Category: report

A Ship, A Saga, and a Scholar

by

07/12/2024

08:58

Comments Off on A Ship, A Saga, and a Scholar

blog, report, Uncategorized

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

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

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)

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

by

01/11/2024

17:26

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

Around Oxford, events, report, Uncategorized

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

by

06/08/2024

16:44

1 Comment on 12th Century Iffley – Study Days

Around Oxford, report

, ,

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

by

11/07/2024

09:46

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

Around Oxford, report

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