Background
Magnus was the son of King Olaf Kyrre, grandson of King Harald Hardrada and great-nephew of King Olaf the Saint. The epithet berfœtt means barefoot or bareleg and, according to the Icelandic writer Snorri Sturluson, it came from his habit of wearing Gaelic-style clothing, leaving the lower legs bare. According to the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, he got the nickname because he was forced to flee from an attack in his bare feet.
Read more about this topic: Magnus Barefoot
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)