaranteed free navigation to all mercantile trade. However, both countries disputed the terms of the international treaty. Oregon Country was the American name while the British used Columbia District for the region. Meanwhile, Indigenous nations had lived in the area since time immemorial, though with little legal recognition in the American and British legal systems. Evidence along the Salmon River shows people lived there at least 16,000 years ago, and may have populated the continent after migrating along the Pacific Coast, then following up the Columbia River into the interior.

British and French Canadian fur traders had entered Oregon Country prior to 1810 before the arrival of American settlers from the mid-1830s onwards, which led to the foundation of the Provisional Government of Oregon. Its coastal areas north from the Columbia River were frequented by ships from all nations engaged in the maritime fur trade, with many vessels between the 1790s and 1810s coming from Boston. The Hudson's Bay Company, whose Columbia Department comprised most of the Oregon Country and north into New Caledonia and beyond 54°40′ N, with operations reaching tributaries of the Yukon River, managed and represented British interests in the region.

After the dispute became an election issue in the 1844 U.S. presidential election, the United Kingdom and the United States agreed to settle the problem with the Oregon Treaty in 1846. It established the British-American boundary at the 49th parallel (except Vancouver Island). With the end of joint occupancy, the region south of the 49th parallel became Oregon Territory in the United States while the northern portion became part of the British colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. The area which once encompassed Oregon Country now lies within the present-day borders of the Canadian province of British Columbia and the entirety of the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, as well as parts of Montana and Wyoming.

Toponym

The earliest evidence of the name "Oregon" has Spanish origins. The term  comes from the historical chronicle  (1598) which was written by the New Spaniard Rodrigo Motezuma and which made reference to the Columbia River when the Spanish explorers penetrated into the North American territory that became part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This chronicle is the first topographical and linguistic source with respect to the place name Oregon. There are also two other sources with Spanish origins such as the name Oregano, which grows in the southern part of the region. It is most probable that the American territory was named by the Spaniards, as there are some populations in Spain such as "Arroyo del Oregón", which is in the province of Ciudad Real, also considering that the individualization in Spanish language  with the mutation of the letter g instead of j.

Another theory is that French Canadian fur company employees called the Columbia River "hurricane river" , because of the strong winds of the Columbia Gorge. George R. Stewart argues in a 1944 article in American Speech that the name came from an engraver's error in a French map published in the early 18th century, on which the Ouisiconsink (Wisconsin River) was spelled "Ouaricon-sint", broken on two lines with the -sint below, so that there appeared to be a river flowing to the west named "Ouaricon". This theory was endorsed in Oregon Geographic Names as "the most plausible explanation".

Early exploration
George Vancouver explored Puget Sound in 1792. Vancouver claimed it for Great Britain on June 4, 1792, naming it for one of his officers, Lieutenant Peter Puget. Alexander Mackenzie was the first European to cross North America by land north of New Spain, arriving at Bella Coola on what is now the central coast of British Columbia in 1793. From 1805 to 1806 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explored the territory for the United States on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

David Thompson, working for the Montreal-based North West Company, explored much of the region beginning in 1807, with his friend and colleague Simon Fraser, following the Fraser River to its mouth in 1808, attempting to ascertain whether it was the Columbia, as had been theorized about its northern reaches through New Caledonia, where it was known by its Dakleh name as the "Tacoutche Tesse". Thompson was the first European to voyage down the entire length of Columbia River. Along the way, his party camped at the junction with the Snake River on July 9, 1811. He erected a pole and a notice claiming the country for the United Kingdom and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a trading post on the site. Later in 1811, on the same expedition, he finished his survey of the entire Columbia, arriving at a partially constructed Fort Astoria two months after the departure of John Jacob Astor's ill-fated Tonquin.

