This volume of
Medieval Worlds focuses on comparative studies of Europe. Within this limi- ted
scope, the topics range from transcultural Iberia to Old Norse literature, and
from early Irish identities to late medieval Byzantium. The main cluster of six
papers continues a theme already addressed in Issue 3 under the heading
»Tribes, Ethnicity and the Nation«. This time, the papers are derived from an
Oxford project on »Ethnicity and the Nation«, which the two project leaders,
Ilya Afanasyev and Nicholas Matheou, present in their introduction. Ethnici- ty
and nationhood are not comfortable topics because they have often been used for
identity politics, for chauvinist ideologies and worse. Therefore, many
scholars prefer to regard eth- nic groups and nations as rather irrelevant to
their field of study as ideological constructions that had or have little basis
in real life. However, rather than leaving ethnicity and the nation to those
who misuse them, we should try to understand why they do become salient under
certain circumstances. This requires historicizing ethnic and national
identities, and looking at when they mattered and to whom. It also implies
going beyond all the debates about words and their definitions. After all, it
is secondary whether we call the early medieval Visigothic kingdom or high
medieval England a ›nation‹ or not, or whether we use the label ›nationa- lism‹
for late medieval Scottish or Hussite rebels. Rather, we should aim at more
precise and complex descriptions of the forms of collective agency, individual
allegiance and symbolic representation in certain historical contexts, and of
their changes over time. This is what the papers in this volume aim to achieve.
We hope to continue this debate in one of the upcoming issues, and most
importantly, extend it to a more global horizon. (Walter Pohl – editor)
Revisiting Pre-Modern Ethnicity and Nationhood: Preface – Ilya Afanasyev and Nicholas S.
M. Matheou
»Becoming English«: Nationality, Terminology, and Changing Sides in the Late Middle Ages –
Andrea Ruddick
Reinventing Roman Ethnicity in High and Late Medieval Byzantium – Yannis Stouraitis
The Characteristics of Bodies and Ethnicity c. 900-1200 – Claire Weeda
Church, Apostle and People in Early Ireland – Patrick Wadden
