Witan Publishing CfM

I know a lot of folks have been waiting for this -- Witan Publishing's Call for Manuscripts. We are now ready to start reviewing them! Also, we have published our sample book, "Old English and Samwise Gamgee's Genealogy: Eden and the Unfallen Hobbit," which should be available in Amazon and Barnes & Noble by tomorrow. You can be sure I'll post when that is available.

Witan Publishing welcomes submissions of scholarly work addressing medieval studies and medievalism. Because Witan produces high-quality double-blind peer-reviewed scholarship in e-publishing formats only, we are not bound by print market prices; therefore Witan especially welcomes conference proceedings, Festschrifts, and other edited collections. Although Witan will consider manuscripts of any length, we are particularly interested in monographs between 40-200 pages that are too long for journal articles, yet too short for print books.

Witan Publishing is dedicated to creating an e-publishing revolution in medieval scholarship by producing professional-grade peer-reviewed work, distributing it through all major online booksellers, and pricing it very affordably for the widest possible audience. To that end, we welcome journals that have found the print market financially untenable. Witan Publishing will produce your journal for free and distribute it extremely inexpensively through major online booksellers.

To begin the submission progress, visit our proposal submissions page.

Medievalists.Net on Witan Publishing

Never let it be said that the folks at Medievalists.net don't work hard -- Peter started the interview after 11:30 at night. Methinks from now on he should be called "Scoop" Konieczny. Here's the first article on Witan Publishing.

Launch of Witan Publishing

Press Release

February 18, 2011
Witan Publishing launched a new service to the medieval academic community today, focusing on e-publishing peer-reviewed scholarship. Witan’s goal is not merely to be another academic publisher, but is instead something much more ambitious: to change the way scholarly research is produced, distributed, and received. This new service will benefit scholars the most, freeing their work from the old market restrictions, distributing scholarship more widely, and putting texts within the budgets of even struggling graduate students.

According to Dr. Richard Scott Nokes, Academic Editor for Witan, “If you look at what other academic publishers are doing in the e-publishing market, they are either putting poorly-scanned and unreadable work online, or they are selling more current scholarship at a very high price. Witan Publishing will offer high-quality peer reviewed professional work and extremely reasonable prices.”

“It is important for academics to embrace the new and ever-growing world of e-publishing,” says Nina McNamara, Technical Editor for Witan. “E-books already outsell paperback and hardcover books on major online retailers, like Amazon.com. Soon, students will replace their hardcover textbooks with e-books all together.”

The existing academic publishing world typically ignores the burgeoning electronic frontier of e-books. Seizing this opportunity, Witan Publishing produces electronic texts of the highest quality, viewable on nearly every platform available to consumers today.

Witan Publishing will be accepting submissions soon.

Firefly Arthuriana

A quick bleg -- has anyone written about Arthuriana in Firefly? I had a student ask me today about Arthurian allusions in Firefly, and I couldn't remember any off the mere 16-or-so episodes, but maybe others have written about it.

Now Where Will We Incarcerate Unruly Anglo-Saxons?

Lancaster Castle, a Norman structure built in the 1090s, has housed a prison for the last few centuries. Now, however, the prison is being closed in part because the age of the structure limits the ways it can be used.

This is one of those places of which we can say "It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there."

"Medieval" Torture Devices

Even though the word "medieval" is used here, most of what is described is early Modern, but here's a guy who probably lives a half-hour from where I grew up and has a barn full of "medieval" torture devices.

Next time I'm up there I think I'll spend the money to visit Carder's Variety Land.

Starz Camelot Trailer

Here's a trailer for the new Camelot coming out on Starz. h/t Medievalists.net



Joseph Fiennes almost made me spew root beer from laughing.

Modern Illuminators

This is pretty interesting: A studio where artists are producing gold-leaf manuscripts on vellum. The Illumination Atelier website has even more information, including some more images and a series of YouTube videos showing the production of the works.

Hitchcock's Revenge

Just so that we understand there is nothing new under the sun, the other day thousands of birds fell from the sky in Arkansas -- and in 671, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, there was also a great mortality of birds.

If the pattern continues, perhaps we can see the events of 672 repeated this year. In that year, king Cenwahl died, so if I were actor Ken Wahl, I'd watch my step.

