The Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group (OMMG) is a collective of eight postgraduate students and early-career researchers who bonded in Oxford over their passion for medieval manuscripts. We host a seminar series which gathers a community of emerging scholars, from the University of Oxford and beyond, around the study of medieval books and the art of illumination.
OMMG seminars take place twice monthly on Friday afternoons. We discuss the most exciting recent research; share our own projects and ideas in a supportive environment; learn from lectures and tutorials given by experienced colleagues; and examine medieval manuscripts together during library visits.
Since the start of our activities in Hilary Term 2024, we have organised over twenty events, created an online reading group, and launched social media accounts on Instagram and Bluesky. This academic year, we welcome our first Honorary Member! We are very happy to announce that James Marrow, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Princeton University, will give a guest lecture in Trinity Term.
Are you a manuscript specialist, a book enthusiast or an admirer of medieval art? We would love you to join us! To subscribe to our mailing list and for all enquiries, please contact: oxfordmedievalmss@gmail.com.
Steering committee:
Martin Kauffmann is Head of Early and Rare Collections at the Bodleian Libraries.
Peter Kidd is an independent scholar of medieval and illuminated manuscripts based in Oxford.
Laure Miolo is Associate Professor in Medieval Latin Manuscript Studies at Wadham College.
Organising committee:
Irina Boeru is a final-year DPhil candidate at St. Hilda’s College. She has worked extensively on humanism, accounts of exploration and travel narratives in French, Spanish and Latin illuminated manuscripts. Her doctoral project focuses specifically on chronicles of the fifteenth-century conquest of the Canary Islands. Prior to her DPhil, Irina completed a BA in Medieval and Modern Languages and a MSt in Medieval Studies at the University of Oxford.
Fergus Bovill is a first-year DPhil candidate in History of Art at Merton College. His thesis, entitled Breaking, Remaking, Reimagining: The Afterlives of Illuminated Manuscripts in the Nineteenth Century, studies the culture of assembling individual illuminations cut from medieval books in albums and collages which proliferated during that period. Fergus holds a BA in History of Art from the University of York and a MSt in Medieval Studies from the University of Oxford. Between his MSt and DPhil, he worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz—Max-Planck-Institut.
Antonia Delle Fratte is a fourth-year PhD student in the History Department at the University of Padua. She holds a BA and MA in History of Art from the Sapienza University of Rome, where she specialised in manuscript illumination and the career of Gustav Friedrich Waagen. Antonia continues to work on Waagen as part of her doctoral project, which analyses the reception of illuminated manuscripts in the nineteenth century. In 2022, she received a CERL grant for cataloguing incunabula at the Royal Library of Belgium and began collaborating with the Vatican Apostolic Library on manuscripts of the Duke of Urbino.
Hannele Hellerstedt is a second-year DPhil candidate in History of Art at Lincoln College. Her research interests include conceptions of gender between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, as well as the relationship between Gothic and Italianate architectural styles at the turn of the early modern period. Her thesis, entitled Constructing Virtue: The Female Builder in Late Medieval and Early Modern French Illuminated Manuscripts, examines the motif of the woman-builder within the prolific literary output of late medieval and early modern France, combining text-image analysis with archival research on women on construction sites.
Elena Lichmanova is Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library and a final-year DPhil candidate at Merton College. Her doctoral project explores the origins and early history of marginalia in medieval manuscripts, focusing on illuminated English devotional books of the thirteenth century. Elena has devoted most of her research to the Rutland Psalter, held at the British Library, and the rise of Gothic marginalia.
Mathilde Mioche is a second-year PhD student at The Courtauld Institute of Art. Her thesis, entitled Markets for the Macabre: Uncovering New Contexts for the Art of Death in Europe, 1450–1550, investigates the extraordinary demand for macabre art in late medieval and Renaissance Europe. Mathilde is also a Prints and Drawings Study Room Assistant at The Courtauld Gallery. She holds a BA in History of Art from University College London and a MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture from the University of Oxford.
Ana de Oliveira Dias is a historian of early medieval visual and intellectual culture with a specialisation in manuscript studies. She received a PhD in Medieval History from Durham University in 2019 and is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the project Crafting Documents, c. 500–c. 800 CE at the University of Oxford. Ana also holds the position of William Golding Junior Research Fellow at Brasenose College.
Celeste J. Pan is a final-year DPhil candidate in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Prior to her DPhil at Balliol College, she completed a BA in English at the University of Cambridge and a MPhil in Medieval Studies at the University of Oxford. Celeste works primarily on illuminated Hebrew manuscripts from medieval northern Europe, in particular a liturgical Pentateuch manuscript produced in northeastern France in 1296, known commonly as ‘the Rothschild Pentateuch’. She is especially interested in style, multilingualism and heraldry.
Image: Incipit to the Gospel of John, from the Lindisfarne Gospels. Courtesy British Library, MS Cotton Nero D. IV, folio 211r.
The Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays 2025 are over – thank you to everyone who made this day possible! Read on for some pictures and impressions of a wonderful day. You can access the full programme, scroll through film stills by the camera team, and watch it on the OMS Youtube channel.
01:12 – The Fall of the Angels (Angels of Oxford) – Middle English 13:45 – Adam and Eve (Oxford German Medievalists) – Hans Sachs, German 34:56 – The Flood (The Travelling Beavers) – Middle English 55:02 – Abraham and Isaac (Shear and Trembling) – Middle English 1:11:14 – The Annunciation (Low Countries Ensemble) – Middle Dutch 1:19:26 – The Nativity (Les Perles Innocentes) – Marguerite de Navarre, French 1:45:53 – The Wedding at Cana (Pusey House) – Modern English, with Middle English archaisms 2:00:30 – The Crucifixion (The Wicked Weights) – Middle English 2:15:15 – The Lamentation (St Edmund Consort) – Bordesholmer Marienklage, Low German and Latin 2:30:53 – The Harrowing of Hell (The Choir of St Edmund Hall) – Latin Sequence 2:33:30 – The Resurrection (St Stephen’s House) – Middle English 2:55:14 – The Martyrdom of the Three Holy Virgins (Clamor Validus) – Hrosvitha of Gandersheim, Latin and modern English 3:20:10 – The Last Judgement (MSt English, 650–1550) – Modern English
The fourth iteration of the Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays took place on 26 April at St Edmund Hall. And it was a truly marvellous day! A total of 13 plays were put on by about 150 participants – actors, directors, singers, costume designers, musicians, and many more. Throughout the day, about 350 audience members popped in and out of Teddy Hall, some staying for shorter periods, others for several hours or the whole day. Audience members and participants included a wonderful range: undergraduate and graduate students and academics from within and without Oxford, a full children’s choir, tourists, and members of the public found their way to Teddy Hall and partook in the medieval shenanigans.
And what shenanigans they were! This year, we are particularly proud of the incredible diversity of languages, plays, and different approaches on display. But see for yourself … (All photo credits are at the bottom of the post)
The day started – how could it be otherwise – with a trumpet blast from Henrike Lähnemann herself (Picture 1).
Once again, we were expertly guided through the day by Jim Harris, the Master of Ceremonies. Armed with Bruce Mitchell’s doctoral gown and the ceremonial scroll (consisting of the baking roll to the chaplain of St Edmund Hall, half a coat hanger and numerous layers of paper and sellotape), he introduced each play with a modern English prologue (Picture 2).
We began at the beginning, with the creation of the world and The Fall of the Angels,performed mostly in Middle English, but with modern English elements, and in a modern office setting.
Picture 3: The Holy Trinity is being fawned over by the two good angels … but trouble awaits: the two bad angels are getting arrogant, before their inevitable ejection from Heaven.
From the angels, we moved swiftly on to humans: next was the German Adam and Eve play by Hans Sachs, featuring a particularly good use of the well (the two humps underneath the spare green coat are Adam and Eve, about to be created).
Picture 4: All could be well in Eden, if it wasn’t for Lucifer, Belial, Satan, and the Serpent conspiring.
Picture 5: Adam and Eve might have fallen into desperation, but the cast have good reason to be proud of themselves, having made it to the front page of both the Oxford Mail and Oxford Times.
Skipping a few biblical ages, we next saw the Flood, presented in the Middle English Chester version.
Picture 6: The flood has come! Luckily, Noah and his family are safe on the ark, together with the animals – expertly made and portrayed by the children of St Giles’ and St Margaret’s churches.
The Old Testament concluded with the Middle English York version of Abraham and Isaac.
