The derivation of the date of the Badon entry in the Annales Cambriae from Bede and Gildas
The battle of Badon [Bellum Badonis], in which Arthur carried the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and three nights on his shoulders and the Britons were victorious.
The Five-Hour Medievalist
I’ve compiled a list of some of my favourite books both from and about the Middle Ages.
The Crimean Tatars and their Russian-Captive Slaves
The Russian population on the southern border with the Crimean Tatars was continuously exposed to the dangers of Crimean raider bands, which were usually formed to attack Russian permanent settlements, capture people and sell them to slave-traders, or to give them back to Russia for ransom monies.
Struggle for East-European Empire 1400 – 1700 : The Crimean Khanate, Ottomans and the Rise of the Russian Empire
By the middle of the 15th century, in Eastern Europe instead of one dominant imperial power there were newly rising states which eventually came to compete for supremacy over the whole region
The Crimea on the Map of South Sarmatia by Bernard Wapowski
The purpose of the present article is publication and analysis of the content of the map of the Crimea, practically unknown in Ukraine, which is a part of the map of the South Sarmatia of 1526 by ‘the father of the Polish Cartography’ Bernard Wapowski.
Vikings in Cinema: a Case Study of How to Train Your Dragon
This paper combines archaeological attention to the past (the Vikings and their material culture, beliefs and so on and a Žižekian fascination with Hollywood films to examine How to Train Your Dragon (2010), a 3-D animated film about Vikings for children.
Conference Report: The Material Middle Ages
Dayanna Knight reports on The Material Middle Ages: An International Graduate Student Conference, which was held at the University of California – Berkeley
Smearing the Medieval: Architectural Objects and Time Travel in Amnesia: The Dark Descent
In late 2010, a small game development company known as Frictional Games launched Amnesia: The Dark Descent, a survival horror game fixated upon medieval and Renaissance traditions.
Bastard Feudalism in England in the Fourteenth Century
As this summary indicates, the study of fifteenth-century bastard feudalism has shown the necessity of exploring both the private relationship – its nature, extent and function – and the public system of local rule within which it operated and of which it was an essential part.
BOOKS:Medieval Celebrities!
They may not have won any Oscars, but they were definitely medieval celebrities! Here are some great reads about some of the most famous faces of the Middle Ages
Cheating and Cheaters in German Romance and Epic, 1180-1225
Both Reinhart and Amis, whatever their motivations, work evil everywhere they go; and yet the audience is expected to treat them as sympathetic characters.
Reading Landscapes in Central Europe: A Documentary
The documentary focuses on crucial elements of the 2012 Workshop, depicting through participants’ footage the true side of wide-range survey and non-invasive methods of prospection.
National Identity and History Writing in Ukraine
This article focuses on one aspect of the contestation in history writing between Ukraine and Russia; that of the medieval state of Kyiv Rus.
Nation Building, History Writing and Competition over the Legacy of Kyiv Rus in Ukraine
This article surveys the history of Kyiv Rus within the realm of nation building, identity and historical myths.
10th century find points to medieval sea routes around Ibiza
A bronze candelabra discovered by a diver in Ibiza in the 1970s is offering clues to the maritime history of this region.
Arctic encounters between Norse and Natives
Contact between the Norse and Native peoples in Canada’s Arctic was more extensive and earlier than first believed, according to recent archaeological evidence.
The Biennial Chaucer Lecture: For the Birds
In The Squire’s Tale, Chaucer draws on the genre of romance as a way into thinking about the cultural place of falcons.
Writing conquest: traditions of Anglo-Saxon invasion and resistance in the twelfth century
Writing Conquest examines the ways in which Latin, Old English, and Middle English twelfth-century historical and pseudo-historical texts remembered and reconstructed three formative moments of Anglo-Saxon invasion and resistance…
Varangian: Norse Influences Within the Elite Guard of Byzantium
Constantinople maintained hundreds of years of dutiful employment of what has been often referred to by scholars as a mercenary force. The elite of which was charged with the primary duty of defending the seat of the Byzantine Emperor and defense of the realm at the emperor’s order.
Get Interactive: Teach the Middle Ages for Ages 5 to 25
A list of activities, discussions, and assignments to support teaching the Middle Ages. Many of these suggestions can be adjusted for different ages, but I’ve arranged them in a roughly age-progressive order.
Burning Idols, Burning Bridges: Bede, Conversion and Beowulf
This article will re-examine some of the information in Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, completed in AD 731, on the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in the late sixth and seventh centuries.
The Normans are an Unconquerable People: Orderic Vitalis’s Memory of the Anglo-Norman Regnum during the Reigns of William Rufus and Henry I, 1087-1106
This essay examines Orderic’s portrayal of the three sons of William the Conqueror, as well as one member of the Anglo-Norman high aristocracy, in an effort to understand how and why his Historia Ecclesiastica recreates the nineteen-year period between the death of William the Conqueror and the ascension of Henry I as an age of violence, poor lordship, and ambiguous gender roles.
800-year-old castle torn down in Ireland
Coolbanagher Castle has been completely demolished last week after storms in February led local officials to condemn the site as unsafe.