Medieval StoryTelling and Modern Appropriation

I'm working on some odd thoughts that are crashing in my head as disparate projects are cross-pollinating each other.

One of the things that I'm trying to articulate is that it strikes me that much criticism of Hollywood these days regarding taking books and adapting as movies is somewhat misguided on the part of us medievalists. I have in mind specifically attempts to film Beowulf for example, or even the Tolkien movies....

If I can try and boil down the thought: In medieval literature we are accustomed to noting that stories live. They have their own life. Chaucer tells a version of an older story that many other tale tellers have told, such as the Fall of Troy in Troilus and Criseide, Shakespeare takes a story from Saxo Grammaticus and turns it into Hamlet and so on. Peter Jackson made LoTR into a movie, it isn't the same as Tolkien's LoTR. Seamus Heaney translated Beowulf and as any Anglo-Saxonist will tell you it is Heaneywulf, not Beowulf.

So what I'm saying is this: it seems to me that the medieval method of story telling: taking a preexisting tale and reshaping it in a new context/genre/medium is still with us and we can trace it from the medieval period through Shakespeare and Marlowe, through Chapman's Homer, Pope's Iliad, Dryden's Aeneid, Joyce's Ulysses right up to the present with Jackson's LoTR. By reshaping the story, these adapters and retellers have made a new work of art, related to what was previously there, but sufficiently different as to stand on its own as an independent work. So when these Beowulf movies come along, and we groan at the fact that it isn't our Beowulf, perhaps we should groan less, and listen to the new story and judge it on those terms.

Still working on this, or wondering if it is worth working on.....

You wanna know some irony? I've been thinking about this in the back of my mind......a dozen years or so ago Robertson wrote a book on "The New World Order" a diatribe that many Christians bought against the Clinton administration: a liberal cabal out to get Christians and destroy America. It seems to me though that his is slight of hand: what's happened is that since 2000 we've had a right-wing, Robertson supported cabal who has destroyed America, taken away our civil rights, and made American ideals a mockery on the world stage. His book was not only an anti-left treatise, but a blue print for Bushites and neo-cons on how to gain and keep power. Something to think about....

Blogs and Tenure

Cathy Davidson at HASTAC,not a blog I know, has raised the issue of blogs and tenure. Mark Goodacre has responded at: New Testament Gateway blog, followed by April DeConick at Forbidden Gospels Blog.

I'm not sure what I think yet, but this is worth thinking about beyond the Religious Studies corridor....

Update

Derek the Anglican had also written on State of the Question from an outsider's perspective. Click on the link and scroll down to the 12th. Good comments.

State of the Field Repost

I'm reposting this post because although started on Feb. 5, I only just finished it and so it should be at the top.

Not long ago Mike Drout on his blog mused on the state of the field in Anglo-Saxon studies at Wormtalk The point of the post, one in a series Mike plans over the year, is that the unavailability of key research tools (such as Ker's Catalogue) and the fact that there is no known plans to make these tools available is one indication that the field is not in good shape.

Tiruncula was the first to respond, http://tiruncula.typepad.com/. Her viewpoint is one from the inside, with an emphasis on collegiality, interdisciplinarity, fluidity of field borders, and the like and resports that from that interior perspective, the field is healthy.

Scott Nokes, Unlocked Wordhoard, responded by making some observations: we suffer when we get away from doing literature and into doing philosophy-lite and history-lite.

Responding to Mike and Scott is Eileen Joy at My Life Among Anglo-Saxonists who takes both to task for various comments, though in a way doesn't address the question of the state of the field, but does touch on many of the issues that addressing the state of the field essay should.

So how does one assess the State of Anglo-Saxon studies? 1) tools available 2) positions that are open and filled each year 3) numbers of graduate students finding employment 4) number of good materials being published 5) list servs/discussion boards

There are other measures too. I have to agree with Tiruncula though. Overall, the field measured from the inside is in a pretty good state. There is a great deal of good discussion going on, journals dedicated specifically to Anglo-Saxon studies, many of the tools we use are still available or are currently being redone. The exceptions are the lexical tools (pace the Dictionary of Old English) and manuscript tool--but let's face facts. In this age of the bottom line, there is increasingly little room for scholarly works at all, much less those works whose audience numbers some 200 in the world. I have to disagree here with Mike Drout: as much as I would love to have some of those tools readily available and in print yet, I'm not sure that it is an indication of ill health in the field.

So what does ail us? It isn't what's happening inside the field, because that right now is pretty exciting. It is our place within the academy as a whole that is wanting.

In part this is because Humanities in general are on the wane. There is a decided emphasis now on math and science and technology as where our future hope lies whether we're speaking of the US, the West, Europe, or the world, the solution to our problems are to be found in science and technology, not in asking questions about who we are, where we are, where we come from and so on. Anglo-Saxon studies certainly suffers from the same problems that the rest of the humanities do.

But there is more. As the "pie" shrinks, there is increasing competition for a slice. So why do medievalists generally, and specifically Anglo-Saxonists in English departments seem to be increasingly marginalized? Drout suggests that in part our linguistic skills/interests lie behind our difficulty here. I agree with Drout that our philology, the necessity of learning Latin, Old Norse, Old Irish, Old French, and talking about meter and grammar and all that sort of thing separates the medievalist in general and Anglo-Saxonist in particular from the rest of the English department. All these related fields suffer within the academy: the number of programs teaching Old Norse, or Old Irish, are few and far between. Even Medieval Latin is a bastard step child on the Classics departments in too many instances. Yet, wonderful and exciting things are happening in those fields as well, so that like Anglo-Saxon studies, the view from within is good, the view from the hilltop of the academy is not so rosy.

I could point to faculty lines not being filled when a medievalist retires, or that fewer and fewer graduate students are being hired to the tenure track, or to the lack of tools in our field, and what not and so on. But many of these problems are not Anglo-Saxonists alone but to some degree at least are spread across the academy, particularly on the Humanities side. But I think it safe to say that we are all aware that there is a problem out there.

I think that the root of the problem lies in a perception that generally Humanities are unimportant relative to other "harder" disciplines. By "harder" I mean both "hard" in the sense that a social scientist, historian, or chemist can point to quantifiable results and measurable results. That is seldom true for the Anglo-Saxonist, except those of us who deal in philology, and even then it isn't always as true as one would like. Likewise, the academy in general and students ask what value, meaning what practical value, is there in studying literature, and especially in studying dead languages and literature in dead languages. There are certainly exceptions to that attitude, but.....Related is the attitude that dismisses the ancient, classical, and medieval worlds as unimportant and having nothing to say to the present.

Ten years or so ago Victor David Hanson and a colleague whose name escapes and whom I'm too lazy to look up wrote a book, a wonderful rant really, entitled Who Killed Homer?. To some degree the rant was aimed at Classicists who engaged in theory, and so separated the wonderful texts and stories from the audiences who would hear them and benefit from them.

To some degree this is true. To another degree it isn't. Criticisms of how a scholar does her or his work are as old as the university (and actually older, but let me start somewhere). Along side the rise of the universities was the rise of scholasticism, and certainly this movement had its detractors using much the same vocabulary. Likewise doing philology and "just literature" have had their detractors as well and how these movements and practices have ruined literature for everyone. Just this past week Salon or Slate had an English professor write about how academia separates the pleasure of books from the study of literature.

