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The Oxford Medieval Mystery Plays 2025

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05/05/2025

04:47

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From the Creation to Judgement Day

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 and scroll through film stills by the camera team.

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
Screenshot of the OMS Beacons page, featuring logos of all major social media apps

Oxford Medieval Social Media: A Retrospective

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21/04/2025

19:32

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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/.

Apocalypse – the Trailer

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10/04/2025

06:08

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Shaw Worth (MSt. Medieval Studies 2024)

Scripture suggests that the Christian apocalypse will only happen once. OMS, however, has so far seen two in Hilary Term, both in preparation for the Medieval Mystery Plays 2025 on 26 April 2026 (programme here, and more below), with one now available to stream in perpetuity for HistoryHit’s new documentary The Medieval Apocalypse, presented by Dr Eleanor Janega.

A shorter version of the performance for HistoryHit, composed from the outtakes (thanks to Laura McMillen who sent over the edited clip!)

Hopefully the post below can shed some light onto the process of mounting a medieval performance-text, and offer some insight into the dramaturgs hard at work for their performances on the 26th April. We hope if you watch both your appetites for the Plays might be whetted—especially for those hankering for the Judgement-narrative, of which another staging is forthcoming by the MSt English 650–1550 cohort on the 26th!  

Choosing the text

Though Middle English versions of the Last Judgement exist across the gamut of post-Conquest literature (in poetry and prose as well as drama), Henrike Lähnemann chose an excerpt from so-called ‘Towneley’ collection of mystery plays as our performance text since a) there was already a text available from the preparation for the 2019 cycle, b) (more importantly) it starts with the reference to a horn!

our company (Professor Henrike Lähnemann, Dr Andrew Dunning, Timothy Powell, Michael Angerer, Shaw Worth, Monty Powell, and the Revd Andreas Wenzel)

Like most religious medieval English drama, we ultimately know very little about the provenance and assembly of the texts that come together in their unique sixteenth-century witness (San Marino, California, Huntington Library, MS HM 1). Unlike the York and Chester cycles, it’s not clear when, or by whom the plays were commissioned; as I’ll discuss below, they show marks of major internal revision, suggesting their transmission over an extended period. That would fit with our idea of English dramatic cycles taking place around the Feast of Corpus Christi in the summer: on one day, different guilds re-staged episodes from the Bible from Genesis through to Revelation, at least some of the time on mobile wagons in civic centres between which spectators could move.

The cycle takes its name from the prominent Lancashire family in whose library the manuscript containing the plays was held until the nineteenth century; the dialect of the plays themselves, however, suggests a West Yorkshire origin, and has long been associated with Wakefield in the West Riding, though debate around that attribution rages on. The Last Judgement is a particular gem from the Towneley plays insofar as it bears the distinctive nine-line stanza used by one (hypothetically reconstructed) contributor to the cycle usually called the ‘Wakefield Master’, whose naturalism and comedy elevates what are otherwise completely pedestrian reiterations of doctrinal tropes into rich dramas. (For an accessible introduction to the Master’s verbal tricks, check out the London Review of Books’ Medieval LOLs podcast episode on the Second Shepherds’ Play, hosted by Drs Mary Wellesley and Irina Dumitrescu — link here! – and watch the play in the 2019 performance).

The story as we cut it is very simple—and I’ll avoid ‘spoilers’ to keep you entertained—but the play sees two souls, Bonus and Malus (Monty Powell and Michael Angerer), called to attest to their earthly deeds before Christ seated in majesty and accompanied by three (non-speaking, but singing) helper-angels (Henrike Lähnemann, Andrew Dunning, Tim Powell), and Jesus’ (me) replies to them both. By Malus he is less than impressed…

