Innocent III and England
This paper begins with the dispute between England and the papacy over an election to the see of Canterbury. The beginning of the quarrel, seemed simple enough: King John’s refusal to accept Stephen Langton as archibishop of Canterbury.
Tolling the Rhine in 1254: Complementary Monopoly Revisited
Given a demand for Rhine travel, an Emperor faced a classic complementary monopoly problem: how many toll stations to have, where to site them, and what toll to charge at each.
Confronting the Caliph: ‘Uthmân b. ‘Affân in Three ‘Abbasid Chronicles
Until relatively recently medieval Islamic chroniclers were viewed by modern historians in much the same way that Muslims view Muhammad – as transmitter rather than author.
The Pope Who Quit
What led him to make that decision and what happened afterward would be shrouded in mystery for centuries.
Shakespeare’s Richard II: Machiavelli for the Good of England
The name Machiavelli has negative connotations, and this way of thinking is not new. Throughout Europe, in Shakespeare’s time and earlier, Machiavellianism was associated with unscrupulous abuse of power, and Machiavellian methods were seen as immoral and evil.
The Sad Death of a King: The Legacy of Richard the Second
This thesis will examine the manner in which Shakespeare drew upon existing sources material to depict a king whose inherent character flaws made him unworthy of his crown.
An Ecoritical Approach to Chaucer. Representations of the Natural World in the English Literature of the Middle Ages
The choice to write and present a study of nature in medieval English literature from an ecological perspective has been originated by a personal interest in the urgency of the deep environmental crisis we are faced with and by the drive to expand the eco- oriented study of representations of nature in literature to chronological and spatial areas well beyond those originally typical of ecological criticism.
Jacopo da Firenze and the beginning of Italian vernacular algebra
Whatever the reason, nobody seems to have taken an interest in the treatise before Warren Van Egmond inspected it in the mid-seventies during the preparation of his global survey of Italian Renaissance manuscripts concerned with practical mathematics.
Poculi Ludique Societas shows how to perform a Christmas play, medieval style
A Medieval Christmas: Go We hence to Bethlehem’s Bower – playing this weekend in Toronto
The Ideology of the Feminine in Byzantine historical narrative: The role of John Skylitzes’ Synopsis of Histories
“Who once sliced men more sharoly than the sword Is victim of a woman…Epitaph for Emperor Nicephoros II Phocas.
Tolkien’s Cauldron: Northern Literature and The Lord of the Rings
Tolkien was a scholar of Old Norse literature and much of his work in the Lord of the Rings is informed by his knowledge of old Norse mythology, Eddic poetry, and saga. Tolkien’s use of these sources enriched this complex story of Middle-earth.
The Influence of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Masculinist Medievalism
Tolkien, unlike other influential critics or popular fantasy writers, shapes perception of the Middle Ages from both the top down and the bottom up.
Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
I’m here not to pander to the fandom, but be brutally honest as a Tolkien lover: The Hobbit was just not that good. In fact, dare I say it, *gasps!*, it wasn’t good at all.
The Hobbit; an unexpected theological journey
Dr Alison Milbank of the University of Nottingham’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies, offers her insights into J.R.R.Tolkien and his famous novel.
Why Study J.R.R. Tolkien?
In order to write a fantasy novel you have to commit to metaphysics – you have to create a world, that world has to have a certain consistency, it has to have ontology, what is being in that world, what is it ethics in that world – and Tolkien is particular interested in these metaphysical questions.
Tolkien’s Imaginary Languages
Tolkien’s extensive knowledge of world languages both ancient and modern lent itself to his creation of the artificial languages that add so much realistic depth to his fictional writing
INTERVIEW: Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths
An interview with author Nancy Brown on her latest medieval offering: “Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths”.
Old Bones: Possible Richard III remains and DNA link found
What she found was the skeleton of a body with scoliosis, a curved spine, much like historical descriptions of King Richard. But in order to determine if the remains are indeed his, scientists must now compare the DNA of the remains with that of Richard’s living descendent—Canadian Michael Ibsen.
Language and Legend in the Fantasy Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien
There was something so real in the languages that he created, and critics wanted to find the inspirations behind Tolkien‘s worlds. Elves, dwarves, men, hobbits, and various other creatures occupied the pages of his books, but the languages he created were complex and had real elements in them. Examples of his invented languages were those spoken by the Elves, Sindarin and Quenya.
Tolkien’s Heroic Criticism: A Developing Application of Anglo-Saxon Ofermod to the Monsters of Modernity
The structure of this study follows the development of Tolkien’s social criticism and heroic aesthetic. The study begins by looking at some biographical elements of Tolkien’s life and how those elements shaped the creation of Tolkien’s anti-hero, the Hobbit.
Sympathy for the Devil: the legend of Gog and Magog
In this discussion I want to consider a similar demonising of the ‘other’ in the form of the giants who were the indigenous inhabitants of Albion before the first civilised settlers arrived
Horses of Agency, Element, and Godliness in Tolkien and the Germanic Sagas
What is the contract between man and equine that allows a beast ten times our size and one hundred times our strength to willingly serve in our ambitions? What magnetism (and who placed it) is it that draws humanity and horses together?
Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics
J. R. R. Tolkien’s classic work on the Old English poem
“Far-off gleams of evangelium” : a study of how J. R. R. Tolkien’s The lord of the rings reflects the biblical “Kingdom of Heaven”
The findings of this thesis confirm that the values of LOTR and the Kingdom are notably similar, and that the reader of LOTR does indeed derive from it an experience of what the Kingdom ideally is. But all this is “under the surface”, and Tolkien did not impose his Christianity.
How Icelandic Legends Reflect the Prohibition on Dancing
The following article is about repression, and how repressed culture can find expression in legends.