I sympathize with this, I have to admit. Being a philologist who got into the field for love of language and love of the literature, it distresses me no end ot see students just not get into Beowulf or Sir Gawain, and I see some of my colleagues use the texts to champion a particular theoretical stance that in my view is a discussion best left out of the introductory course. And I agree too that often "theory" is badly practiced, just as philology was at times, and often can appear to have nothing to do with the literature at hand. But our problem in the academy does not stem from doing too much or too little theory, too much or too little literature, too much or too little philology. I love all these things, and may they continue to be practiced in health and in a healthy field, while we weed out those who practice those disciplines poorly (if I hear another MLA paper explain the basics of Focault to me one more time I swear I shall shoot the speaker--I have read him, thanks, I need not have a 16 min crash course in your paper!). Let me say to Eileen and more indirectly to Allen Franzen, that I think theory is important and more medievalists ought to consider various theoretical approaches. But contra Frantzen I do not believe that engaging in more theory or being more deeply involved in MLA and such is what will save Old English/Medieval studies. It might even hurt it, as we are perceived of trying to be like our fellows but not getting there. After all, a theorist who no longer practices in his literary period could care less about the queering of the middle ages or the societal fringes in literature in 12th century France. What the theorist qua theorist is interested in is not application to a period, author, or genre but rather in the theory; at its worst the theorist will make theory points by literally raping period, author, or genre while the accolytes nod in agreement. This doesn't make theory itself bad, but it does make much of the current practice of theory in its relationship to literature a negative one and it is not a road I wish to see medievalists go down.

BUT, that said, we do need to step up our theory in some ways. Presentism is certainly one means of doing so. It is a truism, but a profound one, that our modern Western society is not built on the Classical past as the Renaissance and a good public school education pre-1970 told us. Our modern Western culture is based on and rooted in the medieval world and the medieval and renaissance attempts to recover what they thought best about the classical past (and to some degree ignoring what they considered to be bad). Thus studying the Middle Ages has something to say to our current world and our situation. Beowulf's anti-war platform has as much to say about gangs in Chicago as it does the Mess in Iraq that his Shrubbery has gotten us into. Certainly when we take over the town in which Saladin was born, and people in the Middle East sit in their coffee shops and talk about the massacres of Richard III etc, and comparisons are made between bin Laden and the Old Man of the Mountains and his trained assasins, then we've entered the medieval world as much as the modern one and certainly we medievalists with a foot in both ought to have some good things to say about all this. And let us remember in talking about global warming that the Medieval Warm Period was followed by the Black Death, it bears some thinking on.

This doesn't mean that we should give up philology, literature, or even applying theory to literature. But it does mean that we should be more a public voice, a public scholar, than we have been heretofore. The more medievalists who are out there practicing this kind of theory, I think , the better our world will be but also the better off we'll be in the academy as a whole.

This has been 6 weeks in the making ,and I've prob. stepped on toes. But that's ok.

This Week's News

Muslim Women as Mullahs


Medieval Burial Ground Unearthed

Saxon, Roman, and Iron Age finds


If you're in the neighborhood of the British Museum: The Origins of the
British
Thursday 8 March, 18.30
Stephen Oppenheimer, historian and
geneticist, talks about his new book,
The Origins of the British:
A Genetic Detective Story.
£5, concessions £3

More Here


Medieval Skeletons

Kilve, Somerset holds fair for church

MEDIEVAL GARDEN PLOT MAY SINK PLAN FOR NEW HOMES

Review of the TV Program: The Dark Ages

Another Review of THC's much vaunted and advertised "The Dark Ages"

2/23:

Birthday:
1417 Paul II, Roman Catholic pope (1464-71)
1440 Mathias I, King of Hungary

Death:
1011 St. Willigis
1072 St. Peter Damian
1370 David II, King of Scotland
1447 Pope Eugenius IV
1447 Humphrey Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester

Events:
155 Martyrdom of St. Polycarp of Smyrna
303 Emperor Diocletian orders general persecution of Christians
532 Justinian begins work on the Hagia Sophia
553 Pope Vigilius ratifies verdicts of Council of Constantinople
687 Pepin of Heristal arrives in France
1040 Consecration of the abbey-church at Le Bec, France
1245 John of Plato Carpini connects with the Mongols
1305 A sermon preached in Italy mentioned eye-glasses
1421 Coronation of Catherine, Queen to Henry V of England
1440 Execution of Gilles de Raiz
1455 Johannes Gutenberg prints 1st book, the Bible (approximate date)



2/24:

Birthday:
1304 Muhammad ibn Battutah, Moroccan Arab traveler, travel writer
1463 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian scholar, Platonist

Events:
303 Publication of the first Roman edict for the persecution of Christians
1208 St. Francis's vocation is revealed to him (probable date)
1303 English invasion of Scotland halted)
1389 Capture of Albert of Mecklenberg, King of Sweden
1429 Joan of Arc arrives at Chinon
1446 Drawing of the earliest known Lottery, in Bruges, Belgium
1450 End of the Ambrosian Republic (2nd Commune) of Florence


2/25:

Death:
616 St. Ethelbert, King of Kent
779 St. Walburga

Events:
493 Negotiations open between the Roman Army, besieged at Ravenna, and
the Ostrogoths
1450 Surrender of Florence to Francesco Sforza
1451 Pope Nicholas V bans all social intercourse between Christians & Jews

2/26:

Birthdays:
1361 King Wenceslaus

Death:
1161 Roger II, King of Sicily
1266 Manfred, King of Sicily

Events:
364 Valentinian becomes Emperor of Rome at Nicaea
493 Surrender of the Roman Army at Ravenna to the Ostrogoths
1147 Crusaders massacre the Jews of Wurzburg


2/27:

Birthdays:
288 Constantine

Events:
425 Theodosius II, Emperor of Byzantium, founds a University
493 End of the Siege of Ravenna
1458 George of Podebrad chosen King of Bohemia


2/28:

Birthday:
1468 Pope Paul III

Death:
922 St. Oswald of Worchester
1212 Honen

Events:
591 Gregory I becomes Pope
1066 Westminster Abbey opens
1258 Tatars burn Baghdad
1476 Besieged Grandson, Switzerland, surrenders to the French
1482 Marquis Rodrigo Ponce de Leon of Cadiz raids Alhama, Granada


3/1:

Birthday:
1389 St. Antonius

Death:
492 St. Felix
601 St. David of Wales (approx. year)
1383 Amadeus VI, the "Green Count" of Savoy

Events:
499 Symmachus, Boethius' father in law, holds synod in Rome on
707 John VII elected p
1244 Fall of Montsegur (Albigensian Crusade)
1260 Mongols under Kitbuqa take Damascus
1360 Chaucer ransomed from the French
1382 Maillotin Rising, Paris (Peasant Revolt)
1383 Charles IV, King of France, subdues Paris
1410 Burning of John Badby, tailor, for heresy and a total Solar Eclipse
1469 William Caxton begins to translate "Receuil of the Histories of
Troy" from the French, to become the first book printed in English


Words of the Week:
tuition-that word that every English speaking college student and parent thereof dreads to hear or read. It comes into English from Anglo-French Norman tuycioun, from Old French tuicion, from Latin tuitio, meaning guardianship, guard, a noun from Latin tueri, to guard, protect, look after. It first appears in the late 13th century in the sense of guardianship, care, custody. By the 15th century it can refer to the position, rather than the state of, of being a protector or guardian. In the late 16th, from this meaning it refers then to the position of being a teacher, a tutor. But it isn't until the nineteenth century that it begins to refer to the fee paid to someone for protection or tutoring.

rechabite-an appropriate word for Ash Wednesday, even if I'm a bit late on that. It comes from the Bible, the Rekabim mentioned in the book of Jeremiah (and later apocrypha too). They refused to drink wine or live in houses. Late medieval use of the word beginning with Wycliffe generally refers to the Biblical material, but in the early modern period there comes Rechabitism, generally referring the practices of the Rechabites, and sometimes specifically to the teetotalism. The Independent Order of Rechabites was a charitiable society founded in the 1830s.

harrow-one of my favorite old English words, in part because it comes from Tolkien and in part because it is used in Beowulf and of course the Harrowing of Hell. It comes from the Old English word herigean, the past participle of which gives us hergod, and a verbal noun hergung. In Middle English these became herwede, herwyng. The =er= of course becomes =ar= in the vowel shift. It is related to the verb harry. Both come from a Proto-Germanic word *kharohan (v.), from *kharjaz "an armed force" and so are related to O.E. here (an army, force), O.N. herr, O.H.G. har, Ger. Heer "host, army"), from PIE root *koro- "war" (cf. Lith. karas "war, quarrel," karias "host, army;" O.C.S. kara "strife;" M.Ir. cuire "troop;" O.Pers. kara "host, people, army;" Gk. koiranos "ruler, leader, commander"). The noun "harrier" comes from "harrow" as well, and so the British military jet "harrier" is a Harrower, one who harrows. It is not related to the verb/noun "harrow" in most place names, indicating a farm implement.

wight-another good ol' fashioned Old English word, wiht, meaning a living being. And so it remains and became eventually an obsolete word until again Tolkien revived it with the Barrow wights, and so now when used it often seems to have a ghostly/preternatural reference.

