1. The Banner Saga Guide
2. Banner Saga Destroy Or Fight On Bridge
3. The Banner Saga Walkthrough

'Excelsior' is a short poem written in 1841 by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Overview[edit]

The poem describes a young man passing through a mountain village at dusk. He bears the banner 'Excelsior' (translated from Latin as 'higher', also loosely but more widely as 'onward and upward'). The traveller disregards warnings from villagers of fearful dangers above, and an offer of rest from a local maiden. The youth climbs higher until a last distant cry interrupts the prayers of the monks of Saint Bernard. 'Lifeless, but beautiful' he is found by the 'faithful hound' half-buried in the snow, 'still clasping in his hands of ice that banner with the strange device, Excelsior!'

The Banner Saga. Videogameasset My games. Destroy the bridge battle (non sensical with other choices) - Repel dredge in chapter 7 (non sensical. The Banner Saga Cheats and Cheat Codes, PlayStation 4. Get permission to destroy a varl landmark. Bridge of Spirits releasing on PS5 on August 24. But I want to know from the point the player chooses to destroy the bridge to the end of the game, what is different if the player chooses not to destroy the bridge? I want to know information about the story, not the battles. The Banner Saga is an epic setting inspired by Medieval Viking culture, based around an RPG with turn-based combat. Let's Play The Banner Saga by ProfessorProf - Part 34: Day 78: Defense of Einartoft (Day 2). Onto the bridge. Destroy the bridge, or continue to fight?

Longfellow's first draft of 'Excelsior', now in the Harvard University Library, notes that he finished the poem at three o'clock in the morning on September 28, 1841.^[1] The poem came to him as he was trying to sleep. 'That voice kept ringing in my ears', as he wrote to his friend Samuel Gray Ward, which caused him to get up and write the poem immediately.^[2]

'Excelsior' was printed in Supplement to the Courant, Connecticut Courant, vol. VII no. 2, January 22, 1842.^[3] It was also included in Longfellow's collection Ballads and Other Poems in 1842.^[2]

The title of Excelsior was reportedly inspired by the state seal of New York, which bears the Latin motto Excelsior. Longfellow had seen it earlier on a scrap of newspaper.^[4] Longfellow explained the repeated title as from the Latin, Scopus meus excelsior est ('my goal is higher').^[2] Biographer Charles Calhoun suggested the Alpine setting was an autobiographical reference to the poet's then-unsuccessful wooing of Frances Appleton, daughter of industrialist Nathan Appleton.^[5]

Adaptations and parodies[edit]

The popularity of 'Excelsior' inspired many parodies, adaptations, and references in other media. The poem was set to music as a duet for tenor and baritone by the Irish composer Michael William Balfe, and became a staple of Victorian and Edwardian drawing rooms. Longfellow's acquaintance Franz Liszt composed an adaptation as a prelude to his longer Longfellow adaptation of The Golden Legend. He began writing it for Baroness von Meyendorff in 1869; it premiered in Budapest on March 10, 1875.^[6]

A Plea for Old Cap Collier by Irvin S. Cobb, satirized it. His description is partly based on an illustration used in the readers. The words quoted are Longfellow's:

The shades of night were falling fast,

As through an Alpine village passed

A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,

A banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

There is a Lancashire version or parody, Uppards, written by Marriott Edgar one hundred years later in 1941. James Thurber (1894–1961) illustrated the poem in Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated in 1945. Thurber chose nine poems for the series, including John Greenleaf Whittier's 'Barbara Frietchie' and Rose Hartwick Thorpe's 'Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight'.^[7]

In Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, the entire action of the play happens in a fictitious New Jersey town with the name 'Excelsior'. Longfellow is also directly mentioned with a fictitious poem towards the end of Act I.^[8]Lorenz Hart alludes to Longfellow's poem in the title song of the musical On Your Toes:

Remember the youth 'mid snow and ice

Who bore the banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

This motto applies to folks who dwell

In Richmond Hill or in New Rochelle,

In Chelsea or

In Sutton Place.

'Excelsior' also became a trade name for wood shavings used as packing material or furniture stuffing. In Bullwinkle's Corner, Bullwinkle the Moose parodies the poem in Season 2 Episode 18 (1960–61) of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show:

The answer came both quick and blunt:

It's just an advertising stunt.

