Maps and Monsters in Medieval EnglandThis study centers on issues of marginality and monstrosity in medieval England. In the middle ages, geography was viewed as divinely ordered, so Britain's location at the periphery of the inhabitable world caused anxiety among its inhabitants. Far from the world's holy center, the geographic margins were considered monstrous. Medieval geography, for centuries scorned as crude, is now the subject of several careful studies. Monsters have likewise been the subject of recent attention in the growing field of monster studies, though few works situate these creatures firmly in their specific historical contexts. This book sits at the crossroads of these two discourses (geography and monstrosity), treated separately in the established scholarship but inseparable in the minds of medieval authors and artists. |
Contents
1 | |
9 | |
11 | |
Chapter Two Mapping Identity | 27 |
Chapter Three The Monsters on the Edge | 45 |
The Marvels of the East over Three Centuries and a Millennium | 61 |
Chapter Four The Reality and Persistence of Monsters | 63 |
Chapter Five Containment and Consumption | 83 |
Chapter Seven Monstrous Nature | 117 |
Chapter Eight The Monster Within | 147 |
Chapter Nine Saints in the Margins | 179 |
Dwelling in the Monster | 203 |
Notes | 211 |
Bibliography | 247 |
261 | |
Back cover | 273 |
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Africa Anglo-Saxon animals appear argues authors battle beasts become Bede beginning Beowulf blemmye Bodleian Library Bodley body Book boundaries Britain British Library Cambridge century Chapter Christ Christian Cohen connection contains context Corpus Cotton course creatures culture described Detail discussion dragon early earth East edge Edited England example Figure foliage folio frame giants Gospel hand Harvey head Hereford map History human hybrid illuminator images Initial Jerusalem John land letters living London look manuscript margins Marvels Master and Fellows means medieval Michael Middle Ages Miller monsters monstrous nature notes notion observes Old English origin Oxford passage perhaps permission points present Priscian’s Grammar produced provides Psalter races readers referred result Saint seems serve similar Studies suggest Tiberius tion transformed translation Trinity College Cambridge turn University Press Vitellius Winchcombe World Map writes York