[MR] Book of interest to Scadians

[Garth G. Groff]

Friends,

Just cataloged here at the UVA library: A MUTE GOSPEL: THE PEOPLE AND 
CULTURE OF THE MEDIEVAL ENGLISH COMMON FIELDS by Sherri Olson (ISBN 
9780888441621, our call #: Alderman HD1534 .O47 2009). Looks like a very 
interesting work on the lives of English peasants in the 13th century. 
Chapter headings are Introduction: Peasant Culture and the Village 
Court; Chapter One: Performance, Ritual and Storytelling: Drama with a 
Purpose; Chapter Two: Peasant Names and Peasant Women; Chapter Three: 
Latin in the Fields: Farmers and Court Rolls; Chapter Four: Trespass 
Against Whom: Transgressio and Its Meanings; Chapter Five: The Loss of 
Memory and the Memory of Loss: Naming the Landscape in the Late Medieval 
Village. Of course, all of us are Lords and Ladies (or Lord and Lady 
wannabees  ;-) ), but it pays to keep up with what our tenants are 
doing, right? I had only a few minutes to scan through this work, but 
found a section describing how a widow and her two sons were repeatedly 
hauled before the village court for stealing common land by plowing it, 
trespassing on their neighbors, and the apparently terrible crime of 
cutting down someone else's oak tree. Quite interesting material, and 
told with a slightly wry writing style that is very entertaining and 
easy to read, rare in a scholarly work. Sorry, no illustrations. The 
book looks like very good background for any medievalist, and the 
section on names might be of great interest to heralds. This is the sort 
of book that probably won't be in your local library, but they should be 
able to borrow you a copy through the interlibrary loan system.

To my Atlantian friends, as a cataloger in a large university library, I 
frequently see books on medieval topics. For the last couple of years 
I've been posting brief reviews of those that look useful for my friends 
here in Isenfir. Most that caught my eye were illustrated works of value 
to costumers, though occasionally I have included some like the above 
review which contained useful text material. I would be happy to 
continue sending these occasional notices to the Merry Rose if the 
readers are interested and this is deemed appropriate. Please give me 
some feedback.

Kind regards,


Mungo Napier, The Shire of Isenfir's Unofficial Librarian
(mka Garth G. Groff, UVA Cataloging Dept.)