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MedievalNumber 28 August 10, 2015

Dover Castle Liber Monstrorum A King of Norway onDrunkeness

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The

Genoa ‘La Superba’: The Rise and Fall of a Merchant Pirate Superpower

Vikings

Magazine

Our Fascination with the Men and Women of the Norse World

The Medieval Magazine August 10, 2015

Reflections on Our Fascinationwith Vikings and What It Tells Usabout How We Engage with thePast

Our series on Ten Castles that MadeMedieval Britain continues with DoverCastle.

Dover Castle

Liber Monstrorum: The Book ofMonsters

If there’s anything we have in common withour medieval ancestors, it’s our love ofmonsters.

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THE MEDIEVAL MAGAZINE

Edited by:Peter Konieczny and Sandra Alvarez Website: www.medievalists.net This digital magazine is publishedeach Monday. You can buy a copy orsubscribe for up to 12 months through joomag.com Cover Photo: Viking Attack in a 12thcentury manuscript from Abbaye deSaint Aubin

Table of ContentsMosaics discovered at Byzantine-era Synagogue in Israel Reflections on Our Fascination with Vikings and What It Tells Us about How WeEngage with the Past Ten Castles that Made Medieval Britain: Dover Castle Liber Monstrorum: The Book of Monsters Medieval Articles King Sverre on Drunkeness Book Review: Genoa ‘La Superba’: The Rise and Fall of a Merchant PirateSuperpower by Nicholas Walton Medievalists.net Tote Bag

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Mosaicsdiscovered atByzantine-eraSynagogue inIsraelExcavations of a medieval synagogue in Israel datingto the Byzantine period (4th—7th c. CE) have uncovereda partially-preserved colorful mosaic floor.

The mosaic consists of a panel showing theupper part of a menorah, along with aninscription mentioning the name El’azar, aswell as the names of his father andgrandfather. The inscription on the mosaic names El’azar,his father Yudan, and his grandfather Susu or(possibly) Qoso. These men may have beeninfluential members of the local Jewishcommunity at Horvat Kur during theByzantine period. El’azar and his forebearsperhaps helped pay for the construction ofthe synagogue and its mosaic floor. The menorah, a seven-branched lamp-stand,was one of the most important religioussymbols in late ancient Judaism. Inscriptionsmentioning persons who made donations topublic buildings were also a prominent

feature in ancient public buildings, includingJewish synagogues, Christian churches andpagan temples. But the specific combinationof names in the Horvat Kur inscription hasnever been seen before. The menorah, a type of lampstand, had beenprominent in the ancient Jewish temple inJerusalem destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.Later, during the Byzantine period, it becamea popular symbol in Jewish synagogues,perhaps a sign that the synagogue wasplaying a more important role in Jewishcommunity life. The mosaic at Horvat Kurconfirms this general picture, yet also addssome new details. It depicts, for example, anoil lamp on each of the seven branches of themenorah. The lamps are accurate for theByzantine period, and they are symmetricallyarranged around the central lamp. The lamps

face the center, with the flame on the sidecloser to the center. The central lamp has itswick and flame in the middle of the lamp,something that is unknown in thearchaeological record. Future studies willexamine more closely the peculiar form ofthis lamp. Unfortunately the menorah is not fullypreserved, because a column base was latercut directly through the mosaic when thesynagogue underwent renovations. After the conclusion of this summer’sexcavations, the mosaic was removed fromthe site and transferred to the Israel Museumlaboratories for conservation andrestoration. The three hectare-site of Horvat Kur is locatedon a hilltop a few kilometers off the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee, in thevicinity of ancient Jewish towns such asMagdala and Capernaum. It is also close toimportant ancient Christian pilgrimage

centers such as Tabgha. Along with a stoneseat and a decorated stone table previouslydiscovered at Horvat Kur, the mosaic addsvaluable new data to an already vibrant studyof a region that is crucial to ancient Jewishand Christian history and culture. Preliminary analysis of the finds at Horvat Kurindicates that Christian monasteries andsurrounding Jewish villages had closeeconomic connections. The finds also showthat rural eastern Galilee was receivingimports from regions as far away as NorthAfrica, the Black Sea, and southern andwestern Turkey. The excavations on Horvat Kur have beencarried out since 2007 by the KinneretRegional Project, an international researchconsortium sponsored by University of Bern,University of Helsinki, Leiden University andWofford College. For further information seewww.kinneret-excavations.org.

The newly found mosaic with an inscription in the Horvat Kur synagogue(photographed by Jaakko Haapanen, www.haapanenphotography.com; ©

Kinneret Regional Project.

Reflections on OurFascination withVikings andWhat It Tells Usabout How WeEngage with the Past I have always been fascinated with the more distant past. The presentor even recent past has never interested me much – just too familiarsomehow. But late medieval western Europe holds a certain appeal,probably because it’s my history as an American of European descent;I feel it in my soul somehow. That time also has a unique, foreign qualityto it that I can’t quite get my head around. As the saying goes, “Thepast is a foreign country; they do things differently there,”1 and thatintrigues me. And so it was that I embarked on a new project to teacha class on the Viking Age during the spring 2015 term at PortlandCommunity College. Part of my interest stemmed from a trip to Norway,and having documented Scandinavian ancestry in both my parents’families. Also, as a historian who specializes in medieval and earlymodern Europe, the Vikings are not entirely unfamiliar to me, but inthe college survey courses I usually teach they barely get a glancebefore time constraints require me to move on to the next topic. Finally,however, it was the interest in the Vikings expressed time and timeagain by my students that became a compelling tipping point for me.The curiosity and mystique were just too hard to resist, and the classquickly filled with 28 students.

By Terri L. Barnes

As I began researching and prepping thecourse, I was increasingly confronted with afrequent problem for historians of medievalEurope: sources can be scant, scarce, andfraught with difficulties, making it tough toknow much for sure about those whoinhabited Scandinavia from roughly 800 to1100 CE. And yet for my students, the Vikingshad a very real and certain presence. When I

asked them what their conception of a Vikingwas at the beginning of the class, anincredibly specific picture appeared. Itbegged the question: what drives ourfascination with these people who lived solong ago, about whom we know relativelylittle and yet who my students see very clearlyand definitively? I was intrigued and beganto think more (than I usually do as a

Viking Invasion - From the Life of St Edmund, dating to about 1130. The imageappears on folio 24 of MS 736 of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.

professional historian) about how we engagewith the past, how we tend to remake it inour own image and interests, and mostimportantly, why. I was able to use both theVikings and my students as lenses throughwhich I found some answers. The first question had to be, what is theappeal? My students are interested in thehistories of many times and places, but forsome reason the Vikings garnered a specialtype of attention. By many accounts themedieval Scandinavians we call “Vikings”were a violent, filthy, pagan, male-dominatedwarrior culture who stole from, maimed,raped, killed, and enslaved their victims.They wrought havoc on many parts ofwestern Europe and beyond beginning in thelate-8th century, leaving death anddestruction in their wake for at least twohundred years. What is appealing about that?Looking at depictions of Vikings in ourpopular culture it seems the answer is,plenty. A simple internet search results inVikings as sports team and school mascots,found in comic books, video games, books,articles, movies, clothing, toys, beer labels,advertisements for varied products fromcanned fish to Marriott Hotels, cartoons,heavy metal music, the writings of J.R.R.Tolkien and George R.R. Martin, as well as thevery popular television series Vikings whichis heading into its fourth season on theHistory Channel in 2016. In almost allinstances we find scruffy, bearded Norsemenwith horned helmet, shield, and sword. Howon earth does this image entice one to playa video game or buy a particular beer or stayin a certain hotel? The answer is the allurecomes from several aspects of who we think the Vikings were and who we want them tobe. It turns out they provide severalopportunities for us to modify the past to suitour own ends. To illuminate this, I offer someof the fact-versus-fiction discoveries mystudents made during the course about theirown conceptions of the Vikings, with a fewreflections on lessons learned along the wayabout our relationship with the past.

