Medieval Literature and Material Culture: A Collaborative Gallery by

Posy Rings in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde

edolmans1 — 2021-05-17 16:02:25 UTC

In the Middle Ages, rings were exchanged as tokens of loyalty and love. Rings with inscriptions on them are called ‘posy’ rings, for the old word for ‘poetry’. Some inscriptions were on the outside (making the love public), like the first ring, while some were on the inside (suggesting a secret love), like the second.

In Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, the two lovers exchange rings In Book III:
‘Soone after this they spake of sondry thynges,
As fel to purpos of this aventure,
And pleying entrechaungeden hire rynges,
Of which I kan nought tellen no scripture’ (Chaucer, Troilus, III, 1366-69).

Questions to consider:

Have a look at the rings; note down two things you notice about them.
What can this material exchange tell us about the kind of relationship being established between the lovers?
Why does the narrator claim he doesn’t know whether there was an inscription on the ring? What does it suggest about the kind of ring exchanged? What can this tell us about the narrative voice?

About the rings:
- Top: Gold posy ring from 1300. Inscribed in Lombardic capitals, “Well for him who knows whom he can trust.” (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)
- Bottom: c. 1450, gold ring engraved on the inside with "JOYE SANZ FYN" (Joy without end). England.

The Franks Casket

edolmans1 — 2021-05-18 09:46:50 UTC

The Franks Casket is a whale-bone (baleen) box made in the eighth century, probably from Northumbria. Along with runic inscriptions, it depicts scenes from the Bible (the adoration of the Magi), Roman mythology and history (Romulus and Remus), Jewish history (the capture of the temple of Jerusalem by Titus in 70AD) and Germanic legends (Weyland the Smith, Egil). Some of the scenes still haven't been identified.

One of the Old English runic inscriptions says:
Fisc flodu ahof on fergen-berig

Warþ gas-ric grorn þær he on greut giswom
Hronæs ban

[The flood cast up the fish on the mountain-cliff

The terror-king became sad where he swam on the shingle.

Whale's bone]

Questions to consider:

Why do you think this poem was chosen for this box? What does it tell us about the relationships between poetry and materiality?
What can the kinds of scenes tell us about the influences on English culture in this period?
What else would you like to know about the box? Identify two features that you would like to explore further.

More information about the Franks Casket, and more images, can be found on the British Museum website: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1867-0120-1

Love Gifts and Sir Launfal

edolmans1 — 2021-05-18 14:21:34 UTC

In the Middle English Sir Launfal, the eponymous knight pledges his devotion to a magical fairy mistress, and in return she gives him a gift, a bottomless purse with as much gold as he could desire:
'Yf thou wylt truly to me take

And alle wemen for me forsake,

Ryche I wyll make the.

I wyll the yeve an alner

Ymad of sylk and of gold cler,

Wyth fayre ymages thre.

As oft thou puttest the hond therinne,

A mark of gold thou schalt wynne

In wat place that thou be.' (Sir Launfal, 316–24)

While not a magical purse, the leather casket above is also a love gift, and may have been used to store precious items like jewellery or love letters. It depicts a couple with banderoles (scrolls indicating speech). The lady says “hold my heart” as she offers the man her heart. “But you already have it” says the man, and at the front of the casket we see him holding a heart saying “have it once more”.

Questions to consider:

What is the relationship being drawn between love and materiality in Sir Launfal?
What can we learn about the status of women from the text and the casket? Does the fact that Dame Triamour is a supernatural being change this dynamic?

For more information on this casket, please visit the Cleveland Museum of Art website: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1999.211#

Pilgrimage and St Thomas Becket

edolmans1 — 2021-05-18 14:53:21 UTC

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales opens with a scene of a motley crew of pilgrims venturing towards the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The text begins with a reverdie, a poetic feature glorifying the regenerative power of springtime, before saying that April is when 'longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,

To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;

And specially, from every shires ende

Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,

The hooly blisful martir for to seke,

That hem hath holpen whan that they were seek' (Canterbury Tales, 12-18)

After his death, Thomas Becket achieved quasi-celebrity status in England, and visiting the place where this 'holy blissful martyr' was killed (in 1170) was believed to heal the sick. Pilgrims took home souvenirs from their journeys in the forms of pilgrim badges, such as the one above, depicting the saint's face. Other souvenirs included ampullae of Canterbury water, which purportedly contained drops of Becket's blood. These badges and souvenirs became relic-like; pilgrims could touch it to the shrine of the saint it would absorb some of its healing power, allowing the pilgrim to bring back some of the holiness from the places they had been. But they also acted as demonstrable proof of your piety, a social statement about having been on pilgrimage.

