{"title":"Inventing and ethnicising Slavonic in the long ninth century","authors":"Mirela Ivanova","doi":"10.1080/03044181.2021.1980960","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1980960","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article situates the scholarship on the invention of the Slavonic alphabet within the discipline of literacy studies practised in Western medieval contexts. In so doing it identifies some of the methodological assumptions that have shaped the study of the invention of Slavonic, and proposes a new reading of the invention and ethnicisation of the alphabet, from a new methodological starting point. It demonstrates that the ethnicisation of Slavonic begins in the rewriting of the invention of the alphabet found in the Life of Methodios. It then argues that this rewriting emulates the discourse about conversion found in Latin missionary texts, from Gregory the Great onwards, where it is assumed that each ethnic group needs its own Church.","PeriodicalId":45579,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY","volume":"47 1","pages":"574 - 586"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45563102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Direct speech in Heliand and Otfrid von Weissenburg's Evangelienbuch: a shared vernacular tradition?","authors":"Élise Louviot","doi":"10.1080/03044181.2021.1976976","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1976976","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper compares Heliand (Old Saxon) and Otfrid von Weissenburg's Evangelienbuch (Old High German) with each other and with several Old English poems to determine the extent to which those poems partake of a common stylistic tradition as regards their handling of direct speech. Particular attention is given to the location and form of the inquit and to terms of address. Close examination of those features confirms the well-known fact that Heliand uses a style that is very close to the Old English poetic tradition, whereas the Evangelienbuch is much more innovative stylistically. However, it also reveals significant differences between Heliand and Old English poetry that go beyond matters of dialect or metre. Conversely, it shows that, for all its innovation, the Evangelienbuch is not entirely exempt from traditional features characteristic of West-Germanic alliterative poetry.","PeriodicalId":45579,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY","volume":"47 1","pages":"526 - 541"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47169758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Heliand in tenth-century England: translation, transmission and turbulence","authors":"C. Arthur","doi":"10.1080/03044181.2021.1975645","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1975645","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Heliand is a rewriting of the Gospels in Old Saxon, reflecting daring efforts to not only convert pagans, edify catechumens and reinforce orthodox teachings, but also to present the Old Saxon vernacular as a language worthy of translating Scripture. A copy of the poem was in England by the second half of the tenth century, perhaps even earlier. In the single surviving copy from England, two incipits from a gospel lectionary were added in the margins near the time of writing, and they shed much light on how this poem was consulted and probably used for guidance on specific issues faced by a tenth-century English court. From its origin as a theological statement about the capabilities of vernacular languages in continuing Patristic traditions, the Heliand was later valued as a text that offered clarification on how to deal with hostile military and spiritual threats to Christian kingdoms.","PeriodicalId":45579,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY","volume":"47 1","pages":"509 - 525"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44741007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lex Salica between Latin and vernacular","authors":"Magali Coumert, J. Schneider","doi":"10.1080/03044181.2021.1977032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1977032","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article focuses on the relationship between the Latin and various types of vernacular versions of the Merovingian law code known as the Lex Salica. These laws were modified in Latin in the Carolingian period, glossed in Germanic in the Malberg glosses, mocked in Romance and translated into Old High German in the ninth century. The paper discusses the vernacular words or texts transmitted in the context of the Lex Salica and asks how and why these elements were produced.","PeriodicalId":45579,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY","volume":"47 1","pages":"542 - 558"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43378935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The earliest English prose","authors":"Christine Rauer","doi":"10.1080/03044181.2021.1974457","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1974457","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines the production of prose texts in pre-Alfredian England. After reviewing conventional ideas regarding the foundational role assigned to Alfred, king of Wessex, in the creation of the Old English prose genre, the discussion turns to a quite considerable number of non-poetic texts which were demonstrably produced at an earlier time, asking whether these can be regarded as prose. Following an investigation of the medieval and modern understanding of what constitutes prose, an argument is made for a more inclusive definition of this literary genre, one that does justice to the flourishing early literary culture especially of the kingdoms of Mercia and Kent. It is argued that the ninth-century prose productions of Alfred’s circles did present some innovation, but were clearly also based on earlier traditions and may to some extent have reacted against preceding compositional techniques and literary genres.","PeriodicalId":45579,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY","volume":"47 1","pages":"485 - 496"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47810346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The intellectual background of the earliest Irish grammar","authors":"Nicolai Egjar Engesland","doi":"10.1080/03044181.2021.1972698","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1972698","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Auraicept na nÉces appropriates Latinate grammatical concepts to vernacular language and is the