Kalamazoo 2015

The Call for Papers for the 2015 International Congress on Medieval Studies is up.* The Society has two sessions:

• From Frodo to Fidelma: Medievalisms in Popular Genres (A Roundtable)
• Martin and More: Genre Medievalisms

More information is, of course, forthcoming. In the meantime, however, paper proposals can be sent to the following:

Helen Young

Univ. of Sydney

John Woolley Building A20

Sydney, NSW 2006

Australia

helen.young@sydney.edu.au

talesaftertolkien@gmail.com

The Society looks forward to contributions.

*It has been for a bit. I apologize for the delay in updating the blog.

Drinking after Tolkien

Helen Young posted a link to the Society's Facebook feed not long ago. The link connects to information about the Hobbit Pub in Southampton--something of decided interest to the Society for obvious reasons. Having the Hobbit Pub pointed out also brought to mind Bilbo's Pizza in a Pan, one of the attractions frequented by those who find their way to Kalamazoo for the International Congress on Medieval Studies (at which the Society will have two events; keep looking here for more details). It also brought to mind one of several pubs called the Green Dragon, specifically the one in Matamata, New Zealand, which is included in the Hobbiton tours of the movies' filming locations. And those several establishments beg the question of authenticity in "medieval" pubs and taverns.

There is, of course, something of the timeless in sitting with a pint or two of ale, lager, or cider, having a hot bite to eat, and occasionally joining in a bit of song and dance. And it is, of course, the case that modern health standards and brewing practices are quite removed from the medieval--and even the less medieval environment of the hobbits (mentioned here). What would be needed to investigate the authenticity of the various establishments involved would be to visit each (a hardship, certainly), determine the milieu it seeks to emulate, and then simply compare features. I have only been to Bilbo's, and I have enjoyed it each time I have been. But as a mimicry of Tolkien's Shire or even of Bree, it lacks. While I have no doubt the hobbits would enjoy pizza and the beer brewed by the establishment (as I very much do), I think the portion sizes likely a bit small for them. Too, the architecture is a bit off; too little is round, and none of it is doors or windows.

Still, the idea of going from establishment to establishment, traveling the world to see the places and eat and drink of their offerings before writing up each and using those write-ups to identify major trends in the re/presentation of the medieval among drinking places intrigues. How funding for such a thing could be acquired...

Thoughts about Why We Still Look to the Medieval

The Tales after Tolkien Society is dedicated to exploring how contemporary popular culture constructs and deploys the idea of the medieval. Doing so does require having some idea of what it means to be medieval, both in terms of how medieval is defined and in terms of how an authentic image of it can be built. I motion towards the former in "More about Short-form Medievalist Scholarship," while the latter is addressed by Helen Young in "Who Cares if Game of Thrones Is Authentically Medieval?" and "Who Cares about Historical Authenticity? I Do," and by me in "About a Popova Piece...and a Bit of Rebuttal" and "Continuing with the Issue of Historical Authenticity." What none of the piece address is why the medieval would be brought up and carried forward in contemporary popular culture.

There is certainly reason to abjure the medieval. As I report in "More about Short-form Medievalist Scholarship," Kathleen Davis and Nadia Altschul argue in their introduction to Medievalism in the Postcolonial World, figurations of the traditionally-understood medieval have been used to justify the horrors of colonialist practice, and what has been so abusive can be readily shunned. Those nations that have formed as a result of throwing off colonial yokes, in whole or in part, could scarcely be blamed for repudiating the trappings of those nations which held them in thrall as peripheries to a colonial/imperial core. Less formal, but perhaps more pervasive, is the ongoing search for novelty, the drive to have the next, new thing--which suggests excision of the old. Similar and more explicit is the frequent throwing-off of inherited trappings, casting aside older standards and methods in favor of quicker and more convenient ways of doing things and more equitable social structures. Each works against the continued re-presentation of the medieval, and each is a substantial thread in the tapestry of contemporary popular culture in the United States and elsewhere.

