Category: News

Medieval Matters HT25, Week 2

by

26/01/2025

15:06

Comments Off on Medieval Matters HT25, Week 2

events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities

Welcome to Week 2. As always, we have an impressive set of medieval events for you to enjoy this week. A brief outline is provided below, but the full booklet can be found here. There is still time to sign up for the Medieval Mystery Plays on 26 April – just contact Antonia Anstatt and Sarah Ware.

Of particular note: the Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland are running a trip to visit the British Museum’s Silk Road exhibition (Friday 21st February, 8pm). You can find a link to sign up for the trip here.

Events

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
  • Seminar in Palaeography and Manuscript studies – Weston Library, Horton Room, 2.15-3.45pm. Julia King will be speaking on ‘Manuscripts In and Out of Syon Abbey’.
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – Institute of Archaeology Lecture Room, 3pm. John Dinges will be speaking on ‘Moulding Emotions: Later Medieval Badges in England and Wales’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Nora Berend (Cambridge) will be speaking on ‘Stephen I of Hungary: Medieval Myths and Modern Nationalism’.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 5.30, English Faculty Graduate Common Room. This term we will be reading Hrafnkels saga.

Tuesday

  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5.15pm (coffee from 5pm) in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Machester College. Bee Jones will be speaking on ‘Bernard’s Barbarians: Bernard of Clairvaux, Malachy of Armagh, and Discourses of Irish Barbarism’.
  • Early modern diplomacy, 1400-1800 seminar is CANCELLED.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar on ‘Geistliche Spiele’ – 11.15am in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall. Contact Henrike Lähnemann if you would like to be added to the teams group
  • History and Materiality of the Book Seminar – 2pm in the Weston Library, Horton room. Andrew Honey will be speaking on ‘Writing supports (parchment and paper) and Bindings’.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Phil Booth (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘John of Ephesus: Historian on the Edge’.
  • Slade Lecture Series – 5pm at St John’s College. ‘Gaps in Archives’. Book a place.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 5.15pm, Lecture Theatre 2, St. Cross Building. Tamara Atkin (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘On Fragments: The Material and Textual Value of Manuscript and Print Binding Waste’.

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute.
  • EMBI Lunch and Launch – 12.30pm–2pm: Massey Room, Balliol College. Sign up here.
  • Greek and Latin Reading Group – 2.30pm in the Stapledon Room, Exeter College. The theme this week is Lucian’s A True History.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 4pm, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this term will be the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde.
  • Ford Lecture – 5pm in the Examination Schools. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be giving the second of her lectures: ‘Langue des reines: The Importance of Women to French and French to Women.’
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15pm in the in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. Beatrice Spampinato (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence) will be speaking on ‘Anatolian Language Carved in Stone: Reading the Qalls of Ani across Christian and Islamic Visual Cultures’.
  • Celtic Seminary – 5.15pm online. Abdul-Azim Ahmed (Cardiff) will be speaking on ‘The story of Islam in Wales: Findings from the Islam in Wales History Project’.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Magna Carta 1225: New Discoveries & Repercussions – 1pm, Blackwell Hall, Weston Library. Nicholas Vincent will be speaking on ‘Magna Carta: New Discoveries’.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.

Opportunities

  • Sign up link for Dr Daisy Black’s medieval storytelling event in week 7: Yde and Olive (Wednesday 5th March, 7pm, the chapel at University College): all welcome.
  • CfP: ‘Always Here: Non-Binary Gender, Trans Identities, and Queerness in the Global Middle Ages (c. 250–1650’ – October 24 – 25. More information can be found here.
  • For all Graduate Students (Master & DPhil): fully funded Wolfenbüttel Summer School on Late Medieval Manuscripts (in English). Apply by the end of February. Call for Papers the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
  • The Ashmolean is looking for a University Engagement Lead. This is a parttime fixed term role to research and possibly pilot opportunities for University Engagement. This is a good role for someone that knows the students in Oxford and is looking at a parttime role – and, obviously, loves museum collections! Full job description 
  • CfP for the ‘Sorrowful Virgin’ workshop at St Hughs, 24 March 2025
  • CfP for ‘Outsiders – Insiders’ (University of Reading), 2nd April 2025
  • OMS Small Grants are open for applications – deadline Friday of 4th Week

Medieval Matters HT25, Wk1

by

19/01/2025

14:17

Comments Off on Medieval Matters HT25, Wk1

Call for Papers, events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

Welcome back to a new term. I hope you’ve all had a chance to look through the OMS termly booklet, the most recent version in full colour glory can be found here. We’ve had a number of important updates since the booklet was last circulated, so do have a look back through. New additions include:

Of particular note this term are the Ford Lectures (Thursday, 5pm, Examination Schools). Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be giving a lecture series titled French in Medieval Britain: Cultural Politics and Social History, c. 1100-c. 1500. I look forward to seeing many of you there.

Events

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Christian Sahner (New Coll/AMES) will be speaking on ‘A History of Mountains in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: North Africa, Syria, and Iran’.

Tuesday

  • Medieval Afterlives Season Workshop – 1pm – 4pm (lunch from 12.30) in the Colin Matthews Room, Radcliffe Humanities (and online via MS Teams). As part of the preparations for annual ‘Cultural Seasons’ in the new Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, this is an invitation to brainstorm ideas for a Cultural Programme Season on Medieval Afterlives. RSVP to culturalprogramme@humanities.ox.ac.uk
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Ancient and Medieval Seminar – 4.30pm, location tbc. Vladimir Olivero (Harvard) will be speaking on ‘From Jerusalem, through Alexandria, to the Caucasus: observations on the translation technique in the Armenian Psalter’.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5.15pm (coffee from 5pm) in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Machester College. Mark Williams (SEH) will be speaking on ‘Magic and its Implications in some early 12th-century Welsh Prose Narratives’.

