Origin legends in early medieval Western Europe. Edited by Lindy Brady and Patrick Wadden. (Reading Medieval Sources, 6.) Pp. xii + 474 incl. 19 colour and black- and-white ills. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2023. €198. 978 90 04 40036 8; 2589 2509

Reviewed by: The origin legends of early medieval Britain and Ireland by Lindy Brady Donato Sitaro (bio) Lindy Brady, The origin legends of early medieval Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. ISBN 9781009225618 (hardback), 9781009225670 (ebook). x + 272 pages. $99.00. Origin myths and legends are prominent features of early medieval writings and mentalities. They became a popular genre, an ever-growing corpus of traditions and pseudo-histories, and eventually a late-antique/early medieval 'scholarly preoccupation', as underlined by Brady & Wadden in the foreword to their edited volume Origin legends in early medieval Western Europe (2022: 4). Despite not being the first recorded origines gentium, the Insular origin myths stand out as precious hermeneutic objects for scholars of early medieval culture, as part of a genre 'that has shaped national identity and collective history from the early medieval period to the present day', as we read in the synopsis. The variety of their approach and their richness in contents and traditions make the British, Irish, Pictish, and Anglo-Saxon origin narratives a perfect subject for a dedicated volume. Discussing these apparently divergent narratives in comparative terms was not an easy task, but Brady bravely attempts it in a relatively compact and easily readable book. Divided into five main chapters, the book is prefaced by a 27-page introductory section, eloquently titled 'The anachronism of nationalism', where modern scholarly debate around the contested concepts of ethnicity, post-Roman identities, and early medieval writers' agendas is summarized and discussed. Brady's approach consciously differs from the two major historiographical standpoints on ethnic identities, as it neither gives excessive weight to the influence of Classical ethnography (as Goffart did), [End Page 156] nor does it look too far forward by extending the effects of enduring ethnic identities from the Migration Period deep into the Middle Ages (as in certain readings by Wolfram and Pohl). Brady decides to look 'sideways' (21) to explore the textual and conceptual interrelations between the origin legends of the British Isles without attempting to construct from the texts a straightforward idea of the development of ethnic identities. She looks at the development of origin stories within and among the texts surveyed, more than outside and beyond them. For this reason, the interpretative keywords for Brady's analysis of the sources are 'discourse' and 'development' (3). Her assessment that the concepts enshrined in early medieval origin narratives were communicating and were part of a shared intellectual milieu is repeated throughout the introduction and beyond (1, 4, 16, 21, 63, 227, 229). This assumption finds support in the first chapter through a survey of the textual history of the Insular works containing origin stories: Gildas's De excidio, Bede's Historia ecclesiastica, the ninth-century Historia Brittonum, and the later Irish Lebor Bretnach and Lebor gabála Érenn. While the first two works are referred to in cursory fashion as embryonic nuclei of traditions that would develop later, the latter three pseudo-histories are discussed in depth throughout the book. The Historia Brittonum is given a justified pre-eminence as 'a valuable microcosm of the intellectual connections which form the focus of the study' (16). After the presentation of the sources, the proper narratological analysis begins: chapters 2, 3, and 4 focus on exile, kin-slaying, and intermarriage and incest, respectively. Having established the interrelated nature of the Insular writings in chapter 1, Brady is able to conduct a comparative survey of shared concepts and their development within three concentric levels of investigation corresponding to the three-part structure of these chapters: (i) first she explores the wider conceptual resonance of the motif in literature, usually through comparison with biblical and classical archetypes; (ii) then she outlines the recurrence of historical episodes involving the motif (cases of exiles or kin-slayers in the early medieval Insular context); and finally (iii) she considers the meaning of the motif within the Insular origin narratives. The second part of these themed chapters, the attempt to show 'resonances of these topics in [historical] early insular society' (138), could have been the trickiest. However, Brady addresses the eventual collision between literary motifs and the 'hard facts' drawn from legal and historical records through...

