Open Journals @ UWA (The University of Western Australia)
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Learning from the Past to Understand the Present: 536 AD and its Consequences for Man and the Landscape from a Catastrophist Perspective
Get PDFThe global catastrophic consequences of the 536 AD ‘dust veil’ have been recorded by numerous contemporary observers. Recently, scholars have suggested that the event has been recorded, in the form of myth, in both the Elder and Snorri’s Edda. This ecocritical study aims to highlight the consistency between the description of the consequences of Fimbulvetr (‘Great Winter’) on the landscape in the Eddic tradition, and the effects of the ‘dust veil’ on the landscape of early medieval Europe. The primary intention is to endorse the opinion of scholars who hold that the myth of Fimbulvetr does in fact correspond to a historical catastrophic event that occurred in 536 AD. Furthermore, this analysis will emphasize the importance of said myth in the construction of the cultural memory of the society that witnessed and recorded it in verses. I argue that the memory of the ‘Great Winter’ was particularly valuable, for it was considered a way in which important lessons could be taught to future generations: humbleness (similar catastrophes had already happened, and could happen again), hope (mankind survived the catastrophe), and respect (for the memory of what had happened in the past, and that could recur in the future)
Review: Figuring Racism in Medieval Christianity
No full textM. Lindsay Kaplan, Figuring Racism in Medieval Christianity. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019). Print, 283pp., £22.99, ISBN: 9780190678241
Review: Crusading and Masculinities
No full textNathasha R. Hodgson, Katherine J. Lewis, and Matthew M. Mesley, eds, Crusading and Masculinities, Crusades – Subsidia 13 (London: Routledge, 2019). Print. 366 pp., £110 ISBN: 978-1138054677
Review: Fuidheall Áir: Bardic Poems on the Meic Dhiarmada of Magh Luirg c. 1377–1637
No full textMícheál Hoyne, Fuidheall Áir: Bardic Poems on the Meic Dhiarmada of Magh Luirg c. 1377–1637, Early Modern Irish Texts Series I (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 2018). Print, 489pp., €25, ISBN: 9781855002388
The Pious Knight in Medieval Hagiography, c. 930–1058
Get PDFComposed by Odo of Cluny (930–942), the Vita Geraldi is the earliest hagiographic work that proposes a layman as a model of sanctity, the Frankish count Gerald of Aurillac (d. 909). The importance and originality of this text lie in the fact that warfare is presented as an instrument for restoring order and protecting the defenceless. About a century later, the Vita of another pious arm-bearer was composed, the lesser-known Vita Burcardi. This short biography recounts the life of a powerful knight, Count Burchard of Vendôme (d. 1007), who is said to have been marked by piety and eagerness to defend the Church. Both Vita Geraldi and Vita Burcardi are interesting cases in the panorama of medieval hagiography as they reflect churchmen’s attempts to promote a new role for warriors as protectors of the weak and defenders of the Church during the Central Middle Ages. By focusing on these two vitae, this paper explores the ways in which the figure of the pious knight emerged and evolved in monastic hagiography between the tenth and eleventh centuries, in conjunction with the rise of the chivalrous ideals
Review: The Routledge History of Medieval Magic
No full textSophie Page and Catherine Rider (eds), The Routledge History of Medieval Magic (Abingdon: Routledge, 2019), 550 pp., £190 (HB) ISBN 9781472447302, £114 (ebook) ISBN 9781315613192
The Fluidity of Tradition: Place-Names, Travelogues, and Medieval Tales of the Western Icelandic Shoreline
Get PDFThis article discusses the fundamental fluidity of Icelandic place-lore. It approaches this topic through the example of the settlement of Auðr the Deep-Minded in western Iceland as described by the thirteenth-century ‘Book of Settlements’ (Landnámabók). I undertake an analysis of this medieval account, which places a central focus on the naming and narrative interpretation of the local landscape of the Hvammsfjörður fjord, with recourse to material preserved in nineteenth-century travel writing, folklore, and toponymy. I then relate my findings to classic perspectives in landscape theory and highlight the extreme ambivalences that become visible in the landscape construction represented by this material if one considers its linguistic minutiae
Review: Making England, 796-1042
No full textRichard Huscroft, Making England, 796-1042 (Abingdon & NewYork: Routledge, 2018). Print, 306pp., £110, ISBN: 9781138182455
Review: The Kingdom of the Rus’
No full textChristian Raffensperger, The Kingdom of the Rus’ (Kalamazoo andBradford: Arc Humanities Press, 2017). Print, 92 pp., £11.95, ISBN:9781942401315