Medieval Historical Writing Britain and Ireland, 500–1500

History writing in the Middle Ages did not belong to any particular genre, language or class of texts. Its remit was wide, embracing the events of antiquity; the deeds of saints, rulers and abbots; archival practices; and contemporary reportage. This volume addresses the challenges presented by medieval historiography by using the diverse methodologies of medieval studies: legal and literary history, art history, religious studies, codicology, the history of the emotions, gender studies and critical race theory. Spanning one thousand years of historiography in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, the essays map historical thinking across literary genres and expose the rich veins of national mythmaking tapped into by medieval writers. Additionally, they attend to the ways in which medieval histories crossed linguistic and geographical borders. Together, they trace multiple temporalities and productive anachronisms that fuelled some of the most innovative medieval writing.

Introduction Jennifer Jahner, Emily Steiner and Elizabeth M. Tyler; Part I. Time: 1. Gildas Magali Coumert; 2. Monastic history and memory Thomas O'Donnell; 3. Apocalypse and/as history Richard K. Emmerson; 4. The Brut: legendary British history Jaclyn Rajsic; 5. Genealogies Marie Turner; 6. Anglo-Saxon futures: writing England's ethical past, before and after 1066 Cynthia Turner Camp; 7. Pagan histories/Pagan fictions Christine Chism; Part II. Place: 8. Mental maps: sense of place in medieval British historical writing Sarah Foot; 9. Viking armies and their historical legacy across England's North-South divide, c.790–c.1100 Paul Gazzoli; 10. Cross-channel networks of history writing: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Elizabeth M. Tyler; 11. Creating and curating an archive: Bury St Edmunds and its Anglo-Saxon past Kathryn A. Lowe; 12. Historical writing in medieval Wales Owain Wyn Jones and Huw Pryce; 13. Scotland and Anglo-Scottish border writing Kate Ash-Irisarri; 14. London histories George Shuffelton; 15. History at the Universities: Oxford, Cambridge and Paris Charles F. Briggs; Part III. Practice: 16. The professional historians of medieval Ireland Katherine Simms; 17. Gender and the subjects of history in the early Middle Ages Clare A. Lees; 18. Historical writing in medieval Britain: the case of Matthew Paris Björn Weiler; 19. Vernacular historiography Matthew Fisher; 20. Tall tales from the archive Andrew Prescott; 21. History in print from Caxton to 1543 A. S. G. Edwards; Part IV. Genre: 22. Chronicle and romance Robert Rouse; 23. Forgery as historiography Alfred Hiatt; 24. Hagiography Catherine Sanok; 25. Writing in the tragic mode Thomas A. Prendergast; 26. Crisis and nation in fourteenth-century English chronicles Andrew Galloway; 27. Polemical history and the Wars of the Roses Sarah L. Peverley.

Jennifer Jahner is Assistant Professor of English at the California Institute of Technology.
Emily Steiner is Professor of English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania.
Elizabeth M. Tyler is Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of York.