Putting the play together

Then came the issue of how to stage it. To call any contemporary performance of Middle English (religious) plays ‘historical reconstructions’ is hard to justify, though the situation varies from text to text. Almost no information regarding the staging of the four major cycles survives (beyond some rather opaque, and certainly guild-manipulated registers from York), to say nothing of the fact that the (Tudor!) witnesses to Middle English cycle drama postdate their first performances in most cases by almost two centuries. The Towneley manuscript more likely emerges from sixteenth-century antiquarianism, in other words, rather than from active use. As a substitute, with Henrike’s help and direction, we used stage directions from fifteenth-century German dramatic records, like those surrounding the Bordesholm Marienklage, which leaves rich prefatory details in Latin of players, costumes, and props down to individual textile-types. As Christ I wore a paper crown and (real) liturgical vestments, provided by Andreas Wenzel from the St Edmund Hall chapel (including the right preparatory prayers); stigmata were ably provided by Alison Ray of the Bodleian, whose Burt’s Bees tinted lip balm (sponsorship pending) lent a rather septic sheen to Christ’s woundys, smeared on Boots own-brand cotton gloves. Malus and Bonus wore academic gowns over black; the angels wore surplices and wings from the St Edmund Hall costume store, along with—long-term OMS fans can be reassured—Henrike’s bannered horn invoked by Malus in the opening lines.

Filming and reperformance

Filming for the HistoryHit documentary took place in January. Following a quick review of the text and a rundown on mid-Yorkshire vowels circa 1450, we set up to film in the extraordinary Romanesque crypt (under the medieval church of St Peter-in-the-East, now in use as the college library; the crypt itself has been largely unaltered since the twelfth century). There we met Eleanor, the HistoryHit camera team, and the English Faculty’s own Professor Laure Ashe, who also features in the documentary as an interviewed expert. Laura, Eleanor, and Alison provided our ‘audience’, providing boos, cheers, and some less-than-pious (and probably more historically accurate) snickers; with some B-roll taken by the team, and coffee enjoyed afterwards, the documentarians vanished away to some of their other treats (if these delights weren’t enough, also see Alison introducing the Douce Apocalypse in the film as well!) 

In Eighth Week we then reperformed the same extract in the Visiting Scholars’ Centre in the Weston for full term’s final Medieval Coffee Morning as a kind of live ‘ad’ for the Mystery Plays.

Performing in the library allowed us the particular treat of presenting one of the Bodleian’s lesser-appreciated treasures, namely the roll containing the pseudo-dramatic Middle English fragment known as the Dux Moraud (Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. poet. f. 2). If it is indeed an ‘actor’s roll’, as some critics have been eager to suggest, then this rather slender piece of parchment is a vanishingly rare gateway into the performance culture that flourished in East Anglia in the mid-late fifteenth century, including plays like Wisdom, The Castle of Perseverance, the Digby Mary Magdalene, and the N-Town cycle. Like other extant Anglian plays extant, the Moraud is distinctively racier than other regions of Middle English cycle drama; we won’t tell if you look it up. 

Despite the fact that they feature the same actors using the same text, these two versions of the Towneley Judgementdemonstrate very neatly the huge potential value of experimental reperformance—of music, mime, liturgy, and dance as well as drama—as a means of engaging with medieval media at large. The HistoryHit documentary brings up interesting questions: with the intervention of the camera, the viewer is no longer free to observe different aspects of the performance going on at once; modern English subtitles ‘remediate’ the frequently alliterative Middle English text, dropping another kind of information into the mix; narration, rather like the long German prefaces mentioned above, will set audiences looking to correlate what they’ve previously heard with what they’re seeing. The Weston performance, on the other hand, makes fewer modernization attempts, but prompted a fair few audience questions on what had actually been said! 

All that’s to say that reasons are very few that medievalists shouldn’t find themselves at Teddy Hall on the 26th to watch the Mystery Plays. The day will bring together a huge range of religious drama and promises to alchemize some cross-discipline work as always.

Cast

Jesus (Shaw Worth) – MSt. Medieval Studies
Malus/Evil Soul (Michael Angerer) – DPhil. candidate in Medieval English
Bonus/Good Soul (Monty Powell) – MSt. Modern Languages
Singing Angel (Andrew Dunning) – Curator of Medieval Manuscripts
Trumpet angle (Henrike Lähnemann) – Professor of Medieval German Literature and Linguistics

Text extract from the Towneley Judgement play in the Oxford Text Archive

Malus: Alas I harde that horne / that callys vs to the dome, 3 All that euer were borne / thider behofys theym com. 4 May nathere lande ne se / vs from this dome hide, 5 ffor ferde fayn wold, I fle / bot I must nedys abide; […] 6 Alas, that I was borne! 11 I se now me beforne, 12 That lord with Woundys fyfe; 13 how may I on hym loke, 14 That falsly hym forsoke, 15 When I led synfull lyfe? 16