Will he really do it? Abraham is getting ready to sacrifice his oldest son, Isaac (Picture 7) … but fear not! The angel of the lord approaches and shows him a sheep to sacrifice instead – the little guy, hand-crocheted by one of the cast members, rapidly became the true star of the day (Picture 8).
After a refreshing tea break, we moved from the Front Quad into the Churchyard, and from the Old to the New Testament. The fifth play of the day was the Annunciation, or rather Die Eerste Bliscap van Maria (‘The First Joy of Mary’). It was performed in Middle Dutch: a first (but hopefully not last) for the Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays!
Picture 9: The angel Gabriel announces the happy news to the reading Mary.
True to the Gospels, the Annunciation was followed by the Nativity. It was a particular pleasure to welcome back Les Perles Innocentes, who travelled all the way from Fribourg to wow us with their expert performance of the Comédie de la Nativité, written by none other than Marguerite de Navarre.
Picture 10: Mary and Joseph are desperately looking for a place for Mary to give birth. – Picture 11: If the stable looked as gorgeous as the library of Teddy Hall, it surely wasn’t the worst place to be born in!
Our next play skipped ahead, showing us the grown-up Christ at the Wedding at Cana. This play was a world premiere, reconstructed from only 1.5 surviving lines in the York cycle!
Picture 12: Panic at Cana – the wine has run out at the wedding! What to do?
Picture 13: Christ is there to save the day and transforms the water into wine. The servants are amazed!
From Cana, we moved straight to Golgotha and a Middle English performance of the Crucifixion. The York Crucifixion, strangely, is a comedy, and the four soldiers crucifying Christ were accordingly equipped with ‘Cross flatpack instructions’ and giant inflatable hammers. Certainly not inflatable, however, was the cross, which was purpose-built just for this production and turned into a much-coveted prop for numerous plays.
Picture 14: The poor, overworked soldiers struggle to lift up the heavy cross.
Once the soldiers had vacated the grassy mound in Teddy Hall’s Churchyard, the mourners came: the three Marys (the Virgin, Mary Magdalen, and Mary, Mother of John) and John arrived for the Lamentation, represented by the Bordesholmer Marienklage and beautifully sung in a mixture of Latin and Low German.
Picture 15: Owe, owe nu ys he dot…
Moving directly from the cross to the crypt, we were told about the Harrowing of Hell by the Choir of St Edmund Hall through sung Latin sequences.
Hell having been harrowed, it was time for another tea break, after which we were welcomed back by the angelic hosts of the Choir (Picture 16). And then it was time for some good news: the Resurrection! Performed in the Middle English of the York version, this play truly had it all: sleeping soldiers, lamenting Marys, bickering priests, and a highly enthusiastic angel.
Picture 17: An outraged Pilate commands the soldiers to find out the truth about the rumours concerning Christ’s resurrection. At least Caiaphas and Annas, the extremely well-dressed high priests, are there to back him up. Picture 18: Mary lamenting at the tomb – thankfully, she, too, receives moral support from the angel.
Leaving the Gospels behind, we moved on to the only non-biblical story of the day: The Martyrdom of the Three Holy Virgins by Hrosvitha of Gandersheim, performed mostly in (absolutely flawless!) Latin, with a few bits in modern English.
Picture 19: Governor Dulcitius has been ridiculed by his prisoners, the holy virgins Agape, Chionia, and Irena … his embarrassment will not go unpunished.
Picture 20: The two older sisters are burned, while the youngest is forced to watch. But never fear: all three will be rewarded in Heaven for their martyrdom.
Last, but by no means least, it was time for … the Last Judgement! Performed in a modern English adaptation of different Middle English versions, this wonderfully cheerful and funny play was the perfect end for a fantastic day.
Picture 21: Hey guys, it’s Gabe! The archangels Gabriel and Michael open Judgement day, while the soon-to-be-raised souls rest in the ditch between library wall and lawn.
Picture 22: Who will get more souls? Jesus and the angels, or Lucifer and the demons?
And … that was it! Thirteen plays, five languages, two tea breaks, and five hours later, we had travelled all the way from the Creation to Judgement Day, from Heaven to Hell, from Bethlehem to Golgotha, and from Front Quad to the far side of the library.
Our heartfelt thanks goes to everyone who made this day possible: on and off stage, casts, crews, organisers, helpers, and so many more. We are particularly grateful to Jim Harris, our Master of Ceremonies; David Maskell, who wrote the modern English prologues; and Tristan Alphey and the other helpers for their support during the day. This year’s Medieval Mystery Plays are by far the best-documented yet: Ben Arthur, James May, Archie Dimmock, and Tea Smart filmed the entire day; their recordings will be released on the St Edmund Hall Mystery Cycle page at a film launch party at the end of Trinity Term. Ashley Castelino took many fantastic pictures, and Robert Crighton and Liza Graham recorded impressions from audiences and participants for their podcast Beyond Shakespeare.
Of course, what a play really needs is its audience. We were delighted to see so many of you there, and overwhelmed by the amount of positive feedback we received. Here are just some of the comments we collected in our visitor book – many audience members had their favourite play from the host of performances:
“Brilliant! Loved the Nativity especially!”
“Great job! Love the Wedding feast!”
“Terrific! Thank you very much. I particularly enjoyed Adam and Eve, and Satan with his acolytes in [the Last Judgement]!”
“Really enjoyed the camp Satan!”
“The singing [in the Nativity, Lamentation, and Harrowing of Hell] was superb. Altogether a delightful event!”
The best audience members are naturally those who were themselves surprised by how much they enjoyed themselves: one person wrote that they had a “very unexpectedly enjoyable day supporting a friend in one play, but then enjoy[ed] all the others!” Many also appreciated the use of medieval languages in keeping these plays “alive” through modern performance and praised the “pace, diversity, and inventiveness” of the troupes, the beautiful medieval setting of St Edmund Hall, and the overall “vibrant and entertaining” environment of the Cycle. One particularly nice comment described our day of performances as “full of whimsy” – made even more whimsical by the little stars they drew around their comment. Thank you very much to each and everyone of you!
Are you sad you missed out? Can you not wait to get back into medieval drama? Watch this space! The Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays will be back …
Picture Credits
Pictures 2 and 8: Ashley Castelino
Picture 6: Rahel Micklich
Picture 17: Antonia Anstatt
Header and Pictures 1, 3, 4-6, 9-16, 18-22: Stills from the video recordings made by Ben Arthur, James May, Archie Dimmock, and Tea Smart.
The film crew after the day in Queen’s Lane
Medieval Mystery Plays: Documentation
That’s the summary of the Medieval Mystery Plays – read on for a more detailed documentation of what the different groups did and what each play looked like.
The Fall of the Angels as transmitted in the York Cycle. Performed in Middle English, with some Modern English elements.
Summary
It is the beginning of the world: God creates the Universe and enjoys his own might. The two Good Angels – Seraphyn and Cherabyn – glorify him, while the two Bad Angels bask in their own beauty and power. God names one of them as Lucifer, the Bringer of Light, which further inflates Lucifer’s ego. But he becomes too confident and, supported by the other Bad Angel (Angelus Deficiens), talks about becoming even higher than God himself. God expels the two Bad Angels from Heaven, causing them to fall into Hell. There, they lament their state and blame each other for their downfall. Back in Heaven, God and the Good Angels celebrate, and God creates Day and Night.
About the Performance
This group chose a modern approach to the play. They set the biblical story in a modern office, with God, split into three as the Trinity, representing the leadership board of the company, and the angels their employees. The play was mostly presented in its original Medieval English, but with a twist: after their Fall from Heaven, the two Bad Angels switched to Modern English.
Hans Sachs, Tragedia von schöpfung, fal und außtreibung Ade auß dem paradeyß (1548), adapted by Timothy Powell and Nina Unland. Hans Sachs was a famous German playwright and poet. Between 1548–1560, he wrote 40 religious comedies and tragedies. His ‘Tragedy of the creation, fall, and expulsion of Adam from Paradise’ is an example of a play at the threshold between ‘medieval’ and ‘early modern’ religious drama. It displays many features of emerging ‘early modern’ Protestant religious drama, drawing on the Latin religious dramas of Renaissance humanism, Martin Luther’s reflections on religious tragedy, and the language of Luther’s translation of the Biblical account of the creation and fall of humankind. These elements coexist and interact with numerous elements drawn from medieval mystery plays, especially the extra-biblical episodes involving the three chief devils that keep some of the more light-hearted aspects of ‘medieval’ religious drama alive.
