Rituals of Greeting and Farewell: Reflections on a Visit to the Royal Court of Norway in 1302
An account of reception and farewell rituals at the royal court of Norway in 1302 is described in detail and analyzed through the use of ritual studies.
A shared imitation: Cistercian convents and crusader families in thirteenth-century Champagne
This article examines the relationship between Cistercian nunneries and the crusade movement and considers the role of gender in light of the new emphasis on penitential piety and suffering prevalent during the thirteenth century.
Remains of Blanche Mortimer discovered in lead coffin
The discovery of a body inside a church memorial has caused amazement in the world of archaeology and surprised experts.
How Charles the Bold dispensed justice
Shortly before his visit to Middelburg, the governor, a nobleman and knight, fell in love with a married woman. She indignantly spurned his advances. The governor took revenge against the woman by having her husband arrested and imprisoned on a charge of high treason.
Apocalypse et Moyen Âge : un cocktail détonnant
Dans l’imaginaire contemporain, Apocalypse et Moyen âge semblent aller de pair. Rares sont les films médiévalistes où il n’est pas question de fin du monde, où qui ne représente pas une société en plein déclin, au bord de sa propre destruction.
Prince Valiant, un chevalier du Rio Bravo
An article in French on the American comic book Prince Valiant.
Call for Papers: 16th Congress of Danses Macabres d’Europe
The Association aims at studying Danses macabres and its related themes: the Encounter between the three living and the three dead, the Triumph of Death, Ars moriendi, futility, and eschatological themes such as the Last Judgement.
Is There a Doctor in the Castle?
To picture medieval medicine is to picture screaming patients being bled or cauterized, perhaps biting some sort of leather belt or other. While bleeding and cautery were definitely part of the medieval medical tradition, there were many other remedies to be found, some surprisingly modern.
The Music and ‘Scopic’ (Bardic/Skaldic) Elements of our Anglo-Saxon Ancestors
The life of the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings was probably filled with tunes and music wherever they worked and lived – from the more formal pieces of courtly music to the everyday, when men could be found just singing tunes to the cattle as they milked, or kept rhythm to songs as they sowed the seed in the ploughed fields
Medieval Sports: An interview with John Marshall Carter
Sometimes there was fine line between sports and pastimes in the middle ages. I believe that where you find sports records you can conclude that medieval people had a fairly well-developed concept of sporting competition.
The Most Significant Manuscript Sources of Medieval Croatian Vernacular Verse
The first part of the article gives a brief overview of the history of Croatian literacy up to the first written record of poetry in the Old Croatian language.
Like a Duck to Water: Representations of Aquatic Animals in Early Anglo-Saxon Literature and Art
In the second book of his Life of Columba abbot Adomnan of Iona relates some details regarding the second and third voyages of the monk Cormac in search of ‘a desert place in the ocean’.
The Colors of the Rainbow in Snorri’s Edda
In the second part of his Edda, the Gylfaginning, Snorri Sturluson gives a systematic account of Norse mythology from the creation of the world to its end.
Why the Middle Ages are called the Dark Ages
How did the term ‘Dark Ages’ become synonymous with the Middle Ages, and why do we still refer to it like that?
An outside for the inside : a psychoanalytic reading of The Book of Margery Kempe
It is evident in Margery Kempe’s visions of holy family life that Virgin and Christ dyad is an oedipal fantasy of the child who is the father of himself.
Pruning Peasants: Private War and Maintaining the Lords’ Peace in Late Medieval Germany
‘Peasants are best when they grieve, and worst when they rejoice.’
In Search of the Secrets of Medieval Organs
On Friday and Saturday, June 9 and 10, 2012, a concert and workshop focusing on the medieval organ were held at the Basel (Switzerland) Peterskirche. They dealt with concepts, designs, rep- ertoire and the medieval organ used in ensemble.
‘Royal’ pediculosis in Renaissance Italy: lice in the mummy of the King of Naples Ferdinand II of Aragon (1467-1496)
Pediculosis seems to have afflicted humans since the most ancient times and lice have been found in several ancient human remains. Examination of the head hair and pubic hair of the artificial mummy of Ferdinand II of Aragon (1467-1496), King of Naples, revealed a double infestation with two different species of lice…
Comforting sentences from the warming room at Inchcolm abbey
Inchcolm abbey has the best-preserved medieval conventual buildings
in Scotland.
Did a Megadrought force the Huns to invade Europe?
The worst megadrought in the last 2000 years hit Central Asia around 360 AD, new study finds
A ‘Game of Words’: Why were ‘Insult tensos’ Performed in Occitan Courts?
What was the purpose of insulting, aggressive exchanges between nobles and joglars/troubadours in the Occitan courts?
Valentine’s Day Medieval Love: Books for that special someone
Love is in the air! Here are a few medieval books on the topic of love for your Valentine.
The 2014 Harlaxton Symposium: The Plantagenet Empire, 1259-1453
This year’s Harlaxton Symposium will be taking place from Tuesday July 15th to Friday July 18th at Harlaxton Manor in Harlaxton, Lincolnshire, UK.
Medieval Friends: Inspire, by Andy Mcmillin
Find out why the title of her blog on all things medieval is very fitting.
Chaucer’s female characters in the Canterbury Tales: Born to thralldom and penance, and to been under mannes governance
This essay will also demonstrate that in order to be considered a good wife a woman
needed to be humble and obedient and to accept her fate as being subject to male authority figure without resistance.