title: Tite Kubo

text: Kubo was born on June 26, 1977, in Hiroshima Prefecture, where his father worked as a town council member. In elementary school, he had already decided to become a manga artist, due to reading the manga "Saint Seiya". His first one-shot was "Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine", written for the "Weekly Shōnen Jump" in 1996. He wrote his first manga "Zombiepowder", which was also published in "Weekly Shōnen Jump" in 1999. It ran a short 27 chapters before being canceled in 2000. According to the author's commentary, Kubo was in a state of severe emotional trauma when he wrote it. Kubo later stated that he was not used to the magazine weekly serialization and used to pay more attention to his editor's comments rather than his own ideas.


title: Tite Kubo

text: His next series, "Bleach", about a high school student who becomes a "shinigami" and fights creatures known as Hollows, began running in the same magazine in 2001. Kubo initially expected the series' serialization to continue no longer than five years. The original story concept was submitted to "Weekly Shōnen Jump" shortly after the cancellation of "Zombiepowder", but was rejected. Akira Toriyama, creator of "Dragon Ball", saw the story and wrote a letter of encouragement to Kubo. "Bleach" ran for 15 years of serialization and reached over 698 chapters from 2001 to 2016. Additionally, an anime adaptation of the series was broadcast in TV Tokyo for 8 years from 2004 to 2012, spanning over 366 episodes. The manga was named a winner of the Shogakukan Manga Award for its category in 2004. Kubo and Makoto Matsubara have co-authored two novelizations of the "Bleach" series, which were published by Shueisha under their "Jump Books" label. The first was released in Japan on December 16, 2006, followed by a on December 22, 2007, a on December 13, 2008, and a on December 4, 2010. Kubo also appeared in the episode 112 of the Japanese radio program of "Bleach B-Station". In that program, Kubo was interviewed by Masakazu Morita, voice actor of Ichigo Kurosaki, the main character of "Bleach", and answered several questions from fans. On July 26, 2008, Kubo went to the United States for the first time and made an appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con International.


title: Tite Kubo

text: Kubo provided character designs for Madhouse's anime adaptations of Ango Sakaguchi's "Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita" and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's "The Spider's Thread" and "Hell Screen", which are parts of the "Aoi Bungaku" series. In 2018, Kubo returned to "Weekly Shōnen Jump" and published a one-shot, "Burn the Witch", in commemoration of the magazine's 50th anniversary. Later on, in 2020, the one-shot was serialized in the magazine with a seasonal release schedule. The 4-chapter first season was published in August to September 2020. A second season of the series has been announced.


title: Tite Kubo

text: Both of Kubo's serialized works are shōnen manga with a heavy focus on action. His fight scenes are noted for swift cuts and dramatic angle changes between panels, as well as minimal inclusion of background art or splash pages. As a character designer, Kubo held to a distinctively angular and lanky style through "Zombiepowder" and the early portions of "Bleach", which filled out somewhat as "Bleach" continued. His designs often incorporate elements of body horror.


title: Tite Kubo

text: Tite Kubo's earliest influence is from Shigeru Mizuki's manga "Gegege no Kitaro". He remembers trying to sketch its characters and found his own designs to be simpler than that of Mizuki's. "Bleach" was first conceived from a desire on Kubo's part to draw "shinigami" in kimono, which formed the basis for the design of the Shinigami in the series, and conception of the character Rukia Kuchiki. Kubo has cited influences for elements of "Bleach" ranging from other manga series to music, foreign language, architecture, and film. He attributes his interest in drawing the supernatural and monsters to Shigeru Mizuki's "GeGeGe no Kitaro" and "Bleach"s focus on interesting weaponry and battle scenes to Masami Kurumada's "Saint Seiya", both manga Kubo enjoyed as a boy. Kubo stated that Akira Toriyama's "Dragon Ball" taught him that all villains must be "strong, scary and cool" without exception, and added that to this day no fight scene has shocked him more than Trunks' first appearance. The action style and storytelling found in "Bleach" are inspired by cinema, though Kubo has not revealed any specific movie as being an influence for fight scenes. Kubo has also stated that he wishes to make "Bleach" an experience that can only be found by reading manga, and dismissed ideas of creating any live-action film adaptations of the series.


title: Tite Kubo

text: In the making of battle scenes, Kubo's comments that he imagines the fights with the empty backgrounds and then he tries to find the best angle to make it. Then, he tries to make the injuries look very realistic in order to make the readers feel the character's pain. Kubo mentions he sometimes is bored while illustrating them, so he tries to add a few jokes to make it more humorous. When creating characters, Kubo first attempts to create the design and later decide how the character's personality will be according to what he drew. Since creating them like this, Kubo considers every character to be unique and wants each of them to be developed along the series. When asked about romantic relationships between certain characters, Kubo answers saying that he does not want to turn the series into a love story since he thinks there are more exciting aspects concerning their personalities. While the Soul Reapers' attacks and arsenal have Japanese names, other characters from the series also use different languages to describe their terms: German words used for powers from the Quincy and English for the members of X-Cution. In the case of the Hollows and Arrancars, Kubo choose to use Spanish terms about their abilities as he is interested in the Spanish language for sounding "bewitching" and "mellow" from his perspective.


title: Tite Kubo

text: Initially appearing in "Weekly Shōnen Jump" and published by Shueisha in Tokyo, Japan, the manga have been licensed in North America by Viz Media.


title: Tite Kubo

text: Prior to being serially published, Tite Kubo wrote and illustrated several one-shot manga. Three of these were later published in English, included in Viz Media's collected volumes of "Zombiepowder." These short manga display the rapid development of Kubo's artstyle in the mid-90s. Afterwards, Kubo published another one-shot after "Bleach" ended, with an artstyle that has been widely recognized as his own.


title: Sea Ltd

text: Sea Limited (Stylized as: sea) is a tech conglomerate headquartered in Singapore. Established in 2009 by Forrest Li, Sea was initially founded as Garena, a game development and publishing company known for its "Free Fire" title. The company rebranded itself under the present-day Sea brand in May 2017 after securing funding worth US$550 million, although the Garena brand was retained for its digital entertainment arm. Sea has over 67,000 employees, as of 2022.


title: Sea Ltd

text: Sea currently functions as a holding company for Garena, SeaMoney, and Shopee. Since 2020, Sea is also the owner of Singapore Premier League football club Lion City Sailors FC, after Forrest Li acquired, privatised and renamed Home United.


title: Sea Ltd

text: On 9 September 2021, Sea was reportedly raising up to US$7.2 billion in an equity and convertible bond sale, which would make it Southeast Asia's largest fund raising. Sea said it planned to use the cash for strategic investments and potential acquisitions.


title: Sea Ltd

text: Shopee is a technology company focused mainly on e-commerce. Shopee was first launched in Singapore in 2015, and has grown to become the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia with 343 million monthly visitors. The company also serves consumers and sellers throughout in several countries across the Americas and Europe who wish to purchase and sell their goods online.


title: Sea Ltd

text: SeaMoney is an internet services company specialized in digital payments and financial services. Regarded as Sea's payments arm, its offerings include mobile wallet services, payment processing, credit offerings, and related digital financial products and services. These are available in seven markets across Southeast Asia and Taiwan under various brands, including ShopeePay, SPayLater, and other brands. SeaMoney served over 52 million users as of the second quarter of 2022.


title: Sea Ltd

text: Garena is the digital entertainment arm of Sea and distributes game titles on Garena+, an online game and social platform run by the company since 2012 for people to discover, download and play online games. Garena distributes game titles through Garena+ in various countries across Southeast Asia and Taiwan, including MOBA games "League of Legends" and "Heroes of Newerth", the online football (soccer) game "FIFA Online 3", the first-person shooter game "Point Blank", the mobile MOBA game "Arena of Valor" and the mobile racing game "Speed Drifters".


title: Sea Ltd

text: In 2017, Garena developed "Free Fire", an online action-adventure game that became the most downloaded game on the Google Play Store in 2019.


title: Sea Ltd

text: As of the second quarter of 2021, Garena recorded 725 million active users, 45% more than the year prior, while the number of paid users jumped 85% year-on-year, reaching 92 million. The outlook for Garena declined in 2022, after reports in March suggested that Garena will post US$2.9 to US$3.1 billion in bookings for the year, down from US$4.6 billion in 2021. The muted forecast would also be Garena's first decline in business ever. The ban imposed on its "Free Fire" title in India across both Google Play and Apple app stores has been cited as one of the contributory factors.


title: BMW X1

text: The BMW X1 is a line of subcompact luxury crossovers produced by BMW. Debuted in 2009, the first-generation X1 has been based on the E90 3 Series and offers rear-wheel drive layout as standard. At its introduction, it was positioned as the smallest SUV in BMW line-up below the X3, aiming a wider range of customers due to its smaller size, increased efficiency, and a lower price tag due to the all-wheel drive layout ("xDrive") being optional.


title: BMW X1

text: The second-generation X1 marked the switch to the front-wheel drive-based layout by using the UKL2 platform shared with the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer and the Mini Countryman. Despite its name, it is only the second smallest SUV produced by BMW since the introduction of the X2.


title: BMW X1

text: The E84 X1 is the first-generation model and was originally presented as the BMW Concept X1 at the Paris Motor Show in 2008. Development of the vehicle started in 2006 when BMW identified the need for a smaller and more efficient model in its SUV line-up as petrol prices were increasing. Due to the urgent need to produce the vehicle, development and pre-production time was shortened by 40 percent compared to previous X Series models.


title: BMW X1

text: It is based on the same platform as the E90 3 Series and features the same wheelbase. The X1 is the first BMW X Series to be available in the sDrive trim (two-wheel drive). It was not introduced to the United States until 2012.


title: BMW X1

text: In 2013, the E84 X1 underwent a facelift, featuring restyled exterior and interior design elements, as well as the integration of BMW EfficientDynamics on all models. The original X1 sold 820,529 units.


title: BMW X1

text: The F48 X1 is the second-generation model. It is built upon the front-wheel drive based UKL2 platform, and is available in long-wheelbase and long-wheelbase hybrid variants in China. The range consists of turbocharged 3-cylinder and 4-cylinder petrol and diesel engine options. Base models are front-wheel drive (branded as sDrive), with all-wheel drive (xDrive) available as an option and is standard for some higher-end models.


