Occupying a substantial portion of Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS Brogyntyn ii.1, The Siege of Jerusalem in Prose (item 45, hereafter Siege in Prose) presents a unique version of a narrative popular in the later Middle Ages, namely the fall of Jerusalem to Roman forces in 70 CE. Appearing on fols. 157v–184 and thus across three quires, Siege in Prose was produced entirely by Scribe O, one of the two scribes identified by Huws ‘who might stake a claim to have been prime movers in the enterprise’, the ‘organizer and tidier up’ of the manuscript as a whole. Scribe O is responsible for 153 pages of the miscellany in five stints; this hand also provided the rubrication for much of the manuscript (excluding the work of Scribe J, the other scribe-compiler, which J rubricated). Scribe O's role as potential organizer of the manuscript makes it all the more intriguing that, in placing Siege in Prose at this point in the manuscript, Scribe O seems to have deviated from a previous plan. Certainly, a compiler or scribe might change the ordering of works for a variety of reasons, such as the availability of new exemplars or the unavailability of others; yet the inclusion of a text spanning three quires and making up some 12% of the manuscript is a substantial change.

This chapter revolves around cultures of the novel: When, how, and why did the novel, a genre without deep roots in African cultures and literary traditions, come to occupy such a dominant role in African literary history? Arriving late in the colonial period, the novel created new parameters for the African imagination and provided an opening for thinking about colonial modernity and its postcolonial consequences. The chapter discusses how the social functions of the novel came to be defined by two ostensibly contradictory functions. Through the invocation of realism, the novel would be celebrated as the medium of representing what were assumed to be the realities of African history, life, and subjectivity deracinated by colonial violence or misrepresented by colonialist fiction and criticism. At the same time, romantic tropes would be deployed to imagine alternative worlds and to promote the ideals of decolonization. Realism and romance would be wedded to invent national communities as counterpoints to colonial domination.

Norbert Lechner's film Ente gut! Mädchen allein zu Haus (Duck Good! Girls Home Alone; released in English as Fortune Favors the Brave, 2016) was part of an initiative called “Der besondere Kinderfilm” (Outstanding Films for Children), which was launched in 2013 by the German government and various media companies. The designation “Der besondere Kinderfilm” is significant for contextualizing the film in the German media landscape. It positions films such as Ente gut as alternatives to mainstream films within the overall genre of children's movies. Another characteristic of this series is that it invites original scripts and contemporary films rather than adaptations or fairy tales. This “originality” may be one reason why the initiative also welcomes narratives about migration, in this case, about Vietnamese Germans. In this chapter, I will address questions of race, class, citizenship, and cultural belonging in Ente gut while considering the generic specificity of children's film. The genre of children's film, like that of children's literature, is not easy to define. For instance, there are notable differences between films for children and films such as the Oscar-nominated Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi, 2020), which feature children as protagonists while deliberately appealing to adult audiences. Nonetheless, as Marah Gubar suggests, it may be productive to ask what distinguishes cultural texts for children from those for adults.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o was a leading postcolonial literary voice, advocating for the centrality of indigenous languages. His central argument is that since language was a fundamental instrument of colonisation, it is equally integral to the process of decolonisation. This has resonated among intellectuals and writers from formerly colonised societies who seek to redress legacies of colonialism. During the transitional period in South Africa, Ngugi became the most sought-after speaker on the preservation and development of African languages, shaping the discourse about language, culture and identity. Ngugi’s language ethos played a critical role in the recognition of indigenous languages in the constitution of South Africa. This chapter traces the impact of Ngugi’s language activism, particularly as it has shaped the author’s own development as a writer in both English and IsiXhosa. Through an autoethnographic lens, this chapter foregrounds personal reflection on Ngugi’s influence. It challenges the reductive tendency to confine Ngugi’s legacy solely to his direct intellectual and literary output, arguing for a more expansive appraisal of his enduring influence in shaping and sustaining language discourse among the formerly colonised. It recognises the evolution of Ngugi’s ideas over time and attributes this to his responsiveness to the shifting dynamics of contemporary society and global discursive formations.

Paul Cullen’s most important political goal was the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. This chapter examines how Cullen navigated William Gladstone’s proposal to do exactly that, his careful handling of the political risks, and his deliberate eschewal of controversial demands. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Cullen’s attitude towards Gladstone’s proposed reform of tenant rights in Ireland.

