It is a story of vision and bravery, fierce determination, and tragic martyrdom.Diane Stanley's extraordinary gift to present historical information in an accessible and child-friendly format has never been more impressive, nor her skillful, beautifully realized illustrations (here imitating medieval illuminated manuscripts) more exquisite. Recommended in Catholic Mosaic Materials Publisher.

    It brings fresh evidence to bear on the fall of the Roman empire and the origins of the medieval economy. The book uses new material from recent excavations, and develops a new method for the study of hundreds of travelers to reconstitute the communications infrastructure that conveyed those travelers--ship sailings, overland routes--linking Europe to Africa and Asia, from the time of the later Roman empire to the reign of Charlemagne and beyond.

    FRIZZLE'S ADVENTURES, the Friz travels back in time to a medieval castle -- and teaches readers all about the Middle Ages.With her reluctant student, Arnold, the Friz slips through a mysterious trap door -- and ends up in the Middle Ages! There, they explore a medieval castle, meeting the people who live there and learning about everyday life within the castle walls. When the castle is threatened by invaders, Arnold and the Friz don chain mail to lead the defense. They repel the invaders just in the nick of time, then they joust and feast before returning to the 21st century. With their careful research and trademark wit, Cole and Degen introduce the many facets of medieval life.

    From the familiar court of King Arthur to the distant realm of Prince Vladimir of Kiev, this enticing collection reveals that being a good knight is harder than it may seem. Not only are a brave heart and a strong arm required, but it is also necessary to know your own weaknesses, learn to cooperate with others and even, at times, have a good sense of humor! Giovanni Manna brings his warm, colorful characters to these adventurous tales that are sure to delight young would-be knights across the land.

    Given the mission of seeking out the best representative examples of the broad diversity of sword types surviving from this time, Ian Peirce, lecturer and museum consultant, travelled to museums of northern Europe and, from the hundreds of swords he handled, selected some sixty examples. While a few of these swords will be well known from inclusion in previous publications but are too important to omit, the majority are rarely seen or newly shown here. Where possible, a full-length photograph and photographs of details have been included for each example, with the illustrations and descriptions of most of the swords covering two facing pages. Eight pages of colour illustrations are included, three of which are reproductions from Lorange's unsurpassed lithographs of 1889. A brief illustrated overview of blade types and construction, pattern-welding, inscriptions and handle forms and their classification under Jan Petersen's classification is included as an introduction to the catalogue of examples which forms the bulk of this work. IAN PEIRCE, engineer, armourer and weaponsmith, staged major exhibitions of armour and weapons in England, France and Ireland, and wrote and lectured extensively on arms and armour, on the Norman Conquest and on the Vikings. EWART OAKESHOTT was a world-renowned expert in sword studies, and the deviser of a comprehensive typology of medieval swords which has b expert in sword studies, and the deviser of a comprehensive typology of medieval swords which has been instrumental in the development of sword scholarship. His books include Records o

    Until now, however, many of the most important visual and textual sources on the topic have remained untranslated or otherwise difficult to consult. Mary Carruthers and Jan M. Ziolkowski bring together the texts and visual images from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries that are central to an understanding of memory and memory technique. These sources are now made available for a wider audience of students of medieval and early modern history and culture and readers with an interest in memory, mnemonics, and the synergy of text and image.The art of memory was most importantly associated in the Middle Ages with composition, and those who practiced the craft used it to make new prayers, sermons, pictures, and music. The mixing of visual and verbal media was commonplace throughout medieval cultures: pictures contained visual puns, words were often verbal paintings, and both were used equally as tools for making thoughts. The ability to create pictures in one's own mind was essential to medieval cognitive technique and imagination, and the intensely pictorial and affective qualities of medieval art and literature were generative, creative devices in themselves.

