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e25ebac253dcd97ca799dad1de38ec16
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Connecting the Medieval to New England
Still Image
Catalog Entry
<p>It has often been believed that great bodies of water house fantastic creatures of all kinds. Nowadays, we often see myths of serpentine creatures hiding below the surface of which we are uninformed, but through the study of different cultures of different times we can trace how we’ve used fantasy to fill in gaps in knowledge. The photograph is of Giant’s Causeway, a span of basalt columns located in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It resulted from an old volcanic eruption, but the Gaelic legend has it that Scottish giant Bennandonner challenged Irish giant Fionn to a duel, and so Fionn built the causeway for their meeting. Fionn defeated Benandonner by pretending to be an infant of the real Fionn. When Benandonner saw this and imagined the colossal size of the real Fionn, he fled back to Scotland and destroyed the bridge behind him so he wouldn’t be followed. More of the hexagonal basalts can be seen on the Scottish isle of Scaffa, which likely led to the existence of such a story. With legends such as this from the medieval North, we can draw parallels to modern day New England’s own brand of fantasy and how it, too, has a way of seeping into reality. <br /><br /> The Connecticut River is practically an exhibit for local undersea legends here in New England, home to monsters such as the Glowing Thing of Moore Lake and the 200 foot long Big Conn. The Big Conn, or “Connie” as locals call it, is rumored to have more of its kind residing in the Hog River in a concrete tunnel below Hartford, Connecticut. The possibility of such colossal sea creature has terrified and intrigued residents who have braved the dark tunnel since the 1800s. <br /><br /> The Viking poet Egil Skalligrimsson, depicted in <em>Egil’s Saga</em>, product of a family line of werewolves and trolls, represents a culture that instead of fearing legends, chose to integrate them into Icelandic society through stories. Medieval Icelanders saw the world differently than we do today. Where we tend to see bodies of water as masses of scary, unbreathable spaces, to Icelanders sea travel was the basis of society, ships being their vehicles. Egil, his father Skalligrim, the bony-faced berserk, and grandfather Kveldulf, a werewolf, who “was still only a youth when he became a Viking and went raiding,” all lived lives pirating and traveling by ship. When they weren’t at sea, they were at home on the coast until their next voyage to Norway or Ireland. The waters in which they traversed were as familiar to them as local roads are to us, and so Skalligrim founded Borg by the shoreline in Iceland for ease of travel, just as Fionn created the rocky bridge in the Irish sea. We can argue that the legend of Connie, although not having founded her home, still dominates the waters she inhabits for her sheer size. So when we think of fantastic beasts now, we may picture images of giant, terrifying snakes swimming beneath the brine, but Iceland’s medieval legends were only terrifying if you threatened their home. <br /><br /> The lives of giants are certainly eccentric ones of adventure and valor, anchored only by the ocean’s reach. It is when two giants of different lands clash that land becomes a valid medium. Giant’s Causeway is a hybrid of the societal giants of <em>Egil’s Saga</em> and the local sightings of Connie. Fionn and Bellandonner are giants living in the same world as humanity like Egil’s family, different to Connie who dwells beneath unknown waters. Medieval Icelandic tales depict giants realistically to capture the strength of their country in living beings, but Giant’s Causeway proves that these large beings of fiction compel us to question the physical world. <br /><br /> Giant creatures have long been in our imagination. Where once they stood as a symbol of strength, thought to have shaped the world with their titanic power over the seas, they are now often believed to swim beneath it. Humanity has grown to understand more about the dry land on which we live, but we realize that much of our water is still unexplored. This mysterious space below us has fueled the belief of modern sea monsters, but nothing like the patriotic hulks that would once walk over them. And so the legends of colossi inevitably sank below the causeways.</p>
Bibliography
<span class="TF">"Egils Saga." <i>The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection. </i>Edited by Jane Smiley, and Robert Leland Kellogg. Translated by Bernard Scudder. </span>Kindle ed., Penguin. 2005.<br /><br />Ibarra, Eileen S. “The Comic Character of Fin M'Coul, the Hibernian Hercules, in Carleton's 'A Legend of Knockmany'.” <em>Folklore</em>, vol. 82, no. 3, 1971, pp. 212–215. <em>JSTOR</em>, jstor.org/stable/1258403.<br /><br />Kennedy, Alasdair. “In Search of the 'True Prospect': Making and Knowing the Giant's Causeway as a Field Site in the Seventeenth Century.” <em>The British Journal for the History of Scienc</em>e, vol. 41, no. 1, 2008, pp. 19–41. <em>JSTOR,</em> jstor.org/stable/30160859.<br /><br />“The Big Conn: Monster or Myth.” <em>Connecticut River Conservancy</em>, www.ctriver.org/the-big-conn-monster-or-myth/.