Questions to consider:

Chaucer's Pardoner wears a badge depicting the 'vernycle', another relic-like symbol; what can this tell us about his characterisation?
Why do you think Chaucer's characters are going on pilgrimage?
Do some research into Thomas Becket. The reformation was a time when many saints' shrines were destroyed, but Henry VIII targeted Thomas Becket's; why do you think this was?

You can find a large collection of Thomas Becket pilgrim badges at the Museum of London website: https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/search/#!/results?terms=becket

Byzantine Silks in the Far North

edolmans1 — 2021-05-18 16:18:55 UTC

In the tenth century, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, an envoy from the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir of Baghdad, travelled on a mission to the Muslim ruler of the Bulghars in what is now northern Russia. He kept an account of his travels in the hostile cold of the north, and notably wrote about an encounter with the Rus', or Viking traders who sailed along the Volga; he describes them as tattooed, tall 'like [date] palm trees', and unhygienic, and in addition to detailing their cultural practices, he also gives an account of a ship cremation -- the only extant eyewitness account of this practice. In his Risala, he details how the Viking ship contains a bed and 'cushions of Byzantine silk brocade' (50). A similar fabric is found in the tent of the yltawar, the king of the Volga Bulghars: 'They all live in tents, but that of the king is very large, large enough for 1000 people or more, and it is spread with Armenian carpets. In the centre is a throne covered with brocade from Byzantium'. (36)

How did silk from Byzantium end up in Volga Bulgaria? There was a great deal of contact between these two parts of the world, both peaceful and hostile; the silk above shows the Byzantine emperor John Tzimiskes returning from a campaign against the Rus' in Bulgaria in 970, 50 years after Ibn Fadlan visited. Silk was used as currency, so would have been important in trade between the regions and peoples, as well as a diplomatic tool: in the tenth century, in return for military support, the Byzantine empire gave the Rus' special access to silk items, to the extent that they even got silk sails for their ships.

Questions to consider:

Why do you think Ibn Fadlan goes out of his way to point out that there are Byzantine silks present in the areas he's describing? What can this tell us about his perspective and his priorities?
What do Ibn Fadlan's descriptions tell us about the status of silk in the tenth century?
Have you noticed silk being described in other texts you've read? What significance do you think they have?

Image: The Bamburger Gunthertuch, in the Bamberg Diocesan Museum.

References:
Ibn Fadlan, Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North, ed. Paul Lunde. Penguin, 2011.

Muthesius, Anna Maria. “Silk, power and diplomacy in Byzantium.” Textiles in Daily Life. Earleville: Textile Society of America, 1993.

A Spherical Earth

edolmans1 — 2021-05-19 14:15:12 UTC

Those in the Middle Ages were well aware that the earth was spherical, not flat. While the map above, from the fourteenth century, depicts it as a disc, this is merely a representation of something known to be round. On this page, which is only about 10cm tall in total, we see a picture of Christ (in the middle) holding a little orb signifying the earth, which is depicted in greater detail below. In the Insular French Roman de toute chevalerie, the Persian king Darius mocks Alexander the Great’s youth by sending him a golden ball, made for a child. Alexander turns this insult around by claiming that ‘tot le mond m’ert pelote e joie a ma tristur’ [all the world will be a toy ball that will bring me joy in my sadness] (1499). Golden spheres also represent the world in Mandeville’s Travels, when the narrator describes a status of the emperor Justinian in Constantinople: the statue used to hold a golden apple, which has fallen out of Justinian’s hand, ‘And men seyn ther that hit is a tockne that the emperour hath i-loste a greet party of his lond, for the appill is fall out of the imageis hond for he lost gret party of his lordship’ (100-103). The apple comes to represent the many lands that Justinian once held in Romania, Greece, the Middle East, Egypt, Persia, and Arabia; a symbol for the world.

