The Use of the Lead and Line by Early Navigators in the North Sea?

Viking ship depicted in Nordische Fahrten. Skizzen  und Studien (1889)

This paper draws attention to the lack of information as to how early North Sea sailors navigated, particularly during the one thousand year period that followed Roman times.

Making Medievalists Merry!

Medievalists.net - PhD Tote Bag

Making a list and checking it twice? Looking for something for Black Friday? Shopping for a scholar? Check out our shop for some items with a medieval bent!

The Snow Baby: A Cautionary Tale

A snow flake under the microscope - image by ZEISS Microscopy / Flickr

Most of the time, fabliaux are lighthearted and lusty, but occasionally they stray into dark humour, like ‘The Snow Baby’.

Between A Rock And A Hot Place: The Role Of Subjectivity In The Medieval Ordeal By Hot Iron

12th century depiction of an ordeal by hot iron

This article discusses various forms of ordeals, such as the ordeal of hot iron, and analyzes whether, and to what extent, these ordeals could have served as ‘rational’ forms of adjudication during the period.

Medieval Tastes: Food, Cooking, and the Table

medieval tastes

In his new history of food, acclaimed historian Massimo Montanari traces the development of medieval tastes, both culinary and cultural, from raw materials to market and captures their reflections in today’s food trends.

The Struggle is Real: Where are the Medieval Economists?!

Dr. Daniel Curtis presenting his talk at, "Making the Medieval Relevant" at the University of Nottingham.

Another fascinating paper from “Making the Medieval Relevant” was given by Daniel Curtis, a specialist in Social and Economic History, and a professor at the University of Utrecht.

The Sick and The Dead: Medieval Concepts of Illness and Spinal Disability

christina lee talk

There is an often erroneous idea that past societies were a) very sick, and b) didn’t care about the sick. This as I want to show is not the case. I will show examples of illness, but I also want to show that ideas of what is sick and what needs healing are not the same as our own.

Book Talk: Ivory Vikings, by Nancy Marie Brown

Ivory Vikings

Nancy Marie Brown speaking on her new book Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them, at Cornell University on October 15, 2015

England’s Immigrants 1330-1550: Resident Aliens in the Later Middle Ages

Bart Lambert

Paper by Bart Lambert given at Medieval and Early Modern Records Seminar held in Leeds, on August 2, 2014

Animated Epics: The Canterbury Tales

animated canterbury tales

A 1998 animated version of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

Guns in Scotland: the manufacture and use of guns and their influence on warfare from the fourteenth century to c.1625

Detail from a contemporary drawing of Edinburgh Castle under siege in 1573, showing it surrounded by attacking batteries

Guns first came into use in Western Europe in the fourteenth century and the Scots were using them by the 1380s.

Which Royal Ruler Were You In Your Past Life?

Which Royal Ruler Were You In Your Past Life

Ever felt like you were descended from royalty? Find out which ruler you used to be with this personality quiz.

Making the Medieval Relevant: Crossing Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Studies on Disease and Disability

Dr. Christina Lee - Crossing Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Studies on Disease and Disability

A summary of a paper given by Professor Christina Lee at the University of Nottingham’s “Making the Medieval Relevant” Conference.

Last Words from a Medieval Mother to her Son

Christine de Pisan instructs her son, Jean de Castel - from British Library Harley 4431 f.261v

Yesterday, I stumbled across a passage from the Liber Manualis, written by a ninth-century Frankish woman named Dhuoda to her fifteen-year-old son.

These are beautiful words to understand

15th century image of Venice by Erhardum Reüwich de Trajecto and Bernhard von Breydenbach

‘If those who wound felt the pain of those who are wounded, they could not often wound with pleasure.’

John Hardyng and his Chronicle

John Hardyng Chronicle

Hardyng, an ex-soldier and spy of Henry V, set about composing the work after he ‘retired’ to the Augustinian priory at South Kyme, Lincolnshire, in the 1440s or 1450s.

Video shows the reconstruction of an Early Medieval Turf House

Photo by Frans de Vries / University of Groningen

This time-lapse video shows the reconstruction of an early medieval turf house in the northern Dutch town of Firdgum.

Christmas market coming to York’s Barley Hall

York’s Barley Hall decorated for their Festive Medieval Market, which runs 26th to 29th November. Photo courtesy York Archaeological Trust

If you are interested in a Christmas market with a medieval flavour, Barley Hall in York will be the place to go later this month, as they are organising a festive shopping treat stocked full of unique gifts.

Ponderous, Cruel and Mortal: A Review of Medieval Poleaxe Technique from Surviving Treatises of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

Pollaxe combat depicted in the Fiore Furlan dei Liberi da Premariacco, circa 1410

There is no weapon more evocative of the brute force in violence both public and private, a weapon that seems to be perhaps epitomize and even enshrine violence on a grand scale.

‘Pirates, robbers and other malefactors’: The role played by violence at sea in relations between England and the Hanse towns, 1385 – 1420

The summary execution of Störtebeker, 1401; woodcut by Nicolaus Sauer from 1701

This thesis will argue that the impact of specific phenomena, particularly the activities of the Vitalienbrüder, on Anglo-Hanseatic relations has been not only neglected but misunderstood, and that attention to English sources can help flesh out our understanding of the Vitalienbrüder’s history.

Call for Papers: International Society of Medievalism Annual Conference

Call for Papers

The next annual conference of the International Society of Medievalism will take place at Bamberg University and is scheduled to take place 18-20 July 2016.

Yale University acquires ‘treasure trove’ of medieval manuscripts

Otto_Ege_Press_Realease 5

Otto F. Ege, an Ohio-based scholar and book dealer, made a controversial practice of dismantling medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and selling the individual leaves for profit during the first half of the last century.

The Medieval Magazine: Making the Medieval Relevant (Issue 42)

medieval mag 42

In this issue we cover a conference held this past weekend at the University of Nottingham on Making the Medieval Relevant, which explores the ways medievalists are connecting with the humanities and sciences. You can also read about art being restored in Bethlehem, the Battle of Morgarten (which took place 700 years ago this week), how to defraud your lord on the medieval manor, and more.

National-Ethnic Narratives in Eleventh-Century Literary Representations of Cnut

Matthew Paris's (early 13th-century) impression of the Battle of Assandun, depicting Edmund Ironside (left) and Cnut (right)

This article takes literary representations of Cnut, the Danish conqueror of England, as a case study of the construction of English identity in the eleventh century.

The Medieval Magazine: The Seventh Crusade (Issue 16)

Buy this issue for $2.99

Our 20-page feature takes the reader through the causes and events of Louis IX’s invasion of Egypt. You can also read about a discovery of leprosy in an Anglo-Saxon skeleton and a new open source online journal.

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