title: BMW X1

text: The U11 X1 was released in June 2022. Available powertrains include a turbocharged 3-cylinder, 4-cylinder petrol, inline-three diesel, inline-four diesel mild hybrid, petrol plug-in hybrid, and an electric variant.


title: BMW X1

text: Base models are front-wheel drive (branded as sDrive), with all-wheel drive (xDrive) available as an option (standard for some higher-end models). Like the BMW iX3, the all-electric iX1 will not be available in the United States or Canada.


title: BMW X1

text: The redesigned X1 has an updated interior similar to that of the iX, i4, and 2023 3 Series. It features a 10.25 inch digital gauge cluster as well as a 10.7 inch center screen running BMW's iDrive 8 infotainment system.


title: BMW X1

text: According to BMW, this X1 is 1.7 inches longer, 0.9 inches wider, and 1.7 inches taller than the previous generation, with a wheelbase that is 0.9 inches longer.


title: BMW X1

text: An M Sport package is available that adds adaptive suspension (available for the first time on the X1), a lower ride height, and interior and exterior styling elements.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: David Stephen Mitchell (born 12 January 1969) is an English novelist, television writer, and screenwriter.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: He has written nine novels, two of which, "number9dream" (2001) and "Cloud Atlas" (2004), were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written articles for several newspapers, most notably for "The Guardian", and translated books about autism from Japanese to English.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: Mitchell was born in Southport in Lancashire (now Merseyside), England, and raised in Malvern, Worcestershire. He was educated at Hanley Castle High School and at the University of Kent, where he obtained a degree in English and American Literature followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: Mitchell lived in Sicily for a year, then moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years, before returning to England, where he could live on his earnings as a writer and support his pregnant wife.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: Mitchell's first novel, "Ghostwritten" (1999), takes place in locations ranging from Okinawa in Japan to Mongolia to pre-Millennial New York City, as nine narrators tell stories that interlock and intersect. It won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for best work of British literature written by an author under 35) and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His two subsequent novels, "number9dream" (2001) and "Cloud Atlas" (2004), were both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2003, he was selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. In 2007, Mitchell was listed among "Time" magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: In 2012, his metafictional novel "Cloud Atlas" (again, with multiple narrators), was made into a feature film.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: One segment of "number9dream" was made into a BAFTA-nominated short film in 2013 starring Martin Freeman, titled "The Voorman Problem". In recent years he has also written opera libretti. "Wake", based on the 2000 Enschede fireworks disaster and with music by Klaas de Vries, was performed by the Dutch Nationale Reisopera in 2010. He has also finished another opera, "Sunken Garden", with the Dutch composer Michel van der Aa, which premiered in 2013 by the English National Opera.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: Several of Mitchell's book covers were created by design duo Kai and Sunny. Mitchell has also collaborated with the duo, by contributing two short stories to their art exhibits in 2011 and 2014.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: Mitchell's sixth novel, "The Bone Clocks", was published on 2 September 2014. In an interview in "The Spectator", Mitchell said that the novel has "dollops of the fantastic in it", and is about "stuff between life and death". "The Bone Clocks" was longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: Mitchell was the second author to contribute to the Future Library project and delivered his book "From Me Flows What You Call Time" on 28 May 2016.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: "Utopia Avenue", Mitchell's ninth novel, was published by Hodder & Stoughton on 14 July 2020. Utopia Avenue tells the “unexpurgated story” of a British band of the same name, who emerged from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967 and was “fronted by folk singer Elf Holloway, guitar demigod Jasper de Zoet and blues bassist Dean Moss”, said publisher Sceptre.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: Following the release of the 2012 film adaptation of "Cloud Atlas", Mitchell commenced work as a screenwriter alongside Lana Wachowski (one of "Cloud Atlas" three directors).


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: In 2015, Mitchell contributed plotting and scripted scenes for the second season of the Netflix series "Sense8" by the Wachowskis, who had adapted the novel for the screen, and together with Aleksandar Hemon they wrote the series finale. Mitchell had signed a contract to write season three of the series before Netflix's cancellation of the show.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: In August 2019, it was announced that Mitchell would continue his collaboration with Lana Wachowski and Hemon to write the screenplay for "The Matrix Resurrections" with them.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: After another stint in Japan, Mitchell and his wife, Keiko Yoshida, live in Ardfield, County Cork, Ireland, . They have two children. In an essay for Random House, Mitchell wrote: I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, but until I came to Japan to live in 1994 I was too easily distracted to do much about it. I would probably have become a writer wherever I lived, but would I have become the same writer if I'd spent the last six years in London, or Cape Town, or Moose Jaw, on an oil rig or in the circus? This is my answer to myself.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: Mitchell has a stammer and considers the film "The King's Speech" (2010) to be one of the most accurate portrayals of what it is like to be a stammerer: "I'd probably still be avoiding the subject today had I not outed myself by writing a semi-autobiographical novel, "Black Swan Green", narrated by a stammering 13-year-old." Mitchell is also a patron of the British Stammering Association.


title: David Mitchell (author)

text: Mitchell's son is autistic. In 2013 he and his wife Yoshida translated a book attributed to Naoki Higashida, a 13-year-old Japanese autistic boy, titled "". Higashida allegedly learned to communicate using the discredited techniques of facilitated communication and rapid prompting method.} In 2017, Mitchell and his wife translated the follow-up book also attributed to Higashida, "Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8: A Young Man's Voice from the Silence of Autism".


title: Flat cap

text: A flat cap is a rounded cap with a small stiff brim in front, originating in Britain and Ireland. The hat is known in Ireland as a paddy cap; in Scotland as a bunnet; in Wales as a Dai cap; and in the United States as an English cap, Irish cap, or flat cap. Various other terms exist (cabbie cap, driver cap, longshoreman cap, ivy cap, train engineer cap,etc.). Cloths used to make the cap include wool, tweed (most common), and cotton. Less common materials may include leather, linen, or corduroy. The inside of the cap is commonly lined for comfort and warmth.


title: Flat cap

text: The style can be traced back to the 14th century in Northern England, when it was more likely to be called a "bonnet". This term was replaced by "cap" before about 1700, except in Scotland, where it continues to be referred to as a "bunnet" in Scots.


title: Flat cap

text: A 1571 Act of the English Parliament was enacted to stimulate domestic wool consumption and general trade. It decreed that on Sundays and holidays, all males over 6 years of age, except for the nobility and "persons of degree", were to wear woolen caps or pay a fine of three farthings per day (). The Act was not repealed until 1597, though by then the flat cap had become firmly entrenched as a recognised mark of a non-noble person, such as a burgher, a tradesman, or an apprentice. The style may have been the same as the Tudor bonnet still used in some styles of academic dress.


title: Flat cap

text: In the 19th and early 20th centuries, when men predominantly wore some form of headgear, flat caps were commonly worn throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Versions in finer cloth were also considered to be suitable casual countryside wear for upper-class Englishmen. Flat caps were worn by fashionable young men in the 1920s. Boys of all classes in the United Kingdom wore caps during this period; a peaked school cap of prescribed colour and design, of more rounded shape than men's flat caps, was part of the normal school uniform.


title: Flat cap

text: The flat cap made its way to southern Italy in the late 1800s, likely brought by British servicemen. In Turkey, the flat cap became the main headgear for men after it became a replacement for the fez, which was banned by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1925.


title: Flat cap

text: In British popular culture, the flat cap (or "flat hat") is typically associated with older working-class men. The flat cap can also be taken to denote the upper class when affecting casualness. "A toff can be a bit of a chap as well without, as it were, losing face." In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, British public figures including David Beckham, Nigel Mansell, Guy Ritchie, Richard Blackwood, and Charles III wore the flat cap.


title: Flat cap

text: In Northern England, notable wearers include: Fred Dibnah, from Bolton; comic strip anti-hero Andy Capp, from Hartlepool, and AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson, of Newcastle, customarily wears a flat cap frequently on and off stage.


title: Flat cap

text: In "Peaky Blinders", a BBC television show about a former Birmingham-based gang, characters are seen wearing Baker Boy Caps, a similar style often confused for flat caps. It was thought, and adapted, that the gang had sewed-in razor blades on the peak of their flat caps for use as a weapon to blind their enemies.


title: Flat cap

text: Usage in the East End of London is illustrated by Jim Branning of the television soap opera "EastEnders" and Del Boy Trotter of "Only Fools and Horses". Taxicab and bus drivers are often depicted wearing a flat cap, as comedically portrayed by Gareth Hale and Norman Pace's (Hale and Pace) "London cabbies" television sketches.


title: Flat cap

text: The style has remained popular among groups of people in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and North America. The cap is sometimes associated with older men, significantly in South Korea, but has been popular (along with the newsboy cap) among some segments of younger people, for example, in cities such as Chicago, Boston and New York with large Irish-American populations. It has appeared in the hip hop subculture, sometimes worn back-to-front or cocked to the side. It is also very common among men and women in San Francisco, California. In Turkey, it is highly popular amongst men, mostly working-class.


title: Flat cap

text: The English rugby league team Featherstone Rovers supporters' nickname is "the Flat Cappers", because supporters in years gone by attended matches wearing them as did most other teams' supporters.


title: Flat cap

text: The black leather flat cap is often combined with a patched-up sport coat or leather jacket and dark clothes (sometimes combined with a bee-striped convict's shirt) in popular culture to depict a burglar, mugger, or robber, occasionally with a domino mask. The comic book character the Goon is based on this archetype of the flat-capped street tough from vintage cartoons and comics.


title: Flat cap

text: Popular US golfer Bryson DeChambeau wears a flat cap during his rounds on the PGA Tour in honor of the late Payne Stewart and Ben Hogan. The look has rejuvenated popularity with the style amongst younger golfers.


