In
Kids Those Days, Lahney Preston-Matto and Mary Valante have organized a collection of interdisciplinary research into childhood throughout the Middle Ages. Contributors to the volume investigate childhood from Greece to the “Celtic-Fringe,” looking at how children lived, suffered, thrived, or died young. Scholars from myriad disciplines, from art and archaeology to history and literature, offer essays on abandonment and abuse, fosterage and guardianship, criminal behavior and child-rearing, child bishops and sainthood, disabilities and miracles, and a wide variety of other subjects related to medieval children. The volume focuses especially on children in the realms of religion, law, and vulnerabilities.
Contributors are Paul A. Broyles, Sarah Croix, Gavin Fort, Sophia Germanidou, Danielle Griego, Máire Johnson, Daniel T. Kline, Jenni Kuuliala, Lahney Preston-Matto, Melissa Raine, Eve Salisbury, Ruth Salter, Bridgette Slavin, and Mary A. Valante.
Lahney Preston-Matto, Ph.D. (2000), New York University, is Professor of Medieval Literature at Adelphi University. She has written numerous articles on medieval fosterage in northern Europe. She is the author of
Aislinge meic Conglinne/ The Vision of Mac Conglinne (Syracuse University Press, 2010).
Mary A. Valante, Ph.D. (1998), The Pennsylvania State University, is Professor of Medieval History at Appalachian State University. She has published articles on early medieval and Viking-Age Ireland, and is the author of
The Vikings in Ireland (Four Courts Press, 2008).
List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Out from a Shadow Lahney Preston-Matto and Mary A. Valante
part 1: Children in Medieval Religion
1
The Disrobing Child in the Entry into Jerusalem Scene: An Element of Realism or Symbolism in Byzantine Art? Sophia Germanidou
2
Boy Becoming Man Liturgical Inversion in the Boy Bishop Ceremony in Medieval England
Gavin Fort
3
Apocryphal Youth The Childhood of the Irish Saint
Máire Johnson
4
Minors and the Miraculous The Cure-Seeking Experiences of Children in Twelfth-Century English Hagiography
Ruth J. Salter
5
The Infirm Child between Parental Worry and Divine Powers Jenni Kuuliala
part 2: Children in Medieval Law and Justice
6
“I Would Like to Make It Up to You by Fostering Your Son” Fosterage and Fixing Relations in Medieval Iceland
Lahney Preston-Matto
7
Childhood in the Common Law Courts of Medieval Ireland Bridgette Slavin
8
Puerile Justice The Voice of a Boy in Jack and His Stepdame
Melissa Elizabeth Raine
9
Foreign Guardianship and the Networked Child in Medieval English Romance Paul Broyles
part 3: Vulnerable Children
10
The Loss of Innocence Childhood and Transition to Adulthood in the Mortuary Practices of the Early Viking Age
Sarah Croix
11
It Takes a Village Community Responses to Child Death in High and Late Medieval England
Danielle Griego
12
Havelok’s Sisters Vulnerability and the Child Body
Eve Salisbury
13
Patriarchy, Violence and Sacrifice in the Middle English Slaughter of the Innocents Plays Daniel T. Kline
14
Abandoned, Overworked, Abused The Dark Side of Childhoods in Early Medieval Ireland
Mary A. Valante
Bibliography Suggested Additional Reading Index
Students and scholars of the Middles Ages, especially of family and social history, including historians, literary scholars, art historians, archaeologists and more, and non-medievalists who study and teach family and social history.