The New Carnivalesque is up at Seredipities: http://earmarks.org/archives/2007/10/28/168
Its the Early Modern Edition this month.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Not much going on Medievally speaking, but here's what there is:
Will a cemetery excavation establish a link between the Black Death and
resistance to AIDS?:
Late Antique Roman Graveyard At Copenhagen
Medieval Ruins Found Near Stockholm Castle
Will a cemetery excavation establish a link between the Black Death and
resistance to AIDS?:
Late Antique Roman Graveyard At Copenhagen
Medieval Ruins Found Near Stockholm Castle
Sunday, October 28, 2007
New Book
Frederick M. Biggs, ed., _The Apocrypha_, Instrumenta Anglistica Medievalia 1
(Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2007). xx, 117 pp. ISBN
978-1-58044-119-3. $12 (softcover).
This volume brings up to date the entries on Apocrypha first published in
_Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: A Trial Version_, ed. Frederick M.
Biggs, Thomas D. Hill, and Paul E. Szarmach (Binghamton, N.Y., 1990), which
were themselves intended to correct and amplify the entries on Apocrypha first
assembled by J. D. A. Ogilvy in his _Books Known to the English, 597–1066_
(Cambridge, Mass., 1967). The book provides complete coverage of the
knowledge
and transmission of almost eighty apocryphal texts in Anglo-Saxon England,
supported by a bibliography of over 500 titles. This is the first publication
in a new series, Instrumenta Anglistica Medievalia, which is intended to serve
as a forum for interim and subsidiary publications related to the Sources of
Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture project. Copies can be ordered through the MIP
online bookstore (www.wmich.edu/medieval/mip/books/saslc.htm).
(Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2007). xx, 117 pp. ISBN
978-1-58044-119-3. $12 (softcover).
This volume brings up to date the entries on Apocrypha first published in
_Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: A Trial Version_, ed. Frederick M.
Biggs, Thomas D. Hill, and Paul E. Szarmach (Binghamton, N.Y., 1990), which
were themselves intended to correct and amplify the entries on Apocrypha first
assembled by J. D. A. Ogilvy in his _Books Known to the English, 597–1066_
(Cambridge, Mass., 1967). The book provides complete coverage of the
knowledge
and transmission of almost eighty apocryphal texts in Anglo-Saxon England,
supported by a bibliography of over 500 titles. This is the first publication
in a new series, Instrumenta Anglistica Medievalia, which is intended to serve
as a forum for interim and subsidiary publications related to the Sources of
Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture project. Copies can be ordered through the MIP
online bookstore (www.wmich.edu/medieval/mip/books/saslc.htm).
New Beowulf Book
Beowulf
An Illustrated Edition
Translated by Seamus Heaney
Illustrations edited by John D. Niles
“This illustrated edition is the next best thing to being in the mead hall at Heorot, watching the action, with Heaney chanting it beside you.” ¾Neil Gaiman
Over fifteen centuries after the events the poem describes take place; ten centuries after the unique manuscript version was written down; almost 200 years after the poem was first published in a modern edition; seven years after the initial publication of Seamus Heaney’s best-selling translation; and coinciding with a Hollywood film adaptation written by Neil Gaiman and starring Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, and Angelina Jolie, the epic Anglo-Saxon tale of Beowulf is more popular, and relevant, than ever before. Yet, whether approached in translation or in the original language, the poem’s action has always seemed to take place in a realm of fantasy rather than in the very real world of Iron Age Scandinavia where it is set. Now, Heaney’s outstanding translation is coupled with over 120 images that document the artifacts mentioned in the poem and evoke its atmosphere and physical setting. BEOWULF: An Illustrated Edition (W.W. Norton; November 5, 2007; $24.95; paper), translated by Seamus Heaney with illustrations edited by John D. Niles, brings the visual world of this touchstone of Western literature vividly to life for the first time.
The story of Beowulf’s triumphs over Grendel and Grendel’s mother and his tragic victory over the dragon—a story charged with the power of fate, the thrills of heroism and its attendant fame, and the complexities of the eternal struggle of good against evil—has never before received the visual celebration it deserves. What sort of buildings did Beowulf and the other characters inhabit? How did the poet envision their ships and horses? What kind of arms and armor did they use? What sort of beasts flourished in their imagination? And what sort of riches awaited those heroes who were triumphant?
