From dragons and one-eyed giants to divine visions and friendly otters, Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley roam the strange and wonderful literary landscape of the Middle Ages, from Beowulf to Sir John Mandeville, by way of Chaucer, Sir Gawain and plenty of far-fetched romance.
Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley are both writers and historians, and regular contributors to the London Review of Books.
Medieval Beginnings is part of the Close Readings podcasts collection from the London Review of Books.
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From dragons and one-eyed giants to divine visions and friendly otters, Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley roam the strange and wonderful literary landscape of the Middle Ages, from Beowulf to Sir John Mandeville, by way of Chaucer, Sir Gawain and plenty of far-fetched romance.
Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley are both writers and historians, and regular contributors to the London Review of Books.
Medieval Beginnings is part of the Close Readings podcasts collection from the London Review of Books.
To unlock all the episodes in this series, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:
In Apple
Directly at the top of this podcast or here: https://apple.co/3XTS9H8
In Spotify and other apps
Here: lrb.me/closereadings
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In their fourth episode, Mary and Irina climb inside a tiny cell to explore the Ancrene Wisse, a guidebook written in the early 13th century, originally intended for three anchoresses, but which enjoyed a much wider audience (there was even a copy in Henry VIII’s library).
The women addressed by the text lived lives of extraordinary restriction, permanently enclosed in small anchorholds in order to devote themselves to prayer and contemplation. The Ancrene Wisse is a striking literary artefact, a piece of learned and often beautiful writing, but one which elaborates a broad and detailed conception of sin in its prescription for the control of women's minds and bodies.
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Further reading in the LRB:
Mary Wellesley: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n10/mary-wellesley/this-place-is-pryson
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