Even so, there is abundant representation of the medieval among the contemporary--albeit representation that is not "authentic," as several of the sources noted above assert. Most of the corpus of fantasy literature, following Tolkien, partakes of it. So do many role-playing games of the tabletop and online variety. Television series such as Game of Thrones and Merlin focus on visions of the medieval that are recognizably, demonstrably medievalist, and they attract significant followings among the general public and among scholars who perhaps follow the mold Philip Helms asserts of early Tolkien fandom and look to them as diversions that allow them to feel somewhat daring in their work but perhaps recognize the work being produced now as being as worthy of study as the work being produced then. And while humanistic scholars may be perhaps understood to look at things vanished away and their afterimages, why the general public would do so is somewhat less obvious. This makes it worthy of investigation.

Tolkien motions toward an answer. In "On Fairy-stories," he argues in favor of the escapist nature of fantasy literature. The seeming removal of the largely rural medieval from the increasingly urban environments of the industrialized world following World War II, of the eminently local medieval from the increasingly globalized world economy, of the intensely physical medieval from the increasingly online world of the early twenty-first century all serve to position the medieval as a means of escape from the modern, promoting recourse to it. Admittedly, however, other historical periods could be sought for such reasons; the Classical past suggests itself as an example, as do pre-colonial pasts for the successors of indigenous populations.* Thus, there has to be more at work than simply the disjunction between past and present to account for the continued reliance upon the medieval, although that divergence surely accounts for some of it.

Nostalgia for the perceived past may explain more. While pre-colonization pasts do not often obtain for former colonist populations, the (Northern and Western European) medieval past very much does for them**--although the Classical past would, as well. But the Classical world presents other difficulties for much of the population, particularly in the United States. The non-Christian religious history of much of it grates against the overly-refined "faith-based" sensibilities of many people. So, too, do the perceived-as-more-open sexual practices that typify constructions of Classical Greece and Rome. The medieval, though, is ostensibly Christian and demonstrably concerned with the regulation and normalization of sexuality, aligning it to some of the prevailing attitudes of United States populations, suiting it to marketing to them, and thus spreading through much of the world because of the disproportionate influence the US media markets exert on the media cultures of the planet.

Another factor suggests itself as worth considering; the medieval is refigured now because it was a favorite subject of the Regency and Victorian English, from whom many cultural assumptions are still maintained in the United States and, it seems, elsewhere. The Regency saw an increase in population, displacement of labor, and shortages of food. Each contributed to social unrest that was augmented by fears of the kind of violence seen during the French Revolution, the social upheaval of the Napoleonic Era, and the flagrant misconduct of the children of George III. The Victorian Era saw the immense strains of empire and upheavals of understanding of the world due to emergent science. Society threatened to destabilize, and the medieval (particularly as constructed in Arthurian legend, as I argue in The Establishment of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as the Standard Text of English-Language Arthurian Legend) offered a palliative to all of those, one that successfully addressed the concerns of the emergent mass media population. It set a precedent that others were able to follow, and that precedent and its following established a habit of mind that remains with the consumers of popular culture today.

That there is more to say about the matter is certain; I know that I have only a limited view. But within those limits, I think a nostalgia for the imagined medieval past that the Regency and Victorian English focused upon does much to inform the continued appearance of the medieval in popular culture. Clearly, I do not view it as a wrong in itself, although I acknowledge that there are problems in the appropriation and in what is appropriated. Knowing this, though, offers some insight that can be used perhaps to anticipate future trends and perhaps to enable greater understanding of broader cultural constructs, benefiting all.

*I use the term because I am not at all certain how applicable the term "indigenous" remains for peoples whose cultures have been bastardized and abused through colonialist practice. Discussion of what term is appropriate would be welcome; I wish to know so that I may seek truth and avoid inadvertent offense.

**I know that Helen Young has more to say about the matter in "'It's the Middle Ages, Yo!': Race, Neo/Medievalisms, and the World of Dragon Age" and in a forthcoming piece.

