What Imported Viking Age and Medieval Artifacts Can Tell Us about Trade and Exchange in Mývatn, Iceland
This article examines how Mývatn Icelanders were able to partially connect to the continental trade in beads, the Baltic trade in flint, and to other European trade networks operating between the 9th and 15th centuries, and to what extent these networks were able to influence the early Mývatn economy.
The Saxon expeditions against the Wends and the foundation of Magdeburg during Otto I’s reign
This essay ask for the reasons why some rulers such as Otto I strove for an imperial agenda and how the expeditions of his margraves across Elbe were legitimized by contemporary writers.
Image and Community: Representations of Military Saints in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean
From the tenth through the thirteenth century, image-makers and hagiographers reconceived select saints as aggressive warriors, a transformation that launched them to the top of the saintly hierarchy in the eastern Mediterranean.
The World of Miracles: Science, and Healing in Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus miraculorum (ca.1240) in Competition with Magic
This paper offers a close reading of some of the miracle tales dedicated to the Virgin Mary as contained in Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus miraculorum (ca. 1240)
Viewing the Bayeux Tapestry, Now and Then
In attempting to trace the history of the Bayeux Tapestry, it has always been the case that the simplest explanation, the one that involves the fewest imponderables and requires the fewest assumptions, is that it was designed for Bayeux cathedral.
There is More than Meets the Eye. Undead, Ghosts and Spirits in the Decretum of Burchard of Worms
The Corrector, that is, the nineteenth book of Burchard of Worms’s Decretum, is widely recognized as one of the essential sources for the study of pagan survivals around the year 1000 A.D
Playing Vikings: Militarism, Hegemonic Masculinities, and Childhood Enculturation in Viking Age Scandinavia
How do we define and understand the concept of childhood as it existed during the Viking Age?
Well-Poisoning Accusations in Medieval Europe: 1250-1500
During the later Middle Ages, a new idea fueled suspicion of minority groups in Europe: a belief
that they might poison wells to cause widespread illness and mortality.
The Ethiopian Age of Exploration: Prester John’s Discovery of Europe, 1306-1458
This article examines the dynamics of interaction between Italian elites and Ethiopian travelers throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
‘The Limits of my Language mean the Limits of my World’: Multilingualism in Medieval Iceland
In this thesis, I discuss how medieval Icelanders would have considered foreign languages and those people who could speak them.
The Ahistoricism of Medieval Film
As many readers will know, the long debate among historians about the relevance and value of historiophoty – the creation of valid or useful historical narrative in film – has been “won”, for the moment at least, by the advocates of film.
The Mongol Mamluk Sultan Al Adel Kitbugha (694-702 Hij, 1294-1302 AD)
In history, some personalities stand out due to the differences in the way they were viewed after achieving glory for themselves, a glory that took them up to the highest ranks.
New Research into the Battle of Grunwald/Tannenberg/Žalgiris
The “anniversary Grunwald literature” remains, like the older historiography, for instance the texts concentrated around the 550th anniversary of the battle, culturally “entangled” – because this is an inseparable and inalienable phenomenon of historical – or broader – humanistic research.
‘Now Flying over the Hell-mouth’: The Gap Between St Guðlac and Nordic Volcano Imagery
This investigation into the effects of landscape and place on apocalyptic literature contrasts the portrayal of demonic flights over a hell-mouth with Norse volcanic imagery.
Censorship and Intolerance in Medieval England
This dissertation proposes that the roots of formal print censorship in England are to be found in earlier forms of intolerance which sought to enforce conformity and that censorship is not distinct from intolerance, but rather is another form of intolerance.
Manuscripts, Metadata, and Medieval Multilingualism
Manuscripts are a particularly good source of evidence for tracking language use in this context since they survive in far larger quantities than any other medieval textual witnesses.
The Sandby Borg Massacre: Interpersonal Violence and the Demography of the Dead
During excavations of the Iron Age ringfort of Sandby borg (AD 400–550), the remains of twenty-six unburied bodies were encountered inside and outside the buildings.
The Lion Of Mali: The Hajj of Mansa Musa
A recounting of the fabled Hajj of Mali emperor Mansa Musa in 1324.
Fitting Medieval Europe into the World: Patterns of Integration, Migration, and Uniqueness
This essay explains different patterns demonstrating how medieval Europe was situated in global visions of the world.
Playing Merlin: Authorship from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Neomedievalisms
Interestingly, the writers of each new version of the Arthurian legend have chosen Merlin as their avatar: he functions in each text as historian, author, and prophet.
Children and child burial in medieval England
This thesis presents an investigation into children in medieval England through burial, the most archaeologically-visible evidence for the treatment and conceptualisation of children in life.
Pepin, Power and the Papacy: The True First Holy Roman Emperor
Pepin has been greatly underestimated and undervalued by many historians of the modem world. In his time, he was renowned as a great ruler and Church reformer.
Pirates, Merchants, and a Small Battle on the Island of Kythira in the Later Middle Ages
Incidents of maritime violence such as this were common in the Mediterranean during the later Middle Ages.
Imperatrix, Domina, Rex: Conceptualizing the Female King in Twelfth-Century England
This study makes a case for the inclusion of the identity of the “female king,” specifically through the example of the early twelfth-century Empress Matilda, in trans studies.
Bartered Bodies: Medieval Pilgrims and the Tissue of Faith
The journey disciplined and dirtied the body, exposed the travellers to danger and death, and denied their normal comforts.