Reactions to "Michael Jackson and Saint Guinefort"

Here are a few reactions to my First Things piece, "Michael Jackson and Saint Guinefort," both positive and negative.

• Saint Superman
• Catholic Sensibility
• Shrine of Holy Whapping

Everyone seems to be assuming I'm Catholic for some reason. Sorry to disappoint; I'm a Restoration Movement Christian currently attending a Presbyterian church.

Also, weirdly, the Washington Post lists my piece in the "Trench Warfare" section of their political browser. I can't quite figure it out, since the piece is not political (except in the broadest sense that man is a "political animal"), and if it's any kind of trench warfare, it's from the Right Flank of the Church, directed right back at the Right Flank of the Church.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

For your Tuesday morning:

• Medieval Research with Joyce discusses researching illumination for her historical romance.
• Medieval Cookery has posted manuscript images of the Forme of Cury.
• Studies of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages has two CfPs: Why Arthur and SGGK in Popular Culture.
• Anglo-Saxon Aloud is now going to start doing prose.
• A Stitch in Time discusses selling things at (modern) medieval markets.
• Steven Till has several new posts, including one on Hedingham Castle, the lancet (in windows), a discussion of fantasy artist Michael Komarck, an article on a knight's skeleton, and a review of Warrior of God.
• Senchus discusses the possible meanings of a Pictish symbol.
• The Swain talks about his impressions of Hrolf Kraki and makes some medieval connections with Captain Cook.
• Quid Plura commemorates the Battle of Kosovo.
• Podictionary discusses the medieval origins of the words Boston and tennis.
• Per Omnia Saecula reviews The Last Legion.
• News for Medievalists has about a half-dozen new articles, including one on friend of the Wordhoard Stuart Lee. I once had a student listen to Lee's podcasts and say, "You say the same things he does," to which I replied, "No, he says the same things I do!" Seriously, though, do they think Old English is a different language from school to school? Of course we said the same things!
• Muhlberger has a link to images from the Foteviken Open Air Viking Museum, and claims the medieval people would find El Cid the best movie ever.
• Modern Medieval has a link to a medievalist Bizarro comic.
• Medievalism discusses two new books: Renaissance Medievalisms and The Gargoyles of Notre Dame: Medievalism and the Monsters of Modernity.
• Medieval Material Culture Blog links to an armor exhibit in D.C.
• Lingwe announces the Hobbitonian Anthology of Articles about J.R.R. Tolkien and his Legendarium.
• You can win free swag over at In the Middle, read about Anglo-Saxon apartheid, or read about Mark Sanford as Lancelot.
• Stephanie Trigg has images of Bruno's medieval costume.
• The Heroic Age has an update with nine new posts.
• Got Medieval has medievalist portraits of Michael Jackson, and video game review of Joust, Inferno, and Magna Carta II.
• A Corner of Tenth Century Europe has posts on the Spanish March of Aizo, a charter workshop at Oxford, and wizards in Asturias.
• If you don't want to go to Oxford to read charters, Another Damned Medievalist breaks it down for you.
• A Chaucer bobblehead!
• Since the last Miscellany, Archaeology in Europe has had over two dozen new posts. That's what I get for waiting so long to do another MMM.
• About.com defines the Anglo-Saxons.
• Carmen's Chatter discusses the influence of AElfric on the Rule of St. Benedict.

Michael Jackson & Saint Guinefort

I've got a piece on Michael Jackson and Saint Guinefort over at First Things.

Update Your Blogrolls!

Here are a couple of medieval blogs I'd never seen: Medieval Research with Joyce, and Medieval Bookworm.

Chivalry Today Appreciation Package

I got my Chivalry Today appreciation package yesterday! Here's what you might have missed out on:

Lots of goodies especially for kids. My son is going to love that Swords book.

