Rory Osgrove is in charge of her first archaeological dig. A Biblical Archaeologist by degree, her target is a holy relic of unimaginable power. But what she discovers instead is the tomb of a long-buried Crusader, one of the thousands who came to this desert land in search of glory and riches. Deterred from her original goal, Rory is fascinated by the English knight and the journal buried with him. Reading the pages of the ancient diary, she comes to know a man of power and honor, entrusted by Richard the Lionheart with a mission of astonishing importance.Sir Kieran Hage was no ordinary Crusader and, as Rory discovers, nor is he really dead. Eight hundred years later, Kieran’s mission must be completed, but there is an ancient evil that follows him and is still determined to see him fail. Now Rory begins the adventure of a lifetime, where time has no meaning, where honor is strength, and where only true love endures.

    They know that their only hope for peace is to persuade the Saxon Lord Hawk to unite his noble family with theirs — in a bond sealed forever by the sanctity of marriage. Together these three men will strive to overcome centuries-old rivalries and hatred. Each will unite in marriage with an extraordinary woman who has her own special gift — and her own dreams of bringing about an end to war....Book OneIn Dream of Me we meet the Viking leader Wolf Hakonson as he embarks on a mission to kidnap the Lady Cymbra, a legendary beauty Wolf mistakenly believes is the cause of war. Instead he discovers that she is a gifted healer who will challenge him to confront his deepest yearnings — and together they will become soul mates who forge a future blessed by peace. Book TwoThe drama continues in Believe in Me, when the Saxon Lord Hawk, brother of Cymbra, seeks to strengthen the alliance by wedding a Norse noblewoman. But Lady Krysta arrives bearing many secrets — including her gift for seeing what others cannot. And as an unexpected love ignites, only Krysta can sense the looming danger that threatens the peace — and Hawk as well.Now, discover Josie Litton....

    There are more than 400 line drawings and 121 patterns.

    Famous Manuscripts - The fascinating world of medieval miniature painting and illumination

    But when she finds herself mysteriously transported from modern-day Gramercy Park to medieval Scotland, she may get more than she bargained for. Sir William de Piaget has vowed to reclaim his castle, but he’s also vowed to aid any damsel in distress. And when he comes across a lost and strangely clothed woman he is bound by honor to save her. As his grandsire used to say: chivalry is never convenient…but then, neither is true love! The Traveller previously appeared in the anthology A Knight’s Vow.

    It should have been a utopia yet its literature is dominated by brutality and killing. The reasons for this, argues Jesse Byock, lie in the underlying structures and cultural codes of the islands' social order. 'Viking Age Iceland' is an engaging, multi-disciplinary work bringing together findings in anthropology and ethnography interwoven with historical fact and masterful insights into the popular Icelandic sagas, this is a brilliant reconstruction of the inner workings of a unique and intriguing society.

    Organized by topic and thoroughly cross-referenced, this comprehensive volume enables the reader to explore and understand every facet of the Middle Ages, an era of breathtaking artistic achievement and religious faith in a world where life was often coarse and cruel, cut short by war, famine, and disease. Framed by chapters that bracket the beginning and the end of this misunderstood period, The Medieval World Complete covers religion and the Church, nations and laws, daily life, art and architecture, scholarship and philosophy, and the world beyond Christendom. The book is completed by biographies of key personalities, from Charlemagne to Wycliffe, as well as timelines, maps, a glossary, a gazetteer, and a bibliography.

    They race against the greed and inequity of the rich, against the very weather of Norway. They race as the only way to save a child prince and bring peace to their country. Here is a true, untold story of both bravery and tenderness. Mary Azarian’s strong, sure woodcuts capture the warmth and ruggedness of medieval life, while Lise Lunge-Larsen’s dramatic telling is direct and mesmerizing.

