Is this a Viking Magic Wand?

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeT4iJaONDiPO6svWvTJhdr3WQYGGKiiu2lv29Zq4kCFmNxTuR6q-eYm1rGa1uHw8C6MuFDRSPTIWUFN930IVimaD7tVApM2752nvP1It_57CS0I58bvqLVKI_wajyos3L4LQRZCu5PcQ/s1600/viking+wand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeT4iJaONDiPO6svWvTJhdr3WQYGGKiiu2lv29Zq4kCFmNxTuR6q-eYm1rGa1uHw8C6MuFDRSPTIWUFN930IVimaD7tVApM2752nvP1It_57CS0I58bvqLVKI_wajyos3L4LQRZCu5PcQ/s1600/viking+wand.jpg" /></a></div><br />For decades the experts at the British Museum believed that this item, discovered at a woman's grave from Norway was just a hook used in fishing. However, new research suggests that it was her 'magic wand' and that it was deliberately bent to destroy its power.<br /><br /><i>The Times</i> newspaper reported that this item, a 90 cm long iron rod, was first brought to the British Museum in 1894. British Museum curator Sue Branning believes that it was probably a magical staff used to perform 'seithr', a form of Viking sorcery predominantly practiced by women.<br /><br />She told <i>The Times</i>: "These are magical practices, which we don't fully understand. It involves divination, prophecy, communication with the dead and making people do things. Our rod fits, in terms of its form, with a number of these rods that turn up in the 9th and 10th century in female burials. They normally take the form of these long iron rods with knobs attached to them."<br /><br />The rod would have been 'ritually' destroyed in order to prevent the sorceress from rising from the dead, or to stop anyone else from using it. Branning adds, "When we hear about the Vikings we hear all about the powerful warriors, but now we know there were also powerful women. These women were very well respected, but they were quite feared as well. They may have been on the margins of society. You might not want to get close to them because they have this power. The sources we have describe them as wearing blue and black cloaks with gems attached."<br /><br />Visitors to the British Museum will be able to see the artifact when the new Early Medieval Gallery reopens on March 27th. <b><a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/">Click here to visit the British Museum website</a></b>.

Is this a Viking Magic Wand?

For decades the experts at the British Museum believed that this item, discovered at a woman's grave from Norway was just a hook used in...

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Answering the questions 'May a Man Marry a Man?' and 'Who am I?' in the Middle Ages

<h4>May a Man Marry a Man? A Medieval Debate </h4>Charles J. Reid, a Professor at the University of St.Thomas and writer on religious issues for the <i>Huffington Post</i>, recently posted <b><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-j-reid-jr/medieval-same-sex-marriage_b_4619072.html">May a Man Marry a Man? A Medieval Debate</a></b>, which takes look at how medieval writers approached the issue of same-sex marriage. The surprising thing, notes Professor Reid, is that they actually talked about this issue. He begins by referencing the work of Henry of Segusio, better known as Hostiensis, a 13th century canon law expert, who penned the question: "May a man marry a man?"<br /><br />The answer was an emphatic no, and would remain so throughout the Middle Ages. Reid does it find interesting that many of the arguments against same-sex marriage that were first written over 800 years ago remain prominent today.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-j-reid-jr/medieval-same-sex-marriage_b_4619072.html">Click here to read his article</a></b>. <br /><br /><h4>Thomas Aquinas – Toward a Deeper Sense of Self</h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmUdIHlDe6HoaTz4Q51K5aDTUq9qvhfeidvJrQynJGA4J_G79kz3mSrWrLyqMAU9BZkXNGP7PNbvFw_XpOlbKf-lCGtfwLhdd0SEud0HssgrL9ScjdabG-5Ly6xD_MELEea1YLjnytoSY/s1600/Thomas+Aquinas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmUdIHlDe6HoaTz4Q51K5aDTUq9qvhfeidvJrQynJGA4J_G79kz3mSrWrLyqMAU9BZkXNGP7PNbvFw_XpOlbKf-lCGtfwLhdd0SEud0HssgrL9ScjdabG-5Ly6xD_MELEea1YLjnytoSY/s1600/Thomas+Aquinas.jpg" width="234" /></a></div>Therese Scarpelli Cory has written a very insightful piece on the Cambridge University Press blog on <b><a href="http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2014/01/thomas-aquinas-toward-a-deeper-sense-of-self/">Thomas Aquinas – Toward a Deeper Sense of Self</a></b>. It explores how St. Thomas Aquinas might approach the question 'Who am I?' and introduces us to Cory's new book A<i>quinas on Human Self-Knowledge</i>. She writes:<br /><br />"It’s a common scholarly myth that early modern philosophers (starting with Descartes) invented the idea of the human being as a “self” or “subject.” My book tries to dispel that myth, showing that like philosophers and neuroscientists today, medieval thinkers were just as curious about why the mind is so intimately familiar, and yet so inaccessible, to itself. (In fact, long before Freud, medieval Latin and Islamic thinkers were speculating about a subconscious, inaccessible realm in the mind.) The more we study the medieval period, the clearer it becomes that inquiry into the self does not start with Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am.” Rather, Descartes was taking sides in a debate about self-knowledge that had already begun in the thirteenth century and earlier."<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2014/01/thomas-aquinas-toward-a-deeper-sense-of-self/">Click here to read her blog post</a></b>

