Morning Medieval Miscellany

I might also have an original content post later in the day, depending on how it goes with updating my composition syllabi. Until then:

• Old Norse News has two posts about various CfPs.
• The Heroic Age has a bunch of CfPs too.
• Here's something interesting. Drachenwold, which I think is the European branch of the SCA, has a set of instructional videos for fighting with medieval weapons.
• Lots of people have been linking to this story about the world's oldest joke*, which also has a well-known Anglo-Saxon riddle as the oldest British joke. I'm not a riddle expert, but, really? The oldest extant Anglo-Saxon dirty riddle is as late as 10th Century? I know most of our riddles come from the Exeter book, which is 10th century, but I thought we could source some a lot earlier. Can any riddle experts out there confirm this? By the way, the riddle goes, "What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before?" Answer below.**
• Michael Drout announces that Anglo-Saxon Aloud is back. I'll probably be assigning students to listen to it in preparation for their recitations.
• The Medieval Historical Fiction Novel of the Week is Tom Harper's The Mosaic of Shadows.
• Jonathan Jarrett reviews Leslie Alcock's Kings & Warriors, Craftsmen & Priests in Northern Britain AD 550-850.
• Here's a discussion of how medievalist the world of Harry Potter is. I'm inclined to say, "not very," but apparently others disagree. h/t Quid Plura?
• The Swain returns to his discussion of mythic origins stories.
• News for Medievalists has an article over a claim that a Chinese fleet went to Italy in 1434, influencing Leonardo da Vinci. Um, I'm one of those guys who's been arguing that East-West contact in the Middle Ages was greater than we usually assuming, but I'm not buying this.
• Speaking of the medieval East, the Met will have an exhibit of 10th-13th Century Buddhist palm-leaf manuscripts. h/t Medieval Material Culture Blog.
• The Naked Philologist has got two little tidbits about fandom and medieval languages.
• Cultural Diversity in the British Middle Ages is now available for pre-order.
• Stephanie Trigg discusses the place of contemporary medievalism in medieval scholarship. Jonathan Jarrett addresses this same issue, coming from the other other direction.
• Got Medieval, before going on a month hiatus, offered us this post on the month of August.

Dang, I might have another original-content post before the day is done. Can you tell I'm procrastinating preparing for composition classes?


*"Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap." I suspect, though I haven't looked, that this Sumerian joke is now defunct, since there are probably pornographic websites devoted to exactly this sort of thing.
** Answer: A key.