Arthurian Scholarship

I received this e-mail today:

Please forward this message to any students interested in Arthurian literature and a scholarship opportunity. Mark Adderley has informed us that the scholarship below, which has been on our website for a while, has been withdrawn by his publisher 'owing to lack of interest'. He advises that we should lobby the publisher to help him understand that this was a mistake.If you are interested in writing the essay or have someone in mind who might be, please reply to this message no later than 4 July so that I can lobby on your behalf.
Regards
Leonie Viljoen

Here are the scholarship details:

Any student currently enrolled in college and studying for a liberal arts degree, or in high school and planning to study for a liberal arts degree,is eligible. Deadline for submissions: July 31, 2009.

Westbank Publishing announces the new Matter of Britain Scholarship. The award of $500-$2500 will be made in August for an essay of 1500-2000 words in length, comparing the way Merlin is presented in Mark Adderley's new novel The Hawk and the Wolf with the presentation of the same character inany of the following books:

• Barron, T. A., The Lost Years of Merlin (Philomel, 1996)
• Stewart, Mary, The Crystal Cave (Eos, 1971)
• White, T. H., The Sword in the Stone (G. P. Putnam's, 1938)
• Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, trans. Michael A. Faletra (Broadview, 2008)
• Geoffrey of Monmouth, The Life of Merlin (in Faletra's translation of the History)
• The Myrddin poems (The Romance of Merlin, ed. Peter Goodrich, Routledge, 1991)

I suspect the "lack of interest" is better described as a "lack of advertising," since I've already got a handful of students who want to apply for this. The e-mail provided the url http://www.markadderley.net/scholarship/, but the page was already gone when I checked it.

RIP Karl Heinz Göller

I had no idea Karl Heinz Göller had died. I looked for more information, but found none. Do any Wordhoarders know anything?

The date of his birth surprises me. The last time I saw him he must have been 80 already, and I'd have guessed his age closer to 60. Back then, he was hale-looking indeed, and a very gracious person.

Medievalism announces sessions being organized in his honor at the 2010 Congress.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

Today in the world of medievalism:

• Everyone's been linking to the Index of Medieval Youth and Education over at A Commonplace Book.
• About.com has links about the Met exhibit "Pen and Parchment," and a little quote from "The Cuckoo Song."
• The Medieval Garden Enclosed also has a post on midsomer.
• Getting Medieval discusses Richard II.
• Studies of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages has a review of Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages, and the CfP for 21st Century Medievalisms.
• Much to my excitement, Steven Till has the cover of Bernard Cornwell's new book in the Saxon series (though apparently I've got to wait another half year), and the Medieval Timeline for June 24th.
• Ninalog also mentions Henry VIII being crowned on the 24th. I really should have had a small Miscellany yesterday.
• Quid Plura has a bunch of links to stuff I missed last time.
• Purring Prophecy discusses amphibologies.
• New Donstre Social Club has a construction job by Lady Fame herself.
• Muhlberger's Early History muses on women in the English Peasants' Revolt, the French Revolution, and the streets of Tehran.
• A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe also talks about women in the Peasant's Revolt.
• Medievalism has two CfPs for the K'zoo Congress.
• There will be a Domenico Beccafumi exhibit at the Louvre from June to September. h/t Medieval Material Culture Blog.
• Medieval Geek's Guide has a comic about the Great Vowel Shift, a comic about Richard III, has some images of the Swedish Vallhund (a medieval breed of cattle-herding dog), and Richard II's cookbook.
• Magistra et Mater continues a discussion of the late Anglo-Saxon state.
• Gearwor has Beowulf, fitt 11.
• Lingwe finds an error in the Tolkien entry for Who's Who in Literature, 1925.
• JJ Cohen posts part of his keynote on The Jew of Unbelief / The Jewish Neighbor.
• The Heroic Age has Medieval News of the Week.
• Henchminion sends us to an article about a plague of compulsive dancing. Boogie Fever, no doubt.
• Hammered Out Bits has a video on cold forming reversal curves.
• Archaeology in Europe has ten new posts.
• News for Medievalists has an announcement that Mikulcice will not become a world heritage site, has a post on the Dunadd Carvings, and has the video interview with Steven Walton embedded below. I've linked to his Medieval Technology and American History website before, but here it is again.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

On this morning:

• Bede was the Einstein of his time, and other stories at Archaeology in Europe.
• Will McLean has some 14th-century English lessons.
• In the Middle has an announcement about participants (so far) in the seminars on September 17th and November 13th.
• Medieval Material Culture Blog sends us to “The Blue and the Gold of Limoges: Enamels of the 12th-14th Centuries.”
• Steven Till discusses the Sawley Map on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Gearwor has Beowulf, fitt 10.
• Medieval Cookery has some comments on the digitizing of the "Forme of Cury" manuscript.
• Melissa Snell has posted some links to 14th-century maps.