Answering the questions 'May a Man Marry a Man?' and 'Who am I?' in the Middle Ages

May a Man Marry a Man? A Medieval Debate  Charles J. Reid, a Professor at the University of St.Thomas and writer on religious issues for the...

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Scholar to research charity and guilt in medieval Champagne

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY8MyVq3JAN1ejyaQVz1dAUIy8wxDm4-urrrfoDO7Eo2WWuL4XL1ttFxe7mvGDlwM_A9x-rb-ojzPVBXbs7rDcIL88dLCVHJtkKaihKvBLL5eveBn2nQWO4EU5Jqu7i-ZgUbe2RPY9Buo/s1600/medievalhospital.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY8MyVq3JAN1ejyaQVz1dAUIy8wxDm4-urrrfoDO7Eo2WWuL4XL1ttFxe7mvGDlwM_A9x-rb-ojzPVBXbs7rDcIL88dLCVHJtkKaihKvBLL5eveBn2nQWO4EU5Jqu7i-ZgUbe2RPY9Buo/s320/medievalhospital.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Adam Davis is a historian whose research causes him to straddle centuries on a daily basis. Now, the associate professor has received a yearlong fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to dig deeper into the 12th and 13th centuries in Champagne, France. Davis will study hospitals, wills, charitable practices of the day, and even medieval guilt.<br /><br /> On the face of it, examining the source documents of medieval French hospitals doesn’t sound like uncovering King Solomon’s mines, but Davis begs to differ. He says he’s actually studying a previously unknown charitable revolution.<br /><br /> In earlier times, monasteries provided care for the poor and sick. But during the 12th and 13th centuries, wealthy laypeople founded hundreds of hospitals to provide for Europe’s needy. In the Middle Ages, hospitals were multifunctional religious institutions—almost a hybrid between a shelter, nursing home, and inn—housing the sick, poor, and powerless, as well as travelers.<br /><br />“By the 13th century, hospitals had become one of the most popular recipients of charitable bequests,” says Davis. “In a number of regions, well over half of testaments, left by people from all cross-sections of life included bequests for hospices, hospitals, and leprosaries (quarantined houses for patients suffering from leprosy).” <br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.denison.edu/theden/2013/01/sweet-charity-medieval-guilt/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Denison University</a></b>

Scholar to research charity and guilt in medieval Champagne

Adam Davis is a historian whose research causes him to straddle centuries on a daily basis. Now, the associate professor has received a year...

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The medieval church’s ideological warfare

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEP0hPCWnfe6d6r8WCJkM5rz54qO0AX8ubdLCo_nV_cNXEOCVxdbCStry_Drn3XJhkNk9xYgCx67u8kgPjPgTm7B4CR2OfVPO-Fq1S8NnPWORWceELxIafP5fHADfXRQg2kI0npmO2HTM/s1600/12072012p18pha.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEP0hPCWnfe6d6r8WCJkM5rz54qO0AX8ubdLCo_nV_cNXEOCVxdbCStry_Drn3XJhkNk9xYgCx67u8kgPjPgTm7B4CR2OfVPO-Fq1S8NnPWORWceELxIafP5fHADfXRQg2kI0npmO2HTM/s1600/12072012p18pha.jpeg" /></a></div>THE WAR ON HERESY <br />By R.I. Moore <br />Published by Harvard University Press, $35 <br /><br /> Long ago and far away, in lands now known as Southern France and Northern Italy, many people the church considered “bad” lived in small villages scattered throughout the countryside. They were known by various names -- Cathars, Waldensians, Manichees, Albigensians and Donatists. What they had in common was that their ideas were seen as wrong, a threat to the unity of Christian Europe. They therefore had to be snuffed out.<br /><br /> This was in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. Their offense was heresy -- to believe or express an idea contrary to what was taught by the Roman Catholic church, and to refuse to “correct” that “wrong” idea. To refuse was to be tried, convicted and killed -- usually burned alive at the stake in the town square as an example to those who might insist on having ideas of their own. All this was by order of the church. The popes, who had already sent crusaders to the Holy Land to reclaim Jerusalem, would periodically send a local crusade to Southern France.<br /><br /> But that was more than 800 years ago, and nothing like that could happen today. Is that clear?<br /><br /><b><a href="http://ncronline.org/books/2012/12/medieval-church-s-ideological-warfare" target="_blank">Click here to read this book review from the National Catholic Reporter</a></b> <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=medievalistsn-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0674065824&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_top&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