Conception #1: The Vikings Had anEgalitarian Society This was a definite selling point for many inmy class, particularly female students. Thebelief that medieval Scandinavian womenwere equal to men in every way, existing ina society that presages our own elevatedVikings above other medieval Europeans.Couple that with the women known as“shieldmaidens,” who supposedly wieldedswords and raided alongside their men, andit seems Viking Age Scandinavia was afeminist paradise. But was it true? Some sagasdo tell us of strong and outstanding women,as well as a few who are mean-spirited andvindictive, and though most historians nowview the sagas as fiction, it is acknowledgedthese characterizations may have some basisin fact. However, as with stories from justabout any human culture, they include idealsto which one may aspire or cautionary talesto heed, but then there is reality. To begin with, Judith Jesch rightfully cautionsthat we should not think of “Viking AgeWomen” as a monolithic group.2 Even thoughScandinavia is a relatively small area ofnorthern Europe, and the Viking Age lasted ascant three centuries, all women were nottreated exactly alike; conditions weredependent on time and place, though therewere commonalities. Jesch and others havelong concluded that Scandinavian women inthe Viking Age carried out the same roles aswomen in other western European societies;their primary functions were as wife andmother.3 They managed the household, clothmaking, food preservation and preparation,and cared for children and domestic animals.When men were away during the summertrading and raiding season, women picked upthe slack and kept the home fires burning,literally and figuratively. Theirs was a timewhen the community’s survival depended onwomen’s domestic and economiccontributions, particularly in the absence ofmen; therefore, strong capable women wererewarded with responsibility and respect. But

strong capable women were rewarded withresponsibility and respect. But did thattranslate into égalité? Equality is an important concept to us in the21st century U.S. We live in a culture with asexual divide between male and female, andwe strive to create equity between them.Carol Clover has argued that instead of thissocial sexual binary of male-female, VikingAge society functioned under a differentsystem based on strong and weak.4 She alsoasserts that where sex was concerned, “itseems likely that Norse society operatedaccording to a one-sex model – that therewas one sex and it was male.”5 All of societywas judged using a “male scale,” whichmeant gender roles were more fluid, andwomen could be considered socially male ifthey exhibited masculine attributes such ashonor, courage, and strength. This conceptdoes not appear to be unique to Viking Agesociety. Keith Thomas has stated it was thesame in England even into the early modernperiod where concepts of masculinity andfemininity applied to both sexes. For men inboth England and Scandinavia, the dreadedcharge of effeminacy was to be avoided atall costs.6 In Viking Age society, weaknessalso made women more feminine, whereasstrength allowed them to achieve amasculine standing of sorts which gave themnot equality, but power. 7 This power is evident in stories such as Njáll’sSaga and Laxdӕla Saga where we findwomen who are protectors of both personaland family honor and to that end, instigatorsof all sorts of nastiness. They may not wieldswords, but through shrewd cunning it is theywho are the powerful manipulators of men,getting them to do their bidding usuallythrough blood feud and revenge killing.Women’s purview was the family and therespect upheld by defending their own, so itis a testament to their resourcefulness andpower that they created conditions underwhich honor was preserved. What mystudents saw in this was that Viking Age

women were not merely passive figures, butrather just like men they were active agentsin their families and communities, as modernwomen feel they are today. By focusing onand admiring this aspect of Viking Agesociety, contrary to the historical truth thatthose men and women lived in separate,unequal spheres, students were essentiallyjust validating our own cultural ideals aboutsocial equality. What they were doingamounted to historical cherry-picking forpersonal reasons, which is something we allengage in more often than not. The reality is that for Viking Age women socialequality in our modern sense of the conceptwas likely not a laudable goal or even thepoint in life. There were more immediatelypressing concerns, such as daily survival in aharsh and formidable climate. Moreover, ifClover is correct and the only way to achieveparity with men was to simply be more likethem and exhibit masculine traits, then VikingAge women could never under anycircumstance be equals by our 21st centurystandards anyway. We live in a culture thatvalues individualism and people beingtreated equally in all spheres: social, political,economic, and legal. Viking Age women didhave certain rights, among them the abilityto inherit, own, and manage property,8though this was not unheard of in other partsof Europe, especially for widows. And theIcelandic law code Grágás tells us that whena man was slain and wergild was to be paidto his family as reparation, in the absence ofsons a daughter received payment.9 Womenalso had equal access to divorce. But despitethese benefits, women did not enjoy equalitywith men in political or economic life, orbefore the law. Trading and business activitywas largely the purview of men, and womencould not represent themselves legally in anysituation; they had no public roles.10 Thismay be why we see the women depicted inthe sagas as exerting power and control, butit is largely through their men and frombehind the scenes.

Lastly, there is no evidence that womenwarriors engaged with men in raidingactivity, despite my students’ hopes to thecontrary. They were disappointed to learnthat, simply put, women were not evenVikings. Historians generally agree that theterm “Viking” refers to vikingr, a verbdescribing the raiding activity done by men.Admittedly, the sword-wieldingshieldmaiden character Lagertha on thetelevision series Vikings is hard for us toresist. She is capable of being tough, resilient,and killing with a vengeance just like the men,and yet she is also a loyal wife and caringmother who weaves cloth and makes dinner.She is the Viking version of Helen GurleyBrown’s “Having It All” woman that modernwomen aspire to, so we naturally want herto have been real. However, the hard lessonfor some in my class was that historicalcontext matters. While we may be drawn tothe illusion of an egalitarian Viking societywhere women held sway with men, it was nottheir reality, and we must be mindful whenwe are projecting ourselves onto the past.The difficulty is we like it when the past lookslike us; it is more relatable andunderstandable that way, and importantly, itserves to reaffirm and validate those thingswe hold dear. Simply put, we persist in seeingwhat we want to see because it proves usright.11 As is often the case, the pastbecomes more about the present than wecare to admit. Conception #2: Vikings were the Toughest,Most Violent Warriors in the Middle Ages As a pre-industrial society Viking AgeScandinavians inhabited a world modernpeople can only dream of. And those dreamstranslate nicely into the fantasy world wheremuch of Viking lore plays out in our modernage. The medieval world required atoughness and resilience that many of us willnever need to exhibit, and there is no doubtthe Europe of that time was witness to a levelof violence and brutality in the daily strugglefor survival that is largely shielded from

