Journal Articles by Trevor Russell Smith
Notes and Queries, 2022
Mermedonians, a cruel cannibalistic race. During the rescue, Andrew himself is captured and endur... more Mermedonians, a cruel cannibalistic race. During the rescue, Andrew himself is captured and endures a three-day incarceration where he is visited by demons, tortured, mutilated and his body broken. In line 1269, Andrew's prison is described as ðaere dimman ding 'the dark dungeon', a phrase which Constance Hieatt suggests is metaphorically relating to the grave and/or Hell. 43 The noun ding is the dative form of a rare OE homonym Ãdung, to which DOE compares OHG tunc glossing hypogeum 'subterranean chamber'. An interesting comparison is also made with ME dingle a word which first appears in Sawles Warde a late twelfthcentury allegorical homily, where it is glossed as abyssus 'bottomless pit [of the sea]'. 44 In line 27a, the Norse had arrived at the shores of England seeking glory in battle on lides bosme 'in the bosom/hold of a ship'. The 'ill-fated' survivors were about to leave the shores of England in the hold of a ship once again and endure a long and arduous sea journey back to Dublin. They had already been described in line 12a as fage 'the fated ones' and in 28a as fage to gefeohte 'fated to fight' and after narrowly escaping death in battle they were now marked men through their dishonourable retreat. I would suggest the poet's use of the modifying adjective naegled was to convey figuratively that the Norse were departing in ships which were nailed coffins, a cognitive image which the audience could readily identify with. Burials, often with linear arranged clench bolts, have been found throughout the Scandinavian North Sea region and in England at Barton-on-Humber, York Minster, Ingleby, Thorpe-by-Norwich and Caistor-on-Sea. The examples show that clench bolt burials had a significance beyond that of functional and that deliberate deposition of boat fragments and tokens would suggest ritual continuity with pagan boat burial practice. 45 With this in mind, perhaps the poet's use of dinges mere was to convey an image of the sea as both grave and Hell in a physical as well as a psychological sense. Alice Jorgensen describes Brunanburh as '.. . a poem full of bodies that are lost, departing, or destroyed. .. and repeated references to dying and the dead.' 46 This is the overall tone of the poem within which I have attempted to elucidate lines 53
The Malmesbury Continuation of the Anglo-Norman Prose 'Brut', 1332–1357: Text and Translation
The Medieval Chronicle, 2021
Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 2021
This article reconsiders the value of 'shorter' chronicles written in fourteenth-century England ... more This article reconsiders the value of 'shorter' chronicles written in fourteenth-century England through a case study of the most popular of these, the Cronica bona et compendiosa, which survives in more manuscripts than most of the chronicles frequently used in scholarship. It examines the text's authorship and narrative to show what it can reveal about history writing and ideas of the past, especially as they relate to medieval readers. It demonstrates the text's influence on contemporary writers by showing how it was slightly adapted by the important chronicler Henry Knighton, which use has so far gone unnoticed. This article also includes an appendix listing twenty-three 'shorter' histories and their manuscripts, nearly all of which have not hitherto been identified.