Sorry for the lack of original posting of late -- I've been lending my limited brain power to my monograph.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

Morning is almost over, so in some time zones this will be an Early Afternoon Medieval Miscellany -- though I suppose all the Wordhoarders in Europe, Africa (which has only a few), Asia and Down Under have always had to take the word "morning" with a grain of salt.

• Archaeology in Europe has 17(!) new posts since the last Miscellany.
• News for Medievalists has three als0.
• Chaucer applies Boethius in Iran.
• The Heroic Age has various new CfPs and other announcements.
• Heroic Dreams talks about Hidden Legend mead.
• Magistra et Mater takes to task our modern ideologies about medieval women.
• Moyen Age has a midsummer quote from The Land Book of Troy. I've never read TLBoT, and given that it's 500+ pages online, I never will unless I get a paper copy.
• The Medieval History Term of the Week is banneret.
• A Stitch in Time reports on the Lamboy-Fest in Hanau.
• Studies of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages tells us that Primeval is on TV, and will have a medieval knight.
• Food History discusses food in Narnia.
• Someone over at Yahoo Answers posted this question: "Who divided medieval english literature into canonical and non-canonical classifications?" Anyone want to go over there and give it a shot? I'm not sure how to answer that.

In non-medieval news, one of my students has posted a picture of my bidet. Yes, it's genuine.

Authors Needed at Chivalry Today

Chivalry Today has asked me to note:

Chivalry Today is looking for a few good authors! The Chivalry Today Podcast is currently putting together its interview schedule for Season 4, which will begin in September 2009. If you've published, or are working on a book, paper or journal article that is in any way related to knights, Arthurian legend or the practice and ideals of chivalry in any period of history, host and producer Scott Farrell would love to hear from you and consider having you as an interview guest on the show. It's a great way to reach over 5,000 potential readers throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, all of whom have a demonstrated interest in the topic of chivalry.Please feel free to contact show producer Scott Farrell for more information, or send a press release or review copy to the Chivalry Today studio. You can find our contact information and mailing address on our website at www.ChivalryToday.com

Morning Medieval Miscellany

For your weekend:

• Carnivalesque is up for June. It's being hosted by Food History, which I've never noted before even though it has about a thousand posts. I've rectified that on my blogroll. Ditto for Medieval Cookery.
• Archaeology in Europe has about a dozen new posts.
• A Cornder of Tenth Century Europe returns to the issue of interdisciplinarity, and Jonathan Jarrett is wowed by Chris Lewis's paper “The Ideology and Culture of Anglo-Saxon Government.”
• Got Medieval has marginalia with an early attempt at healthcare reform. OK, my joke, not his, but since he's feeling under the weather I thought I'd help out a bit.
• The Heroic Age has a round-up of medieval news this week.
• News for Medievalists does too.
• Stephanie Trigg posts the first few stanzas of Henryson's Testament of Cresseid. The Times Online has a review -- of Seamus Heaney's translation of Henryson's Testament of Cresseid, not of Trigg's recitation of the first six stanzas.
• Over at In the Middle, Karl Steel has some quotes demonstrating that we like our leaders to have hearty appetites.
• Lingwe has a post on the origins of the word fitt.
• Speaking of fitts, Gearwor has Beowulf, fitt 9.
• The Lost Fort has some delightful images from Scotland.
• Medieval Material Culture Blog has an update with about a half-dozen new exhibitions.
• Modern Medieval uses Google Maps to visualize the influence of Charlemagne legends. Jeff Sypeck, take note!
• Speaking of Google, Wormtalk and Slugspeak discusses the utility of Google Books for doing 19th-century Beowulf scholarship.
• Musings for a L.O.O.N. reviews Anna Elliott's Twilight in Avalon: A Novel of Trystan and Isolde.
• The Ruminate shows some connections between C.S. Lewis, Erasmus, and Dante.
• Tachyon has in interview with Michael Moorcock. h/t Steven Hart.
• Steven Till has a post on the Anglo-Norman rebellion, and also has three news stories.
• Melissa Snell asks if you would live in the Middle Ages if you could. As for me, no -- it would be a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.
• The New York Times has an article on the drawings of medieval monks.

