Norse Influences in the Organisation of the Medieval Church in the Western Isles
In its definitive form of a system of local churches serving identifiable districts, usually known as parishes, grouped together under a diocesan bishop, the medieval church cannot be said to have existed in the general area of Scotland until the twelfth century. At this time, and for some three centuries previously, the islands to the north and west, with parts of the adjacent mainland, were under Norse control.
Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Society launches this month
This month sees the launch of a new society promoting interest in the Battle of Bosworth, the last major battle of the Wars of the Roses.
A Kiss Is Just a Kiss: Heterosexuality and Its Consolations in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The famous line from that modern romance- “A kiss is just a kiss”- is the message the Gawain-poet gave his listeners six centuries ago.
Charlemagne still kicking 1200 years later or Morangles Early Medieval Holidays
T.S. Morangles takes a trip to see all things Carolingian and Merovingian!
Animals in Saxon and Scandinavian England
In this book an analysis of over 300 animal bone assemblages from English Saxon and Scandinavian sites is presented. The data set is summarised in extensive tables for use as comparanda for future archaeozoological studies.
Did Purchasing Power Parity Hold in Medieval Europe?
This paper employs a unique, hand-collected dataset of exchange rates for five major currencies (the lira of Barcelona, the pound sterling of England, the pond groot of Flanders, the florin of Florence and the livre tournois of France) to consider whether the law of one price and purchasing power parity held in Europe during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.
Saints’ Cults in Medieval Livonia
Saints’ cults played a crucial role in medieval society. Although we know very little about the beliefs and rituals of the indigenous peoples of Livonia, either before or after the thirteenth-century conquest, we may assume that the process of Christianization must have caused major changes in their religious practices.
Of Fire and Water: The Old Norse Mythical Worldview in an Eco-Mythological Perspective
How do the actions of the gods in these narratives express man’s mythical notions of his relationship with the land and sea in the Scandinavian and North Atlantic ecosystems?
Do evolutionary perspectives of morning sickness and meat aversions apply to large-scale societies? : an examination of medieval Christian women
Through an investigation of staple diets, religious dietary views, medical literature, and wives’ tales of medieval Christian women, aversions to animal flesh and animal products among pregnant women do not appear to be supported
Who were ‘The Great’ Rulers of the Middle Ages?
Thirteen medieval rulers who were named ‘The Great’. What did they do to deserve that title?
Seamus Heaney and Beowulf
Anglo-Saxonists everywhere should celebrate, perhaps annually in a brief offering of gifts at a local temple, the remarkable fact that Seamus Heaney completed his commissioned translation of Beowulf and published it in 1999, creating the first breaking wave of what was already a gradual tidal swell of interest in the text.
The Vikings: Myths and Misconceptions
Like Alcuin, later writers have been at pains to emphasise the destructive barbarism of these raiders, but how fair are these depictions? And do they tell the whole story?
Dreaming the Middle Ages: American Neomedievalism in A Knight’s Tale and Timeline
This study will offer two Hollywood productions, A Knight’s Tale and Timeline, as visual representations that illustrate the reasons behind what may be called American Neomedievalism.
Restaurants, Inns and Taverns That Never Were: Some Reflections on Public Consumption in Medieval Cairo
The article shows that, contrary to a commonly accepted assumption, no public consumption facilities such as restaurants, taverns or inns existed in medieval Cairo.
Is there a Sixth Sense in the Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries?
Scholars believe that the tapestries were commissioned in the late XVth century by a member of the Le Viste family
The civil uses of gunpowder: demolishing, quarrying, and mining (15th-18th centuries). A reappraisal
The first idea of blasting appears in 1403, when a Florentine engineer pondered on how to open a breach in the walls of Pisa by exploding a charge of black powder inside an old walled-up gate.
Ten Reasons Why a Man Should Not Get Married (from a Pope)
‘In general, she sighs and cries, day and night, and gossips and grumbles.’