Gifted with the ability to see beauty when others only see hunger, brutal work, and disease, Marion becomes her medieval English village's salvation, in an evocative celebration of Everywoman.

    Suddenly life in England is going to be completely different, especially for Ailith, a young Saxon wife. It is the year in which she loses both her husband and young son, and the year in which the Normans come, not as friends, but in search of conquest. Ailith's grief and despair run so deep that she would have done away with herself and joined her husband and son if a handsome, womanizing Norman, Rolf de Brize, had not happened by in the nick of time. Feeling strangely responsible for the woman whose life he has saved, the normally unreliable Rolf installs Ailith as chatelaine of Ulverton, his English estate. Despite his wife and daughter in France, he and Ailith eventually fall in love and have a daughter, Julitta. But can love truly conquer all - even Rolf's wife's decision to take her rightful place as mistress of Ulverton, and Ailith's discovery of a betrayal at the Battle of Hastings that she can never forgive?

    Set in England in the time of William the Conqueror, the first novel in this marvelous series that explores what might have been if Merlin had had three beautiful daughters, each possessing just a touch of magic, resolved to use her special skills to battle evil, and determined to find love.

    Now, with this beautifully illustrated book, Cadfael fans can spend a typical year with their favorite monk, following him on his rounds as Shrewsbury's apothecary and healer, visiting his garden', and learning more about hundreds of herbs -- many of which are still cultivated today. Here is a succinct history of herbal remedies and monastic herb gardens like Cadfael's, as well as a complete A-to-Z guide to the medical uses for every herb and plant mentioned in the Ellis Peters books. For anyone intrigued by Brother Cadfael's medieval universe -- or interested in the recent boom in herbal remedies -- Brother Cadfael's Herb Garden is a marvelous guide to greater knowledge.

    Now, she brings us a tale of conquest and lover as a beautiful Englishwoman loses her heart to a man who is her enemy—and her destiny...UNCONQUEREDLeft a bequest by a woman with rare psychic powers, Eada of Pevensey suddenly finds herself in possession of a box containing a mysterious document....and something even more extraordinary: the gift of second sight. Nowshe can actually "see" her chilling fate: a Norman invader with sea-dark eyes riding across the fields to claim her lands....and her love.A reluctant soldier for William the Conqueror, Drogo de Toulan seizes the Pevensey lands as a right of conquest....and meets a woman who defies him at every turn—and arouses uncontrollable desire. Yet now, as war rages across a divided England, the two lovers must find the bond that joins body and soul....as they chart a course through battle and betrayal that could breaktheir hearts—or seal their passion for all time....

    Written by the coauthor of the film Nixon, a critically acclaimed recreation of the first papal crusades, in 1096, focuses on one man who undergoes a spiritual crisis amid the fury and mindless greed of the pilgrimage.

    Bonaventure deals with the relation of the finite to the infinite, of the natural to the supernatural, in a way which well establishes his preeminence as a mystic, a philosopher and a theologian. This English translation (from Latin) and commentary brings to the modern day reader an appreciation of the return of all created things to God.This volume is reprinted with a revised translation, introduction and commentary by Zachary Hayes, OFM, from the original by Emma Therese Healy, CSJ, in 1955.

    should prove of interest to linguists, medievalists, and Renaissance academicians, as well as to fastidious performers of early music." --Choice"Singing Early Music is a pioneering work of surpassing quality that cannot be too highly recommended." --Journal of Singing"Addresses the needs of the performer directly, giving historical pronunciations for a range of languages [and] sample texts.... The CD that comes with the book will prove invaluable.... David Klausner's recording is admirably consistent and convincing across the wide range of languages." --Early Music

    Medieval Death is an absorbing study of the social, theological, and cultural issues involved in death and dying in Europe from the end of the Roman Empire to the early sixteenth century.

    St Bernard's studious, ascetic life and stirring eloquence made him the oracle of Christendom; he founded more than 70 monasteries and is regarded by many as the founder of the Cistercian order.

