The Trident Proclamation !
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Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance studies Proclamation ! The Trident Vol. XXVII, Issue 4 March 2017 Upcoming amrs EVENTS AMRS End of the Year Party: Look out for your invita- tion to the annual end of the year AMRS party! Details of the event will be given in the invite. Annual Essay prize! Apr. 26th - The AMRS Department is calling for submis- sions to their annual Essay Prize! Majors and non-majors are encouraged to submit papers to Dr. DeMarco’s mailbox in Sturges Hall by April 26th at 4:00 PM. There is no page length requirement, but must be from an AMRS course from the 2016/2017 school year. For more information, go to OWU’s AMRS Facebook page. Medieval Castles in a Modern Context By: Kyle Rabung at castles and see huge defen- The Staff of the Trident When the average per- sive structures and envision son looks for medieval cas- massive movie-like sieges that Student Editor: Jordan Waterwash tles, they are left with two op- must have dominated the Mid- tions: to look at ruins, or to dle Ages. This is what we Contributing Writers: Matthew Pheneger, Kyle Rabung, Merritt look at a castles that survived want castles to be. We want Ver Steeg, Christopher Shanley, Ashley Vassar, Amanda Sisler into modernity. Yet, these sieges and battles and, more AMRS Chair: Dr. Patricia DeMarco both often inspire similar re- importantly, we want our cas- actions. We, as moderns, look tles to be simple in purpose Want to write a story? Have ideas for the next issue? Continued on pg. 2 IN THIS ISSUE Send them to [email protected]. The Ides of March - pg. 3 Why are Dwarves Scottish? - pg. 4 Religion in Medieval Ireland - pg. 6 Gaul: Rome’s Final Frontier - pg. 5 Don’t forget to submit to the Annual Essay Prize! A Recollection of a Senior Capstone - pg. 9 2 11 Continued from Page 1 that say about us? This phe- nomenon is similar to the ex- Continued From perience in the United States page 2 when Prince William was mar- ried. For those of us who live under rocks (like myself) noth- culture interprets the artifacts ing seemed amiss, but those left by the past and then incor- who tuned into the news were porates them into their own barraged with live-coverage of society is a subject that is bet- the affair. Castles are like roy- ter left to a far longer article alty: Americans lack them, on that subject alone. But rest and, thus, are fascinated by assured that it does indeed Check it Out! them. In fact, this American happen from culture to culture. New books at the library! fascination runs quite deep. Those seeking some measure -Art and Nature in the Middle Those who require proof need of evidence may seek out the Ages by Nicole Myers only visit Landoll’s Mohican Anglo-Saxon poem The Ruin. The Routledge Research castle or Squire’s castle in Ultimately, our fascination Companion to Early Drama Cleveland. Certainly, Ameri- with castles and the past only and Performance by Pamela and thus simple in nature. See, cans have a history of fascina- prove one thing: We are not so King the complicated truth is that tion with castles—although different from our ancient and -French Visual Culture and castles were rarely used in the some may argue that this only medieval ancestors. the Making of Medieval The- manner that we envision, nor extends to British castles in atre by Laura Weigert in the way we might think. particular. Perhaps this is due -Gutenberg's Europe: The Castles were important pieces to our strong cultural affinity Book and the Invention of of all manner of medieval is- for that nation. Western Modernity by sues: cultural, social, econom- Fret not, however, as Frederic Barbier ic, and militarily. Castles were this endless fascination with -Love, History and Emotion used for all of these purpos- the structures of the past hard- in Chaucer and Shakespeare es—and the military purposes ly makes us unique. Each peri- by Andrew James Johnston were rarely large sieges. Even od of history seems to reveal -Elf Queens and Holy Friars: so, we can try to put this no- that the current culture remains Fairy Beliefs and the Medie- tion aside for a moment, and fascinated by cultures before val Church by Richard Firth think about what castles mean them. Early Greeks looked on Green to us today. the works of their predecessors -Living History: Experienc- Castles seem to us a and saw structures that could ing Great Events of the An- symbol of dominance, or a only have been built by giants; cient and Medieval Worlds: symbol of a perhaps-noble