Daily Medieval

The "wooden terrestrial spheres" mentioned here are what we now call "armillary spheres." An armillary is a spherical a...

Although we use the term "renaissance" to refer primarily to a rebirth of art and culture that started in 14th century Italy and s...

The Ottonians, the Ottonian dynasty, the Ottonian Period in Germany—all these refer to the same topic: a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (t...

It is not fair to suggest that there was a "feminist movement" in the Middle Ages, but there were many examples of women who did n...

A nun, a poet, a playwright— Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim has been called the most remarkable woman of her time, but she was hardly known until...

Let me tell you about Theophilus the Penitent, a Christian cleric who was the archdeacon of Adana in Cilicia (now Turkey). He was known for ...

Creating sufficiently high temperatures needed to melt silica and fashion glass was difficult, but at some point we discovered that the addi...

The art of coloring glass was evident in articles from ancient Egypt and Classical Rome. "Stained glass" can mean any  glass that ...

Where did medieval manuscript illuminators get their colors? Well, first thing to realize is that they weren't re-inventing the wheel: R...

Marginalia—comments, doodles, annotations, etc., made in the margin of a manuscript or book—came in many forms. Here we talked about the at...

Marginalia are marks or notations or illustrations drawn into (obviously) the margin of a document. They have another name: apostils , from ...

An important function of medieval monasteries was the creation and copying of manuscripts. Copying religious and secular works for the edifi...

As understood and discussed in modern culture, copyright is a very recent development. The Berne convention in 1886 gave international atten...

The oldest extant manuscript in Ireland is the Cathach . The Cathach  is a psalter, a copy of the Book of Psalms from the Bible (actually, P...

The Battle of Cúl Dreimhne likely took place in 560CE (estimates vary). Although there are different accounts of the reason for the battle, ...

Adomnán’s Life of St Columba,  written around 700CE (keeping in mind that Columba died in 597) tells quite a few interesting stories. Maybe ...

One of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland who studied under Finnian , Columba is best known for his time spreading Christianity in Scotland (you...

Finnian of Clonard was an Irish cleric who built schools, monasteries, and churches to spread Christianity. His schools thrived for centurie...

Brendan of Clonfert was born 484CE in County Kerry, southwest Ireland. Fostered by a nun, at the age of six he was sent to St. Jarlath's...

Fastitocalon is the name given to a sea creature in an Old English poem called "The Whale." This time I will with poetic art rehea...

The first and much-talked -about poem in the  Poetic Edda  is the  Völuspá  ("Prophecy of the Seeress"). In it, a seeress tells Od...

The Poetic Edda  (author[s] unknown) is our name for a collection of narrative poems in Old Norse. It is distinct from the Prose Edda whose...

Written about 1220, the Prose Edda  by Snorri Sturluson is a detailed telling of the Scandinavian creation of the world, mythological storie...

Snorri Sturluson (1179 - 1241) was one of several children in a powerful clan. His father died when he was young, and he was raised by Jón L...

I recently mentioned a seiðr worker called in to prophesy. The term describes a range of magical and shamanic activities (magical healing,...

The Saga of Erik the Red  is not about Erik the Red. Erik is in  it, as well as his son Leif Ericsson, but it focuses more on the actions of...

Of course, there were inhabitants in North America when the Norse arrived. The Saga of the Greenlanders  tells of an Icelander named Bjarni ...

The Medieval Warming Period may have helped the Norse discover North America by reducing North Atlantic ice, making the crossing easier. The...

I did  mention the Medieval Warm Period in 2012 , from the viewpoint of how Greenland must have been warmer than currently. There is, of cou...