Heaney’s translation alone “does something other than bring [Beowulf] up into our time. It transports us to his and lets us wander there; after which home will never seem entirely the same” (The New York Times). This illustrated edition not only transports us to the poem’s milieu but also guides us on our journey. A different image faces almost every page of verse, offering a visual counterpart to the poem’s events or scenes and, sometimes, suggesting answers to questions that have been on the minds of generations of Beowulf readers.
Beautiful photographs of artifacts give us a window into Iron Age Europe, with its helmets, swords, and jewelry. Drawings and photos of reconstructed Viking Age ships are juxtaposed with the sea-voyages to and from Denmark, while photographs of a third-century chain mail shirt and an ancient dagger accompany Beowulf’s escape from the clutches of Grendel’s mother. Dragon-shaped ornaments forged by master smiths punctuate the poem’s dragon episode, while photographs of prehistoric barrows in Denmark and Sweden help readers imagine what the dragon’s lair or the hero’s final resting place might have looked like. The reader is also invited to look inside a reconstruction of a Danish hall, admire goblets of the kind that kings and queens of this period might have passed to their guests, and contemplate woodcuts that evoke the bleak mood of the poem’s closing scenes.
More than simply providing a backdrop for the poem, BEOWULF: An Illustrated Edition offers a crash course in the material culture of northern Europe during the first millennium. The book’s captions, together with a substantial afterword by Niles on “Visualizing Beowulf,” complement these photographs and drawings with much information relating to the archaeology of the period. This is an edition that long-time fans of Beowulf will cherish for its new perspective, that will entice new readers to the poem, and that will appeal to educators who wish to explore new ways of understanding the story.
About the Translator and Editor
Seamus Heaney received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He teaches regularly at Harvard University and lives in Dublin.
John D. Niles is the Frederic G. Cassidy Professor of Humanities at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a specialist in Beowulf studies.
Title: BEOWULF: An Illustrated Edition
Translator: Seamus Heaney
Publication Date: November 5, 2007
Illustrations: 80 color, 41 black-and-white
ISBN: 978-0-393-33010-6
Price: $24.95; paperback
An Illustrated Edition
Translated by Seamus Heaney
Illustrations edited by John D. Niles
“This illustrated edition is the next best thing to being in the mead hall at Heorot, watching the action, with Heaney chanting it beside you.” ¾Neil Gaiman
Over fifteen centuries after the events the poem describes take place; ten centuries after the unique manuscript version was written down; almost 200 years after the poem was first published in a modern edition; seven years after the initial publication of Seamus Heaney’s best-selling translation; and coinciding with a Hollywood film adaptation written by Neil Gaiman and starring Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, and Angelina Jolie, the epic Anglo-Saxon tale of Beowulf is more popular, and relevant, than ever before. Yet, whether approached in translation or in the original language, the poem’s action has always seemed to take place in a realm of fantasy rather than in the very real world of Iron Age Scandinavia where it is set. Now, Heaney’s outstanding translation is coupled with over 120 images that document the artifacts mentioned in the poem and evoke its atmosphere and physical setting. BEOWULF: An Illustrated Edition (W.W. Norton; November 5, 2007; $24.95; paper), translated by Seamus Heaney with illustrations edited by John D. Niles, brings the visual world of this touchstone of Western literature vividly to life for the first time.
The story of Beowulf’s triumphs over Grendel and Grendel’s mother and his tragic victory over the dragon—a story charged with the power of fate, the thrills of heroism and its attendant fame, and the complexities of the eternal struggle of good against evil—has never before received the visual celebration it deserves. What sort of buildings did Beowulf and the other characters inhabit? How did the poet envision their ships and horses? What kind of arms and armor did they use? What sort of beasts flourished in their imagination? And what sort of riches awaited those heroes who were triumphant?
