IMC 2021: Sessions

The purpose of this session is to examine the ways medieval individuals studied aquatic animals and demonstrate what we can learn today about medieval water ecosystems. Elisa Ramazzina will explore how the behaviour of whales was reflected in medieval English tradition by analysing such sources as Isidore's Etymologies, Old English Physiologus, Navigatio Sancti Brendani, the Middle English Bestiary, De Proprietatibus Rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, as well as mappae mundi. Employing data gained from the DNA taken from over 40 archaeological sites across the North Atlantic, Vicki Szabo will offer an interdisciplinary account of several species of whale, including the now extinct grey whale, described in medieval and early modern texts, such as the Old Norse King's Mirror and the works by Adriaen Coenen and Jon Guðmundsson. While these texts provide information of new and disappearing species, as well as the patterns of behaviour that could be indicative of climate change, the new DNA data can show the presence or absence of whale species at delicate ecological boundaries as bellwethers of medieval climate change. Diane Heath will read medieval bestiaries through the lens of Mbembe's decolonisation and necropolitical ideas and his uptake of dis-enclosure, to generate an inclusive methodological discourse and apply medieval insights to our world's environmental and political challenges. Polina Ignatova will address the legend of Serra - the fish which is described in medieval bestiaries as being able to fly, and to sink ships, pinpointing the species which Serra could be identified as. By deconstructing manuscript illuminations of Serra this paper will showcase how earlier texts, observation, contemporary religious agenda, and language contributed to the emergence of the irrational beliefs about certain sea creatures.