Best of
Medieval

1989

The Bride


Julie Garwood - 1989
    The Bride sweeps readers back to the savage beauty of medieval Scotland.... By the king's edict, Alec Kincaid, mightiest of the Scottish lairds, must take an English bride. And Jaime the youngest daughter of Baron Jamison, is his choice. From his first glimpse of the proud and beautiful English lady, Alec felt a burning hunger stir within him. This was a woman worthy of his fearless warrior's spirit. And he aches to touch her, tame her, possess her...forever. But with the wedding vows, Jamie pledges her own secret oath: She will never surrender her love to this Highland barbarian. He was everything her heart warned her against -- an arrogant, brooding scoundrel whose rough good looks and seductive embrace fire her blood. But when strange accidents begin to threaten Jamie's life and an old rumor that Alec killed his first wife spreads anew, something far more dangerous than desire threatens to conquer her senses. With all the storytelling power and insight into the human heart that have made her one of the bestselling authors of our time, Julie Garwood takes readers on an unforgettable romantic journey rich in humor, suspense, and historical detail.

A Kingdom of Dreams


Judith McNaught - 1989
    Known as "The Wolf"; his very name strikes terror in the hearts of his enemies. But proud Jennifer will have nothing to do with the fierce English warrior who holds her captive, this handsome rogue who taunts her with his blazing arrogance. Boldly she challenges his will... until the night he takes her in his powerful embrace, awakening in her an irresistible hunger. And suddenly Jennifer finds herself ensnared in a bewildering web... a seductive, dangerous trap of pride, passion, loyalty, and overwhelming love.

The Brothers of Gwynedd


Edith Pargeter - 1989
    But before he can achieve his dream, he must first tackle enemies nearer home. All three of his brothers hamper his efforts to create an independent state. The best-loved of the three, David, brought up throughout his childhood at the English court, restless, charming, torn between loyalties, is fated to be his brother's undoing. Despite the support of his beloved wife Eleanor, Llewelyn finds himself trapped in a situation where the only solution is his own downfall and tragic death...The four novels in the BROTHERS OF GWYNEDD quartet in one volume, including:SUNRISE IN THE WESTTHE DRAGON AT NOONDAYTHE HOUNDS OF SUNSETAFTERGLOW AND NIGHTFALL

Defy Not the Heart


Johanna Lindsey - 1989
    She will never accept such bondage — and Reina offers herself to her kidnapped instead, offering to make Ranulf a great lord...if he agrees to wed her.But the brave knight desires much more than a marriage of convenience from this proud, headstrong lady who treats him with scorn yet makes his blood run hotter than liquid fire. She must come to him of her own free will — or Ranulf will take her. For the passion that consumes them both cannot long be denied — even though gravest peril surely awaits them on the heart's trail to a destines and turbulent love.

The Complete Poetry and Prose of Geoffrey Chaucer


Geoffrey Chaucer - 1989
    The critical, biographical, and linguistic essays are grouped at the end so as not to impede the approach to the text. By doing so, the student is able to enjoy the richness and humor of The Canterbury Tales as well as the beauty of Troylus and Criseyde. This collection will create a deeper appreciation for Chaucer and his genius.

Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350


Janet L. Abu-Lughod - 1989
    In this reading of history, China and Japan, the kingdoms of India, Muslim caliphates, the Byzantine Empire and European maritime republics alike enjoyed no absolute dominance over their neighbours and commercial partners - and the egalitarian international trading network that they built endured until European advances in weaponry and ship types introduced radical instability to the system.Abu-Lughod's portrait of a more balanced world is a masterpiece of synthesis driven by one highly creative idea: her world system of interlocking spheres of influence quite literally connected masses of evidence together in new ways. A triumph of fine critical thinking.