Wednesday

  • Medieval German Graduate Seminar on ‘Geistliche Spiele’ – 11.15am in the Old Library of St Edmund Hall. This week will be a short planning meeting. Contact Henrike Lähnemann if you would like to be added to the teams group
  • History and Materiality of the Book Seminar – 2pm in the Weston Library, Horton room. Matthew Holford will be talking about ‘Manuscript Structures’.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm, online.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Kevin Blachford (King’s College London & Defence Academy) will be speaking on ‘World Order in Late Antiquity: The “Two Eyes” Rivalry of Byzantium and Sasanian Persia’.
  • Slade Lecture Series – 5pm at St John’s College. ‘Gaps in Writing’. Book a place.
  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 5.15pm, Lecture Theatre 2, St. Cross Building. Alice Jorgensen (TCD) will be speaking on ‘The Old English Apollonius of Tyre and the Name of the Father’.

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute.
  • Greek and Latin Reading Group – 2.30pm in the Stapledon Room, Exeter College. The theme this week is Cicero’s Dream of Scipio (De Re Publica 6.9).
  • Middle English Reading Group – 4pm, Beckington Room, Lincoln College. The text this term will be the ‘double sorwe’ of Troilus and Criseyde.
  • Ford Lecture – 5pm in the Examination Schools. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne will be giving the first of her lectures: ‘“Alle mine thegenas … frencisce & englisce”: The Languages of 1066 – And All That’.
  • The Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East: Research Seminar – 5.15pm in the in the Ioannou Centre/Faculty of Classics’ Lecture Theatre. Michael Erdman (The British Library) will be speaking on ‘Reintegrating the Empire: taking an expansive view towards “Ottoman” collections’.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee and insight into special collections provided.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group – 3pm. This week, the group will be visiting the Balliol Historical Collections Centre. Previous experience of handling medieval manuscripts is desirable. Limited places, write to Elena Lichmanova by 22/01/2025
  • Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College and online. For more information on the texts, email Jane Bliss.

Opportunities

French in Medieval Britain: The James Ford Lectures 2025

by

08/01/2025

15:17

Comments Off on French in Medieval Britain: The James Ford Lectures 2025

events, News

Jocelyn Wogan-Browne on Cultural Politics and Social History, c. 1100-c. 1500

Thursdays at 5pm, Weeks 1-6 Hilary, Examination Schools

French played a major, though not the only role, in the pervasive multilingualism of British history and culture.  As Britain’s only medieval ‘global’ vernacular, it was also important to a wide range of people for their participation in external theatres of empire, trade, culture, conflict, and crusade.  Displacing the long shadow of nineteenth-century nationalizing conceptions of language and their entrenchment in modern university disciplinary divisions, emerging histories of French in England and increasingly of French in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland offer new ways of understanding language and identity.  These lectures trace francophone medieval Britain in a chronological sequence across its four main centuries, interpolating two thematic lectures on areas especially needing integration into our histories, medieval women and French in Britain, and French Bible translation in medieval England.

About the Lecture Series: The Ford Lectures in British History were founded by a bequest from James Ford, and inaugurated by S.R.Gardiner in 1896-7. Since then, an annual series has been delivered over six weeks in Hilary term. They have long been established as the most prestigious series in Oxford and an important annual event in the University’s calendar.

Jocelyn Wogan-Browne in her allotment on Osney Island in Oxford

About the speaker: Professor Jocelyn Wogan-Browne is Professor emerita of both the University of York, where she held the Chair of Medieval Literature from 2005 to 2010, and Fordham University in New York, where she was the Thomas F.X. and Theresa Mullarkey Chair in Literature from 2010 to 2019.

Her wide-ranging scholarship has most recently focused on the reconceptualization of English medieval literary culture as a multilingual community. She has created a fundamentally new understanding of the importance attached to knowing, speaking, reading and/or writing French in later medieval England: work on the culture of late medieval England is now unthinkable without taking her insights into account. The approach was spearheaded in her Vernacular Literary Theory from the French of Medieval England: Texts and Translation (with Thelma Fenster and Delbert Russell) (Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 2016), which built on the earlier The Idea of the Vernacular: Middle English Literary Theory c. 1280-1520, with Nicholas Watson, Andrew Taylor, and Ruth Evans. A book of essays, The French of Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (2017), speaks to the extensive influence of her work and the esteem in which she is held by the scholarly community.

Jocelyn came to Oxford from Australia to study for the BPhil in Medieval Language and Literature at St Hilda’s College under the supervision of Elspeth Kennedy, one of Oxford’s most inspirational teachers. Her fellow countryman, Bruce Mitchell, another medievalist, became her mentor, and she became established in Oxford at the events he hosted for students from the southern hemisphere. Jocelyn started a DPhil in Old Norse and Old French, but accepted a lectureship in Early Middle English and Anglo-Norman at Liverpool, later receiving a doctorate on the strength of her numerous publications. Liverpool was followed by positions at York and Fordham, where her dedication to students and teaching won her a basket of teaching awards, in addition to her distinguished research profile.

Now living in Oxford and a member of St Edmund Hall, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne remains a dynamo of multi-disciplinary research.  Her Ford Lectures will undoubtedly turn our concept of ‘English History’ on its head.

Lecture Schedule

23rd Jan: “Alle mine thegenas … frencisce & englisce”: The Languages of 1066 – And All That

30th Jan: Langue des reines: The Importance of Women to French and French to Women.

6th Feb: Expansions: ‘Everyone knows that French is better understood and more widely used than Latin’: Matthew Paris (in French, 1253×59)

13th Feb: ‘That each may in his own tongue … know his God’ (Grosseteste, in French, 1230s): Bible Translation in Medieval England

20th Feb: “Lette Frenchmen in their Frenche endyten”(Thomas Usk, c.1384-87): French in the Multilingual Fourteenth Century

27th Feb: “Et lors que parlerez anglois /Que vous n’oubliez pas le François” (manuscript dedication, c. 1445) : Off-shoring French?

