Medieval Riverscapes: Environment and Memory in Northwest Europe, c. 300–1100

by Ellen F. Arnold

Fishermen, monks, saints, and dragons met in medieval riverscapes; their interactions reveal a rich and complex world. Using religious narrative sources to evaluate the environmental mentalities of medieval communities, Ellen F. Arnold explores the cultural meanings applied to rivers over a broad span of time, ca. 300-1100 CE. Hagiographical material, poetry, charters, chronicles, and historiographical works are explored to examine the medieval environmental imaginations about rivers, and how storytelling and memory are connected to lived experiences in riverscapes. She argues that rivers provided unique opportunities for medieval communities to understand and respond to ecological and socio-cultural transformations, and to connect their ideas about the shared religious past to hopes about the future.

328 pages, Hardcover

Published March 28, 2024

Reviews

[Leah Tams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really wanted to like this work, but it fell far short of my expectations. It felt extremely disorganized, both at a macro and micro level—it really could have benefited from an editor, appropriate use of transitions, and overall better organization. Aside from that, my largest complain is that this is not what I personally consider environmental history. This was literary analysis of medieval works that discuss rivers.