When did the war on wolves commence? Only in the later Middle Ages it appears. On the contrary, poetry, sagas, onomastics, and pictorial art were rich in the motif of the wolf and the man and their myriad metamorphoses.
Author: Medieval Histories
Archbishop Wulfstan and his Anglo-Saxon World
In 2023 Worcester commemorates the 1000th anniversary of the death of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (1002-16), Archbishop of York (1002-23), and revered uncle of St Wulfstan (1062-95)
Beowulf – an Old Scandinavian Heroic Poem
The heroic poem about Beowulf is often considered the most accomplished example of Old English poetic literature. Based on an oral transmission of a Scandinavian epic from the 6th century, it presents a convoluted history
Allegory and vision in the work of Hildegard of Bingen
What role did allegory play in the theological and visionary writings of Hildegard og Bingen? Dinah Wouters offer a new interpretation of the visionary's writings.
What to do with the Vikings?
A review of two major new Viking exhibitions in Stockholm and Copenhagen, raises the question of how to impart knowledge of the Viking Age to the interested public.
Embargoes and Grain Exports: The Missing Link in the Story of the Black Death
Embargo of the trade in grain in the Black Sea in 1345-06 tells the story of how this kept the plague from spreading from port to port in the Mediterranean
Source:
Laying the Corpses to Rest: Grain, Embargoes, and Yersinia pestis in the Black Sea, 1346–48
By Hannah Barker
In: Speculum (2021), Vol. 96, No. 1, pp. 97–127
When, how, and why did the Black Death reach Europe, and why were the results so devastating? Recent phylogenetic studies of the bacterium Yersinia pestis have demonstrated that the specific strain responsible for the catastrophe developed in China in the first half of the thirteenth century. The bacterium then took approximately 150 years to reach the area near Lake Issyk-Kul in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, where tombs dated to 1338–1339 bear witness to an outbreak. From there, it took approximately seven years to reach the Venetian colony of Tana, near the Sea of Azov, and Solgat in the Crimea. From these locations, it spread to Constantinople and then to the major ports and trading hubs of the eastern Mediterranean, such as Alexandria, Messina, Genoa, Marseille, Ragusa, and Venice. Finally, the disease spread inland as well as northwards.
This leads to a specific question: why did the pestilence gain such gravitas at this particular moment? Why did it “suddenly” erupt with such violence? And, if at all, to what extent was this caused by endemic reservoirs that had survived from the Justinianic plague of the sixth century? Archaeologists and scientists are currently studying the different strains of the bacterium and how they shaped the course of the European catastrophe.
Sources produced by people present in the Black Sea region during the Second Pandemic—including Genoese colonial administrators, Venetian diplomats, Byzantine chroniclers, and Mamluk merchants—offer an important perspective. They show that the Venetian community at Tana played a significant role in plague transmission; that it took over a year (from spring 1346 to autumn 1347) for the plague to cross the Black Sea to Constantinople; that people crossed the Black Sea in 1346, but commodities did not, owing to a series of trade embargoes; that grain was one of the most important Black Sea commodities in both volume and strategic value; and therefore that the embargoes of 1346 delayed plague transmission by temporarily halting the movement of grain, along with its accompanying rats, fleas, and bacteria.
When Venice, Genoa, and the Golden Horde made peace and lifted their embargoes in 1347, both the grain trade and the spread of plague resumed, precipitating the later European disaster and devastation.
In a brilliant and detailed exposé of the evidence provided by letters, diplomatic reports, legal documents, and chronicles, the historian Hannah Barker lifts the veil on these crucial political manoeuvres, which delayed the spread of the pestilence.
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Recent studies from 2025 supplements this study by demonstrating how a forced volcanic climatic cooling-off of the Mediterranean region in the year 1346 led to a significant drop in average temperatures of between 1.5º and 2º, which caused widespread famine. Although not as harsh as the downturn caused by the Samala eruption in 1256, this led to an invigorated diplomatic effort to have the embargo lifted so that cities in Italy might lessen the strain by importing grain. Ultimately this is claimed to be the last missing piece. However, the question still remainss, to which extent and how, bacterial reservoirs and other rodents than the black rats played a role in the north of Europe.
