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Blood Vengeance and the Depiction of Women in La leyenda de los siete infantes de Lara, The Nibelungenlied and Njal’s Saga
Posted on May 18, 2013 | No CommentsDespite countless manifestations in literature of many traditions and cultures, the archetype of vengeance as a theme is a common and current one -
Androgynes, Crossdressers, and Rebel Queens: Modern Representations of Medieval Women Warriors from Tolkien to Martin
Posted on May 15, 2013 | No CommentsThis was another stellar paper given at the Tales after Tolkien session. It was an intriguing look at the women of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and how each author portrays the mother and warrior characters of Galadriel/Cersi/Daenerys and Eowyn/Arya/Brienne. The paper examined the differences and problems posed by the portrayal of women in theses fantasy novels. -
The Meaning of the Middle Ages: Fans, Authors, and Industry
Posted on May 15, 2013 | No CommentsThis was a very enjoyable paper given on the topic of medievalism and the predominance of a European perspective in almost all fantasy literature. Young examined three authors who were moving away from the traditional telling of fantasy by subverting the typical pseudo-medieval narrative or by moving away from European cultures towards embracing Eastern, Aztec and other non-European worlds. -
George R. R. Martin’s Quest for Realism in A Song of Ice and Fire
Posted on May 14, 2013 | No CommentsThis was my last session of KZOO this year and it was the perfect way to end a great conference. This series was dedicated to examining medievalism in fantasy literature with the dominant topic being George R. R. Martin and Tolkien. -
Human Monstrosity in Terminator II: Judgement Day, Beowulf and The Passion of St Christopher
Posted on May 6, 2013 | No CommentsThe idea of a humanoid monster that can be reluctantly empathized with can be traced back to various source texts. For example, Grendel in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf is a bloodthirsty savage, however upon a close reading of the poem he appears more human. -
Networking Scribes
Posted on May 5, 2013 | No CommentsThis was the keynote paper given at the Celtic Studies Association of North America Annual Conference at the University of Toronto April 18 - 21, 2013. -
Bite Me: Rude Food and the Anglo-Saxon Riddle Tradition
Posted on May 3, 2013 | No CommentsAndy Orchard, one of the world's leading experts in Old English literature, presented on the tradition of early medieval riddles, and how the themes of food and sex can be found in these works. -
Rhetoric and Ethnicity in Gerald of Wales
Posted on May 3, 2013 | No CommentsThis paper was given at the 2013 Celtic Studies Association of North America Annual Meeting at the University of Toronto. -
‘Fromm thennes faste he gan avyse/This litel spot of erthe’: GIS and the General Prologue
Posted on May 2, 2013 | No CommentsThis paper was given at the Canada Chaucer Seminar on April 27, 2013. -
War and Peace in the Works of Chaucer and his Contemporaries
Posted on May 1, 2013 | No CommentsBut whenever authors of work on chivalry and war during the Middle Ages have tried to determine the exact historical influence and result of chivalric ideals, they have run into difficulties. That is why there are such widely varying hypotheses concerning the 'Golden Age' of chivalry. -
Pleasurable Forms and Forms of Pleasure in the Pages of the Pearl – manuscript
Posted on April 30, 2013 | No CommentsBahr discussed the poem, Pearl, jokingly termed, 'a formalists wet dream', and focused on its implied relationship between pleasure and form and how it explored the relationship between desire and fruitfulness. -
Signs and Senses: Diagnosis and Prognosis in Early Medieval Pulse and Urine Texts
Posted on April 28, 2013 | No Commentsin which they were made. These early medieval anthologies are quite different from Scholastic anthologies such as the Artkella, which were compiled as curriculum texts for the new, formalized medical instruction of the nascent universities. -
The Seven Deadly Sins: Some Problems of Research
Posted on April 28, 2013 | No CommentsIn the following pages, I should like to point out a number of aspects or areas which my own study of acedia has convinced me must and can be fruitfully explored.The account does not aim at comprehensiveness; certainly, other students of mediaeval thought and literature will be able to point out other desiderata. If it merely revives some interest in its subject, it will have fulfilled its purpose. -