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Zubin Mistry’s Abortion in the Early Middle Ages, c.500–900 seeks to uncover the cultural significance of abortion in early medieval societies. While evidence about pre-modern attitudes to abortion in early medieval Western Europe is fragmentary, Mistry manages to summon a range of sources, all condemning the practice. In excerpts of canon laws, penitentials, sermons, saints’ lives, and biblical commentaries, he reads deeply into the context that occasioned authoritative statements on abortion. The resulting monograph is the first to comprehensively gather all of the authoritative fragments on abortion in continental Western Europe from the period and to consider their cumulative effects, addressing how they relate to one another to reflect, if not a cohesive discourse on abortion, then at least the “thought-worlds” of their authors. Abortion in the Early Middle Ages firmly establishes that reactions to the practice of abortion were situational, rooted in specific historical circumstances, and unrepresentative of contemporary abstract concerns about fetal “life.”

Notes on Contributors. PART I THE MIDDLE AGES. 1 The Idea of a Middle Ages (Edward D. English and Carol Lansing). PART II EARLY MEDIEVAL FOUNDATIONS. 2 Economies and Societies in Early Medieval Western Europe (Matthew Innes). 3 Politics and Power (Hans Hummer). 4 Religious Culture and the Power of Tradition in the Early Medieval West (Yitzhak Hen). PART III POPULATIONS AND THE ECONOMY. 5 Economic Takeoff and the Rise of Markets (James Paul Masschaele). 6 Rural Families in Medieval Europe (Phillipp R. Schofield). 7 Marriage in Medieval Latin Christendom (Martha Howell). 8 Gender and Sexuality (John Arnold). 9 Society, Elite Families, and Politics in Late Medieval Italian Cities (Edward D. English). PART IV RELIGIOUS CULTURE. 10 New Religious Movements and Reform (Maureen C. Miller). 11 Monastic and Mendicant Communities (Constance H. Berman). 12 Hospitals in the Middle Ages (James W. Brodman). 13 Popular Belief and Heresy (Carol Lansing). 14 Jews in the Middle Ages (Kenneth R. Stow). 15 Muslims in Medieval Europe (Olivia Remie Constable). PART V POLITICS AND POWER. 16 Confl ict Resolution and Legal Systems (Thomas Kuehn). 17 Medieval Rulers and Political Ideology (Robert W. Dyson). 18 Papal Monarchy (Andreas Meyer). 19 Urban Historical Geography and the Writing of Late Medieval Urban History (Teofi lo F. Ruiz). 20 Bureaucracy and Literacy (Richard Britnell). 21 The Practice of War (Clifford J. Rogers). 22 Expansion and the Crusades (Christopher Tyerman). PART VI TECHNOLOGIES AND CULTURE. 23 Romanesque and Gothic Church Architecture (Stephen Murray). 24 Aristocratic Culture: Kinship, Chivalry, and Court Culture (Richard E. Barton). 25 Philosophy and Humanism (Stephen Gersh). 26 Philosophy and Theology in the Universities (Philipp W. Rosemann). PART VII THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES. 27 Medieval Europe in World History (R. I. Moore). Index.

Origin Legends in Early Medieval Western Europe by Lindy Brady and Patrick Wadden (review)

This volume contains work by scholars actively publishing on origin legends across early medieval western Europe, from the fall of Rome to the high Middle Ages. Its thematic structure creates a dialogue between texts and regions traditionally studied in isolation. Part I (Regions) introduces the corpus of origin texts from the areas under this volume’s purview. Part II (Themes) identifies key themes that appear in origin legends and introduces new arguments on a wide range of early medieval material. The chapters in Part III (Approaches) conclude the volume by highlighting a range of disciplinary, methodological, and theoretical approaches to origin legends. Contributors are Lindy Brady, Erica Buchberger, Thomas Charles-Edwards, Michael Clarke, Marios Costambeys, Katherine Cross, Helen Fulton, Shami Ghosh, Ben Guy, Judith Jesch, Catherine E. Karkov, Robert Kasperski, John D. Niles, Conor O’Brien, Alheydis Plassmann, Andrew Rabin, Helmut Reimitz, Robert W. Rix, and Patrick Wadden.