    It should be useful for the study of Latin texts and documents in any fields of medieval studies.

    the hero is not a sword-wielding barbarian, bent only upon establishing his own fame; such fame-seekers (including some famous medieval literary figures) might even fall outside the definition of the Germanic hero, the real value of whose deeds are given meaning only within the political construct. Individual prowess is not enough. The hero must conquer the blows of fate because he is committed to the conquest of chaos, and over all to the need for social stability. Brian Murdoch discusses works in Old English, Old and Middle High German, Old Norse, Latin and Old French, deliberately going beyond what is normally thought of as 'heroic poetry' to include the German so-called 'minstrel epic', and a work by a writer who is normally classified as a late medieval chivalric poet, Konrad von Wurzburg, the comparison of which with Beowulf allows us to span half a millennium.

    But Pavel's heart has been won by the beautiful dog he rescued from a snowstorm, and he cannot abandon her to the freezing cold. Opulent paintings illustrate this poignant, universal story of a boy's love for a dog.

    Peter Cole's groundbreaking versions of HaNagid's poems capture the poet's combination of secular and religious passion, as well as his inspired linking of Hebrew and Arabic poetic practice. This annotated Selected Poems is the most comprehensive collection of HaNagid's work published to date in English.The Multiple Troubles of ManThe multiple troubles of man, my brother, like slander and pain, amaze you? Consider the heart which holds them allin strangeness, and doesn't break.I'd Suck Bitter Poison from the Viper's MouthI'd suck bitter poison from the viper's mouth and live by the basilisk's hole forever, rather than suffer through evenings with boors, fighting for crumbs from their table.

    How did the artist figure the inevitable and how was the fact of death, emblematized in the painted corpse, made to work as a social sign of cadaverous presence in the absence of life. Camille argues that the medieval world perceived death as larger than life, that death was implicit at birth and stretched beyond the end of life to the resurrection of the body at the last Judgement. Each of Camille's chapters, framed by an imagined account of the illuminator's last hours and illustrated with examples of his art follows this inexorable path of death. Camille describes the theological origins of death and its physical beginnings at birth. He shows how representations of death shaped medieval notions of the historical past. In this period, people were constantly preparing themselves for death, as shown by Remiet's striking image of the figures of Death waiting at the end of the pilgrimage of human life. Remiet's frequent depiction of the rotting corpse reveals his society's dreaded anticipation of the end of time when, reawakened in the flesh, each individual would face the threat of an eternal and terrifying second death.

    The essays discuss the female characters in Arthurian legend, medieval and modern readers of the legend, modern critics and the modern women writers who have recast the Arthurian inheritance, and finally women visual artists who have used the material of the Arthurian story. All the essays concentrate interpretation on a female creator and the work. This collection contains a useful bibliography of material devoted to female characters in Arthurian literature.

    This is a collection of essays on the literature of "saints' lives" in Anglo-Saxon literature.

    The book examines the process whereby Henry II gained sovereignty over Brittany, and how it was governed thereafter. This is the first study of this subject, offering an important contribution to the historiography of both Brittany and the Angevin empire. It also offers a corrective to previous scholarship by suggesting that the Angevin regime in Brittany was neither alien nor opppressive to the Bretons.

    Williams argues that the principles of negative theology as applied to epistemology and language made possible a symbolism of negation and paradox whose chief sign was the monster. Part II provides a taxonomy of monstrous forms with a gloss on each, and Part III examines the monstrous and the deformed in three heroic sagas -- the medieval Oedipus, The Romance of Alexander, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight -- and three saints' lives -- Saint Denis, Saint Christopher, and Saint Wilgeforte. The book is beautifully illustrated with medieval representations of monsters. The most comprehensive study of the grotesque in medieval aesthetic expression, Deformed Discourse successfully brings together medieval research and modern criticism.

    Written in the first half of the 13th century, it represents a different view of the legend of the Holy Grail from that found in Wolfram von Eschenbach or the French Quest of the Holy Grail, though all derive from Chretien's Perceval; the unknown author adds a much greater religious emphasis and a desire to glorify crusading chivalry for the secular adventures of Arthur, Perceval and Lancelet. The framework of the romance is the struggle of Arthur and his knights to impose, by force, the New Law of Christianity in place of the Old Law. This view of the Arthurian world should be of interest to students of medieval literature, Arthurian enthusiasts and to historians interested in the world of chivalry and its attitudes.

