The Battle of Clontarf 1014 is a vibrant Irish Myth
Author: Medieval Histories
Charlemagne in Aachen 2014
Charlemagne – Power, Art and Treasures - are three exhibitions mounted in Aachen this summer, commemorating Charlemagne.
Archaeology and the Celtic Myth – An exploration
Pre-Christian Celtic Myth preserved in Medieval Irish Literature does shed light on older traditions, says new book
Viator 2014, Volume 45, No.2
Viator is the scholarly journal, published by Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA.
Thor’s Hammer
‘This is a hammer’ says the Runic inscription on an amulet - a Thor's Hammer - which an unknown Viking lost on one of the small islands in Southern Denmark.
The Haskins Society Journal Vol. 23
The Haskins Society Journal is an annual journal focused on the history of the early and central Middle Ages, with a special emphasis on Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Viking, and Anglo-Norman history
We welcome contributions utilizing diverse methods and evidence and regularly publish essays that draw extensively on archeology, art history, Latin and vernacular philology, law, and literature.
The Haskins Society Journal is published by Boydell & Brewer, Ltd, Woodbridge, Suffolk-
The Haskins Society Journal. Studies in Medieval History. Vol. 23
Ed by William North
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2014
ISBN: 9781843838890
LIST OF CONTENTS:
Francia and the History of Medieval Europe
By Paul Fouracre
– A historiographical essay, which “explores the question of why Francia, and in particularly a French Francia, came to take centre stage as a model for continental development in the early Middle Ages
Royal Control and the Disposition of Estates in Tenth-Century England: Reflections on the Charters of King Eadwig (955 – 959)
By Ryan Lavelle
– This article examines the politics behind the disposition of Lands in the tenth-century English kingdom
Frutolf of Michelsberg’s Chronicle, the Schools of Bamberg, and the Transmission of Imperial Polemic
By T. J. H. McCarthy
– The purpose of this article is to examine the form of Frutolf’s portrayal of the upheavals of his lifetime and their broader implications
Manipulating Historical Memory: Cosmas on the Sees of Prague and Olomouc
By Lisa Wolverton
– This article considers the history of the bishopric of Prague as described in the Chronicle of the Czechs, written ca. 1120 by Cosmas
Poetry and History: Baudry of Bourgueil, the Architecture of Chivalry, and the First Crusade
By Jay Rubenstein
This article explores the writings about and the reality behind Baudry of Bourgeueil’s concept of chivalry
Men and Masculinities at the Courts of the Anglo-Norman kings in the Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis
Kirsten A. Fenton and Simon Yarrow
Men and masculinities in William of Malmesbury’s presentation of the Anglo-Norman court
Kirsten A. Fenton
– These associated articles offer explanatory investigations into constructions of Mascyulinity at the courts of Anglo-Norman kings as contributions to the larger study of gender in the Anglo-Norman realm”
The Personnel of Comital Administration in Greater Anjou, 1129 -1151
by Kathryn Dutton
– This paper examines Geoffrey’s closest followers: who they were, why these particular men feature so prominently as actors in geoffreys’ acta and elsewhere, and what these men meant for the consequent natur of the Angevin comital administration
The Murder of Gilbert the Forester
By H. F. Doherty
The focus of this paper is the murder of Gilbert, a minor royal forest official in Staffordshire, and his companions, and the punishment of their murderer, who were hanged in late July 1175 at King Henry’s command in Lichfield as he made his way from Woodstock towards Nottingham
The Object as Subject in Medieval Art
Herbert L. Kessler
– The article explores the field between understanding medieval art as “art” and as material artefacts of a bygone age.
Early Medieval Ireland AD 400 – 1100. The Evidence from Archaeological Excavations
New book: Early Medieval Ireland AD 400 – 1100 presents the evidence from one hundred years of archaeological Excavations
Ireland in the Medieval World, AD 400–1000
Ireland is a beautiful island with a history woven into the landscape at every corner. New book tells us the story about this medieval world.
