Erica Steiner | The University of Sydney (original) (raw)
Book Reviews by Erica Steiner
Ceræ: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2019
This engaging collection of twelve essays is the second volume in Brepols' Borders, Boundaries,
Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 2018
Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 2018
Reeves' efforts to rehabilitate Latin chronicles and release them from recent historiographic rea... more Reeves' efforts to rehabilitate Latin chronicles and release them from recent historiographic readings and placing them in a broader Mediterranean context, have resulted in an insightful book about the shaping of ever-shifting ethnicity that was both united with its past and constructive of its future. This book certainly helps the thoughtful reader navigate questions of unity and diversity, inclusion and exclusion, integration and fragmentation.
Ceræ: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2018
Ceræ: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2018
141 Christian Raffensperger, The Kingdom of the Rus' (Kalamazoo and Bradford: Arc Humanities Pres... more 141 Christian Raffensperger, The Kingdom of the Rus' (Kalamazoo and Bradford: Arc Humanities Press, 2017). Print, 92 pp., £11.95, ISBN: 9781942401315. Rather than being an overview of the current scholarship of a period or a people, as some of the other books in the Past Imperfect series, in The Kingdom of the Rus', Christian Raffensperger has tackled a single important issue: that of the accurate translation of medieval terminology into modern languages both in editions and in the secondary literature. As he notes, "[t]ranslations, like historical documents themselves, are a product of their time and of their translator" (p. 25),
Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 2018
Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 2016
Dissertations by Erica Steiner
Honours Thesis, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney, 2008.
Conference Presentations by Erica Steiner
Tattooed people were arguably a relatively common sight in the classical world; it was a feature ... more Tattooed people were arguably a relatively common sight in the classical world; it was a feature of the Greek and Roman judicial and penal systems, with slaves and criminals being tattooed by their owners and/or the state. Nor was early Christianity incompatible with the practice of tattooing, with references to tattooing found in the Old and New Testaments. But outside of the Graeco-Roman world, many of their neighbours also practiced tattooing in a very different way. Among the Scythians, Thracians, and Britons, as well in northern Africa and the Near East, to be tattooed was not just a mark of cultural identity, but a sign of elite status, of religious devotion, of beauty even.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was far more common for men to be tattooed than women, within penal, military, or criminal (and often involuntary) contexts. Arguably, this has greatly influenced how scholars in the past have understood tattooing to have occurred within antiquity and the early medieval period. But in fact, the evidence of tattooed bodies and texts from these societies indicates that women were equally, if not more, likely to be tattooed than men were, especially in non-Graeco-Roman cultures, and furthermore, they were also likely to do the tattooing.
This paper will discuss archaeological, artistic, and textual evidence for tattooing from Egypt, Scythia, Thrace, and Britain, alongside comparative ethnographic material from non-European cultures to illustrate the roles which tattooed women played in the ancient world.
An important part of the description of the eponymous whale in this poem from the Exeter Book is ... more An important part of the description of the eponymous whale in this poem from the Exeter Book is that it emits a startlingly sweet odour by means of which it entices its unknowing prey to their doom. This is then expanded upon by the poet into an allegory about those who are drawn into temptation by something which appears to be pleasant, but is in fact a screen for the machinations of the Devil. However, this is not how an actual whale would have behaved in the real world, using scent as a hunting technique. It could be argued that neither the poet nor his audience had any experience or knowledge of living whales, otherwise how such a description have been believed? However, The Whale is not unique within medieval literature, as there are a number of other sea-monsters who similarly were thought to lure their prey by means of emitting a pleasant odour. This paper will examine a number of these cognate medieval and early modern sources – from the Leviathan to the Kraken, Jasconius to the Hafgufa, and other lesser known traditions from across Northern Europe.
The figure of Merlin is arguably one of the most enduring and recognisable literary creations fro... more The figure of Merlin is arguably one of the most enduring and recognisable literary creations from the medieval period, being consistently popular from the character’s very first appearance in the twelfth century works of Geoffrey of Monmouth – which in order of publication are: the Prophetiae Merlini, De gestis Britonum, and the Vita Merlini. The sources which Geoffrey pillaged to create his infamous history are well-known, most notably the ninth century anonymous Historia Brittonum, which Geoffrey used extensively. Nowadays, it is generally agreed that the figure of Merlin is a work of fiction, but this was not always the case as for the first centuries of Merlin’s existence, he was understood to have been a real historical figure. Merlin appears in all three of these works at different stages of life, and I here will focus solely on the young Merlin, or Merlin Ambrosius as he was called from very early in the reception of Geoffrey’s works to distinguish him from the aged Merlin Caledonensis. In Geoffrey’s works, Merlin was possessed of magical powers because he was the unholy product of the union between a nun and an incubus. But the Historia Brittonum makes no mention of Merlin being a half-demon.