Mandeville also touches on the roundness of the world when the text describes a man who has travelled so far around the world that he 'fonde an yle where he herde his owen speche, and dryvynge beestys saynge soch wordes as men dyde in his owen contré, of whych he hadde gret mervayle for he wiste noght how that myghte be. But Y say he hadde y-go so longe on londe and see, goynge aboute the worlde, that he was y-come into his owen marches (1736–40). Perplexed, he turns around and circumnavigates the world again until he arrives back home once more.

Questions to Consider:

What would you like to know about the map above? Think of two questions you'd like to ask and see whether you can find out more.
What does the story about the man who goes all around the world only to end up at home tell us about how the text is constructing the relationship between 'home' and 'away' or 'familiar' and 'foreign'?

Image: Psalter Map, British Library Add. MS 28681 (https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/psalter-world-map)

References:
+ Thomas of Kent, Le Roman d'Alexandre, ou le roman de toute chevalerie, trans. Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas (Paris: Champion Classiques, 2003). My translation into English.
+ John Mandeville, The Book of John Mandeville, ed. Tamarah Kohanski and C. David Benson (Kalamazoo: TEAMS, 2007)

Riddling with Wax Tablets

edolmans1 — 2021-05-19 15:34:01 UTC

Riddles were very popular in early medieval England, and this one, by Aldhelm from the 6th century, has a particular relevance to writing:
My inner part came from honey-bearing bees,
But my outer part grew in the woods;
Hard hides supplied my shoes.
Now a goad of iron cuts my pleasant face;
In the likeness of a plough, it bends the furrows with its curving motions.
But from heaven comes the nourishing seed for the harvest,
Which brings forth generous sheaves in a thousandfold fruit.
Alas that such a holy crop is destroyed by harsh weapons!
(Melligeris apibus mea prima processit origo.
Sed pars exterior crescebat caetera silus;
Calciamenta mihi tradebant tergora dura;
Nunc ferri stimulus faciem proscindit amoenam
Flexibus et sulcos obliquat ad instar aratri;
Sed semen segetis de caelo ducitur almum
Quod largos generat millena fruge maniplos
Heu tam sancta seges diris extinguitur armis.)

The answer might not be obvious to us now because wax tablets aren't widely used anymore, but you can see one in the image above, which shows a Greek writing exercise from Egypt in the 2nd century AD. They had been used since Roman times and were used throughout the Middle Ages. These tablets allowed writers to draft their work without wasting parchment, which was very expensive. This tablet would have been filled with two layers of different coloured wax (usually black and something lighter), and a stylus was used to scratch out letters, revealing the second colour below. This way, a writer could make sure that they had written the perfect poetic line before committing it to parchment.

Questions to consider:

See whether you can identify the parts of the tablet being described in the riddle.
Why do you think riddles would have been popular in the Middle Ages? What sort of thinking do they provoke?
Go to https://theriddleages.wordpress.com and read some translations of Old English riddles. Can you solve any of them?

Image:
British Library, Add MS 34186 (http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_34186)

The Fountain of Karakorum

edolmans1 — 2021-06-15 14:49:17 UTC

In the 1250s, a Franciscan Friar, William of Rubruck, was sent by King Louis IX of France to the khan of the Mongol Empire, Mangu Khan. Describing the capital city of Karakorum, he mentions a marvellous drinking fountain in the middle of the palace. Made of silver and shaped like a tree, it used complex hydraulic and pneumatic mechanisms, alongside a person concealed inside the fountain, to dispense a variety of liquids: wine, mare's milk, a honey-based drink and rice ale.
He says: 'Each beverage has its own silver vessel at the foot of the tree, ready to receive it. Between the four pipes, at the top, he made an angel holding a trumpet, and beneath the tree a cavity capable of concealing a man; and there is a pipe leading up to the angel through the very core of the tree. (Originally he had constructed bellows, but they failed to blow with sufficient force.) Outside the palace there is a chamber where drink is stored and where stewards stand ready to pour when they hear the angel sound the trumpet. The branches, leaves and fruit of the tree are of silver. So when drink is required, the head butler calls to the angel to sound the trumpet. On hearing this, the man concealed in the cavity then blows strongly on the pipe that leads to the angel, the angel puts the trumpet to its mouth, and the trumpet gives out a very loud blast. When the stewards in the chamber hear this, each pours his drink into the appropriate pipe, and the pipes spurt it out, down into the vessels designed for the purpose; whereupon the butlers draw it up and convey it through the palace to the men and women' (Rubruck, 209-10).

