Mirator on monikielinen, keskiajantutkimukseen erikoistunut vertaisarvioitu avoimesti saatavilla oleva verkkojulkaisu, jota julkaisee Keskiajantutkimuksen seura Glossa ry.
Preparing for Death and Being Ready to Live.
The article examines the will made by the Lübeck merchant Hinrik Hoveman in 1454. The objective of the article is two-fold: firstly, to provide a full edition of the will included in FMU entry 2960, which has not been edited in its entirety. Secondly, to make an analysis of the will against its contemporary context. Hinrik Hoveman's religious bequests are in focus and what these tell about his social position, origin, and religiosity. The article demonstrates how wills provide important insight into the religious life on locations, such as Turku, where other sources are absent.
Copyright (c) 2024 Mirator https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Gränslinjer i terrängen och i huvudet. En gränsforskares vistelser i Finland
A recollection of John Lind's research visits to Finland and his collaboration with Jarl Gallén.
Copyright (c) 2025 Henrik Stenius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Introduction to the thematic number ‘Fighting for the East’
This text presents the content of the thematic number 'Fighting for the East'
Copyright (c) 2025 Jens E. Olesen, Kurt Villads Jensen, Kirsi Salonen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Jyrki Nissi: Kuolema keskiajalla – Hyvä kuolema mustan surman ajan Euroopassa
Folkeviser fra Kong Hans og Christian 2.s tid
Denmark was among the first countries to publish medieval ballads, which were highly valued especially in the 19th century. However, later scholarship has adopted a much more skeptical stand towards these ballads, generally suggesting that they are no older than the time when they were written down (1550–1600). This article critically examines this suggestion and presents a new reading of four ballads that comment on events from the reigns of Danish kings John and Christian II.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lars Bisgaard https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Ærkebiskop Erik Valkendorf og kortlægningen af det yderste nord i begyndelsen af 1500-tallet
This article examines how the North was perceived and described during the Renaissance, particularly in the early 1500s. The northernmost border of the known Christian world began to be described on maps of the 15th and early 16th centuries as part of the Renaissance endeavour to describe the world cartographically. In particular, the article focuses on Norwegian Archbishop Erik Valkendorf’s (c. 1465–1522) descriptions of the North and their significance for the contemporary perception of the Arctic and Greenland, in a European context. The article argues that Valkendorf’s descriptions had a greater impact than previously thought on the perception of the North, and the people who lived there, outside Scandinavia. Particularly important in this respect was the connection between Valkendorf and the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller’s map, which is presented for the first time in the article. At the same time, the article points out that the existing knowledge was allegedly spread through international networks of scholars, diplomats and clergy, which have not been seriously explored in this context before.
Copyright (c) 2025 Janus Møller Jensen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
In recent decades there has been a growing interest in the knowledge and attitudes towards Islam in the Nordic Middle Ages and in stereotypes about Muslims. The empirical material has been quite sparse, but a rich and unique source material exists that has been almost completely neglected by previous research. These are extensive notes for a 1484 lecture at Uppsala University by Ericus Olai, who interpreted Revelation as a prophecy about Muhammad and with sure signs of the imminent fall of the Ottoman Empire.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kurt Villads Jensen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Erik af Pommern og striden om Gotland 1435–1449
The Union King Eric of Pomerania (c. 1382–1459) is a well-known figure in Scandinavian History. He ruled the three Nordic realms for many years, but after a fundamental political defeat 1436 he took up his residence on the island of Gotland, which was an object of controversy between Denmark and Sweden. Several scholars have stated that Eric of Pomerania lived by piracy until he left the island 1449. This article argues that this somehow romantic interpretation of King Eric as a ‘pirate-king’ is misleading and has to be modified. The old king continued, however, to play a central role in Nordic politics involving the Hanseatic cities and the Teutonic Order in his endeavours to reach an agreement with king Christopher of Bavaria and the Counsellors of the realms. Gotland continued to be an object of controversy between Denmark and Sweden during the following decades.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jens E. Olesen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Norwegian ármaðr – Swedish ari – Gothic airus
The medieval royal administration in Norway and Sweden we had two officials with cognate titles ON ármaðr and OSw āri, both related to Gothic airus ‘emissary, messenger’. The stem ār- in these words denote an itinerant official: in the religious sphere, an angel, in the prophane sphere of the medieval royal administration in Sweden, an emissary, a king’s representative. The Norwegian ármaðr is probably a later developed composition, where the ár- has lost this “itinerant” semantic content and resulted in a term for a “stationary” royal official in the local administration.
