Where: Wolfson College Buttery When: Friday, April 26 2024 at 1.15.
David Wiles (Emeritus Professor of Drama, University of Exeter) is performing the pseudo-Senecan Roman history play Octavia in the exuberant rhetorical language of the 1561 translation by Thomas Nuce with a group of players from Iffley and the University of Oxford.
Octavia, daughter of Claudius, wife of Nero – Imogen Lewis
Agrippina, wife and killer of Claudius, now dead – Laurence Nagy
Nero, son of Agrippina, now Emperor, killed his mother – Abigail Pole
Poppaea, mistress of Nero – Priya Toberman
Octavia’s nurse – Laura Laubeova
Seneca – Alex Marshall
Prefect – Andrew Stilborn
Messenger– Ivana Kuric
Chorus of Roman citizens – members of the company
Violin – Jessica Qiao
Director – David Wiles
Production sponsored by the Ancient World Research Cluster, Wolfson College Oxford.
Performance filmed by Henrike Lähnemann at Iffley Church Hall on April 21st.
The tragedy of Octavia is a unique example of the Roman history play, and survives because it was bound up with the tragedies of Seneca. The chorus, unlike those of Seneca, is engaged in the action as it rises up in rebellion against Nero. We are performing the play in the student translation of c.1561. Elizabeth had recently come to the throne, and in a polarised world the performance of religious plays seemed increasingly problematic. It was logical to turn to the classics, but the question arose, how to render Seneca in an equivalent English. It was not a matter of searching out what the words meant, but rather of forging a language with an equivalent rhetorical force, which in the Erasmus age meant a more copious language. The translator, Thomas Nuce, had an ear for performance, and did not attempt to find any pedantic metrical equivalence for the Latin. We have stripped the text down to a half-hour version, and have relished playing with the rhythms, rhymes and alliteration. Parsing the Latinate grammar was often a challenge.
The story was scarcely a safe choice in 1561. It tells how Nero cast off his first wife, Octavia, whom he had married for domestic reasons, and contracted a love match. Henry VIII had likewise terminated a dynastic marriage, to the great displeasure of his people, and the fruit of that love match had just come to the throne.
We are a mixed cast of students and community players, and on four occasions have worked on mediaeval plays for the festival at St Edmund Hall. The present production was put together for the annual conference of the Classical Association in Warwick on 24 March. If you are interested in participating in a production at St Edmund Hall in 2025, please contact David Wiles d.wiles@exeter.ac.uk.
The 2024 Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference, hosted by the Maison Française d’Oxford, took place this past Monday and Tuesday, the 8th and 9th of April.
Since 2005, the OMGC has been an annual forum for graduate scholars from Oxford and beyond to share their research. The two-day conference brought together rising medievalists from Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Canada, France, Switzerland, and the UK and featured panels on divine affectivity, scribes and songs, visual signs, objects and collections, palaeography, and codicology.
Professor Henrike Lähnemann (Oxford) heralded the start of the conference on Monday morning with fanfare from the Oxford Medieval Studies trumpet – an appropriate opening to the conference, which was themed around ‘signs and scripts.’ United by the semiotic theme, participants found unexpected connections between a diverse set of presentations.
Professor Henrike Lähnemann playing her OMS trumpet in the Maison Française d’Oxford auditorium.
Professor Sophie Page (UCL) delivered her keynote presentation “Magic Signs and Censored Scripts in Medieval Europe,” closing the first day of papers. Her keynote delved into the syncretic texts of medieval magic, the efficacy of which required proper ritual performance – careful attention to the details of diagrams, auspicious star and cosmological signs, and specific material components.
Magic circle from the De secretis spirituum planetis in which the practitioner stands to summon planetary angels. Collection of alchemical, technical, medical, magic, and divinatory tracts (Miscellanae Alchemica XII), late 15th century. Wellcome Collection, MS 517, f. 234v.
