Childhood in the Middle Ages
What was childhood like in the Middle Ages?
Love and Eroticism in Medieval Norwegian Runic Inscriptions
Although other emotions are obvious in various inscriptions, clearly the one most often and most explicitly expressed is love, at times more specifically erotic interest.
The Legacy of Medieval Muslim Spain: Contemporary Identities and Conceptions of Tolerance
Christina Civantos examines the contemporary presence of medieval Muslim Iberia in Arab and Hispanic cultures and in global understandings of tolerance.
Were women ever sacred? Some medieval and modern men would like us to think so
What do we really know about this phenomenon of medieval “courtly love” and the gender roles it displayed?
Children in Viking Studies: a case for material culture studies
I will argue that the study of Viking-Age children, though historically stagnant, could be expanded through implementation of theoretical frameworks focused on the influence of both actors and their material culture.
Big Men During the Icelandic Commonwealth
By comparing chosen cases of ambitious men taken from the Íslendingasögur and the Sturlunga compilation, the applicability of the category to commonwealth Iceland is assessed.
The service patterns and social-economic status of English archers, 1367-1417
This thesis is a study of the men who served as archers in the armies of the English kings between 1367 and 1417. However, the focus is not the archers in their military capacity, but the motivations behind their service and their position in late medieval English society.
Sibling Rivalries, Scriptural Communities: What Medieval History Can and Cannot Teach Us about Relations between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Today there are literally hundreds of writers turning to the Middle Ages in order to make this or that argument about the relationship between Western and Islamic civilization.
The Calamity of Violence: Reading the Paris Massacres of 1418
The prelude to the massacres began on the night of 29 May 1418. The city had been brutally occupied for five years by the Armagnacs, the ruling junta hostile to both the Parisians and the populist Burgundian party that the vast majority of the capital’s residents favored.
Labour Pains: Scenes of Birth and Becoming in Old Norse Legendary Literature
In its ability to produce sons, the maternal body offered one of the few means for women to attain power and influence in the medieval world. However, it is constantly depicted as being broken down in Old Norse legendary literature, a loose generic distinction taken here to encompass principally the poems of the Poetic Edda and the prosimetric narratives of the fornaldarsögur.
Medieval people’s obsession with crystals: an interview with Marisa Galvez
Stanford medievalist Marisa Galvez is examining the origins of people’s fascination with crystals. She finds that crystals inspired the writing and poetry of some medieval authors in unexpected ways.
Sumptuary Legislation and Conduct Literature in Late Medieval England
This study is an examination of attempts to control dress in late medieval England.
From Civilitas to Civility: Codes of Manners in Medieval and Early Modern England
Argues that to see the contrasts between late medieval ‘courtesy books’ and early modern manuals of manners as markers of changing ideas of social conduct in England is an interpretation too narrowly based on works written in English.
Intermarriage in fifteenth-century Ireland: the English and Irish in the ‘four obedient shires’
This paper explores the interaction between these two groups through the curiously understudied phenomenon of intermarriage, and centres on the ‘four obedient counties’ of Dublin, Meath, Louth, and Kildare in the fifteenth century.
Genetic origins of Iceland’s first settlers revealed
“It’s like having a time machine. Now it is possible to study the actual people who participated in the founding of Iceland.”
Sex Tips from Late Medieval France
In his book The Ship of Virtuous Ladies, Symphorien Champier offers sex and conception tips to keep everyone healthy. There are a lot of do nots!
“I will never consent to be wedded with you!”: Coerced Marriage in the Courts of Medieval England
What happened when it was not the parents, but an overly zealous suitor who coerced a marriage?
Lost but not yet Found: Medieval Foundlings and their Care in Northern France, 1200-1500
The High Middle Ages was an important period of transition in the care of France’s “miserable persons,” that is, the poor, sick, widows, orphans, aged, and infirm.
Tattooed Vikings? A look at medieval body art
If you have ever watched Vikings or other TV shows or films that dwell on similar time periods and regions, chances are that you have seen a lot of characters heavily tattooed on face and body. Is it historically accurate?
Historical and Technical Notes on Aqueducts from Prehistoric to Medieval Times
The aim of this paper is to present the evolution of aqueduct technologies through the millennia, from prehistoric to medieval times.
The Medieval Love Letters of H and a lady
The story of a remarkable set of three letters written in verse, preserved in a 12th century manuscript, which tells of love between a woman and a man.
The Medieval Vegetarian
The idea that it was wrong to meat in the Middle Ages was certainly not widely held. Most people would consume meat from cattle, sheep and other animals without any vexation. However, one well-known 11th century poet was not only a vegetarian, but also a practicing vegan.
A Medieval Man’s New Year’s Resolutions
In the diary of Gregorio Dati, an Italian merchant born in the fourteenth century, we can see resolutions tied to this urge to face a new year as a better man in an entry dated January 1, 1404.
The Knighting Ceremony: From Squire to Sir
Danièle Cybulskie takes a look at the ceremony in which a squire was knighted.
