The Free Market Economy Insults Me

I've got a colleague who's always checking to see if his books are being sold used online, and what the going rate is. Out of curiosity (and to avoid looking at midterms), I checked out my own Global Perspectives on Medieval English Literature, Language, and Culture.

ABEBooks lists four copies right now -- priced at $28.00, $30.00, $30.50, and $87.98.

Wait ... $87.98? The book is still in print, and sells for $45 from MIP! Someone out there is hoping to get double that? What is it, a gold-plated edition?

But wait -- there's an insult lurking elsewhere in those results. The $28.oo description runs like this: "Hardcover with DJ. Unread, as new."

Unread?! UNREAD?! You couldn't even be bothered to break the binding? So basically, you took one look at this book and said to yourself, "This looks so bad that not only will I never read it, but I'll sell it at half its value in the hope that someone will use it as toilet paper!"

So, to whomever sold my book unread, I say this: Therein were the secrets of the universe. And now you'll never know them. So there.

RIP: Peter Foote

Old Norse News discusses the career of Peter Foote.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

Let's see how much I can get done before the supplicants come regarding their midterms:

• The medieval word(s) of the day are parchment and vellum.
• October 14th is Norman Conquest day! To celebrate, I plan to shoot an Englishman in the eye.
• I was disappointed that this story about ritual pits discovered in Bulgaria wasn't about anything gruesome.
• The MLA is doing a survey for the 2nd edition of Approaches to Teaching Beowulf.
• Drout talks about his own participation in Clash of the Gods: The Lord of the Rings. Though he's a little bit grumpy about it, it seems to me that the errors were small, and mostly those of emphasis rather than fact. Considering that it could have been a more along the lines of Monster Hunters, etc., I was pleased with it.
• A Stitch in Time is working with gold thread. Beautiful!
• Steven Till writes about A Feast for Crows.
• Karma talks about "angel knights" in Chretien de Troyes.
• The Swain discusses whether or not Kalamazoo has grown looney. If the midterms that come in later today don't wipe me out mentally, I may weigh in.
• News for Medievalists has over a dozen new articles. Don't miss it.
• Here's Kunera, a website with thousands of medieval badges and ampullae. h/t Medieval Silkwork.
• Muhlberger points us to a new translation of the Menagier of Paris, and discusses the prowess of the small of stature.
• Medieval Material Culture Blog has about a dozen new exhibits.
• Magistra et Mater discusses Louis the Pious.
• The Lost Fort has images of medieval Brunswick.
• The folks at In the Middle take offense to Chivas Regal's "Live with Chivalry" ads.
• I want to have a book launch with swordfighting too!
• The Dark Ages Recreation Company tells us how to sign up.
• If you ever want to assault a castle, all you need is a bowling ball and a bicycle wheel.
• The Heroic Age has over a dozen new posts.
• Got Medieval has your October Saints Calendar.
• Dame Eleanor Hull talks about visual memory and manuscript pages. Back in the day when I worked more regularly with manuscripts, I was deeply impressed (and envious) of scholars who could recall with accuracy the most minute details of a leaf. As for me, the other day I forgot the shelfmark of one of the two manuscripts I wrote my dissertation about!
• Archaeology in Europe has a few new medieval items.

Hooray! With only two interruptions, I finished it!

Morning Medieval Miscellany

Now that I'm back from Cub Scout camp, it's time for a Miscellany!

• Ozark Medieval Fortress has a new website.
• Archaeology in Europe has a couple dozen new posts.
• The Bitter Scroll tells us of the etymology of the word empty.
• A Commonplace Book has a poem suggesting one scenario as to how the Staffordshire Hoard got there.
• A Corner of Tenth Century Medieval Europe discusses The Long Morning of Medieval Europe again, a reports on the sessions at the Rosamund McKitterick birthday conference.
• Dante blogging continues with Canto XX.
• Dame Eleanor Hull explains why being a medievalist is like going back to kindergarten.