Also, apparently all the Twittering medievalists out there are adding themselves to TwitR.org under the hashtags #medieval, #medievalist, and #professor. I have too.

One Last "Chivalry Today" Appreciation Package

One of my favorite podcasts is Chivalry Today. Each episode lasts about an hour, so I like to save them up for long car trips.

This season, Chivalry Today had their $10 Challenge, in which donors of $10 or more had a chance to win an appreciation package with all sorts of chivalry-oriented goodies. Donors of $100 or more got the package automatically.

The drawing was at the end of the last episode, and I wrote to Scott Farrell to ask if all the appreciation packages were gone. There is, as of this writing, ONE LEFT! So, the first person willing to donate $100 or more over the summer will get the one remaining package. It includes several books, a coffee mug, and a gift certificate for Historic Enterprises that can be used for Knight School or their products. As a satisfied Historic Enterprises customer, I'm sure you'll find some cool swag there.

Next season, Farrell will be running a contest called "The Nine Worthies of Chivalry Today." He'll ask listeners to send in suggestions of individuals they'd choose for an updated list of "nine worthies," which will be divided into three categories (just like the medieval "nine worthies"): modern, historical and fictional. (disqualifying names from the medieval list - so King Arthur and Charlemagne are right out.) He'll also be challenging listeners to send in $9, one buck per worthy.

According to Farrell, the first interview guest of the next season (on the Sept. episode) will be Prof. Jennifer R. Goodman, author of Chivalry and Exploration: 1298-1630, looking at how the legends of chivalry had a very strong influence on the Age of Exploration.

Oh, and in case you're wondering for all my shilling of Chivalry Today & Historic Enterprises -- no, I don't get a kickback.

Leeds Is Coming Up

For those not on the scholarly side of medievalism, there are two Big Shows of academic medieval studies. On this side of the Atlantic is the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan.

On the other side of the Atlantic is the other essential conference, the International Medieval Congress* at Leeds. I never get to go to Leeds myself, since I can usually only afford a conference abroad once every couple of years, and then I go to the Medieval and Early Modern English Studies Association Conference in Korea to help support medievalism in Asia. I love MEMESAK, and it's certainly grown into the center of Asian medievalism, but it's a far cry from the importance of Kalamazoo & Leeds -- but maybe someday.

The Leeds Congress is coming up here next month, July 13th-16th. It features over a thousand papers on a variety of subjects and has a thematic focus. This year, the overall theme will be heresy & orthodoxy, so medieval scholars particularly interested in religion will be making the pilgrimage there.

So, if you're thinking of going, time's drawing near! Also, if you'd like to give a paper, there are actually a few slots for sessions that need a third paper, which you can find at the Late Speakers Calls page.

Me, I won't be able to make it, which is a shame -- I really want to hear Alaric Hall's paper on the early 20th-century reception of the Anglo-Saxon charms.



*The two names are so similar, it reminds me of a bit from the Life of Brian about the People's Front of Judea vs. the Judean People's Front.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

Here are some medieval offerings. A short list today, since I've caught up.

• Hammered Out Bits has images of forged rush tips.
• Karl Steel muses on pious self-mortification over at In the Middle.
• Steven Till reviews Castles in Europe: From Charlemagne to the Renaissance.
• I missed this earlier in the week: The G-8 officials met in a castle of Charles V. Charles V is pushing out of the Middle Ages, but hey, there's a castle.
• Melissa Snell has a post on the history of algebra, and one on Beowulf. Both are entries from a century-old encyclopedia.
• Why couldn't I have gone to Alexander Middle School?