The medieval church’s ideological warfare

THE WAR ON HERESY By R.I. Moore Published by Harvard University Press, $35  Long ago and far away, in lands now known as Southern France and...

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The Geese Book – medieval manuscript now available online

<br />One of the most interesting manuscripts of the late Middle Ages is now available online – The Geese Book, a lavishly and whimsically illuminated, two-volume liturgical book, can now be accessed through a project from the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.<br /><br />The Geese Book was produced in Nuremberg, Germany between 1503 and 1510, and gives the complete liturgy compiled for the parish of St. Lorenz, which was used until the Reformation was introduced in the city in 1525.<br /><br />The volumes are renowned for their high quality decorative illumination including fanciful pictures, provocative and satirical imagery of animals, dragons, and wild people. The work takes its name from an enigmatic illustration showing a choir of geese singing from a large chant manuscript with a wolf as their choirmaster. A fox, who has joined the choir, extends his paw menacingly in the direction of one of the geese.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.medievalists.net/2012/11/28/the-geese-book-medieval-manuscript-now-available-online/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net</a></b><br />

The Geese Book – medieval manuscript now available online

One of the most interesting manuscripts of the late Middle Ages is now available online – The Geese Book, a lavishly and whimsically illumin...

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Medieval bestseller explores morality through science

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZGJwrYm29AonNCsuGZxiV1ueIgsEWLMNbRGO8km2LsaQTLwAKsgsNEPkputZ886Oj8IMd5BWlw2ypc9bMOz5srLuuXVPT13JY4IyZ76odMmIOYgP163hJn7SLnZrZ7RrOK1dG8OPbvgY/s1600/Newhauser.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZGJwrYm29AonNCsuGZxiV1ueIgsEWLMNbRGO8km2LsaQTLwAKsgsNEPkputZ886Oj8IMd5BWlw2ypc9bMOz5srLuuXVPT13JY4IyZ76odMmIOYgP163hJn7SLnZrZ7RrOK1dG8OPbvgY/s320/Newhauser.jpeg" width="214" /></a></div>Imagine a stick partially submerged in a pool of water. It appears to be broken at the point where water meets air, but in fact it is in one piece. This optical illusion is called refraction: as light passes from one medium to another, it bends and changes speed based on each medium’s refractive index, causing the stick in water to appear bent.<br /><br /> Most people are familiar with the scientific definition of refraction. But have you ever considered it as a moral concept? Say there’s a man on the street digging through a dumpster. You might see him as being “broken.” But as refraction teaches us, things are not always as they appear.<br /><br /> The idea that scientific principles might also have philosophical applications is explored in <i>The Moral Treatise on the Eye</i>, a text written in the late 13th century by Peter of Limoges. The Moral Treatise is a compilation of short narratives, or exempla, meant to help preachers deliver sermons. Each chapter offers a piece of knowledge about the field of optics. Peter of Limoges first explains the concept scientifically, and then gives a moral or religious interpretation, like in the refraction example.<br /><br /> “Peter quotes Paul, saying that we see things in this world through a dark veil, but in the next life, you’ll see things as they really are,” says Richard Newhauser, an English professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU. “In effect, what he’s saying is, in heaven there’s no reflection or refraction but only lines of direct sight.”<br /><br /><i> The Moral Treatise on the Eye</i> combines scientific thought with concepts of moral theology. This blending of disciplines is part of what appealed to Newhauser, who recently published a translation of the text with extensive explanatory footnotes.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://researchmatters.asu.edu/stories/medieval-bestseller-explores-morality-through-science-2353" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Arizona State University</a></b> <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=medievalistsn-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0888443013&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_top&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Medieval bestseller explores morality through science

Imagine a stick partially submerged in a pool of water. It appears to be broken at the point where water meets air, but in fact it is in one...