Professor Page’s keynote dovetailed with Ellen Hausner’s (Oxford) paper on the alchemical images and text of the Ripley Scroll, which communicate a sense of time and space as core alchemical concepts trickle down from divine creation to the corporeal world. Signs and symbols are concentrations of meaning. Even small signifiers (although the scroll is over 2.6 meters long!) can signify immense, cosmological ideas.
As exemplified by Marlene Schilling’s (Oxford) paper on devotion to personified liturgical days in the prayer books of northern German convents, signs and scripts also have the power to lend physicality, visuality, and agency to concepts. Signs and scripts are means of power and community creation and consolidation. Or as Wilhelm Lungar (Stockholm) put it in his paper ‘Communicating Identity on Scandinavian Monastic Seals in the Middle Ages,’ objects like seals, as both historically situated artefacts and texts, mediate representation, identity, and authority.
From left to right: presentations by Elena Lichmanova (Oxford), Wilhelm Lungar (Stockholm), and Corinne Clark (Geneva).
The challenge of interpretation and an embrace of plural perspectives was a through-line for the conference, sparking rich, generative conversation. In her paper, ‘Mirror Writing and the Art of Self Reflection,’ Elena Lichmanova (Oxford) asked why and how offensive phrases like tu es asin[us] (‘you are an ass’) could be included in the thirteenth-century Rutland Psalter and surveyed the ways artists created nuances of meaning by manipulating the direction of script. Corinne Clark’s (Geneva) presentation on the life of St. Margaret considered the symbolism and mixed hagiographic reception of the saint’s battle with a dragon in which she is consumed by the demonic beast, erupting from its abdomen. Both topics inspired collaborative thinking among participants and emphasized the importance of analytical parallax to deepen our understanding of images and texts controversial and cryptic even to contemporaries.
As Megan Gorsalitz (Queen’s University, Kingston) made clear in her presentation on Old English riddles, mindless consumption steals meaning and risks careless, uncritical perpetuation. Signs and scripts require careful reflection of the manifold voices and identities they represent as well as those they conceal.
Detail of illuminated moth in decorated border. Book of Hours of King Charles VIII, 15th century. Utopia, armarium codicum bibliophilorum, Cod. 111, f. 96r.
A moth ate words. It seemed to me / a strange occasion, when I inquired about that wonder, / that the worm swallowed the riddle of certain men, / a thief in the darkness, the glorious pronouncement / and its strong foundation. The stealing guest was not / one whit the wiser, for all those words he swallowed.
Exeter Book Riddle 47
Charlotte Wood (Oxford), Marc Lawson (Trinity College Dublin), and Ilari Aalto (Turku) all grappled with the difficulties of studying oft-overlooked material culture. For Wood, whose paper focused on comb placement in Anglo-Saxon cremations, the significance of deliberately broken comb-ends in Anglo-Saxon burial urns remains elusive but exciting for their potential to tell us more about funerary practices. In his paper on brickmakers’ marks in late medieval Finland, Aalto suggested explanations for marks found in churches, which may simultaneously represent saints as an allusion to brickmakers’ names and act as a remembrance of the artisan embedded in the church. Drawing upon visual culture, written references, and extant examples of early Irish book satchels, Lawson demonstrated the prevalence of book satchels and suggested a more complex understanding of manuscript binding and use in early medieval Ireland.
The conference also featured a comprehensive selection of case studies exploring signs of manuscript creation, composition, authorship, revision, genre, and punctuation. Peter Fraundorfer’s (Trinity College Dublin) paper on a sammelband produced for Reichenau Abbey considered what the text’s language and contents can tell us about its author and intended readership, while Sebastian Dows-Miller (Oxford) took a statistical approach to the relationship between composition and authorship, identifying changes in scribal hand through changes in abbreviation frequency. In her presentation on Carthusian marginalia in The Book of Margery Kempe, Lucy Dallas (East Anglia) discussed the reception and reworking of the text for the monks and Elliot Vale’s paper on CCCC MS 201 problematized modern translations of vernacular works in which poetry and prose blend in structural and punctuation.