title: Flat cap

text: The Canadian team in the 1998 Winter Olympics wore red flat caps designed by Roots in the opening ceremony parade of nations. In addition, the US team in the 2008 Summer Olympics also wore white flat caps designed by Polo Ralph Lauren during the parade of nations.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: Uther Pendragon (Brittonic) (; ), also known as King Uther, was a legendary King of the Britons in sub-Roman Britain (c. 6th century). Uther was also the father of King Arthur.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down in the 12th century by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his "Historia Regum Britanniae" ("History of the Kings of Britain"), and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in most later versions. He is a fairly ambiguous individual throughout the literature, but is described as a strong king and a defender of his people.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: According to Arthurian legend, Merlin magically disguises Uther to look like his enemy Gorlois, enabling Uther to sleep with Gorlois' wife Lady Igraine. Thus Arthur, "the once and future king", is an illegitimate child (though later legend, as found in Malory, emphasises that the conception occurred after Gorlois's death and that he was legitimated by Uther's subsequent marriage to Igraine). This act of conception occurs the very night that Uther's troops dispatch Gorlois. The theme of illegitimate conception is repeated in Arthur's siring of Mordred by his own half-sister Morgause in the 13th century French prose cycles, which was invented by them; it is Mordred who mortally wounds King Arthur in the Battle of Camlann.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: Uther's epithet "Pendragon" literally means "head dragon" in its original Brittonic, though it was used figuratively to mean "highest commander; head leader; top of the command chain." Geoffrey of Monmouth in "Historia Regum Britanniae" misinterpreted it as "the head of a dragon" and invented an origin to explain it away: Uther acquired the epithet when he witnessed a portentous dragon-shaped comet, which inspired him to use dragons on his standards. According to Robert de Boron and the cycles based on his work, it was Uther's older brother (elsewhere called Aurelius Ambrosius and likely based on Ambrosius Aurelianus) who saw the comet and received the name "Pendragon", Uther taking his epithet after his death. An alternative possibility is it stems from adopting the use of the draco military standard of the Roman cavalry, but this is likely ahistorical conjecture.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: The title "Pendragon" was borrowed into Middle English from Welsh, where it originally indicated a literal dragon of great power or size but was eventually used figuratively to mean "a great leader; the highest commander". It is composed of Old Welsh prefix "pen-" "a tall hill; headlands; great heights", which is still used for place names in Wales and Cornwall (as in the famous Cornish town "Penzance", or "holy headland") combined with Old English "dragoun" "dragon" which was borrowed from Old French "dragon" (originally Latin accusative noun "draconem" "a massive serpent or sea creature," which was itself based on ancient Greek mythological dragons).


title: Uther Pendragon

text: Though the Welsh tradition of the Arthurian legend is fragmentary, some material exists through the Welsh Triads and various poems. Uther appears in these fragments, where he is associated with Arthur and, in some cases, even appears as his father.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: He is mentioned in the circa-10th-century Arthurian poem "Pa gur yv y porthaur?" ("What man is the gatekeeper?"), where it is only said of him that Mabon son of Modron is his servant. He is also memorialised with "The Death-song of Uther Pen" from the "Book of Taliesin". The latter includes a reference to Arthur, so the marginal addition of "dragon" to Uther's name is probably justified. "The Colloquy of Arthur and the Eagle," a modern manuscript from the 16th century but believed to have originated from the 13th century, mentions another son of Uther named Madoc, the father of Arthur's nephew Eliwlod.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: In Triad 28, Uthyr is named the creator of one of the Three Great Enchantments of the Island of Britain, which he taught to the wizard Menw. Since Menw is a shapeshifter according to "Culhwch and Olwen", it might be that Uther was one as well. If this is so, it opens up the possibility that Geoffrey of Monmouth's narrative about Uther impregnating Igerna with Merlin's help (see below) was taken from a Welsh legend where Uthyr changed his own shape, Merlin possibly being added to the story by Geoffrey.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: Uthyr's other reference, Triad 51, shows influence from Monmouth's "Historia". It follows Geoffrey's description of Uther as brother of both Aurelius Ambrosius ("Emrys Wledig") and Constans II ("Custennin the Younger"). However, its account of Uther's parentage differs; Triad 51 describes Uther's father to be Constantine III ("Custennin the Blessed") son of Elen, while Monmouth describes Uther's father to be Constantine, brother of King Aldroen of Armorica.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: Uther is best known from Geoffrey's "Historia Regum Britanniae" (1136) where he is the youngest son of King of Britannia, Constantine. His eldest brother Constans succeeds to the throne on their father's death, but is murdered at the instigation of his adviser Vortigern, who seizes the throne. Uther and his other brother, Aurelius Ambrosius, still children, flee to Brittany. Vortigern makes an alliance with the Saxons under Hengist, but it goes disastrously wrong. Aurelius and Uther return, now adults. Aurelius burns Vortigern in his castle and becomes king.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: With Aurelius on the throne, Uther leads his brother in arms to Ireland to help Merlin bring the stones of Stonehenge from there to Britain. Later, while Aurelius is ill, Uther leads his army against Vortigern's son Paschent and his Saxon allies. On the way to the battle, he sees a comet in the shape of a dragon, which Merlin interprets as presaging Aurelius's death and Uther's glorious future. Uther wins the battle and takes the epithet "Pendragon", and returns to find that Aurelius has been poisoned by an assassin. He becomes king and orders the construction of two gold dragons, one of which he uses as his standard.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: He secures Britain's frontiers and quells Saxon uprisings with the aids of his retainers, one of whom is Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. At a banquet celebrating their victories, Uther becomes obsessively enamoured of Gorlois' wife Igerna (Igraine), and a war ensues between Uther and his vassal. Gorlois sends Igerna to the impregnable castle of Tintagel for protection while he himself is besieged by Uther in another town. Uther consults with Merlin who uses his magic to transform the king into the likeness of Gorlois and thus gain access to Igerna at Tintagel. He spends the night with her and they conceive Arthur, but the next morning it is discovered that Gorlois had been killed. Uther marries Igerna and they have a daughter called Anna (in later romances she is called Morgause and is usually Igerna's daughter by her previous marriage). Morgause later marries King Lot and becomes the mother of Gawain and Mordred.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: Uther later falls ill and the wars begin to go badly against the Saxons. He insists on leading his army himself, propped up on his horse. He defeats Hengist's son Octa at Verulamium (St Albans), despite the Saxons calling him the "Half-Dead King". However, the Saxons soon contrive his death by poisoning a spring which he drinks from near Verulamium.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: Uther's family is based on some historical figures; Aurelius Ambrosius is Ambrosius Aurelianus, mentioned by Gildas, though his connection to Constantine and Constans is unrecorded. It is possible that Uther himself is based at least partially on Tewdrig, a historical king of Glywysing in the sixth century, given the strong similarities between their death stories. Depending on the source, Uther may either be the son of Constantine III, as is related in the Welsh Triad 51, or he may be the son of Constantine of Dumnonia, as related in Monmouth's "History of the Kings of Britain".


title: Uther Pendragon

text: In Robert de Boron's "Merlin", Uther Pendragon kills Hengist after an assassination attempt by the Saxon leader and Merlin creates the Round Table for him. In the "Prose Lancelot" Uther Pendragon claims to have been born in Bourges. He takes an army to Brittany to fight against King Claudas at Bourges, a situation resembling that of the historical ruler Riothamus who went to Brittany to fight ravagers based in Bourges. Uther also appears in the chivalric romance "Sir Cleges" as the king to whom Sir Cleges brings the Christmas cherries, obtained by miracle.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: There is an alternative account of Uther Pendragon's background in Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival". A certain Mazadân went with a fairy named Terdelaschoye to the land of Feimurgân. (This looks like a garbling of some source that told of Mazadân's alliance with the Fay Morgan in Terre de la Joye; the "Land of Joy".) Mazadân becomes father of two sons, Lazaliez and Brickus. Brickus becomes father of Utepandragûn, father of Arthur, while the elder son, Lazaliez, becomes father of Gandin of Anjou, father of Gahmuret, father of Parzival (Percival). Uther Pendragon and Arthur here appear as the scions of the junior branch of an unattested House of Anjou. Early German literature's motif of Uther's descent from fairies, believed to have relied on some now lost Celtic material, may have been meant to explain Arthur's connection with Avalon. Since, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Caliburn was a gift from Avalon, and Arthur was taken to Avalon to be healed. Layamon in his "Brut" also said that Arthur was given various blessings by fairies.


title: Uther Pendragon

text: Richard Carew's "Survey of Cornwall" (1602) drew on an earlier French writer, Nicholas Gille, who mentions Moigne, brother of Uther and Aurelius, who was duke of Cornwall, and "governer of the Realme" under Emperor Honorius. Carew's brief account of Arthur's birth also mentions a sister, Amy, also born to Uther and Igraine.


title: Thule

text: Thule ( ; ) is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shetland, northern Scotland, the island of Saaremaa (Ösel) in Estonia, and the Norwegian island of Smøla.


title: Thule

text: In classical and medieval literature, ultima Thule (Latin "farthest Thule") acquired a metaphorical meaning of any distant place located beyond the "borders of the known world".


title: Thule

text: By the Late Middle Ages and early modern period, the Greco-Roman Thule was often identified with the real Iceland or Greenland. Sometimes "Ultima Thule" was a Latin name for Greenland, when "Thule" was used for Iceland. By the late 19th century, however, "Thule" was frequently identified with Norway. Indeed, many of the settlers of Iceland were fleeing Harald Fairhair's recent unification of Norway, prominent among them the Thelir of Telemark (Thylemark). Thelir from neighbouring Grenland may have similarly named Greenland.


title: Thule

text: In 1910, the explorer Knud Rasmussen established a missionary and trading post in north-western Greenland, which he named "Thule" (later Qaanaaq).


title: Thule

text: Thule has given its name to the northernmost United States Space Force base, Thule Air Base in northwest Greenland, and to the smaller lobe of Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth, visited by the "New Horizons" spacecraft.


title: Thule

text: The Greek explorer Pytheas of the Greek city of Massalia (now Marseille, France) is the first to have written of Thule, after his travels between 330 and 320 BC. Pytheas mentioned going to Thule in his now lost work, "On The Ocean" Τὰ περὶ τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ ("ta peri tou Okeanou"). L. Sprague de Camp wrote that "the city of Massalia... sent Pytheas to scout northern Europe to see where their trade-goods were coming from." Descriptions of some of his discoveries have survived in the works of later, often skeptical, authors. Polybius in his "Histories" (c. 140 BC), Book XXXIV, cites Pytheas as one "who has led many people into error by saying that he traversed the whole of Britain on foot, giving the island a circumference of forty thousand stadia, and telling us also about Thule, those regions in which there was no longer any proper land nor sea nor air, but a sort of mixture of all three of the consistency of a jellyfish in which one can neither walk nor sail, holding everything together, so to speak."