    This long-awaited biography, written by one of the most distinguished medievalists of his generation, offers a major reassessment of Henry’s character and reign. Challenging the dark and dated portrait of the king as brutal, greedy, and repressive, it argues instead that Henry’s rule was based on reason and order. C. Warren Hollister points out that Henry laid the foundations for judicial and financial institutions usually attributed to his grandson, Henry II. Royal government was centralized and systematized, leading to firm, stable, and peaceful rule for his subjects in both England and Normandy. By mid-reign Henry I was the most powerful king in Western Europe, and with astute diplomacy, an intelligence network, and strategic marriages of his children (legitimate and illegitimate), he was able to undermine the various coalitions mounted against him. Henry strove throughout his reign to solidify the Anglo-Norman dynasty, and his marriage linked the Normans to the Old English line.Hollister vividly describes Henry’s life and reign, places them against the political background of the time, and provides analytical studies of the king and his magnates, the royal administration, and relations between king and church. The resulting volume is one that will be welcomed by students and general readers alike.

    The general public is largely unaware of just how many castles survive today or over how wide an area of Europe and the Middle East they are to be found.Fortifications specialist J.E. and H.W. Kaufmann and technical artist Robert Jurga (authors of the acclaimed Fortress Europe: European Fortifications of World War II ) have once again combined European sources and personal observations to present a unique portrait of military architecture. They reveal how the medieval fortress combined both Roman and barbarian features, with some influences from as far away as China. Detailed coverage is given for castles in the British Isles, France, Germany, Moorish Spain, and as far east as Poland and Russia, as well as Muslim and Crusader castles in the Middle East. The Medieval Fortress covers the origin and evolution of the castles and other walled defenses, their major components, and the reasons for their eventual decline, which was not solely due to the introduction of gunpowder. Also receiving extensive coverage are the weapons and equipment of garrisons and besieging troops. Over a hundred photographs and 150 extraordinarily detailed technical drawings accompany the main text, which also takes an in-depth look at representative castles of each major type.

    This volume contains a rich selection of those splendid drawings, including floral and foliated openings, fauns and satyrs, initials, ornaments, and much more. Characters from Arthurian legend are portrayed in 62 splendid full-page black-and-white illustrations.

    Susanna Gregory writes historical, detective fiction about Cambridge in the 1300's. The first book chronicles the arrival of the bubonic plague to Cambridge and the horrendous death toll which follows, along with a some other murders, motivated by something entirely different. The second one deals with events that followed the plague and what people turned to following it--satanic cults instead of traditional religion.

    In this guide, Peter J. Leithart brings his rich biblical-typological insight to bear in opening up the Comedy for students, high school and up, mainly the sort of kids who keep looking for the jokes in the "comedy." After examining the meaning and place of the courtly love tradition leading up to Dante, the heart of the guide walks us carefully through the craft and symbolisms of each progressive stage-Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Each section contains helpful study questions. Peter J. Leithart (Ph.D. Cambridge) is a Senior Fellow of Theology and Literature at St. Andrews College, as well as senior pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow, Idaho. In his spare time, Leithart sleeps.

    Told from the viewpoint of the European crusaders, it recounts the fall of the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187 and the subsequent expeditions to recover it, led by the Emperor Frederick I, King Philip II of France and King Richard I of England, the Lionheart. This is the most comprehensive account of the crusade. Much of the account is from eyewitness sources and provides vivid and colourful details of the great campaigns. The translator gives background details of the events described, comparing this account with other accounts from Europe, the Christians of the Holy Land and Muslim writers. She also sets out the evidence for the authorship and sources of the chronicle.

    The study is based on Goubitz' analysis of an important assemblage of shoes recovered from excavations at Dordrecht in the Netherlands but the volume's aim is to offer guidance for the identification of shoes found on sites across north-western Europe. In addition, contributions from van Driel-Murray and Groenman-van Waateringe examine evidence for shoe types in prehistoric Europe and the north-western provinces of the Roman Empire, periods which inevitably have left less evidence. The fully illustrated catalogue follows a comprehensive discussion of shoes styles and technology including height standards, iconography, material, patterns, stitches, soles, the identification and dating of fragments and conservation. The volume should prove a useful tool for Roman and, especially, medieval historians and archaeologists.

