Byzantine vs. Viking: The Varangian Guard in Constantinople
How did Viking raiders become imperial bodyguards? Zoe Tsiami tells the story of the Varangian Guard in medieval Constantinople.
Latest Posts
Ten Thoughts on Game of Thrones, Season 4 Episode 6: The Laws of Gods and Men
Tyrion goes on trial as we catch up on some of the other storylines in Game of Thrones.
The Most ‘Evil’ Rulers of the Middle Ages
These medieval rulers would earn the nicknames Bad, Cruel and Accursed!
New Project to look at Medieval Miracles in the British Isles
A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge have started creating an online database to categorize the miracles found in saints’ lives that were written in Britain and Ireland between 500 and 1300.
New study to look at Norse farming on the Orkney Isles
A year-long study will begin this fall that will look look at herding economies in the Orkney Isles from the 8th to the 15th century AD.
Mortality in the Fifteenth Century
For decades medieval historians have placed population at the centre of they concerns, but it is only in recent years that their studies have begun to constitute a respectable branch of historical demography.
The Medievalverse Roundtable from Kalamazoo
We talk about the 49th International Congress of Medieval Studies with John France, Elizabeth Koza and Danielle Trynoski.
BOOKS: Medieval Motherhood
Books celebrating motherhood in the Middle Ages for Mother’s Day!
Making a difference in tenth-century politics: King Athelstan’s sisters and Frankish queenship
In the early years of the tenth century several Anglo-Saxon royal women, all daughters of King Edward the Elder of Wessex (899-924) and sisters (or half-sisters) of his son King Athelstan (924-39), were despatched across the Channel as brides for Frankish and Saxon rulers and aristocrats. This article addresses the fate of some of these women through an analysis of their political identities.
When banquets were dangerous for the soul
What used to happen during wedding banquets that could threaten the integrity of people?
Viking Winter Camps
Danielle Trynoski and Matthew Ziebarth talk about their project to locate previously unknown winter camps used by the Vikings during their raids into the British Isles and Western Europe
BOOK REVIEW: “Defending the City of God” : A Medieval Queen, the First Crusades, and the Quest for Peace in Jerusalem, by Sharan Newman
This is my review of Sharan Newman’s latest book, Defending the City of God: A Medieval Queen, the First Crusades, and the Quest for Peace in Jerusalem.
Machiavelli: The Graphic Novel
A project to create a print version of a graphic novel depicting the life of the Italian politician and philosopher Machiavelli has successfully reached its fundraising goals.
Mortality Risk and Survival in the Aftermath of the Medieval Black Death
The results indicate that there are significant differences in survival and mortality risk, but not birth rates, between the two time periods, which suggest improvements in health following the Black Death, despite repeated outbreaks of plague in the centuries after the Black Death.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered: How Messages were sent in the Middle Ages
Let’s imagine, for five minutes, what it must have been like to try and communicate across long distance in the Middle Ages.
Did the Vikings reach Madeira?
New research about mice on Madeira suggests that the Vikings may have visited the Atlantic island 400 years before it was colonized.
Ten Thoughts on Game of Thrones, Season 4 Episode 5: First Of His Name
This week’s episode of Game of Thrones sees the end of Craster’s Keep, and continues to advance the various plotlines.
Medievalism, the Beautiful Book, and the Arts and Crafts Movement
My objective here is to examine briefly the influence of Medievalism on the emergence of the concept of the beautiful book in the Arts and Crafts movement, first in England and then its impact in publication design in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Top 10 Medieval Castles in England
Here is our list of ten castles you can explore that have largely remained the same since they were built in the Middle Ages.
How Chickens looked different in the Middle Ages
A new study on domestic chickens has revealed that until the end of the Middle Ages they looked very different from the ones we see on farms today.
Approaches to paganism and uses of the pre-Christian past in Geoffrey of Monmouth and Snorri Sturluson
The dissertation is a comparative analysis of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s and Snorri Sturlusson’s descriptions of paganism and uses of pre-Christian history. What was the function of these pre-Christian narratives, and what apporaches were used by the two authors to construct a complete image of the past, acceptable to their contemporary societies?
Seals and Sea Ice in Medieval Greenland
With a view to placing such developments in the context of changes in the past, the focus of this paper is an interdisciplinary study of the interaction of different seal species in Arctic/North Atlantic regions with sea ice, and, more specifically, the implications for the Norse settlements in Greenland in medieval times.
Island Words, Island Worlds: The Origins and Meanings of Words for ‘Islands’ in North-West Europe
This paper proposes the notion that words mirror ideas, perspectives and world- views. Etymologies and meanings of general words for ‘islands’ in a number of languages in North and West Europe are then discussed.
The role of goat in English medieval husbandry and economy
This paper presents a summary of an on-going PhD project that aims to re-assess the role of goats in the medieval economy and society of England.
Environmental management in medieval London: was London a ‘filthy city’?
The BBC series ‘Filthy Cities’ presented medieval London as knee deep in muck, with rivers of butchers’ waste washing into streams and chamber pots emptied on the heads of hapless passers-by.
BooksAll posts
New Medieval Books: The People’s Princes
While Niccolò Machiavelli is often associated with ruthless or disreputable tactics, a closer reading of his works reveals a far more nuanced thinker with substantial insights into politics and government. This book explores his ideas on the relationship between rulers and the people they govern.
New Medieval Books: Chinese Characters across Asia
New Medieval Books: Medieval German Tales
New Medieval Books: The Art of Making Verses
New Medieval Books: Vikings, Knights, Elves, and Ogres
New Medieval Books: Vikings Behaving Reasonably
New Medieval Books: Flattening the Medieval Earth
New Medieval Books: The Life of St. Othmar
New Medieval Books: Light on Darkness
Latest Podcast EpisodesAll posts
The Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, with Nicole Eddy
A conversation with Nicole Eddy about the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, one of the most important publishing ventures of recent times when it comes to medieval texts and literature.
How and Why We Teach Roman History, with Beth Digeser
A conversation with Beth Digeser about pedagogy, specifically about what we are hoping to accomplish by teaching Roman history.
The Battle of Tours (732)
Though often regarded as one of the most important battles of the Middle Ages, the Battle of Tours remains shrouded in uncertainty. In this episode of Bow & Blade, Michael and Kelly explore the limited evidence to uncover where the battle may have been fought and what might have taken place there.
Three Heresiologists of the 12th-century: Zigabenos, Kamateros, and Choniates, with Alessandra Buccosi, Niccolò Zorzi, Marco Fanelli, and Ottavia Mazzon
A conversation on three twelfth-century heresiological texts, the challenges of publishing and studying them, and the ways their central concerns can be presented in a museum exhibition.
Heresiology in the Twelfth Century, with Alessandra Bucossi
On Byzantium & Friends, a conversation with Alessandra Bucossi on the preoccupation with heresy in the twelfth century, which resulted in the production of a number of massive anti-heretical treatises.
East Roman Archaeology: Goals and Challenges, with Marica Cassis
A conversation with Marica Cassis about the archaeological study of the east Roman world and how it interfaces with traditional, text-based historiography. What can archaeology see and what not? What challenges has it faced to emerge as a field and what are the prospects that it faces today?