Medieval Riverscapes

Environment and Memory in Northwest Europe, c. 300-1100
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-1-009-29941-1
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 326 Seiten

Reihe: Studies in Environment and History

Fishermen, monks, saints, and dragons met in medieval riverscapes; their interactions reveal a rich and complex world. Using religious narrative sources to evaluate the environmental mentalities of medieval communities, Ellen F. Arnold explores the cultural meanings applied to rivers over a broad span of time, ca. 300-1100 CE. Hagiographical material, poetry, charters, chronicles, and historiographical works are explored to examine the medieval environmental imaginations about rivers, and how storytelling and memory are connected to lived experiences in riverscapes. She argues that rivers provided unique opportunities for medieval communities to understand and respond to ecological and socio-cultural transformations, and to connect their ideas about the shared religious past to hopes about the future.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Arnold, Ellen F.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface; Introduction: Medieval Waters; 200–450: Late Antique Gaul; 1. Poetries of Place; 450–750: The Merovingians; 2. Rivers of Risk; 3. River Resources; 750–950: The Carolingians; 4. Rivers and Memory; 950–1050: The Year 1000 Question; 5. Ruptured Rivers; 6. Meanderings; 1050–1250: A New World?; 7. The Same River Twice.

Über Autor(innen)

Arnold, Ellen F.
Ellen F. Arnold is Associate Professor of Pre-modern Environmental History at the University of Stavanger, Norway. She is the author of Negotiating the Landscape and co-editor of the journal Water History.