An obnoxious annoyance? Never! A lovely, sweet, fun and joyous person definitely. But never obnoxious or annoying.

Someone is really bad at geography. :p

http://nato.gov.si/eng/topic/national-security/neutral-status/neutral-countries/

Live and learn. My source is : http://www.eupedia.com/austria/trivia.shtml
I don't know what "continental" is supposed to mean, but it seems wrong too.....

I'm being killed by kindness!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!! ;)


I am humbled and honored by your nomination, but I must ask that you choose someone else. I've just won a prize in the "thank the fellows" and would love to see another win. But again, it was very nice to see you thought of me :)

What? You're still not dead after all this kindness! Okay, you asked for it. The super hugging axe of kindness. :-D

Thank you for YAAG and as promised here is my contribution, along with another game:Euro Truck Simulator 2 for Steam; it seemed appropriate for a European nation giveaway ;)

I decided to focus on Austrian folklore rather than mere hard facts this time, especially as my own contribution was going to be about the sieges of Vienna which were amply discussed above.Instead I'll focus on something that had a profound influence on one of our shared favorite authors and a Great Name from your country...J.R.R Tolkien...

The great German epic, Das Niebelungenlied, was written in Austria around AD 1250. It combined mythical warrior gods and goddesses of Teutonic (ancient northern European) times with real stories of court life in the Middle Ages. Vienna's Museum für Volkskunde houses exhibits on Austrian folklore.

Read more: http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Afghanistan-to-Bosnia-Herzegovina/Austrians.html#ixzz3Izfec3B5

The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge.

The Nibelungenlied is based on pre-Christian Germanic heroic motifs (the "Nibelungensaga"), which include oral traditions and reports based on historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries. Old Norse parallels of the legend survive in the Völsunga saga, the Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda, the Legend of Norna-Gest, and the Þiðrekssaga.

"Tolkien was heavily influenced by Nordic mythology. During his education at King Edward's School in Birmingham, the then young Tolkien read and translated from the Old Norse on his own time.[3] One of his first Nordic purchases was the Völsunga saga. It is known that while a student, Tolkien read the only available English translation[4][5] of the Völsunga saga, that by William Morris of the Victorian Arts and Crafts Movement and Icelandic scholar Eiríkur Magnússon.[6] The Völsunga saga and the Nibelungenlied were coeval texts made with the use of the same ancient sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien%27s_influences
I'll be in for...oh, crewdroog I guess.:P

Oh my vote for the next country would be India.

Especially its wagnerasied derivations.

Firstly, thank you for the contribution of a second prize! Please be sure to give Ragnarblackmane a +1 for his awesome generosity. I will update the OP with your generous offer as another prize option.

Secondly, thank you for the interesting facts, I was not expecting something on Tolkien, but it is of course very much appreciated. Tolkien's book on Sigurd (Siegfried) is one of my favourite narrative poems.

Not true at all, Tolkien was vehemently opposed to the Wagnerian derivations. In fact:

Wagnerian influences

Some critics have suggested that The Lord of the Rings was directly and heavily derived from Richard Wagner's opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen which also centres its plot on a powerful ring.[51] Others have argued that any similarity is due to Tolkien being influenced by the legendary Volsunga saga and the Nibelungenlied, which were the basis for the operas.[52][53]

Tolkien sought to dismiss critics' direct comparisons to Wagner, telling his publisher, "Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases." According to Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Tolkien, the author claimed to hold Wagner's interpretation of the relevant Germanic myths in contempt, even as a young man before reaching university.[54]

Some researchers take an intermediate position: that both the authors used the same sources, but that Tolkien was influenced by Wagner's development of the mythology,[55][56] especially "concept of the Ring as giving the owner mastery of the world that was Wagner's own contribution to the myth of the Ring".[57] Wagner probably developed this element by combining the ring with a magical wand mentioned in the Nibelungenlied that could give to its wearer the control "over the race of men".[58][59] In addition, the corrupting power of Tolkien's One Ring has a central role in Wagner's operas but was not present in the mythical sources.[60][61]

Some argue that Tolkien's denial of a Wagnerian influence was an over-reaction to the statements of Åke Ohlmarks, Tolkien's Swedish translator, who in the introduction to his much-criticized translation of The Lord of the Rings "mixed material from various legends, some which mention no ring and one which concerns a totally different ring".[62][63][64] Furthermore, critics believe that Tolkien was reacting against the links between Wagner's work and Nazism.[65][66]

Mostly this. It's hard not to see Tolkiens's vulgarised post-romanticism deeply rooted into the culture and mentality prior to WW I.

Also, Wagner's damnatio memoriae after World War II surely played a significant role.

+1. Good on ya doing another contribution :)

@OP: Not in, but thanks to you as well!

Bump

Thanks, you should enter!

Alas, I have no amusing stories about going through customs to pee in Austria. I will have to think about this.