I represent Smith, Jones, & Jakes,

A lumber company that makes...

Excelsior!^[9]

The poem is the base for the motto of Wynberg Allen School in Mussorie, India. It is also the name and motto for the Brampton, Ontario, Canada box lacrosse teams. In 1871 Mr. George Lee, a Brampton High School teacher introduced lacrosse to the town. He proposed the name 'Excelsior', which he took from Longfellow's poem. In 1883 the Brampton Excelsiors Lacrosse Club was officially formed. The name has been used for all levels of box lacrosse in Brampton ever since.

Sam Loyd's chess problem Excelsior was named for this poem.

In Italy 'S.A.T.', the Tridentin Alpine Society which is the largest section of the Italian Alpine Club (C.A.I) has 'Excelsior' as its motto referring to the poem of Longfellow.^[10]

In Charlotte MacLeod's Something In the Water (one of the author's Peter Shandy mysteries), Peter climbs a steep slope to visit an elderly woman; and, at the finish of the climb, 'he felt like the youth who bore 'mid snow and ice a banner with a strange device; he had a sneaking urge to shout 'Excelsior!'

Notes[edit]

1. ^Cahoon, Herbert; Lange, Thomas V.; Ryskamp, Charles (1977). American Literary Autographs, from Washington Irving to Henry James, Courier Dover Publications, 34. ISBN0-486-23548-3.
2. ^ ^abcGale, Robert L (2003). A Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Companion, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press: 77. ISBN0-313-32350-X
3. ^Vol. VII No. 1 and No. 2 of Jan 8 and 22 were issued with wrong year of 1841 on the masthead of the Courant Supplement.
4. ^Calhoun, Charles C. (2005). Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life. Boston, MA: Beacon Press: 140. ISBN0-8070-7039-4.
5. ^Calhoun, Charles C. (2005). Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life. Boston, MA: Beacon Press: 142. ISBN0-8070-7039-4.
6. ^Merrick, Paul (1987). Revolution and Religion in the Music of Liszt. Cambridge University Press, 235. ISBN0-521-32627-3
7. ^Grauer, Neil A. (1995) Remember Laugher: A Life of James Thurber. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press: 74. ISBN0-8032-7056-9
8. ^Wilder, Thornton. 'The Skin of Our Teeth: Act I.' Three plays: Our town, The skin of our teeth, The matchmaker. New York, NY: Harper and Brothers, 1957. 164. Print.
9. ^'Bullwinkle's Corner - Excelsior,' YouTube
10. ^it:Società alpinisti tridentini

External links[edit]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

• [1] Excelsior.
• [2] Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. (1838–1915). Yale Book of American Verse. 1912.
• [3] Cobb, Irvin S., 'A Plea for Old Cap Collier,' George H. Doran Company, New York. 1921 (see 40-49) Clean copy, PDF, pp. 40-50
• [4] 'On Your Toes,' lyrics by Lorenz Hart, 1936.

Part 35: Day 79: Defense of Einartoft (Day 3)

On the third day, we fight.

