From my blog...

Category Archives: Art

Those Brutal Middle Ages

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Patricia

I read a scholarly article recently which suggested that medieval warriors suffered from post traumatic stress syndrome, just as modern soldiers do. It also proposed that the fighting men of the middle ages were not the brutal savages that we … Read More →

Posted in Anglo-Saxons, Art, Bayeux Tapestry, History, Research | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Review: The Ceremony of Innocence, a play written in 1968 by Ronald Ribman

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Patricia

It is Christmas Eve in the year 1013. The king of England, Ethelred, has retired to a cell in a monastery on the Isle of Wight. He is mournful, despairing, and self-exiled from his court and kingdom due to remorse … Read More →

Posted in Anglo-Saxons, Art, History, Research, Review, Theatre, UK, Vikings | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Surviving Despite the Odds: The Bayeux Tapestry

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Patricia

The Bayeux Tapestry, as you probably know, is not a tapestry. It’s an embroidery that tells the story of the Battle of Hastings and of the events leading up to it. The Tapestry is 224 feet long and roughly 18 … Read More →

Posted in Anglo-Saxons, Art, Bayeux Tapestry, History, Normandy, Research | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Æthelred II – the Haunted King

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Patricia

On 23 April 1016, King Æthelred II died in London. He was about 50 years old, and he’d ruled England for 38 years. At his death he’d not yet been given the byname, Unræd, (ill-counseled, a play on the Old … Read More →

Posted in Anglo-Saxons, Art, Essay, History, Research, UK, Vikings | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Pre-Raphaelite Artist & a Church in Wales

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Patricia

“Be sure you go into the church and look at our Burne-Jones window.” I had just arrived in Hawarden, Wales and was being escorted up two flights of stairs to my room in the residence wing of Gladstone’s Library when … Read More →

Posted in Art, History, Wales | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments