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IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 2314: Wind and Weather in Literary and Narrative Sources from Byzantium and Europe

Friday 9 July 2021, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Climate Reconstruction & Impacts from the Archives of Societies (CRIAS) / Past Global Changes Working Group (PAGES)
Organisers:Chantal Camenisch, Historisches Institut, Universität Bern
Maximilian Schuh, Historisches Seminar, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Moderator/Chair:Heli Huhtamaa, Departement Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis, Universiteit Utrecht
Paper 2314-aThe Wind that Shakes the Fronds: Hidden Agency and Metamorphosis in a Middle-Byzantine Poem
(Language: English)
Laura Borghetti, Historisches Seminar - Byzantinistik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Language and Literature - Greek, Mentalities
Paper 2314-bBetween maxima tempestas and optima temperies: Perceptions of Weather and Seasons in Narrative Sources from Medieval Austria, 12th-13th Centuries
(Language: English)
Barbara Schratzenstaller, Fakultät für Geschichts- und Kunstwissenschaften, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Local History, Mentalities
Paper 2314-cOnly Politics and War?: The Importance of Weather in 14th-Century English Chronicles
(Language: English)
Maximilian Schuh, Historisches Seminar, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Mentalities, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

The detailed study of weather and its perception has become of importance for the history of medieval Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. The session examines weather perceptions in John Geometres' Middle-Byzantine poem To the Spring (10th century) as well as in narrative sources from Austria (12th-13th centuries) and from England (14th century). All papers discuss critically the characteristics and importance of weather in the respective texts. Furthermore, special attention is paid to the agency of weather phenomena. This approach improves the understanding of weather events in medieval literary and narrative sources.