Romans considered Greek art Alexander the Great past. Speaking from a strictly to be the best in the world. -Living History: Experienc- American context, the United And then medieval peoples ing Great Events of the An- States lacks castles, so we looked on Roman works as cient and Medieval Worlds: seem to romanticize them to a marvels of a lost empire. In Socrates on Trial greater degree. But what does fact, the subject of how each Continued on pg. 11 10 3 The Ides of March قيصر” )“ By: Merritt Ver Steeg “Czar,” to the Arabic As both a Classics and Qays’r), to Bahasa Indonesian an English major, Julius Cae- “Kaisar,” Caesar’s name has sar is my favorite of Shake- influenced dozens of lan- speare’s plays. Most people guages’ word for emperor— I’ve talked to think it’s bor- Caesar seems inescapable. ing. I might be a little biased, Shakespeare wasn’t but I disagree. too concerned about historical When Caesar was a fact when he wrote his play, young man, he followed Mari- but even so, there is a meas- wealthy Roman family that These museums tell us, the leader of the Populares ure of truth. A story about a probably wanted an “exotic” the history of a certain site or (a populist party). A civil war charismatic egomaniac stand- vacation home in the German region through its objects. We broke out between the Popula- ing astride the narrow world countryside. Craftsmen settle- saw how an object from late res and the Optimates lead by like a colossus; an ignorant ments were situated just out- antiquity evolved or disap- Sulla—who wanted to keep and gullible populace all too side of the villa’s gates, which peared into the medieval peri- power in the senate. Sulla put willing to be lead; and a frac- were much more advanced od, what stayed, and im- a hit on him, but Caesar man- tious government of avari- than the settlements at the proved, and what was aged to escape. cious stooges. In these inter- fort—stone hearths, several scrapped. By displaying these In his book The esting times, I can’t under- wells, and a large public bath Gallo-Roman objects in mu- Twelve Caesars, Suetonius stand how people find this house survive. seums we saw how other tells us that the Vestal Virgins play boring. Museums gathered groups of people influenced and other important Roman However, Americans many of these Gallo-Roman the Gallo-Roman objects; for figures pleaded with Sulla to are notoriously leery of kings, objects from the region and example, the inlaid enamel pardon him, until finally Sulla and it shows. According to we could see how much of the technique common in Celtic caved: “Very well, then,” he Gallup, Trump’s average ap- Roman culture was adopted jewelry applied to Gallo- said, “you win! Take him! But proval rating was 45% by into the Gallic material cul- Roman jewelry. never forget that the man January 29th. As of February ture. The collection at The blending of these cul- whom you want me to spare the 19th, it has fallen to 40% Römisch-Germanisches Mu- tures were not always peace- will one day prove the ruin of according to Gallup.com. seum in Cologne, Germany is ful, even after the initial con- the party of Optimates which And no matter what happens, almost exclusively chroni- quering by Caesar. The Gallic you and I have so long de- I find comfort in this: I am a cling the history of the Roman and Roman forces met most fended. There are many Mari- classicist, and I settlement—Colonia Claudia strongly at the Battle of the us’s in this fellow Caesar.” know better than Ara Agrippinensium—on Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE He was right. Caesar most that em- which modern Cologne was when many Roman legions— went on to fight a civil war, pires fall, built; there is an entire floor- thousands of soldiers—were assume control of the govern- walls crumble, to-ceiling wall of Roman demolished by the Gallic ment, and became a dictator. and what goes glass and pottery found in Co- tribes leaving an eerie empty The Roman Republic never up must al- logne and other material field as a mass grave site. recovered. Nor, it seems, did ways, always, goods. the world. From the Russian come down. 4 9 Why are Dwarves Mesuline and the Fae: A Recollec- Scottish? tion of a Senior Capstone By: Ashley Vassar going well. By: Christopher Shanley Hebrew, in particular. This I initially became ac- Until her hus- When J. R. R. Tolkien coincides well with the con- quainted with the subject mat- band sneaks a reinvented the dwarf from tra- structed Dwarven cul- ter for my capstone thesis in look at her as ditional myths, he did so by ture.