Jesus: The day is commen of catyfnes, 394 all those to care that ar vncleyn, 395 The day of batell and bitternes, 396 ffull long abiden has it beyn; 397 The day of drede to more and les, 398 of Ioy, of tremlyng, and of teyn. 399 Ilka wight that wikyd is 400 may say, alas this day is seyn! 401 here may ye se my Woundys wide 402 that I suffred for youre mysdede, 403 Thrugh harte, hede, fote, hande and syde, 404 not for my gilte bot for youre nede. […] 405 All this suffred I for thi sake. 432 say, man, What suffred, thou for me? 433 Mi blissid barnes on my right hande, 434 youre dome this day thar ye not drede, […] 435 When I was hungre ye me fed, 442 To slek my thrist ye war full fre; 443 When I was clothles ye me cled, 444 ye Wold, no sorowe on me se; […] 445 Therfor in heuen shall be youre rest, 456 In ioy and blys to beld, me by. 457

Bonus: lord, When had thou so mekill nede? 458 hungre or thrusty, how myght it be? 459 When was oure harte fre the to feede? 460 In prison When myght We the se? 461 When was thou seke, or wantyd wede? 462 To harbowre the when helpid we? 463 When had thou nede of oure fordede? 464 when did we all this dede to the? 465

Jesus: Mi blissid barnes, I shall you say 466 what tyme this dede was to me done; […] 467 My blessed bairns, I shall you say What time this deed was to me done; … ye cursid, catyfs of kames kyn, 474 That neuer me comforthid, in my care, 475 Now I and ye for euer shall twyn, 476 In doyll to dwell for euer mare; […] 477 Catyfs, ye chaste me from youre yate; 483 when ye were set as syres on bynke 484 I stode ther oute wery and Wate, 485 yit none of you Wold, on me thynke, 486 To haue pite on my poore astate; 487 Therfor to hell I shall you synke, […]!

Malus: 488 lorde, when had thou, that all has, 504 hunger or thriste, sen thou god is? 505 When was that thou in prison was? 506 When was thou nakyd or harberles? […] 507 Alas, for doyll this day! 512 alas, that euer I it abode! 513 Now am I dampned for ay, 514 this dome may I not avoyde. 515

Jesus: Mi chosyn childer, commes to me! 524 With me to dwell now shall ye weynde, 525 Ther ioy and blys euer shall be, 526 youre life in lykyng for to leynde! 527 Jesus turns to Malus and sends him out howling ye warid Wightys, from me ye fle, 528 In hell to dwell withoutten ende! 529 Ther shall ye noght bot sorow se, 530 And sit bi sathanas the feynde. 531

Bonus: We loue the, lorde, in alkyn thyng, 613 That for thyne awne has ordand thus, 614 That we may haue now oure dwellyng 615 In heuen blis giffen vnto vs. 616 Therfor full boldly may we syng 617 On oure way as we trus; 618 Make we all myrth and louyng 619 With te deum laudamus.

A Ship, A Saga, and a Scholar

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07/12/2024

08:58

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Mary Catherine O’Connor

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

Crafting the Book: A One-Day Workshop Report

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25/11/2024

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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

The OMS Beowulf Study Day

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05/11/2024

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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)

The inaugural ADAM workshop (Addressing Difficult Aspects of the Medieval) 

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01/11/2024

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The inaugural ADAM (Addressing Difficult Aspects of the Medieval) workshop took place from the 23rd–24th September 2024 at St. John’s College, University of Oxford. 

The programme on Monday 23rd began with a 90-minute discussion of the ‘Möndull-Ingibjörg’ episode from Göngu-Hrólfs saga. The committee selected this episode as it contains references to sexual assault, physical disability, and race. 

We distributed the text in an English translation several weeks before the workshop. In the session we discussed: the ‘sanitisation’ of sexual violence and racial insensitivity through translation; the difficulty in mapping contemporary understandings of rape, race, and disability onto the past; the scholar’s positionality in their approach to these topics. The conversation soon moved beyond the text to consider these issues in academia at large. Positionality was particularly controversial, with delegates discussing their discomfort in studying topics without lived experience – ‘am I the right person to be speaking about this?’ – and the potential advantages and disadvantages to foregrounding one’s own experience in academic work. The conversation led us to consider how research grounded in lived experience might complement that which is not, and how scholars of different positionalities might collaborate.