title: Thule

text: The first century BC Greek astronomer Geminus of Rhodes claimed that the name Thule went back to an archaic word for the polar night phenomenon – "the place where the sun goes to rest". Dionysius Periegetes in his "De situ habitabilis orbis" also touched upon this subject, as did Martianus Capella. Avienius in his "Ora Maritima" added that during the summer on Thule night lasted only two hours, a clear reference to the midnight sun.


title: Thule

text: Strabo, in his "Geographica" (c. AD 30), mentions Thule in describing Eratosthenes' calculation of "the breadth of the inhabited world" and notes that Pytheas says it "is a six days' sail north of Britain, and is near the frozen sea". But he then doubts this claim, writing that Pytheas has "been found, upon scrutiny, to be an arch falsifier, but the men who have seen Britain and Ireland do not mention Thule, though they speak of other islands, small ones, about Britain". Strabo adds the following in Book 5: "Now Pytheas of Massilia tells us that Thule, the most northerly of the Britannic Islands, is farthest north, and that there the circle of the summer tropic is the same as the Arctic Circle. But from the other writers I learn nothing on the subject – neither that there exists a certain island by the name of Thule, nor whether the northern regions are inhabitable up to the point where the summer tropic becomes the Arctic Circle." Strabo ultimately concludes, "Concerning Thule, our historical information is still more uncertain, on account of its outside position; for Thule, of all the countries that are named, is set farthest north." The inhabitants or people of Thule are described in most detail by Strabo (citing Pytheas): "the people (of Thule) live on millet and other herbs, and on fruits and roots; and where there are grain and honey, the people get their beverage, also, from them. As for the grain, he says, since they have no pure sunshine, they pound it out in large storehouses, after first gathering in the ears thither; for the threshing floors become useless because of this lack of sunshine and because of the rains".


title: Thule

text: In AD 77, Pliny the Elder published his "Natural History" in which he also cites Pytheas' claim (in Book II, Chapter 75) that Thule is a six-day sail north of Britain. Then, when discussing the islands around Britain, he writes: "The farthest of all, which are known and spoke of, is Thule; in which there be no nights at all, as we have declared, about mid-summer, namely when the Sun passes through the sign Cancer; and contrariwise no days in mid-winter: and each of these times they suppose, do last six months, all day, or all night." Finally, in refining the island's location, he places it along the most northerly parallel of those he describes: "Last of all is the Scythian parallel, from the Rhiphean hills into Thule: wherein (as we said) it is day and night continually by turns (for six months)."


title: Thule

text: The Roman historian Tacitus, in his book chronicling the life of his father-in-law, Agricola, describes how the Romans knew that Britain (in which Agricola was Roman commander) was an island rather than a continent, by circumnavigating it. Tacitus writes of a Roman ship visiting Orkney and claims the ship's crew even sighted Thule. However their orders were not to explore there, as winter was at hand. Some scholars believe that Tacitus was referring to Shetland.


title: Thule

text: The third-century Latin grammarian Gaius Julius Solinus wrote in his "Polyhistor" that "Thyle, which was distant from Orkney by a voyage of five days and nights, was fruitful and abundant in the lasting yield of its crops". The 4th century Virgilian commentator Servius also believed that Thule sat close to Orkney: "Thule; an island in the Ocean between the northern and western zone, beyond Britain, near Orkney and Ireland; in this Thule, when the sun is in Cancer, it is said that there are perpetual days without nights..."


title: Thule

text: Other late classical writers such as Orosius (384–420) describe Thule as being north and west of both Ireland and Britain, strongly suggesting that it was Iceland.


title: Thule

text: Solinus (d. AD 400) in his "Polyhistor", repeated these descriptions, noting that the people of Thule had a fertile land where they grew a good production of crop and fruits.


title: Thule

text: In the writings of the historian Procopius, from the first half of the sixth century, Thule is a large island in the north inhabited by 25 tribes. It is believed that Procopius is really talking about a part of Scandinavia, since several tribes are easily identified, including the Geats ("Gautoi") in present-day Sweden and the Sami people ("Scrithiphini"). He also writes that when the Herules returned, they passed the Warini and the Danes and then crossed the sea to Thule, where they settled beside the Geats.


title: Thule

text: The Irish monk Dicuil in his "Liber De Mensura Orbis Terrae" (written circa 825) after quoting various classical sources describing Thule, says "It is now thirty years since clerics, who had lived on the island from the first of February to the first of August, told me that not only at the summer solstice, but in the days round about it, the sun setting in the evening hides itself as though behind a small hill in such a way that there was no darkness in that very small space of time, and a man could do whatever he wished as though the sun were there, even remove lice from his shirt, and if they had been on a mountain-top perhaps the sun would never have been hidden from them. In the middle of that moment of time it is midnight at the equator, and thus, on the contrary, I think that at the winter solstice and for a few days about it dawn appears only for the smallest space at Thule, when it is noon at the equator. Therefore those authors are wrong and give wrong information, who have written that the sea will be solid about Thule, and that day without night continues right through from the vernal to the autumnal equinox, and that vice versa night continues uninterrupted from the autumnal to the vernal equinox, since these men voyaged at the natural time of great cold, and entered the island and remaining on it had day and night alternately except for the period of the solstice. But one day's sail north of that they did find the sea frozen over. There are many other islands in the ocean to the north of Britain which can be reached from the northern islands of Britain in a direct voyage of two days and nights with sails filled with a continuously favourable wind. A devout priest told me that in two summer days and the intervening night he sailed in a two-benched boat and entered one of them. There is another set of small islands, nearly all separated by narrow stretches of water; in these for nearly a hundred years hermits sailing from our country, Ireland, have lived. But just as they were always deserted from the beginning of the world, so now because of the Northman pirates they are emptied of anchorites, and filled with countless sheep and very many diverse kinds of sea-birds. I have never found these islands mentioned in the authorities".


title: Thule

text: The British surveyor Charles Vallancey (1731–1812) was one of many antiquarians to argue that Ireland was Thule, as he does in his book "An essay on the antiquity of the Irish language".


title: Thule

text: Another hypothesis, first proposed by Lennart Meri in 1976, holds that the island of Saaremaa (which is often known by the exonym Osel) in Estonia, could be Thule. That is, there is a phonological similarity between Thule and the root "tule-" "of fire" in Estonian (and other Finnic languages). A crater lake named Kaali on the island appears to have been formed by a meteor strike in prehistory. This meteor strike is often linked to Estonian folklore which has it that Saaremaa was a place where the sun at one point "went to rest".


title: Thule

text: In 2010, scientists from the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation Science at the Technical University of Berlin claimed to have identified persistent errors in calculation that had occurred in attempts by modern geographers to superimpose geographic coordinate systems upon Ptolemaic maps. After correcting for these errors, the scientists claimed, Ptolemy's Thule could be mapped to the Norwegian island of Smøla.


title: Thule

text: In 1775, during his second voyage, Captain Cook named an island in the high southern latitudes of the South Atlantic Ocean, Southern Thule. The name is now used for a group of three southernmost islands in the South Sandwich Islands, one of which is called Thule Island. The island group became a British overseas territory of the United Kingdom, albeit also claimed by Argentina (in Spanish "Islas Tule del Sur").


title: Thule

text: In 1910, the explorer Knud Rasmussen established a missionary and trading post, which he named Thule (Inuit: "Avanaa") on Greenland. The Thule people, the predecessor of modern Inuit Greenlanders, were named after the Thule region. In 1953, Avanaa became Thule Air Base, operated by United States Air Force. The population was forced to resettle to New Thule (Qaanaaq), to the north ( only 840 NM from the North Pole).


title: Thule

text: Ultima Thule is the name of a location in the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky, United States. It was formerly the terminus of the known-explorable southeastern (upstream) end of the passage called "Main Cave", before discoveries made in 1908 by Ed Bishop and Max Kaemper showed an area accessible beyond it, now the location of the Violet City Entrance. The Violet City Lantern tour offered at the cave passes through Ultima Thule near the conclusion of the route.


title: Thule

text: The Southern Thule islands were occupied by Argentina in 1976. The occupation was not militarily contested by the British until the 1982 Falklands War, during which time British sovereignty was restored by a contingent of Royal Marines. Currently the three islands are uninhabited.


title: Thule

text: In March 2018, following a naming competition, the Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth, a fly-by target of the NASA probe "New Horizons", was nicknamed "Ultima Thule". The fly-by took place on 1 January 2019, and was the most distant encounter between a spacecraft and a planetary body. An official name for the body has since been assigned by the International Astronomical Union.


title: Thule

text: In the metaphorical sense of a far-off land or an unattainable goal, Virgil coined the term "Ultima Thule" (Georgics, 1. 30) meaning "farthermost Thule".


title: Thule

text: Seneca the Younger writes of a day when new lands will be discovered past Thule. This was later quoted widely in the context of Christopher Columbus' voyages.


title: Thule

text: The Roman poet Silius Italicus (AD 25 – 101) wrote that the people of Thule were painted blue: "the blue-painted native of Thule, when he fights, drives around the close-packed ranks in his scythe-bearing chariot", implying a link to the Picts (whose exonym is derived from the Latin "pictus" "painted"). Martial (AD 40 – 104) talks about "blue" and "painted Britons", just like Julius Caesar. Claudian (AD 370 – 404) also believed that the inhabitants of Thule were Picts.


title: Thule

text: A work of prose fiction in Greek by Antonius Diogenes entitled "The Wonders Beyond Thule" appeared c. AD 150 or earlier. (Gerald N. Sandy, in the introduction to his translation of Photius' ninth century summary of the work,


title: Thule

text: Early in the fifth century AD Claudian, in his poem, "On the Fourth Consulship of the Emperor Honorius", Book VIII, rhapsodizes on the conquests of the emperor Theodosius I, declaring that the "Orcades" "ran red with Saxon slaughter; Thule was warm with the blood of Picts; ice-bound Hibernia [Ireland] wept for the heaps of slain Scots". This implies that Thule was Scotland. But in "Against Rufinias", the Second Poem, Claudian writes of "Thule lying icebound beneath the pole-star". Jordanes in his "Getica" also wrote that Thule sat under the pole-star.


