Literature Archive
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No Game for Knights: The Arthurian Legend in Hardboiled Detective Fiction
Posted on May 22, 2012 | No CommentsIn America, novels ranging from The Great Gatsby to John Steinbeck’s Cup of Gold borrowed Arthurian conventions to discuss contemporary American life. -
Á Þá Bitu Engi Járn: a brief note on the concept of invulnerability in the Old Norse Sagas
Posted on May 20, 2012 | No CommentsHarald made for Thorir's ship because he was the greatest berserk, and very brave. There was the fiercest fighting on both sides. Then the king ordered his berserks forward. They were called wolfskins; but iron could not bite on them and when they charged nothing could withstand them -
The Uses of Pragmatic Literacy in the Medieval Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (from the State Foundation to the End of the Sixteenth Century)
Posted on May 20, 2012 | No CommentsThe aim of my thesis is to reveal and understand processes behind the appearance and dissemination of literacy in the medieval principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. I will focus on the social and cultural factors that contributed to the adoption and use of writing from the appearance of the state until the end of the sixteenth century. -
Perfect Virgins and Suicidal Maniacs: Monks in Early Thirteenth-Century Pastoralia
Posted on May 18, 2012 | No CommentsThis summary is of a paper that was the last in the English Cistercian series at Kalamazoo. -
The World West of Iceland in Medieval Icelandic Oral Tradition
Posted on May 18, 2012 | No CommentsThe Greenland of the sagas was a unique and at times strange place, lying somewhere on the boundary between the known, familiar Norse world, and an unfamiliar, exotic sphere beyond. -
“A Fragment Detached”: The Hobbit and The Silmarillion
Posted on May 17, 2012 | No CommentsThis summary is a brief explanation of a paper that focused on the influences of The Hobbit, and The Hobbit in contrast with The Silmarillion. -
Mythic Transformations: Tree Symbolism in the Norse Plantation
Posted on May 17, 2012 | No CommentsThis thesis explores tree symbolism as interpreted from a selection of Old Norse poetic and prose mythological sources. -
The Mythology of Magic in The Hobbit: Tolkien and Andrew Lang’s Red Fairy Book “Story of Sigurd”
Posted on May 16, 2012 | No CommentsThis paper was part of the Tolkien at Kalamazoo sessions. -
The Court of Beast and Bough: Contesting the Medieval English Forest in the Early Robin Hood Ballads
Posted on May 6, 2012 | No CommentsThe medieval English forest has long been a space of contested legal meanings. After King William I first created the 75,000-acre New Forest, the English monarchy sought to define the vert, both legally and ideologically, as a multiplicity of sites in which the king’s rights were vigorously enforced. -
Robin Hood Comes of Age
Posted on May 6, 2012 | No CommentsWhile some Robin Hood books are clearly intended for young readers, others blur the boundaries, sometimes in ways we can applaud, since they help break down artificial boundaries dividing fiction for children from that for adults. -
Cryptozoology in the Medieval and Modern Worlds
Posted on May 6, 2012 | No CommentsAlbertus Magnus’s thirteenth-century work, De animalibus, a lengthy compilation based on Aristotle and on a handful of commentators, is as close as the Middle Ages comes to a systematic natural history in our understanding of the term. -
Recreating Beowulf’s “Pregnant Moment of Poise”: Pagan Doom and Christian Eucatastrophe Made Incarnate in the Dark Age Setting of The Lord of the Rings
Posted on May 4, 2012 | No CommentsThe following chapters will explore how Tolkien fuses themes and imagery from the pagan Norse apocalyptic myth of Ragnarök with Christian apocalyptic imagery and themes in a recreated Dark Age historical setting to create The Lord of the Rings. -
The figure of Merlin in English literature from the beginnings to 1740
Posted on May 3, 2012 | No CommentsMerlin's first appearance in early Welsh poetry as prophet and seer was considerably expanded by Geoffrey of Monmouth who was the first to associate him with the saxon and British kings of England, particularly Arthur. -
Contributions of contemporary science to Chaucer’s work
Posted on May 3, 2012 | No CommentsThe thesis shows that the Medieval Sciences made a significant contribution to Chaucer's mind and art, and that Chaucer shared the attitude of great scholars before and after him -
A Merchant’s Franklin’s Tale
Posted on May 2, 2012 | No CommentsExamines Geoffrey Chaucer's The Franklin's Tale, found in The Canterbury Tales, and a 15th century exemplum known as A Good Matter of the Merchant and His Son.
