The coming of the Christmas Visitors…Folk legends concerning the attacks on Icelandic farmhouses made by spirits at Christmas
The motif seems to have ancient roots connected to the ancient beliefs of the first Icelandic settlers that the island was already populated by various forms of spirits, both positive and negative, which unofficially ‘permitted’ people to take up residence on their territory.
Seven Medieval Christmas Traditions
Christmas in medieval Europe could include feasting, gambling, one-day marriages, boy bishops and trolls.
Sir Thomas Gray’s Scalacronica: a medieval chronicle and its historical and literary context
Sir Thomas Gray’s Scalacronica is almost unique amongst medieval English chronicles in having been written by a knight, and it is therefore surprising that so little work has been done on it; this thesis attempts to remedy that omission.
Animal keeping and the use of animal products in medieval Emden (Lower Saxony, Germany)
This thesis deals with the faunal remains from several excavations in the centre of the medieval town of Emden (Lower Saxony, Germany; Figure 1-1). The aim of this thesis is to answer questions concerning the development of animal husbandry and the use of animal products in the medieval period.
The Chronicle of Ulrich Richental as an Exceptional Source for the History of Slovakia
One of the most interesting testimonies is the work of a burgher of Konstanz Ulrich Richental, who gave a straight forward account of everyday life in the city during the council, of things he saw, heard or learnt directly from participants in the council.
New Testament from the oldest complete Bible available online for the first time
The New Testament volume from one of the British Library’s most valuable treasures, Codex Alexandrinus, has been made available online for the first time on the British Library’s website.
The Half-Hanged Man
I’ve wanted to write a novel set during the latter half of the 14th century for a long time. Even by medieval standards, this was a brutal and bloody era, with much of Europe plunged into dynastic wars.
The Murder of St. Wistan
There is more than one ghost story connected with the quiet hamlet of Wistow, which lies off the London road about seven miles from Leicester.
Abbo of Fleury: strategies for gaining influence and authority in tenth-century West Francia
This dissertation analyzes how a tenth-century abbot, Abbo of Fleury (ca. 945 – 1004), used learnedness, church precedents, and intimations of heresy as strategies to renegotiate the bonds between powerful persons in order to increase his authority and influence within the church and kingdom of West Francia.
Greenland’s Viking settlers gorged on seals
A Danish-Canadian research team has demonstrated the Norse society did not die out due to an inability to adapt to the Greenlandic diet: an isotopic analysis of their bones shows they ate plenty of seals.
Suicide in the Middle Ages
All three types of source need careful interpretation. Suicide is notoriously elusive to records even in modern times, and more so for the Middle Ages. Once due allowances have been made for each genre, however, it is some reassurance that they agree on certain basics, and that these, in turn, agree with estimates from better-recorded centuries…
King and magnate in medieval Ireland: Walter de Lacy, King Richard and King John
Perhaps the best way to capture the essence of the relationship between Richard, John and their magnates is to focus on one such relationship and to analyse the changes it underwent over the twenty-seven years the two brothers ruled England. The career of Walter de Lacy provides an excellent opportunity for such an analysis.
Heart burial in medieval and early post-medieval Central Europe
In this chapter I will focus on heart burials as a particular version of this manner of dividing the dead body into different parts. I will discuss the development in Central Europe but also make a few comparisons with medieval England, as this area recently has been the subject of new work
Fishing with Monks – Padise Abbey and the River Vantaanjoki from 1351 to 1429
How did the Cistercian Abbey of Padise in Estonia first come into possession of fishing rights for salmon in the River Vantaanjoki in Finland?
Sovereignty and Territoriality: An Essay in Medieval Political Theory
To advance this task of conceptual clarification, my essay offers an excursus into medieval political theory. It argues that sovereignty, as the idea is used at present, has its genesis in a theological concept—it the notion of highest authority the archetype for which is God. But why invoke the medieval tradition to talk about all this?
Church Wall Paintings and Mosaics: Principles of their arrangement and relationship to church architecture
The history of Orthodox church wall-painting and mosaics, East and West, is a very rich one. On the one hand it reveals tremendous creativity in the Church’s response to architectural and pastoral changes. On the other hand it shows how consistently it has been faithful to unchanging spiritual principles.
Exegesis According to the Rules of Philosophy or the Rule of Faith?: Methodological Conflict in the Ninth-Century Predestination Controversy
The development of biblical exegesis, as Contreni shows, was rapid, but not homogeneous. On the one hand, one of the main ways to acquire biblical wisdom was to rely on the interpretations and teaching of the Holy Fathers, whose texts were studied, assimilated, simplified, collected, and taught. On the other hand, Alcuin’s revival of the liberal arts6 paved the way for the rise of another method of biblical exegesis.
Reading “The Revelations of Elizabeth of Hungary” as a Devotional Text
In this thesis I would like to move beyond the discussions of authorship for The Revelations and begin to examine the text itself. In fact, I neither attempt to question the arguments for Elizabeth of Töss’s role as the visionary in the text, nor do I deny that someone in the community acquainted with Elizabeth, either first-hand or close to it, wrote her visions down.
Holy Women in the British Isles: A Survey
Representations of holy women appear in a wide variety of textual, dramatic, and iconographic forms across medieval Europe during the central and late Middle Ages (c.1100-1530).
Property Rights in Celtic Irish Law
Unfortunately, many historians not specializing in the study of the ancient Irish law tracts have been unaware of the textual inaccuracies of the O’Curry – O’Donovan translations and have continued to incorporate their older unscientific work, and that of their editors, into their own work.
Neither ill nor healthy: The intermediate state between health and disease in medieval medicine
Paradoxically, however, the notion of an intermediate state between health and disease also has a long history, harking back, at least, to the times of Galen. The question of the existence of such a state and the utility and necessity for physicians to acknowledge it, was particularly hotly debated in the Middle Ages…
English Mystery Plays – Staging Patterns and Orality Features
Medieval English theatre is a term covering a large body of plays, performances and theatrical activities. The entire period of medieval drama spans for five hundred years.
Trickster, Convert, Martyr, Saint: Four Ways of Dying in Dudo of St. Quentin’s History of the Normans
I want to push this a bit further here and argue that Dudo was aiming to produce something that we might term sacramentary history, to show the three-fold interaction of the linear time experienced by fallen humanity, the cyclical time in which events are continually re-enacted and foreshadowed in the sacraments, and the unchanging eternity of time as experienced by God.
The Emperor, the Church, and Chariot Races: The Imperial Struggles with Christianity and Entertainment in Late Antique Constantinople
With seating available for around 80,000 citizens, just under one sixth of the population of Constantinople in the fifth century could get their voices heard by the emperor at each of the nearly 70 races held in the hippodrome every year, making chariot racing the most popular sport in the Roman world.
The Architectural Setting of the Mass in Early-medieval Ireland
Surviving churches and documents are analysed for what they may reveal about the architectural context of the mass in early-medieval Ireland.