Four Years of Unlocking Wordhoards

I completely missed my anniversary yesterday -- the Wordhoard is four years old.

*sniff* They grow up so fast!

Talking Dogs

Warning: Non-Medieval Content

Can dogs talk? I used to have a dog that could say a few words (though never on command).* One of those words was "Grandma," which she only said when Grandma was around. The first time she said it, we were picking blackberries and raspberries with Grandma on the other side of the fence from her, and she couldn't get over the fence.

When she said "Grandma," everyone stopped and stared at her. We couldn't believe it, and it was unmistakeable. When she spoke, it didn't sound like her normal whine -- it sounded like she was trying to approximate human speech.

Contrary to what Stanley Coren claims, over the years it became clear that the dog knew that Grandma was the name of that person; she never uttered it inappropriately (like while begging for a treat). Of course, that's probably the limit to what a dog could say intelligently -- a name or a single-word noun. In retrospect, I'm a little surprised she never said cheese.


*When I was a kid, everyone outside our family thought it was a joke that we said one of our dogs could talk. Now, with the ubiquity of talking dogs on YouTube, I'm guessing all doubt is gone.

Most Medieval Man in the World 2

For those who were begging to here more about the adventures of Professor Awesome, PhD, the Most Medieval Man in the World, here's more information.

Did you know that among his many degrees is a PhD in Awesome Studies?

Integrating Twitter

For those who use the service, I'm going to start posting Unlocked Wordhoard updates on Twitter using #medieval.

For those who don't use Twitter and have no idea what the above means, don't worry about it; you won't notice any change whatsoever. It's just another means of announcing an update to the site.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

After yesterday's truncated Miscellany, here are a few things that were left out:

• Getting Medieval has a post on the perils of drinking mead while writing.
• Steven Till has Today in Medieval History and a post about Forsaken Kingdom: City of Prophecy.
• The Swain has some musings on Boethius over at The Ruminate.
• Over at The Heroic Age he has an update with all sorts of medieval announcements.
• Quid Plura discusses Anna Julia Cooper as a medievalist.
• Podictionary talks about the medieval origins of the word park.
• Per Omnia Saecula has the long-awaited review of Outlander, positively reviews the book Twilight of Avalon, and promises a review of The Last Legion.
• News for Medievalists has about a half-dozen new posts.
• Medieval Material Culture Blog points us to an exhibit on magic and superstition in the Middle Ages. Unfortunately for me, it's in France.
• Lingwe discusses the new Tolkien Studies.
• JJ Cohen has an account of a failed Jewish comedian from the 12th century. Apparently, the locals didn't find him funny, and Vaudeville wouldn't be around for another seven centuries.
• Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog hath a post on how he has been so swyved by the economy that he's had to take on other jobs.
• Apparently, Rob Cohen is working on a film called Medieval, described as "The Magnificent Seven in the Middle Ages." The Cranky Professor is skeptical.
• A Corner of Tenth Century Medieval Europe announces the upcoming "Cultural Icons of Medieval Scotland" public lecture and conference (July 22-23 at Aberdeen), and describes some medieval coins for sale. And, oh, just as I was writing this Miscellany, he added a reaction to Magistra et Mater's post on adelphopoiesis and so-called "gay monks."
• Over at Cliopatra, Jonathan Jarrett writes about interdisciplinarity in academic medievalism.
• Archaeology in Europe has an update on with over a dozen new articles.
• About.com has a report on a project on the English Charlemagne romances, and one on Henry IV. I just realized today that Melissa Snell's blog somehow fell out of my RSS reader -- but now I've rectified that.
• After an inmate died from the heat while in an outdoor cage, Donna Leone Hamm, director of the local nonprofit Middle Ground Prison Reform called the use of outdoor cages "medieval."

OK, that's it for now. All caught up!