Richard III – short but not visibly disabled
The Scoliosis of Richard III, last Plantagenet King of England: diagnosis and clinical significance
According to a research paper published in The Lancet, Richard III’s severe scoliosis would not have been obvious during his lifetime, and ‘a good tailor and custom-made armour could have minimised the visual impact of his condition’. The verdict on Richard III’s appearance is that he was a short man, but not visibly disabled
This conclusion follows an analysis of the remains of Richard’s spine by a research team made up of osteologists from Leicester, Cambridge and Loughborough universities and the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. Using CT scans to make 3D polymer replicas of each vertebra, they re-created the shape of Richard’s spine during his life, leading to the conclusion that the king’s disfigurement was probably slight because a ‘well-balanced’ sideways curvature in the spine would have meant his head and neck were straight, not tilted to one side.
The researchers established that Richard would have been about 5ft 8in (1.7m) tall without his scoliosis; the condition meant he appeared several inches shorter. His torso was short relative to the length of his arms and legs, and his right shoulder was a little higher than his left, but there was no evidence that Richard walked with an obvious limp — his leg bones were symmetrical and well formed — and the condition would not have reduced his ability to exercise or to fight on the battlefield.
The researchers were also able to establish that the condition developed after his 10th birthday.
Phil Stone, Chairman of the Richard III Society, which helped fund the Leicester excavation, said that: ‘the Shakespearean description of a “bunch-backed toad” is a complete fabrication. History tells us Richard III was a great warrior. Clearly, he was little inconvenienced by his spinal problem and accounts of his appearance, written when he was alive, tell that he was “of person and bodily shape comely enough” and “the most handsome man in the room after his brother, Edward IV”.’
The Scoliosis of Richard III, last Plantagenet King of England: diagnosis and clinical significance
By Jo Appleby, Piers d. Mitchell, Calire Robinson, Alison Brough, Guy Rutty, Russell A. Harris, Davis Thompson, Bruno Morgan.
In: The Lancet 2014, Vol 383: p1944
Richard Crookback
Sarah Knight and Mary Ann Lund
TLS: 6 February 2013
Read more about the studies of the mortal remains of Richard III
The Rise of Learned Law in Medieval Europe
The Rise of Learned Law in Medieval Europe had significant Impact on Economic Growth
Saint-Maurice d’Agaune
Saint-Maurice d'Agaune dates from the 5th century. It lies in a gorge in the valley of the upper Rhone and is a World Heritage Site.
History of Saint-Maurice d’Agaune
The Abbey of Saint-Maurice d’Agaune is one of the oldest monasteries in Western Europe. It was founded around 380 AD
Around 300 a rebellion broken out in what is currently the Western part of Switzerland. As the story goes, a legion of Roman soldiers from Egypt was transferred to the region in order to crush the revolt. On the night before battle the emperor Maximian issued the usual order that the whole army should offer to the Roman Gods. The challenge was that the soldiers in the so-called Theban legion were Christians. After repeatedly having refused to comply with the command, the emperor ordered a decimation. Following this every 10th man was put to death; at the same time an additional decimation was declared to take place if the soldiers, who were still alive, did not give in. In the end it is claimed that 6600 soldiers in the Theban legion refused to take part in the sacrificial rites and were martyred. This is primarily said to have taken place at Aquanum at an old toll-station on the upper Rhone, where the river meanders through a narrow gorge. Whether a legend or not, the story very early on caught the imagination of the men of the Late Antiquity. One of these was Eucherius, who visited the site in the first part of the 5th century and wrote about it a letter. Here he told the story in detail of how a bishop, Theodore of Octodurum, had a vision of where to find the remains of the martyred soldiers.
