This is a summary of the The London Medieval Graduate Network Inaugural Conference by Rachel Scott. The conference was held on November 2nd at King’s College London.
Medieval Book History Week Lecture: “Practical Latin and Formal English in the 14th-15th Centuries”
November 13, 2012 By
This lecture is part of Medieval Book History Week. Renown Professor Jeremy Catto spoke about literacy and language in England during the later Middle Ages at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of Toronto.
Townscape as text: the topography of social interaction in Fethard, county Tipperary, AD 1300-1700
October 6, 2012 By
The idea that complex social order in the past can be ‘read’ in the built environment, and indeed in material culture – tangible artefacts and landscape phenomena – in general, is a foundation of contemporary archaeology and historical geography.
Re-writing discourse features: speech acts in Heliand
September 30, 2012 By
Though extremely fascinating and very appealing, the theory of the saxonization and northernization of the Gospel has ended up permeating every single level upon which an analysis of the poem can be carried out, becoming a sort of a priori starting point that may lead scholars to over-interpretation and, therefore, hinder them from developing a perhaps deeper insight into the poem.
Re-forging the smith: an interdisciplinary study of smithing motifs in Völuspá and Völundarkviða
August 29, 2012 By
In this dissertation I examine key smithing motifs in the eddic poems Võluspá and Võlundarkviña in relation to the socio-cultural role of smithing techniques and sites in early medieval Scandinavia.
Hellenism and the Shaping of the Byzantine Empire
August 27, 2012 By
While the role of Byzantine Hellenism on the art, literature, and society of the Empire has been the subject of tremendous study, the question of its origins has, nonetheless, rarely been raised, and the strongly Hellenic Byzantine identity seems, to a large extent, to have been taken for granted historiographically.
Hopkins and Early English Riddling: Solving The Windhover?
August 15, 2012 By
In this article I will demonstrate that The Windhover has strong formal similarities with early English riddling. This genre, which has very little in common with modern riddles, has a range of distinctive formal conventions which, I argue, are also present in The Windhover, including an “entitled solution,” “kennings” and the use of formulae.
A Goliard Witness: The De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii of Martianus Capella in the Methamorphosis Golye Episcopi
July 13, 2012 By
Another twelfth-century poem in the same goliardic metre as the two lines just cited, the Methamorphosis go lye episcopi, goes far beyond this passing mention of Martianus and makes a most unexpected use of the De Nuptiis.
Religious Key Terms in Hellenism and Byzantium: Three Facets
July 8, 2012 By
The following is a survey of the main semantic variations of love in the Greek and Latin of the Church Fathers and the medieval Latin of Scholasticism
Visual-Kinetic Communication in Europe Before 1600: A Survey of Sign Lexicons and Finger Alphabets Prior to the Rise of Deaf Education
May 6, 2012 By
Visual-kinetic communication systems are mentioned in a wide variety of texts up through the early Renaissance, but not often described in any detail. What seems to us such a strange and frustrating omission results from the very different nature and purpose of scholarly writing in premodern times.
The mandrake plant and its legend: a new perspective
April 8, 2012 By
As a specialist in German mediaeval studies, until the time Peter Bierbaumer introduced me to Old English plant names and approached me with the idea of republishing and updating his Der botanische Wortschatz des AltenglischenI had no idea how fascinating Old English could be.
Writing a Catastrophe. Describing and Constructing Disaster Perception in Narrative Sources from the Late Middle Ages
March 18, 2012 By
In the following, three forms of linguistic constructions of catastrophes will be presented and analyzed: firstly, the close imitation of biblical motifs wherein the event is stylized as apocalyptic or as a plague visited upon mankind by God, regardless of how severe the damage actually was; secondly, the establishment of a “canon” of motifs that late medieval chroniclers use when describing severe floods; and thirdly, the educated and literary exaggeration of relatively ordinary natural events as catastrophic.
Tynwald: a Manx cult-site and institution of pre-Scandinavian origin?
