#Thirteenth century

[danskjavlarna]

Source details and larger version.

I've collected some rather interesting castle imagery, including several floating in the air.

[medieval-elephants]

Cozy conflict

Two elephants fight in a copy of Ibn Bakhtishu (d. 1058)'s Manafi al-Hayawan (On the Uses of Animals), made c. 1297-1300 in the area that is now Iran. But while the elephants are fighting, the images and text reveals how humans shared knowledge and ideas across long distances.

The text mentions that elephants live 300 years and are afraid of rats/mice. These and other ideas about elephants that also showed up in European texts at least since Pliny. The Morgan catalogue also notes that the text claims that elephant dung (with or without honey) can be taken as a contraceptive: don't try this at home!

Meanwhile, some scholars argue that the images resemble Gok Medrese reliefs in Turkey, and both may have been inspired by art from China brought by the Mongols, who swept across Eurasia in the thirteenth century. This single page is a very interesting example of how ideas about elephants can reveal wider influences and links between humans.

Materials: Paper, ink, and paint Origin: Maragha Date: 1297-1300 Now Morgan Library, M 500, f. 13r

[a-ravens-hoard]

Ascoli Cope ✦ Source: The MET

[ardenrosegarden]

[jamesgraybooksellerworld]

Walter Burley one of the most prominent logicians and metaphysicians of the Middle Ages

284J Aristotle , Gualtherus Burlaeus. (Walter Burley (c. 1275–1344/5 )) Expositio Gualteri Burlei super decem Libros Ethicorum Aristotelis (Contains the text of Robert Grosseteste’s translation of the Nicomachean Ethics) Venice: Simon de Luere for Andreas Torresanus, 4 September 1500   $11,500 Folio, 12 1/4 X 8 1/2 in.    A8 a6 b-x8 y10. Second edition after the first of 1481. This copy is bound…

[pennstateuniversitypress]

Unlocked Book of the Month: Manekine, John and Blonde, and “Foolish Generosity”

About our March pick:

Philippe de Remi (1200/1210–65) holds a remarkable position in the legacy of the thirteenth-century literary world. A layman, landholder, and professional administrator, rather than a court poet or member of the clergy, Philippe de Remi wrote poems, songs, and long verse narratives that were grounded in his familiarity with the literary genres of his day. While Philippe paid homage to Chrétien de Troyes and other important secular writers of the period, his station in society and an intended audience of family and friends, not patrons, allowed him the freedom to treat courtly conventions with some independence and to explore human motivations across the social spectrum. Barbara Sargent-Baur brings to the modern English-speaking reader a translation of three of Philippe’s most important compositions: his two verse romances, Manekine and John and Blonde, as well as his single short verse tale, “Foolish Generosity.” This volume gathers the first English stand-alone prose translations of these romances, which have been previously published only as line-by-line versions facing the Old French originals. Sargent-Baur’s English translation of “Foolish Generosity” is the first rendering from Old French in any language. These important translations allow increased access to Philippe de Remi’s attractive narrative works, expanding their audience beyond an Old French readership to the wider academic community.

Read more & access the book here: https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-02761-6.html

See the full list of Unlocked titles here: https://www.psupress.org/unlocked/unlocked_gallery.html

[buildoblivion]

a time lady

[gifsaregifts]

Honestly my biggest complaint about s11 is the lack of Historical costumes for the fam. There's just something about the Doctor's friends in full 'accurate' dress while they just prance around looking like a gay fever dream.

[snakesandstone]

Anyways I think the thing that makes loki and sigyn hit different to other tragic love stories for me is that they know this is a tragedy. Like, Ragnarök seems to be pretty common knowledge, sigyn knows how this ends, she knows exactly what will happen. And she still stays. And the whole snake torture cave is an indicator of just how loyal she is, sure, but so is everything else before that because she's not mentioned in the prophecy, she could just walk away and she'd be fine but she doesn't, she won't, she can't. And in other tragedies I've seen the main characters at least have the hope that it will all be fine, even if the audience knows better, that they'll make it through together and walk off into the sunset but loki and sigyn don't even have that. All they have is each other and all they can hope for is just one more day. I amn. Unwell

[annabelle--cane]

NOOOOO I just spent a few hours writing up an answer to an ask and I tried to save it as a draft and it disappeared ;-; why does god hate me

[danskjavlarna]

Source details and larger version.

Here are the vintage knights I've so far encountered in my research.

