Medieval Riverscapes: Environment and Memory in Northwest Europe, c. 300-1100

by Ellen F. Arnold

Overview

Fishermen, monks, saints, and dragons met in medieval riverscapes; their interactions reveal a rich and complex world. Using religious narrative sources to evaluate the environmental mentalities of medieval communities, Ellen F. Arnold explores the cultural meanings applied to rivers over a broad span of time, ca. 300-1100 CE. Hagiographical material, poetry, charters, chronicles, and historiographical works are explored to examine the medieval environmental imaginations about rivers, and how storytelling and memory are connected to lived experiences in riverscapes. She argues that rivers provided unique opportunities for medieval communities to understand and respond to ecological and socio-cultural transformations, and to connect their ideas about the shared religious past to hopes about the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009299398
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/28/2024
Series:	Studies in Environment and History
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.98(d)

About the Author

Ellen F. Arnold is Associate Professor of Pre-modern Environmental History at the University of Stavanger, Norway. She is the author of Negotiating the Landscape and co-editor of the journal Water History.

Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction: Medieval Waters; 200–450: Late Antique Gaul; 1. Poetries of Place; 450–750: The Merovingians; 2. Rivers of Risk; 3. River Resources; 750–950: The Carolingians; 4. Rivers and Memory; 950–1050: The Year 1000 Question; 5. Ruptured Rivers; 6. Meanderings; 1050–1250: A New World?; 7. The Same River Twice.

Editorial Reviews

'As observers from Heraclitus to today’s flood managers know, rivers define the lands they flow through. In Ellen Arnold’s compelling narrative, ‘riverscapes’ reveal key environmental and cultural features of late antique and medieval Europe. Showing how river histories provide keys to future resilience, her book brings medieval environmental history into contemporary debates.' Steve Mentz, Professor of English, St. John’s University, New York City, author of Ocean and An Introduction to the Blue Humanities

'There’s no ‘water under the bridge’ in Ellen Arnold’s new book, which shows how pre-modern writers preserved past flows into the present. Arnold opens a window for her readers onto both early medieval words and waters, illuminating northwestern Europe’s literary cultures, and their deep engagement with rivers.' Paolo Squatriti, University of Michigan

'This admirable book immersed me totally into the real and imagined rivers and riverscapes of the Early Middle Ages. Arnold shows with tremendous skill and wonderful original texts how authors used the rivers and riverscapes as vehicles for literary, religious, and political messages; and how movement and transparency of rivers and their often blurred boundaries not only shaped human interaction but encouraged contemplation about change and transition, connections of spaces, and entanglement of past and present.' Petra J. E. M. van Dam, VU University, Amsterdam

‘A deeply researched and thoroughly absorbing study of medieval riverscapes.’ Lori Jones, H-Water

‘… this book successfully addresses what the author argues is a lack of ecocriticism regarding medieval Latin texts - poems, letters, saints’ vitae, bestiaries, charters, chronicles, and annals. … Recommended.’ R. T. Ingoglia, CHOICE

‘A deeply researched and thoroughly absorbing study of medieval riverscapes … The importance of riverscapes to medieval imaginations, senses of identity, and day-to-day lives sing loudly throughout this book, and they offer a song that medievalists, environmental historians, and natural world enthusiasts should all hear.’ Lori Jones, H-Net

‘Arnold has given us a beautiful reflection on the fluidity of riverscapes over time, space, and cultures in the earlier half of the Middle Ages. Her succinct and honest reflections on her own experience with these riverscapes is an excellent exercise in historical empathy and a demonstration of how riverscapes continue to hold the echoes of the past into the here and now.’ Marie Christine Garcia, Comitatus

From the Publisher