Margaret of Antioch emerging from the defeated dragon with the sign of the cross. Book of Hours, 15th century. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Rawl. liturg. e. 12, fol. 149v.
Papers by Jemima Bennett (Kent and Bodleian Libraries), Rhiannon Warren (Cambridge), Max Hello (Paris 1 – HiCSA), and Thomas Phillips (Bristol) all focused on the collection, manipulation, recycle, reconstruction, and aesthetics of manuscripts. Bennett’s work on fifteenth-century Oxford bookbinding continued the theme of plural interpretations as she discussed patterns and possible reasoning behind the recycle of manuscript fragments by collectors. Similarly, Phillips focused on recovering lost script from fragments of the Anglo-Saxon Office of St. Alban. Warren and Hello also touched on signs of manuscript manipulation, reuse, and changing aesthetic preferences in their respective presentations on Árni Magnússon’s Icelandic manuscript collection and ornamentation in Merovingian book writing. Complementing the presentations on material culture, the palaeography and codicology sessions reinforced the materiality of manuscripts and fluidity of text.
From left to right: presentations by Max Hello (Paris 1 – HiCSA), Jemima Bennett (Kent and Bodleian Libraries), and Sebastian Dows-Miller (Oxford).
Presentations aside, the congenial atmosphere and enthusiasm of the participants made for constructive knowledge exchange and an enjoyable two days of conversation. From the 2024 OMGC committee, thank you to all who attended. The committee is also excited to announce that the theme for the 2025 Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference will be Magic, Rituals, and Ceremonies! Until then, keep an eye on the OMGC blog for posts by this year’s presenters.
The 2024 OMGC committee (Katherine Beard, Ashley Castelino, Emma-Catherine Wilson, Kate McKee, Ryan Mealiffe, Mary O’Connor, and Eugenia Vorobeva) thank our sponsors for making this year’s conference possible.
The 2024 Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference was presented in association with the Maison Française d’ Oxford, the Oxford Festival of the Arts, the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature (Medium Ævum), the Oxford Faculty of Music, the Oxford Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Oxford Medieval Studies (OMS), and The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH).
Header Image: The White Hart, pub sign (colorized), ca. 1750. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, W.69:2-1938. Photoshopped onto background of Merton Street, Oxford.
Organisers: Antonia Anstatt (University of Oxford, email) and Edmund van der Molen (University of Nottingham, email)
This conference is generously supported by the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature, the Hagiography Society, the Past & Present Society, and the History Faculty, University of Oxford. In association with Oxford Medieval Studies, it is sponsored by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH).
9 CONFERENCE START, REGISTRATION 9.15am WELCOME 9.30-11 PANEL 1: TRANSGRESSING GENDER Marita von Weissenberg (Xavier University, Cincinnati): Husband-saints and Secular Masculinity as a Tool for Religious Pursuit Caitlín Kane (University of Oxford): Womanly Bridegroom, Manly Bride: Gender Transgression in the Visions of Saint Catherine of Siena Maria Pieschacon-Raffael (Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich): La Pucelle: The Significance of Gender in the (After-)Life of Joan of Arc 11.30-13 PANEL 2: (TRANS)CENDING GENDER Verity Bruce (University of Exeter): Death Becomes They/Them? Christina Mirabilis’ Post-Death Gender State Genevieve Caulfield (University College London): Desire Has No Gender: Styles of Seeing in Franciscan Hagiography Davide Tramarin (University of Padua): Transcending Gender in Mystical Devotion: Images of Christ and St John the Apostle in Late Medieval Germany 14-15.30 Keynote Lecture: Who’s Afraid of Trans and Genderqueer Saints? Alicia Spencer-Hall (University College London) 16-17.30 PANEL 3: QUEERING SAINTHOOD Michael Eber (Georg-August-University Göttingen): Sancta virgo / sicut pater: Homosociality and Gender Transgression in the Latin Lives of St Marina/us Shay Pertler (Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg): Oblita sit sexum: Life and Death of Joseph of Schönau Roan Runge (University of Cambridge): Fúair comartha bandachta ann ([He] Found the Sign of Womanhood There): The Construction of Gender in the Medieval Irish ‘Story of the Abbot of Drimnagh’