This complex mechanism was supposedly made by a Frankish inventor called William, and it is also included in Marco Polo's descriptions of Kublai Khan's court: he says that it is 3 paces long and decorated with animals, 'The middle is hollow, and in it stands a great vessel of pure gold, holding as much as an ordinary butt; and at each corner of the great vessel is one of smaller size of a capacity of a firkin, and from the former the wine or beverage flavored with fine and costly spices is drawn off into the latter' (Polo, i.339). The image above is from a manuscript containing Marco Polo's Devisament du monde, or Description of the World.

Questions to consider:

How does the manuscript image compare to the description? What do you notice?
Why do you think William goes to such great lengths to describe how the fountain works?
Why do you think that this is something that a ruler would have?

Manuscript: Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264, f. 239 (https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manuscript_1315)

References:
William of Rubruck, The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Möngke, trans. Peter Jackson (Ashgate, 2010), 209-10.

Marco Polo, The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, ed. and trans. Henry Yule, 2 vols. (London: Murray, 1875).

E.R. Truitt, Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art (Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015)

A Memento Mori on the Church Wall

edolmans1 — 2021-06-22 15:20:45 UTC

This fourteenth-century wall painting can be found in St Andrew's Church, in Wickhampton, Norfolk. The scene, often known as 'the three living and the three dead', was fairly common in medieval art and literature. A fifteenth-century alliterative poem tells the story: three proud kings are hunting in the forest and get lost in the mist. They encounter three skeletons (in various states of decay) who warn them of their mortality. John Audelay's poem has one of the dead men state:
"Makis your merour be me! My myrthus bene mene:
Wyle I was mon apon mold, morthis thai were myne;
Methoght hit a hede thenke at husbondus to hene
Fore that was I hatyd with heme and with hyne —
Bot thoght me ever kyng of coyntons so clene.
Now is ther no knave under Crist to me wil enclyne,
To me wil enclyne, to me come,
Bot yif he be cappid or kyme.
Do so ye dred not the dome —
To tel youe we have no longyr tome —
Bot turn youe fro tryvyls betyme!" (ll. 121-31)

This is in a rather tricky dialect of Middle English, so here's a translation:
“Make me your mirror! My joys are now paltry. While I was a man on earth, my crimes were heinous. I thought it a capital idea to treat farmers with contempt – for that I was hated by villagers and servants – but never did a king with his entourage seem to me so faultless. Now there is no rogue in Christendom who will bow to me, who will bow to me or come when bidden, unless he is off his head or a fool. Behave in such a way that you don’t dread judgement – we have no longer enough time to tell you – but turn away from your trifles in good time.”

You can find other images of this story here: https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2014/01/the-three-living-and-the-three-dead.html

Questions to consider:

Why do you think this kind of image would be found in a church? What message is it conveying?
What do you make of the 'mirroring' between the living and the dead?
Who do you think the story was for? Why might it have been written?

References:
John Audelay, 'Three Dead Kings', in Poems and Carols (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 302), ed. Susanna Fein (TEAMS, 2009)

Jenni Nuttall, trans. 'Three Dead Kings' (accessed 22 June 2021)

Introduction

edolmans1 — 2021-07-07 15:55:22 UTC

This online resource pairs medieval artworks and objects with textual evidence from medieval literature and histories to help university students and members of the interested public to forge connections between the textual and material worlds, showing not only the use of material objects within texts, but also the material nature of texts.

Through these objects, the medieval world can come alive and the temporal gap between past and present can be narrowed (Giroux 1991, 73; Zeikowitz 2002, 69). By appreciating these connections between text and object, we can deepen our understanding not only of the texts themselves, but also furnish the medieval world with visual elements that display the intercultural and global factors that shaped the cultural moment.

