Medieval

From mocking kings and priests to encouraging audiences to get drunk, newly discovered texts at the National Library of Scotland have shed light on the role played by minstrels in medieval society.Containing the earliest recorded use of the term “red herring” in English, the texts are part of a booklet known as the Heege Manuscript. Dr James Wade of the University of Cambridge, who discovered them, said echoes of minstrel humour can be found “in shows such as Mock the Week, situational comedies and slapstick”.“The…

A lightweight survey vehicle provides large-scale magnetic mapping of cultural traces hidden beneath the present-day tidal flat surface. Credit: Dirk Bienen-Scholt The medieval trading center of Rungholt, which is today located in the UNESCO Wadden Sea World Heritage Site and currently the focus of interdisciplinary research, drowned in a storm surge in 1362. …

Crisp autumn sunlight is catching on Kryal Castle’s stone parapets on Sunday as I arrive at regional Victoria’s replica medieval castle, to see the Smashing Pumpkins – one of the 90s biggest, multi-platinum-selling alt-rock bands. Fellow 90s icons Jane’s Addiction are here too, as are Australian acts Amyl and the Sniffers, RedHook and Battlesnake. And a troupe of pro-wrestlers. Things are primed to get weird.Believe it or not, the Smashing Pumpkins’ frontman, Billy Corgan, owns a pro-wrestling league, the National…

Xbox Game Pass is adding seven new games during the second half of April, leading into May, with Redfall arriving as a day-one title. In it, you're transported to the titular island town to thwart a legion of vampires who've blocked out the sun, cutting citizens off from the outside world. Redfall can be played in both solo and co-op modes, though developer Arkane is looking into removing the always-online requirement for the former. It releases May 1 on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Xbox Series S/X. Meanwhile, Minecraft…

What do medieval monks and volcanic eruptions have in common? According to a team of researchers led by the University of Geneva, quite a bit because chronicles from the 12th and 13th century are helping volcanologists to precisely date ancient eruptions based on descriptions of lunar eclipses.Stemming from the idea that what happens on Earth is reflected in the heavens, medieval monks had a very keen interest in celestial phenomena like comets, meteors, and eclipses. Normally, the sky is completely predictable as the…

Medieval monks’ chronicles of lunar eclipses helped researchers date some of history’s largest volcanic eruptions, uncovering information about an extremely volcanically active period that may have triggered the Little Ice Age. The team analyzed hundreds of annals, revealing that the darkest lunar eclipses occurred within a year of major eruptions, which contributed to global cooling, agricultural impacts, and climate anomalies.An international team, led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE), has successfully dated some of…

Before humans started heating the planet by burning fossil fuels in the 19th century, Earth had experienced centuries-long widespread cool period known as the Little Ice Age.Scientists believe this cold spell may have been triggered, in part, by volcanic eruptions which made the atmosphere hazier, blocking some incoming sunlight.Records of these eruptions are sparse, and much of our knowledge of them comes from the traces left behind in polar ice and tree rings, which are fragmentary and sometimes contradictory.In a new…

The Swahili coast, stretching more than 3000 kilometers from southern Ethiopia to Tanzania, was a hub of medieval trade, exporting ivory and other resources from the African interior to South Asia, the Arab world, and Persia. Its cultural legacy remains potent: Swahili is now spoken across large parts of Africa, and the ruins of ancient towns, many with mosques and other buildings cut from shoreline coral deposits, record the coast’s heyday. But whether Swahili…

Quordle 415 answer for March 15: Unlike the last few days, today's puzzle is quite straightforward. But that does not mean that it is easy. Today's Quordle comes with some unusual words, including a couple of words which are prominent in medieval literature. And that might get a little difficult to guess the words. If you're not used to puzzles like this, solving them can be quite challenging since you're figuring out four different operations at once. If you find yourself getting stuck today, it's no big deal. Just…

When Naoki Yoshida, producer of Final Fantasy XVI, was doing the first round of press tours to ramp up hype for the game last year, he gave an interview with IGN talking about the game’s apparent lack of diversity. When asked if players can expect characters of color in the game, Yoshida had this to say:“Our design concept from the earliest stages of development has always heavily featured medieval Europe, incorporating historical, cultural, political, and anthropological standards that were prevalent at the time.…