This opening discussion was followed by two paper sessions, the first of which was on ‘Facing the public: What do people want from history?’ and the second on ‘Ethnic identities: interrogating nationhood and colonialism’. Among the papers, we heard considerations of: the risk of harassment faced by women scholars; museological representations of slavery; racial erasure in the interpretation of a Middle English lyric; and the miscategorisation of the ‘Ruthanian’ language along contemporary national lines.

These sessions were followed by a keynote presentation from Professor Corinne Saunders (University of Durham). Professor Saunders gave an instructive account of her movement from her doctoral thesis, to her seminal monograph on ‘Rape and Ravishment’; an academic path she did not anticipate as a postgraduate. She was aware of the pressure upon scholars who ‘fall into’ the study of topics such as these to equip themselves both academically and psychologically. She also noted that a project can become more ‘difficult’ due to external factors, such as when COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd coincided with the final stage of a project on ‘breathlessness’.

The following day began with a group tour with the Uncomfortable Oxford social enterprise. In our scheduled discussion afterwards, delegates were especially taken by the tour’s engagement with the history of antisemitism in the city and the location of a number of University landmarks atop significant Jewish sites. We discussed the University’s reticence when addressing difficult histories and the insufficiency of the ‘plaque response’, whereby a commemorative plaque is erected in a way that might be easily overlooked or dismissed. Delegates debated the best way to supplement such a response so that these aspects of institutional history sit alongside prevailing, comfortable narratives.

Two sessions followed under the banner of ‘Sexual interactions’, the first considering ‘Power structures and interpersonal relationships’ and the second ‘Violence, affect, and audience’. Dividing this topic into two allowed delegates to engage with medieval representations of sexual material that frustrate contemporary categories.  We heard papers on the study of: conjugal violence in court reports of 15th-century Freising; how best to teach the phenomenon of the ‘raping hero’; and ‘compassion fatigue’ in scholars dealing with artistic representations of Lucretia’s rape by Tarquinius.

The workshop concluded with a panel on ‘Redefinitions: Moving beyond structures’, which dovetailed with our recurrent discussions of terminology and the lack of overlap between contemporary language and historical concepts. Papers were presented on the inadequacy of contemporary disability theory in appraising medieval medical text, and the applicability of queer theory to the interpretation of cross-dressing in a monastic context. The workshop concluded with an hour-long discussion, in which we restated our need to wrangle with contemporary language and its misalignment with the categories of the past, as well as to continuously re-evaluate ‘best practice’ in addressing these difficult topics, both in the classroom and in scholarship.

We canvassed for anonymous feedback from our delegates following the workshop and the response has been uniformly positive, with comments emphasising the value of the workshop environment for rigorous and respectful debate. Our delegates have offered a number of suggestions for the network’s development and we now look towards implementing a mailing list and website to provide resources for scholars, organising an edited collection of papers from the workshop, and arranging an open conference at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. We have also been invited to collaborate with Corinne Saunders in her work at The Affective Experience Lab, University of Durham.

We are most grateful to OMS for the financial support.

Adam Kelly (University of Oxford), Grace O’Duffy (University of Oxford), Elliot Worrall (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)

12th Century Iffley – Study Days

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06/08/2024

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The last of the events organised by Living Stones, St Mary the Virgin, Iffley took place on Saturday 8 September, 2.00 – 5.00 Iffley Church Hall OX4 4EG, focussing on how the world changed in the 12th century when Iffley Church was built.

In ‘Encountering the Other: Conflict and connection in 12th-century Europe’, Dr Teresa Witcombe took us on a tour from Oxford to Toledo and back with Daniel of Morley, a scholar whose works are still preserved in the Bodleian Library. This century also saw the first Latin translation of the Qur’an (produced by an Englishman, Robert of Ketton, in the 1140s), and an increasing curiosity about the world beyond the Latin west.

