The essays in this volume reflect the increasing interest being shown in the Sattelzeit or 'saddle period' of intellectual history, as comparative philology was invented, and the nations of Europe became engaged in an 'arms race' of self-definition through discovery (or invention) of their ancient roots. The opening essays respectively look at the first, seemingly misguided attempts to read the famous runic inscription on the Ruthwell Cross, and argue that the mistakes were created by prior and rational expectations; print for the first time Francisque Michel's application for the funding which would lead him to discover the Oxford MS of the Chanson de Roland, and set this too in the context of philological self-positioning; and look at the work and correspondence of Joast Halbertsma, the 'Frisian Grimm,' and document nationalistic competition over the intellectual ownership of documents and languages. Six further articles turn from archival work to the arts, with two each on music, visual arts, and literary reflections of the Middle Ages.
Medieval music offers a clear case of material at one time utterly unknown being rediscovered by scholarship and working through to popular culture, with particular application in the 19th century to opera, here represented by Weber's Euryanthe. Visually, Dante's Inferno, never forgotten, has proved a continuing inspiration to illustrators; while at the other extreme the hundreds of sculpted memorials once surviving unnoticed in English parish churches had to be brought back to light by the labors of Charles Stothard, a genuine martyr to medievalism. In literature, SiM continues its series on historical fiction with an essay on Zoe Oldenbourg, and extends earlier work with a further example of literary contest between Chaucer and Langland as models for poetry, this time in favour of the latter. CONTRIBUTORS: MARK BURDE, MAGNUS FJALLDAL, ALPITA DE JONG, ANNETTE KREUZIGER-HERR, NILS HOLGER PETERSEN, RACHEL DRESSLER, KARL FUGELS, WILLIAM QUINN, PETER CHRISTENSEN