The Bayeux Tapestry


Lucien Musset - 1989
    A fragile web of woollen thread on linen, its brilliant colours undimmed after nearly a thousand years, this masterpiece is unique as a complete example of an art form beloved of the aristocracy in the Romanesque era - the historiated' or narrative embroidery. The momentous story it tells is that of one of the turning-points in English and European history, the struggle for the succession to the English throne which culminated in the Battle of Hastings in the fateful year of 1066. The version told is that of the Normans who commissioned it - of Harold's perjury and its dreadful price, death and defeat in battle. Yet the sympathies of the English hands that designed and created it are equally evident. And the Tapestry itself is so close to the events it describes, and portrays them in such vivid detail, as to make it in its own right a historical source of the first order, not only for the political crisis of 1064-66 but also for the social history of eleventh-century life.This book presents a full-colour reproduction of the entire Tapestry, with a detailed commentary alongside each episode, equipping the reader to follow the story blow by blow and this marvellous work of art step by step. In addition, a preliminary study sets the Tapestry in its artistic, cultural and historical context. The late Lucien Musset, Emeritus Professor of the University of Caen, studied the Tapestry of nearby Bayeux for nearly fifty years. This erudite but highly readable survey distils a lifetime's scholarship into a wise and impeccably researched synthesis which enables the modern reader to appreciate what the Tapestry meant in the context of its time, at the start of the last millennium.

The Passionate Intellect: Dorothy L. Sayers' Encounter with Dante


Barbara Reynolds - 1989
    Sayers, detective novelist, poet, scholar, playwright and Christian apologist, spent the last fourteen years of her life reading and translating Dante's "Divine Comedy". The first two volumes of her translation, "Hell" and "Purgatory", were published during her lifetime, but when she died in 1957 the third volume, "Paradise", was unfinished. It was completed by her friend Barbara Reynolds. And now Barbara Reynolds has written the first full-length study of this illuminating stage in the creative life of Dorothy Sayers. Drawing on personal reminiscences and unpublished letters, she explores the dynamic impact of Dante upon a mature mind. New light is shed on Dorothy Sayers's personality, her relationship with her friends, her methods of work, and her intellectual and spiritual development. Readers of Dante, no less than readers of Sayers, will find this of interest.

The Serbs: The Guardians of the Gate


R.G.D. Laffan - 1989
    The classic book on an important but misunderstood people.

Heartstorm


Elizabeth Stuart - 1989
    Sweeping from the wild Scottish Highlands to tapestried castle halls, from court revelries to battlefields, from the unstoppable desire for power to the unquenchable hungers of the heart--they struggled passionately toward a triumphant destiny.*Robert Randall--The cruel and powerful Earl of Glenkennon, sworn to bring English rule to the untamed Scottish countryside...*Sir Francis MacLean--The rough-hewn chieftain of a Highland clan, pledged to protect his people...*Anne Randall--A ravishing young woman trapped between the ties of blood and the ties of love, her heart sworn to the man her father has vowed to kill.

Chronicles of the Crusades


Elizabeth Hallam - 1989
    Illustrations.

Visions of Heaven and Hell Before Dante


Eileen Gardiner - 1989
    Describes the place of these works in medieval literature and provides a helpful resource for studying elements of medieval religion. Includes: St. Peter's Apocalypse, St. Paul's Apocalypse, St. Brendan's Voyage, St. Patrick's Purgatory, and the Visions of Furseus, Drythelm, Wetti, Charles the Fat, Tundale, the Monk of Evesham, and Thurkill. Bibliography, index, glossary, notes, illustrated.

The Gothic Idol: Ideology and Image-Making in Medieval Art


Michael Camille - 1989
    By showing that images of idolatry stood for those outside the Church - pagans, Muslims, Jews, heretics, homosexuals - Camille sheds light on how medieval society viewed both alien 'others' and itself. He links the abhorrence of worshipping false gods in images to an 'image-explosion' in the thirteenth century when the Christian Church was filled with cult statues, miracle-working relics, and 'real' representations in the Gothic style. In attempting to bring the Gothic image to life, Camille shows how images can teach us about attitudes and beliefs in a particular society.