Morning Medieval Miscellany

I have to head out the door in just a few minutes, but here are several items before I go:

• Gearwor has had several new posts, including Beowulf fitts 42 and 8.
• Popular Culture and the Middle Ages has a general update.
• Wraetlic discusses Dante's Belacqua.
• A Stitch in Time discusses an image containing a lot of medieval household items.
• The Valve has a paper on The Hobbit that I've not had a chance to read yet.
• Steven Till points us to resources available on heraldry, has a review of The Name of the Rose (book not film version), and the Medieval History Term of the Week is Hussites.

I'm already out of time. Check back later this week for more Miscellany.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

It's still technically morning here, so let me just bump out a handful of these so I don't get too far behind.

• Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry has Juliana 258-318.
• Archaeology in Europe has had 17 new posts since the last Miscellany.
• Another Damned Medievalist has a quick thought on field specialization among medieval scholars.
• A Corner of Tenth Century Europe discusses the links among a few links.
• Got Medieval has posts on musically-inclined pigs, why medieval protologists would have been wealthy, and the supposed millionth word.
• Hammered Out Bits has forging a rush tip.
• Heavenfield reminds us that the Secret of Kells and Merlin will soon be available to American audiences.
• Henchminion has a nasty description of a medieval wound.
• The Heroic Age, issue 12 is out.
• Heroic Dreams discusses Shuri Castle, and an unidentified medieval castle.
• Humanities Researcher discusses stained glass in film.
• JJ Cohen asks readers if they can think of any premodern aerial views. An interesting question -- except for mappa mundi, I can think of none.
• Magistra et Mater discusses the claim that the ritual of adelphopoiesis was a form of medieval monastic same-sex marriage.
• Friday, June 19th will be Folia Fugitiva: The Pursuit of the Illuminated Manuscript Leaf.
• Miglior Acque has images from the Grimani Breviary.
• Muhlberger's Early History discusses the interview of Walter Goffart at Medievalists.net.
• Musings from a Loon has a contest to promote the novel Pope Joan.
• News for Medievalists has ten new posts.
• Ninalog has images from her new books on dragons.

OK, that's it, I've run out of steam. I'll pick up the remainder in the next Miscellany.

Most Medieval Man in the World

My evil twin, Professor Awesome, PhD, seems to have escaped from the Ivory Tower long enough to make this video.



Any resemblance to The Most Interesting Man in the World is probably just a crazy coincidence.

Camille Paglia on Islam

Camille Paglia writes the only thing worth reading at Salon.com, but her recent column, "Obama's Hit -- and Big Miss" was not a good example of this. It definitely had a phoned-in quality about it.

One weird sentence was of special interest to medievalists, though. She wrote:

But the now widespread stereotyping of Islam as medieval and inherently violent and intolerant ensures eternal war.*

What's the word "medieval" doing in there? In point of fact, Islam is medieval, in origin anyway. As someone particularly interested in 1st-century Christianity, I would probably be particularly interested in 7th-century Islam were I muslim. I take her meaning there to mean something like "still medieval."

Again, though, what's the word "medieval" doing there? Wouldn't the sentence "But by now the widespread stereotyping of Islam as inherently violent and intolerant ensures eternal war" communicate much the same idea? I'm assuming she's being redundant, and using the word "medieval" to mean something like "anachronistically inherently violent and intolerant," since, as we all know, the modern era has been one of inherent peace and understanding.*

If we break this sentence down, it seems that stereotyping Islam (or anything else, I suppose) as medieval (among other things) ensures eternal war. Note that she isn't saying that Islam is medieval, and therefore ensures eternal war, but that the false stereotype of Islam as medieval ensures eternal war. She seems to be saying that war eternally comes to Islam from without, a symptom of false "secular professional class" and Christian stereotypes about Islam as medieval and inherently violent and intolerant.

