The dominant literate culture of early medieval England – male, European, and Christian – often represented itself through comparison to exotic beings and monsters, in traditions developed from native mythologies, and Classical and Biblical sources.
‘Hann lá eigi kyrr’: Revenants and a Haunted Past in the Sagas of Icelanders
October 28, 2015 By
From Antiquity to the present day, the idea of the dead returning to interact with the living has greatly influenced human imagination, and this has been reflected in literature — the product of that imagination.
Grief, Gender and Mourning in Medieval North Atlantic Literature
October 28, 2015 By
This dissertation explores the relationship between grief, cultural constructs of gender, and mourning behaviour in the literatures of medieval Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, and Iceland
Penal enslavement in the early middle ages
October 26, 2015 By
In the specific form it took during the medieval period, penal enslavement therefore amounts to a strikingly new phenomenon. How did such a system come about, and what functions did it serve?
Manifestations of psychiatric illness in texts from the medieval and Viking era
October 26, 2015 By
The medicine of medieval Europe was influenced above all by the Hippocratic and Galenic legacies, conveyed through the medical School of Salerno, albeit also to an extent embedded in demonological and supernatural beliefs and folklore customs.
Tactics, Strategy, and Battlefield Formation during the Hundred Years War: The Role of the Longbow in the ‘Infantry Revolution’
October 24, 2015 By
The English longbow had a tremendous impact on strategy and tactics during the Hundred Years War.
The King’s Welshmen: Welsh Involvement in the Expeditionary Army of 1415
October 24, 2015 By
This paper examines the evidence behind the claims that it was Welsh archers that won the battle of Agincourt for Henry V. As might be expected, it is a little less clear-cut than that.
A little touch of Branagh: Henry V
October 24, 2015 By
Kenneth Branagh’s film of Henry V, released in 1989, was greeted with wide critical acclaim of a kind which repays close attention.
From Agincourt (1415) to Fornovo (1495): aspects of the writing of warfare in French and Burgundian 15th century historiographical literature
October 23, 2015 By
The object of this thesis is to inquire into some major aspects of the historiographical writing of war in France and Burgundy, from Henry V’s invasion of France in 1415 to the first wars of Italy.
Czechs and Poles in the Middle Ages: Rivalry, Cooperation and Alliances
October 22, 2015 By
The article contains a description of the development of Czech-Polish relations in the Middle Ages.
Understanding Torksey, Lincolnshire: A geoarchaeological and landscape approach to a Viking overwintering camp
October 22, 2015 By
Viking overwintering camps of late 9th century England have been excluded from most recent dialogues regarding Viking Age England. Although overwintering camps are directly mentioned in historical records such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, these sites have remained archaeologically elusive.
Anna Komnene and her Sources for Military Affairs in the Alexiad
October 21, 2015 By
Without discounting the contribution of oral traditions of storytelling to the Alexiad, the study favours the growing consensus that Anna was more reliant on written material, especially campaign dispatches and military memoirs.
Down to the Last Stitch: Sumptuary Law and Conspicuous Consumption in Renaissance Italy
October 21, 2015 By
Fashion and luxury were very important in Italian Renaissance society. One’s appearance indicated more than whether one was simply attractive, it also indicated one’s social standing.
The Power of Poo: Waste and the Medieval Environment
October 20, 2015 By
This study will compare the ways in which three vastly different European cities and their civic institutions, London England – the Chartered Capital of a Kingdom, Siena Italy – an Oligarchic Republic, and Gdansk Poland – the reluctant territory of a Theocratic state
Medieval Lisbon: Carmo Convent
October 19, 2015 By
Part III of my series on Medieval Lisbon. This visit took me to Carmo Monastery and museum.
Dreams and lovers: the sympathetic guide frame in Middle English courtly love poems
October 17, 2015 By
When is a dream not a dream? The Middle English convention of the ‘dream vision’ has been read by modern scholars as a genre that primarily reveals the medieval understanding of dreaming and dream theory, so that events and stories presented within a dream frame are necessarily read through that specific hermeneutic.
Stable isotopes as indicators of change in the food procurement and food preference of Viking Age and Early Christian populations on Gotland (Sweden)
October 17, 2015 By
In short, the end of the Viking Age may have involved a suite of environmental, economic, and sociocultural changes, yet despite these changes practices of food preference and food procurement were maintained within the coastal site of Ridanas. Our research contributes to archaeological th
Sewing the Scene: The Uses of Embroidery in Medieval Film
October 17, 2015 By
This paper explores how embroidery has been used in films to establish, and often destroy, feminine space and autonomy. However, the most recent addition to the medieval film canon represents a distinct change in this trend.
Teaching Historical Understanding with Christopher Columbus
October 11, 2015 By
I’m a big fan of Christopher Columbus. Not the man, the phenomenon.
The new knighthood: Terrorism and the medieval
October 8, 2015 By
Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik describes himself as a member of a neomedieval, underground paramilitary group known as the Knights Templar.
Said in jest: Who’s laughing at the Middle Ages (and when)?
October 8, 2015 By
The essay begins with a negative image of a medieval scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which is used to point out that the scene is a knowing parody rather than founded on a genuine belief in an unmitigatedly dark age
Courtesy and Politeness in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
October 8, 2015 By
A close reading of three selected passages of the Middle English alliterative romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight provides a detailed picture of fictional and fairy-tale manifestations of courtly and polite behaviour in Middle English, a period that imported many new terms of courtesy and politeness from French.
Henry V, Flower of Chivalry
October 7, 2015 By
Kingship and chivalry were not separate constructs in late medieval didactic works, chronicles and biographies which praised ideal qualities like loyalty largesse, honour and above all prudence that were essential for both kings and knights.
Livestock and animal husbandry in early medieval England
October 7, 2015 By
Major themes in the zooarchaeological record regarding livestock and animal husbandry in England from the 5th to 11th Centuries AD are reviewed.
Honour, community and hierarchy in the feasts of the archery and crossbow guilds of Bruges, 1445–81
October 6, 2015 By
Archery and crossbow guilds first appeared in the fourteenth century in response to the needs of town defence and princely calls for troops. By the fifteenth century these guilds existed across northern Europe.
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