modern eyes. For many of my students thiswas a big factor in their interest, and a largepart of the definition of what it meant to bea “Viking.” To put it bluntly, Vikings weremore badass than any of theircontemporaries, and that made them cool.One student was so intrigued she wrote herterm project on the lure of Viking Ageviolence in video games.12 There, players re-enact such violence, exaggerating andembellishing to their heart’s content,creating the history they wish to have been.Perhaps unsurprisingly, the studentconcluded that humans are naturally drawnto violence, but particularly to violence thathas no consequences,13 such as that offeredin many Viking themed games. This level ofescapism is a particular benefit of studyingthe past in the first place according to DavidLowenthal, because “In yesterday we findwhat we miss today. And yesterday is a timefor which we have no responsibility and whenno one can answer back.”14 As an escape, thepast becomes something we can curatewithout being held accountable. But here again, there is an obvious riftbetween what we want history to be and whatit actually was. We can look at contemporarysources such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and The Annals of St. Bertin and find evidencethat the Viking raiders were as vicious andbarbaric as we seem to want them to be.15But any historian worth their salt knows it isa fool’s errand to look for objectiveinformation about Viking Age Scandinaviansin the writings of their victims. The truth is,as previously mentioned, many scholars haveconcluded Viking warriors were notnecessarily any more violent than theircontemporaries in Europe and Asia Minorwhom they raided, traded with, and settledamongst; there was plenty of cruelty to goaround. Violent people in a violent age, theywere all products of their time.16 The Vikings, however, acquired theirreputation through stories of the horrific,brutal acts that single them out such as the

brutal acts that single them out such as thefamed “Blood Eagle.” During this ritual thevictim’s back is split open, the ribs are broken,and the lungs are pulled out and spread likean eagle’s wings. It sounds completelydreadful – if indeed it ever happened. Theritual has for thirty years now beenconvincingly debunked, with Roberta Frankreferring to it as “the bird that never was.”17And yet millions of loyal viewers, includingmany of my students, tuned in to the secondseason of Vikings to watch the episode titled“Blood Eagle” and see this horrendous actbeing perpetrated on a character in supposedtypical grisly Viking fashion. Frank’s articlewas required reading in my class; what effectdid it have? Almost none. One of my studentswas so disappointed by it that he simplyrefused to believe the Blood Eagle was nottrue, even when he knew there was solid

scholarly evidence to the contrary. For therest of the students who had not seen theepisode but had read the article, their interestwas more than piqued and they begged meto show the clip in class, to which I capitulated.For them as well, the stunning visual of an actof unspeakable cruelty won the day, and mystudents were content that the Vikingsremained as cool as they thought they were,their version of history solidly and safelyintact. It became clear they did not care whatthe historical truth was; there was somethingmagical and fun in being able to get one’saggressions out by living vicariously throughpeople who lived in an age where they couldact in ways that we cannot.

A Viking Sword that has been heated and bent before being included in a burial. Itis believed that the sword may have been symbolically killed.

Photo by Astrid Westvang / Flickr

Oseberg Ship at the Viking Ship Museum in Norway

Conception #3: Vikings were More SkilledFighters and Seafarers No doubt Viking men were both of thesethings. Historical evidence overwhelminglyshows that their extraordinary success hadmuch to do with their abilities in fighting andsailing. However, once more we areconfronted with a slight discrepancybetween fact and fiction, our real andimagined Viking. My students loved the ideaof the scruffy band of rag-tag warriors,tougher than everyone else, brandishingswords and decimating everything that gotin their way. Were they right? Were Vikingsreally better fighters than their Europeancounterparts? Yes and no, for it depended oncircumstances and the type of combat inwhich they engaged.

Caution must be exercised when generalizingabout Viking warfare because they did nothave a single, uniform, practiced way offighting.18 Essentially, they were formidablefighters when guerilla-style warfare wascalled for. Being quick and quiet was theirforte, and as long as they could hit targetswith smaller, concentrated forces theyusually met with success. These were notlarge, national armies, particularly before the11th century, but rather were smaller groupsof men led by local chieftains or jarls.19 Theirspeed and stealth also owed much to theirships, which were built to carry men andmaterials both over seas and up inland rivers,enabling them to get close, raid, and get outwith slaves and other types of portablewealth. As long as they could operateundetected until it was too late for theirenemies, the Vikings would win almost everytime. Almost.

They did have certain skills that wereeffective, but essentially they fought in muchthe same manner as other medievalEuropeans. Gareth Williams notes that evenCharlemagne, who was at war and expandingan empire for much of his adult life duringthe late-8th and early 9th centuries, usedsimilar tactics, namely raiding neighboringkingdoms, exacting tribute, and flat outstealing when other methods failed.20 Hiscontemporaries the Vikings were not soentirely different and special, and at timesthings did not work out so well, particularlywhen forced to fight out in the open withoutthe element of surprise. Because they foughtprimarily on foot in hand-to-hand combat,they were often beaten whenoutnumbered.21 As a matter of fact, it wasthe Vikings who ultimately had to adapt howthey fought over the course of the Viking Age.As they began to overwinter, band togetherto amass larger armies, and then fight fornational monarchs in Norway, Sweden, andDenmark, they increasingly became moreEuropean and less renegade Viking. So the image we concoct of a formidablewarrior who is never, or rarely, defeatedbecause he possessed some otherworldlyability to out-violence any foe is, once again,one of our imagination. Why do we need themto be this way? I began to have the distinctfeeling over the course of the term that I wasrepeatedly disappointing my students byshaking their unshakable image of theVikings. Can’t people simply exist and beinteresting in their own historical contextwithout needing also to be exceptional?Does the past need to contain superheroes?When looking at the fantasy comic bookrealm that Vikings inhabit in modern popularculture, the answer it would seem is yes.According to Lowenthal, “the past is alwaysaltered for motives that reflect presentneeds.”22 Presently, it appears we need theVikings to be exceptional in their timebecause perhaps we feel a lack exceptionalpeople in ours. We reach back into time tofill the gaps in our own.

Conception #4: Viking Age Society wasDemocratic This is one area where some of my students’impressions finally came close to historicaltruth. Jesse Byock, who has done extensivework on Viking Age Icelandic law and conflictresolution, refers to the Althing, set up therein the early-10th century as a parliamentarysystem, as having “proto-democratic”elements.23 In teaching about westerncivilization we generally give credit for thefirst democracy to ancient Athens, and rightlyso. But after that it takes until the republicansystems created in the wake of the Frenchand American Revolutions of the 18thcentury before we talk in such terms again,completely overlooking the accomplishmentof Viking Age Scandinavians. When learningabout the structure of the Althing, studentsenjoyed recognizing some factors alsopresent in our democratic government today.They knew it was unique in the feudalhierarchy that was medieval Europe. The Althing was based on the law andintended to minimize feuds which could havedisastrous consequences for the community;it was a system of justice that sought to createa stable society for all. A key difference fromour modern judicial system, however, wasthat the Althing provided merely amechanism for arbitration and settlement(courts). The responsibility for carrying outthe terms of agreements fell on the involvedparties. There was no official, such as a sheriff,to enforce decisions and make sure justicewas carried out.24 This meant everyone had“skin in the game” when it came to resolvingdisputes and curbing violence, and thisinvolvement by all seemed very democraticto my class. Except for when they realized “all” did notinclude women. Here students ran up againstour modern notion of democratic meaningeveryone. Women certainly attendedAlthings, as they were large regional events