The most fundamental task of any chronicler, as the word suggests, is establishing a chronology. Something, however, is seriously wrong with the chronology of the OE annals from the middle of the eighth century to the middle of the ninth. All seven versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that survived into the modern period include a two-year dislocation for the annals dated 754–828 in all versions (correctly 756–830), and a three-year dislocation for the annals dated 829–c.851 (correctly 832–51). The dislocation was also present in the lost OE source of Æthelweard's Chronicon. A version of the Chronicle was among the sources used by the compiler of the Annals of St Neots (1120x1140). In St Neots, unlike all other witnesses, these eighth- and ninth-century annals do not show the chronological dislocation. Plummer argued that their correct dating in St Neots provided evidence of an original version of the common stock to c.892 with all entries correctly dated. This hypothesized OE source of St Neots was given a place in the Chronicle's family tree earlier than all other witnesses. In his interpretation, all the surviving OE versions and other witnesses descended from an archetype which had later and inadvertently introduced this error.

David Dumville has dismantled the entire basis of the belief that St Neots can tell us anything about the earliest phase of the making of the Chronicle.

Rem.1919

Archbishop Davidson reported to the diocesan bishops of England and Wales in October 1919 that proposals had been made in ‘different quarters’ (the records do not specify what these were) for the appointment of ‘a special day or days’ to be ‘permanently associated’ with the war or its outcomes, but that opinions differed on what to commemorate: remembrance of the war dead, thanksgiving for victory or inauguration of the League of Nations. Nor was there agreement on the date or dates: the most favoured were the anniversary of the armistice on 11 November, and empire day on 24 May, which had received government recognition in 1916. The bishops themselves were divided: some favoured a thanksgiving day in July to mark the anniversary of the peace treaty, while others were opposed to the appointment of any permanent anniversary day. Davidson himself commented that anniversary days carried ‘the danger of lessening interest as time went on’, but that he would seek the opinions of ‘some leading civil authorities’. No evidence of these consultations seems to have survived.

In the apparent absence of a government decision for the current year, the archbishops and leaders of most other churches had already agreed to assist a campaign by the League of Nations Union (LNU) for the anniversary of the armistice to be observed ‘in every city, town, and village as League of Nations Day’, to promote the League's cause.

The transformations of the modern era have led to today’s vast social divisions between wealth and poverty, but also created a human community that is interconnected on a global scale, processes that are examined in this chapter. Major economic and political changes, such as industrialization and de-industrialization, imperialism and anti-imperialism, the rise and collapse of communism, and the expansion of nationalism, have intersected with social and cultural changes within a framework of rapidly increasing population and human impact on the environment. International movements for social justice have called for greater egalitarianism and understanding, while ethnic, religious, and social divisions have led to brutality, genocides, and war. Technological developments in agriculture, medicine, and weaponry have both extended human life and extinguished it at levels unimagined in earlier eras, simultaneously challenging and reinforcing long-standing social hierarchies and cultural patterns.

In 1910, women's suffrage campaigners Gabrielle Jeffery and May Kendall met outside Holloway Prison in London waiting to cheer on released suffragettes. They were allied by their passion for the suffrage cause, but also, as they realised that day, by their Catholic identity. This fortuitous meeting led to the formation of the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society (renamed St Joan's Social and Political Alliance in 1923; then St Joan's International Alliance in 1954). Co-religionists were recruited to the cause of women's suffrage and by 1913, the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society claimed over 1,000 members. Over the next 50 years, the Society expanded to twenty-four countries over five continents. Outlasting most suffrage societies, they successfully moved from their original aim of suffrage for women on the same terms as men, towards broader aims of political, social and economic equalities between men and women. The women of St Joan's Alliance saw their Catholic faith as an integral component of their feminism; they identified their causes for equality between men and women as ‘elementary justice’ and argued for the ‘essential Catholicity of our feminist creed’.

This chapter will outline the structure of the book and its point of view. The context of unanswered questions is that while we wish we knew more about psychopathology, psychiatry is a young and exciting field that addresses some of the most complex phenomena in the universe.

The Conclusion focuses on the book’s principal arguments and offers thoughts for further reflection. Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, and Macrina the Younger treat the devil as a live enemy in their midst. The devil is central to their respective theological projects and to their visions of the Christian life, appearing in one form or another across the full breadth of their corpora. They utilise a range of biblical, philosophical, theological, and spiritual resources as they respond to the enemy of salvation and as they teach the church to do the same. Reflection on the devil is not simply a strategy for explaining the problem of evil in the world—the devil himself is the problem.

A monition was a warning that an individual was expected to appear before the court at which the legality or otherwise of his actions would be determined. In this case Thomas Lynn, captain of Roebuck, having taken as prize the Spanish San Juan Baptista, is now being pursued to argue the case against the Spanish proctor.