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Christian Vikings - Christian burials in Denmark dated to 9th century

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifKhkHSS0LYTni-ue-N3-A4-kdBQvOyiz5NDjgOxK9I20bJcURIvMSX8cYz8Xwc-OMSCCHAh2UvqfCUktPuEdMCwKr8kNnmOrBzbxpqmMpPg6kKT-m6Hik0Obh2SxFtjAbDJQoMl9TYq0/s1600/denmark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifKhkHSS0LYTni-ue-N3-A4-kdBQvOyiz5NDjgOxK9I20bJcURIvMSX8cYz8Xwc-OMSCCHAh2UvqfCUktPuEdMCwKr8kNnmOrBzbxpqmMpPg6kKT-m6Hik0Obh2SxFtjAbDJQoMl9TYq0/s320/denmark.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white;">Danish Archaeologists have been busy digging around the old Cathedral in Ribe for several years. Here lies a cemetery, which was abandoned about 1050. The sensational character of the find has however more to do with the fact, that the earliest graves have been dated to around 850 – more than a 100 years before Denmark was officially Christianised according to the famous rune-stone of Harold Bluetooth in Jellinge.</span><br /><br />All in all the archaeologists believe there were between 1500 -2000 graves in the cemetery of which at least 60 (and probably 75) belong to the earliest phase. The dead persons have been buried in a number of different types of caskets made of wood, one of which may even have been a small boat. However, the graves are all pointing towards East and no grave-goods have been found. Strontium analysis has shown that the buried persons grew up locally.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://medievalhistories.com/christian-vikings-in-ribe/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Medieval Histories</a></b><br />

Christian Vikings - Christian burials in Denmark dated to 9th century

Danish Archaeologists have been busy digging around the old Cathedral in Ribe for several years. Here lies a cemetery, which was abandoned a...

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Turin Shroud ‘one of 40 fakes’

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Zu8ejHtfmCyLRmMKXA7l_cIp5B2elNMNyV5hO6ND3en6o-fr0lI_3SeaOE5sD_DDebZNCD9BVTOQ6hVjgE3x3cydq_xTdCwir_Gok7xlR-D1BiEP7o8dzDrlkjuH-D7QO2wCaUUhfBk/s1600/shroud.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Zu8ejHtfmCyLRmMKXA7l_cIp5B2elNMNyV5hO6ND3en6o-fr0lI_3SeaOE5sD_DDebZNCD9BVTOQ6hVjgE3x3cydq_xTdCwir_Gok7xlR-D1BiEP7o8dzDrlkjuH-D7QO2wCaUUhfBk/s1600/shroud.jpg" /></a></div>Not only is the Turin Shroud probably a medieval fake but it is just one of an astonishing 40 so-called burial cloths of Jesus, according to an eminent church historian.<br /><br />Antonio Lombatti said the false shrouds circulated in the Middle Ages, but most of them were later destroyed.<br /><br />He said the Turin Shroud itself – showing an image of a bearded man and venerated for centuries as Christ’s burial cloth – appears to have originated in Turkey some 1,300 years after the Crucifixion.<br /><br />Lombatti, of the Università Popolare in Parma, Italy, cited work by a 19th century French historian who had studied surviving medieval documents. “The Turin Shroud is only one of the many burial cloths which were circulating in the Christian world during the Middle Ages. There were at least 40,” said Lombatti.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2157217/The-Turin-Shroud-fake-Eminent-historian-claims-40-similar-cloths-originated-1-300-years-AFTER-crucifixion.html" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from the Daily Mail</a></b><br /><br />See also <b><a href="http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/sacra-sindone-sabana-santa-holy-shroud-torino-turin-15330/" target="_blank">Pollen is evidence that the Holy Shroud is indeed a winding sheet</a></b><br />

Turin Shroud ‘one of 40 fakes’

Not only is the Turin Shroud probably a medieval fake but it is just one of an astonishing 40 so-called burial cloths of Jesus, according to...