Now, this makes really little sense. Even if we were to give her all the camels she wants us to swallow and all the gnats she wants us to strain here, is the West really eternally at war with the medieval? I think it would be more accurate to argue that we stereotype the medieval as violent, but it isn't like the US military shells Renaissance Faires, or the SCA is branded a terrorist organization, or the police hassle scholars at medieval conferences. A certain class of person (probably her "secular professional class") uses medieval as an insult, but I've yet to have a bunch of bobos like Obama beat me up in a dark alley because I'm a medieval scholar.***

The more I look at it, I don't think she really has any idea why she threw the word "medieval" in there. Paglia probably was just looking for a third negative trait for the sentence, and settled on medieval because it sounds bad in the ears of Salon readers. A pity.


*Now that I've written this post and ruminated on this sentence, I find it appallingly ugly. Starting with "but" makes it technically a fragment, which I'm not necessarily against if it's done for good stylistic purposes, but in this case it adds nothing. The phrase "now widespread" should have a hyphen in it, only serving to emphasize that the word "now" is out of place here, and doesn't balance well with the word "eternal" later in the same sentence. The modifier "inherently" is weirdly-placed as well -- is she saying the stereotype is that Islam is stereotyped as inherently violent, but not inherently intolerant, or that it is inherently violent and intolerant, but not inherently medieval? Yuck. This reads more like an off-the-cuff blog post (like this one) than a polished article. Paglia, you're a better writer than this.
** Insert sarcastic tone here. Isn't it so delightful that we live in the Age of Aquarius?
***OK, true, bobos are probably too wimpy to actually succeed at beating me up, but I would think if you got enough of them together, they might try.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

I have absolutely nothing of interest to say about the Ren Faire. I trusted pirates, got a sunburn, and watched all types of stunts involving fire. Here, however, are some people who do have something to say:

• Gearwor is looking for collaborators for an online Beowulf project.
• The Valve has a post on Wagner's Volsungs.
• Steven Till tells us about Stephen of Blois.
• The Swain has more on "Medieval Literature I Didn't Know."
• Quid Plura tells us about Bernie Casay and Gargoyles.
• News for Medievalists tells us about plans to boycott a medieval festival in Ontario.
• Medieval Silkwork shows us some pillow fabric. If it'll help promote traffic to medieval websites, let me also point out there's a topless woman in this post.
• Muhlberger has a post about the discussion of banners in the trial of Joan d'Arc.
• Miglior Acque discusses Simon Armitage on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
• Speaking of which, I think you can see Michael Wood on Beowulf on the BBC website if you're in the UK, but not being in the UK I can't really check it. If someone on that side of the Atlantic wants to confirm the link is good in the comments below, that would be great.
• Heavenfield has a very nice post on the realm of Humbria.
• Hammered Out Bits has a video showing cutting the bloom.
• Jonathan Jarrett discusses Dr. Alice Rio's work on economic change in early medieval Ireland.
• The Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry project has a new section of Juliana, lines 225-266.
• Archaeology in Europe has an update with ten new posts.

Enjoy!

Morning Medieval Miscellany

Google Reader seems to be working right for me again, so here are a few posts clogging the pipes:

• There's more Juliana over at the Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry Project.
• Archaeology in Europe has had lots of new posts since the last Miscellany.
• The Heroic Age has had a bunch of new posts too.
• News for Medievalists too!
• I've posted about this before, but if regular Wordhoarder Will McLean missed it, it's worth repeating: UCLA has a nice catalogue of thousands of digitized medieval manuscripts.
• Got Medieval welcomes us to June, and has a post on how Reynard the Fox is like the early Bugs Bunny, not the later, wimpier one (you know, when the hippies took over and Tom & Jerry had to be friends -- the Dark Age of cartoons).
• Hammered Out Bits has all sorts of raw data I can't even pretend to understand, but if you're interested in Viking Age smelting, you might understand it.
• Stephanie Trigg posts some of her work on stained glass windows.
• JJ Cohen muses on how Untimely Matter in the time of Shakespeare might be used to study medieval Jewish-Christian relations. Gearwor responds.
• The Medieval Garden Enclosed discusses the scythe, and its use in not-so-grim reaping. It also contains this sentence: "I took a scything course a few years ago [...]" I'm amazed both because I didn't know scythe could be used as a verb, and because I was not aware one could take a course in performing this verb.
• Medieval Material Culture has a links page of women in armor. Why do I suspect that will result in some weird porn hits?
• Speaking of which, Medieval Silkwork has some pictures of pretty girls embroidering.
• A Stitch in Time discusses St. Elisabeth's Cloak and has a beautiful image of the fabric.
• Muhlberger has a quote about Joan of Arc and military prudence.
• The Naked Philologist points us to a medieval manuscript joke in a comic strip.
• Papa's Secret Voodoo Boot has an apology and a retraction for something said in a comment thread about Chaucer -- which, when you think about it, is perhaps ironic since Chaucer himself is famously known for retracting.
• Steven Till asks for readers' top five fantasy recommendations to new readers of the genre, and the Medieval History Term of the Week is basinet.
• Michael Drout tells us, among other things, that there will be a new edition of Beowulf and the Critics.