The Banner Saga Guide

Shit.
Right after I sunk all that Renown into him, too.
You snap back to attention when you realize nearly the entire army of varl are staring in your direction. Iver walks past, shuffling slowly with an enormous axe in his remaining hand. He heads toward the bridge.
'Iver!' you yell, but he doesn't reply, plunging his axe into the nearest dredge before kicking it over the side of the bridge. 'Come on!' he screams at the black horde. Cursing, you rush to his side in battle.
Krumr's in bad shape, and Fasolt's dead. On the other hand, Iver's back in action.
Our foes are a Stoneguard, a Stoneguard Defender, two Enraged Grunts, a Slag Slinger Veteran, and a Slag Slinger Marksman.
Let's go.
Losing one arm hasn't done much to stop Iver being badass. What it has done, though, is unspend all of his promotion points - I can redistribute them after this battle, but for now, he's effectively Rank 1. Most troubling is his 1 Exertion.
Wearing down strength is very important right now. Iver's my only real tank, and he only has 12 Armor - and a lot of these enemies have high Break.
Ekkill can't reach any enemies this turn, but he can double shield wall with Tryggvi and Iver. Iver and Ekkill are now both up to 13 Armor.
As predicted, the enemy is going to be piling on Armor damage at Iver.
This is embarrassing, but I actually forgot to position Oddleif at the start of this fight, so she's way off in the corner.
Unlike Iver and Ekkill, Tryggvi is a fairly vulnerable target at a mere 10 Armor.
Now, my army is facing off against a 16-Armor monster here.
Which is why I brought Rook along.
Just like yesterday, the enemy seems to be focusing on Tryggvi. He's my weakest team member, I suppose.
Eyvind gets a very solid lightning strike in. That's a lot of enemy power shut down.
No enemy has especially high Strength on this team, so I don't mind getting early kills. Let's rush these bastards down!
Tryggvi Impales a Grunt, pushing it away and hurting it enough that it can't easily get past his Armor, while also positioning himself so that the Stoneguard can't get to him on its turn.
Following that up, Ekkill Barkley slams it with Guts, doing 1 damage for the initial hit, 1 damage for the space he pushes it, and 1 damage from Impale. An excellent combo.
Oh good, Tryggvi is in even more danger than he already was.
Oddleif reaches the front line, sending a shockwave of Armor damage through that cluster of dredge. Tryggvi takes another single point of Strength damage, dropping him to 7/5.
Rook continues to do what Rook does, although that was the last of his Willpower.
Okay, as much as I'd love to keep throwing down lightning, Tryggvi is in need of rescuing. Eyvind uses his next turn bringing him back up to 9 Armor.
In moving into attack position, the Grunt takes another point of damage from Impale. Quite a well-spent action, that was.
Iver doesn't quite seal the kill. He could have, if his Exertion was up to snuff.
Okay, this is sort of fine, I think. Ekkill doesn't really need Strength.
Tryggvi burns his last point of will for another Impale. Unfortunately, a slinger moves into position behind the target, meaning it can't be moved. Oh, well.
So instead of using Guts again, Ekkill just cuts the Stoneguard's Strength in half.
Tryggvi is down to 1 Strength. I don't think I can save him.
Oddleif cuts down the last enemy with meaningful Strength numbers.
A lucky break for Tryggvi!
Rook takes out the enemy who can reach Tryggvi, and the enemy turn instead goes to the Stoneguard, who cracks Ekkill's Armor a little.
Killing everything that can reach Tryg as fast as I can here.
Lucky break number 2!
Another one down, another Stoneguard turn wasted poking at Ekkill.
Tryg scores a kill with Impale. Now, if he can get lucky with one more deflect...
...and he doesn't have to! The enemy wastes its last turn as the pillage begins.
No casualties!
'Enough of this,' groans Iver, who seems to have snapped out of his daze. 'This is getting us nowhere!' You follow as he climbs the stairs and throws open the doors of the great hall.

Banner Saga Destroy Or Fight On Bridge

You swear you catch a note of trepidation in the king's voice.
Again, this? I'll be damned if that bridge falls during my reign!
You'll let our whole race die?
We'll all be gone someday, Yngvar. I need not tell you. There are no more varl being made tomorrow... or a thousand years from now. We are it. And I will not destroy what we have made! Would you leave no trace of us when we are gone? As if we never existed?!

The Banner Saga Walkthrough

I know this, but yours is one voice of many. I know that the varl are equal. The days of kendr are over. I ask these varl, all there is left in the world, to follow me, and live another day. Who do you think they will choose?
The weight of the air in the great hall becomes so thick it nearly suffocates you. The silence continues for ages.
Go on. Take the mender, destroy the bridge. Do it and leave. Take whoever would join you, and do not return to my city. The alliance of man and varl is through.
Iver is almost out the door before Jorundr has finished his sentence.
Before long, the masonry is a shattered mess and begins to give under its own weight. Varl and dredge alike race to escape the collapse. When the dust clears, there's a gulf between you and the furious dredge. They won't be crossing this way.
'You've gotten what you wanted,' says Jorundr. 'Now leave. If I ever see man or mender again it will be too soon.'
Eyvind tells you, 'Juno will be waiting in Sigrholm.' Despite the end of the immediate threat, many varl choose to join Iver instead of following Jorundr. You depart with a long caravan at your heels.