Summary
God creates Adam, then leads him away to show him Paradise. The three angels Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel enter, praising God and the Creation. Once they have left, God and Adam return. God creates Eve, but as soon as the two first humans have left to explore the Garden of Even, three devils appear – Lucifer, Satan, and Belial. They decide to conspire against the humans and call the Snake, who convinces Eve to try one of the apples of the Tree of Life. Eve then gives an apple to Adam; horrified, the two recognise that they are naked. The three devils return and rejoice, followed by the three angles, who weep. Finally, God returns and punishes the wrongdoers: the Snake is made to slither on its belly, Eve is punished with painful childbirth, and Adam with hard manual labour. Then, they are expelled from the Garden of Eden by an angel with a flaming sword.
About the Performance
The entire performance was in Hans Sachs’ original German, except for an English Prologue and Epilogue delivered by the Cherub. The play was performed in Teddy Halls’ Front Quad, with the well serving as the space from where Adam and Eve were created. The Tree of Life was represented by the same cross which, later in the day, served as the cross on which Christ was crucified – an excellent example for the reuse of different props throughout the day. The angels and God were all dressed in liturgical vestments, enhancing their aura of sacrality.
Good Gossips – Amy Jenkins, Rowan Wilson, Siân Grønlie, George Manning
Crew
Director – Minna Jeffrey
Music and Art – St Giles’ Choir, the children of St Giles’ and St Margaret’s churches
Text
The Chester Flood play in Middle English. The Chester cycle probably originated in the later fourteenth century, although the earliest written version dates to 1422. In later years, the Chester cycle was performed on Whitsun and took three days to perform in full. The Chester play of Noah’s flood is one of several flood plays in Middle English. It was chosen by this group because it has most on the actual animals (eight stanzas) and because of the ‘Good Gossips’. It was set to music by Benjamin Britten as Noyes Fludde.
Summary
Dissatisfied with humankind, God decides to send a great flood. The only ones to be spared are Noah and his family. Noah is tasked with the building of a great ark, on which his family and two animals of every kind will survive. Noah complies and brings the animals and his family – his wife, his three sons, and one of their wives – on board, just the Earth begins to flood. The ark is on sea for a considerable amount of time, but finally, the rain ceases. God commands Noah and his family to disembark and repopulate the Earth. So far, the story is well known, but what is special about this version is the central role of Noah’s family. Especially Noah’s relationship with his ‘crabbed’ and not at all ‘meek’ wife is a topic throughout. There is also a unique scene with the ‘good gossips’: ‘gossip’ comes from Middle English ‘godsib(be)’. Originally, this referred to either godparents or godchildren, but it came to mean one’s close friends (especially women) and did not take on its current meaning of tell-tale before the mid-sixteenth century. In this play, Noah’s wife is reluctant to leave her friends behind when the flood begins, which is framed as disobedience to God – but modern audiences might feel more sympathy.
About the Performance
Although in fifteenth-century English, this play is fairly easy to understand. The group made very few changes to the language, but read the text with Modern English pronounciation.
Among the most remarkable elements of this performance were the animals, which were portrayed by the children of St Giles’ and St Margaret’s churches, who held hand-painted cut-out animals to represent the crowd on the ark. Very helpfully for the audience, the human characters all wore T-shirts with their characters’ names. This group highlighted especially that they felt that the play has a strong contemporary message, given current concerns around extreme weather events, climate refugees, and the denial of climate change, as represented by the good gossips, who ultimately do not escape the flood.
The version of Abraham and Isaac from the York Cycle, performed in Middle English. Specifically, taken from Clifford Davidson’s edition of the York Mystery Cycle, which closely adheres to the text in British Library, MS. Add. 35290.
Summary
To test the faith of his loyal servant Abraham, God sends an angel who commands Abraham to sacrifice his youngest and favourite son, Isaac. Despite his sorrow, Abraham resolves to follow the command. He takes Isaac up a hill under a pretense. Once there, he reveals the truth to his son, binds his hands, and gets ready to sacrifice Isaac, who accepts his fate. At the very last moment, the angel of God re-appears and stops Abraham, commending him for his obedience to God and showing him a sheep to sacrifice instead.
The York version of Abraham and Isaac diverges from other iterations of the story by having a grown-up Isaac, who is ‘thirty year and more sumdele’ – around thirty years old, the same age that Christ was believed to have been when he was crucified. The York Abraham and Isaac therefore brings the play closer to the story of the Passion, anticipating the climax of the cycle of performances. Rather than a helpless child, Abraham is asked to kill a son whom he has raised and with whom he has grown old, a strong young man who could overpower his father if he chose to fight back. This also emphasises Isaac’s own acceptance of his fate and his obedience to both God and his father.
About the Performance
This group chose to have the actor playing the angel double as a servant. As a result, God’s messenger appears to watch over – or perhaps spy on – Abraham and Isaac as they go to the mountain to perform the sacrifice. The group got particularly creative with their costumes, drawing on traditional shepherds’ clothing from a variety of times and places and showing the angel as both a messenger and a symbol. A special highlight was the sheep, which was crocheted by a member of the group and caused a round of applause upon its dramatic revelation by the angel.
Die Eerste Bliscap van Maria (The First Joy of Mary), in Middle Dutch, based on the text preserved in Brussels, KBR, MS.IV 192. From 1348 onwards, the city of Brussels held an annual procession on the Sunday before Pentecost to honour a statue of the Virgin Mary. A century after its inception, an extra element was added to the festivities: on the Grote Markt, a seven-year cycle of Bliscap, or ‘Joy’ plays was peformed. Each year until 1566, one of the seven Joys of Mary was staged and celebrated. Of the original seven plays, only two have survived, each preserved in a manuscript in the Royal Library of Belgium.
Summary
God tells the angel Gabriel that he wants to become human and sends him to travel to Nazareth, where he will find Mary. Gabriel is astonished, but complies. He greets Mary, who is reading, and announces that she, albeit a virgin, will conceive a child who shall be called Jesus and be the Saviour of mankind. Mary, too, is astonished by the concept of the immaculate conception, but Gabriel explains that her cousin, Elizabeth, although old and barren, will also conceive a child.
About the Performance
This was the first time a Dutch play was performed in the Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays, and a wonderful addition to the cycle. A particular highlight was the merry angel Gabriel, whose travels from God to Nazareth were accompanied by a jingling bell.
Location: Churchyard; in front of the library entrance
Performers: Les perles innocentes
Cast
Joseph/Satan – Elisa Pagliaro
Marie/God – Aurélie Blanc
Host 1/Angel 1 – Anaïs Collonge
Host 2/Angel 2 – Antigoni Tasiou
Host 3/Angel 3 – Christina Morgan
Sophron, a Shepherd – Helene Wigginton
Elpison, a Shepherd – Carmen Vigneswaren-Smith
Philetine, a Shepherdess – Marta Folegnani
Cristilla, a Shepherdess – Inès Trouplin
Crew
Director – Elisabeth Dutton
Assistant Director – Aurélie Blanc
Musical Director – Antigoni Tasiou
Design, Props, and Costumes – Maria Papantuono
Producer – Helene Wigginton
With special thanks to Sandy Maillard (Université de Fribourg, Suisse)
Text
Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549), Comédie de la Nativité de Jésus Christ, abridged and performed in the original (early 16th century) French.
Marguerite, wife of King Henry II of Navarre, sister to Francis I, king of France, and ancestress of the Bourbon kings of France, was a patron of humanists and reformers, and herself an important writer: she composed poems, a collection of short stories called the Heptameron, and the intense mystical poem Miroir de l’âme pécheresse. She also wrote a number of plays, including dramatisations of scriptural episodes.
Summary
Joseph, travelling on orders of the Emperor, is seeking accommodation for his heavily pregnant wife Mary. Three ‘Hosts’ turn them away, but they find a stable where Mary can give birth. God sends his angels to celebrate the moment of Christ’s coming to earth: the angels praise Mary and her newborn baby, and Joseph kneels and kisses him. The angels announce the arrival of the Saviour to two shepherds and two shepherdesses, who sing on their way to the stable and offer gifts to the baby of milk, a flute, and firewood. Satan appears and laments the loss of the power he has held over mankind since Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden. The shepherds and shepherdesses tell him that they have met the Saviour; Satan argues that such an important person would not be found in a stable, but their faith remains unshaken. Satan, realising he cannot escape God’s power, calls on evil spirits to advise him ‘how to make shadows eclipse the sun’. God proclaims that the willing sacrifice of his son will overcome Satan, and the angels sing in praise of God.