Copyright (c) 2025 Stefan Brink https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Var der en dominikansk (og franciskansk) mission omkring Den Finske Bugt i middelalderen?
While several recent studies have questioned a traditional view of the Dominican Order as deeply involved with a mission to the non-Catholic peoples of medieval Europe, I have argued that such proselytising efforts are probably still to be acknowledged when looking at Dominican contacts to pagan peoples on the north-eastern and northern borders of Western Christianity. In this chapter, evidence and indications are presented and discussed in terms of a possible Dominican involvement in the mission to the peoples along the Gulf of Finland, i.e. the Estonians, Finns, Tavastians and Carelians – and perhaps even the Orthodox Russians.
Copyright (c) 2025 Johnny Grandjean Gøgsig Jakobsen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Aleksanteri Julma – Aleksanteri Nevski tataaripäällikkönä
Aleksanteri Nevski (k. 1263) oli Rusin suuriruhtinas, joka nykyisin on kunnioitettu sotilassankarina ja ortodoksisen kirkon pyhänä. Hänen sanotaan torjuneen Venäjää uhanneet katolisen lännen ja idän tataarien hyökkäykset. Nykyisellään Aleksanteri on suuri isänmaallinen symboli. Historiallinen kuva on kuitenkin syntynyt pyhimyselämäkerrallisessa ja nationalistisessa kirjallisuudessa uudella ajalla osana Moskovan Venäjän ja nykyisen Venäjän historiallisen legitimaatiokertomuksen luomista. Ruhtinas Aleksanterin aikalaislähteet ovat hänestä niukkasanaisia, mutta vanhimpien tekstien pohjalta hän näyttää olleen itäisen Rusin merkittäviä sotapäälliköitä ja ennen muuta tataarien hallitsijan lojaali vasalli monen muun aikalaisruhtinaan tavoin. Hän vahvisti tataarien valtaa erityisesti pohjoisessa ja pisti Novgorodin maksamaan veroja heille.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jukka Korpela https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
References to Children in Henry’s Livonian Chronicle
In his Chronicon Livoniae, Henry of Livonia frequently mentions the presence of Estonian and Latvian children defeated by the crusaders. Typical of crusader chronicles, his references to children are brief and sporadic, often appearing as part of lists of non-combatant victims of atrocities. The examples can be roughly divided into three groups: children baptized with their parents, peasant children slaughtered or enslaved with their mothers either by crusaders or pagans, and highborn children who were taken hostage into German-speaking areas to restrain their relatives from attacking the crusaders. The last two groups in particular reflect the conventional associations with the roles of children in the histories of the crusades.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sini Kangas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
It is a well-known fact that the Order of the Sword Brothers in Livonia relied heavily on the support of Western crusaders who came to Livonia on an annual basis to fight the ‘Lord’s Wars’ against the pagan enemies of the Church. However, we know less about the use of other types of enlisted fighting men serving the Order. Therefore, this article will discuss the use of two main groups of armed men associated with the Sword Brothers: the recruitment of enlisted troops who served the Order primarily in return for money, and the acceptance of individual, secular knights who, for a shorter or longer period, chose to join a military order to fight in its wars. They did so with the promise of spiritual rewards in the afterlife. In some sources, these secular knights were referred to as ‘milites ad terminum’. The article will also briefly touch upon the Sword Brothers’ use of local warriors as an integral part of the Livonian army commanded by the Order’s own Master when on campaign. The article also takes a brief look at the relationship between the Sword Brothers and the (mostly German) merchants, whose ships linked the new mission fields in the East with the Christian heartlands in the West, thus forming an important military resource for the Order.