Works Cited

• Davis, Kathleen, and Nadia Altschul. Introduction. Medievalism in the Postcolonial World. Eds. Kathleen Davis and Nadia Altschul. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2009. Print. 1-25.
• Elliott, Geoffrey B. "About a Popova Piece...and a Bit of Rebuttal." Tales after Tolkien: Travels in Genre and Medievalism. Tales after Tolkien Society, 17 June 2014. Web. 24 June 2014.
• ---. "Continuing with the Issue of Historical Authenticity." Tales after Tolkien: Travels in Genre and Medievalism. Tales after Tolkien Society, 21 June 2014. Web. 24 June 2014.
• ---. The Establishment of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as the Standard Text of English-Language Arthurian Legend. Diss. U of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2012. Ann Arbor: UMI, 2012. Print.
• ---. "More about Short-form Medievalist Scholarship." Tales after Tolkien: Travels in Genre and Medievalism. Tales after Tolkien Society, 5 June 2014. Web. 24 June 2014.
• Helms, Philip. "The Evolution of a Tolkien Fandom." The Tolkien Scrapbook. Ed. Alida Becker. Philadelphia: Running P, 1978. Print. 104-09.
• Tolkien, J.R.R. "On Fairy-stories." "The Monsters and the Critics" and Other Essays. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. London: HarperCollins, 2006. Print. 109-61.
• Young, Helen. "'It's the Middle Ages, Yo!': Race, Neo/Medievalisms, and the World of Dragon Age." The Year's Work in Medievalism 27 (2012). Georgia Tech, n.d. Web. 24 June 2014.
• ---"Who Cares about Historical Authenticity? I Do." Tales after Tolkien: Travels in Genre and Medievalism. Tales after Tolkien Society, 16 June 2014. Web. 24 June 2014.
• ---. "Who Cares if Game of Thrones Is Authentically Medieval?" Tales after Tolkien: Travels in Genre and Medievalism. Tales after Tolkien Society, 12 June 2014. Web. 24 June 2014.

Continuing with the Issue of Historical Authenticity

Read the previous entry in this series here.
 
The accuracy of ideas of the medieval carried forward in popular culture is one that seems to have been on the minds of contributors to this blog of late, as Helen Young's "Who Cares if Game of Thrones Is Authentically Medieval?" and "Who Cares about Historical Authenticity? I Do," and my "About a Popova Piece...and a Bit of Rebuttal" indicate. Given this, when I ran across Robert Krulwich's NPR piece, "Wrong! Deconstructing 5 Famous History Stories," I found myself interested. I continued to be so as I read the piece, in which Krulwich reports on the YouTube efforts of CGP Grey, who makes a habit of putting together internet videos that deconstruct and seek to correct cultural commonplaces. The piece is short and is badly titled ("history stories" seems awkward and unpolished, which I do not expect from an NPR writer), but there is a point of interest in it (aside from the links to Grey's work, which is not bad overall, although its condemnation of poets and artists is unpalatable).

That point is Krulwich's assertion that the repeated assertions of scholars do not change people's attitudes. He remarks additionally that those who teach are aware of the difficulty of getting people to change their preconceptions, and I can attest to the truth of that statement in my own life and teaching. (I am aware that individual anecdotes are not terribly convincing evidence.) Comfort, though, is more important than feeling smart, it seems. Identifications and interpretations of data that are more inclusive and leaner, that work better at producing desired results and determining what results are most to be desired, are set aside in favor of others that require less cognitive work. Even when those less effort intensive understandings lead to error and problems, they are held, not infrequently more tightly because of the problems; persecution complexes are easily developed. To borrow another (somewhat) popular medievalism and its correction, the idea of Chaucer as the representative of Middle English and standard from which to judge all other Middle Englishes, is a faulty one, as Tim William Machan correctly notes. Yet it is the idea that is transmitted forward in many surveys of early British literature, and even in higher-level courses to and by those who really ought to know better. That it is is depressing for those who agree with Young's assertion in "Who Cares about Historical Authenticity? I Do" that those who will study the medieval (and that must include those who will study its appearances in later periods) are obliged to work to correct misconceptions; if even those who ought to know better, working to help those who want to know better come to know better, perpetuate wrong-headed beliefs, then there is little hope for the many who are content to be wrong so long as they do not need to work to change their beliefs. (And they are beliefs. They are choices. So they are not "facts."*)

