The Meadhall

The Meadhall

Author: Stephen Pollington

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 9781898281542

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Three appendices: --


The Mead Hall

The Mead Hall

Author: Stephen Pollington

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13:

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Pollington has written and spoken widely on Anglo-Saxon language, literature, society, and culture. Here he describes feasting and society, the mead hall as living and ritual space, food and feasting equipment, positions of power, and entertainment. He includes a glossary with pronunciations, and sa


Beowulf

Beowulf

Author:

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2012-03-01

Total Pages: 70

ISBN-13: 0486111105

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Finest heroic poem in Old English celebrates the exploits of Beowulf, a young nobleman of southern Sweden. Combines myth, Christian and pagan elements, and history into a powerful narrative. Genealogies.


The Mere Wife

The Mere Wife

Author: Maria Dahvana Headley

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2018-07-17

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 0374715548

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New York Times bestselling author Maria Dahvana Headley presents a modern retelling of the literary classic Beowulf, set in American suburbia as two mothers—a housewife and a battle-hardened veteran—fight to protect those they love in The Mere Wife. This modern fantasy tale transports you from the ancient mead halls of the Geats to the picket-fenced, meticulously planned community of American suburbia, known as Herot Hall. In the expert hands of Maria Dahvana Headley, this vibrant retelling underscores the timeless struggle between the protected and the outsiders. Enter the confines of Herot Hall, a gated community sequestered from the wild surroundings by sophisticated security systems. Here, life is a series of cocktail hours and playdates for Willa, the charming wife of Herot's heir, and her son Dylan. Meanwhile, deep in a nearby mountain cave lives Dana, a hardened soldier and mother of Gren, a child of mysterious origin. Their worlds collide in a shocking turn of events when Gren breaks into Herot Hall and escapes with Dylan. A brilliant literary novel that effortlessly melds modern literature with ancient mythology, The Mere Wife is a captivating testament to unintended consequences, the brutality of PTSD, and the enduring power of motherhood.


World of Made and Unmade

World of Made and Unmade

Author: Jane Mead

Publisher: Alice James Books

Published: 2016-09-13

Total Pages: 90

ISBN-13: 1938584392

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Mead’s fifth collection candidly and openly explores the long process that is death. These resonant poems discover what it means to live, die, and come home again. We’re drawn in by sorrow and grief, but also the joys of celebrating a long life and how simple it is to find laughter and light in the quietest and darkest of moments.


Anglo-Saxon Community in J. R. R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings

Anglo-Saxon Community in J. R. R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings

Author: Deborah A. Higgens

Publisher:

Published: 2014-03-25

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9781940992037

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Anglo-Saxon Community in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings by Dr. Deborah A. Higgens, PhD will add to the field of Tolkien scholarship a detailed study of how Tolkien entered into the community of Anglo-Saxon storytellers as a scholar and critic, but also as an insider. Embracing elements of a lifestyle he valued, yet which he viewed as diminishing in modern-day England and in the rest of the world, J.R.R. Tolkien hearkens back to a literary community shrouded in mystery and Faerie, from Beowulf and other Anglo-Saxon poetry to medieval legend. Tolkien enters that community both as a critic, examining lost elements of a heroic society, and as an insider, recasting, as did ancient authors, the elements of Story, to create his own great fairy-story. While much has been written on medievalism in Tolkien's works, this research adds to the field a detailed explanation of the Anglo-Saxon mindset in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (LOTR). In his sub-creation, Tolkien draws from the same Cauldron of Story from which the Anglo-Saxon poets drew, as illustrated by an examination of Tolkien's two critical essays: "On Fairy-Stories" and "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics." Tolkien discusses the manner in which the Beowulf poet created his poem, and it is evident that the same principles can be applied to demonstrate how Tolkien created his own great fairy-story as he integrates the ancient themes of the Anglo-Saxon mead hall, the lord as gift-giver, and the comitatus bond in his creation of the Rohirrim. In the role of the cup-bearer, Old English poetry predominately reflects aristocratic women, and Tolkien illustrates this aspect in LOTR through the characters of Galadriel and Eowyn. Tolkien's work is as original as that of medieval authors because he built on ancient themes and structure, used their modes and genres, and chose similar mythic elements to weave his own tale. The decline of mead-hall society is reflected in Old English poetry, and Tolkien's fiction embodies a sense of that loss, preserving for his audience, as did the Beowulf poet, this ancient society and its heroic values.