    His journey symbolizes freedom, as he turns his back on both the ruling oligarchy and the peasant armies forming all over Europe. He travels through a chaotic wasteland, where strange armies clash for unknown reasons, where the barren countryside is plagued by robbers and warlords. He meets death, destruction, and famine before finally finding Claudia, the daughter of a medieval lord. Heron's quest for freedom, stemming from a desire to create an ideal world out of the violently cruel one, leads him through despair and danger, before delivering him to love.

    Her fame (and infamy) still fascinates us. She is a pivotal figure in the history of the twelfth century because of her lordly inheritance as well as the eminence--and political and diplomatic scope--of her marital rank as queen, first of France and then of England. Some essays in this collection reassess the often fragmentary historical information about her life, while others investigate her reputation in later literary and historical contexts.

    Professor Spufford, who has made a lifelong study of these changes, here brings together a vast amount of material from archives all over the world - letters, account books, legal documents, civil records - to build up a comprehensive general picture. He has also personally travelled many of the roads, rivers and mountain passes that were the arteries of medieval trade, bringing the whole subject to vivid life. The eight chapters of the book cover the financial revolutions of the 13th century that led to the rise of modern banking, borrowing and insurance; the market in luxuries and the role of the great courts; international fairs; trade routes and the hazards of transport; raw materials; manufactured goods; the wealth of cities and nations; and the balance of trade between countries.

    Listing 185 medicinal plants, the uses for each, and remedies that were compounded using them, the translation will fascinate medievalist, medical historians and the layman alike.

    -- Have you ever wondered what castles were for? Or what it was like to live inside one?-- In this book, you'll discover who lived in castles, what they ate, where they slept and what they did for fun.-- You can even learn tactics for capturing or defending a castle and see a siege in action.-- Photographs combined with computer graphics take you inside the world of castles as never before.

    In the second half, the stories of the gods are retold, from the humorous adventures of the thunder god Thor to the darker events surrounding the death of Baldr, culminating in the apocalyptic vision of ragnarok: the end of the world and its rebirth.

    There is simply no other like it.Medieval Essays is the mature reflection of one of the most gifted cultural historians of the twentieth century. Christopher Dawson commands the substance and the breadth of cultural history as few others ever have. He ranges from the fateful days of the late Roman Empire to the final destruction of Byzantium, from the rise of Islam to the flowering of western vernacular literature, from missions to China to the caliphs of Egypt, from the tragedy of Christian Armenia to complex religious realities of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Spain, from philosophy to literature, theology to natural science. The very breadth of his canvas makes the precision of his judgments and the vitality of his analyses all the more remarkable.The Times Literary Supplement said of the original edition: "These essays, though concerned with topics derived from a remote past, are designed to display the relevance of those topics to the problems and controversies of the present." The judgment is yet truer today. Few, if any, studies of the Middle Ages are more significant for understanding the cultural dynamics of the twenty-first century. Fortunately, few are as readable, illuminating, or challenging.

    According to the Shahnameh (the tenth-century Book of Kings), this titan, magnificent in strength and courage, bestrode Persia for 500 years. While he often served fickle kings - undergoing many trials of combat, cunning, and endurance - he was never their servant and owed allegiance only to his nation's greater good. Anyone interested in folklore, world literature, or Iranian culture will find Rostam both a rousing and illuminating read.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout world history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

    J. Knecht describes the rise and fall of France in the sixteenth century clearly and authoritatively.

    Kormak's Saga, The Saga of Hallfred Troublesome-Poet, The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue, The Saga of Bjorn, Champion of the Hitardal People, Viglund's Saga Set in the farmsteads of Viking age Iceland at a time when the old ethos of honour and heroic adventure merged with new ideas of romantic infatuation, each of these sagas features poet heroes, complex love triangles, and travels to foreign lands.