SATURDAY 6TH APRIL
9.30-11 PANEL 4: WRITING GENDER Isabel Kimpel (Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich): Famula Christi et Mulier fortis: The Writings of Caesarius of Heisterbach on Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia Georgie Crespi (University of Reading): ‘We’re All Born Naked, and the Rest is Drag’: The Concept of Drag in ‘Christina of Markyate’ and ‘Revelations of Divine Love’ María del Carmen Muñoz Rodríguez (University of Seville): In ure lauerdes luue: The Spaces of Female Sanctity in the Middle English ‘Seinte Iuliene’ 11.30-13 PANEL 5: VISUALISING GENDER Rosalind Phillips-Solomon (University of York): ‘Miraculous Aged Virgin’ or Quintessential Virgin Martyr? Late Medieval Imaginings of Saint Apollonia Sarah Wilkins (Pratt Institute, New York): A Preaching Woman: Mary Magdalen in Late Medieval Italian Art Elisabet Trulla Serra (Trinity College Dublin): Gender Configuration in Byzantine Art Through Saint Mary of Egypt 14-15.30 PANEL 6: FAMILIAL AND SPIRITUAL RELATIONSHIPS Jessica Troy (Independent Scholar): Unequal Treatment: The Power Struggle of Medieval Chaste Couples Laura Moncion (University of Toronto): ‘Be My Spouse’: Spiritual Partnership in the Life of Pirona the Recluse Michaela Granger (Catholic University of America, Washington DC): ‘And It Was Accounted to Him (or Her?) as Righteousness …’: The Value of Childrearing in the Construction of Late Medieval Sanctity 16-17.30 PANEL 7: MODERN PERSPECTIVES Dannelle Gutarra (University of Warwick): Medieval Sainthood and Scientific Racism: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in ‘History of the Female Sex’ by Christoph Meiners Maria Zygogianni (Swansea University): Saint Athanasia of Aigaleo: An Entrepreneur Saint Myrna Nader (American University of Beirut): The Cult of Marina the Monk: Faith, Discourse and Sexuality in Contemporary Lebanon 17.30-18 CLOSING REMARKS 18 CONFERENCE END
Weds 28th Feb, 5.15, The Memorial Room, The Queen’s College
Fruits of the poisonous tree: unprovenanced artefacts and the ethics of consuming archaeological knowledge
Yağmur Heffron, UCL
Opening with a juicy (if cautionary) tale of archaeological mystery and scandal, this lecture will invite the audience to engage in entirely imaginary and possibly fantastical thought experiments around whether it can ever be possible to extract, rescue, or salvage information from suspiciously unprovenanced artefacts – especially those in private collections – in an ethical manner. The purpose of these experiments is to tease out the complex interrelationships between personal and professional gain, conflicts of interest, and power dynamics surrounding the consumption of archaeological knowledge, in order to test if the latter can be satisfactorily isolated. How much are researchers willing to sacrifice to make the fruits from a poisonous tree safe to eat?
The ethics of publishing unprovenanced manuscripts is a hotly contested issue, with scholars becoming more and more polarised on each side of the debate. This new lecture series aims to find new ways of approaching the topic, going beyond ‘for and against’ to explore the challenges presented by these texts in nuanced ways. Our aim is to stimulate considered debate with an audience varied in both background and opinion, finding ways forward to bridge the divide. All are welcome.
Where: Visiting Scholars Centre in the Weston Library How to get there: via the Readers Entrance on Parks Road, 2nd floor via the staircase/elevator just straight ahead from the readers entrance (stick to the concrete part, do not use the ornamental staircase or you will land in the Conservation Department which is also nice but where no coffee is allowed).
NB: There is a new Weston Library Coffee Morning email list. Just send a message to coffee-mornings-weston-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk . The subject and content of the message does not matter. You’ll be subscribed and will get messages, about once a week, of who is speaking and the calendar of coffee mornings.
