IMC 2024 Call for Participants: Social Media and Medieval Studies Roundtable
Social media is now an inescapable part of our everyday world. In the UK, over 90% of the population use social media, with an average of one hour and 52 minutes of social media use per day. Medievalists have not been strangers to social media, as illustrated by the widely known community of #MedievalTwitter. With…
Medieval myths invented in the 19th century
People in the 19th century were obsessed with making things up about medieval Europe. Here are my top 3 myths they invented: 1. The Flat Earth Myth Europeans had known that the earth was spherical since at least ancient Greece, and medieval Europeans were no exception. We have plenty of manuscripts depicting round earths, and…
My Top 5 English Medieval Churches
1. Malmesbury Abbey The present Abbey church dates from the 12th century but sits on the site of two even older churches. The first King of England, Athelstan, is buried here, and local residents maintain that he made Malmesbury the first capital of England (sorry Winchester!). The Abbey also saw the monk Elmer attempt flight…
Christmas traditions in medieval England
In medieval England, Christmas lasted for the famous twelve days. During this period there were many fun festivities taking place… Mumming Throughout the Christmas period, people would dress up in masks and perform funny plays, mock sword fights, and dances. They were supposed to be funny, a bit like a pantomime – the pantomime horse…
Medieval myth busting: time off work
Did you know that medieval peasants in western Europe may have had more time off work than we do now? According to Juliet Schor, leisure time in medieval England took up about one-third of the year. In France in the later Middle Ages it was even more, and in Spain it was reported that workers…
Medieval myth busting: life expectancy
Did medieval people all die at 35? No, and this is a huge misconception! Life expectancy is an average – if you have two people, one dies at birth and one dies at 70, the average age that they live is 35. Neither of them actually died at 35. Similarly, people in medieval western Europe…
Medieval medicine that actually works, according to science
The reasoning behind the four humours theory may have been inaccurate, but that doesn’t mean medieval European medicine didn’t work. A thousand years of trial and error as well as contact with other cultures means that of course they discovered cures that actually worked, even if they didn’t understand how. An exciting current area of…
The nun vs the emperor
In 1153, the visionary nun Hildegard of Bingen wrote an extremely cheeky letter to King Frederick, who would soon become Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire. Yikes. O king, it is imperative for you to have foresight in all your affairs. For in a mystic vision I see you like a little boy…
Medieval nuns and female orgasms
Who do you think was the first woman to write a description of the female orgasm? A literary figure like Virginia Woolf? A medical practitioner like Elizabeth Blackwell? In the western canon at least, the earliest surviving description is actually by a medieval nun called Hildegard of Bingen. Alongside her theology, music, and morality play,…
Medieval myth busting: torture
Was medieval western Europe full of sadistic torture? Well, no… and mainly because most of the things we think were medieval torture devices actually weren’t! https://www.tiktok.com/@medievallauren/video/6903996538385648898?lang=en This false image is mythologised in our culture through film and TV, popular torture museums which are almost entirely fictional, and journalists using “medieval” as an adjective when describing…
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Medieval Lauren 