Nottingham Medieval Studies

This paper analyses the use of crosses appearing in Anglo-Saxon inscriptions. The focus of the discussion is on whether or not the use of crosses can be associated with factors such as the date or function of the inscribed object, the material the object is made from, or the language used in its text. There are 323 separate non-runic texts occurring on 251 objects, giving a reasonably sized body of material to work on. The conclusion reached is that it seems to be the function of an inscribed object that is of most importance in whether or not a cross appears in the text.

This article analyses the evidence behind the Norse derivation of OE hōre (PDE whore) and related terms (cp. ON hóra ‘adulteress, harlot’). After establishing that the terms probably referred to promiscuity and moral depravity rather than prostitution per se, the article explores the eleventh-century contexts where the terms are recorded: the Old English glosses to Aldhelm’s Prosa de uirginitate in Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, MS 1650, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 146, and the works of Archbishop Wulfstan II of York. The Norse-derived terms recorded in these texts belong to specific technolects (e.g. legal, monetary, and social terms), and, therefore, it is argued, their presence cannot be taken as strong evidence in favour of the Norse origin of the non-technical terms under consideration. The article concludes that, when this is considered together with the fact that there exist cognates for the terms in other Germanic languages and that the late attestation of the terms might be due to their informal, ‘demotic’, character rather than to their foreign etymology, there is not much evidence in favour of interpreting the terms as Norse derived. It is hoped that this approach will urge scholars to adopt similar caution when dealing with English terms whose late attestation is the main source of evidence for their suggested Norse origin.

The powerful image of Louis IX on crusade has led scholars to argue that ‘royal French crusading’ was a tradition that developed only after Louis VII departed for the East in 1147. This article explores the formation of the earliest connection between the French royal house and the crusading movement in the first decade of the twelfth century. Key changes in the royal court transformed the body in the decade before the First Crusade as members of the lower aristocracy gradually began replacing the magnates. Philip I viewed these ‘new men’ in his court as his representatives on the expedition in 1095. However, when a majority of these men returned from the East before completing their vows, the royal court faced dangerous questions about its dynastic claims of divine favour. In response to this, several monks from northern France fashioned a version of the First Crusade that sanitized the careers of those knights in the royal entourage. It is this version of events that ultimately became the popular history of the First Crusade.

The establishment of the Tironensians in the British Isles provides a case study in the reception of monastic innovation and the role of the lay elite. Abbeys were established in Scotland and Wales very soon after the foundation of Tiron in the Perche in 1109, but the English communities were founded later and were less influential. Links between the lay patrons are explored. While the Scottish houses had the support of the royal house and the Welsh community was among the earliest established by the Normans in Wales, the English priories were not successful in attracting high-profile patrons.

Sherwood forest in Nottinghamshire was one of several English royal forests named after particular woods, in this case a ‘shire-wood’. During the twelfth century what later became known as Sherwood forest was called ‘the forest of Nottingham’, and the change to its subsequent name resulted from a complex process that took place between the 1160s and the 1230s. The location and extent of the original ‘shire-wood’ is problematic. The significance of an isolated reference, in an Anglo-Saxon royal charter of 958, to a ‘shire-wood’ in north Nottinghamshire is uncertain. The recent identification, in a mid-thirteenthcentury charter, of a reference to a ‘wood called Sherwood’, lying east of Kirkby in Ashfield, indicates that the core of the by then established forest of Sherwood lay in the woodland in which the Augustinian priory of Newstead had been founded by Henry II.

Disputes over episcopal appointments were one of the defining features of church-state relations in thirteenth-century England. This paper considers the episcopal elections which took place during the reign of Henry III (1216–72), focusing on contested elections which resulted in appeals to the papal curia. By examining the claims made about bishops-elect in this context, it is possible to identify the grounds on which kings (and other appellants) might object to the choices made by cathedral chapters. Objections focused on the ways in which the bishop-elect failed to measure up to an extremely specific model of episcopacy; if significant faults could be found, then the election was likely to be quashed. Consequently, theoretical knowledge was an extremely powerful weapon for all those involved in electoral disputes.

This article provides the first full published edition and translation of the surviving portions of the Mohun Chronicle, a universal history in Anglo-Norman prose. A full introduction to the text examines the evidence for the date, authorship, and patronage of the chronicle, concluding that it was written in the mid-fourteenth century for the Mohuns, lords of Dunster in Somerset, probably by the Cistercian Abbot Walter de la Hove from Newenham Abbey in Devon. The introduction surveys the sources of the chronicle, which include Wace’s Roman de Rou, the Johannes translation of the Pseudo-Turpin, Martinus Polonus’s (Martin of Troppau’s) Chronicon Pontificum et Imperatorum, and a version of the story of Albine (also known as Albina). A full description of the unique medieval manuscript, London, British Library, MS Additional 62929, which preserves the beginning of the work, is provided alongside a survey of the postmedieval transcripts of fragments from the Mohun Chronicle which recount episodes from the Mohun family’s history. The edition provides the entire text of the unique medieval manuscript, and gathers together the extracts that survive in early modern transcripts. A modern English translation of the Mohun Chronicle is also provided, along with textual and explanatory notes.

Among the more striking episodes in the Middle English poem Of Arthour and of Merlin is an invasion of England by, amongst others, an army of gigantic Irish pagans. Adapted from the French Estoire de Merlin, the English poem’s depiction of the Irish represents one of the more intriguing points of divergence between the two versions. Of Arthour and of Merlin paints the Irish in a highly negative light and repeatedly refers to them as ‘Saracens’. The French text, by contrast, depicts the Irish as gigantic, but it does not suggest that they are ignoble or pagan. Although, the term ‘Saracen’ was sometimes applied to non-Islamic enemies of England, such as the Vikings, this appears to be its only application to a historically Christian people dwelling west of England. This paper argues that the depiction of the Irish in the poem reflects a complex of ideas about Ireland in circulation in England in the period. In particular, the influential writings of Gerald of Wales lay great emphasis on supposed Irish heterodoxy and repeatedly link the Irish Occident with the Orient as the furthest extremities of the world, abounding in marvels but rendered barbaric by their isolation.

In the last half century, the catalogue presentation of medieval manuscripts has sought to offer extremely detailed bibliographical accounts of the books described. However, this plethora of information might be construed as rendering the books less, rather than more, approachable. As categories to be noticed proliferate, some of the most basic information about book production has become increasingly submerged. A very great many medieval books scarcely represent pre-planned and unified entities, and finding the information that would indicate such features has become increasingly difficult in the regimen of modern cataloguing. The essay, which takes as its subject two Rolle excerpts overlooked in a catalogue of the hermit’s works, highlights one important feature operative in the transmission of these bits, ‘the booklet’, and offers suggestions as to how cataloguers might, in future, indicate its importance.

This article provides a corrected and augmented transcription of the earliest extant fragment of the Middle English romance of Sir Isumbras in London, Gray‘s Inn, MS 20, a fragment that has been badly in need of attention since its first publication — with many silent emendations and scarcely any discussion — in 1918. A fresh study of the language of this fragment and its companion, a fragment of the South English Legendary St Anastasia copied by the same scribe, establishes the scribal dialect as south-west midland, placing this later fourteenth-century manuscript in interesting literary company. A line-by-line assessment of the text’s complex relationship to other witnesses sheds new light on the transmission history of this most popular of popular Middle English romances.

This article prints a previously unedited poem in praise of Mary Tudor from London, British Library, MS Additional 11814, dating from c. 1525. The introduction situates the poem in its probable contemporary literary and political contexts. The notes provide various lexical and explanatory clarifications.