everyone. Women certainly attendedAlthings, as they were large regional eventsthat involved not only legal decision making,but also socializing, buying, selling, andgeneral festivities. But they had no officialroles, could not vote in court proceedings,and had to have male representation if theyfound themselves party to a dispute.Likewise, those who were enslaved had nolegal rights, only obtaining a few if achievingfreed status. Despite these inequities, mystudents were impressed to find groups offree farmers coming together and bindingthemselves to one another in an effort towork out problems and create a justcommunity that benefitted everyone, ratherthan having to obey a lord or a king. Therewas no hierarchy where a leader dispensedjustice; the men at the Althing (thingmen)debated, discussed, and heard evidence in apublic outdoor space where everyone couldhear the proceedings before makingdecisions as relative equals. As Byockdescribes it, theirs was a society that“operated by consensus rather than bydecree,”25 which to my students feltunderstandably familiar. Another familiar element was adaptability,as the thingmen also reviewed the laws eachyear and made new ones as necessary toensure the rights of all. Because their societywas not a strict feudal hierarchy, by adaptingas necessary they tried to ensure that thelarger more powerful communities could notrun rough-shod over the smaller.26 In manyrespects they were ahead of their time. Andwhen we recognize the proto-democraticelements of their system, for us it becomeslike looking in a distant mirror. Seeingourselves in the past can serve to reassureus that, like the Vikings, maybe we too areunique in the world. Their system wassuccessful for three hundred years, after all.This interpretation of history once againbecomes validation for things we hold dearin our modern system of governance, suchas transparency, adaptability, anddemocracy, even if those things are still a

work in progress. Lessons Learned What then did all this say about how we viewand engage with the past? By the end of theclass, my students acknowledged havingbegun the term with one conception of theVikings and ending it with another, moreeducated view. And yet they also wereconfident that their new knowledge waslargely not going to hamper how they viewedVikings and what they wanted them to be.Why such dogged determination to have thehistory we want, rather than what actuallywas? Part of the answer perhaps lies in thefact that what we want is not history at all,but rather something more akin to heritage –that “fuzzy around the edges nostalgic past”to which we have emotional ties.27 Withheritage, the past becomes what we need itto be for lots of reasons. The post-modern,global world has created an ill-defined,disjointed present that proceeds andchanges at the most rapid pace everexperienced in human history. It iscomforting to feel we know for sure wherewe came from, even if it is a past weknowingly, at least partially, fabricatebecause that informs not only who we are butwhere we are headed. And that certainty isreassuring. The other part of the answer is that past andpresent have always been engaged in a dancewith one another. Historians, even though wetry to be scholarly and responsible, stickingto the corroborated evidence and facts, knowthis. It remains true that, as Raphael Samuelputs it, “the past is a plaything of the present,”always a hybrid of then and now, what wasand what may have been.28 The holy grail ofobjective truth that we historians seek islargely mythic and elusive mainly becausewe cannot remove ourselves from it, and thishas been true since the earliest histories ofthe ancient world. The very nature of the pastbeing like a puzzle with missing pieces meansthat by necessity we interpret and

means that by necessity we interpret andreinterpret, filling in the gaps and inventingas we go. Therefore, over time for self-serving reasons history has been crafted toinform, instruct, warn, and even to entertain.In this way, it resembles the Viking sagas fromover a millennia ago: a bit of fact mixed witha bit of fiction in order to preserve traditionand tell good stories. So, I came to realizethat rather than flouting historicalconventions and knowledge by stubbornlyseeing the Vikings as they chose, by makingthe past in their own image and for their ownpurposes my students were practicinghistory the way it has always been done.

Terri L. Barnes, M.A. is the HistoryFaculty/Social Science Dept. Chairat Portland Community College, inRock Creek, Portland, Oregon

End Notes 1 David Lowenthal, The Past is a ForeignCountry (Cambridge: University Press, 2003),xvi. 2 Judith Jesch, Women in the Viking Age (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1991),203. 3 Jesch, 22, 41, 65-68; Else Roesdahl, TheVikings (Penguin, 1992), 59-60; BirgitSawyer, “Women in Viking-age Scandinavia –or: who were the ‘shieldmaidens’?” inVinland Revisited; the Norse World at theTurn of the First Millennium , ed. ShannonLewis-Simpson (Historic Sites Association ofNewfoundland and Labrador, Inc., 2003), 7. 4 Carol Clover, “Regardless of Sex: Men,Women, and Power in Early NorthernEurope,” Speculum 68:2 (Apr., 1993), 380. 5 Clover, 379. 6 Keith Thomas, The Ends of Life: Roads to

Fulfilment in Early Modern England (OxfordUniversity Press, 2009), 20-25. 7 Clover, 386-7. 8 Angus A. Somerville and R. AndrewMcDonald, The Vikings and Their Age (University of Toronto Press, 2013), 42. 9 Clover, 369-70. 10 Somerville and McDonald, 42. 11 Lowenthal, 40-41. 12 Morgan Cope, “The Appeal of Viking AgeViolence in Modern Gaming,” in ReadingBetween the Runes: A Glance at the VikingAge (Portland Community College, 2015),59-64. 13 Cope, 61. 14 Lowenthal, 49. 15 James Henry Ingram, transl., Anglo-SaxonChronicle (Project Gutenberg Ebook, 2008),accessed 19 July 2015, http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/657/pg657.txt; GeorgHeinrich Pertz, ed., The Annals of St. Bertin,in Monumenta Germaniae HistoricaScriptores, Vol. I (1826), 439-454. 16 To name but a few: Guy Halsall, “PlayingBy Whose Rules? A Further Look at VikingAtrocity in the Ninth Century,” MedievalHistory 2:2 (1992), 3-12; Philip Parker, TheNorthmen’s Fury: A History of the VikingWorld (Jonathan Cape, 2014), chapter 1; P.H.Sawyer, The Age of the Vikings (EdwardArnold, 1962), chapter 6, 194-196 ; AndersWinroth, The Age of the Vikings (PrincetonUniversity Press, 2014), chapter 2. 17 Roberta Frank, “Viking Atrocity and SkaldicVerse: The Rite of the Blood-Eagle,” TheEnglish Historical Review 99:391 (Apr.,1984), 343. This definitive work by Frankargues that the “Blood Eagle” was more a

argues that the “Blood Eagle” was more aliterary creation than a reality, whoseembellishments and metaphors were takenliterally in a later period thus creating thisViking Age legend that refuses to die, eveninto the 21st century. 18 H.B. Clarke, “The Vikings,” in MedievalWarfare, Maurice Keen, ed. (OxfordUniversity Press, 1999), 45. 19 Gareth Williams, “Raiding and Warfare,”in The Viking World, Stefan Brink and NeilPrice, ed. (Routledge, 2008), 196. 20 Williams, 196. 21 Clarke, 45-47. 22 Lowenthal, 348. 23 Jesse L. Byock, “The Icelandic Althing:Dawn of Parliamentary Democracy,” inHeritage and Identity: Shaping the Nationsof the North, J.M. Fladmark, ed. (TheHeyerdahl Institute and Robert GordonUniversity: Donhead, 2002), 1-3, 12-14. 24 Byock, “The Icelandic Althing,” 14; JesseL. Byock, “Dispute Resolution in the Sagas,”Gripla 6 (1984), 86. 25 Byock, “Dispute Resolution,” 87. 26 Byock, “The Icelandic Althing,” 3. 27 For an excellent discussion of thedistinction between history and heritage, seeDavid Lowenthal, The Heritage Crusade andthe Spoils of History (Cambridge UniversityPress, 1998). 28 Raphael Samuel, Theatres of Memory (Verso, 2012), 429, 443.