Heaney’s translation alone “does something other than bring [Beowulf] up into our time. It transports us to his and lets us wander there; after which home will never seem entirely the same” (The New York Times). This illustrated edition not only transports us to the poem’s milieu but also guides us on our journey. A different image faces almost every page of verse, offering a visual counterpart to the poem’s events or scenes and, sometimes, suggesting answers to questions that have been on the minds of generations of Beowulf readers.
Beautiful photographs of artifacts give us a window into Iron Age Europe, with its helmets, swords, and jewelry. Drawings and photos of reconstructed Viking Age ships are juxtaposed with the sea-voyages to and from Denmark, while photographs of a third-century chain mail shirt and an ancient dagger accompany Beowulf’s escape from the clutches of Grendel’s mother. Dragon-shaped ornaments forged by master smiths punctuate the poem’s dragon episode, while photographs of prehistoric barrows in Denmark and Sweden help readers imagine what the dragon’s lair or the hero’s final resting place might have looked like. The reader is also invited to look inside a reconstruction of a Danish hall, admire goblets of the kind that kings and queens of this period might have passed to their guests, and contemplate woodcuts that evoke the bleak mood of the poem’s closing scenes.
More than simply providing a backdrop for the poem, BEOWULF: An Illustrated Edition offers a crash course in the material culture of northern Europe during the first millennium. The book’s captions, together with a substantial afterword by Niles on “Visualizing Beowulf,” complement these photographs and drawings with much information relating to the archaeology of the period. This is an edition that long-time fans of Beowulf will cherish for its new perspective, that will entice new readers to the poem, and that will appeal to educators who wish to explore new ways of understanding the story.
About the Translator and Editor
Seamus Heaney received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He teaches regularly at Harvard University and lives in Dublin.
John D. Niles is the Frederic G. Cassidy Professor of Humanities at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a specialist in Beowulf studies.
Title: BEOWULF: An Illustrated Edition
Translator: Seamus Heaney
Publication Date: November 5, 2007
Illustrations: 80 color, 41 black-and-white
ISBN: 978-0-393-33010-6
Price: $24.95; paperback
Sad News Last Week: The Passing of Stephen Tranter
From the ISAS list, Winfrid Rudolf reported:
I am sorry to have to report the passing away of my teacher and good friend Stephen Tranter, who died quietly in Trier (Germany) on October 12th after almost nine years of being in a coma. I am not sure whether Stephen's wife Doris has contacted you already, but I am sure she would give her ok to have the sad news spread via ISASnet. Stephen will be known to many colleagues in the field from his work on the sagas and metrical tracts. A product of ASNAC and student of Ray Page and Peter Clemoes, he later studied with Heinz Klingenberg and Hildegard Tristram at Freiburg University. He was a charismatic teacher of Old English, Old Norse and Irish, a keen musician and glorious supporter of Derby County FC. He has more than revived English Medieval Studies at Jena University when he took the refounded professorship in 1996, after an eclipse of this post for 38 years, caused by GDR university politics. He was very much aware of the tradition of English Medieval Studies at Jena (Ettmüller, Sievers, Kluge, Schücking etc.) and was striving for a holistic and colourful way of teaching our subject to students of a mainly atheist background. Thanks to his work, Jena can now pride itself in having a good library of Old and Middle English scholarship again, and a prospering community of graduate students in our field. Stephen has taught me the basic skills of our craft in a very dialogical and open way, and has been a steady companion in my thoughts for the last nine years. It is hard to describe how much he is responsible for what I have become, both as a scholar and human being. He was a lovely man, and I am sure his memory will live on in every good hour of teaching our subject and every bit of humour we gain from working together as Anglo-Saxonists.