And that's it for now. I started putting this together four hours ago, and a string of students seeking advice on their midterms has prevented me from looking at more than the above. Enjoy! I hope to catch up later.

Refurbishing the Wordhoard

With the help of my lovely and talented minion Nina, I've added a Twitter feed to the right that will cycle through the hashmark for #medieval. For the time being, I've also added #staffshoard (the official hashmark for the Staffordshire Hoard) to help us all keep up with the breaking news.

By the way, we've made a few other changes to the site. Let us know what you think!

Staffordshire Hoard Blog Round-Up

If, like me, you get frustrated by traditional media accounts of the Staffordshire Hoard, here is a round-up of blog posts, many (most? all?) of them by experts in medieval studies. I've omitted postings that are just, "have you heard?" and have instead focused on links pages and those with commentary.

Here are some with commentary:

• A Commonplace Book has two posts on the objects making up the Hoard.
• Gypsy Scholar has two posts on the phrase "redefining the Dark Ages."
• In the Middle questions scholarly reception of the Hoard, asks about the digital images, and considers/rejects a connection between Guthlac and the Hoard.
• Lingwe discusses the comparison of the Hoard to the One Ring.
• News for Medievalists has their original story, more news, and a story on the crowds coming to see it.
• Point of Know Return has a post on the Hoard and Psalm 67:2.
• Wormtalk and Slugspeak discusses the inscription as well.
• Gearwor has images, video, and some discussion.
• The Heptarchy Herald discusses dating.

Here are basically links pages:

• About.com
• Archaelogy in Europe
  History News Network
• News for Medievalists has video round-ups here and here.

Staffordshire Hoard Video Round-Up

Are you, like me, tired of only seeing still photos of the Staffordshire Hoard? Check out these videos on YouTube.

AP:


ITN News:


Another ITN News:


And still another ITN News:

Official Staffordshire Hoard Site

There's now an official Staffordshire Hoard website. They're also using the Twitter hashtag #staffshoard for archiving comments.

The site gets into some of the issues of value of the hoard that the international media elided in their "Metal Detectorist Finds Treasure" storyline. In response to the question, "How much is the Hoard worth," they respond sensibly:

Artistically and historically is impossible to price.
However a Treasure Valuation Committee consisting of independent experts, will recommend a valuation to the Secretary of State. The Committee will commission valuations from leading auction houses and experts in the antiquities trade.
This will be a very difficult task given the unprecedented nature of the Hoard.
The Hoard contains approximately 5kg of gold and 1.3kg of silver, giving it a 'scrap' value of over £100,000 (by contrast the Sutton Hoo find contained 1.6kg of precious metals).

Though I confess to finding a few things annoying here*, by-and-large the Portable Antiquities Scheme seems to have done a good job at using the latest social networking technologies to get the information out there quickly. In very short order they've used Flickr, Twitter, etc., and given the rest of the scholarly community a chance to get at least a preliminary glimpse.

Terry Herbert doesn't hurt the cause, either. You can imagine a situation in which the person discovering the Hoard would be a bit embarrassing, but he's quite articulate, and (so far, at least) doesn't appear to have let all this go to his head. At the end of one interview (embedded below), he says, "Stuff like this is still in the ground ... is there anything better than this to be found?" In those two sentences alone, he's managed to do more for the popular perception of medieval studies (and, I suppose, metal detectors) than I'll probably be able to accomplish in my entire career.



*Such as the line, "It will redefine the Dark Ages." Dark Ages? Did this quote come from a time-traveling scholar from 1909?

Anglo Saxon Gold Hoard Links

Here are some links about the new Anglo-Saxon treasure hoard:

• Guardian UK
• Flickr Photo Set
• United Press International
• Yahoo! News Canada
• BBC News
• Stafford UK
• Digital Digging - British Archaeology News
• CNN Europe
• Democratic Underground
• icStafford
• Times Live - South Africa

Huge Anglo-Saxon (non-word) Hoard!