All medievalists working in Oxford are welcome! Join us for coffee, conversations, and many insights into the Bodleian collections, cf. the playlist ‘Weston Library Coffee Mornings’:
Shofar player opening Psalm 80, with the caption ‘Sing a new song unto the Lord’ in a Psalter manuscript from the German convent of Medingen, ca. 1500, Bodleian Library, MS. Don. e. 248, fol. 145v
This event will begin with music from medieval manuscripts in the Bodleian Library. The performance will also feature songs in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, and English for all to join, and will be interspersed with the sound of shofar and shell horn.
Music list: Shofar: Call to celebrating unity; ‘Cantate domino’ (Bodleian, MS. Don. e. 248, 247v); ‘Cantate domino’ (Giuseppe Pitoni); ‘Lumen ad revelacionem’ (MS. Lat. liturg. e. 18, 8r); Shell horn: Call to preserving nature; ‘Every part of this earth shall holy be for us’ (round by Stephan Vesper); Sea weed horn: Call to peace; ‘Hinema tov’ (round, orally transmitted); Horn: ‘Üsküdar’a gider iken’; ‘Victime paschali’ & ‘Christ ist erstanden’ (Bodleian, MS. Lat. liturg. f. 4); ‘Dona nobis pacem’ (round, orally transmitted).
This follows on from previous events organised by Henrike Lähnemann and Andrew Dunning ‘Singing from Manuscripts’. Click here to learn more about singing from Medieval Sources in the Bodleian Library.
In association with Oxford Medieval Studies, sponsored by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH)
We are delighted to announce the finalised programme (and opening of advance registration for online attendance) for the Oxford University Byzantine Society’s 26th Annual International Graduate Conference ‘Transgression in Late Antiquity and Byzantium’, taking place on the 24th-25th February, 2024 at the Faculty of History, George Street, OX1 2BE.
The programme and abstracts of papers can be found on the dedicated conference website and below. The costs for attendance are as follows: In person attendance: £15 for OUBS members / £20 for non-members Online attendance: £5 for students / £6 for non students
Papers will be delivered in-person, with the proceedings broadcast on a Zoom link which will circulate via email to those purchasing online attendance tickets via Eventbrite (see link below). Advance registration for in person attendance is not necessary. If you plan on attending online, please purchase a ticket at our Eventbrite link.
We are grateful for the generous support of The Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research (OCBR), The Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity (OCLA), Oxford Medieval Studies, in association with The Oxford Research Centre for Humanities (TORCH), and The Faculty of History of the University of Oxford, as well as the many others who have helped with the conference’s facilitation.
We look forward to welcoming you to Oxford. Best wishes, the Conference Organisers: OUBS President Alexander Sherborne OUBS Secretary Ilia Curto Pelle OUBS Treasurer Benjamin Sharkey
The OUBS Committee is grateful for the generous support of:
The Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research (OCBR)
The Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity (OCLA)
Oxford Medieval Studies, in association with The Oxford Research Centre for Humanities (TORCH)
The Faculty of History of the University of Oxford
The OUBS Committee would also like to express its gratitude to Shaun Cason, Eleanore Debs, Gavriella Makri, Bryce O’Connor, Rosalie Van Dael,Sophia Miller, Alexander Johnston, Nathan Websdale and Duncan Antich for their assistance with the conference’s facilitation.
