Charlemagne in the Midlands: Marianne Ailes reports - ‘Charlemagne in the Midlands’ might seem an unlikely title – but that is what was going on in Walsall on Wed 3rd April. It was clear at our previous family event in Walsall that many in the area knew little about the unique artefacts held by the town’s Leather Museum: the enigmatic ‘Bayard’s Colts’ are […]
Charlemagne in Toronto - Marianne Ailes reports on the Société Rencesvals International Congress The ‘Charlemagne: A European Icon’ project was much in evidence at the Société Rencesvals International Congress at Toronto in August. The figure of Charlemagne is key to many of the texts worked on by colleagues in the Société Rencesvals so this was an important congress for […]
Bex Lyons reports on ‘Medieval Myths and Walsall’s Wands’ - Saturday 1st September 2018 saw Marianne Ailes and Bex Lyons from the project team in Walsall for an afternoon of Charlemagne-themed family activities at the Leather Museum. Walsall may seem a surprising place for an event celebrating Charlemagne, but the town boasts a rare, tangible reference to the medieval king. 17 wooden ceremonial clubs and […]
England’s Bayeux Tapestry by Marianne Ailes - It was a packed church at All Saints, Claverley on Saturday 21st July when more than 120 people gathered to hear a panel of speakers discuss the context and possible interpretations for the unusual frieze of battling knights depicted along the North wall of the aisle. The audience first had the opportunity to look at […]
Marianne Ailes on Charlemagne at Leeds IMC - It has been exciting to see the Charlemagne project grow and interact with other researchers beyond the network. It was particularly good for our panel at Leeds to have two speakers who are from outside the project network: Elizabeth Munro, a research student at SOAS, and Dr Wendy Hoofnagle from the University of Northern Iowa, […]
Bruce Saunders on Adam de la Halle’s ‘Or est Baiars’ - Nova’s concert in September 2017 was called ‘A Renaissance Menagerie’. Sourcing pieces for inclusion – music about animals or with animals in them – I came across the Baiars song, words and music both likely to have been by Adam de la Halle. The programme already included glorious soaring pieces by late Renaissance composers, so […]
Jane Everson – Charlemagne in Modena: Literature and Life - The conference held at the Accademia nazionale di Scienze, Lettere e Arti di Modena on January 18 and 19 brought together scholars of the Italian Carolingian narrative tradition and focussed especially on the figure of Luigi Pulci and Il Morgante maggiore. Pulci claims that the stories of Charlemagne have been ‘male intesa e scritta peggio’ […]SPECIAL OFFER: SAVE 25% ON OUR THREE PUBLICATIONS!!! - For a 25% discount on the first three of our publications, download the attached forms and place your order. Matthew Bailey and Ryan D. Giles, ed., Charlemagne and his Legend in Early Spanish Literature and Historiography (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2016). William J. Purkis and Matthew Gabriele, ed., The Charlemagne Legend in Medieval Latin Texts […]
Eric J. Goldberg – Charlemagne’s Ghost - Few scholars would disagree that the Frankish emperor Charlemagne (768–814) and his dynasty – the Carolingians – played a fundamental role in the formation of Europe. Yet the long-term consequences of the collapse of the Carolingian empire in 888 are still a matter of debate. On Saturday October 7 this year, medievalists from a range […]
Marianne Ailes on Charlemagne in Berlin - It was a particular pleasure to be talking about Charlemagne in Germany at the recent Texts in Transit Conference held in the Sonderforshungsbereich ‘Episteme in Bewegung’ of the Freie Universität in Berlin. My paper, looking at the way Charlemagne narratives were disseminated in the multilingual context of the medieval British Isles, was very much in line […]