- Saint-Maurice in Magdeburg. The Theban legions was venerated all over Europe
There are many reasons to believe that the legend about the Theban legion and its martyrdom was invented by this Theodore around 380’s, when there was a frenzy to discover saints and martyrs galore, while at the same time a pagan resurgence in the Roman army was taking place (around 390 AD). Nonetheless, whatever the facts and fiction, the story quickly caught the imagination of locals as well as bishops, and very soon a thriving centre for pilgrimage was erected on top of an earlier Roman sanctuary dedicated to Celtic water nymphs. When Eucherius visited the site, he noted that the earliest basilica, where the martyrs were buried, was already endowed with silver, gold and precious art and famous for its miracles. Probably the first sanctuary was cared for by a double institution, both male and female. In the earliest writing s we get an impression of a somewhat boisterous place: at the same time both local sanctuary, post-station for travellers and pilgrims and toll-station for merchants moving between Gaul, Germany and Italy. In the beginning of the 6th century – Saint-Maurice d’Agaune came to play a slightly different role as it was reformed by the Burgundian king, Sigismund († 524). His father was an Arian; however as a student of Avitus of Vienne he converted to Catholicism. Together the two men, king and bishop, turned the place into a highly evocative and symbolic site. Architecturally they rebuilt the basilica and reorganised the site by adding a series of other buildings to it. Further a new liturgy – Laus Perennis – was introduced to fill the place with eternal song. Later, after Sigismund and his family had been murdered, his remains were translated to the church, where he became venerated as the first royal saint in Western Europe. This contributed to cement the site as a both a royal and religious centre. In due course it came to present a format for other large monasteries, e.g. St. Denis in Paris. Later in the 9th century, after a group of Augustinian Canons had taken over from the monks, the place was once more imbued with a certain aura, when the second Burgundian Kingdom was established. Since then it has continuously functioned as both a local religious centre and a powerful political place, caring for the myth of soldiers, who did not desert, but instead believed it possible to be at the same time “in and out of this world”; as famously memorialised by Saint-Maurice in the speech, rendered by Eucherius:
“Emperor, we are your soldiers but also the soldiers of the true God. We owe you military service and obedience, but we cannot renounce Him who is our Creator and Master, and also yours even though you reject Him. In all things, which are not against His law, we most willingly obey you, as we have done hitherto. We readily oppose your enemies whoever they are, but we cannot stain our hands with the blood of innocent people (Christians). We have taken an oath to God before we took one to you, you cannot place any confidence in our second oath if we violate the other (the first). You commanded us to execute Christians, behold we are such. We confess God the Father the creator of all things and His Son Jesus Christ, God. We have seen our comrades slain with the sword, we do not weep for them but rather rejoice at their honour. Neither this, nor any other provocation has tempted us to revolt. Behold, we have arms in our hands, but we do not resist, because we would rather die innocent than live by any sin.”
Today the abbey is home to 53 regulated canons, who work amongst the local people as well as in the local college. Apart from this, the canons cater for the many pilgrims, which still visit the evocative place. The abbey has also been declared World Heritage. Another function is thus to cater for the many cultural tourists, who come to see the famous treasury and the archaeological site.
READ MORE:
The 1500-year anniversary 2014-15
Archaeology at Saint-Maurice d’Agaune
The Treasury at Saint-Maurice d’Agaune
The textiles at Saint-Maurice d’Agaune
Textiles from Saint-Maurice d’Agaune
During the 20th century a number of small bits and pieces of ancient textiles were found wrapping the precious relics at Saint-Maurice d’Agaune
Already in the beginning of the 20th century a German professor by the name of Stückelberg took the opportunity to register and photograph a series a relic-wrappings from the churches and abbeys in the Valais. Many of these tiny pieces belong to the early middle ages and stem from China, via Persia and Egypt to Western Europe. Many of these tiny pieces appeared to belong to the same textiles. Fragments seemed to have been cut off and used in different locations.
One such famous piece is of course the “Nereid Textile” from Sion (Sitten), one of the few fabrics from classical antiquity. It was probably found during an opening of the reliquary of St. Maurice in 1225 and after that dispersed through the valley. Studying all the fragments, Stückelberg found that the sudarium had been bordered on top by a pattern of eagles, while the bottom paraded falcons. He dated the piece to the 4th century and concluded that it might in fact have been the earliest wrapping for Saint Maurice (or what was believed to be his earthly remains, found by Theodulus).
Another silk-piece found at St. Maurice in 1923 seems to be a bit later – from the 6th century. It sports a rapport of lions, vine and chalices.
Too other fragments from Egypt from the 7th to 8th centuries show rapports of dancing figures in medallions alternating with dancing lions or cows. Colours white on blue or red on yellow. These were all found in the Ewer in 1923.
More, however, were to come. As late as in 1961, a whole new cache of fragments were found when the head of St. Candidus was opened. This costly head-shaped reliquary was made in the 12th century. During restoration work the head was found to contain not only parts of the presumed skull but also a blue silk cap and dozens of small tied-up packages of relics wrapped in fabrics with little parchment notes attached.
Some of these textiles belong to the period, when Saint-Maurice d’Augune was founded (515).
Currently this cache of textiles is exhibited at the Abegg-Stiftung at The Villa Abegg in Switzerland together with other rich collections from Hildesheim and the Guelph Treasure. It may be viewed by contacting the Institution.