Territorial evolution

The Oregon Country was originally claimed by Great Britain, France, Russia, and Spain; the Spanish claim was later taken up by the United States. The extent of the region being claimed was vague at first, evolving over decades into the specific borders specified in the U.S.-British treaty of 1818. The United States based its claim in part on Robert Gray's entry of the Columbia River in 1792 and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Great Britain based its claim in part on British overland explorations of the Columbia River by David Thompson and on prior discovery and exploration along the coast. Spain's claim was based on the Inter caetera and Treaty of Tordesillas of 1493–94, as well as explorations of the Pacific coast in the late 18th century. Russia based its claim on its explorations and trading activities in the region and asserted its ownership of the region north of the 51st parallel by the Ukase of 1821, which was quickly challenged by the other powers and withdrawn to 54°40′N by separate treaties with the U.S. and Britain in 1824 and 1825, respectively.

Spain gave up its claims of exclusivity via the Nootka Conventions of the 1790s. In the Nootka Conventions, which followed the Nootka Crisis, Spain granted Britain rights to the Pacific Northwest, although it did not establish a northern boundary for Spanish California, nor did it extinguish Spanish rights to the Pacific Northwest. Spain later relinquished any remaining claims to territory north of the 42nd parallel to the United States as part of the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819. In the 1820s, Russia gave up its claims south of 54°40′ and east of the 141st meridian in separate treaties with the United States and Britain.

Meanwhile, the United States and Britain negotiated the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, which extended the boundary between their territories west along the 49th parallel to the Rocky Mountains. The two countries agreed to "joint occupancy" of the land west of the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1843, settlers established their own government, called the Provisional Government of Oregon. A legislative committee drafted a code of laws known as the Organic Law. It included the creation of an executive committee of three, a judiciary, militia, land laws, and four counties. There was vagueness and confusion over the nature of the 1843 Organic Law, in particular whether it was constitutional or statutory. In 1844, a new legislative committee decided to consider it statutory. The 1845 Organic Law made additional changes, including allowing the participation of British subjects in the government. Although the Oregon Treaty of 1846 settled the boundaries of U.S. jurisdiction, the provisional government continued to function until 1849, when the first governor of Oregon Territory arrived. A faction of Oregon politicians hoped to continue Oregon's political evolution into an independent nation, but the pressure to join the United States prevailed by 1848, four months after the Mexican–American War.

Early settlement

In 1805, the American Lewis and Clark Expedition marked the first official American exploration of the area, creating the first temporary settlement of Euro-Americans in the area near the mouth of the Columbia River at Fort Clatsop. Two years later in 1807, David Thompson of the Montreal-based North West Company penetrated the Oregon Country from the north, via Athabasca Pass, near the headwaters of the Columbia River. From there he navigated nearly the full length of the river through to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1810, John Jacob Astor commissioned and began the construction of the American Pacific Fur Company fur-trading post at Fort Astoria, just  from the site of Lewis and Clark's former Fort Clatsop, completing construction of the first permanent Euro-American settlement in the area in 1811. This settlement later served as the nucleus of present-day Astoria, Oregon. During the period of the construction of Fort Astoria, Thompson traveled down the Columbia River, noting the partially constructed American Fort Astoria only two months after the departure of the supply ship Tonquin.

Along the way, Thompson had set foot on and claimed for the British Crown, the lands in the vicinity of the future Fort Nez Percés site at the confluence of the Columbia and Snake rivers. This claim initiated a very brief era of competition between American and British fur traders. During the War of 1812, Fort Astoria was captured by the British and sold to the North West Company. Under British control, Fort Astoria was renamed Fort George.

In 1821 when the North West Company was merged with the Hudson's Bay Company, the British Parliament moved to impose the laws of Upper Canada upon British subjects in Columbia District and Rupert's Land, and issued the authority to enforce those laws to the Hudson's Bay Company. Chief Factor John McLoughlin was appointed manager of the district's operations in 1824. He moved the regional company headquarters to Fort Vancouver (modern Vancouver, Washington) in 1824. Fort Vancouver became the centre of a thriving colony of mixed origin, including Scottish Canadians and Scots, English, French Canadians, Hawaiians, Algonkians, and Iroquois, as well as the offspring of company employees who had intermarried with various local native populations.

