The Medieval Magazine 102 – Vol. 3, No. 19: Merry Medieval! Christmas – Part I
The first of our holiday issues! Christmas cheer, Medieval style! A mulled wine recipe, monastic brewing practices, Japanese Anime’s take on Medieval legends, and the Circumcision of Christ. We’ve got your table talk covered in in this issue, so pass the gravy!
What Comes After Halloween?: Celebrating All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day
This time of year, it’s normally Halloween, that sugar-filled Bacchanalia, that gets all the attention. But what about its lesser-known follow-ups, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day?
Epiphany: Three Kings Day
A look at the history behind Epiphany and Twelfth Night.
Saint Patrick’s Purgatory: a fresco in Todi, Italy
This essay deals with the tradition of the revelation of Purgatory to St. Patrick on Station Island in Lough Derg, whose popularity is testified not only in literary texts in the various languages of Medieval Europe but also in a unique work of art in the convent of the Sisters of Saint Clair at Todi, Umbria
St. Patrick’s Irish Pride
In honour of the day, it seems fitting to throw out some interesting facts about St. Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint.
The Roots of Rhythm: The Medieval Origins of the New Orleans’ Mardi Gras Beignet
This paper argues that the beloved Mardi Gras beignet, eaten in advance of the Lenten fast, derives from deep-fried pastries used to break the Ramadan fast by medieval Muslims living in Spain.
Corpus Christi Plays and the Stations of the Cross: Medieval York and Modern Sydney
The earliest surviving reference to the Corpus Christi festival in York is dated 1322, when Archbishop William Melton commended it as „the glorious feast of the most precious sacrament of the flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ‟. In 1408 the York Guild of Corpus Christi was established „as a confraternity of chaplains and lay persons, with the encouragement of the city government, probably to form the focus of the civic Corpus Christi Day procession‟.
Christmas in the Qur’än: the Qur’änic account of Jesus’s nativity and Palestinian local tradition
The confluence of this evidence strongly suggests that the traditions associated with Kathisma church gave rise to the rather peculiar account of Christ’s Nativity found in the Quran.
Monstrosity in Old English and Old Icelandic Literature
In medieval Europe belief in monsters allowed for corresponding acceptance of the possibility of humans transforming into monsters. In medieval Iceland and Anglo-Saxon England the mixture of Christian and pagan world views and beliefs create a situation where the boundaries are not merely fluid but can be transgressed, in either direction.
The Dangerous Dead: The Early Medieval deviant burial at Southwell, Nottinghamshire in a wider context
This was the deviant burial, which had been buried (or reburied) intact along with a further leg and lower arm bone…Without speculating wildly on the implications of the iron studs, it is known that treatment of this sort was accorded to bodies which had died unnaturally or when there was some reason to fear the supernatural’.
Medieval Halloween! Great books for Ghosts, Goblins, Witches & Ghouls!
Some spooktacular reads to celebrate Medieval Halloween!