In this paper I propose to examine the early medieval sources behind the story of Merlin Ambrosius to uncover an unsanitised version of Merlin Ambrosius’ paternity and historicity. The key to my analysis is the consistent description of Merlin Ambrosius as a ‘fatherless child’, a detail which Geoffrey developed into the notion that Merlin had no father, therefore must have been conceived through the agency of a supernatural being. But the early medieval usage of this phrase, ‘fatherless child’ paints a very different – and more sordid – picture.
Tattooing was a far more commonplace custom in ancient and medieval Europe than has commonly been... more Tattooing was a far more commonplace custom in ancient and medieval Europe than has commonly been assumed by almost all historians prior to the 1960s, and even still some contemporary scholars. While this gradual shift undoubtedly has much to do with the ever-increasing acceptance of tattoos in modern society, the unquestioning repetition of out-dated translations of ancient sources is also to blame. In fact, the Greeks and Romans tattooed their slaves and criminals for many centuries – as discussed in C.P. Jones’ 1987 seminal work on Graeco-Roman tattooing. In many other contemporary cultures bordering the Mediterranean – in the near East, Egypt and other parts of Africa, as well as the Black Sea and the Balkans – tattooing was practised as a physical manifestation of religious devotion and identity, and traces of both penal and religious tattooing can be found within the books of the monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Other European cultures beyond the Mediterranean, namely the Scythians and the Thracians, perhaps some Central European tribes, as well as various people from the British Isles – the last people in Europe to be subjugated by the Roman Empire – were also known to practice tattooing in the ancient world; but they did not do so in a penal context or one of slavery, instead they tattooed their elites, both men and women.
This paper will look at the evidence for permanent tattooing (as opposed to temporary body-painting) among the people of the British Isles in antiquity and up to the early medieval period, and speculate as to what sort of form this practice may have taken in terms of the physical instruments and pigments potentially used. It will also provide suggestions as to the nature of the relationship between appearance and identity amongst these tattooed people of the British Isles, namely the Britons, the Picts and the Scots.
Modern representations of the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles tend to centre on the ster... more Modern representations of the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles tend to centre on the stereotype of a wild, half-naked or fur-clad Celt, who either wears blue face paint in battle or has extensive tattoos, is in tune with nature, and lives in a society where women supposedly have greater equality than in other contemporary societies. Movies, and television series – both fictional narratives, as well as supposedly more scholarly historical documentaries – exploit this stereotype without examination. Recent examples include films such as Centurion, King Arthur, and the Netflix show Britannia. Yet this stereotype is not just a recent one – it can be found in popular culture from the twenty-first to the sixteenth centuries, and this in turn is based on the stereotypes of the ancient Briton in the late antique and early medieval sources.
This presentation will examine the realities behind the stereotype, and will discuss how modern popular culture alters how we perceive the past through the use of both textual and archaeological material with a strong focus on the physical appearance of these people as it is reported in the ancient sources and contrasted with modern recreations and reconstructions.
Tattooed people were arguably a relatively common sight in the classical world; it was a feature ... more Tattooed people were arguably a relatively common sight in the classical world; it was a feature of the Greek and Roman judicial and penal systems, with slaves and criminals being tattooed by their owners and/or the state. Nor was early Christianity incompatible with the practice of tattooing, with references to tattooing found in the Old and New Testaments. However, slaves and criminals were not the only people to have been tattooed in the ancient world; various ‘barbarian’ tribes such as the Thracians, Scythians, and certain African and Middle Eastern people tattooed. This paper will look at such people within the British Isles – Britons in the earliest sources, and usually Picts and/or Scots in the later sources – who practised body decoration. Since the nineteenth century, there has been a scholarly debate about whether or not these people either painted or tattooed their bodies – even as such doubts have not permeated into modern popular culture where the stereotype of either the ‘woad-painted’ or tattooed Celt remains strong. But such a debate about the nature of the appearance of different people in the British Isles did not seem to exist in the classical and early medieval sources; for as long as physical appearances were an important concern for the author, the primary sources seem to be remarkably consistent in their descriptions of these people as either painted or tattooed.