    One's kin could be one's closest political and military allies or one's fiercest enemies. While the general term used to describe family members was consanguinei mei, those of my blood, not all of those relations-parents, siblings, children, distant cousins, maternal relatives, paternal ancestors, and so on-counted as true family in any given time, place, or circumstance. In the early and high Middle Ages, the family was a very different group than it is in modern society, and the ways in which medieval men and women conceptualized and structured the family unit changed markedly over time.Focusing on the Frankish realm between the eighth and twelfth centuries, Constance Brittain Bouchard outlines the operative definitions of family in this period when there existed various and flexible ways by which individuals were or were not incorporated into the family group. Even in medieval patriarchal society, women of the aristocracy, who were considered outsiders by their husbands and their husbands' siblings and elders, were never completely marginalized and paradoxically represented the very essence of family to their male children.Bouchard also engages in the ongoing scholarly debate about the nobility around the year 1000, arguing that there was no clear point of transition from amorphous family units to agnatically structured kindred. Instead, she points out that great noble families always privileged the male line of descent, even if most did not establish father-son inheritance until the eleventh or twelfth century. Those of My Blood clarifies the complex meanings of medieval family structure and family consciousness and shows the many ways in which negotiations of power within the noble family can help explain early medieval politics.

    The contributors focus on texts most commonly read in introductory Old English courses while also engaging with larger issues of Anglo-Saxon history, culture, and scholarship. Their approaches vary widely, encompassing disciplines from linguistics to psychoanalysis.In an appealing introduction to the book, R. M. Liuzza presents an overview of Old English studies, the history of the scholarship, and major critical themes in the field. For both newcomers and more advanced scholars of Old English, these essays will provoke discussion, answer questions, provide background, and inspire an appreciation for the complexity and energy of Anglo-Saxon studies.

    "Pearl" resists identification by author, date, occasion or place of composition; still it is almost unanimously hailed as one of the masterpieces of our literature, so skilled is its author, so eloquent its language.

    673-735), a Benedictine monk best known for his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, also compiled one of the church's oldest and most inspiring devotional books, the Abbreviated Psalter. Now this classic work of Christian literature is available in this first accurate English translation.Crafted for personal prayer and meditation, the Abbreviated Psalter consists of carefully condensed renderings of each of the Psalms. Focused as it is on the praise of God and on the essential spirituality of human existence, Bede's ancient book remains moving and relevant today. All persons of faith will find this little book a constant source of devotional strength.This new edition of Bede's masterpiece is based on Gerald M. Browne's own critical edition of the Latin text, Collectio Psalterii Bedae Venerabili adscripta. Browne also includes an informative preface introducing Bede and his work. The convenient size of this attractive volume will allow Bede's Abbreviated Psalter to be readily at hand whenever there is need for its message of consolation and hope.

    Focusing on the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but with an eye toward antiquity and the present, Caroline Walker Bynum explores the themes of metamorphosis and hybridity in genres ranging from poetry, folktales, and miracle collections to scholastic theology, devotional treatises, and works of natural philosophy. She argues that the obsession with boundary-crossing and otherness was an effort to delineate nature's regularities and to establish a strong sense of personal identity, extending even beyond the grave. She examines historical figures such as Marie de France, Gerald of Wales, Bernard Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, and Dante, as well as modern fabulists such as Angela Carter, as examples of solutions to the perennial question of how the individual can both change and remain constant. Addressing the fundamental question for historians--that of change--Bynum also explores the nature of history writing itself.

