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The history of Iceland is characterised by numerous adversities, including natural and maritime disasters, climate-related calamities, crop failures, epidemics, poverty, and other catastrophes. Extensive literature exists on maritime disasters along Iceland’s coasts, particularly major shipwrecks and offshore disasters, which often focus on the sequence of events and the fate of those who survived or perished in their struggle against the sea. Less scholarly attention has been devoted to the impact of such disaste...

This study reports an exploratory experiment at the intersection of painting, music, and cognitive science, examining whether multimodal creative exercises can enhance students’ focus. In a context of pervasive digital stimulation and shrinking attention spans, improving sustained concentration remains central to artistic practice and learning. Although music has been widely studied in relation to flow and cognition, painting has received comparatively less empirical attention outside therapeutic domains. Across a...

This article reconstructs the concept of rationality within the context of postwar experience, where the subject faces epistemic injustice, moral instability, and hermeneutic exclusion. It critically examines the limitations of instrumental and procedural models of rationality under conditions of disrupted norms and fragmented meaning, and proposes an alternative framework — axiological rationality — grounded in the subject’s internal moral discernment rather than external normative systems. The study draws on ins...

This study explores the evolution of musical improvisation and variation across European musical history, analyzing stylistic, aesthetic, and methodological dimensions from Antiquity to the 20th century. Improvisation, as an integral aspect of musical creation, has its origins in the Hellenic modal system and Pythagorean numerical theories, which influenced liturgical music in both the Eastern and Western traditions. The research examines developments during the Medieval period, including the emergence of polyphon...

This paper explores the profound and enduring influence of the Bible in the development of modern phraseology in the German, English, and Macedonian languages. As one of the most translated and influential texts in human history, the Bible has shaped not only religious and moral thought but also the idiomatic and metaphorical structures of European languages. Through comparative linguistic and cultural analysis, the study identifies and interprets biblical idioms and phraseological units that remain present in con...

Alexis Preller’s mural Discovery (1959–62), commissioned in 1959 for the Nicol Conference Hall in central Pretoria, offers a visually striking interpretation of the historic discovery of the sea route around Africa in the late 15th century. This impressive oil painting skillfully combines historical narrative with symbolic artistry. It draws inspiration from the era of Portuguese navigators and explorers, such as Vasco da Gama, as well as the rich diversity of the African continent. This period marked a significan...