    Violence in the Middle Ages, however, functioned differently, according to David Nirenberg. In this provocative book, he focuses on specific attacks against minorities in fourteenth-century France and the Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia). He argues that these attacks--ranging from massacres to verbal assaults against Jews, Muslims, lepers, and prostitutes--were often perpetrated not by irrational masses laboring under inherited ideologies and prejudices, but by groups that manipulated and reshaped the available discourses on minorities. Nirenberg shows that their use of violence expressed complex beliefs about topics as diverse as divine history, kinship, sex, money, and disease, and that their actions were frequently contested by competing groups within their own society.Nirenberg's readings of archival and literary sources demonstrates how violence set the terms and limits of coexistence for medieval minorities. The particular and contingent nature of this coexistence is underscored by the book's juxtapositions--some systematic (for example, that of the Crown of Aragon with France, Jew with Muslim, medieval with modern), and some suggestive (such as African ritual rebellion with Catalan riots). Throughout, the book questions the applicability of dichotomies like tolerance versus intolerance to the Middle Ages, and suggests the limitations of those analyses that look for the origins of modern European persecutory violence in the medieval past.

    It is divided into three main sections, on Malory in context, the art of the Morte Darthur, and its reception in later years. As well as essays on the eight tales which make up the Morte Darthur, there are studies ofthe relationship between the Winchestermanuscript and Caxton's and later editions; the political and social context in which Malory wrote; his style and sources; and his treatment of two key concepts in Arthurian literature, chivalry and the representation of women. The volume also includes a brief biography of Malory with a list of the historical records relating to him and his family. It ends with a discussion of the reception of the Morte Darthurfrom the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, and a select bibliography.Contributors: P.J.C. FIELD, FELICITY RIDDY, RICHARD BARBER, ELIZABETH EDWARDS, TERENCE MCCARTHY, CAROL MEALE, JEREMY SMITH, ELIZABETH ARCHIBALD, BARBARA NOLAN, HELEN COOPER, JILL MANN, DAVID BENSON, A.S.G. EDWARD

    There are many who seek to supplant or control the boy-king, and as he grows, his protectors struggle against the threats. This trilogy paints a picture of the turbulent life of the weak-willed king.

    from back of book: Period Costumes for Stage and Screen is a comprehensive guide to creating women's dress through five centuries.As well as being accurate, Jean Hunniset's patterns have been adapted so that they can be readily made up using today's fabrics and sewing methods, and fit the modern female figure.This book includes scaled patterns for each costume as well as step by step instructions and detailed working drawings.Patterns are also included for all the correctly shaped undergarments which are essential to make each costume look right for its period.Whether you are an amateur, a student, or a professional costume maker, this book, and the series it belongs to, is an invaluable source of patterns and techniques.

    Ethical model and eccentric, socialite and eremite, Shao Yung is perhaps not only the greatest enigma of early Neo-Confucianism, but also one of its undisputed giants. In this impressive life-and-thought study, Don J. Wyatt painstakingly sifts through all available evidence relating to Shao Yung and his scholarship to provide a portrait that fully exposes the moral center of the man and his work. Drawing on the abundant store of letters and accounts by Shao's contemporaries and his own much-neglected poetry, Wyatt has assembled a study that intimately relates Shao's life to his thought. He challenges the assumptions of previous Western scholarship by persuasively arguing against the acceptance of works traditionally ascribed to Shao - specifically, the Kuan-wu wai-p'ien (Outer Chapters on Observing Things), the Yu-ch'iao wen-ta (Fisherman and Woodcutter Dialogue), and the cryptic quasi-autobiographical essay Wu-ming kung chuan (Biography of the Nameless Lord). Shao is presented as an independent thinker whose philosophical lexicon functioned according to a profound interdependence that was unique among the systems of his peers. His metaphysical concepts, which appear impervious to and beyond the scope of human influence - namely, his ching-shih (world ordering), kuan-wu (observing things), and I-Ching - derived hsien-t'ien (before Heaven) methodologies - are essentially the products of a morally reflective life. Wyatt's discoveries, therefore, refute the common assertion of Shao Yung's moral indifference. Moreover, by meticulously integrating the progress of this Neo-Confucian's thought into the course of his life, the author has produced one of the most textured and accessible works on a philosopher of the Sung era.

