[Namron] Medieval Fair FREE Lecture Series

[JOHN]

I am pleased to pass on information for the next presentation from the
Medieval Fair Free Lecture Series and this topic promises to be of special
interest to our Nordic, Slavic, English and Maritime folks:

 

 

"What the Middle Ages knew that the Renaissance forgot: Cultural continuity
in the Baltic/North Sea region circa 1000 A.D."

Medieval Fair Free Lecture Series

Friday February 17th, 6:30 pm at the Norman Public Library 

A/B Room, 225 N. Webster

 

Professor Randi Eldevik of Oklahoma State University.  King Canute, who in
the first half of the eleventh century ruled a North Sea empire comprising
not only Denmark and Norway but also England, would have been surprised to
know that only five hundred years later, English sailors thought they had
just "discovered" a northern sea route to the Slavic countries.  Half-Slavic
on his mother's side, Canute would have taken for granted the easy access to
Slavic territory that every seafaring man in the North knew about--and
England belonged very much to the North.  A bit later in the eleventh
century, the Norwegian king and adventurer Harald Hardrada, who had Slavic
connections through marriage--his late wife had been a daughter of Jaroslav,
ruler of Kiev--found it entirely natural to turn his gaze westward and set
his sights on England as an objective of conquest.  In those days, the
farther one went toward the Arctic Circle; the closer was the convergence of
East and West.  Five hundred years later, lands and seas had not physically
changed but cultural alignments had shifted, and the thread of continuity
that once existed from Greenland to the Baltic had been broken.

 

Come learn more about the Middle Ages just for the fun of learning!  No
papers, no tests, just interesting information about life long ago.  

 

For more information contact Ann Marie Eckart at The Medieval Fair,
<mailto:ameckart at ou.edu> ameckart at ou.edu, 405-325-8610 or visit our website
MedievalFair.org

 

 

 

 

 

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