Vikings settled in, and ruled, many parts of the British Isles and Ireland, but of these areas only the Norse earldom of Orkney has a whole Icelandic saga devoted to its early history.
The Beginning of Medieval Historical Fiction: Ten Novels from the 19th century
March 4, 2015 By
Historical fiction was just beginning as literary genre in the 19th century, but soon authors found success in writing about stories set in the Middle Ages.
This Game We Play – capturing the SCA over three years
February 4, 2015 By
Photographer Euan Forrester spent three years following the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA) to better understand about the organization and the people who take part in it. He has now created a short film that showcases the wonderful photographs of their events: Euan took in events from the northwest United States and Canada – known in SCA […]
Popular Vikings: constructions of Viking identity in twentieth century Britain
February 4, 2015 By
Although the Viking Age ended nearly a millennium ago, today Viking images are everywhere, functioning as tourist attractions, marketing devices, role models, and sources of regional/national pride and identity.
Hemingway’s Twentieth-Century Medievalism
January 3, 2015 By
This study shows how ‘twentieth-century medievalism’ provides a unified fictional microcosm for the novel and serves as a backdrop from which Hemingway projects his uniquely medieval modern-world tragedy.
Bad Heritage: The Vikings in North America
December 15, 2014 By
I’ll propose that few times are more Immemorial than the medieval, which I think helps explain why the North American Norse have been promoted so heavily. It’s not just their priority among European arrivals; it’s that they’re medieval arrivals.
Medieval Books for Christmas
December 15, 2014 By
It’s that time of year again – the mad scramble for the perfect Christmas gift for the historian, nerd, avid reader on your list. Here are a few suggestions for you – new releases for December and January!
Medievalism and the Fantasy Heroine
December 13, 2014 By
While the reliance of the fantasy market on medieval motifs – its reliance on medievalism, to be more precise – is not news, there remain a few thoughts to be articulated about the means by which so many popular female protagonists continue to have staying power and high market value within particular systems of power, systems familiar to the medievalist even when decontextualized, displaced and relocated elsewhere in the space–time continuum of the imagination.
Medievalisms and Others: Exploring Knights and Vikings at the Movies
December 7, 2014 By
This thesis deals with medievalism within medieval cinema and how certain social groups are represented within these cultural productions.
Medievalism on the Move: Open Access in the Academy
November 29, 2014 By
Panel discussion held at the 29th International Conference on Medievalism, on October 24, 2014
Vikings Red with Blood and Dead: White Martyrs and the Conquest of the American Frontier
November 23, 2014 By
In 1898, a Swedish American immigrant unearthed a mysterious stone from a Minnesota farm field.
Vikings and the Dark Ages seen through Continental comics
November 10, 2014 By
Medieval ink-heroes from France!
High-Tech Feudalism: Warrior Culture and Science Fiction TV
November 9, 2014 By
“Richard ΠΙ with aliens” is how Cornell (102) describes “Sins of the Father,” an episode of Star Trek: TheNext Generation (hereafter TNG) in which the Klingon warrior Worf, son of Mogh, seeks to restore his family’s honour by exposing and challenging those responsible for falsely accusing his dead father of treason to the Klingon Empire.
The Re-medievalization of Halloween
October 29, 2014 By
From punkin chunkin to the newfound popularity of witches, the festival of Halloween is reaching back to the Middle Ages for its traditions. Is this a good thing for medievalists?
Mythical Millenaries: The Victorian Quest for the Historical Alfred
October 26, 2014 By
Now that we are learning to hear Asser’s voice not through the ears of the Victorians, but with our own ears, with no reason at all to fear the voice of an intelligent and sophisticated hagiographer, we will at last be hearing a voice which Alfred himself heard.
Rose without Thorn, Eagle without Feathers: Nation and Power in Late Medieval England and Germany
September 28, 2014 By
It is hard at times to take the Agincourt Carol entirely seriously. Patriotism of such brash exuberance seems more properly to belong in a brightly lit Laurence Olivier world of mid twentieth-century medievalism than amid the grim and tangled realities of fifteenth- century politics and war.
The Lover’s Confession: Three Tales by John Gower
September 26, 2014 By
Sarah Higley, from the University of Rochester, created this film based on three stories from Confessio Amantis: The Travelers and the Angel, The Tale of Machaire and Canace, and The Tale of Florent.
Race, Periodicity, and the (Neo-) Middle Ages
August 25, 2014 By
My goal is to intervene in ongoing discussions of race and periodicity, particularly vis-à-vis medieval culture, in order to investigate the informing role of the medieval and more particularly of medievalisms in the construction, representation, and perpetuation of modern racisms.
The Reenactors: A Documentary on Medieval reenactors
August 10, 2014 By
We are visiting the medieval fair on Gotland. Here we find people dedicating mostly of their spare time to as accurate as possible recreate medieval life. What makes them want to do that? Is it geeks escaping reality or a proper presentation of researched history? Or maybe a little bit of both?
Dreaming the Middle Ages: American Neomedievalism in A Knight’s Tale and Timeline
August 2, 2014 By
This study will offer two Hollywood productions, A Knight’s Tale and Timeline, as visual representations that illustrate the reasons behind what may be called American Neomedievalism.
The ‘Viking Apocalypse’ of 22nd February 2014: An Analysis of the Jorvik Viking Centre’s Ragnarǫk and Its Media Reception
July 29, 2014 By
If one signed on to a social media site, checked a news website or, in some cases, even watched one’s local evening news during mid- to late February 2014, one may have encountered some surprising news
The American Dark Ages and the Terrorist Witch in Season of the Witch
July 21, 2014 By
In this article we argue that medieval films are not to be analyzed according to their faithfulness to the known historical sources, but that they can only be fully analyzed by understanding medievalist codes, traditions and (filmic) intertextuality.
The Use of History in Dracula Tourism in Romania
July 21, 2014 By
In this article I will examine what kinds of history and tradition are used and told in Dracula tourism in Romania, and which eras of history are highlighted and why.
Making Sacrifices: Beowulf and Film
July 21, 2014 By
This essay reviews opening scenes in some recent film Beowulfs, which, although they have nothing at all to say about Scyld Scefing, suggest a sacrificial reading of the prologue and perhaps even the whole poem.
The Kalamazoo Diaries at the 2014 Hamilton Fringe Festival
July 4, 2014 By
Playing from July 18th-July 27th at Hamilton Theatre
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