More information can be found here: https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/james-ford-lectures-british-history

Gone Medieval: Lives of Medieval Nuns

by

26/12/2024

16:10

Comments Off on Gone Medieval: Lives of Medieval Nuns

News, Uncategorized

Our very own Henrike Lähnemann has recently appeared on the podcast Gone Medieval, discussing her new book ‘The Life of Nuns: Love, Politics, and Religion in Medieval German Convents‘:

“The often forgotten world of medieval nuns holds many secrets about the lives of ordinary people of the age, their daily routines, education, and societal roles. German medieval historian Henrike Lähnemann shares with Matt Lewis her research into the rich archives of convents, which revealed nuns’ vibrant lives, from their involvement in local politics and commerce to their spiritual duties and family bonds. They discuss how medieval convents served as hubs of learning, medicine, and community interaction, complete with both solemn rituals and moments of joyful laughter.”

Listen to the episode here.

The book also was discussed in the TORCH ‘Book at Lunchtime’ series

Medieval Matters MT24, Week 8

by

01/12/2024

18:11

Comments Off on Medieval Matters MT24, Week 8

events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

Week 8 is finally upon us, and a final round of events. As always, a PDF version of the booklet can be found here. Keep an eye on your inboxes over the vac – I will be sending out an email asking for contributions to next term’s booklet. Recruitment for the Medieval Mystery Cycle on 26 April 2025 is going into a new phase with the appointment of Antonia Anstatt and Sarah Ware as Co-Heads of Performance – contact then with questions.

Wishing you a lovely Christmas with this recording of ‘Nowel’ from Bodleian Library, MS. Arch. Selden B. 26, fol. 14v.

EVENTS THIS WEEK

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3pm at the Institute of Archaeology. Stephen Rippon (University of Exeter) will be speaking on ‘Excavations at Ipplepen’.
  • OMS Tea Talks – 4.30 in New Seminar Room, St John’s College. Tea and biscuits provided.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Alicia Smith (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Harlot/Saint: Tracking the Figure of Thais Meretrix in Medieval Manuscript Compilations.’
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 5.30pm in the English Faculty Graduate Common Room.

Tuesday

  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Poetry Reading Group – 4.30pm in the Colin Matthew Room, Radliffe Humanities Building.
  • Medieval Church and Culture – tea from 5.00pm (talk starts at 5.15) in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Machester College. Phil Booth (St Peter’s) will be speaking on ‘Egypt from the Ancient Mediterranean to the Middle Medieval East: A Seventh-century Chronicle Between Worlds’.

Wednesday

  • Reading Jews in Late Antiquity – 10am in Room 207 of The Clarendon Institute. The theme for this week is Violence against Jews and Jewish Violence.
  • Medieval German Seminar: Konrad von Megenberg ‘Buch der Natur’ – 11.15am at Somerville College. To be added to the Teams group for updates, please email Almut Suerbaum.
  • Medieval Women’s Writing – Chat with an Expert – 1pm in the VHH Seminar Room, Lincoln College. Rachel Delman (Heritage Partnerships Coordinator) will be talking about ‘Medieval Women’s Stories in Heritage & Community Settings’.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm online. To join, please email Michael Stansfield.
  • Inaugural Dorothy Whitelock Lecture – 5pm in in Lecture Theatre 2, St Cross Building . Gale Owen-Crocker will be speaking on ‘Social History and False Friends: From Anglo-Saxon Wills to the Bayeux Tapestry via Material Culture’
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Zdenka Stahuljak (UCLA) will be speaking on ‘Methodologies of Commensuration: Poetry, History, and Knowledge’.

Thursday

  • Italian Late Medieval and Early Modern Palaeography Course (1400-1800) – 10pm in the Chough Room, Teddy Hall.
  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute. For more information, please email Joseph O’Hara.
  • Greek and Latin Reading Group – 3pm in the Stapledon Room, Exeter Collge. The text this week is Alexander (Plutarch, Life of Alexander 7–8, 62–65).
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5pm in the Arumugam Building, St Catz. Ben Tilghman (Maryland, USA) will speak on ‘What Art Does When It’s Doing Nothing: Stillness, Perdurance, and Agency in Medieval Art’
  • Medieval and Renaissance Music Seminar – 5pm online (register here). Michael Scott Asato Cuthbert (Independent scholar) will be speaking on ‘A.I., Similarity, and Search in Medieval Music: New Methodologies and Source Identifications’.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 3pm in the Beckington Room, Lincoln College.
  • The Germanic Reading Group – 4pm online. This week, the focus will be on Old English: Extracts from the Life of St Chad (Nelson leading).