    

    Yet Southern Italy in the ninth and tenth centuries was a complex and vibrant world that deserves to be better understood. In "Before the Normans," Barbara M. Kreutz writes the first modern study in English of the land, political structures, and cultures of southern Italy in the two centuries before the Norman conquests. This was a pan-Meditteranean society, where the Roman past and Lombard-Germanic culture met Byzantine and Islamic civilization, creating a rich and unusual mix.

    Lovers of literature will discover in La Farge's remarkable work a host of radical, occasionally shocking, yet unfailingly poetic renderings of familiar favorites such as "The Fox and the Crow," "The Wolf and the Lamb," and "The Matron of Ephesus," among others. Stories such as "The Image Breaker" and "Marion and Alison" recast classic sexual themes with appropriately erotic language for 1990s readers. Longer pieces, notably "The Innocents," and "The Dead Come Back to Life" are soaring flights of complex imagery. La Farge's woundrously creative powers are well known to his many readers of the two-part fantasy novel, The Crimson Bears (The Crimson Bears and A Hundred Doors), both published by Sun & Moon Press. But even his warmest admirers will respond with awe to the heightened dimensions of the literary gifts displayed in this landmark collection.

    Elmo's fire, and others. Follow their exploits, from the first Holocaust in 1096, through the great siege of Jerusalem, the sacking of Constantinople, to Napoleon's 1798 taking of Malta, which finally ended 700 years of bloodshed. Startling new discoveries reveal a new appreciation of the trials and triumphs of the Crusaders -- and of how we are still living in the world they created.

    Written at the height of the Hundred Years War, it includes the essential commonplaces of knighthood in the mid-fourteenth century and gives a close-up view of what one knight in particular absorbed of the medieval world of ideas around him, what he rejected or ignored, and what he added from his experience in camp, court, and campaign.Geoffroi de Charny was one of the quintessential figures of his age, with honors and praise bestowed upon him from both sides of the English Channel. He prepared the Book of Chivalry as a guide for members of the Company of the Star, a new but short-lived order of knights created by Jean II of France in 1352 to rival the English Order of the Garter.Elspeth Kennedy here edits the original French text of Charny and provides a facing-page translation for the modern reader. Richard. W. Kaeuper's historical study places both man and his work in full context. In the formal themes that give Charny's book structure, and in his many tangential comments and asides, this work proves a rich source for investigating questions about the political, military, religious, and social history of the later Middle Ages. With this translation, the prowess and piety of knights, their capacity to express themselves, their common assumptions, their views on masculine virtue, women, and love once more come vividly to life.

    Though methods of warfare are integral to the book, the emphasis is on conduct in battle and siege rather than with tactics and strategy. It explores ideas of ransom and the treatment of prisoners, the extent to which there was a brotherhood in arms among noble opponents, and how the knights treated the peasantry and churchmen in wartime.

    Drawing upon new empirical research and the latest theoretical models, Shepherd and Womack show how the character of a given theatrical 'age', as traditionally described, is packed with contradictions and uneven in development. Focusing on key historical moments and modes, they offer chapters on Medieval Theatre, Renaissance Drama, Restoration Comedy, Melodrama, and Naturalism, and conclude with accounts of Post-War British Theatre and the State, and Drama in the Age of Television.

    Detailed illustrations give youngsters an up-close look at this fascinating world, with a foldout mystery maze to keep them engaged for hours.

    He shows that avaritia, the sin of greed for possessions, was dominant in a wide range of theological and literary texts from the first century CE, and that by the early Middle Ages avarice headed the list of vices for authors aiming to convert others from pagan materialism to Christian spirituality.