The first part of this paper will explore some of the accounts of body decoration from the classical and early medieval periods in the northern British Isles, and attempt to answer the question of whether the form of body decoration practised by the people of the British Isles was painting or tattooing. The second part will, with the aid of more recent comparative ethnology, attempt to identify certain early medieval accounts of body decoration as rites of passage, and discuss how their marks shaped the identity of these people.
Throughout history various cultures have practised tattooing, and Europe in antiquity was no exce... more Throughout history various cultures have practised tattooing, and Europe in antiquity was no exception. The Persians, Greeks and Romans practised tattooing on their slaves and condemned criminals, but around these Mediterranean cultures were a number of people with whom they had early and prolonged contact, such as the Scythians and Thracians, who did the opposite: they tattooed their elites. When the Romans first encountered and then conquered some of the tribes in the British Isles, it was remarked upon that these people also similarly decorated their bodies with designs. This perception endured into the early medieval period, with the appearance of the people known as the Picts, variously translated as ‘people of the designs’ or ‘the painted people’, but who may also be understood as ‘the punctured people’ – or by extension, ‘the tattooed ones’. Which of these practices their name reflects has been the subject of some debate ever since the later medieval period when the Picts apparently vanished from the historical record. The practices of both body-painting and tattooing had also seemingly disappeared by this time from Europe – or at least were marginalised and literally stigmatised – with the abandonment of these practices coinciding with the spread and entrenchment of Christianity, a religion in which tattooing was usually forbidden. This suggests that what had once been a practice that was indicative of an individual’s ethnic identity and their social status within that particular culture, had changed over the centuries into a statement of religious identity.
Many, if not most, myths and legends may contain within them kernels of historical fact, with som... more Many, if not most, myths and legends may contain within them kernels of historical fact, with some myths transmitting important cultural information and eyewitness accounts of events over the course of millennia, as has been demonstrated through recent research by McCafferty regarding comets and Irish myth; Reid, Nunn and Sharpe with historical and geological events depicted in Australian Aboriginal myths; and Barber’s methodological study of Native American and Classsical myths. This paper will explore the geophysical events which may have inspired an Orcadian folktale, that of Assipattle and the Mester Stoor Worm, and attempt to show that it contains within in it the kernel of an ancient geophysical event – that of an enormous underwater landslide in the north Atlantic, the Storegga Slide, that resulted in a catastrophic tsunami which devastated the coastlines of the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea in the Mesolithic Period. For how long this story was understood by its audience to be describing this event is a more complex question that is both outside the scope of this paper and ultimately unlikely to be able to be answered. What can, however, be examined is the nature of a tsunami episode, and how accurately these events are reflected through the personification of the Mester Stoorworm. Moreover, a selection of cultural parallels from Celtic and Scandinavian sources will show that the Orcadian tale is not an isolated example, but instead sits within a much greater folkloric tradition of devastating oceanic events that have been recorded in the guise of mythic sea monsters.
From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, the three most prominent types of ships engaged in i... more From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, the three most prominent types of ships engaged in international trade in Northern Europe were the keel, the cog and the hulc; yet, to date, there have not been any examples of hulcs identified in the archaeological record. Research on this ship type has therefore been limited to the literary and iconographic evidence. From this we can deduce that the hulc was a clinker-built cargo ship, a bulk-goods carrier with a characteristic ‘banana-shape’, native to the geographical area bounded by the Rhine/Meuse/Schelde delta in the Low Countries, the Baie de la Seine in northern France, and the mouths of the Humber and Severn in England. This region also has a high proportion of rivers with tidal bores, a specific type of wave associated with strong currents on an incoming tide, and it will be suggested both that the hulc, as depicted in the medieval sources, was suited to such an environment, and that if there are archaeological remains of hulcs to be found, then these rivers which have tidal bores may provide the answer.