OPPORTUNITIES 

  •  CHASE-DTP funded PhD opportunity between MEMS Kent and Westminster Abbey to investigate medieval manuscript fragments in the Abbey’s archives, application deadline 17 February 2025. More info here.
  • 4-year funded Collaborative Doctoral Award(CDA), co-supervised between the University of Nottingham and the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford:  ‘Digital Approaches to Medieval Chant and Local Religious Heritage’. Deadline 13 January 2025: more information here.
  • The Medieval Academy of America’s Graduate Student Committee seeks new committee members for the 2025-2027 term. Submit self-nomination forms here.
  • Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2025 CfP – seeking 20 minute papers from graduate students on the theme of ‘Rituals and Ceremonies’, for a conference held 24th and 25th of April, 2025. More info here.
  • The University of Nebraska-Lincoln are seeking an assistant professor specializing in visual or material cultures between c. 700 and 1750 CE. More Info here.
  • A fully-funded AHRC doctoral studentship at Oxford in partnership with The National Archives is seeking applicants to work on Chaucer’s life and poetry – https://oocdtp.web.ox.ac.uk/ox-cda-turner-nationalarchives.
  • The Central European University are advertising a number of funded PhDs and Masters – see the blog post here.
  • University College Dublin are advertising a funded PhD in Early medieval political and/or intellectual culture (c.500-c.1000 CE) which will be supervised by Dr Megan Welton. See the blog post here.
  • An opportunity has arisen to translate Alice in Wonderland into Old Norse – The translator would own the copyright and receive a royalty for copies sold. Those interested should email Sarah Foot.
  • OxMedSoc are looking for a secretary and publicity officer. Please email oxfordmedievalsociety@gmail.com.
  • PRAGESTT German Studies Student Conference will take place on the 21st and 22nd March 2025 at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) – please see https://pragestt.ff.cuni.cz/en/home/
  • The Oxford University Byzantine Society has issued a Call for Papers for their 27th International Graduate Conference, held on the 1st-2nd March 2025, in Oxford and Online. More information can be found here.
  • The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures invites graduate students from across the globe to submit to the annual Medium Ævum Essay Prize. Deadline 2 December. More information can be found here.
  • Check out this handy guide to how to blog – including a call for authors for the OMS blog – by Miles Pattenden.
  • Addenda and corrigenda to Oxford Medieval Studies by Monday 5pm, please.

-TKA

Bayeux Tapestry, Panel 58 (with a few additions…): Available online Discover the Bayeux Tapestry online/)

Crafting the Book: A One-Day Workshop Report

by

25/11/2024

22:47

Comments Off on Crafting the Book: A One-Day Workshop Report

events, News, report

, , ,

On 22 November, the ‘Crafting the Book’ Workshop was organised by Alison Ray (St Peter’s College) with talks and practical activities led by Sara Charles (University of London) and Eleanor Baker (Balliol College). Attended by university students, researchers, as well as library and archives staff, the workshop engaged with the history of the book and material culture of medieval manuscripts and early printed works, including their production, decoration, and provenance through signs of ownership.

The lunchtime lecture featured talks in the Weston Library by Sara and Eleanor on their recently published research on book history. First, Sara presented three case studies of early female scribes from her trade publication, The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages (Reaktion Books, August 2024). Next, Eleanor shared a range of book curses from the Middle Ages onwards, and the research process behind her new work, Book Curses (Bodleian Publishing, November 2024). The lecture was a stimulating look at the human agency involved in the lifecycle of manuscripts and early books, from production and use to their survival today.

The afternoon continued with practical workshops in the Bodleian Bibliographical Press led by Sara and Eleanor, in which participants developed a deeper understanding of contemporary artistic and reader practices through taking part in hands-on craft methods. In our first workshop, Sara guided participants in the preparation of iron gall ink and quills to practice medieval writing, and they additionally tested pigments used in illumination. For our second workshop, Eleanor led groups of participants to prepare their own book curses on bookmarks using letterpress printing and the session was accompanied by an introduction to printing techniques by press supervisor Richard Lawrence. Attendees greatly enjoyed engaging with the materiality and craft methods in manuscript and print culture.

The ‘Crafting the Book’ Workshop was held in association with Oxford Medieval Studies, sponsored by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH). We are also grateful for assistance in planning and supporting the workshop on the day by Alex Franklin (Bodleian), Richard Lawrence, Tianqi Wang (St Peter’s) and Holly Smith (St Anne’s).

Alison Ray, St Peter’s College

Medieval Matter MT24, Week 7

by

24/11/2024

17:09

Comments Off on Medieval Matter MT24, Week 7

events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

,

Much like Bob Dylan, we have all spent the last week Blowin’ in the Wind: here are this week’s medieval events to help you through. As always, a PDF version of the booklet can be found here.

A reminder that this Friday – 5pm at St Edmund Hall – there will be an event for those interested in this year’s Medieval Mystery Plays. All are welcome, even (/ especially) if you are unsure how to get involved.

EVENTS THIS WEEK

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College.  Fouzia Farooq Ahmed (All Souls / Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad) will be speaking on ‘Gender Ventriloquism in Medieval India: the Writings of Amir Khusro’. Drinks to follow.

Tuesday

  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5.15pm (coffee from 5pm) in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Machester College. Edward Shawe-Taylor (St Cross) will be speaking on ‘The Qur’an of Mūsā b. Bughā: Reassembling a Lost Egyptian Manuscript’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5.15pm at the Maison Française d’Oxford. The theme this week is ‘Otherworld Objects between [REF] and [FIC]’.

Wednesday

  • Reading Jews in Late Antiquity – 10am in Room 207 of The Clarendon Institute. The theme for this week is: Eating and Sharing Meals with the Religious Other.
  • Medieval German Seminar: Konrad von Megenberg ‘Buch der Natur’ – 11.15am at Somerville College. To be added to the Teams group for updates, please email Almut Suerbaum. 
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm online. To join, please email Michael Stansfield.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Alberto Rigolio (Durham) will be speaking on ‘The Rise of the Memrā in Syriac Literature’.
  • Prof Dr Hermann Parzinger, President of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, lecture at 17.15. at the Weston Library on the history of the Prussian Heritage Foundation along with the importance of sustainability and the contemporary, post-colonial responsibilities and challenges faced by the heritage sector. A drinks reception will follow. The sign up is here.

