Morning Medieval Miscellany

Since there were only a few items yesterday, I decided to hold off on the latest MMM until today. Big mistake. The floodgates opened! Now, let's see how many of these I can get through before having to start my day.

• In a prescient understanding of medievalism, the Romans played Dungeons & Dragons. Well, not really, but check this out anyway.
• Julie K. Rose has a kind of mappa mundi ideogram I've never seen before.
• Early Medieval Art has a few new entries.
• The Medieval History Term of the Week is pavise.
• Scribal Terror reminds us that Friday the 13th is a bad day for Templars.
• Among the more bizarre offerings is "The Letters of Abelard and Heloise: Mattress Salesman and Customer." h/t The Ruminate.
• Jeff Sypeck explores some New Orleans medievalism, a shrine to St. Roche.
• The Naked Philologist has a post on the Tironean Note, 7 a post on Guðrun Osvifursdottir, 7 a post on St. Æðelþryð, 7 a bunch of her own ribald new icons for the saint. 7 now you know what the Tironean Note is, even if you didn't at the beginning of this post!
• Moyen Age has proof that monkeys ride unicorns.
• Medieval Material Culture Blog has a few new posts, including one about Prince Charles finally paying off an old debt. OK, it's an early modern debt, not really medieval. If he wanted to pay off a medieval debt, he'd buy me a medieval library to replace what Henry VIII destroyed in the dissolution of the monasteries.
• Stephanie Trigg writes about whether a garter is really a garter.
• Heroic Dreams has a post on the castle they're building for Medieval World. I called the folks there about a year ago to talk about their project; you can read my post here.
• The Heroic Age has a number of new posts, including CfPs for a Gender and Medieval Studies Conference and the Northeast MLA, as well as a post on the SCRIPTO ("Scholarly Codicological Research, Information & Paleographical Tools") program.
• Heavenfield has a story about John of Beverly's healing breath, and why you want to make sure you have a decent priest, lest you crack your skull and have an invalid baptism.
• Jonathan Jarrett asks where the evidence of medieval sex slaves is.

I might do something for Dragon*Con this year. I'm talking with them about it now.