Copyright (c) 2025 Carsten Selch Jensen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
This article examines the relations between the Valdemarian rulers of Denmark and their Slavic allies and subjects around the Baltic. The article examines John H. Lind’s work on the marriage alliances between the Danish royal family and the Ryurikid’s in the twelfth century and explore how Valdemar I, Cnut VI and Valdemar II utilised these and other connections in their relationship with Slavic elites. On this basis, the article argues that the relationships were stronger than has often been recognised and that the Valdemarian Empire in large part was created and maintained through the cultivation of such links with local elites.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lars Kjær https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Suomalaisen historiankirjoituksen mukaan Hämeen kapina oli hämäläisten kirkonvastainen kansannousu vuosina 1236/1237, jonka seurauksena paavi Gregorius IX joulukuussa 1237 kehotti ruotsalaisia tekemään ristiretken kapinoivia hämäläisiä vastaan. Historiankirjoituksessa hämäläisten kapina on yhdistetty silloisen Suomen piispan Tuomaan kovakouraisiin käännytystapoihin ja kirkollisen verotuksen vastustamiseen. Niin ikään suomalainen historiankirjoitus yhdistää niin kutsutun toisen ristiretken Suomeen paavilliseen kirjeeseen ja tarpeeseen rauhoittaa hämäläiset, mutta historioitsijat eivät ole päässeet yhteisymmärrykseen siitä, koska Hämeen-ristiretki on toteutettu. Historioitsijat eivät myöskään ole yksimielisiä siitä, mikä – jos lainkaan – oli vuonna 1240 Nevalle, novgorodilaisia vastaan suunnatun sotaretken tarkoitus ja mahdollinen yhteys Hämeen kapinaan tai paavilliseen ristiretkibullaan. Artikkelin tarkoitus on tarkastella tätä tapahtumavyyhteä ja yrittää selvittää mahdollisia linkkejä eri tapahtumien välillä. Artikkeli on rakennettu niin, että aluksi esitellään lyhyesti kaikki edellä mainitut olennaiset historialliset tapahtumat ja sen jälkeen käydään läpi Hämeen kapinasta kertovaa historiankirjoitusta. Artikkelissa pohditaan lopuksi, missä suhteessa olemassa olevat tulkinnat Hämeen kapinasta ovat totuudenmukaisia. Pohdinnan tuloksena syntyy ehdotus siitä, että Hämeessä on tuskin koskaan ollutkaan laajamittaista kapinaa ja että tulkintoja Hämeen-ristiretkestä olisi syytä arvioida uudelleen.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kirsi Salonen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Revealing Medieval Books’ Dirty Little Secrets
This article examines the liturgical books used in the Turku diocese in the late 15th century, focusing on a Breviary printed by Anton Koberger in 1485. It argues that, based on the significant number of surviving copies in the Turku diocese, Koberger’s Breviary—not the 1488 Missale Aboense—marked the initial step towards liturgical harmonisation in the region through the use of printed books. The article introduces a novel method for quantifying the intensity of use of individual pages by assessing their levels of accumulated dirt. Applied to Koberger’s Breviary, this method offers new insights into the most frequently consulted sections, thereby illuminating the practices surrounding the celebration of the liturgical office in Turku during this period.
Skúli Þórðarson Thorlacius on Historical Nordic Wrestling
Skúli Þórðarson (Skulius Theodori) Thorlacius’s (1741–1815) monograph on the marriage rites of the ancient Nordics (Borealium veterum matrimonia, Copenhagen 1785) includes an excursus into spectacles that includes a section on wrestling (glíma). Thorlacius discusses the topic with references to contemporary traditions, saga literature, and comparisons with ancient athletics. Thorlacius’s treatise is one of the earliest scholarly treatments of historical Nordic wrestling, predating the Viking revival of the nineteenth century. For the benefit of recent surge in the interest in the study of historical martial cultures, this article makes Thorlacius’s text accessible both in its Latin original and an English translation with a commentary focusing on his sources. The edition and translation are followed by a critical appraisal of Thorlacius’s conclusions, with additional notes on the history and meaning of lausa-tök, a wrestling term attested from the early eighteenth century onwards.
This article explores the decoration, perception, and function of the Sigebert Sacramentary (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, MS. Theol. lat. fol. 2) one of the largest and most luxurious, yet overlooked manuscripts ever created in medieval Central Europe and manufactured at the Abbey of St Gallen in the 1020s as part of a group of eight liturgical manuscripts. The contribution analyses in particular the ecclesiastical symbolism of the unique scenes in this manuscript and offers a contextualisation for its commission by the ambitious bishop Sigebert of Minden (1022-1036).
Information and Lived Religion in Inquisition Records from Medieval Languedoc (15.12.2023, Tampere University)
Lectio pracursoria of Saku Pihko's doctoral defence.
Peter Biller & L. J. Sackville (eds): Inquisition and Knowledge 1200–1700. (Heresy and Inquisition in the Middle Ages 10.)