Everybody's talking about the huge hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure found in Staffordshire. I was holding off to post a links page, but so many are talking about it, I might not be able to handle the wealth of chatter.

This BBC report is unintentionally hilarious:

Experts say the collection of 1,500 gold and silver pieces, which may date to the 7th Century, is unparalleled in size and worth "a seven figure sum".

Worth a seven figure sum, eh? How about "priceless," instead? It's rather like saying a lost child was found wandering the streets and "experts say his organs might fetch tens of thousands of dollars on the open market."

Morning Medieval Miscellany

This Wednesday morning:

• Hammered Out Bits has a post on Norse and Anglo-Saxon knives, with a video.
• The Heroic Age has a links page of medieval news this week.
• Magistra et Mater discusses Gregory of Tours and symbolic history. Muhlberger's Early History comments on it.
• Medieval Living discusses difficulty in constructing medieval wheels.
• The medieval word of the day is bailey.
• Point of Know Return discusses Lydgate's Troy Book.
• Podictionary discusses Excalibur (the word).
• Steven Till asks about the "Holy Grail in America" episode on the History Channel.
• About.com has a story about a medieval village discovered in Qatar.
• Here's a brief history of medieval classical music and a review of the game Trine, both h/t LaNiche Music's Twitter feed.

Finally, below is a VOA report on Pennsic, h/t A Commonplace Book. News for Medievalists has that and more video reports as well.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

For your Tuesday morning:

• Steven Till has the top 100 medieval castles.
• Medieval Material Culture Blog announces The Art of Illumination at the Met and Old Master Drawings at Penn State.
• The Medieval Club of New York has an upcoming lecture, "The Jaharis Gospel Lectionary: A Manuscript for Use in Hagia Sophia," and also posts the schedule of coming events.
• News for Medievalists has an article about a BBC radio episode about St. Thomas Aquinas.
• Mearcstapa has their 2010 Leeds submissions.
• The medieval word of the day is liege lord.
• Archaeology in Europe has a dozen new posts.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

The last few Miscellanies have not gone out because of student supplicants begging for mercy. Let's see how far I get today:

• Medieval Living has posts on medieval tiles and medieval kilns.
• The most recent medieval word of the day is fealty. Or fee simple, depending on the blog.
• About.com has news of a potential 10th-century Korean settlement found in Russia. Sorry, I have nothing to add -- I know nothing about the northern Korean kingdoms.
• Drout offers an announcement of his new recorded lecture, The Anglo-Saxon World.
• The Swain needs help compiling a list of important manuscripts and inscriptions from the early medieval period, 400-1100.
• Podictionary has a post on the connections between the word coroner and Robin Hood (sort of).
• News for Medievalists has several new articles, including one on how we almost ended up with King Arthur instead of Henry VIII.
• Old Norse News has a survey about learning Old Norse.
• Medievalism announces the publication of Eminent Chaucerians? Early Women Scholars and the History of Reading Chaucer, edited, ironically enough, by two men.
• Lingwe has a post on Lloyd Alexander.
• DARC has glass drinking vessels.
• Homilaria discusses early medieval monasticism for understanding Western patristics.
• Geoffrey Chaucer hath a new post about Quanje Weste.
• Getting Medieval discusses Jewish marriage and labor customs.
• Soon I'll be abandoning tea and Coke Zero for spellcasting sodas.
• Slouching Towards Extimacy discusses The Once and Future King.
• Fantasy fanatics take medieval make-believe to Bill Schupp park, h/t Steven Till.
• Mony Wylsum Way discusses a point of translation in a Latin chronicle.
• Medieval Club of New York posts their fall events.
• Dante blogging continues.
• You can see Viking silver in York.
• A proto-dragon! h/t Lost in Transcription.
• Medieval Ecclesiastical Art has some beautiful images of medieval pulpits.
• Muhlberger's Early History has a post on Geoffroi de Charny.
• Jonathan Jarrett has a glowing review of The Long Morning of Medieval Europe.
• Medieval Material Culture Blog has several new exhibitions around the world.
• In the Middle has a CfP for "Insular Identities and the Borders of Medieval Britain."
• Speaking of CfPs, The Heroic Age has a bunch too.
• Here's some video from a Viking fair.