Medieval TV:

The History Channel:
On March 3 the History of Sex will focus on Medieval Sex
March 4 will air The Plague
March 4 will also reair The Dark Ages. Ugh.

Quote of the Week:
Man thinks, God directs.
(Homo cogitat, Deus indicat.) Alcuin


Site of the Week:

The Book of Carmarthen

This Week's Medieval News

Medieval Remains Under Barn:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/6345647.stm

Medieval Church in Northumbria:
http://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=464553

Historian angers fellow Jews by exploring medieval accusations of ritual
murder of Christians
http://www.ujc.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=208237

Harrow-on-the-Hill:
http://www.thisishertfordshire.co.uk/news/roundup/display.var.1189931.0.skeleton_find_could_rewrite_church_history.php

Battle of Barnet: http://www.hadas.org.uk/wiki/index.php/Battle_of_Barnet

Stow-on-the-Wold turns 900:
http://www.stowonthewold.net/stow6.htm

Makeover for a Tower:http://heritage.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=208872007

2/9:

Death:
444 St. Cyril of Alexandria
720 Umar II
1088 Muiredach MacRory (Marianus Scotus), Abbot of Ratisbon

Events:
1098 HARENC II (Ridwan fails to relieve the Crusader's Siege of Antioch)
1119 Coronation of Pope Calixtus II in France
1292 First Scottish Parliament assembles at Scone
1401 Burning of a Mr. Sawtre as a Lollard heretic
1458 Marriage of Mathias I, King of Hungary, to Catherine of Bohemia

Events:

2/10:

Death:
543 St. Scholastica
1162 Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem
1221 Muhammad Ala-ed-Din, Shah of Khwarizm
1471 Fredrick II, the "Iron" of Brandenburg

Events:
1258 Mongols sack Baghdad
1306 Murder of the Red Comyn
1354 "The Great Slaughter," A riot, in Oxford, England
1480 The Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado occupies his Palace in Kyoto
1494 Founding of Aberdeen University
1495 Sir William Stanley, English lord chamberlain, executed

2/11:

Birthday:
1466 Elizabeth of York, Queen to Henry VII of England

Death:
680 Caedmon
731 Pope Gregory II
821 St. Benidict of Aniane
824 St. Pashal I, Pope
1250 William de Sonnac, 18th Master of the Templars

Events:
1115 WELFESHOLZ (defeat of Holy Roman Empire's army)
1252 Marriage of Ottakar I, King of Bohemia, to Margaret, widow of King
Henry VII of Germany
1398 The English translation of "de proprietatibus rerum" encyclopaedia
1495 Charles VIII, King of France, enters Naples
1498 Savonerola resumes preaching in defiance of his excommunication

2/12:

Death:
1209 Philippe de Plessiez, 13th Master of the Templars
1242 Henry VII, King of Germany
1294 Kublai Khan

Events:
881 Coronation of Charles III "the Fat," last Emperor of the Franks
1049 Leo IX becomes pope
1111 Henry V, uncrowned Holy Roman Emperor, kidnaps the Pope
1424 Marriage of James I of Scotland to Jane Beaufort
1429 Day Of Herrings (Sir John Falstaff defeats French)

2/13:

Death:
1130 Pope Honorius II

Events:
1282 The IlKhan Abaqua travels from Baghdad to Hamadan
1476 French lay siege to Granson, Switzerland

2/14:

Birthday:
1404 Leon Batista Alberti

Death:
433 St. Maro

Events:
842 Oaths of Strasbourg
1009 Massacre of St. Bruno of Querfurt and his party, by Lithuanians
1014 Coronation of Henry II, "the Saint" as Holy Roman Emperor
1021 Murder (?) of Caliph al-Hakim of Egypt
1130 Election of Innocent II as Pope
1400 Murder of Richard II, King of England
1432 Entrance of Henry VI, King of England and France, into London
1489 Treaty of Dordrecht



2/15:

Birthday:
1368 Sigsimund, King of Hungary and Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor
1483 Babur, founder of the Moghul Empire in India (1526-30)
1497 Philipp Melanchthon, German Protestant reformer

Death:
670 Oswy of Bernicia
1145 Pope Lucius II
1152 Conrad III, King of Germany

Events:
494 Last Lupercalia in Rome
1113 Knights Hospitaller formally named and recognized
1145 Election of Pope Eugenius III
1288 Election of Pope Nicholas IV
1386 Coronation of Wladislas II as King of Poland

This Week's News

News of the Past Week

Fisherman nets rare medieval cooking pot:
http://www.kilkennypeople.ie/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=2594&ArticleID=2028695

New Discovery at Bodian Castle:
http://www.hastingstoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=479&ArticleID=2027227

Medieval Leper colony in Coventry:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/coventry_warwickshire/6331147.stm

2/2:

Saints:
Blessed Peter Cambiano, OP (Dominican), Priest, Inquisitor General Also
known as Peter de Ruffi

Birthday:
1208 James I, "the Conqueror," King of Aragon

Death:
1014 Sweyn, King of Denmark
1451 Murad II, Sultan of the Ottomans

Events:
2/2 Candlemas
962 Coronation of Otto I, King of the Lombards, as Holy Roman Emperor
1032 Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, claims the throne of Burgundy
1077 Scheduled date for the Diet to convene at Augsburg, Germany, to
settle the matters relating to Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII.
1160 Fredrick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, takes Crema, Italy, in a
siege noted for atrocities
1190 Richard I, King of England, holds council at Rouen, France, and
appoints William Longchamps as Chief Justicar south of the Humber, with
the North under Hugh Puiset
1258 Hulagu Khan takes Baghdad
1317 Philip V recognized as King of France
1387 Marguerithe I, Queen of Denmark, named Queen of Norway
1389 Last date for English Guilds to send particulars of their
organization to the Royal Council
1440 Coronation of Fredrick III as Holy Roman Emperor
1461 SECOND ST. ALBANS (Edward IV defeats his Earls)
1494 Columbus founds the West Indies slave trade

2/3:

Saints:
St. Blaise, bishop (of Sebaste), martyr
Bl. Odoric of Pordenone, Order of the Friars Minor (Franciscan)
St. Ansgar, Apostle of the North

Death:
619 St. Laurence of Canterbury
1014 Sweyn Forkbeard
1116 Koloman, King of Hungary
1468 Johann Gutenberg

Events:
316 Martyrdom of St. Blaise
590 Election of Pope Gregory I, "the Great"
1200 Count Baldwin of Flanders takes the Crusader's Cross at Bruges
1238 Mongols take Vladimir, Russia
1347 John VI Cantacuzenus enters Constantinople - end of the Civil War
1376 Massacre of the city of Cesena, Italy by Sir John Hawkwood
1461 Battle of Mortimer's Cross
1472 Reconsecration of York Cathedral
1488 Bartholomew Dias anchors in Mossel Bay, South Africa

2/4:

Saints:
St. Joan of Valois, Queen of France
Feast of the Flight into Egypt

Death:
211 Septimus Severus of Rome
846 St. Joannicius
854 Rabanus Maurus
1189 St. Gilbert of Sempringham
1498 Antonio Pollaivolo, sculptor

Events:
855 Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mainz, dies
900 Coronation of Louis, "the Child," King of Germany
1194 Richard I, King of England, freed from captivity in Germany

2/5:

Saints:
St. Agatha, virgin, martyr Martyred c.250


Events:
1204 Alexius V proclaimed Emperor in Byzantium
1265 Election of Pope Clement IV

2/6:

Saints:
St. Amand of Maastricht, Abbot


Death:
679 St. Amand of Maastricht
1215 Hojo Tokimasa
1497 Jean d' Ockeghem

Events:
337 Election of Pope Julius I
743 Hisham ibn 'Abd al-Malik, 10th Moslem caliph, dies at about 52
1190 Jews of Norwich, England are massacred
1481 First Auto-da-Fe of the Spanish Inquisition


2/7:

Saints:
St. Theodore the General (Stratelates)

Birthday:
1478 Sir Thomas More

Events:
457 Leo proclaimed Eastern Roman Emperor
1301 Edward I revives the title Prince of Wales, confers it on his son
1313 Robert, "the Bruce," captures Dumfries, Scotland

2/8:

Saints:
St. John of Matha, founder of the Trinitarians

Birthday:
412 St. Proclus, patriarch of Constantinople
1291 Alfonso IV of Portugal

Death:
1265 Hülegü, grandson of Ghengis Khan

Events:
1250 AL MANSURA; death of Fakhr ad-Din, 7th Crusade defeated by Baibars
1254 William of Rubrick records the use of oracles among the Mongols
1492 Charles VIII of France enters Paris

Random Site of the Week:

http://www.pseudoisidor.de/html/uberblick_uber_die_falschungen.HTM
Projekt Pseudo-Isidor

Quote of the Week:

Love is a certain inborn suffering derived from the sight of and excessive meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex. Andreas Capellanus, Art of Courtly

State of the Field

Not long ago Mike Drout on his blog mused on the state of the field in Anglo-Saxon studies at http://wormtalk.blogspot.com/2006/12/state-of-field-when-i-was-in-graduate.html The point of the post, one in a series Mike plans over the year, is that the unavailability of key research tools (such as Ker's Catalogue) and the fact that there is no known plans to make these tools available is one indication that the field is not in good shape.

Tiruncula was the first to respond, http://tiruncula.typepad.com/. Her viewpoint is one from the inside, with an emphasis on collegiality, interdisciplinarity, fluidity of field borders, and the like and resports that from that interior perspective, the field is healthy.

Scott Nokes, http://unlocked-wordhoard.blogspot.com/2007/01/more-on-state-of-field.html, responded by making some observations: we suffer when we get away from doing literature and into doing philosophy-lite and history-lite.

Responding to Mike and Scott is Eileen Joy athttp://jjcohen.blogspot.com/2007/01/my-life-among-anglo-saxonists-more.html who takes both to task for various comments, though in a way doesn't address the question of the state of the field, but does touch on many of the issues that addressing the state of the field essay should.

So how does one assess the State of Anglo-Saxon studies? 1) tools available 2) positions that are open and filled each year 3) numbers of graduate students finding employment 4) number of good materials being published 5) list servs/discussion boards

There are other measures too. I have to agree with Tiruncula though. Overall, the field measured from the inside is in a pretty good state. There is a great deal of good discussion going on, journals dedicated specifically to Anglo-Saxon studies, many of the tools we use are still available or are currently being redone. The exceptions are the lexical tools (pace the Dictionary of Old English) and manuscript tool--but let's face facts. In this age of the bottom line, there is increasingly little room for scholarly works at all, much less those works whose audience numbers some 200 in the world. I have to disagree here with Mike Drout: as much as I would love to have some of those tools readily available and in print yet, I'm not sure that it is an indication of ill health in the field.

So what does ail us? It isn't what's happening inside the field, because that right now is pretty exciting. It is our place within the academy as a whole that is wanting.

In part this is because Humanities in general are on the wane. There is a decided emphasis now on math and science and technology as where our future hope lies whether we're speaking of the US, the West, Europe, or the world, the solution to our problems are to be found in science and technology, not in asking questions about who we are, where we are, where we come from and so on. Anglo-Saxon studies certainly suffers from the same problems that the rest of the humanities do.

But there is more. As the "pie" shrinks, there is increasing competition for a slice. So why do medievalists generally, and specifically Anglo-Saxonists in English departments seem to be increasingly marginalized? Drout suggests that in part our linguistic skills/interests lie behind our difficulty here. I agree with Drout that our philology, the necessity of learning Latin, Old Norse, Old Irish, Old French, and talking about meter and grammar and all that sort of thing separates the medievalist in general and Anglo-Saxonist in particular from the rest of the English department. All these related fields suffer within the academy: the number of programs teaching Old Norse, or Old Irish, are few and far between. Even Medieval Latin is a bastard step child on the Classics departments in too many instances. Yet, wonderful and exciting things are happening in those fields as well, so that like Anglo-Saxon studies, the view from within is good, the view from the hilltop of the academy is not so rosy.

I could point to faculty lines not being filled when a medievalist retires, or that fewer and fewer graduate students are being hired to the tenure track, or to the lack of tools in our field, and what not and so on. But many of these problems are not Anglo-Saxonists alone but to some degree at least are spread across the academy, particularly on the Humanities side. But I think it safe to say that we are all aware that there is a problem out there.

I think that the root of the problem lies in a perception that generally Humanities are unimportant relative to other "harder" disciplines. By "harder" I mean both "hard" in the sense that a social scientist, historian, or chemist can point to quantifiable results and measurable results. That is seldom true for the Anglo-Saxonist, except those of us who deal in philology, and even then it isn't always as true as one would like. Likewise, the academy in general and students ask what value, meaning what practical value, is there in studying literature, and especially in studying dead languages and literature in dead languages. There are certainly exceptions to that attitude, but.....Related is the attitude that dismisses the ancient, classical, and medieval worlds as unimportant and having nothing to say to the present.

Ten years or so ago Victor David Hanson and a colleague whose name escapes and whom I'm too lazy to look up wrote a book, a wonderful rant really, entitled Who Killed Homer?. To some degree the rant was aimed at Classicists who engaged in theory, and so separated the wonderful texts and stories from the audiences who would hear them and benefit from them.

To some degree this is true. To another degree it isn't. Criticisms of how a scholar does her or his work are as old as the university (and actually older, but let me start somewhere). Along side the rise of the universities was the rise of scholasticism, and certainly this movement had its detractors using much the same vocabulary. Likewise doing philology and "just literature" have had their detractors as well and how these movements and practices have ruined literature for everyone. Just this past week Salon or Slate had an English professor write about how academia separates the pleasure of books from the study of literature.

I sympathize with this, I have to admit. Being a philologist who got into the field for love of language and love of the literature, it distresses me no end ot see students just not get into Beowulf or Sir Gawain, and I see some of my colleagues use the texts to champion a particular theoretical stance that in my view is a discussion best left out of the introductory course. And I agree too that often "theory" is badly practiced, just as philology was at times, and often can appear to have nothing to do with the literature at hand. But our problem in the academy does not stem from doing too much or too little theory, too much or too little literature, too much or too little philology. I love all these things, and may they continue to be practiced in health and in a healthy field, while we weed out those who practice those disciplines poorly (if I hear another MLA paper explain the basics of Focault to me one more time I swear I shall shoot the speaker--I have read him, thanks, I need not have a 16 min crash course in your paper!). Let me say to Eileen and more indirectly to Allen Franzen, that I think theory is important and more medievalists ought to consider various theoretical approaches. But contra Frantzen I do not believe that engaging in more theory or being more deeply involved in MLA and such is what will save Old English/Medieval studies. It might even hurt it, as we are perceived of trying to be like our fellows but not getting there. After all, a theorist who no longer practices in his literary period could care less about the queering of the middle ages or the societal fringes in literature in 12th century France. What the theorist qua theorist is interested in is not application to a period, author, or genre but rather in the theory; at its worst the theorist will make theory points by literally raping period, author, or genre while the accolytes nod in agreement. This doesn't make theory itself bad, but it does make much of the current practice of theory in its relationship to literature a negative one and it is not a road I wish to see medievalists go down.