Why did commercial cities begin to emerge in Western Europe as they did after 1100 CE? In this chapter, I review and synthesize important thinking about the evolution of commercial cities as a market economy took hold. After discussing ideas about the state in prehistory, I trace thinking about the economic functioning of communities in the ancient world, Roman World, early medieval Western Europe, and into the rise of commercial cities. I integrate the work of Abu-Lughod, Bairoch, Braudel, Cooley, Heaton, Hurd, Mann, Marshall, Power, Smith, Tawney, Tilly, and Weber. I am not so much interested in the historical accuracy of their thinking as I am in how these writers each conceptualized a process based on purposeful behavior. Of particular interest to me is the how the notion and practice of the state changed and how this affected the formation of cities. I build this review around seven themes. Continuing from Chap. 1, I see these as follows: the importance of the governance of a nation to the urban economy; occupational division of labor, command and control, and power; decentralization and entitlement within governance; the functioning of a community as settlement, trading city, or commercial city; the significance of transportation costs, the spatial division of labor, and trade; importance of networks, routes, and nodes in circuits of trade ; and the conflicted role of the city.

This article explores the architectural features of the High Castle in Lviv in comparison with European fortifications from different historical periods, spanning from the “motte and bailey” castles of the X–XII centuries to the Gothic strongholds of the XIII–XIV centuries and the Renaissance bastion systems of the XVI century. The study aims to identify both similarities and distinctions between the High Castle and its European counterparts by examining aspects such as the use of natural topography for defense, functional zoning, and material evolution in fortification architecture. A key aspect of this comparison lies in the “motte and bailey” castles, a prevalent fortification type in early medieval Western Europe. These castles typically featured an artificial or natural mound (motte) crowned with a wooden or stone keep, along with an enclosed courtyard (bailey) serving economic and residential functions. The High Castle shares structural similarities with these fortifications due to its elevated location and strategic division into upper and lower courtyards. However, unlike many “motte and bailey” castles, which were predominantly wooden, the High Castle incorporated a combination of wooden and stone structures from the outset, a characteristic more typical of later fortifications such as Carcassonne in France and Windsor Castle in England. The study further examines the impact of Gothic fortifications on the architectural evolution of the High Castle. Gothic castles such as Carcassonne and Hohenzollern prioritized tall stone walls, rounded towers, and complex defensive systems, which allowed for improved visibility and protection. While the High Castle in Lviv incorporated some of these elements, it lacked the double curtain walls and advanced moats typical of fully developed Gothic strongholds. This difference suggests a more localized approach to defensive architecture, integrating Western influences with regional construction traditions.

There is surprisingly little early medieval social history being written. In recent years, more specifically economic history has had a remarkable rebirth, thanks to the (largely unconnected) efforts of archaeologists on the one side and Belgian and German historians on the other; but the study of society in general, outside the restricted spheres of the aristocracy and the church, has been neglected. I speak schematically; obviously, there are notable exceptions. But it is significant that noone, in any country, has thought it worthwhile to attempt a synthesis of early medieval European socio-economic history as a whole that could replace those of Alfons Dopsch or, maybe, André Déléage. It would be hard; but people have tried it for the centuries after 900, with interesting (even if inevitably controversial) results. Why not earlier? Richard Sullivan recently lamented the conservatism of most Carolingian scholarship; in the arena of social history, he could easily have extended his complaints back to 500.

Historians of the early Middle Ages (c. 600–c. 1050) have long used material remains and archeological evidence to learn about that era. Over the last four decades, material culture studies have become a prominent area of historical research, particularly for cultural historians. Recent early medieval studies have followed this trend. In addition, religious and economic studies of the so‐called “Dark Ages” have drawn from material sources. Object‐driven social history has been less popular, but recent work, especially on Francia and Anglo‐Saxon England, demonstrates that such projects offer new findings on a period whose texts rarely address social relations and everyday life directly. Material culture therefore offers rich research possibilities for early medieval social history.

