Plenty of Nothing

PIMS Door

The entrance to the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, at the University of Toronto. Source.

Snail Fighting

Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 366, fol. 109r.

The internet is excited about medieval manuscript marginalia showing knights fighting snails. It's impossible not to see this strange motif as a meme, especially as the meaning is so obscure. It seems to be about making fun of cowardice. After all, the snail is probably the least doughty opponent to wear armour.

Chrétien de Troyes mentions an armed snail hunt in The Story of the Grail.

    The mayor stood up at once, and all the councilmen after him. There you could have seen angry peasants taking up hatchets and pikes: one took a shield without arm-straps, another a door, another a basket. The town crier sounded the alarm and everyone gathered together. The church bells rang through the town so that no one would miss the call; even the poorest among them grabbed pitchfork, scythe, pickaxe, or club. Even during a snail hunt in Lombardy they do not make such racket!

From Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, p. 454 (trans. Kibler).

The Marginalized Art of Snail Fighting in Medieval Europe. Knight v Snail.

Thessala

I am indeed surprised that a people over whom Achilles once ruled had a reputation for magic so lasting that actually Menander, a man with an unrivalled gift for sound literary taste, gave the name "Thessala" to his comedy, which deals fully with the tricks of the women for calling down the moon.

Pliny, Natural History, 30.2.7 (Loeb volume 8, page 283, translation W.H.S. Jones)

Her governess, who had nursed her as a child, was named Thessala and was skilled in necromancy. She was called Thessala because she had been born in Thessaly, where diabolical enchantments flourish and are taught. The women of this land practise magic spells and bewitchments.

Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès, in Arthurian Romances, page 159 (Penguin translation by Wm. W. Kibler)

Medieval Bears

Gaston Phébus, Livre de la chasse, Paris 15th century (BnF, Français 616, fol. 27v).

Feast of Saint Olga

Saint Olga is commemorated today for her involvement in the spread of Christianity through tenth-century Russia -- involvement that included some arson. From the Radziwiłł Chronicle.

Theodosia of Constantinople

It's the feast day of Theodosia of Constantinople, who was executed after she knocked a man off a ladder while he was trying to destroy an icon of Christ. She exhibits a degree of severity that you usually associate with the iconoclasts. There's something of Michael Corleone about her. That gesture of her right hand, normally meant as a benediction, looks more like, "Hey, you just watch yourself."

This icon of the iconophile is housed at Mount Sinai Monastery, near where God told Moses, "Thou shalt not make any graven images." Watch a documentary in which a monk ruefully makes this very point.

Christian iconography developed directly out of Eastern Mediterranean pagan iconography. The Louvre has an Egyptian shroud painting in which a woman holds the same pose as Theodosia, except that she's holding an ankh in her left hand.

Swedish People Standing Beside Runestones

Look here for a collection of old photos of Swedish people posing with medieval runestones.

Ire and Patience

From an Anglo-Saxon manuscript of Psychomachia. Source.

The Battle of Hastings

The Battle of Hastings took place 950 years ago today. For a full view of the Bayeux Tapestry look here. For the 1966 Royal Mail commemorative stamps, ranging in denomination from 4d to 1/3, see here. Watch Time Team search for the battlefield here.

The Book of Deer

A detail from page 1v of the Book of Deer, thought to be Scotland's oldest book, dating from about 900 AD. It's at Cambridge now, and you can thumb through it here.