Volume 2 (2014)

Networks and Neighbours 2.1 (2014)

The first part of Networks and Neighbours 2 is centered on the theme ‘Comparisons and Correlations’, as an idea, a philosophy and a method of early medieval History. Reading beyond borders is, in theory, a methodology admired by early medieval scholars and considered when performing research, but to what extent is comparative history a reality in early medieval scholarship? Furthermore, should we pursue this line of thinking, reading, writing and teaching? What are the potential benefits structurally? What new historical representations will emerge from a sustained, earnest attempt at comparing the physical artifacts, mental archaeology and socio-/geo-graphical landscapes of early medieval minds, places, connections and/or neighbourhoods? As a way to engage these questions the papers deal individually and critically with localized situations. When ascribed within our framework of questions these, we believe, provide important reflective sites and positions for further research in this direction, as we continue to explore how immediate and near realities performed in the functioning of wider topographies…and in fact if they ever really did, or if we’ve taken on too much of the cheese and the worms.

Invited Paper

Pawel Szczepanik and Slawomir Wadyl, A Comparative Analysis of Early Medieval North-West Slavonic and West Baltic Sacred Landscapes: An Introduction to the Problems, pp. 1-19

Articles

Eirik Hovden and Rutger Kramer, Wondering about Comparison: Enclaves of Learning in Medieval Europe and South Arabia – Prolegomena to an Intercultural Comparative Research Project, pp. 20-45

Anthony Mansfield, Lords of the North Sea: A Comparative Study of Aristocratic Territory in the North Sea World in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries, pp. 46-70

Marie Bønløkke Spejlborg, Anglo-Danish Connections and the Organisation of the Early Danish Church: Contribution to a Debate, pp. 71-86

Mark Lewis Tizzoni, Dracontius and the Wider World: Cultural and Intellectual Interconnectedness in Late Fifth-Century Vandal North Africa, pp. 87-105

Book Reviews

Anna Dorofeeva, review of Mary Garrison, Arpad P. Orbán and Marco Mostert (eds.), Spoken and Written Language: Relations Between Latin and the Vernacular Languages in the Earlier Middle Ages, Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy 24 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), pp. 106-108

Hugh Elton, review of Hyun Jin Kim, The Huns, Rome, and the Birth of Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 109-111

Luca Larpi, review of Nicholas J. Higham and Martin J. Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2013), pp. 112-114

Evina Steinova, review of Maddalena Betti, The Making of Christian Moravia (858-882): Papal Power and Political Reality (Boston/Leiden: Brill, 2014), pp. 115-117

Catalin Taranu, review of Leslie Lockett, Anglo-Saxon Psychologies in the Vernacular and Latin Traditions (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011), pp. 118-121

Phillip Wynn, review of Damien Kempf (ed. & trans.), Paul the Deacon: Liber de episcopis Mettensibus, Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations 19 (Leuven: Peeters, 2013), pp. 122-124

Conference Reports

Katy Soar, Senses of the Empire: Multisensory Approaches to Roman Culture, pp. 125-129

Evina Steinová, Texts and Identities in the Early Middle Ages XVII, pp. 130-133

Catalin Taranu, Indigenous Ideas and Foreign Influences – Interactions among Oral and Literary, Latin and Vernacular Cultures in Medieval and Early Modern Northern Europe, pp. 134-155

Hope Deejune Williard, Late Literature in the Sixth Century, East and West, pp. 156-165

Zachary Guiliano, Bulletin: Network for the Study of Caroline Minuscule, pp. 166-168

Interview

Richard Broome, Tim Barnwell, Interview with James Palmer, pp. 169-177

Networks and Neighbours 2.2 (2014)

The second part of Networks and Neighbours 2 explores the concept of cultural capital as an idea, philosophy, and method of doing early medieval history. Since the theory was advanced by Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron, cultural capital has broadened the way researchers of the modern world consider the meanings of ‘wealth’ and ‘power’, and their relationship to real ‘capital’. The idea is no less relevant to the study of the early middle ages. N&N 2.2 investigates, via cultural capital, the literature and material goods of late antiquity and the early middle ages: the polemics and the paintings, the buildings, coins, jewelry, topoi, prejudices, languages, dress, songs, and hairstyles that framed its world(s)’.

Invited Paper

Kevin Wanner, Strategies of Skaldic Poets for Producing, Protecting, and Profiting from Capitals of Cognition and Recognition, pp. 178-201

Articles

Jonathan Jarret, Engaging Élites: counts, capital and frontier communities in the ninth and tenth centuries, in Catalonia and elsewhere, pp. 202-230

Helen Oxenham, Women Satirists and the Wielding Of Cultural Capital in Early Medieval Ireland, pp. 231-250

Paulo Henrique Pachá, Gift and conflict: Forms of social domination in the Iberian Early Middle Ages, pp. 251-277

Janira F. Pohlmann, Nobility, Ascetic Christianity and Martyrdom: A Family’s Identity in the Writings of Ambrose of Milan, pp. 278-294

Claudia J. Rogers, The Devil in Gregory of Tours: Spirit Intercession and the Human Body, pp. 295-317

Book Reviews

Julia Barrow, review of Ian Wood and Christopher Grocock, The Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 318-319

Colleen Batey, review of Jane Kershaw, Viking Identities: Scandinavian Jewellery in England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 320-322

Isabella Bolognese, review of Steven Vanderputten, Monastic Reform as Process: Realities and Representations in Medieval Flanders, 900-1100 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013), pp. 323-325