Investigating objects can help us to understand the networks of trade and exchange that defined the Middle Ages; this can work to decentre England and Europe, and offer insights into a diversity of cultures and places.

Objects aren't just commodities; the are ‘symbols of relationships, dependencies, obligations, and friendships’ (Oliver 2012, 188–89), and can tell us huge amounts about the world they were made in. They also require decoding, especially those that are unfamiliar; by understanding alienation, you are also encouraged to embrace the alienation of reading medieval texts, understanding new or seemingly- familiar words and ideas as objects to be decoded and parsed out. Some aspects of these objects, however, remain mysteries, and coming to terms with unknowability -- what those in the Middle Ages would call the via negativa--, and how we accept it and think with it, is a crucial part of what it means to be a scholar and a thinker (Zembylas 2005; Peels and Pritchard, 2020).

Image: British Library, Additional MS 29986, f. 152v. (https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8555&CollID=27&NStart=29986)

How to use this gallery

edolmans1 — 2021-07-07 15:56:39 UTC

When you are looking through these objects, take some time to look at the images before reading about them. Try to use your own observations to derive information from the objects themselves without outside information (Specter 2017).

What do you see? What details do you notice? What do you want to know about the objects? Try to think about who made them, and for whom. What are they made from? Where do those materials come from, do you think? What methods are you using to approach this object? And finally, what sorts of connections can you draw between the images and any texts you have read?

The explanations below the images will offer a text to go alongside the object or to deepen your understanding of it. These are starting points and suggestions; if other texts spring to mind, think about what connections and contrasts you can draw between them. Do they reflect a similar worldview? Are they made for the same audiences or different ones? Do they share a religious or cultural context?

Don’t worry if you haven’t read the text that has been placed alongside the objects. These are designed to be introductions. Maybe they will encourage you to read the texts, or if you have already read them, to find other objects that might be placed in dialogue with them.

I have offered some questions to consider at the bottom of each box. These are designed to get you thinking about these objects in new ways, to invite you to be curious, to encourage you to wonder (ask questions) and wonder (marvel). You can use the comments function to record your responses and engage with one another as well.

Image: British Library, Yates Thompson MS 36, f. 1r (http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Yates_Thompson_MS_36)

Let's Warm Up

edolmans1 — 2021-07-07 16:15:06 UTC

Go to these three webpages and choose one word that you associate with each image:

One: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/464125
Two: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1885-1113-8995-8997
Three: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Hereford-Karte.jpg

Next, think about what these objects are. Go through the questions in the previous box and see what you come up with.

Now look at the descriptions. Was the object what you expected? Why do you think you made the associations you did? (contextual information for the Hereford Mappa Mundi can be found here: https://www.herefordcathedral.org/mappa-mundi)

Are there any texts that you've read that you think relate to these objects?

Once you've done this, you're ready to explore the objects on the right!

Image: British Library, MS Royal 16 G V (https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8359&CollID=16&NStart=160705)

Bibliography: Primary Sources

edolmans1 — 2021-07-08 11:27:32 UTC

Audelay, John. 'Three Dead Kings', in Poems and Carols (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 302), ed. Susanna Fein. Kalamazoo: TEAMS, 2009.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Riverside Chaucer. Edited by Larry D. Benson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Gaimar, Geffrei. Estoire des Engleis. Ed. and trans. by Ian Short. Oxford: OUP, 2009.

Ibn Fadlan. Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North. Ed. by Paul Lunde. London: Penguin, 2011.

Larkin, Peter, ed. Richard Coer de Lyon. Kalamazoo: TEAMS, 2015.

Mandeville, John. The Book of John Mandeville. Ed. by Tamarah Kohanski and C. David Benson. Kalamazoo: TEAMS, 2007.

Nuttall, Jenni, trans. 'Three Dead Kings'. Accessed 22 June 2021.

Polo, Marco. The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East. Ed. and trans. by Henry Yule, 2 vols. London: Murray, 1875.

‘Sir Launfal’, in The Middle English Breton Lays. Ed. by Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury. Kalamazoo: TEAMS, 1995.