Astor continued to compete for Oregon Country furs through his American Fur Company operations in the Rockies. In the 1820s, a few American explorers and traders visited this land beyond the Rocky Mountains. Long after the Lewis and Clark Expedition and also after the consolidation of the fur trade in the region by the Canadian fur companies, American mountain men such as Jedediah Smith and Jim Beckwourth came roaming into and across the Rocky Mountains, following Indian trails through the Rockies to California and Oregon. They sought beaver pelts and other furs, which were obtained by trapping. These were difficult to obtain in the Oregon Country because of the Hudson's Bay Company policy of creating a "fur desert": deliberate over-hunting of the area's frontiers, so that American trades would find nothing there. The mountain men, like the Metis employees of the Canadian fur companies, adopted Indian ways, and many of them married Native American women.

Reports of Oregon Country eventually circulated in the eastern United States. Some churches decided to send missionaries to convert the Indians. Jason Lee, a Methodist minister from New York, was the first Oregon missionary. He built a mission school for Indians in the Willamette Valley in 1834. American settlers began to arrive from the east via the Oregon Trail starting in the early 1840s and came in increasing numbers each subsequent year. Increased tension led to the Oregon boundary dispute. Both sides realized that settlers would ultimately decide who controlled the region. The Hudson's Bay Company, which had previously discouraged settlement as it conflicted with the lucrative fur trade, belatedly reversed their position. In 1841, on orders from Sir George Simpson, James Sinclair guided more than 100 settlers from the Red River Colony to settle on HBC farms near Fort Vancouver. The Sinclair expedition crossed the Rockies into the Columbia Valley, near present-day Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia, then traveled southwest down the Kootenai River and Columbia River following the southern portion of the well-established York Factory Express trade route.

The Canadian effort proved to be too little, too late. In what was dubbed "The Great Migration of 1843" or the "Wagon Train of 1843", an estimated 700 to 1,000 American emigrants came to Oregon, decisively tipping the balance.

Oregon Treaty

In 1843, settlers in the Willamette Valley established a provisional government at Champoeg. Political pressure in the United States urged the occupation of all the Oregon Country. Expansionists in the American South wanted to annex Texas, while their counterparts in the northeast wanted to annex the Oregon Country. It was seen as significant that the expansions be parallel, as the relative proximity to other states and territories made it appear likely that Texas would be pro-slavery and Oregon against slavery.

In the 1844 U.S. Presidential election, the Democrats had called for expansion into both areas. After his election as president, however, James K. Polk supported the 49th parallel as a northern limit for U.S. annexation in Oregon Country. It was Polk's uncompromising support for expansion into Texas and relative silence on the Oregon boundary dispute that led to the phrase "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!", referring to the northern border of the region and often erroneously attributed to Polk's campaign. The goal of the slogan was to rally Southern expansionists (some of whom wanted to annex only Texas in an effort to tip the balance of slave/free states and territories in favor of slavery) to support the effort to annex Oregon Country, appealing to the popular belief in manifest destiny. The British government, meanwhile, sought control of all territory north of the Columbia River.

Despite the posturing, neither country really wanted to fight what would have been the third war in 70 years against the other. The two countries eventually came to a peaceful agreement in the 1846 Oregon Treaty that divided the territory west of the Continental Divide along the 49th parallel to Georgia Strait, with the whole of Vancouver Island remaining under British control. This border today divides British Columbia from neighboring Washington, Idaho, and Montana.

Hudson's Bay Company
In 1843 the HBC shifted its Columbia Department headquarters from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island. The plan to move to more northern locations dated back to the 1820s. George Simpson was the main force behind the move north; John McLoughlin became the main hindrance. McLoughlin had devoted his life's work to the Columbia business, and his personal interests were increasingly linked to the growing settlements in the Willamette Valley. He fought Simpson's proposals to move north in vain. By the time Simpson made the final decision in 1842 to move the headquarters to Vancouver Island, he had had many reasons for doing so. There was a dramatic decline in the fur trade across North America. In contrast the HBC was seeing increasing profits with coastal exports of salmon and lumber to Pacific markets such as Hawaii. Coal deposits on Vancouver Island had been discovered, and steamships such as the Beaver had shown the growing value of coal, economically and strategically. A general HBC shift toward Pacific shipping and away from the interior of the continent made Victoria Harbour much more suitable than Fort Vancouver's location on the Columbia River. The Columbia Bar at the river's mouth was dangerous and routinely meant weeks or months of waiting for ships to cross. The largest ships could not enter the river at all. The growing numbers of American settlers along the lower Columbia gave Simpson reason to question the long term security of Fort Vancouver. He worried, rightfully so, that the final border resolution would not follow the Columbia River. By 1842, he thought it more likely that the United States would at least demand Puget Sound, and the British government would accept a border as far north as the 49th parallel, excluding Vancouver Island. Despite McLoughlin's stalling, the HBC had begun the process of shifting away from Fort Vancouver and toward Vancouver Island and the northern coast in the 1830s. The increasing number of American settlers arriving in the Willamette Valley after 1840 served to make the need more pressing.