The Lifeworlds of Cnut the Great and William the Conqueror
In 2016, when the English decided to leave the EU, several international conferences were organised to shed light on the conquests of Medieval England by Cnut the Great and William the Conqueror. New books present some of these papers and new perspectives.
In 2016, several conferences were organised in the heady days of the election leading up to Brexit. Now, the papers have been published from several of these conferences, presenting us with a cultural history of the events, which took place a thousand years ago. In particular, three recently published books offer different perspectives on the events which took place a thousand years ago. Do read the three books in following order.
The Cambridge Companion to the Ages of William the Conqueror
Ed. By Benjamin Pohl
Cambridge University Press 2022
However, in the 21st century, when social media has fostered a new preoccupation with our neighbours as well as persons like Trump, Putin, and Xi Jinping, we see many more biographies published. One of these might have been the new companion to William the Conqueror. By contrast, this companion introduces us more to the world of William and less to the man himself.
Accordingly, this book offers a fine introduction to not just the three realms – Normandy, England, and Scandinavia – but also the landscapes and settlements, the social strata and their institutions, as well as the lifeworld and mentality. As such, the companion proactively states in the introduction that it is not intended to be a companion to William the Conqueror but the companion to his “the age”. Thus, the present book does not offer an introduction to the conqueror’s life and career, nor are we treated to the minutiae of his invasion or the Battle of Hastings. Instead, we get a proper stage-setting or sounding board, which can be used as an introduction to the two books mentioned above.
Emphatically, this is also the intention of the editor, who writes that “his” companion is intended to “buck the trend” of students collecting exam results and grade points. Instead, this book aims to offer “contextual information and guidance” to students who wish to embark on the exciting journey of discovering a corner of the history of the Middle Ages.
Anglo-Danish Empire: A Companion to the Reign of Cnut the Great
Ed. By Richard North, Erin Goeres, and Alison Finlay
De Gruyter 2022
The book does speak to the themes of immigration, government and Europe, but it also presents us with a cultural history of the life and times of Cnut the Great, which is both intriguing and vastly entertaining. Thus, we encounter Cnut as a latter-day Aeneas, a Viking tomb-raider in high spirits, a youngster bent on enjoying the good life, and a king attracting the best and the most skilled artists and poets to his court. And we follow him archaeologically to his coronations in both Winchester and Viborg and join him on his tour of Europe, ending up as a pilgrim in Rome. A man of all times, in short. Highly entertaining and hence recommended.
Conquests in Eleventh-century England 1016,1066
Ed by Laura Ashe and Emily Joan Ward
The Boydell Press 2020
While focusing on the high politics, the leading players, and the legal and bureaucratic practices surrounding the events, a cultural history of different persons and perspectives takes the scene. With splendid articles on the social, ideological, and artistic framework, a proper cultural history is sketched in this wide-ranging book.
FEATURED PHOTO:
Cnut the Great and Edmund ironside at the Battle of Assandun. Source: Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS. 26, fol. 80v/Wikipedia (Open Domain)
Future of the Bayeux Tapestry?
Will the future for the exhibition of the Bayeux Tapestry look like the Grotte de Lascaux? With access to the authentic tapestry closed off for the wider public?
Jewish Women in the Medieval World: 500–1500 CE
Jewish Woman lived complicated lives experiencing family, sex, work, faith and cris in a particular way. New book serves as an important introduction
Whales and whaling in the Icelandic Seas – and the Kraken
Around 1250, someone wrote at princely mirror to educate Magnus, son of the Norwegian King. Here is an excerpt about whales and whaling
Why did the Norse Disappear from Greenland?
Why did the Norse People in Greenland upend their settlements in the late 15th century? A new explanation refers to their culture and way of life inherited from 9th century Viking Society.
