Okuninushi Yo-ku-ne-'nu-she_Central hero in the mythology of the Izumo branch of Shinto in Japan. Okuninushi built the world with the help of the dwarf deity Sukunahikona, and he ruled Izumo until the appear¬ ance of the divine grandchild, Ninigi. In modem Japanese folk belief, Okuninushi is a god who heals and who makes marriages happy.
Olaf I Tryggvason Vo-laf-'trieg-vo-sonX (b. c. 964—d. c. 1000) Viking king of Norway (995-c. 1000). The son of a Norwegian chieftain, he joined Viking attacks on England in 991 and 994. He returned to Norway and was accepted as king on the death of Haakon the Great in 995. Olaf imposed Christianity on the Norwegian coast but had little influence in the interior. His missionaries introduced Christianity to the Shetland, Faroe, and Orkney islands and to Iceland and Greenland. He was killed in the Battle of Svolder, which is celebrated in medieval Scandinavian poetry.
Olaf II Haraldsson \ha-ral-son\ or Saint Olaf (b. c. 995—d. July 29, 1030, Stiklestad, Nor.; feast day July 29) King of Norway (1016-28). A Viking warrior, he fought against the English in 1009-11 but assisted Ethel- red 11 against the Danes in 1013. He returned to Norway after his conversion to Christianity and gained control over the country by 1016. Olaf sent mis¬ sionaries throughout his realm, and his religious code (1024) established the Church of Norway. He was driven out of Norway by Canute the Great (1028) and was killed trying to reconquer the country two years later. He became a national hero and the patron saint of Norway.
Okra (Hibiscus esculentus, or Abelmos- chus esculentus).
DEREK FELL
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1404 I OlafV ► Old World monkey
Olaf V Norwegian in full Olav Alexander Edward Christian Frederik (b. July 2, 1903, Apple- ton House, near Sandringham, Nor¬ folk, Eng.—d. Jan. 17, 1991, Oslo,
Nor.) King of Norway (1957-91).
Son of King Haakon VII. Olaf became a celebrated sportsman, win¬ ning the gold medal in yachting at the 1928 Olympics. In World War II he lived in exile with his family in England and was named head of the Norwegian armed forces in 1944.
From 1955 he served as regent for his father, whom he succeeded as king in 1957. Like other constitu¬ tional monarchs, Olaf s duties were largely ceremonial.
Olajuwon \3-'la-zhu-,wan.
Hakeem (Abdul) (b. Jan. 21,
1963, Lagos, Nigeria) Nigerian-born U.S. basketball player. He attended the University of Houston and led its team to the NCAA finals in 1983 and 1984. In 1994 the 7-ft (2.13-m) Olajuwan led the Houston Rockets to the NBA championship. Nicknamed “the Dream,” he holds the all-time record for blocked shots (3,830) and finished his career with 26,946 points and 13,748 rebounds.
Olbers's paradox Paradox of why the sky is dark at night. If the universe is endless and uniformly populated with luminous stars, every line of sight must end at the surface of a star and the night sky should be bright with no dark spaces between stars. This paradox is widely attrib¬ uted to Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers (1758-1840), who discussed it in 1823, though Johannes Kepler first advanced the problem in 1610 as an argument against the notion of a limitless universe with infinite stars. The paradox has since been resolved: we can see no farther than the light-travel dis¬ tance within the lifetime of the universe, and light becomes redshifted to invisibility (see redshift).
Olbia Vol-bya \ formerly Terranova Pausania Town (pop., 2001 prelim.: 40,746), northeastern Sardinia, Italy. Originally a Greek colony, it passed to the Romans and was the site of a Roman victory over the Carthaginian general Hanno in 259 bc. It was rebuilt by Pisan colonists in 1198 and named Terranova Pausania. Renamed Olbia in 1939, it is the main passenger port for connections with the Italian mainland. It has Phoenician and Roman ruins.
Old Believers Russian dissenters who refused to accept liturgical reforms imposed on the Russian Orthodox Church by Nikon in 1652-58. Numbering in the millions in the 17th century, the Old Believers endured persecution for years, and several of their leaders were executed. They split into a variety of sects, of which the two main groups were the Pop- ovtsy (priestly sects) and Bezpopovtsy (priestless sects). In 1971 the coun¬ cil of the Russian Orthodox Church rescinded all the anathemas of the 17th century and recognized the full validity of the old rites.
Old Catholic church Any of a group of Western Catholic churches that separated from Rome after the First Vatican Council promulgated the doctrine of papal infallibility (1869-70). Old Catholic churches in the Neth¬ erlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, and elsewhere joined together in 1889 to form the Union of Utrecht. The Old Catholics accept the Bible, the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds, and the seven sacraments. Their chief authority in church government is the conference of bishops. They have long used the vernacular in public worship; confession to a priest is not obligatory, and in some Old Catholic churches the celibacy of the clergy is optional.
Old Church Slavonic language or Old Church Slavic lan¬ guage Oldest attested Siavic language, known from a small corpus of 10th- or 11th-century manuscripts, most written in the Glagolitic alpha¬ bet (see Cyrillic alphabet). The Old Church Slavonic documents, all trans¬ lations from Christian ecclesiastical texts, resulted from the mission to the Moravian Slavs of Saints Cyril and Methodius, though all but one of the surviving manuscripts were actually copied in South Slavic-speaking areas. Beginning in the 11th century, the influence of the vernacular lan¬ guages in cultural focal areas (Serbia, Bulgaria-Macedonia, Ukraine, and Russia) led to regional variations in Church Slavonic. It remained the lit¬
erary language of Eastern Orthodoxy in South Slavic and East Slavic lands into modem times and is still the liturgical language of Slavic Orthodoxy and the Slavic Eastern rite church.
Old English or Anglo-Saxon Language spoken and written in England before ad 1100. It belongs to the Anglo-Frisian group of Ger¬ manic languages. Four dialects are known: Northumbrian (in northern England and southeastern Scotland), Mercian (central England), Kentish (southeastern England), and West Saxon (southern and southwestern England). Mercian and Northumbrian are often called the Anglian dia¬ lects. Most extant Old English writings are in the West Saxon dialect. The great epic poem of Old English is Beowulf ; the first period of extensive literary activity occurred in the 9th century. Old English had three gen¬ ders (masculine, feminine, neuter) for nouns and adjectives; nouns, pro¬ nouns, and adjectives were also inflected for case. Old English had a greater proportion of strong (irregular) verbs than does Modem English, and its vocabulary was more heavily Germanic. See also Middle English; Engush language.
Old English script See black letter script
Old English sheepdog Shaggy working dog developed in early 18th- century England and used primarily to drive sheep and cattle to market. It has a shuffling, bearlike gait and a dense, solid-coloured or white- marked gray or blue-gray coat. It stands 21-26 in. (53-66 cm) tall and weighs over 55 lb (25 kg). Its long, dense, weather-resistant coat covers the eyes but does not obscure vision. The tail is usually removed soon after birth.
Old Farmer's Almanac See Farmer's Almanac Old Ironsides See USS Constitution
Old Norse language Classical Germanic language used c. 1150— 1350, the literary language of the Icelandic sagas, skaldic poetry, and Eddas. The terms Old Norse and Old Icelandic are sometimes used inter¬ changeably because Icelandic records of this period are more plentiful and of greater literary value than those in the other Scandinavian languages, but Old Norse also embraces the ancestors of modern Norwegian, Dan¬ ish, Swedish, and Faroese.