title: Thule

text: The "known world' of the Europeans came to be viewed as bounded in the east by India and in the west by Thule, as expressed in the "Consolation of Philosophy" (III, 203 = metrus V, v. 7) by Boethius. "For though the earth, as far as India's shore, tremble before the laws you give, though Thule bow to your service on earth's farthest bounds, yet if thou canst not drive away black cares, if thou canst not put to flight complaints, then is no true power thine."


title: Thule

text: In the early seventh century, Isidore of Seville wrote in his "Etymologies" that:Ultima Thule ("Thyle ultima") is an island of the Ocean in the northwestern region, beyond Britannia, taking its name from the sun, because there the sun makes its summer solstice, and there is no daylight beyond ("ultra") this. Hence its sea is sluggish and frozen.Isidore distinguished this from the islands of Britannia, Thanet ("Tanatos"), the Orkney ("Orcades"), and Ireland ("Scotia" or "Hibernia"). Isidore was to have a large influence upon Bede, who was later to mention Thule.


title: Thule

text: By the late Middle Ages, scholars were linking Iceland and/or Greenland to the name Thule and/or places reported by the Irish mariner Saint Brendan (in the 6th century) and other distant or mythical locations, such as Hy Brasil and Cockaigne. These scholars included works by Dicuil (see above), the Anglo-Saxon monk the Venerable Bede in "De ratione temporum", the Landnámabók, by the anonymous "Historia Norwegie", and by the German cleric Adam of Bremen in his "Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church", where they cite both ancient writers' use of Thule as well as new knowledge since the end of antiquity. All these authors also understood that other islands were situated to the north of Britain.


title: Thule

text: Eustathius of Thessalonica, in his twelfth-century commentary on the "Iliad," wrote that the inhabitants of Thule were at war with a tribe whose members dwarf-like, only 20 fingers in height. The American classical scholar Charles Anthon believed this legend may have been rooted in history (although exaggerated), if the dwarf or pygmy tribe were interpreted as being a smaller aboriginal tribe of Britain the people on Thule had encountered.


title: Thule

text: Petrarch, in the fourteenth century, wrote in his "Epistolae familiares" ("Familiar Letters") that Thule lay in the unknown regions of the far north-west.


title: Thule

text: A madrigal by Thomas Weelkes, entitled "Thule" (1600), describes it with reference to the Icelandic volcano Hekla:


title: Thule

text: The English poet Ambrose Philips began, but did not complete, a poem concerning "" which he published in 1748.


title: Thule

text: Thule is referred to in Goethe's poem "Der König in Thule" (1774). The King and Kingdom of Thule referenced in the poem have no historical basis, nor did Goethe claim such. Goethe's poem was


title: Thule

text: famously set to music by Franz Schubert (D 367, 1816), Franz Liszt (S.531) and Robert Schumann (Op.67, No.1), and in the collection "" (1880) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.


title: Thule

text: "Civilization may be defined as the sum total of those influences and agencies that make for knowledge and virtue. This is the goal, the "ultima Thule," of all human strivings. The essential factors of civilization are knowledge, industry, culture, and virture."


title: Thule

text: Hal Foster's protagonist Prince Valiant gets his title from being the son of Aguar, exiled king of Thule who has taken refuge in the Fens during the days of King Arthur. Foster places this kingdom of Thule on the Norwegian mainland, near Trondheim.


title: Thule

text: "Ultima Thule" is a short story written by author Vladimir Nabokov and published in "New Yorker" magazine on April 7, 1973.


title: Thule

text: Jorge Luis Borges uses the classic Latin phrase "ultima Thule" in his poem A Reader. He uses the phrase to connect the study of Latin in his younger years to his more recent efforts to read the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson.


title: Thule

text: Bernard Cornwell references Thule in his novel "The Lords of the North", the third book in the series "The Last Kingdom". The character Uhtred of Bebbanburg calls it, "that strange land of ice and flame".


title: Thule

text: In Germany, occultists believed in a historical Thule, or Hyperborea, as the ancient origin of the "Aryan race" (a term which they believed had been used by the Proto-Indo-European people). The Thule Society, which had close links to the "Deutsche Arbeiter Partei" (DAP, later known as the "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei", NSDAP) was, according to its own account, founded on August18, 1918. In his biography of Lanz von Liebenfels (1874–1954), "Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab" (published in Munich, 1985; translated as "The Man who Gave Hitler the Ideas"), the Viennese psychologist and author Wilfried Daim wrote that the Thule Gesellschaft name originated from mythical Thule. In his history of the SA ("Mit ruhig festem Schritt", 1998 – "With Firm and Steady Step"), Wilfred von Oven, Joseph Goebbels' press adjutant from 1943 to 1945, confirmed that Pytheas' Thule was the historical Thule for the "Thule Gesellschaft".


title: Thule

text: Much of this fascination was due to rumours surrounding the "Oera Linda Book", claimed to have been found by Cornelis over de Linden during the nineteenth century. The "Oera Linda Book" was partially translated into German in 1933 by Herman Wirth and was favored by Heinrich Himmler. The book has since been discredited. Professor of Frisian Language and Literature Goffe Jensma wrote that the three authors of the translation intended it "to be a temporary hoax to fool some nationalist Frisians and orthodox Christians and as an experiential exemplary exercise in reading the Holy Bible in a non-fundamentalist, symbolical way".


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: The Tasmanian Devil (also spelled Tazmanian Devil), commonly referred to as Taz, is an animated cartoon character featured in the Warner Bros. "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" series of cartoons. Though the character appeared in only five shorts before Warner Bros. Cartoons shut down in 1964, marketing and television appearances later propelled Taz to new popularity in the 1990s.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Taz is generally portrayed as a ferocious, albeit dim-witted, carnivore with a notoriously short temper and little patience. He got his name in the short "Ducking the Devil," where he is described as a "vicious, evil-tempered brute with jaws like a steel trap". Though he can be very devious, he is also sweet at times. His enormous appetite seems to know no bounds, as he will eat anything in his path. He is best known for his speech consisting mostly of grunts, growls, and rasps (in his earlier appearances, he does speak English with primitive grammar) as well as his ability to spin like a vortex and bite through nearly anything. Taz does have one weakness: he can be calmed by almost any music. While in this calm state, he can be easily dealt with. The only music known not to pacify Taz is the bagpipes, which he finds insufferable.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Robert McKimson based the character on the real life Tasmanian devil, or more specifically its carnivorous nature, voracious appetite, and surly disposition. Owen and Pemberton suggest that the character of the Tasmanian Devil was inspired by Errol Flynn. The model sheet was created by Ted Bonnicksen, who would later work for "Fritz the Cat".


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: In his first appearance in McKimson's "Devil May Hare" (first released on June 19, 1954), Taz stalks Bugs Bunny, but due to his dimwittedness and inability to frame complete sentences, he serves as little more than a nuisance. Bugs eventually gets rid of him in the most logical way possible: matching him up with an equally insatiable Tasmanian She-Devil. The character's speech, a deep, gravelly voice peppered with growls, screeches, and raspberries, is provided by Mel Blanc. Only occasionally would Taz actually speak, usually to utter some incongruous punchline, (e.g. "What for you bury me in the cold, cold ground?") and yet the character is capable of writing and reading. A running gag is that when Bugs Bunny hears of the approach of Taz, looks him up in an encyclopedia and starts reading off a list of animals that Taz eats (which is pretty much everything that exists, including "people"). Bugs finds "rabbits" not listed until Taz enters and either points out that "rabbits" "are" listed or writes rabbits on the list.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: After the film short debuted at theaters, producer Edward Selzer, head of the Warner Bros. animation studio, ordered McKimson to shelve the character, feeling that he was too violent for children, and that parents would dislike him. After a time with no new Taz shorts, studio head Jack L. Warner asked what had happened to the character. Warner saved Taz's career when he told Selzer that he had received "boxes and boxes" of letters from people who liked the character and wanted to see more of him.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: McKimson would go on to direct four more Taz cartoons, beginning with "Bedevilled Rabbit" (released on April 13, 1957). McKimson would also pair the Devil with Daffy Duck in "Ducking the Devil" (August 17, 1957) before pitting him once again against Bugs in "Bill of Hare" (June 9, 1962) and "Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare" (March 28, 1964). His last two appearances done by the classic Warner Brothers directors, writers, and voice actors were in "Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales" appearing in "The Fright Before Christmas" segment and at the very end eating the sleigh full of presents.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Taz was going to have a cameo in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", but was later dropped for unknown reasons.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Taz appeared in various episodes of "Tiny Toon Adventures", being the mentor of Dizzy Devil. He was voiced by Jeff Bergman, Maurice LaMarche, Noel Blanc and Greg Burson.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: In 1991, Taz starred in his own show "Taz-Mania", which ran for four seasons; Taz was voiced by long time voice actor Jim Cummings.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Taz also appeared in "Animaniacs," in the episodes "Draculee, Draculaa/Phranken-Runt" and "Cutie and the Beast/Boo Happens/Noel". He also appeared in "Suffragette City" in the 2020 reboot.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Taz also appeared in an episode of "The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries" entitled "The Scare Up There" where he is revealed to have stolen peanut packs from the flights.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Taz appeared in the theatrical feature film "Space Jam", as part of the "TuneSquad", voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. He also appeared in "", voiced by Brendan Fraser.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: An infant version of Taz is one of the regular characters in "Baby Looney Tunes," voiced by Ian James Corlett.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Taz appeared in "The Looney Tunes Show" episode "Devil Dog", voiced again by Jim Cummings. In the show, he is portrayed walking on four legs like a real Tasmanian Devil and his eyes are bloodshot red (later turned yellow when Bugs uses a taming trick that Speedy Gonzales taught him). Initially, Bugs believed Taz to be a dog and kept him as a house pet much to his roommate Daffy Duck's discomfort. Eventually, Bugs learned the truth and tried to return him to his home in Tasmania, only to find out that Taz would rather live with him, naming him "Poochie". Taz subsequently appears in the following episodes "The Foghorn Leghorn Story", "Newspaper Thief", and "Bugs and Daffy Get a Job". Taz later played a major part in "Ridiculous Journey" where he, Sylvester (whom Taz tried to eat) and Tweety were accidentally sent to Alaska by Yosemite Sam. The three of them work to get home while encountering other characters and avoiding tracker Blacque Jacque Shellacque. Eventually, they make it home when it turned out that Blacque was hired by Yosemite Sam to retrieve the three on behalf of Bugs and Granny.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Taz originally appeared in the series "Wabbit" as Theodore Tasmanian, an accountant at Chesterfield Consultants who tries to repress his vicious side. Unlike most versions of the character, he spoke more coherently. He was also married and had a child. Taz eventually returned to his original characterization and way of speaking when the series was retooled as "New Looney Tunes".