Environmental Change in the Middle Ages Project Receives a Considerable Grant
How resilient are people when met with sudden and terrifying climatic changes? New project at Durham University aims to carry out groundbreaking research into the resilience - or lack thereof - in the Mediterranean Early Middle Ages
Medieval Church in Södra Råda in Sweden Rebuilt
This Whitsun, Södra Råda Church in Värmland in Sweden will be re-inaugurated. The aim of the reconstruction of the burnt-down medieval treasure was to learn how a church was built in the 14th century.
Early Medieval Winchester
After AD 800, Winchester was gradually established as a prominent royal centre. New books tells the story of how historians and archaeologists have worked together to reconstruct the physical realities of the landscape, the royal and ecclesiastical institutions and their wider impact of the formation of future England.
Early Medieval Winchester: Communities, Authority and Power in an Urban Space, c. 800-c.1 200
Ed by Ryan Lavelle, Simon Roffey, and Katherine Weikert
Oxbow Books 2021
ABSTRACT:
The reach of power of Winchester was felt throughout England and into the Continent through the relationships of the bishops, the power fluctuations of the Norman period, the pursuit of arts and history writing, the reach of the city’s saints, and more.
The essays contained in this volume present early medieval Winchester not as a city alone, but a city emmeshed in wider political, social, and cultural movements and, in many cases, providing examples of authority and power that are representative of early medieval England as a whole.
1. Communities, Authority and Power in Winchester, c. 800–c. 1200
Katherine Weikert, Ryan Lavelle, and Simon Roffey
2. Capital Considerations: Winchester and the Birth of Urban Archaeology
Martin Biddle
3. The King’s Stone: Peace, Power and the Highway in Early Medieval Winchester
Alexander James Langlands
4. Royal Burial in Winchester: Context and Significance
Barbara Yorke
5. Constructing Early Medieval Winchester: Historical Narratives and the Compilation of British Library Cotton Otho B.XI
Sharon M. Rowley
6. Winchester, Æthelings and Clitones: The Political Significance of the City for Anglo-Saxon Royalty and Norman Nobility
David McDermott
7. The Execution of Earl Waltheof: Public Space and Royal Authority at the Edge of Eleventh-Century Winchester
Ryan Lavelle
8. Queen, the Countess and the Conflict: Winchester 1141
Katherine Weikert
9. Lantfred and Local Life at Winchester in the 960s and 970s
Mark Atherton
10. Wælcyrian in the Water Meadows: Lantfred’s Furies
Eric Lacey
11. SK27, Or A Winchester Pilgrim’s Tale
Simon Roffey
12. The Early Jewish Community in Twelfth-Century Winchester: An Interdisciplinary View
Toni Griffiths
13. Henry of Blois and an Archbishopric of Winchester: Medieval Rationale and Anglo-Saxon Sources
Alexander R. Rumble
14. Swithun in the North: A Winchester Saint in Norway
Karl Christian Alvestad
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Ryan Lavelle is a senior lecturer in medieval history at the University of Winchester where he teaches on Anglo-Saxon England, the Normans and the Norman Conquest, and the Carolingian Renaissance. He specialises in late Anglo-Saxon political history, including royal landholding, especially in Wessex, and early medieval warfare. He is the co-editor of Danes in Wessex (Oxbow 2016).
Simon Roffey is a reader in medieval archaeology at the University of Winchester with research interests in the archaeology of the medieval period, the archaeology of Winchester, church and building archaeology and the influence of the medieval period on creative writing and popular culture, including novels, films, games and art forms.
Dr Katherine Weikert is Senior Lecturer in Early Medieval European History at the University of Winchester. Her main areas of research examine the connections between gender, space and authority in England and Normandy ca 900 to 1200, female hostageships in the central Middle Ages, and the political uses of the medieval past.
Cross Veneration in the Medieval Islamic World
During the Middle Ages, the Cross and its veneration became a key topic in numerous Islamic and Christian treatises. New book explores the theologies behind
Life in the Medieval town of Rungholt in 1362
In AD 1362, a terrible storm broke through the medieval dykes in the Wadden Sea, protecting people living in the marshy foreland. Later called the Grote Mandrenke – The Great Drowning of Men – a whole town, Rungholt, together with 42 parishes, disappeared.