Oregon Territory
In 1848, the U.S. portion of the Oregon Country was formally organized as the Oregon Territory. In 1849, Vancouver Island became a British Crown colony—the Colony of Vancouver Island—with the mainland being organized into the Colony of British Columbia in 1858. Shortly after the establishment of Oregon Territory, there was an effort to split off the region north of the Columbia River. As a result of the Monticello Convention, Congress approved the creation of Washington Territory in early 1853. President Millard Fillmore approved the new territory on March 2, 1853.

Descriptions of the land and settlers
Alexander Ross, an early Scottish Canadian fur trader, describes the lower Columbia River area of the Oregon Country (known to him as the Columbia District):

After living in Oregon from 1843 to 1848, Peter H. Burnett wrote:

See also

 American frontier
 Bibliography of Oregon history
 Canada–United States border
 American Imperialism
 Cascadia (independence movement), a contemporary movement to make the Cascadian bioregion, roughly covering the same area as the Oregon country, an independent country
 New Albion
 Robert Gray's Columbia River expedition
 Royal Proclamation of 1763 – another British-border treaty dependent on one or more hydrology divides to determine at least one of its borders
 Russo-American Treaty of 1824
 Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1825)

References

Bibliography
 Richard W. Etulain, Lincoln and Oregon Country Politics in the Civil War. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2013.

External links

 Chronology of Oregon Events
 Convention Between Great Britain and Russia, 1825 (Treaty of St. Petersburg, 1825)

Country
Pre-Confederation British Columbia
History of the American West

Oregon Country


Amor de hombre (also known as Love of a Man in English-speaking markets) is a 1997 Spanish gay-themed drama film directed by Yolanda García Serrano and Juan Luis Iborra. An intimate, warm and tender Spanish film about the very close friendship between a gay man and a straight woman.

The film won both the Audience and Jury awards at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Narrative Feature at the Austin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

Plot
Ramón is a sexually active gay man with men coming and going from his bedroom. His best friend Esperanza is a single woman who can't seem to meet or like any men unless they are gay. Some would call Esperanza a fag hag, but she simply has great taste in men, she likes them gay! They go out together to the bars and Ramon always brings a man home while Esperanza goes home to an empty bed. She doesn't mind because she knows that she has Ramón's heart. That is until Ramón meets her fellow teacher, Roberto. Their relationship endangers the precious bond these two have formed.

This colorful and somewhat hyper-active film is in the style of Almodóvar. There's always plenty of on-screen action, dialogue and color to keep the eyes and ears happy. It's a tender and intimate peek into the lives of two people that one seldom sees on screen. It seems as if Madrid is teeming with gorgeous gay men, after seeing Amor de Hombre it should be a stop in every gay man's life.

Cast
Loles León as Esperanza
Andrea Occhipinti as Ramón
Pedro Mari Sanchez as César
Armando Del Rio as Roberto

Awards
Freedom Award - 2000 Outfest
Audience & Jury Award for Best Feature - 1999 Miami LG Film Festival
Best Narrative Feature - 1998 Austin GL Film Festival

Festivals
1999 Miami Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
1999 Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
23rd San Francisco LGBT Film Festival

External links
  TLA Releasing - Amor de Hombre

1997 films
1997 drama films
1990s Spanish-language films
Spanish LGBT-related films
Madrid in fiction
Gay-related films
LGBT-related drama films
Spanish drama films

1997 LGBT-related films
1990s Spanish films

Amor de hombre