Praying with the Orthodox Tradition


Stefano Parenti - 1989
    Praying with the Orthodox Tradition is a complete collection of prayers for different hours of the day, making accessible some of the riches of Orthodox spirituality and resounding with praise and thanksgiving for the greatness of God. The foreword by Bishop Kallistos Ware explains how the prayers were first used and how much all Christians can learn from this living tradition.

Women Mystics in Medieval Europe


Emilie Zum Brunn - 1989
    The lost story of feminine Christianity is here enriched for the first time by the historical context of each woman's life and her fresh literary expression of spiritual reality. Hildegard of Bingen, Hadewijch of Antwerp, Beatrice of Nazareth, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete were acknowledged handmaidens of God's prophetic spirit. Their teaching, solidly based in theological and metaphysical culture, was even thought superior to that of the scholastic doctors of the time. Flowing Light of the Godhead, The Seven Manners of Love, and The Mirror of Simple Annihilated Souls, written in the vernacular, foreshadowed the works of Meister Eckhart. Ruysbroeck the Admirable, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and many other mystics. In the, clear, vigorous language of these long-suppressed works, readers of today can rediscover the primacy of love and imagination over pure intellect. Women Mystics in Medieval Europe is an important work of reference for Christians and spiritual seekers as well as an inspirational resource for those who aspire to see without an intermediary what God is.

The Life Of Mary Magdalene And Of Her Sister Saint Martha: A Medieval Biography


David C. Mycoff - 1989
    This medieval narration, tracing in imaginative detail the lives of the two sisters after the Resurrection of Christ, provides a model for christian women.

Tense and Narrativity: From Medieval Performance to Modern Fiction


Suzanne Fleischman - 1989
    . . Fleischman's book takes the study of medieval literature to new hermeneutic horizons. . . . Furthermore, through the use of sociolinguistics she connects the modern and medieval worlds in a way that will make the medieval world less alien to us, and thus her perspective gives us another means by which we can make medieval literature more relevant to our students. --Studies in the Age of Chaucer In this pathfinding study, Suzanne Fleischman brings together theory and methodology from various quarters to shed important new light on the linguistic structure of narrative, a primary and universal device for translating our experiences into language. Fleischman sees linguistics as laying the foundation for all narratological study, since it offers insight into how narratives are constructed in their most primary context: everyday speech. She uses a linguistic model designed for natural narrative to explicate the organizational structure of artificial narrative texts, primarily from the Middle Ages and the postmodern period, whose seemingly idiosyncratic use of tenses has long perplexed those who study them. Fleischman develops a functional theory of tense and aspect in narrative that accounts for the wide variety of functions--pragmatic as well as grammatical--that these two categories of grammar are called upon to perform in the linguistic economy of a narration.

Exploring the Past: The Middle Ages


Catherine Oakes - 1989
    Meticulously researched and based on relevant documents, art, and artifacts, Exploring the Past: The Middle Ages is an enthralling and educational study of a fascinating time.

Oxford Guides to Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales


Helen Cooper - 1989
    This second edition continues to offer the most comprehensive scrutiny of the Tales both as a whole and individually. In addition, Cooper incorporates themost significant recent scholarship and criticism, reflecting current research in the areas of Chaucer's historical and social context and developments in the interpretation of Chaucer's presentation of women.

Migration and Mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England


Nicholas Howe - 1989
    Nicholas Howe proposes that the Anglo-Saxons fashioned a myth out of the 5th-century migration of their Germanic ancestors to Britain. Through the retelling of this story, the Anglo-Saxons ordered their complex history and identified their destiny as a people. Howe traces the migration myth throughout the literature of the Anglo-Saxon period, in poems, sermons, letters and histories from the sixth to the eleventh centuries.