earliest preserved text from the medieval West to do so. It enhances the Babel narrative to strengthen the status of Irish and consequently stands out from the Hiberno-Latin grammars that date from roughly the same period. The present article challenges the traditionally accepted date (c.700) of this text and suggests a date in the ninth century. The mytho-grammatical profile of Auraicept na nÉces might either be seen as a vernacular continuation of developments in Hiberno-Latin grammatical writing, or the result of myth channelled into the text through glossing or through a merger of separate compositions. An understanding of textual development is crucial to assessment of the function of myth in the text and its place in the history of linguistic thought. A calibrated date therefore has considerable implications for Early Irish intellectual and literary history at large.","PeriodicalId":45579,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY","volume":"47 1","pages":"472 - 484"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45630446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The language of history-writing in the ninth century: an entangled approach","authors":"Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, E. Tyler","doi":"10.1080/03044181.2021.1972692","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1972692","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the language in which history was written in ninth-century Britain and Ireland, focusing on accounts concerned with origins. It takes an entangled approach to the written vernacular and is concerned with how insular history-writing, whether in a vernacular language or Latin, was an integral part of a wider Latinate European story. Differences in language choice come more clearly into view, facilitating the exploration of the development of vernacular writing and the theory and practice of vernacularisation. The discussion is structured around three case studies, spanning Wales, Ireland and England. What emerges through comparative study is that linguistic theorisation and multilingual interactions both shaped language choice and were themes of the origin legends themselves, whether explicitly or implicitly. The need for vernacular languages, just like Latin, to have sustained institutional support in order to flourish is also underlined.","PeriodicalId":45579,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY","volume":"47 1","pages":"451 - 471"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47965314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vernacular languages in the long ninth century: towards a connected history","authors":"A. Gautier","doi":"10.1080/03044181.2021.1972693","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1972693","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Before the late eighth century, with a few exceptions (epigraphy, the languages of the Caucasus and the North-Western Isles), little had been written in Europe in languages other than Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The long ninth century saw this monopoly of the ‘three sacred languages’ shaken and challenged: several vernacular languages (Celtic, Germanic and Slavonic, but also, if to a lesser extent, Romance) appeared in writing for the first time and others developed in significant ways. This paper, introducing this special issue on Vernacular Languages in the Long Ninth Century, starts with an assessment of the linguistic situation of Europe before the changes began; it goes on with a summary of the main developments known to have taken place in the long ninth century; it then addresses their possible connections and observable entanglements and identifies the conditions that allowed the emergence and the sustained flourishing of written vernaculars.","PeriodicalId":45579,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY","volume":"47 1","pages":"433 - 450"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44746566","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Between violent outbreaks and legal disputes: the contested cityscape of Frankish Jerusalem through the prism of institutional and socio-economic conflicts","authors":"Anna Gutgarts","doi":"10.1080/03044181.2021.1926664","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1926664","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Focusing on the case of Frankish Jerusalem, this article engages with recent advances in the study of medieval urban conflicts in order to shed new light on their role in socio-ethnically heterogeneous urban environments, such as those formed in the Latin East. It examines several episodes of conflict that occurred in Jerusalem between the 1130s and the 1150s, involving key figures in the city's institutions and population. I propose an analytical framework that places these episodes within a mutual municipal context, linking broader socio-economic mechanisms that were at play in each episode to the renegotiation and reshaping of contested and symbolically significant areas inside Jerusalem. This approach unveils strategies of urban transformation that oscillated between violent outbreaks and legal resolution of property disputes, and were affected by tensions between social, religious and institutional configurations.","PeriodicalId":45579,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY","volume":"47 1","pages":"332 - 349"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/03044181.2021.1926664","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45391227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction: landscapes of conflict and encounter in the crusading world","authors":"Beth C. Spacey, M. Cassidy-Welch","doi":"10.1080/03044181.2021.1928378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1928378","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This essay introduces a special issue examining various aspects of crusading landscapes as sites of conflict and encounter. It makes a case for the value of repositioning landscapes as primary scholarly focal points in the scholarship of the crusades and related historical conflicts and situates this argument in the context of recent approaches in the fields of landscape and environmental history and crusades studies.","PeriodicalId":45579,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY","volume":"47 1","pages":"293 - 301"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/03044181.2021.1928378","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43401080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}