This was followed by a workshop on the spread of secular music with Ian Pittaway; follow him on https://earlymusicmuse.com. Ian presented medieval harp, symphonia, gittern and citole. Playlist:

  • 0:04:14 Sainte Nicholaes godes druð (Godric of Finchale, England, died 1170)
  • 0:08:49 Cuers desirous apaie = A heart that is yearning (Blondel de Nesle, France, c. 1155–1202)
  • 0:17:58 Ce fu en mai = It was in May (Moniot d’Arras, France, fl. c. 1213 – d. 1239)
  • 0:23:00 Danse (Manuscrit du roi, France, c. 1300)
  • 0:27:57 brid one brere = bird on a briar (anonymous, England, c. 1290)
  • 0:34:55 Mirie it is (anonymous, England, c. 1225)
  • 0:43:36 Sumer is icumen in (anonymous, England, c. 1250-60) [with audience participation – listen out for the cuckoo!]
  • 0:49:25 La seconde Estampie Royal – The second Royal Estampie (Manuscrit du roi, France, c. 1300)
  • 0:53:55 untitled estampie (anonymous, England, c. 1270)
  • 1:16:16 Edi beo thu heuene queene (anonymous, England, c. 1265–90)

We hope to continue the theme next year with a focus on the symbolism of the architectural features and carvings around the church. Please get in touch if you are interested in sharing your research! For contact details and this year’s programme see https://livingstonesiffley.org.uk/events

Iffley Church was built in the 1160s. Its lavish design and ornamentation clearly express complex ideas that were topical then but which mystify today’s visitors. Living Stones, the church’s education and heritage programme, is exploring the changing world of the building’s patron and parishioners. This year a series of study days focuses on life and scholarship in the twelfth century.

On 18 May 2024, the opening talks focussed on manuscripts from St Frideswide’s Priory and records of pilgrims to St Frideswide’s shrine with Andrew Dunning and Anne Bailey. On 13 July 2024, Emily Winkler presented interpretations of the past, and Stewart Tiley immersed us in book creation: https://livingstonesiffley.org.uk/past-events/f/building-on-the-past-and-writing-for-the-future

Dr Andrew Dunning, St Frideswide’s Legacy: Literature and Local Care in Twelfth-Century Oxford

The canons of St Frideswide’s Priory relaunched what later became Christ Church Cathedral in the 12th century. The Priory became a locally renowned place of pilgrimage attracting large numbers of women looking for healing for themselves and their families. Surviving miracle stories show the concern that the canons took for local pastoral care, and their efforts to reach equally ‘the rich and the poor, the small with the great’.

Dr Anne E. Bailey, St Frideswide’s Female Pilgrims in the Middle Ages.

Further information on Dr Anne E. Bailey’s work can be found on https://twitter.com/AnneEBailey1  and her publications page. More on the Pilgrimage Study Day on 25 June 2024, co-organised be her, with a keynote address by Andrew Dunning and the Pilgrimage walk along St Frideswide’s Way (26-29 June 2024), a guided walk with prayers and reflection to launch the new pilgrimage route between Oxford and Reading. Led by Dr Anne Bailey, Canon Sally Welch, and Revd Dr Zachary Guiliano. Pilgrims were blessed at the beginning of the journey by the Bishop of Oxford.

Header image: The Norman West porch of St Mary the Virgin, Iffley

The TORCH Network Poetry in the Medieval World after Two Terms of Activity

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11/07/2024

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Ugo Mondini is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and the Principal Investigator of the TORCH Network. He works on medieval Greek poetry and language education in the eleventh-century Byzantine Empire.

As we approach our first summer break, it is time to reflect on the initial activities of the TORCH Network Poetry in the Medieval World. The OMS Blog has generously offered us space to share our journey so far, which has taken us through the forms, languages, communities, and geographies of medieval poetry and the challenges its comparative study poses.

Rowing Towards a Theory of Medieval Poetry

Our fortnightly reading group has been the cornerstone of our activities, offering a place and time to explore medieval poetry from various regions and languages and hear each other’s views. We convened in the Humanities building every even week during term time, and we discussed medieval poetry with tea, coffee, and biscuits.

In Hilary 2024, with Ugo Mondini, Marina Bazzani, and Theo Van Lint, we addressed the complexities of Greek and Armenian poetry. In Trinity 2024, Jennifer Guest guided us through the different forms of medieval Japanese poetry. Poems, presented through handouts in their original languages and writings alongside a Romanisation/phonetic transcription and a translation, were read aloud in the original language, translated, explained in depth and in context, and discussed. This has allowed participants to appreciate the complexities, nuances, and beauty of each poem, and of each poetry.

