Interview with Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England
The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England, is being released in May 2012.
Game of Thrones Review: SE02 EP07 – “A Man without Honor”
‘It’s better to be cruel than weak’ ~ Theon
Margot Fassler wins 2012 Otto Gründler Book Prize
Margot Fassler, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame, was awarded the 2012 Otto Gründler Book Prize for her book The Virgin of Chartres: Making History Through Liturgy and the Arts.
47th International Congress on Medieval Studies draws over 3000 medievalists
Over 3000 scholars, historians, writers, students and medievalists came to Kalamazoo, Michigan over the last four days, where they took part in the 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Research uncovers new details about John Cabot’s voyage to North America
Evidence that a Florentine merchant house financed the earliest English voyages to North America, has been published on-line in the academic journal Historical Research.
The Borgias – Review SE02 EP05 “The Choice”
Review of ‘The Choice’, Episode 5 of Season 2 of The Borgias
Shona Kelly Wray (1963-2012)
It is with sadness that we report the death of Shona Kelly Wray, professor of history at the University of Missouri – Kansas City.
Glass discovered at Glastonbury Abbey dates back to 7th century, researchers find
Glass furnaces recorded in 1955-7 were previously thought to date from before the Norman Conquest. However, radiocarbon dating has now revealed that they date approximately to the 680s, and are likely to be associated with a major rebuilding of the abbey undertaken by King Ine of Wessex.
Game of Thrones Review: SE02 EP06 – “The Old Gods and the New”
On this week’s episode of Game of Thrones, Theon attacks Winterfell, Dany looks for allies, Arya is exposed and Jon meets his match.
Ending an era : the Huang Chao Rebellion of the late Tang, 874-884
Huang Chao was a rebel leader during the late Tang dynasty; he and his followers successfully marauded through China from 875 until his death in 884 C.E. During that time, he conquered and sacked many important cities of the empire, such as Guangzhou and the capital city, Chang’an.
Æthelstan, “King of all Britain” : royal and imperial ideology in tenth-century England
This thesis examines how King Æthelstan legitimized and systematized his claims of power and status through a royal ideology, how that ideology emerged, what it consisted of, and how it manifested itself in his kingship and diplomacy.
Call for Papers: Naturally divided: History and autonomy of ancient alpine communities
Call for Papers at a Conference, to be held on Saturday, September 29, 2012, in Brescia, Italy
The Infrastructure of the Novgorodian Fur Trade in the Pre-Mongol Era (ca. 900-ca. 1240)
The urge to find additional supplies of pelts and better-quality furs drove not only the Novgorodian traders and tribute collectors to cross the Urals during the Middle Ages, but later the Muscovites to colonize Siberia and even later the Russian Empire to explore and establish control over the Russian Far East and Alaska.
The Court of Beast and Bough: Contesting the Medieval English Forest in the Early Robin Hood Ballads
The 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
While 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
Albertus 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.
Visual-Kinetic Communication in Europe Before 1600: A Survey of Sign Lexicons and Finger Alphabets Prior to the Rise of Deaf Education
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.
York’s Blackest Hour
The infamous Shabbos HaGadol massacre of the Jews of York in 1190 was the most notorious example of anti-Semitism in medieval England.
Justinian’s reconquest of the West : ideology, warfare, religion, and politics in sixth-century Byzantium
This thesis will examine the guiding ideology of Justinian’s emperorship and how that ideology especially manifested itself in terms of Justinian’s diplomacy and his relationship with the former provinces of the Western Roman Empire.
The Motte and Bailey Castle: Instrument of Revolution
A motte was made partially or completely by human hands, surrounded by a ditch, and topped by a wooden tower.
Why All the Fuss about the Body? A Medievalist’s Perspective
erhaps some help is to be found in the usual scholarly move of sur- veying the literature. What does the phrase mean in the rapidly increas- ing number of books with the body in the title-an increase only too apparent to anyone who walks these days into a bookstore?
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
The 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.
Tourists and Tabulae in Late Medieval London
Michael Van Dussen examines a late-medieval Czech account of St Paul’s Cathedral in London
Charity, War, and Peace in St. Thomas Aquinas
Thomas’s treatment of the problem of war in the Summa Theologiae is refreshingly simple.
From Pagan Cosmos to Christian Creation: A Historical Path from Late Antique Priscillianus to Medieval Hildegard
Why and how do ancient and medieval Christians look so different to the sky, future and world as the pagans did?