'Stanzaic Life of St Margaret', ed. Sherry L. Reames in Middle English Legends of Women Saints (TEAMS): https://metseditions.org/editions/W2PjE0jIWWYYu4K6H36vEIR1EDEYV6p

Thomas of Kent. Le Roman d'Alexandre, ou le roman de toute chevalerie. Trans. by Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas. Paris: Champion Classiques, 2003.

William of Rubruck. The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Möngke. Trans. by Peter Jackson, 209-10. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010.

Bibliography: Pedagogical and Secondary Sources

edolmans1 — 2021-07-08 11:47:18 UTC

Adams, Jenny. Power Play: Literature and the Politics of Chess in the Late Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

Giroux, Henry. ‘Border Pedagogy and the Politics of Modernism/Postmodernism.’ Journal of Architectural Education 44 (1991): 69-79.

Peels, Rik and Duncan Pritchard. ‘Educating for Ignorance’. Synthese (2020). 10.1007/s11229-020-02544-z.

Perkins, Nicholas and Alison Wiggins. The Romance of the Middle Ages. Oxford: Bodleian, 2012.

Muthesius, Anna Maria. 'Silk, power and diplomacy in Byzantium.' In Textiles in Daily Life: Proceedings of the Third Biennial Symposium of the Textile Society of America, September 24–26, 1992. Earleville, MD: Textile Society of America, Inc., 1993.

Oliver, Neil. A History of Ancient Britain. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2012.

Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Accessed July 8 2021. http://www.pz.harvard.edu/.

Truitt, E.R. Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.

Zeikowitz, Richard E. ‘Befriending the Medieval Queer: A Pedagogy for Literature Classes.’ College English 65 (2002): 67–80.

Zembylas, Michalinos. ‘A Pedagogy of Unknowing: Witnessing Unknowability in Teaching and Learning’. Studies in Philosophy and Education 24 (2005): 139–60.

Crusading on the Chertsey Abbey Floor

edolmans1 — 2021-07-08 12:07:50 UTC

These floor tiles depict King Richard I of England on the left and Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, on the right. They clashed during the Third Crusade in the late twelfth century. The fourteenth-century Middle English poem Richard Coer de Lyon positions Richard I as a somewhat demonic hero, who is well-matched by the noble and chivalrous Saladin. The poem states that Saladin gifts Richard a war-horse, the foal of his own horse, but an angel informs him that they are not horses at all but:

'Twoo stronge feendes of the eyr
In lyknesse of twoo stedes feyr,

Lyke bothe of hewe and here.

As thay sayde that were there,

Nevere was ther sen non slyke.

That on was a mere lyke,

That other, a colt, a noble stede.

Where he were in ony nede,

Was nevere kyng ne knyght so bolde

That whenne the dame neyghe wolde,

Scholde hym holde agayn his wylle,

That he ne wolde renne here tylle,

And knele adoun and souke hys dame:

That whyle the Sawdon with schame

Scholde Kyng Richard soone aquelle' (Richard Coer de Lyon, 5533–47).

With the trap revealed, Richard is able to counter it by performing a set of rituals and blocking the horse's ears with wax. The Chertsey Tiles probably do not reference this event or even this particular romance, but both are part of the same tradition of pitching Richard I against Saladin.

Questions to consider:

Look closely at the two parts of the image: what do you think the relationship is between the two figures?
Why do you think this kind of narrative was popular during the Middle Ages? What sorts of dynamics does it create between those in England and the Eastern Mediterranean?
Why do you think this kind of scene would have been on an abbey floor tile?

Reference: Peter Larkin, ed. Richard Coer de Lyon (Kalamazoo: TEAMS, 2015).

Image © The Trustees of the British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1885-1113-9065-9070

A Global Game

edolmans1 — 2021-07-08 12:14:08 UTC

These little chess pieces were found on the island of Lewis in Scotland, and probably date to the late 12th century. They're made of whale's teeth and walrus ivory, and may have been in the possession of a merchant travelling from Norway to Ireland.

