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An ugly subject, but one that needs to be treated thoroughly and comprehensively, with a discreet wit and no excessive relish. These needs are richly satisfied in Larissa Tracy's bold and important book. DEREK PEARSALL, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University. Torture - that most notorious aspect of medieval culture and society - has evolved into a dominant mythology, suggesting that the Middle Ages was a period during which sadistic torment was inflicted on citizens with impunity and without provocation: popular museums displaying such gruesome implements as the rack, the strappado, the gridiron, the wheel, and the Iron Maiden can be found in many modern European cities. These lurid images of medieval torture have re-emerged within recent discussions on American foreign policy and the introduction of torture legislation as a weapon in the "War on Terror", and raised questions about its history and reality, particularly given its proliferation in some literary genres and its relative absence in others. This book challenges preconceived ideas about the prevalence of torture and judicial brutality in medieval society by arguing that their portryal in literature is not mimetic. Instead, it argues that the depictions of torture and brutality represent satire, critique and dissent; they have didactic and political functions in opposing the status quo. Torture and brutality are intertextual literary motifs that negotiate cultural anxieties of national identity; by situating these practices outside their own boundaries in the realm of the barbarian "Other", medieval and early-modern authors define themselves and their nations in opposition to them. Works examined range from Chaucer to the Scandinavian sagas to Shakespeare, enabling a true comparative approach to be taken. Larissa Tracy is Associate Professor, Longwood University.

Literature, Medieval --- Torture in literature. --- Cruelty in literature. --- Nationalism and literature --- Littérature médiévale --- Torture dans la littérature --- Cruauté dans la littérature --- Nationalisme et littérature --- History and criticism. --- History --- Histoire et critique --- Histoire --- Littérature médiévale --- Torture dans la littérature --- Cruauté dans la littérature --- Nationalisme et littérature --- Brutality. --- Chaucer. --- European literature. --- Medieval Literature. --- National Identity. --- Scandinavian sagas. --- Shakespeare. --- Torture. --- brutality. --- critique. --- cultural anxieties. --- dissent. --- literary genres. --- medieval literature. --- national identity. --- sadistic torment. --- satire. --- torture. --- Violence in literature.

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Murder - the perpetrators, victims, methods and motives - has been the subject of law, literature, chronicles and religion, often crossing genres and disciplines and employing multiple modes of expression and interpretation. As the chapters in this volume demonstrate, definitions of murder, manslaughter and justified or unjustified homicide depend largely on the legal terminology and the laws of the society. Much like modern nations, medieval societies treated murder and murderers differently based on their social standing, the social standing of the victim, their gender, their mental capacity for understanding their crime, and intent, motive and means. The three parts of this volume explore different aspects of this crime in the Middle Ages. The first provides the legal template for reading cases of murder in a variety of sources. The second examines the public hermeneutics of murder, especially the ways in which medieval societies interpreted and contextualised their textual traditions: Icelandic sagas, Old French fabliaux, Arthuriana and accounts of assassination. Finally, the third part focuses on the effects of murder within the community: murder as a social ill, especially in killing kin. Larissa Tracy is Professor of Medieval Literature at Longwood University. Contributors: Dianne Berg, G. Koolemans Beynen, Dwayne C. Coleman, Jeffrey Doolittle, Carmel Ferragud, Jay Paul Gates, Thomas Gobbitt, Emily J. Hutchison, Jolanta N. Komornicka, Anne Latowsky, Matthew Lubin, Andrew McKenzie-McHarg, Ben Parsons, Ilse Schweitzer VanDonkelaar, Hannah Skoda, Bridgette Slavin, Larissa Tracy, Patricia Turning, Lucas Wood

Murder --- Criminal homicide --- Killing (Murder) --- Homicide --- History --- 343.9 --- 34 <09> --- 930.86.01 --- 930.86.01 Mentaliteitsgeschiedenis:--Middeleeuwen --- Mentaliteitsgeschiedenis:--Middeleeuwen --- 34 <09> Rechtsgeschiedenis --(algemeen) --- Rechtsgeschiedenis --(algemeen) --- 343.9 Criminologie --(algemeen) --- Criminologie --(algemeen) --- Murder. --- To 1699. --- Meurtre --- Crime --- Crimes --- Criminal justice, Administration of --- Justice pénale --- History. --- Histoire --- Social aspects --- Aspect social --- Sociological aspects --- Aspect sociologique --- Administration --- Droit pénal --- Histoire. --- To 1699 --- Crime. --- Early Modern Murder. --- Historical Contexts. --- Homicide. --- Interpretation. --- Legal Contexts. --- Literary Contexts. --- Medieval Manuscripts. --- Medieval Murder. --- Society. --- medieval. --- Droit pénal