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Book synopsis: Drawing on the expertise of 26 distinguished scholars, this important volume covers the major issues in the study of medieval Europe, highlighting the significant impact the time period had on cultural forms and institutions central to European identity. Examines changing approaches to the study of medieval Europe, its periodization, and central themes Includes coverage of important questions such as identity and the self, sexuality and gender, emotionality and ethnicity, as well as more traditional topics such as economic and demographic expansion; kingship; and the rise of the West Explores Europe’s understanding of the wider world to place the study of the medieval society in a global context

Reviewed by: The Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages (Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries): Proceedings of the International Symposium held at Speyer, 20-25 October 2002 Jennifer Shea Cluse, Christoph, ed., Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages (Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries): Proceedings of the International Symposium held at Speyer, 20-25 October 2002 (Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 4), Turnhout, Brepols, 2004; cloth; pp. xvii, 512; 24 maps, 53 b/w illustrations; RRP €60.00; ISBN 2503516971. All too often, academic studies of Jewish life, culture and thought in the Middle Ages are branded as specialist works of interest to only a small minority of working medievalists, pigeonholed by publishers in 'Jewish studies'. This volume, however, is an important contribution not only to specialists in medieval Jewish thought and culture, but also to medieval generalists working in a range of sub-specialties. It demonstrates conclusively the importance of considering Jewish contributions to life in medieval Western Europe not in isolation, but always in relation to the wider society. The volume presents the edited (and, in some cases, translated) proceedings of the 2002 conference on 'Culture, Mobility, Migration and Settlement of Jews in Medieval Europe' funded by the 'Culture 2000' programme of the European Commission. This major conference was the culmination of a project led by Professor Alfred Haverkamp of the University of Trier. Among the project's stated aims were: to consolidate numerous divergent studies that fell under its umbrella, and to provide an overview of the current state of research a number of fields that come to bear upon the study of Jewish thought and culture in Medieval Europe. In addition to this, the project's directors wished to give a public voice to the work of talented younger scholars in the field. The essay collection therefore showcases the diversity of recent work by up-and-coming scholars of Jewish culture in medieval Western Europe, as well as presenting valuable essays by more established scholars. The volume is organized in five parts: The first section, 'Dimensions of the Subject', contains five keynote essays by some of the preeminent scholars in the field of medieval Jewish history and Jewish/non-Jewish relations in the period: [End Page 178] David Abulafia and Anna Sapir Abulafia of the University of Cambridge, Alfred Haverkamp of Trier, Peter Schäfer of Berlin and Princeton, and Yacov Guggenheim of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Together with Haverkamp's general essay introducing the volume, these keynote essays would be an excellent starting point for students or researchers entering the field. The essays in the second section, 'Around the Mediterranean', provide current thought on the status of Jews in various regions in the Middle Ages: Aragon, Castile, Navarre, Provence, Sicily, and northern and central Italy. Relations between Jews and local rulers receive particular attention, and there is also an excellent overview essay on 'Maimonides and Mediterranean Culture' by Sarah Stroumsa of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The third section, 'The Northern Jewries, France, England, and Ashkenaz', includes recent work on the organization of Jewish communities in northern France, England, and the Rhineland, and the integration or exclusion of these communities from the surrounding regions. There is also an excellent piece by Nora Berend of the University of Cambridge on the status of Jewish communities in medieval Hungary. In section four, 'Aspects of Jewish Social, Economic, and Intellectual History', the involvement of medieval European Jewish communities in a number of disparate fields is explored. There are essays on 'Halakhah', Taboo and the origin of Jewish Moneylending in Germany' (Haym Soloveitchik), 'Jews in Medieval European Medicine' (Kay Peter Jankrift) and a strong essay on the 'Public Roles of Jewish Women in Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Ashkenaz' by Martha Keil. There are also pieces on the 'Iconography of Medieval Diaspora Synagogues' (Vivian B. Mann) and early Yiddish language studies (Erika Timm). Finally, the essays in section five, 'Individual Jewries Through Archival and Archaeological Studies', look at Jewish communities in medieval Europe in locations including Cologne, Würzburg, Regensburg, Oxford, Speyer, and Worms. This section will be of particular interest to those working in not only Jewish history, but local history studies and historical cartography. The...