Notes and Queries, 2020
editors' punctuation indicates. Guenevere's 'selure' ('canopy') is made 'Of tryed tolouse' ('of c... more editors' punctuation indicates. Guenevere's 'selure' ('canopy') is made 'Of tryed tolouse' ('of choice fabric from Toulouse'), while the attached 'tapites' ('tapestries') are made 'of tars' ('of fabric from Tharsia'). There is something suspiciously modern about this program of interior design. Elsewhere in the poem, rich fabrics travel together and are alliteratively and aesthetically interchangeable. A close analogue, adduced by Andrew, is the 'Tapytez' made 'of tuly and tars' ('of crimson fabric and fabric from Tharsia', 858) at Castle Hautdesert. Andrew proposed moving the comma in line 77 to the end of line 76, so as to set line 77 in apposition to line 76. That is a good start, but it does not solve the syntactical problem he identified, which is internal to line 77. In his edition of the poem, J. A. Burrow emends 'Of tried tolouse and of tars' (emphasis added), placing a comma at the end of line 76. 4 This emendation and punctuation were first suggested by Israel Gollancz, who, however, printed the less compelling 'Of tryed Tolouse [&] Tars' in his own edition. 5 Neither Burrow nor Gollancz explains the emendation. I wish to endorse their solution and supply a stylistic rationale for it. Translate '.. .a canopy over her, (and) plenty of tapestries made of choice fabric from Toulouse and of fabric from Tharsia'. It is possible to interpret verse 77a apo koinou as describing both the canopy and the tapestries. 6 The apposition between lines 76 and 77 tends to blur canopy and tapestries into a single design element. Burrow's text and punctuation are in keeping with this poet's impressionistic, yet technical and up-to-date, descriptive style. 7 Three factors conducing to scribal error here were the poetic inverted syntax, with the averse subordinated to the b-verse; 8 repetition of of in the averse ; and the rare word tolouse, not attested elsewhere as a name for a fabric. 9 ERIC WEISKOTT Boston College
Manuscript Studies, 2020
This article re-examines the unedited Durham Latin Prose ‘Brut’ chronicle and its manuscript trad... more This article re-examines the unedited Durham Latin Prose ‘Brut’ chronicle and its manuscript tradition in light of the discovery of a previously unknown manuscript. The Durham ‘Brut’ covers the history of England from its legendary origins through the English victories over Scotland and France in 1346–47. The chronicle’s later years are related to those in two other important late-medieval chronicles, the Anonimalle Chronicle and the Lanercost Chronicle, and for a short section of John of Washington’s later chronicle. Only one witness of the Durham ‘Brut’ was known until 2011, when another was identified with a 1347–48 continuation in a seventeenth-century hand. This article identifies an additional medieval witness that also includes the continuation. This article examines all three manuscripts together to track their development through both layout and a word by word comparison of a section of the text (Edward III’s 1346 invasion of Normandy). This article will serve as a starting point for future editors of this neglected but important chronicle, written during a time of great change in English culture and national identity.
Notes and Queries, 2020
This note identifies a further six manuscripts containing Matthew Paris' 'Flores historiarum' and... more This note identifies a further six manuscripts containing Matthew Paris' 'Flores historiarum' and continuations, bringing the total number of known copies to twenty six.
The Library, 2020
The Louth Park Abbey Chronicle survives in three manuscripts in varying levels of completeness, t... more The Louth Park Abbey Chronicle survives in three manuscripts in varying levels of completeness, the fullest of which has changed hands several times since the only edition of the text was produced in 1891. Further study of the text and its two additional manuscripts has been impossible, however, as the fullest manuscript has been untraced since 1987, at the latest. This article examines the provenance of this lost manuscript and identifies its current location.
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Scriptorium, 2019
This article provides a full descriptive handlist of manuscripts containing Adam Murimuth's 'Cont... more This article provides a full descriptive handlist of manuscripts containing Adam Murimuth's 'Continuatio chronicarum', a widely-read and influential late medieval chronicle of England. The standard Rolls Series text, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson in 1889, employs ten manuscripts: one base manuscript (London, British Library, MS Harley 3836), variants from seven manuscripts, along with a few variants from another two manuscripts. This article brings the total number of manuscripts to twenty-two and includes detailed information on each. It is meant to serve as a starting point for future research on this rich manuscript tradition and allow for new critical editions to be produced.
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Book Chapters and Misc. by Trevor Russell Smith
Anglo-Norman Words, 2019
An examination of the Anglo-Norman Prose 'Brut' tradition and the difficulties in working it out ... more An examination of the Anglo-Norman Prose 'Brut' tradition and the difficulties in working it out properly.