Like the Comédie des Innocents, which les perles innocentes staged at the Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays 2023, the Comédie de la Nativité is both richly theological, presenting the contrast between divine authority and evil tyranny, and deeply concerned with social justice. Marguerite shows humble people challenging corrupt and bullying powers: ordinary women defied the callous soldiers who murdered their children at a tyrant’s command; humble shepherds outface Satan himself, empowered by their newfound faith in a baby who, to their own initial wonderment, has chosen not a great hall but a humble stable as his first home. Once again, Marguerite gives particular emphasis to female characters, portraying female as well as male shepherds, and emphasising the faith, strength, and wisdom of the Virgin Mary.
About the Performance
Just like their previous performances at the Medieval Mystery Plays, this performance of Les perles innocentes, who travelled from Fribourg just for the Cycle, was once again wonderfully rich and detailed. Performed in perfect, but easily understandable, 16th-century French, their staging included such details as the three Hosts looking like proper concierges, and the angels sang beautifully in between the spoken passages. They also built on the Marguerite de Navarre’s emphasis on strong women by having an all-female cast.
Script Writer and Adapter – Phillip Quinn, with help from Elliott Clark
Text
The Wedding at Cana was included in the York Medieval Mystery Cycle, but the original text has unfortunately mostly been lost. The script used for this performance was an original composition in Modern English (with some Middle English archaisms), written by Phillip Quinn with help from Elliott Clark and based on the one and a half known lines of the York version.
Summary
When the wine runs out at a wedding in the little Galilean town of Cana, Mary asks Jesus to step in. After some hesitation, his ultimate response is to perform the first miracle of his earthly ministry: transforming several large jars of water into fine wine. In doing so, he heralds the coming of the Kingdom of God and foreshadows the consummation of history in the heavenly banquet at which he himself will be the bridegroom.
About the Performance
Despite its foreshadowing of the Crucifixion at the end and the seriousness of Christ’s miraculous power, the Wedding at Cana is an entertaining story, and this performance brought the hilarious elements out in full. Featuring perplexed servants, drunken wedding guests, the happy couple, and a proud-mother-moment for Mary, it elicited many laughs from the audience.
Performers: The Wicked Weights (Lincoln College Players)
Cast
Soldiers – Jess Hind, Molly Milton, Kyra Radley, Alys Young
Christ – Petru Badea
Crew
Directors – Paul Cooley, Molly Milton
Stage and Script Adapter – Paul Cooley, Molly Milton
Costume Designer – Maureen Abrokwa
Props Designer – Tallula Haynes
Music and Marketing – Anja Woosnam
Administration and Assistance – Rebecca Menmuir, Alison Ray
With special thanks to:
Mike Hawkins (Lincoln College Head Gardener) for creating a crown of thorns
Jonny Torrance (Lincoln College Chaplain) for building a cross
Lincoln College JCR for providing funding
Text
The York version of the Crucifixion (Middle English). The group used a manuscript version which was updated to sound more familiar to the modern English-speaking ear but kept as much of the original language and rhyme-scheme as possible to remain close to the original version of the play. Jesus’ speeches were entirely translated into modern English from the original Middle English, adding a sense of gravity that is wholly unique to this particular edition of the play.
Summary
The play depicts the well-known story of Christ’s crucifixion, but with a twist: despite the undeniable seriousness of the situation, the focus is not on Christ and his suffering, but on the four somewhat inept soldiers who are responsible for nailing him to the cross and erecting it. Throughout the play, they bicker with each other over trivial matters whilst Christ endures his cruficixion with solemnity and without objection. The comedic dynamic between the soldiers contrasts heavily with Jesus’ wholly serious speeches and thus creates a tense atmosphere which toes the line between dark comedy and an exploration of the mundane cruelty of the process of the crucifixion. This invites the audience to consider their own inaction during Christ’s passion.
About the Performance
The Wicked Weights were named after a particularly iconic line in the York Crucifixion. They are a group of Lincoln College undergraduates studying English and were supported by various members of college. A particular highlight of this performance was the towering cross, purpose-built for this day by Jonny Torrance, the chaplain at Lincoln College. Other comedic elements were added to the already surprisingly funny play through prop and costume choices – for instance, the soldiers all had giant inflatable hammers, and were reading their Scripts from ‘Cross Flatpack Instructions’.
With special thanks to Fr Andreas Wenzel, the chaplain of St Edmund Hall, for permission to use the vestments.
Text
The Bordesholmer Marienklage, in Low German and Latin. The Bordesholmer Marienklage is a remarkable dramatic dialogue from the late 15th century, written for performance at the Augustinian monastery of Bordesholm in Northern Germany by Provost Johannes Reborch. It consists of sung and chanted text for a cast of five: Christ, John, and the three Marys.
The sung dialogue is taken from the liturgy, including verses from the Stabat Mater, to which are added Middle Low German adaptations of the same, sung to similar melodies. The bulk of the action takes place in chanted Middle Low German rhyming verse. A particular feature, unique amongst German Marian Laments, is the survival of detailed instructions which specify that the work should be performed either on Good Friday or on the preceding Monday, and that it should be ‘neither a play nor amusement, but lamenting and wailing and devout compassion for the glorious Virgin Mary’. It was therefore intended to form a part in the monastery’s liturgical life during Holy week; moreover, these instructions and the ‘personae’ throughout continually insist on the necessity of the audience’s participation, through compassion, in Mary’s suffering. It should be performed either in front of the church choir, or – if the weather is fair – outdoors. The ‘personae’ should wear liturgical vestments and Jesus and John ‘dyademata de papiro’ – paper crowns, and that of Jesus was to be decorated with crosses.
Summary
After Christ’s crucifixion, the three Marys – the Virgin, Mary Magdalen, and Mary, mother of John – as well as St John the Evangelist, lament Christ’s death at the cross. At the end, Christ is taken from the cross and laid on the ground.
About the Performance
Complying with Johannes Reborch’s detailed instructions, the five figures in this performance all wore liturgical vestments from the St Edmund Hall chapel, as well as paper crowns (courtesy of Christmas crackers). Singing their lament in front of the cross from the preceding Crucifixion play, this was a wonderful contrast to the entertaining Crucifixion, emphasising the women’s grief after Jesus’ death.
Latin Sequences. Sequences, complex liturgical songs with a strong poetic and narrative function, are among the most recent, and therefore truly medieval, sung elements of the Christian liturgy, staging particularly in the Easter Night the fundamental miracle of salvation history, Christ overcoming death.
The version used for these sequences was taken from the Handbook of the Provost of the Cistercian convent of Medingen, like Bordesholm located in Northern Germany. It is kept in the Bodleian Library, MS. Lat. liturgy. e. 18.
Summary
Christ descends into Hell, where he brings salvation to the captive souls there, before overcoming death and rising again.
About the Performance
The Choir of St Edmund Hall picked up seamlessly from the previous Lamentation. Accompanying Christ into hell (the crypt underneath the Teddy Hall Library), they sang the Cum rex gloriae, which tells of the host of angels breaking into hell. There, they were greeted with an Advenisti (you have arrived!) by Adam, Eve, and all the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament. Following this sequence, there was a short tea break, marking the significant turning point in the narrative that is Christ’s overcoming of death. After the tea break, the choir opened the third part of the Cycle with the Victimae paschali laudes, in which Mary Magdalen reports her experience of the empty tomb to the apostles.
The York verison of the Resurrection (Middle English). The play fits in well with the liturgical traditions of Easter Sunday. Particularly the Angel’s song and the meeting between the Angel and the three Marys, the so-called Visitatio Sepulchri, is a common theme. It appears that this section of the play reproduces a piece of liturgical drama in use at the time. On the other hand, the representation of Pilate and the High Priests is unusual, drawing on speculations in the apocryphal writings, texts which seek to fill in the imaginative gaps left in the Biblical narrative: what did they really think, and what did they do next?
Summary
The York version of the Resurrection of Christ focuses not on Jesus himself but on three sets of characters who represent three sets of responses to the mystery of Easter Sunday. The play begins and ends with Pilate and the High Priests. To begin with, they are pleased with how the crucifixion went, but the Centurion arrives and tells them of strange occurrences which suggest all is not as it seems. To make sure Jesus stays dead, they set a guard of soldiers to watch the tomb. At the tomb, the soldiers are contrasted with the Marys, who bring oils to anoint the body and are confronted with the empty tomb. An angel arrives and tells them that Jesus is risen and now in Galilee, to which they respond with faith, hope, and love. Meanwhile, Pilate and the High Priests Caiaphas and Annas conspire to cover up the embarrassing and disturbing fact of the empty tomb with a story that the soldiers were overpowered by Jesus’ disciples, who stole the body away. The ironic framing invites the audience to question whose account they believe: is it all ‘fake news’, or is he risen indeed?