San Juan Baptista Monition to set further proceedings against Thomas Lynn Esquire

George the Third by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith To all and singular our officers and witnesses and other our liege subjects being literate persons whosoever in and throughout our Kingdom of Great Britain and to John Joplin Officer of our High Court of Delegates Greeting; Whereas our beloved Andrew Coltée Ducarel Doctor of Laws Surrogate of our right Trusty and right intirely beloved our Judges or Commissioners by us specially appointed by Virtue of our Letters Patent under our Great Seal of Great Britain for the hearing and final determination of all causes of Appeal and Complaint as to ships and goods seized and taken as Prize in a certain Business of Appeal and Complaint of Nullity promoted by Don Francisco Guerra de la Vega claimant of the ship San Juan Baptista (Don Juan Francisco Capan Master) and goods therein against Thomas Lynn Esquire the commander and the Officers, seamen and others of our ship Roebuck the captors of the said ship and goods rightly and duly and duly proceeding at the Petition of the Proctor of the said Don Francisco Guerra de la Vega alledging that by a certificate ??

The concert on 3 February also included a Mozart quartet, a cantata by Porpora, and songs and Schubert's ‘Trout’ Quintet. These were dealt with in summary fashion in the first two paragraphs, so that Berlioz could expand on what interested him most; the translation starts at the third paragraph.

Then came the duet from act 3 of Orphée, sung by Duprez and Mlle Pauline Garcia, accompanied by M. Dietsch. You can imagine the audience's curiosity. For my part, never having heard the young singer whose name has attained a reputation that might have its dangers, I took a double interest in hearing her for the first time in a work of the great dramatic school. Singing Gluck as she did, Mlle Garcia overcame an immense difficulty, if one takes account of the musical milieu in which she has lived so far. It is not the cavatinas and flatulent duets – equally false in their expression, taken from most contemporary Italian operas – that could put her on the path to what counts, in my opinion, as the highest summit of art. It's not by singing music one really likes every evening, if not to hear oneself, at least to give them a hearing in the frivolous salons of almost every European capital, that she would acquire the absolute intelligence and passionate feeling of the grandeur of Gluck's genius. And if we were to express a final judgment on her singing, we should have to say she remained well short of the target she was aiming at.

A central problem in the histories and theories of African literatures written in European languages revolves around the origins and identity of this literature: When, and in what circumstances, did aspiring African writers adopt written literature as the most important cultural tool in their self-fashioning? What was the relation between new forms of writing and existing systems of expression built on orality and oral genres? The argument of this chapter is that faced with the problem of producing a literature in the language of the colonizer, African writers and critics turned to orality and African oral traditions and their interface with writing to identify the uniqueness of Africa writing. Some critics asserted the identity of African literature by giving oral forms primacy over written ones; others focused on the interface between orality and writing but affirmed orality as the central dynamic of African literature. Another group acknowledged the centrality of orality to written forms but rejected the idea that it was sign of authenticity. This chapter explores these complex debates and then shifts attention to a group of writers for whom orality was inseparable from writing.

INTRODUCTION

These trials took place before the central justiciary court in Edinburgh in September 1678. The prosecutor was the lord advocate, Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh. The accused persons came from several parishes in Haddingtonshire, where a massive wave of witchcraft accusations swept over the area in a short time. Most of the accused were women, of widely varying ages. Twelve death sentences were passed, all upon women.

The first group of convictions included nine women from the parishes of Ormiston, Crichton and Humbie: Margaret Dodds, Peaston (Ormiston parish); Margaret Douglas, Crichton (Crichton parish); Isobel Elliot, first Peaston (Ormiston parish) and then Templehall (Pencaitland parish); Helen Forrester, Crichton (Crichton parish); Helen Laing, Peaston (Ormiston parish); Margaret Lowes, Humbie (Humbie parish); Isobel Shanks, Crichton (Crichton parish); Margaret Small, Humbie (Humbie parish); and Marion Veitch, Keith (Humbie parish). One of the women accused in this group, Christian Hogger (residence not recorded), had her case dropped. The second group of convictions included three women all from Fala, in the parish of Fala and Soutra: Bessie Gourlay, Agnes Somerville and Margaret Souness.

A further group of accused witches, eight women and one man, were declared fugitive: Margaret Anderson, Ormiston (Ormiston parish); James Campbell, Winton (Pencaitland parish); Marion Campbell, Peaston (Ormiston parish); Margaret Dalgleish, Keith (Humbie parish); Elspeth Knox, Keith (Humbie parish); Margaret Russell, Peaston (Ormiston parish); Agnes Thomson, Over Keith (now called Upper Keith; Humbie parish); Grisell Walker, Keith (Humbie parish); and Elizabeth Wood, Over Keith (now called Upper Keith; Humbie parish). Another fugitive recorded was Gideon Penman, the deposed former minister of Crichton. Other sources mention him as a suspected witch and master of witches; various stories were told about him, but he was never brought to trial.