    An analysis of the major themes found in Bonaventure's teaching along with a selection of his writings

    Table of ContentsIntroduction to this Edition Chapter One: The Introduction of the Book The Lark and the Elephant Chapter Two: Borzoi, the Physician Pretender The Thief and the Beam of Light The Hesitant Thief The Merchant and the Jeweler Chapter Three: The Lion and the Ox The Monkey and the Carpenter The Raven and the Snake The Seagull and the Crab The Lion and the Hare The Louse and the Flea The Lion and his Companions The Tortoise and the Two Ducks The Crook and the Simpleton The Rats and the Iron The Lion and the Ox The Fox and the Drum Chapter Four: Investigating Dimna The Ignorant Physician Investigating Dimna Chapter Five: The Ringdove The Ringdove and the Rat The Raven and His Companions The Rat and the Ascetic Chapter Six: The Owls and the Ravens The Hostility of the Owls and Ravens The Hare and the Elephants The Ascetic and the Thieves The Mouse Marries Only a Mouse The Snake and the King Frog The Owls and the Ravens The Thief and the Devil Chapter Seven: The Monkey and the Male Turtle The Monkey and the Male Turtle The Jackal, the Lion, and the Donkey Chapter Eight: The Ascetic and the Weasel The Ascetic, the Weasel, and the Snake The Ascetic, the Ghee, and the Honey Chapter Nine: The Rat and the Cat Chapter Ten: The King and the Bird Fanza Chapter Eleven: The Lion and the Jackal Chapter Twelve: The Lioness, the Hunter and the Cougar Chapter Thirteen: Iladh, Biladh, and Irakht The Male Dove that killed himself Chapter Fourteen: The Ascetic and the Guest Chapter Fifteen: The Traveler and the Jeweler Chapter Sixteen: The King’s Son and His Companions The King’s Son and His Companions The Pair of Hoopoes and the Treasure Chapter Seventeen: The Dove, the Fox, and the Crane Glossary

    Although each is worthy of her own individual biography, their lives were so enmeshed by kinship, marriage and circumstances as to be well served by a book that mirrors the complex interweaving of their lives. Their story is rich enough in dramatic incident to provide a gripping narrative, but the book looks also at the wider issues: at the restrictions, particularly in the exercise of power, placed on the three women by society; at their success in ignoring or pushing back those barriers; at what they wanted or expected for their daughters; and at how they saw themselves in relation to men. The study draws largely on contemporary sources, both printed and manuscript, and presents material hitherto unknown or overlooked. It is the first study of the three women as a group, and indeed is one of the first modern, reliable studies in English or French of any one of them as an individual.

    The book ranges widely from the galloglass who fought in Ireland to artists who painted in the Netherlands; from impoverished students to merchants and monasteries wealthy from the export of wool.

    The author takes 13th-century Wales as a backdrop against which to analyze the nature of Welsh politics and the complexities of the Anglo-Welsh relations.

    Refuting the long-held notion that there are no extant Old France lyrics by women from this period, the editors of the volume present songs attributed to eight named female trouveres along with a varied selection of anonymous compositions in the feminine voice that may have been composed by women. This book includes the Old French texts of seventy-five compositions, English translations, extant music for eighteen monophonic songs and nineteen polyphonic motets, and a substantial introduction.

    Early Carolingian Warfare is the first book-length study of how the Frankish dynasty, beginning with Pippin II, established its power and cultivated its military expertise in order to reestablish the regnum Francorum, a geographical area of the late Roman period that includes much of present-day France and western Germany. Bernard Bachrach has thoroughly examined contemporary sources, including court chronicles, military handbooks, and late Roman histories and manuals, to establish how the early Carolingians used their legacy of political and military techniques and strategies forged in imperial Rome to regain control in the West.Pippin II and his successors were not diverted by opportunities for financial enrichment in the short term through raids and campaigns outside of the regnum Francorum; they focused on conquest with sagacious sensibilities, preferring bloodless diplomatic solutions to unnecessarily destructive warfare, and disdained military glory for its own sake. But when they had to deploy their military forces, their operations were brutal and efficient. Their training was exceptionally well developed, and their techniques included hand-to-hand combat, regimented troop movements, fighting on horseback with specialized mounted soldiers, and the execution of lengthy sieges employing artillery. In order to sustain their long-term strategy, the early Carolingians relied on a late Roman model whereby soldiers were recruited from among the militarized population who were required by law to serve outside their immediate communities. The ability to mass and train large armies from among farmers and urban-dwellers gave the Carolingians the necessary power to lay siege to the old Roman fortress cities that dominated the military topography of the West.Bachrach includes fresh accounts of Charles Martel's defeat of the Muslims at Poitiers in 732, and Pippin's successful siege of Bourges in 762, demonstrating that in the matter of warfare there never was a western European Dark Age that ultimately was enlightened by some later Renaissance. The early Carolingians built upon surviving military institutions, adopted late antique technology, and effectively utilized their classical intellectual inheritance to prepare the way militarily for Charlemagne's empire.