BUT, that said, we do need to step up our theory in some ways. Presentism is certainly one means of doing so. It is a truism, but a profound one, that our modern Western society is not built on the Classical past as the Renaissance and a good public school education pre-1970 told us. Our modern Western culture is based on and rooted in the medieval world and the medieval and renaissance attempts to recover what they thought best about the classical past (and to some degree ignoring what they considered to be bad). Thus studying the Middle Ages has something to say to our current world and our situation. Beowulf's anti-war platform has as much to say about gangs in Chicago as it does the Mess in Iraq that his Shrubbery has gotten us into. Certainly when we take over the town in which Saladin was born, and people in the Middle East sit in their coffee shops and talk about the massacres of Richard III etc, and comparisons are made between bin Laden and the Old Man of the Mountains and his trained assasins, then we've entered the medieval world as much as the modern one and certainly we medievalists with a foot in both ought to have some good things to say about all this. And let us remember in talking about global warming that the Medieval Warm Period was followed by the Black Death, it bears some thinking on.

This doesn't mean that we should give up philology, literature, or even applying theory to literature. But it does mean that we should be more a public voice, a public scholar, than we have been heretofore. The more medievalists who are out there practicing this kind of theory, I think , the better our world will be but also the better off we'll be in the academy as a whole.

This has been 6 weeks in the making ,and I've prob. stepped on toes. But that's ok.

Top Chef Finale

I started this blog, not that I've blogged much, to talk about things medieval. But I'm a fan of Top Chef, and the finale last week of season II needs a bit of comment. Reading the judge's blog for the final episode was fine, but I have to say that there is a disconnect between the judges and the fans. A large number of fans write comments to each judge, and so many of them are negative, threatening to stop watching because of the decision and so on. I too in Season I was guilty of such negativity, and threatened to stop watching (and obviously continued to watch making it an empty threat). Now I can't even remember exactly what made me so upset, or how I got so involved in a reality tv show. More importantly though, I think that part of the problem is the lack of transparency in the process.

Last season's finale between Harold and Tiffani in part seemed to be decided on the fact that Harold could lead a team in the kitchen, part of being a top chef. This season that didn't seem to matter any. That's just one example. What I suggest to the producers and judges is simply the following: a standardized, publicized rating system. What specifically are the contestants judged on---that can even change from round to round as long as that is explicitly known and publicized. Kind of like Iron Chef...so many points total, spread across four categories. The one with th emost points wins. That, btw, would also prob cut down a great deal on 4 and 5 AM judging table extravaganzas! Four voting judges, how do they score each contestant or each team. My .02 which of course means nothing at all since the producers will never see this. Other than the official site of the show, I don't think I've ever seen a Top Chef blog.

Medieval News

This past week's news:

Possible Viking Ship found in Ireland:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070126/sc_afp/irelandhistoryvikings_070126222912

Mitteldeutscher Archäologiepreis:
http://www.archaeologie-online.de/magazin/news/detail.php?n=779

A little early, but interesting: Normandy grave hints at 300-year
defiance of the Roman Empire,
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2190045.ece

Hunting for Hadrian Along the Wall:
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=458908

Cowdray Manor:
http://www.chichestertoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=452&ArticleID=1991556

Lost Treasure of Maxentius:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C13509-2575075%2C00.html

SHARP: Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project has some
Medieval Era finds etc. http://www.sharp.org.uk/

Medieval Africa:
http://historymedren.about.com/od/africanplaces/a/splendorafrica.htm

Medieval Boat in Israel: http://historymedren.about.com/b/a/257881.htm



The Past Week in Medieval History:

Jan. 26:

Saints:
166 St. Polycarp
404 St. Paula
684 St. Conan

Death:
724 Caliph Yazid II (of grief over the death of his favorite singing girl)
1100 St. Eystein of Norway 1
1108 St. Alberic (Aubrey)

Events:
1266 Charles of Anjou becomes King of Sicily
1316 Revolt in Wales by Llywelyn Bren
1316 ARDSCULL (Edward Bruce and Irish fight English)
1347 University of Prague authorized by the Pope


Jan 27:

Death
844 Pope Gregory IV
847 Pope Sergius II
1039 Robert Burton

Events:
1166 Marriage of Prince Henry of Germany to Constance of Sicily
1186 Fredrick Barbarossa crowned ruler of Burgundy
1302 Black faction in Florence sentences its opponents (including
Dante) to exile or death
1302 Dante expelled from Florence


Jan. 28:

Birthday:
1457 Henry VII (Tudor) of England

Death:
814 Charlemagne; Louis "the Pious" inherits Frankish Empire
1232 Pedro de Montaigu, 15th Master of the Templars
1256 St. Peter Nolesco

Events:
893 Coronation of Charles III, "the Simple" as King of France
1077 King Henry IV submits to the Pope at Canossa
1256 William, King of the Romans, was killed
1393 "Bal des Ardents;" Death of the Count de Joigny, Yvain de Foix,
Aimery Poitiers, and Huguet de Guisay

Jan. 29:

Deaths:
591 St. Sulpicius
1118 Pope Paschal II
1119 Pope Gelasius II

Events:
904 Sergius III crowned pope - beginning of the "Pornocracy"
1327 Coronation of Edward III of England

Jan. 30:

Saints:
Holiday of Three Hierachs (Eastern Orthodox)
http://www.goarch.org/en/chapel/saints.asp?contentid=408

Death:
680 St. Bathild, Queen to Clovis II of France

Events:
435 Rome made peace with the Vandals, ending the "Fall" (some say that
this is the beginning of the Middle Ages)
1118 Election of Gelasius I as Pope
1328 King Edward III of England re-marries Phillippa of Hainaut
1349 Election of Guanther of Schwarzberg as King of Germany
1380 St. Catherine of Siena suffers a stroke
1487 Bell chimes invented

Jan. 31:

Death:
410 St. Marcella
626 St. Aidan (Madoc) of Ferns

Events:
314 St. Sylvester becomes Pope
1298 Peace of Tournai
1405 Jean de Bethencourt goes to France to obtain materials to
establish a colony on the Canary Islands


Feb. 1:

Death:
523 St. Bridgid
1328 Charles IV, "the Fair," King of France

Events:
Candlemas Eve
772 Election of Adrian I as Pope
1327 Coronation of Edward III as King of England
1411 First Peace of Thorn


Words of the Week:

quotidian--a terrific word, borrowed from French, cotidien, from Latin
quotidianus, from Latin adv. quotidie....daily, every daily, the every
day. Interesting word, comes into English in the 14th century and is
first used by Richard Rolle, soon to be followed by Wycliffe and Gower a
half century later or so. But it does rather roll off the tongue.

creel--a fifteenth century word in English whose roots are unknown.
OIrish had criol, a chest, and since this is a Scottish and Northern
word, this might be the source of the English word, but the vowels are
difficult to explain (going from OI to ME). Likewise Old French had
greille, from Latin craticula, hurdle work, which some think may have
had a variant *creille. Its a largem deep wicker basket in English used
to transport goods, now used chiefly of fishermen's creels for keeping fish.