    Virtually self-contained, this fortress had everything necessary to maintain the life of the lord and his family. In 29 detailed, ready-to-color illustrations, artist A. G. Smith focuses on the activities of castle life and how the heavily fortified structure functioned.Included are detailed views of the castle’s main features: the moat, drawbridge, and portcullis (a heavy iron gate suspended by chains); strong tower, or keep; the Great Hall, center of court life; a chapel, the castle’s spiritual center; spiral staircases built within thick tower walls; dungeons; and other areas. Here also are scenes of a lady doing needlework at a window seat, stable workers caring for their steeds, a fair held on castle grounds, a crossbowman atop an outer wall, a castle under attack, catapults hurling large missiles, and more.Ideal for use at home or in the classroom, this fascinating book invites youngsters to have fun coloring while learning about life within a medieval castle.

    Tragic and stirring names from the past scatter the French countryside, places such as Agincourt, Crecy, Aquitaine, Rouen - where Joan of Arc was burnt buy the English at the stake - and a stretch of beach on the Cherbourg peninsula where Edward III knighted the Black Prince - plus many more. This useful book will pinpoint the places for the visitor, explain their historical significance in the context of the war, and also show with maps and photographs what there is to see and do in the town or site today.

    This official guide provides coverage of the 12 playable factions; detailed area maps; battle tactics; and listings of units and siege weaponry.

    This timely introduction responds to that trend, focusing on the production and reception of Old English texts, and on their relation to Anglo-Saxon history and culture.The book presents a wider range of material than is usual in English literary histories. It not only covers an intriguing range of genres, from riddles and cryptograms to allegory and romance, but into this coverage it also integrates discussion of Anglo-Latin texts which are crucial to understanding the development of Old English literature. Its extensive bibliographical coverage of scholarship devotes special attention to studies of the past 15 years, while a retrospective section outlines the reception of the Anglo-Saxons and their literature in later periods.Throughout their narrative, the authors champion Anglo-Saxon studies, contending that it is uniquely placed to contribute to current debates about literature's relation to history and culture.

    Insisting that images of the scandalous court had serious political importance, the book retells the tale of Overbury's rise to power, his fall and murder in 1613, and the public revelation of the murder two years later. The book examines the production and circulation of news about the scandal and assesses the political significance of contemporary depictions of the affair.

    Peter Brown has called it the joining of Heaven and Earth. For clerics and laypersons alike, funerals and burial sites were important means for establishing or extending power over rival families and monasteries and commemorating ancestors. In Caring for Body and Soul, Bonnie Effros reveals the social significance of burial rites in early medieval Europe during the time of the Merovingian (or so-called long-haired) kings from 500 to 800 C.E.Funerals provided an opportunity for the display of wealth through elaborate ceremonies involving the placement of goods such as weapons, jewelry, and ceramic vessels in graves and the use of aboveground monuments. In the late seventh century, however, these practices gave way to Masses and prayers for the dead performed by clerics at churches removed from cemeteries. Effros explains that this shift occurred not because inhabitants were becoming better Christians, as some have argued, since such activities were never banned or even criticized by the clergy. Rather, clerics successfully promoted these new rites as powerful means for families to express their status and identity.Effros uses a wide range of historical and archaeological evidence that few other scholars have mastered. The result is a revealing analysis of life and death that simultaneously underlines the remarkable adaptability and appeal of western Christianity in the early Middle Ages.

    With the adoption of Christianity in the third and fourth centuries in cosmopolitan centers and in the fifth and sixth centuries in rural communities, clerics faced the challenge of guiding recent converts with little understanding of Christianity beyond the rudimentary catechism necessary for baptism. While priests condemned blatantly pagan celebrations, they could not eliminate the powerful networks sustained by food and drink rituals. Accommodation of existing rites did not, however, represent pagan survivals. Using contemporary saints' lives, canonical legislation, penitentials, theological tracts, monastic Rules and cemeterial remains, Bonnie Effros presents five essays addressing the ways in which clerical authors portrayed rites involving food and drink in their attempts to define membership in religious communities, strengthen their relationships with the laity, highlight gender differences, bring about the healing of the sick and maintain ties to deceased ancestors.