Also known as the Chillingham Cattle, Britain is home to four flocks of White Cattle living in the wild since the 12th century.
Category: Medieval Nature
Rewilding – the Natural Climate Solution
Rewilding can’t alleviate all the climate challenges we face. However, it does offer a precious contribution, namely a decisive upgrade of carbon sequestration in forests, grassland and tundras. With biodiversity as an added bonus.
Is Rewilding just Another Form of Domination of Nature?
What the heck, does Heck Cattle have to do with environmentalism? Or rewilding? And is it amoral to resurrect such animals?
Return of the Mighty Beast, the Aurochs
Backbred Aurochs have been released into the Greater Côa Valley for the first time. The herd will play a vital role in restoring grassland and woodland habitats in the rewilded landscape in Northern Portugal
The Medieval Landscape as a Pastoral Christian Cosmos
The essence of the medieval Christian landscape was encapsulated in the idea of the beloved place of pleasure, Paradise
The Frightening Landscape in Northern Europe in the Early Middle Ages
During the first millennium, northern and eastern Europe was sparsely populated and devoid of anything but wilderness. How did it feel to live in this medieval world?
Medieval Europe in a Physiographical Sense
Turning the map of Europe upside down, we see a peculiar peninsula on either side surrounded by the Mediterranean and the Baltic, from where it struts into the Atlantic Ocean.
Medieval Landscapes – Two Points of View
How did people in the Middle Ages view their surroundings? What was their idea of a livable world? Which part was sacred? What profane? And what was wilderness? Did they even think of their world inside these dichotomies?
Why was the Medieval Wolf Hunted to Extinction?
Roman and Germanic people revered the wolf in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. So why did a pernicious hate of one of Europe's remaining predators supersede the veneration in the Early Middle Ages?
Animals and Animated Objects in the Early Middle Ages
Animals played a large role in Early Medieval Northern and Central Europe animating all from art to religious thinking. Upcoming book tells about burial customs, gravegoods, ornamental art styles and shapeshifting
Hunting Wolves? Or Run with Wolves in the ancient Norse manner?
This January, more than 200 hunters from Sweden, Denmark and Norway went on a blood-curling wolf hunt in the Swedish Forests. Might we be inspired by literature to rethink?
Beowolf and other Wolves in Old English Texts
In the Middle Ages, two views of the wolf – as the emblem of the heroic warrior or the embodiment of the devil – fought over people’s minds. A new book explores this complex set of narratives as it unfolds in Early Medieval Literature in England.
Werewolves – a Key to understand the Old Norse World of Wilderness?
The Old Norse idea of wilderness, landscapes and human beings differed radically from that of Latin and Christian Europe. A new study of ten narratives about wolves in the Old Norse-Icelandic poems, sagas and other texts offers valuable insights into this half-forgotten and complex world
The Wolf and the Vargr in Early Medieval Scandinavia
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.
The Heroic World of the Vikings Depicted in their Skaldic Verses
Since 2002, the Skaldic project has published a large part of the Skaldic Verses from the Viking world. Although not complete, it does offer us a preview of what was the main outline of the heroic world of the Vikings as depicted here.
Wild Edible Plants in Medieval Spain
The history of medieval landscapes tells us of forests, groves and meadows sourced for wild edible plants and other fauna, which might help to survive despite fragile economic situations