Conference Programme
Venue: Faculty of History, George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL
Panel 1b: ‘The Political’ (Chair: Alexander Johnston)
Duncan Antich (Blackfriars College, Oxford) Compassion and Community: The Regula Pastoralis and Gregory’s Approach to Schism Alejandro Laguna López (Central European University) An Anti-Novelistic Novel: Subverting Love in Niketas Eugenianos’ Drosilla and Charicles Averkios (Dimitris) Agoris (University of Athens) Multigeneric examples in Michael Choniates’s Educational Activity
Euan Croman (Queen’s University Belfast) Transgressing the domus imperii in the fourth and fifth centuries: Treason or Family Trouble? Daniel Murphy (Independent Scholar) Usurpation Narratives as Political Commentary in Fourth-Century Historiography Merve Savas (Ohio State University) Twisting the Narrative: Textual Transgression in Ammianus Marcellinus’ Res Gestae 14
Session 2: Saturday, 14.00–15.30
Panel 2a: ‘The Sexual’ (Chair: Alexander Sherborne)
Panel 2b: ‘The Conciliar’ (Chair: Bryce O’Connor)
Maria Christian (Independent Scholar) “Look at that wood!” An Investigation into a Bizarre Sexual Practice Ascribed to the “Chaldeans” Involving Iconography in an Early Islamic Sex Manual Vid Žepič (University of Ljubljana) Legal Perspectives on Sexual Transgressions in Early-Byzantine Legal Sources Pierrick Gerval (University of Nantes) Sexual violences during wartime, a transgression of Church prohibitions regarding sexuality in Byzantium (7th -13th century)
Kathleen McCulloch (University of Cambridge) Did Dioscorus transgress, or adhere to, established conciliar procedure at Ephesus II (449)? Alexander Johnston (Kellogg College, Oxford) The Edge of Divinity: The Role of Wisdom in the Logos Prosphonetikos of the Quinisext Council Rachel Edney (University of Notre Dame) The Eucharist in John Rufus’ Plerophories: Eucharistic Theology and Christological Controversy
Session 3: Saturday, 16.00–17.30
Panel 3a: ‘On the Edges of Byzantium’ (Chair: Benjamin Sharkey)
Panel 3b: ‘In the Land of Egypt’ (Chair: Sophia Miller)
Shaun Cason (Worcester College, Oxford) The End of Transgressions? Examining the Seventh-Century Treaty Between Islamic Egypt and Medieval Nubia Dmitriy Kravets (St. Hugh’s College, Oxford) Orthodoxy and/or Empire? A Reassessment of the Career of Gregory Tsamblak (fl. 1402- 1415) Helena Davies (Linacre College, Oxford) Sitt al-Mulk: A Damsel in Distress? Challenging Art-Historical Efforts to Rescue and Vindicate an Early Islamic Princess
Apolline Gay (Université libre de Bruxelles) Looking for Eve: Figures of Female Transgression on Textiles from Byzantine Egypt Michael Dunchok (Kellogg College, Oxford) A Higher Rank of Gods: In Defense of the Greek Magical Papyri Chloé Agar (Harris Manchester College, Oxford) ‘He thrust his spear into the middle of him, and his bowels came out’: Literary violence against religious and legal transgressions in Early Christian Egypt
Session 4: Sunday, 11.30–13.00
Panel 4a: ‘The Archaeological and the Art-Architectural‘ (Chair: Gavriella Makri)
Panel 4b: ‘The Imperial and the Ecclesiastic‘ (Chair: Nathan Websdale)
Eleanore Debs (Pembroke College, Oxford) Examining the Peculiar Presence of Reliquaries Within Late Antique Baptisteries of the Limestone Massif Sophia Miller (Balliol College, Oxford) Trees ‘Pleasant to the Sight’: Tree-Meaning in Late Antique Floor Mosaics in the Northern Provinces Karolina Tomczyszyn (Lincoln College, Oxford) Transgressive Use of Holy Oils: In Search of Popular Religion in Syriac Christianity
Ziyao Zhu (King’s College London) Neither Just nor Unjust: Alexios I Komnenos and the Linguistic Politics of Byzantine Extrajudicial Confiscation. Dilara Burcu Giritlioğlu (Middle East Technical University) Sinners and Saints of Constantinople: Union of Souls and Separation of Church and State Findlay Willis (St. Stephen’s House, Oxford) Natural illness or divine punishment: the use of disability rhetoric to excuse or vilify the transgressions of Michael IV