guile-- guile is an intereseting word indeed. It first shows up in
English the early 13th century, c. 1225. But its etymology and spelling
are uncertain. It is related to "wile" as in "wiley". But Old
English/Middle English "wil" doesn't show up in the language until 1154
for an entry in the Parker Chronicle. Further, it seems to show up in
places of Scandinavian influence, and so may be a borrowing of Old Norse
vel, an artifice, a craft. It is unlikly though that the ON form gave
immediate rise to "guile". The "guile" form does appear in OF, and may
come into OF from ON, or may result from Frankonian. *wigila related to
Old Frisian wigila, a trick, sorcery, witchcraft. Things etymologically
are further confused by the trying to figure out the precise
relationship between OE/ME wil, and Old English wiglian, to practice
divination or sorcery, wiglere, a sorcerer, and wiglung, sorcery,
divination. That they stem in some way from the same roots is true.
Ah, confusion on multiple levels, gotta love it.

cudgel--as confusing and uncertain as guile/wile/wiel (descendant of
wiglian) are, a far more simple word etymologically speaking is our cudgel. It is used in the Old English period and then as now is a short, thick stick used as a weapon, a small club. It probably comes from a Proto-Germanic *kuggilo, possibly from a PIE root *geu- to bend or curve. What makes it interesting and worth mentioning here is that it is not known in cognate languages.


Upcoming Medieval Television:

Sat. Feb. 3, Castles and Dungeons, History International

Mon. Feb. 5, Conquest, a look at Chivalry

Wed. Feb. 11 Meet the Ancestors looks at a site below Bamburgh Castle

Thur. Feb. 8, Line of Fire, a look at the Battle of Agincourt and Henry V

Thu Feb 8, 2 parts of a 3 part series on the program Ancient Almanac looks at the Normans

Random Site of the Week: http://orkneyjar.com/index.html The Orkeny Jar, a site that focuses on Orkney.

Quote of the Week:

Our abode in this world is transitory, our life therein is but a loan, our breaths are numbered and our indolence is manifest. Al-Siddiq (Abu Bakr)

This Week's Medieval News

Last Week was a rather quiet one medievally speaking:

Antonine Wall officially Britain's nomination for World Heritage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/6290053.stm


Jan. 19:

Saints:
St. Sebastian Martyred c.288

Birthday:
1/19 Muhammad
1200 Dogen

Events:
1160 Kidnapping of the retired Japanese Emperor

Jan. 20:

Saints:
St. Fabian, Pope, Farmer Papal Ascension, 236 Mmartyred c.250

Death:
473 St. Euthymius the Great
842 Theophilus, Emperor of Byzantium
1256 Renaud de Vichiers, 19th Master of the Templars
1479 John II, King of Aragon

Events:
1/20 St. Agnes Eve
1/20 Reindeer Day
250 Martyrdom of St. Fabian, Pope
1192 Phillip II of France lays siege to Gisors, a castle of Richard I
of England
1265 The first English Parliament called, by Simon de Montfort
1265 1st English Parliament, called by the Earl of Leicester
1320 Coronation of Wladislaus, King of Poland

Jan 21:

Saints:
St. Agnes of Rome, virgin martyr

Birthday:
1338 Charles V (the Wise), King of France

Death:
259 St. Fructuosus
861 St. Meinrad

Events:
911 King Louis the Child, last Carolingian ruler of Germany, dies
1189 Phillip Augustus, King of France, Henry II, King of England, and
Fredrick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, begin assembling the troops for
the Third Crusade
1217 Matthew Paris enters St. Albans as a monk
1472 Great daylight comet of 1472 passes within 10.5 million km of earth

Jan. 22:

Saints:
St. Vincent of Saragossa, Deacon (earliest known martyr of Spain


Birthday:
1440 Ivan III (the Great), Grand Prince of Russia

Death:
628 St. Anastasius the Persian

Events:
1295 CONWAY
1498 Columbus discovers St Vincent Island


Jan 23:

Saints:
St. Ildephonse, bishop of Toledo, Doctor of the Church
St. John the Almoner, Patriarch of Alexandria


Death:
667 St. Ildefonsus
1002 Otto III, Emperor of the West
1275 St. Raymond of Penafort

Events:
1264 Annullment of the Provisions of Oxford
1295 Coronation of Pope Boniface VIII


Jan. 24:

Saints:
St. Babylas

Birthday:
76 Hadrian, 14th Roman Emperor
1287 Richard de Bury

Death:
41 Caligula, Roman Emperor, assassinated
97 St. Timothy
772 Pope Stephen IV
817 Pope Stephen V
1376 Richard, Earl of Arundel

Events:
661 Murder of Ali by a Kharajite
1458 Matthias Corvinus elected King of Hungary


Jan 25:

Saints:
St. Dwynwen

Birthday:
749 Leo IV (the Khazar), Byzantine Emperor

Death:
98 Nerva, Roman Emperor
363 Sts. Juventinus and Maximinus
477 Gaiseric, King of the Vandals
817: Pope Stephen V
1138 Anacletus, anti-Pope
1494 Ferrante I, King of Aragon

Events:
817 Consecration of Paschal I as Pope
1077 Emperor Henry IV submits to Pope Gregory VII at Canossa
1153 Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem, attacks Ascalon
1325 Lithuania opened to settlement
1356 Edward III, King of England, having no further use for him,
pensions off Edward Balliol, "King" of Scots
1498 Vasco da Gama reaches Quelimane, on the Sofala coast


Words of the Week:

censure--from French, from Latin. The earliest use recorded in English is Wycliffe in the sense of a spiritual judgement rendered by an ecclesiastical judge, but it clearly by 1400 meant a specific judgement handed down by a judge or official. We don't often use the word anymore except in technical contexts or in the compound censorship. The verb to censure isn't used until the late 16th century.

overweening-- a lovely word, a compound of over + ween. Ween is an Old English word, spelled wen, with a long --e--, pre-vowel shift. The essential OE meaning was "opinion, thought, expectation, hope. The noun is formed from the past participle, oferwenan of the verb oferwenian, It is congnate with OFris. wên opinion, OSaxon wân hope, OHigh Germ., MHGerm. wân, ván hope, Goth. w{emac}n-s hope:{em}OTeut. *w{aemac}ni-z, f. Teut. and Indogermanic root *wen- to love.] In Middle English it gave rise to 2 dialectical spellings, wone, and ween, but retained the essential meaning. Phrases without ween and wen is or is wen (without doubt, and is thought, or is probable, were used throughout the medieval period.

rue--another loverly word, or set of words actually. Let's start with the Old English ones. The verb, as in ModE "rue the day" comes from Old English hreowan, and it means to "affect one with regret or penitence" to distress, to grieve, to repent. From this we hreowe, an adjective meaning sad or sorrowful. Related to this is the noun, hreow, grief, repentance, sorrow, though the noun comes from a related verb to hreowan: hreowian, to feel sorrow or grief. The difference in the verbs is that hreowan is causative: to cause or make someone feel sorrow or the need to repent or grief, whereas hreowian means to actually feel the sorrow. Naturally this set of words crosses over and influences each other etc. They are cognate with: OFris. riowa (Fris. rouwe, rouje), MDutch and Dutch rouwen, OSaxon. hrewan, OHigh Germ. (h)riuwan, OS. hriwi sad, sorrowful. ONorse hryggr (stem hryggv-, for earlier *hriww-) adj., hryggva, hryggja weak vb., hrygg{edh}. The two Proto-Germanic roots are *khrewanan and *khruwjanan. My guess would be that we still have the word in modern English because of Shakespeare's usage "rue the day" and "rue the hour" etc. You speakers of other Germanic languages care to chime in on the word's survival in your languages?

