The medieval maiden: young womanhood in late medieval England
This thesis takes in both the fields of studies of medieval youth, and of medieval women, in its analysis of representations of young womanhood in late medieval England.
20 Great Medieval Quotes
Our list of inspiring and amusing quotes from the Middle Ages.
From Sin to Science: Astrological Explanations for the Black Death, 1347-1350
Few survivors of the plague’s horrors could have remained indifferent to debates over its ultimate cause. The frequent evocation of astrology in these debates helped to increase the circulation of astrological ideas in the later fourteenth century, and contributed to the wider vogue they enjoyed during the early modern period
More wine, meat and exotic birds: What Richard III’s bones reveal about what he ate
The remains of Richard III have given researchers the ability to learn a vast amount about the life of the medieval English monarch. The latest study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, has uncovered fascinating new details about what his diet was and where he lived.
Rabies in medieval Persian literature – the Canon of Avicenna (980–1037 AD)
Avicenna described rabies in humans and animals and explained its clinical manifestations, route of transmission, and treatment methods. In this article, our goal is to discuss Avicenna’s 11th-century points of view on rabies and compare them with modern medical knowledge.
The Fabulous Saga of Guðmundr inn ríki: Representation of Sexuality in Ljósvetninga saga
Guðmundr, a powerful goði living in the late 10th and early 11th century, was subjected to sexual insults by his rivals Þorkell hákr and Þórir goði Helgason. These sexual insults described him as effeminate and cowardly, and the thesis shows that the Ljósvetninga saga text follows suit with these slurs.
Nature Speaks: Expanding Ecocriticism to the Anglo-Saxon World
Ecocroticism is a new, and still emerging, field of literary criticism. Through an interdisciplinary approach, it aims to draw together environmentally focussed work from a wide range of academic fields.
Rethinking Hardown Hill: Our Westernmost Early Anglo-Saxon Cemetery?
This paper reassesses the early Anglo-Saxon assemblage from Hardown Hill, Dorset. Wingrave excavated the objects in 1916 but apart from his 1931 report, and Evison’s 1968 analysis, there has been little subsequent discussion.
Living cheek by jowl: the pathoecology of medieval York
This paper aims to present the environmental context for disease combined with the human osteological record to reconstruct the pathoecology of medieval York.
Archaeologists uncover human remains in Dublin
The remains of at least five people have been discovered by archaeologists working at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Since they were found at a depth of 1.5 metres below the surface, it suggests the remains are most likely medieval or earlier in date.
How Europe’s Culture Moved Around over the last 2,000 years
In a video they unveiled this month, you can follow how Europe has changed over the last 2,000 years.
Ecstatic Dance: Medieval Dansomania and the Love Parade in Berlin, 1996
While dancing they are oblivious to their surroundings, they shriek, scream, and rave – note the use of ‘rave’ in its older meaning of manic behaviour – and they have visions which ‘according as the religious notions of the age were strangely and variously reflected in their imaginations.
Grand Ages: Medieval coming to your computer screens in 2015
A new video game will soon allow players to explore, build up and go to war in 30 million square kilometres of pixelated medieval Europe.
What’s Happening in Medieval Archaeology this Summer
Here are some videos posted this summer about archaeological work currently taking place that involves medieval finds.
Ten Things You May Not Have Noticed in the Bayeux Tapestry
The designer of the Bayeux Tapestry also included little details that the casual viewer might miss. Here are ten images to take a second look at.
Enemy and Ancestor: Viking Identities and Ethnic Boundaries in England and Normandy, c.950 – c.1015
This thesis is a comparison of ethnicity in Viking Age England and Normandy. It focuses on the period c.950-c.1015, which begins several generations after the initial Scandinavian settlements in both regions.
‘That melodious linguist’: Birds in Medieval Christian and Islamic Cosmography
“Birds,” writes Albertus Magnus, “generally call more than other animals. This is due to the lightness of their spirits.”
Amending the Ascetic: Community and Character in the Old English Life of St. Mary of Egypt
Among the most eligible saints for such treatment, Mary of Egypt deserves particular consideration: her popularity is evidenced by over a hundred extant Greek manuscripts of her Life and her uniquely prominent position in the Lenten liturgical cycle in the Eastern Church.
Pontefract Castle receives £3 million in heritage funding
Wakefield Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund have announced a £3.045 million grant will go towards conservation work on Pontefract Castle in northern England.
Reflection of the Wars of the Roses in Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur: Literary-cultural analysis
The aim of this research paper is to analyse the Morte D’Arthur and find certain historical moments incorporated in the book. Firstly, as the goal of work follows a hypothesis that Thomas Malory reflected manifold incidents from the Wars of the Roses in the Morte D’Arthur, it was inevitable to understand author’s position in this civil war, which meant investigating in the authorship.
Medieval Misogyny and Gawain’s Outburst against Women in “‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’
The view has been gaining ground of late that the Gawain of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a knight renowned as ‘Pat fyne fader of nurture’ (1. 919) and as ‘so cortays and coynt’ of his ‘hetes’ (1. I525), degenerates at the moment of leave-taking from the Green Knight, his erstwhile host, to the level of a churl capable of abusing the ladies of that knight’s household (11.2411 -28).
Redating the East-West Schism: An Examination of the Impact of the Sack of Constantinople in 1204
Although 1054 is indeed the date most often found on timelines and in textbooks—and therefore the date most often memorized by students of the medieval period—the majority of modern scholars recognize that the East-West Schism was in fact, as Timothy Ware writes, “something that came about gradually, as the result of a long and complicated process.”
Caught in Love’s Grip: Passion and Moral Agency in French Courtly Romance
French royal courts in the late twelfth century were absolutely smitten with love. Troubadaours traveled from place to place reciting stories of knights and the ladies they wooed.
The Stewart Earls of Orkney and the History of Orkney and Shetland
The Northern Isles have their own national, or at any rate quasi-national, historical tradition. It is quite separate from that of Scotland, though it is clearly connected to it; and it offers parallels to the nineteenth-century growth in historical consciousness elsewhere in the British Isles.