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute. For more information, please email Joseph O’Hara.
  • British Archaeological Association Post-Graduate Online Conference – 12.20pm online. Register here.
  • Greek and Latin Reading Group – 3pm in the Stapledon Room, Exeter Collge. The text this week is ‘on writing Lives’ (Tacitus, Annals 4.34).
  • Torch Talk: ‘Locating Silences: The Status and Agency of Women in the Delhi Sultanate’ – 4pm in St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.
  • Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies seminar – 5.15pm at Jesus College and online. Tanguy Solliec (LACITO, CNRS, Paris) will be speaking on ‘Breton Dialect Variation: An Opportunity to Reflect on the Emergence and Formation of a Language’.
  • Compline in the Crypt (in English) – 9.30pm in the Crypt of St-Peter-in-the-East (!), the library church of St Edmund Hall.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome, coffee provided.
  • LGBTQ+ Hackathon – 2pm in the History Faculty.
  • An Introduction to Greek Manuscript Culture – 2pm in the Horton Room, Weston Library. First come, first served: email almut.fries@classics.ox.ac.uk for more info.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 3pm in the Beckington Room, Lincoln College.
  • Medieval Mystery Plays Meeting of the Minds Workshop – 5pm at St Edmund Hall. More information here.
  • Oxford Medieval Manuscripts Group – 5pm in the Mure Room, Merton College. Eleanor Jackson (British Library, Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts) will be speaking on ‘Medieval Women in Their Own Words: Curating the British Library Exhibition’.
  • Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College. For more information, please contact Jane Bliss (jane.bliss@lmh.oxon.org).

OPPORTUNITIES (new items highlighted)

  • CHASE-DTP funded PhD opportunity between MEMS Kent and Westminster Abbey to investigate medieval manuscript fragments in the Abbey’s archives, application deadline 17 February 2025. More info here.
  • Head of Performance sought for Medieval Mystery Plays to pull the strings for the 2025 performance of the Medieval Mystery Plays. Henrike Lähnemann and Lesley Smith, the Co-Directors, are looking for an enthusiastic, creative and, above all, well-organised graduate student or postdoc. There will be a reward of £300. See here the advertisement.
  • 4-year funded Collaborative Doctoral Award(CDA), co-supervised between the University of Nottingham and the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford:  ‘Digital Approaches to Medieval Chant and Local Religious Heritage’. Deadline 13 January 2025: more information here.
  • The Medieval Academy of America’s Graduate Student Committee seeks new committee members for the 2025-2027 term. Submit self-nomination forms here.
  • Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2025 CfP – seeking 20 minute papers from graduate students on the theme of ‘Rituals and Ceremonies’, for a conference held 24th and 25th of April, 2025. More info here.
  • The University of Nebraska-Lincoln are seeking an assistant professor specializing in visual or material cultures between c. 700 and 1750 CE. More Info here.
  • A fully-funded AHRC doctoral studentship at Oxford in partnership with The National Archives is seeking applicants to work on Chaucer’s life and poetry – https://oocdtp.web.ox.ac.uk/ox-cda-turner-nationalarchives.
  • The Central European University are advertising a number of funded PhDs and Masters – see the blog post here.
  • University College Dublin are advertising a funded PhD in Early medieval political and/or intellectual culture (c.500-c.1000 CE) which will be supervised by Dr Megan Welton. See the blog post here.
  • An opportunity has arisen to translate Alice in Wonderland into Old Norse – The translator would own the copyright and receive a royalty for copies sold. Those interested should email Sarah Foot.
  • OxMedSoc are looking for a secretary and publicity officer. Please email oxfordmedievalsociety@gmail.com.
  • PRAGESTT German Studies Student Conference will take place on the 21st and 22nd March 2025 at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) – please see https://pragestt.ff.cuni.cz/en/home/
  • The Oxford University Byzantine Society has issued a Call for Papers for their 27th International Graduate Conference, held on the 1st-2nd March 2025, in Oxford and Online. More information can be found here.
  • The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures invites graduate students from across the globe to submit to the annual Medium Ævum Essay Prize. Deadline 2 December. More information can be found here.
  • Check out this handy guide to how to blog – including a call for authors for the OMS blog – by Miles Pattenden.
  • Addenda and corrigenda to Oxford Medieval Studies by Monday 5pm, please.

-TKA

The English flee after the defeat at Hastings. Bayeux Tapestry, Panel 58 (Available online Discover the Bayeux Tapestry online/).

Medieval Matters MT24, Week 6

by

18/11/2024

08:03

Comments Off on Medieval Matters MT24, Week 6

events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

,

Monday morning can mean but one thing: Medieval Matters is here to grace your inboxes once again. As always, a PDF version of the booklet can be found here.

Rumbling in the distance, early work begins on the Medieval Mystery Cycle 2025. At 5pm on Friday 29 November 2024, at St Edmund Hall, there will be an event to bring together actors, directors, musicians and those interested in texts and props. All are welcome, especially those who are unsure how to get involved. Tea and cake provided. More information about the event, and the Cycle in general, can be found on the blog post here which also advertises the exciting (and paid) role of ‘Head of Performance’ for a current graduate student – see below under ‘opportunities’.

EVENTS THIS WEEK

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval Archaeology Seminar – 3pm at the Institute of Archaeology. Rebecca Tyson, U. of Bristol will be speaking on ‘Navigating the Norman invasion of England in 1066: A Maritime Environmental Perspective’.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Moreed Arbabzedah (Jesus Oxford) will be speaking on ‘New Perspectives on Gerald of Wales’.
  • Old Norse Reading Group – 5.30pm in the English Faculty Graduate Common Room.

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12.15pm at Lecture Theatre 2 of the St Cross Building. Nicholas Watson (Harvard) will be speaking on ‘Vernacular Theology in Thirteenth-Century Oxford: Robert Grosseteste and his Circle’.
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Medieval Poetry Reading Group – 4.30pm in the Colin Matthew Room, Radliffe Humanities Building. The theme this week is Light without Sun or Moon: The Poetry of Kabīr.
  • Medieval Church and Culture – tea from 5.00pm (talk starts at 5.15) in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Machester College. Conrad Leyser (Worcester) will be speaking on ‘The Rule of Augustine Revisited’.