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Censorship of 16th-Century Big Thinker Erasmus Revealed

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM-DLs9hFo5Mj7MvBw4XqSAdW0MvicyT68QxMoQA9Fm6dQPyOF6k7NVZn0xhmPMLp6yO3z-j5kjkilm2lvNIMvekN7HNY1nl2Mpshr0_Uf99DTAP6aFdiYbtzAi2Wdc4HPKkci0x7ewG0/s1600/erasmus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM-DLs9hFo5Mj7MvBw4XqSAdW0MvicyT68QxMoQA9Fm6dQPyOF6k7NVZn0xhmPMLp6yO3z-j5kjkilm2lvNIMvekN7HNY1nl2Mpshr0_Uf99DTAP6aFdiYbtzAi2Wdc4HPKkci0x7ewG0/s320/erasmus.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>More than 400 years before modern-day governments tried shutting down blogs or blocking tweets, two people tasked with censoring a sometimes-critic of the Catholic Church in Renaissance Europe took to their duties in very different ways: one with great beauty, the other with glue and, it appears, a message.<br /><br />Now, two books, housed at separate libraries at the University of Toronto, illustrate two unusual approaches censors took when dealing with the same author, Erasmus.<br /><br />Born in Rotterdam around 1466, Erasmus was a prolific writer who sought out wisdom in ancient Greek and Latin texts. His writings, mass produced thanks to the printing press, were at times critical of the Catholic Church.<br /><br />By the time he died in 1536 the church was breaking apart, with splinter groups known as Protestants coming into conflict with the Catholics. English king Henry VIII was one of the most famous examples of a Protestant, creating a Church of England separate from church authorities in Rome.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.livescience.com/20310-censorship-16th-century-erasmus.html" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from LiveScience</a></b><br /><br />See also <b><a href="http://fishernews.library.utoronto.ca/content/erasmus-redacted" target="_blank">Erasmus Redacted</a></b> from the Thomas Fisher Library<br />

Censorship of 16th-Century Big Thinker Erasmus Revealed

More than 400 years before modern-day governments tried shutting down blogs or blocking tweets, two people tasked with censoring a sometimes...

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Medieval 'cursing stone' discovered on Scottish island

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOwolOfA8-KkgMHgGOrBHkU7dkV6zq8-pIu18pggqJKnZeU8wDoDzcGNRnZwIYL5CDSdLbWAiUXUD0S0K_hSeUkZ85CWVh6e28pXD4xol6sf9UWwZy3i46umEuLYVdJbmmM3ofZ0Nva8M/s1600/_60349235_copyofpillowstonea'chillgraveyard1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOwolOfA8-KkgMHgGOrBHkU7dkV6zq8-pIu18pggqJKnZeU8wDoDzcGNRnZwIYL5CDSdLbWAiUXUD0S0K_hSeUkZ85CWVh6e28pXD4xol6sf9UWwZy3i46umEuLYVdJbmmM3ofZ0Nva8M/s1600/_60349235_copyofpillowstonea'chillgraveyard1.jpeg" /></a></div>An ancient stone thought to have been used for Christian prayers or curses has been uncovered on a Scottish island. A farm manager chanced upon Scotland's first known example of a bullaun stone on the Isle of Canna, in the Inner Hebrides.<br /><br />Dating from around 800AD, the stones are associated with early Christian crosses like the one on Canna, and there are several well-known examples in Ireland. The stone is approximately 25cm in diameter, engraved with an early Christian cross and fits exactly into a worn hole in a large rectangular stone at base of the Canna cross.<br /><br />National Trust for Scotland head of archaeology Derek Alexander said: "This is an amazing find. Bullaun stones tend to be found close to early Christian crosses in Ireland, but this is the first find in Scotland."<br /><br />He added: "Canna has a long and fascinating history, and this find just tells us even more about the treasure trove that we have in the Trust's care. However, it is also a hugely important find for Scotland, adding more to our knowledge of this distant period in our nation's past. It will be interesting to see if more bullaun stones emerge around Scotland."<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jDuprSipewtazirjS6c4DlYIv97w?docId=N0206911337439564062A" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from the UK Press Association</a></b><br /><br /><br />

Medieval 'cursing stone' discovered on Scottish island

An ancient stone thought to have been used for Christian prayers or curses has been uncovered on a Scottish island. A farm manager chanced u...

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Margot Fassler wins 2012 Otto Gründler Book Prize

Margot Fassler, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame, was awarded the 2012 Otto Gründler Book Prize for her book The Virgin of Chartres: Making History Through Liturgy and the Arts.<br /><br />The prize was announced on Friday at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University. Her book examines the history of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, France, drawing on local histories, letters, obituaries, chants, liturgical sources, and reports of miracles to explore the cult of the Virgin of Chartres and its development in the 11th and 12th centuries. The book explores how the past was made in the central Middle Ages and argues for an understanding of the liturgical framework of time.<br /><br />“It was especially meaningful to win this prestigious award in 2012,” Fassler says, “because I am the third Notre Dame faculty member in a row to win, joining my colleagues John Van Engen and Thomas Noble— all three of us fellows of Notre Dame’s Medieval Institute.”<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.medievalists.net/2012/05/14/margot-fassler-wins-2012-otto-grundler-book-prize/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net</a></b>

Margot Fassler wins 2012 Otto Gründler Book Prize

Margot Fassler, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame, was awarded the 2012 Otto Gründler B...