The dramatist’s range covers pious devotion, political conspiracy, and the everyday reactions of the soldiers who represent the everyman. Faced with the life-changing reality of the empty tomb, they display the full range of responses from pretending nothing has happened to embracing the truth come what may. The piece is character-driven, often emotive, and finally supremely ironic, drawing the audience in.
About the Performance
The York Resurrection, like the Crucifixion, brings out the human element surrounding the biblical narrative, reflecting the worries of the soldiers at the tomb and the High Priests. The players from St Stephen’s House chose to lean on the already existing comedic elements, turning this into a genuinely hilarious production – complete with gorgeously dressed and very camp High Priests who hand-fed Pilate grapes, and a comforting angel delivering tissues to the weeping Virgin Mary.
Soldiers – Hillary Chua, Ivana Kuric, Alex Marshall
Angels – Elizabeth Crabtree, Marisia Czepiel
Crew
Director – David Wiles
Stage Manager – Elizabeth Crabtree
Musician – Jessica Qiao
Text
The Martyrdom of the Three Holy Virgins, by Hrosvitha of Gandersheim, performed in a mix of Latin and a new translation. Hrosvitha was an aristocratic tenth-century canoness, and her six plays are a bridge between the classical and medieval worlds. She had a ribald sense of humour and a strong feminist agenda – even this play, despite its serious plot, is a comedy with many hilarious elements. Latin was a language that Hrosvitha used in daily life, and this group sought to discover her unique style, midway between poetry and prose.
Summary
The Roman Emperor Diocletian insists that the three virgin sisters Agape, Chionia, and Irena renounce their Christian faith and marry members of his court. When they refuse, he orders them imprisoned. Governor Dulcitius, seeing their beauty, tells his soldiers to lock the sisters in the kitchen so that he can visit them. That night, Dulcitius embraces the pots and pans in the dark kitchen, thinking they are the women. He leaves covered in soot, and the soldiers think he is possessed. Not realising this, Dulcitius goes to the palace, where he is beaten and ridiculed. In retaliation for his embarrassment, he commands that Agape, Chionia, and Irena be stripped in public, but the soldiers are unable to remove the robes from the women’s bodies. Eventually, Emperor Diocletian orders Count Sisinnius to punish the sisters. Sisinnius orders Agape and Chionia burned alive – their spirits leave their bodies, but their bodies and clothes miraculously are not burned. Despite her sisters’ death, Irena continues to refuse to renounce her faith. She manages to escape the soldiers and stands on top of a mountain. The soldiers are unable to reach her there, so Sisinnius orders one of the soldiers to shoot her with an arrow. She dies, but her spirit is lifted to heaven.
About the Performance
This performance was unique among the mystery plays in several respects. It was the only play performed partly in Latin, and superbly so – the interspersing of Latin with English parts made it easy to follow the story, and the Latin elements gave an indication of how Hrosvitha of Gandersheim had written the play. The players consisted of both students and members of the Iffley community, making this a production spanning a large range of ages and backgrounds. The performance also included music played on a violin, which gave it a wonderfully emotional note. The group chose to perform the play in modern dress, in order to suggest that the impulses driving early martyrs have not vanished in the modern world. For the research behind this production, see David Wiles ‘Hrosvitha of Gandersheim: The Performance of her Plays in the Tenth Century’, Theatre History Studies 19 (1999), pp. 133-150. The group’s name, Clamor Validus, means ‘Forceful Shout’, Hrosvitha’s Latinisation of her Saxon name.
A modern English adaptation of the Middle English The Last Judgement, drawing from the Chester, N-Town, and Towneley cycles.
Summary
It’s the end of the world. God and the angels recall the Creation and the history of humankind. Then the final reckoning comes: the angels call up the dead souls from their graves. One by one, they praise God (the good souls) or lament their own wicked deeds (the bad souls). Jesus, as king of heaven, judges them. He praises the good souls, who ascend singing into heaven, and scolds the bad ones, who are dragged to hell by Lucifer and the demons.
About the Performance
Performed in modern English and with plenty of ingenious staging choices – highlights included the guitar-playing archangel Gabriel, the dead souls popping up from the ditch next to the church, the gummy worms sewn to their clothes, and a hungover Lucifer being roused by his demons to get ready for Judgment Day –, this performance was a wonderful end to the day. After the Jesus-related plays, TheLast Judgement picked up some of the characters who had appeared in the Old Testament plays earlier that morning, including God, Lucifer, and the archangels, which demonstrated the cyclical nature of world history as presented in the Bible.
Ashley Castelino reflects on his time as Social Media Officer for Oxford Medieval Studies
After two and half years with OMS, my tenure as Social Media Officer is finally coming to an end and it’s time for me to pass on the passwords. As I look back over this weird and wonderful time, here are my top tips for anyone thinking about taking on the job after me.
1. Be Adaptable
When the platform formerly known as Twitter changed hands in 2022, it sparked a period of great turmoil in the social media landscape, a landscape that is now forever changing. In our efforts to keep up with these changes, we have ended up with accounts on Twitter/X, Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube, each platform coming with different capabilities, priorities, and audiences. Besides these larger structural changes, you’ll want to try to keep up with and respond to rapidly evolving trends as well – some new (very demure, very mindful), some very very old (ancient Babylonian liver divination??).
2. Be Eager to Learn
Oxford Medieval Studies is home to such an incredibly diverse interdisciplinary academic community and, as Social Media Officer, you get a front-row seat to the most fascinating research across literature, history, art, archaeology, theology, music, and much more. From filming and editing a promotional video to finally setting up a TikTok account, this job has also given me the opportunity to learn so many new skills I never thought I’d have. Be warned though: given the extremely diverse demographics of our audience across different platforms, you might find yourself with the extremely challenging task of deciphering teenage slang…
3. Be Creative
Oxford has always been home to some of the world’s greatest medieval manuscripts, art, architecture, and other treasures. It’s no exaggeration to say that it has now also become a leading centre in medieval performance, not least as host of the Oxford Medieval Mystery Cycle. Whether or not you are yourself an artist or a performer, it’s impossible to not be inspired to find new ways to show off everything this city has to offer!
4. Be Collaborative
This is by no means a solitary job – you will be constantly working with academics and artists, colleges, departments, and libraries, medievalists around the world, and even the odd celebrity frog. Academic social media is a vibrant but perhaps overcrowded space, so it’s always worth finding ways to collaborate with other creators across the university. With a view to your future career, you may even make a few extremely useful contacts along the way.
5. Be Persistent
Social media algorithms are complex beasts and it’s very difficult to predict when a post or a video is going to perform well. Sometimes you just have to keep pushing content out into the ether and hope it helps at least one person learn or laugh. Whether it’s compiling extensive summaries of the termly medieval booklet or nudging colleagues to send you material, persistence is always a key part of the job.
6. Be Passionate!
At the end of the day, this job is whatever you choose to make of it, so all that really matters is that you are passionate about medieval studies and want to share that passion with the world. If you are, I would strongly encourage you to consider applying for this role! Have a look at what we’ve done so far – all our social media accounts can be accessed via our Beacons page – and let us know if you have any ideas to help us grow even further. Find out more about applying for the role at https://medieval.ox.ac.uk/2025/04/21/medieval-matters-week-0-update/.
Is this your first term in Oxford or have you been here for years? Are you visiting? Or perhaps planning on applying for our Medieval Studies programme?
Philip Flacke completed an internship in Oxford in Trinity 2024, and he’s prepared an important list of 10 rules for Oxford you’d regret not knowing:
This video was filmed by Henrike Lähnemann in the courtyard of the old university library in Göttingen, next to the statue of the philosopher and scientist and aphorist Lichtenberg and adjacent to the repurposed Paulinerkirche. Fun fact: Göttingen had close links to Oxford as founded by one of the King Georges of England and Hanover!
Once upon a time a scholar stepped onto a ship with a saga in hand; it sounds like the recipe for a bad joke, or a half-forgotten tale scribbled in the margins of manuscript come down from the Middle Ages. But this is how a modern-day saga starts, my saga of teaching Old Norse literature and culture aboard the Tecla, begins.
