"handfasting, n." and "handfast, v." OED Online. November 2010. Oxford University Press.
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The Pinnacles The Pinnacles are two chalk formations, including a stack and a stump, located near Handfast Point, on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, southern England.
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The Macleod and MacDonald Clans had been long at feud. Rory Mòr MacLeod (Ruaraidh MacLeòid) attempted to make peace, offering the hand of his sister, Margaret Macleod, in marriage to Donald Gorm Mòr MacDonald (Dòmhnall Gorm Mòr MacDhòmhnall). The marriage itself was subject to a contract called a handfast. In a handfast arrangement, a man and woman lived together as man and wife for up to a year and a day.
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The verb to handfast in the sense of "to formally promise, to make a contract" is recorded for Late Old English, especially in the context of a contract of marriage. The derived handfasting is for a ceremony of engagement or betrothal is recorded in Early Modern English. The term was presumably loaned into English from Old Norse handfesta "to strike a bargain by joining hands"; there are also comparanda from the Ingvaeonic languages: Old Frisian hondfestinge and Middle Low German hantvestinge. The term is derived from the verb to handfast, used in Middle to Early Modern English for the making of a contract.
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Old Harry and his (latest) wife Old Harry Rocks are three chalk formations, including a stack and a stump, located at Handfast Point, on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, southern England. They mark the most eastern point of the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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"Old Norse hand-festa to strike a bargain by joining hands, to pledge, betroth" The earliest cited English use in connection with marital status is from a manuscript of c. 1200, when Mary is described as "handfast (to) a good man called Joseph". "?c1200 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 2389 "Ȝho wass hanndfesst an god mann Þatt iosæp wass ȝehatenn.
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She narrates the story of her life as the dusky-skinned daughter of a Stratford businessman and an Italian acrobat. She and Shakespeare are married in a "handfast" ceremony which is known only to them. In London she carries on a secret parallel marriage with him while Hathaway and her children stay in Stratford. She inspires many of his works and shares his feelings, triumphs and fears.
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Scene 1: Antonio's house Aberzanes arrives at Antonio's house. Antonio urges him to draw his sword and fight, but Aberzanes refuses. Antonio forces Francisca and Aberzanes to kneel and perform a handfast (engagement) ceremony, ending by making them drink some poisoned wine. He also drinks the wine himself—a suicidal act that is not in fact suicidal because the servant, Hermio, disobeyed Antonio's orders and refrained from poisoning the wine.
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Woodman, pp. 413. She then joined the escort for Convoy RA 60A on 11 November. Later in the month she supported two more operations with escort carriers off the Norwegian coast near Karmøy on 20 November (Operation Handfast) and then near Mosjøen on 27 November. She escorted Convoy JW 63 over the New Year period, her anti-aircraft gunners accidentally shooting at (and missing) two Wildcats which had been launched to intercept a German aircraft.
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Scene 1: Urbino, Italy; The grounds of the Lord Governor's house; the day of Antonio and Isabella's wedding; a banquet laid out Sebastian has been absent from Urbino for three years, and has falsely been reported killed in war. His fiancee Isabella has just married the powerful aristocrat Antonio. According to the Renaissance custom of handfast, Sebastian regards Isabella as his wife in the sight of Heaven. Sebastian is distraught at the thought of Isabella consummating her marriage with Antonio that night.
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At Lulworth Cove, the waves have cut their way through the resistant Portland stone and created a horseshoe-shaped cove by eroding the softer sands and clays behind. Another feature of this part of the coast is Durdle Door, a natural arch. Sea stacks and pinnacles, such as Old Harry Rocks at Handfast Point, have been formed by erosion of the chalk cliffs. The highest point on the Jurassic Coast, and on the entire south coast of Britain, is Golden Cap at between Bridport and Charmouth.
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154 Edmund Ironside's sons likewise fled abroad. Æthelred's sons by Emma of Normandy went under the protection of their relatives in the Duchy of Normandy. In July 1017, Cnut wed queen Emma, the widow of Æthelred and daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy. Later he was to proclaim Harthacnut, his son by Emma, to be his heir; while Svein Knutsson and Harold Harefoot, his two sons from his marriage to Ælfgifu of Northampton, his handfast wife, were kept on the sidelines in the running to the throne.
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Durlston Head (limestone) to Handfast Point (chalk), with Peveril Point (limestone) dividing Durlston Bay from Swanage Bay A discordant coastline occurs where bands of different rock type run perpendicular to the coast. The differing resistance to erosion leads to the formation of headlands and bays. A hard rock type such as granite is resistant to erosion and creates a promontory whilst a softer rock type such as the clays of Bagshot Beds is easily eroded creating a bay. Part of the Dorset coastline running north from the Portland limestone of Durlston Head is a clear example of a discordant coastline.
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Furthermore, a "handfast" or probationary marriage and pregnancy were frequent precursors to legal marriage at the time. Examining the surviving records of Stratford-upon-Avon and nearby villages in the 1580s, Greer argues that two facts stand out quite prominently: first, that a large number of brides went to the altar already pregnant; and second, that autumn, not spring, was the most common time to get married. Shakespeare was bound to marry Hathaway, who had become pregnant by him, but there is no reason to assume that this had not always been his intention. It is nearly certain that the respective families of the bride and groom had known one another.
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After being initiated into Alexandrian Wicca by Maxine Sanders in 1970, he subsequently published one of the earliest books to describe this newly burgeoning religion, What Witches Do (1971). Within only a few months of being initiated, he had risen to the position of High Priest and founded his own coven in south London, with Janet Farrar, whom he would later handfast and then legally marry, as his High Priestess. In 1976 the couple moved to Ireland, where they went about founding new covens and initiating new people into Wicca - according to George Knowles, "some seventy five percent of Wiccans both in the Republic and North of Ireland can trace their roots back to the Farrar's [sic]". This claim is repeated in With Janet, he also set about writing books about the subject, most notably Eight Sabbats for Witches (1981) and The Witches' Way (1984).
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