Ethics and Representation of War in the Lanercost Chronicle, 1327–47
Killing and Being Killed: Bodies in Battle. Perspectives on Fighters in the Middle Ages, 2017
Book Reviews by Trevor Russell Smith
![Research paper thumbnail of [Review of] David R. Carlson, 'John Gower: Poetry and Propaganda in Fourteenth-Century England' (Brewer, 2012)](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/63649950/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Leeds Studies in English, 2018
It seems common for the best late-fourteenth/early-fifteenth century English poets to question th... more It seems common for the best late-fourteenth/early-fifteenth century English poets to question the order of things. Accordingly, those who appear to have 'collaborated' with the English monarchy, most important among them John Gower, are sometimes given a back seat. Gower wrote a number of short texts in Middle English, Anglo-Norman, and Latin, as well as the monumental poem Confessio amantis, which comments on various aspects of culture, society, and contemporary events. David Carlson's monograph, the subject of the present review, goes some way towards restoring Gower's reputation and position within the medieval canon. The first five chapters provide the necessary context of the state-writer relationship in fourteenth-century England. Carlson first compares short poems on the battle of Bannockburn (1314) by William Baston and Laurence Minot. He raises the difficulties in determining whether a poet's work was patronised, given that it was in their best interest to loudly declare their (potential or actual) patrons, while it was in poor taste to be seen commissioning a poem about one's own actions (pp. 5-25). Carlson argues that 'official' newsletters and correspondence were considered as authoritative sources that were then used by other writers, especially chroniclers, such as Robert of Avesbury and Henry Knighton (pp. 26-43).¹ Carlson then shows how poems produced in early-to mid-fourteenth century England (such as those by Minot and the Calais Anonymous) had intentions that are similar to those of the previously discussed state-supporting letters, but took on a different form (pp. 44-67). He makes a very interesting case study of contemporary English sources on the battle of Nájera in Spain (1367), such as Gloria cunctorum, Edward of Woodstock's letter to his wife Joan of Kent, and Walter Peterborough's Victoria belli in Hispania, to illustrate the varied interaction between newsletters and panegyric verse (pp. 68-92). Carlson finishes this section with another case study, this time on a single text, Richard Maidstone's Concordia (1392), and examines how it employs both official and unofficial sources (pp. 93-109). Only in the final four chapters of his book does Carlson directly address Gower, his ostensible main subject. He first provides background context for Gower by covering texts written during and after Richard II's deposition and how, even in the absence of any evidence of their direct commissioning, these writings legitimise Henry IV's actions (pp. 110-52). Then, in his longest chapter, Carlson argues that Gower's Chronica tripertita is a state sponsored text. This argument is primarily based on his analysis of the many instances in which Gower's text seems to rely on the official Record and Process (pp. 153-96). Carlson clearly illustrates this relationship through a large table that displays corresponding passages (pp. 158-61). He then shows how Gower's use of state texts was not thoughtless, but rather meant to promote the state and Henry IV's rule (pp. 197-226). He suggests that Gower was commissioned by the state, although he earlier acknowledges that this cannot be known ¹ It should be noted that, in addition to those cited by Carlson, such documents are interpolated into several other mid-fourteenth century chronicles of England.
Northern History, 2018
Book review of: Julia Marvin, 'The Construction of Vernacular History in the Anglo-Norman Prose "... more Book review of: Julia Marvin, 'The Construction of Vernacular History in the Anglo-Norman Prose "Brut" Chronicle: The Manuscript Culture of Late Medieval England (Boydell, 2017)', in Northern History, 55 (2018), 128–30
Cerae, 2016
Book review of: Jaclyn Rajsic, Erik Kooper, and Dominique Hoche, eds, 'The Prose Brut and Other L... more Book review of: Jaclyn Rajsic, Erik Kooper, and Dominique Hoche, eds, 'The Prose Brut and Other Late Medieval Chronicles. Books Have Their Histories: Essays in Honour of Lister M. Matheson' (York Medieval Press, 2016), in Cerae, 3 (2016)
Leeds Studies in English, 2014
Book review of: Charlotte Brewer and Barry Windeatt, eds, 'Traditions and Innovations in the Stud... more Book review of: Charlotte Brewer and Barry Windeatt, eds, 'Traditions and Innovations in the Study of Medieval English Literature: The Influence of Derek Brewer' (Brewer, 2013), in Leeds Studies in English, n.s., 45 (2014), pp. 141–43
Conferences Organised by Trevor Russell Smith
Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. fr. 5054, fol. 24v.
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Journal Articles by Trevor Russell Smith
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Book Chapters and Misc. by Trevor Russell Smith
Book Reviews by Trevor Russell Smith
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Conferences Organised by Trevor Russell Smith