It is a pity that Old English poetry is not more widely known, not only because it is beautiful and powerful but because to read it is to experience a different way of thinking. It is also a pity - or opportunity - that many first-year Old English students express a "love-hate" relationship with the language. Therefore, it is worth trying to discover what there is in the poetry to interest the general educated public and create enthusiasts among undergraduates. The multitudinous answers, found herein, have one over-riding answer: the Anglo-Saxon way of thinking. Old English poetry opens a door into a dim past by disclosing, in puzzle-piece hints, that epistemological world, which becomes more fascinating the more one pokes around in it. This dissertation seeks to give the beginning student and the reader from the general educated public a chance to wander in this landscape where, generally, only scholars tread.

The metamorphosis of man to beast has fascinated audiences for millennia. The werewolves of medieval literature were forced to conform to the Church's view of metamorphosis and, in so doing, transformed from bestial and savage to benevolent and rational. Analysis of Marie de France's Bisclavret, the anonymous Arthur and Gorlagon, the Irish tale The Crop-Eared Dog, and the French roman d'aventure Guillaume de Palerne reveals insight into medieval views of change, identity, and what it meant to exist in the medieval world. Each of these tales is told from the werewolf's point of view, and in each the wolf undergoes a fury or madness where he cannot seem to help turning savage and harming people. This 'rage of the wolf' lies at the root of the identities of these werewolves, reflecting the conflict between good and evil, the physical and the spiritual, and Church doctrine and a rapidly changing society.

Ce projet s’intéresse à un objet particulier : l’armure. Celle-ci, dont la fonction première était de protéger le combattant, s’est adaptée entre le XIIIe et le XVIIe siècle aux bouleversements qu’ont connu les pratiques de guerre et l’organisation des armées dans cette période. L’armure pouvait aussi avoir une autre fonction, celle de distinguer socialement son porteur. Ainsi, à la fin du Moyen Âge l’armure est à la fois un objet de grande consommation et d’usage courant mais également un produit de luxe. Sa fabrication, dominée par différents centres de productions internationaux comme les villes Milan et Nuremberg, demandait un savoir-faire spécifique pour travailler et mettre en forme le métal.Dans le but d’éclairer d’une part les techniques et savoir-faire anciens, d’autre part la circulation et les échanges dans l’espace européen, ce projet aborde l’étude de l’armure par sa matérialité, en mettant en œuvre une approche archéométallurgique. Un corpus spécifique, de plus d’une centaine d’objets, caractéristique de l’évolution de l’équipement défensif des combattants mais également des grands centres de production européens a ainsi été constitué. L’analyse du métal a permis de déterminer la nature des matériaux employés ainsi que les techniques de fabrication de ces objets. L’étude des inclusions non métalliques a quant à elle permis de discuter de l’origine géographique du métal utilisé pour la fabrication des pièces.De façon générale, les résultats ont montré l’emploi d’alliages de natures variées, parfois très hétérogènes pour réaliser les plates d’armures. Néanmoins en moyenne le métal employé possède une dureté proche de celle d’un acier homogène à 0,4-0,5% de carbone. Les alliages trempés de dureté élevée demeurent très minoritaires dans le corpus étudié. Des spécificités ont néanmoins été relevées, comme l’utilisation d’un matériau spécifique, associant plusieurs feuilles de métal aux propriétés différentes qui pouvait offrir à l’armure de meilleures propriétés défensives. Les informations acquises ont également permis d’étudier les pratiques mises en œuvre par les armuriers que ce soit pour la fabrication d’une armure complète, la production massive de pièces en « série », ou issues d’un même atelier. Les résultats relatifs à la nature et au travail du métal nous ont ainsi amené à questionner le rôle du maitre armurier qui signait les objets et la signification de cette signature pour un atelier. / The project focuses on a specific object: armor. Between the 13th and early 17th centuries, war practices have undergone major changes, both on the technological level, as well as the organizational one. Accordingly, defensives arms were adapted to the new needs in order to protect their owners. Armor was also in some cases a mark of social distinction. Thus, at the end of the Middle Ages, armor was both an object for everyday military use, massively produced, and a luxury attire. Its fabrication was dominated by several prestigious European centers of production like Milan and Nuremberg and required specific technical skills to shape the metal.In order to shed light on some of the techniques and ancient skills, along with the circulation and exchanges in the European space, this project addresses the study of armor through its materiality, by implementing an archeometallurgical approach. A specific corpus of over a hundred artefacts was collected, characteristic of the evolution of the defensive equipment of the fighters but also of the great European centers of production. Physicochemical analysis of the metal can decipher its nature and reveal the technical skills of the craftsmen. Non metallic phases analysis has allowed to test hypotheses on the provenance of the materials employed.Overall, the results showed the use of alloys of varying nature, sometimes highly heterogeneous, to realize the plates of armor. However, on average the metal employed has a hardness close to a homogeneous steel with 0.4-0.5% carbon. Hardened alloys of high hardness remain very minor in the studied corpus. Specificities were nevertheless noted, such as the use of a specific material, combining several sheets of metal with different properties that could offer better defensive properties. The information acquired also allowed to study the workshop practices implemented by the armorers, whether for the manufacture of a complete set of armor, the mass production of "serial" pieces, or those originating from the same workshop. The results relating to the nature and hammering of the metal have led us to question the exact nature of the intervention of the master armorer who signed the artefact and the significance of the signature of a workshop.