Henry Suso: The Exemplar, with Two German Sermons


Henry Suso - 1989
    Jorge Floria Henry Suso: The Exemplar with Two German Sermons translated, edited, and introduced by Frank Tobin preface by Bernard McGinn This is the ground and foundation for our happiness--becoming less and an annihilation of oneself. Whoever wants to become something he is not, must of necessity become less of that which he is. Pure desirable Goodness, which is called and is God, exists in itself and dwells in its own substantial being, one substantial, immutable being existing and being for itself. All things should exist for him, not for themselves, but for him and through him. He is being, activity, life and all things; we are nothing except in him. Henry Suso (c. 1300-1366) The Dominican friar, Henry Suso, was one of the most fascinating mystics of the fourteenth century, an era of singular richness in the history of Christian mysticism. His Exemplar, here translated in its entirety, contains a rich diversity of religious experience- autobiographical, devotional, speculative and pastoral. Suso's Life compares with Augustine's Confessions in the realm of spiritual autobiography, while his major mystical works, the Little Book of Eternal Wisdom and the Little Book of Truth, witness to the intermingling of speculative mysticism dependent on Meister Eckhart and a devotional piety typical of the late Middle Ages. Henry Suso was one of the most popular of all late medieval writers. His Exemplar is a true classic of Western Spirituality. +

James IV


Norman Macdougall - 1989
    Widely praised by his contemporaries, he combined the qualities of successful medieval monarch with a wide interest in the arts and sciences, while remaining acutely conscious of the need to enhance the prestige of his dynasty throughout Europe. This excellent study examines all aspects of James IV's sovereignty, explains his popularity and his highly successful kingship and assesses reasons for the disastrous end to the reign when the king and a large population of the Scottish nobility were eliminated in a single afternoon in 1513 at Flodden. This book represents Scottish historical research at its very best. It is meticulously researched and sensitively written.

Sages, Saints, and Storytellers: Celtic Studies in Honour of Professor James Carney


Donnchadh Ó Corráin - 1989
    

Beasts and Birds of the Middle Ages: The Bestiary and Its Legacy


Willene B. Clark - 1989
    This collection of essays aims to demonstrate the scope and variety of bestiary studies and the ways in which the medieval bestiary can be addressed. The contributors write about the tradition of one of the bestiary's birds, Parisian production of the manuscripts, bestiary animals in a liturgical book, theological as well as secular interpretations of beasts, bestiary creatures in literature, and new perspectives on the bestiary in other genres.

Gothic


Florens Deuchler - 1989
    206 illustrations.

Columbanus in his Own Words


Columbanus - 1989
    Poet, scholar, abbot, preacher, saint, co-founder of western monasticism, associate of kings, correspondent of popes - he was at the center of controversy in his own day and has gone on generating argument ever since. His writings are more than the legacy of history, they include a wealth of spirituality that cannot fail to inspire and encourage.

Medieval Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture 4th-14th Century


James C. Snyder - 1989
    Along the way, we enter catacombs, Early Christian basilicas, palace chapels, Romanesque churches, and Gothic cathedrals. The Christian church as the theater for the arts is Professor Snyder's focus, and he offers a remarkable view of the continuity as well as the diversity of basic asristic forms during this era. With his well-considered use of contemporary sources, and his own trenchant writing style, he brings to life the attitudes, emphases, and interests of the period. His text and the accompanying illustrations offer a comprehensive overview of Medieval art and life.

The Origins of Anglo Saxon Kingdoms


Steven Bassett - 1989
    A general explanation is also given of the processes of state-formation by which the many kingdoms of later 7th century England had evolved in the preceding two centuries.

Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages: Social Change in England, c.1200-1520


Christopher Dyer - 1989
    This book looks at aristocrats, peasants, townsmen, wage-earners, and paupers, and examines how they obtained and spent their incomes. Did the aristocracy practice conspicuous consumption? Did the peasants really starve? The book focuses on the varying fortunes of different social groups in the inflation of the thirteenth century, the crises of the fourteenth, and the apparent depression of the fifteenth. Dr. Dyer explains the changes in terms of the dynamics of a social and economic system subjected to stimuli and stresses.

The Samogitian Crusade


William L. Urban - 1989