Wednesday

  • Reading Jews in Late Antiquity – 10am in Room 207 of The Clarendon Institute. The theme for this week is Late Roman Legislative Codices and Jews.
  • Medieval German Seminar: Konrad von Megenberg ‘Buch der Natur’ – 11.15am at Somerville College. To be added to the Teams group for updates, please email Almut Suerbaum.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm online. To join, please email Michael Stansfield.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Lucia Orlandi (Paris/Rome) will be speaking on ‘Recent Research on Baptism and Baptisteries in Late Antiquity’.
  • History of Art Research Seminar – 5pm in the History Faculty Lecture Theatre. Nancy Thebaut (Oxford) will be speaking on “Queering Medieval Art at The Met Cloisters”.
  • Michaelmas Term 2024 Lecture of the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures – 5.15pm in the
    Memorial Room, The Queen’s College. Christopher Whittick will be speaking on ‘“I Found it in a Skip” – Provenance and Priorities in British Archives’.

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute. For more information, please email Joseph O’Hara.
  • Italian Late Medieval and Early Modern Palaeography Course – 10am in the Chough Room, Teddy Hall.
  • Medieval Anglo-Jewish Texts and Histories – 2pm-5.30pm in the Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute. This group convenes once a term to read together unpublished Hebrew and Latin documents from Medieval England as sources for the history of the Jews before the expulsion of 1290.
  • Greek and Latin Reading Group – 3pm in the Stapledon Room, Exeter Collge. The text this week is Theseus and Romulus (Plutarch, Lives).
  • Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies seminar – 5pm online. Marion Löffler (Cardiff) will be speaking on ‘“Desert wilds of India Africa”: Abergavenny Cymreigyddion Eisteddfod competitions and Empire, 1834–1853’.
  • The Politics of Memory: The Reimagination of Medieval India (Panel Discussion) – 5pm in St Luke’s Chapel, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.
  • Medieval Visual Culture Seminar – 5pm in the Arumugam Building, St Catz. Alixe Bovey (The Courtauld Institute of Art) will be speaking on ‘Visual Storytelling in 14th-century London: Subtexts, Pretexts, Contexts’.
  • Medieval and Renaissance Music Seminar – 5pm online (register here). Lucia Marchi (University of Trento) will be speaking on ‘The Long Life of the Trecento Repertory’.
  • David Patterson Lectures – 6pm in the Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute. Dr Dean Irwin (University of Lincoln) will be speaking on ‘Jews and Christians as Neighbours in Medieval English Towns’.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome.
  • Crafting the Book Lecture – 1pm in the Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre at the Weston Library. Sara Charles and Eleanor Baker will be speaking. For more information, see here.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Crafting the Book Practical Workship – 2.15pm and 4pm in the Bodleian Bibliographical Press (FULLY BOOKED).
  • Middle English Reading Group – 3pm in the Beckington Room, Lincoln College.
  • The Germanic Reading Group – 4pm online. This week, the focus will be on Gothic extracts of Nehemia, led by Morgan. Contact Howard Jones if you would like the zoom link and handout.

UPCOMING

  • The LGBTQ+ History Hackathon is happening on November 29th 2-5.30pm at the History Faculty. Register here.

OPPORTUNITIES (new items highlighted)

  •  Head of Performance sought for Medieval Mystery Plays to pull the strings for the 2025 performance of the Medieval Mystery Plays. Henrike Lähnemann and Lesley Smith, the Co-Directors, are looking for an enthusiastic, creative and, above all, well-organised graduate student or postdoc. There will be a reward of £300. See here the advertisement.
  • CfP for a thematic session at NAPS 2025 titled ‘Scripture and the Arts in Clement of Alexandria‘. Deadline for abstract submissions is November 18th: use this form.
  • 4-year funded Collaborative Doctoral Award(CDA), co-supervised between the University of Nottingham and the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford:  ‘Digital Approaches to Medieval Chant and Local Religious Heritage’. Deadline 13 January 2025: more information here.
  • The Medieval Academy of America’s Graduate Student Committee seeks new committee members for the 2025-2027 term. Submit self-nomination forms here.
  • Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2025 CfP – seeking 20 minute papers from graduate students on the theme of ‘Rituals and Ceremonies’, for a conference held 24th and 25th of April, 2025. More info here.
  • The University of Nebraska-Lincoln are seeking an assistant professor specializing in visual or material cultures between c. 700 and 1750 CE. More Info here.
  • A fully-funded AHRC doctoral studentship at Oxford in partnership with The National Archives is seeking applicants to work on Chaucer’s life and poetry – https://oocdtp.web.ox.ac.uk/ox-cda-turner-nationalarchives.
  • The Central European University are advertising a number of funded PhDs and Masters – see the blog post here.
  • University College Dublin are advertising a funded PhD in Early medieval political and/or intellectual culture (c.500-c.1000 CE) which will be supervised by Dr Megan Welton. See the blog post here.
  • An opportunity has arisen to translate Alice in Wonderland into Old Norse – The translator would own the copyright and receive a royalty for copies sold. Those interested should email Sarah Foot.
  • OxMedSoc are looking for a secretary and publicity officer. Please email oxfordmedievalsociety@gmail.com.
  • PRAGESTT German Studies Student Conference will take place on the 21st and 22nd March 2025 at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) – please see https://pragestt.ff.cuni.cz/en/home/
  • The Oxford University Byzantine Society has issued a Call for Papers for their 27th International Graduate Conference, held on the 1st-2nd March 2025, in Oxford and Online. More information can be found here.
  • The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures invites graduate students from across the globe to submit to the annual Medium Ævum Essay Prize. Deadline 2 December. More information can be found here.
  • Check out this handy guide to how to blog – including a call for authors for the OMS blog – by Miles Pattenden.
  • Addenda and corrigenda to Oxford Medieval Studies by Monday 5pm, please.