The concept of the undead barrow-dweller was one of great longevity in the Germanic and Scandinav... more The concept of the undead barrow-dweller was one of great longevity in the Germanic and Scandinavian early medieval eschatological world, and this paper will show the existence of these beings in Beowulf primarily in the figures of Grendel and his mother as draugar, as well as through other demonic beings. Though draugr is a specific Old Norse word for the undead barrow-dwellers in literature and folklore, they are analogous to other pre-Christian supernatural beings found throughout the Germanic world. These beings clearly originate in the pre-Christian mythology of the Germanic world, yet the treatment of Grendel and other non-Christian and demonic elements within Beowulf cannot be seen outside of the literary Christian culture of late Anglo-Saxon England. That the poem has non-Christian elements embedded with it does not negate the Christianity of its author (and audience) any less than the incidence of pre-Christian ideas, imagery and beings in other poetry and prose of the era does; it simply shows the nature of syncretic belief in Anglo-Saxon England. By locating the origin of the poem in not only an Anglo-Saxon, but an Anglo-Scandinavian millieu, questions of date inevitably arise, and within the limited scope of this paper some supporting evidence will be discussed that points to the composition of Beowulf in the early tenth century Danelaw.
Newsletter Archive by Erica Steiner
Ceræ: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2019
This engaging collection of twelve essays is the second volume in Brepols' Borders, Boundaries,
Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 2018
Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 2018
Reeves' efforts to rehabilitate Latin chronicles and release them from recent historiographic rea... more Reeves' efforts to rehabilitate Latin chronicles and release them from recent historiographic readings and placing them in a broader Mediterranean context, have resulted in an insightful book about the shaping of ever-shifting ethnicity that was both united with its past and constructive of its future. This book certainly helps the thoughtful reader navigate questions of unity and diversity, inclusion and exclusion, integration and fragmentation.
Ceræ: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2018
Ceræ: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2018
141 Christian Raffensperger, The Kingdom of the Rus' (Kalamazoo and Bradford: Arc Humanities Pres... more 141 Christian Raffensperger, The Kingdom of the Rus' (Kalamazoo and Bradford: Arc Humanities Press, 2017). Print, 92 pp., £11.95, ISBN: 9781942401315. Rather than being an overview of the current scholarship of a period or a people, as some of the other books in the Past Imperfect series, in The Kingdom of the Rus', Christian Raffensperger has tackled a single important issue: that of the accurate translation of medieval terminology into modern languages both in editions and in the secondary literature. As he notes, "[t]ranslations, like historical documents themselves, are a product of their time and of their translator" (p. 25),
Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 2018
Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 2016
Tattooed people were arguably a relatively common sight in the classical world; it was a feature ... more Tattooed people were arguably a relatively common sight in the classical world; it was a feature of the Greek and Roman judicial and penal systems, with slaves and criminals being tattooed by their owners and/or the state. Nor was early Christianity incompatible with the practice of tattooing, with references to tattooing found in the Old and New Testaments. But outside of the Graeco-Roman world, many of their neighbours also practiced tattooing in a very different way. Among the Scythians, Thracians, and Britons, as well in northern Africa and the Near East, to be tattooed was not just a mark of cultural identity, but a sign of elite status, of religious devotion, of beauty even.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was far more common for men to be tattooed than women, within penal, military, or criminal (and often involuntary) contexts. Arguably, this has greatly influenced how scholars in the past have understood tattooing to have occurred within antiquity and the early medieval period. But in fact, the evidence of tattooed bodies and texts from these societies indicates that women were equally, if not more, likely to be tattooed than men were, especially in non-Graeco-Roman cultures, and furthermore, they were also likely to do the tattooing.
This paper will discuss archaeological, artistic, and textual evidence for tattooing from Egypt, Scythia, Thrace, and Britain, alongside comparative ethnographic material from non-European cultures to illustrate the roles which tattooed women played in the ancient world.
An important part of the description of the eponymous whale in this poem from the Exeter Book is ... more An important part of the description of the eponymous whale in this poem from the Exeter Book is that it emits a startlingly sweet odour by means of which it entices its unknowing prey to their doom. This is then expanded upon by the poet into an allegory about those who are drawn into temptation by something which appears to be pleasant, but is in fact a screen for the machinations of the Devil. However, this is not how an actual whale would have behaved in the real world, using scent as a hunting technique. It could be argued that neither the poet nor his audience had any experience or knowledge of living whales, otherwise how such a description have been believed? However, The Whale is not unique within medieval literature, as there are a number of other sea-monsters who similarly were thought to lure their prey by means of emitting a pleasant odour. This paper will examine a number of these cognate medieval and early modern sources – from the Leviathan to the Kraken, Jasconius to the Hafgufa, and other lesser known traditions from across Northern Europe.