     Brings together specially-commissioned contributions from a team of leading European and American scholars. Embraces both the literature and the cultural background of the period. Combines the discussion of primary material and manuscript sources with critical analysis and readings. Considers the past, present and future of Anglo-Saxon studies

    But England has a long legendary history of robber heroes, that goes back well before Dick Turpin, even before the earliest ballads of Robin Hood. Eighteenth-century highwaymen like Turpin were absorbed into an already rich tradition of stories and ideas about robbery and robbers. In this lively and informative book, Gillian Spraggs argues for the existence of a distinctively English 'cult of the robber'. Englishmen took pride in the belief that there were more robbers in England than anywhere else in Europe. This was felt to be a credit to the nation, because it demonstrated English toughness and daring. Robbery possessed a potent mystique. For one thing, it was a gentleman's crime. The penniless young gentleman who took a purse on the highway was felt to be showing the courage that he had inherited from his ancestors. As for the lad of common stock who was drawn to the life of a highwayman, he often saw it as a way of rising in the world, by becoming a 'knight of the road'.This is the first authoritative full-length study entirely devoted to the English robbers of history and legend.

    A consideration of the life and audience of the 12th-century poet is followed by useful discussions of Chretien's treatment of kinship and marriage, moral values, responsibility, folklore, knights and ladies. Extensive quotations are in French with an English translation.

    Scholarly debate has long focused on the traditional attribution of the work to the mysterious Trotula, said to have been the first female professor of medicine in eleventh- or twelfth-century Salerno, just south of Naples, then the leading center of medical learning in Europe. Yet as Monica H. Green reveals in her introduction to the first English translation ever based upon a medieval form of the text, the Trotula is not a single treatise but an ensemble of three independent works, each by a different author. To varying degrees, these three works reflect the synthesis of indigenous practices of southern Italians with the new theories, practices, and medicinal substances coming out of the Arabic world.Green here presents a complete English translation of the so-called standardized Trotula ensemble, a composite form of the texts that was produced in the midthirteenth century and circulated widely in learned circles. The work is now accessible to a broad audience of readers interested in medieval history, women's studies, and premodern systems of medical thought and practice.

    The general public is largely unaware of just how many castles survive today or over how wide an area of Europe and the Middle East they are to be found.Fortifications specialist J.E. and H.W. Kaufmann and technical artist Robert Jurga (authors of the acclaimed Fortress Europe: European Fortifications of World War II ) have once again combined European sources and personal observations to present a unique portrait of military architecture. They reveal how the medieval fortress combined both Roman and barbarian features, with some influences from as far away as China. Detailed coverage is given for castles in the British Isles, France, Germany, Moorish Spain, and as far east as Poland and Russia, as well as Muslim and Crusader castles in the Middle East. The Medieval Fortress covers the origin and evolution of the castles and other walled defenses, their major components, and the reasons for their eventual decline, which was not solely due to the introduction of gunpowder. Also receiving extensive coverage are the weapons and equipment of garrisons and besieging troops. Over a hundred photographs and 150 extraordinarily detailed technical drawings accompany the main text, which also takes an in-depth look at representative castles of each major type.

    Pál Engel traces the establishment of the medieval kingdom of Hungary from its conquest by the Magyar tribes in 895 until defeat by the Ottomans at the battle of Mohacs in 1526. He shows the development of the dominant Magyars who, upon inheriting an almost empty land, absorbed the remaining Slavic peoples into their culture after the original communities had largely disappeared. Engel's book is an accessible and highly readable history.

    A comprehensive guide to the battles, commanders, tactics, formations, fortifications, and weapons of war in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, India, China, and Japan from ancient times to the 16th century.