Unfortunately the full collection of textiles has never been published.
SEE MORE:
Veil and Adornment
Medieval Textiles and the Cult of Relics.
Villa Abegg
27.04.2014 – 09.11.2014
READ MORE:
Unveröffentlichte Walliser Gewebefunde
By E. A. Stückelberg
In: Anzeiger für schweizerische Altertumskunde: Neue Folge, 1926, Vol. 26, no. 2 – 3, pp. 95 ff. (with 20 coloured photos)
Early Textiles in the Canton Valais
A. F. Kendrick
The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, 1924, Vol. 45, No. 258, pp. 125-127+130-131
Textilien des Mittelmeerraumes aus spätantiker bis frühislamischer Zeit
By Sabine Schrenk and Regina Knaller (Textile Analysis)
In: Textilsammlung der Abegg-Stiftung Volume 4
With English Translation of the Introducing Texts
ISBN 3-905014-24-6
Archaeological excavations at Saint-Maurice d’Agaune
Archaeologist have been digging at the abbey of Saint-Maurice d’Agaune since 1896. Very recent excavations have uncovered parts of a huge and fascinating royal-episcopal complex
Saint-Maurice d’Agaune 1500 years ago – and today
Saint-Maurice d'Agaune is one of the oldest monasteries in Western Europe and can trace its history back to the 5th century AD
Raw Medieval Fish
Fish was definitely food for fasting. But not raw fish, which was deemed unhealthy, raw and uncivilized
Bad is that land and not well graced, A wilderness it is and waste: Skywards its crags and peaks do soar, It snows and hails for evermore; A fearful and repulsive place. Its men both weird and wild of face. No peace they know, no quarter give. They pay no heed to how they live: They feed on fish, their meat is raw, Like wolves they tear at it and paw… They dress in untanned hides as well As if they come straight out of Hell. [1]
Fish deteriorates very quickly. Therefore, the best way to eat it is grilled on the beach (John 21: 9) or even raw, freshly fished. Even today, Danish connoisseurs may be seen walking the mussel banks in wintertime, enjoying raw mussels and oysters on the spot.
Jesus was of course the fisherman par excellence and the Apostles (his crew); and early on Jesus became symbolized by the sign of a fish (Ikhthus). Nevertheless the eating of fish gradually attained a somewhat dubious character after the year 1000, when the pattern of fish consumption changed dramatically. Fish was good – but not all fish and not everywhere.
Anselm of Canterbury
One illustration of this comes from William of Malmesbury (ca. 1095–1143), when he recalled his great contemporary, the Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury (1033 –1109):
“Right up to the end of Anselm’s life his bodily strength and fervent piety continued unimpaired… he surpassed all the men we have ever seen in wisdom and piety. Sin was completely foreign to him. He once told a close friend of mine, whom I believe implicitly, that after he became a monk, he had never been so goaded by anger as to hurl an insult at anybody – well, this had happened to him just once. He had never except once spoken a word, of which the memory made his conscience sore. At supper one day, realizing that he had eaten raw herring, he struck his breast and lamented his sin, that against the rule he had eaten raw flesh. But Eadmer, who was sitting next to him, said that the salt had drawn out the rawness of the herring. Anselm replied: “You have cured me of being tormented by the memory of my sin”. [2]
Whether the fish, Anselm partook of, was pickled or just salted, we do not know. But even today it is a great delicatessen to eat “raw herrings” at the harbour at Rotterdam and the cook in the monastery may have had the opportunity to serve something less distasteful as herring directly from the barrel. And apparently got slapped for it!
Raw fish was simply uncivilized – probably considered either a sign of gluttony, because the partaker have not waited to cook the fish; or it was considered a delicatessen in view of the challenges of getting fresh fish on the table.
Fresh fish could be transported no more than up to 150 km in barrels; accordingly fresh fish was either a luxurious delicatessen or something, which should be regarded as gifted by God and eaten on the spot. Proper fish was dried, salted, smoked (or nowadays frozen), in which case it turned into a proper communal food.