The figure of Merlin is arguably one of the most enduring and recognisable literary creations fro... more The figure of Merlin is arguably one of the most enduring and recognisable literary creations from the medieval period, being consistently popular from the character’s very first appearance in the twelfth century works of Geoffrey of Monmouth – which in order of publication are: the Prophetiae Merlini, De gestis Britonum, and the Vita Merlini. The sources which Geoffrey pillaged to create his infamous history are well-known, most notably the ninth century anonymous Historia Brittonum, which Geoffrey used extensively. Nowadays, it is generally agreed that the figure of Merlin is a work of fiction, but this was not always the case as for the first centuries of Merlin’s existence, he was understood to have been a real historical figure. Merlin appears in all three of these works at different stages of life, and I here will focus solely on the young Merlin, or Merlin Ambrosius as he was called from very early in the reception of Geoffrey’s works to distinguish him from the aged Merlin Caledonensis. In Geoffrey’s works, Merlin was possessed of magical powers because he was the unholy product of the union between a nun and an incubus. But the Historia Brittonum makes no mention of Merlin being a half-demon.
In this paper I propose to examine the early medieval sources behind the story of Merlin Ambrosius to uncover an unsanitised version of Merlin Ambrosius’ paternity and historicity. The key to my analysis is the consistent description of Merlin Ambrosius as a ‘fatherless child’, a detail which Geoffrey developed into the notion that Merlin had no father, therefore must have been conceived through the agency of a supernatural being. But the early medieval usage of this phrase, ‘fatherless child’ paints a very different – and more sordid – picture.
Tattooing was a far more commonplace custom in ancient and medieval Europe than has commonly been... more Tattooing was a far more commonplace custom in ancient and medieval Europe than has commonly been assumed by almost all historians prior to the 1960s, and even still some contemporary scholars. While this gradual shift undoubtedly has much to do with the ever-increasing acceptance of tattoos in modern society, the unquestioning repetition of out-dated translations of ancient sources is also to blame. In fact, the Greeks and Romans tattooed their slaves and criminals for many centuries – as discussed in C.P. Jones’ 1987 seminal work on Graeco-Roman tattooing. In many other contemporary cultures bordering the Mediterranean – in the near East, Egypt and other parts of Africa, as well as the Black Sea and the Balkans – tattooing was practised as a physical manifestation of religious devotion and identity, and traces of both penal and religious tattooing can be found within the books of the monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Other European cultures beyond the Mediterranean, namely the Scythians and the Thracians, perhaps some Central European tribes, as well as various people from the British Isles – the last people in Europe to be subjugated by the Roman Empire – were also known to practice tattooing in the ancient world; but they did not do so in a penal context or one of slavery, instead they tattooed their elites, both men and women.
This paper will look at the evidence for permanent tattooing (as opposed to temporary body-painting) among the people of the British Isles in antiquity and up to the early medieval period, and speculate as to what sort of form this practice may have taken in terms of the physical instruments and pigments potentially used. It will also provide suggestions as to the nature of the relationship between appearance and identity amongst these tattooed people of the British Isles, namely the Britons, the Picts and the Scots.
Modern representations of the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles tend to centre on the ster... more Modern representations of the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles tend to centre on the stereotype of a wild, half-naked or fur-clad Celt, who either wears blue face paint in battle or has extensive tattoos, is in tune with nature, and lives in a society where women supposedly have greater equality than in other contemporary societies. Movies, and television series – both fictional narratives, as well as supposedly more scholarly historical documentaries – exploit this stereotype without examination. Recent examples include films such as Centurion, King Arthur, and the Netflix show Britannia. Yet this stereotype is not just a recent one – it can be found in popular culture from the twenty-first to the sixteenth centuries, and this in turn is based on the stereotypes of the ancient Briton in the late antique and early medieval sources.
This presentation will examine the realities behind the stereotype, and will discuss how modern popular culture alters how we perceive the past through the use of both textual and archaeological material with a strong focus on the physical appearance of these people as it is reported in the ancient sources and contrasted with modern recreations and reconstructions.