We are delighted to see how dynamic our sessions can be and how they evolve based on participants’ interests and interactions, driven by a shared curiosity and passion for medieval literature as well as by the pursuit of a choral, informed theory of medieval poetry. For instance, we discussed if and how to compare the way in which vernacular and learned poetry emerged and functioned in Greek and Japanese. We also observed the evolution of Armenian poetry, focusing on eleventh-century works. In our discussions, we reflected on the different ways pre-modern audiences may have appreciated poetry as well as on the challenges of translating poetry into modern languages.

Each session attracted a diverse audience, including students, early-career researchers, senior scholars, and administrative staff. We also had the pleasure of welcoming non-Oxonian participants, who happened to be in Oxford and are usually based in Edinburgh, Milan, and London/Tokyo. The average attendance was 4–8 people per session.

The International Workshop

We hosted our first international workshop, Binding the World, Withholding Life: Poetry Books in the Medieval Mediterranean, generously sponsored by the British Comparative Literature Association, the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research, and TORCH. The event took place at Exeter College (FitzHugh Auditorium), Oxford. We thank once again the College and its staff for their hospitality and service.

This workshop examined medieval poetry books from various origins, exploring their features, functions, and impact on the transmission and appreciation of medieval poetry across different ages and cultures. We explored how poems were stored, organised, and displayed, addressing the broader question of what ideas of medieval poetry and poetry books can be gleaned from these sources.

We took a comparative approach, with speakers focusing on different literary traditions around the Medieval Mediterranean. After the greetings of Sub-Rector Barnaby Taylor and Marc Lauxtermann, the two organisers, Ugo Mondini and Alberto Ravani, shared some opening remarks. Marisa Galvez (Stanford University) discussed books with poems in Romance languages, Niels Gaul (The University of Edinburgh) focused on Greek, Marlé Hammond (SOAS) covered Arabic, and Adriano Russo (École française de Rome) addressed Latin. The discussions were rich and varied, offering deep insights into the transmission and preservation of medieval poetry.

Exploring Manuscripts
Nicholas Kontovas led an excellent seminar at the Weston Library, where we could admire magnificent manuscripts of the Romance of Alexander. This seminar delved into the transmission eastwards of the legend of Alexander the Great – both in poetry and prose – through illuminated manuscripts from the Bodleian Libraries. The tickets sold out so quickly that we did not even have time to advertise the event. This stimulated us to organise similar activities in the near future. We thank again Nicholas and the Bodleian Libraries for this opportunity.

The Future of Research
Where is the research on medieval poetry going? And how is this direction related to other fields of study? The Doctoral Seminar Projecting Poetry has been an exciting initiative designed to provide a platform for doctoral students working on medieval poetry to present their ongoing research to a diverse audience of fellow students and senior scholars. So far, we have hosted five seminars covering poetic traditions from Greek, Arabic, Middle and Late Medieval English, and Italian; another one is scheduled for September 2024. We continue to welcome submissions from Oxonian, national, and international doctoral students, encouraging explorations of potential intersections between academic disciplines.

Ideas on and of Poetry
In HT W9, with Elizabeth Hebbard (Indiana University Bloomington)’s thought-provoking paper on the study of Troubadour melodies, we launched the new series Talks on Medieval Poetry. Through these lectures, we invite international scholars to present theories of poetry and insights from their research, which may have broader implications for the understanding of medieval poetry and literature.

Looking Ahead

After the summer break, there is much more to come. In Michaelmas 2024, our reading group will resume, bringing together Oxonian enthusiasts of medieval poetry to explore new texts and traditions. Our Talks on Medieval Poetry will feature lectures by international scholars – three are already scheduled between December 2024 and April 2025, but no spoilers for now! We anticipate receiving fascinating proposals for the Doctoral Seminars Projecting Poetry. But we are also developing brand new activities in person, online, and in hybrid format, fostering collaborations with other networks and research centres at Oxford and around the globe.

So, stay connected with us through our website, newsletter (blank email to poetrymedievalworld-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk), and social media (X/Twitter: @PoetryMedieval) for updates. If you want to learn more about the network, contact us via email. And if you want to contribute, you are more than welcome: We are open to new ideas and feasible proposals.

For now, enjoy the summer! We look forward to seeing you all in the new academic year.