La création des premières universités au tournant des XIIe et XIIIe siècles a constitué une véritable révolution dans le monde de l’enseignement. Bologne, Oxford, Paris, ont vu affluer toute une population de jeunes gens avides de connaissances, en provenance de tout l’Occident chrétien. Dans ces villes et dans quelques autres où s’était installée, quelques décennies plus tôt, une nouvelle classe sociale de commerçants et d’artisans, la cohabitation entre ces deux mondes fut pour le moins difficile. Les habitants acceptaient mal ces étudiants souvent dissipés qui ne parlaient pas la même langue qu’eux et il fallut tout le soutien des papes et des rois qui placèrent les universitaires sous leur protection en leur attribuant de nombreux privilèges. Forts de cette reconnaissance, certains en profitèrent à l’excès et devinrent homicides à l’occasion d’une rixe qui tourna mal, ou cambrioleurs suite à une mauvaise rencontre dans une taverne. Plusieurs se servirent de leurs connaissances pour user de faux en écriture. D’autres, adolescents en quête de sexualité, eurent des rapports prohibés avec les femmes ou les filles des bourgeois.Il n’est évidemment pas question de généraliser, de donner, à l’occasion de quelques exemples, une image de la réalité ne correspondant pas à ce qu’étaient, dans leur immense majorité, les étudiants médiévaux, ceux qui allaient devenir, quelques année plus tard, l’élite intellectuelle de la société. Des cas de dérives ont cependant existé et ont revêtu différentes formes. A partir de sources certes parcellaires mais malgré tout diversifiées, ce sont les différents aspects de cette délinquance mais aussi ses spécificités et ses évolutions au cours des trois derniers siècles du Moyen Âge, qui sont explorés dans cette thèse qui concerne l’Histoire mais aussi à d’autres sciences humaines, la sociologie et le droit en particulier. / The creation of early universities at the turn of twelfth and thirteenth centuries has been an absolute revolution in education world. Bologna, Oxford, Paris, have seen influx of young people eager to learn, coming from all Christian west. In these towns and a few others where had installed a new social class of shopkeepers and craftsmen, living together these two worlds had been at least difficult. Inhabitants were hard to accept these unrulies students who spoke another language, and it was nécessary than popes and kings put them under their protective custody by allocating them a lot of privileges. Wealth of this recognition, some of them took exessive advantages and became manslaughters on the occasion of a fight that degenerated, or burglars after a wrong encounter inside a tavern. Several used their knowledges by forging of documents. Some others, teenagers in search of sexuality, engaged prohibited intercourses with wifes or daughters of the burghers.It is obviously out of the question of generalization by giving, on the occasion of some examples, a picture of the reality that don’t correlate with that were the vast majority of medieval students, those who were to become, a few years later, the intelligentsia of society. However, drifts have been available in various ways. From fragmented but varied sources, these are the different aspects of that deliquency, and also specificities and evolutions over the last three centuries of Middle Ages, which are explored in this thesis about history and also other human sciences, particularly sociology and law.