The notion of teaching's difficulty intersects with Grey's assertion in "5 Historical Misconceptions Rundown" that poets and artists are to blame for historical misconceptions. Artistic endeavor does not purpose to report "facts" as such, and to castigate it for failing to do so is to impose a rubric upon it that it does not claim for itself and does not deserve. Artistic endeavor purposes, among others, to prompt examination and reexamination not only of the "facts" but of the contexts in which those "facts" are gathered and disseminated, as well as those who will gather, disseminate, and interpret them. The problem in misunderstanding history is not the fault of the artist, who does not seek to produce "true history" so much as to offer an alternative understanding of world and self, but of the teacher who misreads art as what it is not and presents the results of that reading as "fact." It is the fault of the student who follows the banking model and sits quiescent, accepting what is given in the hopes of regurgitating it successfully so that it need not be retained. Some of it will always remain, though. Some will have been metabolized, however quickly it is spewed back again, and the little that remains is not likely to be the best bit to retain. That which is eaten earliest is most likely to be digested, to be taken and incorporated into the undiscriminating eater, true of teaching as of dining; it is the ideas inculcated early that take the most to overturn, and it is unfortunately those ideas that are most frequently wrong. Not simplified (for there is sense in scaffolding knowledge, and people do not react as adversely to the complication of things as to the overthrow of them), but wrong. Grey points out the example of Columbus, and in the comments on his video as well as in the Krulwich article that discusses it, there are defenders of the notion that the Italian "discovered" the New World despite the earlier travels of Icelanders to the continent and the older presence of indigenous peoples throughout the landmass. The oft-cited adage that "ain't" is not a word is maintained despite the presence of the word in such dictionaries as Oxford's and Merriam-Webster's.** Other examples abound, and many of them--perhaps even most--go to the issue of early teaching skewing all future understanding, rather than the artists being to blame for how their works are used in years they never see and cannot foresee.

If there is to be the kind of palliative for which Young calls in "Who Cares about Historical Authenticity? I Do," it has to come not only from the scholarly community, whose reach is limited by social factors that themselves need to be addressed (and that this blog seeks to address, albeit in a small way), but from those in the broader community who are positioned such that others will listen to them. Teachers of younger students are among them, as are the artists whom Grey identifies as contributing to the problem. The Society has been fortunate to host one such in a presentation at the 2014 International Congress on Medieval Studies, but there needs to be more such work done. Making works of popular culture more consonant with "how things really were" has to be a shared endeavor if it is to be successful--and it needs to be successful.

*The concept of "fact" is fraught, of course, given that selecting what data count as "facts" and which "facts" are worth reporting are interpretive decisions. This is entirely aside from the physical limitations on perception that necessarily limit access to information.

**Using presence in major dictionaries as an indicator of "being a word" is somewhat suspect, admittedly. It does function as a useful shorthand, however, and is deployed for that purpose only.