-TKA

Bayeux Tapestry, Panel 13 (Available online Discover the Bayeux Tapestry online/)

Medieval Matters MT24, Week 5

by

10/11/2024

18:00

Comments Off on Medieval Matters MT24, Week 5

events, Medieval Matters, News, opportunities, Uncategorized

Four weeks have passed: four weeks remain. In the words of Elton John: ‘I guess that’s why they call it the blues’. To cheer our ailing souls, this week’s Medieval Matters is brimming with upcoming events and a particular concentration of new opportunities. As always, a PDF version of the booklet can be found here.

EVENTS THIS WEEK

Monday

  • French Palaeography Manuscript Reading Group – 10.30am in the Weston Library. Those interested should email Laure Miolo.
  • Medieval History Seminar – 5pm at All Souls College. Gregory Lippiatt (University of Exeter) will be speaking on ‘Bogomils or Bogeymen?: Heresy between East and West in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’. NB. this week, the talk takes place in the Hovendon Room (All Souls).

Tuesday

  • Medieval English Research Seminar – 12.15pm at Lecture Theatre 2 of the St Cross Building. Jenyth Evans (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘”Enucleator venio, non pugnator”: The Uneven Authority of Pseudohistories in Gerald of Wales’.
  • The Latin Palaeography Reading Group meets 2-3.30pm. Please email Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Old Norse Research Seminar – 5pm in Seminar Room L, English Faculty. Alison Finlay (Birkbeck) will be speaking on ‘From Iceland to the World: Translating Flateyjarbók’: all welcome, drinks to follow.
  • Medieval Church and Culture –  5.15pm (coffee from 5pm) in the Wellbeloved Room, Harris Machester College. Eunice Yu (Wolfson) will be speaking on ‘Harmonising Paradox in Early Modern Venice: Collecting and Constructing National Identity in Print’.
  • The Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures: ‘Work in Progress’ Colloquium – 5.15pm in the Memorial Room, Queen’s College. Julia Lorenz (Merton College, Oxford) will be speaking on ‘Konrad of Würzburg’s “Herzmaere”: An Instruction on How (Not) to Love’, and Dr Alan Darmawan (SOAS, London) will be speaking on ‘Mapping Sumatra’s Manuscript Cultures’.
  • Medieval French Research Seminar – 5.15pm at the Maison Française d’Oxford. The theme this week is ‘Researchers at Work: Serendipity and Surprise’

Wednesday

  • Reading Jews in Late Antiquity – 10am in Room 207 of The Clarendon Institute. The theme for this week is – The Emperor and the Jews
  • Medieval German Seminar: Konrad von Megenberg ‘Buch der Natur’ – 11.15am at Somerville College. To be added to the Teams group for updates, please email Almut Suerbaum.
  • Book at Lunchtime, 1-2pm: Henrike Lähnemann in conversation with Lyndal Roper and Nancy Thebaut will present ‘The Life of Nuns’ as part of the TORCH series. You can join the waiting list for the live event at the Radcliffe Humanities Building or watch it live streamed. Register here.
  • Medieval Manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries: An Introduction to Collections and Catalogues – 2pm in the Horton Room, Weston Library. An introduction to the medieval European manuscript collections at the Bodleian Library and the print and online catalogues in which they have been described from the 17th century onwards.
  • Medieval Latin Document Reading Group – 4pm online. To join, please email Michael Stansfield.
  • Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar – 5pm in the Ioannou Centre. Max Lau (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘The Rebirth of Byzantine Anatolia in the Twelfth Century’.

Thursday

  • Medieval Hebrew Reading Group – 10am in the Clarendon Institute. For more information, please email Joseph O’Hara.
  • Greek and Latin Reading Group – 3pm in the Stapledon Room, Exeter Collge. The text this week is Claudius (Tacitus, Annals 13.3).
  • Medieval Women’s Writing Research Group – 1pm online. Aafreen Rashid (South Asian University, New Dehli) will be speaking on ‘Framing Feminist Strategic Discourse: Begum Jahanara and the Exchange of Letters During the War of Succession in Mughal India (1657-59)’. Sign up here.
  • Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies seminar – 5.15pm at Jesus College and online. Elisa Cozzi (Oxford) will be speaking on ‘From Dánta Grá to Dante: Irish–Italian genealogies, 1350–1850’.

Friday

  • Medievalists Coffee Morning – 10.30am at the Weston Library. All welcome.
  • Exploring Medieval Oxford through Lincoln & Magdalen Archives – 2pm in the EPA Centre (Museum Road) Seminar room 1. Please contact Laure Miolo for more information.
  • Middle English Reading Group – 3pm in the Beckington Room, Lincoln College.
  • Anglo-Norman Reading Group – 5pm in the Farmington Institute in Harris Manchester College. For more information, please contact Jane Bliss (jane.bliss@lmh.oxon.org).

UPCOMING

  • To register for the ‘Crafting the Book’ one-day workshop, held on 22 November at the Bodleian Bibliographical Press, please follow this link.
  • The LGBTQ+ History Hackathon is happening on November 29th 2-5.30pm at the History Faculty. Register here.