    English Historical Review Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniewas one of the most influential literary works of the 12th century. It offered a new and allegedly authoritative history of the British from their first colonisation of the island under Brutus until the late 7th century AD; hence its immediate and lasting popularity. The characters which the author introduced to a wider audience have become central figures in English literature, including the most spectacular of Geoffrey's reshapings, the figure of King Arthur. It is Geoffrey's account of Arthur which lies behind almost all subsequent Arthurian Romance. It is hardly surprising that no comprehensive edition of the Historia Regum Britannieas yet exists, because over two hundred manuscripts survive, many of which have never been thoroughly examined. In practical terms, this new edition, based on Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MSD. 568, will make this important text readily available again; all emendations to correct scribal errors are clearly indicated.

    

    Patricia Ingham brings these precarious historical positions to bear on readings of Arthurian literature in Sovereign Fantasies, a provocative work deeply engaged with postcolonial and gender theory.Ingham argues that late medieval English Arthurian romance has broad cultural ambitions, offering a fantasy of insular union as an "imagined community" of British sovereignty. The Arthurian legends offer a means to explore England's historical indebtedness to and intimacies with Celtic culture, allowing nobles to repudiate their dynastic ties to France and claim themselves heirs to an insular heritage. Yet these traditions also provided a means to critique English conquest, elaborating the problems of centralized sovereignty and the suffering produced by chivalric culture. Texts such as "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," the "Alliterative Morte Arthure," and Caxton's edition of Malory's "Morte Darthur" provide what she terms a "sovereign fantasy" for Britain. That is, Arthurian romance offers a cultural means to explore broad political contestations over British identity and heritage while also detailing the poignant complications and losses that belonging to such a community poses to particular regions and subjects. These contestations and complications emerge in exactly those aspects of the tales usually read as fantasy-for example, in the narratives of Arthur's losses, in the prophecies of his return, and in tales that dwell on death, exotic strangeness, uncanny magic, gender, and sexuality.Ingham's study suggests the nuances of the insular identity that is emphasized in this body of literature. Sovereign Fantasies shows the significance, rather than the irrelevance, of medieval dynastic motifs to projects of national unification, arguing that medieval studies can contribute to our understanding of national formations in part by marking the losses produced by union.

    Horner argues that these representations derive from a "discourse" of female monastic enclosure, based on the increasingly strict rules of cloistered confinement that regulated the female religious body in the early Middle Ages. She shows that the female subjects of much Old English literature are enclosed by many layers--literal and figurative, textual, material, discursive, spatial--all of which image and reinforce the powerful institutions imposed by the Church on the female body. Though it has long been recognized that medieval religious women were enclosed, and that virginity was highly valued, this book is the first to consider the interrelationships of these two positions--that is, how the material practices of female monasticism inform the textual operations of Old English literature.

    

    Contradiction is central both to medieval logic and to most modern protocols of reading; it therefore informs both the production and the reception of medieval texts. Yet contradiction itself is rarely analyzed, serving more often as a spur to interpretation than as its object.This book works between the complex philosophical culture of the twelfth century (principally the traditions of Aristotle and of philosophical Neoplatonism, which diverge significantly in their treatment of contradiction) and the no less complex thought of Lacan (which is just as bound up with contradictoriness). Situating twelfth-century Anglo-Norman, French, and Occitan literature within this philosophical embrace, the author studies the interaction of three major literary genres—hagiography, troubadour lyric, and romance—an interaction that, in the course of the century, generates what we now call "courtly literature."She shows how preferences for different ways of dealing with contradiction migrate from one genre to another during the twelfth century. She also shows how this movement resulted, by about 1170, in different traditions converging to produce the complex artifacts that canonized literary "courtliness," not only for the Middle Ages but for us as well. Coinciding with this convergence, there is a shift in the locus of contradiction from subject to object. This crucial development not only privileges the object within texts, it also cements the value of texts themselves as object.In a series of comparisons between religious and courtly texts that draws on the writings of Lacan and Kristeva, the author explores how these objects can be variously described in terms of the psychoanalytical concepts of abjection, sublimation, or perversion. The book concludes by suggesting that the historical importance of courtly literature lies in its capacity to mediate, through the centrality accorded to the contradictory object, this transfer from medieval to modern structures of thought and thereby to shape modern forms of enjoyment.

