Emotion, Violence, Vengeance and Law in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of William Ian Miller

379 Pages·2018·1.951 MB·English

by  Kate Gilbert, Stephen D. White

Emotion, Violence, Vengeance and Law in the Middle Ages
Medieval Law and Its Practice
Edited by
John Hudson (St Andrews)
Editorial Board
Paul Brand (All Souls College, Oxford)
Emanuele Conte (Università Roma Tre/ehess, Paris)
Dirk Heirbaut (University of Ghent)
Richard Helmholz (University of Chicago)
Caroline Humfress (St Andrews)
Magnus Ryan (Peterhouse, Cambridge)
Robin Chapman Stacey (University of Washington)
VOLUME 24
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/mlip

Bill Miller
Emotion, Violence, Vengeance
and Law in the Middle Ages
Essays in Honour of William Ian Miller
Edited by
Kate Gilbert
Stephen D. White
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Front cover illustration: The attack on Gunnar of Hlíðarendi. Detail from the Njáls saga Tapestry designed
by Kristín Ragna Gunnarsdóttir. With kind permission of Christina M. Bengtsson and Gunnhildur E.
Kristjánsdóttir, project managers and owners, Hvolsvöllur, Iceland. Photo © Jóna Sigþórsdóttir.
Back cover illustration: The death of Gunnar of Hlíðarendi. Detail from the Njáls saga Tapestry designed
by Kristín Ragna Gunnarsdóttir. With kind permission of Christina M. Bengtsson and Gunnhildur E.
Kristjánsdóttir, project managers and owners, Hvolsvöllur, Iceland. Photo © Jóna Sigþórsdóttir.
Photo credit for the picture of Bill and his dog: Kathy Koehler
Photo credit for the frontispiece: Arlie Nuetzel
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2018010092
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1873-8176
isbn 978-90-04-34272-9 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-36637-4 (e-book)
Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
Brill Sense and Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
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This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Illustrations x
Notes on Contributors xi
List of Abbreviations xv
Introduction: In Search of Miller 1
Stephen D. White
Bill the Boundless 16
Jordan Corrente Beck
Miller(ed) in St Andrews 19
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 25
Susanne Pohl-Zucker
2 Trial by Ordeal by Jury in Medieval England, or Saints and Sinners in
Literature and Law 49
Elizabeth Papp Kamali
3 Threats and Intimidation in Anglo-Norman Legal Disputes 80
William Eves
4 Courts and Rule-Making in Eleventh-Century Western France 103
M. W. McHaffie
5 Standing up in Court: Gender and Genitalia in Fourteenth-Century
Zurich 130
Jamie Page
vi Contents
6 How To Be Remembered: Securing the Memoria of a Slain Person in
Medieval Denmark 156
Helle Vogt
Part 2
Emotion, Violence, Vengeance, and Law in Medieval Literary
Sources
7 Telling Evidence in Njáls saga 175
Carol J. Clover
8 Widening Horizons in Njáls saga 189
Theodore M. Andersson
9 Feud in the State: The Conflict between Haakon Haakonsson and
Skule Baardsson 202
Hans Jacob Orning
10 ‘Waltharius’: Treasure, Revenge and Kingship in the Ottonian Wild
West 225
Simon MacLean
Part 3
Comparative Perspectives
11 Braveheart and Sexual Revenge 255
Robert Bartlett
12 Stringer’s Saga: Njal and The Wire 271
John Hudson and Mark D. West
13 ‘An Overdeveloped Sense of Vengeance’? The Middle Ages, Vengeance
and Movies 296
Stuart Airlie
14 Getting a Head in the Neo-Assyrian Empire: Narratives of Enemy
Decapitation in Ashurbanipal’s Sources 315
Eva Miller
Contents vii
Epilogue: Silence as a Weapon of Self-Defence in Sense and
Sensibility 344
Nora Bartlett
Bibliography of Books and Scholarly Articles by William I. Miller 351
Compiled by Lauren DesRosiers and Amanda Strick
Index 359