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Medieval walk organisers hope to rival Spanish pilgrimage tradition

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKIpTFIQ4qaNNn5cibyA33t16m0LNGxyrwque1AkomnpqwHxPJ2twQtu52ydAIIWyjLntv2FfxXUnsIwdvnsAaJN8XKVEMVgA1Rh-01_xrIZU5O_bYVCcyr-psJ_jboDl762zE2Fp9rLo/s1600/wayofstandrews.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKIpTFIQ4qaNNn5cibyA33t16m0LNGxyrwque1AkomnpqwHxPJ2twQtu52ydAIIWyjLntv2FfxXUnsIwdvnsAaJN8XKVEMVgA1Rh-01_xrIZU5O_bYVCcyr-psJ_jboDl762zE2Fp9rLo/s320/wayofstandrews.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>A medieval pilgrimage route to major historic religious site is to be resurrected – and organisers hope it will grow to rival a similar event in Spain.<br /><br />The Way of St Andrews will allow travellers to a route taken by 11th and 12th century Christian devotees who flocked to the Fife town, once home to the largest church in Scotland.<br /><br />Those behind the trail hope the 62 mile trip, starting from St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh, could prove as popular as the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2012/04/08/medieval-walk-organisers-hope-to-rival-spanish-pilgrimage-tradition/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Deadline News</a></b><br /><br />See also <b><a href="http://www.scotsman.com/scotland-on-sunday/scotland/supporters-hope-revived-way-of-st-andrews-will-attract-tourists-1-2222892" target="_blank">Supporters hope revived ‘Way of St Andrews’ will attract tourists</a></b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><b><a href="http://www.thewayofstandrews.com/" target="_blank">Click here to visit the Way of St Andrews website</a></b>

Medieval walk organisers hope to rival Spanish pilgrimage tradition

A medieval pilgrimage route to major historic religious site is to be resurrected – and organisers hope it will grow to rival a similar even...

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Lust, Lies And Empire: The Fishy Tale Behind Eating Fish On Friday

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0fnoViTYFOhdz-_vvIYeX4b-oaSOt8YgkMrleKTbD_XNJmqpaNcjMTN1CnYT_ADVMRLHx4_gI3zlmyDXm7gF3M4T_KE9SEQ4en9PLGcqh6XsXU4__JHBROg2GrgUcYrnudukJRYN3bFY/s1600/0465022847.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0fnoViTYFOhdz-_vvIYeX4b-oaSOt8YgkMrleKTbD_XNJmqpaNcjMTN1CnYT_ADVMRLHx4_gI3zlmyDXm7gF3M4T_KE9SEQ4en9PLGcqh6XsXU4__JHBROg2GrgUcYrnudukJRYN3bFY/s1600/0465022847.jpeg" /></a></div>It sounds like the plot of a Dan Brown thriller: A powerful medieval pope makes a secret pact to prop up the fishing industry that ultimately alters global economics. The result: Millions of Catholics around the world end up eating fish on Fridays as part of a religious observance.<br /><br />This "realpolitik" explanation of why Catholics eat fish on Friday has circulated for so long, many people grew up believing it as fact. Some, myself included, even learned it in Catholic school. It's a humdinger of a tale — the kind conspiracy theorists can really sink their teeth into. But is it true?<br /><br />"Many people have searched the Vatican archives on this, but they have found nothing," says Brian Fagan, a professor emeritus of archaeology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose book, <i>Fish On Friday</i>, explores the impact of this practice on Western culture.<br /><br />The real story behind fish on Fridays turns out to be much better.<br /><b><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_541785847"><br /></a></b><br /><b><a href="http://www.wbur.org/npr/150061991/lust-lies-and-empire-the-fishy-tale-behind-eating-fish-on-friday" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from NPR</a></b><br /><br /><br /><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=medievalistsn-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000MR8TH2&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_top&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Lust, Lies And Empire: The Fishy Tale Behind Eating Fish On Friday

It sounds like the plot of a Dan Brown thriller: A powerful medieval pope makes a secret pact to prop up the fishing industry that ultimatel...

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