    

    As both physicians and patients, Jews exerted a great influence on the formation of modern medical discourse and practice. This fascinating book investigates the relationship between German Jews and medicine from medieval times until its demise under the Nazis. John Efron examines the rise of the German Jewish physician in the Middle Ages and his emergence as a new kind of secular, Jewish intellectual in the early modern period and beyond. The author shows how nineteenth-century medicine regarded Jews as possessing distinct physical and mental pathologies, which in turn led to the emergence in modern Germany of the 'Jewish body' as a cultural and scientific idea. He demonstrates why Jews flocked to the medical profession in Germany and Austria, noting that by 1933, 50 percent of Berlin's and 60 percent of Vienna's physicians were Jewish. He discusses the impact of this on Jewish and German culture, concluding with the fate of Jewish doctors under the Nazis, whose assault on them was designed to eliminate whatever intimacy had been built up between Germans and their Jew

    Continuing in the format of the previous editions, a wide variety of subjects are included: individual carols and songs; historical events at Christmastime; popular Christmas symbols; Christmas plants, place names, and stamps; and celebrations in countries around the world, including the origins of some of the most cherished traditions in the United States. Unique to this work is its emphasis on Christmas as depicted in the popular media, with entries covering literary works such as Call Me Mrs. Miracle and Silver Bells, classic television series such as Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie, motion pictures such as Arthur Christmas and Santa Clause 3, and television specials expressing holiday themes.

    Marraro Prize of the American Catholic Historical Association. When Saint Francis of Assisi died in 1226, he left behind an order already struggling to maintain its identity. As the Church called upon Franciscans to be bishops, professors, and inquisitors, their style of life began to change. Some in the order lamented this change and insisted on observing the strict poverty practiced by Francis himself. Others were more open to compromise. Over time, this division evolved into a genuine rift, as those who argued for strict poverty were marginalized within the order.In this book, David Burr offers the first comprehensive history of the so-called Spiritual Franciscans, a protest movement within the Franciscan order. Burr shows that the movement existed more or less as a loyal opposition in the late thirteenth century, but by 1318 Pope John XXII and leaders of the order had combined to force it beyond the boundaries of legitimacy. At that point the loyal opposition turned into a heretical movement and recalcitrant friars were sent to the stake.Although much has been written about individual Spiritual Franciscan leaders, there has been no general history of the movement since 1932. Few people are equipped to tackle the voluminous documentary record and digest the sheer mass of research generated by Franciscan scholars in the last century. Burr, one of the world's leading authorities on the Franciscans, has given us a book that will define the field for years to come.

    Certain inconsistencies characteristically accompany the nebulous devil in early medieval narrative accounts - he is simultaneously bound in hell and yet roaming the earth; he is here identified as the chief of demons, and there taken as a collective term for the totality of demons; he is at one point a medical parasite and at another a psychological principle.Satan Unbound argues that these open-ended registers in the conceptualisation of the devil allowed Anglo-Saxon writers a certain latitude for creative mythography, even within the orthodox tradition. The narrative tensions resulting from the devil's protean character opaquely reflect deep-rooted anxieties in the early medieval understanding of the territorial distribution of the moral cosmos, the contested spiritual provinces of the demonic and the divine. The ubiquitous conflict between saint and demon constitutes an ontological study of the boundaries between the holy and the unholy, rather than a psychological study of temptation and sin.

    The Klage, its consistent companion text in the manuscript tradition, continues the story, detailing the devastating aftermath of the Burgundians' bloody slaughter. William Whobrey's new volume offers both—together for the first time in English—in a prose version informed by recent scholarship that brilliantly conveys to modern readers not only the sense but also the tenor of the originals.