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: An alternate version of Taz appeared in the 2017 DC Comics/"Looney Tunes" crossover comics, where he was designed more for the DC Universe and faced off against Wonder Woman in the "Wonder Woman/Tasmanian Devil Special". In the story, Taz is a Guardian of the Labyrinth on Themyscira and fought Diana when she was a teenager during her trials to become an Amazon warrior. Before Taz could attack her, Diana plays the harp and puts it to sleep before snipping off some of his fur as proof of her victory. She returns to Taz years later as Wonder Woman after Circe uses the Talisman of Eurytale to turn Hippolyta and the other Amazons into stone. As the Talisman can only be stopped by the Minotaur's Amulet, she requests Taz's help as Taz's connection to the other Guardians would lead them down the right path. During the journey, Taz reveals that he wasn't mad at Diana for tricking him, but was rather upset that she took the music away. The two defeat the Minotaur and Circe and the Amazons reward him with a large feast in return. In the issue's backup story (done more in the style of the classic "Looney Tunes" shorts), Diana sings to Taz the tale of the Trojan War with her and the Looney Tunes characters roleplaying the major players, but Taz in his dream alters the events to work out more in his favor.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Taz first appears in the "Looney Tunes Cartoons" special "Bugs Bunny's 24-Carrot Holiday Special" in where he is a caroler. Taz appears as a gladiator in the episode "Taziator". While he is more like most depictions, he actually speaks more comprehensible English. He is voiced by Fred Tatasciore in these appearances.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Taz appears in the feature film "" with Tatasciore reprising the role, with additional dialogue done by Cummings.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: The character's first video game outing was in a title from the later days of the Atari 2600, in a 1983 release entitled "Taz". The 1990s saw a return of the character to video games in "Taz-Mania" and its semi-sequel "Taz in Escape from Mars". Both titles appeared on the Mega Drive/Genesis, Master System & Game Gear systems. There were other Taz-Mania games released on the Nintendo SNES and Game Boy systems. He also costarred in the PlayStation/PC game "", and in 2002's "" on PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox and PC. He also appeared in the video games "The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2", "The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout", "", "", "Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 3", "Bugs Bunny in Crazy Castle 4", "", "Galactic Taz Ball". He was even the inspiration for a video game character himself, namely Crash Bandicoot.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: In the late 1990s to early 2000s, when Chevrolet used the Looney Tunes as part of their NASCAR campaign, the Chevrolet Monte Carlo racing teams were referenced as Team Monte Carlo, with the Tasmanian Devil as the mascot.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Professional wrestler Peter Senercia adopted "Taz" and the variant spelling "Tazz" as his ring names.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: In "" (2004), Taz is one of the forms Scooby-Doo briefly takes upon accidentally drinking a chemical substance.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: From 2005 to 2010, a custom-bodied Taz monster truck competed in the Monster Jam circuit, driven by Adam Anderson. Adam drove the truck to the Monster Jam World Finals Freestyle championship in 2008. It was retired in 2010, with a Scooby-Doo-themed truck being its replacement debuting in 2013.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Taz appeared in a 2014 GEICO commercial, where he drinks a "certain energy drink" and goes on a rampage.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: In June 2017, the character appeared in the "Wonder Woman / Tasmanian Devil" Special #1, written by Tony Bedard with art by Barry Kitson. This version is reimagined as a Guardian of the Labyrinth on Themyscira whom Wonder Woman defeated when she was a teenager, but later teams up with her to save the Amazons from Circe.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: Taz appears as a playable character in the fighting game "MultiVersus", with Jim Cummings reprising his role.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: In 1997, a newspaper report noted that Warner Bros had "trademarked the character and registered the name Tasmanian Devil", and that this trademark "was policed", including an eight-year legal battle to allow a Tasmanian company to call its fishing lure the "Tasmanian Devil". Debate followed, and a delegation from the Tasmanian state government met with Warner Bros. Ray Groom, the Tourism Minister, later announced that a "verbal agreement" had been reached. An annual fee would be paid to Warner Bros in return for the Government of Tasmania being able to use the image of Taz for "marketing purposes". This agreement later lapsed.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: In 1997, the Tasmanian government and Warner Bros. disputed the government's right to use the character as a tourism promotion, which was offered only if a fee was paid. The government refused to pay a fee to Warner Bros.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: In 2006, after much lobbying from the Tasmanian government, Warner Bros decided to assist the fight against extinction of the Tasmanian Devil due to devil facial tumour disease (DFTD). Tasmanian Environment Minister Judy Jackson, prior to the agreement, had heavily criticised Warner Bros., stating that the company had made millions of dollars from the character, but did not put up any money when other companies had.


title: Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)

text: The deal with Warner Bros allowed the Tasmanian government to manufacture and sell up to 5,000 special edition Taz plush toys, with all profit going towards funding scientific research into DFTD. The deal also aimed to increase public attention towards the threatening disease.


title: East Slavs

text: The East Slavs are the most populous subgroup of the Slavs. They speak the East Slavic languages, and formed the majority of the population of the medieval state Kievan Rus', which they claim as their cultural ancestor. Today, the East Slavs consist of Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns, and Ukrainians.


title: East Slavs

text: Researchers know relatively little about the Eastern Slavs prior to approximately 859 AD when the first events recorded in the "Primary Chronicle" occurred. The Eastern Slavs of these early times apparently lacked a written language. The few known facts come from archaeological digs, foreign travellers' accounts of the Rus' land, and linguistic comparative analyses of Slavic languages.


title: East Slavs

text: Very few native Rus' documents dating before the 11th century (none before the 10th century) have survived. The earliest major manuscript with information on Rus' history, the "Primary Chronicle", dates from the late 11th and early 12th centuries. It lists twelve Slavic tribal unions which, by the 10th century, had settled in the later territory of the Kievan Rus between the Western Bug, the Dniepr and the Black Sea: the "Polans", "Drevlyans", "Dregovichs", "Radimichs", "Vyatichs", "Krivichs", "Slovens", "Dulebes" (later known as Volhynians and Buzhans), "White Croats", "Severians", "Ulichs", and "Tivertsi".


title: East Slavs

text: There is no consensus among scholars as to the urheimat of the Slavs. In the first millennium AD, Slavic settlers are likely to have been in contact with other ethnic groups who moved across the East European Plain during the Migration Period. Between the first and ninth centuries, the Sarmatians, Huns, Alans, Avars, Bulgars, and Magyars passed through the Pontic steppe in their westward migrations. Although some of them could have subjugated the region's Slavs, these foreign tribes left little trace in the Slavic lands. The Early Middle Ages also saw Slavic expansion as an agriculturist and beekeeper, hunter, fisher, herder, and trapper people. By the 8th century, the Slavs were the dominant ethnic group on the East European Plain.


title: East Slavs

text: By 600 AD, the Slavs had split linguistically into southern, western, and eastern branches. The East Slavs practiced "slash-and-burn" agricultural methods which took advantage of the extensive forests in which they settled. This method of agriculture involved clearing tracts of forest with fire, cultivating it and then moving on after a few years. Slash and burn agriculture requires frequent movement because soil cultivated in this manner only yields good harvests for a few years before exhausting itself, and the reliance on slash and burn agriculture by the East Slavs explains their rapid spread through eastern Europe. The East Slavs flooded Eastern Europe in two streams. One group of tribes settled along the Dnieper river in what is now Ukraine and Belarus to the North; they then spread northward to the northern Volga valley, east of modern-day Moscow and westward to the basins of the northern Dniester and the Southern Buh rivers in present-day Ukraine and southern Ukraine.


title: East Slavs

text: Another group of East Slavs moved to the northeast, where they encountered the Varangians of the Rus' Khaganate and established an important regional centre of Novgorod for protection. The same Slavic population also settled the present-day Tver Oblast and the region of Beloozero. Having reached the lands of the Merya near Rostov, they linked up with the Dnieper group of Slavic migrants.


title: East Slavs

text: According to archeology, the Prague, Korchak, Penkova, Kolochin and Kyiv cultures are classified as early Slavic, the earliest of which, Kyiv, from the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. e. was the northern neighbor of the more developed and multi-ethnic Chernyakhov culture, associated with West Slavs (Great Moravia). Rare, few and short-lived settlements of the Slavs were located "in unusual topographic conditions: in low places, often now flooded during floods".


title: East Slavs

text: Eastern Slavs, who found themselves as a result of migrations of the 4th-5th centuries. in the basins of lakes Chudskoye and Ilmen, formed the . This culture was strongly influenced by the autochthonous Finno-Ugric and Baltic peoples, from whom it adopted a specific burial rite and some features of ceramics, but in general, the way of life of the Eastern Slavs changed little. By the 5th century on the site of the Kyiv culture and in other regions to the north, east, west and south of it, a number of related cultures arise, such as Korchak, Kolochin, etc.


title: East Slavs

text: Among the East Slavs, fortified cities, apparently, first appeared among the Ilmen Slovenes in the 5th century (based on archaeological data in the town on Mayat river). The first settlements near the polans and severians arose in the region of Kyiv and Chernigov already by the 7th-8th centuries, which indicates at least a partial rejection of the previous strategy of scattered and secretive living among the forests. This is also evidenced by the fact that in the VIII-IX centuries. in all other East Slavic lands there were no more than two dozen cities, while only on the Left Bank of the Dnieper there were about a hundred of them.


title: East Slavs

text: The foundation of the main Slavic city of this region, Novgorod, is attributed by the letopis to 862. In the same era, settlements appeared on the territories of other East Slavic tribes (see ). So, the northerners who lived on the territory of modern Voronezh, Belgorod and Kursk regions, along with settlements in the 9th-10th centuries. built fortified settlements, mainly at the confluence of large rivers (see Romensko-Borshchiv culture). In the 10th century, a fortress appeared not far from the city of Smolensk that arose later (the Gnezdovsky archaeological complex).


