Jeffrey Redmond

Who I'd like to meet:

"By Hook or by Crook!"
The Cromwellian English Forces Attack Upon Redmond Castle, on The Hook Peninsula in County Wexford Ireland, July 1642.


Modern day Lofus Hall built on the site of the 1300's Redmond Castle. It was an English Victorian manor in the 1800's, a convent and then a hotel in the 1900's, and is now owned by Bono of the U-2 rock band, as of 2009.

T H E - M Y S T E R Y - O F - H I S T O R Y :

Ancient Roman frontier fort entertainment

Swedish viking Varangians rowed their ships up and down the Volga River in the 800's and 900's. They sailed across the Caspian Sea and raided Persia. The Slavic peoples called them Rus, from which the name for Russia originates.

Viking Age Rune Stone

Viking Ships in a Norwegian Fjord

The southwestern fjords of Greenland were settled by Vikings from Iceland in the 980's. They were led by the Norwegian chieftain Eirikr the Red. His son Leifr would later explore the coasts of eastern Canada.

The Norwegian viking Leifr Eiriksson sailed from Greenland along the coasts of eastern Canada in the summer of 1003. He explored Baffin Island and Labrador, and then Newfoundland, where he built a small settlement on its northern peninsula. (Painted by Christian Krohg in 1893)

The barren rocky cliffs and glaciers of Baffin Island in eastern Canada, which the Vikings called Slab Land (Helluland). They found it to be worthless as any place to try to settle, but sailed along it as it was closest to Greenland.

The Wonder Beaches (Furthustrandir) of Labrador in eastern Canada, between Groswater and Sandwich bays. The Vikings were awed by these 38 miles (56 km)of sandy shoreline, visible far out to sea. They called the region Wood Land (Markland) for its pine and spruce forests, and there are abundant tall grasses they described as resembling fields of wheat.


Newfoundland in eastern Canada has several kinds of edible currants and wild berries - such as black, blue, elder, and goose. The Vikings consumed these as wine berries (vinberjar), and so named the place Wine Land (Vinland). These are actual photos of berries growing wild in southern Newfoundland today.

A map from Skalholt in Iceland showing lands to the west and south of Greenland. First drawn up by Sigurthur Stefansson in 1590, based upon much older maps and sagas narrations.

The Battle of Lake Peipus in Estonia. The German forces of the Livonian Order of the Teutonic Knights were led by Prince Hermann von Buxhoveden. They attacked the Russian forces of Prince Aleksandr Nevsky of Novgorod, in April 1242.

Castle Dracula in Transylvania Romania

Prince Vlad Tepes fought against the invading Ottomans in the 1460's and 70's, torturing and executing captured prisoners on tall stakes. He was called Son of the Devil (Draculea) by his Romanian contemporaries, and also known as Vlad the Impaler, for killing thousands of Turks in this way.

The Zaporozhian Cossacks along the Dniepr River of the Ukraine in 1676. (Painted by Ilya Repin in 1891)

King Karl XII of Sweden and his victory over the Russians, at the Battle of Narva in Estonia, in November 1700.
(Painted by Gustaf Cederstrom in 1910)

King Karl XII of Sweden in 1706

The Swedish Army of King Karl XII advanced far into the Ukraine. They fought against the Russians, under Tsar Peter the Great, at the Battle of Poltava in June 1709.

King Karl XII was killed in battle at Halden, and the Swedish Army retreated carrying his body, in December 1718. (Painted by Gustaf Cederstrom in 1878)

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) Painting by Jacques-Louis David

Napoleon in Egypt (1798)

Battle of the Pyramids. Painting by Francois Watt

The French Army of Emperor Napoleon invaded Russia, in June 1812. They fought their largest battle at Borodino on the Moskva River. The Russian Army retreated, and the French then captured Moscow, in September 1812.


Napoleon's French troops occupied and looted Moscow, while the Russians burned and evacuated it, in October 1812.

Napoleon was informed that there would be no official reply from Tsar Aleksandr in Saint Petersburg, and that Russia would not agree to any peace treaty.

Emperor Napoleon of France, abandoned a completely destroyed Moscow and withdrew from Russia, in November 1812. (Painted by Ernest Meissonier in 1814)

In the First World War the Battle of Tannenberg in East Prussia was decisive on the Eastern Front. The German 8th Army of General Paul von Hindenburg surrounded and destroyed the entire Russian army of General Aleksandr Samsonov, in August 1914.


Major General Orde Charles Wingate commanded British forces in World War II. He won victories in the mountains and deserts of Ethiopia (1940-41) against the Italians, and in the jungles of Burma (1942-44) against the Japanese. His forces specialized in operating behind enemy lines, greatly helping to win the war for the Allies.

"Nicht kleckern. Sodern alle Klotzen!"
Generaloberst Heinz Wilhelm Guderian (1888-1954). During the Second World War the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, in June 1941. Guderian's panzer army almost took Moscow - winning the war for Germany, in November 1941.

Generaloberst Eduard Dietl commanded the German 20th Army in Arctic Norway, Finland, and Lappland from 1940 to 1944. His forces helped the Finns defend their country, against the more numerous Soviets, in the northern Karelian region.

German panzer units advanced deep into southern Russia, in 1942. They reached as far as the Caucasus Mountains, between the Black and Caspian seas, with the Soviet forces retreating before them.


The German 5th SS "Wiking" Panzergrenadier Division was composed of volunteers from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. They advanced furthest to the Terek River, flowing from the Caucasus Mountains to the Caspian Sea, in October 1942.



Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel commanded the Afrika Korps and German-Italian Panzer Army. He fought in the deserts of Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia in northern Africa, 1941-43. He was always outnumbered by the Allied forces - especially British - arrayed against him.

F A N T A S Y :

Tiger Girls in a Tiger I (Mark VI) Tank


Olivia Munn as Princess Leia

Almost Enough Princess Leias at a Star Wars Convention


Entertaining the Troops
DO YOU HAVE THE TIME?


A Modern Mata Hari

Lekopak

Colorful Poolside Chat

A Good Read

Only the Very Best of Friends!

Gothess

Big Burly Bruno Brown Bear, and Big Brewed Beer Beverage

Only the very best of dental care, at all times!

The Russian folk tale of Sadko the Bard of Novgorod, in the Underwater Realm of Lake Ilmen. (Painted by Ilya Pepin in 1876)



The annual Kanamara Matsuri fertility festival in Kawasaki Japan

An altar totem dedicated to the Shaman Ewenki in Changchun China

N A T U R E :

Obviously West Michigan is Republican....

Sleeping Bear Dunes and Lake Michigan Shoreline

Back Seat Driving

Lake Michigan Shore at Dusk

The real fear and terror here in the Black Lagoon is that she's skinny dipping completely naked. It's bad enough that human females menstruate. But the poor creature also has to put up with a totally nude one - invading right into his own little body of water. There's no longer any such thing as personal space, and he may never fully recover....

C U L T U R E ? :

Eduoard Manet's "Un bar aux Folies Bergere (1882)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Le dejeuner des canoties" (1881)

Edouard Manet's "Olympia" (1863)

Edouard Manet's "Le dejeuner sur l'herbe" (1863)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Les Baigneuses" (1887)

John William Waterhouse's "Hylas and the Nymphs (1896)


"Unexpected Return" by Ilya Repin (1889)

SCIENCE FICTION