Works Cited

• "Ain't." Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford UP, 2014. Web. 21 June 2014.
• "Ain't." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2014. Web. 21 June 2014.
• Elliott, Geoffrey B. "About a Popova Piece...and a Bit of Rebuttal." Tales after Tolkien: Travels in Genre and Medievalism. Tales after Tolkien Society, 17 June 2014. Web. 21 June 2014.
• Grey, CGP. "5 Historical Misconceptions Rundown." YouTube. Google, 18 April 2012. Web. 21 June 2014.
• Krulwich, Robert. "Wrong! Deconstructing 5 Famous History Stories." NPR.org. NPR, 20 June 2014. Web. 21 June 2014.
• Machan, Tim William. "Chaucer and the History of English." Speculum 87.1 (January 2012): 147-75. Print.
• Young, Helen. "Who Cares if Game of Thrones Is Authentically Medieval?" Tales after Tolkien: Travels in Genre and Medievalism. Tales after Tolkien Society, 12 June 2014. Web. 21 June 2014.
• ---. "Who Cares about Historical Authenticity? I Do." Tales after Tolkien: Travels in Genre and Medievalism. Tales after Tolkien Society, 16 June 2014. Web. 21 June 2014.

About a Davis Piece

During my morning reading, I came across an io9 piece by Lauren Davis, "These Medieval-Style Tolkien Illustrations Are Like Nothing We've Ever Seen." In it, Davis reports on and reproduces the Lord of the Rings artwork of Ukrainian artist Sergei Iukhimov, commenting on its resemblance to medieval iconographic traditions. Her comment about jealousy of those who grew up with such editions is likely to be agreed with by a number of her readers, for she is correct in noting that the illustrations do much to capture the feeling of Middle-earth.

How what Davis reports interacts with what Popova discusses (noted in this blog on 17 June 2014) is interesting. Admittedly, Davis can go into more detail with her single artist than Popova can with several, but what is notable is that the medieval scholar Tolkien does not deploy a medieval iconographic style in his illustrations, nor do the others Popova discusses, while Iukhimov does (and more than just the Orthodox style Davis names in discussing him). The effect of Iukhimov, then, is one that does far more to evoke the "medievalness" than do many of the other illustrations under discussion, which is not a condemnation of the illustration quality but is a comment on pseudo-historical context and its interaction with the narrative. There is something of the Crusades in the battles of Gondor and Mordor and much of the broader European medieval, and so the Iukhimov illustrations seem to be more in line with Tolkien's text than even the author's own; they look more like what is found in old manuscript copies, and so they fit more closely with the imagined transmission history of the text that the text itself presents.* Their inclusion makes the text more authentic, both to itself and to the medieval material from which it borrows so much.

*Mary R. Bowman discusses the issue of textual self-transmission in "The Story Was Already Written: Narrative Theory in The Lord of the Rings" (Narrative 14.3 [October 2006]: 272-93), as does Vladimir Brljak in "The Books of Lost Tales: Tolkien as Metafictionist" (Tolkien Studies 7 [2010]: 1-34.)

Paper opportunity at Leeds IMC

The Leeds International Medieval Congress is July 7-10 this year. There is a session themed 'Empire and Medievalist Fantasy' which is seeking one more paper. Details can be found here<http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/late_call.html>

There are no Tales After Tolkien sessions organised for Leeds this year, although I will be giving a paper on empire in Tolkien, Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn books, and N. K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy.

If you are interested in being part of a Tales After Tolkien panel at next year's Leeds IMC, which is themed "Reform and Renewal," please get in touch (talesaftertolkien@gmail.com). 

Regarding a Cham Strip

Jorge Cham's PHD Comics is a common bit of reading among those in the academic community. In depicting various aspects of life in graduate school, it addresses the common experiences of those who have pursued post-baccalaureate education, allowing them to laugh at themselves. This is true of the 18 June 2014 strip (if that is the correct word for a webcomic) "A Guide to Academic Regalia," in which Cham identifies and skewers many pieces of the academic costume seen only at the most formal academic functions, typically graduation ceremonies. It is the tagline, "Nothing says 'We've learned something' like dressing the same way they did in Medieval Times" [sic], that attracts the attention of those who study the ways in which the medieval continues to manifest, for, as I note in a 7 June 2014 post to this blog, academic regalia is one of the appropriations of the medieval by contemporary popular culture--and the sneering attitude the strip exhibits betrays some misunderstandings of the invocation of the medieval.