I am sorry to have to report the passing away of my teacher and good friend Stephen Tranter, who died quietly in Trier (Germany) on October 12th after almost nine years of being in a coma. I am not sure whether Stephen's wife Doris has contacted you already, but I am sure she would give her ok to have the sad news spread via ISASnet. Stephen will be known to many colleagues in the field from his work on the sagas and metrical tracts. A product of ASNAC and student of Ray Page and Peter Clemoes, he later studied with Heinz Klingenberg and Hildegard Tristram at Freiburg University. He was a charismatic teacher of Old English, Old Norse and Irish, a keen musician and glorious supporter of Derby County FC. He has more than revived English Medieval Studies at Jena University when he took the refounded professorship in 1996, after an eclipse of this post for 38 years, caused by GDR university politics. He was very much aware of the tradition of English Medieval Studies at Jena (Ettmüller, Sievers, Kluge, Schücking etc.) and was striving for a holistic and colourful way of teaching our subject to students of a mainly atheist background. Thanks to his work, Jena can now pride itself in having a good library of Old and Middle English scholarship again, and a prospering community of graduate students in our field. Stephen has taught me the basic skills of our craft in a very dialogical and open way, and has been a steady companion in my thoughts for the last nine years. It is hard to describe how much he is responsible for what I have become, both as a scholar and human being. He was a lovely man, and I am sure his memory will live on in every good hour of teaching our subject and every bit of humour we gain from working together as Anglo-Saxonists.
Religions of the Book CFP
CALL FOR PAPERS
"Religions of the Book: Manuscript Traditions in
Judaism, Christianity and Islam, 1000-1500"
Second Annual Sacred Leaves Graduate Symposium
February 21-22, 2008
University of South Florida, Tampa Library, Tampa, FL
Keynote Speaker: Thomas E. Burman, Lindsay Young
Associate Professor Department of History, University
of Tennessee, author of *Reading the Qur'an in Latin
Christendom, 1140-1560*
Keynote Address: Thursday, February 21, 2008, 7:00
p.m., Traditions Hall
The Special Collections Department of the Tampa
Library, University of South Florida seeks papers from
graduate students and recent M.A. or Ph.D. recipients
for its Second Annual Sacred Leaves Graduate
Symposium. This year's theme is "Religions of the
Book: Manuscript Traditions in Judaism, Christianity
and Islam, 1000-1500."
We encourage interdisciplinary topics with comparative
emphases on monotheistic religions in the medieval
world.
Subjects for proposals may include, but are not
limited to:
* sacred myth and narrative
* interreligious dialogue
* scriptural exegesis
* modes of representation
* traditions of illumination
* methods of manuscript production
Please email an abstract of no more than 250 words to
Dr. Jane Marie Pinzino, Symposium Coordinator at
jpinzino@lib.usf.edu.
Notification of acceptances will be emailed by January
4, 2008.
Please include the title of your paper, name,
affiliation and email address. Each paper selected
will be allotted 20 minutes for presentation.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE DATE: DECEMBER 14, 2007
The Annual Sacred Leaves Graduate Student Symposium is
organized by the Special Collections Department and
the Humanities Institute, University of South Florida,
Tampa, FL.
Jane Marie Pinzino, Ph.D.
Special Collections Department
University of South Florida, Tampa Library
4202 E. Fowler Avenue, LIB 122
Tampa, FL 33620-5400
813.974-2731 voice
813.396-9006 fax
"Religions of the Book: Manuscript Traditions in
Judaism, Christianity and Islam, 1000-1500"
Second Annual Sacred Leaves Graduate Symposium
February 21-22, 2008
University of South Florida, Tampa Library, Tampa, FL
Keynote Speaker: Thomas E. Burman, Lindsay Young
Associate Professor Department of History, University
of Tennessee, author of *Reading the Qur'an in Latin
Christendom, 1140-1560*
Keynote Address: Thursday, February 21, 2008, 7:00
p.m., Traditions Hall
The Special Collections Department of the Tampa
Library, University of South Florida seeks papers from
graduate students and recent M.A. or Ph.D. recipients
for its Second Annual Sacred Leaves Graduate
Symposium. This year's theme is "Religions of the
Book: Manuscript Traditions in Judaism, Christianity
and Islam, 1000-1500."
We encourage interdisciplinary topics with comparative
emphases on monotheistic religions in the medieval
world.
Subjects for proposals may include, but are not
limited to:
* sacred myth and narrative
* interreligious dialogue
* scriptural exegesis
* modes of representation
* traditions of illumination
* methods of manuscript production
Please email an abstract of no more than 250 words to
Dr. Jane Marie Pinzino, Symposium Coordinator at
jpinzino@lib.usf.edu.