[a-ravens-hoard]

Medieval Embroidery ✦ Source: The MET

[ardenrosegarden]

Philip and John had much in common. They were born just a year apart. John's mother had been married to Philip's father. Philip's half-sister, Margaret, married John's brother Henry. Philip's sister Alice was betrothed to Richard and a possible wife for John. In his youth John went to Paris. During Richard's captivity they were allies. As kings they were opponents in a conflict which brought success, conquest and glory to Philip, failure and defeat for John. Summit conferences between them were regular. At one they came "face to face for an hour, no one except themselves being within hearing." At another, "no one spoke except those two", after which John went on to Paris as Philip's guest.

-Jim Bradbury, Philip Augustus and King John

[jamesgraybooksellerworld]

Walter Burley

284J Aristotle , Gualtherus Burlaeus. (Walter Burley (c. 1275–1344/5 )) Expositio Gualteri Burlei super decem Libros Ethicorum Aristotelis (Contains the text of Robert Grosseteste’s translation of the Nicomachean Ethics) Venice: Simon de Luere for Andreas Torresanus, 4 September 1500   $11,500 Folio, 12 1/4 X 8 1/2 in.    A8 a6 b-x8 y10. Second edition after the first of 1481. This copy is bound…

[nimblermortal]

Hervor <3

Okay, so I am translating the Saga of Hervor and Heidrek, also known as the Saga of King Heidrek the Wise by people who a) have met King Heidrek and b) clearly have no taste and are absolutely sleeping on my beloved Hervor.

Hervor is the daughter of a berserk. She's not like other girls. She would rather change with shot and shield* and sword than with needle and thread. She would rather do bad than good, and when bad is banned, she leaps into the forest and starts killing men for money.

Your fave could never. Your fave probably has honor.

Her grandfather the jarl** takes a troop of men to deal with the highwayman, and has an off-screen awkward haha moment of discovering said highwayman is his granddaughter, in front of all his men, and drags her back to his house, where she goes right back to making life miserable for everyone around her.

Eventually the slaves get so fed up with her that one of them tells her of course she's always bad, it's perfectly in keeping with her breeding, her (maternal) grandfather the jarl won't let anyone speak of it but her mother lay with the lowest slave.

Hervor gets rather upset and goes to her grandfather to inquire about the truth of this. She gets a relieved, "Haha no of course not your father was known for being... strong** and his tomb lies on this one island where he lost a duel his brother picked."

"Oh," Hervor replies instantly and in verse, "I want to go there and rob his grave."

Arguably the very next morning she has reworked her entire wardrobe*** and sailed off alone. Where does she go? TO FIND PIRATES†! She sails off to the land of the wild things (pirates) and they make her their king (captain). King because she's crossdressing now, she's tooootally a man named Hervard.

The instant she becomes their leader she says, "Cool, we're going to this island where I hear there's treasure."

"We don't want to go there," say all of her men, sailing there anyway but refusing to get off the boat. "That island is haunted. It's scary. No."

So after a great deal of argument lasting all day until sunset, they drop the anchor and Hervor gets in the boat and rows to shore herself, where she starts interrogating the natives, who are all, "You should not have come here, it's dangerous, we don't go outside at night, you need to go to somebody's house" and she's all, "I didn't ask you if it was scawy, I asked you where the lich king's burial mound is."

And that's as far as I've translated so far, but every day reading about Hervor Angantyrsdottir is a fresh gift.

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*side note, why have we stopped using this as a phrase?? It alliterates!

**the jarl has an interesting unspoken story going on. The first part of the saga deals with Hervor's dad's younger brother deciding he's going to marry a Swedish princess, and scheduling a duel over it. While they're preparing for this duel the (twelve, berserk) brothers drop in on a jarl and Hervor's dad Angantyr declares he's going to marry the jarl's daughter. The unspoken undercurrent is that Hervor's mother didn't have anyone to speak up for her, as the Swedish princess did, and her father also did not defend her from this jarl because he was afraid of the berserk brothers. And then said brothers went off, lost a duel, and Hervor was born only after they all died. So Hervor is this living reminder that the jarl wasn't brave enough to stand up to berserks, not even for his daughter, not even for the few months it would have taken for the berserks to die - he didn't even suggest waiting a year or so to have the wedding. Basically just let the berserks ride in and rape his daughter. And then he gets this grandchild who sullies his honor further by being a highwayman... I'm not saying he's a good man, but he's in an interesting position. And it also puts us in the position of seeing this conflict in Hervor: her grandfather the jarl's ought to be the side of her lineage she can be proud of, but her berserk viking father is the one who actually left a bold legacy.

***Privilege of the Sword, anyone?

†I use this word because I can never predict when my audience will have the right association with the word viking. Viking is a summer job for young men, like camp counselor. It's also illegal and disreputable, when it's done to you/inside your kingdom's borders, but cool and honorable when it's done to foreigners who had it coming and also you get their riches now.