The clocks going back hold the tantalising promise of an extra hour in bed. But the modern attitude towards that champion of indolence, the sloth, shows that sloth is still very much a deadly sin.
This summer in June, the Queen will retrace King John’s steps along the three-and-a-half miles from Windsor Castle to Runnymede to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the revered document that came to…
Odds are they won’t be so happy after Yuletide.
Taiga/Shutterstock
January is a strain for most people. It’s dark and the festive lights don’t disguise this anymore. You’re back at work and the next holiday may be some way off. You’ve just had to spend a large amount…
Fancy something a bit different this year?
Caroline Yeldham, courtesy of the Leeds International Medieval Congress
With Christmas almost upon us, there will be plenty of frenzied present shopping and meal planning. Haven’t made that Christmas cake yet? Fear not. If you were preparing the festive meal 600 years ago…
As both a word and an idea, ‘medieval’ carries centuries of connotation of a murky and brutal pre-scientific age.
US Fish & Wildlife Service/Swanson Scott
“Medieval” has become the accusation du jour in Australian domestic politics, used with equal conviction across the spectrum to discredit opponents’ views. One debate where this accusation has taken centre…
The term ‘medieval’ is being used by politicians to denote others who do not observe modern ‘civilised’ rules and to whom these rules also do not apply.
Flickr/Nuno Martins
According to Hansard, in the parliament of John Howard’s first term of government the adjective “medieval” was used eight times. In the following term, however, it cropped up 46 times. What happened? Why…
Brutal, but not medieval: Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
EPA
In Pulp Fiction, when Marcellus Wallace tells his captor and tormentor Zed that “I’m gonna get medieval on your ass”, we are spared further details, which is just as well since it involves a pair of pliers…
Think of medieval food and a whole range of not especially dignified images come to mind; Monty Python’s Holy Grail has a lot to answer for. Mud was far from being a constituent part of the diet of the…
Does your bad humour ail thee?
Wellcome Library Collection
It’s often said that there was no tradition of scientific medicine in medieval times. According to the usual narrative of the history of progress, medicine in the European Middle Ages – from around the…