In the opening years of the eighteenth century more than 13,500 migrants arrived in London from south-western states of the Holy Roman Empire and Switzerland. The migration of the ‘poor Palatines’ was composed mostly, although not exclusively, of family units. In the decades immediately following this migration, contemporary historian Nicolas Tindal noted that ‘it was never certainly known upon what motives and with what views these people were brought over.’ This may explain why so little is written of the Palatines in existing history books, where they are consigned at best, to a page or two of text. Palatine history forms part of an invisible past, binding together the people of Europe, Ireland, Britain and the American colonies. Traces of these early eighteenth-century emigrants are found in disparate repositories from Halle to Manchester to Washington. This book attempts to piece together fragments found in these repositories, in an effort to tell the history of the great Palatine migration.

Many of the states from which migrants were drawn today form part of Germany while others, such as Alsace, are now part of France. That other groups of migrants came from Switzerland is evident from the presence of a ‘Ritter Camp’ in London. While more than 3,000 Palatines were sent to New York to manufacture naval stores, almost 4,000 landed on Irish shores with another 650 migrants dispatched for the Carolinas. Palatines sent to New York in 1710 were amongst earliest German settlers in America. One lasting legacy of the Irish Palatines is the ‘new’ religion (Methodism) migrants brought with them to the New World as descendants finally made it there over later generations.

British progressive rock (henceforth “prog”) occupies a place of honour in contemporary scholarship on popular music. Just as in the 1970s the music captivated a young, educated, upper-middle-class audience, today prog still attracts young academics who engage with it not only as fans but also as researchers, even if they were born long after its heyday. The musical and lyrical intricacy of prog works invites analysts to borrow methodologies often identified with the study of “high” poetry and “art” music—specifically classic and romantic symphony and opera. In keeping with advancements made over the past decades in analysis of popular music, prog analysis requires an ever-expanding apparatus in order to handle issues of recording technology, artwork, texts and their combinations.

Even more compelling to scholars of popular culture is the intense aesthetic and ideological debate that has surrounded prog since its emergence in the late 1960s. This debate is reflected in the oft-quoted views of critic John Rockwell, who described prog not as an autonomous genre but rather as a symptom of the deterioration of rock proper:

There is a morphology to artistic movements. They begin with a rude and innocent vigor, pass into a healthy adulthood and finally decline into an overwrought, feeble old age. Something of this process can be observed in the passage of rock and roll from the three-chord primitivism of the Fifties through the burgeoning vitality and experimentation of the Sixties to the hollow emptiness of much of the so-called progressive or “art” rock of the Seventies.

In 1673, the same year that the duke of York, and heir to the British thrones, revealed his conversion to Catholicism, Edward Stillingfleet protested ‘I have at this time a Catalogue by me of above two hundred Popish Books Printed in our own language … a considerable part whereof have been published within the compass of not many years’. While the Protestant controversialist could have inflated the numbers, his complaint was not unique. The House of Lords listed the sale of popish books as the fourth major cause of the ‘growth of popery’, and bystanders complained about the public sale of Catholic books at the Exchange, the centre of London trading. Likewise, even from his exile in France, Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, described ‘the multitude of Popish Books, which are every day vented [sic] with as much freedom as the Book of Common Prayer’ in England.3 In contrast to a historiography that plays down the presence of Catholic books in the late seventeenth century, these comments demonstrate that there existed real anxieties over the number of Catholic texts circulating. Nor were these fears unjustified as Catholic books were actively being produced within England and represented not only an ongoing component of the English Catholic experience but also the larger English book trade.

This book explores the activities of those who engaged in the Catholic print trade, primarily in London, throughout the reigns of Charles II and James VII/II, a period during which the fortunes of English Catholics shifted dramatically. It proposes that there persisted a small, but thriving, market in Catholic books, produced in London, but circulated far beyond the city.

Each time, in fact, a part of a poetic communication passes from one register to another, a radical but rarely perceptible mutation is produced at the linguistic level. A poem composed in writing but ‘performed’ orally is thereby changed both in nature and in function to the same extent that an oral poem collected and disseminated by writing changes in the exact opposite fashion. It so happens that the mutation remains virtual, buried in the text like hidden riches all the more marvelous for being undiscovered: the feeling that while reading them with one's own eyes, there is an intensity that urges them to be enunciated, that there is a fullbodied voice vibrating somewhere at the origins of their inscription.