As a second-year DPhil in Old Norse at the University of Oxford’s Faculty of English, my closest encounter with ships and seafaring prior to this year were the terse accounts of Norse voyages and the not infrequently sparse descriptions of ships in the medieval Icelandic sagas. My imagination could skim across the waters of the North Atlantic with Egill Skallagrímson, Óláfr Tryggvason, or Eiríkr hinn rauði but my body was rooted in Oxford. The Turville-Petre room to be exact.
When the opportunity came to travel as a guest lecturer in Old Norse literature and culture aboard a 1915 traditional Dutch herring drifter, I dropped my pens and grabbed (my metaphorical) sailing boots to join a voyage which would span almost the breadth of the North Atlantic an embark on an adventure through these storied landscapes.
Figure 2 The Tecla, Greenland
Photo Credits: Mary Catherine O’Connor
Over a six-week period from the beginning of September to the middle of October 2024 the Tecla sailed from Nuuk, Greenland to Ullapool, Scotland, a voyage of over two thousand nautical miles. This was not only a journey through space, but also a journey backwards through time. Sailing from the western end of the North Atlantic to its eastern fringes, the Tecla retraced routes once taken by Norse sailors and traders who plied these waters over a thousand years ago as they sailed from Greenland eastwards to Iceland and on to Norway or south to Scotland.
The first region the Tecla sailed through, Greenland, was one of the last places to be settled by the Norse. The Vinland sagas tell how Greenland was first discovered and settled by Eiríkr hinn rauði and his followers, but they also recount the first Norse voyages to North America under Eiríkr’s son Leifr and his daughter Freydís. Over the course of the Tecla’s voyage, the sagas, the works of Arí inn fróði, and the Icelandic annals were just some of my literary companions as I lectured on topics ranging from how and why the Viking Age began, the history of the Greenlandic settlements and later on, the Icelandic settlements as we approached Iceland, how the Norse built their houses and farmed, the myths, Christianisation, the laws, how society was organised, weapons, and ships.
The Greenlandic settlements are also the only Norse settlements which did not survive into the modern era and so much of the discussion onboard during this part of the voyage centred on the environmental and population factors which may have caused the decline of these communities. Witnessing this landscape from the perspective of sailing through it gave me a sense of its hostility to human inhabitation and the fragility of medieval and modern settlements along its coasts.
During this leg of the sailing trip, I had two rare experiences of teaching. The first of these came at the end of the first week of travelling. After seven days of brutal winds, fog, and cold rains, the weather finally cleared enough to move out from the inshore passages and set the sails. The sun blazed from clear skies and the ice cap sat almost at the water’s edge amidst grey gravel banks deposited by the receding glaciers on the coastline while the wind whistled through the stay sail and mizzen sail. The Tecla was skimming the water’s surface and finally, I understood the joy of sailing.
For this day’s lecture, I decided on a change of scenery. I typically gave lectures in the salon where the guests and I could shelter from the weather and I had a the use of a projector. However, I realised that few things beat being outside on a sailing boat when the weather is on your side. And what is more, even fewer things beat sitting on a traditional sailing ship with a saga in hand talking about Norse history while the Greenlandic coast slides by.
Figure 3 Me, sailing and teaching outside aboard Tecla as sail down the Greenlandic coast
Photo Credits: Jorrit Harrsema
The second, and very much surreal, teaching experience during the Greenlandic leg came when the Tecla anchored off Hérjólfsnes and everybody on board went ashore. Hérjólfsnes is a very small headland jutting out into the waters at the mouth of a fjord system close to Greenland’s southern tip. The remains of a longhouse built around a thousand years alongside some smaller buildings including the remains of a chapel built later litter the bare headland. According to the sagas, Hérjólfr Barðarson was amongst the first settlers to Greenland and Hérjólfsnes has been identified as the location of his farm. Unlike the more touristic and developed Eiriksfjorðr, Hérjólfsnes stands bare of tourist trails, modern glass heritage centres, and queues of tourists. The headland is extremely beautiful, but also well positioned along sailing routes, and it is easy to see why it was chosen for a farm site. Located at the edge of a fjord, ships could stop by bringing goods and news as they travelled north to the Western Settlement or could refuel before making the crossing to Iceland or perhaps Norway.
The farm has been left more or less untouched for a thousand years. It is exposed to the raw elements of the weather with nothing but a little sign and an archaeological site plan to indicate its importance. Standing at the threshold of the longhouse I could finally bring to life how longhouses were built how people may have lived and farm in a place like Hérjólfsnes. To be able to stand in such an important archaeological site is a rare experience of history and it is only by stepping into places life Hérjolfsnes that I truly gained a sense of how special these places are.
Figure 4 Herjólfsnes, Greenland
Photo Credits: Willemijn Koenen
During the second leg of the voyage and with a new group of passengers, I turned the focus of my lectures to the Norse settlements on the other side of the Atlantic: Faroes, Shetland, Orkneys, and Hebrides. These islands too are their share of stories and so my attention was turned to the worlds of Færeyinga saga, Orkneyinga saga, and the many references to travellers from these islands in the Icelandic Family sagas. With the exception of Faroes, these islands are places with long histories of settlement before the arrival of the Norse. The pattern of Norse settlement here therefore varies immensely from the history of the farmsteads in Greenland and Faroes which were unoccupied before the Norse made their homes there. The islands off the coast of Scotland have been inhabited for at least 4500 years and the traces of these earlier communities are scattered across the landscape. Stone circles, howes, brochs, wheelhouses, and barrows create a landscape imprinted with human touches reaching down through history. In many places, the Norse built their houses on top of these earlier sites and so these places offer a window into how the Norse negotiated and co-existed with the people who came before.
Figure 5 Kallur Lighthouse, Kalsoy, Faroes
Photo Credits: Gijs Sluik
The first stop after Iceland was Faroes. This small group of islands, standing out in the Atlantic about halfway between Norway and Iceland, was home to Norse communities from about 800 AD. On the island of Straumoy I moved my lecture theatre once again into the open air and took the group to Kvivík, an excavated longhouse with an adjacent cow-byre. This was once a high-status settlement dated to 1000 AD and gives a sense of what an important farm in Faroes might have looked like.
Figure 6 Kvívik, Streymoy, Greenland
Photo Credits: Mary Catherine O’Connor
A few days later, we arrived in Shetland into Burrafirth on Unst. In the neighbouring bay, Haroldswick, there is a reconstruction of a longhouse, and a longship modelled on the Skidbladner. Ships were the lynchpin of Norse expansion and the Viking Age and it was here that I had the perfect teaching materials to show Norse technological innovations in shipping and to explain why these ships were so successful for raiding and travel. Although they are a far remove from modern ships and experiences of travel like on the Tecla, the reconstructed ship on Unst serves to highlights the dangers and risks of this kind of travel but also the successes of Norse ship-building.
On Mainland, Shetland I took the group to Jarlshof. Jarlshof was first inhabited about 2500 years ago when the first broch was built there. Late on, Pictish wheelhouses were built on top of the earlier brochs and then even later, the Norse built longhouses at the same site. The site offers multiple layers of time through its excavated sections and illustrates the different ways people thought about architecture and living in the same place in the landscape. Bringing the group to Jarlshof was important in highlighting the way in which the Norse settlers took over earlier sites of importance in communities but also to show how they imprinted their culture and power structures onto the lands they settled.
Figure 7 Longhouse, Haroldswick, Unst, Shetland
Photo Credits: Mary Catherine O’Connor
St Magnus, an earl of Orkney, was killed by his kinsmen in a feud, and later canonised as a saint. His cult quickly spread across Orkneys and Shetland during the medieval period and the traces of his importance to people’s lives are reflected in the numerous churches dedicated to Magnus throughout these isles. In Orkney, on the isle of Egilsay, Magnus was betrayed and murdered by his cousin Hakon Paulsson and the island became a local pilgrimage site attracting visitors for centuries. It was to Egilsay that we too made a journey to the island from where the Tecla was docked on Rousay. Switching from my previous classrooms of longhouses and ships, the remains of St Magnus’ church became my latest classroom. Amidst the grey walls of the holy site where people once learned about the word of God, I taught about the history of Christianity in the Orkneys and the life of St Magnus as it is found in Orkneyinga saga.
