A Couple of Medieval Revival Pieces

I think I'll call it a light day today. It was raining earlier, and I enjoyed that. Now it's turning pretty light outside, and I'll want a few hours to myself before I go out tonight.

These essays were not so hard. I also tended to like their tone better. Sometimes Bloomfield was about to lose me, because he has the great and sweeping style of an old medieval historian, but he brought the information where it counted. Finally, their tone was clear. When you state clearly what the purpose of your essay is, it's not original or brilliant, but neither are most of the first couple of paragraphs of countless essays where I struggle to find the thesis.


Charles Dellheim, "Interpreting Victorian Medievalism." (DA553.H57 1992)

He broke it down. To put it concisely, there were several uses of medievalism in the period. The conservatives sought to use medieval themes to impose a sense of security and social order amidst the apparent upheaval of industrialization. The liberals used medieval themes to uphold claims for freedoms and liberties that were, according to them, older than bondage (see ideas of the "Norse yoke." Gothic architecture, instead of appropriating obscure rules and dictums of the church, were made instead to simultaneously restrain industry and uphold democratic virtues. Medievalists were unified in their appeal to the past, but not to its use.

Morton W. Bloomfield, "Reflections of a Medievalist: America, Medievalism, and the Middle Ages."

Another broad, sweeping essay. Medievalism is split into three uses -
1. Medieval ideas and institutions, carried directly onward, that later come to fruitition.
2. Looking back to medieval ideas and myths and reinterpreting them for the present.
3. Study of medieval history and the past for accuracy's sake.
He argues that the second and the third reinforce each other, to put it most broadly, that the scrupulous and careful study of history provides new modes of expression for the medievalist enthusiasts who start clubs like the SCA, who tend to look back longingly and forward with dread. I disagree with the last point, as a medievalist who is very technologically friendly, but the simplification here does not disrupt the main point.