Medieval Mysteries Unraveling Enigmas Of The Dark Ages

Discovery The Medieval Mysteries: Unraveling Enigmas of the Dark Ages

Enigma in Rus and Medieval Slavic Cultures is a thematic essay volume to investigate the history and function of enigma in Orthodox Slavic cultures with a special focus on the cultural history of Rus and Muscovy. Its seventeen case studies across disciplinary boundaries analyze Slavic biblical and patristic translations, liturgical commentaries, occult divinatory texts, and dream interpretations. Slavic riddles inscribed on walls and compilations of riddles in question-and-answer format are all subjects of this volume. Not only written, but also pictorial enigmas are examined, together with their relationships to texts suggesting novel methodologies for their deciphering. This kaleidoscopic survey of Enigma in Rus and Medieval Slavic Cultures by an international group of scholars demonstrates the historiographical challenges that medieval enigmatic thought poses for researchers and offers new approaches to the interpretation of medieval sources, both verbal and visual.

Jan Huizinga and Roger Caillois have already taught us to realize how important games and play have been for pre-modern civilization. Recent research has begun to acknowledge the fundamental importance of these aspects in cultural, religious, philosophical, and literary terms. This volume expands on the traditional approach still very much focused on the materiality of game (toys, cards, dice, falcons, dolls, etc.) and acknowledges that game constituted also a form of coming to terms with human existence in an unstable and volatile world determined by universal randomness and fortune. Whether considering blessings or horse fighting, falconry or card games, playing with dice or dolls, we can gain a much deeper understanding of medieval and early modern society when we consider how people pursued pleasure and how they structured their leisure time. The contributions examine a wide gamut of approaches to pleasure, considering health issues, eroticism, tournaments, playing music, reading and listening, drinking alcohol, gambling and throwing dice. This large issue was also relevant, of course, in non-Christian societies, and constitutes a critical concern both for the past and the present because we are all homines ludentes.

Delve into the enigmatic world of ancient civilizations and their encounters with strange aerial phenomena in "Ancient Mysteries." This book explores the earliest recorded sightings of unidentified flying objects, drawing from historical texts and archaeological findings. Uncover stories that have baffled scholars and intrigued ufologists for centuries, from mysterious lights in the skies of ancient Egypt to strange objects depicted in Sumerian and Mayan artifacts. Discover how these ancient societies interpreted these otherworldly events, often attributing them to gods, spirits, or celestial visitors. Through a careful examination of ancient records and relics, this volume presents a fascinating journey through time, revealing the profound impact these sightings had on early human cultures and beliefs.

This collection of essays offers an inquiry into the complex interaction between exegesis and poetry that characterized medieval and early modern Karaite and Rabbanite treatment of the Bible in the Islamic world, the Byzantine Empire, and Christian Europe.

Misericord carvings present a fascinating corpus of medieval art which, in turn, complements our knowledge of life and belief in the late middle ages. Subjects range from the sacred to the profane and from the fantastic to the everyday, seemingly giving equal weight to the scatological and the spiritual alike. Focusing specifically on England - though with cognisance of broader European contexts - this volume offers an analysis of misericords in relation to other cultural artefacts of the period. Through a series of themed "case studies", the book places misericords firmly within the doctrinal and devotional milieu in which they were created and sited, arguing that even the apparently coarse images to be found beneath choir stalls are intimately linked to the devotional life of the medieval English Church. The analysis is complemented by a gazetteer of the most notable instances. Dr Paul Hardwick is Professor in English, Leeds Trinity University College.