Tag: Literature

द्वारका – Dwarka, the Gated City

The sea, which had been beating against the shores, suddenly broke the boundary that was imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It coursed through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the city. I saw the beautiful buildings becoming submerged one by one. In a matter of a few moments it was all over. The sea had now become as placid as a lake. There was no trace of the city. Dvaraka was just a name; just a memory.

— Mausala Parva of Mahabharata

The sacred city appears in various Hindu and Budhist scriptures. It is believed to be the home of Krishna and have been submerged upon Krishna’s death. Today a modern city called Dwarka exists in the Arab Sea.

India; 3. Century BCE; Hindu, Hindu; Literature; City: Dwarka

The Stories of Katrina

Launched in 2005, the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank uses electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the stories and digital record of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. George Mason University’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media and the University of New Orleans, in partnership with the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of American History and other partners, organized this project.

https://hurricanearchive.org/collections/show/179

Louisiana, USA; 21. Cenury; Various; Oral History Data Base; City: New Orleans and surroundings

Detlev von Liliencron (1844-1909): Trutz Blanke Hans

Ein einziger Schrei – die Stadt ist versunken,
Und Hunderttausende sind ertrunken.
Wo gestern noch Lärm und lustiger Tisch,
Schwamm andern Tags der stumme Fisch.
Heut bin ich über Rungholt gefahren,
Die Stadt ging unter vor sechshundert Jahren.
Trutz, Blanke Hans?

(Excerpt)

full text and info:
https://www.deutschland-lese.de/streifzuege/balladen/trutz-blanke-hans/

Germany; 19. Century; Christian; Poetry; City: Rungholt

The little Hero of Haarlem

Apparently an anglo-american invention, this story about the boy who rescues a Dutch city by sticking his finger in a hole in the dyke, has been republished in various versions since the mid 1800s . This is the earliest published version of the story and it starts with the words, ” A long way off, across the ocean, there is a little country where the ground is lower than the level of the sea…”

full text