Writing the World in Early Medieval England

This Element tells that the early medieval English were better connected to a broader world than we often imagine.

Nicole Guenther Discenza (Author), Heide Estes (Author)

9781108932059, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 September 2023

84 pages
23 x 15.3 x 0.5 cm, 0.136 kg

'Discenza and Estes together produce an ambitious and wide-ranging survey of how people in early medieval England wrote about the world around them. 'Writing the World in Early Medieval England' will undoubtedly serve to broaden the horizons of its readers, providing a whistle-stop tour of documentary and literary texts which describe England, Scandinavia, continental Europe, the 'Holy Lands', Asia, Africa, as well as imagined lands and those places beyond this world. Perhaps the main offering of this Element is a reminder of the prescient need to challenge modern preconceptions of the past, which have clouded our understanding of early medieval history.' Jonathan Tickle, Parergon

The early medieval English were far more diverse and better connected to a broader world. Their writings reveal substantial interest in Europe, Asia, and Africa while they situated themselves firmly within Christian Europe. They drew many ideas from textual sources and filled out their conceptions from their own travels and interactions with visitors. Chronicles, histories, poetry, homilies, saints' lives, and occasionally maps tell of peoples and lands from the British Isles to their near neighbors in Scandinavia to such distant places as Jerusalem, North Africa, and India. They also imagined geographies that veered into the fantastic and vividly depicted hell, purgatory, and heaven. This Element provides insights about early medieval English who were engaged deeply in a variety of modes with other parts of their world. Both the connections and the divisions they constructed still have impact today.

Introduction
1. England and Scandinavia
2. Mainland Europe
3. Jerusalem and its environs
4. Asia and Africa
5. Imagined lands
6. Hell, purgatory, and heaven
Conclusions
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Miscellaneous items [WZ]