Cette thèse examine la relation des Maghrébins avec la mer au Moyen Âge et son rôle dans l’enrichissement de la vie économique, sociale et mentale des habitants du littoral. Mare nostrum des Romains était considéré pendant les premiers siècles de l’Islam comme la mer des Byzantins par opposition à la mer des ténèbres, pour qualifier l’océan Atlantique. Mais pendant les siècles suivants, les musulmans investissent progressivement la Méditerranée et rivalisent avec Byzance et le monde latin pour la maîtrise des techniques de navigation et la domination du commerce maritime. Source de richesse, de conquête et d’affirmation du pouvoir, la mer a généré chez les Maghrébins des représentations à la fois objectives et mythologiques. Héritées d’anciennes civilisations, elles ont été constamment remodelées et enrichies par les Maghrébins au prisme de leurs pratiques quotidiennes, mais aussi grâce à leurs contacts avec le monde extérieur. / This dissertation analyses the relationship of the Maghribis with the sea in the Middle Ages and its role in the enrichment of the economical, social and mental life of the inhabitants of the shore. The Roman Mare nostrum was considered in the first centuries of Islam as the sea of the Byzantines, in opposition to the sea of Darkness, to describe the Atlantic ocean. But during the following centuries, muslims progressively take over the Mediterranean and compete with Byzance and the Latin world to master the technics of navigation and to dominate the maritim trade. Source of wealth, conquests and assertion of power, the sea engendered by the Maghribis both objective and mythological representations. Inherited from ancient civilizations, they have been constantly reshaped and enriched by the Maghribis thanks to their daily practices, but also due to their contacts with external worlds.

In the small town of Västergarn on Gotland lies a rather impressive rampart, circa one kilometre long. Excavations of the area inside of the rampart, as well as excavations of the rampart itself, have yielded no conclusive answers regarding the dating and main purpose of the rampart and the settlement that supposedly lies within. This paper aims to shed some light on the date and purpose of the Västergarn rampart. This will mainly be done by a comparative study, where the Västergarn Rampart will be compared to other ramparts, one in Waterford and one in Birka. In this analysis the construction, mainly of the core construction of the ramparts, will be taken into consideration but aspects such as terrain and building material will also be considered. The results of earlier research in and around the Västergarn area will also be used to then come to a comprehensive theory regarding the dating and purpose of the Västergarn rampart.

Denna studie behandlar hälsan i det medeltida Uppsala genom osteologiska analyser på 32 skallar från Gustavianums anatomiska samling. Skallarna i fråga är del av en större grupp med mänskliga benrester som hittades vid Östra Ågatan år 1909. Gruppen består enbart av skallar; det finns ingen information om var de postkananiala skeletten finns. Studiens syfte är att undersöka sjukdom och hälsa i gruppen för att således kunna utöka informationen som finns om den medeltida hälsan i Uppsala. Den osteologiska analysen kompletteras med en diskussion om skallanas fyndplats i en möjlig relation till den närliggande medeltida Vårfrukyrkans kyrkogård. Benprover från fyra av skallarna i studien har använts för C-14 analys för att kunna fastställa den kronologiska kontexten då det inte finns någon ytterligare information om utgrävningen. C-14 analysen bekräftade den medeltida hypotesen. Den bekräftade tidsbestämmelsen tillsammans med den begränsade informationen om utgrävningsplatsen vid Östra Ågatan 37 möjliggör hypotesen att skallarna kan vara del av Vårfrukyrkans kyrkogård. Hälsoutredningen har baserats på kön och åldersbedömning likväl som på identifiering av de patologiska tillstånden som benen och tänderna befinner sig i. Totalt bedömdes 20 individer som troligen manliga, samt fem som eventuellt kvinnliga. På sju av individerna var könsbedömning inte möjlig. Urvalet består av unga och vuxna individer och majoriteten av individerna bedömdes som medelålders (35–50 år). Beträffande metaboliska sjukdomar inom palaeopatologin identifierades tumörer och trauman på vissa kranier. Alla individer var drabbade av tandsjukdomar i högre eller lägre utsträckning. De tandsjukdomar som förekom på de undersökta tänderna var tandsten, parodontit, karies, ante mortem tandlossning samt periapikala kaviteter. Studien visar att individer var utsatta för ett tufft liv och behövde utstå våld, smärta, obehag, perioder av sjukdom och undernäring sedan barndom, men också att de var anpassningsbara och kunde övervinna vissa av de förhållanden som de drabbades av. / The present study deals with health in medieval Uppsala through the osteological analysis of 32 skulls from the Anatomical collection of Museum Gustavianum. The skulls in question form part of a larger group of human skeletal remains found in Östra Ågatan in 1909. The group is consisted exclusively of skulls; there is no information about the whereabouts of the postcranial bones. The aim of the study is to investigate health and illness in the group in order to add to the existing body of information on health and living conditions in medieval Uppsala. A discussion on the location the skulls were found and the possible association of with the cemetery of the nearby medieval Church of Our Lady is complimentary to the osteological analysis. Samples of bone from four of the skulls under study were used in a 14C analysis in order to determine the chronological context since no further information on the excavation exists today. The 14C analysis confirmed the medieval hypothesis. The confirmed temporal context together with the limited spatial information of the location of the excavation in Östra Ågatan 37 allow for the hypothesis that the skulls were part of the cemetery of the Church of Our Lady. Health investigation has been attained by sex and age assessments as well as identification of pathological conditions on the bones and the dentition. In total, 20 individuals were assessed as possibly male and 5 as possibly female, while sex assessment was not possible for 7 individuals. The sample consists of juveniles and adults, with the majority of the individuals being assessed as middle adults (35-50 years). In terms of palaeopathology metabolic disease, tumours and trauma were identified on cranial bones of some individuals. All individuals were affected by dental disease in a higher or lesser degree. Dental diseases present on teeth examined were calculus, periodontitis, carries, ante mortem tooth loss and periapical cavities. The study shows that individuals were subjects to a tough life, having to deal with violence, pain and discomfort, periods of illness and malnutrition since childhood, but were also able to adapt and overcome some of the conditions that afflicted them.