Some of the assertions made in the strip--those regarding the standard colors for various degrees, for example--are factually correct (although the examples identified may well be read as sarcastic commentary). At least one, however, is incorrect: regalia is not standardized by "the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume." Insofar as they are standardized, it is by traditional usage described in Eugene Sullivan's "Academic Costume Code and Ceremony Guide" and presented on the American Council on Education website.* As part of that code, Sullivan attests to the fairly common understanding of the Western academic system as emerging from training for religious orders, situating the foundations of academic dress in items carried over from priestly and monastic robes and climate-driven additions. This does mean that Cham is right in pointing out the medieval origins of the academic costume, but it does not mean he is correct in the aspersion with which his strip regards it.

Several reasons his error is an error suggest themselves. One of them is that learning does not mean a rejection of the past. Those who study history will necessarily engage with the past to perform their studies, as will those concerned in such other fields as archaeology and paleontology. In addition, the practices of the peoples labeled as "medieval" are not necessarily so backwards as they are popularly assumed to be (as I touch on in a comment from 13 June 2014). They were, among others, attuned to the idea of preventative medicine through diet (with which many people in the early twenty-first century struggle) and invested in what might now be called "deep" semiotic readings as a matter of course. To offhandedly deride their practices as indicating a lack of learning does them a disservice--and it does the contemporary reader a disservice through perpetuating both erroneous ideas of the medieval (another continuing discussion on the Society blog) and through promoting a myopic view of the contemporary as the only time that matters. It suggests too much that the problems present in the now are not as problematic as they actually are, which tends to vitiate against their remedy.

The excision of the historical view--and ridicule of the historical conduces to that end--does not help people. Instead, it serves to disconnect them from their societal histories, histories which inform the current circumstances of their societies. Without the historical view, systemic inequities cannot be identified or addressed, which serves to denigrate those who are made abject through generational circumstances beyond their control; it facilitates blaming the victims for their own victimization. Further, to borrow from a cliché, it prevents the recognition of historical parallels, making avoidance of the problems of the past nearly impossible. The retention of the medieval aspects of academic dress serve as a palliative to that (albeit only in a small, small way). The common experience of regalia--again, the many who graduate from high schools and colleges share it--may not be overt in connecting people to societal histories. Rarely do academic ceremonies highlight the history of Western schooling (and I am aware of the problems in focusing on it to the exclusion of others, but see my note, below). But that a thing is not overt does not mean it is not present, and there are always those who are induced to curiosity about their circumstances and use regalia as a (perhaps trivial) way approach the medieval--or how the medieval continues to appear in whatever it is that gets called popular culture.

Cham is not necessarily wrong to lampoon any aspect of the US system of higher education (insofar as such a thing exists). Much of it deserves ridicule, and even that which does not does not suffer from it. Even in "A Guide to Academic Regalia," there is much of value. The strip is funny, overall, with a number of the implicit and explicit jokes working well. Even the sneering comment need not be taken at face value. And it is the case that academic regalia is awkward for the contemporary wearer and uncomfortable in many circumstances; I took my bachelor's in central Texas and my graduate degrees in southwestern Louisiana, neither of which has the kindest climate to long black robes in May or June when most commencements happen. But jokes are often used to express ideas that are deeply held but run counter to prevailing norms and so are not best suited for flat discussion, and sarcasm tends to blunt serious consideration. As a medievalist and as a scholar of how the medieval is presented, I want to have the serious conversations. I almost need to have them. Thus I react to the Cham strip as I do, even though I am and for some years have been a regular reader of PHD Comics; I worry that it forecloses the possibility of doing what I--and the Society--do.

*Cham operates primarily in the United States and speaks mostly to the US system of higher education. As such, this discussion focuses on US practice; discussions of other nations' practices would be welcome in the comments.