By the time you're reading this, I'll probably be at the Ren Faire. Perhaps I'll have some images and comments for you next time.

Origin of Eth

Gearwor has put together a recent e-mail exchange about the origins of the eth (ð) in Old English. The discussion about the distinction between eth and thorn (þ) hits on a question I am frequently asked but am never sure how to answer.

On Salamanders and Fire

While I'm having minor technical difficulties, there will be no Miscellanies, but I can direct you to the occasional post here and there. Gypsy Scholar asks whence the notion of salamanders being impervious to fire comes.

Picking a Little Nit

It just suddenly occured to me that to call it "Occam's Razor" is wrong. Since it is named for William of Occam (or Ockham), the word Occam is not a person, but a place. Just as Julian of Norwich is just called "Julian," or Hildegard of Bingham is just called "Hildegard," the shortened version of William of Occam would be William, not Occam.

If we're too lazy to call it "William of Occam's Razor," then the shortened version should be "William's Razor," rather than "Occam's Razor."

There, nit successfully picked. Since I've been writing about Benedictines today, it is only just and right that I give the Franciscans their due.

Google, Fix the Glitch!

Some sort of technical glitch with Google Reader is making it hard to do a Morning Medieval Miscellany.

Ah, yeeeeeah, Google, I'm gonna need you to, you know, fix the glitch, m'kay? Grrrreat.

TimesOnline on Beowulf

I wanted to ignore this, since it is so stupid, but e-mail is full of people upset over it. Times television critic has this to say about Beowulf and those who study it:

Most people have only read Beowulf because they were forced to under threat of being made to do manual labour for the rest of their lives, after being sent down from university. It is by convention and degree syllabus the starting block for English literature, albeit that it is written in a defunct Germanic language about a Swede who goes to Denmark. Only a few hobbity university bods can speak it, and having learnt Nordic Elvish they speak little else and share a particular accent that sounds like something from The Lord of the Rings or the Muppets. They wear odd clothes, usually involving a great deal of leather, hoodies, amulets on thongs and a lot of buckles. Beowulf should be spoken out loud — indeed, it should be bellowed, otherwise the people trying to get out of the room won’t hear it.

Now, really this is so colossally stupid I really don't know why we have to respond to it. There's no law that says you have to like Beowulf, but "a few hobbity university bods" can speak Old English? As one of the few Anglo-Saxonists I know who actually looks a little hobbity, I think I'm safe in saying that we're no more hobbity than the general population (unfortunately, to my way of thinking). And then we "speak little else?" Ummmm ... who the heck out there speaks Old English conversationally at all? Our clothes involve "a great deal of leather, hoodies, amulets on thongs and a lot of buckles?" So, basically this dude thinks that an Old English class looks just like a Ren Faire?

Folks, some things are so tremendously idiotic that it's just too tiresome to respond. Was the article supposed to be funny? I can't really tell. Ever wonder why TV is a wasteland? It's because guys like this are given the mantle of "critic" and are published.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to return to my habits of speaking Nordic Elvish while wearing my leather thong -- you know, the one with the big buckle in the front.