Session 5: Sunday, 14.00–15.30
Panel 5a: ‘Defining Aspects of Deviance’ (Chair: Dimitri Kravets)
Panel 5b: ‘Transgressing Intellectual Borders‘ (Chair: Ilia Curto Pelle)
Ekaterina Rybakova (Pirogov Russian National Researcher Medical University) Illnesses of Spirit or Being: The Transgression of Pneuma in Byzantine Medicine Thibaut Auplat (Aix-Marseille University) An overview of deviance in the 7th and 8th centuries: the Heresies by John Damascene Patrick Martin (University of Winchester) Transgression in Middle Byzantine eschatological iconography
Mathijs Clement (University of Cambridge) Egeria, Traveller of Borderlands Rosalie Van Dael (St. Hilda’s College, Oxford) Seeing is believing? Imagination in Augustine’s Letter 7 to Nebridius Seyhun Kılıç (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) Monk in a Mundane Realm: Exploring the Intersection of Spiritual and Secular Realms in the Middle Byzantine Period
Saturday, 25 May 2024 Organised by John Butcher (Meran Academy, South Tyrol) together with Henrike Lähnemann (Oxford Medieval Studies), Taylor Institution Library (St Giles’, Oxford OX1 3NA), Room 2.
Session 1, Chair: Nigel Wilson
Angus Bowie (University of Oxford) – A Homerist on Looking into the Nibelungenlied: Cortés or a Panamanian? Handout
10.40-11.00 John Butcher (Meran Academy) – Henry Fuseli, Homer and the Nibelungenlied
Andrea Doda (University of Oxford) – Power and Passion: The Role of Women (and Female Figures) in Homer and the NibelungenliedHandout
Session 2, Chair: Henrike Lähnemann
Joanna Raisbeck (University of Verona) – Between Homer and the Nibelungenlied: Literary and Aesthetic Debates in Heidelberg around 1800
Alan Murray (University of Leeds) – Chivalric Warfare and Heroic Combat in the Nibelungenlied
Christoph Schmitt-Maaß (LMU München / University of Oxford) – The Reception of the Nibelungenlied in Eighteenth-century Leipzig
Manuscript Workshop
Weston Library (Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BG), Bahari Room – Homeric manuscripts with Peter Tóth and Nigel Wilson
The last three talks will be of special interest to medieval graduates working in Old English (or Old Norse): Grace Khuri (Nov. 8) will look at compound personal names starting with Ælf- (‘Elf’) that Tolkien encountered in his set texts as an undergraduate (c. 1913-1915) and how these contributed to building (what Tolkien himself later called) his ‘Elf-centric’ mythology for The Book of Lost Tales (c. 1917-1919) — the earliest version of what would later become The Silmarillion (1977), the epic, mythic-legendary prehistory of Middle-earth. The following week is Dr. Laura Varnam’s lecture on ‘Tolkien and Beowulf’ (Nov. 15), and the last lecture of the term will be given by Dr. Simon Horobin on ‘Tolkien the Philologist’ (Nov. 22).
Although there is an online booking system that now states that all these lectures are full, there have been many no-shows at these seminars and the organizers have said that anyone can come along now (without booking) and there should be room to fit everyone in. For those who cannot make it (due to teaching commitments, lectures, tutorials etc.), the talks will be recorded on a case-by-case basis (depending on the permission of each speaker). If there are any questions about this, contact Dr. Stuart Lee at stuart.lee@ell.ox.ac.uk.
1pm Meet outside Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street
2.30/ 3pm Meet Brixworth church with Jo Storey, Rory Naismith and students from the universities of Leicester and Cambridge
3.30pm Tea in the Village Hall
5pm Lecture
7pm Dinner in Coach & Horses, Brixworth
8.30pm Leave Brixworth
If you would like to join us to climb the tower of the grandest surviving Anglo-Saxon church and meet graduate students from Leicester and Cambridge, please send your name and phone number to Bobby Klapper: robert.klapper@spc.ox.ac.uk. Limited places available owing to minibus space. First come, first served.