Works Cited

• Cham, Jorge. "A Guide to Academic Regalia." PHD Comics. Jorge Cham, 18 June 2014. Web. 19 June 2014.
• Elliott, Geoffrey B. "Against Some Perceived Limits on Popular Culture: A Small Case." Tales after Tolkien: Travels in Genre and Medievalism. Tales after Tolkien Society, 7 June 2014. Web. 19 June 2014.
• ---. Comment on "Who Cares if Game of Thrones Is Authentically Medieval?" Tales after Tolkien: Travels in Genre and Medievalism. Tales after Tolkien Society, 13 June 2014. Web. 19 June 2014.
• Sullivan, Eugene. "Academic Costume Code and Ceremony Guide." ACE: American Council on Education. American Council on Education, n.d. Web. 19 June 2014.

About a Popova Piece...and a Bit of Rebuttal

A friend of mine suggested that the Society blog consider Maria Popova's 13 June 2014 Brain Pickings piece "Vintage Illustrations for Tolkien's The Hobbit from around the World," hinting that it might do the kind of thing in which the Society is interested. The piece points out a number of older illustrations for Tolkien's children's work, although it notes Tolkien's own comments regarding children's literature in opening. Sections for several early editions of the text are provided, in which a brief introductory paragraph precedes representative illustrations from each edition. Popova makes a point of providing examples from multiple languages and countries, displaying an admirable attempt to resist the kind of field-narrowing Helen discusses in an earlier post. It is the kind of project that would be good to see expanded and offered more detail, perhaps along the lines of Barry Gaines's Sir Thomas Malory: An Anecdotal Bibliography of Editions, 1485-1985.

One matter of note in the piece is the blending among some of the artists represented (but neither Tolkien nor Jansson) of medieval and later clothing among the characters, particularly Bilbo. (The images from the Tolkien text do not show Bilbo, while those from the Jansson edition seem to tie to the idea of The Hobbit as bedtime story, with the night-capped Mr. Baggins depicted.) In them, the eponymous hobbit lounges about in waistcoat and breeches, looking very much like he is in a shoeless form of Regency court uniform. Yet the disparity of historical reference does not strike the eye as odd--partly because Bilbo is described as wearing a buttoned waistcoat, among others, and partly because the issue of historical accuracy in fantasy referentiality is fraught. While some fantasy series attract some censure because of their inconsistency of invocation, the cornerstone of the genre does so only rarely, if at all. (References to examples and counter-examples would be welcome in the comments below.) How many bat an eye at the hobbits of Lord of the Rings dressing as they dress among the robed and mailed mighty ones of Gondor and Rohan? How many balk at brocaded vests with chain mail beneath? And what of pipe-weed, that typifying halfling past-time ripped from its historical colonialist context and shoved into an otherwise medievalist milieu?

Certainly, scholars have a duty to the truth. Those who are medievalists are obliged to point out to those who are not that the medieval was not as it is often depicted. But if they will do so, then they need to do so for all--and there are many who are introduced to the study of the medieval through Tolkien. His works are foundational to the fantasy genre and to current genre medievalism (as the Society officially recognizes). If those works which derive from his are to be chastised for their inaccuracies, then his must be the more so, both because they serve as the example from which others work and because Tolkien was in a position to know better. He was a scholar of the medieval, after all, and even if understandings of some particulars have changed based upon information developed since his career ended, many broader views have not. And if his works are not challenged on such grounds, perhaps those who look into the uses and misuses of the medieval ought to be a bit less condemnatory of his successors when they do the same as their forebear. This does not mean that the deviations should be ignored or that they should be allowed to promote incorrect understandings of the medieval unchecked and unremarked, but they may perhaps be considered as something other than mere mistakes.

Who Cares About Historical Authenticity? I Do

Read the previous entry in this series here.
Read the next entry in this series here.

A few days ago I (Helen here), posted about "Games of Thrones," and why people care if it's really 'medieval' or not. I'd always planned to do a follow-up post, but have been kicked into writing it sooner than I intended originally by something I read on Tumblr over the weekend.

