Description
Book SynopsisContributions to this Festschrift for the renowned American legal and literary scholar William Ian Miller reflect the extraordinary intellectual range of the honorand, who is equally at home discussing legal history, Icelandic sagas, English literature, anger and violence, and contemporary popular culture. Professor Miller's colleagues and former students, including distinguished academic lawyers, historians, and literary scholars from the United States, Canada, and Europe, break important new ground by bringing little-known sources to a wider audience and by shedding new light on familiar sources through innovative modes of analysis. Contributors are Stuart Airlie, Theodore M. Andersson, Nora Bartlett, Robert Bartlett, Jordan Corrente Beck, Carol J. Clover, Lauren DesRosiers, William Eves, John Hudson, Elizabeth Papp Kamali, Kimberley-Joy Knight, Simon MacLean, M.W. McHaffie, Eva Miller, Hans Jacob Orning, Jamie Page, Susanne Pohl-Zucker, Amanda Strick, Helle Vogt, Mark D. West, and Stephen D. White.
Trade Review"The lineup in this invigorating Festschrift is a starry one. Perhaps more important, it seems genuinely to reflect the ways in which William Ian Miller has inspired a great range of scholars of legal history, Icelandic sagas, and violence, as well as emotions more broadly. The authors have done an effective job of pulling together a volume with intellectual coherence. Though there is not space here to discuss each contribution, I can attest that all are insightful and of high quality. This is a rewarding volume: a particular strength is to show how unexpected sources can shed light on more well worked topics. [...] This is a stimulating volume that resonates with a number of crucial themes for medievalists". Hannah Skoda, in Speculum, 95 (3), 2020.
Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors List of Abbreviations Introduction: In Search of Miller Stephen D. White Bill the Boundless Jordan Corrente Beck Miller(ed) in St Andrews Kimberley-Joy Knight and John Hudson Part 1
Emotion, Violence, Vengeance, and Law in Medieval Historical Sources 1 Hot Anger and Just Indignation: Justificatory Strategies in Early Modern German Homicide Trials Susanne Pohl-Zucker 2 Trial by Ordeal by Jury in Medieval England, or Saints and Sinners in Literature and Law Elizabeth Papp Kamali 3 Threats and Intimidation in Anglo-Norman Legal Disputes William Eves 4 Courts and Rule-Making in Eleventh-Century Western France M. W. McHaffie 5 Standing up in Court: Gender and Genitalia in Fourteenth-Century Zurich Jamie Page 6 How To Be Remembered: Securing the Memoria of a Slain Person in Medieval Denmark Helle Vogt Part 2
Emotion, Violence, Vengeance, and Law in Medieval Literary Sources 7 Telling Evidence in Njáls Saga Carol J. Clover 8 Widening Horizons in Njáls Saga Theodore M. Andersson 9 Feud in the State: The Conflict between Haakon Haakonsson and Skule Baardsson Hans Jacob Orning 10 ‘Waltharius’: Treasure, Revenge and Kingship in the Ottonian Wild West Simon MacLean Part 3
Comparative Perspectives 11 Braveheart and Sexual Revenge Robert Bartlett 12 Stringer’s Saga: Njal and The Wire John Hudson and Mark D. West 13 ‘An Overdeveloped Sense of Vengeance’? The Middle Ages, Vengeance and Movies Stuart Airlie 14 Getting a Head in the Neo-Assyrian Empire: Narratives of Enemy Decapitation in Ashurbanipal’s Sources Eva Miller Epilogue: Silence as a Weapon of Self-Defence in Sense and Sensibility Nora Bartlett Bibliography of Books and Scholarly Articles by William I. Miller Compiled by Lauren DesRosiers and Amanda Strick Index