Notification of acceptances will be emailed by January
4, 2008.
Please include the title of your paper, name,
affiliation and email address. Each paper selected
will be allotted 20 minutes for presentation.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE DATE: DECEMBER 14, 2007
The Annual Sacred Leaves Graduate Student Symposium is
organized by the Special Collections Department and
the Humanities Institute, University of South Florida,
Tampa, FL.
Jane Marie Pinzino, Ph.D.
Special Collections Department
University of South Florida, Tampa Library
4202 E. Fowler Avenue, LIB 122
Tampa, FL 33620-5400
813.974-2731 voice
813.396-9006 fax
CFP The Devil In Society
*The Devil in Society in the Pre-modern World*
17 and 18 October 2008
Toronto, Ontario
An international, interdisciplinary conference hosted by the Centre
for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at Victoria College in the
University of Toronto
Keynote speakers include Richard Kieckhefer and Audrey L. Meaney.
This multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine the broad
trajectory of devil beliefs in the period prior to 1650 in order to
help explain what might be termed the general diabolisation of
European thought as it is refracted through society and culture
arguably from the middle of the fifteenth century. By surveying the
variety in form and function of diabolical and demonic discourses and
their social expression both at a series of particular historical
moments, and over the /longue durée/, the conference aims to advance
our understanding of the changing role of the devil in popular and
elite culture and aetiology from late antiquity to its height in the
early modern period.
The conference organisers invite submissions for individual 20-minute
papers, for panels (generally consisting of three papers), and
workshops or round-tables dealing with any aspect of demonism and its
manifestation in the classical, medieval, and Early Modern
traditions. Some possible topics include, but are not limited to:
Antichrist and the End of the World
Clerical and popular demonism
Constructions of the Sabbat
Demonic magic
Demonic possession
Demonologists—medieval and early modern
Demonology and witchcraft
Demons and heresy
Demons and sceptics
Demons in literature and on the stage
Devil in art
Devil in folklore
Demons in hagiography and /exempla/
Demonisation of the “Other”
Exorcism, lay and clerical
Incubi and succubi
Mysticism and diabology
New World demons
Protestant vs. Catholic demons
Women as healers, mystics, and witches
Abstracts of no more than 150 words should be submitted by 15
December 2007, together with a one-page (max) c.v. to Richard
Raiswell (Univ. of Prince Edward Island) and Peter Dendle (Penn State
Univ.) at:
17 and 18 October 2008
Toronto, Ontario
An international, interdisciplinary conference hosted by the Centre
for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at Victoria College in the
University of Toronto
Keynote speakers include Richard Kieckhefer and Audrey L. Meaney.
This multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine the broad
trajectory of devil beliefs in the period prior to 1650 in order to
help explain what might be termed the general diabolisation of
European thought as it is refracted through society and culture
arguably from the middle of the fifteenth century. By surveying the
variety in form and function of diabolical and demonic discourses and
their social expression both at a series of particular historical
moments, and over the /longue durée/, the conference aims to advance
our understanding of the changing role of the devil in popular and
elite culture and aetiology from late antiquity to its height in the
early modern period.
The conference organisers invite submissions for individual 20-minute
papers, for panels (generally consisting of three papers), and
workshops or round-tables dealing with any aspect of demonism and its
manifestation in the classical, medieval, and Early Modern
traditions. Some possible topics include, but are not limited to:
Antichrist and the End of the World
Clerical and popular demonism
Constructions of the Sabbat
Demonic magic
Demonic possession
Demonologists—medieval and early modern
Demonology and witchcraft
Demons and heresy
Demons and sceptics
Demons in literature and on the stage
Devil in art
Devil in folklore
Demons in hagiography and /exempla/
Demonisation of the “Other”
Exorcism, lay and clerical
Incubi and succubi
Mysticism and diabology
New World demons
Protestant vs. Catholic demons
Women as healers, mystics, and witches
Abstracts of no more than 150 words should be submitted by 15
December 2007, together with a one-page (max) c.v. to Richard
Raiswell (Univ. of Prince Edward Island) and Peter Dendle (Penn State
Univ.) at:
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