I've written before, here on my own blog, and here in the Year's Work in Medievalism, about what I call the 'monochrome Middle Ages,' the assumption that everyone in Europe (including travellers) during the medieval period was white. Usually tacked onto this is the idea that there was no concept of 'race' then either. Of course, none of this is true, but it's used right across the spectrum of media fandom and production to exclude characters of colour from medievalist texts, even when they are fantasy and include, say, ice zombies and dragons. Similar concepts of 'historical authenticity' are variously used to justify representation of  violence against women, offering only limited roles for women, lack of representation of queer characters, and exclusion of disabled characters. There are, of course, medievalist texts that don't do any of these things, and that specifically try to work against them. The Dragon Age franchise from Bioware has included queer characters and attempted to work against sexism, and to be more racially inclusive, albeit in limited ways.

Academics aren't the only ones who challenge assumptions about what 'medieval' means when it comes to race, gender, sexuality and the rest. There's an incredible resource on Tumblr: "People of Color in European Art History,"which is here. It links a social justice agenda with reams of historical evidence about the represenation and presence of people of colour in Europe in the Middle Ages.

I joked in my previous post about 'which anachronism in Game of Thrones irritates you most' being a good conversation starter at conferences, but when it comes to questions like racism and sexism, these kinds of issues are serious, and can go beyond even issues of representation on screen (or in the pages).

Back in January this year, Warhorse Studios ran a crowd-funding campaign to support their game Kingdom Come: Deliverance (which is not out yet as far as I can tell from Australian outlets, which are often behind). They made a lot of its historical accuracy; the creative director, Daniel Varda, has been quoted as saying:

you can think of it as a Braveheart-game – majestic castles, armoured knights, large-scale battles, political intrigues – all set in a large medieval open world. We want to make the experience as authentic as possible: real locations, real castles, period-decorated costumes and armour, combat and fencing designed by the best swordsmen around, and a story based on real historical evidence.

I read about this because a post on the "People of Color in European Art History," responded to a reader question about it which asked if characters of "other-than-white" descent might be realistically included, and for academic resources. The person who runs the blog (who is often referred to as 'medievalpoc' as s/he chooses to be anonymous) responded with an array of academic texts, and some artwork, suggesting that they could indeed be included without breaking the 'accuracy' conceit, and also remarked that representation of women and racial minorities was not a priority for the developers. The post was re-blogged around Tumblr (more than 1 200 times as I write this), but was also linked to on the social media site Reddit under a provocative headline. As a result, medievalpoc received an absolute wave of terrible abuse, which was covered on The Daily Dot here (this makes for disturbing reading).What I didn't realise at the time but has recently been posted about on the Tumblr, is that the abuse went as far as death threats, and threats against medievalpoc's family. This is an extreme instance of where the 'monochrome Middle Ages' ideas, and its variants on other issues. can lead.

This kind of extreme, potentially violent reaction is ultimately another reason that historical authenticity, and whether a media text is really 'medieval' or not is important. We can joke about, or be genuinely annoyed by inaccuracies, but there's far more to them than that. Academic versions of the Middle Ages have, historically, contributed to incorrect assumptions about them, and we've now got a responsibility to do something about that. I'm not so naive as to think that someone who writes death threats over the mere suggestion that a game might be more inclusive, or that there were people of colour living in Europe in the Middle Ages, will stop or have their views shaken by any amount of op-ed pieces. But we still have a responsibility to point out when things are wrong, because ultimately if we don't, we allow those same ideas to be perpetuated. The notion that "that's just how it was" is one that I've heard time and time again. Which is one of the reasons that writing op-eds, or blog posts, or articles with variants on "that's NOT how it was," matters.

CFP: Midsouth Undergraduate Research Conference

Undergraduates and those who teach undergraduates, please note the CFP from the Midsouth Undergraduate Research Conference, which calls for 250-word proposals for papers or creative projects. All disciplines are welcome, and it would be of benefit to the Society if papers representing its focus and interests were sent along and represented. Those intending to go to graduate school will be well served by pursuing the opportunity.