Paul Zumthor, Oral Poetics, p. 27

Te full-bodied voice of the Tristrem-poet, whose vibration at the origins of his poem's inscription this study shall take as axiomatic, is nevertheless quite deeply buried. Tat originary inscription is itself lost to history, as are an unknown number of intermediary copies. Our one copy of Sir Tristrem survives thanks to the London scribe and compiler who, sometime in the 1330s, copied it into the compendium of Middle English verse we know as the Auchinleck manuscript. Externally and prior to the history of its inclusion there (a history with which the next chapter is explicitly concerned), Sir Tristrem circulated for at least forty years in ways not materially recoverable: around 1290 it was composed, and, in Zumthor's terms, invested with voice; once inscribed, it circulated in an unknown number of (now lost) written copies; at the same time it was performed or recited to listening audiences on an unknown number of occasions.

About the Battle of Adwa, the New York Times reported on “Italy's Terrible Defeat.” From Rome to Paris, New York to London headlines decried Italy's humiliating defeat at the hands of Ethiopian savages. Conversely, The Daily Gleaner published in Kingston, Jamaica acclaimed “Abyssinia Defeats Italian Attack.” From Harlem to Port-au-Prince, Dakar to Cape Town blacks celebrated Africa's victory over European imperialists. The Battle of Adwa, bar none, is Ethiopia's signature event. No Ethiopian historical episode before or after has so affected world history. Emperor Menilek's victory damaged the aura of European invincibility. It gave hope to the world's oppressed populations. It spawned the creation of Ethiopic churches where Jesus Christ assumed a dark complexion and Christian theology appropriated aspects of African Traditional Religion. It compelled Taj Weekes to call his reggae band Adowa a hundred years later.

The battle was of short duration, its aftermaths lengthy and consequential. In part the prolonged aftershocks had everything to do with misperceptions of justice: Italians not understanding Ethiopia's weighted traditions of restorative justice wherein sentences could vary from amnesty to execution; Ethiopians not comprehending Western law nor the manner in which the court of public opinion swayed politics and racialized perceptions of what was considered just. This chapter attempts to unpack competing views of justice, their collision course and a bifurcated outcome whereby Ethiopia tried to meld European and Ethiopian jurisprudence. The first section addresses the Battle of Adwa, what instigated colonial aggression, war preparations and the battle itself. The second, post-conflict, section assesses the prevailing interpretations on how magnanimity or punishments were administered to different actors.

I

Surely. We have travelled this far

On a mission of mild impossibilities,

Made possible by the villainous vultures,

Whose marauding menace marvels more than morals?

Now. Touch down on that lean road of mishaps,

Where politics carved a craggy niche for tricksters.

II

You will feel the fiery canine of disgust.

You will spew the sputum of rage.

You will dread the ageing whisk of iron vipers.

You will wilt at their sardonic sermons.

You will behold the quiver of bones at the podium of lies.

You will hope for the metallic moon for insight.

III

Surely. We have travelled this far

In the visions of grim-faced mockers,

Made visible by their belligerent nights of orgies.

You will curse and query your fate's cruel cunning.

You will discern their tragic maze of infamy,

You will cringe at the cavalcade of rhetoric –

VI

We won a landslide victory today.

I assure you that security challenges will be nipped in the bud.

The president has the right to get a fifth private jet.

Everyone is affected by the global recession.

The country cannot afford to pay salaries.

We shall plant cassava, corn, and beans.

The inflation index is twenty-point-one per cent high.

The exchange rate is two thousand naira per dollar low.

The government has to borrow from the Republic of China.

The country's reserves have drained so drastically…

In the Czech musical landscape, particularly in my native Brno, Janáček's Sinfonietta stands as an iconic masterpiece. Its melodies and harmonies echo throughout society, recognised and embraced by many. While its opening fanfares have become an essential part of ceremonial state events, it is the music itself that truly defines its significance. The Sinfonietta is, in every sense, contagious, and I believe no listener can remain untouched by its energy.

Janáček's Sinfonietta occupies a unique and vital place in his oeuvre. It is a mature creation and a ‘classic’ among his works. Reflecting Janáček's fully realised, now thoroughly developed style, it marks a profound milestone in his artistic evolution. The book by Nigel Simeone and Jiří Zahrádka that you are opening is the first in any language completely devoted to the Sin¬fonietta, and the depth of the authors’ understanding of this work makes it an invaluable wellspring for readers around the world. Rich with sources, correspondence and a detailed history of its performances, it offers rare insights that cannot be found elsewhere.