Mikko Kauko: Pyhän Mechtildin ilmestykset
Arvio Mikko Kaukon teoksesta Pyhän Mechtildin ilmestykset
Cosmic Position in Chaucer's House of Fame
Chaucer’s House of Fame (ca. 1378-80) is a complex dream vision that presents its narrator, a stand-in for Chaucer himself, exploring a series of places shaped by his extensive reading. A quest for the source of fame, the poem is informed by similar narratives of dreams and imaginary journeys. Such voyages beyond the confines of the earth are expressions of the poetic imagination, but they also occur in medieval and classical literature within a divinely ordained and structured cosmos that included clear and symbolically important distinctions between the earth and the heavens. As a narrative of cosmic ascent, the House of Fame takes place within the imaginary space of the sphaera mundi, a model of the universe as a series of interlocking spheres with the earth at the center. The position of objects within this model determined their meaning and purpose. This essay examines astronomical details in Book II and argues that such details shape the setting of this part of the poem. Read in this light, the very air that the narrator moves through in Book II constitutes a setting equal in imaginative depth to the Temple of Venus in Book I or the House of Fame encountered in Book III.
Icelandic Hospitals, Clergy, and Disability in the Saga of Bishop Lárentíus
This study illuminates the evidence for two little-known hospitals for clergy in fourteenth-century Iceland, and contextualizes their existence in larger discourses about disability and clerical identity in Icelandic literature and culture, with a focus on Lárentíus saga biskups.
Fragmentteja hartaudellisesta menneisyydestä. Puiset polykromiveistokset 1300-luvulla Turun hiippakunnassa
Tämä teksti pohjautuu lectio praecursoriaan, jonka esitin väitöstilaisuudessani Esinefragmentteja hartaudellisesta menneisyydestä. Puiset polykromiveistokset 1300-luvulla Turun hiippakunnassa. Väitöstutkimus paikkaa erityisesti Manner-Suomen alueen kirkkojen vanhimpia sakraaliveistoksia koskevaa tietämyksellistä aukkoa. Tutkimus kysyy, millaisia veistoksia tutkittavalta aikakaudelta on säilynyt ja miten tekniset ja luonnontieteelliset menetelmät hyödyttävät veistosten alkuperään, valmistamiseen ja hartaudelliseen käyttöön liittyvää tutkimusta. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään lisäksi, miten ja miksi nämä veistokset ovat fragmentoituneet ja muuttuneet, ja miten tämä vaikuttaa veistosten tulkintaan. Monitieteisessä yhteistyössä toteutetussa tutkimuksessa sovelletaan perinteisten taidehistoriallisten menetelmien, kuten vertailevan tyylianalyysin ja kuva-aiheiden ikonografisen tulkinnan ohella esimerkiksi puuaineen mikroskooppitutkimusta, väripigmenttien alkuaineanalyysiä, tietokonetomografiaa ja AMS-radiohiiliajoittamista. Tutkimuksen tuloksena monet veistosten alkuperään, ajoituksiin ja hartaudellisiin merkityksiin liittyvät käsitykset tarkentuvat ja muuttuivat.
Availability and Consumption of Wooden Resource for the Construction of Late Medieval Roof Structures in Finland
Only around two dozen examples of medieval structural timber in Finland's built environment outlasted the past 550 years, all of them as large-scale wooden church roof trusses. This research goes beyond the physical survey of the timber structure and reveals perceptions of the local resource management, more precisely the availability and consumption of wooden building material during the construction of major Late Medieval construction projects in Finland. This research follows the case studies of St. Olaf’s church in Ulvila and St. Henry’s church in Pyhtää. The main methods include field work studies, microscopic wood identification, analysis of pollen diagrams and a review of secondary literature to gain insights into the surrounding medieval built environment and possible forest stands. The findings give an impression of the roof structure’s weight and volume and indicate that Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) was the preferred building material for the nave roof structure of Pyhtää church, whereas a material shortage of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) caused Norway spruce (Picea abies) to be used in the nave roof structure of Ulvila church, most likely caused by a longer and more intense settlement history.
Turun myöhäiskeskiaikaisten piispojen nimitys Rooman kuuriassa
Turun piispan virka oli korkein kirkollinen virka keskiaikaisen Suomen alueella, joten oli tärkeää, että virkaan tulisi nimitetyksi sopiva henkilö. Kanonisen oikeuden mukaan uuden piispan valinta edellisen kuoltua oli tuomiokapitulin vastuulla, mutta paavit vahvistivat valinnan päätöksellään. Turun keskiaikaisten piispojen valintaprosessit tunnetaan varsin hyvin säilyneiden ja Finland medeltidsurkunder -sarjassa julkaistujen asiakirjojen perusteella. Tässä artikkelissa selostetaan ensin lyhyesti piispojen valintaan ja nimitykseen liittyneet keskiaikaiset käytännöt ja käydään sen jälkeen läpi yksityiskohtaisesti kahden myöhäiskeskiaikaisen piispan, Magnus Nicolai Särkilahden (piispana 1489–1500) ja Laurentius Michaelis Suurpään (piispana 1500–1506), valintaprosessit ja esitellään kaksi niihin liittyvää aiemmin tuntematonta asiakirjaa Vatikaanin Apostolisen Arkiston kokoelmista. Lopuksi julkaistaan asiakirjojen tekstieditiot.