Tattooed people were arguably a relatively common sight in the classical world; it was a feature ... more Tattooed people were arguably a relatively common sight in the classical world; it was a feature of the Greek and Roman judicial and penal systems, with slaves and criminals being tattooed by their owners and/or the state. Nor was early Christianity incompatible with the practice of tattooing, with references to tattooing found in the Old and New Testaments. However, slaves and criminals were not the only people to have been tattooed in the ancient world; various ‘barbarian’ tribes such as the Thracians, Scythians, and certain African and Middle Eastern people tattooed. This paper will look at such people within the British Isles – Britons in the earliest sources, and usually Picts and/or Scots in the later sources – who practised body decoration. Since the nineteenth century, there has been a scholarly debate about whether or not these people either painted or tattooed their bodies – even as such doubts have not permeated into modern popular culture where the stereotype of either the ‘woad-painted’ or tattooed Celt remains strong. But such a debate about the nature of the appearance of different people in the British Isles did not seem to exist in the classical and early medieval sources; for as long as physical appearances were an important concern for the author, the primary sources seem to be remarkably consistent in their descriptions of these people as either painted or tattooed.
The first part of this paper will explore some of the accounts of body decoration from the classical and early medieval periods in the northern British Isles, and attempt to answer the question of whether the form of body decoration practised by the people of the British Isles was painting or tattooing. The second part will, with the aid of more recent comparative ethnology, attempt to identify certain early medieval accounts of body decoration as rites of passage, and discuss how their marks shaped the identity of these people.
Throughout history various cultures have practised tattooing, and Europe in antiquity was no exce... more Throughout history various cultures have practised tattooing, and Europe in antiquity was no exception. The Persians, Greeks and Romans practised tattooing on their slaves and condemned criminals, but around these Mediterranean cultures were a number of people with whom they had early and prolonged contact, such as the Scythians and Thracians, who did the opposite: they tattooed their elites. When the Romans first encountered and then conquered some of the tribes in the British Isles, it was remarked upon that these people also similarly decorated their bodies with designs. This perception endured into the early medieval period, with the appearance of the people known as the Picts, variously translated as ‘people of the designs’ or ‘the painted people’, but who may also be understood as ‘the punctured people’ – or by extension, ‘the tattooed ones’. Which of these practices their name reflects has been the subject of some debate ever since the later medieval period when the Picts apparently vanished from the historical record. The practices of both body-painting and tattooing had also seemingly disappeared by this time from Europe – or at least were marginalised and literally stigmatised – with the abandonment of these practices coinciding with the spread and entrenchment of Christianity, a religion in which tattooing was usually forbidden. This suggests that what had once been a practice that was indicative of an individual’s ethnic identity and their social status within that particular culture, had changed over the centuries into a statement of religious identity.
Many, if not most, myths and legends may contain within them kernels of historical fact, with som... more Many, if not most, myths and legends may contain within them kernels of historical fact, with some myths transmitting important cultural information and eyewitness accounts of events over the course of millennia, as has been demonstrated through recent research by McCafferty regarding comets and Irish myth; Reid, Nunn and Sharpe with historical and geological events depicted in Australian Aboriginal myths; and Barber’s methodological study of Native American and Classsical myths. This paper will explore the geophysical events which may have inspired an Orcadian folktale, that of Assipattle and the Mester Stoor Worm, and attempt to show that it contains within in it the kernel of an ancient geophysical event – that of an enormous underwater landslide in the north Atlantic, the Storegga Slide, that resulted in a catastrophic tsunami which devastated the coastlines of the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea in the Mesolithic Period. For how long this story was understood by its audience to be describing this event is a more complex question that is both outside the scope of this paper and ultimately unlikely to be able to be answered. What can, however, be examined is the nature of a tsunami episode, and how accurately these events are reflected through the personification of the Mester Stoorworm. Moreover, a selection of cultural parallels from Celtic and Scandinavian sources will show that the Orcadian tale is not an isolated example, but instead sits within a much greater folkloric tradition of devastating oceanic events that have been recorded in the guise of mythic sea monsters.