Sources Primary Sources Ingram, James Henry, translator. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Project Gutenberg Ebook,2008. Accessed 19 July 2015. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/657/pg657.txt. Pertz, Georg Heinrich, editor. The Annals ofSt. Bertin. In Monumenta GermaniaeHistorica Scriptores, Vol. I, 1826. Secondary Sources Byock, Jesse L. “The Icelandic Althing: Dawnof Parliamentary Democracy.” In Heritageand Identity: Shaping the Nations of theNorth. J. M. Fladmark, editor. The HeyerdahlInstitute and Robert Gordon University. St.Mary, Shaftesbury: Donhead, 2002: 1-18. -----. “Dispute Resolution in the Sagas.”Gripla 6, 1984: 86-100. Clarke, H.B. “The Vikings.” In MedievalWarfare. Maurice Keen, editor. Oxford:University Press, 1999: 36-58. Clover, Carol. “Regardless of Sex: Men,Women, and Power in Early NorthernEurope.” Speculum 68:2 (Apr., 1993):363-387. Cope, Morgan. “The Appeal of Viking AgeViolence in Modern Gaming.” In ReadingBetween the Runes: A Glance at the VikingAge. Portland Community College, 2015:59-64. Frank, Roberta. “Viking Atrocity and SkaldicVerse: The Rite of the Blood-Eagle.” TheEnglish Historical Review 99:391 (Apr.,1984): 332-343. Halsall, Guy. “Playing By Whose Rules? AFurther Look at Viking Atrocity in the NinthCentury.” Medieval History 2:2 (1992): 3-12.

Jesch, Judith. Women in the Viking Age.Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1991. Lowenthal, David. The Heritage Crusade andthe Spoils of History. Cambridge: UniversityPress, 1998. -----. The Past is a Foreign Country.Cambridge: University Press, 2003. Parker, Philip. The Northmen’s Fury: A Historyof the Viking World. London: Jonathan Cape,2014. Roesdahl, Else. The Vikings. New York:Penguin, 1992. Samuel, Raphael. Theatres of Memory.London and New York: Verso, 2012. Sawyer, Birgit. “Women in Viking-ageScandinavia – or: who were the‘shieldmaidens’?” In Vinland Revisited; theNorse World at the Turn of the FirstMillennium. Shannon Lewis-Simpson,editor. Historic Sites Association ofNewfoundland and Labrador, Inc., 2003:1-18. Sawyer, P.H. The Age of the Vikings. London:Edward Arnold, 1962. Somerville, Angus A. and R. AndrewMcDonald. The Vikings and Their Age.Toronto: University Press, 2013. Thomas, Keith. The Ends of Life: Roads toFulfilment in Early Modern England. Oxford:University Press, 2009. Williams, Gareth. “Raiding and Warfare.” InThe Viking World. Stefan Brink and Neil Price,editors. New York: Routledge, 2008:193-203. Winroth, Anders. The Age of the Vikings.Princeton: University Press, 2014.

Resolute and vigilant, Dover Castle yet standsguard above its ancient charge, the port ofDover. Of all the facets and functions thatthe castle performed in medieval society,Dover personifies its most commonlyremembered and perhaps fundamentalaspect, as a stronghold and place of security.Dover, its white cliffs gleaming in the sun andcapped with rolling emerald green hills is aniconic image enshrined within the sharedBritish consciousness. There is an old jokepoking fun at the sometimes skewed self-importance of British culture featuring thenewspaper headline ‘Fog in Channel;Continent Cut Off’. Within the popularimagination, Dover, the physically closetharbour to the mainland, is the place whereEurope ends and Britain with all itsaccompanying connotations and bus full ofbaggage begins. This is far from a newphenomena, indeed dictated by thewhimsical realties of geography, it stretchesback into the distant past, its precise meaningand significance has been interpreted andreinterpreted down the ages. Dover thentaking up a hefty chunk of psychological real-estate, born from a very real strategicsignificance, is the gateway to England. Forthe Middle Ages and beyond, Dover Castle,born in the wake of a continental conquestand a cultural reorientation of England,

controlled that gateway. The current Castle, thanks to its enduringstrategic relevance and the tactical utility ofits location, has long been a beneficiary ofhabitation and fortification. Archaeologicalsurveys and excavations have discoveredevidence of Bronze and Iron Age settlementswithin the immediate area. Further, it is likelythat the great earth mound and accompanyingtrough upon which the Castle stands are theartificially crafted bones of a great early IronAge hillfort. Eventually when the Romanscame to Britain and began to roll out aninterlocking network of towns and roadsacross the country, amongst the first projectsundertaken in the Emperor Claudius’conquest was the construction of a pair oflighthouses above the harbour. Thisestablished the harbour’s importance as atrading post and place of transit for thefledgling Roman province; a powerful pieceof symbolism guiding the way to the newRoman future; the lighthouses also came inhandy for preventing incoming ships fromhitting rocks and sinking. The largely intactruins of the surving lighthouse endure eventoday, standing at the foot of the Castle andare well worth a look. Built uncomfortablyclose to the lighthouse is the Saxon church ofSt Mary de Castro which was lavishly restored

Ten Castles that MadeMedieval Britain

Dover CastleBy James Turner

in the late 19th century and can be countedamongst the largest and best preservedAnglo-Saxon ecclesiastical structures extanttoday. The Saxons who in their turn came todominate England also built extensivefortifications in Dover which likely centredon the church. The first incarnation of Dover Castle properwas born in 1066 during the aftermath of theBattle of Hastings. William of Normandyinvaded England with a motley coalition ofloyal retainers, hungry neighbours anddesperados in order to press his claim to thethrone and make everyone filthy rich. Havingdefeated his principal rival, HaroldGodwinson, at the Battle of Hastings, theexperienced and battle hardened Williammoved cautiously to secure his lines of supplyand communication. He attacked severalpoints of potential Anglo-Saxon resistance,including Dover where having plundered thetown and levelled what fortifications hefound, his deeply imbedded centralEuropean warrior aristocratic instincts kickedin, compelling him to raise a castle upon thesite. Dover was but one amongst a hundredhastily constructed during the Normans’ first

ragged surge over the British Isles, an ongoingand disjointed process involving as muchnegotiation, bullying and theft as it did openwarfare, as the newly crowned King Williamattempted to exert his will upon both theSaxon majority and the predatoryindependence of his allies. It was, however,one of the few to last. The Norman Conquestdragged England and with it other sections ofthe British Isles to a new political and culturalorientation away from the Scandinavianworld and down towards central and westernEurope. Its new Kings and noblemen now alsoheld land and titles upon the Continent towhich they made frequent sojourns and thedynastic wars and rebellions of the newAnglo-Norman aristocracy were foughtsimultaneously on both sides of the Channel.Britain was now plugged into the vast politicalnetwork of the still coalescing Europe in away that it had never been before. In an ageof great cross-channel magnates and everwidening communication with Europe, theimportance of Dover harbour and the Castlethat controlled it was on the rise.