There is also in English a "rue" referring to a perennial evergreen bush. This form of the word enters English through Old French, rue, but earlier was ruda, as it also is in Spanish, Portugese, Provencal. In Italian it is ruta, direct from Latin ruta, borrowed from Greek ruta (rho, upsilon, tau, eta), which according to Liddell and Scott was originally a Peloponnesian word (which I take to mean pre-Greek invasion) for the plant that in Greek is also called phganon (h=eta). This form of the plant's name enters English in the fourteenth century. But there had been an earlier borrowing into English that died out in th e Old English period: rude, borrowed directly from the Latin ruta. One of the things that makes this name interesting is that the leaves of this plant are bitter, and so in the early modern period especially there were a lot of punning references about rue making one rueful, such as Robert Greene's Mamillia, "Least time and triall make thee account Rue a most bitter hearbe"

Just a curio, but outside of the medieval period a hair, is the other verb "rue" from Latin ruere, to fall, to decline, that was very popular in the late 16th century. Other "rue", as in "construe" and "accrue" have no relation to any of the above "rue"s.


nonce--an archaic word now, and an odd construction. It comes from the Middle English phrase for tham anes, which became for than anes, then forthan nanes, and so to nonce. The phrase means "for the once", i. e. for the specific occasion or purpose. anes, btw, is the root of modern English once. From Chaucer's time onward it was often used simply as metrical filler in poetry, or with a variety of prepositions.

Random Medieval Website of the Week:

http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/mel/medievalftp.html A site listing medieval works available for download, with directions on how to do it.

Medieval Quote of the Week:
Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel! Beowulf, Fate goes as she must.

more news

News of the Week:
St. Petersburg:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/arts/2006/12/05/baherm05.xml

UNESCO Church in Sofia Reopens with New Frescoes:
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=73564

Saxon jewelry:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/6200614.stm

An interesting take on the medieval in the modern:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/SiliconInsider/story?id=389513&page=1

Of note:
http://historymedren.about.com/od/carolingianempire/a/charlesgreat.htm

Dec 1:

Birthday of:
1088: Anna Commena

Saints:
660: Eligius of Noyons

Anniversary of the death:
1135 Henry I

Events:

1170: Becket returns to Canterbury

Dec 2:

Saints:
361: St. Bibiana

Anniversary of the Death:
537: Pope Saint Silverius


Dec. 3

Birthday of:
1368     Charles IV, King of France

Saints:
649: St Birinus of Wessex

Anniversary of the death:
1154     Pope Anastasius IV
1181     St. Galgano, a knight who plunged his sword into a stone as an
act of renunciation of warfare.
1469     Piero de'Medici


Events:
1059 BCE     Earliest probable recorded observation of Halley's Comet

Dec 4:

Birthday of
1383     antipope Pope Felix V
1585     John Cotton, Puritan clergyman in Massachusetts Bay Colony

Saints:
235: St. Barbara (old calendar)
1099: St. Osimund, Bishop of Salisbury, aka Edmund

Anniversary of the death
771     Carloman, co-ruler of the Franks
1099     St. Osmund
1214     William, "the Lion," King of Scotland
1334     Pope John XXII at Avignon

Saint Day
306     St. Barbara, virgin, martyr (about 306)
450     St. Peter Chrysologus, archbishop of Ravenna - His Feast Day is
July 30th
655     St. Siran or Sigirannus, abbot in Berry, confessor
1075     St. Anno, archbishop of Cologne, martyr
1099     St. Osmund, bishop and confessor

Events:
265     Last of the wall around Verona, Italy, built
1093     Archbishop Anselm, of Canterbury, consecrated
1154     Election of Pope Adrian IV (only English Pope)
1183     The Siege of Castle Kerak is lifted; Saladin withdraws



Dec 5:
Birthday of
1443     Pope Julius II, patron of Michelangelo, Bramante, Raphael

Saint Day
304     St. Crispina, martyr
532     St. Sabas, abbot
566     St. Nicetius, bishop of Triers
1109     St. Gerald, Abbott of Moissac, who was appointed choir
director of the Cathedral of Toledo.
1160: Christina of Markgate

Events:
  St. Nicholas's Eve (Netherlands)
  Sven name day in Sweden
1212     Frederick II chosen King of Germany...again
1484     The Pope sets severe penalties against German witches and
magicians
1492     Columbus discovers Hispaniola
1496     King Manuel I orders the expulsion of all Jews from Portugal


Dec 6:

Birthday of
1421     Henry VI, King of England
1478     Baldassare Castiglione, Italian diplomat, writer, poet

Saints:
346: St. Nicholas!
484: St. Dionysia with her son, Majoricus, and sister Dativa


Anniversary of the death
342     St. Nicholas
1185     Alphonso I, King of Portugal
1352     Pope Clement VI
1475     Castilglione

Events
Election Day of the "Boy-Bishop:":
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02725a.htm
1240     Mongols take Kiev, Russia
1273     St. Thomas Aquinas ceases writing
1323     John of Nottingham and Robert Marshall of Leicester undertake
the murder of Edward II, King of England, by witchcraft
1362     Coronation of Pope Urban V
1491     Marriage of Duchess Anne of Brittany to Charles VII of France
1492     Haiti/Santo Domingo discovered by Columbus

Dec 7
Birthday of
521     St. Columba (Colum Cille)
1598     Giovanni Bernini

Saints:
374: Ambrose of Milan, see below

Anniversary of the death
983     Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor
1254     Pope Innocent IV

Events:
374:St. Ambrose Ordained


Words:

haplography-the inadvertent omission of a repeated letter(s) in
writing (e.g. writing philogy for philology)
This is encountered frequenly in working on medieval manuscripts and
texts.

machination--Anglo-Norman and Middle French machination plotting,
wicked contrivance or stratagem (13th cent. in Old French) and its
etymon classical Latin machinatio-machine making.  The word enters
English in the second half of the 15th century.

skulk-a word borrowed from Old Norse, skulka--to lie in wait, lie
watching and comes into the English language fairly early.  Maybe some
of our Scandinavian friends can speak to its continued life in those
languages.  In the early period the word is usually used with adverbs,
so to "skulk away", or to skulk about.  In English it seems to have
acquired a negative connotation almost right away, used in an early
Middle English version of the Ancrene Wisse (The Anchoresses' Rule)
warning against skulking away.

nawab--an originally Arab word, borrowed into medieval Persian, it was
taken over by Urdu from whence this form comes and referred first to a
native governor under the Moguls, then to a Muslim of high status in
India during the Muslim centuries.

Quote of the Week:, in honor of the holidays:

>From Carmena Burana:

Bibit hera, bibit herus,
bibit miles, bibit clerus,
bibit ille, bibit illa
bibit servus cum ancilla. (14.33-36)

The wife drinks, the husband drinks,
the soldier drinks, the priest drinks,
he drinks, she drinks,
barkeeper drinks, waitress drinks.'
Send suggestions, information, correction, or submissions.

Medieval News of the Week

Medieval Events of the Week:

Nov. 10-Martin Luther's Birthday

No. 12-Boniface III (d. 607) and Canute the Great (d. 1035)

Nov. 13: Augustine of Hippo born (b. 354) and King Edward III of England
(1354); Pope Nicholas I died, 867,

Nov. 14: Emperor Justinian (d. 565) and Alexander Nevsky (d. 1263)

Nov. 15: Pope Nicholas IV born (1397), and Albertus Magnus died (1397)

Nov. 16: St Hugh of Lincoln (1200) and Henry III of England (1272) died
on this day

Nov. 17: Hild of Whitby (d. 680) and Elizabeth of Hungary (d. 1231)

Nov 18: Odo of Cluny died (942)

Recreation of a Viking Trip:
http://us.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/10/viking.ship.ap/index.html

An Early Medieval Saxon Sword:
http://www.lutontoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=545&ArticleID=1879186

Free LIbrary of Philadelphia announces online Medieval and Renaissance mss: http://libwww.library.phila.gov/medievalman/

A blog discussion on Eusebian Canon Tables, not medieval, but something every medieval bible contained: http://neonostalgia.com/weblog/?p=175

Words of the Day for the week:

From Wordsmith:
tween-tween is a form of between that shows up first in the late 13th century, it comes from Old English between (I've not included the OE and ME spellings) which originally was a prepositional phrase bi + tweonum and variants, "by two", a dative plural. Constructions such as frith freondum be tweon(um), lit, peace by two friends, means peace between friends. bi tweonum, bi tweon in time became a preoposition in its own right, between, shortened in some Middle English texts to tween.

