This episode we celebrate our one-year anniversary on Halloween, with the tale of a mistreated werewolf: the Lai of Bisclavret by Marie de France.
This week’s text:
- “The Lay of the Werewolf” in French Mediaeval Romances from the Lays of Marie de France. Trans. Eugene Mason. 1911. Project Gutenberg.
References:
- Bynum, Caroline Walker. “Metamorphosis, or Gerald and the Werewolf.” Speculum 73.4 (Oct. 1998): 987-1013. JSTOR.
- Trębicki, Grzegorz. “Supragenological Types of Fiction versus Contemporary Non-Mimetic Literature.” Science Fiction Studies 41.3 (Nov. 2014): 481-501. JSTOR.
- TV Tropes: “Not Using the Z Word“
- TV Tropes: “Genre Blindness“
- Translation of the Canon Episcopi by H.C. Lea, reprinted in: Levack, Brian P., ed. The Witchcraft Sourcebook. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2015. 36-37.
Image: Illumination from “Ysengrin et les anguilles” from MS at Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. (Yes, those are technically foxes, but I think they look enough like zombie werewolves to fit today’s episode!)
This episode, we turn to the Chronicle of Battle Abbey to hear a tale of extortion, divine punishment, and ecclesiastical fashion.
This week’s text:
- The Chronicle of Battel Abbey from 1066 to 1176. Trans. Mark Antony Lower. London: John Russell Smith, 1851. (At Google Books)
With emendations from:
- Searle, Eleanor, ed. and trans. The Chronicle of Battle Abbey. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1980.
Image: Chasuble and vestments of Thomas Becket, 12th cent. (J.P. Elie, Musées de Sens)
In this episode of Medieval Death Trip, we acknowledge the recent passing of neurologist Oliver Sacks and horror writer/director Wes Craven with stories of compulsive behavior and monstrous encounters from the Lanercost Chronicle.
This week’s text:
- The Chronicle of Lanercost: 1272–1346. Trans. Sir Herbert Maxwell. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons, 1913. (Available at archive.org.)
References:
- Beecroft, Nicholas, Laura Bach, Nigel Tunstall, and Robert Howard. “An Unusual Case of Pica.” International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 13 (1998): 638-641.
- Sacks, Oliver. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: and Other Clinical Tales. Audible, Inc., 2011. (Available from Audible.)
Image: 14th-century medical manuscript from the Bibliotheque Mazarine (via Sexy Codicology)
In this episode, we wrap up the Melrose Chronicle‘s account of Simon de Montfort with a look at the miracle stories attached to his relics.
This episode’s texts:
- The Melrose Chronicle. In The Church Historians of England. Vol. IV, Part I. Ed. and trans. Joseph Stevenson. London: Seeley’s, 1856. [Available at Google Books.]
- “Miracles of Simon de Montfort.” Trans. George Walter Prothero. The Life of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1877. [Available at Google Books.]
- Translation of the Dictum of Kenilworth at the National Archives.
References:
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Bartlett, Robert. Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?: Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2013.
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Heffernan, Thomas J. “‘God hathe schewed ffor him many grete miracules’: Political Canonization and the Miracula of Simon de Montfort.” Art and Context in Late Medieval English Narrative: Essays in Honor of Robert Worth Frank, Jr. Ed. Robert R. Edwards. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1994. 177-192.
Image: Foot reliquaries of St. Anselm (early 14th cent.). © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY 2.5
In this episode, we continue the tale of Simon de Montfort’s struggle against King Henry III, with a look at two depictions of his final battle and death.
This episode’s texts:
- The Melrose Chronicle. In The Church Historians of England. Vol. IV, Part I. Ed. and trans. Joseph Stevenson. London: Seeley’s, 1856. [Available at Google Books.]
- College of Arms MS 3/23. In Laborderie, Olivier de; J.R. Maddicott, and D.A. Carpenter. “The Last Hours of Simon de Montfort: A New Account.” The English Historical Review 115.461 (Apr. 2000): 378-412.
References:
Image: BL MS Nero D ii – Detail from f. 177v – The Mutilation of Simon de Montfort.
The Trip goes on after an unexpected summer detour. This episode we celebrate the underdog blockbuster of the season, Mad Max: Fury Road, with a medieval story of vehicular deception during the Second Baron’s War.
This episode’s texts:
- The Melrose Chronicle. In The Church Historians of England. Vol. IV, Part I. Ed. and trans. Joseph Stevenson. London: Seeley’s, 1856. [Available at Google Books.]
- “Sitteth alle stille ant herkneth to me [or, A Song of Lewes]” at TEAMS Middle English Text Series.
References:
Image: BL Add MS 42130 (The Luttrell Psalter) f. 162r
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