Early English Law

Catching up on a couple of weeks of announcements, so forgive the plethora of new posts that will be forthcoming!

Dear colleagues,

It is my very great pleasure to announce the CFP for "Early English
Law: A Centenary Conference on Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen of Felix
Liebermann (1903 - 1916)," which will be held 16-17 July, 2008, at
the Institute for Historical Research in London. Proposals of around
300 words are invited on the areas of Historiography (especially, but
not exclusively, relating to Liebermann), Evidence (manuscripts and
archeological data), Philology, Law, and Editing. Within each of
these areas, we invite proposals that consider antiquarian interest
in early laws, general historiography on the laws to the present,
assessments of Liebermann's accomplishment, the problems with his
edition, new editing work, discovery of new manuscripts or
reinterpretations of known manuscripts, construction and use of
individual manuscripts, legal terminology (Old English, Latin, or
early Anglo-Norman), considerations of individual laws, codes in
context, and comparative work on England and its neighbors!
. All sessions will be plenary, and the organizers invite proposals
for panels as well as for individual papers. Proposals should be sent
to Bruce O'Brien at the Institute of Historical Research by 31
October 2007 (email: bobrien@umw.edu). The full CFP may be found at
http://www.history.ac.uk/conferences/medieval.php#79.

Issue 10

The Board and Editors of The Heroic Age would like to announce
our tenth issue located at www.heroicage.org. With this issue, The
Heroic Age has introduced 2 sections of articles, one themed, and one
unthemed. We hope you enjoy this issue. Below, I've included a
table of contents, and I would also like to remind you of our Calls
for Papers for upcoming issues.

Issue 10:
Articles: Saints and Sanctity
Relics, Religious Authority, and the Sanctification of Domestic Space
in the Home Gregory of Tours: An Analysis of the Glory of the
Confessors 20
by Dennis Quinn

Miracle Stories and the Primary Purpose of Adomnán's Vita Columbae
by Sara E. Ellis Nilsson

Preserving the Body Christian: The Motif of "Recapitation" in
Ireland's Medieval Hagiography by Máire Johnson

Boniface's Booklife: How the Ragyndrudis Codex Came to be a Vita
Bonifatii by Michel Aaij

Tradition and Transformation in the Cult of St. Guthlac in Early
Medieval England by John R. Black

Articles-Unthemed Section

The P-Celtic Place-Names of North-East England and South-East Scotland
by Bethany Fox

Trade, Gift-giving and Romanitas: A Comparison of the Use of Roman
Imports in Western Britain and Southern Scandinavia by Thomas Green

Editions and Translations

The Revelatio Ecclesiae de Sancti Michaelis and the Mediterranean
Origins of Mont St.-Michel by John Charles Arnold (Forthcoming)

Columns

The Forum: The Historicity and Historiography of Arthur: A critical
review of King Arthur: Myth-Making and History by N. Higham, and The
Reign of Arthur: From History to Legend by C. Gidlow by Howard M.
Wiseman

Electronic Medievalia: If I were "You": How Academics Can Stop
Worrying and Learn to Love "the Encyclopedia that Anyone Can Edit" by
Daniel Paul O'Donnell

Continental Business by Michel Aaij

History by Biography:

The Changing Hagiography of St. Æthelthryth by Stacie Turner

Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia, 1207-2007 by Michel Aaij

In addition we have our book reviews edited by Brad Eden from various
contributors and recent losses to the Medieval community.

Issue 11 is planned for a mid-summer release.

Larry J. Swain

John NIles' New Book

Just out: Beowulf and Lejre, by John D. Niles, featuring contributions by Tom Christensen and Marijane Osborn. Foreword by John Hines, afterword by Tom Shippey. Edited by J. Niles and M. Osborn. Published by the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Tempe, AZ, as vol. 323 in the series Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies. With over 200 illustrations, including 48 in full color. 495 + xiv pages. ISBN 978-0-86698-368-6. Hardcover, $89.95. In collaboration with Brepols Publishers, Belgium.

Is the Old English epic poem Beowulf mere fantasy, or is its action grounded in a real-world locale? Archaeological excavations undertaken in 1986-88 and again in 2004-05 at Lejre, on the Danish island of Zealand, throw that question into relief, for they have revealed the existence of two Iron Age and Viking Age hall-complexes located right where the Danish episodes of that poem have traditionally been located on the basis of legendary evidence. This book reports on these dramatic discoveries and analyzes their significance. Many texts relating to Lejre in the medieval and modern period are included with analysis and commentary. In addition, the modern pseudo-scholarly "myth of Lejre" is explored. The book includes a translation into English of the 1991 book Lejre: Syn og Sagn by the Danish archaeologist Tom Christensen, director of the 1986-88 excavations, together with a new chapter by Christensen summarizing the results of the latest excavations.

In the editors' view, the archaeological discoveries that have stimulated the publication of this book represent "the most important new material development in Beowulf studies to have taken place since the poem was first published in a reliable modern edition" (in 1833-37). You are invited to see if you agree.