Despite the generally accepted scholarly opinion that the three rhetorical manuals describing the method of loci and its accompanying origin legend were unknown in early medieval England (i.e. Rhetorica ad Herennium, Cicero’s De oratore, and Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria), I argue that the Old English poem, The Ruin, suggests otherwise. By examining the features that overlap between the method of loci as described in these rhetorical texts, Mary Carruthers’ argument for a uniquely “monastic memoria” that was ubiquitous in the early medieval period, and The Ruin, I suggest that the Rhetorica ad Herennium provides a good accounting for some of the oddly specific descriptive details the poem is best known for. Moreover, as the poem is fundamentally concerned with the power of remembering to bring order to chaos, The Ruin bears a striking resemblance to the origin legend of the method of loci. Evidence of the influence of the method of loci and its origin legend on Old English literature requires that we rethink how well the extant manuscript record represents both the state of learning in, and the transfer of knowledge throughout, early medieval Britain.

The purpose of this article is to compare E. Gudavičius' conception of feudalism with the Russian orientalist L. Vasilyev's attitude to this issue. Both historians treat themselves as Marxists (in the Western meaning of it, i.e. supporters of the Asian mode of production). Consequently, their views on the development of the history of mankind are similar but not equal. In this article, feudalism is treated as a historical and socioeconomic formation and some stage of human development during which the feudal mode of production was dominating. L. Vasilyev describes the stage of feudalism in Western Europe as the age of orientalisation of social structure, i.e. as a regress. Only the rebirth of Antiquity bore capitalism. E. Gudavičius stresses that feudalism created an individual producer (peasant) farm and consequently it was an essential progress in the social development of the societies of Western Europe. The character of the social structure of Germanic kingdoms in the early Middle Ages differed essentially from oriental societies in the stage of early politogenesis. The reason for that was the alodization of Germanic society. So the prefeudal stage (the term of E. Gudavičius) as well as the feudal stage was unique in both chronological and geographical senses (as for this aspect, Western Europe is comparable maybe only with medieval Japan). In the early Middle Ages, a necessary condition of the feudalisation of the periphery of Western Europe was the influence of the neighbouring (already feudal) countries. Otherwise, the social structure of peripheral societies would have been developing like in the Orient. L. Vasilyev affirms convincingly that market relations in Germanic society in the early Middle Ages were suppressed by vertical (subordinating) and corporative connections. In this sense, Western Europe became similar to the Orient. Nevertheless, the main difference was that private property remained in Western Europe. Private property enabled the development of market relations when civilization and technologies were restored. Medieval cities and burghers undermined feudalism and were the first sprouts of the capitalist structure. L. Vasilyev's statement that capitalism is the consequence of a structural rebirth of Antiquity is not very convincing. The structural heritage of Antiquity was a primary stimulus during the process of the genesis of feudalism. Later, feudalism developed spontaneously and the part of the heritage of Antiquity was only auxiliary. It is very doubtful that the historical experiment of the structural synthesis took place in medieval Western Europe (according to L. Vasilyev's conception it also took place in the Hellenistic Orient and in the Byzantine Empire). Already, during the stage of the genesis of feudalism, a social mutation (i.e. qualitative change) took place in Western Europe. So, in general, there was no more structural synthesis but spontaneous development. On the other hand, the mentioned L. Vasilyev's conception was not adapted to much more prospective cases like the Philippines and especially Latin America.