Picture credit: The blind Homer http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/15480

Peter Ganz Centenary

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03/11/2020

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To celebrate the life and work of Professor Peter Felix Ganz on the centenary of his birth, Oxford medievalist extraordinaire, scholar and ambassador of Anglo-German relationship, a group of Oxford colleagues, friends, former students and family was talking about his scholarly legacy and memories of his life. The event was life-streamed on Tuesday 3 November, 6:30-8pm, via youtube. We would welcome further tributes and memories; please send them Adam Ganz.

Schedule

  • Introduction – Adam Ganz
  • Peter Ganz as a German Medievalist – Henrike Lähnemann and Nigel Palmer
  • Peter Ganz as Mentor – Bryan Ward Perkins
  • Peter Ganz and Jacob Burckhardt – Nicolette Mout
  • Peter Ganz as Colleague – Andrew Kahn, Nicholas Cronk, and further Oxford colleagues

About Peter Ganz

Peter Felix Ganz (Mainz, 3 November 1920 – Oxford, 17 August 2006) came to the U.K. in 1938 as a refugee, having been held in Buchenwald concentration camp after Kristallnacht, as he and his family were considered Jews under the Nazi laws. He started to read German at King’s College London, but was soon interned on the Isle of Man. During the war he served first in the Royal Pioneer Corps and then in the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (The so-called Secret Listeners), listening to captured German Prisoners of War. He was part of the team at Farm Hall listening to the German nuclear physicists including Werner Heisenberg and Otto Hahn as they heard news of the atom bomb at Hiroshima.

He concluded his studies at King’s College London (PhD 1955). After holding lectureships in London, he came to Oxford in 1960 as Reader in German and subsequently Fellow of Hertford College. He was a pioneer of widening participation, part of the small group of Hertford fellows who encouraged applicants from schools who did not usually send pupils to Oxford. In 1972 he was appointed Professor of German and became a Fellow of St Edmund Hall. In 1985 he retired to take up the position of Resident Fellow at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel and an honorary professorship at the University of Göttingen (until 1988). His wife Rosemary (with whom he had 4 children) died in 1986. His second marriage to me, a Dutch historian, led him to divide his life between England and the Netherlands.

The subject of his first book (1957) was the influence of English on the German vocabulary, 1640-1815. His interests soon broadened. He edited a number of medieval texts, of which his edition (1978) of Gottfried von Straßburg’s masterpiece Tristan became the best-known. His Oxford inaugural lecture on Jacob Grimm’s Conception of German Studies (1973) showed his own commitment to the study of language in combination with historical investigations. He wrote on Paul Celan, admired Bertolt Brecht, and loved Theodor Fontane. He did not mince his words, though, if he happened to dislike certain literary figures – a fate that befell Thomas Mann. His teaching reflected his exceptional range of interests.

He was instrumental in bringing together the results of Anglo-American and German medieval scholarship through lectures, conferences, and joint publications. With Werner Schröder (Marburg) he set up the Anglo-German Colloquia for German Medieval Studies still the most important forum for the exchange of scholarship in medieval studies between Britain and Germany. He was awarded the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz in 1973. Twenty years later he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg.

At the Herzog August Bibliothek he founded an international work group for medieval studies. Among its aims were the modernization of the catalogue of the library’s vast medieval manuscript collection and the reconstruction of medieval religious culture in Lower Saxony and beyond. The many visiting fellows found in him a kind, but nevertheless quite challenging interlocutor. The reinvention of the Herzog August Bibliothek as a research centre for European cultural history must partly be attributed to his efforts. The current close collaboration between the Bodleian Library and the HAB through the Polonsky German project would not have been possible if it had not been for this well-established link.

In the seventies he developed an interest in the life and works of the Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897). He greatly admired Burckhardt for his independent and rigorous scholarship preferring synthesis over narrativism. Ganz devoted his Göttingen inaugural lecture to a rather tongue-in-cheek treatment of Burckhardt’s ambiguous relation to academic society. His edition of Burckhardt’s lectures, Über das Studium der Geschichte (1982), is a masterpiece, and in 2000 the second edition was included in the new Kritische Gesamtausgabe of Burckhardt’s works. His edition of Burckhardt’s medieval lectures was still unfinished at the time of his death.

***

Further reading: Nigel F. Palmer ‘Ganz, Peter Felix’ in ODNB. The blog post was first published by TORCH in November 2020. Picture: Peter Ganz at the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel 1986