Les miracles attribués à la virtus des espèces eucharistiques font l'objet de l'étude. Ils sont envisagés à partir du milieu du XIe siècle, moment où, dans le contexte de la réforme « grégorienne » et de la querelle bérengarienne, la présence substantielle est exprimée en des termes d'un réalisme sans précédent. Il s'agit de comprendre comment la production de récits miraculeux, qui prend alors son essor, construit un discours dont l'objet est non seulement de défendre le dogme nouvellement formulé, mais aussi une vision cléricale de l'ensemble de la société. L'exploration de cette problématique se fait par un parcours chronologique organisé en trois grands temps. Les récits de miracles articulent d'abord l'affirmation du réalisme eucharistique à l'exaltation du sacerdoce (années 1050-1170). Un tournant majeur est opéré entre les années 1170 et 1230. Alors que la documentation est plus prolixe et change de nature (naissance des recueils d'exempla), les récits, qui subissent très fortement l'influence cistercienne, doivent être replacés dans les enjeux du « tournant pastoral » qui s'opère sur fond de flambée des hérésies. Les deux derniers tiers du XIIIe siècle permettent d'envisager la place des miracles dans une prédication aux laïcs qui insiste, par leur biais, sur les manifestations publiques de la dévotion eucharistique comme marqueurs de l'identité chrétienne. La diffusion de la Fête-Dieu à l'ensemble de la Chrétienté, actée par l'insertion de la bulle Transiturus dans les Clémentines par Jean XXII (1317), constitue le terme de l'étude. / The study focuses on miracles attributed to the eucharistic species. In the middle of the 11th century, the substantial presence of Christ in the eucharist is conceived in a realistic way, in the context of the Gregorian reform and the controversy raised by Berangar's theology. Miraculous tales produced at the time can be seen not only as a way to illustrate the eucharistic dogma, but also to express a clercical pattern for the whole society. The study follows the chronological order. At first, the narratives associate eucharistic realism with the enhancement of priesthood (1050-1170). Then, a major turn can be stressed between 1170 and 1230. At that time, especially in the Cistercian order, exempla are compiled in a new kind of collections. Miracles take place in the context of « pastoral turn » and the growth of the heresies, which they try to fight. In the two last thirds of the 13th century, the documentation allows us to analyze the place of these miracles in the preaching of the mendicant friars. These use miraculous tales in order to stress upon public manifestations of eucharistic piety as a way for the laity to express its Christian identity. The study ends with the progressive spreading of the new feast dedicated to the corpus Christi to the whole Christianity, which makes a decisive step in 1317, when pope John XXII includes the bull Transiturus in the Clementines.

Bibliography: leaves 250-258 / vii, 258, 50, [48] leaves : 48 facsims ; 31 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, 1985

<p>This study examines landownership structures and settlement during the Middle Ages in the province of Östergötland in Sweden. It departs from a critical approach to the established view of social structure and property in the Scandinavian medieval society.</p><p>The investigations are made at two levels. The first level is a cross section of the mid 16th century. This investigation shows that lay aristocrats and ecclesiastical institutions controlled most of the land, especially in the core areas of the parishes. The second level is a detailed investigation at the farm level in six parishes starting from the middle of the 16th century and working retrogresively to the early Middle Ages. This study shows that the landowning structure of the 16th century can be traced back to about AD 1300. For the early Middle Ages reconstructions are made through inheritance successions and genealogies of the aristocratic families. These reconstructions show that, in some parishes, most of the land was probably controlled by a few very rich families or dynasties during the early Middle Ages. The results lead to a question about the Viking Age and medieval society in general. This question is answered in a hypothesis stressing the development of the concept of land ownership in combination with the development of the land tenure system as one of the important factors for reproduction of local power during the Viking Age and early Middle Ages.</p>