Guest post by David White In 476, Romulus Augustulus, the last Western Roman emperor, was removed from the imperial throne.[1] Seventeen years later, with the permission of the eastern emperor Zeno, the Ostrogothic king Theoderic with his ‘barbarian’ army took control of Italy and ostensibly ruled it as if he were an emperor himself. During … Continue reading Theoderic: The ‘Barbarian’ who Preserved Classical Ideology
'King of Sweden, the Götar, and the Wends'.... What about the Finns? Swedish royal titulature changed over the centuries as the regions under Swedish rule shifted, yet despite centuries of rule over Finland, the Swedish royals did not include it in their titulature. Caroline Wilhelmsson of the University of Aberdeen explores this question in her … Continue reading What about the Finns? Investigating Finland’s absence from Swedish royal titulature
Recently Cassandra Schilling of the Cerae General Committee attended this year's biennial conference of the International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England (ISSEME), 17-18; 21-22, June 2021. In this post she shares her thoughts and impressions. Recently I had the pleasure of attending and participating in the twentieth biennial conference of the International … Continue reading Conference Review: ISSEME 2021
Odin (Óðinn in Old Icelandic) is a complex figure in Norse mythology. As the all-father, a god of war, magic, and wisdom, with multiple names, as well as a habit of disguising himself before both mortals and the gods, Odin's identity and aspects frequently shift. Jan A. Kozák discusses his research and observations on two … Continue reading Hanging is Travelling: Two Sides of Óðinn’s Initiatory Process
In this blog post, Victoria Shirley of the Ceræ editorial board shares her impressions of the 2020 virtual Leeds IMC The 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic has upended the models of teaching students and exchanging research that we have used for decades. Large, in-person classes for most of 2020 have been changed to online classes. Mass gatherings … Continue reading Conference Review – Thoughts on the 2020 digital Leeds IMC and the future of meetings and conferences in the age of COVID-19
How did the figure of the milites - the sanctified warrior laymen of the church - grow out of medieval saints' lives? In her new article (now live on the Cerae website), Sofia Fagiolo tackles this question through the lens of two vitae – she introduces her article, and the inspiration for it, for us here… My … Continue reading The Soldier of Christ in Medieval Hagiography
How fluid is Icelandic place-lore; how do medieval narratives relate to modern folklore and local landscapes? These are just some of the questions Matthias Egeler explores in his new article (now live on the Cerae website). In this accompanying blog-post, Matthias introduces us to his interest in toponymy, in the intersections of landscapes and the … Continue reading Walking into mythology
What can Old Norse accounts of Fimbulvetr (‘Great Winter’) tell us about cultural memory of the 'dust veil' of 536 throughout Europe? In his new article (now live on the Cerae website), Andrea Maraschi explores just that; he introduces his research for us here. But more than that, writing from Italy in the midst of the … Continue reading Catastrophe, cultural memory, and the ‘dust veil’ of 536
In this article, our social media editor Matt Firth looks at the career of Joseph Banks (1743-1820), and the collection of Icelandic texts he left the British Library… For Australians, Joseph Banks (1743-1820) is a familiar name from our colonial history. In fact, I suspect that for most of us, setting aside James Cook, his … Continue reading Sir Joseph Banks and the Medieval Icelandic Saga
In this article, our editor Christina Cleary takes a look at BL MS Egerton 1782, a 16th century Irish manuscript that preserves Early Irish tales that have not otherwise survived the centuries… The vellum manuscript known as Egerton 1782, housed by the British Library, is an extremely valuable source for the study of Early Irish … Continue reading A Treasury of Early Irish Literature – BL Manuscript Egerton 1782