Figure 8 St Magnus Church, Egilsay, Orkney
Photo Credits: Mary Catherine O’Connor
The Hebrides were the last group of isles to pass through before the Tecla arrived at her final port in Ullapool. By the time the Norse arrived in the Hebrides these islands were heavily Gaelicised by the Irish kingdom of Dal Ríada. The Norse anchored fleets in the Hebrides for raids south into the Irish Sea and control of the islands was frequently contested by the Norse of Dublin and Man and the Norse in the Orkneys. One of the most important sources of evidence for Norse occupation in Scotland are the placenames. Shetland and Orkneys are almost entirely dominated by Scandinavian place-names whereas the Hebrides have a wide mixture of Gaelic and Norse place-names. Travelling through these islands, I delved into the theories of why the Norse did not culturally dominate the Hebrides as they did elsewhere in the Scottish isles and explained some of the theories about the early patterns of Norse raiding and occupation in this area.
Standing aboard the Tecla, a traditional sailing ship, with a saga in hand in the North Atlantic is a rare experience of history and of seeing the world the Norse explored and inhabited a thousand years ago. As an Old Norse DPhil student, to teach Norse history and to share a little of my passion as we sailed through the North Atlantic was an even rarer gift and perhaps a stranger saga of modern times that is only possible thanks to Tecla, her crew, and her captain. Sailing while teaching with sagas was a new experience for me working in public engagement but it is something that I have found great joy in and look forward to finding more ways to bring my work and the wonders of the medieval Icelandic sagas to audiences beyond academia.
Main photo:The Tecla, Prince Christian Sund, Greenland. Photo Credits: Mary Catherine O’Connor
On Friday 8th and Saturday 9th November, the online workshop Epiros: The Other Western Rome was held, platforming twenty-one papers from sixteen universities. As the second phase of a new international project, the workshop investigated the Byzantine successor-state of Epiros (1204–1444). Formed from the Fourth Crusade, this Balkan state existed as an alternative narrative and third Byzantine-Roman context, encompassing a vast variety of peoples of the former empire.
Originally envisioned as a one-day workshop, the programme was expanded to two days to accommodate so many excellent submissions. As a result, we were able to offer panels on, The ‘Post-Komnenian System’, ‘Epiros and Bulgaria’, ‘Epiros and its other Neighbours’, ‘Network Analysis,’ ‘Hybrid Material Culture,’ and more. The workshop’s convenors are hugely grateful for the participation of speakers and attendees, as well as the support of both The Oxford Centre Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) and the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research (OCBR).
An edited volume of papers is planned, and a selection of images below.
By Caroline Croasdaile in conversation with Mickey Alice Kwapis,Contemporary Artist and Jewellerof Meaningful Material
Medieval Material
A small piece of stone, a snippet of fabric, a tiny lock of hair. All of these materials would be just as at home within a hollow late medieval pendant, as in a sentimental locket made weeks ago. What is it about these things, detritus in any other context, that makes them more precious than their gold or jewelled containers? Why have people throughout time collected and enclosed these materials as special, religious, magical, or memorial in containers that they wear close to their bodies?
These are some of the questions that are explored in my D.Phil. dissertation entitled, Wearable Containers of Meaningful Things: English Late Medieval and Early Modern Jewellery to Enclose, Conceal, and Enshrine. It is in this project that I examine artefacts like pendants and rings, and the changes this unique type of object undergoes, particularly in light of the Reformation. While medieval examples of these objects have widely been labelled ‘reliquaries’, the startling variety of their contents includes coins, hair, plant matter, textile, stone, or textual amulets. The diversity of their contents has opened the door for a wider consideration of what exactly is a ‘relic’, and what ‘relic-making’ or memory-making practices medieval people engaged in. Not everyone had access to the body parts or materials of saints in the late medieval period, which were often closely guarded in the treasuries of churches. However, medieval people could draw on the blessings of priests, tokens obtained through pilgrimage, or the ritual of prayer to create or enhance special materials to be worn in aid of devotion or to protect the body. During my research, I was struck by the stark similarities that present-day sentimental jewellery holds with these medieval artefacts. While their contexts of belief may be different, many of the types of materials contained are the same, and are similarly capable of capturing big ideas, world-views, and emotions, within tiny interior spaces.
Pendant containing a drop of blood caught on a tiny piece of tissue paper. By Mickey Alice Kwapis. Photo courtesy of Mickey Alice Kwapis.
The Hockley Pendant, British Museum: 2012,8046.1, English, c.1500-1550, gold, 3x25mm. Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS): ESS-2C4836. The engravings on this hollow pendant depict devotion to the bleeding wounds of Christ. Its edges are inscribed with the names of the three magi, which were recited or used in magical charms. This pendant was found to contain unprocessed flax stem pieces. It was recovered near Hockley, Essex. Rights Holder: The British Museum https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.
Mickey Alice Kwapis: Contemporary Material
Mickey Alice Kwapis is an American artist living in Chicago who specialises in the creation of jewellery, stained glass, taxidermy, and cyanotypes. Her work explores aspects of death, grief, and the natural world. As part of her practice she makes tiny precious lockets, which can be used to contain almost any kind of meaningful material for her clients, who send or provide her with these fragments from their lives. She has kindly agreed to answer some questions I have posed to her in Q&A format regarding her locket pendants. While we cannot query the original makers of medieval objects, her thoughts on her own work provide a useful point of entry for thinking about the enduring and very human act of curating meaningful material, and the desire to carry and wear these things on the body within objects of jewellery.
Q&A:
What first inspired you to begin making pendants that serve as containers for meaningfulmaterial(s)?
When I was 22 my Aunt Beth passed away unexpectedly. I had already been making jewellery using glass vessels containing things like squirrel teeth, mouse tails, and dandelion seeds so as the funeral services were wrapping up it just felt natural to grab a few different flowers to dry for eventual use in my work. I ended up making a locket for each of the women in our family so they could have something to hold onto.
Are you interested in, or have you looked to historical examples for inspiration for making this kind of object? If so, do you have a favourite historical piece, period, or influence?
I really enjoy looking at Edwardian and Victorian-era mourning jewellery, mostly containing hair, on eBay. They aren’t hugely historically significant pieces on their own, but each one was handcrafted to celebrate someone’s love, life, or both and I think that’s incredibly beautiful. I grew up Catholic so I’m fascinated by stationary and wearable reliquaries. As a kid I loved learning about the Ancient Egyptians’ mourning and burial rituals including canopic jars. The influence of Egyptian art on the Victorians especially, and now the revival of the Victorian mourning tradition in modern times, follow a thread through human history of wanting to remember those we have lost through preserving them in some tangible way.
What are some of the materials, common or unusual, that people have sent you to be included in pendants?
Most commonly I receive orders for memorial jewellery made with cremated remains, pet hair, and human hair — after all, they’re literally parts of our loved ones so they are obvious choices when it comes to honouring their lives. Some of the less traditional materials I have gotten to use in mourning lockets include broken Fiestaware, a drop of blood on tissue, dyed eggshells from Easter eggs, the bristles of a paintbrush, pottery glaze powder, and a plethora of other incredible materials truly unique to those being remembered. I have helped women celebrate their friendship with a matching set of lockets with sugar from their favourite diner, made pieces for brides containing pieces of their bouquets and lost sequins from their dresses, and honoured hardships with soil reliquaries from sold family homes and pieces of brick from a house fire. Getting to make each one is an honour beyond words.
What are the key steps that go into crafting these lockets, and what are some challenges that this medium presents? What skills as an artist do you draw on?
The hardware for each locket is made using the lost wax casting process and once finished, the materials are secured beneath precision-fit watch crystals that I had specially manufactured to fit my lockets. I took my first metalsmithing class at 14 and have just been building on that skill set ever since so it feels like second nature at this point. When it comes to handling each client’s materials, some require special PPE — especially powdered materials like pigments.
Do you have a memorable or surprising background story or narrative that someone has shared with you about why they have chosen a certain material for inclusion in a locket?
I love the stories behind every single request I get, because the stories are just as personal as the materials being used. Many of them are bittersweet so I’ll share one that’s not: I received an order for a locket containing sand, for an Egyptologist who had recently returned from an archaeological dig. She didn’t bring the sand home on purpose (as it’s highly frowned upon to take materials from dig sites) but it’s impossible to live in a tent in the desert for weeks at a time and not track at least a little bit of sand everywhere you go. Once she was back home in the US, she found sand inside the lining of her suitcase while unpacking and decided to send it my way.
Have you made lockets for your personal use and ownership, and are you comfortable sharing what these are and what they mean to you?