The "Ultimate Medieval Glossary"

The awesomely-named Serena Castleton sent me a link to Costume Supercenter's "Ultimate Medieval Glossary." I'm not really sure why it has such a glossary, since many of the terms have nothing to do with costuming.

Academic medievalists won't find anything new there, but it seems like a really great resource for popular medievalists. If you're sometimes confused by the terms you see thrown around, check it out and you might find it helpful.

Jeremy's Dragon Corner

Apparently there is something on G4 (a channel I don't get) called "Jeremy's Dragon Corner." Why wasn't I informed?!

Why Medieval?

I Suppose I Will Often Eat Beans at a BBQ...

When I think of Joan of Arc, the first thing I think of is "kidney beans."

I can't sense any irony in the description on the B&G Foods website, but I really wish I did:

Joan of Arc was an amazing woman – she lived and died for her beliefs. We think Joan would have been proud of the beans that bear her name.

Yes, that's what Joan d'Arc died for ... her pride in her beans.

And when it comes to Latin American and Creole cuisine, Joan of Arc is a real leader!

Yes, she really strove for leadership in Latin American and Creole cuisine. I mean, I'm all about medievalism, but it's got to at least have a fig leaf of relevance.

For Black Friday

For anyone wondering what to get me for Christmas this year, I recently heard that CastlePost in Kentucky is on sale for only $30 million.

Here's a photo gallery of what you'll be getting me.

An Invitation to SEMA from Professor Awesome, PhD

How About a Little Credit Here?

In working on one of my papers for SEMA, I ran across the book review for Wealtheow: Her Telling of Beowulf on Amazon.

It seemed familiar to me. Really, REALLY familiar. Who, I thought, had published these words that were attributed to "My Fox New York"?

Uh, well, ME. Here. Dudes, feel free to quote me if you want, but please attribute the quote properly.

Holy Pecans, Batman!

In the new website "$#!+ My Students Write" we are treated to this little gem about The Canterbury Tales:

“The narrator saw the Parson in an un-sarcastically holy pecan in the middle of the chaos in the church as he showed by stating…”

I plan to make this the thesis statement of the next scholarly paper I write.

Long-Delayed Professor Awesome Medieval Book Club to Shoot Soon

I keep promising, and promising, and promising the first series for the "Professor Awesome, PhD's Medieval Book Club," and 12-parter on Beowulf. Everything was on track, including two different musical bumpers and one in progress, so that all we had to do was shoot (this part is not as much work as it sounds) and edit -- and then I had to send my computer with all the editing software off to be repaired.

Tonight the computer returns, and we'll start trying to put together the standard opening credits sequence. If I get that done significantly before editing the first installment, I'll post it here for your enjoyment.

Geoffroi de Charny's Name

This is perhaps a dumb question, but why is Geoffroi de Charny called "Charny" rather than "Geoffroi" when we're just using one name? Most of the time, the "de" is more of a designation than part of the name, so we just use their proper name, such as in Christine de Pizan, who would normally just be called "Christine."* The case of Joan d'Arc is an odd one since "d'Arc" is actually her name -- she's from a town called Domremy, and as far as I know there isn't even a place called "Arc," so "Joan of Arc" is a misnomer.

But I notice that the practice is to call Geoffroi de Charny "Charny," and I also note that it's the way he signs his own book. So, does anyone out there know why he's called "Charny" rather than "Geoffroi"?



*Though this too is a little complicated, since she's from Venice, and "Pizan" is an inherited name indicating her family's origins in Pizzano.

How Fat Could You Get in the Middle Ages?

In a long-ranging discussion over beer starting from the five acceptable sexual positions according to Albertus Magnus, we got into why "a tergo"* was acceptable -- because a more natural sexual position might be prevented by such problems as extreme obesity.

When I protested that I couldn't imagine being so fat that a tergo was the only possible position, my colleagues brought up images of morbidly obese people who had to be hauled out of their apartments in cranes, etc. To this I responded that I didn't think it was possible for people to get that fat in the Middle Ages. Even if you could afford an unlimited amount of rich foods, you still had to walk everywhere to get around.

This leads me to wonder -- how fat could you get in the Middle Ages? I tried figuring out fat Louis the Fat was, but I can't find anyone who might have figured out how much he weighed. Does anyone know how fat folks like Thomas Aquinas, Henry VIII, and Loius the Fat actually got? Also, as a bonus question, were they too fat for anything in the sack besides a tergo?


*Doggy-style, for those in the peanut gallery.