Harold, the last king before the Norman Conquest of England, getting stabbed to death with an arrow. This depiction on the Bayeux Tapestry has been challenged by some historians, but I still side with this version of the story.
King Harold’s Death Read More »
These are Jewish pendants of protection against the demon Lilith. In “The Alphabet of Ben Sirach”, a medieval Jewish text, the legend appeared of Lilith as the first wife of Adam who refused to have sex in a submissive position – because she chose to leave Adam rather than submit, 100 of her demon children
Medieval Jewish Pendants Read More »
This is a geek-post for Medievalist nerds like me! In 735, one of the most important writers of the Early Middle Ages died in the northern hinterlands of England at a monastery called Jarrow. He had spent most of his life as a monk, coming from the aristocracy of the area and sent by his
New Discoveries of Early Medieval Author Bede’s Handwriting Read More »
It’s really difficult for me, dear readers, not to love the Whore of Babylon, the metaphor and shibboleth from the New Testament Book of Revelations. As a reminder, here are some lines from that apocalyptic book: “‘Come, I will show you the judgement of the great whore who is seated on many waters, with whom
Medieval people drank wine, and a lot of it. Some speculate that it would have tasted much worse than today’s drink, because it wasn’t stored in glass bottles, and corks hadn’t been invented. This might have made older wines murky with dead yeasts, and easily spoiled. The best wines likely were the newer ones which
Winemaking in Medieval Europe Read More »
We’ve all heard the term “rune,” but mostly in contemporary culture we think about runes being magical symbols, perhaps fitting into the worlds of JRR Tolkien. So I’m here to deliver some bummer history news to fight this stereotype and argue that runes could be much more mundane. However, this lead plaque (dating between the
Old English Runes and Their Magical and Ordinary Purposes Read More »
Here you see the Medieval 12th century ruins of the monastery at Lindisfarne. These remains, old as they are, predate Saint Cuthbert, whose cult grew up around this area after his life of preaching and asceticism in the seventh century (see Medieval illumination of Cuthbert on the second slide). But 300 million years before the
St Cuthbert’s beads Read More »