A roundtable discussion on the topic "Beowulf and Lejre: Assimilating the New Archaeological Discoveries" is scheduled as session 38 at the 2007 Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, Michigan. Congress attendees please note: so as to avoid an unfortunate scheduling conflict, that session will merge with session 40, "The Vikings in Late Anglo-Saxon England," into a single 2.5-hour "supersession." The Richard Rawlinson Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies and Manuscript Research will serve as chief host. The combined session will start at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 10 May, in Bernhard 105 (not Schneider 1340), beginning with the scheduled Rawlinson Center program.

New Book

From ISAS:

Virginia Blanton's new book was published on May 1:

Signs of Devotion: The Cult of St. AEthelthryth in Medieval England, 695-1615 (Hardcover, Penn State Press). For more info, point your browser at

http://www.psupress.psu.edu/books/titles/978-0-271-02984-9.html

Ages of Saints Conference

FWD from Derek Kruger, UNC Greensboro

An Age of Saints? Sainthood, scepticism and the authority of the Church in
the Mediterranean koiné, AD 200-900

Two-day Graduate Conference: University of Cambridge, United Kingdom,
1st-2nd September 2007.

Since the publication of Peter Brown’s famous ‘Holy Man’ article in 1971,
the cult of saints has been a prime marker for religious change between
the ancient and medieval worlds. The saint has thus been crucial to
scholarly efforts to delineate not only the religious, but also the
social, cultural and political identity of late antiquity. In this sense,
the rise of the holy man has been unstoppable and meteoric. But is there
scope to revisit the significance of the holy man in late antiquity? How
might historians take account not only of the positive evidence for the
change in religious sensibilities the rise of the cult of saints is
supposed to represent, but also of the significant and too often
overlooked areas of resistance to it that were expressed during this
period? How was the cult of the saints, their relics and their icons, used
either to consolidate or challenge the authority of the institutional
Church and its bishops? What was the influence exerted upon these
developments throughout the late antique and early medieval periods by
surviving non-Christian traditions, especially Greek and Hellenistic
philosophy? Was the articulation of religious authority experienced
differently in different parts of the Mediterranean and its hinterland?
If so, why?

>From the outset, it is important to note that, despite the emphasis on the
cult of the saints, scepticism and authority are loosely defined. Within
the overarching interest in secular or sacred opposition to, or
competition with, the cult of the saints, possible themes include: the
sceptical position towards sainthood established within contemporary
literature; tensions between public and private modes of interaction with
the divine; opposition to ecclesiastical involvement within the cult of
the saints, or the establishment of ecclesiastical paradigms of cultic
practice; opposition to asceticism as the 'spiritual ultimate'; medical,
philosophical or theological objections or corrections to contemporary
models of sainthood; the literary topos of the hagiographic doubter;
variant models of authority constructed within and around the cult of the
saints in general; tensions created by ascetic groups in relation to the
ecclesiastical and imperial institutions; heresy; iconoclasm; etc.

However, these themes are by no means exhaustive.

The conference is aimed particularly at doctoral students in the first,
second or third years of their research, with an emphasis on the friendly
and interested sharing of ideas. Papers which offer some perspective on
the unity, or divergence, of East and West are particularly welcome, but,
of course, this is not essential. The conference is not limited to the
Greco-Roman tradition, and we will look to include scholars of the
post-Roman West (including Visigothic Spain, Frankish Gaul and Anglo-Saxon
England) and of the non-Greek East (Syriac and Coptic Christianity,
Judaism and Islam).

We are endeavouring to provide two nights’ accommodation and meals,
probably at Trinity College. We must warn in advance, however, that we
shall unfortunately be unable to offer travel expenses. No registration
fee is currently envisaged.

Currently we are looking for the submission of abstracts (c.500 words).
Papers (30mins) will ideally be presented in English – but this is not
mandatory, as those in French, German and Italian will also be considered.

Please forward your abstracts by e-mail attachment to Mr Phil Booth
(pb281@cam.ac.uk) or Mr Matthew dal Santo (mjd79@cam.ac.uk),
preferably by 30th June 2007.

Opportunity

The Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS) is a Norwegian
Centre of Excellence (CoE) appointed by the Research
Council of Norway and a Nordic Centre of Excellence
(NCoE)appointed by the Nordic Research Councils.

We have announced Doctoral - , Post Doctoral - &
Researcher Positions at The Centre for Medieval Studies:
http://www.uib.no/cms/various/jobs.htm


Application deadline: May 19, 2007

Vatican Library Closing

This piece has been making the rounds of e-lists and blogs:

Bibliothèque Apostolique Vaticane

Monseigneur Farina, préfet de la BAV, a annoncé devant les directeurs des
bibliothèques de l'Unione, association des instituts archéologiques et
historiques de Rome, la prochaine fermeture de la Bibliothèque Apostolique
Vaticane (manuscrits et imprimés) qui prendra effet à partir du 1er
septembre 2007 et durera jusqu'au 1er janvier 2010.

Cela signifie que pour les chercheurs professeurs, la bibliothèque reste
ouverte jusqu'au 15 juillet prochain et jusqu'au 15 juin pour les
doctorants. Les Archives Secrètes Vaticanes ne sont pas concernées par
cette fermeture.

[Transmis par Marilyn NICOUD, Directrice des études médiévales, École
française de Rome .]