title: East Slavs

text: Somewhat apart are the early East Slavic settlements, the creation of which is attributed to the tribal unions of Dulebs and Antes. Archaeologically, they are represented by the Prague-Korchak and Penkov cultures, respectively. A number of such settlements of the Prague-Korchak (Zimino, Lezhnitsa, Khotomel, Babka, Khilchitsy, ) and Penkovo (Selishte, Pastyrskoe) cultures existed in the 6th-7th centuries. on a vast territory from the borders of modern Poland and Romania to the Dnieper. The Prague-Korchak settlements were a site surrounded by a wooden wall with one building, which was part of the common wall of the settlement. They did not have agricultural tools, and the settlements, apparently, were built to collect and accommodate a military detachment. Penkovsky settlements could have up to two dozen buildings inside the walls and were large trade, craft and administrative centers for their time. The center of the territory controlled by the dulebs (Zimino, Lezhnitsa) was in the basin of the Western Bug; the geographical center of the Penkovo culture falls on the Dnieper region, but the main fortress of the Antes (Selishte) was located in the western part of this area, near the borders of Byzantine Empire (in modern Moldova), on which they made military campaigns. The early Slavic settlements were destroyed by the Avars in the 7th century, after which they were not built until the 10th century.


title: East Slavs

text: The disintegration, or parcelling of the polity of Kievan Rus' in the 11th century resulted in considerable population shifts and a political, social, and economic regrouping. The resultant effect of these forces coalescing was the marked emergence of new peoples. While these processes began long before the fall of Kiev, its fall expedited these gradual developments into a significant linguistic and ethnic differentiation among the Rus' people into Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Russians. All of this was emphasized by the subsequent polities these groups migrated into: southwestern and western Rus', where the Ruthenian and later Ukrainian and Belarusian identities developed, was subject to Lithuanian and later Polish influence; whereas the Russian ethnic identity developed in the Muscovite northeast and the Novgorodian north.


title: East Slavs

text: According to Y chromosome, mDNA and autosomal marker CCR5de132, gene pool of the East and West Slavs (the Czechs, Slovaks, and Poles) is identical, which is consistent with the proximity of their languages, demonstrating significant differences from the neighboring Finno-Ugric, Turkic and North Caucasian peoples all the way from west to east; such genetic homogeneity is somewhat unusual for genetics given such a wide dispersal of Slavic populations, especially Russians. Together they form the basis of the ""East European"" gene cluster, which also includes Balts, some Balkan peoples and the non-Slavic Hungarians and Aromanians.


title: East Slavs

text: Only the Poles and the Northern Russians among the East and West Slavs belong to a different, “"Northern European"” genetic cluster, along with the Balts, Germanic and Baltic Finnic peoples (Northern Russian populations are very similar to the Balts).


title: Land speed record

text: The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regulations are used, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The land speed record (LSR) is standardized as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs (commonly called "passes"). Two runs are required in opposite directions within one hour, and a new record mark must exceed the previous one by at least one percent to be validated.


title: Land speed record

text: The first regulator was the "Automobile Club de France", which proclaimed itself arbiter of the record in about 1902.


title: Land speed record

text: Different clubs had different standards and did not always recognize the same world records until 1924, when the "Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus" (AIACR) introduced new regulations: two passes in opposite directions (to negate the effects of wind) averaged with a maximum of 30 minutes (later more) between runs, average gradient of the racing surface not more than 1 percent, timing gear accurate within 0.01sec, and cars must be wheel-driven. National or regional auto clubs (such as AAA and SCTA) had to be AIACR members to ensure records would be recognized. The AIACR became the FIA in 1947. Controversy arose in 1963: "Spirit of America" was not recognized due to its being a three-wheeler (leading the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme to certify it as a three-wheel motorcycle record when the FIA refused) and not wheel-driven so the FIA introduced a special jet and rocket propelled class. No holder of the absolute record since has been wheel-driven.


title: Land speed record

text: In the U.S. and Australia, record runs are often done on salt flats, so the cars are often called salt cars.


title: Land speed record

text: The FIA does not recognize separate men's and women's land speed records, however, unofficial women's records have long been claimed, seemingly starting with Dorothy Levitt's 1906 record in Blackpool, England, and, unlike the FIA and other car-racing organisations, the Guinness Book of World Records does recognize gender-based land speed records.


title: Land speed record

text: In 1906, Dorothy Levitt broke the women's world speed record for the flying kilometer, recording a speed of and receiving the sobriquet the "Fastest Girl on Earth". She drove a six-cylinder Napier motorcar, a development of the K5, in a speed trial in Blackpool.


title: Land speed record

text: in 1963, Paula Murphy drove a Studebaker Avanti to at Bonneville Salt Flats as part of Andy Granatelli's attempt on the overall record. In 1964, she was asked by the tire company Goodyear to try to improve her own record, which she raised to in Walt Arfons's jet dragster "Avenger". The rival tire company Firestone and Art Arfons hit back against Goodyear and Walt Arfons when Betty Skelton drove Art's "Cyclops" to achieve a two-way average of in September 1965.


title: Land speed record

text: Five weeks later, Goodyear hit back against Firestone with Lee Breedlove. While recordkeeping has not been as extensive, a report in 1974 confirmed that a record was held by Lee Breedlove, the wife of then overall record holder Craig Breedlove, who piloted her husband's "Spirit of America – Sonic 1" to a record in 1965. According to author Rachel Kushner, Craig Breedlove had talked Lee into taking the car out for a record attempt in order to monopolize the salt flats for the day and block one of his competitors from making a record attempt.


title: Land speed record

text: In 1976, the women's absolute record was set by Kitty O'Neil, in the jet-powered, three-wheeled "SMI Motivator", at the Alvord Desert. Held back by her contract with a sponsor and using only 60 percent of her car's power, O'Neil reached .


title: Land speed record

text: On October 9, 2013, driver Jessi Combs, in a vehicle of the North American Eagle Project running at the Alvord Desert, raised the women's four-wheel land speed class record with an official run of , surpassing Breedlove's 48-year-old record. Combs continued with the North American Eagle Project, whose ongoing target is the overall land speed record; as part of that effort, Combs was killed, on August 27, 2019, during an attempt to raise the four-wheel record. In late June 2020, the Guinness Book of Records reclassified the August 27, 2019 speed runs as meeting its requirements, and Combs was credited with the record at , noting she was the first to break the record in 40 years.