Geffrei Gaimar, in his history of the English (written in French), also from the twelfth century, notes a Scandinavian connection with chess: King Edgar of Wessex and Aelfthryth are playing chess, and Gaimar notes that it was ‘un giu k’il aprist des Daneis’ [‘a game which he had learnt from the Danes’] (Estoire des Engleis, 3654).

That said, chess had its origins in 6^th century India or Persia, and it was transmitted all over the globe over the next 1000 years, from China to the Arctic circle. In literature, chess often represents a more communal approach to politics, since each piece has an integral part to play.

Questions to consider:

Have a look at the chess pieces on the British Museum website (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1831-1101-84). What do you notice about the figures? Pick a piece and write down one or two details you have observed.
What do you think these chess pieces tell us about the society in which they were made?
What can we learn about Gaimar's attitude towards the Danes through his claim that Edgar learned chess from them?
Much of the history of these chess pieces is a mystery: what questions would you like to ask of them? What are some places you might look for answers?

Image: © The Trustees of the British Museum

References:
Geffrei Gaimar, Estoire des Engleis, ed. and trans. Ian Short (Oxford, 2009).

Jenny Adams, Power Play: Literature and the Politics of Chess in the Late Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 2006), 2–7.

Adam Scriveyn and Manuscript Editing

edolmans1 — 2021-07-08 16:33:38 UTC

What do you think is going on in this picture?

It is an image from a manuscript of Thomas Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes. The scribe, it turns out, has made a mistake: he (most scribes were men) has left out a stanza, and instead of copying out the whole page again, which would take both time and resources, he depicts someone (himself, perhaps?) lassoing the missed verse and hauling it back into the main text. If you think that editing is a drag, you're not alone!

Mistakes, errors, and miswriting were a concern in the Middle Ages: while lots of scribes took artistic liberty when writing texts, others went through great pains to get the text right. Chaucer wrote this little poem to his 'scriveyn', or scribe, Adam:

'Adam scriveyn, if ever it thee bifalle

Boece or Troylus for to wryten newe,

Under thy long lokkes thou most have the scalle [scaly eruption of the scalp],

But after my makyng wryte more trewe;

So oft adaye I mot thy werk renewe,

It to correcte and eke to rubbe and scrape [erase, by scraping parchment with a knife],

And al is thorugh thy negligence and rape [haste].'

Questions to consider:

What do you think Chaucer is saying in this poem?
Why do you think there was an insistence on correcting manuscripts and texts?
Do you think there are certain kinds of texts it's more important to get 'right' than others?
Find out a little more about Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes. What was the text? Who was it for? Why is it important that it is complete?

Image: British Library, MS Arundel 38, f. 65: https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8782&CollID=20&NStart=38

Birth girdles and St Margaret

edolmans1 — 2025-02-20 12:01:37 UTC

This curious object is what's known as a 'birth girdle', a long piece of parchment with prayers and spiritual images and charms, that offered protection for women during labour and childbirth. As well as protective talismans, the images on here are the nails from Christ's crucifixion, and an image of Christ's side wound. There are only 9 of these surviving in England!

Another source of protection for expectant mothers was images and texts depicting the life of St Margaret of Antioch, a martyr who purportedly burst out of the stomach of a dragon who was sent to tempt her away from Christianity (it's hard not to see the link between this and childbirth!). In the Stanzaic Life of St Margaret, Margaret prays to Jesus that "if ony woman that schal delyvered be /
That Thou helpe than, if sche cale to me, /
And unbynde her anoone" and "graunte her that her chylde be borne with alle the lymmes aryghte, /
And not to be dumme, nor nothynge broken, nor blynde withouten syghte."

Some versions of the Life of St Margaret are even found on these birth girdles!

Questions to consider:

What does this kind of object tell you about the power of words and images in the Middle Ages?
What does St Margaret's prayer tell you about the role of saints in the Middle Ages?

References:

Stanzaic Life of St Margaret, ed. Sherry L. Reames in Middle English Legends of Women Saints (TEAMS): https://metseditions.org/editions/W2PjE0jIWWYYu4K6H36vEIR1EDEYV6p

British Library, 'Medieval Women: 1 Month to Go!', British Library Medieval Manuscripts Blog (September 2024).

https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2024/09/medieval-women-1-month-to-go.html