Overview

Examines the development, nature, and significance of gritty (neo)medievalism in popular culture, from Assassins Creed: Valhalla and Berserk to Robert Eggers' The Northman. Twenty-first-century popular culture has a fascination for the medieval. Its imagery, tropes and settings have become an integral part of the epic fantasy genre across different media, demonstrated by and following the success of such globally acclaimed television shows as Game of Thrones and Vikings. This volume studies this phenomenon, aiming to establish a broader understanding of why the Middle Ages have become so popular in an era of transmedia productions; it argues that concepts of accuracy and ""authenticity"" are key to this popularity, alongside engagement with contemporary debates about identity, race and gender, and agile responses to fan-community and media critiques. The essays address a variety of topics, from worldbuilding and narrative structures to female agency and the reception of Vikings, across a wide range of media, including film, television, literature, video games and manga. It also explores how contemporary fantasy engages with both academic knowledge and developments in imagination more widely, responding to ever-changing ideas about how an ""authentic"" Middle Ages may be created.

Full Product Details

Author:   Carolyne Larrington ,  Prof Dr Hans Rudolf Velten ,  Helen Young ,  Angela Schwarz
Publisher:   Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Imprint:   D.S. Brewer
ISBN:  

9781843847595

ISBN 10:   1843847590
Pages:   242
Publication Date:   06 January 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: Popularising the Middle Ages Carolyne Larrington, Hans Rudolf Velten, Helen Young Part I: Neomedieval Fantasy in the Twenty-First Century Worldbuilding in Fantasy: A Neomedieval Grammar - Hans Rudolf Velten Adventure, Quest, Politics and Gender in Fantasy Literature: On the Popularisation of Medieval Narrative Structures and Their Transformations - Theresa Specht 'The Childbed is our Battlefield'. Female Agency in House of the Dragon - Charlotte Braun / Lukas Schrage The Hero We Deserve: The Image of Dark Knight as Anti-Utopia in Kentaro Miura's Manga Berserk - Minjie Su Part II: Contemporary Medievalist Video Games 'Step inside the Middle Ages': Four Decades of Medievalism in Video Games with Historical Settings - Angela Schwarz The Middle Ages Never End: Fantasy, History, Digital Games and Early Modernity - Tobias Winnerling The Gritty Middle Ages as a Place of Longing and Demarcation: Gamers' Reception of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) - Tom Pinsker Part III: The Vikings Across Different Media 'Pray like a Viking!' Popularising Norse Mythology and Religion in Video Games with Historical Settings: The Case of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (2020) - Milan Weber Fantasies of Vinland. Popularising Medieval History - Helen Young Robert Eggers' The Northman: Imagining and Marketing Vikings in Popular (Anglo-American) Culture - Carolyne Larrington Bibliography Index

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Author Information

CAROLYNE LARRINGTON is Emerita Professor of medieval European literature at the University of Oxford and Emerita Research Fellow in medieval English literature at St John's College, Oxford. HANS RUDOLF VELTEN is a Professor of medieval German language and literature at the University of Siegen. HELEN YOUNG is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University, Australia where they hold an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship. CAROLYNE LARRINGTON is Emerita Professor of medieval European literature at the University of Oxford and Emerita Research Fellow in medieval English literature at St John's College, Oxford. HANS RUDOLF VELTEN is a Professor of medieval German language and literature at the University of Siegen. HELEN YOUNG is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University, Australia where they hold an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship. MINJIE SU is a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo.

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