title: Land speed record

text: Craig Breedlove's mark of , set in "Spirit of America" in September 1963, was initially considered unofficial. The vehicle breached the FIA regulations on two grounds: it had only three wheels, and it was not wheel-driven, since its jet engine did not supply power to its axles. Some time later, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme created a non-wheel-driven category, and ratified "Spirit of America"s time for this mark. On July 17, 1964, Donald Campbell's Bluebird CN7 posted a speed of on Lake Eyre, Australia. This became the official FIA LSR, although Campbell was disappointed not to have beaten Breedlove's time. In October, several four-wheel jet-cars surpassed the 1963 mark, but were eligible for neither FIA nor FIM ratification. The confusion of having three different LSRs lasted until December 11, 1964, when the FIA and FIM met in Paris and agreed to recognize as an absolute LSR the higher speed recorded by either body, by any vehicles running on wheels, whether wheel-driven or not.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Dion Phaneuf (born 10 April 1985) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played for the Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators and Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted ninth overall in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by Calgary and made his NHL debut in 2005 after a four-year junior career with the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League (WHL), in which he was twice named the Defenceman of the Year.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Phaneuf set a Flames record for most goals by a first-year defenceman and was named a finalist for the Calder Memorial Trophy as top rookie in 2005–06. Two years later, he was a finalist for the James Norris Memorial Trophy as top defenceman. During his career, Phaneuf was involved in two blockbuster trades. The first came in late 2009, when he was involved in a seven-player trade that saw him move from Calgary to Toronto. Six years later, Phaneuf was the centrepiece of a nine-player trade that saw him sent to Ottawa. He was traded to Los Angeles nearing the trade deadline in February 2018.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Phaneuf was a three-time NHL All-Star. He represented Canada internationally five times in his career, winning a silver medal and a gold medal at the World Junior Hockey Championship in 2004 and 2005, respectively, as well as a gold medal at the 2007 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Phaneuf is active in the community; the Flames honoured Phaneuf for his role as an ambassador to the Alberta Children's Hospital, where he participated in events that help sick and injured children during his time in Calgary. Phaneuf was a common sight at Toronto events, often appearing at fundraisers, promotional activities or visiting patients at Sick Kids Hospital.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Dion Phaneuf was born 10 April 1985, in Edmonton, Alberta, to Paul, a construction worker, and Amber, a nurse, both originally from the province of Prince Edward Island. Dion attended Harry Ainlay Composite High School before Hunting Hills High School while with the Red Deer Rebels. Dion has a younger brother, Dane, who played for the P.E.I. Rocket of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). Paul and Amber Phaneuf describe their family as close-knit.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Paul Phaneuf maintained a backyard rink each winter on which the young Phaneuf practiced. His mother, a former figure skater who competed for Prince Edward Island at the 1975 Canada Winter Games, taught him to skate. Phaneuf also practised his shot relentlessly in the basement of his family's home, frequently breaking the nets his father bought. As a youth, he played in the 1998 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from Edmonton.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: The Red Deer Rebels selected Phaneuf in the third round of the 2000 WHL Bantam Draft. One year later, he joined the Rebels for the 2001–02 season and recorded 17 points in 67 games. He added two assists in 21 games as the Rebels lost in the WHL Final against the Kootenay Ice. He improved to 30 points in 2002–03 as the Rebels again reached the WHL Finals, again losing, this time to the Kelowna Rockets. Phaneuf's development earned him comparisons to Hall of Famer Scott Stevens, as he was lauded by scouts for his physical style and ability to excel both defensively and offensively. Then-Calgary Flames general manager Darryl Sutter valued Phaneuf so highly in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft that he attempted to trade up from his ninth overall selection in the Draft, though to no avail. Nonetheless, he was able to select Phaneuf with Calgary's first selection in the draft.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Phaneuf established himself as the junior hockey team's top player following the draft, earning the Bill Hunter Memorial Trophy as the top defenceman in the WHL. He was also named an Eastern Conference All-Star by the WHL, and a First Team All-Star by the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). He was considered a candidate to join the Flames in 2004. However, the 2004–05 NHL lock-out forced Phaneuf to play one final year of junior hockey. He scored 56 points in 55 games to finish his junior career with 146 total points. He repeated as the WHL's Defenceman of the Year, and was again named to both WHL and CHL All-Star teams. "Prospects Hockey" rated Phaneuf as the top player in the CHL in both 2004 and 2005, ahead of Sidney Crosby, naming him one of the best junior defencemen of the previous decade.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Phaneuf joined the Flames for the 2005–06 NHL season after signing his first professional contract in September 2005. He made his NHL debut on 5 October 2005, against the Minnesota Wild. Five nights later, he scored his first career goal and assist against the Colorado Avalanche. He was named the NHL's Rookie of the Month for November after leading all rookie defencemen with nine points and two game-winning goals. By January, Phaneuf was being named alongside Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin as a candidate for the NHL's top rookie. He finished the season with 20 goals, only the third player in NHL history after Brian Leetch and Barry Beck to score 20 as a rookie defenceman. His 20 goals also broke the Flames franchise record for goals by a rookie defenceman, surpassing Gary Suter's total of 18. Phaneuf was named a finalist for the Calder Memorial Trophy as top rookie, but lost to Ovechkin.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: A 50-point sophomore season earned Phaneuf his first NHL All-Star Game appearance in 2006–07. He participated in the hardest shot competition at the SuperSkills competition, losing to Zdeno Chára, and scored a goal and an assist in the game itself to help the Western Conference defeat the East 12–9. The Flames signed Phaneuf to a six-year, US$39 million contract extension midway through the 2007–08 season. He responded by posting a career-high 60 points, and was voted into the starting line-up by the fans for the 2008 All-Star Game. Phaneuf was named to the NHL first All-Star team following the season, and was a finalist for the James Norris Memorial Trophy as defenceman of the year, losing to the Detroit Red Wings' Nicklas Lidström.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: The 2008–09 season was a frustrating one for Phaneuf, as he recorded a career-low 11 goals and 47 points, and his poor plus-minus rating of –11 led fans to question his defensive commitment. His poor season and high salary also led to speculation that Phaneuf might be traded. Despite his struggles, Phaneuf averaged 26 minutes and 31 seconds of ice time per game, the fourth highest in the NHL. He missed the final game of the Flames' 2009 Stanley Cup playoff Western Quarter-final series against the Chicago Blackhawks with broken ribs, after battling a hip injury during the regular season. Flames management defended Phaneuf, claiming the injuries he battled affected his play.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: On 31 January 2010, the Flames dealt Phaneuf, along with Fredrik Sjöström and Keith Aulie, to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Ian White and Jamal Mayers.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: On 2 February 2010, Phaneuf made his Toronto Maple Leaf debut, leading all Maple Leafs players in time on ice and ended the night with a fight and given second star of the game honours. He would record his first point, an assist, four nights later in a game against the Ottawa Senators and scored his first goal as a Leaf on 7 April 2010, on Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers. Phaneuf was named an alternate captain in Toronto nine games after being acquired after Mike Komisarek suffered a season-ending injury. While Phaneuf struggled offensively to begin his tenure in Toronto – he played 25 games in Toronto before scoring his first goal – then-Leafs head coach Ron Wilson credited him with creating a positive change in the mood in the Toronto dressing room.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Phaneuf was named the 18th captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs on 14 June 2010, at a press conference held by general manager Brian Burke, succeeding Mats Sundin, who left after the 2007–08 season.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: On 2 November 2010, in a game against the Ottawa Senators, Phaneuf sustained an injury in the leg by having it cut open with a skate from Peter Regin while crashing into the boards. He was carried off the ice immediately and had surgery done the same night. Phaneuf was said to be off the ice for four-to-six weeks, and made a return to the Leafs' line-up on 9 December 2010, a home ice game against the Philadelphia Flyers, which Philadelphia won 4–1, though he had one assist on the lone Toronto goal.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: On 5 January 2012, it was announced that Phaneuf would compete in his third All-Star Game, having finished second amongst all defencemen on the fan ballot, gaining 614,933 votes, behind the Ottawa Senators' Erik Karlsson. On 21 April 2013, Phaneuf and the Leafs clinched a Stanley Cup playoff spot, the first time for Phaneuf since the 2008–09 season with the Calgary Flames. On 10 December 2013, Phaneuf received a two-game suspension on a boarding hit on Boston Bruins defenceman Kevan Miller, which occurred on 8 December 2013, in Toronto. Phaneuf forfeited the amount of US$66,666.66 for his action.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: The Maple Leafs, struggling once again, decided to start a rebuild in early 2015. Thus Phaneuf, a veteran defenceman with a lengthy contract, began being shopped around. On 2 March 2015, Phaneuf was almost traded to the Detroit Red Wings, however the deal fell through at the last minute when Toronto refused to retain a large portion of Phaneuf's salary. He would play the rest of the year in Toronto. When Toronto hired head coach Mike Babcock the following season, Phaneuf excelled, experiencing fewer penalty minutes and better defensive play under his reduced minutes.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: After parts of seven seasons with Toronto, Phaneuf was traded to the Ottawa Senators on 9 February 2016, in a blockbuster nine-player trade. Both fans and media alike viewed the trade with shock, as a significant deal between the arch-rivals was viewed as very unlikely to happen. Phaneuf, Matt Frattin, prospects Casey Bailey, Ryan Rupert and Cody Donaghey were sent to the Senators in exchange for Jared Cowen, Colin Greening, Milan Michalek, prospect Tobias Lindberg and Ottawa's 2017 second-round draft pick. Due to the Battle of Ontario rivalry, this was the first time the Maple Leafs and Senators had made a trade since 17 March 1998, when Per Gustafsson was sent to Ottawa in exchange for an eighth-round pick. Phaneuf played a shortened 2015–16 season due to an "oblique injury and soreness in his right foot" after blocking a shot during a game against the Maple Leafs on March 12, ending the season with 20 games played with the Senators, amassing one goal and eight points.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Phaneuf was named an alternate captain of the Senators at the beginning of the 2016–17 season. Phaneuf scored the overtime winner in game two of the Senators' first-round playoff series against the Boston Bruins in the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The team would be eliminated in the seventh game, double-overtime of the Eastern Conference final by the Pittsburgh Penguins.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: In the following off-season, Phaneuf was asked by the Senators to waive his no-move clause in his contract for the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft. He declined and the Senators had to place Phaneuf on its protected list for the draft.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: In the following season, the Senators stumbled out of the gate. This was later attributed to dissension in the dressing room. After a trade to bring Matt Duchene to Ottawa was followed by poor performances, the team's management started dismantling the team to rebuild. On 13 February 2018, Phaneuf and Nate Thompson were traded to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for forwards Marian Gaborik and Nick Shore. To complete the deal, Phaneuf had to allow a trade to the Kings under the no-move clause in his contract. As part of the deal, the Senators retained 25% of the remainder of Phaneuf's contract.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: During the 2018–19 season, Phaneuf played in his 1,000th career game on 17 November 2018 in a 5-3 loss to the Nashville Predators. He finished his second season with the Kings recording a career-low one goal and six points and a plus-minus of -21 through 67 games. On 15 June 2019, the Kings bought out the final two years of Phaneuf's contract, making him an unrestricted free agent.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: On 16 November 2021, Phaneuf announced his retirement from professional ice hockey, over two years after his final game in the NHL. He had spent parts of the previous two seasons job-shadowing with Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan. The Maple Leafs honoured Phaneuf later that day in a ceremony ahead of their game against the Nashville Predators.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Phaneuf made his international debut for the Canadian junior team at the 2004 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Helsinki, earning a leadership role under Head Coach Mario Durocher. A devastating bodycheck to the Czech Republic's Rostislav Olesz led the referee to eject Phaneuf from the semi-final game; he was not suspended, however, and played in the gold medal game. The Canadians lost the final to the United States, while Phaneuf was named a tournament All-Star at defence.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: The Canadian team at the 2005 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships dominated the tournament, outscoring their opposition 35–6 in the games leading up to the gold medal game with Russia. Phaneuf scored a goal and threw a memorable bodycheck that knocked down two Russian players in the game as Canada routed the Russians 6–1 to win their first gold medal in eight years. He was again named a tournament All-Star, as well as being named the outstanding defenceman of the tournament.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Following the Flames' elimination in the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs, Phaneuf joined the Canadian senior team at the 2007 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships in Moscow. He recorded eight assists in seven games to help Canada win the gold medal over Finland. Once considered a virtual lock to join Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics, his struggles in the 2008–09 season placed his candidacy in doubt. Team Canada general manager Steve Yzerman continued to express confidence in Phaneuf during a summer camp held in Calgary, but Phaneuf was not among the seven defencemen ultimately selected for the team.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: After the Maple Leafs missed the 2011 playoffs, Phaneuf served as alternate captain of Canada at the 2011 IIHF World Championship in Bratislava, Slovakia, where Canada finished fifth. Phaneuf was once again alternate captain of the Canadian team at the 2012 World Championship in Helsinki and Stockholm. Canada repeated its fifth-place finish of the prior year.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: In August 2013, Phaneuf attended the summer orientation camp for Canada in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics. However, Phaneuf was not named to the final roster.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: In junior hockey, Phaneuf was known not only for his physical presence, but also his calm demeanour and offensive ability. He was compared to Hockey Hall of Famer Scott Stevens by his former coach, Brent Sutter. Scouts praised his defensive ability, and the poise he showed at both ends of the ice. Praised for his leadership abilities, Phaneuf was named the captain of Team WHL at the 2004 ATD Canada-Russia Challenge, and was counted upon to take a leadership role with the Canadian junior team at the 2004 and 2005 World Junior Championships.


title: Dion Phaneuf

text: Entering his sophomore season, Phaneuf's potential impact on a game was compared to that of Russian star Alexander Ovechkin, and a poll released by ESPN in 2008 revealed that 43% of players asked argued Phaneuf was the hardest hitter in hockey, at the age of 22. He was named an alternate captain by the Flames at the start of the 2008–09 season, though Brent Sutter chose to alternate amongst a group of veterans, including Phaneuf, in 2009–10.