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Skin is the parchment upon which identity is written; class, race, ethnicity, and gender are all legible upon the human surface. Removing skin tears away identity, and leaves a blank slate upon whichlaw, punishment, sanctity, or monstrosity can be inscribed; whether as an act of penal brutality, as a comic device, or as a sign of spiritual sacrifice, it leaves a lasting impression about the qualities and nature of humanity. Flaying often functioned as an imaginative resource for medieval and early modern artists and writers, even though it seems to have been rarely practiced in reality.From images of Saint Bartholomew holding his skin in his arms, to scenes of execution in Havelok the Dane, to laws that prescribed it as a punishment for treason, this volume explores the ideaand the reality of skin removal - flaying - in the Middle Ages. It interrogates the connection between reality and imagination in depictions of literal skin removal, rather than figurative or theoretical interpretations of flaying, and offers a multilayered view of medieval and early modern perceptions of flaying and its representations in European culture. Its two parts consider practice and representation, capturing the evolution of flaying as both an idea and a practice in the premodern world. Larissa Tracy is Associate Professor, Longwood University. Contributors: Frederika Bain, Peter Dent, Kelly DeVries, Valerie Gramling, Perry Neil Harrison, Jack Hartnell, Emily Leverett, Michael Livingston, Sherry C.M. Lindquist, Asa Mittman, Mary Rambaran-Olm, William Sayers, Christina Sciacca, Susan Small, Larissa Tracy, Renée Ward

Arts, Medieval --- Flaying (Torture) in art. --- Flaying (Torture) --- Themes, motives. --- Capital punishment --- Torture --- Scalping --- Torture -- Europe --- Fouets -- Europe --- Ecorchement --- Martyre --- Europe. --- analysis. --- artists. --- history. --- judicial. --- law. --- legal studies. --- medieval history. --- middle ages. --- punishment. --- skin. --- torture.

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The spectacle of the wounded body figured prominently in the Middle Ages, from images of Christ’s wounds on the cross, to the ripped and torn bodies of tortured saints who miraculously heal through divine intervention, to graphic accounts of battlefield and tournament wounds—evidence of which survives in the archaeological record—and literary episodes of fatal (or not so fatal) wounds. This volume offers a comprehensive look at the complexity of wounding and wound repair in medieval literature and culture, bringing together essays from a wide range of sources and disciplines including arms and armaments, military history, medical history, literature, art history, hagiography, and archaeology across medieval and early modern Europe. Contributors are Stephen Atkinson, Debby Banham, Albrecht Classen, Joshua Easterling, Charlene M. Eska, Carmel Ferragud, M.R. Geldof, Elina Gertsman, Barbara A. Goodman, Máire Johnson, Rachel E. Kellett, Ilana Krug, Virginia Langum, Michael Livingston, Iain A. MacInnes, Timothy May, Vibeke Olson, Salvador Ryan, William Sayers, Patricia Skinner, Alicia Spencer-Hall, Wendy J. Turner, Christine Voth, and Robert C. Woosnam-Savage.

Wound healing --- Cicatrisation --- First Aid --- Military Medicine --- Amputation --- Histoire militaire médiévale --- treating [health care function] --- injury [medical condition] --- Wounds and injuries --- Military history, Medieval --- Treatment. --- Medieval military history --- Medieval [European] --- iconography --- Iconography --- History of civilization --- Orthopaedics. Traumatology. Plastic surgery --- anno 500-1499 --- Wounds and Injuries --- General Surgery --- War --- Violence --- Leprosy --- Blindness --- Military history, Medieval. --- history. --- Lésions et blessures --- Histoire militaire --- Thérapeutique --- Medicine, Medieval --- Médecine médiévale --- Lésions et blessures --- History --- Bibliography. --- Histoire --- Traitement --- Bibliographie --- therapy. --- Thérapeutique. --- History. --- medieval culture --- middle ages --- wound repair --- wounded body --- wounding --- medieval literature --- Early Middle Ages --- Hanover --- London --- Monumenta Germaniae Historica --- Skull --- cultuurgeschiedenis