Morning Medieval Miscellany

Here are just a few of the things you don't want to miss:

• Podictionary talks about the connections between the word affidavit and Alfred the Great. That's news to me, but I affy he's right.
• Apparently, Charlemagne wasn't the only monarch to keep exotic animals -- the lions at the Tower of London were of a now-extinct species.
• The Weird Medieval Animal of the Week fights the Weird Medieval Tribe of the Week over at Per Omnia Saecula.
• Heavenfield tells us about St. Geretrud, and the lost kingdom this month is Lindsey. I have to confess, I find the Lost Kingdom of the Month feature really interesting, moreso than a lit guy has the right to.
• This has been everywhere already, but just in case you missed it, there's now an English Medieval Legal Documents wiki.

I know there were a lot more things out there I wanted to link to, but Google Reader is acting funny.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

Enjoy!

• Steven Till discusses the legal battle over Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
• News for Medievalists has an update, including an article about Wikipedia's refusal to remove images of Muhammad.
• Heavenfield's Person of the Week is Cynefrith, Abbot of Gilling. The question is asked there: why did he leave Wearmouth-Jarrow for Ireland? The answer is obvious: he heard Shamrock Shakes were available year-round there.
• Geoffrey Chaucer (the one who hath a blog) laments the passing of Sir William, aka "Ulrich von Liechtenstein"
• Dr. Virago tells us why she teaches medieval literature.
• Medieval Material Culture Blog gives us an article with this opening line: "The tiny Channel Island of Sark will meet on Thursday to discuss plans to bring Europe’s last feudal state in line with western democracies." Um, perhaps I'm missing something here, but if they've been voting on this issue, in what way are they feudal? Is it only the Chief Pleas who are meeting together to vote on this?
• Jonathan Jarrett has a post about the motives of Crusaders, and the rights/responsibilities of historians when they moralize about the past.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

Lately, I've had a lot of link-tastic posts, and not as many original postings. For those of you who fear this might be part of a new format, fear not! I've been researching my memorandum to the President for my White House Fellow application, as well as preparing two keynote addresses for February.

That's not to say that all original posting will be on hold until then. One of the things I'm doing, for example, is listening to all of Matthew Gabriele's podcasts so I can report on them to you. I listen to them on my daily run, so I ought to finish them in the next day or two (unless the weather turns nasty).

Until there, here's your Morning Medieval Miscellany:

• Jeffery Hodges has a meditation upon curiousity that features Bernard of Clairvaux.
• Heavenfield discusses whether St. Augustine (of Canterbury, not the City of God guy) established a church on Ely.
• Heroic Dreams has a post on medieval weapons, as well as one on mysterious halberds. Perhaps a Wordhoarder can help with the Case of the Mysterious Medieval Halberds.
• Speaking of weapons, Musings from a L.O.O.N. has a post with lots of images of armor (you've got to scroll a bit to get to the armor).
• JJ Cohen posts his syllabus for his "Myths of Britain" class, and discusses the role of Wikipedia in scholarly publishing.
• And for the scholars out there (whether they cite Wikipedia or not), The Heroic Age issues a CfP.