The Great Tower, Dover Castle - Photo by Smudge 9000 / Flickr

Important since its inception, it was onlyduring the reign of William’s great grandson,Henry II, that Dover Castle came into glory. Aliving dynamo of a man, powered byseemingly inexhaustible supplies of driveand ambition, Henry II was as meticulous ashe was energetic throwing himself into therestoration of royal authority and power. Agreat lawmaker, Henry’s refinement of thecomparatively crude chimerical system ofgovernance his ancestors had imposed overthe complex Anglo-Saxon legal and taxsystem and the introduction of elements ofthis system into his continental territoriesmade him stunningly, Scourge McDuck style,affluent. Henry was a one man medievalsuperpower. Through his mother, heinherited England and Normandy, throughthis father the County of Anjou and throughhis wife, Eleanor, he held the prosperous andcultured Duchy of Aquitaine and furtherparlayed this powerbase into control ofBrittany and the over lordship of Wales,Scotland and Ireland. Seeking to safeguardone of the most crucial links in this disparatechain of loosely bound territories and as ameans to articulate his worldly power andprestige, both to his subjects and visitingguests, Henry turned his gaze upon DoverCastle. Construction of the Castle’s newmassive Central Keep began sometime in theearly 1180s. Towering above the harbour, theKeep incorporated the latest innovations inmilitary science and architecture, its clippedstark walls of a contemporaneouslyremarkable thickness. Besides its much flaunted and undoubtedlyimpressive military attributes, Dover Castlealso maintained a sumptuous suite of royalapartments within which Henry oftenentertained visiting aristocratic pilgrims anddignitaries. Work on the Castle and itsswelling bulwarks continued after Henry’sdeath through the reign of his muchcelebrated but historiographicallycontroversial son, Richard I, and into that ofthe much maligned but historiographicallycontroversial, John I, under whose oversight

the concentric rings of the outer and innerwalls were completed. It is hard to argue withthe idea that John’s reign was not aparticularly successful one, losing Normandyand the majority of the Plantagenet’s Frenchlands to the waxing strength of the Frenchmonarchy, John also endured the First Barons’Rebellion and was humiliatingly forced to signthe Magna Carta, restricting his hitherto,theoretically at least, unlimited royalprerogative. The war began in earnest in1215, when John stabilising his positionsomewhat declared the document void. In response the Rebels offered their supportand the English throne to Prince Louis ofFrance. The opening stages of Louis’, Baronsbacked, invasion was a stunningly successfullanding in Kent followed by his quick captureof London and much of southern Englandbefore turning his attention to the truculentgarrison of Dover Castle. The French armypartially succeeded in breaching the Castleby undermining the Northern Gate but werethen repulsed in vicious hand to hand fightingand further attempts to undermine the Castlewere thwarted through extensive countertunnelling by the English. After three monthsof bitter and grinding siege warfare, the Castleheld strong and Louis was forced to withdraw.In 1217, facing increasing opposition whichwas rallying around William Marshall, theregent of John’s young son and successorHenry III, Louis once again moved on Dover.The second siege proved no more successfuland tied up a large number of his rapidlydestabilising forces, which proved disastrousfor Louis’ cause when The Marshall inflicteda humiliating defeat on his supporters at theBattle of Lincoln. The fate of Louis’ bid for theEnglish Throne was sealed when he sufferedtwo naval defeats off the coast of Dover,severing his supply chain. During his ownlong reign, Henry III perhaps remembering thepivotal role Dover Castle played in defendinghis throne, further strengthened the Castle’sfortifications, erecting three gate houses andstrengthening the Castle’s outworks.

Roman Lighthouse at Dover Castle - Photo by SouthEastern Star / Flickr

The later infamous Henry VIII, who was in hisyouth drunk on old dreams of English militaryhegemony and overlordship, made a valianteffort to restart the Hundred Year War withhis faltering invasions of France. Inpreparation for the war, which he ferventlyhoped for, the walls of Dover Castle nowvulnerable to the ever advancing power ofartillery, were further sheltered behind a newseries of earthworks . These earthen defenceswere remodelled and improved on during theNapoleonic War in preparation for thepredicted French Invasion. In addition tothese trench like network of slopes andbarriers, an extensive labyrinthine networkof tunnels were dug underneath the Castle;storing and preserving the men andparaphernalia needed to repulse theexpected invasion. It was these undergroundcatacombs which later gave the Castle a newpurpose during World War II, when theyhoused both a hospital and a large combinedservices military command centre whichamongst other things organised theevacuation of Dunkirk and the ongoingdefence of the Channel. Dover Castle can easily be counted amongstthe most formidable and spectacular within

the British Isles. Set amongst the undulatinggreen and muted angularity of thekaleidoscope of earthworks that thatsurround and support it, the Castle’sdeceptively thick outer wall traces the gentlesweep of the land, its lowest slopes checkedby the bowed, coiled strength of theConstable’s Gatehouse. Within the loose ovalthat the Castles outer wall traces, stands thehigher and older inner wall and at its heartthe Keep. An exemplar of its kind and one ofthe last great square keep’s constructedbefore the proliferation of the new roundedkeeps, it was the pinnacle of it species beforedeveloping circumstances and theevolutionary changes needed to match them,rendered it outmoded; it is the TyrannosaurusRex of keeps . Sturdy and unshakable, thekeep’s extraordinary thickness almostrenders it squat despite its formidable height.The fluidity of the landscape upon which theCastle is entrenched clashes with the Spartanausterity and meticulous calculation of itswalls, yet the disconnect only serves toaccentuate their strength and render theCastle all the more formidable. One of the principal jewels in EnglishHeritage’s crown, Dover Castle is packed to

17th century image of Dover Castle by Wenceslas Hollar

Heritage’s crown, Dover Castle is packed toits Norman rafters with activities and a wealthof historical information for visitors. TheCastle’s Keep features a fantastically gaudyand delightfully accurate reconstruction ofHenry II’s royal apartments and a wealth ofinformation on the Castle’s history and rolewithin society; understandably focusingupon possibly the most powerful validationof its existence, the epic siege in 1216.Sections of the war tunnels are also open to

the public, featuring exhibits of their wartimehistory focusing on the hospital and theevacuation of Dunkirk in which the Castleplayed a crucial role. No matter how you define it, Dover Castle isEngland’s first fortress. Throughout its longhistory and unlike many other castles strivingto reclaim relevancy, it has cleaved stronglyto its original purpose to bar entry intoEngland and control the Straits of Dover.

Pencil and watercolour on paper, 'Dover Castle' - by Amelia Long ( 1772-1837)

LiberMonstrorum:The Book ofMonsters If there’s anything we have in common with our medievalancestors, it’s our love of monsters. Take a look at anillustrated manuscript, and you’ll often find strangecreatures peering out of the margins (along with the snailsand bunnies). Beyond just creative illustration, medievalpeople were fascinated by the potential of a world that wasn’tfully explored, and imagined it was filled with all sorts ofwild and wooly creatures both dangerous and deadly.

The Beowulf manuscript (Cotton MS VitelliusA.XV), is a collection particularly full ofmonsters, besides the marvelously creepyGrendel and his mother. A while back, I postedon The Wonders of the East, a piece of travelliterature that includes fun trivia, such aswhere pepper comes from. In addition to TheWonders of the East, the manuscript includesa letter (ostensibly) from Alexander (theGreat) with all sorts of strange tales, and asection called Liber Monstrorum: literally“The Book of Monsters”. Today, let’s look ata few examples from Liber Monstrorum.

