Logrono \lo-'gro-nyo\ City (2001: 133,058), capital of La Rioja autono¬ mous community, Spain. Originating in Roman times, it owed its growth during the Middle Ages to its position on the pilgrimage route to Santi¬ ago de Compostela. An ancient walled town, it is a trade centre in an agri¬ cultural region and is known for its Rioja wine.
Lohengrin \'\d-dn-,gren,\ English Vlo-on-.grinV Hero-knight of medieval Germanic legends. He was called the knight of the swan because he arrived in a boat drawn by a swan to help a noble lady in distress. He married her but forbade her to ask his origin; when she forgot this prom¬ ise, he left her, never to return. The first version of his legend appeared c. 1210 in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, in which the swan knight was the son and heir of Parzival (Perceval). The anonymous 15th-century epic Lorengel provided the basis for Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin
(1850).
Loire \'lwar\ River River, southeastern France. The longest river in France, it flows north and west for 634 mi (1,020 km) to the Bay of Bis¬ cay, which it enters through a wide estuary below Saint-Nazaire. Embank¬ ments were built as early as the 12th century, and in subsequent centuries it was used extensively for the transport of goods. A canal system built in the 17th and 18th centuries is inadequate for modem vessels.
loka \'lo-ko\ In Hinduism, the universe or any particular division of it. The most common division of the universe is the tri-loka, or three worlds (heaven, earth, and atmosphere, or heaven, world, and netherworld), each of which is divided into seven regions. Sometimes, instead of the tri-loka, 14 worlds are envisioned, seven above the earth and seven below. What¬ ever the division, it illustrates the basic Hindu concept of hierarchically ordered worlds.
Loki Vlo-ke\ In Norse mythology, a trickster who was able to change his shape and sex. His father was the giant Farbauti, but he was included
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among the Aesir, a tribe of the gods. A companion of the great gods Odin and Thor, Loki helped them with his clever plans but sometimes embar¬ rassed them. He also appeared as the enemy of the gods, entering their banquets uninvited and demanding drink. After causing the death of the god Balder, he was punished by being bound to a rock. Loki created a female, Angerboda, with whom he produced three evil progeny: Hel, the goddess of death; Jormungand, the evil serpent surrounding the world; and Fenrir, the wolf.
Lollards Followers of John Wycliffe in late medieval England. The pejo¬ rative name (from Middle Dutch lollaert, “mumbler”) had been applied earlier to European groups suspected of heresy. The first Lollard group centred on some of Wycliffe’s colleagues at Oxford led by Nicholas of Hereford. In 1382 the archbishop of Canterbury forced some of the Oxford Lollards to renounce their views, but the sect continued to mul¬ tiply. The accession of Henry IV in 1399 signaled a wave of repression. In 1414 a Lollard rising was quickly defeated by Henry V; it brought severe reprisals and marked the end of the Lollards’ overt political influ¬ ence. A Lollard revival began c. 1500, and by 1530 the old Lollard and the new Protestant forces had begun to merge. The Lollard tradition pre¬ disposed opinion in favor of Henry VIII ’s anticlerical legislation. The Lol¬ lards were responsible for a translation of the Bible by Nicholas of Hereford, and their core teachings included an emphasis on personal faith and the authority of the Bible and the rejection of clerical celibacy, tran- SUBSTANTIATION , and INDULGENCES.
Lomax Vlo- l maks\ / John (b. Sept. 23, 1867, Goodman, Miss., U.S.—d. Jan. 26, 1948, Greenville, Miss.) U.S. ethnomusicologist. He attended Harvard University and soon thereafter began publishing collections of cowboy songs. In the 1930s he and his teenage son Alan (1915-2002) collected folk songs of the Southwest and Midwest. Jelly Roll Morton, Leadbelly, and Muddy Waters were perhaps the most significant of their many important discoveries; the Lomaxes’ archive of Morton’s perfor¬ mance and storytelling was of particular significance. Both men did important work at the Library of Congress’s Archive of Folk Music. Their many books and anthologies spurred the folk music revival of the 1950s and ’60s.
Lombard Any member of a Germanic people who from 568 to 774 ruled a kingdom in the region of Lombardy. Originally a pastoral tribe from northwestern Germany, the Lombards migrated southward and adopted an imperial military system. In the 6th century they moved into northern Italy, conquering the cities that had been left defenseless after the over¬ throw of the Ostrogoths by the Byzantine Empire. In the 8th century Liud- prand, probably the greatest of the Lombard kings, steadily reduced the area of Italy still under Byzantine rule. When the Lombard kings invaded papal territories. Pope Adrian I sought aid from Charlemagne. In 773 the Franks besieged the Lombard capital, capturing Desiderius, the Lombard king; Charlemagne became king of the Lombards as well as of the Franks, and Lombard rule in Italy ended.
Lombard, Carole orig. Jane Alice Peters (b. Oct. 6, 1908, Fort Wayne, Ind., U.S.—d. Jan. 16, 1942, near Las Vegas, Nev.) U.S. film actress. She made her screen debut in A Perfect Crime (1921) and appeared in comedy shorts from 1925. She starred in the classic screw¬ ball comedy Twentieth Century (1934), which showcased her unique blend of sophisticated glamour and earthy audacity and established her as a leading comic actress. She appeared in a series of popular comedies, including My Man Godfrey (1936), Nothing Sacred (1937), Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941), and To Be or Not to Be (1942). She married Clark Gable in 1939. She died in a plane crash while on tour to sell war bonds.
Lombard, Peter See Peter Lombard
Lombard League Italian league that resisted attempts by the Holy Roman emperors to curtail the liberties of the communes of Lombardy in northern Italy in the 12th-13th century. Founded in 1167, it was backed by Pope Alexander III, who saw it as an ally against Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. After several military setbacks at the hands of the league, Frederick was forced to grant the Lombard cities communal liberties and jurisdiction under the Peace of Constance. The league again was renewed in 1226 and resisted Frederick ll's attempt to reassert imperial power in northern Italy.
Lombardi, Vince(nt Thomas) (b. June 11, 1913, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—d. Sept. 3, 1970, Washington, D.C.) U.S. football coach. He attended Fordham University, where he played on the famous line known
as the “Seven Blocks of Granite.” As head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers (1959-67), he imposed a strenuous regimen and led the team to five NFL championships (1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967) and to victories in Super Bowls I and II (1967, 1968). Because of his success, he became a national symbol of single-minded determination to win. As coach, general manager, and part owner of the Washington Red¬ skins in 1969, he led that team to its first winning season in 14 years.
Lombardo, Guy (Albert) (b. June 19, 1902, London, Ont., Can.—d. Nov. 5, 1977, Houston, Texas, U.S.) Canadian-born U.S. bandleader. He trained as a violinist and in 1917 formed his band, the Royal Canadians. They began broadcasting nationally from Chicago in 1927, and from 1929 he was the winter attraction at New York City’s Roosevelt Grill, a book¬ ing repeated for more than 30 years. He later moved to the Waldorf- Astoria Hotel, continuing the famous New Year’s Eve broadcasts, begun in 1954, that climaxed with “Auld Lang Syne.” Though derided by crit¬ ics as the “king of com,” Lombardo gained long-lasting popularity by conducting what was billed as “the sweetest music this side of heaven.”