From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, the three most prominent types of ships engaged in i... more From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, the three most prominent types of ships engaged in international trade in Northern Europe were the keel, the cog and the hulc; yet, to date, there have not been any examples of hulcs identified in the archaeological record. Research on this ship type has therefore been limited to the literary and iconographic evidence. From this we can deduce that the hulc was a clinker-built cargo ship, a bulk-goods carrier with a characteristic ‘banana-shape’, native to the geographical area bounded by the Rhine/Meuse/Schelde delta in the Low Countries, the Baie de la Seine in northern France, and the mouths of the Humber and Severn in England. This region also has a high proportion of rivers with tidal bores, a specific type of wave associated with strong currents on an incoming tide, and it will be suggested both that the hulc, as depicted in the medieval sources, was suited to such an environment, and that if there are archaeological remains of hulcs to be found, then these rivers which have tidal bores may provide the answer.
The concept of the undead barrow-dweller was one of great longevity in the Germanic and Scandinav... more The concept of the undead barrow-dweller was one of great longevity in the Germanic and Scandinavian early medieval eschatological world, and this paper will show the existence of these beings in Beowulf primarily in the figures of Grendel and his mother as draugar, as well as through other demonic beings. Though draugr is a specific Old Norse word for the undead barrow-dwellers in literature and folklore, they are analogous to other pre-Christian supernatural beings found throughout the Germanic world. These beings clearly originate in the pre-Christian mythology of the Germanic world, yet the treatment of Grendel and other non-Christian and demonic elements within Beowulf cannot be seen outside of the literary Christian culture of late Anglo-Saxon England. That the poem has non-Christian elements embedded with it does not negate the Christianity of its author (and audience) any less than the incidence of pre-Christian ideas, imagery and beings in other poetry and prose of the era does; it simply shows the nature of syncretic belief in Anglo-Saxon England. By locating the origin of the poem in not only an Anglo-Saxon, but an Anglo-Scandinavian millieu, questions of date inevitably arise, and within the limited scope of this paper some supporting evidence will be discussed that points to the composition of Beowulf in the early tenth century Danelaw.
Call for papers, 2021
As we continue to process the impact of COVID-19 on global and local societies, the jury is still... more As we continue to process the impact of COVID-19 on global and local societies, the jury is still out on whether the eruption of a global pandemic, and the subsequent disruptions and interruptions to contemporary routines, are a ‘game-changer’ or an inconvenience. The 2021 AEMA conference reflects on this tension in an early medieval context. Eruptions can be understood in many different ways, as they can describe both natural phenomena and human activity, including the sudden appearance of new movements, of groups of people, or of ideas. Were eruptions revolutionary? Or were they merely a disruption or interruption to the longue durée?
This conference calls for papers that relate to this theme, or, in the spirit of the theme, that do not.
All sessions will include time for questions and general discussion. Please send proposals (150–200 words per paper), along with author’s name, paper/panel/RT title, and academic affiliation (if any) to conference@aema.net.au by 31 July 2021. Please also direct all other enquiries about the conference to this address, as well as any nominations for hosting an in-person hub.
Call for papers AEMA13 | Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia
aema13 is conference invites papers on the broad theme of cultural exchange in the Middle Ages. N... more aema13 is conference invites papers on the broad theme of cultural exchange in the Middle Ages. New evidence is being uncovered by novel methods and digital humanities allow diverse sources to be accessed ever more widely; our current knowledge of the pre-modern world suggests that it was more interconnected than previously thought. erefore, even though the early medieval period continues to exist in the popular imagination as backward and insular, in many ways it is a period marked by a keen interest in foreign cultures and places. is conference aims to challenge the emergent perception that the English-speaking world is retreating into isolation despite the global nature of the human past, present and the future. We welcome any papers related to all aspects of the movement of people, goods and ideas in the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods (c. 400–1150) in all cultural, geographic, religious and linguistic settings, even if they do not strictly adhere to the theme. Abstracts of 250-300 words for 20-minute papers should be submitted via email to conference@aema.net.au by 5 March 2018
aema12 - RECEPTIONS 2017 Conference of the Australian Early Medieval Association 21–22 April 2017... more aema12 - RECEPTIONS
2017 Conference of the Australian Early Medieval Association
21–22 April 2017 Australian National University, Canberra
This conference invites papers on the broad theme of the alterity of the Middle Ages. We welcome any papers related to all aspects of the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods (c. 400–1150) in all cultural, geographic, religious and linguistic settings, even if they do not strictly adhere to the theme.
Abstracts of 250-300 words for 20-minute papers should be submitted via email to
conference@aema.net.au by 15 January 2017
Australian Early Medieval Association
www.aema.net.au - AEMA is incorporated in Victoria A0045152M