The first ones I made were in memory of my Aunt Beth, with flowers from her funeral. After my Great-Grandma Mickey passed in 2020 I made myself a locket containing soil and sand from three different places on Belle Isle, an island park in Detroit where we spent lots of time in our respective formative years as well as time together. Not too long after, I dropped a mug that had belonged to my Uncle John, who died by suicide but is still listed as a missing person — there was no funeral, no body to say goodbye to. I had the mug repaired using traditional kintsugi practices but the artist did not need the smallest shards of ceramic that broke off and I couldn’t bear to throw them away so I kept them and made a locket with that. I also have lockets containing a fossil my mom found on the beach, and one with a tiny gummy bear that reminds me of my dad, fishing flies and raw sapphires from a trip to Montana I took with a friend. My beloved cat Phil just passed away and I plan to make a locket with his soft orange fur under one lens and his white fur under the other. When you see me in public, I make jingling noises from my jewellery. I’m basically a walking advertisement for my work at this point.
The lockets that you produce are visually accessible, but intended to remain sealed. This is in contrast to the other forms of lockets both contemporary and historical. What led to this choice?
Many modern jewellery makers utilize epoxy resin to contain materials like hair or ash, but it is a relatively new technology. This material can begin to yellow quite quickly and it also permanently alters the sentimental material, making it unrecoverable. My lockets, though sealed closed, function as containers for the free-moving materials inside and in theory could be smashed or cut open to recover the materials should the owner ever wish to do something else with them.
Ash and tooth in sterling silver. By Mickey Alice Kwapis. Photo Courtesy of Mickey Alice Kwapis
How do you understand the role of memory and its connection to material in your work?
Our memories of the past are a big part of what informs who we become in the present day, and the people or things we have lost or experienced along the way are also part of us. Having a piece of memorial jewelry that can be worn day-to-day helps remove our lost memories from the abstract and brings them into the present in a tangible form.
Hundreds of years from now if an archaeologist, museum, or curious collector were to find one of your lockets what is something you would want to tell them about your work to help them understand it?
Humans across millennia have collected and saved sentimental things, and I would hope that centuries or millennia from now we are not so disconnected from each other and ourselves that we can’t recognize the merit of a sentimental object. I think if anyone knew the back story of any single one of my pieces, from the history of the material itself to its meaning and impact on the person who commissioned it, the archaeologist would have the same feeling that I get making my work and looking at it now. After all, memory is something that ties all of us together.
Agnus Dei Pendant, English, c.1400-1540, gilt silver, PAS: GLO-43B24A. This pendant was found to contain, ‘fragments of a woven fabric’ and ‘thick layers of fine white strands that are most likely hair’. There is evidence for a broken-off attachment loop on the upper edge. Recovered in Gloucestershire. Rights Holder: Bristol City Council, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.
Links to the website and work of Mickey Alice Kwapis:
Croasdaile, Caroline, 2025, Wearable Containers of Meaningful Things: English Late Medieval and Early Modern Jewellery to Enclose, Conceal, and Enshrine, Oxford: University of Oxford (D.Phil. Thesis, forthcoming)
Further Reading:
Cherry, John, 1994, The Middleham Jewel and Ring, York: Yorkshire Museum.
Husband, Timothy B., 1992, ‘The Winteringham Tau Cross and Ignis Sacer’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Journal, vol. 27, pp. 19-35.
Jones, Peter Murray and Lea T. Olsan, 2000, ‘Middleham Jewel: Ritual, Power, and Devotion’, Viator, vol. 31, pp. 249-290.
Medieval Studies at Oxford is a venerable and traditional sort of enterprise. We’re used to working with the Bodleian’s centuries-old manuscripts and its worthy, weighty tomes. But how to communicate our expertise in our areas of interest to a wider audience – and, indeed, to each other?
We on the OMS steering group would like to encourage all of you within our community to consider writing for us here on our blog. The OMS website exists to help us learn about the exciting research going on all around the collegiate University, as well as to bridge the gap between scholarship and public engagement.
Blogposts offer a unique platform to distil complex concepts into accessible, attention-grabbing pieces. They can showcase ongoing research, spark discussions, and even attract potential collaborators (or students) to the field. Their immediacy allows us to reach busy colleagues, to break down our proverbial ivory tower, and to respond swiftly to current events (for instance, by drawing parallels between medieval history and contemporary issues).
Writing for OMS can also be a springboard to wider engagement or to pitches to external websites and media publications such as The Conversation.
Please get in touch to pitch your research and your ideas so that we can grow interest in our discipline and strengthen the links within it. The rest of this post sets out some ‘dos and don’ts’ for blog-posting – and, indeed, other public writing. We hope you will find them useful as you articulate your passion for all things medieval. It would be our pleasure to put that passion into print.
Pitching:
The pitch for any piece of public writing needs to be brief and arresting. It should grab the editor’s attention. They need to see the point, and the relevance, immediately. Find the hook. Do you want to write about this subject because it is timeless or topical? Has something happened in the world that your medieval expertise can speak to? Why is your work fascinating for educated readers, or important for the advancement of knowledge or debate as a whole?
200 words is always plenty.
Writing:
Blogposts need to be written differently from academic prose. They can be far less formal (colloquialisms and first-person speech allowed). They need a simpler readable style. Short sentences are your friend – but so too are more nuanced, complex ones, interspersed amongst them. Avoid excessive jargon and technical terms. However, don’t underestimate you readers either (many of them will be studying, or have studied, at Oxford!). Signal aims and objectives clearly in the introduction. Give concrete examples to illustrate your points. Write a conclusion with a twist.
Titles and subheadings:
Breaking up your text is always hugely helpful to readers, even in a post as short as 800 words. We all have such short attention spans these days. Titles and subheadings need to be intriguing, to draw a potential reader in. But they also need to be informative: where is this piece going? Rhetorical questions can be useful, so long as they are not overdone. A good editor will help you bring out substance even as you polish the style.
Images:
A picture can speak a thousand words. Make sure you include at least a feature image for your post’s header. However, two or three within the blogpost’s body will almost always make it better. Remember to have reproduction permissions for images that have copyright, and to caption and credit all images accurately.
Word Count:
Oxford Medieval Studies is interested in posts between 800 and 1,500 words in length. Any shorter and you will have hardly had space to develop your thesis. Any longer and you are halfway towards that elusive academic article. As with those famed five-minute ‘elevator pitches’, less can be more when you’re trying to get yourself across.
Image: Late 15th-century miniature of the author and translator Jean Miélot (d. 1472), Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Explanation of the result of the inspection of a sheep liver in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall. Dr Selena Wisnom (Leicester) researches ancient Mesopotamian divination, and asks the question: Will Donald Trump win the 2024 US election?
You can watch the inspection in this video:
Inspection of the sheep’s liver in the kitchen of The Queen’s College, Oxford
Explanation of the results in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall, Oxford
and you can watch the alternative Babylonian reading in this video:
Alternative reading of the result
Disclaimer: the extispicy is for entertainment and research purposes only!
Dr Wisnom held a Junior Research Fellowship in Manuscripts and Text Cultures at The Queen’s College, Oxford from 2016-2020 and is currently Lecturer in the Heritage of the Middle East at the University of Leicester.
The long wait is over! We are extremely excited to finally present a complete video recording of the Old Norse eddic poem Vǫluspá (The Seeress’s Prophecy) by Clare Mulley:
This was the premiere performance of Vǫluspá by Clare Mulley, which took place at The Oxford Story Museum, in honour of the third Old Norse Poetry and Performance Conference (Oxford, June 2023). This was later followed by a repeat performance at The Aarhus Old Norse Mythology Conference (November 2023), and both performances have since aided and inspired other exciting projects by scholars and artists alike. This is just the beginning of a larger exciting project, so keep your eyes peeled for more!
Professor Terry Gunnell of the University of Iceland wrote of this performance, “Clare Mulley’s Vǫluspá is a multi-dimensional work of art that steps off the page to touch the lives of its twenty-first century audiences. Based around a new, creative, free translation of the original Old Nordic work, and effectively given additional depth by the atmospheric musical of Kjell Bråten, Mulley’s powerful presentation returns the poem to its original conception as a piece of essentially oral poetry, something designed to perform in both space and time. Like the original, which it builds on while retaining creative freedom, the translation is couched in striking musical, alliterative language and rhythm, evoking stark images of the original creation and eventual destruction of the world. Firmly touching the ancestral past of the ancient work, this is a presentation that simultaneously effectively draws on the present. It is something that needs to be experienced.”
The performance features soundscapes, backing vocals, accompaniment and sound recordings by musician Kjell Braaten.
It was filmed by Natascha Domeisen and edited by Ashley Castelino, with the support of Oxford Medieval Studies (OMS) and The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH).
