What The Onion can teach us about the Middle Ages

They bill themselves as 'America's Finest News Source' and after seeing the competition, its hard to disagree. The Onion is well worth reading, as is the site Literally Unbelievable, which shares peoples reactions to their stories.

It seems someone at The Onion has a soft spot for the Middle Ages. Here is their latest article to feature our era of history:

If I Could Live In Any Decade, It Would Definitely Be The 960s

Jonathan Soifer is nostalgic for the time of Edgar the Peaceful, Reginold of Eichstätt and Heriger of Lobbes! At least when the Byzantines and Bulgarians weren't fighting each other.

The best lines: "God, what I wouldn’t give to have been a vassal. Or even a peasant. Wouldn’t matter—everyone was cool back then. Primogeniture wasn’t even the law of the land yet, so a king’s death just signaled a free-for-all among his family and neighboring lords."

That is not the only article to be featured. Check out these other journalistic gems from The Onion:

I Would Have Been Considered Very Attractive In The Middle Ages 

Lyle Hume thinks he "would've turned more than a few wenches' heads back in 1350." Judging by his picture I think he would he is being overly optimistic.

The best lines "Of course, at 27, I would've been getting on in years, but I don't think the maidens would have held it against me. They might have been greatly attracted to someone roughly their fathers' age who had managed to hold onto most of his teeth and remain leprosy-free. Plus, I have gout. The disease of kings!"

Byzantine Empire Will Fall To Turks, Historian Warns

This article, from 1997, was eerily accurate! Best line: "Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI could not be reached for comment."

Society For Creative Anachronism Seizes Control Of Russia

I guess we were all so concerned about the Byzantine Empire that we did not see this other major geo-political event. Best line: "I can't believe how easy it was to claim Kiev for the Kingdom Of Ealdormere," said Royal Peer Gawain Falconsfyre, a 44-year-old tech-support assistant from a suburb of Toronto. "It was a piece of cake. Haven't any of these Russians ever heard of a moving-shield-wall offense?"

The Pope Resigns, the British Library digitizing medieval manuscripts, and more Richard III

Beginning today, we will be changing how the Medieval News blog is presented. We hope to bring you a new post every day or two, which will cover what medieval and history news stories are out there, and some interesting things that were also found online. We hope you enjoy the links and videos!

Can the Pope Resign?

Pope Benedict XVI announced today that he will be resigning as the Pontiff effective February 28, 2013. Also known as Joseph Ratzinger, the 85-year old Pope has been suffering from poor health. Still, this is a very surprising announcement, with the last Pope to resign being Gregory XII in 1415. A few months ago, we posted about The Pope who Quit, by Jon M. Sweeney, which details the papal intrigues surrounding the resignation of Celestine V in 1294.

Lines of beauty: British Library’s medieval manuscripts go digital

The Financial Times has profiled the British Library's efforts at digitizing its 25,000 medieval manuscripts, and profiles six of these items. Claire Breay, head of medieval and earlier manuscripts at the British Library, explains “Anybody can enjoy them whether they are the leading academic on some aspect of that manuscript … or a schoolchild doing a project." Some beautiful images here.

How I mapped the “lost” forests of Huntingdonshire 

Jason Peters has been examining records related to royal forests in Huntingdonshire during the Middle Ages. Using local archives and geographic computer programs, he was able to locate various royal and private forests in the county. In fact, nearly all of the county was legally considered a forest.

Peters explains, “A Norman-Medieval forest was, in effect, a legally defined conservation area where no matter who was the landowner construction, resource exploitation, habitat degradation and hunting of game could not be undertaken without Crown approval. The Forest of County Huntingdon was an evolving, dynamic, socio-political phenomenon, not limited to woodland habitat but extending across pastures, Fenlands, arable, meadows and rivers.

“There is 800 years of history that hasn’t been understood. People could be living somewhere that was a forest. By mapping areas that we now know were woods, we can understand the ecology of the area, which could be very important when considering any future development.”

You can check out Jason Peters' website, Posthumous Plans: Mapping Lost Landscapes, which officially launches later this week.

Richard III: Exhibition draws in the crowds at Leicester's Guildhall 

 The City of Leicester is already showcasing the story of Richard III, and has a temporary exhibition about the discovery of the English King. Here is a video of how it looks:




Richard III Memes

Some pretty funny work being done with Richard III this week...

Top Tips for Visiting Medieval Cairo

Finally, I want to point you to a podcast I heard the other day: Elizabeth Eva Leach, Professor of Music at the University of Oxford, spoke as part of the Engage: Social Media Talks series, about Blogging and Tweeting. Professor Leach is a medievalist who has developed a very good website about her work, and also tweets from @eeleach. For those interested in using social media as part of their academic career, this is well worth a listen too!

Tweeting History: Social Media meets Mummies and Moats

Last week, dozens of Toronto-area bloggers gathered at a local bar, bringing with them their iPhones and Blackberries. Amidst watching Viking re-enactors fight it out on stage and playing trivia, the group got ready for the main event of the evening – watching a tv show about the Pergamon and Neues Museums in Berlin, Germany, and tweeting history.

The bloggers/tweeters were there for a viewing party organized by the makers of Museum Secrets, a Canadian television show, and were busy tweeting about the episode, which featured Viking swords, ancient sculptures and the bust of Queen Nefertiti.

The viewing party was just one of many new efforts by two Canadian-made history shows, Battle Castle and Museum Secrets, to promote themselves to the online world. The programs, which air back-to-back on Thursday nights on History Television in Canada, are using their websites, Facebook and Twitter to reach out to an international audience.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net