March 18, 2012 By
The subject of Tynwald and its history, origins and symbolism have occupied the interest of academics and others over the years.
Folk narratives and legends as sources of widespread idioms: Toward a Lexicon of Common Figurative Units
March 18, 2012 By
On the one hand, stories (particularly fables) have been de- rived from already existing proverbs, from antiquity up to early modern times. On the other hand, a story in its summarised form can live on in a proverb or an idiom, even if the knowledge of this story has been forgotten for a long time.
Where and how was Gaelic written in late medieval and early modern Scotland? Orthographic practices and cultural identities
March 11, 2012 By
Classical ‘Common’ Gaelic, also known as Early Modern Irish or Classical Irish (the names favoured in Ireland), are the terms used to describe written Gaelic between c.1200 and c.1650 in Ireland, and also in Scotland.
Old Irish words deciphered from Stowe Missal
February 17, 2012 By
Research into the Stowe Missal, an Irish manuscript written around 800 A.D., has led to the exciting discoveries of two new Old Irish verbs and several nouns from the text, which will help unlock mysteries in other Old Irish scripts.
‘Low’ culture, laymen, and what we can learn from history
February 1, 2012 By
Historical evidence shows strong interaction between philosophy and the emancipation of the common man or the rise of popular culture in Western Europe during the late Middle Ages and Early Modernity
Female Discourses: Powerful and Powerless Speech in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur
January 12, 2012 By
Verbal interactions of female characters of Le Morte Darthur are analyzed in various instances of speech behavior, such as advice, apology, conflict managing, complaining, nagging and teasing.
The emergence of the English language as an educational medium in Medieval England
January 1, 2012 By
To better understand the relationship between linguistics, literature and education in Medieval England, some general background information is necessary to understand how these subjects intertwine…
Talking about history in eleventh century England: the Encomium Emmae Reginae and the court of Harthacnut
September 20, 2011 By
Talking about history in eleventh century England: the Encomium Emmae Reginae and the court of Harthacnut Tyler, Elizabeth M. Early Medieval Europe, 13 (4) (2005) Abstract The Encomium Emmae Reginae was written in the early 1040s to support the interests of Queen Emma amidst the factionalism which marked the end of the period of Danish […]
Linguistic politeness in Anglo-Saxon England? A study of Old English address terms
August 25, 2011 By
Linguistic politeness in Anglo-Saxon England? A study of Old English address terms By Thomas Kohnen Journal of Historical Pragmatics, Vol. 9:1 (2008) Abstract: This paper investigates Anglo-Saxon address terms against the background of politeness and face work. Using the Dictionary of Old English Corpus, it examines the most prominent Old English terms of nominal address […]
The Development of Middle Welsh ap Names: A Dynamic Perspective
July 10, 2011 By
The Development of Middle Welsh ap Names: A Dynamic Perspective Griffen, Toby D. (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville) Published online (2006) Abstract In the Middle Ages, Welsh males were generally identified by name and patronymic, with the intervening particle ap. Thus, for example, we find such famous names as Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Dafydd ap Gwilym, Gruffudd […]
Old-Slavonic Sanctuaries in Czechia and Slovakia
March 6, 2011 By
Old-Slavonic Sanctuaries in Czechia and Slovakia Turčan, Vladimír Studia Mythologica Slavica 4 (2001) Abstract Presented are: the catalogue of ancient sanctuaries of the Czechian and Slovakian Slavs discovered archaeologically, relations to the particular regions or tribal areas, the role of natural conditions by selecting the place for sanctuary build-up. The author makes comparisons of the ground-plans […]
Simplifying Access: Metadata for Medieval Disability Studies
February 28, 2011 By
Simplifying Access: Metadata for Medieval Disability Studies Guerra, Francesca (University of California, Santa Cruz) PNLA Quarterly, Volume 74, no. 2 (Winter 2010) Abstract In December, 2006, the University of York hosted the first conference devoted to the new field of medieval disability studies (Baswell, 2006, n. p.). The conference, “Historicising Disability: The Middle Ages and […]
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