Happy Birthday Medievalists.net!

Happy birthday to Medievalists.net, which is one year old today!

Becoming a Medievalist

I received the following e-mail this morning [with redactions lest the person not want to be indentified]:

Ever since I read the letters of J.R.R. Tolkien in jr. high I have had the desire to be a Medievalist at the University level. In January I will be starting my first semester at college. My question is what kinds of classes should I take in order to provide a good base to work towards becoming a medievalist? Of course I will need to take courses in English literature, but other than that I am not so sure. At the moment I am thinking of taking an introductory course in Latin. Any suggestions would be more than welcome.

I was thinking about transforming into Professor Awesome, PhD and offering up little nuggets of wisdom about not neglecting Western Civ, philosophy, and perhaps considering German (especially if he's interested in the philology side), but I'm wondering what the Wordhoarders would suggest, particularly thought how have pursued the academic track.

So, ymbsittendra, what would you all suggest?

Me and K'zoo 2010

A few people have asked me privately, and it's true -- I may not be going to K'zoo in 2010. There are a variety of personal forces causing me to drift in that direction, but perhaps the most important professional reason is that for the first time in forever I have no particular piece of research I want to present. I've got research, I'm just not jonesing to take it to K'zoo.

I'm not saying I won't go for sure, but I haven't sent in any paper proposals to sessions, so it's looking unlikely. Don't worry; I've not entered into a post-tenure sloth period.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

For your Tuesday:

• Medievalists.net has an interview with Ian Mortimer about his book The Time-Travellers Guide to Medieval England.
• The Medieval Word of the Day is wall-walk.
• Canterbury Cathedral is being repaired with duct tape, which I think is supposed to outrage us, but instead makes me think of the incredible utility of duct tape. h/t Steven Till.
• News for Medievalists has an article on artifacts found at Brechin Cathedral and one on Scottish castles for sale.
• Mearcstapa has a CfP for Leeds 2010, "Exploring the Monstrous."
• DARC has images from Viking Hill at Bonfield.
• The Heroic Age has almost 20 new CfPs and other announcements.
• Medieval Material Culture discusses three exhibits: a Cardiff exhibit on the Welsh view of the Crusades, more on the Nuremberg Mahzor, and a Vienna exhibit on Charles the Bold.
• A Johns Hopkins student killed an intruder with a samurai sword.
• George and the Dragon is, to my knowledge, Patrick Swayze's only medievalist role.

An Oldie But a Goodie

This collection of accidentally-funny statements by students pops up every so often. I've heard people say that they think it's all made up, but none of those people work in academe. I'm confident it's all absolutely true.

My personal favorite: "Victims of the Black Death grew boobs on their necks." I'm feeling lazy ... insert your own juvenile joke below.

Morning Medieval Miscellany

An extremely truncated Miscellany this morning. I was having serious problems with my RSS Reader, and so I cleared everything out of it -- which means if you posted anything of import over the last week, I've probably not read it. If you want to direct my attention to something you've written, please feel free to drop me an e-mail. So, all we have for now:

• About a dozen new posts on The Heroic Age, with lots of CfPs.
• A 14th-century Hebrew manuscript, the Nuremberg Mahzor, is going on display for the first time.
• Here's a medieval English chicken recipe, for Chykens in Hocchee.

That's it! It would be wonderful if someone were to swing by my house and cook me up some of that chicken.

Web for Medieval Source-Based Textual Scholarship

An e-mail about all the new resources at the Web for Medieval Source-Based Textual Scholarship page came across MEDTEXTL, and I went and looked at the page again. It's sweeeeeeet. Even if you're not a scholar, you'll want to go to the page and look at all the links to actual manuscript images.