I was certainly not alone in finding my way to ‘classical’ music through the stirring tones of this piece. The Sinfonietta offers myriad ideals for how one might first approach classical music: it is fresh, concise, profoundly original, sonically brilliant – brimming with contrasts – yet deeply reflective of Janáček's lifetime of experience. It is youthful and invigorating, whether heard in a live performance or in recorded form. Janáček was the first of the ‘old’ composers to infuse his music with the pulse of life that today's audi¬ences long for: the captivating, mobilising energy that sweeps you along, but at the same time, also the tenderness that touches the most sensitive of souls. While Janáček's critics sometimes dismissed this as primitivism, others, more attuned to the essence of its expressive power, recognised it as realism, or even a kind of democratisation of music.

C.1 Sermons Delivered at the Chapels of the King and Queen

3.1 Introduction: Methodology and Database

In Chapter 2, the chronology of Viking raiding of churches, measured against changes in the annalistic record of general church affairs, yielded results about both the annalistic record and Viking raids. I adopt a similar approach to the regional distribution of Viking raiding. Distribution of raids is mapped alongside the distribution of annalistic data for the church in general. Understanding the regional distribution of Viking activity requires an appreciation of the regional distribution of the general ecclesiastical record. Appreciating regional imbalances in the chroniclers’ coverage of the church holds significance beyond Viking studies, just as does a grasp of the annalists’ evidently uneven record over time. A specific consideration to be borne in mind, for example, is how the tenth-century divergence of the main books of annals, as proposed by previous writers, might affect the regional ranges, both of the annalists’ coverage of the church, generally, and of the data on Viking raiding, specifically.

The database used here is the same as that of the preceding chapter. The distinction between records unique to Cogad and those in the regular annals should be reiterated. Records in Cogad both confirm and expand upon what the regular annals tell about the regional distribution of Viking raiding, as we will see. This underlines the validity and value of the evidence of Cogad. As in Chapter 2, however, comparison of Viking raids with the general record of the church cannot include the testimony of Cogad, as its almost exclusive concern with Viking activity would skew the comparison.

Gentlemen,

I Receiv’d the following Account of the Method and Success of inoculating the Small-Pox in New-England, from a Person there, of great Learning and Probity, who desir’d his Name might be conceal’d; having no other View, than a charitable Inclination of doing Good to the World. It seemed to him (as I must freely own it does to me) a Matter of great Importance to the Welfare of Mankind; and if you, Gentlemen, shall be in the same Sentiment, I have no doubt, but it will find your Favour and Encouragement.

Altho’ this Practice of ingrafting the Small-Pox has been used from Time immemorial among the Circassians, and for many Years past in the Levant, yet it is a new Thing in these Parts of Europe, and still more so in America: And as all new Discoveries, however rational in themselves, and beneficial to Mankind, are receiv’d at first with Opposition, none has met with greater than this in New-England. A vast Number of honest People quarrel’d with it upon religious Scruples; and they were strongly supported by the Physicians of the Place, for Reasons of a very different Kind, which it is not at all necessary to mention. But as Truth is mighty, and will at last prevail, the great and surprising Success of this Practice, has convinc’d every reasonable Adversary, and silenc’d the most obstinate.

The study of romance and the literary-critical analysis of plot have suffered similarly from intellectual snobbery. Romance has sometimes been seen as what happens when plot is privileged over other features of narrative; in such scholarship one gets the impression that more ‘serious’ genres find the balance between action, characterisation, motivation, description, and commentary far more successfully. Elizabeth Dipple argues that ‘plot currently has no strong place in the pantheon of acceptable literary terms’, tracing an unease with the concept back to a Romantic sensibility, one increasingly concerned with celebrating the organic, or unique, in poetry and prose. As Peter Brooks writes in his influential Reading for the Plot,

Inherent to the disdain described by Dipple, Brooks, and others is a strangely divergent assessment of plot. Plot is widely recognised as essentially the intention of narrative: it is the reason events happen, and it is through the temporal experience of plot that meaning is made and generated by and in the reader. One might go further and say that plot is narrative: there is no narrative without events happening in time, even if those events are just thoughts or observations; these events are plot.