Make Mead Like a Viking

Make Mead Like a Viking

Author: Jereme Zimmerman

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2015-10-15

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1603585990

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A complete, practical, and entertaining guide to using the best ingredients and minimal equipment to create flavorful brews—including wildcrafted meads, bragots, t’ej, grog, honey beers, and more! "A great guide . . . full of practical information and fascinating lore."—Sandor Ellix Katz, author of The Art of Fermentation Ancient societies brewed flavorful and healing meads, ales, and wines for millennia using only intuition, storytelling, and knowledge passed down through generations―no fancy, expensive equipment or degrees in chemistry needed. In Make Mead Like a Viking, homesteader, fermentation enthusiast, and self-described “Appalachian Yeti Viking” Jereme Zimmerman summons the bryggjemann of the ancient Norse to demonstrate how homebrewing mead―arguably the world’s oldest fermented alcoholic beverage―can be not only uncomplicated but fun. Inside, readers will learn techniques for brewing: Sweet, semi-sweet, and dry meads Melomels (fruit meads) Metheglins (spiced meads) Ethiopian t’ej (honey wine) Flower and herbal meads Bragots Honey beers Country wines Viking grog And there's more for aspiring Vikings to explore, including: The importance of local and unpasteurized honey for both flavor and health benefits What modern homebrewing practices, materials, and chemicals work—but aren’t necessary How to grow and harvest herbs and collect wild botanicals for use in healing, nutritious, and magical meads, beers, and wines How to use botanicals other than hops for flavoring and preserving mead, ancient ales, and gruits The rituals, mysticism, and communion with nature that were integral components of ancient brewing Whether you’ve been intimidated by modern homebrewing’s cost or seeming complexity in the past or are boldly looking to expand your current brewing and fermentation practices, Zimmerman’s welcoming style and spirit will usher you into exciting new territory. Grounded in history and mythology, but―like Odin’s ever-seeking eye―focusing continually on the future of self-sufficient food culture, Make Mead Like a Viking is a practical and entertaining guide for the ages. "Adventurous mead makers or brewers who want to move beyond the basics will find plenty to savor here."—Library Journal


Corpse in the Mead Hall

Corpse in the Mead Hall

Author: Cate Martin

Publisher: Ratatoskr Press

Published: 2021-08-17

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 1951439686

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By day, a drab pole barn used as general store, post office and meeting place all-in-one by the people of Runde, Minnesota, a fishing village on the North Shore of Lake Superior. By night, a Viking-style long house filled with tales and singing, roasting meat and flowing beer, and of course mead. Ingrid Torfa can imagine no better place for a much-needed night of R&R. The mead hall run by her grandmother lies where modern small town life brushes up against the old world lifestyle of the people of Villmark, proud descendants of a lost tribe of Northmen. All of her friends mingle there from the server who works in the restaurant on the side of the highway to the guardians charged with protecting the sacred flame of their ancestors. The spells that her grandmother casts over her mead hall nightly keep everyone within safe and harmonious. Or so everyone always believed. But when a murder interrupts Ingrid's night off, she finds herself questioning everything. Because her chief suspect is her own grandmother. Corpse in the Mead Hall, Book 6 in the Viking Witch Mystery Series!


Honour, Exchange and Violence in Beowulf

Honour, Exchange and Violence in Beowulf

Author: Peter Stuart Baker

Publisher: D. S. Brewer

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1843843463

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Argues for a new reading of Beowulf in its contemporary context, where honour and violence are intimately linked. This book examines violence in its social setting, and especially as an essential element in the heroic system of exchange (sometimes called the Economy of Honour). It situates Beowulf in a northern European culture where violence was not stigmatized as evidence of a breakdown in social order but rather was seen as a reasonable way to get things done; where kings and their retainers saw themselves above all as warriors whose chief occupation was thepursuit of honour; and where most successful kings were those perceived as most predatory. Though kings and their subjects yearned for peace, the political and religious institutions of the time did little to restrain their violent impulses. Drawing on works from Britain, Scandinavia, and Ireland, which show how the practice of violence was governed by rules and customs which were observed, with variations, over a wide area, this book makes use of historicist and anthropological approaches to its subject. It takes a neutral attitude towards the phenomena it examines, but at the same time describes them fortnightly, avoiding euphemism and excuse-making on the one hand and condemnation on the other. In this it attempts to avoid the errors of critics who have sometimes been led astray by modern assumptions about the morality of violence. PETER S. BAKER is Professor of English at the Universityof Virginia.