Lincolnshire and the Arthurian Legend
Posted on April 28, 2013 | No CommentsThis article is intended to rectify this, proceeding from the widely-held assumption of the existence of a genuinely ‘historical Arthur’, before going on to consider the even more fundamental question of whether we ought to believe in Arthur’s existence at all. -
“Walkynge in the mede” : Chaucerian gardens and the recasting of the Edenic fall
Posted on April 21, 2013 | No CommentsIn this thesis, I intend to illustrate how Chaucer uses his knowledge of garden traditions, both biblical and practical, to discuss the concept of the Garden of Eden and the Fall of humanity. -
In search of the medieval ‘Anonymous’
Posted on April 20, 2013 | No CommentsThe extent of fifteenth-century historical works from the Low Countries can be deduced and accessed by historians through www.narrative-sources.be, the online encyclopedia of narrative sources from the medieval Low Countries. The Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle contains similar entries on history works in all of medieval Europe. -
Medieval Astrology and The Buke of the Sevyne Sagis
Posted on April 20, 2013 | No CommentsIt is useful to begin by comparing the way the sages are initially described to the Emperor in the Latin, Middle English, and Middle Scots texts. Although the Middle Scots text is not connected to the English ones, they serve as a useful backdrop to illustrate the singular nature of the Scottish version of the story. -
Symbel: The Heathen Drinking Ritual?
Posted on April 19, 2013 | No CommentsExamination of symbel in Anglo-Saxon society from archaeological and literary evidence and its role in modern Heathen/Pagan societies -
Wynne whoso may, for al is for to selle: Sexual Economics and Female Authority in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue
Posted on April 18, 2013 | No CommentsChaucer’s inimitable Wife of Bath stands out as one of the most analyzed literary characters of all time, in part because of her existence outside of any defined medieval cultural classification, and in part as an archetype of a rising social tradition. -
The Passions of Achilles: Herbort von Fritzlar’s “Liet von Troye” and his Description of the Passions of Achilles in light of Herbort’s Historical Concept
Posted on April 14, 2013 | No CommentsThere once lived in Greece a King named Peleas. He was noble and powerful. He lived in splendor in his castles and in his country. Food and (costly) garments were abundant at his court. -
The “Battle with the Monster”: Transformation of a Traditional Pattern in “The Dream of the Rood”
Posted on April 14, 2013 | No CommentsThus, although I would not suggest that “The Dream of the Rood” was composed orally in performance, it is, I would contend, oral-derived, and it is that presumption upon which this analysis is founded. The poem, in other words, straddles both worlds, having ties to both textuality and orality. -
The Greek Renaissance in Italy
Posted on April 14, 2013 | No CommentsFor various reasons north Italy toward the end of the fourteenth century seemed peculiarly adapted to become the seat of another classical renaissance, though of one some what different in character and results from that which had already run its course. -
Julian of Norwich’s “Christ as Mother” and Medieval Constructions of Gender
Posted on April 13, 2013 | No CommentsRecent Christian feminists have revived an interest in women mystics and feminine religious imagery. In light of what most people generalize about medieval misogyny and about the veneration of the Virgin as a surrogate for a female divinity, Julian of Norwich's trope of Christ as Mother seems even more remarkable. -
Wonders and Wisdom: Anglo-Saxons and the East
Posted on April 11, 2013 | No CommentsWhat the Anglo-Saxons ‘‘knew’’ about Moslems and Jews, and about Babylon and Egypt and India, depended upon Biblical exegesis, saints’ lives, and other texts derived from Latin sources. Numerous Old English texts, as well as Latin versions that circulated and were copied in Anglo-Saxon England, concern Asia; these are quite varied in genre and in content. -
The Voices of Counsel: Women and Civic Rhetoric in the Middle Ages
Posted on April 11, 2013 | No CommentsA full discussion of women’s civic rhetoric in the Middle Ages has been somewhat obfuscated for two reasons: persistent generalities about women’s roles, and generalities about the nature of the civic itself in the Middle Ages.