    1170-1215) is universally recognized as the first medieval German poet to create world-class literature. He crafted German into a language of refined literary expression that paved the way for writers such as Gottfried von Strassburg, Walther von der Vogelweide, and Wolfram von Eschenbach. This volume presents the English reader for the first time with the complete works of Hartmann in readable, idiomatic English.Hartmann's literary efforts cover all the major genres and themes of medieval courtly literature. His Arthurian romances, Erec and Iwein, which he modeled after Chretien de Troyes, introduced the Arthurian world to German audiences and set the standard for later German writers. His lyric poetry treats many aspects of courtly love, including fine examples of the crusading song. His dialogue on love delineates the theory of courtly relationships between the sexes and the quandary the lover experiences. His verse novellas Gregorius and Poor Heinrich transcend the world of mere human dimensions and examine the place and duties of the human in the divine scheme of things. Longfellow would later use Poor Heinrich in his Golden Legend.Arthurian Romances, Tales, and Lyric Poetry is a major work destined to place Hartmann at the center of medieval courtly literature for English readers.

    Eager to maintain his hard-won peace, the new king deeds the estate to William, provided he marries his enemy's daughter. Bearing a false proclamation that their union was her father's last wish, William journeys home, where he is unexpectedly bewitched by his bride. Lady Alista stuns him with her trust and burns him with the fire of her kiss. And though he knows she will soon despise him, he weds and beds her before she can learn the truth. Grief-stricken, Alista opens her heart to Will only to see their future threatened by treachery and the unnatural call of a heritage she can neither understand nor deny. Haunted by visions, she is drawn to the ruins of Falconskeep, where the women of her bloodline find their destiny. It is there Will must go to save her -- if he can find the faith to battle a force that defies a warrior's sword yet may yield to the power of love.

    A selection of Chaucer's medieval chivalric romances.

    Until recently, this self-interest was used to distinguish between Medievalism, a selective, often romanticised, view of the past, and medieval studies, with its quest for an authentic Middle Ages. The essays in this collection suggest that the search for knowledge of a "real" Middle Ages has always been a problematic one, and that the vitality of the vision of Medievalism is demonstrated by its constant adaption to current concerns.

    They and the theories informing their compilation were the progenitors of reference works that are now taken quite for granted: encyclopedias, concordances, and books of quotations. Commonplace Books is a stand-alone historical survey of manuscript and printed books relating to the complex and extremely influential genre of the commonplace book from classical antiquity to the present day. Comprised of a series of long historical essays followed by short hand-lists of exhibited items, this volume is the first comprehensive, introductory survey to cover the entire commonplace book tradition, from its origin in ancient Greek and Roman rhetorical theory and philosphy, to the end of the twentieth century.

    As early as the high Middle Ages, Burgundy - located between Champagne and Franche-Comté, Lorraine and Beaujolais - with its numerous monasteries became the radiant center of European Christianity. Catalonia's remote Pyrenean valleys and exciting capital of Barcelona represent a diverse spectrum of Spanish culture from Gothic monasteries to Gaud

    There is only one man who might change her mind: Tiarnán of Talensac, a handsome, skilled, and noble knight indeed. But Tiarnán does not love her, and when he marries a slip of a girl instead, Marie vows to become a nun as soon as she is able.But Tiarnán has a secret, and that slip of a girl betrays him once she learns of it. When Tiarnán disappears and is presumed dead, his widow marries his one time rival and assumes title to his land, which steadily begins to decline under her unskilled, merciless rule. Marie knows something is wrong, and only she is clear headed enough to rescue Tiarnán and return him to his rightful status. But can she do so before it is too late?Rich in romance, and intrigue, steeped in history and wonder, The Wolf Hunt is historical fiction at its best, by one of its most skilled practitioners.

    At the same time it engendered a need to ensure that clergy, monks and laity embraced orthodox Christian doctrine. This book examines Carolingian thinking on the critical issue of the Passion. It considers how changes in the understanding of the Crucifixion are reflected in a range of contemporary writings, and the impact of those developments on a selection of artistic representations of the crucified Christ.