Liber Monstrorum takes its monster storiesfrom a variety of sources (outlinedcomprehensively in Andy Orchard’s Pride andProdigies: Studies in the Monsters of theBeowulf Manuscript– all quotes are takenfrom his translation), many of them stemmingfrom Greek legend, such as the Cyclops,sirens, fauns, and Gorgons. Here are someother monsters which you may encounter inthe Liber Monstrorum, as well as othermedieval manuscripts:

By Danièle Cybulskie

12th century Bible with Miniatures of various monstrous races. British LibraryHarley 2799 f. 243

- Cynocephali, a race of dog-headed people(whom I’ve written about before) that Ioften wonder was inspired by Egyptianstatues of Anubis, although the LiberMonstrorum’s author writes that they are“said to be born in India” (p.269). - Sciapods (Orchard translates this for thereader as “shade-feet”) have just one legand foot, which is so massive they use it forshade. (p.269) - Epifugi (similar to the Blemmyae) have noheads, but “have all the functions of thehead in their chests, except they are said tohave eyes in their shoulders” (p.273). - People who “are born reasonable instature, except that their eyes shine likelanterns” (p.279). - “A certain monster of the night, whichalways used to fly by night through theshade of the sky and the earth, terrifyingpeople in cities with its dreadful cry, and ithad as many eyes and ears and mouths, asit had feathers” (p.281). - People with “ears like fans, with whichthey cover and conceal themselves at night,and when they see a human, they fleethrough the vastest deserts [or ‘mostdeserted wastes’] with ears outstretched”(p.281). - Giants, who are known to be real because“their bones are often found, according tobooks, on the shores and in the recesses ofthe world, as a mark of their vast size” (p.287). (I find this particularly fascinating –were these whale bones? Fossils?)

Beyond the actual monstrous aredescriptions of real humans which the authorfound so fascinating that he placed themamong legendary species. These includeEthiopians, and Pygmies, whose physicalcharacteristics he finds foreign enough toeither doubt or fear (I’m guessing the author

was insulated enough never to have met ahuman with physical characteristics thatdiffered greatly from his own). Looking at the many works that focus on themonstrous or different in the Beowulfmanuscript, it seems evident that the author(s) and/or compilers took a definite interestin beings that lived on the fringes of theknown world (of northern Europe in this case).Modern people can feed their fascinationwith medieval monsters by taking a look atthe many works in that manuscript, or byglancing through some of the marginalia thatsurround various other medievalmanuscripts. For a close look at the monstrousin the Beowulf manuscript, check out AndyOrchard’s book, and for a comprehensiveoverall view, have a look at John BlockFriedman’s The Monstrous Races in MedievalArt and Thought.

You can follow Danièle Cybulskieon Twitter @5MinMedievalist Click here to get a 5-MinuteMedievalist Tote Bag fromCafePress

Medieval Articles

Miyazaki’s Medieval World: Japanese Medievalism and the Riseof Anime

By E. L. Risden The Year’s Work in Medievalism, Vol. 28 (2013)

Introduction: Hayao Miyazaki’s films always present vibrant worlds full of lush, colorfullandscapes, characters, and fantastic, even mythic adventures. His stories suggest, as inShinto, both strong ties to the past and the ever-present and powerful draw of nature alivewith spirits of all sorts, yet they also show a belief in traditional local politics, a fear of largeror external militaristic powers, and an appreciation of Japan’s medieval traditions. Theyinculcate respect for the power and holiness of nature, valorization of achievement andindividuality within the service of one’s people, and appreciation of the courage and senseof duty that contribute to samurai tradition. Miyazaki’s films typically contrast the excitementand mortal danger of technologies with appreciation for physical and spiritual heroism;Princess Mononoke (1997, set in the Muromachi period, between the fourteenth andsixteenth centuries) stands out as a major achievement of Japanese medievalism thatdeserves additional scholarly treatment from non-Eastern sources, as the film and theaesthetics on which it draws have achieved enormous success worldwide.

Click here to read this article from This Year's Work in Medievalism

Portable Christianity: Relics in the Medieval West (c.700–1200) By Julia M.H. Smith Proceedings of the British Academy, No. 181 (2012)

Introduction: A tale from twelfth-century Germany introduces this lecture. It concerns, akindly woman and her neighbour whose son was very ill. In an effort to help save the child,she produced a pebble and recommended to the child’s mother that she make a revitalisingdrink by steeping it in water. There was nothing unusual about this sort of domestic remedy,yet her well intentioned initiative met with rebuff. This was because the mother who rejectedsomething which might have saved her dying child was Jewish, while her well-wisher wasa Christian who had produced a stone from Jesus’ grave in Jerusalem as a cure for the child’sailments.

Click here to read this article from Glasgow University

King Sverre onDrunkenness

The saga relates that in the year 1186, a groupof German merchants, which were referredto in medieval Norway as Southmen, arrivedat the port of Bergen with wine to sell. As thedrink flowed, a series of incidents occurred,including a man who while drunk leapt intothe King’s sitting room and was killed, and afight that broke out between the townsmenand Germans when a boy refused to sell somewine to a group of Norwegians. Even thearrival of the King did not ease the violence: one day after he arrived, two drunken menhappened to quarrel the one a Gest of the King,the other a House-carle. They were about touse their weapons to each other, when ThorolfRympil, the leaders of the Gests, came out ofthe drinking-room. He had no weapon, but hetook the steel cap from his head and struck theHouse-carle who with his hand-axe returnedthe blow. Then the fight became general, everyman using the weapon he had to hand, all beingmad with ale. Shortly afterwards, King Sverre held anassembly in the town and gave this speech:

We desire to thank the Englishmen who havecome here, bringing wheat and honey, flourand cloth. We desire to thank those who havebrought here linen or flax, wax or caldrons. Wedesire next to make mention of those who havecome from the Orkney, Shetland, The Faeroesor Iceland; all those who have brought heresuch things as make this land the richer, andwe cannot do without. But there are Germanswho have come here in great numbers, withlarge ships intending to carry away butter anddried fish, of which the exportation muchimpoverishes the land; and they bring wineinstead, which people strive to purchase, bothmy men, townsmen, and merchants. From thatpurchase much evil and no good has arisen, formany have lost life through it, and some theirlimbs; some carry marks of disfigurement, tothe end of their days; others suffer disgrace,being wounded or beaten. Overdrinking is thecause. To those Southmen I feel much ill-willfor their voyage here; and if they would preservetheir lives or property, let them depart hence;their business has become harmful to us andto our realm.

Sverre Sigurdsson was the King of Norway from 1184 to 1202.His adventurous life and reign were chronicled in the Sverrissaga, a biography that he helped to write and oversaw.Among the fascinating stories it gives is a speech that KingSverre told to his followers to warn them of the dangers ofoverdrinking and drunkenness.