ONe Word A Day
For the 16th, OWD offered abetment, a nominalization of the verb abet. Abet came into English from French, a (from Latin ad) beter, to bait, urge on, hound on, from Old Norse beita, to bite, and cognate to Old English bitan, to bite. The word has since fallen out of French as far as I can tell (though some here will correct me if I'm wrong). Abet (ME abetten) gave rise to a noun abette, incitement, urging, also from Old French, and abettement, a specifically Anglo-French coinage meaning incitement to commit a crime or offense. These meanings are now obsolete in favor of a more general "to give aid or encouragement" most often in a negative sense.

The Dissertation

Here's how the project is shaping up at the moment.

There's a brief introduction, mostly the type of thing that I sent to the MAA as my application or my prospectus explaining what this Letter to Sigeweard is and why it is important to study etc.

Chap. 1 is a biography of Aelfric, which probably didn't need to be redone, but I've taken the minority position that Aelfric is a little older than is usually stated and that there are indications that he was already on the rise at Wincester before going to Cerne Abbas. I wasn't going to keep this, but material in later chapters keeps referring back to material in this first chapter, so in it goes.

Chap. 2 is a lengthy discussion originally modeled on Drew Jones' chapter for Letter to the Monks at Eynsham: author, recipient, date, occasion, content, structure, themes etc. The bulk of the chapter though sets the Letter into the intellectual contexts: 1) as a catechetical text a) in the catechetical tradition and literature of the Benedictine Refore and other Anglo-Saxon era catechetical instruction b) in the more specific context of Aelfric's catechetical works. Further, I focus for a number of pages on Aelfric's various treatments of the Hexameral tradition and explain why this Letter and that to Wulfgat emphasize a certain aspect of that tradition, namely Lucifer not wanting God as his Lord, and further building on articles by Dave Johnson and Michael Fox, argue for specific connections between Aelfric and Genesis A and B. Finally, I discuss Aelfric's discussion of the books of the Bible in the context of previous such discussions: Eusebius (through Rufinus), Jerome, Augustine, Cassiodorus, Isidore, and Alcuin.

Chapter 3 is a discussion of Aelfric's canon: the order of the books that Aelfric discusses is best matched by Cassiodorus and I explore how that situation might have come about since there is no evidence that Aelfric knew Cassiodorus directly.

Chapter 4 is a discussion of the manuscripts and the manuscript context of the Letter; there will also be some discussion of readers/users and audience. I'm also thinking about the fact that a section of the Letter that I have for some time taken as a story from Eusebius' in Rufinus' translations (which is still the ultimate source) is in actual fact the Old English translation of a sermon in Peter the Deacon's homiliary, and may have been recognized as such by readers of the Letter who separated that section out to serve as a stand alone sermon in other sermon collections.

Chapter 5 is a discussion of William L'Isle and his edition of the Letter. I've not even begun this section.

Following these chapters are my edition, translation, and commentary on the text. This is the section that is both the easiest and the most difficult. But the commentary is a mix of source identification, explanation, grammatical and semantic notices, etc.

That's how it looks at the moment.

Things Medieval

Going through things I found the following items in the news that I thought worth posting for 3 people who read this blog:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/5399670.stm

And another:
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART40661.html

http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0125nwarksnews/tm_objectid=17836180%26method=full%26siteid=50003%26headline=medieval%2dfinds%2dof%2dwhat%2dcould%2dbe%2d%2dlost%2dvillage%2d%2d-name_page.html

The Letter to Sigeweard

This is really in answer to Derek the Anglican's question on the last post, but my reply became so long and detailed that I thought it'd make a good post. So here it is:

Derek asked:
You may well be right. I can't think of any others if narrative is a requirmenet. Martin of Braga's is the clost I can think of but I haven't read Pirmin.

btw, what do you think of Jerome's first letter to Paulinus of Nola?

Yes, Martin's is close and makes many of the same points other patristic writers and Aelfric makes. BUT at the same time there are some key differences. The chapter keeps going, because I keep finding new material to cover. Right now, all I can do though is say with Day and Godden that Martin may have been an inspiration for De Initio...we know that Aelfric makes use of Martin's sermon in other contexts (De Falsiis Deis, Cath Homs I.6, Lives On Auguries), but in the neither the Letter to Sigewaerd, De Initio or for that matter other hexameral discussions of Aelfric is there a quote or citation of Martin or even matching phrases (having just compared the texts phrase by phrase I can say that).

Jerome's Letter LIII? I'm assuming you're referring to the list of the books? I have a long section of this same chapter that compares the Letter to all the previous discussions of the contents of the Bible that I could find: Jerome's letter 53, Prolgus Galeatus, Augustine's De Doctrina, Rufinus' translation of Eusebius' Church History, Cassiodorus' Institutes, Isidore in the Etymologies and in the Proemia, and finally Alcuin's Bible poems. A) Aelfric's order is unique except for Cassiodorus...these are very close and I suggest a reason for that since there is no evidence that Aelfric knew Cassiodorus or that a copy of the Institutes was in A-S England. B) Aelfric's content is by and large different than all the foregoing. Sometimes a similar point is made about a particular book of the Bible, but in different phrasing so at most all one can say is that these previous treatments if known to Aelfric (and some were since he quotes the text in other places) can only be said to be inspirations to him, and sources of knowledge that he is now passing on, but indirectly, not directly. If that makes sense....

More Aelfric

Its all Aelfric, all the time. Right now I'm up to my neck in the hexameral tradition. Something I didn't know though, and may still be wrong on, is that Anglo-Saxon England seems the first place where we find a single, connected NARRATIVE about Creation, Fall of the Angels, Creation and Fall of Man etc...all these are talked about in several places in patristic and early medieval exegesis and so on, but not all in one place, and certainly not as a narrative that I've been able to discover so far.

I'm working on the question of Aelfric's dependence on the tradition and finding that while he is quite orthodox, he isn't dependent on a lot of sources that one would expect.

Some ideas I'm working on:
Aelfric is influenced by Genesis A, which may come from Aethelwold's school (the manuscript, not necessarily the texts), sometime between 960-987. Later Aelfric begins to differ from Aethelwold on some of the details, becoming more Augustinian.

Further, why did Aelfric write the Life of Aethelwold? Unverified and unchecked theory: after his Letter to the Monks and other texts in which he differs from Aethelwold, perhaps there was political need to reiterate his relationship with that school and tradition.

Wow--I thought I would blog the Congress. That didn't happen! But here are some thoughts on Congress 2006:

As usual I was busy, esp. on Thursday. But not as busy! Of the four sessions, I was only in 2, and only had committments for breakfast and lunch. BUT! For the first time, my paper truly sucked. I simply didn't have the time or resources i needed, not like I thought when I actually did begin work on it back in Oct. I thought I might get away with it in a small, out of the way session....but no, several big names showed up. Ah well....just make sure next year's paper is fabulous.

The good thing about Congress this year is that I was able to spend more time with friends, and less time networking; I have to say that my networks are pretty strong and now friends and networkings are beginning to merge. And that's all good!

Heard some good papers, but not a large number, and wandered about the book exhibit, visiting each place at least once. I can not believe some of the prices though! I saw a new paperback by a major scholar ON SALE for $90! An average size PAPERBACK! And don't get me started on Ashgate.....oi.

So short comments, but there's the gist. A good time, some intellectual challenges, some failures, some successes......