How to Read J.R.R. Tolkien
Michael Drout, a professor of English and director of the Center for the Study of the Medieval at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts believes that Tolkien’s immense and lasting popularity can be explained by a ‘perfect storm hypothesis.’
Nourishment for the Soul – Nourishment for the Body: Animal Remains in Early Medieval Pomeranian Cemeteries
Late medieval sources clearly refer to souls, which in traditional folk beliefs were periodically returning to feed and warm themselves by the fires made by the living. This kind of conception can be merged with Slavic eschatology. There is multiple evidence to confirm that belief some form of spirit or soul was spreading amongst the people, who in the early medieval period, bordered directly with Pomerania.
Time to Slay Vampire Burials? The Archaeological and Historical Evidence for Vampires in Europe
The aim of this paper is to look behind this popular image to consider the archaeological evidence for vampire burials.
Norsemen And Vikings: The Culture That Inspired Decades Of Fear
Thoughts of these monstrous men link themselves with words such as bloodlust, raids, and conqueror. Which leaves one to ponder why these men have come to be forever linked with such carnage, surely they must have had some redeeming qualities?
This Week in Medieval Manuscript Images
When Pigs Fly, or at least when they have wings! More than 40 medieval manuscript images to share with you this week.
What Would You Be If You Lived In The Past?
Are you a Greek Philosopher or a Medieval Knight?
Early Medieval Tunic recreated in Norway
A few years ago, the oldest known piece of clothing ever discovered in Norway, a tunic dating from the Iron Age, was found on a glacier in Breheimen. Now about to be reconstructed using Iron Age textile techniques, it is hoped the tunic will inspire Norwegian fashion designers.
Flandria Illustrata: Flemish Identities in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period
This chapter discusses identity formation in early modern Flanders. It argues that policy makers and their intellectual agents transformed the perception of a province that had been divided by urban rivalries, civil war and conflicts with the Burgundian and Habsburg overlords, into a bastion of the Catholic Counter Reformation with strong ties to the Spanish King and his representatives.
Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance
This study opens with a historical account of Corbie from its foundation until the reign of Charles the Simple, which clarifies the political importance of the abbey and its relations with rulers and bishops.
Raymund’s Daughter’s Divorce in the 9th-Century: a Woman’s Textual Role in the Breaking of an Alliance
This chapter will analyse an aspect of one of the divorce cases of the mid 9th century: I review its links with politics of the day and reconsider the roles given to wife and husband in the only text that deals with this case…
10 Things You Should Know about William the Conqueror
William the Conqueror – an introduction to his life and reign of the Duke of Normandy and King of England
Region and Frontier in the English State: the English Far North, 1296-1603
What was the relationship between the English far north and England as a whole in the late middle ages?
Besteiros Do Conto (Crossbowmen): Organization, abuses of power and irregularities during the reign of Dom João I (1385-1433)
The aim of this paper is to examine an aspect of social life linked to one of the most important and original forms of military organization in the whole of Portuguese history—the besteiros do conto (crossbowmen).
Renaissance Contacts Between Dubrovnik (Ragusa) and the Kingdom of Hungary
During the rule of the Angevin dynasty (1308-82) in Hungary, towns and cities increasingly assumed greater political influence. The first treaty between the King of Hungary and Dubrovnik (in those days Ragusa) was signed in 1358, during the reign of Louis (Lajos) the Great.
The last wonderful thing: the icon of the Heavenly Ladder on Mount Sinai
Description and dating of the icon of the Heavenly Ladder Jacob ‘dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached toheaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
Alfred the Great, King of Wessex
Therefore a man never attains virtue and excellence through his power; rather he attains power and authority through his virtue… Study wisdom, therefore, and when you have learned it, do not neglect it, for I say to you without hesitation that you can attain authority through wisdom
Vikings Red with Blood and Dead: White Martyrs and the Conquest of the American Frontier
In 1898, a Swedish American immigrant unearthed a mysterious stone from a Minnesota farm field.
What Remains: Women, Relics and Remembrance in the Aftermath of the Fourth Crusade
After the fall of Constantinople to the Latin Crusaders in 1204 hundreds of relics were carried into the West as diplomatic gifts, memorabilia and tokens of victory. Yet many relics were alsosent privately between male crusaders and their spouses and female kin.
Hearing, smelling, savoring, and touching in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Chaucer’s scholar’s have long recognized the poet’s keen sense of observation and have commented upon the poet’s ability to transfer his visual images to his writing.
Managing Criminal Women in Scotland: An Assessment of the Scarcity of Female Offenders in the Records of the High Court of Justiciary, 1524-1542
The records of Scotland’s High Court of Justiciary that run from 1524 to 1542 contain a remarkably low number of women charged with felonies and pleas of the crown, and reveal the justiciar’s reluctance to convict or execute female offenders.
Leonardo da Vinci: A Restless Life
George Bent has written about artistic production, the function of liturgical images, and institutional patronage in early Renaissance Florence
How to have a Medieval Hairstyle
Janet Stephens, one of the world’s leading experts on historical hairstyles, has released a medieval hairdressing tutorial, based on a 14th century painting by Simone Martini in Siena.
Which Knight of the Round Table Are You?
Are you one of the best knights of the world? Or, would you fail miserably at your quest? Take this quiz and find out!
What can fourteenth century Venice teach us about Ebola?
Venice’s response to the plague an “example of resilience management,’ say experts
The conversion of Constantine and the Christianisation of Europe
Historians have argued for centuries – in the face of contradictory primary sources – both about when and how the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, and the nature and extent of his faith.