Photographer(s)
Kisha G. Tracy
Julia Thomas, Student, Fitchburg State University
Catalog Entry Author(s)
Jonathan Medlin, Student, Fitchburg State University
Research Assistant(s)
Nathan Paquette, Student, Fitchburg State University
Accessible Description of Image(s)
First image: A black and white photograph of a basalt rock cliff to the right of the photograph. These rocks are ascending downwards until they hit sea level. On the outskirts of the basalt rocks to the left of the photograph lies the ocean with waves coming south east. These waves are hitting the basalt rocks with little to no force.
Description by: Samantha Beauchamp, Student, Fitchburg State University
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
County Antrim, Northern Ireland - Giant's Causeway; New England - Connecticut River
british literature I fall 2017
connecticut
FAMExhibition
ireland
massachusetts
middle ages fall 2017
monsters
natural heritage
new hampshire
photography ii fall 2017
river
sagas
vermont
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3ab5ed0d4469305cec909822a3e32691
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Connecting the Medieval to New England
Still Image
Catalog Entry
Under construction<br /><br /><p><strong>Kings Clipstone, UK - King John's Palace</strong></p>
King John’s Palace is located in Kings Clipstone in the county of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. Six successive Plantagenet kings from Henry II to Edward II used and visited it. As with any other architectural structure, it was built up, neglected, added on to, and burned at regular intervals throughout its history. In the book <em>A Palace for Our Kings: The History and Archaeology of a Medieval Royal Palace in the Heart of Sherwood Forest</em> by James Wright, he cites the Oxford English Dictionary to define a palace as “a large and impressive building forming the official residence of a ruler, pope, archbishop, etc.,” which is what he calls a “pleasingly malleable definition” (5). Later, he provides what is perhaps a more inclusive and useful description: “Palaces were used in remarkably elastic fashion by the monarchs. Their purposes varied according to a wide variety of circumstances not just from king to king but even within individual reigns. The personal preferences of a king might lead to a combination of reasons to visit a particular palace which may have involved sport, recreation, councils, parliaments, building campaigns, impressing magnates and dignitaries, retreating from plague, or as a resting point on a longer journey” (17). The Palace at Clipstone was one of the more impressive and maintained residences over the course of several reigns. The scale of Clipstone “lifts it to an entirely different level [than manor houses]” as it “stretched to seven and a half acres of enclosed land” (6). <br /><br />There are as always several dates involved when considering the multi-century history of a location like Clipstone. I found it useful to mark when kings first visited the site (chart below). Although a manor had been there prior to the Norman invasion and there is evidence of repairs and construction on the site, Henry II in 1181 is considered the first documented royal visitor to “his palace and deer park” (Wright 27). It is interesting that he visited Clipstone after the wars with his sons, wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, and other political leaders that they recruited. When he won, he set about essentially strengthening his hold over castles and forests, including Sherwood. Richard I first visited Clipstone immediately after he returned from his imprisonment. I like to imagine this as a much-needed respite before setting about punishing John and the other rebels. Wrights claims that it was to make sure Clipstone was in order for a later meeting with the Scottish king William the Lion (39). Citing Roger de Hoveden, Wright comments that Richard traveled to Clipstone and Sherwood, “which he had never seen before, and they pleased him greatly” (39). John seems only to have been at the palace, at least according to any remaining official records, nine days in total over seven visits (41), but he was in the area quite frequently so there could be many unrecorded visits as well. Henry III is the one who really took an interest in the architectural design of the Palace and ordered quite a bit of construction, particularly in response to the comfort of his queen Eleanor. Edward I held parliament at Clipstone in 1290, where he announced the plans for another Crusade (68). Edward II differed greatly than his predecessors in that he spent more time at each of the locations he visited, including Clipstone. This is probably due to the changing nature of centralized government and the perceived security of the times.<br /><p>A major fourteenth-century Middle English text, <i>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</i>, includes several scenes of medieval hunting, but what is less clear until you understand the setting is that the author is actually describing a medieval hunting park. A medieval park was a place dedicated to entertainment, but it was not a well-defended location. The deer and the other animals essentially belonged to its owner, and he had ultimate control and operated under a different set of laws than in an alternative location.</p>
<p><strong>East Haddam, CT - Gillette Castle<br /></strong></p>
<p><em>Photo forthcoming</em></p>
Bibliography
<p>Wright, James. <i>A Palace for Our Kings: The History and Archaeology of a Mediaeval Royal </i><i>Palace in the Heart of Sherwood Forest</i>. Nottingham: Triskele, 2016. </p>
Photographer(s)
Kisha G. Tracy
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Kings Clipstone, UK - King John's Palace; East Haddam, CT - Gillette Castle (Entry in Progress)
connecticut
england
palace
sherwood