Bernard of Clairvaux
Just about the same time, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 -1153) reflected on the proper way of fasting. Born a younger son into a family of minor nobility in Burgundy, Bernard entered Cîteaux as a young man in 1112. Gifted as a charismatic person he devoted his life to reforming the monastic movement, which at that time overwhelmingly was characterised by the praxis of the Benedictines at Cluny. One issue, which especially enflamed Bernard had to do with food. In a number of letters and writings it is possible to follow the harsh critique, which was pointed at the sybarites down the road. One of the central texts is the Apologia for Abbot William. In this he writes about how course after course is brought in a mealtimes. And because the Benedictines would not break the taboo and eat meat, these dishes were doubled and made from fish of all sorts of varieties. “You only have to begin sampling the second dish to imagine that you have never tasted fish before”, he wrote. Bernard was especially critical about the relishes, condiments and sauces, which accompanied these fish-dishes. He felt that all this was too alluring to the senses and promoted an appetite above and beyond what was proper. Roast fish, boiled fish, stuffed fish, fried fish… no doubt the best way to govern the appetite, was to stay away from it all. Even later the Cistercians continued to abstain from fish, eggs, milk, cheese or white bread, let alone meat or lard, as was claimed by Jacobus de Vitry a generation later. In the end, of course, Bernard was correct; fish was at that time rapidly becoming the luxurious alternative to meat, which the rules of fasting during Advent, Lent and specific weekly days came to stipulate as offensive for not only clerics but also lay persons. As such certain fish became a sign of wealth sought by the elites at court, in the growing towns or at the magnificent new monasteries. Also the procurement of fish became rapidly more complicated in a world with a growing population which further seems to have acquired the taste for a new and refined, religiously inspired cuisine. Sign System As a sign system it was quite complicated. Topping the list were whales, porcupines and seals. Next on the list was the near extinct sturgeon followed by tuna, salmon, swordfish. Further down the list were pike, carps, bream and to a lesser extent eels supplemented by large white (fresh) fish like cod. At the bottom of the social pyramid the fish became smaller or were either salted or dried. Five grids seems to characterise this sign system, which was used to create social distinctions in the later Middle Ages
Raw: Cooked
Scarce : Common
Large : Small
Fresh : Conserved
Whole : Parts
However this sign system could be manipulated. For instance “whole fish” were definitely elite-food, although certain parts could be considered special delicacies, like the cheeks of cod or monkfish.
Pietro Querini
Further, the system would be suspended at the frontiers of Europe where fish was simply part of the daily staple diet. In 1431 an Italian, Pietro Querini, shipwrecked off the coast off Røst at Lofoten. Afterwards he and his men spent nearly 4 months living alone on the coast. First they had to live off mussels but at a later stage they found a whale on the coast. A little later, the locals from a nearby island saved them. The staple food all that summer, however, turned out to be something of a strange culinary experience for the Italiens: Stockfish and salted flaunders. At Lofoten nothing could grow and for two months they ate nothing but “butter, fish and some meat” plus fresh milk, he tells us. [3]
NOTES:
[1] From: The Owl and the Nightingale ca. 1189 – 1216, lines 999 – 1014, translated by Ian Short. In: A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World. Ed. By Christopher Harper-Bill and Elisabeth van Houts. Boydell & Brewer 2007. [2] From: William of Malmesbury: The Deeds of the Bishops of England. 65 (1109). Edited and translated by David Prest Boydell Press 2002. [3] From: Pietro Querini, Nicolò De Michiele, Cristofalo Fioravante (ed.by Paolo Nelli). Il naufragio della Querina. Veneziani nel circolo polare artico, 2007.
READ MORE:
A Hermit’s Cookbook. Monks, Food and Fasting in the Middle Ages. By Andrew Jotiscky. Continuum 2011 Food and Faith in Christian Culture By Ken Albala and Trudy Eden (eds) Columbia University Press 2011 In Series: Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History Food in Medieval England. Diet and Nutrition. By C.M. Woolgar, D. Serjeantson and T. Waldron T., eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
ENJOY:
Recipe for Raw Herrings Gut and filet half a kilo fresh herrings and freeze them for 48 hours in order to kill any parasites. Mix 1 dl salt and 1 dl sugar and rub it into the filets. Leave them covered in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Then rinse them under running, cold water and peal off the skin. Place them flat on a plate and sprinkle them with lots of fresh dill. Serve with boiled potatoes, butter and salt. (Recipe picked up in the harbour of Rotterdam in the 1930s)