Where the Middle Ages Begin
Lionheart By Sharon Kay Penman Penguin Books, 2011 ISBN: 978039915785 Publisher’s Description: From the New York Times-bestselling novelist, a stunning story of a great medieval warrior-king, the accomplished and controversial son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine: Richard, Coeur de Lion. They were called “The Devil’s Brood,” though never to their faces. They were the […]
Elfland Revisited: A Comparative Study of Late Twentieth Century Adaptations of Two Traditional Ballads Giebert, Stefanie PhD Dissertation, Philosophy, University of Trier, (2009) Abstract Once upon a time there was a minstrel. He travelled the land, stopping at the halls of noblemen to entertain their households. He sang old songs he had learned as a child, songs he had […]
The Familiar and the Fantastic A Study of Contemporary High Fantasy in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen Vike, Magnus M.A. Thesis (Foreign Languages) The University of Bergen, May 15 (2009) Abstract This thesis deals with fantasy as a literary genre, as well as its […]
Dance of the Dandelion By Dina Sleiman WhiteFire Publishing, 2011 ISBN: 978-0983455608 Price $14.99 for a print copy, under $4 for an electronic edition Love’s quest leads her the world over. Dandelion Dering was born a peasant in the English village of Arun, but her soul yearned for another life, another world. One filled with […]
In 2010 we interviewed author Jayden Woods about her novel Eadric the Grasper: Sons of Mercia Volume I. Jayden has now published the sequel – Godric the Kingslayer, and we caught up with her to discuss the new book: 1.) Compared to the first book, how did the writing process differ when you sat down […]
Tracey Warr of the University of Wales – Trinity St.David has published her first novel. Almodis: The Peaceweaver is a story of love, adventure and scandal, based on the real life of the eleventh-century countess Almodis de la Marche. Through her marriages to three important historical figures, Almodis founds a maternal dynasty that rules southern […]
William of Malmesbury (1125) casts the Norman Conquest as an ‘ancipitous narrative’ – equally possible courses of events leading to the same outcome.
Mystery in the Minster: The Seventeenth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew By Susanna Gregory Sphere Books, 2011 ISBN: 9781847442970 Publisher’s Synopsis: In 1358 the fledging college of Michaelhouse in Cambridge is in need of extra funds. A legacy from the Archbishop of York of a parish close to that city promises a welcome source of income. […]
The long-awaited fifth novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, entitled A Dance with Dragons, was released this week. The work, written by George R.R. Martin, has earned huge sales and positive reviews. A Dance with Dragons is set in the fictional world of Westeros, but takes many elements from medieval Europe […]
A Viking Slave’s Saga By Jan Fridegård, translated by Robert E. Bjork Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2007 ISBN: 978-0-86698-375-4 ACMRS Occasional Publications Series, Volume 4 A Viking Slave’s Saga is a trilogy of novels by the famous Swedish author Jan Fridegård: Land of Wooden Gods (Trägudars land, 1940), People of the Dawn […]
Morgen of Avalon: Dreamspell By Carol Weakland CreateSpace, 2011 ISBN: 978-1456347581 Carol Weakland portrays King Arthur’s rise to power in Morgen of Avalon, the first title in the author’s series of romantic fantasy novels that introduces Arthur and Morgen as star-crossed lovers. An ancient prophecy suggests that Morgen (Avalon’s Fairy Queen) and King Arthur possess […]
Of Faith and Fidelity: Geoffrey Hotspur and the War for St. Peter’s Thone By Evan Ostryzniuk Knox Robinson Publishing, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-9567901-5-6 Publisher’s Synopsis: Of Faith and Fidelity is the first book in the English Free Company series set in the late Middle Ages. The English Free Company is led by Geoffrey Hotspur, an orphan-squire […]
The bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay will be taking questions online at a special web Q&A on Tuesday, May 3rd. The event will promote the release of Under Heaven in paperback. The one-hour event (2pm-3pm EDT) will have Guy using a new online conversation technology from PollStream called OneRoom. Kay tells Medievalists.net “the Pollstream/OneRoom model […]
Parke Godwin and the Lessons of History Davidson, Roberta Arthuriana 20.4 (2010) Abstract Authors of historical fiction claim that their work restores a narrative of meaning to the past, and that it recovers the experiences of those individuals or groups who have been excluded from the formal historical record. This two-fold function is particularly important […]
The way in which children’s authors have translated medieval history into their own “historicity” has changed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as popular and scholarly attitudes toward the Middle Ages have changed. Looking at these changes, my purpose in this thesis will be to answer two questions: why would children’s authors draw upon Anglo-Saxon England for their subject matter? And, what relevance does children’s literature have for an audience of medievalists?
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