Morning Medieval Miscellany

Here are a few medieval links to get you through the long weekend:

• Random Dafydd has a post on a manuscript from the Durham Cathedral Library, wherein he explains why what exactly shelfmarks are, and how they work. A really nice post for scholars and non-scholars alike.
• Magistra et Mater has a post on monastic wills, and particularly the practice of willing tomb-caves.
• Over at A Commonplace Book, Will McLean has two posts on economics one discussing social rank, and the other discussing the difficulties in comparing medieval buying power with today.
• Jonathan Jarrett is trying to organize a blogger meet-up in London, and in the meantime offers us a post on female monasticism.
• News for Medievalists has four new posts, including two medieval fairs, one on a medieval boat that was just discovered, and one on all the talk about the English* laying claim to the Bayeux Tapestry.
• The Heroic Age 11 is up, including articles by prominent bloggers. They've also got a bunch of other new posts on their blog.
• The Medieval Historical Fiction Novel of the Week is Champion, by L. Christian Balling.
• Dr. Virago discusses the connections between literature and linguistics in English Departments -- and she's quite right.
• Jeff Sypeck continues his series of reviews of Lloyd Alexander's non-Prydian books. It's not really medievalist this time, but I figured I'd throw it in anyway as part of the series.
• Also in the category of "not really medieval," Cronaca has a couple of posts on Roman Britain.
• Got Medieval offers impeccable evidence that the Once and Future King has returned (and I guess is now the Once and Present King?).
• Steve Muhlberger links to a Smithsonian article about the Sea Stallion, which frankly I'd forgotten all about.
• Homilaria introduces Gregory the Great's gospel homilies.
• In the Middle announces the first George Washington University Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute Symposium, on November 7th.
• Medieval Material Culture Blog discusses medieval Welsh descriptions of "football," though it's not clear to me that there is any relationship between that and the current use of the word, except for the combining of the words foot and ball -- a not-surprising combination if you consider today we use the term for both American football and soccer.

In a post about what kind of tattoo a historian should get, CyberMedievalist directed me to a medieval history blog I had never heard of, Sententiae et Clamores. Also, Per Omnia Saecula directs us to a brand-new blog called The Medieval Garden Enclosed, about the Cloisters museums and gardens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'm updating my blogroll, etc., accordingly, and hope you'll do the same.

*Question: Why in all these articles are they called the "British?" Wouldn't it properly be the "English" in the case?