Medieval Stories and Storytelling: Multimedia and Multi-Temporal perspectives (Medieval Narratives in Transmission)

The shaping and sharing of narrative has always been key to the negotiation and recreation of reality for individuals and cultural groups. Some stories, indeed, seem to possess a life of their own: claiming a peculiar agency and taking on distinct voices which speak across time and space. How, for example, do objects, manuscripts, and other artefacts communicate alternative or complementary narratives that transcend textual and linguistic boundaries? How are stories created, reshaped, and re-experienced, and how do these shifting contexts and media change meaning? This volume of essays explores these questions about meaning and identity in a range of ways. As a collection, it demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinary and context-focused enquiry when approaching key issues of activity and identity in the medieval period. Ultimately, the process of making meaning through shaping narrative is shown to be as vital and varied in the medieval world as it is today. With a wide range of different disciplinary approaches from leading scholars in their respective fields, chapters include considerations of art, architecture, metalwork, linguistics, and literature. Alongside examinations of medieval cultural productions are explorations of the representation and adaptation of medieval storytelling in graphic novels, classroom teaching, and computer gaming. This volume thus offers an interdisciplinary exploration of how stories from across the medieval world were shaped, transformed, and transmitted. An interdisciplinary exploration of how medieval stories were shaped, transformed, and transmitted by interactions between tellers, media, and audiences. The shaping and sharing of narrative has always been key to the negotiation and recreation of reality for individuals and cultural groups. Some stories, indeed, seem to possess a life of their own: claiming a peculiar agency and taking on distinct voices which speak across time and space. How, for example, do objects, manuscripts, and other artefacts communicate alternative or complementary narratives that transcend textual and linguistic boundaries? How are stories created, reshaped, and re-experienced, and how do these shifting contexts and media change meaning? This volume of essays explores these questions about meaning and identity in a range of ways. As a collection, it demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinary and context-focused enquiry when approaching key issues of activity and identity in the medieval period. Ultimately, the process of making meaning through shaping narrative is shown to be as vital and varied in the medieval world as it is today. With a wide range of different disciplinary approaches from leading scholars in their respective fields, chapters include considerations of art, architecture, metalwork, linguistics, and literature. Alongside examinations of medieval cultural productions are explorations of the representation and adaptation of medieval storytelling in graphic novels, classroom teaching, and computer gaming. This volume thus offers an interdisciplinary exploration of how stories from across the medieval world were shaped, transformed, and transmitted. Simon Thomson is Senior Lecturer in Medieval English Language and Literature at Heinrich-Heine Universitt in Dsseldorf. His research interests include early medieval palaeography and codicology, hagiography, and Old English poetry. He has published on Beowulf, its manuscript, and its modern adaptations; on the early medieval rewritings of Saint Christopher; and on the English reign of Cnut the Great. "The shaping and sharing of narrative has always been key to the negotiation and recreation of reality for individuals and cultural groups. Some stories, indeed, seem to possess a life of their own: claiming a peculiar agency and taking on distinct voices which speak across time and space. How, for example, do objects, manuscripts, and other artefacts communicate alternative or complementary narratives that transcend textual and linguistic boundaries? How are stories created, reshaped, and re-experienced, and how do these shifting contexts and media change meaning? This volume of essays explores these questions about meaning and identity in a range of ways. As a collection, it demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinary and context-focused enquiry when approaching key issues of activity and identity in the medieval period. Ultimately, the process of making meaning through shaping narrative is shown to be as vital and varied in the medieval world as it is today. With a wide range of different disciplinary approaches from leading scholars in their respective fields, chapters include considerations of art, architecture, metalwork, linguistics, and literature. Alongside examinations of medieval cultural productions are explorations of the representation and adaptation of medieval storytelling in graphic novels, classroom teaching, and computer gaming. This volume thus offers an interdisciplinary exploration of how stories from across the medieval world were shaped, transformed, and transmitted."--Page [4] of cover Front Matter 1 S. C. Thomson. Introduction: Stories and their Tellers 13 Jane Coles, Theo Bryer, and Daniel Ferreira. Beowulf Goes to School 31 Jorge Luis Bueno Alonso. ‘Retelling Old Stories for New Audiences’ 53 Erin Michelle Goeres. Being Numerous 71 Evelyn Birge Vitz. Performance and Emotions in Four Epic Works about Roland 87 S. C. Thomson. Towards a Poetics of Storytelling, or, Why Could Early Medieval English Writers not Stop Telling the Story of Judith? 109 Meg Boulton. Mosaics, Marbles, and Medievalisms 133 Euan McCartney Robson. A Storied Cathedral 157 Christoph Witt. Dynamic Material Aspects of Writing in Wolfram of Eschenbach’s Titurel 175 Richard North. Iceland’s Alexander 203 Melissa Herman. Sensing Stories 221 James Plumtree. A Telling Tradition 239 Back Matter 303