OPPORTUNITIES (new items highlighted)

  •  CfP for a thematic session at NAPS 2025 titled ‘Scripture and the Arts in Clement of Alexandria‘. Deadline for abstract submissions is November 18th: use this form.
  • 4-year funded Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA), co-supervised between the University of Nottingham and the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford:  ‘Digital Approaches to Medieval Chant and Local Religious Heritage’. Deadline 13 January 2025: more information here.
  • The Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic 2025 is now open to abstract submissions from current postgraduates or those who have recently completed postgraduate study. The theme is ‘Sickness and Health’. More information here.
  • The Medieval Academy of America’s Graduate Student Committee seeks new committee members for the 2025-2027 term. Submit self-nomination forms here.
  • Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2025 CfP – seeking 20 minute papers from graduate students on the theme of ‘Rituals and Ceremonies’, for a conference held 24th and 25th of April, 2025. More info here.
  • The University of Nebraska-Lincoln are seeking an assistant professor specializing in visual or material cultures between c. 700 and 1750 CE. More Info here.
  • A fully-funded AHRC doctoral studentship at Oxford in partnership with The National Archives is seeking applicants to work on Chaucer’s life and poetry – https://oocdtp.web.ox.ac.uk/ox-cda-turner-nationalarchives.
  • The Central European University are advertising a number of funded PhDs and Masters – see the blog post here.
  • University College Dublin are advertising a funded PhD in Early medieval political and/or intellectual culture (c.500-c.1000 CE) which will be supervised by Dr Megan Welton. See the blog post here.
  • An opportunity has arisen to translate Alice in Wonderland into Old Norse – The translator would own the copyright and receive a royalty for copies sold. Those interested should email Sarah Foot.
  • OxMedSoc are looking for a secretary and publicity officer. Please email oxfordmedievalsociety@gmail.com.
  • PRAGESTT German Studies Student Conference will take place on the 21st and 22nd March 2025 at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) – please see https://pragestt.ff.cuni.cz/en/home/
  • The Oxford University Byzantine Society has issued a Call for Papers for their 27th International Graduate Conference, held on the 1st-2nd March 2025, in Oxford and Online. More information can be found here.
  • The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures invites graduate students from across the globe to submit to the annual Medium Ævum Essay Prize. Deadline 2 December. More information can be found here.
  • Check out this handy guide to how to blog – including a call for authors for the OMS blog – by Miles Pattenden.
  • Addenda and corrigenda to Oxford Medieval Studies by Monday 5pm, please.

TKA

Medievalists in their natural habitat. Bayeux Tapestry, Panel 3 (Available online Discover the Bayeux Tapestry online/).

The OMS Beowulf Study Day

by

05/11/2024

11:00

Comments Off on The OMS Beowulf Study Day

events, News, report

On the 18th October, a Beowulf Study Day was organised by Francis Leneghan in honour of the publication of Heather O’Donoghue’s book entitled Beowulf: Poem, Poet and Hero, which was released earlier this year. Heather’s book is an ode to the mastery of Beowulf, ‘imperfect and fraying around the edges as it is’. A roundtrip tour of the poem’s narrative, its poetic makeup, and its modern reception, Heather guides us through this extensive, close reading of Beowulf and its ‘Storyworld’. New readers are warmly welcomed to the landscape of the poem, and readers familiar with the poem meet afresh its setting and society and the inhabitants that populate its landscape, human and otherwise. We are reminded of the poem’s innate and ornate artistry, and the immensity of the poetic skill worked into every half-line. The book offers not just a grand overview of the very stuff of the poem, but speaks to Heather’s nuanced appreciation of the fine threads that string it together, weaving together the voices of poet, narrator and scop, as well as the voices (and voicelessness) of its characters. 

Scholars on the Study Day presented on a range of topics on the epic Old English poem, extolling and echoing Heather’s research, which has reinvigorated Beowulf criticism and reminded us all exactly why Beowulf’s afterlife continues to be so long-lived. 

Just as Heather notes that Beowulf begins ‘with a bang’, the day began, appropriately, with an enthusiastic ‘Hwæt!’ from the room as Laura Varnam asked the audience to participate in her creative responses to Beowulf, which take the form of feminist poetry and give a voice to Grendel’s mother. Alison Killilea followed and read excerpts from her own translation of the poem, a Corkonian take which reimagined Heorot along the crenelations of Carrigrohane Castle.

Helen Appleton and Rachel Burns shared their exciting research later in the morning. Helen suggested that with the dragon fight, the Beowulfpresents us with a hagiographical setting wherein the Geats need a saint but have only a hero. Rachel’s research focused on Wealhtheow’s neck-ring, and its extraordinary ‘thing power’. Her analysis showed us just how loquacious inanimate objects can be, reifying myth, history and historiography.   

In the afternoon, Mark Atherton transformed Seminar Room K into Heorot, encouraging us to think about deictic placement and spatial blocking in the Danish hall, while Edward Gill explored the intricacies of the poem’s microstructure and examined how the poet flits between past, present and future with palindromic syntax.

Francis Leneghan then took us through a myriad of textual parallels that situate Beowulf in the company of other Old English texts. His talk aspired to change the persistent narrative that Beowulf is the ‘odd one out’ in the corpus, suggesting rather that its intertextuality places it at the very centre of Old English literature. Simon Heller followed with a discussion of adaptations of Beowulf, revealing ­­–– to everyone’s surprise –– the poem’s marked narratological similarities with Jaws. 

Fittingly, the final speaker of the day was Heather’s husband, Bernard, who read from his own poetic works inspired by Old English literature. His translation of The Wanderer, uttered softly to the rapt room, brought the day to its close with images poignant not just to the tenth century or to the time at which Bernard composed his translation, but which spoke eerily to the here and now.

Following the series of talks, Heather expressed how galvanising the day had been, motivating her to pursue research on Beowulf. The Study Day brought together students and scholars from Oxford and other institutions, as well as local schoolteachers. Over seventy people in total attended, with some in an overflow room, all united by around 3000 lines of Old English poetry which continue to yield new interpretations and creative responses. As the day ended, Francis reminded us that ­we are not at the end but the beginning of Beowulf scholarship.

Grace O’Duffy (St John’s College)