Discourse of Magic and Female Violence in Swedish Provincial Laws Before 1350
Tämä artikkeli käsittelee magian diskurssin muotoutumista ruotsalaisissa lakiteksteissä 1200- ja 1300-luvuilla. Keskiajan yhteisöissä magia ilmeni erilaisina monimutkaisina ajatuksina, asenteina, tekoina ja kokemuksina. Myös vahingoittaminen ja väkivalta ovat aina olleet olennainen osa magian ilmenemismuotoja. Tässä artikkelissa magian diskurssin rakentumista tutkitaan tarkastelemalla esimerkkejä väkivallasta. Artikkelin tavoitteena on tarkastella, miten magian diskurssi on yhteydessä naisten tekemään ja feminiinisenä pidettyyn väkivaltaan. Lisäksi artikkeli pyrkii ymmärtämään, miten magia ja väkivalta kontekstualisoitiin pohjoismaisessa sukupuolikäsityksessä. Tarkoin rajatun kategorisen määritelmän sijaan magiaa tarkastellaan artikkelissa Kimberly Strattonin teorian mukaisesti sosiaalisesti rakentuvana diskurssina. Eletyn uskon konseptia seuraten magia ymmärretään myös aktiivisesti ja yhteisesti tuotettuna prosessina, eikä passiivisesti auktoriteeteilta vastaanotettuna ideologiana. Ruotsalainen lakimateriaali sisältää sekä yleiseurooppalaisia stereotypioita magian ja naiseuden yhteydestä että magian diskurssiteorian mukaisia paikallinen vaihteluita. Ruotsalaisia lakitekstien väkivaltatapauksia tutkimalla havaitaan, että feminiinisen väkivallan käsitykset olivat linkittyneet lainsäätäjien tavoitteisiin: magian diskurssi tuotti ja ylläpiti käsityksiä sukupuolirooleista ja sukupuolittuneista teoista. Diskurssi tuotti osin pitkäaikaisiin stereotyyppeihin nojaavaa käsitystä naiseudesta ja yhdisti väkivaltaisen magian vahvasti naisiin. Toisaalta naisiin yhdistetty väkivaltainen magia koettiin yhteiskunnassa hyvin vaarallisena ja pelottavana ilmiönä. Tekemällä väkivaltaa magian keinoin naiset haastoivat sosiaalisen roolinsa heikompana sukupuolena ja olivat aktiivisia toimijoita feminiinisen sukupuolikategorian negatiivisella äärirajalla. Aiempaa tutkimusta seuraten käy ilmi, että normatiiviset sukupuoliroolit eivät olleet täysin liikkumattomia. Magian diskurssi näyttäytyy yhteisesti tuotettuna ja ylläpidettynä sosiaalisena prosessina, jossa naiset aktiivisina toimijoina haastoivat oletettuja sukupuolitettuja käytösmalleja.
Alphabetum dictinccionum of Master Mathias of Linköping: Its Composition, Use and Literary Context
Lectio praecursoria väitöstilaisuudesta 25.8.2023.
‘Until I plant my spear in Byzantium itself’
Shortly after the First Crusade, Bohemond of Antioch framed his Illyrian campaign against Alexios I Komnenos to Latin audiences as another crusade. In part, Bohemond’s anti-Komnenian rhetoric echoed the language of the “Prince’s Crusade” in 1096, in which numerous participants understood their martial pilgrimage in terms of “Christo-mimesis,” a form of “taking the Cross to follow Christ.” As numerous scholars including Jay Rubenstein point out, though, Bohemond attempted to garner support in Francia for his attack on Constantinople through allusions to the “Last Days.” This article argues that Bohemond’s rhetorical apocalypticism was fundamentally a descriptive technique, not a temporal or theological schema. As such, it was also an inventive, imitative product of transculturation during the First Crusade. Bohemond pastiched Byzantine typologies surrounding the Antichrist’s struggle with the “Last Emperor” – particularly those involving Julian the Apostate and St. Mercurius – with Latin experiences during the Siege of Antioch to depict his own fluid position as intercultural mediator, speaker, and potential power broker. Ultimately, though, the descriptive subject of Bohemond’s “Last Days” rhetoric, inexorably bound to broader cultural narratives of crusading, was its own grand inference – Bohemond speaking.