Call to mind what overdrinking means, whatit produces, what it destroys. First, to mentionits least evil, whoever takes to overdrinkingceases to make money, and the price ofoverdrinking is the waste and loss of hiswealth, until he who was blessed with wealthbecomes poor and wretched and needy, if hedoes not forsake his ways. As the second evil,overdrinking destroys the memory, and makesa man forget all that he is bound to keep inmind. In the third place, it makes a man lustto do all manner of unrighteous deeds; he isnot afraid to lay hands wrongfully on moneyor women. As a fourth evil, overdrinking incitesa man to bear with nothing, word or deed, butto return far more evil than is deserved; andbeyond that, it incites him to finds means ofslandering the innocent. Another evil follows overdrinking: a manstrains his body to the utmost to endure labour,to keep awake until exhausted, to lose bloodin every limb. And he will spill his blood untilhe is ill, and thus destroy all health. When allwealth, health, and reason, too, are destroyedby overdrinking, it incites a man to destroy

what is not yet lost, his soul. It incites him toneglect all right conduct and right ordinances,to lust after sins, to forget God and all that isright, and to remember nothing He has done. Consider now, you men that overdrink: whowill most likely seize the soul when your lifeand drinking-bouts come to an end at the sametime; Call to mind how unlike your conduct towhat it should be, for a clam restraint shouldaccompany all things; Warriors in time ofpeace should be gentle as lambs, but in wardauntless as lions; merchants and yeomenshould go about their business, acquiringwealth justly, yet with toil. Taking care of itwisely, and bestowing it with liberality. Thosewho are lowly should be grateful, and each oneserve his master with good-will and accordingto his ability. An English translation of the Sverris saga, TheSaga of King Sverri of Norway, was done byJ. Sephton and published in London in 1899.

Photo by Jonathan Cohen / Flickr

Book Review

Genoa ‘La Superba’:The Rise and Fall ofa Merchant PirateSuperpower By Nicholas WaltonHurst Publishing, 2015ISBN: 9781849045124

“It has more in common with Marseilles, Naples and Palermo, thanwith Florence, Milan or Rome. It has a heedless authenticity thataccepts the dog dirt on the cobblestones, the muck that hasaccumulated on the marble, and the shameless intrusion of thesopraelevata. That is life. If you want to catch a glimpse of Italy asit has been lived for centuries, rather than simply something thatlooks good on postcards, come to Genoa”And so begins an honest homage to a greatItalian city. Seedy, busy, medieval andmodern, locked against a rocky, difficultterrain and the sea, Genoa is unique, vibrantand a hidden gem. While most books aboutItaly have been dedicated to tourist hubs likeMilan, Florence, Rome, Sicily and Venice,Genoa with its rich history, rugged landscape,

and tenacious residents, has been given onlya passing mention. Journalist NicholasWalton decided to rectify this oversight bywriting a book devoted entirely to the formermercantile empire. This book is his ode to theGenoese.

Reviewed by Sandra Alvarez

Walton, whose wife hails from Genoa, movedto the city and immersed himself in itsculture, food, history and people. The resultis an incredibly detailed, charming, andintriguing work that’s part travel diary, andpart thoughtfully researched history bookabout a captivating city that remainswoefully underrated. If you were looking fora reason to visit Genoa, Walton just gave youa thousand in under 220 pages. Truthfully,as someone who is interested in Italianhistory and currently learning Italian, I tooleft Genoa off my list in favour of visitingmore popular Italian cities. Not anymore;after reading Walton’s book I’ve added thisformer pirate powerhouse to my list of must-see places in Italy. The Beginnings of an Empire: Genoa FightsBack Walton’s book is a chronological look atGenoa, interspersed with his personalobservations and anecdotes from locals. Hedevoted a good portion of the book toGenoa’s medieval and early modern periods.Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Lombards andCarolingians all had parts to play in earlymedieval Genoese history but what reallycaused Genoa to take off as a political andmaritime power was being sacked by Muslimraiders in 930. This pivotal moment forcedits hand; Genoa could either shrink quietlyinto obscurity, or play with the big boys. “The Genoese were confronted with a choice:they could retreat into the mountains orengage with the sea and the raiders…theychose the latter course” Not only did they fight back, but the Genoesebecame ambitious, adventurous, andprosperous on the open seas. They got rid ofthe pirates plaguing them, turned the tables,and became adept pirates and raidersthemselves. The second boost for Genoa arrived with theFirst Crusade; it was able to contribute to the

war effort in Antioch and Jerusalem. Inaddition to raiding and crusading, Genoa alsobegan her long and bitter rivalry with Venicearound this time. Characters like EnricoPescatore (“Henry the Fisherman”), a piratewho raided the Lebanese coast and seizedVenetian trading ships in 1205 certainlydidn’t endear himself to Venice. His exploitswere celebrated by Genoese troubadoursand he was granted trading rights from theCount of Tripoli for his efforts. Walton alsorecounted how the Genoan’s captured MarcoPolo and held him prisoner; although due tohis fame, he was treated much better thanmost Venetians in their care. Admirals and Adventurers Of course, there is an entire chapter devotedto Andrea Doria (1466-1560), the sea faringGenoese legend. How could there not be?Andrea Doria is Genoa’s Lord Nelson. Hefought alongside the king of Spain, Charles V(1500-1558), and remained a thorn in the sideof the pirate Barbary Corsairs well into his80s. He personified Genoa – the good, the badand the ugly. “Admiral Doria was a warriorand a fearsome opponent, but he was alsovery Genoese, and that meant he was ashrewd business man”. Walton even cheekilyentitled Doria’s chapter, ‘The Steve Jobs ofthe Mediterranean’ to drive the point home. No book on Genoa would be completewithout touching on its intrepid adventurers;the Genoese were behind many importantdiscoveries. Walton of course discussesGenoa’s favourite sons, John Cabot (GiovanniCaboto, 1450-1500) and ChristopherColumbus (1451-1506), but adds other lesserknown voyagers to the mix, like Nicoloso daRecco the 14th century Genosese explorerwho claimed the Azores for Portugal,Lancelotto Malocello who gave his name tothe island of Lanzarote in the Canary islands,and later nineteenth century adventurers,Enrico and Luigi Albertis.

Pirates, Plagues and Slaves Walton certainly doesn’t shy away fromdiscussing some of Genoa’s less glamorousmoments. This book is definitely not a one-sided, fault-free endorsement of Genoa; forall it’s glory and global contributions, thereis a dark side to Genoan history and it’s allbared here. The Genoese were highly activein the slave trade during the Middle Ages.Human trafficking gave Genoa some of itslargest profits during this period. TheGenoan’s were also not exempt from warringamongst themselves, and Walton details theviolence that was rife in the city during the13th and 14th centuries between patricianfamilies like the Spinolas and the Dorias,bringing the fight between the Gulephs andthe Ghibellines to Genoa. The Genoese alsohave the dubious honour of bringing theBlack Death to Europe. Genoese merchantsattempting to escape the plague unwittinglybrought it back on their ships toConstantinople where is spread throughEurope like wildfire, decimating thepopulation. Walton gives a grim, butquintessentially Italian anecdote of theplague’s effects; I will never look at lasagnethe same way again. “In the morning when a large number of bodieswere found in the pit, they took some earthand shovelled it down on top of them, and laterothers were placed on top of them and thenanother layer of earth, just as one makeslasagne with pasta and cheese” Walton’s book is filled with marvelloussnippets such as these that add a colourfulflourish to the city’s history. He covers Genoafrom its humble beginnings after the fall ofRome, to its ebb and flow as a maritimeempire, its brush with Napoleon, itsdalliances with French and Spanish powers,its love affair with Pesto, its pivotal role inthe Italian Risorgimento, Mussolini and theGenoa of the present day. This is far from a dusty, dry history text or

simple travel guide. The lively Genoesestories, along with Walton’s humorousmodern day accounts are brilliantly woventogether making this book an absolutepleasure to read. Historian and traveller alikewill find remarkable information crammedwithin its 218 pages. Walton gives anoutstanding account of centuries of Genoeselife and sheds an important light on thecontributions made by this fearless city tothe annals of Italian history.

Follow Nicholas Walton onTwitter: @npw99

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