Sir Tristrem, a late thirteenth-century English poet's translation of Tomas of Britain's late twelfh-century Tristran, is the only Middle English poem to transmit the story of Tristan and Iseult. It survives uniquely in the Auchinleck manuscript (National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ MS 19.2.1), the great vernacular compilation produced in London in the 1330s. Dating from about 1290, Sir Tristrem is also the earliest stanzaic romance in Middle English, composed in an intricate eleven-line stanza that remains all but unique to the poem. Sir Tristrem also has the honor of being the frst Middle English romance to be printed in its own critical edition, that edited by Sir Walter Scott (1804). Sir Tristrem's unexampled profle, in fact, extends to many aspects of the poem itself, and particularly in the realm of translatio. As an immediate – but very liberated – translation of Tomas of Britain's Tristran, Sir Tristrem takes evident pleasure in radically recalibrating his source, and acquires much of its charm (and notoriety) in challenging, if not dismantling, the very idea of romance fction, a discourse which from its beginnings pitted the ‘external’ demands of historical events (even if invented ones) against the equally compelling demands of a subject's inner life, where we see desire itself exerting its secret force on the narrative, and on the fates of lovers.

South of Bonn at the western edge of the Siebengebirge range, the Drachenfels entices the tourist with a panoramic view of the Lower Middle Rhine Valley. Looking south from the modern viewing platform one can see the Laach Lake volcano, the eruption of which in the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene caused massive ecological disruption throughout the Rhine basin. Above loom the ruins of the twelfth-century Castle Drachenfels, while below barges ply their way up and down the Rhine, Europe's busiest waterway. And to the north, beyond the neogothic Schloss Drachenburg, the Lower Rhine conurbation fans out into the distance.

In addition to the view, an aura of legend draws tourists to the Drachenfels. According to tradition, it was here that Siegfried slew the dragon Fafnir and bathed in his blood, becoming all but invincible save for the spot on his back where an errant linden leaf fatefully landed. As with so many traditions, the association of Siegfried with the Drachenfels is of relatively modern provenance, having been first documented in 1818. Those early decades of the nineteenth century were a time when the site captured the European Romantic imagination.

African history presents significant challenges in determining its narratives, particularly in the postcolonial context where former colonies strive for autonomy. Since the nineteenth century, white writers have predominantly shaped African historiography, often sidelining Black scholars and marginalizing African perspectives. A reconstruction of history grounded in African cosmologies reveals the cultural contradictions between Africa and the West. Through futuristic fiction and fantasy, subaltern voices find platforms to reshape their narratives. This article reinterprets temporality, space, and memory through the lenses of two marginalized mythical female protagonists in Akwaeke Emezi's Freshwater and Nnedi Okorafor's Remote Control. By reconceptualizing these elements, Africanfuturist works challenge colonial paradigms in historiography and facilitate a rewriting of history from an African perspective.

Within the colonizer-colonized dichotomy, African history is written with bias towards the Western narrative. The dichotomous relation between colonizer/colonized suggests a ‘violent hierarchy’ as Jacques Derrida argues, ‘one of the two terms governs the other (axiologically, logically, etc.), or has the upper hand. To deconstruct the opposition, first of all, is to overturn the hierarchy at a given moment’ (1981, 41). Futurist writing envisages possibilities of overturning the hierarchy, proving equal ability of the oppressed. As Derrida proposes, only a new concept which is not included in the previous regime can overturn the binary hierarchy (42), Africanfuturist writings create narratives beyond existing frameworks while deconstructing colonial hegemony. To deconstruct established paradigms, Derrida locates the limitations of existing definitions through the concept of différance. By ‘broaching alienation’ without resorting to further ‘reappropriation,’ he renders what once seemed impossible attainable (Derrida 1976, 143).

One of the defining elements of fifteenth-century Bohemian culture, including both liturgy and music, was the changes brought about by the Hussite revolution that followed the death and martyrdom of theologian and reformer Jan Hus in July 1415. These changes were culturally important to the Czech national identity in both the medieval period and much later, having far-reaching consequences that crossed geographic, language, and temporal boundaries. Jan Hus was born ca. 1370–72, in Husinec in southern Bohemia and by 1390 was enrolled at the new university in Prague, founded in 1348 by Charles IV, where Hus would later work. He was a prolific preacher and author, writing religious tracts and treatises, sermons, and letters in both Czech and Latin in which he denounced the moral failings he saw in the church clergy. František Šmahel notes that “while Hus deserves credit for the development of Czech preaching and religious-studies terminology, he was not himself among the pioneers of liturgy in the vernacular language.” Hus's writings, along with those of the earlier English reformer John Wycliffe, led to religious dissention, and in November 1414 Hus was invited to a council convened in Constance. At the Council of Constance, Hus refused to recant his writings and teachings and was tried in June 1415. He was finally condemned on the grounds of heresy on July 6, 1415 and burned at the stake the same day. Celebration of Hus's life and death presents a dichotomy: that of the heretic martyr. Candace Lines argues that martyrdom is a subjective concept and that the “idea of martyrdom presumes a situation of profound, literally deadly struggle.