Medieval Historical Writing
Britain and Ireland, 500–1500

An expert survey of historical writing in medieval Britain and Ireland, introducing readers to a rich subfield of medieval literature.

Jennifer Jahner (Edited by), Emily Steiner (Edited by), Elizabeth M. Tyler (Edited by)

9781107163362, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 November 2019

228 pages, 5 b/w illus. 2 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 3.3 cm, 1.09 kg

'The expert editors of this rich, cohesive collection have worked hard to organize the twenty-seven essays gathered here so that each chapter contributes to an ongoing discussion and to the larger whole … [a] serious, keenly engineered, and informative model of research and humanist scholarship. It is accessible, clearly purposed, and trenchantly researched.' Michael Calabrese, Modern Philology

History writing in the Middle Ages did not belong to any particular genre, language or class of texts. Its remit was wide, embracing the events of antiquity; the deeds of saints, rulers and abbots; archival practices; and contemporary reportage. This volume addresses the challenges presented by medieval historiography by using the diverse methodologies of medieval studies: legal and literary history, art history, religious studies, codicology, the history of the emotions, gender studies and critical race theory. Spanning one thousand years of historiography in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, the essays map historical thinking across literary genres and expose the rich veins of national mythmaking tapped into by medieval writers. Additionally, they attend to the ways in which medieval histories crossed linguistic and geographical borders. Together, they trace multiple temporalities and productive anachronisms that fuelled some of the most innovative medieval writing.

Introduction Jennifer Jahner, Emily Steiner and Elizabeth M. Tyler
Part I. Time: 1. Gildas Magali Coumert
2. Monastic history and memory Thomas O'Donnell
3. Apocalypse and/as history Richard K. Emmerson
4. The Brut: legendary British history Jaclyn Rajsic
5. Genealogies Marie Turner
6. Anglo-Saxon futures: writing England's ethical past, before and after 1066 Cynthia Turner Camp
7. Pagan histories/Pagan fictions Christine Chism
Part II. Place: 8. Mental maps: sense of place in medieval British historical writing Sarah Foot
9. Viking armies and their historical legacy across England's North-South divide, c.790–c.1100 Paul Gazzoli
10. Cross-channel networks of history writing: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Elizabeth M. Tyler
11. Creating and curating an archive: Bury St Edmunds and its Anglo-Saxon past Kathryn A. Lowe
12. Historical writing in medieval Wales Owain Wyn Jones and Huw Pryce
13. Scotland and Anglo-Scottish border writing Kate Ash-Irisarri
14. London histories George Shuffelton
15. History at the Universities: Oxford, Cambridge and Paris Charles F. Briggs
Part III. Practice: 16. The professional historians of medieval Ireland Katherine Simms
17. Gender and the subjects of history in the early Middle Ages Clare A. Lees
18. Historical writing in medieval Britain: the case of Matthew Paris Björn Weiler
19. Vernacular historiography Matthew Fisher
20. Tall tales from the archive Andrew Prescott
21. History in print from Caxton to 1543 A. S. G. Edwards
Part IV. Genre: 22. Chronicle and romance Robert Rouse
23. Forgery as historiography Alfred Hiatt
24. Hagiography Catherine Sanok
25. Writing in the tragic mode Thomas A. Prendergast
26. Crisis and nation in fourteenth-century English chronicles Andrew Galloway
27. Polemical history and the Wars of the Roses Sarah L. Peverley.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literary studies: general [DSB]